Doutaini

Original

The stars are bright tonight.
A good sign. But what of the night when the sky is starless and overcast? Simple... your fate may be at jeopardy.
The wolves of Doutaini have been reading the stars for centuries. Stargazers were developed at the start of their species. In fact, it is the origin of their creation, the very essence of their life.
Each wolf is appointed a star from birth, regardless of their parents' beliefs. It is difficult to say how one keeps track of their star. There are, after all, trillions of them in the night sky; nearly every one is equally sized and brilliant. Your star is rumoured to sparkle with the most intensity-- yours... and the gods.
Not everyone is a believer in this rather loose religion, however. A handful of them decide to be skeptics, finding too many flaws in the spiritual way of life. Disbelief is not persecuted at the present time as it was eons before. Despite the differences in faith, the wolves that inhabit Doutaini are all somehow connected to the stars. They are brought together in gatherings to worship and celebrate how the heavens drive their destiny for another prosperous year.
The most common ritual of these would be the Stardust Festival. The first official one was held when the wolves were at their highest point of flourishing: Kaiyo, the goddess of forgiveness, vitality, and love, wanted to reward their ability to survive so well with a gift that would actually make living easier. So, she sought out the strongest and most virtuous of the packs and told him to go to the circle of willows, and there he would find the truth.
This was how the use of elements started. Yet little did Kaiyo know, being such the good-willed goddess that she was, that there existed overlooked, negative aspects of the elements. When the wolf, his name unknown and lost after years of passed-down legends, went to the willows called Doutaini, he found necklaces made from stardust that had fallen from a previous meteor shower hidden within a hollow willow stump. Each one glowed as a different color, which represented a separate power. Red for Fire, green for Earth, blue for Water, and so on. He returned to his friends, and they picked their poison, so to speak, as easily as choosing a color would be.
Fire, Water, Earth, Ice, Wind, and Storm are the packs that came to be.
After a while, Hoshiko, the spirit goddess, decided that her element wielders were the most special of them all, and therefore granted them the utrmost blessing of all.
Whenever a wolf dies, their star dies with them. It disappears from the nocturnal sky, winking out of existence at the blink of an eye.