Half-rotted, their fur matted with blood and grime, the animated carcasses claw out of the earth in order to hunt living prey again. Even when the correct precautions are taken, and the bodies of these monstrous predators are buried in deep pits, Dark Magic can still gather and resurrect them.
In the blighted lands of Sylvania, the corpses of these wolves must be burnt or buried deeply, for those that are not will return from the dead and continue the hunt. The men of the Empire hunt these beasts mercilessly, but this only serves to keep their numbers in check, and their voracious attacks at bay, for a short time.
Driven by a ravenous hunger, they descend to the foothills in large packs, attacking farms and villages and preying on travellers. The lands of the eastern Empire are plagued by giant wolves that emerge in winter from lairs high in the Worlds Edge Mountains. When they are slain, their bodies dissolve into a coiling miasma, leaving nothing behind.
The stench of putrefaction hangs on their wet breath and their howls cause shivers of fear to freeze the bold. They are swathed in an eerie, glimmering twilight and their eyes glow with unnatural energy. Their flesh hangs in tatters from cracking bones, their skulls and innards exposed through tears in their skin. Dire Wolves are decaying parodies of living Giant Wolves which roam both the Badlands and the forests of the Old World.