Wencel kin Horseriver was an earl-ordainer of the Weald as head of kin Horseriver, and held lands on the lower Lure River 200 miles from Easthome. His mother was of kin Wolfcliff, the sister of Ingrey kin Wolfcliff's father Ingalef.
Wencel was married to Princess Fara, daughter of the hallow king, for about four years.
As a boy, Wencel was somewhat clumsy and slow. At the time of The Hallowed Hunt he was a young man, slender, with dark blond hair with some premature gray streaks worn shoulder-length, and blue eyes. He seemed more mature than his age, with a peculiar gravity.
On the death of his father when Wencel was 13, he was invaded by the conglomerated personalities, memories, and souls of the last hallow king of the Old Weald and all his heirs for sixteen generations, as well as the king's great spirit animal (a horse). This was as a result of the partly completed rite at Bloodfield.
Lady Horseriver, noticing the change in her son after his father's death, went to her brother Lord Ingalef asking for help in fighting an evil spirit of the Old Weald. The two of them came up with the plan to invest Ingalef and Ingrey with wolf spirit animals, in the manner of the Old Weald warriors. This plan went badly, leaving Ingalef dead of rabies and Ingrey in a confused, delirious state. Four months after Wencel's being consumed by the accumulation of Earl Horserivers, his mother died in a fall from a horse. Ingrey speculated that Wencel might have caused her death.