The 12 Tribes of the Garou Nation represent a broad swath of global culture; although the Garou are unquestionably not human, they come from at least half human stock, and so their society reflects that of the homids that swarmover the planet. Each tribe has its own relationship with Gaia, the Triat and the other spirits of the Umbra, and the 12 together have a complex web of political interrelationships.
A werewolfs tribe is not the sole determiner of her personality, but personality and tribe often coincide. The section below describes the 12 Tribes of the Western Concordiat, their histories, strengths and weaknesses, common attitudes and relationships with the other tribes
Hailing from ancient Greece and undoubtedly responsible for that land’s legendary Amazons and Maenads, the Black Furies tribe consists almost entirely of female Garou. The only males that are welcome are metis, and even then only those born to the tribe; a male metis of another tribe joining the Furies is simply unheard of.
Many of the other tribes - particularly the Get of Fenris and Shadow Lords - write off the Black Furies as nothing more than “warrior women,” but nothing could be farther from the truth. The Black Furies do not see themselves as mere warriors: They are a force of nature, acting to right wrongs done against women and, through them, Gaia.
Men who do not understand the proper way of things might commit these wrongs, or the Wyrm itself might cause them. To the Furies, it makes no difference: The souls of these defilers’ victims cry out for retribution, and they are retribution’s vehicle.
The Furies both defend and aggressively seek out Wyld sites that might make suitable caems. Their own caems are reputed to be treasure troves of ancient fetishes and powerful talens, but few members of other tribes can get close
enough to discover the truth of this; many Furies are particularly suspicious of the Silver Fangs, Shadowlords and Get of Fenris for their “curiosity" about such rumors.
One particular camp of the Black Furies, the Freebooters, scours the world for the Wyld sites that could serve as caems once the sites are properly purified. They succeed only rarely, making one success the cause for great celebration.
In the End Times, young Black Furies have begun to seize territory inside large cities, hoping to make an impact on women’s lives there, in the heart of the Wyrm. Whether they will succeed or not remains to be seen, but many tribal elders wam great calamity should their daughters and nieces continue on such a path; they believe the Furies’
most important role is not as counselor and friend to the homids, but as avenger.
Tribal Totem: Pegasus
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Beginning Willpower: 4
Advantage: Black Furies begin play with an extra Willpower Trait and may purchase their Willpower one higher than normal Rank Caps.
Drawback: The Black Furies are more likely to frenzy when angered by men than they are by women (or even by sexless spirits). They must expend an additional Willpower Trait to avoid frenzy when angered by men. This Drawback does not impact a Fury’s day-to-day interactions with men; it only affects them when frenzy is a danger.
Backgrounds: No restrictions
Beginning Tribal Gifts: Breath of the Wyld, Heightened Senses, Sense WYm
Wolf Form: In Crinos, Hispo and Lupus forms, a Black Fury’s fur is black or a very deep gray; some exhibit white, gray or silver highlights.
Organization: Females dominate the Black Furies’ tribal hierarchy; although male metis are permitted to remain in the tribe, they rarely take positions of authority. The ruling body of the tribe is known as the Outer Calyx, consisting of 13 veteran Black Furies from across the world who coordinate tribal activities on a global scale. The Outer Calyx is answerable only to the Inner Calyx, five elder Furies rumored to be selected by the Incama Artemis herself.
Habitat / Protectorate: Since legendary times, the Furies have acted to defend women and to punish those who violate the natural way of things; they hold fast to the former part of their protectorate more than the latter in these final days. They have a strong affinity for the ancient, wild and sacred places, and will defend those to the last, but in modern days have taken up arms in the cities to better strike at their foes’ hearts. Their Kin are both male and female, but males are more likely to be tasked with building influence in mortal society, and some are viewed as little better than breeding stock.
Tribes
If you asked the member of any other tribe which Garou are furthest from Gaia, fingers would unerringly point to the Bone Gnawers, who live in sewers, garbage dumps and slums in the greatest cities of the World of Darkness.
But the Bone Gnawers know the truth. Gaia isn’t just in the virgin timberland or at the top of a craggy peak: Gaia is in the city, too. Unlike their cousins, the Bone Gnawers fight for Gaia every day. The Wyrm is at its strongest in the heart of great cities, and so it is there that Gaia is at Her weakest and in most in need of defense.
The Bone Gnawers can’t help the material fact of their situations. They don’t have decent homes or much money; they live on the streets, alongside the homeless, the crazies, the muggers and the Wyrm-things.
The Gnawers are self-reliant, though: They have found their own places of power amid the trash, and they can create fetishes and talens out of discarded junk. Social standing among the Bone Gnawers has very little to do with one’s wealth or combat prowess and everything to do with one’s ability to provide for those in need and combat the Wyrm in less obvious fashions. That isn’t to say that the Bone Gnawers can’t fight en they have to; the tribe’s totem spirit is Rat.
A Gnawer Ahroun fights as well as any other tribe’s warrior does, and he is entirely willing to fight dirty. As a group) the Bone Gnawers are on moderately good terms with the Glass Walkers - though they surely do not travel in the same circles, each group has something the other can use. The Gnawers have an ear to the streets at just about all times, and the Walkers have nearly unmatched material resources. Most Red Talons and many Silver Fangs revile the Bone Gnawers, wishing that the tribe would just go away. Most of the other tribes grudgingly tolerate Rat’s adopted children, leaving them to fight heir war as they see fit.
Tribal Totem: Rat
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Beginning Willpower: 4
Advantage: The Bone Gnawers are consummate survivors and spies. Once per session, they may gain a level Contacts at a rate of one per Rank for the purposes of gathering information and this is a secondary Contacts pool from any they may already possess..
Drawback: The Bone Gnawers face considerable scorn from the rest of Garou society as they are on the bottom of the totem pole. They face a one-Trait penalty in all Social Challenges with other Garou.
Backgrounds: Lacking respectable upbringing and history, the BoneGnawers are forbidden to select Ancestors, Pure Breed or Resources.
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Barking Chain: The Barking chain is an advantage to spreading information across wide distances in a given area. A Galliard can instigate the chain with a successful static social challenge against 10 traits, retest Animal Ken. If successful the barking chain begins. The downside to this is that any Bone Gnawer Galliard also has to listen to the inane barking that can begin at random. Unless he wins a static mental against 7 traits during a barking chain not of his own creation he will be two traits down due to the incessant yipping and barking.
Beginning Tribal Gifts: Cooking, Scent of Sweet Honey, Tagalong
Wolf Form: Bone Gnawers are mangy mutts; their coats usually exhibit he marks of their mixed background, showing two or three patterns and colors. They are often flea-bitten; small Bone Gnawers may try to pass themselves off as (big) stray dogs, but it is hard to conceal their lupine heritage.
Organization: Bone Gnawer society is not particularly organized. Wise elders are referred to as “Mother,” “Father,” “Grandmother” or “Grandfather,” but there is no Rite or ceremony that accompanies such a title: It happens when it happens. One of the best ways to get status among the Bone Gnawers is to accumulate useful cast-off items, the sorts of things that others might think are junk but that have a great deal of utility left in them. There is no global hierarchy among the Bone Gnawers; each must make his own way. Habitat /
Protectorate: The Bone Gnawers live in the poor parts of big cities; they see the occasional sacred place there and those innocents they find to be their charges. Their caerns can often be found in the least probable of settings: in the hearts of vast junkyards, condemned buildings, underground tunnels or the like. Bone Gnawers can be found patrolling the darkest streets of their home city; some have the defense of humans in mind while others aim to keep all humans away from their greatest prizes. While most werewolves think of the Gnawers as strictly urban, some of the tribe have more rural roots, living in the rural South and the Appalachians. Others speak of humble origins amid the poor of India and northern Africa or among migrant workers and dirt farmers. What the tribe truly shares is a connection with the downtrodden and disenfranchised who are found anywhere.
The Western Concordiat seems unanimous in its hatred for the Weaver and Wyrm. The Children of Gaia alone stand against this. They know - or at least claim to know - that war is the creation of the Wyrm and strengthens the Wyrm. They desire to make peace, first among the 12 Tribes and then between the Garou and humanity. And then, who knows how far such an upswelling of good sentiment might go?
The Children suffer the slings and arrows of the other tribes for their attitude, of course; epithets like “hippie” and “peacenik” are the least damaging things they run into. However, because the members of most tribes know that the Children do not really hold grudges against any of them and do genuinely wish to improve the rapport between the tribes, the others often turn to them to act as mediators. The Children of Gaia have the best relations with the Uktena and Wendigo of all the so-called Wyrmcomer Europeans.
However, these peace-loving Garou do have their breaking points, and their Rage can be frightening after being pent up for so long. They also understand that, as werewolves, sometimes they just need to “pop claws and go to town” for sanity’s sake. What they stress is that they look for good targets (like Wyrm-things) to vent their Rage on, rather than the wasteful destruction of another Garou.
The Children of Gaia are one of the most active tribes within homid society. They work as environmental activists, teachers, lobbyists and similar roles, trying to educate humanity to the danger of their actions. Where possible, they
take direct action against the worst depredations of humanity, but since they are less likely than many other Garou to cause the Delirium in homids, they are the most useful working within homid society.
The Children are an unusually large tribe by Garou standards, and are as diverse as they are large. This is mostly because the Children of Gaia and their totem, Unicorn, welcome almost any werewolf to join the tribe. Males born
to the Black Furies, the metis of many tribes, “weaklings” born to the Get of Fenris, lost cubs with no knowledge of their tribes - all are accepted by Unicorn, and all call themselves Children of Gaia.
Tribal Totem: Unicorn
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Beginning Willpower: 4
Advantage: The Children of Gaia are exceptionally skilled at bringing two sides of a conflict together and making them see the ways in which they do fundamentally agree. Each Child of Gaia starts with two additional Social Traits, which cannot be lost (They may go over their Trait maximums with this Advantage).
Drawback: The Children of Gaia never participated in the Impergium to the extent that the other tribes did, and as a result, homids do not suffer the Delirium as seriously from the Children as they do from the other tribes. Humans are treated as though they had three extra Willpower Traits for the purposes of their reaction to the Delirium when faced by one or more Children of Gaia. Note that the presence of Children of Gaia does not dampen homids’ reactions to the Delirium if other Garou are rampaging in clear sight.
Backgrounds: No restrictions
Beginning Tribal Gifts: Mercy, Resist Pain
Wolf Form: Children of Gaia are shaded mostly with gray or brown, with a dappling of white. Lupus-form Children do not loom menacingly in the way that other tribes do; they instead give off an aura of calm and safety.
Organization: On the local level, the Children of Gaia operate by consensus, working together to forge solutions that are equitable to all involved (save minions of the Wyrm, who do not, contrary to the japes of other tribes, get a vote). At a Children of Gaia sept, the three leaders are the Voice of the Goddess (usually a veteran female), who acts as the policy-maker for the tribe; the Arm of the Goddess (usually a veteran male), who carries out the Voice’s decisions; and the Heart of the Goddess (a metis, or an elder beyond childbearing years), who acts as judge.
Habitat/Protectorate: The Children call no one place home; they travel to the places they are needed across the globe. They range from Calcutta to California. Their greatest concern is the welfare of humans subject to the depredations of the Wyrm; the Children of Gaia believe that they alone understand that the Wyrm will always take root in humans unless those humans are protected against it. Their Kinfolk tend to be unusually aware of social and environmental issues, and come from every nationality.
Many onlookers suspect that the blood of the Fair Folk runs in the veins of the Fianna tribe; these Garou share an ancestral home with the legendary fae in the British Isles, and have the same love of a good song and strong drink as those mythical creatures. The Fianna are master storytellers - a good Fianna yam, whether true or not, will set you back a case of beer and half a night, and you’ll wonder where the time went as you stumble to the door.
The other tribes see the Fianna as merrymakers and drunkards, but that’s not quite the whole story. The Fianna are famed for their wild mood swings and may spend weeks in a melancholy bordering on Harano before cheering. A Fianna’s mood can just as quickly turn to anger; their frenzies are no less frightening than those of more openly warlike tribes.
Of all the tribes, the Fianna are certainly the most sociable, but they also provide most of the material for ballads of unrequited or tragic love, especially for humans and other Garou.
Some Fianna in North America and Australia try to get away from the stereotype of the drunken Irish brawler or bard, but it is hard to eliminate a stereotype that the other tribes seem so determined to see within them. New World Fianna work as activists within homid communities rather than holding themselves apart from humanity.
Certainly cities with large Irish populations have more Fianna than others do, but the tribe is like most others of the Nation, truly a Global entity in these days. The rise of the Celtic Tiger boom in Ireland and the fight in Northern Ireland has begun to amount in a tear or rift in the Tribe. As the youth of the tribe begin to seek the benefits of movement, where the Elders decry the loss of traditions.
Tribal Totem: Stag
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Beginning Willpower: 3
Advantage: The Fianna history is of the brawler and bards. As result of this illustrious history, they may begin play with three Traits in any combination of the following Abilities: Brawl, Craft, Expression, Melee, Performance. Abilities purchased with this tribal advantage (mark it on your sheets) have this ability's maximum raised from 5 to 6.
Drawback: Any time a Fianna would spend a Willpower Trait to control a Frenzy or take reprieve from Harano they must spend an additional Willpower Trait to do so. Fianna are also at a 2 Traits in comparison of ties on all Willpower challenges regarding Frenzy or Harano.
Backgrounds: No restrictions
Beginning Tribal Gifts: Faerie Light, Persuasion, Resist Toxin
Wolf Form: When in Lupus, the Fianna are terrifying to unprepared homids: They seem to be the dire wolves of old, with shining red or black fur.Their howls can rend the heart for their beauty and sadness.
Organization: At the local level, Fianna septs elect their members to“Chairs” of various performing arts: There is a Chair of Poetry, a Chair of Song and a Chair of Stories. These Chairs lead moots for the local sept. On a global level, a high king or queen, known as the Ar-Righ, leads the Fianna. The traditional seat of this office is at Tara in Ireland, though not all Ar-Righ hold court there, some preferring their own homelands (be they Sydney or Boston).
Habitat / Protectorate: In older times they preferred the moors, forestsand peat bogs of the “auld sod,” although they have traveled across the globe with their Kinfolk. They are most commonly found in the British Isles, the United States (especially Appalachia), Canada, New Zealand and Australia. They usually settle close to their Kin, whom they protect with great ferocity.
The Get of Fenris are the Fenrir, the chosen children of Fenris Wolf, the mightiest warrior spirit in the heavens. They are the fists of Gaia and the greatest warriors of the Garou Nation. Anyone who cares to disagree is welcome to challenge these proclamations in person. The Get hail from northern Europe and Scandinavia; those are harsh lands, not prone to forgiving individual frailty, and the Get have absorbed this attitude from their surroundings. They want no truck with weaklings of any kind, only caring for the strongest Garou.
The mythology of the Get revolves around ancient Norse legends. They see the coming Apocalypse through the lens of Ragnarok, the final battle between the Norse gods and the wicked giants; the Get see themselves numbered among the Einherjar, the chosen warriors of the gods. The Wyrm itself they call Jormungandr, the World Serpent. It is said that a true warrior of the Get of Fenris would gladly let himself be devoured by Jormungandr if he was sure to get a few moments rending and tearing at the beast’s face.
The tribe’s belief that the weak must be culled saw a black mark against the Fenrir in the middle of the 20th
century as more than a few members of the Get of Fenris fell in with the ideals of Nazi Germany. That cancer was
excised rather painfully as the tribe fell to infighting while some of the worst crimes against Gaia of that century were taking place, and it took a few years for the Get to return to their former stature. The most poisonous of Get rhetoric has softened somewhat in the intervening years.
The Get of Fenris see no problem in seizing caerns “misheld” by other tribes; if the Get can take a caem, obviously it was not well-defended against the minions of the Wyrm. The Get see their own stewardship of such caerns as the best and most obvious solution to that problem. This has put them on bad footing with several other tribes; the Wendigo and Uktena, in particular, have no great love for the Fenrir. A few tribes are too strong to assault in such a fashion: The Shadow Lords, Silver Fangs and Black Furies can generally hold their own against a Get assault. The others watch the Get warily; the Fenrir know that they will lead the assault against the Wyrm in the final battle for Gaia, and now they only wait the signal ....
Tribal Totem: Fenris Wolf
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Beginning Willpower: 3
Advantage: The youthful training and Rite ofPussage of the Get of Fenris are hard enough on a young Garou that they either kill him or make him stronger. Those that survive that upbringing gain one extra Healthy health level.
Drawback: The Get of Fenris honor strength in all forms, and they despise weakness. This attitude is so ingrained that they will show open contempt, even to the point of violence, against those who exhibit a particular weakness. Get characters must choose a weakness against which they rail, and succeed in a Static Willpower Test to avoid taking action against it when faced with it. Some targets of Fenrir rage include: Cowardice, Compromise, Lower Animals, Peaceniks, Physical Frailty, Weaver-things.
Backgrounds: The Get of Fenris may not purchase the Contacts Background, and although he may purchase Mentor, the Mentor will only advise, never protect; the Get must be able to fight on his own or die.
Beginning Tribal Gifts: Razor Claws, Resist Pain, Visage of Fenris
Wolf Form: The lupine forms of the Get of Fenris resemble the savage wolves of the Far North from ancient times. They are gray and muscular, with cunning eyes and powerful jaws. Some few have dark patches in their fur, but
those are often regarded with contempt by the rest of the tribe as lacking in pure blood.
Organization: Each Get of Fenris sept is ruled by a Jarl who is almost invariably the mightiest warrior in the sept. Any warrior who wishes to challenge him can depose the Jarl, but this challenge must take place in ritual combat after a moot, and other Get of Fenris must witness it. This ritual requirement is often rendered moot, since many Jarls prefer their challenge duels to be to the death. There is little organization to the tribe above the local level. At the top end, one of the three kings of the Nation and perhaps even considered the wisest is a Fenrir Theurge. The spiritual home of the Fenrir is the Temple of Isensol in the northern mountains of Norway. The Fortress of the tribe is situated in the Artic Circle, named Northgard. Both have strong sway in the political and daily running of the tribe.
Habitat / Protectorate: The Get of Fenris typically reside in harsh lands where their mettle (and that of their Kinfolk) is constantly tested. This preference for tough living does not prevent the Get from forcibly acquiring caerns that other tribes are slow to defend. They are concentrated most strongly in the Artic Circle, Black Forest of Germany, Scandinavia and the north central United States. They lash out at any force that threatens their Kinfolk, who are generally of Northern European extraction.
The Glass Walkers are the most modern and forward-thinking of all the tribes of the Garou Nation. They alone truly embrace modern technology and turn the Weaver’s tools on the Wyrm’s minions for Gaia’s benefit. They do their best to bring their technology and resources to the other tribes so that all can benefit from the latest advances, but, as is often the case, the Red Talons get frustrated and smash new cell phones, while the Get of Fenris hurl
laptop computers into nearby lakes.
In the end, it seems, most of the more primitive tribes are interested in new weapons and weapon accessories, and rely on the Glass Walkers to use the other stuff on their behalf. This is a role the Glass
Walkers are all too happy to take; they love toys. The epithet
“Weaver-thing,” considered an insult when applied by the Red Talons, is used in loving jest by Glass Walkers (“Ooh, new Weaver-thing! Lemme see....”). Their affinity for technology is unmatched among the 12 Tribes.
The Walkers are not obsessed solely with computers and high tech; they also embrace business, politics and high finance. Only a city’s Leech population matches the Dons when it comes to having a finger in every pie. The Glass Walkers have contacts in many white-collar industries and no small number of trade unions and other blue-collar labor. Glass Walker business investments often provide the operating capital for extended Garou operations, and a few warlike septs now find themselves in debt to the Glass Walkers for previous raids. Most Walkers wouldn’t call a debt like this in, but it is good to know the marker is there when you need a favor.
The Glass Walkers do fight the Wyrm. They just take the fight to the boardroom and the Internet. Their finest warriors stalk those who exploit urbanization, and they reclaim urban areas to create patches of green in the cities. One of the tribe’s greatest assets is the "monkeywrenchers,” saboteurs of various talents who turn their efforts on corrupt companies, especially Pentex and its subsidiaries. When they’re not duking it out with public corruption, the Glass Walkers are dealing with the city's vampire population; such close quarters ensures the ancient enemies encounter each other, and the Glass Walkers know as many dirty tricks as the Leeches to get things done.
Tribal Totem: Cockroach
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Beginning Willpower: 3
Advantage: Glass Walkers have always been well-connected within human society. They begin play with a free Influence Trait, and may buy more at a cost of one for one (not to exceed the cap).
Drawback: The Glass Walkers are so tied to the Weaver and her works that they cannot regain Gnosis in the deep wilderness. They can only do so in cities (and, generally, suburbs). They can regain Gnosis at caerns anywhere, however, even hundreds of miles from civilization.
Backgrounds: The Glass Walkers lack ties to their ancient past, they cannot choose the Ancestors, Pure Breed or Mentor Backgrounds.
Beginning Tribal Gifts: Control Simple Machine, Diagnostics, Trick Shot
Wolf Form: Having degenerated from ancient lupine majesty, the Glass Walkers are smaller and weaker than most other Garou when in wolf form. Their fur is often mottled, as befits their mixed heritage. Many Glass Walkers
shave or dye their Crinos-form fur in accordance with similar modifications they make to themselves in homid form.
Organization: At the local level, city elders known as Lords or Dons rule the Walkers. These elders have wide-ranging influence throughout the city, rivaled only by local Leeches. As is the case with many tribes, the Glass Walkers lack a large-scale organization, but as the world becomes more interconnected through an electronic web, Dons are better able to cooperate with one another and make certain that a werewolf cannot escape punishment simply by fleeing to a remote city.
Habitat / Protectorate: As might be expected from their name, the Glass Walkers prefer to live in the wealthiest parts of cities across the world. The centers of power - political, financial or electronic - are their stomping grounds. They prefer to stay close to their human contacts, from board rooms to underworld society or ritzy clubs to seedy street life. Their Kinfolk are equally widespread, mostly connected through electronic means (cell phone, e-mail, pager).
Walk through a city some night, and look up at the sky. Try to find a star, any star. You’re lucky if you can see Luna herself up there. Imagine you had the power to punish the people concealing the pure sky from you. Here is the source of the Red Talons’ rage. They can see the pure sky; they live in pure, clean, wild lands, but every day some idiot ape bulldozes another hundred acres to put up another 200 cookie-cutter suburban homes. The answer is obvious to the Red Talons: kill some homids. Yet this is precisely what the other 11 tribes refuse to do.
The Red Talons are the claws of Gaia; they are Her rage at the human race given form, or so they believe. The Talons come almost entirely from lupus stock; only in the last few decades have they even accepted metis that come from Talon-Talon matings. Many Talon metis are still culled at birth or given to the Children of Gaia to rear. Given their backgrounds, few Talons are comfortable with Weaver-things of any kind. Most see the value in klaives,
and a few even appreciate the usefulness of agunor telephone, but for the most part they communicate via howls and fight with claws and feel that that should be enough.
Still, the other tribes admit the Talons have long memories, and no doubt recall rites and secrets long forgotten by the rest of the Garou.
Talon hatred of humans is legendary, and that hatred has grown by leapsand bounds in these nights of Alaskan wolfkills and bulldozed forests; some believe , that the humans should be wiped from Gaia’s face entirely. Others are more restrained, thinking that returning to the practice of culling would be enough.
A few humans even live peacefully
near Talon territories, provided they respect the land. Many Talons enact a private Impergium against humans who
move into protected lands. The deaths are often swift, but some younger Red Talonstake more pleasure in the killings than their elders think prudent. Cruelties and ritual torture that rival the Black Spiral Dancers are surely the touch of the Wyrm. Some, it is whispered, even violate the Litany - “Ye Shall Not Eat the Flesh of Humans.” The malice of such unnecessary activity surely tempts the Wyrm, and the tribe’s elders watch their youthful students more and more carefully in the modern nights.
Tribal Totem: Griffin
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Beginning Willpower: 3
Advantage: As the manifestation of Gaia’s anger, the Red Talons gainan additional free Rage Trait at character generation and have a maximum Rage one higher than members of other tribes do. (They may go over their
Trait maximums with this Advantage.)
Drawback: The Red Talons embrace the Wyld so strongly that they cannot regain Gnosis when they are distant from its touch. They can only do so in the deep wilderness (generally, where the city is far and the Gauntlet is lower than 5). However, they can always regain in the heart of the city. Red Talon PCs are restricted from ever taking the following Abilities: Computer, Drive, and Finance. Red Talons not a member of the Whelps Compromise camp are restricted from purchasing or obtaining any levels of Influence. Members of the Whelps Compromise camp are unable to purchase or Grow Influence beyond 2 points per Influence.
Backgrounds: Given their affinity with the Wyld. The Red Talons are unable to take Allies, Contacts and Resouces. Their kinfolk are always wolves.
Beginning Tribal Gifts: Beast Speech, Scent of Running Water & Wolf at the Door
Wolf Form: The Red Talon's wolf form is her natural one and she is most comfortable wearing it. They are larger than full grown wolves with powerful jaws and broad haunches. Their fur is usually a reddish brown, yet they bare a single lock of pure blood red fur seen by the tribe as their mark of blessing from Gaia (and mark of curse in the eyes of other tribes)
Organization: Red Talons have little in the ways of organization apart from at Pack Level. The Pack works with fevored hierachy and will hold to it with blood. The Beta, usually a Ragabash however will normally take the brunt of abuse from those higher than him in the pack and will be subserviant to all the others within.
Habitat / Protectorate : As the wolves lands shrink so does the terroritories of the Red Talons. The most remote parts of the Asian Steppes, the frozen lands of Siberia and some of the Canadian Rockies still belong to them, however they lose acres of their lands everyday. Some Talons will set up staging grounds closer to homid territory, but they are more likely to strike directly at those who intrude on their ever-shrinking lands. Their Kinfolk are wolf packs across the world, and every one is precious to them; the loss of a pup is certainly worth a few human lives. Some won’t even acknowledge human Kinfolk, causing clashes with other tribes
The Shadow Lords cultivate an air of menace in the same way that a Child of Gaia cultivates her herb garden. Dark, looming, brooding - such traits personify these Garou of Eastern European descent. The Shadow Lords know with precise certainty that they are more qualified to lead the Garou Nation than the Silver Fangs; the Fangs’ leadership consists of doddering old fools, lost in yesterday’s glory, they say. They hold themselves to be the guardians of the Litany, well-versed in the “correct” interpretations of the tenets. Above all, they respect power and strength; the weak are worth only distain or swift death.
The Shadow Lords must watch their own flanks at all times: In addition to competing with Garou of other tribes for position and influence, a Lord dares not show weakness to another Lord lest she lose face and position within the tribe.Cubs revere their elders as dignified,cunning and proud, but often do so from fear. Elders are known for arrogance as much as ability.
Add this to a steaming cauldron of political intrigues, tribal solidarity, conspiracies and spies, and the tribe is more likely to suffer from internal conflicts than outside interests. The Shadow Lords are adept at manipulating others to do their bidding; some darkly joke that they learned that skill from the vampires that stalk the night in the tribe’s ancient homeland, the Carpathian and Balkan mountain ranges.
It is certainly the case that the Shadow Lords are more willing to enter into dealings with such dark creatures than other tribes are. Some Lords end up on the wrong sides of such bargains - apparently some Leeches have a fondness for werewolf blood- but others can and do play games with the The Shadow Lords revere Grandfather Thunder as a spirit only slightly beneath Gaia in importance - most Garou believe that the Shadow Lords feel that Grandfather Thunder is Gaia’s equal, a sky god to the earth goddess.
If the Shadow Lords really do consider the two to be equal, they keep that fact to themselves. By all indications, Mother Gaia is foremost in their hearts, but Grandfather Thunder is a capricious patron. He does not tolerate weakness, but sends his Stormcrows ahead to warn favored Shadow Lords of coming danger.
Tribal Totem: Grandfather Thunder
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Beginning Willpower: 3
Advantage: A Shadow Lord can socially outmaneuver his opponents with blinding skill. By spending one Gnosis Trait, the Lord can temporarily gain an amount of Social Traits equal to his Rank. This extra amount can be used for a single Social Challenge per session. This Advantage fails against a Garou with equal or greater Traits in the Pure Breed Background than the character has.
Drawback: The Shadow Lords are arrogant to extremes, and this is reflected in the tribe’s attitude toward failure. A Lord who fails in her assigned tasks is scorned and reviled; she loses an additional Renown Trait when she fails at a task (or, if that failure would still earn positive Renown, she earns one fewer Renown Trait). If she would gain or lose Renown in more than one category, she loses it from the category which would have earned her the most Renown had she succeeded.
Backgrounds: Shadowlords are too proud to take Contacts and Allies
Beginning Tribal Gifts: Aura of Confidence, Seizing the Edge, Fatal Flaw
Wolf Form: A lupus form Shadowlord retains his arrogance and hauteur, most Shadowlords are coal black and broad shouldered with an air of menace around him. Most will spent their time in Lupus on bleak or stormy days.
Organization: The Shadowlords are organized much like the lines of the Get of Fenris (thought either tribe would not admit to such as thing) The primary difference between the two is that while the Fenrir's moots are rowdy drunken affairs, the Shadowlords are often solemn, as the sept leaders work out the sept's activities for the next month.Shadowlord leaders must be perfect - having the social skills necessary to lead the sept, the strength to crush any opposition and the mystic knowledge to turn even the spirits to their will. Shadow Lord leaders are rarely challenged openly; only when the leader has shown obvious weakness is he considered to be a viable target for deposition.
Habitat / Protectorate: Though the tribe’s true home lies in the Balkan and Carpathian mountain ranges, they now range across the Western Concordiat. The Lords’ preferred homes lie amid rocky mountains and spooky plateaus, with haunted coniferous forests all around. Other than their own Kinfolk - generally of Eastern European descent - and business interests, the Shadow Lords do not have a favored group of homids to defend, although powerful men like military dictators, crime lords or ruthless businessmen may find themselves pursued by female Shadow Lord lovers. Like the Get of Fenris, they ruthlessly seize undefended caerns, insisting that the Garou Nation must ensure that such holy places are in the hands of those best capable of protecting them.
The Silent Striders are wanderers, messengers and travelers; more than anything else they are enigmas. Though the tribe originally hails from Egypt, they no longer reside there, instead wandering the globe. Though it is claimed that no Garou can enter the lands of the dead, the scent of the Dark Umbra clings to them. And though they rarely do any other Garou wrong, few werewolves completely trust the Silent Striders.
When acting as messengers or bearing tidings of the Wyrm’s activity, the Silent Striders are welcome visitors at nearly any caem.
If rumors are to be believed, the Striders even find welcome among the fae and wizards of the world, and ghosts are said to follow them. When wandering the world, the Striders have an uncanny tendency to poke their snouts in where they don’t belong and come out with trouble on their tails.
This may be the reason they are so widely distrusted. Most Striders make a living acting as couriers or messengers between caerns; they know the hidden byways enough, and, it is rumored, afew secret Moon Bridges to boot.
With the usual exception of Banes and Black Spiral Dancers, the Striders hold their greatest hatred for vampires. Tribal
legend holds that the Striders fought an army of vampires led by a dark undead godling called Sutekh. Sutekh supposedly cast a great curse on the tribe that drove them from Egypt, scattered them to the winds, and worst of all, severed their bonds with their ancestors. Since many Striders take Egyptian names as some link their past, and search the Umbra in vain for some sign of their forbears.
The Silent Striders do have a relationship the Restless Dead. The origin of the relationship is unknown, but Striders tend to attract ghostly attentions when passing through the Gauntlet of the Umbra. Rare is the Silent Strider who doesn't have at least one wraith tagging along as he travels. Out of a sense of respect and politeness, the Striders
will generally avoid mentioning such ghosts in front of strangers.
Tribal Totem: Owl
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Beginning Willpower: 3
Advantage: Once per session, a Silent Strider may perform one of the following: 1) Reverse the scene by one Action (not a full Round); 2) Have or locate a necessary mundane item necessary for the scene; or 3) May call for a single challenge they did not initiate to be redone. No traits or retests are expended on the original test and the Strider may change their victory condition if they desire. If the Strider initiated the challenge, use of this may only back up the scene to the point right AFTER he initiated the challenge. This advantage may be invoked at any time before the results of the challenge are applied.
Drawback: Silent Striders tend to attract the attention of ghosts, due to an ancient curse levied upon the tribe. At the Narrator’s discretion, if a Silent Strider loses his challenge to step sideways, he may attract the attention of the
Restless Dead. A ghost will attach itself to him, making his life considerably more difficult until such time as the Strider completes a task on the ghost’s behalf. This Drawback functions as per the Flaw:Haunted.
Backgrounds: As wanderers cut off from the lands of the dead, the Silent Striders are forbidden the Ancestors and Resources Backgrounds.
Beginning Tribal Gifts: Sense Wym, Silence, Speed of Thought
Wolf Form: The Silent Striders have the look of the jackal about them, lean and muscular. They have black coats and yellow eyes, appearing as though they just sprang from the hieroglyphs on a tomb’s wall.
Organization: The Silent Striders are loners, without explicit hierarchy or titles, but they do occasionally gather ingreat moots. Typically these moots take place alongside barren, empty expanses of road, although outsiders remain mystified about how the tribe knows where and when to meet. More commonly, rather than congregating, the Striders leave one another messages on roadsigns or in subway tunnels, using a pictographic scrawl whose meaning is generally kept secret.
Habitat / Protectorate: Whether as individuals or as a tribe, the Silent Striders do not have a single homeland. They are wanderers, travelers, born to the road. They may stay in one place for an extended time, but for the most part they do not congregate for long periods at any particular caerns, save for a rumored caem in Casablanca. Their Kinfolk are likewise disparate -Rrom, circus troupes, nomadic tribes, truckers or hitchhikers.
The Silver Fangs were once the traditional leaders of the Garou Nation. But with the new turn of leaders for the Nation itself, the mood around this tribe has changed somewhat dramatically. Though one of the Three Kings of the Nation is indeed a Silver Fang, it will be others that whisper that is it because the tribe was no longer strong enough to rule alone. The Fangs have become a little jaded with their brother tribes, especially that of the Shadowlords and Fenrir. Hurt pride and ego for some of the more extreme of this tribe.
They have the same afflication as they have suffered now for a long time, madness that has crept into their breeding and warped their minds, making some of these tempers within the Nation boil over and others wait for their limits to come. Paranoia, mistrust, all of it makes for a sickly tribe. The Silver Fang King makes to to try and heal these wounds resting deep within his people, but the question will be of loyalty.
In some respects the silvr fangs are still able to rise like they always have done, into the positions of power that are meaningful in the Caerns of the Nation, their Gaia-given natural leadership. Or so they would have many believe.
Tribal Totem: Falcon
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Beginning Willpower: 3
Advantage: The Silver Fangs have claimed primacy among the Garou since before recorded history. As a result, they may retest any Social Challenge once; the second result must stand.
Drawback: The Silver Fangs have spent so long breeding among their own Kinfolk and controlling when their own Kinfolk's breeding that the tribe has become dangerously inbred. As the fists of Gaia, the Fangs have not become physically weak. Instead, they've developed certain eccentricities. A Silver Fang starts play with one of the following derangements: Amnesia, Intellectualization, Manic-Depression, Megalomania, Multiple Personalities, Obsession, Paranoia, Perfection, Regression or Vengeful.
Backgrounds: Silver Fangs must spend at least three of their initial Background Traits on Pure Breed; after those are purchased, all Backgrounds are available to them.
Beginning Tribal Gifts: Falcon’s Grasp, Lambent Flame, Sense Wyrm
Wolf Form: The wolf form of a Silver Fang is suitably majestic, especially given the tribe’s strong bloodlines. With mighty jaws and lush tails, they command attention as easily in lupus form as in homid or Crinos. Their fur
is usually silver or white.
Organization: The Silver Fangs have a rigid hierarchy; seven great noble houses cover the Fangs’ territory across the world, and within each Fang sept there is a King (the term applies whether the elder is male or female) and associated members of his court. The King is the eldest active Ahroun of one of the great bloodlines or one who has ennobled himself through legendary deeds. The court consists of two members of each of the other auspices in the roles of shamans (Theurges), stewards (Philodox), squires (Galliards) and seneschals (Ragabash). Members of other auspices fill these other roles more often these days as the Fangs’ numbers decrease. A Silver Fang King’s sept is divided into two courts, the Lodge of the Sun, whichdeals with business affairs and day-to-day operations, and the Lodge of the Moon, which handles spiritual affairs and interactions with the Wyld.
Habitat / Protectorate: The Silver Fangs pay careful attention to the scions of nobility, for breeding purposes. Their pickings have gotten slimmer over the past 50 years as nobility as a lifestyle has begun to vanish from Europe and was never as grand in the rest of the world. The Fangs do have the choicest territory to be found in much of Europe and Russia, with majestic views from mountain eyries and the like. In the Americas and Australia, things are considerably more egalitarian, and the Fangs scrap with the other tribes for the nicest digs. The Fangs keep close track of their Kin, and tribal “pedigrees” take up several volumes in any library. Money is not a consideration to noble blood - an exiled Romanian prince reduced to teaching high school in the US is worth far more to them than a nouveau riche industrialist descended from horse thieves.
The Uktena tribe is one of the two remaining “Pure Ones” tribes; they, the Wendigo and the long-vanished Croatan lived in North America for thousands of years until the invasion of the so-called Wyrmcomer tribes of Europe some 500 years ago. Despite fierce fighting by the Uktena and Wendigo to help their Kinfolk preserve a traditional way of life, the Wyrmcomers and their Kinfolk swarmed across the continent like a plague.
The Wyrmcomers’ Kinfolk, called the Wyrmbringers, slaughtered and confined the Native Americans over the next few centuries until
eventually Native Americans were restricted to reservations spotted across the United States and Canada.
There were two possible responses to this great change in the population of the continent: fight it to the last, or accept it and integrate with the newcomers. The Wendigo chose the former road and the Uktena the latter, especially embracing those Asians and Africans the whites brought in as slaves.
In the 21st century, the Uktena is one of the most ethnically diverse tribes in the world; Uktena have Kinfolk from Vancouver to Miami, Halifax to Los Angeles and just about every place in between. The majority of Uktena come from oppressed or lower-class social groups.
In the ancient days, the Uktena were the shamans, and they have never lost this talent; indeed, it has grown as they and their Kinfolk lost power in the physical world. They have good relations with most nature spirits, and excel at creating fetishes and talens. They are considered some of the most talented and powerful shamans and occultists in the Nation. Uktena have an insatiable thirst for discovering ancient secrets, and once discovered, at hiding and holding them. Some few Uktena, called Bane Tenders, choose difficult and possibly corrupting task of monitoring foul Banes and Wyrm-beasts to make sure they remain bound and somnolent. While such knowledge has proved useful - the Uktena are exceptionally skilled at scouting out the presence of the Wyrm and other blight - it has come at a terrible price. Members of many tribes whisper the Uktena have gotten too close to the secrets the Wyrm and that they themselves might soon walk the Black Spiral to join the forces of corruption.
The Uktena take their name from a Native American water spirit with the features of a serpent, cougar and deer known for its love of secrets and disguising its appearence
Tribal Totem: Uktena
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Beginning Willpower: 3
Advantage: Uktena are so attuned to the hidden ways and spirits that they can peek into the Umbra from the real world using the same rules as peeking out from the Umbra.
Drawback: The Uktena have always been harvesters of secrets. An Uktena Garou hates to let secrets remain hidden away from her (though she is perfectly good at hiding them once she’s gotten them). Once the character learns that a secret lies in reach (either another person knows a secret, or the character is faced with mystery) she will be unable to concentrate until the secret is uncovered. This is will amount to a one point increase to the difficulty of static willpower tests. They are also down one social trait until the end of the immediate game session whilst not actively engaging in discovering the secret.
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ST NOTE: This disadvantage is easily abused. It is ALWAYS the ST's discretion on whether this disadvantage comes into play or not. This disadvantage is a secret of the Uktena tribe, something others should not be aware of, thus it requires Uktena Lore 3 for an outsider to know about this disadvantage.
Backgrounds: No restrictions
Wolf Form: Due to the diversity of the tribe there is some unpredictability when it comes to their appearence. Most have reddish brown fur and have an unsettling capability to stare at what they encounter.
Organization: The end of each season, the elders of the tribe will gather for the Great Council and will deliberate on matters of importance for the entire tribe. The tribe must vote unanimously for anything to take effect for the entire tribe. This happens all but rarely, the entire council is made of elders, who are set in their ways and loathe compremise. Thus the Great Council becomes much more a place for the tribe to share information. Locally smaller tribe councils will deal with the deeds and needs of those of the septs, hold great weight within their settlements, but nothing outside of it.These councils are bound to have younger garou than that of the great council. But their composition is not dictated from the higher councils.
Habitat / Protectorate : The Uktena posess many caerns on Native American soil, but no small proportion of their territory is in lands controlled by the United States since the native peoples were forced from it. Since the first days of the Wyrmcomers, the Uktena and their Kinfolk have bred with the oppressed members of homid society, and the tribe and its human charges can now be found from Native American reservations to urban neighborhoods to the Amazon rainforest and Pacific Islands.
In the ancient days before the Wyrmbringers and their Garou allies, the Wyrmcomers, the Wendigo tribe was one of three that tended to the humans and wolves of the Pure Lands. The Uktena tribe was known as Older Brother, the shamans; the Croatan was Middle Brother, the leaders and diplomats; and the Wendigo was Younger Brother, the warriors.
After the destruction of the Croatan, the Wendigo remained warriors,
and they refused to yield in the face of the Wyrmbringers’ invasion of the Pure Lands. They fought, fell back and fought again over the course of more than a century. In the end, the Wendigo were forced to retreat to their most remote caerns and wage war from there. Decades passed before the Wendigo and the Wyrmcomers met peacefully, and tensions still run high between them and tribes like the Fianna and Get of Fenris (for obvious reasons).
The Wendigo were, and still are, adeeply traditional and spiritual tribe that holds fast to many rituals of their native blood and Garou heritage. They practice ritual purity before hunts, battles or other major undertakings, and seek aid from the spirits for many matters. They continue to seek some news about their lost brethren the Croatan.
Some hardline Wendigo believe that they can drive the Wyrmbringers from the Pure Lands or wash the Wyrmtaint
from the land with the Wyrmbringers’ blood. This extremist view has been gaining in popularity as frustrations build in the tribe, and some talk of an alliance with like-minded Red Talons. Most take the view that defeating the Wyrm in all its forms should take precedence over :hoosing a particular breed of homid to dominate the continent.
The Wendigo tribe takes its name from its item, the winter cannibal spirit ofNorth America. Wendigo teaches its children the power of the cold, cutting wind and stealth abilities, which they use to ambush the forces of the Wyrm (and, occasionally, trespassing Wyrmcomer Garou).
Tribal Totem: Wendigo
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Beginning Willpower: 4
Advantage and Drawback: The Wendigo are tied to the movement of Gaia around the sun, and as such, they have different limitations and advantages at different times of the year. They call this the Wheel of Seasons. In Spring, as life expands and grows, a Wendigo suffers a one-Trait penalty to all Willpower Tests but gains the Physical Trait energetic. In Summer, the season ofwar, she faces aone-Trait penalty to resist frenzy but gains the Social Trait Charismatic. In Autumn, as the world slows, he faces a one-Trait penalty to the difficulty of Static Tests to change form but gains the Mental Trait Reflective. In Winter, the Wendigo’s favored season, she gains two extra Staminarelated Traits, Tenacious and Rugged, for the purposes of soaking damage but must take one of the following Negative Traits: Callous, Dull or Witless.
Backgrounds: Wendigo may not purchase Contacts or Resources.
Beginning Tribal Gifts: Call the Breeze, Camouflage, Resist Pain
Wolf Form: Wendigo in lupus form resemble enormous gray timber wolves; they fade out of sight in winters across northern North America.
Organization: A few Chiefs lead each sept of Wendigo-they do not always use the title “Chief,” as some prefer their own language’s equivalent - and the Chief or Chiefs are usually advised by a group of Theurges known as the Lodge of Mysteries. A Philodox is usually peacetime Chief, and an Ahroun the Chief during time of war. With the End Times so obviously upon them, some Ahrouns have begun to exert their authority outside of battle, claiming that the Garou Nation now lives in a state of war; the Philodox protest, and it remains to be seen which faction will win out.
Habitat / Protectorate: The Wendigo, like the Uktena, live among Native American tribes in the United States and Canada. Unlike the Uktena, the Wendigo have made a point of avoiding the Wyrmbringers and their offspring whenever possible. Thus, they are found primarily in the most desolate lands, hostile to humans of all stripes, as well as among Native Americans. Like the Uktena, the Wendigo are rarely seen in Europe, though rumors persist that the tribe has a presence in Siberia. The Wendigo breed exclusively - as far as they can - with Native American Kinfolk. Most are unwilling to sully their bloodlines with the taint of white men, even today. The protection of their dwindling numbers of Kin ranks of nearly equal importance with the defeat of the Wyrm among Wendigo councils.
