The Garou
From World Of Darkness Wiki
Garou is the name that the wolf-shifters of Gaia have given themselves. However, to stop there and say that that's all there is to it is not only an understatement, but a dire insult to all that the Garou are.
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History
Creation
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It has been argued heavily whether the triad or Gaia was first. However, after the triad was set into motion, Gaia took a rest, for things were perfect in that time. This of course did not last forever. When the triad first started showing signs of falling out of balance, Gaia turned in her slumber and awoke. Seeing that the great spirits that controlled the cosmic forces were threating to fall out of their purposes in the universal order, she felt that she would need balancers. So she took the most clever of her animals, humans, and an assortment of others and combined them, giving them each different tasks and purposes. To the wolves, the most cunning, she gave the duty of protecting her. In those days, there were no markings or tribal indications that set apart one set of Garou from another. There weren't even Metis. This primeval time in history is best reflected in the Umbral realm of Pangaea. This was a time in which Garou, other fera, their kinfolk, and humans worked and lived side by side.
Alas, this peace could not stand forever; as the Weaver planted her seeds in humanity, they grew strong and more plentiful. This caused a panic in the Garou as they watched the human population spike. By this time, tribes had formed in the Nation. The Silver Fangs were the Alpha tribe, whiles the Shadow Lords spoke as their Betas. The Silent Striders came out of a need for direct messengers between caerns. Other tribes rose from the ideals on what to do with humanity. The Black Furies and Children of Gaia protested that they bring humanity into an understanding of Gaia. The Fianna, the Get of Fenris felt that the strongest of the humans should survive whiles the weaker should be culled. The Red Talons however believed that the human threat should be put to an end and that they should be killed all together. The Silver Fangs send a pack to the fledgling cities in order to investigate this human threat. These would later for the tribe known as "Warders of Men", then the "Terasomians", then the "Iron Riders", and finally the Glass Walkers. The other tribe to join them in the cities was the Bone Gnawers. However the omega tribe was more looking for a life better than the one they felt was in the nation.
The Impergium
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The Silver Fangs however decided that the human treat should be dealt with in the scab like cities that the humans were building. And thus the Impergium was brought into play. A three thousand year long control on human populations with in the cities. The humans were culled, their numbers kept in strict control. The young were culled if too many, the sick, the weak, the infirm. The Garou hoped to suppress the human numbers, however something different happened. The humans grew more wary of the night. The time when black shapes of unnamed horrors would come and take them away. And whiles some huddled together around the hearth fires for warm, others fought back. The Garou found that the humans could not stand to see them in their battle forms. They ran, they screamed, they gibbered. Even their kin were not immune to the newly spiritual scarring soon to be known as Delirium. Many tribes had called for an end to this mass slaughter, however when it was all over, it was far too late. The end of the Impergium lead to the laws known as the Litany. These rules were set down by all tribes, and are followed even to this day. Horrified at their European cousins actions the Wendigo, Croatan, and Uktena had made their way across the ice bridge and into the Pure Lands of North America. The Star Gazers had yet to leave the lands of China and the east. And the Bunyip arrived in Australia and had closed off any moon bridges that lead there.
War of Rage
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As one mistake ended, a new one began. The Garou prided themselves on being Gaia's best, her chosen warriors. But it was this pride that brought the next thorn in the side of their history. The War of Rage. Feeling that they were the best of Gaia's children, the Garou demanded that the other Fera teach them their gifts and holy rites. To add to this subjugation, The Silver Fangs demanded that they attend their courts and kneel before them as supreme rulers of all shifters. The Fera were not amused. They scoffed, laughed and out right insulted the arrogant Garou for their claims to what Gaia had rightfully given them. And thus began a Genocidal rampage against the other sifters. Three shifting breeds had been lost forever from this world by the time the Garou had realized their mistake. The honorable Apis, the warriors and cleansers known as the Grondr, and the most harmless if not strange Camazotz. All the rest were either brought to the edge of extinction, or fled to distant hiding places, some in the umbra, others in remote untouched places of the world. To this day all save for a few Fera either distrust or Hate the wolves.
The Wyld West
As the world grew, and nations progressed, so did the Garou Kinfolk and the Garou themselves. Europe was crawling with leeches and other Wyrm things and the Garou and their kin yearned for places that were clean of such influences. They had heard of the Pure Lands across the seas, and so they traveled there. Only to find that three other tribes were already protecting it. This however did not stop the invading Garou from trying to take what they felt was a right to them. Three tribes were particularly adamant about taking and protecting these new lands. The Silver Fangs felt that they lorded of all Garou, even those whom had traveled here. The Get and Fianna challenged the Uktena, Wendigo, and Croatin that called this their home. Feeling that if they were strong enough to hold and protect this land, that they would meet and win these challenges. These tribes could not hold their own against their invading cousins, and the European Garou were able to take the lands from them. However, they were to find out that there was no place to hide from the minions of the Wyrm. Not only did the wolves find others of their kind here but a secondary "War of Rage" took place as Fera in this new land were encountered. What few who were alive of the Camazotz were finally slaughtered by the Shadow Lords.
Honorable Brother's Death
Many Wendigo and some Uktena feel that the European Garou earned the name "Wyrmbringers" for good reason. With them they had brought a terrible secret. With their kin and the humans that they brought with them festered a hunger like no other. And in the settlement known as the Roanoke Colony, this would be seen in the worst manner possible. The settlers there were caught unaware by the harsh, cold New England Winter. Hunger soon drove them into barbaric cannibalistic acts. So great was the despair, the need to eat something, anything, that it roused an aspect of the Triadic Wyrm known as the Eater of Souls from its hell in the umbra. It then made itself manifest in the Gaian realm from this terrible spiritual taint. The Garou were at a loss of what to do, how to send this thing from the pit in which it came. However the Croatan had an answer. The entire tribe gathered at Roanoke, and there they preformed a rite that was meant to banish the beast back to the umbra. There the entire tribe collectively sacrificed themselves to the Eater of Souls. This sacrifice has not been forgotten by the Wendigo (particularly the Wendigo) and the Uktena, it is a grievous wound that is still held to this day, and one that they hold against the Wyrmbringers.
The StormEater
With the development of the Americans, the Garou traveled with their kin across the wild west, caught in the same fever of "manifest destiny" that they were. In their fever to claim new lands and Cearns in the name of Gaia, they inadvertently unleashed many of the banes that the native tribes had bound to the earth so long ago. This made the local umbra a chaotic, incomprehensible place, filled with many twisted creatures, umbral quakes but worst off, the StormEater. A terrible combination of Wyrm bound with Weaver, this doubly powerful if not slow being plagued the umbral scape. Breathing down corruption on a semi-organized scale. Minor storm spirits would feed off its energies, either growing large enough to make it on their own, or gain the attention of the StormEater bane and be devoured themselves. Not only did this massive beast toss Garou around like rag dolls, but it could destroy moon bridges, twist any who were unlucky enough to be caught in its wake into strange fomor, and cause rifts in the gauntlet called "Broken Lands". These places were where the gauntlet was so low that people could accidentally walk into the umbra, or powerful spirits could send things into the physical plain. The Storm Eater is eventually rebound on December 28th, 1890 with the Rite of Still Skies. This high level and almost never reproduced rite was discovered by the Two-Moons pack, lead by the Silver Fang Theurge Isaiah Morningkill of House Wyrmfoe, requires thirteen elder Garou, one from each tribe, to sacrifice themselves at thirteen different caerns in order to bind the Bane. In the modern era, the Storm Eater's bindings begin to falter again. Garou gather is Las Vegas, Nevada sensing that something is horribly wrong. When Anthelios, the Eye of the Wyrm, opens in the Umbra, it largely negates the Rite of Still Skies, allowing the Storm Eater to spin off powerful jagglings bent on devouring Wyld energies.
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Death of the Bunyip
With the StormEater bound, a new tragic event was going to take place. One that no Garou dare sing, for all are too ashamed to do so. As the Pure Lands were being settled and labor from other countries including Africa, Asia, and Mexico was brought to do the hard jobs of building railroads, digging ditches, or mining, all the tribes were brought back together. The Star Gazers came with their kin, and things came full circle. However there was one tribe missing. Many had wondered what happened to their brothers and sisters of the Bunyip. Most believed that they too like the White Howlers had fallen to the Wyrm, or died at the hands of the other Fera, or launched themselves deep into the umbra. What were these strangers whom they found in the newly discovered island continent of Australia? They looked almost like wolves, but they did not howl, and they seemed to hop. Their ways were strange. And they had pouches. At first the invading Garou believed them to be a strange new kind of Fera. Imagine their shock and surprise when they found out that they were the lost tribe of the Bunyip. The Bunyip had learned to breed with the local peoples and took the thylacine as their form of wolf kin. This made them strange, and feared by the Garou. And the first seeds of the Defiler Wyrm were planted. What happened next was the most calamitous deed in Garou history. All beginning with the death of the sister of WyrmBaiter, Greyflanks. Her body was found charred, mutilated, her head missing and strewn a sunder on a large carving of the Rainbow Serpent. WyrmBaiter called for a Moot of all tribes, including the Bunyip. However the Bunyip never made it. Taking this as a sign of the Bunyip's shame, he called for a hunt of the entire tribe. For entire year, they were slewn. Man, woman, child, it mattered not. However upon the final death of the last Bunyip, a startling and mournful thing was to be discovered. The last Bunyip was a young boy, no older than 16 years of age. He welcomed death, for he knew we was the last of his tribe. When when WyrmBaiter slew him, suddenly he knew his grievous mistake. The spirit he felt being freed knew nothing but the love of Gaia in a way that only most Garou dream of. From the shadows he heard a chuckle. A Black Spiral Dancer named Mara the Scream stepped forward, she reviled that it was her tribe that killed his sister, and they had delayed the Bunyip from attending the moot. To cement this, she tossed the rotting missing head of Greyflanks to him laughing. She then vanished down into the cave, WyrmBaiter in frenzy behind her.
However, the legacy of WyrmBaiter does not end there. So ruthlessly were was this tribe torn from the world that not only do the spirits of the Dreamtime, the Australian Umbra no longer truly trust the Garou, but the Bunyip themselves still exist as Wraithed shadows of themselves. Now they seek out any for revenge and make the local umbra a hostile place for any.
Modern Darkness
The overwhelming societal transformations of the Industrial Revolution weakened Gaia and pushed the Umbra away from terrestrial reality, giving it less influence over the world. This period was marked by the withdrawal and extinction of many spirit varieties, but also heralded the birth of new "urban" spirits, glass and electrical spirits being among these. These changes became more visible in the Umbral landscape, as sites associated with Gaia became fewer and weaker, while the Pattern Web of the Weaver and the corrupting influence of the Wyrm became more and more prominent.
The defense of Gaia has become more difficult, with tasks given to the Garou becoming more and more challenging. Once able to act as silent warriors and guides in ages past, many had been reduced to hit-and-run tactics and monkey wrenching. These ill omens have led to a general consensus that the Apocalypse is nigh, in which a final desperate battle will be waged by all sides. In addition to discrete threats such as the Wyrm and its minions, Garou find themselves opposed to the faceless foe of general disinterest in Gaia. Environmental disasters and modern warfare have done considerable damage to Gaia in recent decades. This callousness is sometimes spread by the Wyrm itself, best exemplified by the corporation known as Pentex. The Garou themselves are a self-acknowledged dying race; the largest Gaian tribes number 750-1,250 world-wide, with the smaller tribes numbering less than 500. The wyrm-serving Black Spiral Dancers comprise fully one-tenth of the total Garou population and are now the single largest tribe. With such desperation, anyone reading this history can easily see the signs mentioned in the The Prophecy of the Phoenix.
The Tribes
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The werewolves of the Garou Nation seporate themselves into 12 distinct tribes under the auspices of the Western Concordiate.
- Black Furies: Amazons hailing from Greece, now modern protectors of women and children.
- Bone Gnawers: Indigent urban dwellers, with their ears on the streets.
- Children of Gaia: Peace-makers and politicos who desire to unite all Garou.
- Fianna: Revelers, tall singers, warrior-poets hailing from Ireland.
- Get of Fenris: Fierce berserkers bent on defeating the Wyrm by any means necessary.
- Glass Walkers: The other half of the urban equation. They seek to use the Weavers tools against her, and minions of the Wyrm, but are seen mostly as technophiles and executives
- Red Talons: Feral and wild, this tribe is almost completely lupus and Hates humans.
- Shadow Lords: Conniving and arrogant, they seek to take up the mantle of leadership of the nation.
- Silent Striders: Wanderers, banished from their homeland Kemet (Egypt), they are cut off from their Ancestors, frequently commune with the dead.
- Silver Fangs: Former Kings of all Garou, proud and mighty, but mad due to inbreeding.
- Uktena: Mystical and mysterious tribe from South Western North America, Pure Ones Tribe.
- Wendigo: Fierce and savage tribe from the cruel north, lead by a cannibal spirit, Pure Ones Tribe.
The Fallen & Lost
- Bunyip: The Garou from Tasmania, these dreamers were destroyed by their brethren through the Wyrm trickery.
- Croatan: The more moderate of the three Pure Ones Tribes, sacrificed themselves to sate the Eater of Souls, one of the heads of the Triadic Wyrm, and keep him from manifesting in the Gaian realm.
- White Howlers: Now the corrupt tribe of the Wyrm, formerly the Garou who inhabited Scotland.
- Star Gazers: Once a part of the Western Concordiate the Star Gazers withdrew from the western world en-mass in the mid-90s to protect their Cearns in the East. The Stargazers have since joined The Beast Courts.
Sub-Tribes
There are several groups of Garou who do not fall neatly into a specific tribe.
- Siberkah: A subtribe between the Wendigo and the Silver Fangs who live in the Eastern Russian Stepps.
- Boli Zhouisze: A group of Garou who inhabit Hong Kong and parts of south east Asia, somehow associated with the Glass Walkers.
- Los Infelizos: More of a blood line than a real tribe, they existed during the Savage West. Products of Shadow Lord Breedings with native Indian women kinfolk of Uktena stock. With strange beliefs, and gifts of prophecy, the last of these died out in 1937.
Rotten Apples
- Abominations: These sad beings are what happens when a Vampire successfully embraces a Garou, or other shapeshifter for that matter. However strong they may become, dead puppies aren't much fun.
- Black Spiral Dancers: The incarnation of the White Howlers, this tribe sees the world bitch (Gaia) as already dead. And they are the maggots feasting on her corpse in order to build something better from the old.
- Skin Dancers: A dark secret of the Children Of Gaia is that they brought this plague upon the Nation. When a Child of Gaia Kinfolk unlocked a secret and terrible rite to become Garou himself, it sent those kinfolk unsatisfied with their lives as breeding stock or a place to crash, out to skin their relatives.
The Litany
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- Garou Shall Not Mate with Garou
- Combat the Wyrm Wherever It Dwells and Whenever It Breeds
- Respect the Territory of Another
- Accept an Honorable Surrender
- The First Share of the Kill for the Greatest of Station
- Submission to Those of Higher Station
- Respect for Those beneath Ye - All Are of Gaia
- Ye Shall Not Eat the Flesh of Humans
- The Veil Shall Not Be Lifted
- Do Not Suffer Thy People to Tend Thy Sickness
- The Leader May Be Challenged at Any Time during Peace
- The Leader May Not Be Challenged during Wartime
- Ye Shall Take No Action That Causes a Caern to Be Violated
Cearns
Known Septs
Canon Cearns: (To be verified)
- North Country, Silver Fang, Upstate New York
- Sept on the Green, Bone Gnawer, Central Park - New York City
- Western Eye, Children of Gaia, Muir Woods - California
- Painted Sands, Wendigo, Mesa de Lobo - Arizona
- Tri-Spiral, Fianna, Brugh Na Boinne - New Grange - Ireland
- Silver Tara, Fianna, Tara - Ireland
- Coherent Light, Glass Walker, Hollywood - California
- The Awakening, Bone Gnawer, Washington D.C.
- Cerdiwyns Touch, Fianna, Kentucky
- New Dance, Wendigo, Pierre - South Dakota
- Lakota Dawn, Wendigo, Black Mountains - South Dakota
Gifts
Gifts by Auspice, Tribe and Breed
