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Luna
takes note of every Garou's birth and marks their personalities with her touch.
The Auspice is the phase of the moon under which a Garou was born and is held
in astrological reverence by most (but not all) Garou.
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The Garou are the mystic-modern-primitive werewolves of the World of Darkness. Because most of the players (and Storytellers) of Seekers did not have much experience playing Garou, we assembled materials we felt were necessary to get into 'em.
The core book that we used was White Wolf's Laws of the Wild. We found an online version that did not present the correct rules but had all of the appropriate descriptions of the Garou at http://users.luckynet.co.il/~silver/wwta/.
We also put online pages detailing parts of Garou culture and society, included here.
In the beginning, there was the Void.
The Void is pretty boring, so we'll skip over the first few million millenia or so.
Eventually three primordial forces came along to shake things up. The Wyld is the creative urge manifest, endlessly changing and chaotic. The Weaver gives the Wyld's creations structures, ordering and patterning them. The Wyrm, the force of decay and destruction, breaks down Weaver's creations, returning them to chaos and giving the Wyld unending material to create anew. Together, these forces are known as the Triat.
Out of this balance arose the Gaia, and her sister Luna (both known to the Garou as Celestines), and all the spirits and life itself. And it was good.
Like all good things, though, it was not to last.
The Weaver grew increasingly bitter over the transience and impermanence of her creations. She craved stability and order above all else, yet the Wrym and Wyld always foiled her desire. On one hand, there was the Wyrm, always destroying her work. And on the other hand, there was the Wyld, forever changing and eluding her order. She grew more and more frustrated.
The Wyrm, on the other hand, got pretty jealous of all the attention and praise that the Wyld and Weaver were getting. Birth and creation were occasions of joy, while death - though it came for all - was feared. He grew more and more alienated from his siblings, and more and more alone. The Wyrm whispered his jealousy into the Weaver's ear, and together they created humanity.
Well, what happened next wasn't pretty. The Weaver went mad. She sundered the world into the material and spiritual realms, raising the Gauntlet between them. She began spinning her webs of order all over the face of Gaia. The Wyrm thought himself victorious, but it was to be a phyrric victory. The Weaver caught him in her webs, and the more he struggled, the more emeshed he became. As he raised his head to free himself, it was severed into many hydra-like heads. Maddened by the pain, he now desires to destroy the whole world. In this way does he hope to be free.
And Humanity was the tool of both of these maddened entities.
Gaia cried out in pain and fever as Humanity tore across her face. Luna heard her sister's cries and asked her what she could do. Gaia told her the She needed warriors to cut the human sickness from Her flesh. Luna called on the Wolf, unparalled in ferocity or courage, to save Gaia. But then Gaia's fever broke, and She took pity upon the humans for being duped by the Wyrm, and She charged Luna with bringing them wisdom, and then passed into a deep, unbroken sleep. Sometimes she walks in dreams, and sometimes she stirs in agony, but whether she will awaken refreshed or wither away remains to be seen.
Luna called for the bravest and wisest of the wolves and men to help her sister, and created the Garou. She gave them many powerful gifts and set them to be the defenders of Gaia against the ravages of the Wyrm and the mad spinning of the Weaver.
In her inspired madness, Luna imbued the Garou with many gifts, including:
These gifts did not come without a price. Silver is the bane of Garou and they suffer both physically and spiritually from the presence of the metal.
Luna gave the Garou control over the shapes they could assume to understand and transcend both the wolf and human worlds. The five forms are:
Changing between these forms requires practice. The player must win or tie a Simple Test and spend one turn (about four seconds) for each form assumed. You can't skip forms and if you fail the test at any point, that's where you stop and you have to wait a turn to try again. The Ability Primal Urge allows you to retest if you fail.
There are three ways you can assume a form instantaneously. You can spend one Rage to make the change instantaneously no matter how many steps are involved. You can also assume your character's Breed form instantly and at no cost. Finally, if you're in the Umbra you can shift form freely and instantly.
The five forms are more fully detailed in Laws of the Wild pp. 184-186.
In rememberance of the wise humans she had saved, Luna combined their thinking with the natural instinct of the wolves and formed a pool of spiritual power within each Garou called Gnosis. Gnosis represents one's bond with the natural world and fuels many of the Garou's powers, including the ability to step fully into the spirit world known as the Umbra. This is known as "stepping sideways."
Gnosis is usually spent to fuel Gifts and other powers, as well as changing the reality of the Umbra in some way. You can refuel your Gnosis in the following ways:
Warning: you cannot spend Gnosis and Rage in the same challenge or in place of each other. For more information on Gnosis, see Laws of the Wild p. 54.
To enter the Umbra a Garou must:
or
A win means you're in. A loss means you have to move twenty steps from the area or wait five mintues to tie again. A tie means that you're stuck in the Gauntlet and must spend a Gnosis Trait and succeeed on a Simple Test.
More information on Stepping Sideways, the Umbra, and the Gauntlet can be found in Laws of the Wild pp. 187-190.
In rememberance of the ferocious wolves she had called, Luna placed within the heart of every Garou an immense, furious anger known as Rage. It can be both a dark, destructive impulse and a constructive, righteous fury. Rage can be used in the following ways:
Whenever a Garou's current Rage is higher than their current Willpower, a condition known as The Curse activates. Additionally, the Garou gains Negative Traits that can be bid against him in any challenge:
More information on Rage and The Curse can be found in Laws of the Wild pp. 52-53 and 201.
Luna
takes note of every Garou's birth and marks their personalities with her touch.
The Auspice is the phase of the moon under which a Garou was born and is held
in astrological reverence by most (but not all) Garou.
There are five Auspices within Garou society:
A moon phase calculator is available at http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/vphase.html.
Auspices are detailed in Laws of the Wild pp. 68-71.
Unfortunately, Luna's blessings do not come without a price. Silver is the bane of all Garou. All Garou suffer an aggravated wound for every 10 seconds they remain in contact with silver, or if they are wounded by a silver weapon.
Lupus and homid Garou do not take aggravated damage from silver in their breed forms, nor does it cause damage to any Garou in homid form. However, carrying a silver object (including a klaive) reduces a Garou's current Gnosis by one. This loss lasts for a day after the object is discarded.
Laws of the Wild p. 164 contains details on the effects of silver.
The Silver Record is the only complete record of the Garou. It exists as pictograms, each one a reminder of one tale in the history of the Garou. All the great, Glorious, Honorable and Wise achievements of the Garou heroes are recorded in the Silver Record. All the Inglorious, Unwise and Dishonorable failures of those same Garou and others are also in the Record. If something happens that is important to the Garou as a whole, its tale is incorporated into the Silver Record, no matter what.
The Record begins with Phoenix, the first of Gaia, and continues down to the present day. It tells of the forming of the Triat, the First Times, the coming of the Gurahl, the Imbalance, the coming of the Garou, the One Tribe, the War of Rage, the splitting of the tribes, the Impergium, the forming of the Litany, the coming of the Black Spiral Dancers, the loss of the Croatan, the murder of the Bunyip and other events that have impacted the Garou.
No one Garou claims to know the entire Silver Record, but it is believed that if all Garou who know parts of it were to come together, none of it would be missing. All tribes must agree as to what is worthy of mention in the Silver Record; it is one of the bonds that unite all Garou.
Quoted from Laws of the Wild, pp. 207-208.
This is the great song of the ages, containing the traditions, codes and laws of the Garou. All Philodox are required to learn it by heart, and most Moon Dancers learn a significant portion of it. The Litany is a complex and often convoluted thing, but its intricasies serve the purpose of poetry more so than pontification. Practical application of the Litany is much simpler than the hours-long chants would seem to indicate.
The following are some of the basic tenets of the Litany; there are many others, often varying by sept or tribe.
If you produce a metis, it is sterile, cannot reproduce and therefore, is of no help in continuing the Garou line. Choose a mate who can help the Garou survive into future generations.
Garou exist to fight the excesses of the Wyrm. If you allow yourself to be drawn away from that mission, you are aiding the Wyrm and weakening us all. If you blindly attack any Wyrm-creature you encounter, you will end up dead, quick. The idea is not to die for Gaia, but rather to make those poor fools die for the Wyrm.
You do not take what is not yours. You do not claim protection or ownership of land that is already guarded by another Garou. This causes conflicts between Garou, which is bad for Gaia because it weakens us in our battle against the Wyrm.
We are too few in number to go about killing each other every time someone gets offended. Duels to the death aid only the Wyrm. When a fellow Garou surrenders, accept your victory graciously and go back to fighting the Wyrm.
Accept any reasonable request from someone who has been around long enough to have earned more Renown than you. You wan tto be respected for your deeds, so respect others for theirs.
Lead by example. Teach through your actions. You will not always be strong, and those you help as you climb upward will be met again on your way down.
We no longer live in a time when the old and enfeebled must go into the wood to die. Instead, they can remain active members of the tribe, and their wisdom benefits the young. However, do not make yourself a burden to your people by expecting them to take care of you. Do not fight to remain in a position you are no longer best suited to hold.
If you feel you would make a better leader, prove it. Take the position from the current leader - but only when the pack is not endangered by the challenge.
Do not fight amongst yourselves while trying to fight the Wyrm. Do your internal fighting in private, and always show an united face to our enemies.
Circumstances must be most dire vefore you move against a leader while a threat to the group exists. If you are right in this desperate challenge, you will not be punished. If you are wrong, however, the Nation will know of your punishment, and the Galliards will sing of it for lifetimes to come.
Regardless of the original reason for this part of the Litany, it has become a clear health issue. What humans eat and do in their Wyrm-tainted cities has made their meat bitter. Devouring it has made more than one Garou ill - and there is always the threat of creeping Wyrm-taint.
If your choice of actions causes the Garou to lose one of their few remaining places of power and Gaia's strength, you will die.
Breaking the letter of the law of the Litany is not necessarily punishable by death. Major, tragic events must result from a violation of the Litany for Garou to order one of their own slain. In fact, the notion of the ``letter'' of the Litany is somewhat misleading, as the Litany does not exist in written form per se. While there are pictograms that depict each basic idea of the Litany, and oral lore, which takes many days to recite, there is no strict published version of the Litany annotated with footnotes. There can never be one, for each tribe, auspice and breed has given its own ``interpretations'' to the Litany - making the notion of a definitive version highly unlikely. However, the spirit of the Litany is preseved from version to version; among all Garou, the Litany is used to keep the peace and resolve conflicts.
Quoted from Laws of the Wild, 206-207.
Arden: A pupil or a student who learns from a mentor. Also used for the title of a Garou who is Thrid Rank.
Airts: The magical paths within the spirit world.
Aisling: A jouney into the spirit world.
Anchorhead: A spirit gate between the Near and Deep Umbra.
Anruth: A Garou who travels from caern to caern but is bound to none of them.
Apocalypse: The age of destruction, maybe even the end of Gaia Herself -- a time that werewolves prophesy will come when the Wyrm tries to swallow Gaia forever. Most Garou feel this will be the final battle.
Athro: Teacher, mentor; aslo used for the title of a Garou who is of the Fourth Rank.
Auspice: The phase of the moon under which a particular Garou is born; commonly thought to determine personality and tendencies. The auspices are: Ragabash (New Moon; Trickster), Theurge (Crescent Moon; Seer), Philodox (Half Moon; Judge), Galliard (Gibbous Moon; Moon Dancer), Ahroun (Full Moon; Warrior).
Ape: A slang term for humans and homid-born Garou. Often but not always derogatory; "monkey" always is, however.
Bane: Evil spirits that follow the Wyrm. There are many different kinds of Banes, each with an affinity to a specific negative emotion or action.
Bawn: A boundary area around a caern.
Blight: Any corrupted area, in either the spirit world of physical reality.
Breed: The ancestry of the Garou, be it lupus (wolf), homid (human) or metis (two Garou).
Brugh: Any sort of mystic place, whether a Garou caern or a Wyrmhole; often a glade or cave located somewhere in the wilderness.
Caern: A sacred place; a meeting spot where Garou can contact the spirit world.
Celestine: The greatest of spirits; the closest thing to gods in Garou mythology. Examples are Luna (the moon), Helios (the sun) and Gaia (the Earth/Creation).
Charach: A Garou that sleeps with another Garou. Often used as an expletive.
Chiminage: Tradtionally, a sept can make a request of any Garou who uses its caern. Chiminage is the technical term for that request.
Cliath: A young Garou, not yet of any standing rank.
Concolation: A great moot, wherein many tribes gather to discuss matters of concern to the Gaoru Nation.
Concord, The: The agreement all the tribes reached nearly 9,000 years ago, after which the Impergium was ended. The traditions of the Concord are sill obeyed today.
Corruption: The act of destroying, devolving or debasing life; also the almost overwhelming effects of the Wyrm's actions.
Crinos: The half-wolf, half-human form of the Garou. Causes the Delirium in humans and is considered a threat to the Veil if witnessed by outsiders.
Deep Umbra: See Heavens.
Delirium: The madness suffered by humans who see Garou in Crinos form.
Domain: A mini-Realm in the Umbra, usually connected to a larger Realm in the Deep Umbra.
Elder: A leader of Garou society. The most well-known and renowned members of a sept are called elders. Also used for the title of a Garou who is of the Fifth Rank.
Feral: Slang term for lupus.
Flock, The: All of humanity, particularly those humans from whom the Garou recruit their Kinfolk.
Fomori: Humans or animlas who have turned to the Wyrm and draw power from it. These tainted things are blood enemies of the Garou. Also called Mockeries.
Fostern: A Garou's pack brothers and sisters; those who are family by choice. Also used for the title of a Garou who is of the First Rank.
Gaffling: A simple spirit servant of a Jaggling, Incarna or Celestine. Gafflings are rarely sentient.
Gaia: The Earth and Her related Realm, in both a physical and spirital sense. Most often referred to as Mother.
Garou: The term werewolves use for themselves.
Gauntlet: The barrier between the physical world of Earth and the spirit world of the Umbra. It is strongest around places of technology (Weaver areas) but weakest around caerns (Wyld places).
Heavens, the: The aspescts of the Umbra that lie outside the Membrane. Reality becomes more and more fragmentary the farther one travels from the physical Earth. The Deep Umbra is comparable to deep space in reality.
Hispo: The near-wolf form of the Garou; does not cause Delirium and does not threaten the Veil.
Homid: A Garou of human ancestry. Occasionally used disdainfully by ferals (e.g., "That boy fights like a homid.")
Gallain: The Kinfolk of the Garou. Those humans and wolves related to Garou by blood, but not manifesting the recessive gene that creates full Garou. "Breeding true" occurs only 10 percent of the tim with humans and 12 percent of the time with wolves. Gallain are not prone to the Delirium.
Glabro: The near-man form of the Garou. It does not cause Delirium, nor does it threaten the Veil.
Harano: Inexplicable gloom; inexpressible longing for unnnamable things; weeping for that which is not yet lost. Some say it is a depression caused by contemplation of Gaia's suffering.
Impergium: The 3,000 years immediately following the birth of agriculture, during which strict population quotas were maintained on all human villages by Garou "shepherds."
Incarna: A class of spirits; weaker than Celestines, but still greater spirits by any measure.
Jaggling: A priit servant of an Incarna or Celestine.
Kenning: The empathic calling some Garou when howling.
Kinain: THe relationship among Garou who are related by blood through an ancestor. This term of endearment and pride is never used when referring to metis.
Leech: see Tick.
Litany: The code of laws kept by the Garou.
Lone Wolf: A Garou who has chosen or been forced to leave Garou society. Also called Renegades and less sociable names.
Lupus: A Garou of wolf origin.
Membrane, The: The barrier between the Near and Deep Umbras. To breach it, the Dream Zone must be traveled, or an Anchorhead must be found.
Metis: The sterile and often deformed offspring of two Garou, generally reviled by Garou society.
Mockeries: See Fomori.
Moon Bridge: The gate between two caerns. Moon Bridges most often appear during moots.
Moon-Calf: Idiot, simpleton.
Moot: A spet or tribal convlave that takes place at a caern.
Mule: A slang term for metis.
Near Umbra: The spirit world surrounding the Gaia Realm.
Pack: A small group of Garou bound to each other by ties of friendship and mission as opposed to culture.
Penumbra, The: "Earth's shadow"; the spirit world directly surrounding the physical world; many, but not all terrain features in the Penumbra mimic those of the real world.
Praenomen: The guardian spirit of a pack.
Protectorate: The territory claimed and patrolled by a pack or sept.
Reaching: Travelling into the spirit world.
Realms: The worlds of "solid" reality within the Tellurian. Earch is referred to as the Gaia Realm.
Run: A ritual hunt or revel that takes place at the conclusion of a moot.
Sept: A group of Garou who live near and tend an individual caern.
Sheep: A slang term for humans.
Stepping Sideways: Entering the spirit world. Most elders consider the term flippant and disrespectful.
Tellurian: The whole of reality.
Throat: To best someone in ritual combat. Used as a verb (e.g., "I throated his worthless carcass!").
Tick: One of many derogatory terms for vampires. Other common terms are Leech, Carcass, Cadaver, Corpse and Deadskin.
Totem: A spirit joined to a pack or tribe and representative of its inner nature. A tribal totem is an Incarna, while a pack totem is an Incarna avatar (a Jaggling equivalent).
Triat, The: The Weaver, the Wyld, and the Wyrm. The trinity of primal cosmic forces.
Tribe: The larger community of Garou. Tribe members are often bound by similar totems and lifestyles.
Urrah: Garou who live in the city; also, the tainted ones.
Umbra: The spirit world.
Veil, The: The term used to describe the present situation, where the Garou attempt to keep the reality of their existence hidden. Also see Delirium.
Ways, The: The traditions of the Garou.
Weaver, The: The manifestation and symbol of order and pattern. Highways, science, logic and mathematics are examples of the Weaver's influence on the material plane.
Wyld, The: The manifestation and symbol of pur change. The chaos of transmutation and elemental forces.
Wyrm, The: The manifestation and symbol of evil, entropy and decay. Vampires are considered manifestations of the Wyrm, as is pollution.
Wyrmhole: A place that has spiritually defiled by the Wyrm; invariably a location of great corruption.
Quoted from Laws of the Wyld West, pp. 47-51.
©2000 Brett Peters. Last revised August 26, 2001 20:14 EST.