Werewolf: The Forsaken - Blank It

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Appendix I: The Spirit World
HUMANIT Y
All laws have exceptions. One exceptionally successful
species has no apparent spiritual aspect: Humanity has
no direct reflection in the Shadow Realm. There are no
human-spirits as there are wolf-spirits, mongoose-spirits,
rhino-spirits or adder-spirits, at least while the human
lives. Humanity is barred from the spirit world, its spirits
locked within the physical body of each individual, barred
from the play of the spirit hierarchies. Ape spirits abound,
from chimpanzee-spirits to gorilla-spirits and orangutanspirits,
but not human-spirits. That particular branch of
the mammalian tree has produced no spiritual fruit.
Young Ithaeur learn the truth of this anomaly late
in their period of mentoring. No sentient species has
an analogous spirit choir. Although the spirits of the
deceased might linger on, as human ghosts or werewolf
ancestor-spirits, the intelligent races of the world simply
don’t engender their own spirit reflections. Perhaps this
is part of why the spirits seem to hold humans as well as
Uratha in such contempt.
There are many possible explanations for this, but
none are truly provable. Perhaps the sentient races are
simply too powerful. If humans were to give birth to
spirits of humanity itself, they would quickly conquer the
Shadow Realm, and the Celestines themselves have forbidden
this. Perhaps it’s some sort of curse or punishment
levied upon the loss of Pangaea. Although no old legends
speak of human-spirits, certainly that doesn’t preclude
the lore from being forgotten over the aeons, like so much
else. Or perhaps most frighteningly, the Uratha have no
spirits because they’re half spirit already, but humanity
has no analogue because it’s somehow… impure. What if
the hateful ravings of the Predator Kings are right? The
thought disturbs many a Forsaken werewolf.
Ultimately, though, the world has been alive longer
than humans have been on it, and it will continue on after
them. Others have reigned before humanity, and so too
shall others reign after them. Perhaps then, and only then,
might we see free human-spirits in the Shadow.
SPIRIT S AND THE PHYSICAL WORLD
The physical world is a source of great temptation
to spirits. To weaker spirits, it offers a promise of safety,
a place where fewer of their own kind might prey upon
them. To stronger spirits, it offers the potential for selfgratification,
the ability to pursue one’s goals unopposed
by the weak and blind humans who aren’t even aware of
their existence. To some, it offers the experience of the
pleasures of the flesh, with access to sensations that simply
aren’t the same in the spirit world. To others, it offers a
sense of stability, a means of escaping the degenerating
state of the Shadow Realm.
Small wonder, then, that a spirit given the opportunity
to escape to the physical world will probably take
it. Legend says that in the long-ago days of Pangaea, the
realm of flesh had so much to offer that spirits risked being