Werewolf: The Forsaken - Blank It

possessed a small measure of the blood of the wolf. Sometimes
the wolf blood can run strong in a human family,
with the result that more werewolves are likely to be born
to such a bloodline. A family with true wolf-blooded
members is the sort of resource that werewolves watch a
bit more closely.
It doesn’t take the whole pack to catch a pre-Change
Uratha. Usually just one or two members can do the job.
One might change into monstrous form and wait for the
reaction. This close to the Change, most werewolves aren’t
affected by the Lunacy — the mind-warping supernatural
terror all humans feel when confronted with a werewolf
— but if they’re smart, they’re still terrified. They run to
the best of their ability, dodging and weaving and making
hairpin turns. All the hunting werewolves need to do is
get a bite and a little taste of the blood, then they leave
the frightened “human” alone until his First Change. In
some ways, that chase is the young werewolf’s first unofficial
rite of passage into a larger world.
Spirits whirl around the nascent werewolf, revolving
through her existence, and the others in her life can’t
just ignore what’s going on. She’s just inches away from
the hidden world, and his proximity draws the spirits out.
Some of them manifest. They haunt and howl. The spirits
can sense the imminent arrival of one of their ancient
rivals — and sometimes they choose to act preemptively.
What’s worse, the spirit world gets close to a nascent
werewolf’s friends and loved ones, too. The Hisil is a place
and a thing, and it doesn’t discriminate. It’s not just the
werewolf glimpsing strange bloodstains where her cat’s been
hunting, or twisting through doors that open from the dining
room to the park down the street. These things happen
to her family or her neighbors or even the guy she invited
home from the bar. The spirit world itself is a place where
symbolism and poetry are more important than geography,
so it’s possible that significant people in her life find themselves
closer to the spirit world than they want to be, even
if they’re a thousand miles away. And if that’s the case, they
have no earthly idea what’s going on. If they’re lucky, they’ll
only think they’re going insane. The unlucky ones…
STRAY WOLVES
It might happen that there is no local pack,
or that the local pack can’t find the emerging
werewolf. The Uratha really have no idea how
many other werewolves go through their First
Change around the world in a given month, much
less an entire year. So one of three possible fates
awaits those lost ones.
Some are eventually found, frequently
while they’re on a rampage. Werewolves are
instinctively destructive creatures, and the newly
Changed have no idea how dangerous they are.
Local spirits of wrath or violence might join the
fray, nudging the werewolf toward things that
break or bleed easily. If local Uratha hear rumors
of a new arrival around, they can usually follow
the trail with little trouble — if need be, they can
even risk the Shadow to get a more accurate view
of the supernatural disturbance.
The Pure Tribes bring other lost werewolves
in. Sometimes it’s a race between the Forsaken
and the Pure to get their hands on a newly
Changed Uratha. Some of the Pure can be very
convincing, and some of their targets respond to
their message. There are other cults of werewolves
beyond the Pure Tribes, as well, whose
goals most werewolves can’t fathom.
Finally, some lost werewolves die before
anyone can get to them. They might go on a
killing rampage, forcing local law enforcement
to put them down. Some end up angering
powerful spirits, witches or vampires. Some
simply chase a hallucination off a cliff. Death
isn’t the most common fate, but it happens
often enough to be a depressingly notable
statistic.
TRIBAL INITIATION
It’s a choice that can affect a werewolf for the rest
of his life, and it’s a choice that comes soon after the
Change. Once a werewolf has been calmed down and told
something of who he is, he is given the choice of entering
a tribe. No werewolf must join a tribe, and although other
Uratha might pressure him to join one particular tribe,
they cannot force him. The choice of being initiated into
one of the five Tribes of the Moon is up to the werewolf,
and nobody else. The Oath of the Moon — the vow to
abide by the principles that guide the Forsaken — is offered,
but not forced.
A tribe is like an extended family, providing potential
allies bound by oaths and common cause. It offers a loose
support network to guide a werewolf down a specific path
of power. Further, a tribe offers a specific goal to a lost and
frightened shapeshifter; it offers principles that may help him
master what he is. Even when a werewolf ends up on the
opposite side of a conflict from his tribemates, the tribe’s laws
provide common ground from which to work toward peace.
The five tribes that strive to hunt down the Uratha’s
destined prey in Luna’s name are:
• The Blood Talons — Fierce, brutal warriors who
use their full strength against the threats that leak into
the physical world. They teach a philosophy of glorious
achievement, of honing oneself to be the perfect weapon
against the foes of the People.
• The Bone Shadows — Searchers in the dark places
who seek to understand the spirit world that is denied
them. Theirs is a winding path of wisdom, teaching the
necessity of understanding the many threats that emanate
from the Hisil.
The First Change
27