Werewolf: The Forsaken - Blank It

By way of contrast, the plains of eastern Colorado are
largely considered boring and useless by the people who live
there. Many werewolves feel the same way, but the Storm
Lords have a very different take on the issue. While the
plains might make worthless wolf territory, they make excellent
storm territory. At their best, the storms that develop in
this region produce awe-inspiring thunderclaps and viciously
destructive tornadoes. The Storm Lords perform some of
their most potent rites here among such furious majesty.
The 125-mile-long and 65-mile-wide San Luis Valley
lies between the San Juan and Sangre de Cristo mountain
ranges. It’s the birthplace of the mighty Rio Grande and
an area rich in history and natural beauty. Oddly, though,
the San Luis Valley’s spiritscape seems to be almost entirely
dormant. It’s not spiritually dead — it thrives as much
as any other healthy natural area would — but no tolerant
spirits answer the calls of the Forsaken, and no hostile
spirits give the Uratha any trouble. Whether something
drew the spirits of the valley far away from the world they
inhabited or someone made a pact with the local spirits
that led to this unnatural calm, the Forsaken don’t know.
What’s more, they haven’t had time lately to look into it
with all the recent turmoil.
In nearby Wyoming stands a peculiar rock formation
called the Devil’s Tower. The pinnacle of stone carries with
it a rich cultural history, and the strong spiritual resonance
of the place has bled through the Gauntlet many times.
Over 5, 000 feet tall, the jutting monolith comprises tall,
hexagonal rock columns, with long vertical cracks that
look like claw marks made by a great bear. The base of the
monolith is a huge cave mouth. The atmosphere inside the
caves once seemed to pulse rhythmically, as though the
rock itself were breathing, but any exploration into the
many tunnels simply led back to the main chamber, as
though the spiritual energies were preventing trespass into
the depths of the darkness. An ancient and powerful bearspirit
known locally as Great Bear has long slumbered in
the deepest recesses of the cave. He was supposedly driven
into this deep sleep around the turn of the 19th century,
giving no indication when or if it would return.
Medicine Mountain, one of the oldest geological
formations in the world, also stands in Wyoming. It has
been a sacred place in the ceremonies of the Cheyenne and
Crow peoples for centuries. Recently, the two-century-old
“medicine wheel” of carefully placed stones at its peak has
become a thriving tourist attraction. Some speculate that
the wheel is a form of astronomical chart or the blueprint
for building a tipi or sun lodge. The Forsaken, however,
describe the wheel as having once been an unbelievably
powerful locus where the Gauntlet never materialized. They
say that even humans could step through to the Shadow at
one time. The spiritual nature of the place slowly changed,
however, as outsider civilization crept westward and the
Azlu came with it. The emergence of the medicine wheel
as a tourist attraction has strengthened the Gauntlet even
more, and the place’s spiritual power has started to wane.
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URBAN TERRITORY
Denver is the center of industry and urban culture
in the Colorado Rockies, and cities such as Boulder,
Castle Rock, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins and Greely
serve as satellites or alternatives to urban sprawl. Not all
werewolves care for the urban territories, but many live
there or are moving there in response to the turmoil that’s
so recently ended. Leading this reclamation are the Iron
Masters and some packs of Storm Lords, who find the
hectic pace of humanity invigorating and the spirits of
glass and steel intriguing. Denver, for instance, has both
in spades, making it an ideal home for urban-minded
werewolves. It also provides easy access to the foothills
and the Front Range itself. What’s more, even these
urban areas are home to some less civilized places such as
some noteworthy parks and wilderness areas. As they’ve
been made what they are by the structured “progress”
and development of human endeavor, though, they still
fall under the general moniker of “urban” areas, and the
spirits within don’t act the same as their “wild” counterparts
would.
Denver’s city park, for instance, isn’t exactly open
wilderness, but it covers hundreds of acres and includes
bike trails, plenty of wooded areas, two lakes and numerous
gardens. It also includes the City Zoo — which is
home to a fairly new exhibit of white wolves — and the
Natural History Museum. The park is an ideal tur due to
the fact that it’s open enough to put a werewolf at relative
ease, yet populated enough that no one’s likely to try
anything that would risk exposure.
Similarly attractive, though more available than the
city park, are the Denver Botanic Gardens. Encompassing
two dozen acres just outside Cheesman Park, the Gardens
are home to 32, 000 plants from around the world, and the
spiritual energy concentrated in this place is nothing short of
staggering. Even during Gurdilag’s occupation, the spiritscape
here was barely scarred by its presence — for reasons
that only Max Roman and Rachel Snow know for sure. Now
that the idigam’s brood has been scattered, the Gardens are a
potent focal point for newly opened prize territory.
As Gurdilag’s occupation came to an end, though,
the victorious Forsaken who returned first to the area have
discovered that the territories of the Denver Mountain
Park system might just be the most desirable territories in
all of Colorado. Rival packs have been challenging each
other for it repeatedly, however, and the spiritscape of
the territories has not recovered as quickly as some others
because of the quick and violent changes in stewardship.
Nonetheless, the territory is still a wonder. It consists of
close to 14, 000 acres, all managed as a contiguous regional
open-space system by the city and most of it outside
city limits. Most of it is heavily wooded, as well, which
makes it a hunter’s paradise. If a pack can claim, tend and
protect a large enough territory within this park system,
the rewards stand to be immeasurable.
Points of Interest