Werewolf: The Forsaken - Blank It

or elsewhere. The cat-spirits of a city might all bow to the
cunning and cruel Tom Bloodyhooks, who pays homage to
the Pride Mother, a monstrous feline Incarna who hunts
the darker paths of the spirit wilds by night. Some spirits act
as loose allies to the Uratha, for they owe their allegiance
to the Firstborn. Others are independently bound as pack
totems. The great majority of spirits have no love for the
fleshy children of Mother Luna and Father Wolf, though.
The more powerful the spirit is, the more likely it is
that it owes allegiance to multiple lords, that it plans to
supplant its own master or that it vies with its brethren for
a place of superiority. These rivalries and ambitions are
often the greatest weakness that a powerful spirit can possess
apart from a ban — which the Uratha know well.
THE RIDDEN
When a spirit enters the physical world, it remains
immaterial unless it takes other steps. An immaterial spirit
can still use its Numina (the supernatural powers unique
to its nature) to influence its environment, but to truly
exist as a solid thing, it must acquire a body. Some can use
their Numina to materialize. Those that can’t must resort
to other methods, and the most typical is possession.
When a spirit possesses a living creature — sometimes
an animal, but usually human — the result is
something that werewolves call Hithimu, or the Ridden.
Most spirits prefer to ride human hosts, as humans can use
tools, go almost anywhere, indulge in almost any pleasurable
(or painful) activity, and yet are weak enough spiritually
to be susceptible to possession. Werewolves and other
supernatural beings are too dangerous. A spirit usually
wants to hide from werewolves, not attract their attention
by attempting to take one over.
There are two states of being Ridden — being Urged
and being Claimed. The Spirit-Urged (or hithisu) are the
less extreme examples of possession. The spirit settles
into possession subtly, only nudging the host’s desires and
impulses like a backseat driver. Conversely, the Spirit-
Claimed (or duguthim) are victims of outright possession
and control. The spirit directs every movement of its
vessel, and its more direct control can affect its host’s
very flesh. A duguthim who has been overtaken by a spirit
of glass might suffer from exceptionally brittle nails and
teeth, with shards of glass eventually growing to replace
any broken bits.
The urges of spirits have a dangerous effect on human
psyches, often driving the Ridden away from friends, family,
jobs and homes. For those in the majority of humanity
that know neither magic nor anyone with access to magic,
spirit hauntings destroy lives. Strong Hithimu don’t have
to deal with such problems, as they totally dominate their
hosts and do as they please. If the host’s life is destroyed
in the process, it doesn’t matter. The spirit finds a new life
and continues in its activities.
Weak spirits unravel lives slowly. Some strong souls
can keep spirit urgings under control with willpower
alone, but those who can’t, turn to medication or illegal
drugs to keep themselves under control and the spirits
at bay. Some packs have even discovered humans who
deliberately opened themselves to spirit possession, either
as part of a religious ceremony or as a desperate pact for
power. Few of these humans are equal partners in the possession.
THE EXILES
At the close of the 1960s, several spirit entities of
great power and almost incomprehensible form manifested
throughout the world. These spirits struck out at
the strongest loci, overwhelming the local spirit guardians
and squatters. Werewolves who opposed these monstrous
entities did not recognize them at first, but soon the name
from the past returned to them — idigam. Spirits that
arose before Pangaea had fully formed, spirits that Father
Wolf had banished to prisons far beyond where any werewolf
could reach.
No werewolf knows exactly how the idigam were
released, or how they found their way back through the
deeps to Earth. None can even be sure how many had
escaped or where all the survivors went. All that mattered
at the time was opposing them. Each idigam was powerful
enough to challenge several packs at once, though, and
over the next decade, the idigam were the greatest menace
the Uratha faced.
The exile of the idigam predated the rise of the
Gauntlet, and their primary goal upon return was to weaken
the Gauntlet and enable their own travel back and
forth to the spirit world. Beyond that, their motives were
incomprehensible. Many idigam possessed humans and
drove them to acts of bizarre organic creation, twisting
and mutilating living flesh into impossible shapes. Most of
them kidnapped other humans, broke down their bodies
and used ritual magic to reassemble them into forms that
simply did not function properly in the physical world.
The werewolves were able to capture and destroy
many of the idigam, but they could not capture them all.
Idigam still infest parts of the physical world, despite the
fact that no new exiles seem to have appeared on Earth
for more than 30 years. They are potent entities — no two
alike, but each a match for several packs.
THE HOST S
Legend holds that in the time of Pangaea, Father Wolf
hunted down many powerful spirits that violated the physical
without permission. Most of them were caught and either
banished to distant prisons beyond the sky or destroyed
outright. Some, however, discovered a way to escape Father
Wolf in the physical world by scattering their essence into
many hosts. But when the Gauntlet came crashing down,
they became stranded. They forgot much of who and what
they were, but the separate pieces of their essence have
since evolved into something stronger than what they were.
Gradually, these shards draw together, seeking one another
out. These are the shartha — the Hosts.
Threats from the Shadow Realm
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