Stargazers
One of the 13 remaining Garou tribes in Werewolf: The Apocalypse, the Stargazers are notable for drawing much more heavily on eastern influences than the other tribes, and for being way calmer and less prone to going full Rage.
Their tribal culture leans pretty heavily into Buddhist thought and practices, with a lot of emphasis being placed on the importance of knowledge, enlightenment, and a sense of inner peace; their central dogma as a tribe is very similar to that of Buddhism's. Despite this, they are still very much Garou and are always willing to go full Rip and Tear against the Wyrm/Weaver and their minions.
They're also mildly infamous among players for two major reasons: the first being a relative lack of focus on them or development of their fluff compared to the bigger tribes, to the point where after the Week of Nightmares (having been reduced to about 500 members total and lost most of their major Caerns) they basically said "Screw this, we're off!" and left to join the Beast Courts (the east's equivalent to the Nation), though a large number of more "traditionalist" (i.e.: "We're Garou and should act like it, not like some namby-pamby Buddhists!") Stargazers decided to stay behind and integrate with the Nation.
The second would be that they're pure Munchkin bait, with many a Storyteller's worst nightmare being the words "Lupus Stargazer Ahroun" - this combination gives the character massive boosts to Willpower, Gnosis, and Rage, but essentially reduces to the character to a one-note combat bunny that's a nightmare to roleplay and will be totally fucked when it's time to use skills outside the "eatface" subset.
They have a surprisingly large number of kukloi, listed below:
- The Heavenly Successors Of The Demon-Eater: Buddhist-Werewolf Vampire Hunters. They specialise in hunting down and destroying leeches of the Wyrm and Kuei-jin
- The Inner Path: A secret society that want the Stargazers to be the Alphas of the Garou Nation because they consider themselves to be spiritually advanced. Like the Shadow Lords, they do a lot of shadowy work and frequently deal with the Nation's malcontents and radicals; unlike the Shadow Lords, they aren't content with playing second fiddle to the Silver Fangs.
- The Klaital Puk: A faction that worships a Garou they see as the reincarnation of the Stargazers' founder, seeking omens and suchlike to locate their successor when the current one dies. They lost much of their influence after the Week of Nightmares, as their boss bit it and hasn't resurfaced since.
- The Sacred Thread: The teachers and priests. Focus on spreading knowledge and ensuring the spiritual health of humankind, so that the Wyrm can't get a foothold on them.
- Trance Runners: The messengers and gofers. They have a weird meditative art they use during physical exercise, which enhances their physical prowess and lets them move from Caern to Caern (along with the vital secrets, fetishes, etc. they carry) super-fast.
- The World Tree: The stereotypical Buddhists. Very focused on reaching enlightenment, which results in them taking a lot of visits into the Umbra and talking with just about anyone (Fera, humans, spirits...) to try and find answers.
- The Zephyr: Martial artists who specialize in their special shapeshifting art, Kailindo. Very prone to wandering around, joining other packs and seeking visions to aid in them reaching enlightenment.
There are also three kukloi they don't really like to mention, as they're considered to be dangerous, bonkers, or some combination of the two.
- Ana-gamin: The more extreme version of The World Tree, in that they want to sever the connections of all Stargazers to the living world and have them roam the Umbra.
- The Metastatic Birth: The doomsday preppers and survivors, who think that the Wyrm's imprisonment is more like a metamorphosis, and that it will inevitably break free to completely remake the world. They advocate preparing for the inevitable apocalypse and letting the Wyrm complete its "transformation", before surviving in whatever world may result.
- Ouroboroans: Stargazers that want to free the Wyrm of Balance from the Weaver's webs. Spend a lot of time hitting concentrations of Weaver power and trying to find ways into Malfeas itself, the latter of which is... debatably sane, to say the least.
