Red Talons (Werewolf)
One of the 13 werewolf tribes in Werewolf: The Apocalypse, the Red Talons pull double duty as the Lupus (wolf-born werewolf) dominated faction and as the "genocidal anti-human faction".
Seriously, that kind of sums up everything you need to know about the Red Talons. They hate humans and humanity, and they believe that Gaia can only be saved by annihilating or subjugating humans, who they view as a prey species that has been tricked into thinking itself a species of predator and is thusly an abomination against all that is good and natural. Hell, their entire motivation in one of the endgame scenarios where they become outright antagonists amounts to deciding to genocide humanity rather than admit they were wrong to break the Litany by hunting and eating people.
Unsurprisingly, this makes them the go-to authorial beatstick for White Wolf writers and edgy GMs who want a convenient mouthpiece to heavy-handedly rant at the audience about the Evils of CivilizationTM; the same applies in reverse for the more violently anti-misanthropy side, where the Talons are held up as an example of everything that is wrong with the Garou and their methods. Outside of these extremes, they're a pretty common source of in-tribe villains and the occasional BBEG, since it's not too difficult to see one of them going off the deep end with hatred for humanity and falling to the Wyrm, or threatening to breach the Veil as part of their hunting of humans.
There are not that many Red Talons around, since they only accept Lupus into their ranks and those aren't exactly common. As a result, they only have a small number of camps:
- Predator Kings: The ones who want to wipe out all humans, now. No compromise, no nuance, no survivors.
- Warders of the Land: The "moderates" who will kill any human who enters their territory, but won't go out looking for them.
- Dying Cubs: The extremists among extremists, who "secretly" (scare quotes because it's the fucking Talons, the rest probably know and condone it) practice rituals empowered by torturing and sacrificing humans, which supposedly purify the land of Wyrm taint. Almost certainly doing more harm than good, considering it's implied that these rituals come from the Wyrm itself and always royally piss off the spirits of the land.
- Whelp's Compromise: The rare Red Talons who think that their "kill all humans and reject all civilization" shtick is a bit much. They call themselves the Anti-Extinction Faction, and try to promote human conservation and education about the need to respect the wilderness, especially wolves. Just in case the name didn't give it away, the rest of the Talons hate their guts, viewing them as cowards embracing a juvenile half-measure at the best of times and outright traitors at worst.
The Red Talons are generally considered the That Guy tribe amongst fans of Apocalypse, courtesy of their incredible misanthropy (even by OWoD standards, which is really saying something) and the difficulty of properly roleplaying one. (You're a bestiality-born asshole who refuses to learn concepts such as time or human socialization and think that 90% of humanity ought to be exterminated while refusing to acknowledge your own mistakes. Truly, an easy character to play.) You'll frequently save yourself a lot of trouble by booting a player that wants to run a Talon beforehand (this goes double if they've previously gone around moaning about how awful humanity is) or pre-emptively banning Red Talon PCs from your game (unless they have a really good concept for a character, and preferably one that isn't another Chaotic Good "I'm rebelling against the evils of my race!" Werewolf-Drizzt knockoff).
Even White Wolf, in an uncharacteristic display of good sense, decided they were kind of a dumb move - the Pure Tribe known as the Predator Kings in Werewolf: The Forsaken are essentially the Red Talons in the New World of Darkness, right down to bearing the name of one of the more extreme (and large) Talon camps. The only differences are that they've dropped the "wolf-bred" thing (and even then, there are rumours...) and that they're very much unequivocally portrayed as brutal, cruel villains as opposed to their Designated Hero status in the OWoD.
