Editing White Howlers (section)

== So how do I play them in the modern day? ==
Simple: Do Not.

The White Howlers, from a story-telling standpoint, are an exemplar of the words "How the mighty have fallen." They're the [[Chaos Space Marines]] to the Garou's [[Imperium of Man]]; a warped, evil reflection of the "Good Guys". They were paragons in the fight against the Wyrm back in their heyday, and they had some of the greatest Gifts in the setting - and that is what makes their fall so supremely impactful. They have turned into the worst of the worst - canonically, there's a BSD in Erebus (not!Purgatory) that has been there for centuries if not millennia and ''still'' hasn't been cleansed of enough Wyrm taint to emerge.

Even if you do somehow manage to crowbar in a way of bringing back the White Howlers, they aren't going to be the same tribe as before. Their Totem, Lion, has essentially disowned them, and their history, culture, and so on is all lost at worst and hazily-remembered myth at best. Essentially, you'd be creating a new tribe with the aesthetics, name, and maybe the descendants of the White Howlers, even if they were somehow adopted by Lion once more. It's usually better to let the Howlers rest in peace.

That said, if you really super-duper want to play or have a Howler in your game, read on.

While the dev team's response to that one guy asking about playing "the last of the White Howlers" was originally beast-like shrieks of [[rage]] and in-book rants on how it was impossible, the 20th Anniversary edition loosened up on the poor widdle snowflakes and gave them a method of doing so in one of the sidebars. Considering that this provides the 'canonical' method of doing so, getting that book is probably your best bet. Do be aware that, depending on your group, this may or may not backfire.

If you don't want to get into that, a few unofficial warnings and pointers: 
* The Black Spiral Dancers are going to have a deathmark on your head as soon as they find out about you (assuming they don't know already), and they are ''very'' interested in any remnants of their past. Canonically, not one Dancer Ronin that even tangentially resembles a White Howler has survived for more than a year before being killed or corrupted. Be prepared to put up with a lot of shit from them right off the bat.
* You're a Ronin in all but name. Your original tribe is dead and most other Garou tribes will almost certainly not believe your claims of Howler ancestry, so you're going to be running into all the problems a Ronin has almost immediately (like massive Lunacy, most Garou hating your guts for being a Ronin, and the Wyrm absolutely ''loving'' to corrupt your kind). You don't want to be a Ronin? Fuck you. Either suck it up, or make your little snowflake part of a surviving clan with no knowledge of their legacy or lineage.
** If people do believe your claims, you'll have an awful lot of eyes on you thanks to the Howlers' legacy (hello there, BSDs!), making whatever messes you make ten times as severe and turning you into an all-around political football with a gigantic bullseye on your face and ass. Screw up even a little, and there's going to be a lot of Garou chomping at the bit to kill you as an abomination that could fall at any moment; screw up badly or in a way that involves the BSDs, and the Wyrm's legions will be the least of your worries.
* Don't even think of trying to bring them back as a full-fledged tribe. Just don't. You'd need hundreds of years, at least several hundred members (not counting Kinfolk), and a Totem to even come close. And that's without having to overcome the issues of their heritage and the Black Spiral Dancers. Or the difficulties of breeding new Garou at a sustainable rate in the first place. It's not going to fucking happen.
* Genetics do not a tribe make. Taking the [[Children of Gaia]] approach and trying to clone yourself a new Howler is not going to create a White Howler, it's just going to create a character with strange stats and maybe one or two superficial connections to them, like their fur being of the same colour - and even that might be enough to call the Black Spiral Dancers to hunt you down.
* Most or all of the Howlers' Kinfolk (and maybe some surviving Garou who didn't participate in the assault for whatever reason) will have gone underground after the tribe fell; they will ''not'' have gone around advertising their lineage due to the threat of their corrupted ex-comrades hunting them down. Odds are they integrated with neighbouring tribes and their children took those tribes' rites of passage, so you're unlikely in the extreme to encounter a hidden village of Howlers and their Kinfolk.
* It's possible (whether or not it's plausible is up to you) that a few members escaped into the deeper parts of the Umbra, or did some weird time-fuckery that allowed some of them to escape to a place outside time - there are rumours of a [[Croatan]] travelling with the Midnight Circus despite the extinction of the tribe, which could provide a basic justification for the last White Howler showing up as a side character or NPC.
* Failing all else and if you absolutely *must* have the Howlers in your game: make an AU where the Howlers never fell. Congratulations, and [[Meme|enjoy your]] [[AIDS]], you uncreative wanker!
** If you want to keep the BSDs, you can crib from the "A Tribe Falls" scenarios while adjusting the timeline to fit. The [[Red Talons (Werewolf)|Red Talons]] are probably the best choice for taking the Howlers' place, considering the way that at least one of their factions is plausibly Wyrm-tainted; having them go off the deep end with hatred for humanity and fall to the Wyrm isn't too far-fetched for a divergence point. This also prevents your local [[That Guy]] trying to play one, which is always a benefit.
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