Editing Werewolf: The Apocalypse (section)

==Tribes==
There are Thirteen Tribes of Garou, each with their own sort of culture and views of the world. There used to be more, but one got Wyrm'd, one sacrificed itself to keep ''everyone else'' from getting Wyrm'd, and one got ganked by the others for really petty reasons.

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| [[File:Black Furies.png|50px]] || '''[[Black Furies]]''' <br> A tribe of all-women, who give up most of their male Garou offspring for adoption, but retain male and female Kinfolk and male Metis. Think Amazon-style Matriarchy, add in the proud warrior culture of the Greeks, and dash in some modern feminism for spice. Later writers also threw in some neo-pagan stuff, because they were White Wolf writers and of course they did. Very attuned to the workings of the Wyld over civilization, but the North American camp helped bring about Seneca Falls and get women the vote, and plenty of them hang out in college campuses. Somewhat unfairly seen as a big ol' bunch of butch lesbians, even in their own tribebook. (Quote: "Shit, bitch, we're not ''all'' dykes.") One of the few tribes to have actually seen a little social progress in the last few centuries (I mean, they don't even ritualistically sacrifice their male kids anymore... mostly), but their primary weakness is still a tendency to go off half-cocked at men. The first in a long line of bad, stereotypical ideas to be mostly fixed as the new editions and revisions rolled on: their first draft ''were'' a bunch of violent, bitchy dykes on a sacred quest to castrate anything with testicles for the Moon Goddess. Hilariously, the ''Time of Judgement'' scenario where they fall to the Wyrm can basically involve reverting to this initial characterization. || [[File:Black Furies.png|50px]]
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| [[File:Bone Gnawers.png|50px]] || '''[[Bone Gnawers]]''' <br> The rats of the city. Homeless and destitute, this tribe fights the Wyrm down in the alleys, gutters, and slums. Notable for being excellent spies and assassins within the cities. Covers both extremes of impoverished urban dwellers, from the cool, wise, elderly homeless lady who dispenses sage advice to young runaways to the crazy man living in a box who won't stop stabbing cats while screaming at passerby about the mind-control chemicals Pentex puts into their soda. Survivors to the core, but, contrary to the sneers of half their kinsmen, they have their own traditions of hospitality and egalitarianism that actually make them one of the most socially-progressive tribes: after all, if the Get of Fenris have kicked you out for having internal genitalia, or the Black Furies for having external genitalia, or the Red Talons for not being as shithouse-rat crazy as they are, well, there's always the Bone Gnawers. Rat gives everyone a second chance. Combine with their tribal traditions of pragmatism and down-to-Earth, "work on the problem in front of you and leave the big stuff to big people" mindset, and they're honestly one of the smartest tribes in the setting. || [[File:Bone Gnawers.png|50px]]
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| [[File:Bunyip.png|50px]] || '''Bunyip''' <br> The last of the three Lost Tribes to be wiped out, but alphabetically the first. These were the Garou who hailed from Austrailia, and mostly had were-Tasmanian-tiger forms rather than wolf ones. They were the most peaceful and bro-tier of all Tribes in their heyday, hence their withdrawal from the Nation during the most violent and dickish part of its history. Unfortunately, the were-spiders got the Aboriginies to hunt them until they didn't have a viable breeding pool left, before their cousins in the whiter tribes wiped them out in a mixture of racism and greed for their land, something everyone involved now deeply regrets. And not just because their vengeful spirits hunt down any werewolves and werespiders in the Australian spirit world like slasher-movie monsters. That said, they've gotten a little love later on. The ''Wild West'' spin-off practically made a tradition out of finding bizarre ways to have Bunyip characters end up in the American wilderness to adventure with the other tribes, and while no experiments have yet been successful, the more technologically-minded Tribes are trying to re-create them via cloning. It canonically goes tits-up during the Apocalypse, but who knows what ''your'' Storyteller wants to try? || [[File:Bunyip.png|50px]]
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| [[File:Children of Gaia.png|50px]] || '''[[Children of Gaia]]''' <br> The only Tribe to have been founded on an act of peace, and probably the biggest token good teammate of the Garou. Their goal is to unite the Garou Nation and prevent infighting, something which is both incredibly logical, given the oncoming end of the world and all, and damn near impossible given that practically all the other Tribes are run by squabbling Fifth Graders with attention span of fruit flies and the memory of a goldfish for anything but the thousand-year-old grudges they never forget or forgive. Though they do focus on peaceful resolution, they aren't all granola-munching peace-and-love hippies and weak fighters. Mechanically their stats support them being one of the hardest "non-warrior tribes" to kill in Anhous form, and they often act as bodyguards for great peacemakers like Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela. Since they were one of the only tribes to not need lots of stupid stereotypical shit cleaned up for the first big revision, they, naturally, actually get ''worse'' in their revised tribebook. Avoid it like the plague. || [[File:Children of Gaia.png|50px]]
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| [[File:Croatan.png|50px]] || '''Croatan''' <br> Another of the three Lost Tribes of Garou, the Croatan were very much the middle ground between the Uktena and Wendigo ideologies. They were spiritual followers of the totem "Turtle" and were known to be a stalwart and enduring people with a good measure of wisdom and (like all Tribes) a warrior culture. Unfortunately, the [[Nurgle|titanic disease-fest that was the Columbian Exchange]] actually summoned Eater-of-Souls, part of the Triat Wyrm, into the physical world, and every single one of them, from the mightiest werewolf to the lowest kinfolk, selflessly sacrificed themselves, body and soul, to banish it back into the Umbra. This is the origin of the major rift between the Native American Tribes and the white ones, with their native brothers ignoring the fact that the Croatan (history lesson!) had interbred with white settlers in a bid for integration, and the great sacrifice at Roanoke, Virginia involved Europeans too! There ''might'' be one left, outside of time, but the tribe as a whole is just ''gone'', souls and all. || [[File:Croatan.png|50px]]
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| [[File:Fianna.png|25px]] || '''Fianna''' <br> Very, very old-tyme Irish. A very proud tribe that celebrates their victories the most fervently, and mourns their losses the most keenly. Great storytellers and fighters alike, they also take a 'holier-than-thou' attitude when it comes to the other tribes. They are also the most stereotypical sort of drunken, racist, carousing Irishmen imaginable, to the point that their tribal weakness is having no self-control and being bad at getting Willpower back. Get along very well with the Fae, which is unfortunate given the hilarious tonal inconsistencies that spring to mind when imagining a ''Werewolf/[[Changeling: The Dreaming|Changeling]]'' crossover. || [[File:Fianna.png|25px]]
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| [[File:Get of Fenris.png|50px]] || '''[[Get of Fenris]]''' <br> Essentially Germanic-Viking werewolves. Abhor weakness and glorify martial prowess above all else. Think [[Khorne]]-lite and you're in the right ballpark. The Get used to be [[/pol/|incredibly, openly bigoted against women, minorities, and their metis because they believed them to be weak and useless]], but they mostly sorted that out after the bloody purge of that group of renegade Get that are literally Nazis (their tribal symbol of the Get is rather reminiscent of the swastika, because hindsight is fun), and nowadays mostly stick to the kind of subtle, realistic, unconscious -isms regular people deal with. Much as you'd expect, most of the old bigoted attitudes were in early editions of White Wolf's books. The most notable of this was the narrator of the first tribebook where he condemned the pro-Nazi Sword of Heimdall, yet in the same book calls the Uktena and Wendigo to be savages and essentially calls the Shadow Lords a bunch of backstabbing Jews. Revised Edition works and forward into W20 have not kept much of the attitude of bigotry, and have down-played the camps that are powerful proponents of it such as the Swords of Heimdall. Because White Wolf isn't so dumb as to not eventually realize when they've been racist twits. Incidentally, that swastika on their logo? It did represent the superiority of one race over another, just in terms of wolf over man rather than one kind of man over another. || [[File:Get of Fenris.png|50px]]
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| [[File:Glass Walkers.png|25px]] || '''[[Glass Walkers]]''' <br> Where the Bone Gnawers take the lower parts of cities, the Glass Walkers take the high life. They have an affinity for technology and are the Garou Nation's most prominent force in the business world. All the more-Luddite factions think they're hopelessly corrupted by the Weaver but the ''Time of Judgement'' scenario where the Weaver takes centre stage as the main villain outright denies it: quite apart from their being informed enough to be careful with that sort of thing, it'd be ''too obvious''. The Tribes' number one source of wolf-gunfighters and warriors who travel to the spirit plane of the Internet to punch out [[Evony|computer viruses and malware]]. Easily the most optimistic tribe, since they actually believe that time is making them stronger, and they've mostly purged all the crazy transhumanists and stereotypical gangsters, but their [[Tarkus|powerful humanity]] is also something of a weakness. For example, they treat their Metis well, but they have too many of them because they make very human romantic attachments to one another, and while their closeness to human society has ensured that they're really good with modern technology, they're also crippled ''outside'' cities, and their tribal weakness is an inability to regain Gnosis in the wilderness. Also, later writers really bought into the whole "modern civilization is evil" biz a bit too much, and actively worked to make them less-sympathetic and likable, introducing bizarre retcons like having them treat their kinfolk like shit for no reason. Thankfully, as of W20, this trend seems to be on the decline.|| [[File:Glass Walkers.png|25px]]
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| [[File:Red Talons.png|50px]] || '''[[Red Talons (Werewolf)|Red Talons]]''' <br> A tribe of almost-entirely wolf-born lupus Garou, who aren't particularly fond of mankind and believe it is the cause of basically every Wyrm-related problem. Some of them eat people in flagrant disregard for the Litany, almost all of them want to exterminate us down to pre-Stone Age levels of population, and ''all'' of them are angry jerks about how much civilization sucks, so much so that their tribal weakness, mirroring the Glass Walkers, is an inability to recharge Gnosis inside of cities. So notoriously difficult to work with that they've become a common source of in-Tribe villains for Storytellers and are the Tribe most commonly relegated to NPC status. Wanting to play one without a ''really'' good concept automatically makes you [[That Guy]]. It's telling that their ''[[Werewolf: The Forsaken|Forsaken]]'' counterparts, the Predator Kings, actually ''are'' straight-up villains. || [[File:Red Talons.png|50px]]
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| [[File:Shadow Lords.png|50px]] || '''[[Shadow Lords]]''' <br> Political masterminds, masterful strategists, and general douche-bags extraordinaire. Their European branch is very Russian, and their Asian branch is very Japanese. Manipulative control freaks given to backstabbing the other tribes for their own ends, but surprisingly decent to their Kinfolk and generally okay guys once you get to know them, so long as screwing you over isn't a necessity of their grand long-term designs. While they chafe a little at the Silver Fangs' leadership, they have agreed to loyally serve them so long as they are fit to rule. It's a pity, then, that the last few of the Fangs' High Kings have been crazy, inbred, incompetent assholes, and the Shadow Lords were considering a coup for a while there. But now the ''current'' Silver Fang High King, Jonas Albrecht of House Wyrmfoe, son of Jacob Morningkill, who -was- one of those douchebags, has earned their respect, and only the Lords of the Summit splinter faction is still on about it. || [[File:Shadow Lords.png|50px]]
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| [[File:Silent Striders.png|50px]] || '''Silent Striders''' <br> Travelers and tale-tellers, they were forced from their homelands in Egypt by an ancient and powerful vampire, who cursed them to never be able to truly rest or settle down with friends and loved ones until just before they're about to die. They have since become rootless wanderers, but they've learned every trick in the book when it comes to taking shortcuts through the spirit world and they're the recognized authority on Vamp killing. Very disorganized, but their nature makes them ideal messengers, and all that time in the spirit world makes them masters of communicating with ghosts and the dead. || [[File:Silent Striders.png|50px]]
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| [[File:Silver Fangs.png|50px]] || '''[[Silver Fangs]]''' <br> The natural hereditary leaders of the Garou Nation, and tend to embody both the best and the worst aspects of that "Medieval [[noble]]" mindset at the same time. Unfortunately, many have been driven insane by the centuries of inbreeding to keep line "pure" and/or an ancient curse from a powerful demon, depending on your edition. Very proud and stringent followers of tradition, though as the metaplot progressed a new, non-crazy, energetic young king, the aforementioned Jonas Albrecht, started reforming the fuck out of them and bringing the Fangs around to actually do shit. Not a bad last gasp before the end. || [[File:Silver Fangs.png|50px]]
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| [[File:Stargazers.png|50px]] || '''Stargazers''' <br> Basically Buddhist monks, complete with their own shapeshifting martial art and calm mindset compared to [[rip and tear|their brethren]]. By far the most difficult tribe to roleplay, and so light on actual interesting stuff compared to the others that the new edition literally saw them leaving the Garou Nation to join the Beast Courts. Worse, because they get more starting Willpower than any other tribe, they became pure [[munchkin]] bait, with every party's greatest nightmare being the words "Lupus Stargazer Ahroun," a combination that gets five to three stats (Gnosis, Willpower, and Rage, respectively), but is also going to be a total combat bunny who's absolutely fucked when called upon to use any skills outside of the "eatface" subset. || [[File:Stargazers.png|50px]]
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| [[File:Uktena.png|50px]] || '''Uktena''' <br> Spirits and secrets are their game. One of the two remaining "Pure" Native American-based tribes, though they're (usually) much more reasonable about it than the Wendigo and have been incorporating traditional "indigenous" tribes from all over the world. They practice the ancient art of trapping wyrm-spirits for shits and giggles, something which is even more dangerous than it sounds. Wisdom and knowledge are the virtues they prize above all others, and they happily cooperate with any tribe that has something to teach them. Their biggest weakness is their mad-scientist-like willingness to tamper with shit that is ''really'' better off left alone. || [[File:Uktena.png|50px]]
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| [[File:Wendigo.png|50px]] || '''Wendigo''' <br> Anger, ice, and a warrior culture, the Wendigo of the frozen north are the second surviving "Pure" Tribe, and are far less tolerant of the others than the Uktena. Tough, fierce, and masters of ambush tactics, but also given to cultural posturing and playing misery poker with the whiter Tribes, while studiously pretending no Native Americans ever did anything wrong before Columbus. (Originally, they were ''right'', but see above regarding fixing racist shit.) Not ''quite'' as ratshit bonkers as the Red Talons, but getting there: There's this one ''Time of Judgement'' scenario where they infiltrate an nuclear submarine through the Umbra and try to kill millions of people over a cop shooting Native American protesters - ''before'' the Wyrm corrupts them! || [[File:Wendigo.png|50px]]
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| [[File:White Howlers.png|25px]] || '''White Howlers''' <br> The former proud ancestral Tribe of Scotland, last both alphabetically and because they are the Lost Tribe that isn't quite lost enough for comfort. During the height of the Garou's power and decadence, the White Howlers discovered that a major manifestation of the Wyrm, in all its world ending power, was forming in the middle of their own domain. The Tribe, more or less en masse, charged in to what they knew was a deathtrap meatgrinder, and sacrificed themselves to stop what would have been game-over right then and there. Instead, they found out too late that when you confront corruption with violence, corruption doesn't fight fair. Far too many from that suicidal charge did return alive, but no longer sane. These hunted down the kinfolk and old Garou and other survivors of the battle, and either forcibly converted them or killed them. They became the '''Black Spiral Dancers''', evil parodies of Garou twisted and mutated into servants of the Wyrm, [[Chaos]]-style, and some of the modern Nation's deadliest adversaries. One of the most infamous of them is the lesbian dominatrix Zhyzhik of the Green Dragon, one of the most powerful Garou alive, who has been prophesied to crush the head of the last king of the Silver Fangs under her foot. Responses to one guy wanting to play "the last of the White Howlers" were once met with beast-like shrieks of rage from the development team and in-book rants about its impossibility, but the 20th anniversary edition included an admission that they'd maybe been a little hard on the poor would-be special snowflakes and a little sidebar about how best to do it. || [[File:White Howlers.png|25px]]
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{{oWoD-Tribes}}

===Ronin===
With all this talk about tribes, Septs and packs, [[That Guy|a couple of players]] immediately asked themselves: "Can I play a badass lone wolf who doesn't need anyone in their life?" The answer is kind of, because they're not badass and they do need other Garou.

For a few Garou, the life as a Chosen of Gaia is just not a good fit. They can never be truly at home within a sept or even a pack, seeing what they do as a tainted legacy. Some Ronin don't choose the life, but have it forced on them because they have committed a crime so heinous (either intentionally or by accident) that the only response can be exile, the punishment worse than death. Some just fundamentally disagree with Gaia's party line. (And, to be fair, there is much to be sceptical of from a human perspective.)

In these cases there is only one thing they can do: leave the Garou nation in self-imposed exile. This releases them from the yoke of responsibility, of political intrigue, the requirement to fight the Wyrm, and other such things. But in return, the Ronin will be alone. No humans they can connect to (even Homid Garou are inherently different from humans in some ways), no other Garou that truly understand them, no wolves to accept them. Both humans and wolves are pack animals, especially Garou. But without all this they will be forever apart from all societies. Even the spirits will mistrust them and not lend their powers or knowledge to a lone wolf.

Septs will occasionally employ Ronin as Hyenas. This makes them the bounty hunters and parole officers of the Garou Nation, either capturing an escaped Garou or bringing back their skin. They are greatly mistrusted by even those who employ them, paying them with supplies, tolerate them in the area, or rarely granting them low level Gifts, which is very tempting. They might also lend them fetishes in the hunt for a refugee, but the Ronin is required to return them. Their work is often dangerous, bloody, entirely thankless - and failure is absolutely not tolerated.

Because they are alone, Ronin are vulnerable to outside forces. While Septs tend to be the primary targets of the servants of the Wyrm, a lone wolf is sometimes targeted for corruption or a budding hunter trying their luck against a Ronin before going after a pack. As such, Ronin will sometimes band together in groups called Shames, consisting of several Ronin. These groups act as mutual protection, support, and help seeking redemption. While this is laudable, there are two risks involved: that the Shame falls to the Wyrm and becomes corrupted, or the formation of a Ronin nation, with all the benefits of the Nation without the duty and sacrifice involved. This means that most Septs will have a "shoot on sight" policy regarding Shames.

Whatever the reason, Ronin will forever be mistrusted, but not quite given up. When a Ronin is created the tribe in question tends to keep a close eye on them by way of spirit, tattoo or other ways. This is done in the hope that they will one day attempt to redeem themselves to tribe and totem. Only very infrequently does a Ronin try to redeem themselves, and even less that actually succeed. But in those very rare occurrences that they do so they will create a legend worthy of song.