Werewolf: The Forsaken

Werewolf: The Forsaken
RPG published by White Wolf / Onyx Path
Rule System	Storytelling System
Authors	Justin Achilli et al
First Publication	2005

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The New World of Darkness analogue to Werewolf: The Apocalypse. Dumps the bloody-minded eco-hippies metaplot for a much vaguer "border patrol on the shores of Animistic Hell" setting.

Backstory

In the ancient past, the worlds of Flesh and Spirit were one, creating a world/time called Pangaea. In this time, the mighty wolf-spirit Father Wolf kept the peace between humans and spirits, destroying either of those that got out of line. The moon-spirit, Mother Luna, became enamored with Father Wolf's strength and took a human form to lay with him, giving birth to the first werewolves, who helped their father in his quest. These beings were special in that they were neither spirit nor human, but somewhere in between.

But as Father Wolf battled terrible demon-gods, his strength began to wane, and the world began to sicken, for he could no longer do his duty. Following their lupine instincts, most of these first werewolves rose up to challenge their father to step down as leader of the pack. Though he was unable to stand down by his nature, his spirit ban forbade him from attempting to fight in self-defense against his children. Thus, the first generation of werewolves were forced to slay Father Wolf. His death howl tore Pangaea apart, raising the Gauntlet that formed a barrier between the worlds of Flesh and Spirit. The grieving Mother Luna cursed her patricidal children with weakness to her sacred metal, silver, and charged them to take up their father's mantle as defenders of humanity against the spirits. This oath has been upheld by the Forsaken ever since.

Werewolves and You

In contrast to their predecessor in the Old World of Darkness, all werewolves are the result of werewolf on human sex; werewolves mating together is a Harmony-shattering event that can spawn evil, werewolf-hating demons called Unihar, and werewolves don't mate with wolves (but, if they must, all that happens is a litter of normal wolf pups - you sicko!); while one of the books does refer to one wolfborn werewolf of the Pure, he is specifically referred to as being the only known exception to the rule.

As beings possessed of dual natures -wolf and man, as well as spirit and mortal- their morality replacement is Harmony, which represents how well they can strike a balance between the two aspects of their existence.

Most human/werewolf matings produce wolfblooded, which are basically the game's equivalent to kinsfolk; they're more resistant to Lunacy and that's about it.

Werewolves have five forms; human, wolf, near-human, near-wolf and "war-form" (Garou, a humanoid wolf mixed with a walking murder-machine that is prone to going into Death Rage and trying to kill everyone around it). There's also a high-level power called Primal Form, which adds a "dire wolf" form that is... well, picture a wolf big enough to eat a human in one bite, and you got the idea.

Werewolves are protected by Lunacy, which drives humans who see a werewolf in any of its intermediate (i.e. not fully human or fully wolf) mad with fear and blurs their memories if they survive the encounter.

Auspices

The Forsaken each have an Auspice, a blessing of Luna dependent on which phase of the moon they underwent the First Change in. This acts as their "racial" splat, and determines one of their initial Renown points, their choice of Auspice skills, their starting Gifts, and their innate racial ability. The Pure reject all of Luna's blessings, and so they don't gain benefits from Auspices.

• Irraka
  • Lunar phase: New Moon
  • Gifts: New Moon, Stealth, Evasion
  • Skills: Larceny, Stealth, Subterfuge
  • Renown: Cunning

Unlike their oWoD counterparts, the Irraka have a well-defined role. Specifically, they serve as trackers, scouts, and silent hunters whose prey never knows that they're being hunted until it's too late for them. Other Uratha can be a bit unnerved by them due to their habit of observing others (including their packmates) to determine how to best ambush them, and they have a bit of an undeserved reputation as lone wolves since they're best at what they do when on their own.

An innate connection to the new moon's uncertainty allows Irraka to get much closer to their quarry than they might seem to be, both literally and metaphorically. In practice, this translates to an initiative boost, a few less Doors in Social Maneuvering, or a surprise attack against an unwary opponent.

• Ithaeur
  • Lunar phase: Crescent Moon
  • Gifts: Crescent Moon, Elemental, Shaping
  • Skills: Animal Ken, Medicine, Occult
  • Renown: Wisdom

The Uratha are half-spirit, and this is especially clear in the case of the Ithaeur. Whether it takes the form of negotiations, fetish-crafting, or flat-out combat, the Ithaeur are the auspice that specializes in interacting with the denizens of the Shadow. But they do tend to be a little bit crazy. Being around spirits as long as they do has some rather unusual effects on their behavior, and some of them are far more comfortable with spirits than they are with humans or even other werewolves. Still, they're highly effective in their role as shamans and spirit masters.

The Ithaeur's howl resonates through the Shadow, causing lesser spirits to fall dormant or retreat before the werewolf's passing. Even stronger spirits feel compelled to allow the Ithaeur to pass by peacefully, which can be a valuable asset when pursued by some of the nastier murder-spirits or pain-spirits.

• Elodoth
  • Lunar phase: Half Moon
  • Gifts: Half Moon, Insight, Warding
  • Skills: Empathy, Investigation, Politics
  • Renown: Honor

Conselors, mediators, and negotiators, the Elodoth try to see both sides of every story and are trusted as expert judges on account of their reputation for fairness. Against their prey on the other hand the Elodoth will use every one of his contacts to make the prey's life a living hell long before the werewolf himself shows up. Some might consider this sociopathic, and there are a few Elodoth who find that they're better as manipulators than they are as arbitrators.

The connection to the fine line between light and dark Elodoth possess allows them to relieve other werewolves of Death Rage. It also allows them to induce Death Rage as well, and while this may sound like an extremely bad idea it can be surprisingly useful in the right circumstances.

• Cahalith
  • Lunar Phase: Gibbous Moon
  • Gifts: Gibbous Moon, Inspiration, Knowledge
  • Skills: Crafts, Expression, Persuasion
  • Renown: Glory

Part loremaster, part prophet, and part warleader, the Cahaliths are visionaries who both rally their kin in battle and keep track of their legends and exploits. But the Cahalith's own story has to be a memorable one as well, and as such they give up subtlety in exchange for just scaring their prey shitless before going in for the kill. Or not necessarily killing them, at that matter- after all, what good is a story if nobody is able to tell it?

Cahaliths are prone to receiving prophetic dreams in their sleep- a part of their blessing from Luna, some say. While these dreams are often cryptic and difficult to figure out, the events they portray always seem to come true for better or for worse.

• Rahu
  • Lunar Phase: Full Moon
  • Gifts: Full Moon, Dominance, Strength
  • Skills: Brawl, Intimidation, Survival
  • Renown: Purity

Though they're warriors first and foremost, the Rahu shouldn't be written off as dumb brutes. The werewolves that change under the full moon are often expert tacticians and leaders as well, and their inclination towards Purity means they also can act as the moral center of the pack- at least as far as the Oath of the Moon is concerned. However, they do tend to be stubborn and at times they need to learn that they don't always have to be in charge.

The Rahu's sheer stubbornness lets them fight on through even the most grievous of injuries as if they weren't even there. In crunch terms, they can ignore the effects of negative Conditions or Tilts affecting them for up to two turns in combat. It's not long, but it can be just enough to make the difference.

The Many Enemies of the Uratha

These are the most common threats a werewolf will most likely face off against in its (nasty, brutish and short) life.

Spirits are everywhere. They define and promote aspects of existence and do so to monomaniacal fixation; they are NOT good guys, and even spirits of things like Joy or Love are dangerous if they're left to their own devices due to their complete disregard of anything not directly relating to their nature. The nature of the Forsaken's oath to Mother Luna compels them to guard humanity from their influence, and many spirits hate them for it.

Hosts are the shattered shards of the demon-gods that Father Wolf slew, which mostly exist as roving swarms of creepy-crawlies. Until they get strong enough that they can gnaw their way into peoples' living bodies and absorb their flesh to become grotesque half-human half-beasts. The two main ones are the Azlu (brain-eating spiders with razor sharp forelegs that can be as large as a fucking car and strengthen the Gauntlet with their webs) and the Beshilu (plague-spreading rats that gnaw through the Gauntlet, letting spirits pass through to the mortal world). The other ones are the Srizaku (flesh-eating locust swarms spawned by an Idigam that devour every plant, animal and person in sight), the Halaku (crows that eat peoples' eyes to turn them into their slaves for fuck-knows-why), the Razilu (snakes who your Storyteller gets to decide what the fuck they want), the Adarusharu (fear-eating wolves who can merge into giant multi-headed wolf-monsters), the Usudwirku (fungus-spirits that infect the victims of werewolves so they can drive wolves batty whilst the fungi-spirits take over their loci), and the Uglathlu (worm spirits who steal the bodies of utter scum so that they can create Wounds - basically, little pockets of Hell).

Finally, one of the most depressingly common enemies for werewolves are other werewolves. Squabbles over territory, pride, all that good shit is normal. But, there's two groups of werewolves who are pretty much always enemies to the Tribes of the Moon.

The Pure are the werewolves who claim they're innocent of murdering Father Wolf, and so they hate Mother Luna for demanding they atone for a crime they never committed and hate the Forsaken even more for killing Father Wolf- and taking Pangaea away from them by doing so. They reject Mother Luna, which among other things means silver hurts them worse, and they want to tear down the Gauntlet between worlds so the spirits can take over, hoping that this will restore Pangaea and allow them to become rulers. Thing is, there's a lot more of these bastards than there are of the Forsaken (that is, the good guys), and the spirits like them more since they aren't interested in bossing them around like the Forsaken do.

The Bale Hounds, meanwhile, have taken one look at the shithole they live in and come to the conclusion that evil is winning, and they want to be on the winning team. So, they've allied themselves with the Maeljin - the Spirit Kings of Lust, Pride, Wrath, Envy, Avarice, Gluttony, Sloth, Deceit and Destruction - and work to make the world even more of an utter shithole, creating pits of hell that the werewolves call "Wounds". Even the Pure think these guys are fucking dangerous, so much so they have been known to team up with the Forsaken to kill the bastards. Mostly because if they had their way, there wouldn't be a Pangaea left for the Pure to rule.

But perhaps the most dangerous are the Idigam, the spirits who embody concepts that existed and faded away long before the world was fully formed. To survive, they became the incarnations of chaos and gained the ability to mimic the characteristics of anything mortal or spiritual. Between that and their unmatched ability to manipulate Essence, even Father Wolf was unable to slay them. Instead, they were sealed away on the moon where there was nothing for them to copy; Luna saw to that when she bound them in a prison as formless as they were. However, a relatively recent internecine war among the werewolves gave them an opportunity to escape back to Earth during the first manned moon landings. And they're VERY interested in making up for lost time now that they're back on Earth- as are the alien spirits that they've encountered and allied with during their banishment and the armies of minions they can create by corrupting other spirits with their Essence.

Other Shifters

A lot less focused on in this setting, but still present. There were two excellent books - Skinthieves, for "humans who change shape through magic" and "spirit-melded shifters" types and War Against The Pure for more "mythical shapechanger" types.

There's also the absolute atrocity known as Changing Breeds, which is basically every single fucking awful thing about Werewolf: The Apocalypse wrapped up in one shittastic package. Don't believe us? Take a look at these poor saps, who dared to try and dissect its awfulness chapter by chapter:

• http://destroythis.blogspot.com.au/search?updated-max=2014-07-31T18:46:00-07:00&max-results=7&start=7&by-date=false&m=1
• http://projects.inklesspen.com/fatal-and-friends/kurieg/changing-breeds/

Needless to say, nobody talks about Changing Breeds.

2nd Edition

Like Vampire: The Requiem before them, the wolves got themselves a 2nd edition, and they got a hell of a lot more badass in it. Some of the highlights:

• Werewolves now only take Aggravated damage from damage roll-over, silver, and supernatural attacks. This means werewolves are a lot tougher to fight.

• Gauru form got massively beefed up. Among other things? Instant regeneration of all non-Agg damage. Combined with how tough werewolves can be, and it's almost impossible to kill a werewolf while it's in war form. But it also causes instant Death Rage any time it's used outside of combat so don't try and use it to cheese your way out of danger.

• Wolf-bloods went from just getting +2 Willpower to resist Lunacy to full-fledged immunity and at least one (and potentially more) of several possible supernatural powers, from shapeshifting to werewolf-like regeneration. Of course, it's now possible for werewolves to make Wolf-bloods with bad Lunacy rolls, so it's not all good news.

• Harmony acts a little differently, with 5 being the ideal score and breaking points either increasing or decreasing it based on which part of a werewolf's nature it places undue importance on. A Harmony of 4 or less is imbalanced toward the aspect of Spirit, and a Harmony of 6 or higher is skewed towards the aspect of Flesh; as all starting werewolves start at Harmony 7, they begin play imbalanced towards Flesh but not excessively so. Having a high Harmony locks a werewolf out of the Shadow and prevents them from shapeshifting without the use of Essence, while having a low Harmony effectively traps a werewolf in the shadow and causes him to reflexively transform when stressed. (In both cases, the triggers for Death Rage also become less specific as well.) Consequently, maintaining an ideal Harmony level requires a degree of finesse and a willingness to deliberately hit breaking points of one extreme as a way of countering the other. That being said, having it somewhat extreme isn't all bad. With a Harmony less than 3 or greater than 8, a werewolf doesn't need a locus to enter or exit the Shadow (respectively).

• Death Rage now has two stages- "soft rage" and "hard rage". "Soft rage" allows a werewolf to try and reassert control over himself, but "hard rage" is basically the classic Death Rage. The catch is that "hard rage" is contagious, so if one werewolf in a pack enters "hard rage" the others will either enter it shortly afterwards or run the risk of being slaughtered by their packmate.