End Times - Garou

The Apocalypse

In the years since the Red Star appeared in the sky, the Garou Nation has faced an ever more desperate battle to protect its sacred spaces and fight the slow corruption infection the world. Every year brings new stories of Caerns fallen, abandoned, corrupted, kinfolk crucified in the pre-dawn, laid open beneath a pale-edged, smoldering sky.

The tinder is dry as hell and ready to burn, just waiting for a spark to be thrown. And then: conflagration.

--

And yet: a new generation of Garou have been raised and trained to battle in the decade since the Red Star made its singular appearance. Caerns have been lost, yet. Too many. Others have been saved, by the desperate grace of their defenders. The war in the Amazon has come to a sort of panting stalemate. New battle lines begin to appear, in the Arctic. In the east. Most of the tribes believe that the cataclysm is imminent, but the definition of imminent has changed from: tomorrow, to a year, or three, or five, a constantly moving target.

There are some few theurges, and a growing minority of Children of Gaia who are beginning to question whether or not the Apocalypse is well and truly imminent. Whether the great confrontation will come. Whether it is merely a long denouement. Whether, perhaps, it is as elusive as the Christian believers' long-predicted rapture.

What this Means OOC:

The red star came and went. Most young cliath or fostern Garou had their rites of passage after the red star, and likely did not see it, perhaps have not even heard of it. Has your Garou heard about the perfect metis? Probably not! Still, most tribes believe that the Apocalypse is going to happen any day now, or at least this generation, or the next. Caerns make due with smaller forces of Garou and Guardians. Too many have been lost, others have withdrawn to a protective shell. Maybe your Garou is a refugee from a fallen (or near-fallen) Caern. Maybe he/she has heard about the recent losses sustained by this one. Things are bad, and not getting better.

The Apocalypse is right around the corner. (Or is it?)

Life for Garou is so short and brutal that few have the time to reflect on the more existential question about whether the world has the seeds of its own end inside it.

Vashon & Maury Island

The Garou Caern

So - after perusing the maps, I am not entirely sure that we can site the Garou Caern on an otherwise empty island that is close enough to Seattle to make them feel like an integrated whole.

Here is a list of Washington islands:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_islands_of_Washington_State_by_population_and_area

The only uninhabited island in King County appears to be Blake Island, a state park with a small marina usually reachable only by private boat or chartered tour. There is some sort of village museum - Tillicum Village - and various campgrounds.

The other option, which I kinda like, is siting the Caern on one of the inhabited islands close to Seattle. There are two: Bainbridge Island (population 20k, although this island does have highway access via a bridge to the mainland to the west. It is accessible from Seattle via ferry), or Vashon-Maury Island, which has a population of just over 10k and is accessible via ferry, only.

Both islands are kind of tony in the real world, with charming little harbor towns and shops and cafés, and both have independent bookstores (oh! to live in such a world). I like Vashon better as it is quieter and more rural. Maury Island used to be linked to Vashon only at low tide, but the Army Corps of Engineers built an isthmus to connect the two. We could demolish that isthmus for WoD purposes, so that the two are connected at low tide, but otherwise crossing from Vashon to Maury requires a swim or a boat on treacherous waters. There is apparently a factory on Vashon Island that is the world's leading producer of artificial bone (!!) called "The Bone Factory" by locals. I am sure we can do something with that. Have "The Bone Factory" acquired by Evil Corporation or somesuch.

Bainbridge looks like it might be a wee bit more charming and lively as a separate location / arts colony / place for kin/changelings/mages/others to hang out, but Vashon not only has ferry service to Seattle, it has bus service. Like, buses get on the ferry then drive around the island. hah. And it has Maury attached and ready as an ideal place for a Caern. Moreover, in researching it I discovered that Maury Island residents recently defeated the plans of a mine company (which already had a gravel mine on the island) to expand it to the largest sand/gravel mine in the US:

http://www.preserveourislands.org/

Which would make an interesting background - recently endangered Caern has defeated this company. In the WoD it likely involved physical/spiritual fights as well as influence, petitioning, et cetera, and might have resulted in the deaths of a number of Garou/kin, as well as the tightening of the web of kin influence, at least in the Islands.

But it would also make the Islands vulnerable: the enemy would know there are Garou close by, perhaps not exactly WHERE, but close.

The Caern Itself

Small, level 1 or 2 at most. I am thinking it should be either a Coggie/Silver Fang holding or a Coggie/Black Fury holding, but open to other tribes. I would also include as background the idea that there is an Uktena Caern to the north, amidst the San Juan islands of the Puget Sound, which is NOT open to all tribes - just Wendigo and Uktena and the odd Red Talon. It would be just off stage right, on the periphery. The Elders of our Caern might have a few contacts, and Uktena/Wendigo who come to our Caern might have come from there, but: 1. the place is well north (look at a map of Puget Sound, I hadn't realized how far the San Juan Islands were from Seattle, they are much closer to Victoria, BC / Bellingham, Washington. ); 2. very remote; and 3. distinctly unwelcoming. The Garou there would be a mix of Coast Salish peoples.

Speaking of the Coast Salish people, a list of tribes from the Washington State Indian Affairs office:

http://www.goia.wa.gov/Tribal-Information/Map.htm

The Nitty-Gritty Rules -

- before reality gets settled in. Which is to say, before we choose a city, before we choose a place to settle, how do we want characters to work? I think that! ideally I do not want everybody to be all "ooh, ooh, you can only play starter characters who are just learning about how things go," because I don't think that is everybody's cup of tea? And can kind of be a pain on an online site.

Urk. Here are the rules! I wrote and showed you before, too. They are just for 'beginning, but not BABY' characters and change/tweak-away!

Idealistic Crossover Site Rules

Cliath Werewolves

Attributes: 7/5/3

Abilities: 13/9/5

Backgrounds: 5

Gifts: 4 level one gifts

Rage/Gnosis/Willpower: According to book. 

Renown: starting level cliath renown - + .3 to be spent whereever.

FBs: 20

Restrictions?

No more than one four in an ability. You are playing a cliath garou. Maybe they are extraordinary. Most likely, they haven't had a chance to become extraordinary yet; it is even possible that they never will.

Players wishing to play a garou with purebreed higher than 2 must be aware there character will be scrutinized closely. 

Rage. Make sure it makes sense. No Rage for a Ragabash or Theurge will be approved at higher than four. No Rage for a Philodox, Galliard or Ahroun will be approved higher than six. Rage is angry and mean and having a lot of it interferes with your garou's ability to function. It's not just cool extra actions!

No willpower will be approved at higher than six.

No gnosis will be approved at higher than six.

Notes about Werewolf:

Werewolves need to hide because they're monstrosities that most human beings would be all about destroying, and that's not even beginning to touch on the supernatural agencies or agencies devoted to hunting down the supernatural who would also be all over werewolf hunting (at least once they found out that not all [Wendigo] Garou were like Jacob!). Please include a few lines about how your character manages to keep him or herself fed and how they've interacted with humanity in the past. Do they come from a sheltered Sept? Were they always aware that they were going to be garou and surrounded by those who told them so?

Notes about packs:

It's unusual for garou to be without pack. They don't like it. If you play a garou for a few months without falling into a pack, the NPCs will likely assign your character temporarily to either an NPC pack or a PC pack, just to try it out. Look at that as a way to gain more awesome points!

Notes about restricted character types:

You're welcome to try to slip pretty much anything past the approval process. Don't take that as a challenge, because the right is reserved to look at a character and say, Eh, no, that would be disruptive, that would be a limelight hog in a bad way, that would be a pain in the ass to admin over. Lupus should be rare. Red Talons should, perforce, be rare in a city. 

Initiate Mages

Attributes: 7/5/3

Abilities: 13/9/5

Backgrounds: 7

Arete: 2. You don't need to pay for this. It's automatic. 

Spheres: 5 + Tradition Specialty. (For Orphans, that's straight-up six spheres. No Tradition Specialty, No Penalty. Yet.)

FBs: 20.

Starting Willpower: 5. You can try for as high as 8! But it will be difficult to get by.

Restrictions?

No more than two fours in the abilities section to start. Mages are extraordinary people. But extraordinary stops being extraordinary if everybody is! Backgrounds higher than three will need sound reasoning behind them. You cannot play a Nephandi. You cannot play a Technocrat. You can, however, play a Mage who used to be a Technocrat, or who was almost a Nephandi! No Marauders allowed, either. If people want to get together OOC and bring in a cabal, or find that they've been playing enough that it would be cool if their group of characters found a Node, that's perfectly doable. Talk to staff, and we'll come up with something. Blah blah lots of banned backgrounds blah blah blah.

Notes about Mage:

The starting character is an initiate. You can play an apprentice if you really, really want to play an apprentice, and we can work out an NPC mentor, who you will need to buy the background for. But the starting character is an initiate. No more than four Mage characters will be approved who are ANTHROPOLOGY PROFESSORS, and those who play these characters will be expected to at least say hello ooc. They will also be WORK RIVALS, especially if they teach at the same college. An initiate doesn't necessarily have enough cachet to really have a reputation -- they're still babies. Still, if you'd like to include a 'what might be known' about your character or their mentor, that would be very nice.

Age XP. Ages 23-30: 15 XP. Ages 30-43. 20 XP. Ages 43-63. 30 XP. 63 and up. Ha. Let's be honest. You probably don't want to play an old character. Or, if you do, they are somehow magically immortal and you need to talk to an Admin anyway! So talk to someone in charge about your concept and we'll work out appropriate and yet not also unfair to everybody else's characters XP. 

Notes about the chantries:

You can see the chantry pages for these. If you want to say your character has an 'in' with one of the chantries, that's more than cool. Just don't abuse it.

Wilder Changelings

Attributes: 7/5/3

Abilities: 13/9/5

Backgrounds: 7

Arts: 4

Realms: 7

Glamour: 4, Willpower: 4, Banality: 3

FBs: 20

Age XP for Wilders

Because Changelings "live" for such a brief period, and they're technically immortal faerie souls who get stuck doing the whole Autumn Way thing again and again and again, their Age XP works a little differently. 10 points of XP for those who've been Chrysalized 3-4 years. 12 points of XP for those who've been Chrysalized for 4-5. 15 points of XP for those who've been Chrysalized 5-6. 18 points of XP for those who've been Chrysalized for 6-8. 20 points for those who've been Chrysalized for 8-10. 25 for those who've been Chrysalized for 10-15. For those who've been Chrysalized for longer, speak to an Admin about your concept and we'll see. These are the rules for starting out Wilders. 

Restrictions?

You may have no more two fours in an ability. You're technically immortal faerie souls, yeah, but you've got this annoying new body, and you don't really remember all your lives unless you take some sort of background, and basically: no more than two fours in an ability for wilders to start. Sorry, guys. Title is restricted at 3. That's right. 3. You may, theoretically, take 1-2 dots of Holding. If you're interested in this, talk to an Admin and we'll see what we can do and will suit your character concept. You may also, theoretically, get together with other players ooc and collectively purchase a fancier, niftier Holding, that you're all responsible for IC. Again, talk to an Admin. Chimerical Companion is Restricted at 3. Arts are restricted at 4. 

Kiths outside of the "main" kiths will be restricted. House Leanhaun characters will not be approved. House Balor characters will probably not be approved.

[Older] Neonate Vampires

Attributes: 7/5/4 (Not a typo)

Abilities: 14/10/6

Backgrounds: 7

Disciplines: 4

Virtues: 7

FBs: 20

Special Note! 

Depending on your clan, you may begin with an extra 'free' dot in an ability. i.e., you are going to play Rose the Gangrel. You want to have Animal Ken 3 and Survival 3. You realize that you can start out with a free dot in one of those abilities, so you only spend five points. Just note your free 'ability' in the notes area.

Brujah: Expression, Intimidation, Leadership

Gangrel: Animal Ken, Survival

Malkavian: Any

Nosferatu: Investigation, Streetwise, Security

Toreador: Performance, Expression or Etiquette

Tremere: Occult

Ventrue: Etiquette, Leadership, Subterfuge

Primer.

Once upon a time in a city by the sea -