Spirits It stands to reason that if the Umbra is a spiritual reflection of the world, it must be populated by some number of spirits. Given the animistic perspective of the Garou, these spirits are the thinking, feeling consciousness associated with places, individuals, animals, and even more esoteric concepts. Potentially anything can have an animating spirit, and therefore be spiritually “personified” in the Umbra, so long as someone, somewhere, thinks or feels about it (or thought or felt about it). At least, that’s the prevailing Garou perspective. Wise theurges and savvy philodoxes know that there are other things and people out there with their own takes on the metaphysics of the world and what surrounds it — and how fearsomely different they are from the lens through which werewolves see reality.
Who Spirits Are Returning briefly to the metaphor of the light of thought and emotion (see p. 225), a spirit may emerge from anything that provokes thought or feeling. Which is to say, anything and everything might have an active spirit, from the specific to the ideal, from the lofty to the commonplace to the most cruel or incomprehensible.
For example, the spirit of a river might move through the Umbral reflection of that river at the same time a mighty Incarna, the spirit of water itself, courses through that same ephemeral river.
Every spirit is a thinking entity. They may be simple and straightforward, they may be cunning, or their minds might be wholly alien to creatures of more understandable mindset like the Garou. Ultimately, what this means is that every spirit has wants and needs.
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Spirit Veracity
Garou are often influenced by the mortal cultures in which they live, which can shape the perspective of their relationships with the spirit world. When it comes to individual spirits, especially powerful ones such as Patron Spirits or the like, how a Garou interprets interactions with those spirits may occur in the context of the culture they recognize most. Of course, this alignment doesn’t always happen. Spirits often have the ability to dictate how others perceive them, and the Umbra in which they dwell is a magnificent mystery — but many Garou find that a familiar context helps them understand the world as it is.
So, for example, a Ghost Council Garou with a Native American background may well perceive Horned Serpent in a different way than fellow Ghost Council Garou living amid Scandinavian, Iranian, or North African human cultures. Through the Garou lens, all of them are true, all of them are “the” Horned Serpent, even if all of them are different. The same reasoning stands for Gorgon, the common interpretation of whom is decidedly Greek… or even the inchoate Fenris….
Hierarchy of Spirits Individual spirits organize into their own cohorts, possess influence over their own domains, and behave according to their own laws. Some spirits are meant to be respected; others, feared. Still others work with the Garou to protect Gaia. However, many more possess their own agendas and motivations — things werewolves must recognize, and work around, to fulfill their own duty.
Not to say that all spirits are equal entities — far from it. Spirits take a variety of forms, from the merest moonlight-spirit circling a caern so that its guardians can better keep watch to — presumably — the great and terrible spirits that possess a power unto existence itself, and whose very bailiwick is creation, order, and decay….
Spirits observe a hierarchy, which itself evolves from a complicated interaction of might, duty, and obligation. Every spirit has a purpose — something to which it attends — and these roles themselves might be simple, complex, or even inscrutable, as with the greater movements of the tribes’ Patron Spirits, spirits associated with forces of nature and esoteric phenomena, and Gaia herself.
Understanding such purposes often eludes the Garou, and clever theurges spend their lives understanding why spirits behave as they do, in addition to how they might be persuaded to help Gaia’s fallen champions atone for the failures of their kind. That, and how to elude or assuage bellicose spirits who seem to feel no duty to Gaia or those in her service.
Whereas the hierarchy of spirits is natural to them, it is less so to Garou, and probably imperceptible to anyone not native to the Umbra. Werewolf theurges and galliards have struggled to name and classify this hierarchy since time immemorial, but they generally agree upon rough classifications for it — which is important! The spirits themselves probably don’t understand the hierarchy the same way the Garou — themselves outsiders in that hierarchy — do. This hierarchy is simply what werewolves have been able to observe in their dealing with spirits since the time of legends.
The current system stratifies spirits into four categories based on their role and importance in the cosmic order.
Celestines Although not the cornerstones of reality that the Triat constitutes, Celestines are still impossibly ancient beings of vast spiritual influence in the Umbra. Among their numbers are the spirits of celestial bodies, the fading echoes of forgotten gods, and the most powerful servants of the Triat. No matter their nature, each is free-willed, self-aware, and highly intelligent. Some speak. Some communicate in other ways, when they deign to do so. Others simply are.
As such, interaction with Celestines is exceedingly rare and enigmatic, if it can be remembered and truly understood at all. They dwell in Umbral territories of their own creation, where they are one with everything therein, present in every aspect. Their lairs and power make direct communication with them, even by legendary Garou, impossible, and so when a Celestine must act it seemingly does so through an avatar. These avatars are aspects of a Celestine, wreathed in a guise that lesser beings might understand and interact with. Although mere shards of a Celestine’s power, avatars are still among the most powerful beings in the Spirit Wilds.
Theurges believe that Celestines might be capable of manifesting multiple avatars at once, though they probably do so only sparingly. Avatars rarely manifest in the physical world, and even more rarely intervene in ongoing events. Such occurrences are momentous occasions, even to the spiritually aware Garou, so the appearance of a suspected avatar carries the weight of omen. Seers, spirit-talkers, and other sorts of diviners seek their messages via star-watching, omen-casting, and even coaxing the techno-spirits of computer systems.
As Garou understand it, a Celestine’s power comes with risk. Should Celestines die, the objects they embody would surely die with them! The sun, the moon, or the planets could crumble. Water could evaporate; fire could fail to ignite. Tribal wisdom is rife with stories of clever werewolves stealing something from a Celestine’s lair, only for the spirit to beg the werewolves for it later, lest they vanish from the world and take with them sunlight, or flora, or the ability to write.
Entities believed by the Garou to be Celestines include Gaia, the spirit of the Earth; Luna, the spirit of the Moon; and Helios, the spirit of the Sun.
What they might want: The nethermost strand of the Weaver’s web, every thought of autumn, a kiss from Gaia’s lips, the depths of the sea, redemption
IN STORIES Celestines don’t take direct, personal action; it’s probably incorrect to think of them as “people” in the context that most Garou have. If the players’ characters interact with a Celestine, it’s almost certainly through an avatar or servitor-spirit pursuing that Celestine’s goals on an individual level (which means they’re some form of lesser spirit). Celestines help give context to the story on a thematic level, or perhaps charge the pack (through intermediary spirits) with some sort of legendary oath. Often what they desire is metaphorical, as might be the actions the pack may take in their name — those exceedingly rare packs in which a Celestine takes an interest, of course.
• During a particularly strange jaunt into the depths of the Umbra, the pack may find itself walking across the face of an enormous, slumbering humanoid consciousness, occasionally beset by flying spirit-books representing the entity’s thoughts and localized Umbral storms representing their emotions.
• One of the tribe’s Patron Spirits (see Incarnae, below) has greatly offended a Celestine, and Gifts and Rites associated with that Patron Spirit won’t work until every member of the tribe makes a particular and difficult sacrifice to earn their patron an audience of atonement with the aggrieved great spirit.
Incarnae The Incarnae occupy the tier in the hierarchy immediately below the Celestines. Many of these spirits act as servants, champions, and advisors to their numinous superiors, and Incarnae may even derive their power from these relationships. Others simply willed themselves (or were willed) into being, or some other spiritual parthenogenesis resulted in their existence.
Each Incarna has a specific purpose and a sphere of influence in which they can assert their powers and largely interact with reality through avatars. Albeit lesser than an avatar of a Celestine, an Incarna’s avatar is still a powerful force — probably greater than any pack of Garou could hope to best directly — so diplomacy and the spirit-ways of chiminage are most effective with them. Many Incarnae are…
ambitious, if that’s the right word, believe that their place in the hierarchy is merely an intermediary step, and that, eventually, they shall ascend to join the ranks of the Celestines.
Incarnae are probably the most powerful spirits a werewolf is likely to interact with directly. Among their number are the Garou Patron Spirits, who may send avatars to communicate with those whom they favor. Such a visitation ideally provides guidance, spiritual blessings, and tutelage, but is just as likely to provide a humbling lesson to a wayward individual, or to utterly torment one who has broken faith.
Apart from the Patron Spirits, Incarnae generally “own” some specific portfolio or concept. A specific great mountain or timeless forest might have its own Incarna, for example, or the Incarna may represent a particularly virulent disease or even one specific nightmare experienced by any number of human dreamers.
Entities recognized as Incarnae by the Garou include the Patron Spirits of each tribe; the spirit of wilderness and predatory birds; Old Man Sea, the spirit of the coast and seafarers; and the Wyrm-spirit of unnatural rot.
What they might want: A rival’s champion’s dying breath, a scale stolen from one of the Wyrm’s hellish lairs, the wind that carries the name of their bygone paramour, black fire, three feathers
IN STORIES As do Celestines, Incarnae deal only rarely with Garou in any direct way, the occasional exception being the Patron Spirit of a werewolf’s tribe making its desires known to the tribe’s members. And even so, such interaction is often the duty of a messenger-spirit; Incarnae are busy fostering creation, sculpting a territory in the Spirit Wilds in their image, or fighting off the sluggishness of an epochal “slumber.” Even if the Garou might have an inkling of what an Incarna wants, it’s probably impossible to figure out why, unless the spirit is so alien that it is, in fact, wholly direct, and communicates with them in forthright urges and motives.
• A Patron Spirit has taken particular interest in a member of its tribe and charges them with a spiritual calling, promising them momentous Renown if they can bring back what the spirit wants…
without being witnessed while collecting it.
• An Incarna who serves a critical purpose — holding a rampaging terror imprisoned, suspending the sky above the mountaintops, keeping the river pure — has gone silent. In response, distraught spirit-speakers come to the Garou. How does the pack discover more information about this potent spirit, let alone help solve the problem? What does it even look like in the physical world?
Jagglings The tier of the hierarchy for jagglings consists of spirits that are members of some greater cohort, such as dedicated servitors to Incarnae or Celestines, or minions of the Triat. This rank is perhaps the broadest in terms of the capacity of the spirits within it, including everything from task-oriented functionaries to independent spirits as complex as any human or Garou — and then some. A jaggling might serve as factotum to mighty Falcon, or a jaggling might ward a rundown caern in Montreal or a forgotten caern in the shadow of Petra.
Many jagglings fulfill whatever directives their creator imposed upon them and serve loyally as a result, though some develop or earn free will during the course of their service. By contrast, free-willed jagglings may develop in the dawn-lighted byways and hidden corners of the Spirit Wilds, especially ones of more esoteric purpose. Jagglings are ubiquitous, and they thrive where the attention of greater things rarely falls.
Whereas each Incarna or Celestine is a unique being, defining the object or subject it embodies, jagglings exist in broad types roughly analogous to the species of physical creatures. Two platypus-spirits may act differently, but their place in the celestial hierarchy and their spiritual physiology are roughly the same. Two river-spirits might “embody” a mighty and a humble river, respectively, but they’re both jagglings. Jagglings, among all spirits, are the ones werewolves are perhaps most, and most frequently, familiar with. The animal-spirits that teach Garou gifts, the Banes whose cruel possessions they fight, and the ancestor-spirits that inhabit their caerns are all of this class.
Entities recognized as jagglings by Garou include caern guardians, with which packs form protective agreements at places of power; idealized animal-spirits, the “template” forms of earthly animals; spider-like weaver-spirits of nuclear energy; and Nexus Crawlers, Wyrm-aspected behemoths that distort and ruin everything in their path.
What they might want: Revenge, assistance when their immediate task becomes daunting, a looking glass broken into a hundred shards, a human partner to bear their fleshbound child
IN STORIES Interactions between jagglings and Garou are probably the most common and significant ones to occur among all such encounters in which entities of the spirit hierarchy participate. That is, they’re more frequent and understandable than enigmatic encounters with greater spirits or missives from same, and there’s more of an aware, sentient exchange possible with jagglings than with the more minimal consciousness of the gafflings, below. It’s not quite accurate to say that jagglings are “like people,” however. They can certainly be as complex as humans, but the way they perceive the world, their desires, and attitudes are as wholly other as any creature’s that dwells in the Umbra. Which is to say, even in their categories, jagglings are individuals and need to be figured out as Garou have dealings with them.
• The dormant spirit of a caern the players’ characters rediscover tests them with three increasingly difficult challenges, and if they can successfully complete them, the jaggling will help them rejuvenate the neglected place of power
• A jaggling once had a relationship with another spirit over the mountain and under the shadow, but since then the spirit has been tasked with making sure the tide flows in and flows out according to the wishes of the Vast Sea. The spirit would very much appreciate the pack passing a message to their erstwhile consort… and bringing back word of how the werewolves fared.
• The pack encounters a possessed human in the physical world, and probably immediately assumes that the spirit is an aggressive Bane. It’s not, however, and figuring out why the spirit is possessing its host is the first step in figuring out what’s going on.
Gafflings At the bottom of the spiritual hierarchy, below the most meager of jagglings, are the gafflings. These spirits are barely sentient servants of jagglings and are seemingly viewed by spirits in the way that humans view animals. They are capable of surviving in the spiritual realms where they were brought into existence, but often little else. Such spirits are often bound by restrictive pacts with other spirits (often to the gaffling’s disadvantage…), but some gafflings emerge from strange circumstances or very specific events, such as a gaffling representing one individual thought, or a gaffling that exists as a result of the torment of one hungry pack of wolves.
Few gafflings develop any noteworthy intelligence, and fewer still possess free will or even much self-awareness. The ones that can speak don’t seem to consider themselves as part of a greater world or cosmology; rather, an extension of some purpose they don’t understand, and in fact they seem more comfortable when directed or even wielded by others. This subservience gives them a reputation for utter loyalty, as the idea of betraying their master when given the opportunity makes no more sense to them than a finger attempting to strangle its hand.
Entities recognized by the Garou as gafflings include self-aware puzzles that wander the Umbra, certain spirits hunted in sacred rites, and the seemingly endless Wyrm-spirits of pollution that blight the unfortunate Umbral regions adjacent to environmental disasters.
What they might want: A burnt offering, appreciation, fresh kill, a song, the end of all life in their proximity
IN STORIES A gaffling is almost never the most powerful spirit a Garou pack might encounter during a story, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be significant. Like any other element of the Spirit Wilds, gafflings are simply different in their outlook, and with a focus that highlights their stark contrast with werewolves from the physical world. Then again, their simple roles mean that they can also emphasize just how many spirits there are in the Umbra, and how minute their functions can be. It all depends on how the Garou need to relate to them.
• A gaffling performs some rote task over and over where the Garou discover it. No surprises there, but what’s odd is why the gaffling fulfills its duty here. Why is this flame spirit circling ever closer to that grove of Umbral trees? Why is the disease-spirit flitting toward the Umbral counterpart of the refugee camp in the physical world? Why is the horde of spirit-mice charging toward Owl’s demesne?
• A mischievous gaffling offers to teach one of the Garou a Gift that far exceeds its own power to fulfill.
• A minor moon-spirit beckons the pack, seemingly in service to Luna herself, but the packmates wise to the spirit-ways notice that the spirit is acting erratically for its kind, and it seems to be leading them into a part of the Umbra that… shouldn’t be there — and a moment later, everything seems fine….
• While in a desperate hurry, the players’ characters discover a gaffling standing guard over a hidden pathway that would give them both advantages of time and strategy — but the gaffling absolutely disallows them access, for reasons it has been forbidden to divulge. The pack could easily overpower the gaffling, but does even so simple a creature deserve such treatment? Why is it hiding the shortcut, and at whose behest? ■
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Communicating With Spirits
Spirits communicate through a variety of means. Some speak in riddles, others in smells, or in memories, to name just a few. Some project concepts into the minds of others; some display arrays of moonlight as emotion or etch runes into the very air. Most can “speak,” or at least communicate verbally with Garou, should they choose to do so. Even two different spirits of the same type may have very different ways of communicating — for example, one plague-Bane might speak in wheezing, spattering sneers, whereas another communicates via eructations of germs and filth.
Simply conversing with spirits does not provide control or leverage over them, however, though interactions with them are governed by the same sorts of Attribute-plus-Skill rolls as are ones with physical individuals. Similarly, certain Gifts or Rites may compel spirits to action or limit the sorts of communication they convey.
Storytellers, you are encouraged to play up distinct methods of communication, both as sensory detail in encounters with spirits, but also to foreshadow events, offer clues, and differentiate individual spirits.
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