Werewolves
Intro
The Werewolves are a people created from wild beasts by the magic of a raging goddess. They enjoy war and bloody violence, and live by a pack structure with a hierarchy determined by physical combat. They live each day with a bubbling rage at the back of their minds, which they can channel into profound strength, or infect the minds of their foes with.
They chafe in the restrictions imposed by their banishment to the prison plane known as the Casket, and so relish any opportunity for freedom and fresh violence. Each kill they dedicate to their mother, Ganshe, the progenitor of their race who they believe will one day return to their side to hunt with them once more.
Play a Werewolf with you want to...
be a monster in the dark.
do a great deal of vicious fighting, both to slay your foes and prove yourself against your peers.
fight against weak-minded humans who should be taught how to fear and respect the night.
be motivated by the joy of the hunt, loyalty to your pack, and love for your divine mother.
be divided by political infighting, and the desire to be the strongest amongst your fellows.
The Werewolves are not...
History
The history of the Wolves begins with their mother.
Hundreds of years ago in the far north, in a resilient nation of hunter-gatherers call the Lohari, was born a woman who would forge an entire species. Ganshe, one of the four ancient heroes of Lohari legend, fought back against the predatory Giants alongside Kothur the warrior, Nathaia the hunter, and Araleth the wise. Kothur was slain in his final battle to exterminate the giants, and whilst all mourned his passing, the remaining Lohari celebrated the destruction of their foes, and became content.
And so they became weak.
As Ganshe grew old, she retreated further and further into the abandoned forested places, watching with contempt as her people began to settle, to farm, and to build permanent homes for themselves. She watched as they forgot that they too were predators. Thus she resolved to create a new people for herself. Calling upon all the magic she possessed, she summoned the wolf packs of the forests to her side, and lived amongst them, whispering to them the secrets of language, of weaponcrafting, and speaking to them of her love for them. She hunted with them, and when they brought down prey, she mixed the feast of flesh with a little of her own blood, and from Ganshe's ichor the wolves learned to adopt humanoid forms.
The Werewolves were now complete, and Ganshe sent them to claim the lands of the Lohari as their territory.
They began by wearing human faces, infiltrating Lohari settlements and striking at night, a tactic deliberately designed to shatter the humans' belief in a safe world and the trustworthiness of strangers. When the Lohari became wise to these tactics, the Werewolves engaged in a brutal reversal of strategy, attacking openly from the trees in bloodthirsty assaults. This was when the Werewolves learned how to channel their own fury through their blades, infecting the Lohari battlelines with unreasoning rage, turning friend viciously upon friend.
To survive, the Lohari built high stone walls and hid behind them, leaving the Werewolves with no strategy other than to engage in siege warfare. Such a boring and bloodless form of combat was beneath her proud children, so Ganshe called the wolves south to find new hunting grounds.
Fortunately, a number of the Lohari decided to pursue the Werewolves; a group of warriors, ritualists, and herbalists calling themselves the Koth, naming themselves for Kothur to indicate their determination to exterminate the wolves entirely. Gleefully, Ganshe led her children further and further south, drawing the Koth further and further from their fortified, complacent brethren, and for a time, life was good and bloody.
Then the Koth met and befriended the Phalreans, and with the help of their magic, trapped the entire Werewolf race inside the Casket of Nightmares. The war ended, and Ganshe was never seen again.
Whilst occasionally, human Summoners would allow some Werewolves to pass into the mortal world to hunt, Ganshe's children were mostly bereft of proper foes, and so they fell upon one another. Within the nightmare prison, internal conflict gave rise to the Werewolf pack structure, which has since been the basis of their society. Despite not having seen Ganshe for generations now, the Werewolves still owe her their loyalty and filial love, and maintain their faith that she will one day return, to set them loose once more.
Beliefs
Werewolf religion is zealously monotheistic. Worship of Ganshe is not seen as an abstract spiritual pursuit, but as love and devotion towards a mother. From Ganshe, the Werewolves have learned the lessons that form the basis of their society and culture. The first is a love for violence and danger. Life is only meaningful when it is under threat, and the Werewolves take glee in making the lives of themselves and others as “meaningful” as possible. The second lesson is a respect for strength. In the harsh winter of reality, only the strong can make a difference, and only the resilient may ultimately survive. The final lesson is a desire to ferment chaos. Civilisation and routine encourage weakness and complacency, and the Werewolves will tear away at both with ruthless rapacity.
Demonstrations of peity, outside the battlefield, are often simple and bold. The colour red is sacred to Ganshe, and wearing it is a sign of kinship with her. Humans wearing red in any significant quantity are making a very audacious statement indeed. It is also customary to invoke Ganshe's name before fights, to thank her for the violence to come.
Culture
Customs
Werewolves are a very physical people, given to action rather than pontification, as well as to ostentatious demonstrations of strength, speed, and fighting talent. Competitions of many kinds are common, including the fights that determine who will lead each pack.
It is typical for Werewolves to view life as a series of conflicts, a view which manifests itself in everything from the politics to their music. Winning conflicts proves strength and grants power, but no Werewolf wants to win all the time. Loss and defeat are profound cultural ideas amongst the Werewolves, and it is often said that nobody ever learns anything from a victory, but loss is the greatest teacher of all. What the Werewolves value most of all is not raw strength, but the ability to survive, embrace, and build from defeat.
Art
Werewolves don't come across as the most artistic people, but have some cultural pastimes that others find confusing. Werewolves enjoy telling stories, which typically start in a “normal” fashion, but degrade swiftly into an incoherent mess of unconnected, violent tragedies. The aim of the storyteller is, commonly, as a reminder that life does not lead down straight, predictable routes, but lulls you in with familiar patterns before unleashing the brutal chaos of chance events upon you.
They also enjoy loud drum music and songs about war. Music is loud, raucous, and collaborative. If there's one thing the Werewolves retain from the Lohari origins, it is the belief that any kind of art is not about a performer being observed by an audience, but a group activity.
Marriage and Funerals
Unlike much of the loud and rambunctious culture of Werewolves, marriages are private affairs, held solely between the two partners, in which they find some place out of the way to affirm loyalty to one another as mates, and a commitment to bringing young into the world to continue the fight against humanity. Divorce is uncommon, but is simply achieved by one partner openly breaking the bond of marriage and walking away.
Funeral customs depend on context. A Werewolf who dies outside of combat, of disease or old age, is not given the dignity of a funeral, but instead is not spoken of again. A Werewolf killed in a fight, however, is mourned publicly. A funeral is solemn, and Werewolves of equal or higher status than the deceased gather to drink and exchange memories of the fallen. No Werewolf may mourn one of higher status than they; it is too audacious to think that a stronger Werewolf would want your pity for simply having died.
Nation
Politics
Werewolves exist in small groups called packs. A person belongs to the same pack as their mother, and it is very rare that a wolf will move from it. Packs are each led by an Alpha, who can be challenged in single combat for their position by another pack member at any time. There are no fixed laws; the lives and deaths of every wolf is in the hands of the Alpha, until such time as they are replaced.
A political custom dating back nearly as far as the imprisonment of the Werewolves in the Casket is the Runtmoot. Just as there is an Alpha in every pack, there is a Runt; a position earned by being demonstrably the weakest wolf in combat. Runts are typically given little regard or respect, but every time several packs meet in the same area, each Alpha sends their pack's Runt to meet with the Runts of the other packs. These meetings, the Runtmoots, are allowed to occur without interference or eavesdropping, and Alphas will joke with one another that the Runts are probably making secret plans to overthrow them, without any chance of success. In truth, these meetings frequently address serious political matters, and are an opportunity for packs to covertly share information and make joint plans without the Alphas being seen to have to stoop to diplomacy.
War
In war, Werewolves are joyful and hold nothing back. They prefer hit and run tactics that confuse their opponents, as well as trying to scatter them so individuals can be hunted down and finished off. Despite their reckless attitude, they enjoy the use of cunning strategy, particularly favouring the approach of disguising themselves as human to encourage prey to let down their guard.
Relations
The Werewolves love little more than fighting the Koth. They treat the opportunity to kill one of their old foes with the same fondness that one might feel when greeting an old friend. They also recognise that the Phalreans are ultimately responsible for imprisoning them in the Casket, and enjoy punishing them for it whenever they can. They have little experience with, or feeling towards, the Tanelim.
The Werewolves are generally not openly hostile towards the Decaying Ones or the Ollath, recognising that they have been cursed with the same fate as they, but will spare them no love either. If a wolf pack is in resource competition with a group from one of these factions, the Werewolves are most likely to be the ones to make the confrontation a violent one.
Magic
Magic-users in Werewolf society are seen as having a role analagous to Ganshe's own; teaching the pack about its own nature, awakening it to its own strength, and reminding it of the importance of Ganshe's lessons. They are usually either Runts, or older Werewolves whose fighting days are mostly over as, despite the respect given to them, their magical strength is considered inferior to physical might.
Werewolf magic is believed to stem from Ganshe herself, passed down the generations from the blood she shared with the first Werewolf packs, calling out to empower the blood in its target. As such, Werewolf magic-users are known as Bloodcallers. This magic typically increases the strength, resilience, and anger of Werewolves it is used on, as well as conferring the ability to change into a fully human form. Due to the somatic nature of Bloodcalling, the target must engage in physical competition (most commonly a mock fight, but arm wrestling, lifting, or loud shouting contests are also valid).
Names
Werewolves are known by a given name and a pack name. Given names are chosen from Norse, Ancient Germanic, and Anglo-Saxon origins. Pack names are, typically aggressive, group descriptors, not entirely unlike Koth bynames.
Examples: Hild Breakface, Dagrun Bloodsong, Aghi Drenchfur.
Werewolves who have never won a single combat with another Werewolf are still referred to by a "child name". This is a monosyllabic sound, typically with hard consonants, like "Rak", "Gor", or "Krax".
Costume
The Werewolves are a people created from wild beasts by the magic of a raging goddess. They enjoy war and bloody violence, and live by a pack structure with a hierarchy determined by physical combat. They live each day with a bubbling rage at the back of their minds, which they can channel into profound strength, or infect the minds of their foes with.
They chafe in the restrictions imposed by their banishment to the prison plane known as the Casket, and so relish any opportunity for freedom and fresh violence. Each kill they dedicate to their mother, Ganshe, the progenitor of their race who they believe will one day return to their side to hunt with them once more.
Play a Werewolf with you want to...
be a monster in the dark.
do a great deal of vicious fighting, both to slay your foes and prove yourself against your peers.
fight against weak-minded humans who should be taught how to fear and respect the night.
be motivated by the joy of the hunt, loyalty to your pack, and love for your divine mother.
be divided by political infighting, and the desire to be the strongest amongst your fellows.
The Werewolves are not...
- Stupid. Whilst typically not thrilled by abstract, academic pursuits, Werewolves have an intellectual and linguistic capacity equal to humans.
- Unarmed combatants. Whilst many do have sharp teeth and claws, swords and daggers are still much more effective for killing people with.
- Matriarchal. Despite the importance of motherhood in their society, no entity in the Pandemonium world setting discriminates on a gender basis.
History
The history of the Wolves begins with their mother.
Hundreds of years ago in the far north, in a resilient nation of hunter-gatherers call the Lohari, was born a woman who would forge an entire species. Ganshe, one of the four ancient heroes of Lohari legend, fought back against the predatory Giants alongside Kothur the warrior, Nathaia the hunter, and Araleth the wise. Kothur was slain in his final battle to exterminate the giants, and whilst all mourned his passing, the remaining Lohari celebrated the destruction of their foes, and became content.
And so they became weak.
As Ganshe grew old, she retreated further and further into the abandoned forested places, watching with contempt as her people began to settle, to farm, and to build permanent homes for themselves. She watched as they forgot that they too were predators. Thus she resolved to create a new people for herself. Calling upon all the magic she possessed, she summoned the wolf packs of the forests to her side, and lived amongst them, whispering to them the secrets of language, of weaponcrafting, and speaking to them of her love for them. She hunted with them, and when they brought down prey, she mixed the feast of flesh with a little of her own blood, and from Ganshe's ichor the wolves learned to adopt humanoid forms.
The Werewolves were now complete, and Ganshe sent them to claim the lands of the Lohari as their territory.
They began by wearing human faces, infiltrating Lohari settlements and striking at night, a tactic deliberately designed to shatter the humans' belief in a safe world and the trustworthiness of strangers. When the Lohari became wise to these tactics, the Werewolves engaged in a brutal reversal of strategy, attacking openly from the trees in bloodthirsty assaults. This was when the Werewolves learned how to channel their own fury through their blades, infecting the Lohari battlelines with unreasoning rage, turning friend viciously upon friend.
To survive, the Lohari built high stone walls and hid behind them, leaving the Werewolves with no strategy other than to engage in siege warfare. Such a boring and bloodless form of combat was beneath her proud children, so Ganshe called the wolves south to find new hunting grounds.
Fortunately, a number of the Lohari decided to pursue the Werewolves; a group of warriors, ritualists, and herbalists calling themselves the Koth, naming themselves for Kothur to indicate their determination to exterminate the wolves entirely. Gleefully, Ganshe led her children further and further south, drawing the Koth further and further from their fortified, complacent brethren, and for a time, life was good and bloody.
Then the Koth met and befriended the Phalreans, and with the help of their magic, trapped the entire Werewolf race inside the Casket of Nightmares. The war ended, and Ganshe was never seen again.
Whilst occasionally, human Summoners would allow some Werewolves to pass into the mortal world to hunt, Ganshe's children were mostly bereft of proper foes, and so they fell upon one another. Within the nightmare prison, internal conflict gave rise to the Werewolf pack structure, which has since been the basis of their society. Despite not having seen Ganshe for generations now, the Werewolves still owe her their loyalty and filial love, and maintain their faith that she will one day return, to set them loose once more.
Beliefs
Werewolf religion is zealously monotheistic. Worship of Ganshe is not seen as an abstract spiritual pursuit, but as love and devotion towards a mother. From Ganshe, the Werewolves have learned the lessons that form the basis of their society and culture. The first is a love for violence and danger. Life is only meaningful when it is under threat, and the Werewolves take glee in making the lives of themselves and others as “meaningful” as possible. The second lesson is a respect for strength. In the harsh winter of reality, only the strong can make a difference, and only the resilient may ultimately survive. The final lesson is a desire to ferment chaos. Civilisation and routine encourage weakness and complacency, and the Werewolves will tear away at both with ruthless rapacity.
Demonstrations of peity, outside the battlefield, are often simple and bold. The colour red is sacred to Ganshe, and wearing it is a sign of kinship with her. Humans wearing red in any significant quantity are making a very audacious statement indeed. It is also customary to invoke Ganshe's name before fights, to thank her for the violence to come.
Culture
Customs
Werewolves are a very physical people, given to action rather than pontification, as well as to ostentatious demonstrations of strength, speed, and fighting talent. Competitions of many kinds are common, including the fights that determine who will lead each pack.
It is typical for Werewolves to view life as a series of conflicts, a view which manifests itself in everything from the politics to their music. Winning conflicts proves strength and grants power, but no Werewolf wants to win all the time. Loss and defeat are profound cultural ideas amongst the Werewolves, and it is often said that nobody ever learns anything from a victory, but loss is the greatest teacher of all. What the Werewolves value most of all is not raw strength, but the ability to survive, embrace, and build from defeat.
Art
Werewolves don't come across as the most artistic people, but have some cultural pastimes that others find confusing. Werewolves enjoy telling stories, which typically start in a “normal” fashion, but degrade swiftly into an incoherent mess of unconnected, violent tragedies. The aim of the storyteller is, commonly, as a reminder that life does not lead down straight, predictable routes, but lulls you in with familiar patterns before unleashing the brutal chaos of chance events upon you.
They also enjoy loud drum music and songs about war. Music is loud, raucous, and collaborative. If there's one thing the Werewolves retain from the Lohari origins, it is the belief that any kind of art is not about a performer being observed by an audience, but a group activity.
Marriage and Funerals
Unlike much of the loud and rambunctious culture of Werewolves, marriages are private affairs, held solely between the two partners, in which they find some place out of the way to affirm loyalty to one another as mates, and a commitment to bringing young into the world to continue the fight against humanity. Divorce is uncommon, but is simply achieved by one partner openly breaking the bond of marriage and walking away.
Funeral customs depend on context. A Werewolf who dies outside of combat, of disease or old age, is not given the dignity of a funeral, but instead is not spoken of again. A Werewolf killed in a fight, however, is mourned publicly. A funeral is solemn, and Werewolves of equal or higher status than the deceased gather to drink and exchange memories of the fallen. No Werewolf may mourn one of higher status than they; it is too audacious to think that a stronger Werewolf would want your pity for simply having died.
Nation
Politics
Werewolves exist in small groups called packs. A person belongs to the same pack as their mother, and it is very rare that a wolf will move from it. Packs are each led by an Alpha, who can be challenged in single combat for their position by another pack member at any time. There are no fixed laws; the lives and deaths of every wolf is in the hands of the Alpha, until such time as they are replaced.
A political custom dating back nearly as far as the imprisonment of the Werewolves in the Casket is the Runtmoot. Just as there is an Alpha in every pack, there is a Runt; a position earned by being demonstrably the weakest wolf in combat. Runts are typically given little regard or respect, but every time several packs meet in the same area, each Alpha sends their pack's Runt to meet with the Runts of the other packs. These meetings, the Runtmoots, are allowed to occur without interference or eavesdropping, and Alphas will joke with one another that the Runts are probably making secret plans to overthrow them, without any chance of success. In truth, these meetings frequently address serious political matters, and are an opportunity for packs to covertly share information and make joint plans without the Alphas being seen to have to stoop to diplomacy.
War
In war, Werewolves are joyful and hold nothing back. They prefer hit and run tactics that confuse their opponents, as well as trying to scatter them so individuals can be hunted down and finished off. Despite their reckless attitude, they enjoy the use of cunning strategy, particularly favouring the approach of disguising themselves as human to encourage prey to let down their guard.
Relations
The Werewolves love little more than fighting the Koth. They treat the opportunity to kill one of their old foes with the same fondness that one might feel when greeting an old friend. They also recognise that the Phalreans are ultimately responsible for imprisoning them in the Casket, and enjoy punishing them for it whenever they can. They have little experience with, or feeling towards, the Tanelim.
The Werewolves are generally not openly hostile towards the Decaying Ones or the Ollath, recognising that they have been cursed with the same fate as they, but will spare them no love either. If a wolf pack is in resource competition with a group from one of these factions, the Werewolves are most likely to be the ones to make the confrontation a violent one.
Magic
Magic-users in Werewolf society are seen as having a role analagous to Ganshe's own; teaching the pack about its own nature, awakening it to its own strength, and reminding it of the importance of Ganshe's lessons. They are usually either Runts, or older Werewolves whose fighting days are mostly over as, despite the respect given to them, their magical strength is considered inferior to physical might.
Werewolf magic is believed to stem from Ganshe herself, passed down the generations from the blood she shared with the first Werewolf packs, calling out to empower the blood in its target. As such, Werewolf magic-users are known as Bloodcallers. This magic typically increases the strength, resilience, and anger of Werewolves it is used on, as well as conferring the ability to change into a fully human form. Due to the somatic nature of Bloodcalling, the target must engage in physical competition (most commonly a mock fight, but arm wrestling, lifting, or loud shouting contests are also valid).
Names
Werewolves are known by a given name and a pack name. Given names are chosen from Norse, Ancient Germanic, and Anglo-Saxon origins. Pack names are, typically aggressive, group descriptors, not entirely unlike Koth bynames.
Examples: Hild Breakface, Dagrun Bloodsong, Aghi Drenchfur.
Werewolves who have never won a single combat with another Werewolf are still referred to by a "child name". This is a monosyllabic sound, typically with hard consonants, like "Rak", "Gor", or "Krax".
Costume
- Werewolves primarily wear brown.
- Werewolves feel comfortable in furs, and will wear as much as possible.
- Wearwolf clothing is very chaotic and scrappy. Often werewolves will wear scraps of red cloth to show their devotion to Ganshe.
- Werewolves are required to wear a wolf mask, covering at least the top half of the face at all times. Some werewolves might have other features, such as yellow eyes or tails, but all werewolves are different.
- Werewolves will often wear strings of teeth and bones, although runts are not allowed these.
- Werewolves will keep their hair messy and unkempt.
- Werewolves are similar to Koth in that they both wear furs and coloured cloth. However werewolves wear more fur, and their outfits are more chaotic.