The Ghost Island
Umbral Realm · Werewolf
This is important to address up-front: Hashima is not haunted. That’s not just the party line the Japanese government spews forth. Despite all the news reports, internet articles, and documentaries, Hashima isn’t haunted. It wasn’t evacuated after a massive tragedy. The inhabitants didn’t die violent, terrible deaths. They left because business left. Despair came with the job loss, but this was no worse than a factory closure. So why do the Garou still call it Ghost Island? They have two main reasons:
It’s not haunted, but spirits play the role of the haunting dead. They fulfill the expectations of haunting. This has quickly become a strange mishmash of cultural and subcultural perceptions of haunting. In this way, every visitor to the island, everyone writing a story about the hauntings, every person participating in this odd mythology leaves an impression on the spirit-scape of the place.
On the other side of things, Garou call it the Ghost Island because it’s a hotbed of supernatural activity. The island has all manner of Umbral manifestations. Areas of the tiny island contain Blights, Chimares, Epiphs, and more. Even though the island is quite a bit larger in the Umbra, these realms bleed into each other, causing unexpected and chaotic reactions. The variety of Umbral activity is at critical mass, and any rapid growth at this point could cause catastrophic consequences.