Everything

The Bard tells a story about one of the strange legendary creatures said to inhabit his area: the albino alligators of New York’s sew­ ers or the Chupacabra of Mexican folklore. Wisps of fog envelop the Bard, transforming him into that legendary creature. Mythic spirits and City Fathers teach this gift.

System: The player spends one Rage point and rolls Manipulation + Performance (difficulty 8). The urban legend’s traits are based on the Bard’s Crinos form. The player can ‘spend’ a success to add 1 to a physical attribute, or to gain a strange physical modification (per the Archid Traits available to Mokolé, see p. 147). Some Ratkin may come to prefer a single urban legend form, but others invent a new shape every time they use this Gift.

The ‘default’ assumption for W20 is that the tyrant Simba Black Tooth’s reign of terror over Africa is ongo­ ing, and that an alliance of diverse Changing Breeds is forming in order to stop him. But what if you want to play a mixed-Breed chronicle that isn’t about the fall of Black Tooth? This appendix looks beyond the defeat of the corrupt king to the trials and tribulations that face the Ahadi in the subsequent and ongoing tasks of fighting for their homeland — and trying not to fight one another. It’s a long, hard road, full of suspicion and opposition, but it may represent the best hope the Changing Breeds have had in millennia.

Prejudice and hatred have divided the Changing Breeds for thousands of years. They have dwelled apart from one another since before the raising of the pyramids. They have made paranoia and anger their watchwords ever since the War of Rage. What could move the Chang­ ing Breeds of Africa to abandon millennia of separation and suspicion? What could be so terrible that the Ahadi was the answer?

It began with a Simba whose ambition was exceeded only by his wrath. This great old lion, Black Tooth, was a veteran of many wars. He had long stood with the tribes of the Bastet against the Wyrm, and had proved powerful, relentless, and courageous. Yet with time, Black Tooth was driven to greater fury by the indolence of the Ajaba and the dispassionate, disorganized ranks of the Changing Breeds. Eventually, the mighty champion of Gaia turned his wrath upon her other children, and with bloody claws he ripped the reins of control away from the Ajaba and seized control of much of Africa.

There are many theories regarding Black Tooth’s descent. The most popular rumor has an edge of truth to it: Black Tooth was deep in the Umbra when the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. With his own eyes, he witnessed a storm tear through the land of ghosts, and the sight of it changed him forever. He saw the two bombs going off as the eyes of the Wyrm opening to behold the end of days.

BIRTH OF THE ENDLESS STORM

Black Tooth was a witness to the Fifth Great Maelstrom. While it may or may not be the cause for Black Tooth’s going berserk almost forty years later, it is true that witnessing the Maelstrom had a profound influence on the Simba hero. Black Tooth saw omens and tidings in the Tempest that opened his mind to new trajectories and unseen forces. It was here that he conceived the vision of his pride, the Endless Storm. According to his own journals, the Fifth Great Maelstrom burned the images of his pride-mates into his mind, some of them long before they were born.

It would, however, be almost forty years before Black Tooth’s uprising. Some say he was waiting until he had built the Endless Storm to his satisfaction. The truth is not that simple. Black Tooth’s animosity for the Chang­ ing Breeds began in the sixties, as the first signs of a new sickness spread throughout the Congo. The terrifying and mysterious disease, which was beyond his shamanic understanding, filled the great warrior with an icy hor­ ror and an impotent rage. Black Tooth viewed Africa as the cradle of mankind, the most ancient and pure land on Earth — the very womb of Gaia. Yet he could not reconcile the Great Mother’s love with the spirit of this terrible disease that she had birthed.

Black Tooth blamed the Changing Breeds for Gaia’s madness, and her illness. In his eyes, they were respon­ sible for the soundness of the Mother, and under their negligent care nature had been despoiled and become decrepit, throwing the world into a state of chaos. AIDS, now tearing unfettered across the continent, would soon spread to the rest of the world — and the very Kinfolk the Changing Breeds relied upon would disappear.

The terror of the disease and the helplessness he felt left Black Tooth off-balance, unsure of how to react. As befits the Simba, mightiest of the Bastet, he swiftly decided on violence. The Ajaba, ancient enemies of the Simba, had dominated Africa for too long. When Black Tooth finally turned his rage on the Changing Breeds, it was the Hyenas that bore the brunt of his wrath, and the genocidal rampage that followed nearly wiped them from existence.

Though the Endless Storm committed many atroci­ ties in their war, their greatest purge came in 1984, at Ngornongoro Crater. Black Tooth trapped the governing body of the Ajaba and, exploiting their Yava, unleashed the Endless Storm and annihilated them.

Might of the Tyrant Simba

Black Tooth’s established his control through a num­ ber of alliances: with powerful spirits and the Laibon, vampires of Africa; with the Ratkin of Johannesburg and Pretoria; and with the sangoma, witch doctors and medicine men to whom his familiars whispered secrets. The mad Simba also possessed great personal power; the Tempest swirled in his mind, showing him the pattern of nothingness, from which only the worst and most terrible secrets might be drawn. Black Tooth stared into this internal Maelstrom, and it gave him insight to many dreadful forms of power.

With his great charisma and his legendary warrior status, he won over many allies who should have distrusted him. With his fierce claws and mountainous thews, he crushed his enemies and bent them to his purposes. When the great Ajaba purge began, Black Tooth could be seen in the dust and ash of volcanic skies, his leonine visage seeming to scan the veldt for those who had escaped his claws, his profile rising in storm clouds, his roar in every peal of thunder.

It was known that Black Tooth, in his time as a hero, had vanquished four great Banes. When he stood in ascendance over the vanquished Ajaba — announcing his victory after the 1984 holocaust — those Banes were in attendance. Whenever Black Tooth took his Crinos form, he wore two of the vanquished Banes tied into his beard, hanging below his fangs; another two were tied into his mane, rising above him like aborted bodhisattvas from the womb of a dragon.

These Banes were a source of Black Tooth’s power and his enemies’ fear. From their whispers, Black Tooth learned far more necromancy. When these magics did not suffice, he could tap their might directly to add to his own. More often than not, the very threat that Black Tooth might untie one of his captives and unleash it was enough to make the disorganized Changing Breeds flee — right into the Endless Storm’s trap. In this way, Black Tooth preyed upon the Changing Breeds’ unwillingness to work together.

With the Banes advising him, Black Tooth drew obeisance from the ghosts of tribal ancestors, and through them he gained the cooperation of many villages and their local spirits in unearthing caerns and unseating the Kinfolk of his enemies. Black Tooth also used the ghosts to subjugate a number of the Guruhi, lords of the African vampires, threatening to uncover their dens and expose the Masquerade. Through his vampire allies, he gained access to networks and infrastructure that had been beyond his means. He used them to contact the Ratkin, whom he paid as attack dogs, bolstering his forces against the numerous Changing Breeds that were realizing all too late what a problem he was.

Though his attacks would culminate in the 1984 massacre at Ngornongoro, he was on the attack long before then. The Changing Breeds struggled, through intermixed reactions of panic, apathy, and outrage, to slow him. Long before he crushed the Ajaba, he had managed to consolidate power among the Bastet, though many among the Simba, Bagheera, and Swara were beginning to distance themselves and even to turn on him.

In order to ensure the Bubasti’s cooperation, Black Tooth sought an alliance with the Followers of Set. Long­ time enemies of the Bubasti, the Setites had captured the last of the Bubasti’s animal Kinfolk. Black Tooth also sought further secrets to use against his enemies, and he knew the Setites’ trade in corruption would make him an irresistible target for their influence. He could give them much, and did — delivering a number of the Fera’s animal Kinfolk to the Setites in exchange for initiation into their mysteries. Through these meetings, it is said that Black Tooth learned the Yava of the Ajaba.

These alliances would be the foundation of the End­ less Storm’s power.

For many years, Black Tooth’s Endless Storm roared across Africa, leaving terror and destruction in their wake. But in time, even Black Tooth’s appetite for blood was sated. Believing that he had no more enemies, his purging of the Changing Breeds finally came to an end.

Though the rampant killing had ended, this was not a peaceful time. The new king unsettled the Fera, who picked his teeth with the splintered bones of dissenters. They knew he was weaving terrible magics. Worse were those they feared he might attempt. In this time of fright and fear and whispers, Black Tooth’s sangoma stalked men for their mutis, the Guruhi held the silence of rural villages and kept watch for signs of interlopers, and the Bubasti crawled on their bellies, trading dark favors in order to be reunited with the cats of Kyphur. All this

POWER OF THE ENDLESS STORM

Black Tooth saw the formation of his pride written in the entropic rush of the Tempest. Not only did he see the form and face of those he would recruit, but the Maelstrom showed him the talents his soldiers would harbor. For the duration of his life, the Simba would seek not only the future members of his unformed pride, but the fetishes and spirit pacts they would need to bring out their fullest potential.

In each member of the Endless Storm, the Ahadi would find a supreme combatant — tacti­ cians honed by two lifetimes of experience — that of their own, and that which the Tyrant Simba had gathered for them. These warriors, formed in the mind of one of the mightiest Simba heroes, empowered by the wisdom and foreknowledge of ancient spirits and their pride-king, would prove some of the most dangerous enemies in all of Africa.

while men continued to kill men, drought and famine did the work of the Ratkin, and AIDS burned in the blood of the people who drew forth the Wyrm in their agony. Truly, this was Black Tooth’s Africa.

The young Ajaba named Kisasi was born into these times. She did not know them to be darker than any other. All she knew was that her kind were rare, killed or driven out of their home. She also knew that Gaia had given her a duty — a culler of the weak — and a diseased tyrant who culled the strong to keep power impeded that duty.

When she looked at the world around her, she saw the working of the Wyrm. Kisasi knew, as a matter of instinct, that someone must defeat Black Tooth. It was not that she couldn’t sympathize with Black Tooth. Indeed, upon hearing the tale of the great Simba’s motivation, she agreed with his concerns. However, looking past the murder of the Ajaba, she saw that Africa was bleeding from many wounds. Banes of pestilence, disease and famine built new miseries in the souls of man and beast. The Ajaba whose role it was to cleanse such sicknesses were gone. That was Black Tooth’s sin. To save her land, she must see him gone.

But the Ajaba were gone. Kisasi needed allies. For that, she looked to other Changing Breeds.

She called to the Mokolé, but they snapped and hissed at her. She pursued the Swara but they fled her approach, whispering remonstrations as they went. All knew that Black Tooth had marked the Ajaba for death. None wanted to be seen with her.

It was only as she arranged the stones of a shattered Ajaba caern, in an attempt to feel closer to the slain mother she barely remembered, that a watching Bagheera felt pity. She wanted to make the kill swift and painless, but she was stayed by Kisasi’s quiet voice whispering comforts into the night. Kiva, the old wereleopard, crept close. The moonlight revealed Kisasi wrapped protectively around a lion cub, whose pride had been slaughtered by humans. When Kiva finally made herself known, she came as a listener. She would leave as an ally.

“I have seen you approach the spirits, whom have turned away from you in fear of Black Tooth. I have watched you ask the Breeds for help and they have shunned you. What is it that you seek, that makes you so courageous?”

“Only peace.” “Well, you shall be courageous forever.” Thus the old Bagheera bade Kisasi to share her plans. Kisasi’s words were the kind that made so much sense they would be greeted as madness. She spoke of her dream — the ranks of the Changing Breeds locked in a cycle of interlinking tasks, bound by duty to the Mother and to each other, never again divided. Each would respect the task of the other. It was her conviction that only such a pure, empathetic binding could break the dark power of Black Tooth.

What she asked seemed absurd in some ways, naïve and idealistic in many respects. But the old Bagheera knew her words to be true. She vowed to shepherd Kisasi on her quest to realize this dream.

They went first to the Makunguru, the African Corax, who heard the plan of Kisasi, and saw more sense in it than good. For them, it was a chance to be as they ever were, interlopers and mediators and callers-on-the-wind. Now the fate of the world would rest on their wings. Most of the Makunguru who heard the tale joined Kisasi’s crusade.

Benefitting from a long-established relationship of exchange between the Corax and Mokolé, Kisasi gained audience with the weresaurians. While many rankled at the prospect of acting outside their remit, a few — mostly the inquisitive, adventurous young — who understood necessity in Kisasi’s idea. They saw potential to guide her and ensure the Mokolé habitations remained sacred and their own — perhaps out of fear of the greater destruction that would come of a war with their own kind rather than the Endless Storm.

Knowing what was at stake, the Mokolé sought out the dangerous and unpredictable Rokea who patrolled the waters at the mouths of their rivers. Though only a few weresharks responded, it was enough. Their vast strength would be vital in overthrowing Black Tooth.

For the rest of the Fera, the story was some variation of the same — a majority that would not budge, but a number of elders who saw the great potential in Kisasi’s dream. These included heroes of great Renown, whose words and wisdom brought many new allies to the table. Kiva called the Swara and the Bagheera to court. A few Ajaba came to Kisasi’s aid, if only to see what this unlikely matriarch had wrought with her words.

By the time Black Tooth sent his assassins to silence Kisasi, it was too late. She was saved by a mysterious, shrouded figure — a secret emissary of the Nagah. Through the wereserpents, Kisasi’s words even reached the ears of the Bubasti, whispering promises of freedom from the dominion of the wicked Laibon. The coalition seemed to have no end to its momentum, for Black Tooth had angered, threatened, and killed far too many heroes to ever go unpunished. Even the Ananasi were moving against him. Long before Kisasi, they had secreted one of their number into his inner circle. Along with the Nagah, the werespiders added their shadow killers to Kisasi’s regime.

The coalition was formed in feature but not in purpose until the Dawning Ritual, devised by a joint effort of the elders of the Mokolé, Bagheera, and Kisasi herself. Through it, their faction took the name Ahadi, which means promise. Its code and its remit — to bind together, none set above the other, for the good of Mother — was a declaration of war against Black Tooth and the Endless Storm.

The Ananasi were not the last to join the Ahadi. The Kucha Ekundu, who had long been at war with the Simba, had resisted any agreement out of hubris and dis­ trust. When Black Tooth nearly destroyed the Ahadi, the Garou realized they were about to lose their one chance at defeating the Endless Storm. Sadly, the Kucha Ekundu, who would briefly stand in for the vanquished Ajaba, would be nearly extirpated in the resulting conflict.

Last of all to join the Ahadi was a pack of Silent Striders who came to sub-Saharan Africa on a quest and were threatened by Black Tooth’s lieutenants. Keeping unusually cool heads, the Garou investigated, and could hardly believe their eyes when they found the heart-caern of the Ahadi. They saw an unprecedented gathering of Fera who were actually working together to solve problems. Having seen the depravities of Black

Tooth, the Striders joined the Ahadi as, in their own words, “militant observers.”

Black Tooth Defeated

The Ahadi formed quickly and in force. From the beginning, Kiva knew that the strike on Black Tooth must happen swiftly.

The old Simba was already on the attack. It was said that he had a man at every checkpoint, and a sniper in every tree. Black Tooth would not risk his pride early; he would summon his considerable allies to crush the Ahadi, and wait to hear word of their success. But once the Endless Storm was unleashed, one side or the other would die.

Black Tooth’s forces were numerous, and his Endless Storm was fearsome. But the Ahadi had one advantage. The Dawning Ritual, which bound them together, had interspersed their natures, allowing the different Breeds of the Ahadi to meld their powers and purpose. In this way, a Mokolé of the Ahadi might gain Renown for being an efficacious disseminator like a Corax, while a Corax might gain Renown for protecting a place of deep memorial significance. In addition, the ritual created a bond between those Breeds who empathized with one another, causing them to develop spiritually. This de­ velopment would prove significant in the fight against the Endless Storm.

The declaration of war was a two-part attack: a diversionary strike against the caerns of the Endless Storm by the majority of the Ahadi forces coupled with a direct strike against Black Tooth himself, led by Kisasi and Kiva and a small force of young, brave Ahadi. Eat­ ing blood and dust and smoke for days, the combatants struggled in a lightless world, as the battle cries and the death cries became one in the same. In the end, nobody truly knows who killed Black Tooth. The Ahadi call the Black Tooth’s killers kganmadi, and name their mixed packs after them.

IT’S YOUR FIGHT TO WIN

The young heroes of the kganmadi and their epic battle to slay Black Tooth is the stuff of legend. The identities of the heroes and the details of the battle with Black Tooth are left deliberately vague, so that players’ own characters can vanquish the great lord of the Simba.

The Ahadi’s leadership consists of a senior council of luminaries who act to organize it and promote its agenda to both the other Changing Breeds and to the spirit world. The council sets rough policy for the group, but their control is limited — members of the Ahadi adhere to the philosophy of empathizing with other Breeds. How they express that is an intensely personal thing, changing with the feelings, attitudes, and needs of individual members.

That is not to say that the Ahadi is a loose association of loners, but rather that the needs of a political, military body do not coincide with the spiritual rectitude that allows, for example, a Mokolé to intuit the ways of the Nagah. No shapeshifter can be forced to feel empathy for another kind, nor can he be expected to adjust to another Breed’s ways. The dictum that, for example, a Makunguru should learn the ways of a Garou and fight the Wyrm sounds good, but is useless if the Corax in question simply cannot fight. Whether a shapeshifter can bond with and walk with another Changing Breed is almost entirely up to the individual.

However, the Ahadi have seen some incredible joinings of form and function. Ajaba have played the part of peacekeeper, while Rokea have done the work of judges, and Nagah have carried news of the movement of spirits down into the watery sanctums of the Mokolé.

As a group the Ahadi fosters kganmadi — mixed packs — to bring out understanding between Breeds, which fosters spiritual evolution into new, stronger forms. The senior council tries to find the best ways to grow these bonds, and to direct those Fera who are already advanced in the Ahadi toward goals that help keep the peace.

Members of the council include Kisasi and a handful of elder Bastet and Mokolé, as well as a few young heroes of various other tribes — including one of the surviving Kucha Ekundu.

Beneath the Senior Council, the Ahadi is composed of autonomous groups operating in the spirit of the Ahadi Code (see p. 262). The Ahadi forms kganmadi, packs of mixed shapeshifters, which either get together on a temporary basis to pursue a specific goal and then go back to doing things on their own as normal; or bind together into a permanent pack to work together for the good of Gaia.

Beyond that, a number of shapeshifters consider themselves supporters of the Ahadi but who continue working in traditional ways — for example, solitary Bastet digging up secrets as Gaia bade them, Makunguru run­ ning intelligence to different kganmadi without joining one themselves, and Kucha Ekundu running in Garou packs who treat the kganmadi as allies. Compared to the rigid, formal nature of Asia’s Beast Courts, the Ahadi is a very loose operation. But even in a short period of time, it has achieved significant results.

After the defeat of Black Tooth, the Ahadi seized control of the territories held by the Endless Storm. By taking over the core caerns, they took control of much of Africa. The Changing Breeds watched with bated breath to see if the Ahadi would be as tyrannical and debased as he whom they had usurped. But rather than extorting control from their fellows, the Ahadi began the long and arduous process of returning caerns to their rightful inhabitants. Many caerns remained contested by many groups, each claiming to have been robbed of them by some fiend or another — whether it be Black Tooth or a villain centuries earlier. It was a task of years — and that does not even begin to describe the ordeal of sorting misappropriated fetishes, relics that had moved through so many hands that Kisasi secretly lamented having not sealed them away with the soul of the Tyrant Simba.

The Ahadi were in a precarious position — they both controlled the main sources of power and Gnosis in the land, but they had also started restoring what Black Tooth had taken away. While greatly outnum­ bered by the unaffiliated Changing Breeds, the Ahadi still held the strongest hand. They were more organized, battle-hardened, and willing to work together, and they possessed the caerns and fetishes their contemporaries wanted returned. By both appearing strong and yet conciliatory, the Ahadi managed to avoid a war, and began to establish trust in Africa. Peace, it seemed, for a time, was possible. But as the Garou well know, the Apocalypse cannot be diverted.

Many of the Changing Breeds disagree vehemently with the “order” the Ahadi has brought to Africa. By holding court and hearing petitions over caerns, they have effectively opened bidding on many places that many shapeshifters believe are not theirs to give or withhold. The entire process is a blasphemy, an affront to the Changing Breeds’ nature. Those who hold power are those who take it. Thus was Black Tooth given rise.

The Ahadi faced other pressure. In the Mnesis of the Mokolé, multi-Breed septs died with the War of Rage. Caerns once held pristine against all outsiders,

peopled by only a single Breed, were now open to the other shapeshifters. In the hostile, territorial minds of many Changing Breeds, allowing others into their septs was a slur against the sanctity of the caern. More than any other, this issue would drive opposing Fera to fight against the Ahadi.

Each Changing Breeds in Africa has responded differently to the Ahadi — often, several responses, as certain members of the Breed rush to join the nascent organization, while others dedicate themselves to its destruction.

Ajaba

The Ajaba’s reactions are a mixture of pride, re­ sentment, and their instinct for survival. At present, a majority of the surviving Ajaba have joined the Ahadi.

A number of factors make the Ahadi attractive to the werehyenas. It’s a safe harbor, first and foremost — in the long years of running and hiding from the tyrant Simba

and his minions, the Ajaba found themselves devoid of allies. They have stood alone for far too long, and it’s comforting to have support at last. The Ahadi also ap­ peals to the Ajaba’s pride: not only did one of their young heroes form the Ahadi, but in any kganmadi that lacks a Simba or Garou, the Ajaba usually step into the role of war-leader — which they regard as very prestigious.

On the other hand, the Ahadi stings the pride of the werehyenas. Before Black Tooth, they were the dominant Changing Breed throughout Africa. Many of the caerns that have now become ‘Ahadi caerns’ were once the property of the Ajaba, and it rankles, badly, to see cats and lizards and ravens making use of their sacred sites.

Worst of all, the Ahadi actively oppose any werehy­ enas who try to take revenge on the Simba for the murder of their families and the near-extinction of their Breed. Indeed, the Ahadi demands that lion and hyena work together. For many Ajaba, the wounds are too raw and their Rage burns too hot. If the Ahadi shelters the Simba from the righteous wrath of their victims, these Ajaba reason, then it can be torn down alongside the lions.

Ananasi

To the extent that the Ananasi were involved in the strike against Black Tooth, it was only because the Hatar decided that it was time to remove him from the world. In the wake of the tyrant Simba’s death, the Ananasi continue to keep their own counsel and tend to their duties. This can sometimes bring them into conflict with the Ahadi, particularly the Hatar. They see no reason to share details of what they're doing and why with the other Changing Breeds, and they're generally against accepting the Ahadi Code. On the other hand, the Ana­ nasi don't actively oppose the Ahadi, in general — they try to avoid confrontation through subtlety where they can, and when that doesn't work they fight suddenly and swiftly then get on with life. Mostly, the Ananasi want to carry out the bidding of their Queen without getting involved in the Ahadi’s affairs.

That said, a very small number of Ananasi, mostly Kumoti, have taken advantage of the Ahadi’s open-door policy and undertaken the Dawning Ritual. Queen Ananasa has, after all, in no way forbidden working with the Ahadi, and these young werespiders feel that the diverse talents of the Ovid will help them carry out their own duties more effectively. These werespiders quickly learn to mouth the appropriate platitudes about loyalty to Gaia and universal opposition to the Wyrm to keep the other members of their kganmadi happy, and neglect to explain the deeper complexities of Ananasi cosmology and purpose. It’s not something their pack­ mates need to know

Bastet

The Bastet, as always, react as individuals. Loners by nature, many Bubasti, Bagheera, and Swara see no attraction in joining a kganmadi, and so steer clear of the wide-eyed idealists of the Ahadi. Other, more opportunistic werecats have undergone the Dawning Ritual and pledged themselves to the Ahadi, while not joining a kganmadi themselves. The Ahadi touches on the curiosity of the Bastet, and many are willing to at least provisionally join, if only to learn the secrets of the Dawning Ritual. What if the Ahadi isn’t just a doomed idea? What if it isn’t a flash in the pan? How shameful, to be present at the founding of such a mad and beautiful idea without at least touching a paw to it!

Other Bastet are more wary of the Ahadi. It demands peace and co-operation, which are already tall orders for the Fera. What might it demand tomorrow? These Bastet fear anything that would restrict their freedom or trap them in obligations. Gaia trusted them to work alone, according to their own cunning and discretion — who are the Ahadi to question that?

THE SWARA

The formation of the Ahadi fostered resis­ tance among many of the African Changing Breeds, but he Swara have become one of their strongest political adversaries. Normally silent, the werecheetahs have been openly critical of the Ahadi. For one, the Swara were instrumental in pushing for patience — if not peace — among those militant Mokolé who would to fight to prevent kganmadi using their holy sites. Peace in Africa, the Swara claim, is not the sole province of the Ahadi.

While promoting peace as an act of resis­ tance, the Swara also express serious concern that integrating the Changing Breeds will destroy them. One Swara elder surmised that while the Ahadi’s mixed packs could, for example, replicate the Ajaba for a time, one group of Fera taking up the role of another had a fatal flaw. If the Ahadi’s Ajaba learned the ways and roles of a Corax while the remaining Ajaba died fighting the Wyrm, the werehyenas traditions and ways would go with them. In such a way, the Swara warned, could the Changing Breeds speed their way toward extinction — dying out not in flesh but in spirit.

And, of course, a minority of Bastet join a kganmadi and stay with it. They see no conflict in doing so — where else could they possibly be that could have more wonderful things to teach them than in the midst of so many different Changing Breeds?

The Simba have their own take on the Ahadi. While the idea of running in a pride isn’t as alien to them as it is to their fellow werecats, they have their own issues. It’s difficult for any Simba to ignore the fact that the Ahadi founded to hunt and kill one of their heroes. A hero who had fallen into the arms of the Wyrm by many accounts, yes — but who can trust the judgment of outsid­ ers? What gives them the right to judge? The surviving members of Black Tooth’s regime have little difficulty finding support and safe havens among the ranks of the Simba, who rankle at submitting any of their tribe to the authority of the Ajaba. Africa was troubled under Black Tooth, but what part of the world is not in these days of looming Apocalypse? Under Black Tooth, the Simba ruled. Are they now to bow before those weaker than

themselves? Are they now to give up their caerns into the hands of mongrel packs? No, say the Simba outside the Ahadi, it will not stand.

Many younger Simba have set aside the natural ar­ rogance of their tribe and work with the Ahadi to make amends. That Black Tooth was hugely, monstrously cor­ rupt is shameful but true, and denying the truth simply means that rivers of blood were spilled for nothing. The tyrant king’s actions have left deep, festering scars from the Kalahari to Cape Town, and setting things right ought to be the responsibility of the werelions. And the Simba are, after all, the mightiest Fera of Africa — the Ahadi must have their aid if it is to endure.

Corax

The Makunguru, African Corax who breed with white-necked ravens, initially saw no point in joining the Ahadi. After all, it wouldn’t actually change what they did. In time, they have come around. The alliance makes their jobs much easier, after all. Those that haven’t either don’t want to be burdened with any obligations outside of their traditional roles, or think the Ahadi is headed for a bad end. Very few Makunguru actively oppose the Ahadi, but the handful that do have caused a great deal of woe for the young alliance, coordinating the more militant Ajaba and Simba.

Garou

The role of the Garou in the Ahadi is tense, to say the least. Their fellows still remember the War of Rage, although Black Tooth’s genocidal rampage has done much to displace traditional resentment against the werewolves.

The Kucha Ekundu have largely thrown their lot in with the Ahadi at the urging of their Mokolé allies, and were instrumental in the destruction of the Endless Storm. Tragically, that battle decimated the ranks of the African Talons — and the survivors are very conscious of what they’ve already sacrificed for their homeland. Being treated with mistrust and suspicion even after that brings the Kucha Ekundu’s Rage boiling to the surface.

Silent Striders pose even more serious issues to the alliance. They travel far and wide, and speak of what they know — it’s the way of their tribe. At present, about two dozen Silent Striders have formally joined the Ahadi, but a far greater number surely know of the organization. The far-sighted among Africa’s Fera worry that the Silent Striders would roam far and wide, sit down by the fires of other Garou, and tell of what they have seen. How will the Garou Nation react to stories of an army of Fera organizing in Africa, seizing caerns and subjecting werewolves to its authority?

Many fear that history has already seen the answer. Still, the Garou cannot be turned away or ignored — not

only would it be a clear violation of the Ahadi Code, but they bring enormous strength to any kganmadi. To deny the werewolves would only provoke their Rage. Several members of the Senior Council even feel that they should recruit more Silent Striders as a priority — the wandering wolves will act as harbingers no matter what, carrying word of the Ahadi to the outside world. The Council believes that it would be best if their tales were full of courage and praise, rather than ignorance and paranoia.

Still, trusting the werewolves remains a difficult leap for the majority of the Ahadi, and so the Garou remain lightly represented in the organization.

Mokole’

Mokolé outside the Ahadi consider the entire affair to be either well outside of the task Gaia gave them, a mad pipe dream that will never work — in all their long memory, nothing like this has ever worked. The laconic nature of the Mokolé means that few are mili­ tantly opposed to the group, preferring to simply sit it out and wait for the Ahadi to fail. On the other hand, every werecrocodile who isn’t an ally represents a river or swamp or jungle somewhere that a kganmadi can't enter when duty bids them to do so.

Among the African Changing Breeds the Mokolé lend power and legitimacy, and every one that turns their back on the Ahadi hurts their cause in the spirit courts. They also affect the general reckoning of the continent's Bête — particularly the Kucha Ekundu, who have close ties to the Mokole.

On the other hand, several very respected elders support the Ahadi. Their influence has been sufficient to draw a number of younger members of the Breed into supporting the organization. Kganmadi look to Mokolé for leadership when wisdom is required, a role with which the weresaurians aren’t always comfortable — a young Mokolé is rarely as wise as his Breed’s reputation leads others to expect. On the other hand, he can likely perform better in a fight than reputation would suggest. The Senior Council must caution young Mokolé not to allow themselves to become the fist of their kganmadi, except as a matter of last resort; it’s not the role Gaia meant for them, and they are by far the least subtle of Her children. Solving each problem with a rampaging saurian monster is a great way for a kganmadi to expose itself to many enemies.

Nagah

The Nagah vigorously debate their response to the Ahadi. Are the Fera of Africa ready for something like this? Is it a doomed venture? Is it improper for them to temporarily assume the tasks of their brethren? Does the

approval of the spirit world matter, in such cases? More to the point, is this the time for the Nagah to reveal themselves and step forward? The Nagah could solve the Ahadi's issue of authority and enforcement of its codes very handily but should they end centuries of secrecy? Or should they strike down the Ahadi as an aberration that has forgotten its place? This is the debate that drives the wereserpents.

A number of Nagah provided covert and surreptitious aid to the Ahadi during the war against Black Tooth — that the tyrant Simba had fallen into corruption and had to die was beyond question. In the course of doing so, they revealed themselves to only two members of the Senior Council: Kiva and Kisasi. To date, those two have proven trustworthy in keeping the secret of the Nagah while the wereserpents wrestle with their course of ac­ tion — that, combined with their very high profiles, has stayed the hand of Nagah assassins thus far.

In truth, a bare few of the youngest and most reckless Nagah have already tired of the debate and joined kgan­ madi. They want to prove the worthiness of the Ahadi to their fellows through action. They do not yet speak of their membership with other wereserpents, and Kisasi has impressed on these kganmadi the importance of secrecy.

The Sesha know of these young rogues, who have unquestionably violated the sacred secret — but have not yet ordered their deaths. Perhaps these young Nagah have the secret approval of the Sesha, or perhaps the Sesha are simply waiting to let events inform them whether this bold action deserves to be rewarded with praise or destruction.

Ratkin

Black Tooth paid a number of Ratkin to fight the Ahadi, but as soon as he fell, that alliance vanished. Though the most hardline of the new alliance wanted to thin the Ratkin out, cooler heads prevailed — suspect­ ing that the Ratkin alone might outnumber the other Changing Breeds in Africa.

The Ratkin remain solidly outside the Ahadi: their terrorist methods bring them into immediate and frequent conflict with kganmadi. Theoretically, any Ratkin could to join the Ahadi, but the number of those who have remains in single digits. Most kganmadi don’t have the stomach for helping the Ratkin with their given duties even in those instances where the wererat in question has overcome the genocidal madness that consumes many Ratkin in these final days.

The odd wererat who breaks with the swarm and joins the Ahadi only exacerbates these tensions. Quite often, such defectors draw the Ratkin into conflict with the Ahadi as the twitchy, mad children of Rat fear their wayward cousins will betray their plans.

Rokea

The vast majority of Rokea have no idea that the Ahadi exists, as they ignore all the antics of the dirt­ walkers — so long as they do not interfere in the affairs of the sea. A tiny handful of weresharks have claimed membership in the Ahadi; a few are Betweeners, but others are bull sharks that spend most of their time away from Sea in the waters of various African rivers. The Rokea make for strange, blunt-spoken companions, but their martial prowess and knowledge of Africa’s waters prove invaluable for their kganmadi.

The majority of Rokea who have joined the Ahadi claim that they do so to carry out their mandate to sur­ vive. While borrowing someone else’s problems may seem counter-intuitive to survival, the world is dying — Sea and Unsea alike. Without Sea, the Rokea cannot live, and so working with the Ahadi to forestall the destruc­ tion of the Earth remains the best way to fulfill Gaia’s mandate. More teeth makes for a better bite.

Others?

Africa has no native Gurahl, Nuwisha, or Kitsune — but the Ahadi Code is clear that the option should remain to welcome any of Gaia’s children who sincerely wish to join in their fight. Shoul a werebear decide to make Africa his home, the Ahadi would welcome her. Indeed, they’d welcome her contribution — the land is badly in need of healing, convulsing under the burden of terrible diseases. Three Nuwisha have passed through Africa since the fall of Black Tooth, and one has even undertaken the Dawning Ritual, so far — although that werecoyote has not yet joined a kganmadi, preferring to explore the African Umbra alone. The door remains open for more tricksters, should they express interest.

Most curiously, the Ahadi currently numbers no less than five Kitsune among its various kganmadi. The rumors of potent and exciting new magic has drawn the werefoxes to Africa, and they’ve stayed in order to aid a land badly in need of help. Several have actually written back to their families abroad, requesting more assistance; two tenets of the Breed’s own laws (“I command you to aid your brothers and sisters, and that which serves Gaia” and “I free you to do anything else necessary to achieve our goals”) not only permit such a course of action, but make these pioneering Kitsune clever and Renowned for ‘discovering’ the Ahadi and getting in on the action first.

AFRICAN WEREFOXES? MIXED-PACK NAGAH? WHAT?

It’s a stretch — not an impossible one in a world of airplanes, let alone Moon Bridges, but still a stretch — for a Gurahl to end up in Johannesburg, or a Nuwisha to walk the slopes of Kilimanjaro, or for a Kitsune to explore the depths of the Congo. But so what? An Ahadi game is about removing the barriers standing between players and getting to play the kind of exotic werecreature they have their heart set on playing. So what if the Kitsune don’t normally live here? So what if the Ratkin are mostly crazy? Don’t sweat it. Everyone’s at the table to have fun, so let everyone have the kind of fun they want. Even better, acknowledge the contradiction and make it into a story hook. Will the Nagah be eliminated for breaking the silence of his Breed, or usher in a new age when the wereserpents can finally step out of the shadows? Perhaps a plucky werefox will save Cairo from an infestation of Banes, and spark off formal relations between the Ahadi and the Beast Courts. It’s your story — tell it the way you want.

The Ahadi represents a source of new insights to the nature of the Changing Breeds. Cooperation, kinship, and evolution are a tantalizing draw to many shapeshifters. While Africa is still plagued by war and violence, and while the shadow of the Wyrm always looms, Ahadi-dominated Africa is a noticeable improvement over the reign of the Endless Storm.

Then there is the Ahadi Code, which reaches out to embrace the undecided.

Remember Our Mother’s Wisdom in Appointing Each His Place

Gaia set a task before each of Her children, to which she felt they were best suited, and it is the apex of hubris to assume She didn't know what She was doing. That your brother's task is not your task does not make it less important for the well-being of Gaia.

Reality: Most members of the Ahadi try to take this tenet seriously, as it’s one of the cornerstones of the al­

liance. They’re not always successful — it’s difficult for many Fera (particularly Simba, Garou, and Mokolé) not to look down on the tasks of certain of their brethren as less important or less weighty than their own. Of course, working to uphold someone else’s job is usually a good way to discover just how vital and difficult Gaia’s various mandates really are.

In particular, many shapeshifters have a great deal of difficulty stomaching the task Gaia gave to the Ratkin. It will try the limits of this part of the Code when it be­ comes clear that the Ratkin themselves are planning to wildly overstep the limits of their mandate, and commit genocide on humanity.

Trust Your Brother’s Strength, and Make It Your Own

The one great commonality of the Changing Breeds is that they lack the numbers to carry out their Gaia-given duties as they must. This element of the Code does not just make it permissible for a shapeshifter to seek aid from other Changers in the course of her duty, but mandatory if by neglecting to do so, she is in danger of failing in her duties to Gaia.

Reality: Nobody joins the Ahadi without acknowl­ edging some truth to this tenet. The degree to which an individual shapeshifter embraces it varies, of course, with some continuing to act out their traditional roles and simply counting themselves as allies, while others go all the way and join a kganmadi.

Many Roads Stretch Beneath One Sky

The Changing Breeds come from a wide array of traditions and practices, both social and spiritual. It is unseemly for one Changer to demand that another conform to his expectations and ways, or to demand that she give up her own. This element of the Code urges the Ahadi to instead seek common ground while respecting necessary boundaries. Moreover, this tenet of the Code enshrines aiding another shapeshifter in his duties as a sacred act, and that profaning the nature of that duty — such as a Corax spreading a secret he helped a Bastet ally discover and keep — dishonors the one who does it, just as though he had failed in his own assigned tasks.

Reality: The Senior Council pushes this tenet ag­ gressively, and those kganmadi who actively uphold it gain Renown for doing so. There’s a certain tendency for the more pack-oriented Breeds (the Ajaba, Simba, and Garou) to want to run kganmadi according to the normal dictates of their native packs; doing so without consideration of the needs of their new packmates inevi­ tably leads to tension, and a concurrent loss of Renown.

We Share One Mother, and One Enemy.

Though the different Changing Breeds have different methods of offering Her reverence, all are ultimately of Gaia. Though the different Changing Breeds have differ­ ent tasks to perform in Her name, all are ultimately foes of the Wyrm. This tenet establishes the basic purpose of the Ahadi — to serve Gaia, and prevent the Wyrm's victory, though it be by various and diverse means.

Reality: This tenet clashes with the beliefs and duties of the Ananasi, who consider themselves the children of Queen Ananasa rather than Gaia; the Hatar, in particular, work extensively with Banes. This leads few Ananasi join the Ahadi, and those that do neglect to explain the intricacies of their beliefs and roles to their fellows.

Divided, We Have Fallen. United, We Will Rise.

This tenet is the heart of the Ahadi — it isn't a commandment, rather the statement of purpose that the Ahadi use to form multi-Breed packs, both temporary and permanent. The Changing Breeds have spent centuries trying to stand alone and apart from one another, and they have failed. The Ahadi represents a new idea, a new way of doing things, which it hopes may yet stave off the Apocalypse. Likewise, it presents the counterpart to “Trust Your Brother's Strength, and Make It Your Own.” A shapeshifter in need of help is obligated to ask the Ahadi to give it; and if they are capable, the Ahadi must render that aid. Finally, this is the tenet that justifies the existence and creation of new Gifts and rites.

Reality: Again, nobody joins the Ahadi who doesn’t see at least some sense in this tenet. How closely they want to be united, of course, varies between individuals.

All Are Welcome at the Fire

The Ahadi welcomes everyone. It has significant numbers of some Changing Breeds — the Ajaba, Ba­ gheera, Bubasti, Makunguru, Mokolé, Simba, Swara, Silent Striders, and Kucha Ekundu — but ultimately it tries to be open to any shapeshifter who wishes to join a kganmadi in the spirit of cooperation and brotherhood. If an Ananasi or Rokea seeks the aid of the Ahadi, it is supposed to at least try to accept them, so long as they are willing to offer aid in return. This is a statement of intent, however, not a mandate — members should not let grifters and opportunists take advantage of the Ahadi’s goodwill.

Reality: This is the tenet with which the Ahadi struggle the most. An ocean of bad blood remains be­ tween the Ajaba and Simba, while all Fera continue to widely fear and distrust the Garou. And who wants a

spider or rat in their kganmadi? Who can understand a Rokea? The Senior Council expends more effort trying to enforce this tenet than any other part of the Ahadi Code, and it is this tenet, more than any other, that drives shapeshifters away from the Ahadi.

Though Black Tooth is vanquished and the Endless Storm is no more, the Ahadi’s battles are far from over. The minority controls a conflux of territories that helped make Black Tooth almost unstoppable. Whether they claim to be peacemakers or lawgivers, many will always see them as conquerors. Below are a number of threats that are guaranteed to force the nascent group into new conflicts.

Hendrik Lamar

An Awakened Mage, hunter and naturalist, Hendrik travelled to Africa from Dresden in the late ‘90s to hunt Black Tooth. However, Black Tooth employed hedge mages to distort Hendrik’s efforts and lead him into peril and vice. They succeeded.

Yet, when Black Tooth’s forces died, Lamar didn’t leave. Rather, he seized caerns in the power vacuum

left by the fall of the Endless Storm. Since then, he has built a base of contacts and armed followers, construct­ ing compounds to protect his nodes and to promote his “walking safaris” that he holds for tourists — spiced with a bit of magic to make them incomparable, of course.

Hendrik is a powerful member of the Order of Hermes who has tasted the magic welling up from the heart of Africa. He finds it irresistible, ancient and potent, and it sparks in him thoughts of seizing it — joining it — so that he might become a part of something eternal.

Never found without a large hunting rifle, a Bowie knife, or some other sign of his intimate connection to the hunt, Hendrik’s ambitions have made him an enemy of practically every shapeshifter, Ahadi or otherwise. Most want him dead and he is quite aware of these desires. Even so, he has petitioned the Ahadi to pay him for the time he put into chasing Black Tooth. This petty extortion is just a smoke screen, however — even if they pay him he does not intend to leave.

Ahmadou

One of the few survivors of the Endless Storm, Ahmadou has another distinction — he is a Khan, the only non-Simba member of Black Tooth’s pride. It is

also said that Ahmadou is the only member of the pride who Black Tooth did not see in the Tempest. Rather, Black Tooth rescued the Khan from being drowned by a crocodile when he was but a cub, and the young tiger followed him ever since.

Those who have faced him say that Ahmadou is the greatest fighter of the Endless Storm, even greater in physical combat than Black Tooth himself. The Khan is both feared and respected for his tremendous battle record. It is widely known that he lived through the final battle with Black Tooth and now stalks Africa with an unknown purpose.

Many fear Ahmadou will seek revenge for the death of Black Tooth, or try to rebuild his power. Those who know Ahmadou — chiefly his enemies, for he has no friends — scoff at the notion. In Ahmadou they see a valiant whose claws first seek the throat of the Wyrm, and then any foe worth slaying. In his endless quest to fight the Wyrm, Ahmadou has transcended Black Tooth’s goals. Though he mourns the death of the Simba who was like a father to him, he did not fall prey to Black Tooth’s corruption, and neither seeks to carry on his legacy, nor seeks to hound his killers and take revenge.

Initially the Ahadi thought they would have to slay the Khan along with every other member of the Endless Storm. But since the failure of their first attack, many feel that pursuing Ahmadou to bring him to justice would be a foolhardy venture. Indeed, many believe that he has committed no crime, and that he should be left alone.

Yet many within the Ahadi disagree. In the rush on Black Tooth’s stronghold, three Mokolé tried to assassinate the Khan, to open a path to Black Tooth’s back. When Kiva arrived on the scene, she saw the blood and destruction the Mokolé had wrought and had assumed success, only for the young tiger to attack her from ambush. Ahmadou nearly killed her outright, and was about to finish her off when Kisasi drew him away. The young Khan would have surely caught and killed both of them if not for the death of Black Tooth. After the Simba’s mortal roar shook the compound, the fire of Rage bled out of Ahmadou and he disappeared into the jungle.

Now he remains a phantasm, striking at a Pit here, felling a mighty shapeshifter there, always vanishing, never waiting around to reap a reward for his efforts. Many still see him as complicit with a mass murderer — and many Mokolé want revenge for the three of their number that he slew the night of the raid on Black Tooth.

Nomfazwe

Another well-known remnant of the Endless Storm, Nomfazwe looks like a scarred, humorless Xhosa woman in her late 20s. She's actually a metis, and Black Tooth's

bastard daughter. Her name means, “born into a time of war.” She spends most of her time in Homid form as a roving mercenary and arms dealer.

Nomfazwe believes that with Black Tooth dead, Africa's stupid and weak shapeshifters have no hope of standing in the face of the oncoming Apocalypse. Instead, she foments war on the continent, arming the humans and setting them to the practice of killing and killing and killing; she hopes to make Africa into a meal the Wyrm will choke to death on, its humans ready to rise up on the day of the Apocalypse and fight to their final breath. She's willfully oblivious to the fact that the poison she's provoking into human spirits is itself ushering the Wyrm into the world.

Though her metis birth has left her body unmarked, her mind is twisted — she's incredibly paranoid, and never stays in an area for more than a few months before moving on to another conflict. This has helped keep Nomfazwe alive now that the Ahadi are pursuing her. One Corax claims that he witnessed her meeting with Ahmadou, but had no interest in joining her. Instead, he tried to kill his former packmate.

Ramla

Another missing member of the Endless Storm, Ramla was a notorious sniper. She was last seen in the tower of Black Tooth’s compound, holding off an assault by Bagheera and Corax with a fetish rifle carved from the tusk of an elephant spirit. Firing bullets of pure silver, it was said that Ramla killed more Ahadi in the final attack on Black Tooth than the rest of her pride combined.

By the time the Ahadi breached her tower, Ramla was gone, apparently vanished. Since then, nobody has seen any no evidence of her. Several shapeshifters claim that she has been following members of the Ahadi — those who others believe have slain or hidden away the children of the Endless Storm.

A duty-bound believer in Black Tooth’s vision of Africa, the fall of the Endless Storm will have changed her. Indeed, if Ramla still lives, her only goal will be to learn the whereabouts of the children and kill anyone she has to in order to get them back.

The Ahadi are, at their heart, a gathering of youth. They lack the ancient, millennia-tested traditions and secrets of the Beast Courts; instead, the Ahadi operate through a handful of newly-created (or perhaps newly-rediscovered) rituals, a smattering of kitbashed Gifts, a few powerful-but-tentative patrons, and a lot of impro­ visation. Most Fera who have heard of the organization

expect it to fall apart within a decade. But the founders of the Ahadi are building toward a dream, and few things are more resilient than dreams. What follows are the mystical tools and game mechanics used to reach the Ahadi’s vision.

Create an Ahadi-aligned Fera exactly as a normal member of their Breed — the Ahadi exists to join together the other Changing Breeds, without the ingrained special social or mechanical complexities of the Hengeyokai. Characters can only purchase Ahadi Gifts during charac­ ter generation with freebie points. All Ahadi characters are assumed to have already undergone the Dawning Ritual, and the players may choose for their characters to be joined into a kganmadi by the Rite of the Joined Circe, if the players pay to take a pack totem.

The Ahadi have devised a small number of shared rituals that facilitate cooperation between the different Changing Breeds. Though the native rituals, beliefs, and values of the Changing Breeds vary wildly, all have a common respect for the spirit world, and the judgment of mighty and ancient spirits. What the spirits have sanctified, the Changing Breeds can agree to abide by — usually. Because the scared secret prevents the spirit world from acknowledging the Nagah, they cannot lead any of these rituals, though they can take part in them.

All of the Ahadi’s exclusive rites must be performed within the boundaries of a caern — a serious point of contention among some Breeds. The Ahadi must not only claim many caerns stretching across Africa, but they must keep them open to any member — an idea that makes many Garou, Ajaba, and Simba profoundly uneasy.

The Dawning Ritual

Level Three (Mystic) The Dawning Ritual is the foundation rite of the Ahadi. All shapeshifters who wish to claim membership in the Ahadi must undergo the rite, opening themselves up to the secrets of the pact.

In a way, the Dawning Ritual resembles both an initiation and a rite of passage. It must be performed at sunrise, within the bounds of a caern. The prospective Ahadi must bring proof of some deed or service that was of tangible benefit to the Changing Breeds as a whole — some perform heroic ballads, while others donate fetishes to the Ahadi as a whole. The ritemaster then leads the pledge through a recitation of the Ahadi Code while in the presence of the caern’s spirit. Assuming the spirit finds no fault with the applicant, the ritual concludes with a celebration to welcome a new member into the

Ahadi — this may be anything from an all-day revel to quiet discourse on the finer points of the Ahadi code, undertaken over a fine meal.

System: The ritemaster must spend a point of Will­ power and roll Intelligence + Rituals (difficulty 6) to weave a link between the caern’s spirit and the general network of spirit-patrons of the Ahadi — the local spirit becomes a representative for the judgment of the spirit world as a whole. Unless the applicant is clearly Wyrm-tainted, the spirits generally approve her induction.

Once a shapeshifter has undergone the Dawning Ritual she is considered a member of the Ahadi for all purposes. This enables her to participate in the Rite of One Blood, and offers additional benefits to the Rite of the Joined Circle. It also allows her to purchase Ahadi Gifts (see below).

Rite of the Joined Circle

Level Three (Mystic) This very ancient rite was recently rediscovered or reinvented — nobody is quite sure which — and put into use by the Ahadi. Used to bind together members of many Changing Breeds into a pack, it is effectively identical to the Garou Rite of the Totem (W20, p. 213), save that the would-be packmates do not travel into the Umbra. They instead meet the spirit within the bounds of a caern, where the ritemaster calls it into the world to speak to them, judge them, and hopefully find them worthy. When the totem assents to bind the pack, its members cut their hands and bleed together.

System: As with the Rite of the Totem, this Rite requires no roll. A kganmadi enjoys all of the benefits of a Garou pack, including totem benefits (except for the Nagah and Ananasi), the ability to perform pack tactics, and they are wholly considered a pack for the purpose of any Gifts that make such distinctions.

If all of the members of the kganmadi have undergone the Dawning Ritual, they become able to gain Renown for active adherence to the Ahadi Code. This Renown translates into Honor or Wisdom Renown for Garou, Corax, and Mokolé (as appropriate on a case-by-case basis), Wisdom for Ananasi, Obligation for Ajaba and Ratkin, Honor for Bastet, and Innovation for Rokea. In the event that one of the non-African Breeds somehow became a member of the Ahadi, Gurahl would gain in Honor or Wisdom, Kitsune in Kagayaki, and Nuwisha in Humor — what could be more absurd?

Rite of One Blood

Level Two (Mystic) This rite is performed for the benefit of a full, sworn kganmadi at the heart of a caern. (The ritemaster need not necessarily be a member of the kganmadi.) One

member of the kganmadi steps forward; to his left is a bowl of earth, to his right a bowl of water, and directly before him, a fire. He speaks of the burden Gaia has placed upon him, and cries out to the sky to render him aid. Led by the ritemaster, the members of his kganmadi step forward and speak to his back, affirming their brotherhood and swearing to help shoulder his burden until his duty has been discharged. The kganmadi then departs in pursuit of their sworn mission.

A variant version of this rite, known as the Rite of One Mind, is a level three Mystic rite. It is used when joining together a group of shapeshifters who wish to pursue a specific goal together, but are not already members of a kganmadi.

System: The ritemaster rolls Intelligence + Rituals (difficulty 7). Success binds the kganmadi members to their brother’s task for one full cycle of the moon per suc­ cess rolled, or until the quest is fulfilled, whichever comes first. The task must be something with a defined scope and ending (such as “slay the corrupt sorcerer Hendrik Lamar”), and must be firmly within the purpose Gaia intended for that individual’s Breed. Thus, for a Kucha Ekundu it must involve destroying the Wyrm’s minions; for a Corax, ferreting out information about the enemy or delivering it to those who need it most; for a Mokolé, ensuring that important knowledge is not lost; and so on.

For the duration of the rite, the spirit world considers the other members of the kganmadi to be properly em­ powered to take up their brother’s duty as their own, and to gain Renown for it. Thus, a Simba could gain Renown for helping his Ajaba brother to cull the corrupt, while a Ratkin could gain Renown for helping to preserve an ancient songline sought by a Mokolé. This translates to the closest applicable Renown type of the kganmadi members (slaying a Garou’s sworn enemy would grant an Ajaba Ferocity rather than Glory, for example); if in doubt, default to the “Ahadi Renown” described in the Rite of the Joined Circle.

The Rite of One Mind is identical, save that its roll is against difficulty 8, and that for the duration of the rite’s effect, the Fera are also bound into a ‘questing kganmadi’ — effectively, a pack that may gain Renown together and perform Pack Tactics, but which has no totem.

The Ahadi are young, with only a small number of spirit-patrons. Nonetheless, the pact’s handful of elders has been busy, and several kganmadi have dedicated themselves full-time to scouring the Umbra in search of more allies for the group. They’ve had a startling amount of success, acquiring a small body of Gifts that all members of the Ahadi can learn. These lack the smooth polish of the Gifts of the Beast Courts — they’re messy,

hybrid things; attempts to bind the strength or talents of different Breeds together.

All Ahadi Gifts are granted through simultaneous communion with two spirits. In all of the Mokolé’s Mnesis, this process is unique to the Ahadi. This requirement does deepen the Ahadi’s dependence on caerns. It’s very unlikely to find a friendly spider-spirit and a crocodile-spirit lingering together in the Umbra, so the kganmadi summon the appropriate spirits to a caern, appease them, and learn the Gifts.

In all instances where Ahadi Gifts cost Rage, shape­ shifters who do not possess Rage pay this cost with a point of Willpower; Ananasi must spend or a Blood Point. Ad­ ditionally, where Ahadi Gifts make reference to members of a character’s kganmadi, they also apply to traditional packmates if the character is a member of the Ahadi but not part of a kganmadi (as is the case with a significant number of Ajaba, Simba, Kucha Ekundu, and Silent Striders).

For games set during the war against Black Tooth, the Storyteller might allow characters to purchase Level One and Two Ahadi Gifts — the mightier Gifts listed here aren’t developed until well after the tyrant Simba’s demise. Any character that has undergone the Dawning Ritual is able to learn these Gifts for an experience point cost of (Level x 5).