Bestiary

Bot-Net is a specialized type of spirit of gossip or rumors. They first sprang up as a few weak spirits more than thirty-five years ago. As people used bulletin boards to talk about topics of interest, create meetings, and to talk about general socializing, the spirits formed around them. Bot-Nets remained low in numbers as small Gafflings for some time, growing slowly and steadily as more and more people started to use the internet for socializing. In the late 1990s, the spirits exploded in numbers as people across the world turned from socializing in groups of people, to socializing through the internet.

Bot-Nets do not gather with people, but instead reside in the server hosting whatever media site they most identify with. Sometimes, a spirit hangs out near a person whose sole interaction is through the internet — each update, like, +1, #tag, @reply, and share feeds the spirit, making it fatter. Bot-Nets entice people to use the internet for socializing more and more, encouraging them to eschew face-to-face activities in favor of updating or checking different social media sites.

Bot-Nets love conversing and sharing stories, information, and news. They are just as happy to lend an ear to any who will share a story with them, as they are to tell one. They pass news quickly, though they rarely bother to get the whole story or make sure the story is correct before adding it to their repertoire of information. Most Bot-Nets take on characteristics of the servers they inhabit. Sometimes

only holding small easily digested social niceties and information, other times enjoying lengthy stories or news of loved ones. They can cause problems by spreading lies and rumors about people, or revealing secrets as whistle blowers. Most werewolves attempt to ensure that any one Bot-Net does not gain too much power and influence over people.

Rage: 4, Willpower: 5, Gnosis: 4, Essence: 13

Charms: Control Electrical Systems, Peek, Short Out

Image: When Bot-Nets manifest, they appear as a cloud of pop-up windows — filled with photos, and scrolling text — opening and closing continuously. They give off a faint sound of millions of voices droning on in a soft chorus of status updates and sharing. Bot-Nets look exactly the same in the Umbra, though bits of the Pattern Web can be seen holding each of the pop-up windows together.