Bestiary

The Wild Hunt is the personification of fury and an instrument of Stag’s vengeance. The Fianna can call upon it when in dire straits from a Wyrm menace. It is not called lightly, for the Garou can get caught up in the Hunt and consumed by it. The Huntsman and his pack are a morass of wild spiritual energy rather than specific entities.

• The Huntsman: The Huntsman appears as a tall, stag-antlered man following his hounds.

Willpower

10, Rage 10, Gnosis 5, Essence 40 Charms: Armor, Materialize, Tracking

• The Hounds: These Gaffling servants of the Hunts­ man, who usually travel in packs of nine (although there may be as many as three times that number), sport black coats and eyes of cold green fire. They can easily pace a Garou in Lupus form, and are tireless.

Willpower

6, Rage 7, Gnosis 2, Essence 18 Charms: Materialize, Tracking

Garou serve their tribe and Gaia, and not even death can end their service. The spirits of the long-dead wait in the Umbra, watching over their descendants. Some can aid the living, lending their knowledge, wisdom, or even their expertise in combat.

Most ancestor-spirits reside in their tribe’s Umbral homeland. A few might exist near their sept’s caern, while some are bound to powerful fetishes. Garou can bargain with an ancestor-spirit for aid or Gifts, much as with other spirits — though an ancestor is likely to be favorably disposed to her descendants, assuming they’ve not brought the bloodline into disrepute. The Ancestors Background allows a Garou to call upon his ancestors, al­ lowing an ancestor-spirit to possess his body temporarily, granting him that ancestor’s skill and knowledge.

It’s fair to question whether ancestor-spirits are really the spirits of dead Garou. Some believe them to be the spirits of the departed, while others believe that they are a combination of the memories and personalities of the departed werewolves wrapped around an ephemeral spiritual core — the spirit of the Garou has returned to Gaia to be reborn, but her personality lives on. While a werewolf’s opinion on her ancestor-spirits says a lot about his views on the spirit world, the answer doesn’t alter the very real impact of ancestor-spirits in Garou society.

Some rare humans can leave ancestor-spirits, especially Kinfolk. These ancestor-spirits aren’t as powerful as the ancestors of Garou, because humans don’t share the were­ wolves’ spiritual might when alive. Even so, it is a mark of honor for any being to become an ancestor-spirit on passing.

Ancestor-spirits vary greatly in ability, depending both on their power before death and their strength of will. The following is a sample Garou spirit:

Willpower

6, Rage 8, Gnosis 7, Essence 21 Charms: An ancestor’s Charms relate to their tribal, auspice or breed Gifts. For example, an Ahroun may pos­ sess the Armor Charm, a lupus might have the Tracking Charm, and a Glass Walker may have powers similar to an electricity elemental or a Net-Spider.

Elementals are spiritual manifestations of the “classi­ cal” elements: the core substances that make up all things.

For centuries, the only elementals known were of the four classical elements: earth, fire, air, and water. In recent times, Garou have discovered spirits that look like elementals but that embody other substances — Glass Walkers frequently traffic with glass and plastic elementals, while the spread of industrial society spawned electricity and metal elementals. No werewolf has yet discovered a spirit related to an element from the periodic table; fluorine elementals remain the stuff of horror stories for chemically-minded Garou.

Elementals vary wildly in power, from the minor Gafflings in a candle-flame to the Incarna-like power of the water in an ocean. The following Traits apply to minor elementals: