Bestiary

The Mnetics have many names, most of which they gave themselves. Dumenkara, Mindborn, Sasahai, Katikasasa, Vanus, and more, all which relate in some way to twisting the Mnesis. They do this partly to confound the Mokole and give the appearance of enemies everywhere, but they also use different names for their own amusement, because they like the way they sound, and, ultimately, because none like the name ‘Addict’.

their kind twisted the Mnesis to so completely fool the weresaurians. The Mnetics have opened their eyes to the truth that memories are ephemeral, malleable things no harder to reshape than a ball of soft putty. Mnesis isn’t the secure vault the Mokolé believe it to be. Even the unfallen Mokolé know that memories from ages past are difficult to dream with clarity. They trust in the similarity of symbols and ideas shared by streams. If every Mokolé of a given stream dreams the same, the Mnesis must reflect the truth.

This is wrong. Just ask the Mnetics, who manipulate memories and twist the gossamer threads of recollections as easily as other Mokolé breathe. They know first-hand how unreliable memory is, as they rewrite history every day. This knowledge makes most fallen Mokolé live for the present. Mokolé often have a reputation for being mired in the past, but the Mnetics buck this trend. They adopt new technology to better understand how to twist, pervert and use it to their advantage. Many develop an interest in photography and recording technologies, to better understand how to edit and delete these records that are beyond Mnesis. The Mnetics have a particular love/hate relationship with the internet and social media. They love the many methods of lying, twisting and distorting the truth on a massive scale, but loathe the externalizing of humanity’s knowledge and experiences — their memory — as it makes it difficult for the Mnetics to permanently destroy something so widespread. Fortunately the nature of today’s media means people often accept lies as truth, and the way media, politicians and entertainers spin facts to better reflect the message they want, not the truth as it is, gives the Mnetics a niche to control.

It is the Mokolé trust in Mnesis that leads some to reject what they thought to be true and join the Wyrm. Such a simple foundation of faith is an easy target for the Wyrm — often merely demonstrating the lie is enough to tip a faithful weresaurian from his purpose. Deleting something the Mokolé would be sure of, twisting a memory to render important details incorrect, or inserting a new memory that is clearly fantasy but absolutely true to the victim are common weapons used to tear apart the weresaurian’s purpose, leading them to abandon Gaia and choose the Wyrm.

Other Mokolé fall from the addictive rush they first experience altering memory. Some try to forget an act so terrible it must be buried, others wish to relieve the pain of a tragedy they cannot face. These small tweaks begin innocently enough, but each time the justification for a new alteration becomes easier to make, and soon the new Mnetic is altering the memories of others to protect his secret, and twisting his own recollection of the event to feel better about it. Eventually they become solipsistic nihilists, trapped forever in the now because the past is one great canvas of superficial, pretty lies.

The existence of the Mnetics is an infectious meme to other Mokolé, memory worms that burrow inside and

plant doubt in the Mokolé’s suitability to serve as Gaia’s memory. Mnetic numbers grow faster than the fallen of any other Changing Breed, as the fallen weresaurians hope to bring the entire species to extinction with this modern day Apocalypse. Few Mnetics regret their decision to fall. The weresaurians ruthlessly practice their Gifts on their own memories, changing regrets to relief, and excising unpleasant and unwanted recollections. As a result, the Mnetics are unreliable witnesses but have one of the most positive outlooks of any shapeshifter.

Other Changing Breeds have Gifts that alter, suppress or fool the memories of their victims, but these do not affect the true Mnesis and the Mokolé look upon them with disdain. A Mokolé may be irritated to learn her mind was violated by another Breed, but she knows a healing sleep will cleanse her memories as they wash through the tides of Mnesis. This attitude instils great faith in Mnesis, which makes the Mnetics’ manipulation of the memory source all the more devastating, and shocks an ever-increasing number of weresaurians into falling to the Wyrm’s blissful embrace to escape the realization.

The Mnetics have a special affinity with the Innocents, who also twist and remove Mokolé memories. Many Mnetics who didn’t experience their crisis of faith at the hands of another Mnetic experienced their first doubts of Mnesis from the powers of Innocents. The stillborn spirits both love and hate their fallen cousins. They delight in tormenting the once-Mokolé by twisting their memories when they think they can do so without being noticed, but also teach memory-corrupting powers to their Mnetic partners.

The Mnetics tend to work well together, as they have the best defenses against the memory tampering of their own kind. They also don’t tend to care if their memories are accurate — it’s no trouble to edit them afterward. Clutches may work together for years with each member having a very different recollection of the experience. Mnetics are also notoriously difficult to interrogate — if they think capture is inevitable, they quickly erase their memories or rewrite them to prevent giving up their co-conspirators or to reveal their plans. Mokolé find it particularly frustrating when they finally capture one of their fallen kind, only to discover his last remaining memory is to tell them he deleted it all.

The Mnetics hide in plain sight, twisting the memory of those around them to forget when they’re gone. Some delight in confounding others through their tinkering. For two decades covering the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first, a group of Mnetics convinced Mokolé, Garou and most of the Pentex board of the existence of a particularly depraved member of their kind who engaged in vile acts within the Atrocity Realm. Calling their creation Braney, hundreds of people believed that a fallen No-Sun Mokolé called Deep Purple Dark was the dark inspiration behind the children’s television show. Each of these witnesses swore that they had seen poorly-copied, smuggled tapes of ‘Braney’ performing depraved acts of torture and violation, and pointed to ‘innocent’ events within the children’s show that they said were hidden references to the filth. ‘Braney’ never existed, but Deep Purple Dark did. The Mnetics wanted to see how far and for how long they could twist perceptions. When they grew bored of their game, they made sure various hunters suddenly knew how to find Deep Purple Dark and bring him to ‘justice’. Deep Purple Dark’s full confession before his execution helped reassure the Mokolé that they had the right person. The Mnetics clutch is now pondering who their next victim will be, and how far they’ll push it this time.