Places

Some Epiphs are completely empty, with no spirits linked to the color, sound, or thought that pervades the area. Most, however, house numerous spirits that align with the Epiph’s conceptual reality. Inside the Epiph, they only have competition from other spirits of their ilk. This leaves them to become surprisingly powerful, and very territorial. Spirit residents demand a high cost in chiminage from Garou to allow them into their Epiphs. Worse still, that chiminage has to fit into the paradigms of the Epiph, or else the spirit will have no understanding of what’s offered. They have no experience outside the realm, so they often can’t even perceive outside concepts.

In rare cases, the Epiph itself is actually a spirit, a minor Incarna stranded in the Penumbra. Those in the Epiph literally enter the spirit’s very being. While often more comprehensible than other Epiphs, the spirit rules completely. They can end a Garou’s life without a second thought. In these dangerous places, Garou must tread carefully, and plan to appease the spirit before entering. Then again, they make for ideal death­ traps for enemies, if werewolves are willing to take the risk.

A Glen is a hotbed of the Wyld; a breeding pit for Wyld spirits. It’s a place of healing, birth, and the very essence of wilderness — more a chunk of wilderness full of Gaian growth than it is a direct Wyld realm. It’s nowhere near as intense and harrowing an experience as a Wylding.

Blights, Chimares, and Epiphs are all harrowing experiences for most Garou; they’re places an average werewolf wouldn’t want to visit. A Blight may be a good battleground, but it’s absolutely awful. Travelers go out of necessity, not out of desire. Chimares are alien; they reflect human imagination and distort perceptions. Garou are not welcome in these places, they cease to be apex predators in a world where their hunting skills mean little. Glens, though, are idealized for Garou. For werewolves, they’re like stepping from the freezing cold into a warm shower. Everything about a Glen feels nurturing to a Garou.

In counterpoint, a Glen makes it easy to just give up. Garou know that outside the Glen, the world’s going to shit, everything’s breaking down, and everyone’s stabbing each other in the back. A Glen is like a hug, a womb, a homeland, and a community, all in the form of a spiritual realm. Stepping away isn’t something anyone can just do without feeling its gravity.

A Glen usually manifests in the deepest, most lush parts of the wilderness, in places untouched by human hands. Of course, these places are slowly dying off — taking the linked Glen with them. Some have since detached from their analogues, and now take up space only as far-flung pockets of the Penumbra.