Places

The Garou nation hopes the Bunyip homeland still exists, but many assume the Realm has faded from existence. The Bunyip were secretive and isolated from their cousins when they were alive and their secrets have proven more confounding with their death.

The Silent Striders have a few old stories that recall it as a reflection of the Australian outback. These tales tell of a dry, inhospitable land of red earth and barren stretches mostly devoid of animals or people.

The homeland does include desert expanses but the Bunyip were a widely spread tribe who had kinfolk across the Australian continent. The Realm has a diverse range of climates that includes tropical mangrove forests, deep gorges, temperate bushlands, and cool rainforests. Every land where the Bunyip made their homes and sang their songs is represented here.

Dreamtime creatures and giant marsupials dwell here and hunt foreign spirits or other intruders. The tribe’s ancestor spirits once roamed the land but disappeared when the last of the Bunyip died. Yahwie, the scourge of the Australian Ananasi, can summon many secret paths to the homeland and lives here when it is not haunting the Australian Pen­ umbra. The other denizens of the Realm avoid the monster when possible as the treaties between it and the Bunyip ceased when the tribe died. Now no one knows its motives as it treads lost paths with impunity to bring violence and death wherever it goes.

The Gumagan Mokolé remember secret ways to the Bunyip’s homeland, as do the Australian Nagah. These Fera are occasional visitors here and the only ones who don’t risk violent retribution from the native emanations.

Garou explorers still try to find the Bunyip Realm. They hope to find secrets to help survive the coming Apocalypse. Though the Bunyip guarded the Dreamtime Umbra from the Wyrm, they passed their secrets through song and now very few spirits recall the exact singing of the Bunyip’s magic.

Some Garou have retreated into the Umbra, only to be trapped within the Deep Umbra for the rest of their lives. Others have purposefully retreated far into the Deep Umbra, creating a space to live in relative peace. After the few remaining Bunyip retreated into the Umbra after the War of Shame, they made vows to return one day. They were never able to regain strength enough to return, and instead lost their connection to the material world and sat adrift in the Umbra as they slowly died away. After losing their connection to the physical world, they began to wander the Umbra, lost and out of balance. They were drawn to the Deep Umbra and the soft healing light of Luna.

The remaining members of the tribe journeyed far into the Deep Umbra, passing from place to place with little to no notice of the horrors and wonders they passed. Finally, they settled into a small section that reminded them of their home. The longer they remained, the stronger their connection to Gaia became, and eventually they became able to travel back to the material world — in a fashion. When they finally did, it was not as a physical creature, in­ stead they could only project a faint ghostly image into the world. They had become creatures of the Umbra, spirits in a way, and the most they could do was haunt and frighten the Garou usurpers within Australia. The Bunyip remain within the Deep Umbra still, trapped within the timeless space, discontented and ashamed of their loss. To this day, they attempt to travel back to the material world and regain a physical form, yet the only evidence of such as they terrorize the local Garou are their shadowy spirits.