Places

The Silent Striders’ homeland is cast adrift in the Umbra as an unattainable prize. According to the tribe, the curse that prevents them from entering their lands in the physical world also severed their connection with their tribal homeland. No Moon Paths lead to this Realm and so far all attempts to find it have met with failure.

The homeland still exists as one of the countless small Realms dotting the Near Umbra. The modern Striders have forgotten important details of how they lost their Realm. When the ancient evil cursed the tribe and barred them from resting in their lands the elders of the tribe suffered great shame. So great was their humiliation and anger that they summoned Sokhta from her domain in the Aetherial Realm and swore to her they would have no land to call their own until they lifted the curse. This pride was their downfall as they expected to fulfill their oath within no more than a generation. Countless years later no living Silent Strider knows the truth of their loss, but Sokhta has kept them to their word and allows no Moon Paths to enter their homeland.

The stories the Striders tell describe the homeland as resembling their ancestral home in ancient Egypt. Perpetual moonlit night cloaks the homeland’s dark sands. The waters shine silver in the moon’s reflected light. Great pyramids reach towards the skies, carefully aligned to highlight con­ stellations commemorating Silent Strider heroes of old. Ancient hieroglyph-covered obelisks dot the landscape, telling the story of the Silent Striders and the history of the Garou. The dialect has been lost to modern minds but ancient spirits may recall its secrets.

The Realm is also home to the ancient ancestor spirit Wepauwet. This spirit of a once powerful Ahroun guards the homeland from intruders and patiently waits for his descendants to fulfill their oath. He also protects another forgotten secret — in tombs deep beneath the pyramids and temples the tribe’s ancestor spirits lie sleeping. Should the tribe ever recover its lost homeland it would suddenly find

itself armed with ancient allies whose knowledge of forgot­ ten arts could change the otherwise inevitable outcome of the war for Gaia.

Most shapeshifters don’t enjoy the same Umbral free­ dom as the Garou and don’t have Realms of their own. The two surviving Fera who do are the Corax and the Nuwisha. The Ananasi, Bastet, and Nagah do have their Umbral bolt-holes, but each is an extension of its owner and is not a collective homeland for their Breed.

Sufficiently motivated explorers could find the home­ lands of extinct Fera adrift in the Umbra. Storytellers should design these lost Realms to suit their own chronicles.