Places

One domain whose very name bristles the fur of the fiercest warrior is Malfeas, realm of the Wyrm. It is a festering wound in the heart of reality, oozing the evils that gnaw the bones of the world. Everything that is wrong with the universe finds a home in Malfeas. The realm contains profane mockeries of everything that has existed in the material and spirit worlds. Vast metropolises stretch over the horizon, built along a spiral symbol representing the heart of the Wyrm. The daily grind is literal in these wicked places, where gnashing gear-teeth grind up tormented souls and sluice them into filth-encrusted sewers. The spiritual sludge vomits out into facilities that reconstitute the damned into patchwork people. Some of the “cities” are hideous organic scars in the blackened earth. Buildings with facades of quivering skin stretched taught over skeletons of yellowed bone. Glistening, organ-like towers reach into the sky to spew forth clouds of deadly gas. Anything that can shock or disgust, or that someone fears, anything that the Wyrm can twist into a sick parody, exists in the Wyrm’s realm.

Nothing in Malfeas is friend to Garou. Knowledge exists here but the secrets are hazardous to a werewolf’s spirit. The most benign entities in the realm are the ephemeral fragments of once whole spirits and creatures now endlessly tormented for the Wyrm’s amusement. Bane lords rule their degenerate duchies and oversee the blasphemous rites of the Black Spiral. Dancers are forced along the Spiral until their bodies and spirits seethe with Wyrm-taint. Few forces in the universe can redeem such an unfortunate soul.

Other powerful enemies of Gaia make their lairs in Malfeas. Corrupt Incarnae, the most powerful of twisted mages, deranged cultists and possessed slaves. Malfeas is the heart of the Wyrm’s power in the Umbra. It is the womb birthing evils that plague every realm. As much as every Garou would love to strike the realm from the Umbra, it is too vast and powerful. Yet some feel that the answers to defeating the Wyrm lie within the diseased skin of Malfeas. Perhaps finding a way to cleanse the realm would cure the Wyrm of its madness, even temporarily, or maybe defeating the Wyrm would utterly undo Malfeas. Some Theurges feel that even if the Wyrm was struck down, Malfeas would remain a pit of spiritual corruption, only now without an integral part of the Triat. The whole of the universe would come to decay into a Malfeas-like hell. The most radical theories say that even in its mad state, the Wyrm’s presence prevents complete cosmic dissolution by binding all that taint within its titanic form. One thing is certain: until balance is restored, Malfeas will be the center of the taint eating at the universe.

The Abyss

Many realms of nightmares drift through the Umbra. Some claim to be the source of all fears; others are reflections of the worst the human heart can conjure. Realms of endless battle and coiled nests of monstrous Banes drift among plains dedicated to every evil a twisted mortal mind could imagine. Only Malfeas itself is regarded with more dread than the oblivion of the Abyss.

The Abyss is a yawning chasm of darkness sometimes described as a tear in the fabric of creation. The darkness is bordered by a vast, craggy cliff-face, marred with countless caves and crevasses. Things that are lost find their way here to be forgotten. It falls so far that it seems bottomless, and it stretches so far across that its width appears endless. Even flight-capable Umbral travelers of great endurance and courage cannot cross the expanse to the other side.

No one really knows what the Abyss is or how it came to be. Some Garou say the Abyss is where the Wyrm went mad and declared it would not stop until everything became nothing. Philosophical werewolves think it may be some necessary balance – for every place there is, there must be somewhere that isn’t.

Different tribes have their own spin on these stories. The Bone Gnawers claim elder vampires slumber here, waiting for the Apocalypse to rise and drink the world dry. The Get of Fenris believe it will spew forth the worst hordes of Wyrm-spawn in the end days. The Stargazers say Klaital, the greatest ever of their tribe, descended fully into the depths and climbed out with the knowledge he had gained. The Silent Striders whisper that the Abyss would close forever if the greatest Garou hero sacrificed herself in the darkness; they add that it is still open despite the sacrifice of many supposedly great heroes.

Other shapeshifters have their own views. Bastet believe the first den-realm became the Abyss when it was corrupted and consumed by the Wyrm. The Mokolé view it as the antithesis of Mnesis, the place where memories are forever lost. Ananasi say a bloated Goblin Spider endlessly spins web to bridge the darkness and when she finally succeeds the Apocalypse will begin. The Nagah believe this is where the Wyrm first struck the spirit world. They believe Banes, Wyrmspawn and other beings of corruption and decay climb from the unreachable far shores; one for every decent thing lost to its depths.