Places

Nightmaster is the name taken by an insane former Shadow Lord who once sought the power to devour the sun from the Abyss. When he stood alone in the lightless, senseless void he offered the Abyss his soul, allowing it to consume his every weakness, leaving behind nothing but a Rage-filled shell.

Nightmaster now strides with impunity across the Abyss, destroying what he finds or recruiting it into his growing army. He is empowered by the Abyss but unable to depart. Some Garou worry that he found the secret he desired and now waits for the Apocalypse to slay and consume Helios.

The Black Spiral Dancers of the Hive of the Jagged Maw worship Eater-of-Souls. These fanatics seek to maintain the purity of the Abyss and once worked under their priestess Grythyg before being pressed into Nightmaster’s service. They despise the uncorrupted and hunt other Garou in the Abyss tirelessly.

Grythyg despises Nightmaster. His power is greater than hers and she burns with jealousy at his Abyssal favor and the loss of leadership of her Hive. For now she assists

Nightmaster’s schemes but will take any opportunity to discover his weakness and destroy him.

Above and beyond all other Near Realms lies the Aetherial Realm. It stretches from the Gauntlet over the Penumbra and above all other Near Realms to the borders of the Membrane. It is reflected in the physical world as the skies above that constantly cycle through night and day. The Aetherial Realm is the Umbral sky where Luna and Helios dance around each other and is home to the spirits of the planets and heroes of the constellations.

Although the Aetherial Realm stretches across all the sky to the margins of the Deep Umbra, it is also a discrete plane of existence in the Near Umbra. Finding the Realm is simple – the traveler only needs the means to head upwards and pass through one of the clouds in the sky. This works even in the Penumbra without needing to pass into the Near Umbra first. Additionally, all Moon Bridges pass through the Aetherial Realm at their peak and it is simple for a werewolf to step from the path and be in the Aetherial Realm.

A layer of clouds forms the ‘ground’ of the Aetherial Realm. They have a spongy top layer but are solid and easy to walk on. The clouds shift and flow to their own rhythms and form wondrous landscapes of plains, hills, valleys and mountains that all have the same spongy solidity. Birds, other flying creatures, and long-lost mythical beasts fly above the clouds. So too do aerial spirits of all kinds, including air elementals and weather spirits.

Garou territories are scattered through the Aetherial ‘lands’. These are guarded as carefully as any caern in the physical world. The proximity of the Aetherial Realm to so many other places makes it a valuable staging point for Garou raids in the Umbra and the physical realm. The various septs that guard these places secure easy access between caerns and the Aetherial Realm, and from the Aetherial ground level to allied Anchorheads far in the sky above. They also provide a line of defense for the Aetherial spirits and denizens should anything break through the security stationed at Anchorheads on its way to the Near Umbra.

Leaving the Realm is even easier than arriving. Gaps open between the slowly drifting clouds; travelers find these easy to step through but nearly impossible to accidentally fall through. From here she falls out of the Aetherial Realm and into the Near Umbra. The Aetherial keeps the traveler safe through this fall. No matter the distance, she lands as if she had just jumped up from the ground. The drawback of using this exit is she has no control over where she will land. She may wind up anywhere in the Near Umbra —

including within other Near Realms, unless their own rules prevent such arrival, like Erebus or Flux.

Another means of leaving the Realm are the Moon Bridges. A werewolf may simply step onto any Moon Bridge he comes across and follow it to its end. He may even ask other travelers its destination if he happens to see them moving across its peak. A Garou with suitable Gifts may also create Moon Bridges of his own and use these to enter or depart the Realm.

Above the slowly shifting cloud landscape shines the Aetherial sky. Against a backdrop of blue so deep it is only a few shades away from midnight black, Luna’s Aetherial presence hangs in the sky, brighter and larger than she ever appears in the physical world. Helios sits at the opposite end of the sky, more distant and fainter than he seems in the physical realm, for the Umbra is the domain of night and of Luna. Between these two Incarna shine the planets and stars. Each of the planets appears with crisp, constant visibility, while the stars and their constellations twinkle and dance like dazzling diamonds in the Aetherial sky.

Reaching celestial objects takes time — journeys may stretch out to weeks or months. This factor is rarely an impediment to the determined traveler and many Garou make it a point of pride to make the journey to the home of Luna’s Aetherial Incarna. Visiting the heavens requires the traveler to have some means of flight.