The Supernatural
Garou are far from the only thing present in the World of Darkness. This post will detail a few of the other known types of creatures you may encounter, and can be considered common knowledge. Individuals with Hearth Wisdom, Occult, Scholar Of... Merits, or different personal experiences in game or backstory will likely know more.
Bygones
Other Names: Cryptids, Monsters, Beasts
Associations: No garou are known to specialize in Bygones. They are known creations of the gods.
Known Features: Varies, but generally an impossible beast.
Known Locations: Varies by bygone, but they keep away from cities.
Magic Type: Bygone
General Knowledge/Superstitions:
- Relics of the Trials of Mycenean lore, Bygones were created by the gods as a means for heroes to prove themselves.
- Humans that displease the gods are often turned into Bygones.
- Information is as varied as the bygones themselves, so it's hard to say more definitively. A lot of bygones turn out to be fae.
- Various categories of Bygones include Drakons (any large reptilian beast), Cetoi (sea monsters; a subset of Drakons), and Echidnae (monsters birthed by Echidna).
- Other known Bygones often include things like sirens, harpies, basilisk, chimera, griffin, manticore, sphinx, unicorns, and more!
The Fae
Other Names: Wyld Ones (garou slang), Fair Folk, Fairies, Nymphs(?)
Associations: Night Claws in particular seem to excel at dealings with the fae, but the Bringers of Light camp is distinctly qualified on the whole.
Known Features: Incredibly varied; easily confused with Bygones or Wyld Spirits. Generally human with blatantly inhuman features, or dancing balls of light.
Known Locations: Arcadia is full of them. Night Claws can usually find them. They tend to gravitate towards places dominated by the Wyld.
Magic Type: Fae
General Knowledge/Superstitions:
- Fae predominantly live in a parallel world much like the Umbra, which they call the Dreaming or the Dream Realm.
- They have the ability to mask as human using something called a glamour. Luckily, it seems to be more like a spirit manifesting than a spirit possessing someone.
- They feed on the dreams and creativity of humans. Sometimes it harms them, but usually it does not.
- Giving a fae your name gives them power over you.
- Agreements with fae are often mystically binding and they will try to trick you into them.
- They have an aversion to things being either upside down or inside out.
- They have a weakness to iron.
- Fae react to milk, cream, honey, bread (stale or regular), and laurel. It either drives them off or attracts them. Accounts differ as to which does which.
Wraiths
Other Names: The Dead, Shades, Restless Dead, Spirits (often a confusing term), Ghosts
Associations: Silent Striders and White Howlers specialize in dealing with the dead, as well as the Ivory Priesthood camp.
Known Features: Largely incorporeal.
Known Locations: Necromanteion of Acheron is the easiest place to commune with them, but they often exist in places of great loss.
Magic Type: Spectral
General Knowledge/Superstitions:
- Wraiths exist exclusively in a parallel world much like the Umbra, and can reach out and have limited interactions with our world.
- Their version of the gauntlet is called the Shroud.
- They can possess the bodies of the living or dead to fulfill tasks from beyond the grave.
- Tend to fixate on certain places or people to try and resolve things they didn't get around to when living.
- Often seen near streams, all of which lead to the heart of the Underworld on their side of the Shroud.
- May be put to rest with offerings/tributes, though this is sometimes temporary.
- Preferred offerings are clothing, jewelry, food, and sometimes even blood. They'll need blood to be able to talk to you (ask Hercules).
- Ghosts can be summoned, though reports differ as to how.
Vampires
Other Names: Leeches (garou term), Vamps, Fangs
Associations: None; these things are bad.
Known Features: Pale, fangs, dead looking.
Known Locations: There are rumors of groups of vampires in Corinth, Athens, and Sparta.
Magic Type: Blood
General Knowledge/Superstitions:
- Vampires are wyrm creatures and should generally be killed on sight.
- They are immortal, and can grant immortality to others by drinking their blood.
- They can hypnotize people and pull them into an obsessive thrall to do their bidding.
- Selfish, destructive beings who try to manipulate the mortal world to worship them instead of gods.
- Weak to sunlight, garlic, and hawthorn.
- Can be killed by cutting off their head or running a stake through their heart.
- Can turn into animals (often birds and bats) as a perversion of Gaia's gift.
- Unclear if Empusa, Lamia, and striges are Bygones or vampires.
Mages
Other Names: Willworkers, Name Breakers
Associations: Bringers of Light.
Known Features: Generally indistinguishable from human.
Known Locations: None.
Magic Type: Sorcery
General Knowledge/Superstitions:
- Mages are humans that have learned how to warp and pervert the will of Gaia and laws of Her world.
- They were responsible for the fall of the Tower.
- Mages eat caerns to fuel their own destructive magics.
- Most of their magic tends to be ritualistic, and can be interrupted.
- Mages fear some kind of retributive force that punishes their hubris. We call it "Gaia". Jerks.
- Can be killed like any human, they just have more defensive tricks.
- Rumored to be an attempt by Hecate to usurp Gaia's creation for the gods to play with.
- Very rarely within balance of the Triat, though they can go in any direction (Wyld, Weaver, Wyrm).