VOD: Pantheon

In the Age of Myth, when the worlds of spirit and material were just beginning separate from each other, the Garou wished to solidify their relationship with their spirit allies. Forging pacts of alliance and friendship, the spirits granted the shapeshifters the secrets of gifts. In return, the Changing Breeds developed rites to call upon this revered partnership. Ceremonial in nature, the core of any ritual resides in invoking these ancient pacts, empowering the ritual to enact an effect. A vital part of Garou interactions with spirits, rites are just one of many ways the Garou honor those bonds made at the dawn of time. Belief, concentration, and spiritual invocation are the three core components required of any ritual.

Each ritual cast affirms the bond Garou share with spirits and results in strengthening of the spiritual half of the Garou. These rituals come in many variations depending on the Garou performing it, as well as on the type of rite.

The rituals employed by the Garou are broken down into five primary types: Caern Rites, Mystic Rites, Punishment Rites, Renown Rites, and Seasonal Rites. While there are other minor rites Garou often perform, such as thanking spirits of prey that were killed for food or howling in greeting to the sun or moon, these five primary ritual types are the most commonly taught and accepted.

Rituals are empowered by the spirits. They are handed down from a Master of the Rite to her students in an unbroken chain dating back to when the original spirit pacts were formed. While the actual details of the rituals can vary depending on the tribe, sept, or perceptions of the participants, the belief of the caster and those participating in the rite is a ritual’s most important component.

In order to successfully cast a ritual, the caster must have learned the Ritual either at character creation or during game. Assisting participants need not have knowledge of how to cast a rite in order to be involved.

System:

Performing a ritual requires that the caster (also known as the ritemaster) possess the Rituals Ability and has knowledge of the specific Rite they want to cast.

Casting a rite requires the ritemaster to make a static challenge with a difficulty rating of 6 + double the level of the ritual. For each additional participant who has the Rituals Ability and the same Rite, the difficulty lowers by 1. Characters who do not meet this requirement may still participate in the rite, but do not lower the difficulty to cast it.

Normally, a player casting a ritual can choose to have their character cast the ritual and not act out any part of it, keeping it an entirely out-of-character action. In this case, the ritual takes 10 minutes per level of ritual, during which the player(s) sits out of character, assumed to be casting this away from others. At the conclusion of this, the player will need to throw the regular rite static challenge.

However, we offer two options that players may take to change the ritual experience. Players may pick one or both of the following options:

• Instead of sitting out of character while performing a ritual, the player of the ritemaster can choose to act out the ritual along with any other players assisting them IN CHARACTER. This typically involves chanting, dancing, scribing sigils, or any other creative elements. The purpose of this is to draw other players into the act of the ritual, bringing it to life within the game. When a ritual is done in this fashion, the amount of time required for the ritual is 5 minutes per level of ritual.
• Instead of having to make a Static Challenge at the conclusion of the ritual, the ritemaster's player can choose to instead test using the Rite Circle. This entails the player casting the ritual and/or any other number of ritual participant players of their choice pulling tiles from the Rite Circle Jenga Tower. The number of tiles necessary to successfully cast the rite is dependent on the level of the ritual. If the tower collapses, it is rebuilt and another attempt must be made. The Rite Circle Jenga Tower can only be rebuilt a number of times equal to the number of participants in the ritual, to a maximum number of times equal to the Rituals ability of ritemaster. The blocks pulled are then arranged into a Spell Circle, making a complete image. Upon the success of this task, there is no need to throw a test for the ritual. It is successful.  

Learning Rites
Learning a new preexisting rite is a three step process: first, the Garou must know the rite exists (Discovery); next, they must find a way to learn the rite (Source); and lastly, they must spend time learning, applying, and perfecting it (Learn Time).

Discovery
Either the easiest or most daunting aspect of learning a Rite is Discovering it. Simply put, you must know the rite exists in the first place in order to learn it. Luckily, everything you can read on this forum is considered common knowledge for purposes of Discovery. If it's posted? Your PC has discovered it! Similarly, if you have a Source already presented (i.e., a willing teacher or an ancient tome detailing the rite), you may skip this step entirely.

That said, it's not uncommon for garou to stumble across odd and unprecedented rite. To Discover a rite, you must learn several things about it to prove its existence as distinguished from a modification of something already in circulation. Once you've encountered this rite (witnessed it, heard it described, learned the name), you must succeed on a Static Test of your Intelligence + Rituals vs a difficulty of 8 + Level of Rite. You can only make this challenge once per game, as failing to identify it requires a good period of time researching further.

Luckily, there are many of factors that can reduce this difficulty: As a final note, attempting to Discover a non-Gaian Ritual will simply confirm "this is not a Gaian Ritual". While ritual theory is universally similar and you can certainly make further tests to try and understand how the ritual functions, truly understanding non-Gaian rituals is the purview of the Occult Ability, and falls under those challenges. So it's definitively stated: no, you cannot learn non-Gaian Rituals.

Source
Once you've Discovered a rite exists, you must find a means of learning it. The easiest Sources are teachers (PCs or NPCs willing to share a rite they already know) and tomes (items acquired from staff that break down how to perform a rite). Once you have secured a Source, you may move on to the next step.

That said, we recognize Sources are not always easily available; especially for rare and unprecedented rites. If you have Discovered a rite, you may put Downtime Actions or Influences towards trying to find a Source. That said, this needs to be more detailed than "DT: Find Source" or "Spending X Influence to find Source"; you need to inform us of your approach and why you think it will be productive. Given the rarity of the rite, Staff may request additional Influence or DTAs. If you find yourself stumped on how to dig up a Source for the Rite, you may approach Staff for a Wits + Rituals static challenge (difficulty 5 + level of rite) for direction and clues towards uncovering it. You may also happen upon Sources by chasing plot, though this method is far from guaranteed.

For transparency's sake, we cannot guarantee the learning any ritual. Some things (like tribal rituals or things created in game) just have their Sources too on lock. Secrets are secrets for a reason. If it becomes clear to staff that we cannot provide the story of you achieving the rite you're going for, we will let you know.

Learn Times
If you have a Source for a rite you've Discovered, you may now spend time perfecting the rite! Learning rites is intuitive, and as such do not require Downtime Actions, but must be declared to staff while submitting DTAs by detailing the name of the Rite and the Source. If your source is a Teacher, be sure to list their name so we can verify it. We'd also love it if you could convince your teacher to mention teaching in their own downtime submissions.

Learning a Rite from a teacher takes a number of IC weeks to learn equal to the level of the Rite (with the exception of Minor Rites, which take 3 days each).
Learning a rite from any other Source takes a number of IC weeks equal to the level of the Rite x2, demonstrating the extra work that needs to be done without someone walking you through it.
That said, you have the option of spending DTAs to reduce the time it takes to learn a rite, demonstrating the rabid attention with which your PC is tackling this particular rite. You may spend a DTA to reduce the number of weeks required to learn a ritual by 1 weeks per DTA.


The details on submitting (and augmenting) rite learning in downtime is detailed here.