Spirits

[Lore Keeper]

Spirits
The Umbra is shaped like the physical world, a warped shadow cast by ephemeral light. As the Umbra reflects the world, its denizens populate that reflection. To say that spirits represent creatures, objects, and even concepts in the physical world is like saying that the image on a shield represents the shield. Spirits are not ‘alive’ in the traditional sense. They exist as pure Essence with will and thought given shape by their Earthly counterparts, whether physical or conceptual.

Every spirit is an aspect of the greater whole that is Gaia. Understanding each of these mysterious entities from the warring Triat to a Gaffling born of a specific oak tree, is part of understanding Gaia and the nature of reality itself. Trips to the Umbra, as well as the right Gifts and rites, reveal a spiritual side to everything that can be found under — and including — the sun. Each creature and concept the Garou experience has a will of its own or a spiritual patron and protector, coloring every part of a werewolf’s existence. Hunting a prey animal for food is an act with meaning when a werewolf knows that respecting the animal’s spirit and nature impacts the world around her. She views the nature of war or conflict differently after first meeting the entities embodying them as concepts.

The Basic Nature of Spirits
Much like how the Penumbra is the shadow cast by the life of the physical world, spirits are shadows and reflections of aspects of physical reality. As things grow more important on Earth, Essence takes on its shape and grows as well. Some spirits echo specific locations and concepts like ‘the Monongahela River’ or ‘nightmares of animal attacks.’ Others, particularly stronger ones, represent broad archetypes — not merely the spirit of a rat nor even a type of rat but the Rat Incarna itself.

‘Important,’ in this case, does not necessarily mean ‘important to humans.’ The separation of the spiritual and physical worlds over millions of years and untold ages has made it less obvious, but spirits as a whole simply are and always have been. Spirits are a facet of reality itself and have been for as long as reality has had facets. Whether contained within the physical essence of the oldest rocks and trees or just on the other side of the Gauntlet, everything shares a link with a spiritual aspect in the Umbra.

As tangible things and creatures shape essence into spiritual form, powerful concepts also imprint upon reality and form spirits. The emotions, will, and belief of living things forge personifications of abstract concepts like war or greed. While most common in the Astral Umbra, these concepts and emotions are also the source of many Epiphlings. Other conceptual spirits come into being in the depths of the Umbra and travel to places where they can feed and grow stronger.

The bond between a spirit and the thing it represents often works both ways. A healthy forest has a powerful Jaggling that can grow over time as the forest thrives. If the spirit is somehow directly tainted, however, the forest sickens. Not only does disease ravage the trees but the animals grow weak and corruption and weakness overtake any spirits serving under the forest spirit. The forest slowly dies as the corruption twists the spirit.

A spirit of anger feeds on the agitation and rage of nearby beings depending on circumstances. Conflict and pointless frustration attract and fuel it. If it doesn’t grow strong enough to influence things, a peaceful resolution could starve it.

Spirits typically manifest as idealized and often exaggerated versions of their anchors. If the anchor is a specific tree or rock, they resemble it. If the anchor is something broader, like a collection of creatures, the spirit takes on some archetypal representative form. They also behave in a manner consistent with the concept they represent. A lion-spirit, left to its own devices, hunts and chases gazelle-spirits. The gazelle-spirit, left to its own devices, is most comfortable being hunted and chased.

Spirits of ephemeral concepts, riddles, and abstractions take on a broad variety of forms. Epiphlings in particular manifest in a variety of ways but each distinctly represents the concept they embody. Different spirits of dread or fear appear in an array of nightmarish archetypes even if they’re very much the same beneath the surface. One spirit of desire takes the shape of a classical representation of Aphrodite and another looks like the ideal man. Attentive Garou should easily identify an Epiphling’s nature based on their appearance.

Sometimes a spirit is defined by function and purpose as well as its nature. A spirit embodies a core concept but its superiors give it particularly suitable tasks that fall under its purview in some way. Such tasks give it the opportunity to develop itself and grow in strength as it serves the Incarna above it. A water elemental living in a river receives instructions to carry objects over the edge of a waterfall. The spirit’s successes empower it and make the rapids that much deadlier until the rapids-Gaffling becomes a waterfall-Jaggling. It guards ever-expanding stretches of river, drowning and smashing the river’s enemies. Becoming the patron of the entire river seems only natural when the time comes.

This is not simply how the spirit appears, but how it is. Regardless of what they represent, anything that defines their shape or behavior or appearance also defines their very nature and vice-versa. When an entity’s existence revolves around representing a Platonic ideal, its appearance and reality are one. An entity such as the spirit’s Jaggling or Incarna master can reshape its form and nature or a Theurge with the Malleable Spirit Gift.

[Lore Keeper]

Spiritual Ecology
Even though they aren’t properly ‘alive’ in the sense that most humans would consider, spirits do behave like living creatures. They’re born, they feed, they grow, some reproduce, and they can die. They’re capable of thought and will and agency, albeit oriented around their purview. They have instincts and act out their own versions of what scholars would call a proper life-cycle.

Actions and objects in the physical world leave impressions in the spiritual plane. An action that has an impaction the world around it or the creation of something new or a powerful emotion leaves a mark like a footprint in wet sand. If the impression is deep and sturdy enough, Essence flows into and coalesces around that mark and becomes a spiritual entity in the ‘shape’ of that impression. Sometimes these impressions are caused by physical events like boars crashing. Other times, massive emotional outpouring like the grief over a tragedy creates them.

Some of these spirits are born at that place, hidden within the Penumbra or in the physical object itself. Others come into being in the Deep Umbra, far from whatever triggered their birth and sometimes at the behest of a much more powerful spirit. Wyld spirits in particular often emerge from spontaneous eruptions of Essence.


Spirit Ranks
Gafflings
Depending on whatever spawned them, whether event or Incarna, new spirits often come into being as Gafflings. Gafflings are the equivalent of simple animal wildlife of the spirit world, sometimes appearing clever but only really capable of perceiving the world in specific ways. Each has a purpose, even if they can’t understand or articulate what that purpose is. For many spirits, ‘what I do’ is the same as ‘what I am’ and that is true for typical Gafflings more than anything else.

Gafflings see the world in terms of their nature, like people who view their experiences through the lens of their job. They have a duty that they obsessively uphold whether that duty is to represent the interests of a breed of animal or to maintain a section of the Pattern Web. Each is a servant of something much larger and much more aware than themselves and even the ones smart enough to question orders have no desire to. They feed by attaching themselves to an object or place that allows them to embody what they are — all a Gaffling generally wants to do — and sustain themselves from the energy that comes from that interaction.

Spirits also gain sustenance by entering the state of Slumber, replenishing themselves like humans do by sleeping. For many spirits of objects and places, simply being available if needed is enough to do their duty so they conserve their strength through hibernation. In some cases, acting out the place in the ecosystem appropriate to their concept allows them to feed. The spirit of a predatory animal hunts and eats the spirits of appropriate prey animals, consuming their essence for themselves.

Banes also often feed by consuming other spirits, but do so solely for destruction’s sake with no respect for the natural order.


Jagglings
If a Gaffling’s purview increases in strength, like a sapling growing into a massive oak or the ‘adopted’ weapon of a war-spirit being used in battle after battle, the spirit itself can grow. As spirits grow in strength and power they become more aware. Eventually, if they cross a particular threshold, the spirit develops into a Jaggling. They can also earn ‘promotions’ from more powerful spirits and take on greater roles in the world. The oak spirit is empowered to represent the forest; the war-spirit takes a military unit or base under its wing.

If Gafflings are the clever animals of the spiritual world, Jagglings are the people. Once a spirit has progressed beyond the Gaffling level, they are no longer an appendage of their superiors but have usually achieved sentience in the way humanity would think of it. Jagglings have thoughts and personalities and agendas all their own. While they typically serve Incarnae, Jagglings’ goals don’t always have to align with those of their master.

Jagglings feed much like Gafflings do, although they are more likely to reap the benefits of service and worship than replenishing themselves through Slumber. They tend to be more actively involved in spiritual affairs, primarily due to their awareness and self-determination, and because of their greater strength their purview grows in scope as well. A forest is a more important part of nature than an individual tree. A military unit will see more action than any individual Sword.

Because Jagglings encompass such a broad range of spiritual strength, from something on the power level of a Stormcrow to the sheer might of the Nexus Crawlers or a caern totem, a Jaggling has a lot of room to grow without ascending to a higher rank. Few ever achieve that higher degree of enlightenment and fewer still accomplish it without help. The transition from Jaggling to Incarna is almost always a promotion by another Incarna on the rare occasions it happens at all.


Incarnae
New Incarnae rise up from the ranks of the Jagglings at the will of their own deific patrons. They often serve Gaia or a member of the Triat more or less directly. Jagglings rise to the rank of Incarna often because some new concept has come into being and needs a patron to fill the new spiritual niche. Sometimes they fill the role of a destroyed Incarna. In rare circumstances Gaia or the Triat will create an Incarnae wholecloth.

Incarnae embody important concepts — organized war or all oak trees as a whole — but they represent those concepts as opposed to literally being them. If the Oak Incarna is slain a new one will rise from the Jagglings to take its place, but not every oak tree in the world would wither and fall in the meantime. It would, however, mean a certain degree of disarray in the Incarna’s minions and retainers for a time. Fortunately for Jagglings, the ability to take hold of such a situation is usually a good way to prove itself worthy of the vacated position.

Because of the nature of such promotions a Jaggling’s form shifts as it fills the vacated spot, sometimes muddying attempts to trace its history. As a result some Incarnae appear almost from nowhere. Some Incarnae leave well-known and traceable histories as they rise through the ranks.

Incarnae neither fall into Slumber nor stop to take the time to feed. They don’t have to. At this point, the forces over which they have dominion sustain them. They’re too tightly woven into the grand scheme of things to require traditional sources of spiritual energy.


The Rest
Beyond
Helios and Luna, The Triat and Gaia all are outside of the purview of these ranks. They are the gods of spirits and men only possibly rivaled by the mortal gods and titans within the mythology of man. One of the most contentious topics among theurges is how to classify those empowered beyond Incarna. It's generally understood that Gaia is the most powerful of them all, and the Triat on the tier beneath, and Helios and Luna a level beneath that, but terminology is divisive at best. One of the oldest practices is calling all residents of the deep umbra "Aetherials", but many point out that spirits of all potency have been encountered in the Deep Umbra, so the label doesn't accurately depict scale of potency. Another practice is to call these entities "Umbral Divinity", but those who follow the gods of man fear this will cause too much confusion with manifestations of divinity that occur within the umbra. Others suspect an entire category of spiritual potency between Incarnae and the Triat called the "Celestines" which includes Luna and Helios and other celestial bodies, but others believe it's arbitrary to make a new category for two spirits. Many are content just to accept that there are powers beyond our current comprehension, and refer to them by their individual names instead of any classifications.

Within the Umbra also lives the spirits of the gods of man as well. Garou have long tried to figure out if they are the same beings or fragments of each other, but none have yet to figure it out. One of the key figures of this is Artemis, known as a tribal totem to the Fury and yet still worshipped as a god of man. Regardless, should one be seen in the umbra, pay them the respect that you would to any of the other gods among Gaia's children.


Emanations
Emanations are spirits that neither fall into the hierarchy nor the life-cycle of spirits in a traditional manner. They only manifest in the Near Realms, apparently produced by the realm itself, and they often appear as humans or animals appropriate to the realm in question. These denizens are often unaware of their spiritual nature and act like normal people or animals for their given context. As expressions of a particular realm’s nature, some Garou suspect they’re a way for the realms to attempt to communicate with material beings.

The biggest difference between emanations and the traditional spirits also found in the Near Realms is that emanations do not follow the same rules as spirits do. A human-looking emanation is a human for all intents and purposes — it has no sense of its rank or purpose, no Charms, and no ban. That makes it very hard for werewolves to differentiate between the emanations of tortured souls in Malfeas and the very real humans that the Wyrm’s minions bring to that blasphemous place.


Avatars
Most Garou encounters with an Incarna are likely to be with their pack or tribal totem, but sometimes this extends to entities beyond. When werewolves do so, except for the rarest of occasions, they’re interacting with an avatar rather than the spirit itself — a fragment of the spirit's power made manifest as a Jaggling. Even a pack that has truly proven itself worthy of a totem’s protection or guidance can’t expect to be able to command the totem’s full attention on a regular basis. The avatar speaks with the main spirit’s authority with regards to the pack even though it is considered a spirit in and of itself.

More powerful entities very rarely send avatars to Earth and instead focus their energies to nudge and influence those capable of listening. Spirits more powerful than Incarnae can maintain multiple avatars at once. The power of even a weak avatar is such that they only dare affect the physical world with light, indirect touches. The unenlightened mistake their few, mysterious efforts for astrological forces or similar phenomena. A higher level example of this is the Wyrm itself, who cannot escape its prison and instead sends out its avatars: the Beast-of-War, the Eater-of-Souls, and the Urge Wyrm.

This is very similar to the function Epithets serve for mortal gods.


Totems
While alluded to above, it's worth expanding on here. A totem is a spirit bound through ritual to assist and empower garou and septs, offering oversight, advice, protection, and supernatural capabilities. A pack totem is bound through the Rite of the Totem, and a sept totem is bound through the Rite of the Guardian Spirit. Weaker totems (totems of 2-3 member packs or Level 1-2 caerns, for instance) are often jagglings, but more powerful totems are almost always incarnae acting through jaggling avatars (described above). Once a totem has adopted the social unit, they are empowered and bound to the spirit, and must uphold the Ban the spirit places upon them, which is generally some manner of restriction carried out in their name. If the Ban is violated, the spirit may either slumber or abandon the garou, though they may be coaxed back through the Rite of Contrition.

[Lore Keeper]

The Broods

Introduction to Broods
All along the different levels of spiritual awareness and power, spirits organize themselves into families called broods much like the Garou do tribes. All of these broods descend from one or more Incarnae and, by extension, Gaia. And as with the Garou tribes, a number of these relations are through adoption rather than having any direct relation to the Incarna patron. They are all related in terms of philosophy or nature, though to a spirit the distinction is fuzzy.

Whether born literally from other spirits in the brood or adopted, they consider each other true family. Even if they don’t all get along with each other, they still show proper respect to each other and reverence to the Incarna from which they’re descended. If a shapeshifter greatly offends a spirit of Chimera’s brood, Chimerlings and other assorted spirits of wisdom or enigmas will be hostile and uncooperative until she can redeem herself. In extreme cases she might have difficulty dealing with other shapeshifters following Chimera as a pack or personal totem. She needs to make amends, starting with an offer of chiminage, and if she is fortunate the right chiminage will settle the debt.

On the other hand, on very rare occasions a spirit brood will adopt a worthy werewolf into its ranks. Spirits treat such an honored individual as family, a bond even closer than the one between the Garou and her tribal totem if they aren’t already one and the same. Such a blessing often comes with an offer to serve the brood after death in the form of an ancestor spirit. A rare honor but an Incarna has few higher ways to honor one of the Garou.

Spirit relations can get complicated in ways that make perfect sense to the spirits themselves but seem random or arbitrary to someone raised in the physical world where heritage and genealogy are understood concepts. As Incarna exist on multiple levels of reality at once, this is part of the natural order to them whereas beings that experience one reality at a time might need a chart to wrap their heads around it.


Tribal Broods
Artemis' Brood
Most spirits in this brood are common around Greece and Greek folklore.

• Triptych: Maiden, Mother, Crone
• Basilisk
• Fog (called Aeolus within the tribe)
• Haima, The Red Mothers
• The Muses
• The Gorgons: Medusa, Helena, Euryale, Isthmene, Stheno
• Siren
• Themis, the Dream Weaver

Chimera's Brood
Most unusual looking creatures and enigmatic spirits fall under this brood.

• Aralin
• Belstu
• Belstui
• Chimerlings
• Dream Ravens
• Elephant
• Giraffe
• Meneghwo
• Platypus

Cockroach's Brood
Most urban/domesticated spirits and man-made objects fall under this brood.

• Beaver
• Camel
• Donkey
• Gremlin
• Guardians of the Gates
• Magpie
• Mula'Krante (Money spiders)
• Pigeon
• Scab Birds
• Turtle Dove

Falcon's Brood
Most birds of prey (especially raptors) fall under Falcon's Brood

• Buzzard
• The Children of Karnak
• Eagle (Golden, Booted, White-Tailed)
• Falcon variants (Peregrine, Amur, Gyrfalcon)
• Firebird/Phoenix
• Harrier
• Hawk
• Heron
• Kite
• Merlin
• Osprey
• Phoenix
• Talons of Horus
• Vulture (shamed)

Grandfather Thunder's Brood
Most storm and darkness related spirits fall under this brood.

• Bat
• Bee
• Butterfly
• Dusk
• Crow (esp Stormcrows)
• Night
• Shadow
• Shrike
• Storms
• Typhon
• Wasp

Griffin's Brood
Most mammalian predators or extinct creatures fall under this brood.

• Badger
• Dodo
• Old Wolf of the Woods
• Mammoth
• Mongoose
• Muskox
• Saber-tooth Tiger
• Scavenger
• Simurgh
• Toxodont
• Wolverine

Lion's Brood
Most spirits in this brood are common around Caledonia and Caledonian folklore. The brood attracts burrowing spirits as well.

• Ant
• Banshee
• Caern Rattler
• Carrion Bird
• Elk
• Fox
• Gallia
• Gopher
• Green Dragon
• Kelpie
• Mole
• Rabbit
• Roe Deer
• Worm

Owl's Brood
Most spirits in this brood are common around Egypt and Egyptian folklore.

• Adder
• Antlion
• Cobra
• Crocodile
• Darkling
• Death's Breath
• Ibis
• Gull
• North Star
• Scarab
• Scorpion
• Sphinx
• Tsetse Fly
• Twice Born
• Viper

Rat's Brood
Most urban pests/vermin and scavengers fall under this brood.

• Dog
• Flea
• Hare
• Hyena
• Jackal
• Lizard
• Marten
• Mouse
• Trash Heap
• Toad

Stag's Brood
Most spirits in this brood are common around Hibernia and Hibernian folklore. The brood attracts dream/fantasy spirits as well.

• Black Stag
• The Brook
• Dawn
• Dream
• Grain
• The Hind
• Impala
• Mockingbird
• Nightingale
• White Hart
• Salmon
• Yale
• The Wild Hunt

Unicorn's Brood
Most nurturing and harmless creatures fall under this brood.

• Antelope
• Baboon
• Black Unicorn
• Chameleon
• Dove
• Duck
• Goat
• Heart Guides
• Misshapen
• Myrrhae
• Narwhal
• Mule
• Starlight

Winter Wolf's Brood
Most spirits in this brood are common around the north and northern folklore. The brood attracts arctic spirits as well.

• All-seeing Guardian
• Blizzard
• Cuckoo
• Ermine
• Firedrake
• Northern Wind
• Seadrake
• Squirrel
• The Trickster
• War Wolf
• The Wise Wanderer

Archetypal Broods
Elemental Courts
These account for the majority of naturae.

• Fire Elementals
  • Salamanders
  • Hearthfire
  • Forge spirits
• Air Elementals
  • Lightning Spirits
  • Wind Spirits
• Water Elementals
  • Ice Elementals
  • Marsh Spirits
• Earth Elementals
  • Metal Elementals
  • Stone Elementals (Basalt, Limestone, etc.)
  • Glade Children (Oak, Pine, etc.)
  • Flower
• Land Spirits
  • Ourea (mountains)
  • Nesoi (islands)
  • Patrons (towns; this will evolve to become City Father/Mother)

Feral Broods
These account for the core animals of most shifter types. Some have been assimilated into other broods.

• Bear's Brood
• Cat's Brood
  • Cheetah
  • Lynx
  • Panther
• Raven's Brood
• Shark's Brood
  • Dolphin
  • Octopus
  • Whale
• Turtle's Brood
• Wolf's Brood

Epiphling Broods
These account for pure concepts. Their structure is as malleable and shifting as the concepts themselves, and they have no consistent hierarchy.

• Disease
• Glory
• Fury
• Hatred
• Judgment
• Law
• Pain
• Peace
• Purity
• Truth
• Vengeance
• War

Triatic Broods
Wyrm Spirits
All corrupted spirits are member of the Wyrms Brood

• Blood Bane
• Ash Scrag
• Badwater Bane
• Bitter Rage
• Howling Insanity
• Mind Feeder
• Nexus Crawler
• Night Hunter
• Oasis

Weaver Spirits

• Math Geomid
• Language Geomid
• Structural Geomid
• Orb Weaver Spider
• Trade Spider
• Trapdoor Spider
• Weaver-Child
• Pattern Spider
• Weaver Ant
• Chaos Monitor
• Exploration

Wyld Spirits

• Angler-Spirit
• Children of the Muses
• Cyclone
• Echos
• Enigma
• Wyldling
• Nameless
• Sands of Time
• Twister
• Earthquake
• Volcano
• Vortex
• Whirlpool
• Tsunami

Other Broods

• Luna's Brood
  • Lunes
  • Strangelings
  • Moonshadows
• Helios' Brood
• Gaia Chosen
• Aphrodite's Brood
• Apollo's Brood
• Ares's Brood
• Athena's Brood
• Demeter's Brood
• Dionysus's Brood
• Hades' Brood
• Hecate's Brood
• Hephaestus's Brood
• Hera's Brood
• Hermes's Brood
• Hestia's Brood
• Poseidon's Brood
• The Brood of the Moirai
• Zeus's Brood