Bacchus
Background Cost: 5
Though much older than the Ancient Romans, this ancient Incarna of intoxication, sex and fertility has been dubbed with the name Bacchus ever since, and does not object. Always known as a mad wanderer, he has traded favors with the Black Furies as a fertility god, been pleaded with to bless the brews of the Fianna, and these days seems most at home among the raves and innumerable narcotics of young Glass Walkers. Those who see Bacchus only as a reveler miss the darker mysteries into which he inducts his children and the terrible rage he can bring upon those who would deny him. What’s more, those Silent Striders interested in the Dark Umbra often see the once-dead Bacchus as a guide.
Individual Traits: Bacchus immerses his children in the mysteries of life and death, giving them +3 Occult and +2 Enigmas. These are far from trivial and he prepares them for the shocks they will face by giving each of his children +1 Stamina (which also enables them to withstand greater intoxication before passing out).
Pack Traits: Finally Bacchus is wise but furious in his anger. His packs may draw on 3 extra Rage per story.
Ban: Those who follow Bacchus tend to be strongly connected to their baser natures. If a character has a chance to indulge a strongly felt desire, they must succeed in a Willpower roll (difficulty of their own Rage) to do otherwise.
Source: Player's Guide Revised p. 139
Chameleon
Background Cost: 4
Changing animals share a strong kinship with the Garou, and few are as well-known and respected as Chameleon. Ever adaptable, invisible, silent, and observant, Chameleon favors patient Garou who prefer to unobtrusively observe before acting. He is the patron of many Children of Gaia and Older Brother.
Individual Traits: Each follower of Chameleon is taught the Gift: Blur of the Milky Eye.
Pack Traits: Packs adopted by Chameleon are granted three points of Perception.
Ban: Chameleon's packs may not act until they have fully taken stock of their situation.
Source: Player's Guide Revised p. 139
Chimera
Background Cost: 7
The patron of the Stargazers, Chimera is the personification of Enigma. She of Many Faces invites her packs to find the wisdom that each werewolf holds inside himself, beneath layers of puzzles and self-delusion.
Individual Traits: Chimera’s Garou subtract two from the difficulty of all rolls involving riddles, dream interpretation, or enigmas. They can also disguise themselves as something else when in the Umbra with a Gnosis roll (difficulty 7).
Pack Traits: Chimera’s packs gain three dots of Enigmas and one of Perception.
Ban: While Chimera requires the pack to seek enlightenment, she does not place any restrictions on how they do so.
Source: W20 p. 375
Cockroach
Background Cost: 6
Cockroach is quick, hardy, and persistent. He’s also everywhere in the modern world, watching and waiting. If one listens to his chosen tribe, he’s one of the patron spirits of the modern age.
Individual Traits: Chosen of Cockroach subtract two from all difficulties involving computers, electricity, and applied science. They can also perceive the contents of data streams in the Umbra, watching along with a YouTube video or listening in on a cellphone call with a successful Gnosis roll (difficulty 6).
Pack Traits: Cockroach’s packs gain three dice that apply to any roll to activate a Gift that affects technology.
Ban: The pack members must never kill a cockroach.
Source: W20 p. 375
Fog (Aeolus)
Background Cost: 5
A patron of mystery and secrets, Fog is a spirit of both knowledge and stealth. Favored by mystics and spies alike, Fog knows much but teaches it only slowly, imparting the value of patience and subtlety to his children. He is most revered among the Silent Striders and Older Brother.
Individual Traits: Fog grants his children +1 Subterfuge and +1 Stealth, as well as reducing the difficulty of any Occult or Enigmas roll by 1.
Pack Traits: Fog allows his packs to use the Gift: Curse of Aeolus.
Ban: The children of Fog may not reveal a secret to anyone outside of their sept or pack. If they do, they lose one point of Willpower immediately.
Source: Player's Guide Revised p. 140
Horned Serpent
Background Cost: 7
The Horned Serpent is an ancient water spirit that blends the features of cougar, serpent, and deer. He is the spirit of riverbeds and dark places, and he knows secrets that even other patrons of wisdom have not discovered.
Individual Traits: Followers of Horned Serpentgain two extra experience points per story that can only be applied to improving Enigmas, Occult, Rituals, Gifts, or other mystical knowledge. Horned Serpent’s children add one to the difficulties of social rolls when interacting with werewolves of tribes other than Older Brother or Little Brother, but Garou of the Older Brother tribe treat the pack like brothers.
Pack Traits: Older Brother's packs add three dice to all soak rolls when in the Umbra.
Ban: Horned Serpent asks that its Children recover mystical lore, objects, places and animals from the minions of the Wyrm.
Source: W20 p. 375
Owl
Background Cost: 5
Owl watches silently in the darkness, learning all that he can. Like the Silent Striders who claim him as their patron, Owl holds hidden wisdom, especially about death and the mysteries of the Dark Umbra.
Individual Traits: Owl’s children gain wings when in the Umbra, allowing them to fly from place to place. They also subtract two from difficulties involving stealth or silence.
Pack Traits: Owl’s packs often receive premonitions and prophetic dreams that draw them to mystic places long forgotten. The pack gains three dice that apply to any Gift that involves air, travel, movement, or darkness. Silent Striders may appear to aid the pack when it is in danger, but packs that follow Rat (and Ratkin) are not well disposed towards Owl’s Garou.
Ban: Owl’s children must leave small rodents tied and helpless in the woods for him and his kind.
Source: W20 p. 375
Phix, Greek Sphinx of Wisdom
Background Cost: 7
Holder of the secrets of ancient Greece, the Sphinx is both a wise guardian and a cunning warrior. Though known best for her clever riddles and mysteries, her claws and teeth are sharp, a fact that proves reassuring for many Garou in the End Times. A demanding mother, Sphinx only takes those who demonstrate intelligence and wit.
Individual Traits: Each of Sphinx's children gains an extra point of Wits. In addition, she teaches her children teh riddles of their opponents in the Gift: Fatal Flaw.
Pack Traits: The pack may also add +3 to any Enigmas dice pool.
Ban: Sphinx's children may never refuse a riddle contest. Sphinx also never takes a pack that will harbor a member with no Mental Traits of at least 4 after her gift of extra Wits (thus, she will accept someone with Wits 3).
Source: Player's Guide Revised p. 140
Raven
Background Cost: 5
Raven is the cleverest bird, though not clever enough to keep that fact to himself. He feeds without hunting, following wolves or bringing them to dead animals so they can feed. He teaches wisdom by taunting cubs into trying to catch the uncatchable bird. Raven watches the world, ever hungry for new secrets. His knowledge makes him a patron of wealth — if werewolves trust in him, Raven will provide.
Individual Traits: Followers of Raven gain the Level One Bone Gnawer Gift: Smell of Success.
Pack Traits: Raven’s packs have three dots of Survival, one of Subterfuge, and one of Enigmas. Wereravens are well-disposed towards the patron’s followers.
Ban: Raven’s children can’t carry wealth, trusting their patron to provide for them.
Source: W20 p. 376
Roe Deer
Background Cost: 4
A distant cousin to Stag, Roe Deer finds a way to ensure others may survive, even in the harshest of climes. She is the embodiment of feminine providence in the wild, an untamed pre-cursor to the grain and hearth goddesses. Roe Deer was struck hard by the fall of the White Howlers, and her place was largely subsumed by Stag. She now exists as a member of Griffin’s brood.
Individual Traits: Followers of Roe Deer gain two dots of Empathy. Fianna are well-disposed towards the pack.
Pack Traits: Packs that follow Roe Deer gain three dots of Survival usable only in wilderness settings, and two points of Willpower per story.
Ban: Roe Deer requires that her followers never deny food to those in need.
Source: TB:WH p. 75
Salmon
Background Cost: 7
There was a legend among the Celts that held the oceans as the barrier between this world and the next. Fish, dolphins, and other aquatic denizens became the messengers between the two worlds. Of these creatures, none knew secrets and magic like Salmon. When Salmon swam down the Boyne River, he was imbued with great wisdom, a gift that would be passed on to whoever ate him first. Salmon was caught by the bard Finnegas, and then given to his apprentice Fionn Mac Cumhaill to cook. When Fionn touched Salmon’s flesh, he was given magic powers.
Those Garou who follow Salmon obviously do not believe Salmon died there, but instead made a clever bargain with Fionn, bestowing those magic powers in exchange for being freed. He makes a similar bargain with his children, offering powers in exchange for service.
Individual Traits: Salmon teaches his children the secrets he learned on the Boyne, granting each of his children both two extra dots of Rituals and two extra dots of the Rites Background.
Pack Traits: Packs sponsored by Salmon step sideways at -1 difficulty.
Ban: Salmon asks his children to accomplish a specific task once a year, and this task varies each year. Tasks often seem trivial (“Place a single copper coin on the edge of the Thames at exact dawn on the twenty-third of March.”) but often end up serving a much larger purpose...
Source: Player's Guide Revised p. 140
The Spirit without Name
Background Cost: 7
The Spirit without Name is a misnomer. This spirit most definitely does have a name but it is unpronounceable by humans, only conveyed by wolves through scent, body motion, and instinct. Humans cannot name it nor comprehend it. Wolves cannot miss it and see it in every motion of the breeze. It doesn’t represent anything, for then it would signify that and such semiotics are the thinking of humans. It merely is, signifies nothing, has very firm characteristics and is deeply meaningful – if you’re a wolf. (The spirit’s children tend to ignore claims from some homids that it may simply not reveal itself to humans in order to improve its mystique.)
Even if any human used these exact words, they’d get it wrong. Nonetheless, the spirit is the connection between the individual and the immediate, always fleeting environment surrounding him. It is the pack instinct. It is the brook and the knowledge of that brook; the tree and the knowledge of the tree at that very instant. It is here now, not a second ago, not a moment ahead, but exactly at this instant, as any wolf will understand it to be. It is, of course, most commonly the patron of Red Talon packs.
Individual Traits: Those who follow this spirit are strongly attuned to their inner nature and instincts, and receive +2 Primal-Urge even if this takes their score over 5. Those of his children who have 6 or 7 Primal-Urge receive -1 or -2 difficulty to all Dodge rolls respectively.
Pack Traits: In addition, he attunes his children more strongly to what happens around them. The difficulty of all pack tactics is reduced by 1, and by spending one Gnosis point and rolling Perception + Primal-Urge (difficulty 8), for one minute a child of the Spirit without Name can sense all events around them for 20 feet per success rolled.
Ban: The spirit cannot even be sensed by those with less than Primal-Urge 3, and thus will not adopt them. Nor will he adopt any pack with a homid in its ranks. Lastly, the spirit's blessings cannot be received in the unnatural city.
Source: Player's Guide Revised p. 140
Twister
Background Cost: 5
The Wyld’s Keeper of Wisdom and brother to Earthquake and Volcano, Twister appears to offer little but destruction and incoherence. But listen to his mad ramblings, and you may hear the very secrets of creation itself. Twister leaves his mark on all he touches, tearing apart the transient things that surround us and reforming the world in his wake. Perhaps of all his lessons, this is the most pertinent: Nothing stays the same. He is most favored by the Black Furies and the Red Talons.
Individual Traits: Twister teaches his children how to perceive the world without preconceptions. Because of this, each of his children gains +1 Enigmas.
Pack Traits: Twister also grants his packs one point of Dexterity and Strength, and Primal-Urge 2.
Ban: Twister's children may not leave a dwelling without destroying something.
Source: Player's Guide Revised p. 140
Unicorn
Background Cost: 7
Unicorn is a patron of peace, purity, healing, and harmony. As such, she is the tribal patron of the Children of Gaia. She embodies the blissful and encompassing love of Gaia.
Individual Traits: Unicorn’s children move at twice their normal speed in the Umbra, and subtract two from all difficulties involving healing and empathy, though they add two to all difficulties to harm other Garou (except Black Spiral Dancers and others tainted by the Wyrm).
Pack Traits: Unicorn’s packs gain three dice when using Gifts of healing, strength, and protection. Children of Gaia will aid the pack, and will usually side with them in disputes.
Ban: Unicorn’s children must protect and aid the weak and exploited, as long as they do not aid the Wyrm in doing so.
Source: W20 p. 375
Wind Incarnae
Background Cost: 5
Each wind blows its secrets across the ground, in falling snow and autumn leaves. Those Garou who can forget their Rage for long enough can hear their whispers, and the words of wisdom they offer. Garou may be adopted by one (and only one) of the Five Winds. The Younger Brother tribe are on good terms with the North Wind and may purchase the North Wind patron as if its Background cost was only 4.
Individual Traits:
- Those favored by the East Wind receive an additional three points of Gnosis per story, and all of the East Wind’s children are at +1 difficulty on Rage rolls.
- Those favored by the South Wind are urged to explore the uncharted reaches where the wind cannot touch. Thus, each are granted endurance (+1 Stamina) and incredible vision; by rolling Perception + Alertness (difficulty 8) they may see clearly up to one mile away per success.
- The North Wind grants his children knowledge of the great mysteries; they receive Occult +3 and Enigmas +2.
- The West Wind offers his chosen great leadership prowess and determination. Individuals following the West Wind receive Leadership +2 and can call upon an additional three Willpower points per story.
- And the rarest of winds, which blows only from the Umbra, invites his children home. All of the Umbral Wind’s children can step sideways at -2 difficulty.
Ban: The children of the Five Winds must keep a reminder of their patron in their presence at all times. Many bind small bells into their clothing and fur to ring in the wind, and decorate their homes with wind chimes. Others carry simple charms or jewelry decorated with wind motifs on their persons. What constitutes a sufficient reminder of the Wind Incarnae is decided by the Storyteller.
Source: Player's Guide Revised p. 140
