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Gaia is the Creator, but werewolves also experience a potent mystical connection to her kin Luna. When the moon is in the heavens, the Garou feel tougher and sharper. The impact of the moon provides a benediction at birth that directs each werewolf’s divine pathway. This course, this boon, is called the auspice.

An auspice is several things. It may affect the werewolf’s broad character attributes, feelings, and concerns; it deeply motivates his responsibilities in the pack. All auspices are essential, for no werewolf can fill all these roles alone. Each distinctive orientation supports the pack when they collaborate as one. Auspice also regulates the Rage of the werewolf. Some Garou parents try to use aromatic plants or other techniques to stimulate birth under a particular moon, which is one of the explanations for why Ragabash and Ahroun are approximately as prevalent as the other three auspices, despite the full moon and new moon materializing only half as frequently as the other phases.

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The Red Talons

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“Right off the bat, it is very clear that Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Heart of the Forest's story has something on its mind and comes from a very real place. There were very real and very passionate protests around Bialowieza in 2016 and 2017, and this game makes the wise decision of portraying the events around the protests a lot of nuance and care. It takes into account not just the immediate stuff on the surface, a logging company just doing its job and not caring about the significance of one of the last genuinely primal forests on the face of the earth, but the multiple layers of red tape and political nefariousness as well regarding local government, the press, and public knowledge.”

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The Wyrm

In the beginning, the Wyrm was a custodian of harmony, bringing equilibrium where none existed. The Wyrm guaranteed neither the Wyld nor the Weaver controlled all of existence. Residing between the Chaos below and the Pattern Web above, the Wyrm only acted after deliberation, a crucial intermediary in the universe. Whatever the cause of its current imbalance, the Wyrm was trapped inside the Pattern Web, and panicked, it fragmented into three conscious minds and became deranged, like some monstrous entity at the entrance to the underworld.

The Wyrm became a herald of the Apocalypse, producing horrible creatures with myriad weapons: blight, degeneration, and pollution. Since it cannot harm others with integrity or morality, it must use more insidious methods. Even warriors as powerful as Achilles have their hubris to bring them low, and servants of the Wyrm excel at using deceit and intrigue to bring down a seemingly invincible hero. In the place of outrage and righteous indignation the Wyrm preaches cynicism and indifference, until all faith in a higher power is replaced with the emptiness of the Wyrm. Those who dare to resist the Wyrm are soon overcome by the depths of its insanity and depravity. A mind that cannot be bent can be broken.

The Wyrm has little trouble finding potential hosts for possession or corruption. The dread spirits that serve it are almost beyond counting, with more appearing every day. Presently, there are three heads of the Wyrm: the Beast-of-War utilizes cruel acts of violence; the Eater-of-Souls chokes consuming the overflowing squalor of the world; and the Defiler Wyrm relishes the breaking of minds and sullying of souls. Each of the three controls a horde of spirits in its hierarchy, including a host of Urges that serve the sins and destructive desires of humanity.

Werewolves and other spiritual travelers stumble upon planes overrun by the aspects of the Wyrm. The Wyrm destroys any trace of Gaia’s presence, beauty, or power. Those spirits who inhabit those realms have been enslaved or tormented by evil Banes and Incarnae. If the prophecies are accurate, the Wyrm will someday prevail in the Apocalypse. All that exists will either be recreated in the likeness of those planes or be entirely destroyed. Every skirmish, every battle, every war the Garou fight against the Wyrm delays that ghastly catastrophe. Every reprieve in these days is purchased with the lives of Gaia’s defenders. Werewolves fight the Wyrm wherever it appears; the alternatives are defilement, destruction, and disgrace.

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The Silver Fangs were born to rule. The tribe of Falcon claims the role of leadership of the Garou Nation. Each member claims descent from at least one noble hero, and each member faces lofty expectations. They all trace their family trees to the Progenitor Wolf, with a pedigree containing the absolute best of humanity and wolves. Over the centuries, the Silver Fangs have been at the forefront of the war against the Wyrm, the greatest and most marvelous Garou—and in the view of most Silver Fangs today, that is still accurate.

Other tribes are not so sure. The Silver Fangs’ fixation on pure blood has led to incest, some say, and their minds have become weak and blurred with the passing of time. The Silver Fangs are often accused of resting on their laurels. Their fascination with etiquette has caused them to place more emphasis on tradition and ceremony than the more practical realities of fighting the Wyrm. Mental illness and intense melancholy are also familiar traits to Silver Fangs, and many of their most distinguished members have been fraught with controversy and even disgrace. The glimmer and shine of the Silver Fangs’ dynasty is not as genuine as the tribe would like others to believe, for sure.

All that aside, none can dispute that the Silver Fangs do claim many impressive ancestors, and their Kinfolk also tend to represent the highest classes of human society. While some notorious tribe members embody the worst aspects of the modern Silver Fang, there are also several members who inspire the best aspects too. Besides, as some Silver Fangs point out, the positive and negative qualities of the tribe reflect the imperfect nature of all Garou, torn as they are between dignity and barbarism.

After their First Change, a Silver Fang is told about their special status among the Garou, including expectations of leadership and renown. Silver Fangs who grew up as human beings are often used to competition and diligence, raised as they are by elite privileged Kinfolk. Wolf-born Silver Fangs do not know human luxury, so their association with leadership is about pride and respect than three-piece suits. Even Metis Silver Fangs are treated relatively well for their kind, as their blood is considered the purest of the pure, even if it results in physical deformities. Still, the Silver Fangs regard their Metis relatives with shame, especially given the allegations of inbreeding they face.

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Children of Gaia

This tribe does not claim an ancestral homeland, considering itself to be made up of citizens of the Earth and ambassadors of peace and justice. Some Garou make the mistake of thinking this makes them weak, but when the children of Unicorn choose to fight, they fight with righteousness.

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The Croatan

The Pure Ones, also referred to as the Three Brothers, were the Garou tribes of the Americas (called the Pure Lands): the Uktena, Croatans and Wendigo, or the Elder Brother, Middle Brother, and Younger Brother, respectively. Now only two persist. Middle Brother, the unwavering Croatan tribe, no longer exists. However heart-rending their demise was, it was also honorable. The Croatan surrendered themselves to drive away a powerful spirit of the Wyrm from the physical world to prevent the arrival of the Apocalypse. The cost was high, however, as the loss of an entire tribe has left the surviving tribes without critical support. And now the Apocalypse comes again.

The Croatan were called the “Middle Brother” because they walked a line of moderation between the fiery rage of the Wendigo and the reserved mysticism of the Uktena. The Croatan tempered their passions with wisdom while acknowledging the need for decisive action.

The tribal totem of the Croatan was Turtle, who blessed his followers with incredible persistence. Members of the tribe would put all their efforts into something once they set their minds to it. This also came with the flaw that the Croatan could be stubborn and inflexible, to the point where they would sometimes ignore the truth if it did not suit them. Despite their reputation for being the most balanced of the Pure Ones, the Croatan were not saints, and caused plenty of conflict with its tribal “siblings.” Finally, they were one of the more practical tribes, eschewing pretentiousness. With some notable exceptions, success rarely went to the heads of Croatan elders.

The end of the Croatan occurred in the late 16th century, when it appeared the Apocalypse was in its opening stages. Eater-of-Souls, one of the three heads of the Triatic Wyrm, was on the verge of manifesting in the physical realm, crossing from the spirit world into the material one. Every single member of the tribe assembled to take part in a ritual they knew would not kill the spirit but would injure and banish it back to whence it came. Just as the Eater-of-Souls was poised to materialize, the ceremony was completed, dealing a massive defeat to the Wyrm and its servants on that hallowed day.

The rite consumed the ancestor-spirits of the Croatan as well. Their Kinfolk either died out or married into the other tribes. Sometimes, gossip spreads of the Croatan returning, of a miracle to equal the many disasters that have befallen Gaia and her protectors. The Uktena, however, dismiss such rumors, for in all their studies of shamanism and the spirits, they have discovered nothing to suggest the Croatan could ever come back from where their souls have gone. Some losses we suffer are absolute.

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The Umbra

“Werewolves are eternally caught between two worlds. Garou hunt in the wilderness, but still defend the cities of mankind; they take the forms of humans, but can run with wolves; they must balance the passion of Rage with the calm enlightenment of Gnosis. This theme of duality permeates every aspect of their lives, and it’s just as prevalent in their spirituality. Quite simply, werewolves are creatures of flesh and spirit. They live in both in the physical world mankind inhabits and a spiritual world ordinary humans can never experience. Balance is an easy word to say, but a perilously difficult goal to achieve, especially for Garou. Their lives are incomplete unless they routinely explore, accept, and return to the Spirit World.”

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Cunning, deceptive, and domineering, the Shadow Lords have a burning drive to lead the whole Garou Nation. They trace their ancestry to Eastern Europe, among the craggy cliffs and rocky foothills of the mountains there. They are ruthless—even Machiavellian—in their efforts to direct the Garou, and believe that the might of their totem, Grandfather Thunder, makes them fit to rule.

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Dedicated to the Wyrm’s destruction, the Get of Fenris are savage and bloodthirsty warriors who take great pride in their Germanic and Scandinavian heritage.

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Fomori

When the Wyrm utterly corrupts a human’s mind, body, and spirit, that victim becomes a monstrous fomor. This is usually the work of full-body Bane possession. The Wyrm grants each fomor supernatural power, but there’s always a price to be paid. Monsters cursed with the Wyrm’s power are always marked or deformed in some way. Whether the victim volunteers for this bargain in a devil’s deal, succumbs to seduction, submits to duress, or is brutally taken by predators, the results are always horrific. The least and most pitiful fomori become mindless, raving cannibals struggling to survive in places the Wyrm has blighted. Even barely sentient fomori are drawn to places of pollution, defilement, and human suffering, knowing their infernal allies are drawn to the same prey. The most dangerous ones retain their intellect, cunning, and guile. Once they’ve learned to hide their curses and imperfections from ordinary people, they walk among us, preying on the weak and the wounded.

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Mysterious and mystical, the Uktena are a tribe of outsiders charged with guarding the resting places of many powerful Banes, though this taints them by association.