Valor
2:17pm, February 17, 2011
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[Delete] | ™Only a century or so -some say even mere decades- ago, the Black Spiral Dancers were considered an historical anomaly: a tribe of bastards seduced and corrupted by the Wyrm. Sacrificing their sanity in exchange for dark powers, the Black Spirals acted as the disciples of a minor cult. For each Spiral hiding in the night, ten Garou waited to hunt him down. Though the werewolves of this tribe had always been dangerous, most of Gaia’s defenders thought of them as insane monsters, villains hunted by ambitious heroes in search of honor and glory.
The world has changed since then. As the Apocalypse draws closer, the Wyrm’s strength increases. The Garou do not understand their most dangerous foes, failing to see them for what for what they really are: their own reflection. Gaia’s defenders charge into battle against Hives of Black Spirals, not realizing that their greatest enemy is not without, but within. Corruption has festered throughout the Garou Nation. As a result, more Garou fall before the Black Spirals each year, not under assaults of fangs and claws, but by the subtle seduction of the Wyrm’s lure.
The seeds of corruption have already been planted. As the Earth mother dies, the oldest werewolves are overwhelmed by the call of Harano. As they fall into introspection, these elders gaze into the maw of Hell and realize their destiny. Cubs insist the same fate will not befall them; instead they indulge freely in rage, allowing hatred to overcome reason. Anger destroys souls as surely as apathy.
While some werewolves were born into the Black Spirals’ tribe, many fall into the Wyrm’s tendrils because of their own tragic failings. Once a werewolf has lost his or her will to resist temptation, she learns to accept the pain of unseen wounds and embrace the horror within herself. Pain is a path to her own destruction, a journey leading straight into the depths of Malfeas. Fallen Garou are drawn to the center of the Black Spiral. And once they cross over, they are eagerly welcomed by the winning side…
History
The origins of this tribe can be traced back to the days of the Roman Empire, when legions of soldiers struggled to build a nation that would place Rome at the center of the known world. In distant lands, generals conducted campaigns against chaos and barbarism. After A.D. 80, their most valiant enemies were the fierce tribes of Northern Britain. While the southern tribes quickly fell under the Roman advance, they stalwart defenders of the north held off the assaults of the Romans for over two centuries.
Hadrian’s Wall marked the furthest limit of this empire with a boundary of stone and mortar. The edifice was originally constructed to defend Roman settlers from the raids of the northern tribes. On the north side was Caledonia, where dozens of tribes warred incessantly against each other. To the south, the furthest outposts of the empire served as refuges for Roman civilization.
Today, Garou Galliards sum up the conflict in rather simplistic terms. The force of the Wylde was strong in the north, but minions of the Wyrm aided the Romans in the south. Though the Celtic Fianna and Gothic Get of Fenris had brilliant tactics for opposing the Roman advance, they could not learn to coordinate their efforts. Throughout Southern Britain, werewolf heroes fell before shockwaves of fomori and Fomorian Unseelie.
The last defense of the northern caerns depended upon the White Howlers, a fanatical and dangerous tribe stalking the Scottish highlands. Long after the Impergium, the Howlers remained isolated in Northern Britain. This desolate landscape was also home to the Picts. Legends tell of a hero named Cluid who led them on an epic journey to these lands- thus, their descendents referred to themselves as "Children of Cluid," or "Cluithi." The greatest pictish warriors became Kinfolk to the White Howlers tribe.
Aided by Pictish Kinfolk, the Howlers were truly awesome in battle. They demonstrated courage and ferocity in action. Their greatest totem, Samladh (pronounced SAU-lah), represented these qualities. While Roman centurions hid behind armour and shields, The Picts often fought in the nude, proudly displaying war paint and tribal tattoos. Invigorated by the chill of the Scottish winds, they raced each other across Roman battlefields screaming horrible warcries. Many warriors painted themselves a fierce shade of blue before battle to draw upon their deeper energies. This use of warpaint and tattoos inspired the Roman name for their tribe: the "Pictii" or "Painted Men."
The white-furred Howlers fought without restraint, reveling in savagery and brutality. Ancient heathen rituals and violent Rites of Passage had made them incredibly vicious. The most arduous of these rituals involved spirit quests into the darkest realms of the Umbra. Cubs proved themselves not only by defeating physical foes, but also by descending into the dark heart of the underworld to prove their worth. The greatest arena for these ordeals was a Malfean realm known as the Spiral Labyrinth. Picts knew the shamanistic tradition of confronting these spirits as "walking the spiral"; Howlers used Gaia’s blessings to travel further into the spirit world than any human mystic ever could.
While the White Howlers were masters of shocking violence, the Wyrm’s legions were more subtle. Many thought that continual assaults on the realm of Malfeas would strike at the heart of hell, weakening the Wyrm’s strength and purifying the bawns of their caerns. Unfortunately, Banes from outside the Malfean labyrinth had already begun to seduce and possess their Pictish Kinfolk. Slowly, they tainted the Picts, stunting their growth and corrupting their minds. While the werewolf rulers of the tribe maintained the purity of their own blood, their Pictish Kinfolk became bestial and degenerate.
From this point on, legends differ. Some modern Galliards believe that the Wyrm’s servitors spawned in the Scottish moors faster than the White Howlers could slay them. Others relate that a few enemy spies within the northern septs betrayed the Howlers to their undead enemies. Allegedly, vampires and the Garou they subjugated opened Moon Bridges to call down diabolical allies. In these tales, loyal White Howlers were completely overwhelmed, and the Wyrm’s assault completely eradicated all traces of the tribe.
Though the original tribe is indeed extinct, these stories are not entirely correct. By completely abandoning themselves in combat, the White Howler’s rage became utterly uncontrollable. Their heathen beliefs also insisted on the tradition of descending into Malfeas to improve their insight and prowess, placing them at spiritual risk. By following these two beliefs, the White Howlers succumbed to the Wyrm’s temptations.
As their heroes’ journeys into darkness became more perilous, the warriors who returned understood many dark mysteries of the underworld. Blasphemous revelations tested their sanity. In glimpses of insight, some survivors argued that the Wyrm was not a force of corruption, but merely one of balance. Those who rejected this idea responded with overwhelming rage, but as the Howlers indulged in violence, forces unseen preyed upon their Kinfolk. The tribe was never destroyed from without. It was corrupted from within.
By the time Roman legions finally broke through the Pict’s defenses, the vampires who came with them were completely unprepared for what they found. The White Howlers had descended further into corruption than their Cainite invaders. To secure the freedom of their homelands, many within the tribe had made dark pacts with infernal forces. After witnessing the true nature of the Wyrm, they willingly opened gates and portals leading to infernal depths. These spiritual visionaries destroyed those who questioned their desperate defense of their homelands. By the time the Romans arrived at the first corrupted caern, hellspawn waited to shatter their minds and consume their souls.
The last caern to fall was the Sept of the Mile-Deep Loch, an island where the purest members of the tribe ruled over the White Howler werewolves. Elders looked out over the bleak moors of Scotland from a high peak at the center of the lake. When they learned of their brethren’s treachery, they tried to summon reinforcements from other distant septs, but by then, it was too late. Outsiders could do little but watch as wave after wave of Wyrmish forces assaulted the septs defenses.
When the sept was finally defiled, black tendrils reached out from the depths of the lake and dragged the tribal elders into the underworld. Destiny awaited them in the greatest gateway to the Spiral Labyrinth, a Malfean fortress known as the Temple Obscura. There, the last heroes of their race were prepared for spiritual corruption. According to legend, Coruroc, Last of the White Howlers, was the final victim to fall.
In the weeks that followed, the Romans were driven back past Hadrian’s Wall, but at a perilous cost. The Picts had secured their Scottish homelands again, but their Garou guardians had fallen prey to the conqueror Wyrm. The caerns of the north became breeding grounds for Banes, which were immediately bound into Wyrm-tainted fetishes. Eventually, the elders of the tribe returned from their final journey into the depths of Malfeas, but when they did so, they emerged as werewolves of the Black Spiral tribe.
™As late as 297 A.D., the Picts continued to attack Hadrian’s Wall. By that time, the many tribes had consolidated into two kingdoms: Maeatae, in the north, and Caledoni, in the south. Within a century, Irish raiders began to assault both of these Pictish kingdoms. (In fact, the word "Scot" is derived from the Gaelic word for "raider.") Over time, Scottish and Pictish blood mixes with that of Angles and Saxons. By the end of the 4th century, the many human tribes of the north elected one Pictish king to watch over their diverse cultures.
Galliard historians recall this saga in greater detail. The Fianna claim the werewolves of Scotland as their own flesh and blood. After helping to drive armies of Fomorians back into the sea, the lupine defenders of Eire migrated to the homelands of the Picts. Many Silver Fangs clarify that the Fianna didn’t do this alone. They insist that these Garou couldn’t muster the courage to raid the Pictish kingdoms until a few of their own pure bred heroes led the way.
The legend of Caledonia also includes a dark secret most Garou would prefer not to admit. Though the White Howler tribe was destroyed in the 3rd century A.D., the Picts were not. In fact, several families of Pictish Kinfolk survived, some of them integrating themselves with other surviving tribesmen. The Scots, Picts, Angles and Saxons didn’t remain separate cultures for long. Over five centuries, they married and remarried enough times to form one homogenous Scottish culture.
The same integration took place among the Garou Kinfolk. The Scottish descendants of demented Pictish Kinfolk bred with the Black Spirals, but also passed a thin streak of tainted blood onto the Fianna, the Silver Fangs, and other tribes of the north. A trace of this corruption survived. In the years that followed, degenerate Kinfolk exhibited a host of strange afflictions: stunted growth, a predisposition for bestial violence, and symptoms of mental degeneracy, ranging from depression to borderline madness. Some Garou cubs even dreamt of shocking Past Lives. Those of purer strains could here the voices of the Wyrm’s servitors calling to them. The White Howler’s died, but their legacy lived on….
The Kingdom of Alba
During this time a valiant Silver Fang Ahroun named Caledon the White led an army against the first Black Spirals and their degenerate Kinfolk, driving them further north. This white-furred hero became a legend among the Scottish Garou. Caledon’s many descendants recaptured caerns throughout southern Scotland. Unfortunately, they then warred with each other for centuries, struggling to find one Garou that could follow Caledon’s example and unite all of the local tribes. The silver Fangs who triumphed in this struggle would later form the basis for one of their more obscure camps: the Highlanders. Yet as part of this, the "nobility" of Scotland began to isolate themselves from the concerns of commoners. This would prove to be a weakness that the Black Spirals could repeatedly exploit.
In 843, Kenneth McAlphin, a Kinfolk of the Silver Fangs, proved to be a subtle figurehead for uniting the many clans and tribes of Scotland. McAlphin rose to assume power over both the Scottish and Pictish kingdoms, establishing the Kingdom of Alba. An esteemed pack of Highland Silver Fangs and lowlander Fianna proclaimed themselves as his personal defenders. They united their pack under one totem- the regal and courageous Lion.
While the warriors of this "Lion pack" waited for the night when the Black Spirals would attack, they never realized that the enemy had already infiltrated their ranks. As the Scottish Garou heard the unnatural howls of the Black Spiral Dancers at night, something stirring within them answered. By day, they performed rituals in service to Lion to bolster their strength, but at night, they had horrible dreams of shocking Past Lives. Some remembered dark rituals performed by the shores of the Mile-Deep Loch. Others dreamt of the madness preying upon the leaders of the Highlander camp. Blood called to blood.
Some melodramatic Fianna add a sinister theme here, insisting that the White Howlers left another cursed legacy behind for the Scottish Garou. The werewolves of Alba never realized the truth about their spiritual guardian. The greatest of the White Howlers’ tribal totems was an Incarna of courage and ferocity. McAlphin’s Silver Pack knew him by a different name. The White Howler totem became familiar to the Scottish and English Garou by a different name- Lion.
While armies of Garou guarded the lands surrounding McAlphin’s fortress, the morale of his personal defenders deteriorated. One by one, McAlphin’s guardians went screaming into the northern lands of Alba, answering the call of their distant brethren. As these souls were claimed by the Wyrm, the Black Spiral tribe grew stronger. Once the local Garou had been thoroughly demoralized by the fall of McAlphin’s personal defenders, Black Spiral werewolves attacked. McAlphin fled further south, the surviving Garou desperately preyed for guidance, and the Wyrm rejoiced.
Back in the Old Country, survival remained as difficult as ever. Though the Inquisition culled the supernatural population of Europe, the survivors became increasingly territorial. This presented further problems. Black Spirals couldn’t burrow tunnels into new territories until they had established pits there, and they couldn’t dedicate those sites until the lands surrounding them had been desecrated. Despite the gradual nature of this advance, the Spirals did manage to secure a few strongholds in Northern Europe.
One of the tribe’s most extensive networks lay hidden in the wilds of Scandinavia…until Nosferatu scouts uncovered the entrances to these "spirit tunnels" in 1803. Soon thereafter, a sect of vampires began to crusade into the tribe’s Scandinavian territories. The leaders of their society, the Sabbat, hoped to establish a haven from their enemies in the Camarilla. Without the slightest regard for Black Spiral domains, Sabbat vampires openly moved into the major cities of the region by night. After slaughtering the Camarilla rulers, they held violent revels I the streets to celebrate.
The elders of the Black Spirals considered this an immediate threat to the security of their spawning pools. If the Sabbat’s indiscretions continued, they argued, the results would be like the inquisitions of the 15th century all over again. Even Black Spiral werewolves had to maintain some pretense of the Veil. To secure their lands, the tribe waged war against nocturnal invaders. Hives of Spirals searched for havens of vampires by day; in response, packs of vampires sought out the Hives of Gaia’s bastards by night.
Neither side saw any immediate victory until a werewolf pack on a visionquest in Malfeas uncovered a startling revelation. The ruler of the local Sabbat vampires, the Archbishop of Stockholm, had made a dark pact of his own. Though the Black Spirals were not familiar with the phrase "Path of Evil Revelations," they soon learned that the Archbishop worshipped a manifestation of the Beast-of-War.
Garou and Black Spirals alike could sense the taint of the Wyrm in these inhumane vampires, but one Theurge’s insight encouraged an alliance between Leeches and Lupines in the Wyrm’s name. Through this occult connection, the few remaining Hives in northern Sweden were able to make an alliance with the local Sabbat Archbishop’s. Once this unity had been forged, both sects were able to protect their lands in Scandinavia over the next two centuries.
As news of this tenuous alliance spread, Black Spiral Dancers in the New World found the ideas eminently practical. Gangrel antitribu of the Sabbat were especially receptive to the concept. While a vampire could provide excellent protection for a pack at night, the Black Spirals could ensure security for the same vampire by day. Although the Garou Nation and Camarilla could never find common ground, Black Spiral Dancers find no real ethical or practical reason to forbid alliances with the rather less idealistic Sabbat sect out of hand.
To this day, there is no guarantee that Black Spiral werewolves and Sabbat vampires will hold a treaty in a given city. However, vampire pacts with demonic forces have always made such alliances much easier. When both societies find they have a common goal, elders can often find a way to strike a devil’s deal.
Ecoterror
The evolution of the Black Spiral Dancer’s continues. Only a century ago, the Black Spirals only formed about one-fourteenth of the world’s werewolf population. Now they are equal to one-tenth of the Garou population, easily outnumbering any other tribe. The Black Spirals are the only tribal society that is growing instead of decreasing. Though some purebred Black Spiral Dancers proudly trace their tainted lineage back to the days of the Pictish Kingdoms, many are recent initiates into the Wyrm’s cults. As the Final Days approach, an increasing number of spiritually fallen Garou find rebirth and redemption in the Black Spiral tribe, joining their distant brethren.
There are several reasons for the tribe’s increasing strength. First, the Black Spirals spawn far more cubs than the Garou. Since their early days of isolation in northern Scotland, overpopulation has always been crucial to their survival. Reveling in their carnal lust, demented werewolves evolve and preserve ancient orgiastic rites to breed more bastard children. Even fights for dominance typically have a sexual element, establishing "who’s on top" in more ways than one. The strong breed; the weak submit. (Pity the "omega wolf" of a Dancer pack- whenever any other packmate feels frustrated or insecure, he or she typically slakes his or her perverted and usually violent desires on the pack’s weakling, just to prove that there’s someone weaker and of lower station.)
In addition, Black Spirals have no taboos about breeding with their own kind. It’s quite common for an alpha female to spawn with several werewolf partners at any given time. These practices have ancient origins. The Picts originally lived in matriarchal society, one where women could choose their lovers freely, even outside of wedlock. The White Howlers have since devolved these traditions into a never-ending sexual ballet performed for the Wyrm’s delight.
As darkness falls, the number of metis raised in each Pit slowly grows. While bastard Garou are prone to uncontrolled degeneracy, metis Black Spiral Dancers grow stronger as the Final Days approach. Genetic abnormalities, like insanity, are taken as blessings from the Wyrm. The use of radiation and toxic waste in spawning pools has also helped them breed "better" Black Spirals. Today, Theurges scramble for some sort of rite, Gift, or other trick that would allow their metis to breed. If they ever prove successful, then within a generation, the Garou nation will surely be doomed.
A second reason for these werewolves’ triumph is their cunning ability to lure Garou into the seduction of the Black Spiral Labyrinth. As their legion of genetic aberrants grows, the number of Garou impressed into serving the Wyrm increases as well. Some Black Spirals pursue this goal openly, organizing hunting parties to abduct Garou cubs. Subtler cults have learned to lead elder Garou to their destruction without raising a claw. After establishing a "hunting ground," a Hive typically begins a shadowy campaign of victimization and destruction, demoralizing local Garou and humans alike.
There are numerous legends of Black Spiral werewolves capturing nearby Kinfolk and Garou to increase their numbers. Underground warrens hold the unwilling "breeders" of their cult. The Delirium has mutated evidence of these spawning pools into many unusual urban legends and satanic scandals. When Black Spiral Kinfolk act on behalf of "demonic voices" in their heads, the Urge Wyrms may also convince them to walk willingly into nearby hunting grounds, where they can be abducted and fertilized.
Banes also direct packs of Black Spiral Dancers to the walking wounded of the Garou Nation. Elders consumed by Harano, Garou with a thin trace of Pictish blood, and werewolves stalked by unseen spirits all make for excellent recruits. Hives serving the Whippoorwill totem are especially good at finding them. When victims of the Apocalypse fall into despair, they often find the path to damnation in the depths of their own hearts. Sometimes, Black Spiral Dancers only need to give them a little push.
There is a third reason this tribe has succeeded: strong alliances with other supernatural factions. The Black Spirals’ alliance with Pentex, for instance, is working brilliantly. The corporation has diversified into hundreds of different companies, no longer needing to hide behind a single name. High profits give them the means to sponsor or invest in entire packs. Through their connections, they’ve managed to secure employment for dozens of Hives of Black Spiral Dancers.
Though the Weaver is strong in many of these corporations, Black Spiral employees act as a sort of corporate cancer in the business world, eating away at the more banal organizations and corrupting them from the center of a vast corporate web. A few Black Spirals have even risen to positions of corporate management. With Pentex’ connections to the supernatural world, local directors can provide these consultants freshly-summoned Banes, newly corrupted fomori, and even high tech equipment. Business is good when it embraces its own destruction.
Finally, the fanatic beliefs of the Black Spirals’ army of darkness have given them an edge the Garou do not possess. They have seen the future, or at least they think they have. They no longer see the Apocalypse as a final conflict between "good" and "evil". It is the dawn of a new age. Dark revelations in the depths of the Spiral Labyrinth have shown them the path they must follow. When the world is utterly consumed by darkness, the Wyrm will grant them power over all creation. For Black Spirals who aren’t content with absolute freedom, cathartic violence, or damn fine orgies, this last incentive can be a powerful motivator.
Edited 2:30pm, February 17, 2011 by Valor, author. |
