W20 - Changing Breeds.pdf

Introduction:Beastsof the WildOther SkinsThe Garou do not prowl the World of Darknessalone. Gaia also made the Fera, Her other shapeshiftingchildren, and tasked them with their own duties: ravensand cats to unearth secrets, bears and boars to root outtaint, lizards to remember, and sharks to survive. Andfor millennia, the Changing Breeds worked together toprotect Gaia and serve Her will.Then something terrible happened. The Garoucalled it a war — The War of Rage. The other ChangingBreeds call it slaughter.The werewolves drove at least two of the ChangingBreeds to extinction, killing enough of the Apis andGrondr that those Breeds could never recover. The otherChanging Breeds hid: some among humans, some inplaces that the Garou did not go, and some in concealedrealms of the Umbra. Each feared that their return wouldbring retaliation from the Garou.In time, the War of Rage became first a memory andthen a legend, a story of how the Garou fell from theirplace and broke the order of the world. For the Fera, itwas a cautionary tale, a warning of what the werewolvescould do with power unchecked.But the past would not remain buried. When the oldworld met the new, the European Garou clashed with theChanging Breeds of the Americas. Violent encounterswith the Balam and Camazotz escalated Garou and othershapeshifters once again into war. By the time the dusthad settled, the Garou had destroyed the werebats, justas they had done to the Grondr and Apis long before.And the chasm between Garou and the other ChangingBreeds deepened.Now, the Apocalypse draws near, and even the egotisticalGarou cannot hope to defeat the Wyrm alone.For there to be even a hope of victory, the ChangingBreeds must emerge from the shadows and join theirlong-estranged cousins once more. But what price willthey pay to do so?Playing Changing BreedsThe other Changing Breeds as a whole share manytraits with the Garou. They are shapeshifters, spiritualand physical combinations of human and animals. Mostknow that they are Gaia’s children — though the Ananasiwere born of the Weaver’s daughter-sister, and theRokea swim at Sea’s command. And, like their lupinecousins, the other Changing Breeds are embodiments ofa greater purpose, created for a specific cause.INTRODUCTION 17