W20 - Changing Breeds.pdf

ating of the Background determines how far back theMokolé may remember.0 Roughly a century.• Three to five hundred years.•• Roughly a millennium.••• The Impergium and the beginning of humancivilization.•••• The awakening of the mammalian shapeshifters.••••• The time of the Dinosaur Kings.WallowThe Wallow Background means that you have tiesto a Mokolé wallow, one with some history and otherMokolé residents. If you are a homid, this may be a village,rural homestead, or isolated island such as Komodo.If you are a suchid, it may be an ancient temple, jungleswamp, zoo, or gator farm. Any Allies, Contacts, or Kinfolkyou may have likely live at the wallow. The wallowis a place where you can meditate to regain Gnosis inSun’s light, hold gathers and perform rites. You may livethere all the time; of course, if you don’t have Resources,your home might not be very luxurious.• A poor wallow. One Mokolé lives there or perhapsonly Kin.•• No palace. A few Mokolé and Kin live there.••• The wallow has lots of land (maybe a nationalpark) or places to live.•••• A nice place: a village, isolated creek, or lake.••••• A temple, alligator farm, or large village.NagahThe self-imposed isolation of the Nagah preventsthem from having many Allies; Mentors are likewiserare. Nagah do not purchase the Totem Background;the Wani and their servants don’t act as personal or“pack” totems, and no other spirits are entitled to doso. A Nagah nest counts as a bonded pack for all systempurposes, but no totem bond exists. Nagah also use aunique Background: Ananta.AnantaA Nagah’s Ananta is similar to the Den-Realm of aBastet, save that Nagah nests may pool their Backgroundpoints to share a single Ananta, or each have their ownpersonal Ananta (but not both; a wereserpent may onlycarry a single Ananta within herself at a time).The rating of this Background determines the Ananta’ssize and ability to provide food and drink. In thephysical world, the Ananta has almost no actual presence— only a small space nominated as a “doorway,”through which the Nagah may step sideways to enter thepocket-realm. This portal is invariably at the bottom ofa river or other source of fresh water. Other Nagah arecapable of sensing the presence of an Ananta’s doorway;it is otherwise undetectable. The difficulty to step intoan Ananta is equal to the local Gauntlet, -1 for everytwo points in the Background (minimum difficulty 2).Ananta are invisible from the Umbra. An Ananta’sinterior can resemble anything its owner desires.Once the wereserpent has created his (or his nest’s)Ananta, he may “swallow” it to move it from place toplace at any time, and may regurgitate it at any futuretime. While the Ananta is within him, the Nagah maystep sideways as the Garou do. However, if the Ananta isdestroyed for any reason, each Nagah to which it belongsloses a permanent Gnosis point.• A small and meagerly appointed Ananta. Norefreshments are available.•• A modest Ananta, roughly the size of a guestbedroom, with enough food and drink to entertaina visitor or two.••• An Ananta well-suited to a nest, roughly the sizeof a townhouse or hotel suite, with enough foodand drink for the whole nest.•••• A spacious nest, about house-sized, with abundantfood.••••• A luxurious Ananta, the size of a small mansion,with gourmet delicacies for all.NuwishaNuwisha use the same Backgrounds as Garou, as wellas Umbral Maps (see “Shared Backgrounds,” p. 212).Virtually all Nuwisha have a personal totem, inevitablya trickster spirit of some sort. Rarely, a Nuwisha will bindherself into a pack of other Fera — but only if the packis united under a trickster totem.RatkinRatkin generally don’t have much in the way ofResources or Allies, and don’t have Ancestors or PureBreed at all. Some wererats establish themselves undera permanent Totem, while others use a special rite totemporarily assume a Totem for the duration of only asingle mission or quest, dissolving their bond to the spiritonce their task is done.RokeaThe timeless Rokea don’t have Ancestors, and don’tconcern themselves with Pure Breed. They can haveat most a single dot of Kinfolk, as their shark Kin arespread so far across the seas, and their human relationsare so very few.CHAPTER THREE: BUILDING THE BEAST211