W20 - Changing Breeds.pdf

diminish, the Bastet and Mokolé struggle to retake theirhomes from agents of the Wyrm, but also from Garouwar parties who seem as content to fight with the otherChanging Breeds as with the Wyrm’s minions.Many Bastet react by striking out in a blind rage atthe loggers and Wyrmspawn who destroy their rainforesthomes, or at the invading Garou, who they blame for theWyrm’s continued presence. The Wyrm responds withincreasingly well-armed human loggers, often aided bybanes and formori, fighting both the invading Garou andthe local Changing Breeds. The end result is a series ofthree-way battles that threatens to do as much damageto the rainforest as the logging companies. Acre by acre,day by day, this violence continues to worsen, with noend in sight.Seeing the cost of endless warfare, some Mokolé havemade closer alliances with the local native tribes, andaided those humans’ efforts to protect their portions ofthe Amazon through legislation focusing on the rightsof indigenous peoples. A few have even begun fightingmodern warfare in a different fashion, using their vaststores of knowledge and wisdom to identify new drugs forpharmaceutical company scouts searching the rainforest.If it is in the corporations’ fiscal interest to protect theland, they argue, then allies may be found even amongstthose who formerly sought to clear-cut and developthe jungle. Most other Changing Breeds consider thisparticular project to be working too closely with theirsworn enemies, however.Desperately struggling to survive, other Mokoléhave sought homes in the less dense outskirts of someof the expanding human cities of South and CentralAmerica. If it works for the Ratkin (the only ChangingBreed population that is actually on the rise there),the weresaurians hope it may work for them as well.Unfortunately, the Ratkin are not eager to share theirchosen niche, so these would-be urban Mokolé faceboth outside disapproval from wallows who feel theyare abandoning tradition, and local opposition from thewererats who already dwell there.The continent’s larger population centers are alsohome to significant numbers of Ananasi, who aredetermined to keep the war in the Amazon from spreadingto their domains. From their urban webs, they work tomanipulate the downfall of those who threaten to bringunwelcome conflict to the regions they control. Sofar, the werespiders have been careful enough that fewamong the other Changing Breeds realize who or whatis responsible, but when webs lie as thick as the Spidershave spun here, eventual discovery is nearly inevitable.AfricaMuch of Africa is in violent flux as the EndlessStorm openly wars against any shapeshifter who wouldchallenge their rule. For millennia, Africa was a haven forthe Changing Breeds, being protected from the WesternGarou by miles and miles of harsh desert across thenorthern edge of the continent. Though some werewolveslived in the area, they were few and far between, no matchfor the sheer variety of Changing Breeds who made thecontinent their home.The Reign of the AjabaFor thousands of years, the Ajaba ruled over theAfrican shapeshifters. The fierce and ruthless Hyenacontrolled most of the territory in East and Central Africa,brooking no challenges from the Bastet or Mokolé as theywent about their sacred duty — culling the continent’s“herds,” be they beast, human, or shapeshifter. Seeingtheir work as its own form of mercy, the Ajaba had littletolerance for those amongst the other Changing Breedswho labeled them brutal and capricious — The-Teeth-That-Bite-And-Never-Let-Go had no time for suchfrivolity. As a result, many resented the werehyenas.And as drought and famine spread across the continent,taking their toll on human and Changing Breed alike, theconflicts between the Ajaba and the rest of the Africanshapeshifters grew to ever new heights.Traditionally matriarchal, these hard times drove theAjaba to desperate measures. A male claimed dominanceof the Hyena clans, titled himself the Ajaba King, andthrough his tyranny, escalated the bad situation into aneven worse one. Many African shapeshifters attemptedto make the Ajaba, and their King, a scapegoat for thecontinent’s woes. And, some twenty years ago, one groupof Bastet finally succeeded.Black Tooth and the Endless StormBlack Tooth, a ruthless and violent Simba, gatheredhis pride, the Endless Storm, and vowed to rid Africa ofthe “Hyena plague”. They called on ancient spirits foraid, and bullied many of the continent’s other ChangingBreeds to either join their war — or else share the Ajaba’sfate. With their assembled allies, the Endless Stormattacked a near all-inclusive gathering of the Ajaba, usedthe Breed’s Yava against them, and destroyed all but a fewof the Hyenas’ number. Then, aided by allies far darkerand more devious than their fellow Bastet, the Simbaperformed a profane and powerful ritual that warded theSerengeti grasslands against the Ajaba, forcing them outof their traditional homelands.28CHANGING BREEDS