W20 - Changing Breeds.pdf

When a Breed’s animal Kin is no more, the Breeddies along with it. Their human Kinfolk lose the abilityto have shapeshifting children, spawning only normalhumans. The shapeshifters themselves become entirelyinfertile, no longer able to sire or produce young, evenwith each other. And, within a generation, the Breedceases to be.Each Breed’s fate is so closely tied to its animalKin because of a symbiotic relationship between theBreed’s spiritual sire and the creatures that are itsmortal reflection. When the saber-toothed cats diedout at the end of the last Ice Age, the spiritual representationsof saber-toothed cat died with it. As well,the Incarna of the Khara – Saber-Toothed Cat — lostits ties to the mortal world, and faced few choices forits continued existence. It could have sought refugefrom other, more powerful Incarna, relying on themto maintain it through servitude. But like most cats,pride was strong in Saber-Toothed Cat and it couldnot conceive of an existence devoid of freedom, boundin service to another. Instead, it left the Near Umbra,seeking a realm where spiritual representations ofsaber-toothed cat still existed. There, it could continueto be — as it had always been — the embodiment ofthe ideal of saber-toothed cat: fierce, proud, and free.Bereft of their spiritual sire, any Khara and (proto-)human Khara-Kin left found themselves spirituallyneutered. Their children would never become shifters.Their Breed’s days were numbered.A similar fate awaited the Grondr, albeit for a verydifferent reason. After the Garou slaughtered all but ahandful of the Grondr, they encouraged the humans ofthe First City to enslave the Grondr Kin, human and beastalike. Their human Kinfolk were used for servants, soldas slaves, and forced to bear their oppressors’ children.Any offspring that the Garou even suspected of beingwereboar were killed in their infancy before they couldachieve their First Change.The boar Kin faced an even worse fate. The fiercestwere slaughtered and eaten as a delicacy, and in time,humans domesticated the weakest. By breeding themwith weak-blooded and weak-spirited pigs, the Garou andtheir Kin slowly but surely diluted the Grondr bloodlinesinto utter impotency. Over time, the primal boars thatwere the Grondr’s Kin were no more.The Lost Breedsin the Modern DayThe Lost Breeds are primarily presented for Storytellersrunning historical games, or as traces of the pastthat modern characters learn of via the Ancestors orSPIRITS VERSUS SCIENTISTSTo this day, wild boars roam the earth. However,while human scientists may call today’sbeasts by the same name, spirits pay no attentionto the proclamations of science. Their taxonomymay be similar, but spiritually speaking, the Incarnaof Wild Boar, Father of the Grondr, andthe spirits of domesticated pigs or today’s wildboars are a world apart.Just as even the Bone Gnawers could notkeep their Tribe alive with dog-Kin, the Grondrcould not find Kin among the wild boar thatsurvive today. Their spirit is different, even iftheir genetics owe some long-past heritage tothe creatures who were once Grondr Kin.Mnesis Backgrounds. That said, Storytellers can chooseto include any of these Breeds in a modern game.One option for integrating Lost Breeds into a moderncampaign is to assume that a few members of the Breedsurvived in the far depths of the Umbra, where timemoves differently. Perhaps the characters discover theseshapeshifters and leading them back to Earth. Perhapstheir enemies have done so, and the characters mustrescue the newly returned before they are recruited tothe Wyrm’s cause. Or perhaps the Lost Breeds have, likethe legend of King Arthur, returned to Gaia in Her hourof greatest need.Another possibility is the gradual re-emergence ofLost Breeds through new births. While the odds of ashapeshifter being born to two Kinfolk are always low(and grow astronomically lower when the beast Kin areextinct or been domesticated, and the human Kin arehundreds generations diluted), long-shot odds still havea chance of coming up. And, in a world where Incarnaspirits, magic wielders, and other reality-shapers exist,anything that is not utterly impossible might eventuallyhappen.A human adolescent going through their FirstChange as an Apis, Grondr, or Camazotz is somethingthat spirits throughout the world will notice, and wordwould surely reach the ears of other Changing Breedsin short order. This kind of story will have a very differentflavor than the emergence of a number of ancient,228CHANGING BREEDS