W20 - Changing Breeds.pdf

the Wyrm’s servants. Bat would search the world for thosethings ordained to pass away and mark them for removal.When the Wyrm went mad, Bat fled its service. ThoughBat proved itself time and again in service to Gaia andagainst its old master, the spirit would always have adarkness to it that Gaia’s love could never truly cleanse.Beyond Gaia’s love, Bat’s children gave the spirit thestrength to carry on. Bat was one of the most attentivespirit fathers, lavishing gifts and advice upon theCamazotz. Bat knew that the Camazotz were likehim, destined to dwell in the dark and mistrustedby the other Changing Breeds. They wouldundertake missions that their cousins wouldnever understand — and would probablynever even be aware of.When the Garou chased the Camazotz outof the Northern hemisphere during the War ofRage, Bat remained true to Gaia but his dedicationbegan to crack. He taught his children a formof blood magic — the same rituals that wouldeventually condemn them in the eyes of EuropeanGarou — drawn from Bat’s old existence as oneof the Wyrm’s servants. They took strength fromdeath, just as the Wyrm had done. Althoughthe rituals were not inherently tainted, theywere fundamentally unsafe — they calledupon the power of the primordial destroyer,a power that had gone quite mad. Manywerebats fell to the Wyrm, but the Camazotzexpressed their Rage and their totem’s angerin the zeal with which they hunted theircorrupted brothers. Many of them neverknew that the blood-rites were the sourceof that corruption, and that everyone whohad taken part in one of the rites was tiedto the Wyrm.While the Camazotz in South Americawere experimenting with blood magic, theCamazotz of the Eastern hemisphere withdrewfrom their allies among the Beast Courts.Although they still served the EmeraldMother, the Asian Camazotz became evenmore insular and secretive. They turned theirtalents at information gathering to understandingtheir own history. What had driventhe Garou, once Gaia’s proudest warriors,to slaughter their cousins? The ChangingBreeds had always been a contentious family,and while it wasn’t entirely uncommonfor disagreement between shapeshifters tobreak out in violence, it had never beforegone as far as genocideThe Camazotz of Australia found an even more welcominghome. Spreading the word of the Garou’s war tothe continent, they found refuge among the continent’sother Changing Breeds. The Mokolé of Australia hadprepared caerns andCHAPTER FOUR: THE LOST BREEDS237