W20 - Changing Breeds.pdf

OrganizationThe Senior CouncilThe Ahadi’s leadership consists of a senior councilof luminaries who act to organize it and promote itsagenda to both the other Changing Breeds and to thespirit world. The council sets rough policy for the group,but their control is limited — members of the Ahadiadhere to the philosophy of empathizing with otherBreeds. How they express that is an intensely personalthing, changing with the feelings, attitudes, and needsof individual members.That is not to say that the Ahadi is a loose associationof loners, but rather that the needs of a political, militarybody do not coincide with the spiritual rectitude thatallows, for example, a Mokolé to intuit the ways of theNagah. No shapeshifter can be forced to feel empathyfor another kind, nor can he be expected to adjust toanother Breed’s ways. The dictum that, for example, aMakunguru should learn the ways of a Garou and fightthe Wyrm sounds good, but is useless if the Corax inquestion simply cannot fight. Whether a shapeshiftercan bond with and walk with another Changing Breedis almost entirely up to the individual.However, the Ahadi have seen some incrediblejoinings of form and function. Ajaba have played thepart of peacekeeper, while Rokea have done the work ofjudges, and Nagah have carried news of the movementof spirits down into the watery sanctums of the Mokolé.As a group the Ahadi fosters kganmadi — mixedpacks — to bring out understanding between Breeds,which fosters spiritual evolution into new, strongerforms. The senior council tries to find the best waysto grow these bonds, and to direct those Fera who arealready advanced in the Ahadi toward goals that helpkeep the peace.Members of the council include Kisasi and a handfulof elder Bastet and Mokolé, as well as a few young heroesof various other tribes — including one of the survivingKucha Ekundu.Body of the AhadiBeneath the Senior Council, the Ahadi is composedof autonomous groups operating in the spirit of theAhadi Code (see p. 262). The Ahadi forms kganmadi,packs of mixed shapeshifters, which either get togetheron a temporary basis to pursue a specific goal and thengo back to doing things on their own as normal; or bindtogether into a permanent pack to work together forthe good of Gaia.Beyond that, a number of shapeshifters considerthemselves supporters of the Ahadi but who continueworking in traditional ways — for example, solitary Bastetdigging up secrets as Gaia bade them, Makunguru runningintelligence to different kganmadi without joiningone themselves, and Kucha Ekundu running in Garoupacks who treat the kganmadi as allies. Compared to therigid, formal nature of Asia’s Beast Courts, the Ahadiis a very loose operation. But even in a short period oftime, it has achieved significant results.Power of the AhadiAfter the defeat of Black Tooth, the Ahadi seizedcontrol of the territories held by the Endless Storm. Bytaking over the core caerns, they took control of much ofAfrica. The Changing Breeds watched with bated breathto see if the Ahadi would be as tyrannical and debasedas he whom they had usurped. But rather than extortingcontrol from their fellows, the Ahadi began the longand arduous process of returning caerns to their rightfulinhabitants. Many caerns remained contested by manygroups, each claiming to have been robbed of them bysome fiend or another — whether it be Black Tooth ora villain centuries earlier. It was a task of years — andthat does not even begin to describe the ordeal of sortingmisappropriated fetishes, relics that had moved throughso many hands that Kisasi secretly lamented having notsealed them away with the soul of the Tyrant Simba.The Ahadi were in a precarious position — theyboth controlled the main sources of power and Gnosisin the land, but they had also started restoring whatBlack Tooth had taken away. While greatly outnumberedby the unaffiliated Changing Breeds, the Ahadistill held the strongest hand. They were more organized,battle-hardened, and willing to work together, and theypossessed the caerns and fetishes their contemporarieswanted returned. By both appearing strong and yetconciliatory, the Ahadi managed to avoid a war, andbegan to establish trust in Africa. Peace, it seemed, fora time, was possible. But as the Garou well know, theApocalypse cannot be diverted.Many of the Changing Breeds disagree vehementlywith the “order” the Ahadi has brought to Africa. Byholding court and hearing petitions over caerns, theyhave effectively opened bidding on many places thatmany shapeshifters believe are not theirs to give orwithhold. The entire process is a blasphemy, an affrontto the Changing Breeds’ nature. Those who hold powerare those who take it. Thus was Black Tooth given rise.The Ahadi faced other pressure. In the Mnesis ofthe Mokolé, multi-Breed septs died with the War ofRage. Caerns once held pristine against all outsiders,APPENDIX ONE: THE AHADI257