W20 - Changing Breeds.pdf

Proud and aloof, the Bastet serve as Gaia’s Eyes,hunting out secrets in the darkest and most dangerouscorners of creation. As diverse as their many tribes, stillthere are certain elements that breed true among thegreat cats: beauty, grace, ferocity, cunning, and — byno means least — vanity.HistoryAccording to Bastet legend, the cat-shifters were createdafter all of the rest of the Changing Breeds. WhenGaia first sought companionship from among the greatspirits, feline storytellers claim, She found willing suitorsaplenty. Wolf and Raven, Lizard and Bear, predators greatand small prostrated themselves at Gaia’s feet, grovelingfor the chance to be her mate.Knowing himself to be Her equal in beauty and grace,cunning and ferocity, Cat alone remained imperviousto Gaia’s charms. Of course, this only heightened Herunderstandable interest in the feline spirit, but no matterhow She called him to Her, he rebuffed Her attentions,refusing to be one of Her crowd of twitter-pated suitors.Time passed, and the other Changing Breeds were born,each with their own duty to their Mother-Goddess.But to have a duty and to fulfill it are two differentthings. Time after time, the shifters of every sort barked andhowled and nipped at each other’s heels, spending moreenergy securing some imagined position of prominence ineach other’s eyes than they did to attending to their duties.At length, Gaia had had Her fill of offspring whosquabbled amongst themselves and neglected their duties.Turning from the rabble that had fawned over Herattention earlier, She walked out into the spirit wilds,and sought the companionship of Cat alone. And he,seeing She’d come to her senses and was ready to give himthe respect he knew himself worthy of, now deigned toshare his time with Her and to bestow upon Her childrenworthy of that union.After their time together, Gaia gave birth to ninechildren, all of them beautiful, strong, and proud. Sheloved Her new children fiercely, for they were handsomeand nimble, full of Cat’s sinuous grace. Seeing inthem great potential, She tasked them with aiding theirelder brethren with the duties already set before them,to remind their neglectful elder cousins of the tasks theywere created to fulfill.But it was not to be.Despite (or perhaps because of) their beauty andskill, the other Changing Breeds were offended by theBastet’s presence, taking umbrage at Gaia’s belief that theyneeded assistance in their duties. They snubbed Gaia’syoungest children, refusing their aid and their company.For the Bastet, this was intolerable. Gaia had giventhem a task, and they would not accept insult in theirefforts to fulfill it, certainly not from those very beingswhose sloth and bickering they had been created toright. The insult to their pride was unbearable. TheBastet skulked off in disgust, vowing to ignore the otherChanging Breeds until the time came when they couldshow the cats the appreciation they rightfully deserved.The Garou, believing themselves Gaia’s best andbrightest, did not react well to this turn of events. Theymight have spurned the aid of Cat’s children, but theirown pride would not stand for the Bastet’s scorn. Theirresponse was nothing less than genocide, as they destroyedanyone who would not obey them in what would come tobe known as the War of Rage. The Bastet, unwilling tobend either individual or collective knee to their lupinesiblings, suffered terrible losses. Most were eradicated inthe places that would become the Americas and Europe,and only escaped that fate in areas where the Garou simplydid not exist. In the aftermath of the War, the Bastet’shatred and spite rose to new heights, and the bitternessborn during those times remains even to this day.Threatened on All SidesAs if their persecution by the Garou were not enough,humanity seems to have aligned itself against the Bastet— despite not knowing about them. In every corner of70CHANGING BREEDS