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The Delirium

For over three thousand years, werewolves preyed on humans. Even though most humans have no idea that werewolves exist, some part of the collective unconscious remembers those millennia of terror. The Crinos hybrid form, an avatar of bloody death, incites a kind of madness in humans that Garou call the Delirium.

 

Stronger-willed people can deal better with seeing a werewolf than most. The majority of humans panic and run, or collapse into a catatonic fear. Even those who can control themselves will forget the encounter later, either by rationalizing what they saw ("It was a bear! No shit!") or by forgetting the whole incident. This subconscious denial is a supernatural force that the Garou dub the Veil, and they look at it as one of their greatest assets.

 

How a human acts when faced with a Crinos werewolf depends on his Willpower score. The chart below indicates how a human will react, to what degree the human will remember his encounter, and what percentage of the populace will react in this way. A few humans may be desensitized to the worst of the horror of seeing a Crinos werewolf through their studies of the occult. The Storyteller may decide that such humans can roll Wits + Occult (difficulty 9), with each success increasing the human's effective Willpower by one on this chart. Members of cultures that didn't suffer the Impergium to a great degree (such as Native Americans and Aboriginal Australians) might also be granted a bonus, at the Storyteller's discretion -- though only if they've been raised without contact with other cultures.

 

The Delirium only affects people who can see the werewolf in person. Photographs, video (live or recorded), or other such evidence won't trigger any fear reaction. Human witnesses will rationalize the evidence away as a Photoshopped image or a publicity stunt, unless their Willpower is 8 or higher.

 

Kinfolk are entirely immune to the Delirium.

 

Garou And Delirium

Fera And Delirium

 

The mortal mind cannot cope with the horror of a werewolf wearing his war-form. Terror long ago beaten into the very code of human DNA rises up, clouding memories and engaging the fight-or-flight reflex. Thus is the Veil preserved.

Many Fera also provoke the same all-encompassing denial and fear. Others evoke a lesser reaction, while some don't trigger the Delirium at all. The exact reasons why the different Fera rouse the responses they do are up to debate, the answers lost in the tangle of history and legend.

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