Totem
Spiritual mentors are fonts of otherworldly wisdom and power, totems are far more than just animistic patron saints. A totem (or at least, its totem avatar) is a full-fledged member of the pack, just one that happens to be a spirit. Werewolves must accord it all the rights and privileges pertaining to membership: up to and including challenging the alpha for leadership. In truth most totems will more likely withhold their blessings from an unworthy alpha than challenge her to a duel at dawn, but Galliards tell cautionary tales of alpha deposed by their totem spirit. Similarly, every once in a while a pack emerges whose totem serves as alpha directly; such packs are among the most fanatically devoted to advancing their totem's agenda.
The Totem Bond
A pack's bond with its totem is a deep, metaphysical connection, one that operates below the level of conscious thought and gels the pack into a cohesive unit. A group of Garou who knew each other for all of five minutes before undergoing the Rite of the Totem suddenly find themselves operating together as smoothly and instinctively as though they'd known each other for years. Pack members find themselves unconsciously recognizing each other's strengths and weaknesses and moving to cover those vulnerabilities. They know exactly when to take the lead and when to give ground to a packmate; with higher levels of the Totem Background, they might even catch themselves finishing each other's sentences.
For its part, a spirit's totem avatar finds itself perfectly at peace and secure in its purpose when it has a pack to look after. In many ways, the totem is the bond between the pack, and often finds itself taking on personality traits that echo the interpersonal dynamics among its children. Sometimes that bond is enough to push the totem avatar "out of sync" with its parent Incarna. One very old Fenrir legend tells of a pack that followed Rat: over time, the pack's straightforward tactics rubbed off on Rat's avatar until it
was barely recognizable as the patron of guerilla warfare. What happened next depends on the Galliard telling the tale; either the pack's totem avatar rose to Incarna rank itself as Dire Rat, or Rat killed the entire pack and ate its wayward child.
Other packs instinctively recognize the totem bond in their brothers and sisters. It's very hard for a group of werewolves to pretend they have a totem when they do not. Moreover, packs with the same or closely-related totems can usually recognize each other; a certain nobility of bearing stands out to other children of Falcon, for example, while Owl's get see in each other the same quiet, patient wisdom. This bond is especially pronounced between packs bound to totems the Garou traditionally distrust; even if one of
Bear's packs never sees a Gurahl, they recognize Bear's other children and feel kinship with them.
Still, it's not all Umbral wine and spirit roses. Even when the pack perfectly adheres to its totem's ban, sometimes tensions rise between a pack and its totem.
Out of Sync
When a pack finds itself out of tune with its totem, the bond seems to sour. The pack still know each other intimately and can predict how their brothers and sisters will react in the clinch, but now that knowledge focuses on failings and annoying habits. The totem's ban feels less like an instinctive rightness and more like an arbitrarily enforced rule. Squabbles and petty sniping become common, and the pack starts to see its totem as a controlling parent or meddlesome authority figure rather than a respected patron. The totem avatar might start avoiding the pack, only appearing to issue commands or express the totem's wishes, which only grows the resentment.
Often a pack that reaches this stage falls to infighting or disbands altogether, but Garou who recognize these signs can take steps to improve things. Sometimes performing the Rite of Contrition (even if the pack hasn't actually violated its Ban) is enough to clear the air, but sometimes the pack must appeal to a higher authority. The Silver Fangs especially love stories about packs who undertake
Parting of the Ways
If the change is gradual, or if the pack and spirit can still find common ground, they might separate amicably. Totems want their packs to be content in their place and free to serve Gaia in the best way possible, and all but the most prideful would rather release a pack from service than watch resentment fester. Similarly, if a pack willingly disbands for any reason, their totem bond dissipates.
While this parting of the ways may be tinged with sadness or bitterness, it is usually amicable. The same totem might be willing to "re-adopt" the pack later if circumstances change and the pack shows a renewed willingness to follow the totem's edicts.
System: If both the pack and the totem are willing, the totem bond may dissolve simply by declaring it so. The totem withdraws its avatar and the pack immediately loses all benefits of the totem. If the pack wishes to bind itself to the same totem again later, they must undertake a Rite of Contrition first.
Burning Bridges
If the totem (or, for that matter, the pack) is unwilling or unable to communicate, the simplest means of cutting ties is for the pack to willfully and repeatedly violate the totem's Ban. Done deliberately and with ritual intent, this sends a clear message to the totem that its patronage is no longer welcome. This is a drastic step, unlikely to be taken well by the totem or by the Garou Nation at large; it's the mystical equivalent of announcing a breakup with your long-term partner by changing the locks and burning all their possessions on the lawn. The pack's original totem will almost certainly never take them back, and even other totems would require a great deal of convincing.
System: Burning bridges requires the pack ritualistically break the totem's Ban. This isn't a full on rite, just an action suffused with mystical intent that makes it clear that it wasn’t just an accident. Followers of Cockroach might fumigate their homes and stay inside the tent, trusting their regeneration to keep them safe from the pesticides, while Raven's children might knock over a bank and sew their ill-gotten gains into the linings of their coats. The totem bond dissolves and the pack immediately loses all benefits of the totem. The totem avatar might very well attack its former packmates, or it might flee to bring news of the blasphemy to the rest of its brood. Finally, every member of the pack who participated loses 5 Honor and 5 Wisdom. The sole exception to this case is if the Wyrm has corrupted the totem, in which case the participants gain 3 Honor (but still lose Wisdom).
Before the characters petition a new totem spirit, they must perform a Rite of Contrition to their new totem before the Rite of the Totem. The pack's original totem will never accept them back barring an epic, world-shaking quest.
Renunciation
As a middle ground between the two extremes, a pack that wishes to part ways with its totem but cannot come to an accord with the spirit may formally renounce the bond by way of a rite. This is no less an insult to the spirit than burning bridges, but the Garou consider a rite to be a more respectful way to sever ties. The problem is that the rite required is little known, as it's easily confused with the Rite of Excoriation (see below).
System: The pack can break the totem bond by using a variation of the Rite of Renunciation. The variant has to be taught by a ritemaster who knows it, but it's a fairly simple affair: A character who already knows the Rite of Renunciation can learn the totem-renouncing version with just an hour or so of instruction, and it costs them experience points. The totem bond is dissolved, and the pack immediately loses all benefits of the totem. The totem's avatar is banished back to the Umbra as part of this rite. The original totem is highly unlikely to ever accept the pack back into its good graces.
Excoriation
A terrible secret held by certain Silver Fang and Shadow Lord elders (and, sadly, widely known among the Black Spiral Dancers), the Rite of Excoriation forcibly strips the totem bond from a werewolf, or even an entire pack. In the Garou Nation, it's a weapon of last resort if a totem falls to the Wyrm or takes direct control of a pack in its service. Among the Black Spiral Dancers it's used to prepare
captives for brainwashing and conversion by the tribe's mad, blasphemous spirit patrons. Rumors persist that in certain staunchly traditional Garou septs, the rite is used to "re-educate" packs that chose "inappropriate" totems, like Bear, Rat, or Tiger.
System: See the Rite of Excoriation
Background Costs and Traits
Players use their pooled points in the Totem Background to “buy” the totem spirit that has chosen their pack. Each pack can only be affiliated with one totem. Each totem in this section lists the benefits that the pack gain when accepted by it; unless the totem’s description says otherwise, all bonuses and penalties apply as soon as the totem accepts the pack.
Players can enhance their pack’s totem by spending experience points to increase their characters’ Totem rating, per the Background’s description (p. 140). Totem spirits can also teach Gifts relating to their affiliation and powers. Some totems allow their children to use a particular Gift without teaching it to them, channeling the spirit’s power directly.
A totem does not just grant power to a pack; it also has restrictions that the werewolves must follow. These constraints on the pack’s behavior form part of the totem’s Ban. If the pack members don’t follow the Ban, their totem will cut off assistance. In this case, the werewolves lose all of the benefits of their totem, including access to extra Willpower, Gifts, and Traits, until they undertake a Rite of Contrition to appease their totem. A pack who repeatedly offends their totem may find that the spirit abandons them entirely.
The totems that follow are among the most common patrons to Garou packs. Several of these totems act as tribal totems, but members of that tribe don’t gain the benefits of that totem. Only individual packs who ally with an avatar of those totems gain the benefits. Most cubs learn their tribal Gifts through the spirits that they meet during their Rite of Passage.
Totem Traits
Totems can give members of a pack a wide range of Traits. These Traits come in two forms: Individual Traits and Pack Traits.
• Individual Traits: Every member of the pack gains all of a totem’s Individual Traits as soon as they gain the totem’s favor, and retain these Traits while they remain allied with the totem. The most common Individual Traits include temporary Renown, but some totems offer Attribute dots and even Gifts as Individual Traits.
• Pack Traits: Any member of a pack can draw upon a Pack Trait, but only one at a time. If a totem grants dots in a Skill, or a Gift, the first werewolf to draw upon the bonus in a given scene holds on to that specific Trait until the end of the scene, or until they relinquish it. In combat, relinquishing or claiming a Pack Trait is a reflexive action. A pack member can’t “pass on” a Pack Trait to another member of the pack, it instead goes back to the totem spirit, who gives it to the next packmate who requests it. A pack can’t divide a Trait between members — one of Falcon’s children who claims his totem’s Leadership dots gets all three. He can’t take one or two and leave the others for another packmate.
Pack Traits that include pools of points, such as the Willpower pool granted by Falcon, are available to any member of a pack to draw on. If the totem’s pool has any points remaining, any member can choose to spend a point from the pool rather than his own pool. Such pools of points refresh at the end of each story.