The Wyrm
The Enemy
The Wyrm is not so simple a thing one might expect. Though most Garou refer to it as the source from which all things evil stem, at one point in time the Wyrm served a very necessary function in tearing down the creations of the Wyld and destroying the stasis of the Weaver, making room for new things to be born and for new patterns to emerge. But when, as the legend goes, the Wyrm became trapped in the Weaver's webs, it went mad, lashing out to find its way back to the world. It has undergone numerous transformations since in a desperate attempt at escape.
Out of One, Three: The Triatic Wyrm
At first, the one became the three major aspects: The Beast of War (The Calamity Wyrm), the Eater of Souls (The Consuming Wyrm), and the
Defiler Wyrm
The Beast of War reflects the unrestrained force of the Wyld, released as a destructive power rather than a creative life-force. This aspect of the Wyrm leaves in its wake only ruin without the hope of renewed growth. It is wrath incarnate but devoid of all of the purpose the Wyrm once had.
he Eater of Souls reflects the Weaver's drive to incorporate everything into itself in a greater search for meaning. But the Eater mindlessly devours all in a vain effort to regain the control over the universe that it has lost. The Eater is expressed in the individual soul as greed, desire, and obsessive preoccupation and physically as the wasting away of matter: disease, decay, rust. All of it feeding upon life-force itself.
The Defiler Wyrm is the Wyrm's own twisted reflection of itself, tainted with self-loathing at having failed at its true purpose. Having corrupted itself in this way, the Wyrm now turns itds own self-loathing outward and seeks to corrupt everything, bringing the world back into its control. This is the most power of the Wyrms greater aspects, an insidious force that targets silently from within. Tempting, seducing, the Defiler Wyrm is the most intelligent of the Wyrm's greater aspects.
Out of Three, Many: The Urge Wyrms
Finding that three channels was not enough to touch the entire universe, the Wyrm transformed itself yet again by sprouting many Hydra of urges, which became the Urge Wyrms. More prevalent and persistent, but less impacting than their predecessors, the Urges spread themselves about the cosmos easily, finding fertile ground anywhere intelligent life existed. While each Urge started out from the emotions of the Wyrm, they have all since lost the object of their incarnation and maraud their natures out on the universe blindly.
The Urge of Fear, the oldest and strongest emotion of mankind that grew out of the Wyrm's realization that it had become trapped.
The Urge of Greed grew out of the Wyrm's desperate attempt to regain control, grasping at everything within its reach.
The Urge of Power grew out of the Wyrm's realization that it could do nothing while imprisoned except manipulate others.
The Urge of Desire grew out of the Wyrm's yearning for release, for freedom.
The Urge of Hatred grew out of the Wyrm's mounting resentment against the Pattern that bound it.
The Urge of Cruelty grew out of the Wyrm's revenge and drive to hurt its captor.
The Urge of Violence grew out of the Wyrm's maddening struggle against the constricting strands of its imprisonment.
The Urge of Consumption grew out of the Wyrm's contortions and deformations of web surrounding it, slowly breaking down the order.
The Urge of Paranoia grew when the Wyrm first sensed it was losing its connection with the rest of creation.
The Urge of Despair grew when the Wyrm had exhausted itself against the web and lost hope of gaining freedom.
The Urge of Apathy grew when the Wyrm no longer struggled and gave up trying.
The Elemental Wyrm
The natural elements that form the world have their counterparts in Wyrmish metaphysics, believed to be formed from the excretions of the primordial Wyrm, squeezed out across the universe when the web constricted its body. These vile substances manifest physically in the material world, but are also related somehow to the components of the conscious mind. These Wyrms have no intention of volition like the Triatic and Urge Wyrms; they exist instead primarily as resources to be exploited by the other Wyrm's servitors.
The Essence of Sludge is the twisted counterpart to the element of earth, composed of the Wyrm's fecal waste and the solid parts of its body, representing its perceptions and physical sensations. Manifesting in toxic dumpsites, Sludge is corrosive and anything it touches decomposes into more sludge. Those who come into contact with its diluted form become stubborn and intractable to the point of denying what they see and hear around them, their bodies racked with painful and untimely digestive ailments.
The Essence of Toxin is the poisonous mockery of water, created when the liquid parts of the Wyrm were sprayed out through the binding web; it is mystical associated with the Wyrm's emotions. It manifests on earth as the toxic byproducts of corrupt human science which permeate the environment as a whole and often find their way into human society in the form of dangerous street drugs that imbalance and disrupt the body's natural chemistry. People whose own bodily fluids have been tainted by these toxins tend to be disagreeable and antagonistic toward everyone they interact with, and act as carriers of virulent infections.
The Essence of Smog, the corrupted element of air, composed of the gaseous parts of the Wyrm's body and representing reason, intellect, and thinking processes. Its noxious fumes are unbreathable by most creatures, and can manifest on Gaia through poisonous exhaust fumes from cars, factories and the burning of toxic refuse. Those how survive limited contact with these fumes are prone to breathing disorders and tend to lose their train of thought frequently, falling into muddled confusion.
The Essence of Balefire, the perversion of fire, formed from the blood of the Wyrm and representing intuition and force of will. Its flames do not consume or destroy, but twist and warp whatever they touch, and are found deep within the earth where pockets of geothermal energy have been corrupted by the Wyrm. Anyone touched by Balefire will be afflicted with diseases of the blood and heart, and their minds will be plagued with feverish and delirious thoughts preventing them from concentrating their will on anything for any length of time.
The Wyrm in the Umbra
Blights are formed when the spiritual contact between a people and their land is absent or dispelled. Most commonly this tends to happen in areas where the populace is forced to live in abject and dehumanizing conditions - slums, housing projects, labor camps and prisons. The appearance of a Blight in the Umbra reflects the spiritual desolation of its inhabitants; the ground is a parched arid plain devoid of nourishment or life; the few shrubs and trees to be found are Blight Children, warped into malevolent forms by the Wyrm's influence; the few buildings that appear are ruined and burnt, with shrieks of tortured spirits echoing through their splintered doors and jagged windows.
Hellholes are formed when the physical substance of a land is polluted to the point that its spiritual counterpart is affected and corrupted. The locations most likely to become Hellholes are landfills, waste dumps, nuclear testing ranges, and "industrial accident sites". Though rare in the past, Hellholes have multiplied at a staggering rate in the past two centuries as pollution in the physical realm has mounted. In the Umbra, these places appear as scorched deserts with broken rocky ground where harsh toxins boil up from subterranean pits. The bones of animals and the diseased stumps of dead trees litter the ground in some burning gases cause the sky to glow with sickly Balefire, while in others, thick poisonous clouds shroud the sky in blackness.
Calumns are formed when powerful negative thoughts or emotions accumulate in to a permanent region of influence. Unlike Blights and Hellholes, Calumns do necessarily correspond to physical locations. Each Calumn reflects a single idea or feeling; among the largest are those of Anger, Angst, Betrayal, Confusion, Cunning, and Murder. Every spirit encountered and every activity observed in a Calumn will express the idea around which the Calumn is formed. It is dangerous for beings to exist for too long in such places as their thoughts begin to steep in the evil ideas that surround them.
Wyrm Caerns are the defiled source of power that are sacred to the Wyrm and act much like Garou caerns. Much as Garou caerns are surrounded by spirits of the Wyld and totem spirits, Wyrm caerns are inhabited by Banes. It is as dangerous for a Wyrm being to go into a Garou caern as it is for a Garou to intrude upon a Wyrm Caern.
The Everyday Wyrm
As the toll of watching Gaia slowly erode under the weight of the Wyrm's influence, Garou can too easily become destructive or desperate, turning those toxic emotions into fertile ground for the Urges. And if one's own individual despair were not enough, the Wyrm also plays out its game of corruption upon the mortal world with a menagerie of creatures. It is a dangerous game, too, since the Wyrm's goal is but to destroy even at the cost of its own agents. While these nightmarish creatures are too exotic to catalog, there are a few commonly known one that Garou run into with more regularity than others.
Vampires are creatures of death. Like Garou, they attract the attention of spirits, but usually only those of the dead (who seem to avoid Garou). They mostly live in well-populated regions in the city, which makes them both dangerous and difficult to find. Most Garou have never met a vampire, though their mark can be found upon many mortal victims. They often surround themselves with a myriad of human protectors as well as a herd of victims for their indulgent leeching. While the Wyrm-stench of a vampire is identifiable, chances are that there will be many other humans around sporting various levels of Wyrm corruption. Among such conditions alone, it is nearly impossible to discern a vampire from a crowd unless you get close enough, in which case it may in fact be too late anyway. Even young vampires are deceptively powerful - most legends about them have some form of truth to them. Tales have been told of vampires luring even the strongest Garou into trances with little more than a glance, bending their will until they eventually fall victim to their power. Still others claim to have killed a leech with their own hands, only to hear of them reappearing at a later time. It is certainly true that the Garou do not yet know the full depth of vampiric power. Moreover, vampires will often choose to run away rather than fight until the threat is eliminated. Though certainly cowardly, they have an indeterminate lifespan in which to exact their revenge upon attackers. Time is on their side and they spend it building their empires. They have many mortal resources at their disposal and can often wage war with the Garou without ever having a detectable hand in it. However, in this they seem to show a weakness - though they are willing to lose resources to survive, the one thing you can count on with vampires is that they will seek to control as much of mortal society as they can. If the Garou wish to get the attention of a vampire, then he or she is well advised to target that leech's interests. The mortal servants of vampires have even have been known to display some reflection of their masters' power. Most of them are stronger than even the strongest human and they tend to live much, much longer as well. A few have even been known to hold their own against a Garou in Crinos form. Such powerful servants must surely be investments, however, else they would certainly be more plentiful. Such entitled servants are assumed to be more magically linked to their master and it should be assumed that anything he knows, his master will know. While the more powerful servants are far too warped by their masters' will to be saved, a few of the less powerful ones seem more like unwilling victims than servants, often performing service out of fear of what the vampire might have done to their families. A precious few have even been cleansed of their masters' marks (by deep use of the rites of cleansing) for short periods of time, although the only guaranteed success at saving one completely is through the destruction of their master. But certainly, there is precedent for Garou to find such pawns and use them against their dark lords. It is not suspected that vampires can cross over into the Umbra since one has never been seen there, although some of the more paranoid Garou have raised the possibility of it happening.
Black Spiral Dancers are the true Garou counterparts, however. In fact, is it rumored that they are in fact the corrupted lost tribe of the White Howlers. They obey more of a hive structure than a pack structure, but have much the same traditions of pack philosophy. Their descent into madness brings them closer to the Wyrm until they give up all their control to it. Once a Garou has become a Black Spiral Dancer, it is thought by most that they are lost to Gaia forever. Others still hope that the purity of Gaia's legendary Silver Pools could bring a well-intended Garou back from the brink of destruction. The Dancers are the Garou's most common physical enemy. Though they have gone mad with the Wyrm, they do have their intelligence and reasoning capabilities. As such, they should never be underestimated. Black Spiral Dancers can travel in the Umbra with the same ease as Garou, evening the tactical advantage of launching Umbral surprise attacks.
Banes are Wyrm spirits and while not powerful or very intelligent, they are very hard to detect sometimes. They come in as much variety as Wyld and Weaver spirits do, inhabiting a diseased tree, snaking out from tobacco smoke, etc. Banes can exist on either side of the Umbra, though they rarely if ever travel between them. While they are not directly harmful unless physically manifested, their presence is indicative of imminent malevolence. They have complex motivations and fighting them requires either a good deal of luck or an insight. Because of their spiritual training, Garou Theurges often make the best adversaries against Banes, though those who seem to understand the Urges better seem to figure them out with greater ease. Such insight comes no doubt from understanding emotional weakness. Destroying them can be done best by draining their gnosis, which can be done magically or by attacking them while they have manifested themselves physically.
Fomori have existed for as long as men and women have been willing to sell their souls for power. They are created when a Bane possesses a human. The association is, with only few exceptions, permanent. The Bane is released when the human dies, but only a few rare treatments can separate the Bane from its mortal host and leave the human alive. Generally speaking, fomori are tailor made for the role of shock troops and specialists, however they also form the Wyrm's influence in the mortal world. If the Wyrm has a direct presence within a corporation or government, it is likely that fomori are involved somehow. They're not as powerful as Garou, but they can be damned dangerous and outright lethal if the Garou meet them on their own terms. Fomori reek of lost humanity - each one a human being who has, through his or her own weakness, bartered away his or her soul in return for power that wasn't wroth the price. They are the promise of the future if the Wyrm wins - they are what the human race will become. While some fomori can disguise their supernatural natures, when revealed, they are uniformly grotesque and nightmarish to behold. Their fomori powers can be physical, social, mental, or even affect a Garou's gnosis directly and may take on the form as various as chitinous, pustulent skin that secretes poison or a howling voice of the Wyrm that drains its victims willpower. While some fomori are known to be able to step sideways into the Umbra, it is not a common ability.