Moon-Beasts.

Dopplegangers.

Shapeshifters.

Lycanthropes.

They are called by many names, these mysterious beasts, and they are indeed mysterious; normal people cannot seem to detect them as they walk among us, and they are often confused with manifested spirits, or other strange beings. All told, they are a mystery, even to the Awakened -- those who walk the thousand worlds, those who bend reality itself to their wills! If the shapeshifters are strange even to the Awakened, then who can know them?

We can.

We are the shamans. We are the speakers-with-dreams, the spiritual leaders of cultures and peoples that are all but dead. By a hundred names are we known, and each of us are different, even in willworking; yet we have unified under one name and joined with other mysticks -- to raise the walls and try, however futilely, to defy the strangling grip of those who rule this Reality. We know the names and ways of the spirits, we know the powers of the unseen. We know the spirits well -- we have seen enough of our own people die.

We choose our allies carefully. Those who cannot see the blight that covers the world must be taught; those who have never dreamed of a time when the earth was well and whole...well, they are rarely worth the effort. What fortune it has been to have allies who already walk the spirit-worlds, who fight the same foe, who are strong and secretive and proud!

The Skinchangers, or Garou, as they call themselves, have been our secret allies for centuries upon centuries. They are closer to us than the other Awakened would imagine -- an ignorance we do not seek to amend. If the other eight Traditions were to realize the closeness of the bond we share with the Garou, we and our allies would soon be exploited. So be silent when talk arises about the Moon-Beasts, and like the owl, learn by listening and survive by remaining silent.

There are many divisions among the Garou, called "tribes"; these tribes are described through ties of kinship and descent. The e those from the northern tribe Wendigo. Both tribes are tied by blood to the Pure Ones who walked the North American continent long before the Europeans arrived, and both live almost solely in the Americas. There are many other tribes, and long ago, there were even more. The only other tribes worth mentioning here are the Stargazers, an eastern tribe that has associated infrequently with our Akashic allies, and the Fianna, a Celtic tribe that has occasionally had dealings with the Verbena. Also, there is a tribe whose name is not spoken -- a tribe of traitors who have joined the forces of madness, and the Wyrm.

You look puzzled, Yellow Bear. Have you not yet heard of the Wyrm? Surely you have seen its works. It is a creeping darkness that spreads like filth and disease over the land. It is all that we fight. It is the dark master of the hated Nephandi, it is that which seeks to devour and corrupt all things pure. The manufacturing plant spilling toxins into the river? That strange feeling of horrible wrongness you feel when walking over a landfill? All the doings of this vile, malefic entity. It holds its own vast corner of the Umbra, where it rules godlike over the vast hordes that swarm there, fostering pestilence and cruelty in dark, spiraling labyrinths....

But enough of this talk. Back to the tribes.

The mystical Uktena, our closest allies, once were numbered in the hundreds of thousands, scattered through out what is now South America, Mexico, and the American plains and deserts. They are now numbered only in the thousands, and are that numerous only because they have accepted other breeding stocks into their lineages. The Wendigo call them "impure" because of this, but it has increased their numbers and their power in many subtle ways. They are the protectors of the oppressed, and choose their kin from those whom society has trodden underfoot. They are silent watchers, pursuers of riddles and secrets, powerful mystics with a broad knowledge of many magics. They are even familiar with the magick of the Spheres, though they do not understand it fully. They are mistrusted by the other tribes for their close study of the enemy, and unfortunately this mistrust is sometimes deserved. Closeness can bring corruption.

The fierce northern Wendigo, though closer to us than any save the Uktena, are reclusive and close-mouthed. Sometimes, they open their doors to our envoys, and sometimes the only greeting we recieve is the warning of bared fangs in a feral snarl. The Wendigo refuse to breed with any but pure-blooded or half-blooded natives, from such tribes as the Nuth Chal Nuth, the Squamish, the Micmac, and the Mohican. They carry a powerful rage in their seek bloody vengeance for what the White Man has done, not realizing that the time for vengeance is long gone. You, Yellow Bear -- you are half Cherokee and half English. You know well the conflict of past sins, and you also carry in you the solution to those sins. Ah, but the wolves of the northern wastes will not listen...not yet.

Of the Stargazers, we know little. Our Shintoist brethren in the far east tell us tales, but that is biased information from an unreliable source (some say that the Shintoists are Technocrats in all but name). In speaking of the Stargazers, the Akashics sometimes say that their long-practiced discipline has made them wholly different than the others of their kind; indeed, one Akashic, called Raging Eagle, has told me of a sect of Stargazers called "The World Tree" that wishes to disassociate wholly from the other Garou. My Uktena contacts nodded at hearing this, but said nothing.

Of the Fianna, we know more; there are some of our kind in Europe who have had dealings with this proud and warlike tribe. They uphold the traditions of their kind: the old songs, the ceremonies, the holy places. They are plagued by inner fighting, and are overly prone to emotional and impulsive reactions -- and violence. The Verbena occasionally work closely with them, but usually only on matters of protection of land or blood-relations. The non Celtic Verbena have contacts among other tribes...I've heard rumors of a shadowy tribe of Garou witches....

The Unnamed Tribe we know the least about. It seems that the Uktena and Wendigo will not mention them, aside from saying that they are enemies, and to be destroyed on sight. In fact, I have learned more of the Dark Garou by speaking with my old mentor -- yes, the barrabbi. Laughing Rain, she was called, though now she knows another name...before she set the howling spirits on me and fled with my Harmony Flute, she told me of how she had danced the dark spirals in Malfeas, the Wyrm's own realm. She was mad, Yellow-Bear, mad as the whippoorwill. It was terrifying for me to look into her eyes...once deep and wise, now fractured and unholy...we will talk no more of it.

You have a question? Ah...you ask me, what are the Garou? Are they truly the "werewolves" of legend?

I answer you: yes. They are that, and more. The Garou are an ancient breed, not quite human, not quite wolf, yet tied to the worlds of both. They are spirits clothed in flesh. They are the warriors of Gaia, and her protectors.

Mankind has grown heavy on the Mother, and in our ignorance, we come close to harming her irreversibly, and destroying ourselves ters, none of them like the masters of humans. There is their servitude to the Mother, their dedication to the war against the Wyrm...there is the great and blinding rage that burns in every breast, which fuels the changing power in them...and there is certainty. Wrong or right, the Changing Breed rarely question or think, only act and accomplish. Action is their strength, and only their elders have some hope of guiding them toward a clearer understanding.

The Garou have three main forms: that of a man like you and I, that of a wolf like those few left in this world, and that of a massive and dangerous hybrid -- a monster come to life. The human form is often very athletic, the wolf form often very healthy. The monstrous form often stands over nine feet high, and five feet broad, with massive jaws and claws like knives; unAwakened humans cannot look upon this form without being blinded by a primal and ancient terror, which causes them to become mad with fright. Our workings of Gaia's rhythm upon the human mind can ease this terror, but it is powerful.

The "caerns" of the Garou are their holy places, places of power. The name is Celtic, and comes from the Fianna tribes. They are very similar to our Nodes and sacred grounds, but with one very important difference: where most Nodes held by the Awakened flow with the power of Gaia's own essence, the Caerns of the Garou are powered by emanations from Gaia's Dream. We alone among the nine Traditions are able to master these Caerns as expertly as we master the Nodes, since we alone know the ways of the Totems. These ways are the old ways, ways we have known and shared with the Garou since long before the Europeans came with their magics.

Even the Uktena will not allow us near one of their Caerns, however. Keep in mind that these holy places are everything to this dying race, and they will live and die for them. We Dreamspeakers keep a few Spirit-Nodes that are scattered around the continents, whose Garou defenders have been destroyed. Even so, we struggle to convince the Garou that we are worthy to hold the Caerns, and often face attacks from those who refuse to listen. Many of the Garou fear us, knowing the Awakened only as those who have raped and drained their mystick Caerns for power. I am sad to say that it is not only the Technomancers and Nephandi who have done this. The ever-intolerant Hermetics and the blind and foolish Sons of Ether are among the Traditions most infamous for such acts.

One who is wise enough in the ways of Gaia's Dream, who has the ability to bind spirits and to rend the gauntlet and seal it back again, can shatter the Caern's defenses, which the Totem has erected, and bind the Totem into inaction. Then the draining of �