The difference between WtA and WtF is just as stark. Here's a section from the book that basically outlines WtF's deal.
Werewolves have an oral history, passing stories and legends through packs, protectorates, and tribes. While that’s a wonderful tool for keeping their culture alive, it does mean that when fact and narrative conflict, fact falls by the wayside. Even so, almost every werewolf hears at least one tale of the time before, and how the Forsaken lost paradise. Just as many cultures and religions have a myth of the flood or the myth of how humans gained forbidden knowledge, werewolf history has a common theme. The worlds of Flesh and Spirit used to be so close that one could touch the other, then the werewolves came and brought ruin upon it. Among the Forsaken, this typically bears a lesson along the lines of "they fucked up so now we have to do better." The common elements of these stories come together to tell of the Sundering.
Once, the People could run and hunt through thin places and Border Marches, flickering between worlds in an instant. Father Wolf maintained the balance through predation, hunting spirits when they grew too bold in crossing the borders of flesh, thinning the herd of humanity when it threatened to produce too much Essence and warring against other great spirits who would exploit the border for themselves — progenitors of the Hosts his descendants still hunt.
The Forsaken call the vanished world before the Sundering "Pangaea," and describe it as a universe where spirit and flesh could more freely commingle. Humans could wander into the quiet places of the world and cross the Border Marches into the Shadow, while spirits could freely enter the world of flesh to gather Essence. The Sundering — the end of Pangaea, and the great crime of the People — began with love.
Luna, Amahan Iduth, was the warding moon, the great Ilusah casting light into the darkness, protecting the earthly Shadow from the chaotic spirits of the void ahead of her army of Lunes. The Wolf, Urfarah, was the spirit of hunting, forever watching over the Border Marches with his brood of lesser wolf spirits and harrying those crossing between worlds. They were the two greatest guardian spirits in the Shadow, each preserving existence in their own way. How could they not fall in love? Cahalith often call Moon "Mother Luna" and Wolf "Father Wolf," but in truth they were both spirits, beholden to no single gender or shape. The Moon’s ever-changing, protean nature merged with the Wolf’s guardianship of the borders, pack instinct, and predatory urge to create the People. Bound to the earth, unable to rise to the skies, the first werewolves joined Wolf’s pack and received their "mother’s" Gifts by way of Lunes.
Cahalith make many claims as to why Wolf began to weaken. Some say the effort of creating the werewolves somehow diminished him, or maintaining such a large brood of spirits and half-spirits reduced his Essence. Only the outcome matters — the god of the Border Marches grew slow and weak, and both worlds suffered for it. Spirits set themselves up as deities among human tribes, and the progenitors of the Hosts escaped total destruction by shattering themselves into too many pieces for Wolf to catch.
As wolves, the Uratha and their wolf spirit cousins knew that strong young hunters must replace a weak pack elder. Like all spirits, Urfarah had a ban and a bane — his ban was to not defend himself against a killing blow if challenged by those who could replace him, and his bane was the teeth of his children. Only a killing blow would do, and so the Uratha — and five of the greatest wolf spirits — went for Urfarah’s throat. His death howl shattered the Border Marches, killing everything inside and raising a Gauntlet between the worlds. Flesh and Spirit were divided. Luna saw what Wolf’s offspring had done, and cursed them with madness and to burn at the touch of silver. The Sundering still divides the People. Those who believe killing Urfarah was a mistake follow the wolf spirits who did not take part in the murder. They call themselves "Pure" and follow the diktats of their inhuman masters. Those who take up Father Wolf’s role, and have pledged to Luna that they will follow their creator’s duty in guarding the divide between Spirit and Flesh, call themselves "Forsaken."
Basically, though you spend your days hunting the worst kinds of nightmare fuel, including but not limited to:
- Ancient and completely insane spirits, who want nothing more than to feast on humanity and your flesh to maintain their twisted existence, after their representation in the flesh was destroyed.
- Creatures called hosts, that eventually grow into rat or spider hybrids. Fun fact, these things start by forcefully entering a human's body and eating their heart or brain before undergoing hybridisation.
- Humans that have become possessed by spirits. Ever wonder what happens when a spirit of terror possess a child? No? What about a storm spirit inhabiting a frail human body? Still no? Well buckle up thats a normal Tuesday night.
That is all before you add tending the spiritual well being of your territory on both sides of the Gauntlet (barrier between the worlds) to ensure that things like wounds don't grow into being and release the Maeljin into the world (Malicious spirit lords that grow fat on the suffering that takes place in the world). Still not enough? Well, then you have the politics of the Werewolf pack and wider community. How do you balance your responsibilities to your pack, your tribe and your lodge? Still have friends and family assuming you didn't eat them during the first change? Well, then you have to work out a way to get them into the mix as well and keep them safe from all the horrors that would send them screaming into the night. Finally, you have the insignificant matter of a werewolf civil war and guess what? You're on the losing side.
Last edited January 5, 2019 4:25 am
