Werewolf campaign musing - All hail geekiness

[sparkindarkness]

Actually I have a lot more serious and sensible things to write about but can't seem to get round to it. So geekiness will reign!

The players are probably expecting a right combat fest of a werewolf campaign, after all the setting is far more violent than vampire - and the last vampire was something of a combat fest.

So I’m going to do a politically laden and diplomatically driven Werewolf campaign. Because I’m speshul like that :)

Cutting for the plot of my own twisted imaginings :) (yes, I have discarded the campaign books for they are bad. Very bad



The story extends around 2 septs: The sept of Gaia Triumphant and the sept of Scintillating Vision - a much weaker caern of Enigmas

backstory
The Sept of Gaia Triumphant is an ancient, mighty and powerful sept built around a Caern of Willpower. Being a truly astonishingly powerful Caern, the Silver Fangs lept upon it almost as soon as the first European boats first reached the New World. They have clung ever since, using the Caern as a source of Silver Fang power, ruling fairly and wisely. Or fairly wisely anyway.

The Sept of Scintillating Vision is a much younger sept, its Caern a much smaller and infinitely weaker Caern of Enigmas. Unlike the pristine wilderness Gaia Triumphant enjoys, Scintillating Vision is nestled among the urban sprawl of a vast Megalopolis.

Relations between the neighbouring septs were... strained but cordial. Neither especially understood the other or what the other had to face, but they respected each other’s position and strengths and often collaborated on vital projects - Gaia Triumphant having the manpower, power and resources, Scintillating Vision having the modern resources, expertise and knowledge of the modern world. Notable successes included saving Gaia Triumphant from urban sprawl by a series of powerful and viciously enforced zoning and national park laws.

Unfortunately years of prejudice and misunderstandings (urban vs rural werewolves) had driven the two apart to a degree that they mutually ignored each other whenever they could

This entente not-at-all-cordial fell apart when the Silver Fang Queen of Gaia Triumphant became... unstable. In her growing madness she made more and more demands on Scintillating Vision’s resources and demanded they swore fealty to her and her Sept. Scintillating Vision was not amused and cut off al contact.

Then the Queen discovered a dead Garou - with cybernetic implants. Blaming this heresy on Scintillating Vision, she used it as an excuse for all out war.

Things were messy. Only Scintillating Vision’s mastery of the city kept them free from utter annihilation. Just when it seemed both Septs were going to exhaust themselves in pointless conflict, relief happened. The Insane Queen died in a city raid that dropped them into an elder Vampire‘s lair, taking many of her top followers with her.

Gaia Triumphant, a huge, multi-tribal sept, fell into political turmoil. The Silver Fangs were bloodied and 2 of the heir apparents were dead. The Shadow Lords, relatively unscathed from a battle they considered both stupid and an outright breach of the Litany, charged in for power hammering home the insane stupidity of the last Queen and implying that she was Wyrm tainted to have risked the sanctity of 2 Caerns. Other tribes that had suffered in the wars, even ones that supported them (the Get, Black Furies and Red Talons) listened to what could not be denied.

Worse, from the Fang’s point of view, the Children of Gaia furiously added their voices to the Shadow Lords’ plotting. The Shadow Lords could be shouted down ads manipulators and deceivers but the morally upright and pure Children could not be so easily denied

The Silver Fang throne fell, the new King-in-waiting knew he’d never get the support of the other tribes. But the young king was clever, seeing the way the wind was blowing he instantly put his tribes support behind a CHILDREN OF GAIA ruler, which quickly earned the support of the wavering tribes.

Since then the Children have been trying to build the Sept to new glory. They’re hammering the tribal factions together, singing the praises of multi-tribal packs and making careful overtures to (the extremely pissed) Scintillating Vision Sept. Already they have transformed the face of the sept by having members of every present tribe hold rank. The Children have a unified, multi-tribal vision of the Sept and they will do it - and use their position as rulers of a Caern of Willpower to spread their example across the Garou nation.

The player pack is an attempt at unity. Containing werewolves from both Septs, it’s supposed to be symbolic of a new era of unity *snorfle*

Comments

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

I figure Werewolf has enough violence in it that I don't need to add any, so when I'm making a werewolf story I usually make it violence-free, or at least very limited.

And the players and the frenzies and the setting add more than enough violence. Which is great!

[lilisonna.livejournal.com]

I like it!