Werewolf: The Apocalypse

Werewolf: The Apocalypse is a role-playing game from the World of Darkness line by White Wolf Game Studio. In this game, players take the role of werewolves known as Garou (as well as other lycanthropes), modern primitive ecoterrorists waging their holy war defending Gaia the Mother Earth from evils of modern society.

Werewolf depiction

Werewolves depicted in the game aren't mindless rabid monstrosites but sacred warriors - Garou - chosen by Gaia to die for her if need be. As the game's mythos holds, eons ago they were spirits of nature embodied into changing flesh. They were meant to be guardians of Nature's balance and warders of the earth.

Lycanthropy is not some strange affliction but heritage. While it is not said that child of werewolf will become werewolf himself, for sure that child retains Garou heritage so that it can show up in him, his children or grandchildren. Werewolf family members that have the heritage but is not Garou is called kinfolk - be it wolven or human.

There are three possibilities, how a werewolf can be born:

Homid: A Garou born to human or homid parents
Metis: A Garou born to two other Garou
Lupus: A Garou born to wolven or lupus parents

Garou mingle characteristics of humans (intelligence and toolmaking) with that of animals (pack mentality, instincts, closeness to Nature). Of course they can change their shape - indeed they have 5 forms: Homid (human), Glabro (monstrous human), Crinos (true werewolf), Hispo (monstrous wolf) and Lupus (wolf). They generally can change shapes at will, but at times they are overcome with the rage inherent to their nature and are forced to assume Crinos form, rampaging blindly.

They are drawn from both human society and wolven populace. They commonly leave their former society (especially human) to live with their kin, living modern primitive life close to nature.

Garou society

Werewolves are not solitary creatures. They live in packs (like wolves do) and organise themselves into septs and tribes. Garou tribes are just like human tribes: a community of members sharing common lineage, traditions, rites and values. Twelve of the Tribes form a great alliance known as the Garou Nation.

Every Garou is expected to fit into its role in society according to its auspice and station. As Garou are spiritual beings they recognize and revere spirits, especially Luna, the spirit of Moon; the phase of the moon under which a Garou is born decides his or her auspice, which in turn determines the Garou's role in society:

Ragabash - born under a new moon; a caste of tricksters.
Theurge - born during a crescent moon; a caste of shamans.
Philodox - born during the half moon; a caste of arbiters and ritemasters.
Galliard - born under the gibbous moon; a caste of bards and loremasters.
Ahroun - born under a full moon; a caste of warriors.

The Garou tribes each claim descent from the human peoples of particular geographic areas. There were once sixteen tribes, but only thirteen remain servants of Gaia in the modern age:

Black Furies
Bone Gnawers
Children of Gaia
Fianna
Get of Fenris
Glass Walkers
Red Talons
Shadow Lords
Silent Striders
Silver Fangs
Stargazers (no longer members of the Garou Nation)
Uktena
Wendigo

Three tribes have been lost to Gaia: the Bunyip of Australia, destroyed in the War of Shame; the Croatan of North America, who sacrificed themselves to protect their homeland; and the White Howlers of Scotland, who were corrupted by the Wyrm and became the Black Spiral Dancers.

Spiritual perspective

Garou are spiritual creatures. It is said that they once were spirits themselves and upon entering flesh they retained their spiritual affinities and pacts. Thus their culture is centered around venerating various spirits (every pack, sept, and tribe has its patron spirit or totem) that can help them in their holy war. While Garou society has its Theurges, every werewolf has to deal with spirits - they heal, assist in war and finally - teach Gifts, quasi-magical powers every Garou can employ.

But only Theurges deal with spirits on a daily basis - it is their role to parley with them, tend to totems, passing their wisdom and ask for guidance. Finally it is their role to preserve the fundamental truth about universum and Garou role in it.

What are that truths? The truth is that it was civilization of men that caused downfall of Nature. With the neolith, the permanent instability in spirit world was introduced. The Triat of mighty spirits ruling the world: Wyld the Wild Creator, Weaver the Form Maker and Wyrm the Destroyer that once managed the creation in harmony were thrown off the balance. The Weaver strengthened and yearned to entangle whole world with the web of Form. So she strangled the Wyrm so that he couldn't undo her workings. And Wyrm went mad and began blindly destroying and corrupting. That was the root of present times misery - while form-bringing civilization expanded it was inevitably corrupt.

Next men formed nations and cities. It was the werewolves duty to ward and cull them as necessary. Impergium was enacted, werewolves destroying biggest and most blasphemous dwellings of men. It ended, but men still fear the werewolves at subconscious level - when human sees Garou in its war (Crinos) form, the human is struck with Delirium, his mind covering with panic, refusing to accept what he've seen.

Garou upheld their role with glee until Industrial Revolution. Then Gaia began to surrender before encroaching Wyrm and world of spirit, the Umbra, became more distant. Moreover, much of spirits of nature became extinct along with sacred sites they inhabited, the other spirits became corrupt. Even Umbral landscape - the spiritual residue that surrounds all the matter - became polluted, producing malignant Bane spirits that urge humans to revel in wicked and immoral activities so that they further the cause of Wyrm.

At this point Garou began to lose. Entire growing human populace - depraved and resourceful as they are - were against them. Glorious heroes became guerilla warriors hoping nothing more but worthy death in battle for Gaia. Battle that no Garou hopes to be won.

Apocalypse

Present times are hostile both to Gaia and to spirituality - so to Garou as well. Humans have severely devastated and poisoned their environment and with it they became sick themselves. They produced prone to corruption governments that eradicate whole cultures and corporations that urge the governments to allow them more opportunity to grow rich on harming the environment.

And while humans need little help to do this, the Wyrm has its special agents here to pave the way for human entrepreneurship. This agents take varied forms: there are human cultists that manage vile Pentex corporation, deranged and mutated fomori to deal with minor threats to Wyrm and finally mad Black Spiral Dancers werewolves (former White Howlers) to deal with Garou.

As if it were not enough, the omens announce doom, the Apocalypse, when all the Garou will perish in final battle and Wyrm will be triumphant.

Out-of-game Summary

Werewolf: the Apocalypse is sometimes accused of being dark game that gives the player the opportunity to play the monster and revel in violence. It can be true in some cases as it can be played like mindless hack and slash), but game potential hardly ends there.

The accusers fail to notice that Werewolf uses the supernatural to exaggerate things so as to better show its theme of human and community in modern world. It contrasts spiritual life of Garou with the emptiness of modern culture and often corrupt ways of modern human. Also it reminds that spirituality begins at home - every individual has its roots, heritage and traditional wisdom of ancestors. He belongs to the community that both needs and supports him and expects some dedicated work. While Garou characters enjoy benefits of belonging to community, their opponents are shown as individuals without roots, losing their moral guidance. Living in unnatural environment and artificial societies those hapless people are getting sick and corrupt. That said, the game was written at the peak of the mid-1990s pro-primitive anti-corporate counterculture surge.

Quality of this message is another story however. Like other games from World of Darkness, its opponents deride it for much style and little substance. Werewolf is criticized (especially among gamers who do not play White Wolf titles) for the amount of pseudo-spirituality contained in it, almost always going hand-in-hand with anti-modernism that some role-playing game's players find unacceptable. The game seems to attract even more derision with a cast of cardboard-cutout "Evil Corporation" villains embodied in Pentex Corporation working for Wyrm - game's version of Satan. The cardboard nature of Pentex grew more, not less, pronounced as the 1990s wore on, making the game even less palatable to outside players.

Despite those shortcomings, dedicated players have shown that Werewolf's spirituality can be made right with little work (say, by reading The Golden Bough and The Hero With a Thousand Faces) and cardboard-cutout villains are not that problem as it's not a story of villains but of heroes and heroism.

Clearly, Werewolf is not a game for all. It aims at players with specific tastes and worldview. Also, it demands some dedication on the side of Game Master and players.