Garou are not solitary creatures. They live in packs like wolves do and organise themselves into septs (groups of packs) and tribes. Garou tribes resemble human tribes in that they are a community of members sharing common lineage, traditions, rites and values. Unlike most human tribes, however, the tribes of the Garou span the globe, with its members spread thinly over large areas of influence. The Garou tribes each claim descent from the human peoples of particular geographic areas or demographic subset of human/wolf society. There were once sixteen tribes, but only thirteen remain servants of Gaia in the modern age. Twelve of these tribes form a great alliance known as the Garou Nation. They are:
A Garou's tribe is not just the family he's born into or the result of the culture he's raised in, as well as the Gifts he will learn. It represents the choice of the tribe's Totem spirits, marking the Garou as one of its own even if he takes another spirit as his personal or pack Totem. In recent years, there have been efforts to share Kinfolk and bring the tribes closer through family ties, but even if a Garou cub has Red Talon, Uktena and Glass Walker lineages he is chosen by only one of these Totems and is a member of only one tribe. Still, there are fewer barriers to understanding the other tribes today than before the Hammer War.
Black Furies
Amazonian women who are devoted to protecting females and children. They seek to defend those who are often made into victims and to fight back against oppression. While many countries accept the equality between men and women, there are several areas where the repression of women has become even more pronounced. The Black Furies have slowly come to accept that other groups may share their goals even if they do not necessarily agree with the Furies' methods. Many shelters and orphanages are run by Black Furies and their Kinfolk.
Initial Willpower: 3
Beginning Gifts: Breath of the Wyld, Heightened Senses, Sense Wyrm.
Background Restrictions: None.
Bone Gnawers
Consummate survivors, especially in urban environments, the Bone Gnawers have swollen in numbers since the war. There is at least one Gnawer pack in every major city in the world, including the ruins. Unfortunately, several of these packs are targets of the Wyrm and its agents. The Bone Gnawers have focused on providing islands of stability even in the worst ruins, as well as helping other Garou understand the cities.
Initial Willpower: 4
Beginning Gifts: Cooking, Resist Toxin, Tagalong.
Background Restrictions: Bone Gnawers may not buy Ancestors, Pure Breed or Resources. Such good fortune typically falls to wolves from other tribes.
Children of Gaia
The mediators of the Garou, the Children of Gaia often set themselves the unenviable task of bringing understanding between different tribes and, for the past several decades, between different Changing Breeds. The existence of the Bete Order is a testament to the Children of Gaia's skill at finding compromises, but it can be hard going at times.
Initial Willpower: 4
Beginning Gifts: Mercy, Mother's Touch, Resist Pain.
Background Restrictions: None.
Fianna
The Fianna are known for indulging their passions and enjoying life. Thanks to the renaissance of art since the war, the Fianna are gaining popularity on a larger scale than ever before. They have held controversial moots open to Bete, Kinfolk, and normal humans alike, to bring the vibrancy of Garou art to the rest of the world. Many in this tribe have found common cause with the Cult of Ecstasy, and seek to heal the wounds of human society.
Initial Willpower: 3
Beginning Gifts: Faerie Light, Persuasion, Resist Toxin.
Background Restrictions: None
Get of Fenris
Ever proud and strong, the Get of Fenris suffered many losses during the assault on Malebolge and the Hammer War. Their population has fallen to dangerously-low numbers, and the elders of the tribe are trying to find ways to encourage a sense of caution in a tribe famed for putting themselves in harm's way. With the renewal of many of Europe's wild lands and resurgence of its wolf population, there are more Get Kinfolk than ever before. Sadly, the tribe is one of the smallest among the Garou.
Initial Willpower: 3
Beginning Gifts: Razor Claws, Resist Pain, Visage of Fenris.
Background Restrictions: Get cannot purchase the Contacts Background. True friends are the only friends a Fenrir wants. They may purchase Mentor, but a Get's patron will only advise, never protect. Those who cannot survive on their own deserve to die.
Glass Walkers
Although this fact angers many elders, the Glass Walkers are responsible for saving the Garou and many other Changing Breeds. The Glass Walkers shepherded many conservation efforts, privately-owned wildlife preserves, Kinfolk-breeding programs, and other modern innovations which kept the species from going extinct. They were able to make alliances with willworkers and know how to avoid the worst dangers of the Technocracy's Pogrom or the False Armageddon. Their modern methods of solving ancient Garou problems have been quite effective. Despite these successes, many traditionalist Garou would rather accuse the Glass Walkers of trampling on tradition and ignoring the ways of their fathers. Although the Glass Walkers used to let such attitudes provoke them into fights with the other tribes, the Children of Gaia have recently convinced them to try to take the high road and let their victories speak for themselves.
Initial Willpower: 3
Beginning Gifts: Control Simple Machine, Diagnosis, Trick Shot.
Background Restrictions: Glass Walkers stopped cultivating the Pure Breed Background ages ago, and they have lost touch with their anachronistic ancestors. They also learn without the benefit of mentors. Anything an elder can teach a cub is probably obsolete, and it must be reinvented or upgraded.
Red Talons
This tribe is undergoing a painful transformation, and no one is certain what the Red Talons will be afterward. Gehenna and the assault on Malebolge destroyed most, but not all, of the Red Talons' elders, leaving younger cubs and one or two elders to decide how to approach the future. Howls-at-Pain, one of most legendary of all Garou, found himself the leader of a tribe that barely numbered one hundred. He had to compromise the teachings of his own forefathers and encourage practices that are still controversial within the Talons. There have been some homids born to the tribe in the past twenty years. These two-legged cubs are caught within a group that traditionally hated their kind. The homids have been tasked with changing the very soul of their tribe. The fact that Griffin will accept the homids as members of his tribe is considered a major step on the road to change. Principles of tolerance and understanding come slowly to the Talons, but the tribe is small enough, and its members are all young enough, that there is hope they might adapt to the new world.
Initial Willpower: 3
Beginning Gifts: Beast Speech, Scent of Running Water, Wolf at the Door.
Background Restrictions: Red Talons may not buy Allies, Contacts or Resources. Their only Kinfolk are wolves.
Shadow Lords
This tribe experienced a brief period of ascendance after Gehenna. The Shadow Lords were the largest tribe for a time, and Gideon Fire-walker claimed the Silver Crown which marked the ruler of the Garou Nation. But Gideon's power was short-lived, as the famous Child-of-Luna called a Great Moot against his express wishes to bring together all the tribes and other Changing Breeds. In an effort to remain in control, Gideon made himself part of the plan to awaken the Wyld and damage the Wyrm, assuming leadership of those assaulting Malebolge. He died in the first charge. The Shadow Lords' influence has waned ever since. The world changed rapidly after the Balancing, and while some of this tribe have changed with it, many Shadow Lord elders are still trying to determine where they went wrong.
Initial Willpower: 3
Beginning Gifts: Aura of Confidence, Fatal Flaw, Seizing the Edge.
Background Restrictions: Shadow Lords cannot attain the Allies or Mentor Background. Any such alliance is temporary at best; anything less is an invitation to betrayal.
Silent Striders
Never a large tribe, the Silent Striders suffered heavy losses during Gehenna and still have not fully recovered. Despite their openness to trying new ways of increasing their numbers and accepting aid from other groups, the wanderlust of the Silent Striders makes it difficult for them to settle down and breed large families. The Silent Striders are considered valuable members of the Bete Order, since they are on friendly terms with many other Changing Breeds. Until their numbers climb into the hundreds once more, the Bete seek to protect the Striders from themselves.
Initial Willpower: 3
Beginning Gifts: Sense Wyrm, Silence, Speed of Thought.
Background Restrictions: Silent Striders may not have the Ancestors or Resources Backgrounds.
Silver Fangs
A once-crumbling tribe that has since found new life after the Balancing. The Silver Fangs lost most of their oldest and most hidebound elders at the gates of Malebolge. The younger generation had been accepting of the ideas of King Albrecht, who died during Gehenna. While there were many squabbles between the ancient and noble traditions of the Silver Fangs, a rebellion among the young cubs adopted new approaches to breeding and politics which helped the tribe as a whole. However, the Hammer War has caused more turmoil within the Silver Fangs, as many of the tribe's new elders reacted to the chaos of the war by once again taking on the trappings of aristocracy.
Initial Willpower: 3
Beginning Gifts: Falcon's Grasp, Lambent Flame, Sense Wyrm.
Background Restrictions: Silver Fang characters must spend at least three Background points on Pure Breed.
Stargazers
Always a distant tribe, the Stargazers even left the Garou Nation for a period before Gehenna, joining the Hengeyokai Courts in the East. After Gehenna devastated both Nation and Courts, the few surviving Stargazers brought the two groups together. During the Balancing, the entire Stargazer tribe went with Child-of-Luna into the Wyld, and most of them were killed or reduced to permanent madness on the journey. It was believed the Stargazers were all but extinct after this event. However, in the 2010's Chimera began choosing young cubs from other tribes as Stargazers. The last of the tribe's survivors came forward to teach these cubs. After the War for Earth, the Stargazers had a few dozen members, with more joining every year. The Stargazers are now one of the two smallest tribes, but their wisdom is as compelling as ever. The Bete Order relies heavily on the insights of the newborn tribe of Stargazers.
Initial Willpower: 4
Beginning Gifts: Diamond Claws, Impala's Flight.
Background Restrictions: When a cub is adopted into the Stargazers, the first thing his teachers instruct him to do is to rely on himself first and foremost. Part of this learning process involves severing oneself from material things that one might rely on; Stargazer characters may not begin play with Resources or Fetish. What’s more, the Stargazers have, for the most part, burned their bridges with the Garou Nation; a Stargazer may not take any Allies among the Garou Nation or their friends without explicit Storyteller permission.
Uktena
The Uktena split during the Balancing, as several members of the tribe fell to the Wyrm during the great battle at Malebolge. Over the next decade, the tribe's elders examined the Uktena closely, purging those who had been tainted too much by the Wyrm. The Uktena called on allies made during their endless search for mystical lore, and by the time of the War for Earth they were closely connected with several willworking Traditions. The Uktena helped forge the Bete Order, and are enjoying the fruits of their labors. They can study the magics of all other paranormals freely, without the need to sneak around and glean lore where they can.
Initial Willpower: 3
Beginning Gifts: Sense Magic, Shroud, Spirit Speech.
Background Restrictions: None.
Wendigo
This tribe has had more trouble adapting to the new world than even the Red Talons. The tribe's elders are insular in the extreme, and only a few members of this tribe are willing to overcome the prejudices they are taught to deal with the Bete Order. These rare Wendigo are fervent believers in the Bete, knowing that without their aid the Wendigo will be extinct in a generation or two. They are trying to find a way to convince their elders to put aside their ancient hatreds and save themselves.
Initial Willpower: 4
Beginning Gifts: Call the Breeze, Camouflage, Resist Pain.
Background Restrictions: Wendigo may not buy Contacts or Resources.
Three tribes have been lost to Gaia: The Bunyip of Australia (destroyed in the War of Tears), 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.
See Also: Garou Information, Gifts, Breeds
