Anchorhead: A spirit gate between the Near and Deep Umbra. (See Membrane.)

Anthelios: The portentous Red Star that has recently appeared in the Umbral heavens; largely seen as an omen of doom. Also called "the Eye of the Wyrm."

Apocalypse: The age of destruction, the final cycle, the birth of death, the everlasting corruption, the end of Gaia. A word used in Garou mythology to describe the time of the final battle with the Wyrm. Many consider this time to be the present.

Auspice: The phase of the moon under which a particular Garou was born, which is thought commonly to determine personality and tendencies. The auspices include: Ragabash (New Moon; Trickster), Theurge (Crescent Moon; Seer), Philodox (Half Moon; Judge), Galliard (Gibbous Moon; Moon Dancer), Ahroun (Full Moon; Warrior).

Bane: Evil spirits that follow the Wyrm. Many different kinds of Banes exist, including Scrags, Kali, Psychomachiae and more.

Bawn: A boundary area around a caern, patrolled and monitored carefully.

Blight: Any corrupted area in either the spirit world or physical reality.

Breed: The ancestry of a Garou, be it wolf, human or other Garou.

Caern: A sacred place; a meeting spot where the Garou can contact the spirit world.

Celestine: The greatest spirits; the closest things the Garou have to gods. Examples are Luna (the Moon) and Helios (the Sun).

Concolation: A great moot, wherein many tribes gather to discuss matters that concern the Nation of Garou.

Concord, The: The agreement all the tribes reached nearly 9,000 years ago, after which the Impergium ended. The traditions thereof are still obeyed today.

Corruption: The act of destroying, devolving or debasing life; also, the often overwhelming effects of the Wyrm's actions. In the present age, it often refers specifically to the ecological ruin humans wreak upon the environment.

Crinos: The half-wolf, half-human war form of the Garou.

Deep Umbra: The aspects of the Umbra that lie outside the Membrane. Reality becomes more and more fragmentary the farther one travels from the Realm.

Delirium: The madness and memory-loss suffered by humans who look upon a Garou in Crinos form.

Domain: A mini-Realm in the Umbra, usually connected to a larger Realm in the Deep Umbra.

Fera: Garou term for shapeshifters other than werewolves; most are presumed extinct.

Feral: Slang term for lupus.

Fomori (singular "fomor"): Humans who have turned to the Wyrm and who draw their power from it. Common enemies of the Garou.

Gaffling: A simple spirit servant of a Jaggling, Incarna or Celestine. Gafflings are rarely sentient.

Gaia: The Earth and related Realms, in both a physical and a spiritual sense; the Mother Goddess.

Garou: The term werewolves use for themselves.

Gauntlet: The barrier between the physical world of Earth and the spirit world of the Umbra. It is strongest around technological (Weaver) places and weakest around caerns.

Glabro: The near-man form of the Garou.

Harano: Inexplicable gloom, inexpressible longing for unnamable things, weeping for that which is not yet lost. Some say it is depression caused by contemplation of Gaia's suffering.

Hispo: The near-wolf form of the Garou.

Homid: A Garou of human ancestry. Occasionally used disdainfully by ferals (e.g., "That boy fights like a homid."). Also the human form of the Garou.

Impergium: The 3,000 years immediately following the birth of agriculture, during which strict population quotas were maintained on all human villages.

Incarna: A class of spirits; weaker than the Celestines, but still greater spirits by any measure.

Jaggling: A spirit servant of an Incarna or Celestine.

Kenning: The empathic calling some Garou perform when howling.

Kinfolk: Those humans and wolves who are related to the Garou and are not prone to the Delirium, but who are not actual werewolves.

Klaive: A fetish dagger or sword, usually of great spiritual potency and nearly always made of silver.

Litany: The code of laws kept by the Garou.

Luna: The Incarna of the moon; powerful spirit patron to all shapechangers.

Lupus: A Garou of wolf origin. Also the wolf form of the Garou.

Membrane, The: The barrier between the Near and Deep Umbra. To breach it, an Anchorhead must be found. Alternatively, the Garou can travel through the Dream Zone.

Metis: The sterile and often deformed offspring of two Garou. Generally reviled by Garou society.

Moon Bridge: A gate between two caerns; it most often appears during moots.

Moot: A sept or tribal conclave that takes place at a caern.

Mule: Slang for metis.

Near Umbra: The spirit world surrounding the Gaia Realm.

Pack: A small group of Garou bound to each other by ties of friendship and mission as opposed to culture.

Penumbra: "Earth's Shadow"; the spirit world directly surrounding the physical world. Many, but not all, terrain features have reflections there.

Protectorate: The territory claimed and patrolled by a pack or sept.

Reaching: Traveling into the spirit world.

Realms: The worlds of "solid" reality within the Tellurian. Earth is referred to as the Realm.

Ronin: A Garou who has chosen or been forced to leave Garou society. It is a harsh fate to become a "lone wolf."

Sept: The group of Garou who live near and tend an individual caern. Stepping

Sideways: Entering the spirit world. Many elders consider this term flippant and disrespectful.

Tellurian: The whole of reality.

Totem: A spirit joined to a pack or tribe and representative of its inner nature. A tribal totem is an Incarna, while a pack totem is an Incarna avatar (a Jaggling equivalent).

Trial, The: The Weaver, the Wyld and the Wyrm. The trinity of primal cosmic forces.

Tribe: The larger community of Garou. Tribe members are often bound by similar totems and lifestyles.

Umbra: The spirit world.

Veil, The: A poetic term for the false assumption that the supernatural does not exist, which the Delirium reinforces.

Ways, The: The traditions of the Garou.

Weaver, The: Manifestation and symbol of order and pattern. Computers, science, logic and mathematics are examples of the Weaver's influence on the material plane.

Wyld, The: Manifestation and symbol of pure change. The chaos of transmutation and elemental force.

Wyrm, The: Manifestation and symbol of evil, entropy and decay in Garou belief. Vampires are often manifestations of the Wyrm, as are toxic waste and pollution.

Wyrmhole: A place that has been spiritually defiled by the Wyrm; invariably a location of great corruption.

 

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