Hathawulf Spearbreaker

Hathawulf Spearbreaker was a legendary White Howler who lived during the heyday of the Roman Empire.

Biography
Born early in the years of the Roman Invasion, Hathawulf never knew a time when the foreigners on their soil did not plague his people. His first change happened during a particularly harsh winter, when their troops targeted the store-houses of Hathawulf’s village, breaching the walls of the hill fort they and plundering both people and stores.

The last thing he remembered before his Change was the Roman soldiers marching through the gatehouse, killing as they went. The first thing he remembered after his Change was the smell of blood and the overwhelming silence that comes from being the only one left alive in a once-thriving town.

When the nearby sept came to investigate, they found hundreds of broken spears driven into the top of the turf wall that encircled Hathawulf’s former village. Upon each one was a dead Roman soldier. Some stabbed from behind, or their throats slit, or garroted. Others looked to have been killed by stones dropped from above, or mangled as if they’d fallen from a great height. Not one seemed to bear the marks of a fair fight, but they were, to a man, dead nonetheless.

As for Hathawulf himself, he was long gone. After completing his grisly task, he’d begun back-tracking the offending legion, intent on killing as many of the foreign invaders as possible. He did not know what he was, nor anything about his true abilities, but he was intent on making certain the Romans paid for destroying his home and his family.

The sept caught up with him on the way. They convinced him to set aside his quest for revenge, or so they thought. In truth, he simply realized that he could wreak far more havoc with a shapeshifting army by his side than he could ever cause on his own. From that day forward, Hathawulf was an adroit student. He trained constantly, strengthening both his mind and body, learning not only what it was to be Garou, but history, games, magic — anything that might aid him in his quest for revenge.

In times of war, the survivor is often not the strongest, but the cleverest, and Hathawulf was proof positive of that. Not long after his Rite of Passage, he formed his first pack, convincing the strongest, but not necessarily smartest, of the up and coming young Ahrouns to take the position of alpha. Content to serve as advisor and instigator, Hathawulf drove his pack towards the same purpose that he had dedicated himself to since his First Change: eradicating the Roman invaders.

So efficient were their efforts that they quickly attained mythic status with those they preyed upon. The Romans named the white-pelted pack “Lupus Grex” and claimed they were ghosts of wolves the army had killed after arriving in Caledonia, or spirits in wolf-form that haunted the woods. The pack did everything in their power to promote these legends, allowing the superstitious among the Roman legions to build their exploits to evergreater heights around the campfires and barrack tents.

Over the next few decades, Lupus Grex haunted the southern border of Caledonia, ranging the territory between the northern and southern Roman walls. With the aid of the local septs, they helped defend their homeland from Roman invasion, and were no small part of the reason why the Romans never conquered Caledonia. In the end, Hathawulf’s drive became his own undoing. At the rank of Athro, he was one of the strongest forces behind the decision to attack the Roman headquarters. Using every ounce of his persuasion, cunning, and manipulation, he tipped the scales and rallied the Tribe behind a warrior who led the attack. Upon returning from their victory, however, he and the rest of the Tribe discovered their unprotected Kinfolk slain, broken, turned, and defiled.

The realization that his words had driven the Tribe to leave their families unprotected struck Hathawulf more deeply than any enemy ever had. Despite the best efforts of his pack, the wily scout pulled away from his duties. He refused to weigh in on further challenges, stopped hunting, ceased talking, and eventually stopped eating. One day, he simply disappeared. No one — not even his pack Totem — has been able to locate him since.