Remembering Remnant

A Remembering Remnant is a variable level, Gnosis 8 fetish. A remembering remnant is a portion of a werewolf’s (or rarely, another shapechanger’s) skin, preserved through spiritual power. Anyone capable of using a fetish can activate the remembering remnant; the fetish then grants a temporary boost to the Ancestors Background of one point per success.

The remnant is much more useful in the hands of a Skin Dancer — or to be more precise, in his skin. A shapechanger created by the Rite of Sacred Rebirth can choose to bind the remnant into his body when attuning to it. The scrap of skin is absorbed into the user’s own hide, becoming part of him as if it were one of the skins used in the Rite of Sacred Rebirth. For instance, a Skin Dancer attuning a pale white scrap of Silver Fang pelt into his shoulder would always have the skin over his shoulder look like the skin of the remnant’s original owner. In Homid form, it would resemble the skin tone of the original donor; in hybrid or wolf forms, it would be a patch of white fur.

Once absorbed, the remembering remnant grants the Skin Dancer an effective point of the Ancestors Background; it allows him to channel the spirit of the deceased skinchanger. The Skin Dancer may increase its power by strengthening the ancestor-spirit, typically with offerings of blood and memory. In game terms, this is simulated using experience points to buy extra dots in Ancestors at 1.5 x the usual cost, with the roleplaying requirement that the owner works to enhance the legend of the original donor. Each dot of Ancestors gained in-creases the fetish’s effective level by one, to a maximum of five. The difficulty to activate these Ancestors dice is always 8 since the player always reaches a specific “ancestor” spirit, but the fetish is limited to the Abilities possessed by that one donor.

Increasing the fetish’s power is not without risk. The stronger the remnant becomes, the more it spreads — a Level Three remembering remnant, for instance, might make the Skin Dancer’s entire arm and part of his torso resemble that of his implanted “ancestor.” If sufficiently fed, the remnant may overwhelm its host.