Khara

The Khara (also referred to as Two Twin’s Cubs by their descendants) were the first tribe of the Bastet, sabertoothed were-cats that once prowled the world before the Holocene.

History
According to the oral traditions shared among the Bastet, the Khara first came forth when the human wizard Palar and the great sabre-tooth Akuma joined forces against a mighty manifestation of Asura (what Garou call the Wyrm) in the form of a great dragon. Although the two managed to slay the dragon, they were grievously wounded. Their mingled blood, alongside the tears of their Kin, touched Seline’s heart and she descended from the Moon to the Earth to mourn alongside them. Her tears formed the first Khara, born from the blood and tears of cats, men and the Moon. Mixed in their essence, however, was a shard of the dragon’s essence and soon, the Khara grew proud and terrorized their Kinfolk like the Asura had done. Enraged, Seline cursed them with their weakness against silver, as well with the essential Curse of Rage. As Luna’s behest, the first tribe was divided across the world and the Khara soon found mates in the native great cats. Their bloodline diluted further and further, until the nine tribes of the modern Bastet were born.

Although the Khara as a tribe are gone, their legacy remains in the fierce chatro forms of every Bastet that incites full Delirium in humans.

Culture
The Khara were as inquisitive as any Bastet tribe, but their mandate extended beyond the finding of secrets to the remembering of secrets. Sadly for those who came after, the Khara refused to keep records of what they had learned, claiming that giving a secret physical form made it too vulnerable. They passed their secrets orally within the tribe from generation to generation, and when the last Khara died, the tribe’s secrets died with her. Their pride prevented them from passing on what they knew, believing to the last that they could save themselves. Such was their taboo against writing was that it shows even in their rituals. When the Khara encountered a secret that should not be remembered by anyone, they would inscribe it on the teeth of a dead sabertooth and bury the head far away from any paths.

Despite their fearsome teeth, the weresabertooths were as much creatures of memory with strong ties to the Mokolé-mbembe as they were warriors. Their most ancient animal kin included species that bridged the gap between reptiles and mammals.

Organization
The Khara lived in small family groups led by the eldest female. Their society was divided on gender lines, with males encouraged to earn Renown by discovering secrets and bringing them to the females. In turn the women judged what only the Khara should remember what secrets were minor enough that they could passed along to the Mokolé or other Bastet, and what should be forgotten by the world. The secrets that a Khara remembered took on a spiritual significance. The tribe defined each individual by the secrets she kept, and each Khara could add to their prestige by learning new ones — either by seeking them out or by stealing them from other Khara. Many weresabertooths gave their secrets cryptic names that hinted to their content, not just as a way to frustrate spies but to help index what they knew.

Kinfolk
With the extinction of their animal Kin, the most notable being the Smilodon, the Khara went extinct long before the rise of the first human cities and thus predate the Wars of Rage and the Impergium. Human Kinfolk traces of the Khara survive in the people who would become the Apache, Comanche, and Hopi tribes of Native Americans, but any human Bastet Kinfolk has some amount of Khara lineage within him.