Stream (WTA)

Stream is a term used by the Mokolé shapeshifters to describe an interwoven group of related Mnesis bloodlines of their kind, native to a specific area. The Streams are frequently mistaken with the garou tribes, but they are not as such; more like relatives that have grown apart.

Overview
There are no “tribes” to command the loyalty of Mokolé. Mokolé are neither pack creatures like the Garou, nor solitary like the Bastet. Instead, they are united into clutches, family-like groups of Mokolé and Kin. The clutches are localised and preserve the Memory of a certain area. Wanderers pass between them to unite what remains of Gaia’s Memory. Clutches ally into streams, the four great “rivers out of Eden” which are the Mokolé.

Major Streams
Weresaurians have survived as alligators and crocodiles, monitor lizards and Gila monsters, gavials, caimans, perenties — and stranger things that furtively spawn in the shadowy murk. Too few to form tribes, the survivors of this evolutionary pageant have gathered in four major “streams” based around four of the primeval rivers of the world.

The four major streams are:


 * Gumagan - the stream of fire, who inhabit Australia and Oceania, a stream represented primarily by Aborigines and Melanesians. Known as the Stream of the Forerunners, they are well-respected by other Mokolé for their insights into the spirit world, particularly the Dreamtime. Unlike other streams, all Gumagan are capable of entering the Umbra. They are known for their extensive and primeval Mnesis: their memories of the earliest days of the Earth.


 * Mokole-Mbembe - the stream of earth, traditionally have stalked the swamps and waterways of Africa and the Americas. The Stream of the Fighters are by far the largest of the four streams, and as the current End Times approach, their numbers are steadily growing. The African ones are allied with the Ahadi.


 * Zhong-Lung - the stream of water, who inhabit the Middle Kingdom and are allied with the Hengeyokai. They are known as the Stream of the Philosophers. Although they have inherited the millennial Mnesis of countless scholars and teachers, because of their association with the Emerald Courts, they have the fewest memories of conflict with other shapechangers. Throughout the Middle Kingdoms of China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam, they have endured as the stream least harmed by the Garou. Known for their epic patience, their aspects are measured by the season in which they are born.


 * Makara - the stream of air, who inhabit the Indian sub-continent. The Stream of the Folk have been heavily influenced by human politics, religion, and mysticism. The Makara consider themselves diplomats to the other Changing Breeds. Their four auspices are determined by the seasons, and are further subdivided by the caste systems of their homelands, to such a great extent that outsiders rarely understand the finer distinctions between them.