Amazon (WOD)

The Amazon, also known as Amazonia, is a moist broadleaf forest that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. The majority of the forest is contained within Brazil, with 60% of the rainforest, followed by Peru with 13%, Colombia with 10% - as well as with minor amounts in other surrounding countries.

Overview
The Amazon is different from most areas where garou are active. For the most part untouched and unexplored by humans, the Amazon is a pristine place. It is a land where life grows, free from the devasting touch of humanity. There are mysteries in the Amazon outside the reach of the humankind and its ever-present greed. Like many other beautiful lands before it, the Amazon has now captured the attention of corporations and individuals wanting to discover these mysteries. The damage that occurs is irreversible. Whether this is intentional or not, the effects are the same.

There are no garou protectorates in the Amazon and few caerns. This is the land of werejaguars and werereptiles. Until recently, the garou have had no business in this area. Most of the places they now occupy are make-shift base camps used as points-of-origin for reconnaissance missions and guerrilla style raids. There are few caerns, however, that function in the area thanks to the patience and determination of their garou keepers. These caerns still stand, despite the constant raids of Pentex.

Few vampires dare to venture into the Amazon Basin. This land is a battleground between the werewolves and their Pentex Wyrm-tainted foes. Powerful garou warriors like Golgol Fangs-First fight the continuous corporate destruction of the tropical rainforest. The conflict has sparked the werewolves to develop a militaristic approach to solve their problems, and vampires are wise to avoid them.

Amazon River
The Amazon River is the longest of the South American continent, yet no other river in the world approaches its volume of flow, exceeding the world's 10 next rivers combined. The basin of this great river is found inside Brazil in the state of Amazonas. Here, the forces of Pentex and their allies have begun their conquest of this land and its resources. This is where the war is fought.

The Amazon is the second-longest river in the world, extending 3900 miles from the Andes Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean. It supports a jungle of such size that parts of it remain unseen even today. This jungle houses 30% of the world's flora and fauna, and its trees, which are disappearing at an alarming rate, produce 40% of the planet's oxygen. The Amazon's myriad varieties of fauna include 30 million species of insects; 15-foot boas, 30-foot anacondas and deadly poisonous vipers; peccaries; spider and howler monkeys; enormous jaguars; alligators and caimans; sloths and tapirs; giant pirocuru fish, schools of vicious piranhas and electric eels.

The strange and savage war for the Amazon between the forces of Gaia and the forces of the Wyrm has precipitated several unpleasant surprises. Reports of odd, nocturnal migrations away from the jungle have alarmed many of Brazil's vampires. Great winged beasts, half-human and half-bat, have reportedly been seen flapping away from the rainforest. Those few who claim to have seen the creatures aver that the bat-things drink blood. Some even whisper they prefer the flavor of vampiric blood over all others. No proof exists, but vampires seldom leave behind evidence after they've been drained of their unlife.

Stranger creatures still are supposedly moving toward the coastline, and thus the cities, but their descriptions are so fantastic that most tend to discount them as myth. Efforts to halt the destruction of the rainforests - just in case the rumors about monsters are true have had no real effect to date.

Umbral Landscape
The Umbra around the Amazon is one of the most vivid and active in the world. Spirits flit to and fro in a kaleidoscope of color and motion. In the Amazon, many of the plant spirits are mobile, floating through the green, towering trees and tending to flowers over vast areas. There are also strange spirits looming here, awakened by native magic, such as ayahuasca, the spirit of a powerful drug taken by native medicine men.

Many spirits of long dead or extinct creatures still roam the Umbra, seemingly unaware of their extinction. Occasionally, a Great Beast roams free, awakened from its slumber in Gaia's womb. The neck of a massive dinosaur can sometimes be glimpsed rising above the distant trees. The lumbering strides of a Megatherium, or Gian Sloth, might shake the ground. Also in this landscape are the Den-Realms of the Balam werejaguars, hidden among the umbral trees.

Prominent Caerns

 * Hollow Heart Caern
 * Sky River Caern
 * Caern of the Rain Spirits