Balam



These Central American cats favor their ancient heritage, though some Amazon warriors adopt modern weapons to wipe their foes off the earth. The embodiments of wrath, Balam are temperamental, hardy and xenophobic.

What they don't like they attack, and they don't like much. Khan may be the chosen warriors of Seline, but the Balam are by far the most aggressive of the Nine Tribes.

Among the region's native people, the Balam hold an ancient place in folklore and religion. Legends claim the single tribe extends from two ancestral families. The Olioiuqui were spiritual travelers, winged werecats who stepped into the spirit worlds and granted visions to those who obeyed the gods. These jaguars taught Olmecs, Aztecs and Maya the ways of war, and accepted bloody sacrifices in return. Their stealthy cousins the Hovitl Qua cultivated the ways of invisibility and purification. Patrons of the jungle night, these mystical cats could dim the sun and awaken the forest with their arts. To the people of the rain forest tribes, they offered hunting lore and trips into the spirit world.

Both tribes claimed the right of sacrifice from their followers, and both got what they wanted. Warriors among the preconquest peoples dedicated the hearts and heads of their enemies to the jaguar gods, who assume grand places in their pantheons. The Olioiuqui themselves walked as gods in the streets of Tenochtitlán, Xicalango and lost Atloxtila, calling rain and culling the lawless. The Hovitl Qua wandered alone, calling mystics and hunters to play deadly games in the night. Those who returned were considered touched by divinity; very few did so.

Then the Spaniards came, bringing diseases, new spirits, conquering wizards and worst of all, Garou. Rash Olioiuqui died by the hundreds, and their descendants fled into the jungles. There, they mingled with their Hovitl Qua cousins, who had their own problems. Sickness raced through the forests, poisoning the night cats' people and killing the cat-gods themselves. Wolves came from the north and east - Silver Fangs, Black Furies, Bone Gnawers and Uktena - and began a new war of Rage in the jungles which had escaped the first. The jaguars, never social to begin with, turned on their siblings, and both tribes were virtually extinct by 1600.

The survivors were wiser than their parents had been. Establishing a new tribe, the Balam, they recalled the old litanies, retreated into the jungles, and created a code called the Flore Ki Wenca - "the Blood of Two Hearts". This covenant declared an end to the old tribal rivalries, set up new territories, and promised that Balam would always aid each other in need. Two Balam, the warchief Six Birds and the healer Blue Morning Skies, called on the great totem Night Jaguar to bless the tribe. This partnership of two shattered tribes is remembered in the werejaguar honorific "Two Hearts" a title they alone can claim. To this day, the tribes' descendants resent the white invaders - whom they call "Rotted-Hearts" - for forcing two to become one.

Once the Flore was sealed in a blood rite, the Balam scattered and set up new Den-Realms. For several centuries, no one disturbed them. This peace ended as human settlements and firms began cutting through the rain forests. The jaguars have not been amused. Today, the Balam fight a war on two fronts; in the cities of Central America, they struggle with the corruption that has come with the newcomers' ways. In the rain forests, they war upon Pentex, and other agents of destruction. Despite their impressive magics and war savvy, the jaguars are losing. They're too few, too fractious and too independent to organize as a tribe, and so they fall. The invaders - human, spirit and Garou alike - are too numerous to be driven away by a single Balam or a small war party. Fierce as they are, the jaguars are outgunned, outnumbered and outclassed.

The saddest this about this siege mentality is that the Balam have a beautiful culture underneath the sheen of blood. Their rites, often practiced alone, involve melodic songs, devoted prayers to the ancestors and hallucinogenic vision quests. In their Den-Realms, the Balam recall their rich heritage in elaborate artwork that only Umbral travelers can see. Those werejaguars who've established such homes offer sanctuary to other Balam in need, and always wear some bit of jewelry that ties into the designs they have "At home." These tokens represent the tie between the jaguar, his land and his ancestors. In many ways, they're symbols of the jaguar's soul. The fact that many Garou and Pentex formori in the Amazon War take Balam jewelry as trophies infuriates surviving jaguars, who make sure to reclaim Two-Heart honor in Rotted-Heart blood.

Most bastet retreated to the rain forests of Central and South America long ago. The founders of the tribe established Den-Realms there, and have left them to successors (often, but not always, family) before their deaths. These Realms, called Tona, feature rich vegetation, healthy wildlife, pure streams and a strong spiritual presence (in game terms, the equivalent of a level three to five caern, a five dot Den-Realm or a powerful Node). Naturally, this makes them prime targets for loggers, farmers, Garou, and formori. Many of these ancestral "estates" have fallen to invaders, and this makes the Balam even madder.

Some modern jaguars prefer the cities to the wilds, and others range across the mountains and plains. Sooner or later, a Balam sets up his Den-Realm and consecrates it to his forbears. From that point on, he rarely leaves the place for long. The average jaguar will sooner die than leave his Den-Realm to be destroyed; those who do are considered a disgrace to the tribe, and are shunned by thier people.