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Banes are evil spirits in service of the Wyrm.

Overview[]

GlyphBane

Garou glyph for "Bane".

Banes run the full gamut from weak and relatively harmless to hideously powerful creatures capable of rending reality around them. Weak Banes are frequently used to infect humans and animals, turning them into fomori.

More powerful Banes can completely possess their host, obliterating all traces of their previous personality. These Banes can also materialize in the real world, without needing to possess a host. They will simply manifest horrible twisted versions of their spiritual form in the real world and go about their business.

There are many different types of Banes; some of the more notable varieties include:

  • Anger Swarm - Appears as a swarm of insects driving people to become more violent and vicious. They are unable to feed off a Garou's Rage.
  • Bitter Rages - exist for the sole purpose of driving Garou mad. They feed on Rage, and in turn they fuel that Rage, pushing their prey into frenzies of ever-increasing proportions. In many ways, they are the spiritual equivalent of a rabies attack.
  • Drattosi - are hideous creatures that live in huge radioactive pits within the Umbra. They act like gigantic mockeries of antlions, preying on whatever Umbral traveler is unfortunate enough to stumble into their mephitic traps.
  • Dream Makers - these Banes served to create the world, working as servants of both the Weaver and the Wyld. What exists now is but a faint echo of the power these dark spirits once represented, the power to shape an entire universe at the whims of their masters.
  • Elemental Banes - these Wyrmish elementals mirror the traditional four elements in corrupted form: toxin (water), smog (air), sludge (earth), and balefire (fire). Balefire banes are the most feared as they can produce horrible mutations in creatures that come in contact with them.
  • Gray Masses - life grows even in the face of death, a part of an endless cycle that isn’t meant to change, but Gray Masses are different.
  • The Maeljin Incarna - the 13 demon lords of Malfeas, the Maeljin Incarna each serve one of the heads of the Hydra. Each is more hideous than the last. Fortunately they are generally found only in Malfeas, so Garou are unlikely to ever encounter them directly... at least until the Apocalypse comes and they ride out at the front of the armies of the Wyrm. The Maeljin Incarna are easily capable of destroying entire septs of Garou by themselves.
  • Howling Insanities - The most feared Banes in existence, as they can actually possess werewolves.
  • Nexus Crawlers - these powerful creatures warp reality around them like Silly Putty. Reality literally melts around them. They are one of the most powerful Wyrm-spirits Garou are ever likely to encounter... and many Garou never live to tell of such encounters.
  • Ooralath - mindless Banes for the most part, the Ooralath are nonetheless adept hunters. They almost always attack with the tactical advantage, outnumbering their prey and striking from cover.
  • Phantasmi - an unfortunate few of the damned once-humans suffer a greater agony when they die under Garou talons. For them, the Corrupter has a special fate in mind: a destiny of pain and revenge.
  • Psychomachiae - are powerful banes that feed on carnage and death. They often possess weak-willed humans and send them on killing sprees. They may also subtly whisper into the ear of their targets, encouraging them to engage in ever more brutal acts. Many callous vampires unwittingly attract psychomachiae, due to their brutal feeding habits.
  • Scavenger Packs - Banes that possess a pack of animals in the way to possess a human (creating Hollow Men).
  • Scrags - these are warrior banes covered in chitinous armor. They frequently run in packs and will actively hunt creatures of Gaia.
  • Scryers - are a weak type of Bane whose only apparent purpose is to spy on targets for stronger Banes.
  • The Souleaters - entities which can infect anyone and transmit through Vicissitude or Sanguinus.
  • Whisperer - Banes that look too similar to Pattern Spiders. With the one difference is having a human mouth under their abdomen. They whisper to humans using computers that they inhabit in.
  • Wyrmholes - these rare Banes are an acute danger, for they can birth Banes into the material world by the dozen, releasing the newly physical spirits of pure malice

Gallery[]

References[]

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