Black Spiral Labyrinth

"Black Spiral" redirects here. For other uses of the term, see Black Spiral (disambiguation).

Black Spiral Labyrinth, also called the Spiral Labyrinth, or the Ebon Maze in the Middle Kingdom, is a spiral labyrinth within the realm of Malfeas containing unimaginable horrors of the Wyrm. It is more frequently referred to as the Black Spiral (sometimes Black Labyrinth) in Werewolf 5th Edition.

Overview

Accessible through the Temple Obscura, this horrific Umbral labyrinth is the most sacred place to the fallen werewolves known as the Black Spiral Dancers for the act of walking through the Labyrinth and facing its mysteries is often called "dancing", hence, this Black Spiral is not only the place from which they draw their names, but all their madness as well, since every single one of the Dancers have once traveled deep into the Labyrinth and became tainted beyond recognition.

Within the Black Spiral Labyrinth, the victim communicates with various Wyrm-spirits, commonly known as the Urge-Wyrms, emanations of the Wyrm himself, that can grant blessings and knowledge to the who are brave enough (or mad enough), to dare enter its grounds. Some Nephandi who call themselves Malfeans also walk the Black Spiral during their Caul. Normally, dancing the Spiral usually breaks and twists your mind and grants you various derangements. Many Black Spiral Dancers see these mental scars as marks of the Urge-Wyrms and pursue them in order to further their service.

There are some who believe that there is a connection between the Malfean labyrinth and the dark Labyrinth beneath the Tempest in the Underworld. These levels of reality would be the last step before reaching the eternal jail of the demons, the infamous Abyss.

Circles

Theurges speak of nine thresholds of wisdom in the Spiral Labyrinth, nine concentric circles of unspeakable ordeals. Each circle offers a test that a dancer must overcome before she can advance in Rank. If she is particularly ingenious, she may even learn a deviant gift from the servitors of the labyrinth. The experience often resembles a little story; a surreal vignette set within endless corridors and presented by a host of treacherous Umbral spirits.

• Circle One: Dance of Insight
• Circle Two: Dance of Rage
• Circle Three: Dance of Endurance
• Circle Four: Dance of Cunning
• Circle Five: Dance of Combat
• Circle Six: Dance of Corruption
• Circle Seven: Dance of Loyalty
• Circle Eight: Dance of Paradox
• Circle Nine: Dance of Deceit

5th Edition

What the Garou outside the Black Spiral Dancers know of the Black Spiral is much more vague in W5. Many Garou believe the Black Spiral to be hidden somewhere in the depths of the Umbra — probably a portion of it foully proximate to the Wyrm, or somehow in what amounts to its attention, if such a statement can be accurate. Other Garou believe the “Black Labyrinth” to be a location in the physical world, or even a metaphorical location that moves throughout the physical world, to places where human defilement proves most satisfactory to the Wyrm… again, if it can be said that the Wyrm “prefers” things.

Some combination of a hellish caern and a crucible where would-be Black Spiral Dancers are broken down and forged anew, it’s at once a place, a spiritual horror, and a relentlessly cruel outlook on the world. It may be the locus of the final cancer that consumes Gaia herself.

Gallery

References

• WTA: Book of the Wyrm First Edition, p. 58-59
• WTA: Book of the Wyrm Second Edition, p. 40, 101-102
• WTA/cMET: Mind's Eye Theatre: Book of the Wyrm, p. 68-71
• WTA: W20 Book of the Wyrm, p. 25