Camazotz

Camazotz were werebats, one of the extinct Changing Breeds of the World of Darkness.

Camazotz fought the Garou when Europeans arrived in the Americas

Overview

Few among the Fera remember the Camazotz, though the Mokolé keep their memory alive through Mnesis. They recall that the Camazotz were Gaia's other messengers, counterparts of the Corax who flew through the night and the southern lands which did not have ravens.

The relationship between Bat and the Camazotz was stronger than that between most Fera and their spirit fathers. Bat loved his children with all his heart, knowing only too well of the burden to remain mistrusted and shunned by his cousins. He lavished gifts and advice upon the Camazotz, even going so far as teaching them a special kind of blood magic after the European Camazotz were exterminated by the Garou during the War of Rage.

When his children were nearly exterminated, Bat's mind cracked and he reemerged with a split personality, one in the service of Gaia and one in the service of the Wyrm. The Gaian personality managed to fight against its Wyrmish counterpart until he saw the War of Tears in a vision that drove him over the edge and fully into the embrace of the Wyrm.

History

Endonymic symbol of the Camazotz

The Camazotz were all but destroyed in the War of Rage, and later exterminated by the Black Spiral Dancers. A small population of Camazotz managed to survive in South America, but they were wiped out in the 1600s by Garou accompanying the Spanish Conquistadors. The Shadow Lords among the invaders were greatly alarmed by the werebats' chiropteran shapes and blood rituals, which reminded them of their ancient enemies, the Tzimisce vampires. Believing them to be servants of the Wyrm, the Shadow Lords systematically wiped them out; the last Camazotz was killed by a Garou named Dark Claw of Vengeance.

The Shadow Lords' crime remains a secret outside the tribe, but it is believed that the spiritual death scream of the last werebat triggered a chain of events in the Umbra that led to the creation of the Storm Eater. After their destruction, the werebat totem, Bat, fell to the Wyrm. In recent years, though, a young Shadow Lord descended from Dark Claw of Vengeance has begun to make amends for the slaughter of the werebats, and have even managed to redeem an aspect of the Bat totem.

A handful of Umbral travelers claim that the Camazotz are not yet dead. Though they have no totem, the last werebats still serve Gaia as spies and messengers throughout the Deep Umbra. They are said to leave messages in dead-drops, and to give information in ways that the recipient never knows who delivered it. Some Nuwisha and Corax — the most experienced Umbral travelers of all the Changing Breeds — have tried to confirm these rumors. All of them have failed.

Though they lived for far longer than many Changing Breeds believe, when their totem fell to the Wyrm, the Camazotz became extinct.

Breeds

The Camazotz reproduced via a ritual not unlike one used by the Corax, but this ritual went defunct when Bat fell to the Wyrm, dooming his children to extinction. To become a werebat, infant humans or bats had to undergo a ritual that could only be held in special Umbral caverns. Because all Camazotz were created via this ritual, werebats had no Auspices and no metis breeds.

Forms

The Camazotz had four forms and one additional that could be accessed via a special gift.

• Homid - A normal human
• Apterous - Near-human, who could not fly, but climb exceptionally well
• Crinos - The war-form of the Camazotz
• Megachiroptera - A giant bat with a wingspan of 5 feet
• Microchiroptera - A swarm form that split the Camazotz into a dozen small bats

The first four forms are available by default to any Camazotz. The Microchiroptera form was only available to those Camazotz who took the Level Three Gift Thousand Wings, or took the Merit of the same name. Camazotz with the Merit do not have the Megachiroptera form. Camazotz who started the game with the Merit who later learn the Thousand Wings Gift gain the Megachiroptera form instead. 

Culture

The Camazotz were a highly social Breed who lived in egalitarian swarms of between a dozen and a hundred members. They often lived in caverns alongside their bat Kinfolk. While inclined to secrecy, they attempted to maintain friendly and open relations with other shapeshifters.

Gifts and Rituals

The Camazotz gifts of speed, stealth, and heightened perception made them excellent spies who would keep what they discovered between their allies and Gaia. One of their strengths, as well as one of the major reasons that the Garou feared them, was that it was exceptionally difficult to know if one of the Camazotz was listening to a conversation.  

• Blood Rituals

Step Sideways

The Camazotz could only step sideways into the Near Umbra if they were in the shadows. A special Level Two Gift they learned could allow them to step sideways anywhere, but they did so as if the Gauntlet was 2 points higher than it would normally be. A powerful Level Five gift could allow them to step sideways into the Deep Umbra, but they can only do this in the shadows.

Relationship with others

The Camazotz became withdrawn from their brethren after the War of Rage, mistrusting any Fera who still consorted with the wolves. Their relation with the Mokolé, however, was congenial.

The Camazotz of the Eastern Hemisphere withdrew from their allies among the Beast Courts not long after the War of Rage. Although they still served the Emerald Mother, the Asian Camazotz became even more insular and secretive. As time went on, the Camazotz began to strain their alliances with other Changing Breeds. In Asia, the Camazotz refused to accept that the Hakken and Stargazers were not complicit in the murder of werebats across Europe and North America.

Driven and obsessed, they shunned the Beast Courts for tolerating the Garous' presence and vanished (when Bat himself became mad after the massacre in South America) to the Australian colonies of their kind. The Mokolé and Bunyip accepted them and tried to ease their pain, but could not help them, as the Camazotz failed to soothe their patron. The last Camazotz colony had vanished into the Umbra by the time the first European Garou set a foot on Australian soil.

Gallery

Typical Fera of the New World around 1500 CE. Camazotz in the middle

Apis, Camazotz, and Grondr

Camazotz in Homid form, dressed in modern clothes

Camazotz forms, with distorted anatomy

Version Differences

First Edition

Werewolf: The Apocalypse Rulebook (1992) mentions werebats existing in the Amazon. However, First Edition never fully details them.

Book of the Wyrm First Edition (1993) has Bat listed as a Black Spiral Dancer Totem, but doesn't mention anything about werebats associated with it.

Second Edition

The Wild West Companion (1998), the Camazotz are first introduced, Old Man Manyskins mentions that his grandfather told him that Coyote made the Camazotz, that the Garou killed most of them in the first War of Rage and that the Spaniards killed the rest. Manyskins states that they never got as far north as Texas. He says that they called themselves the "Messengers of Luna" and that they were supposed to work as Luna's voice here on Gaia.

The Book of the Wyrm Second Edition (1998), lists Bat as a Black Spiral Dancer Totem, but makes no mention of the Camazotz.

The Mokolé Book (1999), states that the Camazotz complemented the Corax, that they were Gaia's second group of messengers that covered the lands that the Corax couldn't reach. However, they were routed by the Garou in the War of Rage and the Black Spiral Dancers later hunted down the survivors wherever they could find them. By the second millennium CE, the only Camazotz to survive were those of Central America, only to fell when the European Shadow Lords arrived with the conquistadors.

Tales from the Trails: Mexico (1999), the Camazotz joined the Uktena, Balam, Mokolé, Ananasi, Corax, and the Nuwisha in a great moot about what to do about the Olmec people. They realized that they allowed the Olmec to grow too strong and to rectify their mistake. They waged war against the city of Teotihuacan and the city fell to their wrath. Many of the people fled into the jungles and Malinche was killed and buried as a reminder that the messengers of the gods should never be disobeyed. The Camazotz had lost many of their numbers when they battled the Olmec. When the Shadow Lords eventually arrived, the native Changing Breeds were busy fighting among themselves. The Shadow Lords attacked the Camazotz. This is also the first book to mention Dark-Claw-of-Vengeance. He found the last of the children of Bat in the ruins of Teotihuacan. The four other Shadow Lords with Dark-Claw-of-Vengeance thought that the Camazotz was a Black Spiral Dancer. The Camazotz claimed to know nothing of their accusations. Enraged by his "lies," they pointed to his ears and wings, exclaiming that these were signs of the Wyrm. He responded that he heeded only the Earth-Mother as his sacred duty. The Shadow Lords performed Inquisitional torture on the Camazotz and when the eventually got him to confess to consorting with the Wyrm, they ended his life by driving a silver blade deep into his heart. His death scream echoed into the Umbra, the land shook, the sky rained blood for three days and nights, and drove the totem Bat to tear apart the great cave it had dwelled in and buried beneath the ruins even to this day. The scream also drove the pack of Shadow Lords to become deafened and that their fur turned white. The Shadow Lords realized their mistake and they all collapsed as one, only to rise again as if a fever had left them and the Second War of Rage ended. It is said that the scream of the last Camazotz has been heard one more time: In Mexico, at least, they claim his scream was heard again at the very moment when the Storm-Eater awoke.

Croatan Song (2000) lists a Croatan Sept known as the Sept of the Bat People in Virginia (See Trivia Below).

Revised Edition

Tribebook: Shadow Lords (2002) states that the Shadow Lords thought that the Camazotz were the Tzimisce, how recently Miguel Gutierrez found an aspect of the Bat Totem that had not fallen to hate and serves the Wyrm, and how the Shadow Lords formed the Children of the Bat camp which can use Camazotz gifts. Past Lives book (2003) gives the Camazotz a short Gift list. A piece of art depicting the Camazotz is in the Players Guide to the Changing Breeds (2003), and there is a mention of the Camazotz in the South America section in Chapter One. Tribebook: Uktena (2003) lists a timeline date of 1521 of when the Shadow Lords slay the last Camazotz.

The Camazotz are mentioned in the Mind Eye's Theatre book, Laws of the Wild: Changing Breeds 2 (2001) in the Mokolé chapter.

20th Anniversary Edition

The Camazotz are fully described in the Changing Breeds book (2013), they are given a History, Traits, Forms, Merit, Gift List and a Fetish (Shadow-Curse Doll). The book changes the date that the Camazotz encountered the conquistadors in the early 17th century. It adds new information of the Asian Camazotz of the Beast Courts and the Australian Camazotz. However, once Bat turned his back to them, they were doomed, as they relied on a rite similar to the Corax's Rite of the Fetish Egg to create more of their Breed. So, the remaining survivors left to the Deep Umbra. The book also has a plothook about the possibility of the Camazotz hiding in the Deep Umbra and how one might be able to bring them back.

Form Statistics

Strength	Dexterity	Stamina	Manipulation	Appearance	Performance
Apterous: -	Apterous: +2	Apterous: -	Apterous: -1	Apterous: -1	Apterous: +2
Crinos: +1	Crinos: +2	Crinos: +1	Crinos: -3	Crinos: 0	Crinos: +3
Megachiroptera: -1	Megachiroptera: +2	Megachiroptera: -	Megachiroptera: 0	Megachiroptera: 0	Megachiroptera: +3

Book of the Wyrm 20th Anniversary (2014) lists Bat as a Totem of the Black Spiral Dancers and mentions the link to the Camazotz, lists the fallen Xibalan, and the failed attempt at recreating the Camazotz by NDL: Temenathus the Great (Fomarch).

The Camazotz are also featured in the non-canonical Shattered Dreams book (2016).

The Apocalyptic Record (2023) has a section in the Theurge Chapter on the Bat Totem, where an aspect of redeemed Bat tries to reason with the aspect of Bat still in the thrall of the Wyrm..

5th Edition

This is just speculation at this point since the Camazotz haven't been introduced yet in 5th Edition or if they ever will be. At best, they might be re-named as Bat-Shifters. It is unknown if they will still remain a Lost Breed, or given 5th Edition's stance on avoiding Lore and Metaplot: An existing Changing Breed. However, since the Black Spiral Dancers' Totem has been changed from Whippoorwill to Bat, there's a chance they might not appear at all.

Trivia

• In the Werewolf: The Apocalypse Rulebook, it is said that a variety of werejaguars, weresnakes, werebats and werealligators live in the shrinking jungles of the Amazon.
• The Camazotz were first introduced in The Wild West Companion in Aug. 1998.
• The Camazotz are named after the Mayan god of the same name. They were probably inspired by the Werebats from Dungeons and Dragons. As the closest creature to shapechanging bats is the Popobawa from Zanzibar or Dracula by Bram Stoker. Another source might be Man-Bat (1970) from the Batman comics.
• In Croatan Song, the Croatan had a sept known as the Sept of the Bat People in the mountains of Virginia. The caern loses its power in the 16th century when the death cry of the last Camazotz echoes through the Umbra. The caern's totem, White Bat, is driven mad and flees the caern. White Bat's shrieking causes the cavern to collapse. Uktena legend says that the caern could be excavated and reclaimed with the help of the proper Earth-spirits, and perhaps White Bat could be sought out and cured.
• In Shattered Dreams, if one can change the outcome of the Camazotz in the War of Shame section, they will be known as the Yè-Shào among the Beast Courts.
• In China, the (Wufu) five bats represent blessings of longevity: long life, good health, comfortable wealth, virtue, and peaceful death. The Taoist deity, Zhong Kui, is associated with the five bats of fortune.

References

• WTWW: The Wild West Companion, p. 22
• WTWW: Tales from the Trails: Mexico, p. 17-18, 24, 26-27
• WTA: Mokolé, p. 27
• WTA/cMET: Laws of the Wild: Changing Breeds 2, p. 117
• WTA: Past Lives, p. 91-93
• WTA: Tribebook: Shadow Lords, p. 24-25, 32-33, 46, 70-71, 96-98
• WTA: Tribebook: Uktena, p. 18, 29
• W20: Changing Breeds, p. 236-241