Dissonant Gestalt

Dissonant Gestalts are Banes of indoctrination and herd mentalities.

Overview

Dissonant Gestalts are Banes of indoctrination and pluralistic ignorance. They spawn when people in an organization turn a blind eye to its ills, when ideals and accountability fail in the face of a naked pursuit of power. They are community turned rancid, the urge to conform that lets citizens ignore atrocity, soldiers perform genocides, and cults commit mass suicide.

For the usually straightforward Garou who manage such matters, the difficult part of dealing with a Dissonant Gestalt is expelling the Bane while minimizing the suffering of those who were taken in by the malicious happenings that spawned it.

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In the physical world, a Dissonant Gestalt may possess an individual made arrogant by employees or supporters looking up to them and refusing to hold them accountable for misdeeds. They possess managers, priests, minor celebrities, extremist group leaders, and anyone else with a following who can propagate aberrant behavior where it’s wrongly believed to be supported or accepted.

In the Umbra, Dissonant Gestalts take the form of great fungoid masses that slowly pull themselves forward on writhing tendrils. They may briefly puppeteer others, turning them into extensions of the atrocities it cannot implement without them. But without such guardians, the Dissonant Gestalt is more vulnerable than its bulk would suggest. A Dissonant Gestalt can take control of an opponent, their tendrils piercing the victim and turning them into the spirit’s puppet. A puppeteered victim acts on the Gestalt’s behalf but does not retain the wherewithal use any form of supernatural ability of their own, such as Gifts or shapeshifting. A Dissonant Gestalt can puppeteer up to its Power in victims at any one time. Severing the tentacles allows the puppeteered victim to act normally. Once freed, a victim cannot be puppeteered again in the same scene.

Stats

Fifth edition

• Power: 4–8
• Exceptional Dice Pools: Brawl (Puppeteer) +2, Intimidate +4

References

• WTA: Werewolf: The Apocalypse 5th Edition, p. 246