Glade Child

Glade Children are a category of Gaian spirit. They are the spirits of trees and similar plant life.

Overview

Glade Children constitute a broad category of spirits consisting of plant and plant-like spirits, generally corresponding with the physical location of their physical complements. As with animal spirits, most are gafflings, with a few remarkable jagglings among them, depending on their individual spiritual importance. They follow the ways of the seasons, where relevant — deciduous tree-spirits being stark and sleepy during winter, for example, but bright-eyed and vital during summertime.

Glade Children, like many Naturae, are strong indicators of an Umbral location’s health. Ones near Umbral sites of atrocity may be twisted, stunted, and even individually deceptive or cruel. Ones near where Gaian sites are “as they should be” prove more robust and generally indicate a properly functioning environment.

Certain great spirits similar to Glade Children exist beyond the jaggling hierarchy, though none are known to serve in the role of a tribe’s Patron Spirit. Examples include Great Oak, Mother Birch, and Winter Rose, as well as stranger things such as the vast Umbral fungus-spirit collective that claims no distinct name. “Glade Children” is almost certainly a reductionist traditional appellation on the part of the Garou, and one many young werewolves suggest is in need of reconsideration.

Image

Glade children may appear as literal images of their physical counterparts, but they also possess the ability to appear as glowing, robed figures in the Umbra, perhaps to better communicate with others in their presence. In the physical world they possess and manifest through the very place they represent.

Glade Children are acutely aware of their physical surroundings, and they have long memories. They are also hubs of spiritual traffic, and are knowledgeable about the state and disposition of most local spirits. They have the capacity to recall events occurring around their domains as far back as they have existed, and they are able to provide corresponding information on local spirits.

Stats

The majority of Glade Children range in power from moderate gafflings to major jagglings, although some extremely old or powerful ones may be Incarna (these are usually associated with ancient trees and are called Oak Kings).

• 1st Edition:
  • Rage: 3
  • Willpower: 7
  • Gnosis: 8
  • Power: Variable - 20 for a sapling, 80+ for an ancient redwood
  • Charms: Cleanse the Blight (Power Cost 10; cleanses spiritual corruption in the vicinity), Forest Sense (Power Cost 10; can sense all that transpires in its earthy domain), Airt Sense

• 2nd Edition:
  • Willpower: 7
  • Rage: 3
  • Gnosis: 8
  • Power: Variable (20 for a sapling, 80+ for an ancient redwood)
  • Charms: Airt Sense, Cleanse the Blight, Forest Sense
    • The Book of Madness
      • Willpower: 7
      • Rage: 3
      • Gnosis: 8
      • Power: variable (20 for a sapling, 80+ for an ancient redwood)
      • Charms: Cleanse the Blight, Forest Sense

• Revised Edition:
  • Willpower: 7
  • Rage: 3
  • Gnosis: 8
  • Essence: Variable (20 for a sapling, 35 for a mature oak, 50+ for an ancient redwood)
  • Charms: Cleanse the Blight, Realm Sense

• 20th Anniversary Edition:
  • Willpower: 7
  • Rage: 3
  • Gnosis: 8
  • Essence: Variable (20 for a sapling, 35 for a mature oak, 50+ for an ancient redwood)
  • Charms: Cleanse the Blight, Realm Sense

• 5th Edition:
  • Power: 3–6
  • Exceptional Dice Pools: Awareness (Own Domain) +3, Insight (Local Spirits) +3

Note

A Wyrm-corrupted Glade Child is known as a Blight Child.

References

• WTA: Werewolf: The Apocalypse Rulebook, p. 158
• WTA: GURPS Werewolf: The Apocalypse, p. 176
• MTAs: The Book of Madness, p. 131
• WTA: Werewolf: The Apocalypse Second Edition, p. 264-265
• Rage CCG: Wyrm
• WTA: Werewolf: The Apocalypse Revised Edition, p. 298-299
• WTA: Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition, p. 368-369
• W5: 5th Edition Core Book, p. 260