Grand Klaive

A Grand Klaive is a supreme version of a klaive.

Overview

These mighty blades are rare and powerful fetishes, the klaives of the most legendary heroes. Carrying one of these immense silver swords costs a Garou two points from his effective Gnosis rating. A war-spirit is usually bound into the grand klaive, allowing it to inflict aggravated damage to non-Garou.

Grand klaives are very rare and usually tied to specific Garou lineages, especially among the Silver Fangs, Fianna, and Shadow Lords. Besides the usual war-spirit, a second spirit — such as a fire-spirit that might add extra soak dice against fire when the klaive is activated or an ancestor-spirit that might provide extra dots in an Ability such as Occult or Survival — is usually also bound into the grand klaive. The secondary spirit rarely minds sharing the fetish with another, as grand klaives represent the pinnacle of honor in the eyes of Gaia’s warriors.

Werewolves, especially young ones, who possess a grand klaive attract the attention of the mighty. Elders often question the audacity of a youth who dares to carry such a sacred weapon, while his peers may covet the power and attention.

Trivia

• You might also check: Baneklaive
• First Edition referred to all Klaives as Silver Swords stats-wise until the Werewolf Players Guide (Bastet Klaive) and Umbra: The Velvet Shadow (Klaive of Electricity) in 1993. The term was in the lexicon as early as the very first rulebook (1992), but it wasn't standard until about a year later. Grand Klaives didn't show up until Second Edition and Great Klaives were in the Mind's Eye Theater books up until Revised.

Gallery

Rage card depicting a Grand Klaive

List of Known Grand Klaives

• Burning Fury - Level Five, Gnosis 7 - Lena Bloodclaw Baneslayer's Grand Klaive.
• Donnerkeil - Ingrid Stormwalker's Grand Klaive.
• Thunderous Howl - Nicholas "Samson" Carver's Grand Klaive.
• Kin Foe - Level Five, Gnosis 7 - Viola the Knife's Grand Klaive, formerly belonged to Vlad Volaschky.
• Solemn Lord - Level Five, Gnosis 7 - Jonas Albrecht's Grand Klaive.
• Thundering House-cleaver - Mother Larissa's Grand Klaive that was a "bequest" from a Glass Walker that had fallen from grace before dying during a Black Spiral attack on the Sept of the Green.
• Shadow Lords: Midnight Lightning - Level Five, Gnosis 8 - In the year 1759, a pack of Shadow Lords of great experience, notoriety and might each crafted for himself a klaive of deadly power, whose blade was black as the sky at midnight and whose spirit bore the anger of Grandfather Thunder himself. These five Garou were the terror of the soldiers of the Wyrm in Eastern Europe for exactly a decade until in 1769 the Wyrm marshaled its forces against them. For three days and nights, the battle raged atop a craggy peak in the pouring rain before the pack's alpha fell last beneath the Wyrm's might. As they died, each packmember threw his blade into the storm, and Grandfather Thunder hurled them all to the four winds, to be scattered across the Earth. So strong was this pack's bonds to each other that the klaives formed a part of the pack. Anyone who holds one of these great blades automatically senses the location of the other four blades, who holds them, and the other wielders' general health (either "Fine," "Hurt," or "Near Dead,") and surface emotions. In addition, any group of Garou each armed with Midnight Lightning may employ pack tactics with each other, even if they are not packmates. As with other grand klaives, they strike at difficulty 6 and inflict Strength +2 aggravated damage. Though burnished black, the swords are indeed made of silver. Each is bound with a war-spirit and a Stormcrow. Finally, each Midnight Lightning klaive never does any visible damage. Though they inflict damage as normal (with opponents suffering wound penalties) and blood pours from where the sword hits, those killed by it simply appear to have died from blood loss and shock. Nowhere will their skin be broken.

References

• WTA: Werewolf: The Apocalypse Second Edition, p. 275 (Level 5, Gnosis 7)
• WTA/cMET: The Apocalypse, p. 148 (Grand Klaive and Great Klaive)
• WTA/cMET: Laws of the Wild, p. 222-223 (Grand Klaive and Great Klaive)
• WTA: Werewolf: The Apocalypse Revised Edition, p. 303 (Level 5, Gnosis 7)
• WTA/cMET: Laws of the Wild Revised Edition, p. 255-256 (Level 5, Gnosis 7)
• WTA: Tribebook: Bone Gnawers, p. 99 (Thundering House-cleaver)
• WTA: Tribebook: Silver Fangs, p. 100 (Solemn Lord)
• W20: Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition, p. 226
• W20: The Poison Tree (Donnerkeil)
• WTA: Hammer & Klaive, p. 6-11, 121-122 (Camma's Tearful Eye/The First Klaive), 90 (Midnight Lightning)
• WTWW: Werewolf: The Wild West Rulebook, p. 283 (Level 5, Gnosis 7)
• WTWW/cMET: Laws of the Wyld West, p. 261-262 (Grand Klaive and Great Klaive)
• DAW: Dark Ages: Werewolf Rulebook, p. 222 (Level 5, Gnosis 7)
• W20: Skinner, p. 9 (Thunderous Howl)
• W20: W20 Icons of Rage, p. 9, 11, 53 (Burning Fury, Solemn Lord and Kin Foe)
• Rage CCG: Rage (Grand Klaive, Klaive)
• Rage CCG: Rage Across Las Vegas: Equinox (Klaive of Yuri Tvarivich)