Hauglosk is a state of extreme zealotry that can overtake Garou, an overwhelming sense of urgency to do something, anything immediate about Gaia's crisis. It is counterpart to Harano.
Overview[]
In a desperate fight against an overwhelming enemy, the ends justify the means. Everything is on the table. Victory at any cost. This is hauglosk, the conviction that your absolute moral certainty justifies everything you do.
Hauglosk is a state of extreme righteousness. A Garou in a state of hauglosk believes that the cause is all, that their way is the only way. If more harm than good is caused, well, that’s a cost that must be paid. Note that hauglosk is a long-term, often permanent, state and is thus different from Rage or frenzy (though hauglosk may well result in a destructive rage or catastrophic frenzy…). Werewolves suffering from hauglosk undertake their course without regard for its consequences, so impassioned are they by the need to do something, anything at all.
Although some argue a more esoteric reason for the Cult of Fenris abandoning the cause of the other tribes, it is commonly accepted that the tribe and its culture simply succumbed to hauglosk and set off on its own to satiate its unquenchable need for action and validation of its righteousness.
Social repercussions[]
In practice, hauglosk is dynamic and often harder to detect than harano before things get really serious, because it all sounds like what the Garou want to do anyway… until it’s obvious that the individual doesn’t care who’s harmed in the process. Those who succumb to hauglosk take up a lot of space at moots, argue passionately, and can even seem like ambitious candidates for leadership roles. It’s not unusual for someone who falls to hauglosk to be mistaken for an uncompromising moral voice, at least at first.
The specific manifestations of hauglosk can take many forms. It’s common for those who are afflicted to justify ever greater human casualties, ignore their own mistakes, and argue that everyone with even the mildest and most subjective whiff of corruption deserves to die. They often declare Garou who don’t agree with them to be blood enemies, subject to even greater hatred than what a rampant Apocalypse has wrought upon the world.