Hawaii is an archipelago and one of the 50 United States of America. The largest island of the state is called Hawai'i. The other seven main islands are Ni'ihau, Kaua'i, O'ahu, Moloka'i, Lana'i, Kaho'olawe, and Maui.
Hawai'i: Land of paradise and magic. Of cool, tropical nights on the beach and hula music. Nexus of the Big Wave for surfers or the prize marlin catch for fishermen. A place where one can kick back and forget about the hectic schedule of modern life. At least, that is what the tourist brochures say.
Hawai'i, the last state to enter the union of the United States of America, has long served as a destination point for vacationing Americans and many others besides. The state consists of a string of islands in the South Pacific, both large and populated to small, unlivable atolls in it's northwest chain. Popularized by some television shows, the island's crowded beaches and lush interior stir the imaginations of many people.
While the islands are a place of rest, relaxation, and fun for many, the islands themselves are not at rest. At least one, the Big Island of Hawai'i, is still in the process of creation. Active volcanoes... Mauna Loa and Kilauea... still spew forth the raw makings of the earth: molten lava. This reminder of untamed, primal nature often teaches harsh lessons to the islanders, who are lost in their visions of a man-made paradise, as many housing developments have been swallowed by recent eruptions.
The real image of the islands can only be glimpsed by looking past the tourist gloss. Hawai'i is a place of contrasts: of violent, quaking earth and quiet, lush solitude. Of wealthy foreigners and poor natives. Of intensely congested streets and uninhabited (at least by humans) rainforests. Yet these contrasts do not seem to lead to tension, although conflicts can break out between haoles (foreigners) and natives or over city needs and wilderness rights. The islands do seem to calm the nerves of everyone living on them. At least until Pele, the volcano goddess, leaps from the earth again.
Basics[]
The Islands[]
Following Pele’s legendary footsteps (from northwest to southeast), the islands are
Ni'ihau: Sparsely inhabited; the residents of this privately-owned island are mostly native Hawai’ians pursuing traditional lifestyles and crafts.
Kaua'i: An island of lush beauty, marked by long-extinct volcano mountains. Recognizable as the quintessential tropics thanks to many Hollywood films that have used its jungles as backdrop.
O'ahu: The most densely populated island, home to the capital of Honolulu and many famous attractions: Waikiki Beach, Pearl Harbor, and north-shore surfing.
Moloka'i: Largely undeveloped as yet; this island’s population is 50% native. It sees perhaps the least tourism of Hawai’i’s main islands, and residents seem to prefer this. Long ago, Moloka’i was a magical island, home to many kahunas (priests). The sacred hula dance was born here.
Lana'i: A small, rugged island that has only recently attracted tourism. It was once home to huge pineapple fields from the Dole corporation. Long ago, the island was avoided by islanders because evil spirits were said to dwell here. But a boy who was exiled to the island defeated them and opened the island for habitation.
Maui: Named for the legendary trickster and fire-bringer of Hawai’ian mythology, this island sees much tourism. Famous for its Haleakala Crater National Park (the largest dormant volcano in the world), Maui also has a rainforest and many preserves, safe from the coast’s rapid development.
Kaho'olawe: Uninhabited.
Hawai'i: The Big Island. Here is Kilauea, home of Pele, the volcano goddess. This volcano erupts often, although not violently (compared to continental volcanoes). The city of Hilo is on the east coast, and a major tourist spot stretched across the western Kona Coast.
Atolls[]
For the most part, the string of atolls stretching for hundreds of miles through the Pacific Ocean are barren of animal life, except for the occasional seabird seeking a temporary roost. None of the atolls are inhabited by humans. These tiny islands are the merest tips of larger rock formations rising from the sea bed. Once active volcanoes, now extinct for centuries, erosion has taken the bulk of their masses back into the sea, leaving the barest tips exposed to the winds.
However, not all local changelings partake of Waikiki's courtly intrigues. Near the city of Hilo, on Hawai'i, Unseelie fae gather, seeking freedom from responsibility and escape from retribution for their breaking of Seelie laws. They are a rebellious and wild bunch, untamed in the lands they came from, and untamed in their new home on Hawai'i.
But the oldest residents of the islands have even less to do with Queen Aeron's courts. The Menehune, the native fae, live in seclusion, far from the banal bluster of the big cities and development of the forests. They draw Glamour from the land itself, from the remnant of dreams of an earlier age and from the dreams of traditional natives who still remember the old ways. On Kaua'i, at the foot of the extinct volcano, Wai'ale'ale, the Menehune built their greatest village to resist the tides of Banality. Moe'uhane, the village of the Dream, is now the home of the largest group of remaining Menehune. While other Menehune visit the other islands, hiding from foreign changelings and natives alike, only on Kaua'i is there still a strong remnant of the past. Nonetheless, Menehune can be found at play among the native crafters of Ni'ihau or wandering the lava flats and forests of the Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island.
Glamour for the Taking[]
The many visitors to the islands have attracted Kithain eager for the Glamour so readily available from the visitors’ wonder and the beauty of the islands. The Seelie-run court of the governor in Waikiki makes sure that the largest destination points for tourists are carefully policed (or at least try to), so that the tourist might relive their vivid vacation the following year.
The Unseelie, though, gathering near Hilo on the Big Island feel differently about their visitors. They feel that, if the mortals are foolish enough to bring their Glamour within reach, it is for the taking. Ravaging is common among them, although their low numbers rarely cause even a ripple in the tourism trade. Who cares if someone leaves with a bad experience? There are always more coming every day.
The menehune never engage in Ravaging, and since they rarely come even close to the tourist centers, they rarely encounter tourists.
Petroglyphs & Menehune Magic[]
The menehune still paint petroglyphs in places of power. Caves and the like are magical sites of fertility, the channels of life itself from its birthplace in the earth to its living place on the surface of the earth. The menehune sneak about at night, repainting many of these glyphs with chimeric paint, reinforcing their magic for them, but rendering it invisible to banal humans. Painting these petroglyphs sometimes acts as a bunk for menehune cantrips.
Other petroglyphs throughout the island mark other sacred sites of hunting or celebration. European fae can see these chimeric marks but will not know what they mean.
He’iau Construction[]
The menehune are claimed to have built many of ancient Hawai’i’s sacred sites, such as the Ili’ili’opae He’iau. Like boggans and nockers, the native fae are good at building things. And they are fast. When many of them get together, amazing things can be built in one evening. However, the traditional taboo against watching them work still applies: the risk of bringing Banality to their task is too great for them. If this happens, they will quit their work and never come back to the site.
The menehune still occasionally build things for traditional natives. However, if these natives speak of the work to non-natives, the menehune will leave that person and never build them anything again. They must be resolute about keeping their existence secret from the haoles (foreigners).
Chimerical Kaua'i[]
Menehune still come to fish from the sacred Menehune Fish Pond, although these days they come in the guise of human fisherman, since they are now changelings and wear mortal flesh just as their European cousins. It is said that fish caught from this pond are especially pure and good for ceremonial lu’aus.
Some menehune crafters work at the sugar mill and in the fields. They love he sweet sugar and the agrarian lifestyle, fearing for the future of this last bastion of the past as more and more tourists come every year.
The Spouting Hole is said to hold a trapped mo'o, or lizard spirit, who was caught in its strong current on his way back from Ni'ihau while mourning his lost sister. The moaning from the hole is said to be his cries of anguish.
The O’ahu court holds to traditional western fae customs of hospitality. As long as you’re not an oathbreaker, you will be welcome as a guest.
The Unseelie of Hilo are less friendly; their hospitality depends on what you can give them in return and is entirely up to the individual changeling. If your usefulness (in whatever form: stories, entertainment, knowledge) runs out, you will probably have to find lodging elsewhere.
The menehune respect the old Hawai’ian traditions of hospitality among themselves: all menehune are welcomed with open arms, with aloha (love). However, they keep their distance from the foreign changelings, fearing their Banality. Acceptance of these foreigners is on a case-by-case basis only; character and virtuous behavior says more to the menehune than empty words.
Chimerical Hilo[]
Unseelie gather in Hilo but they don’t really congregate in a single group. There is no organization of Unseelie; it is simply a place many of them have come. If one holds a party, most may come, although some won’t, depending who the host is.
The sidhe prince, Yrtalien, created a freehold here when he arrived on the island. Here, he begins his proto-organization of Unseelie, united against their Seelie oppressors. The freehold appears to be a two-story wood frame house of the kind once inhabited by missionaries. It sits on a slope near a private beach, close to Ale’ale’a Point to the west of Hilo, near Highway 19 and Kaiwiki Road.
To changelings, the freehold is no mere hut; it is a magnificent, many-roomed palace, complete with garden. Its opulence has never been seen before on Hawai’i, especially so by most of the Unseelie residents. Tapestries hang from the walls, depicting all manner of things, from eye-widening scenes of satyrs at play to the more sober and noble deeds of kings. The servants, mostly enchanted local mortals, are dressed in shining raiment and serve delicacies from silver platters.
During parties and feasts, the garden is filled with chimeric beasts created by the prince for the amusement of his guests. These creatures roam freely, hiding among the ferns and flowers, and may randomly attack visiting knights. They are all beasts from Western myths, since Yrtalien and his aide, Glynnis, are not aware of any native myths to draw shapes from.
The largest room doubles as a dance and feasting hall, where the prince loads his tables to overflowing with pineapples, coconut meat, pork, mahi-mahi, papaya, and more.
The upper level includes many guest rooms, each made to make visitors feel like royalty, regardless of whether they are or not. There are enough rooms in the palace to keep some guests hidden from others, unaware of each other’s presence until Yrtalien wishes to introduce them to one another. Thus, the palace is perfectly built for political machinations and spying.
Dreaming Kailua-Kona[]
This part of the Kona Coast is the most Banal point of the Big Island, shunned by the menehune, but embraced by Hilo’s Unseelie for the free Ravaging that can be had from the tourists.
Mood and Atmosphere[]
Hawai’i is an exciting place for changeling. The constant flow of people allows them continuous access to Glamour from all walks of life and attitudes. This would normally be a dangerous proposition, risking the cold touch of Banality, but people come to the islands expecting magic. They throw off their worldly cares… they’re here to have fun. Even the stiffest and most banal humans loosen their collars when they hit the islands.
This does not mean that Banality is not present; it is. There is no escape from it even on these remote, happy islands. Banality is here in the form of greedy developers, cynical boat captains, resentful natives, and many other forms besides. For instance, in the eyes of many scientists come to study the volcanoes, these ancient marvels are not magical sites of world creation but are instead instances of abnormal geology, rated for their mineral content or by their statistical chances to erupt. Pele-respecting menehune stay well away from these icy humans.
But the islands are more alive than dead. From the wild nights in Honolulu to the beautiful landscapes of Kaua’i, Hawai’i’s magic glows bright by both day and night.
The First Dreamers of the Isle[]
Before humans came to the islands, other dreamers lived there. Legends are unclear, for this period of pre-human residence is not spoken of much in Hawai’ian myth. It is believed that spirits lived on the islands, but that they had gone by the time humans arrived.
Tales are told of the lost continent of Mu, a fabled Pacific land that, like its Atlantic counterpart, Atlantis, sank beneath the waves long before recorded history began. Who were the people of Mu? Were they human or spirit? No one can say.
But the menehune have their own tales of these people, as unclear as they are. The menehune of today arrived with the human settlers, but claim that there were other creatures of dream already here. These beings, “little people,” quickly disappeared and rarely showed themselves to the new children of human dreams. They are now believed to be entirely gone.
Did their dreams run out? Perhaps they could only live so long on the remnant memories of those who dreamed them into existence. For when the dreamer dies (or awakens), their dreams must slowly fade into the Mists.
So, the original inhabitants of the islands, whether spirits or citizens of Mu, disappeared without a trace (if they ever did, indeed, exist). The children of their dreams stayed on the islands for a while longer, but eventually faded away themselves, leaving hints and traces, and their names, to the new fae.
The menehune of today claim their heritage from the Hawai'ians, but they recognize and hold holy some secrets left from those who came before them, from a much older, more primal dream.
Banality Arrives[]
From the first iron nail traded to a Hawai’ian on Kaua’i, the menehune felt the wave of a coming storm. Banality had arrived with the new visitors. The first visitors stayed a short time, and the danger left with them, except for their cold iron artifacts. Many menehune knew that their time had come and tried to return from whence they came, to the Dreaming, but the gates were closed to them. Arcadia was no longer theirs.
Earlier, the selkies had come, bearing a great artifact to be kept by the ali’i, the Shadowstone, and they had warned that the gates to the Dreaming were closed, but many did not believe them. There was no evidence of it around them. Who needed to return to Arcadia when the dreams here were full of life and love? But after Cook arrived, the menehune found out too late that they were trapped in a world growing colder around them.
The visitors soon returned and this time stayed longer. They traded more of their cold metal and spread disease among the humans. When Cook was killed, part of the islands’ magic died with him. The death of a god is a terrible thing, even if it was but a physical manifestation of the god. But Cook was not Lono, and the realization of this by some Hawai’ians was painful to the menehune, who relied on their mana, their belief in a magical world.
Hiding in Bodies of Flesh[]
When Liholiho broke the kapu against eating with women, a great wave of Banality spread across the islands. The menehune had become so confident in the natives’ belief that they had been lax in letting this breaking of kapu go unpunished. This was their undoing. The natives no longer believed, and the menehune were defenseless, caught completely unprepared. As each sacred idol was destroyed, thrown off a cliff, or burnt, a menehune died, unable to suffer the pain of cold disbelief.
Into this void came the black-garbed men from other lands to deliver the final blow against magic and traditional belief. As they convinced the native humans that their gods were dead, or worse, of the Devil, Glamour slowly disappeared. When the menehune showed themselves to their friends… the fishermen, the crafters… they were greeted with fear instead of love. The people had been made to believe that the menehune were little devils out to steal the Hawai’ian’s souls.
In the face of this disaster, the chiefs called the menehune to retreat to the less populated islands to be as far as possible from the terrible vid of meaninglessness. Huddled in the village of dreams on Kaua’i, the menehune prepared to die. Unable to enter Arcadia for protection, they had nowhere to run.
But help came from an unexpected source; a changeling named Jack Doggins who taught them the Changeling Way.
The menehune also called upon the spirits of the island for aid. While their magic did not deal directly with these remnants of older dreams, they still conversed with them occasionally. Now, though, the desperate menehune called to them for mutual protection. The spirits of plants and stones answered the call, aware that many of them were unwillingly entering slumber as the wall between the spirit world and the material world grew stronger with the Europeans’ arrival. They taught the menehune the way of the Pact, by which a being could wed its soul to a spirit to claim that spirit as its totem. This was the pact the werewolves had long practiced, and now the menehune found it necessary for their own survival. The totem spirits offered the menehune their connection with the spirit world, while the menehune swore to uphold the laws of the totems.
The native mages of Hawaii, the Kopa Loei, once made up the largest and most organized faction in Polynesia. Their numbers included both Kahuna and Ali'i chieftains, as well as commoners skilled in navigation and travel magics. Their ties to the gods and sacred mana of their homeland was legendary, and some are said to maintain ties with the Rokea or Menehune. While they have fought for native sovereignty, by the late 20th century many Kopa Loei realized that the only way to preserve their magic was to join the shamans of the DreamspeakersTradition.
The capital of Hawaii, Honolulu, has a population of half a dozen vampires led by PrinceSanderburg, an expatriate Brujah of San Francisco. This Kindred subsist well enough on tourists and the occasional local, but careful not to risk the tourist industry.
The Cainites of Honolulu are not strong enough to prevent the Kuei-jin presence in the islands, even if they wanted to. So far, the Cathayans influence on Hawaii has been fairly benevolent. The Genji have sent several representatives to the islands, to oversee their financial interests. The Genji await as Japanese mortals to invest in Hawaiian property before extending their own reach.
The Rokea, also known as weresharks, claim the waters of the South Pacific as their domain. They do not like anyone who does not recognize this, regardless of the fact that few people even know they exist. Most of their assaults are written off as shark attacks.
While many places near Hawai'i are important to them, their most sacred spots are at the bottom of the ocean southwest of the island, far from any land or interlopers.
Although they are considered to be some of the more brutal shapeshifters, they aren't stupid. They are concerned about the near-loss of one of their favorite snacks, the monk seal, and are glad of its return. They only hunt the seal rarely, wanting to wait until its numbers are sufficient for regular hunting again. They will intervene in any human attempt to kill what they consider to be exclusively theirs.
The recent nuclear tests set off by France near Tahiti agitated them all, and they are ready to rage against anything that pisses them off. Swimmers beware.
The waters off some of the atolls are used by Rokea weresharks as breeding grounds (they breed with sharks). During breeding times, they are intensely protective of their territory and will take down any ship that comes near. These times vary with ocean currents, and it is hard to predict them.
Unknown to anyone but the Rokea, some of the seamounts (undersea atolls) surrounding the isles are magical. One of them, Loihi seamount, is actually a site of magical power. The Rokea resent the recent scientific curiosity concerning Loihi, which has been discovered to be a growing volcano. Loihi has erupted before, spreading lava across the ocean bottom. The Rokea have begun a campaign to discourage undersea exploration around Loihi, vowing to destroy undersea cameras and even divers who come too close.
Kitsune[]
Among the recent Japanese émigrés to the islands are four Kitsune werefoxes. They have settled onto O'ahu where they, in the guises of Japanese business men, have bought some tracts of land. They shift into their fox forms at night to hunt nene (Hawai'ian geese) and otherwise frolic in the tropics. They are fleeing from something in Japan but will not say what. They are secretive and occult creatures, fascinated with Hawai'ian lore and desperate to meet the legendary menehune "elves."
Uktena[]
The Garou came in very small numbers to Hawai'i long ago. Just which tribe they were and how they arrived is unknown, but they planted their seed among the natives and it has sprouted every few decades, creating some home-grown legends of dog men.
When Europeans were colonizing Hawai'i, the Native American Uktena tribe became concerned. They had already dispersed members across the world to interbreed with indigenous people, to raise allies and numbers in the native places of the world. In the mid-1800s, some came to Hawai'i.
Today, there are a few, perhaps six or seven, Uktena Garou living among the islands. Most are native Hawaiians, born from the Garou blood introduced in the 1800s, although one claims to come from older blood. This one, named Auwe (which means "alas"), is strange even for Uktena. He resides on Moloka'i and is obsessed with legends and lore concerning Mu or the earliest residents of the island, the mysterious and elusive menehune.
The other garou live in various places and are all involved in the Pele Defense Fund, a native activist group trying to save natural sites. They suspect the menehune still exist, but the spirits are vague when answering their questions, for the spirits are also allies of the menehune and wish to protect them from all non-menehune.
