Lodge of Hallowed Halls Member
The Lodge of Hallowed Halls is a Lodge of the Bone Shadows. The lodge consists of those in academia and it's goal is the reclamation of knowledge from the libraries and warehouses of humanity. Some Iron Masters have joined the lodge, as well.
The Lodge of Hallowed Halls has no spirit patron.
Overview[]
The Lodge of the Hallowed Halls has a venerable history stretching back to the 12th century. A young man enrolled at Oxford University underwent the First Change, and when a pack of Bone Shadows arrived to collect him, he refused to go with them, saying that he wanted to stay and finish his education. Lodge lore has it that the spirit of Oxford itself intervened on his behalf, promising to watch over him until he had completed his time at the school, but in modern times this is considered apocryphal at best (for what it's worth, attempts to ask the spirit of Oxford for the truth have led nowhere; the spirit doesn't seem to know the truth of the matter). Another story has it that Thomas fled into the school grounds and the Bone Shadows, upon following him, became fascinated with the collection of knowledge present there.
Whatever the case, the lodge has spread across the world over the centuries, and one might find a member in any university or place of learning, including teaching hospitals and museums. The members of the lodge call themselves Inimzu-Ur, from a First Tongue phrase meaning "wolves who speak with words," and they pride themselves on being capable Uratha and learned individuals.
The main goal of the lodge is not just the acquisition of knowledge but the reclamation of knowledge from libraries and warehouses of humanity. It amazes the Inimzu-Ur how many fetishes, descriptions of rites, warnings about dangerous spirits, maps to loci and other artifacts from the culture of the People wind up in museums and private collections.
The Lodge doesn't have a totem, but the members usually become acquainted with the spirits of their places of employment. Such spirits are usually human-like in appearance, though spirits of universities sometimes take on the forms of the school's mascot (during homecoming week particularly). These spirits can sometimes lend a hand to a werewolf seeking to balance his pack duties with his employment.
Membership[]
Though the lodge is most commonly associated with the Bone Shadows, other tribes are not excluded from membership. The only other tribe that petitions for membership with any regularity, however, is the Farsil Luhal.
A werewolf who wishes to join the Lodge of the Hallowed Halls must contact an existing member and ask to be admitted. The members of the lodge are usually pressed for time, and so the test to join isn't a complicated affair. The rest has three parts - Body, Mind and Soul. The body portion of the test is, as the name suggests, physical in nature and involves a race, a fight, a test of endurance or pain tolerance or some other measure that allows the werewolf to demonstrate his abilities in this arena. The Body portion of the test is frequently tailored to the prospect's abilities. In many cases, the prospect is given some say in the particulars of this test, or allowed to have the test "waived" if he has performed some great feat of physical prowess in the past (and can produce witnesses to that effect).
The Soul portion requires the werewolf to enter the Shadow and interact with a spirit (other than his pack totem); the lodge uses this as a gauge of the prospect's commitment to the tribal vow of the Bone Shadows, as well as his general ability to deal with the Hisil.
The Mind section is probably the most important to the lodge. Only academics with some credentials or some good research behind them are admitted. The werewolf presents a curriculum vitae (essentially a resume of his published works) and a dissertation, the subject matter of which must be of interest to the prospect's chosen field and to the People. If the research is sound and the subject matter contributes something to the lodge, the werewolf receives word that he has been accepted. If not, he is rejected, but may re-apply after six months.
Members keep in close contact through written correspondence (email, of course, is the commonly used method nowadays). Since travel to conferences is common for academics, members are expected to help their fellow members find lodging and safety in strange areas, should the need arise. This includes getting access to loci, avoiding the Pure and other dangers and navigating the local Shadow, should it become an issue. Likewise, a visiting Iminzu-Ur is expected to contribute anything he can to whatever problems a local member's pack might be facing problems a local member's pack might be facing.
Game Mechanics[]
The following are an overview of the game mechanics.
Prerequisites[]
Academics ••, Wisdom ••, Cunning •, Subterfuge • and the Merit: First Tongue.
Benefits[]
Members of the lodge benefit from their association. Academics have access to slush funds, scholarships that no one ever touches and material resources that can be converted to cash. In game terms, a member can draw on monies equal to Resources 2 for a few weeks (but is expected to pay into these accounts when he has his own income again). Also, members of the lodge receive the Merit: Contacts (Lodge of the Hallowed Halls), which gives them access to information on almost every scholarly field imaginable. This might be worth a bonus of one to three dice on an Academics, Medicine, Science or a fellow lodge member. Finally, the lodge members learn to deal with bureaucracies in such a way as to avoid notice. The Subterfuge, Socialize and Persuasion Skills can be purchased at a lower rate (new dots x2 rather than new dots x3).
References[]
- WTF: Tribes of the Moon, p. 66-68
