
Jake Westridge, Hunter in Darkness Irraka member of the Lodge of the Lost
The Lodge of the Lost, formerly the Lodge of the Lost Cause, is a lodge of werewolves who sacrificed their futures to defeat a powerful spirit known as the Great Darkness.
Overview[]
The Lost Cause was founded in the early 20th century, as the horrors of World War I and various nationalist movements tore the world apart. Corraggio Evangelista, a Spanish Uratha, journeyed deep into the Hisil in search of a glorious death, but instead found the Sphinx, a spirit that promised him he could serve the greater good, "but you will have no future." Instead, he and the lodge-mates he recruited would die battling a creature called the Great Darkness. The one thing the Sphinx couldn't guarantee was that the lodge would win.[1]
The Lost Cause faced lesser manifestations of the Great Darkness in the United States in 1945 and in Siberia in 1962, and defeated them, though with heavy casualties. These successes eventually attracted a different sort of member to the lodge -- rather than joining because they wanted to die, this new generation wanted to win, and were willing to die if necessary to do it. In 1998, they finally faced the Great Darkness itself in Baluchistan, and overcame it, though only 13 members of the lodge survived. Yet these survivors shared a curious fate: any and all attempts to divine their futures failed completely. It was as if they had none.[2]
Renamed themselves the Lodge of the Lost, these Uratha tried to find a new purpose now that, as far as anyone can tell, the Great Darkness was permanently defeated. They eventually realized that new members recruited to the lodge also acquired their future-less state. This makes the Lodge of the Lost an attractive option for werewolves fleeing a dark fate or ominous portents. Others join the Lost in order to exploit their invisibility to divination, becoming hunters and assassins that absolutely no one can see coming.[3]
Sphinx remains the totem of the Lodge, although it does not directly acknowledge its members; answers and instructions are couched in hypotheticals, such as "Were one of my lodge to do this thing, I would reward them thusly." New members are initiated in a ritual that involves describing how they wish to die, while the ritemaster daubs them in the blood of a prey animal. While in theory the lodge is open to anyone, in practice only the Blood Talons and the Hunters in Darkness usually had the kind of suicidal fervor required, though this is changing now that the Great Darkness is defeated.[4]
Game Mechanics[]
Prerequisites[]
None
Benefits[]
All means of scrying, prophesying, divining or otherwise fortelling the future of a Lodge member fail. They do not provide any information, accurate or inaccurate -- it is simply as if they don't exist. Members likewise cannot use any such powers or participate in rites that depend on them. Divination that targets others never features any of the Lost; they are edited out of any such scryings. This effect is permanent, even if an individual later leaves or is expelled from the lodge.[5]
Rites[]
Rite of the Essence Fence (••••): This rite was originally devised to prevent the Great Darkness from tainting other spirits with its own corruptive Essence. Within an area defined by the rite, Essence cannot be transferred, taken or given by any means. Spirits (and Uratha) can still consume Essence to fuel their powers, but cannot absorb it from other sources. While the rite's duration can vary, in practice it is rarely used for more than a few days at a time, due to the damage it inflicts on the Hisil.[6]
References[]
- ↑ WTF: Lodges: The Splintered, p. 90
- ↑ WTF: Lodges: The Splintered, p. 91-92
- ↑ WTF: Lodges: The Splintered, p. 92
- ↑ WTF: Lodges: The Splintered, p. 92-93
- ↑ WTF: Lodges: The Splintered, p. 93
- ↑ WTF: Lodges: The Splintered, p. 93-94