El Sacrificio Member
The Lodge of the Sacrifice or El Sacrificio is a Lodge of Mexican Forsaken.
The spirit patron of the Lodge of the Sacrifice is Xiuhtecuhtli.
Overview[]
The story as the Aztecs knew it was this: the world has been created and destroyed four times. In each, the world perishes differently - a flood drowns the people, the mantle of the Earth shudders and spits magma, disease sweeps across the populace or red comets descend from the heavens and burn everything. The end, however, is always the same. The sun burns out, the people die. This is the fifth world, now, and the gods have stayed the hands of destruction, but do so only at a price. That price is human sacrifice.
The werewolves of El Sacrificio don't necessarily believe in the Aztec story, not wholesale. Certainly some do. Others believe it is a metaphor for the collapse of the paradise lorded over by Father Wolf. What these werewolves do know is that the old beliefs of the Aztecs (and the Toltecs and Mayans before them) have given life to very real spirits - or, the spirits gave life to those ancient beliefs. Regardless of the details, this lodge recognizes that the old gods still exist, hidden outside of sight but still communicating with the world in small ways. These old spirits are powerful and hungry. With the flick of an ephemeral wrist, plagues are born, tectonic plates shift and monstrous ocean waves stir and gather.
And so, the werewolves seek to placate these old gods. The Lodge of the Sacrifice offers humans to one particular god, the lord of all the old spirits, a being called Xiuhtecuhtli. This entity is the patrón of light and darkness, with a blood-red face and a yellow wolf painted on his chest. Through his spirit-servants, he demands that this lodge, having existed for centuries, helps continue the contract that humankind had with the spirits. Humans have broken the contract, and this the world should again be destroyed - but the old spirit has given these werewolves the chance to take up the cause.
He promised them some level of reward for honoring him with sacrifice. Xiuhtecuhtli also promised that if they did not honor him accordingly, he would shake the humans from this world like a wolf shaking water from his fur.
Proof of this came in 1985. The werewolves of El Sacrificio - whose ranks had already thinned due to a local upsurge of Pure attacks - decided that they could no longer in good conscience continue the human sacrifices. And so they neglected to do so, and instead chose to enter the Shadow and hunt Xiuhtecuhtli in an effort the destroy him.
They could not find him, and his answer at having been dishonored was swift: an earthquake measuring 8.1 on the Richter scale shook Mexico City. More than 4,000 people died according to official records, though the true numbers were four or five times that. Ten tomes that were left injured, many permanently. The old spirit sent messengers to the werewolves, explaining that the earthquake was only un gesto pequiño, a "little gesture." Worse would come if they did not give him what he wanted.
So, they did. At the end of every 52 days, El Sacrificio offers the old spirit a human sacrifice. The mortal killed matters little to Xiuhtecuhtli, and so the lodge has some leeway in its choice. Lodge members therefore salve their consciences by sacrificing those who, in the Uratha's minds, deserve such a fate: rapists, murderers, kidnappers. The lodge, residing in Mexico City, finds no shortage of such upstanding citizens. The sacrifice itself is different every time, depending upon what the old spirit's-servants demand. Some ask that the head be removed, others ask that a ritual klaive cut under the ribs so that the heart may be removed by hand. The werewolves never eat the sacrifice. The entity has not demanded such a thing in all the centuries the lodge has served him. Yet.
Membership[]
Becoming a member of this lodge is tricky. First, the Lodge of Sacrifice is secret. El Sacrificio does not make its existence known. Yes, some local werewolves whisper of its presence, and its members do little to silence such rumor-mongering. That said, the lodge does not announce its presence or the grim task it provides to the spirits. The werewolves act as part of whatever pack or brood (or even another lodge) without ever giving a hint as to the lodge's purpose.
Second problem is, who wants to actually belong to a lodge that essentially acts in servitude to a cruel and fickle old god? The lodge that essentially acts in servitude to a cruel and fickle old god? The lodge members recognize the necessity of what they do, but members certainly have a hard time convincing neophytes of their obligation's value.
These problems are in part solved by the Xiuhtecuhtli himself. The old spirit - through his mouthpiece Jagglings and Gafflings - tells the lodge when it needs to bring aboard a new member. Sometimes, he asks that a dead member be replaced swiftly, other times he may ask that two more werewolves be brought into its ranks, whether or not any wolves have been lost. It is yet another part of the spirit's unpredictability. Even in this, he holds his dominion over the werewolves' heads: they have tried to shirk even his smallest demands, and he repays them by taking away what few benefits membership allows.
Once the spirit's "request" for a new member is heard, the lodge may recruit new members however it chooses. The process is usually one of watching potential candidates from afar or a period of time that ranges from one month to an entire year (Xiuhtecuhtli is patient in this regard, though he sends spirits to occasionally urge the lodge members forward in their choice.) Once they have officially made a decision, they approach the target and give him the story and the circumstance. They hope he joins. If he doesn't, then they ask that he tell no one of their approach. If they discover that word has leaked of their presence and offer, then that werewolf will pay dearly for such a contravention of favor. (and if he refuses to comply with them in the first place... well, woe to the werewolf who openly denies El Sacrificio. He may end up as the next sacrifice.)
Game Mechanics[]
The following are an overview of the game mechanics.
Prerequisites[]
This lodge is open to werewolves of any tribe. They must, however, be of native descent. Also required are Honor ••• and Stealth ••.
Benefits[]
Xiuhtecuhtli protects his children. They honor him, and so he honors them. Those who seek to do his children harm meet with ill fortune and luck for days afterward. (Any individual who causes a werewolf of this lodge physical harm suffers a -1 dice pool on all rolls for the three days after causing the wound.) The werewolves may also learn Stealth Gifts as though they were Tribal Gifts.
Fetish: Cuchillo de Hueso (•••)[]
Some of the werewolves in El Sacrificio make klaives from the bones of their victims. These klaives are small, like paring knives, and often feature blades of obsidian, flint or stone bound to a human bone with dried tendon. When using this blade against another living being, the activation of the fetish causes the victim to suffer terrible numbness all over his body (provided that the werewolf causes at least one lethal point of damage with the knife at the time of activation). This numbness results in the victim losing half of his Speed and half of his Defense (round up) in addition to any damage caused. The werewolves use these knives to help slow and subdue potential victims of the sacrifice. The klaive inflicts damage as a normal knife (see p. 167 of the World of Darkness Rulebook). Such klaives are empowered by any venom-bearing spirit (snake, spider, bee, etc.)
Action: Reflexive
References[]
- CofD: Shadows of Mexico, p. 105-107
