The Sept of the Bright Promise was a Dark Ages caern. Its members included Aldo di Venezia, its leader, and Isabeau du Laurent, Steps-in-Shadow, Simon Ben-Levi, and Rising-River.[1] The Sept was ousted by Old Faith Mages (Adler Fleisch, Amena el-Abiad and Burrhus Malavazos) following the demon, Lamashtu, Knights and the scheming of one Garou: Gerlach Black-Paw (Who demanded for the severed head of Thirteen-Stars-Falling). Aldo managed to escape and seeks to reclaim the caern with any other survivors.[2]
Overview[]
Located in Acre, in the Crusader States, the Sept of the Bright Promise houses a rare urban caern controlled by the Children of Gaia and the Warders. It is, as befits its status as a rare joint venture between tribes, a Caern of Wisdom, specifically Craftsmanship. The Garou of the sept are known for their just and charitable natures (as might be expected for them to dwell so close to the heart of the Weaver), and a goodly number of them subscribe to the tenets of Islam, even if such structures no longer hold religious meaning for them, resulting in perhaps more humble and tempered natures than one usually expects from Gaia's warriors.
Approximately forty thousands normal humans go about their daily business in the city of Acre (known to the Crusaders as Saint Jean d'Acre and Akko to the natives), most populous city in the Crusader states, blissfully unaware of the wolves in their midst. Most of the humans in the quarter housing the caern are merchants and craftsmen, lending an air of reason and progress to this cosmopolitan locale. Indeed, the Warders carefully cultivate the skills of the most cunning and ingenious of the crafters who live and work here, hoping to aid them in realizing and, ultimately, advancing their true potential. Bonds of goodwill and mutual respect keep the moon bridges between the Bright Promise and a handful of caerns on the Mediterranean available for transit, a genuine rara avis in this often insular and isolationist age. The caern itself is in a large building just next to the open-air market, a building that once served as a mercantile emporium. The Warders and the Children of Gaia discovered the site at almost the same time and, rather than fighting for control of the sanctified land, decided to work jointly to preserve and protect this place, fed by the innovations of clever human minds and the far-seeing attitudes of the Garou who first found it. The physical structure is nondescript and continues to function, ostensibly, as the headquarters for a trading house, though few patrons are invited in nowadays. Instead, generous grants of funding from the wealthy Aldo di Venezia have resulted in a smaller and more opulent structure (a few blocks away) in which to entertain human guests.
A small number of Kinfolk, shared between the two tribes who dominate the caern, live among the laborers of this quarter. They find that the Garou intrude only rarely in their lives and are this content to give what infrequent aid is asked of them. No few are already mated to some of the caern elders, and some are even currently rearing the next generation of werewolves (alongside their children by their spouses, in the non-uncommon case that a given Kinfolk is not wedded to the werewolf in question). If any good for the Garou here can be found in the horror of the ongoing Crusades, it is that many orphans need to be taken in, and another child who looks like neither supposed parent is none too rare, quite a blessing in a place with such struct laws regarding fidelity.
The Garou[]
While the sept is nominally under the leadership of Mohammed ibn-Walid (otherwise known as Thirteen-Stars-Falling, Philodox of the Children of Gaia), the ambitious young Garou of Aldo di Venezia's pack are slowly, insidiously some might say, asserting control over the sept. Their clever schemes, considerable wealth and silver tongues have carried them far in the quest to become the true rulers of the sept, and within a few years (less, if they become more overt in their actions) they may well end up wresting control of the caern from the traditional elements and turning it to the purposes of the progressives.
Aldo ("Golden-Fangs-of-Dawn") is the son of a prosperous Venetian merchant and is in line to inherit his father's considerable holdings and his trading company when the old mean dies (as is likely within the next five years). The young Garou left the city of his ancestors after difficulties surrounding his First Change. He is the backbone of the pack's monetary wealth and is also its most cunning thinker.
Isabeau du Laurent ("Unbreaking-Stone") came to the Crusader States after her husband (a Kinfolk knight named Louis) was given a small land grant to manage here. As well as being pretty, quiet, unassuming and proper, she is a fierce Ahroun of the Warders and has a keen tactical mind too often lacking among Gaia's warriors. This tiny slip of a woman is all the threat of force the pack needs, and Aldo is grooming her to take over as Caern Warder when he finally seizes control of the Bright Promise.
Ishmael (who answers to no human surname but is called "Steps-in-Shadow" among the Garou) is a thief and a con artist. He never found acceptance among the laid-back and proper elders of the Bright Promise and skirted the edge of the sept's society for several years before Aldo arrived. He knows almost every cutpurse and cutthroat within the Hunting Grounds and can arrange to fence goods or have then stolen at a moment's notice, and is well acquainted with many beggars, urchins and prostitutes.
Simon Ben-Levi ("Brother-to-Steel") is a crafter and a builder. He is fascinated with the Weaver and its many spirits, especially those that gather in cities, around acts of human innovation and industry. While he doesn't have much in the way of coin or connections, Simon is brilliant and Aldo values his counsel, even if he finds the Theurge's manner a bit off-putting. For his own part, Simon believes that the elders of the Bright Promise are not doing enough to promote science and innovation.
Rising-River is the pack's sole metis and serves as the sept's historian. While his Galliard nature calls out to him to sing of great and moving deeds, his mangled throat barely allows him to rasp out an incoherent gargle. He accepted Aldo's offer to join the pack after years of being pushed aside and ignored by his fellow Children of Gaia. This, of course, gave Aldo access to all of the Bright Promise's written records. Rising-River hopes to have a position of importance when Aldo takes over, but he will settle for simple acceptance.
The Hunting Grounds[]
The Hunting Grounds of the Bright Promise are several city blocks in Acre (mostly marketplaces and residential areas), along with a goodly amount of space beyond the walls. While little actual hunting is to be had there, the space gives the oft-temperamental Garou plenty of room to spread out and stay out of one another's affairs, especially when the oppressive summer heat wear on the nerves of even the most good-natured Ragabash or calm-hearted Philodox. Most of the sept's Garou live s their human neighbors, taking up homes in Acre. Even many of the lupus have adapted to city life (as well as can be expected) and have integrated themselves quite well here. With Islam's tolerant stance on the infirm (despite the fact that Crusaders currently hold the city, it is still largely a Muslim community), the few metis here are able to pass as handicapped and enjoy a bit or respite from the terrible persecution that their kind knows almost anywhere else.
A few of the sept's Garou are not entirely content with the current state of affairs, especially the younger with the current state of affairs, especially the younger werewolves native to Acre and the surrounding environs. While many of these leave the area to seek their fortunes elsewhere, a few have taken to interpreting the meaning of "hunting grounds" in a very different light. As a result, a small number of the young werewolves of the sept live as thieves, claiming what they may by wits and cunning and escaping into the Umbra when the authorities chase after them. It has become something of a game among the youth (a game heartily disapproved of y the caern elders), and it is only a matter of time before weighty consequences come of this frivolity.
The Dilemma of the Bright Promise[]
The Sept of the Bright Promise has reached its greatest potential capacity, in terms of Backgrounds, under its current style of leadership. In order for the Garou to expand the reach of the sept, they must be willing to take more aggressive steps. Of course, the conservative leadership has no wish to change the equilibrium that has been established. Thirteen-Stars-Falling, the Caern Elder, is the leader of the traditionalists, and it is he who is trying hardest to diffuse this new tide of ambition carried by the influx of European Garou who have filtered in over the course of the last several generations. The Bright Promise has been blessed with peace, and perhaps that has been its greatest weakness.
Many of the European Garou have grown curious of the ways of their brethren in the Holy Land since the days when the Crusaders first began. Carens in Outremer are of especial interest, as Silver Fangs, Shadow Lords and Fenrir seek to increase their tribal holdings and powerful individuals within those tribes look to their own prestige and power.
Outside Interests[]
The sept engages in quite a bit of trade through human and Kinfolk intermediaries. Aldo himself is the only Garou at the Bright Promise with the combination of even temper, skill and desire to have truck with the merchant class directly, giving him a decided advantage when it comes to advancing the progressives' cause. The goods and services that flow to and from the Holy Land go virtually everywhere in the known world sooner or later, granting a considerable amount of wealth and power to one who can exert a degree of control over those ventures. Aldo fully intends to get his hands in as many mercantile houses as he safely may.
The European warrior class runs strong in Acre and will for many years to come. Isabeau seeks to ingratiate her Kinfolk husband into more prestigious social circles, increasing her own influence in the bargain. While Louis is not a cunning man, Isabeau tutors him carefully in the delicate art of walking the line between toadying and insubordination, hoping to get him noticed by increasingly powerful lords and rewarded for his initiative and fervor. In this fashion, Isabeau hopes to be able to use Louis to bridge the gap between her pack and the Crusader Garou if possible and, ultimately, to cut them out of the picture (by winning their lords, patrons and Kin away from them) when the time is right.
Friends[]
The Garou of several septs around the Holy Land and across the Mediterranean respect and esteem the Sept of the Bright Promise as a whole. The same cannot be as readily said of Aldo di Venezia and his packmates. Still, the Sept of Green Grass in the Tuscan countryside, a sept controlled exclusively by the Warders and the first group of Garou to take Aldo in after his First Change, watches the events unfolding at the Bright Promise with considerable interest. While it will not yet take an active hand in the overthrow of such a venerable sept, it offers encouragement to Aldo and may be able to be persuaded into lending more resources, if the sept members believe it possible to extend the power and influence of their own sept into the Holy Land. Aldo works carefully to cultivate the image of a puppet ruler waiting to happen, though he fully intends to use the Sept of Green Grass for whatever it will give and then cast it aside in favor of closer allies when the time is right. For now, however, the pack does its best to garner the favor of the Tuscan sept, hoping that it will eventually make its presence known in the inevitable confrontation.
If Aldo and his pack play their cards right, they may be able to secure the aid of at least a few of the other newcomer Garou. While powerful elders among the Crusader-werewolves are not likely to offer their aid and pledge their fealty to this upstart and his motely band, Garou new to the ways of their people, fresh out of their First Change, might be. Such young werewolves, who know that they are not going to receive much of a voice until later in their lives, might jump at the opportunity to support someone more their own age, someone who has the drive and the plan to make their voices heard. The area's metis population, sparse though it may be, pines for a voice (here as everywhere) and could very easily fall in line behind someone who did not scorn them for a crime they never committed. Aldo and his pack could be all these things to these Garou, but it will take time, effort and diplomacy.
Not all of the Garou native to the sept are necessarily such ardent supporters of the traditional ways, despite the fact that most of them must seem to be so, lest they be lumped in with Aldo and his malcontents. A few high-ranking Garou at the Bright Promise could even be publicly turned around to the progressive way of thinking, provided that this attitude seemed to have the upper hand and looked to be capable of winning out over Thirteen-Stars-Falling and his old guard. Just as the pack sides with a young wolf who bests his alpha so, too, will the werewolves of the Bright Promise lend their support to these youths if they can gain and exploit a solid foothold in their, thus far largely covert, bid for dominance.
Enemies[]
Thirteen-Stars-Falling is, though not strictly an "enemy," at least certainly the most powerful force at the sept opposing Aldo's stunning rise. Both wise and strong, the Philodox sees in Aldo and his lot the downfall of the age of peace, prosperity and unity that typifies the Bright Promise and sets it apart from the brutal and warlike septs of Europe. He and his pack, representing the most conservative elements at the sept, constantly seek to dissuade the young Garou from pursuing the progressive agenda and try to use their clout to sabotage Aldo's path of ascension without challenging him outright (as he's not yet done anything to violate the Litany or give any direct cause for offense). In attempting to be peaceful and reasonable about resisting Aldo's way, the elders have curtailed much of their own potential power. In time, however, Thirteen-Stars-Falling suspects, with heavy heart, that he will have to confront the upstarts directly, in order to secure his dominance and put an end to their ambitions.
With the recent influx of Crusaders, foreign Garou from many quarters have come to stake their own claims. For now, they are poorly entrenched and disorganized, finding as much cause for enmity between themselves as with the native Garou, but it grows increasingly likely that a powerful and capable leader (odds favor the Shadow Lords at the moment) will unite the European werewolves beneath his banner and begin an earnest war of conquest against the largely pacifistic Garou of the Bright Promise. Should any would-be warlord descend upon the sept to usurp it by right of challenge, Aldo and his packmates will probably have to throw in with the current caern elders, if only to muscle out the competition (most of whom are traditionalists, like Thirteen-Stars-Falling and his ilk, and much less tolerant of dissenting viewpoints than the current elders), so that the more covert and dignified behind-the-scenes struggle that currently engrosses the Bright Promise can resume without outside interference.
The coming of the European conquerors also has meant a growing faction of Wyrm-worshippers and other servants of darkness. Most notably, many of the most savage and murderous among the Crusaders have fallen prey to Bane infestation, becoming twisted into the mockeries of men known to the Garou of Western Europe as fomori. Most of these tend toward more subtle manifestations of power, favoring the Wyrm's more insidious aspects over that of the dreaded Beast of War (curious considering the oft-brutal natures of the men thus afflicted). These creatures hold the attentions of all of the city's Garou, native and foreign alike, considering that their numbers are far too great (and their taints too specifically obfuscated) to be the result of any normal process of possession. Some members of the sept suspect darker powers still, and rightly so, as a small pack of Black Spiral Dancers, concealed behind layers of landed knights and powerful nobles and having come on the heels of a more recent wave of "holy warriors," keep themselves far from the theater of conflict and work tirelessly to spread their master's foul corruption in this sacred land.
And the Rest[]
Many Garou in Acre are simply apathetic toward the struggle between native and Crusader, traditionalist and progressive. They believe (and may well be correct) that the peace of the Bright Promise had been irreparably shattered and that any outcome will result in ongoing strife and potential ruin. Some Kinfolk are similarly disenchanted, knowing that they are one of the forms of coin in which the success or failure of a tribe is measured. When all is said and done, many Kin will remain beside their brethren, but some are likely to side with whatever group emerges victorious in the struggle over the Bright Promise.
Sept Members[]
- Aldo di Venezia, "Golden-Fangs-of-Dawn" - Sept Leader
- Isabeau du Laurent, "Unbreaking-Stone" - Caern Warder-in-training, captured by Crusaders
- Ishmael, "Steps-in-Shadow" - Died
- Simon Ben-Levi, "Brother-to-Steel"
- Rising-River - Died
- Mohammed ibn-Walid, "Thirteen-Stars-Falling" - Children of Gaia Philodox, Caern Elder, Former Sept Leader
References[]
- ↑ DA: Right of Princes, p. 119-125
- ↑ DA: Spoils of War, p. 110-115