Stolen Moons are humans who have become shifters, especially werewolves, by means other than being Kin and experiencing the First Change. They are near-universally reviled by the Garou. Abhorrent rituals involving the taking of Garou skins or hearts, strange promises to unwholesome spirits, and inexplicable curses all may confer some amount of shapeshifting ability.
(For their counterpart in older editions, see Skin Dancers.)
Overview[]
All Garou are werewolves, but not all “werewolves” are Garou. Some who can take the form of wolf or human attain that ability illicitly. Still, shapeshifting itself is not what makes a Garou, and these Stolen Moons have little in common with the actual chosen of Gaia. The most perverse among the Stolen Moons exult in bloody carnage. Others have more personal motives, from envy of actual Garou to seeking forbidden ways to solve problems. In any case, they are usually misguided and pitiable, but no less dangerous for it all, especially to beings in their immediate vicinity.
Stolen Moons have often misunderstood the nature of the bargains they’ve made or the horrible Rite they’ve somehow worked, and they suffer in the aftermath of what they’ve done to themselves, with physical pain or mental anguish, and often both. Some want revenge on the world for their own ruinous choices. Others want to settle cruel vendettas against people who wronged them. They all seem to hate the Garou, probably for having a better handle on what it means to be a werewolf.
Garou packs make deals with Stolen Moons on a case-by-case basis. The one who shifts by donning werewolf flesh gets made into a smear on the wall, but the one who made a poorly worded pact with a wolf spirit gets a chance. These deals are always transactional. The Stolen Moon must cease their enmity toward the Garou, and the pack will teach them what they can or ease their curse. Few take the deal, and even fewer commit without falling back into the same patterns of murderous rage and envy, but there are rare successes. They’ll never be Garou, let alone a member of any functioning sept, but they could serve as pack lookouts, bodyguards, or contacts in obscure occult circles.
Those werewolves who aren’t “full” Garou can’t take the more nuanced forms of the hispo or glabro. They have no Patron Spirits, and they might not have any awareness of the Umbra at all, let alone ability to access the Spirit Wilds or see spirits. Gifts among them are rare even by those standards, as no spirit in its right mind would willingly bestow its knowledge upon such a monstrosity, forcing the ones that do possess them to obtain them illicitly.