Mother Vigilant, Irraka member of the Brotherhood of Eshu's Cap
The Hunters in Darkness aim to protect the few unspoiled locales left, and all undertake this task in a unique way. The Brotherhood of Eshu's Cap is one such group of Hunters.
The patron spirit that watches over the Brotherhood is referred to as Eshu although it calls itself "I Who Transform".
Overview[]
These wolves have their own brand of keeping the sacred places safe and bringing order and solace back to the world. They achieve this order by first waging a war of chaos. If chaos is put into motion, all things take care of themselves. Ideally, it always works. In reality, it’s rarely so easy, but they claim more successes than failure. This isn’t enough for some Forsaken, who believe that the Brotherhood’s risky claiming of many sacred areas is dangerous and that those areas need to be remanded to more pragmatic keepers. The Brotherhood doesn’t only protect loci, though that represents the largest part of what they keep safe. Many also protect powerful fetishes, strange gateways into the spirit world, areas of unusual activity that aren’t loci (haunted houses, Wounds, shoals, gravity hills), notable wolf-blooded families or simply places of unique nature such as somewhere a particularly rare orchid grows. These Hunters know of each other through various channels, and even communicate (often via runners) on new ways to stir the pot and create effective controlled chaos.
Many Forsaken consider these members quite mad, and more than a little dangerous. These Forsaken are partly right. Chaos, as restricted as one might wish it to be, is like a fire. If the wind blows the wrong way, the fire can take a mean turn and go from a controlled blaze to a deadly conflagration. The Brotherhood has suffered losses, to be sure. Some packs support a rather extreme practice that, if they can’t have a sacred place, nobody can. When things go poorly and seem out-of-control, these rogue packs destroy the locus, razing it to the ground and moving on to something else. Better nobody have it than it be raped by humans or stolen by the Pure. This isn’t the official practice of the lodge (if any practice can be deemed “official”), and is generally frowned upon by the Hunters in the Brotherhood. Still, no overarching dogma guides the group, and again — these wolves can be more than a little crazy. Lunacy does not translate to grimness of spirit, though. Most followers of Eshu are bacchanalian souls, gleefully celebrating the madness of life. They enjoy all the pleasures and peccadilloes of life, regardless of how strange it may seem. The Brotherhood engages in rapturous feasts, drum dances, orgiastic hunts and frenetic runs through the Shadow. It’s also worth noting that these lodge members don’t hate the humans. The Brotherhood simply distrusts humans utterly. The Brotherhood regrets having to wage this war against the ignorant apes, but it is what must be done to keep all things safe.
Membership[]
The Brotherhood places great value on trickery. Whether a trick is funny or punishing, painful or hilarious, it is a valuable thing. When one is tricked, one also learns. If a Forsaken is fooled somehow, they know that they must become smarter and more clever than those who are attempting to fool them. They may learn their areas of ignorance or gullibility, and come to understand that they are too trusting of certain things or particular people. Being tricked is proof that they pale beneath Eshu (who, the Brotherhood claims, cannot be tricked), and that they must “up their game,” so to speak. It doesn’t matter if a trick forces the werewolf into a troublesome social situation or instead causes them to lose some fingers and toes: all tricks should be seen as valuable, once they get past the initial anger. Therein lies the means for a werewolf to join this lodge: trickery. To gain entrance, most packs demand that a potential member successfully trick one of them. The nature of the trick is irrelevant. It may be as simple as an unsolvable riddle, or it may unfold as an elaborate scheme making a werewolf think that a fetish has been stolen when in reality it’s in their possession the whole time. A trick can even be somewhat malicious, provided that it doesn’t endanger a locus or other sacred place: a little malice may be necessary to accomplish the lodge’s goals. Tricking a member successfully is all it takes. Being unable to do so (and it is often quite difficult) makes every subsequent effort all the harder — because now the target is doubly aware of incoming mischief.
Game Mechanics[]
The following are an overview of the game mechanics.
Prerequisites[]
- Cunning •••
- Purity •
- Larceny ••
- Stealth ••
Benefits[]
When acting in defense of a sacred place and/or object, the member gains a +1 to all appropriate Social rolls. (An example might be when spreading lies to misdirect a group of tourists away from the locus, the werewolf gains +1 to their Subterfuge rolls.) Also, due to the nature of what these Uratha seek to accomplish, they can learn Warding Gifts as if they were tribal Gifts. Such Gifts provide back-up for when the misdirection and chaos fail.
Rites[]
The Brotherhood teaches that all living things have ase — an intrinsic power or magic that some might deem a “soul.” Gods and spirits have specific types of ase, as do the Forsaken, as do humans. Rituals are called aje, and are seen as one giving forth energies from one’s ase to shape the world by impressing the spirits. One cannot perform aje outside of one’s ase: the Forsaken, for instance, cannot learn the powers of the spirits or gods, for they are more pure (and more dangerous). It was once thought that only women could utilize aje, and in the Yoruba tradition, that still remains so. Some packs still maintain this, but most have broken with this idea long ago. Those who know a great many rites (i.e., those with Rituals scores of ••• or higher) are often known as babalowa or lyalocha: Father and Mother of Secrets, respectively.
- Rite of Ajogun •••: With this rite, the werewolf calls upon the ajogun, or “tricky spirits,” to create confusion for those who come near a certain area. The werewolf marks a certain area as a “maze” of Eshu, whereupon those passing through become hopelessly lost. Travelers get turned around, wander in circles, or double back from whence they came. While this doesn’t always prevent invaders from finding their target, it can often delay them long enough for the Brotherhood Uratha to work whatever deception is necessary to keep them away. Performing this ritual too close to the sacred spot or object is useless. Once travelers are actually at the destination (i.e., the locus, fetish, or holy location), creating confusion is a futile effort. No, the ritual is performed on the outlying areas leading to the protected zone: pathways, roads, forests, deserts. Wherever individuals may pass through serves as a good target for this ritual.
- Eshu's Blessing •••: The name is ironic: this rite provides no blessing, only a curse. The rite makes someone the focal point of chaos. The person does not cause chaos directly, but his presence becomes the vortex for all manner of strangeness and disorder.
References[]
- WTF: Lodges: The Splintered, p. 18-24
