The Red Talons (Humans are Cancer. Can we please kill them?) [Update 12-22-09]

The Red Talons are one of the tribes found in Werewolf: The Apocalypse. They are the only tribe among the Garou that is exclusively lupine in nature, shunning humanity completely as a blight on the Earth.

Contents


* 1 Introduction


* 2 Tribal Culture
o 5.1 Political Culture
o 5.2 Religious Culture



Introduction

Walk through a city some night, and look up at the sky. Try and find a star, any star. You´re lucky if you can even see Luna herself up there. Imagine you had the power to punish the people concealing the pure sky from you. Here is the source of the Red Talons´ rage. They can see the pure sky; they live in pure, clean, wild lands, but every day some idiot ape bulldozes another hundred acres to put up another 200 cookie-cutter suburban homes. The answer is obvious to the Red Talons: kill some homids. Yet this is precisely what the other tribes refuse to do.

The Red Talons are the claws of Gaia; they are her rage at the human race given form, or so they believe. The Talons come almost entirely from lupus stock; only in the last few decades have they even accepted Metis that come from Talon-Talon matings. Many Talon Metis are still culled at birth or given to the Children of Gaia to rear. Given their backgrounds, few Talons are comfortable with Weaver-things of any kind. Most see value in klaives, and a few even appreciate the usefulness of a gun or telephone. But, for the most part they communicate via howls and fight with claws and feel that should be enough. Still, the other tribes admit the Talons have long memories, and no doubt recall rites and secrets long forgotten by the rest of the Garou.

Talon hatred of humans is legendary, and yet that hatred has grown by leaps and bounds these nights of Alaskan wolf kills and bulldozed forests; some believe that the humans should be wiped from Gaia´s face entirely. Others are more restrained, thinking that returning to the practice of culling would be enough. A few humans even live peacefully near Talon territories, providing they respect the land. Many Talons enact a private Impergium against humans who move into protected lands. The deaths are often swift, but some younger Red Talons take more pleasure in the killings then their elders think prudent. Cruelties and ritual torture that rival the Black Spiral Dancers are surely the touch of the Wyrm. Some, it is whispered, even violate the Litany – “Ye Shall Not Eat the Flesh of Humans.” The malice of such unnecessary activity surely tempts the Wyrm and the tribe’s elders watch their youthful students more and more carefully in the modern nights.


Tribal Culture


Perhaps no other tribe is as close to nature as the Red Talons. They shun cities completely, exclusively living in their ancestral homelands as they have for centuries. As humans encroach on the wilderness, the Red Talons find their lands and hunting grounds disappearing and destroyed.

Although not all Red Talons believe humanity should be wiped out entirely, it is agreed among all tribe members that humans are to be shunned. Those that dare cross the path of a Red Talon, guilty or innocent, will be killed to stop the spread of the Wyrm's taint. Many secretly devour the flesh of their victims, however, which goes directly against the Litany set forth by the Garou Nation. In addition, some younger Red Talons have taken to torturing their prey, akin to the way humans have drawn out the suffering of the Red Talons.

To the Red Talons the life of one wolf is worth more than any number of human lives. The Talons do everything they can to protect all wolves. However, because they reject their human halves, they cannot do much except kill interlopers.


Political Culture

The Red Talons follow wolf traditions closely, using strength and survival to decide who rules over them. Crimes against Red Talons go through no compromise; those involved will be devoured by wolves seeking justice.



Main Red Talon Camps

* The Lodge of the Predator Kings: Wish to go even further today, wiping out humanity altogether.
* The Warders of the Land: Believe they cannot kill all humans and seek to maintain the status quo - i.e. keeping humans out of the wild places and killing those that enter and befoul it.
* Whelp's Compromise: See some redeeming value in humans, they see that some people are trying to help the world, but Gaia help those who despoil the land near a Whelps Compromise Talon, for they will lash out with fury that would match any Predator King.

Totem

Griffin:Totem of War. Totem Spirit to the savage and blood thirsty Red Talons, Griffin is a totem that sympathizes with creatures who long ago fell to the spears of humans and are no more. Thus he mourns the loss of any species extinction, and shows his rage against any humans --- as they are so often the killers of entire species. He is always hungry, always hunting, he strikes like lightning and kills without hesitation.

Packs under Griffin reflect all that he is. Swift, watchful hunters. As a token of Griffin's avian aspect, each member is allowed to communicated with birds of prey without the use of any gifts. Each pack member gains two Glory and Red Talons respect the packs followers.

Griffin does not tolerate humans, and as such his children may not associate with them. Griffin almost never accepts a homid Garou as his child.

Tribal Advantage/Disadvantage

Gaia's Fury: Because of their hatred to humanity and what they have done to Gaia, Talons are more in tune with the harsh cries of the Mother. All Red Talons have more Rage than their Auspice normally has, even if it puts them above what an Ahroun would normally have as a cub.

Wyld Affinity: Just as the Glass Walkers are at home in the cites and regain their Gnosis there, Talons are at home in the wilderness and regain there Gnosis there. Any Urban Environment will block a Talons ability to regain their Gnosis.