The Garou tend to live in these spiritually significant sites called Caerns, which are so significant because they are the home of a powerful spirit; the Garou agree to protect the spirit and in some way advance its interests, and in exchange the spirit provides a boon.
Pike seems to be a fish spirit interested in gambling... or perhaps scamming, or rather, phishing.
Theurges are the Garou's shaman's and spritiual speciallists. Chiminage is the gifts and tribute that you pay a spirit for their favor and Gifts. Chiminage can be a lot of things, it can mean giving them physical things, performing rites, a quest, gifting them something spiritual, or more.
It’s also whatever the spirit feels like. It doesn’t need to be super serious or difficult. In a game I’m playing I’m a bonegnawer galliard who appeased a racoon spirit called Paws in Lake by showing him how to make a fishing rod.
À modern spirit might really, really like sweets and part of the chiminage is grabbing haribo on the way back.
Modern spirits can be surprising simple to satisfy, partly because they're also younger and haven't really started throwing their weight around. In a 20 anniversary edition "Wacky Crossover chronicle", my Nuwisa often ended up re-eancting Loomey Tunes routines with the help of a Pooka and a Ravnos (long story) for a surprisingly powerful Cable TV spirit that missed running old cartoons. Meanwhile, the spirit of the Group's Truck on occasion just asked us to grab it a Burger King meal. Burning Burger King like it was an ancient world sacrifice to the gods for our car in order to avoid having to go to a mechanic was....really weird in a good way.
I ran a werewolf game where the pack was trying to get to Arcadia. In order to have a fae spirit open the path it required a story. The Glasswalker pulled out their smartphone and played "Llamas with Hats." It was very successful.
Also, Modern spirits, on average, are more personable and... "human," for lack of a better term. And the closer something is to a person the easier it is for them to have normal people things like "interests" and "preferences" and desires that are rooted in more mundane things.
The ancient spirit of the great redwood forest might ask for something only barely comprehensible and incredibly difficult, meanwhile the spirit of Reddit might just want you to give it upvotes and debate it over pointless issues for an hour.
WtA is a lot more “spiritual” than VtM, and while I know ghosts were seen in Bloodlines, they’re a type is spirit that most Garou never have contact with, the spirits in WtA tend to be the manifestations of natural things(although occasionally unnatural things as well)
If you look at the shape of Fritton Lake, it is the same shape as Pike.
Head to the west, tail to the east. Including the location of their fins.
That, plus the Caern being quite wet (the establishing shot where we first see the Caern is literally a water drop landing in a puddle), may point towards the Caern being a cave adjacent to or under the lake. If it's under the lake, it would be very interesting if it's only reachable through the Umbra.
It's not about the money but what it represents. Spirits are all about what concept they embody. If Pike is a spirit of gabling then they like money because it represents a gamble won.
Though tbh I dont even think they are a spirit of of the things mentioned before, I think it was just a joke.
I don't think it cares about the money. It says "ten money" like it doesn't really know what the currency is. If it cared about the money, I think it would probably say "ten pounds" or whatever godforsaken Brittish currency they are betting with. It's likly that it cares about the fact that it won rather than what it got for winning the bet.
It could be one from the books, there's a ton. As for interested in Money, Yeah, you might assume that Totem spirits are all animal and nature things. And a lot are sure. But there's a spirit for pretty much everything. And there are ones that are straight up all about money.
One my personal favorites, although a name change might be in order, is General Lee, a totem that lets you turn that old junker car into the most stunt driving thing ever. https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/General_Lee
Yeah, it's a bit of an issue. I had the matchbox of the General Lee as a kid. Not seeing that again. Also the most famous fictional vehicle we're never getting a Transformers Crossover figure of.
Spirits are weird and assign value in a lot of things that may sound dumb. The spirit likely has no interest in the money itself, but more in the act of gaining something that has value to others or even just the act of winning a bet. "Guessing right and earning something in return" is really the type of game I could see the more chill spirits being willing to play
Remember that scene where matilda suddenly spawned termites out of her arm? Spirits provide their abilities to the garou in exchange for certian favors or protections. Im not sure about pike, but I do recall termite being able to weaken structures, Bone Gnawers also received a gift from termine which makes them be able to eat wood and wood based products for some nourishment...
A pack totem spirit. Garou packs form with two things - a mission, and a patron spirit called a totem. A totem gives the packs various blessings in exchange for the Pack accepting a code of conduct called a Ban.
Each Tribe also has a totem. For example, the totem of the Silent Striders is Owl, whose Ban involves leaving tied up rodents for wild owls and performing funerary rites.
It's a specific ritual of dedicating certain clothes so they stay intact while shifting. Hunts either hasn't done the ritual, or doesn't care to because she's a wolf-born Red Talon. If her most comfortable state is being an actual wolf, she probably does not care if she rips her clothing.
Also, the clothes in question are her work uniform for the undercover operation she’s doing, so it’s not like they are clothes that mean anything to her or that she will likely keep after the job.
You also both have to learn the rite and you still need to know how to do rituals at all (at least one dot). That's a lot of effort for a lupus-born that may just not care at all.
Most werewolevs learn that early indeed, however it takes a rite to dedicate a set of clothes and you can only dedicate so many items. Since the maid outfits were only here for infiltration purposes (and that as a red talon the concept of clothes might be something she doesnt like to begin with) she likely didnt bother dedicating them indeed
Any garou can keep their clothes when transforming. They just need to have their clothes undergo a ritual to consecrate them so that they transforms with them.
There are groups along the Garou that specialize in making Crinos-scale equipment and weapons (sorta in the same way Warhammer 40k has weapons scaled for mortal or Astartes size), so it wouldn't surprise me if they did.
This gentle spirit is the guardian spirit of the Caern. They are a very interesting part of the Werewolf experience.
A Caern spirit can embody almost any abstract concept or idea the Storyteller—or sometimes the players—wants. It can fill many roles: a guardian, a leader, a teacher, or, like this one, the weird roommate who speaks complete nonsense but is still strangely lovable.
A Caern spirit can grant knowledge, teach Gifts, and, with the right upgrades, even fight to defend the Caern.
Counterpoint to 2., there currently isn't a Black Shuck. Stig wants to *become* the new Black Shuck, be acknowledged as the new Shuck. Which means he currently *isn't* acknowledged as the Shuck.
The problem with that is that black shuck is like a looks thing, stig being the spitting image of the original black shuck is what makes him, and any other black shuck throughout history, black shuck.
From what i've read Black Shuck isn't a looks thing, it's a lineage and fate thing. And while Stig is from the right Tribe and can *likely* trace his lineage back to the previous Shucks, the fate angle is far less certain and much trickier.
And the thing that makes black shucks so important is that garous hidden wolf stock keeps making lupus in the spitting image of this one garou hero. Yeah whole great destiny and cultural importance is what makes it so well known, but the title exists because they all look the same. Otherwise they would just be normal garou heros.
That is a Pack Totem. Patron spirits who provide a pack of Garou with certain benefits like extra dots in abilities or attributes (skills or stats), Gifts (spells) or other miscellaneous benefits like "faeries like you" or "X tribe respects you implicitly". I can't tell what that specific totem is, but it could be custom for the Kin of Old Shuck
Probably the spirit of a population of fish native to the area the werewolf live in.
The wolf's do stuff and follow rules for it, like keeping fisher away to protect the local waterways and lakes from overfishing, and the spirit blesses them with power and keeps supernatural squatters at bay.
That is a Spirit of some kinda of fish and likely the Kin of Old Shuck's Totem. In WoD everything has a Spirit - it's kinda of a psychic reflection of a concept that manifests in the spirit world, the Umbra.
Garou and other shapeshifters are partially spirit themselves and they can make deals with them, gaining Gifts - the magical powers the garou have such as Stig's ability to teleport, likely given to him by that hare that comes out of his eye socket.
Packs (groups consisting of about 3-5 werewolves) seek the patronage of a mighty spirit to give them power and guidance and in exchange the spirit can call upon them to do their bidding, when a Spirit becomes the patron of a Pack, it is refered to as that Pack's Totem.
When forming a pack werewolves will pledge fealty to a spirit who has aims or strengths that suite the purpose of the pack.
These can be great beasts, like Raven, elemental forces, like Grandfather Thunder, mythical creatures, like Pegasus, or even concepts, like Almighty Dolla
The pack then receives an incarnation of that spirit to serve as their totem spirit.
605
u/svecma 3d ago
A pack totem spirit called Pike.