Renown
Give me wisdom in misfortune
Heart’s ease for my distress
— Richard Thompson, “May Day Psalter”

While Garou and Corax agree on the types of Renown
they value, Corax hold Wisdom in highest esteem, no matter what. Wereravens seek Wisdom assiduously while sometimes forgetting to follow up on Glory or Honor.

Renown is very important to the Corax. After all, having Renown means you’re being talked about, and perhaps the only thing Corax love more than talking is having someone else talk about them — saying nice things, preferably. With that in mind, Corax avidly seek Renown from their fellows, turning the Corax compulsion to talk to their advantage by prattling on incessantly about their individual accomplish- ments. In a way, this serves Gaia’s purpose, because every Corax generally has a pretty good idea of what nearly every other Corax has been up to.

Indeed, in an odd way, Corax Renown is self-reinforcing. Corax exist, after all, to uncover secrets and spread word of those secrets ‘round the world. So every story told of a Corax uncovering a secret not only adds to the Renown of the intrepid Corax in question, but also passes the freshly unearthed secret along. In this fashion, a Corax’ Renown can mount quickly.

As Corax are solitary creatures, wereraven Renown tends to come from solo operations more than anything else (though any Corax who succeeds in getting his breedmates to cooperate often gets a healthy dollop of Renown as well).

Elements of Status

While Honor and Glory are known and vaguely respect- able concepts among the Corax, the bird-folk have learned the hard way that many glorious and honorable actions tend to produce dead Corax. Garou don’t understand Corax Renown and don’t pretend to, but occasionally bestow Renown of their own on Corax who have performed especially worthy services for a pack or sept — uncovering the details of an incipient attack, snatching (at great risk) the blueprints of a building a pack wants to assault, and so forth. Usually this Renown is Glory Renown, to which the reaction of a Corax so honored is, “Err, thank you.” On the other hand, once it sinks in that a pack of Garou has given him a dollop of Renown, the Corax is likely to go repeating the story high and low (while trying to gain Renown from his fellow Corax, no doubt).

Wisdom

With this set of circumstances in mind, Wisdom Renown is the one thing that really matters to the birds, but it’s a very Corax-specific style of wisdom the birds venerate. In fact, the Corax definition of Wisdom is a little muddied with Knowledge — Corax who uncover great secrets and pass them along are showered with Wisdom Renown, while those birds who prudently (or wisely) don’t go digging through dangerous garbage are routinely dismissed from consideration.

There are three rules of Wisdom for Corax:
• Get it fast. (Old information is worthless.)
• Get it accurate. (Bad information is worse than useless.)
• Get out safely so you can tell someone. (If you get killed without passing the information along, who the hell cares what you found out?)

Honor

Honor among the Corax is reserved for those who have done something to benefit the Breed as a whole, or for Kinfolk. The latter is frankly more common, as the Corax hold their Kinfolk in high regard. Honor is also bestowed for acts of selflessness, particularly those performed on behalf of the Corax. Then again, there’s no tradition limiting that sort of Renown to those helping the feathered folk....

The Laws of the Honorable Corax are:
• If you’re going to do it, do it all the way. (Trying to do something honorable and backing out halfway through is worse than not trying.)
• Get witnesses. (The worst thing in the world is having your attempts at honor misinterpreted by those who weren’t there. Keep the story straight.)
• Don’t do it unless you’re sure. (Performing a self- less action and expecting a reward isn’t selfless. Don’t even try it unless you’re doing what you’re doing for the right reasons.)

Glory

Glory Renown is rare among the Corax, because Corax aren’t built for Glorious deeds. It’s much more common for a Corax to get someone else to do the dirty work of fighting for him than to stand up and get into a brawl himself; more sensible, too. However, on those rare occasions when a Corax does something worthy of Glory Renown, the whole breed hears about it within a matter of days — and only some of that can be traced to the bragging of the newly minted Glorious Corax herself.
Corax give Glory Renown for getting into — and surviving — fights that absolutely have to be fought. A Corax who goes around picking fights and winning them through creative use of Gifts isn’t likely to gather much Glory. On the other hand, a raven-woman who has to take out a trio of fomor guards in order to escape an office with some stolen files — she’s likely to be covered in Glory if she makes it out alive.

The rules of the Glorious Corax are:
• Only fight when you have to. (Get into too many scraps and the rest of the Breed will be eulogizing you. Corax aren’t built to be infantry.)
• Fight to win. (If you lose, you’re dead. No one will care that you fought “by the rules” at your funeral.)
• No second chances. (If you have a chance to finish an opponent, do it. Killing him immediately saves you from ever having him come back when you least expect it.)