Croatan

When the continents split apart and the Garou
divided themselves into tribes, three made the long
walk across the ice to the Americas. These three, the
self-described Pure Lands Garou, were the Uktena,
Croatan, and Wendigo. Today only two remain. Middle
Brother, the steadfast Croatan tribe, is gone. Yet tragic as
their loss was, it was also noble. Where the Bunyip were
slain by their own kin and the White Howlers fell to the
Wyrm, the Croatan sacrificed themselves to banish a great
evil. To this day, many Garou wish
it hadn’t been necessary. If only
they had lived, perhaps the
Uktena and Wendigo would
not be so close to the brink.
If only they had had more
help, perhaps the Garou
Nation would still have their
strength. If only they had
been able to slay the Eaterof-
Souls outright, the Wyrm’s
strength would have been
cut by a third. If only.
The Croatan earned
the name “Middle Brother”
not out of any sort of age-based
seniority, but out of their
role among the three
Pure Lands tribes.
The Wendigo were
always angry and
rash, full of the fires
of youth. The cunning
Uktena sought
wisdom, sometimes
at the expense
of the here
and now.
The Croatan took the balanced path between the two.
They were passionate but not mercurial, thoughtful but
not navel-gazing.
Another aspect of the Croatan’s tribal mentality
came from their elemental connection. The Croatan
drew strength from the earth itself, channeled through
their totem Turtle. They were solid and steadfast, not as
slippery as the water-influenced Uktena and their river
serpent totem, or as cold and furious as the Wendigo and
their bitter wind-spirit allies. This influence had its drawbacks,
of course. The
Croatan were a
stubborn tribe, often
to the point of
inflexibility. When
blood spilled between
the Three Brothers —
and it did from time to
time — the Croatan
had their share of the
fault.
Croatan were
strong believers
in the sept and
the caern. They
took the concept
of sacred lands
more seriously
than most Garou.
They were also a fairly
practical tribe,
not much given
to poetry or fancy.
They called the
five auspices Trickster,
Shaman, Law
Giver, Songkeeper, and Warrior — some say because they
found the old Garou tongue names a little too nuanced.
The Croatan’s fall came in the late 16th century,
when it seemed the Apocalypse was about to come early.
Eater-of-Souls (also known to the Croatan as Jipijka’m),
one of the three heads of the Triatic Wyrm, had drawn
so near to the physical world that it would soon physically
manifest. The entire tribe gathered to fight, even
as they knew that battle would not be enough. When
the Eater-of-Souls broke through into the material world,
the Croatan enacted a great rite to make the ultimate
sacrifice. They gave themselves to the last, dealing Eaterof-
Souls a vicious wound and banishing it back to the
Umbra for many centuries of healing.
Yet the cost was an entire tribe. The Croatan were
gone forever, for even their ancestor-spirits participated in
the rite. Their Kinfolk bloodlines would merge with those
of other tribes or be lost entirely. In the modern day, there
are legends that perhaps a single ancestor-spirit survived,
or that there is one cub of pure blood that might awaken
Turtle as a tribal patron again. There’s always hope. But
the Uktena elders shake their heads, and say quietly that
it’s a vain hope — comforting, perhaps, but unfounded.

The Fall of the Croatan
The Croatan were once a tribe of Garou, standing
beside the Uktena and the Wendigo as the self-described
“Pure Tribes.” Honorable and steadfast, they protected
their people from the threat of disease and invasion as best
they could when the white men came to the Americas.
While they might have been able to survive as their
brother tribes did, they chose to make a stand against one
of the manifestations of the Wyrm — the Eater-of-Souls.
This creature drew enough power from the starvation and
disease rampant in the New World to breach the Gauntlet
and enter the physical world.
On the Roanoke colony on the Carolina coast, the
Croatan sacrificed itself as a whole to protect the homelands
from this monster. The tribe vanished overnight,
but unlike the White Howlers, the Croatan were not
corrupted or pressed into service. Why and how this
came to pass is fodder for a thousand songs of the Garou,
but the result was plain: The Croatan were gone, with
only a few carvings remaining to mark their passing. In
modern times, the name “Croatan” is spoken with great
reverence, especially among the Wendigo and Uktena.
Although the Croatan’s destruction is tragic, it still gives
the Garou hope. After all, if Eater-of-Souls could be killed,
maybe the Wyrm itself could fall, even if it took the lives
of every Garou to do the job.