White Howler

If the Bunyip’s fall was the most senseless and the Croatan’s the most
noble, the fall of the White Howlers has been the most damaging to
the Garou Nation as a whole. Their corruption and rebirth as the
Black Spiral Dancers has given the Wyrm a clear advantage in the
war. But in their heyday, the White Howlers were a ferocious
and implacable tribe of warriors, rightly feared by the forces of
the Wyrm.
The White Howlers were closely tied to
the Pictish people of what is now Scotland.
They would sometimes venture across
the Channel to the mainland for
a glorious Rage, but they didn’t
linger there for long. Their
tight bonds to their land
limited their numbers,
but their hold over their
territory was absolute. To
claim even a single hill
of Howler territory was
as difficult as driving
them into the sea.
Many Theurges
have attempted
to reconstruct the
rituals and spiritual
practices of
the White Howlers.
They were reputed
to be excellent trackers,
and had ties to
strange and secretive
spirits of dark
holes and mistchoked
nights. A
certain morbidity
crept into their spiritual
traditions as well.
They hunted ghosts for
sport, challenged death-spirits,
and some White Howlers even spent time lying in cold
barrows, meditating on their own mortality.
The Children of Lion were wild and passionate,
even by the standards of their nearest Fianna and Fenrir
neighbors. They exulted as wildly as any Fianna, but their
dearest loves were battle and the hunt. When they couldn’t
find any forces of the Wyrm to stalk, chase, and rend
limb from limb, they staged extensive ritual brawls with
one another to hone their skills and release their Rage.
These battles could get quite bloody, but the Howlers’
tribal bonds were too strong to let any resultant grudges
tear them apart. They also ventured frequently into the
Umbra on extensive hunts, searching for worthy prey that
could not be found in the physical realm.
But their exuberant bravery and their tight-knit
bonds were also their downfall. When some of their finest
trackers brought back news of a path into Malfeas, the
tribe ignited with dreams of surpassing glory. To fight the
Wyrm in its lair — to defeat it there! They rallied one
and all, for the entire tribe would be necessary for such a
task. Then they set out into the Pit. There they danced
the Black Spiral. There they fell. Only one, Cororuc,
escaped his brethren and made it to a nearby Fianna sept.
He warned the others of what had happened before he
died as the last of the White Howlers.
Today the White Howlers are a warning and object
lesson taught to young Garou, a caution against too much
pride. The Bunyip died tragically but through no fault of
their own, and the Croatan died in noble sacrifice, but
the White Howlers gained nothing from their fall while
the Wyrm gained a great deal. Still, some Garou can’t
help but wonder if this is truly the end. The Black Spiral
Dancers’ line is still extant, and Lion is still active. The
elders growl that hoping for a “last White Howler” is a
fool’s game, but a few cubs in every generation wonder.


The Fall of the White Howlers
The White Howlers were a tribe of Garou renowned
for sending their cubs into the deepest Wyrm-pits to
combat the evil therein. Brave, steadfast, and not entirely
cautious, the Howlers claimed tribal territory in what is
now Scotland. Their Kinfolk were the Picts, the native
peoples of that region.
Over the years, their habit of sending young Garou to
fight in the blackest pits of the Wyrm took its toll. While
their tribal power was dwindling, their human Kinfolk
were losing influence in their homeland. Eventually, in
the 1st century, the White Howlers as a whole descended
into the worst parts of the Umbra, supposedly to kill the
Wyrm by striking at its heart.
The White Howlers never emerged. What emerged
was a tribe of broken, mad, tumor-ridden, and utterly vicious
werewolves. That tribe was the Black Spiral Dancers,
and they would go on to become the steadfast servants of
the Wyrm and the Garou’s most hated foes.
The People tell stories about the White Howlers in
modern times, but no living werewolf has ever met one,
nor do present-day Garou have any real sense of what the
tribe stood for or how it conducted its rituals. Still, the
Garou romanticize the Howlers’ bravery and fortitude,
because they don’t wish to admit that taking the fight to
the Wyrm is not just a suicide mission. It’s a recruitment
opportunity for the enemy.