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Rites primer for GarouMUSH
What is a rite?
How long does
it take to perform a rite?
Common / complex
rites on GarouMUSH
What is a rite?
A rite is a ritual that has been researched and developed
by the garou at some point--often in the distant past. Though rites
often have a spiritual component, spirits cannot teach rites to Garou.
(Spirits can only teach gifts.) Rites can only be taught by other
garou. In some rarer instances, rites can even be created. Generally
this requires a fairly experienced garou ritualist.
Rites are not the exclusive domain of theurges, though some of the more
flashy rites that directly involve spirits certainly make those rituals
easier for those that have Spirit Speech. There are rites used with
punishments (Stone of Scorn, Stolen Wolf), rites that serve an
important social function for the garou (Moot Rite, Gathering for the
Departed), mystical rites (Binding, Summoning), accord rites (Rite of
Cleansing, Rite of Contrition), and renown rites (Rite of
Accomplishment, Rite of Passage).
Because rites are by their very nature an extension of mystical
tradition, they generally carry a certain "flavor" that echoes who the
ritual was learned from. If Joe Garou learns Rite of Talisman
Dedication from a Silver Fang, the ritual might involve specially
cleaning, annointing, and preparing the items to be dedicated. If Joe
learned the same rite from a Red Talon, it might involve hiking a leg
to take a whiz on items to be dedicated in order to mark it as being
yours. When publicly performing a rite, try to put some flavor and
history into it.
How
long does it take to perform a rite?
Rites, unlike gifts, cannot be used instantly. As a
general rule of thumb, it takes a bare minimum of 10 minutes of focused
ritual work per level of the rite in order for a rite to have any
chance of success. A level 1 rite can be performed in 10 minutes, a
level 2 in 20, a level 3 in 30. However, some rites take far more time
to succeed. For instance, Rite of Cleansing can obviously not just be
used to just purge a blight in 10 minutes. Rite of Binding generally
takes a week or two per talen to be made. Rite of the Fetish takes at
least half a year for the most simple of fetishes, or an entire
lifetime for the complex and powerful fetishes.
Common
/ complex rites on GarouMUSH
Below is a selection of common and/or complicated rites on
GarouMUSH that differ somewhat from what is described in the
sourcebooks.
Rite of
Talisman Dedication
"This rite allows a Garou to bind objects to his/her body
so that the
object stays with the Garou regardless of the Garou's form."
Dedication is one of the most common rites because it is so darn
useful. It is usually the very first rite a garou learns after their
Rite of Passage. Why? Nobody likes having to take the time to strip
naked prior to shifting. The alternative is shredding all your clothes
when you shift--or maybe just wearing a loose bed sheet wheld on with a
couple clothes pins--neither of which is practical at all for homid
garou, who make up the overwhelming majority of Garou.
This rite spiritually ties an object to a garou.a garou to spiritually
tie an object to his or her
body. When the Garou shifts form, the object melds with the Garou and
becomes an extention of the Garou in that different form. For instance,
leather gloves will transform to fur, possibly black fur, on the
forepaws of the lupus form of a Garou. In addition, these objects will
cross over into the umbra with the Garou and have a spiritual presence.
Most garou are particular about what they eat. Few
would subsist
exclusively on Twinkies, Jolt cola, fast food, and whatever happens to
be in the upper strata of the dumpster that day. Likewise, most Garou
tend to be particular about what they bind to (put into) their
spiritual being. Because Rite of Talisman Dedication
spiritually
binds an object to a garou, garou tend to avoid dedicating things that
might spiritually contaminate them. It would be unwise to bind a vial
of toxic waste to yourself, and many garou consider the binding of
technology to oneself to be a means of becoming Weaver-tainted. Most
garou--save perhaps Glass Walkers (or ragabash)--probably wouldn't
dream of Dedicating their iPod.
How much stuff can a garou dedicate? A
Garou's permanent gnosis
rating (NOT
Willpower rating)
indicates
how many objects that
Garou is able to dedicate: one object per gnosis point, but
larger or
complex objects may require more than one gnosis point. A large knife
or dagger would
cost 1 point. A sword would cost two. A dead body would cost 7+. A
motorbike, 10+.
There is an exception to this rule: GarouMUSH has a house rule that a
Garou may dedicate a "sensible set of clothes" for just one
point--rather than 9 points for two shoes, two socks, underwear, pants,
a shirt, and two earrings.
Most garou Dedicate their clothes first. Second on the list is
generally wither a hand mirror (for getting in to and out of the umbra
in a
pinch) and/or a simple weapon. The
clothes are 1 point. The mirror a second. A simple weapon a third. So
that's 3 points of gnosis already--which is slightly above average for
most homid garou cliaths.
As you've likely noticed, you can't carry much stuff into the umbra
even if you have a pretty decent gnosis score. That's
intentional.
Welcome to the spirit world: leave your mundane items behind.
Talisman dedication works only on one object, imbuing it (and just it)
with a
spiritual resonace. It is possible to dedicate a
small backpack like you'd take to high school (1 pt) and then put a
brick of C4 explosives and a detonator in it. However, once in the
umbra, unzipping the backpack will reveal only the ghostly,
almost-impossible-to-see image of the C4 and detonator--which can't be
grasped or removed because these items have not been dedicated and thus
have no spiritual presence. You didn't
spend the gnosis (1or 2 points for the C4 brick and 1 point for the
detonator) required for the items to exist in the umbra, so they don't
exist in the umbra. However, these items can be carried through the
umbra and then out to a different location in the realm--at which point
they are again accessible. Likewise, car keys and wallets in pants
pockets can be transported along with a garou rather than simply
getting dropped at the scene when a Garou steps sideways--if pants that
are holding these items were dedicated. But items in the pant pockets
are inaccessible in the umbra unless they were dedicated.
A gun that is dedicated can be brought into and used in the umbra.
But in order to actually have the gun shoot bullets in the umbra, each
bullet must have a spiritual presence or
the gun simply won't fire. The gun's hammer strikes... a spiritual echo
of a bullet and passes right through it, not firing. Click. A six-shot
revolver, with all six bullets,
costs
seven gnosis to dedicate and use in the umbra--with no reloads. (1
point for the gun and 6 points for 6 bullet = 7 gnosis total.) Of
course, you can also carry a six shot revolver loaded with 6 bullets,
but only the gun and the very first bullet is dedicated. In the realm,
you've got 6 bullets to shoot. If you go to the umbra, you've got the
gun and 1 bullet that can be fired--for the low, low cost of 2 gnosis.
If you shoot the bullet in the umbra and then reach back into the
realm, you'd once more be able to shoot the remaining 5 bullets in the
gun.
If a dedicated item is destroyed or lost, additional items can still be
dedicated. Basically, when the rite is performed, the items with the
closest proximity override the dedication of not-present objects. So if
someone steals your dedicated leather underwear, you can always just
dedicate a new pair. This "undedicates" your old leather underpants,
though. So if you get them back, don't go shifting in them or you'll
get one hell of a wedgie.
Talisman Dedication also allows a dedicated item to morph into or out
of the character's body when they shift forms. However, when the rite
is being performed, the garou must determine what form the object will
be in in each form. Dedicated objects cannot change forms without the
garou shifting, and in order to access an object in a form where the
object would otherwise be a part of the garou, the object must be
dropped, then the garou has to shift forms, then the object can be
picked up and used again.
For instance, Susie Garou has a klaive. She decides she wants to
Dedicate her
klaive so that it is a tattoo across her back in homid, hispo, and
lupus. She
wants the sword to be available in glabro and crinos--forms that can
use the blade and forms she'd likely take when getting into a fight
where the weapon would be useful. Susie cannot be wandering around in
homid, decide she wants her klaive, touch the tattoo, and have it turn
into a sword in her hand. If Susie is in homid and wants her klaive,
she must shift to glabro or crinos first--the two forms where the
klaive has not been made into a tattoo. If Susie wants to use the
klaive in homid form, she must first shift to glabro or crinos to have
the tattoo change into her klaive, drop the klaive so that it is no
longer touching her, and then shift back into homid. (Or Susie could be
all dramatic by shifting to glabro, grabbing the klaive, tossing it
into the air, shifting back to homid, and then catching the klaive.)
On GarouMUSH, we don't go asking everyone to detail in their GMINFO
that their sword (or whatever) is present in Form X, Y, and Z, but not
A and B. Just figure out what your character would do and make a note
of it in your head--we're all adults here.
Rite of Spirit
Awakening
"This rite awakens a slumbering spirit, and is also
necessary to open a
Moon Bridge to other Caerns."
So what does all that mean? Well, it means that this rite is performed
on the pathstone to open a moonbridge at a caern or, more commonly, an
object in the realm that hasn't been around long enough to develop its
own
spiritual presence. So this rite is useful for, say, awakening the
weaver spirit in a computer and then asking it about what kind of
information it is storing. (It might need to be bribed first before
giving up encoded or classified files, or threatened with "impromptu
tech support".) Or the spirit in a sword, awakened, would be slightly
stronger and tougher than an unawakened sword--but not worthy of Fetish
status. Herbs can be made more purified and potent.
This ritual either empowers a pathstone for the purpose of opening a
moon bridge or awakens and empowers an otherwise dormant/or ultra-weak
spirit. A 1-point expenditure of gnosis, representing a personal
spiritual investment from the garou performing the rite, is required to
complete this rite and awaken/charge the spirit.
Awakened spirits will eventually return to
slumber. The rite only buys
the spirit 1 day of "life" for every point of gnosis expended by the
garou performing the rite. If used on a pathstone to
open a moonbridge, it ends once the moonbridge is closed (usually just
10 minutes). After the rite expires, the spirit goes dormant again.
They're just too weak and young to survive on their own--especially in
the realm.
Awakening a sidewalk in a park might give an indication as to roughly
how many
people walk on it and in which direction, and a basic idea of when they
come that
way based upon the amount of sunlight that warmed the cement and the
number of people that trod across it. (A cement sidewalk spirit would
have no other concept of time and its primary means of sensing things
would be pressure and heat--not sight.) If you want to know who was in
the area
recently, an awakened video camera spirit would prove helpful in
providing descriptions. An awakened fire in a trashcan could tell you
what it'd burned or cooked recently--or give a description of who
warmed themselves there recently.
Awakened spirits have limitations on their perceptive and communicative
abilities that tie in with their nature. A sidewalk cannot tell a Garou
if a man in a yellow suit walked over it thirty minutes ago, nor could
it tell the Garou that he met with another man named "Bob" and they
talked about whether sheer or ultra panty hose felt best. It might be
able to tell a Garou how many people walked over it recently and in
which directions and if anyone was unusually heavy or light.
This
rite is not is a means of awakening a spirit and learning detailed
accounts as to what transpired in or around an area--it's more like
potentially getting a clue of pseudo-forensics evidence, if the right
question is asked of the right kind of spirit.
Obviously, performing this kind of ritual in a
public place, and
any resulting interaction with a spirit in the physical world, is going
to be obvious, possibly considered a veil breach among certain parties,
and potentially attract unwanted attention of normal people and
supernatural entities that might be passing by in the realm.
Spirit Awakening is a level 2 rite and therefore takes twenty minutes
to perform, minimum. One of the powerful aspects of the rite is that
the
awakened object has both a spiritual and physical presence, so it also
essentially awakens the spirit in a manifested (in the physical world)
form. This slightly enhances the object within the realm. An Awakened
knife is the very essence of a sharp knife and will do slightly more
damage (+1), and it wants--even
needs--to cut things. An
Awakened door is harder to break down or force open.
Rite of
Binding / Making Talens
This level 1 rite is incredibly complicated and only
experienced ritualists can learn it. It is also a huge exception to the
rule where it takes 10 minutes minimum per level of the rite to
complete. This rite generally takes anywhere from half a day to months
(or even years) to perform. On average, Rite of Binding usually takes
about a week or two to complete for an average-grade talen. Truly
powerful talen making is likely to be the centerpiece of a major story
involving a good portion of the sept and taking months or perhaps even
a year or more.
All attempts at binding or talen-making must be run past a spirit
wizard prior to beginning the process. If your talen was not approved,
it doesn't work.
Talens are not made lightly nor for frivilous purposes. Imagine that a
spirit materialized in the realm, walked over to your Garou PC, and
said this:
"Hi! I'd like you to help
me out. I need you to get into this
inescapable box here. Then I'll lock you in
there for some indeterminent period of time, and you'll just have to
trust me
when I say that I promise to let you out later. While you're in the
box, you'll be asleep and not able to do anything at all--you won't
know what's going on or be able to react to anything that happens to
your box. I'll cart you over into the strange
and inhospitable umbra. Then, at a later date, probably in the middle
of a really big battle, I'll release you from your confinement and you
must leap out and use one of your gifts at whatever I point at,
regardless of whether you want to or not. Then you're free to
go--assuming I don't actually get killed in the battle, in which case
you'll likely be picked up in your box, totally helpless, by our mutual
enemy, who
will very likely torment you, keep you imprisoned as long as possible,
or corrupt you so you become one of them."
Every time a Garou attempts to enlist a spirit to be bound into a
talen, this is basically what is being asked of that spirit. Spirits
therefore do not like to be bound into talens, and will often ask
significant favors of Garou who wish to make a talen--generally
carrying out deeds
for these spirits in the realm (where it's hard for them to reach),
gifts of gnosis, furthering a cause of the spirit, or maybe enlisting
the garou temporarily as personal thugs in going off to thump some
other spirit so it can't be directly linked back to the spirit agreeing
to be bound.
Basically, creating a talen is generally equivalent
to running an ONS (hence another reason why wizardly approval is
important).
The reason that many spirits will even agree to a binding at all is
because a talen allows a spirit that otherwise could not cross over to
the realm--or would have to spend a great deal of energy crossing
over--to perform a single attack/effect in the realm once released.
Unlike the Garou, who can all travel between worlds, the majority of
spirits cannot.
Garou do not make talens for use in the umbra except in very rare
instances. Why? It's less costly and time consume and far more
effective to simply ask an umbral spirit for aid or assistance. A free
spirit is capable of far more than a bound one, so binding a
talen for use in the umbra is simply very, very inefficient use of both
the Garou's time and the spirit's. This is also why spirits are
generally bound in the umbra--it's rare (and a huge waste of a spirit's
power reserves) to manifest in the realm to be bound by a Garou.
The process for making a talen, on an IC and OOC level, is as follows:
IC: Come up with the desired effect a talen will have.
IC: Determine what kind of spirit is likely to be able to make that
desired effect, how easy said spirit will be able to find, and what
kind of bribe/barter/exchange will be offered. (Having Spirit Speech
in addition to Rite of Binding is highly useful.)
IC: Determine what an appropriate and respectful vessel for binding
that spirit would be. (These are often hand-made artifacts by the garou
or rare or unusual objects found in nature that will take some time to
discover--i.e. for binding a glass elemental, a piece of glass obtained
from a lightning strike onto sand.)
IC: Estimate how long it will likely take to do all of the above as
well as how long the spirit is to be bound ("expiration date").
Generally, two weeks is about as long as most spirits are willing to be
bound. Longer periods of time will cost the Garou more time, efforts,
and favors--or risk the emnity of the bound spirit once it is released.
IC: Come up with a plan of action for doing steps 1-4 above. Generally,
a person creating a talen will want additional garou assisting in the
rite--if for nothing other than helping to protect the character during
the lengthy binding process taking place in the umbra.
OOC: +mail the spirit wizards with all of the above and wait for
approval before starting things IC. Wizards may modify the effects of
the talen or better clarify its effects.
IC: After gaining approval, roleplay the talen making process.
OOC: After the process is completed, alert the spirit wizards with a
+mail and a reminder of the agreed upon effect and expiration date for
the talen. Wait for a +mailed response from a wizard. Like +learns,
talen making attempts might fail at the wizards' whim, and sometimes
they don't work quite like intended. The more effort put into making
the talen, the more experienced the garou, and the more the
talen-making contributes to RP for people assisting in the process, the
less likely this is to happen.
IC: Go enjoy your talen!
If a spirit is kept bound in a talen past its expiration date--the date
the spirit was promised to be let go--the spirit inside rapidly begins
to distrust the garou as a whole--and the garou that bound it and lied
to it in particular. Don't be too surprised if the Garou PC gets
attacked or ambushed or tricked by the spirit at a later date. And if
multiple spirits are mistreated in this fashion, word of this
particular garou's offenses spread and it becomes more and more
difficult for the offending garou to bind any kind of spirit.
Some garou, particularly those that are in a hurry and have no other
alternative, may bind spirits in
a short period of time--perhaps half a day. This involves obtaining
almost any object--even an inappropriate one--to serve as a binding
object, locating an appropriate spirit to get the desired effect, then
beating the spirit until it is helpless and can be bound to the talen
using a 10-minute ritual. This process is typically only used in times
of war or in utmost emergencies, as the bound spirit will most
assuredly be very angered by this blatent mistreatment and disrespect.
While one or three low-powered angered spirits are not too much of a
concern for a capable Garou that doesn't visit the umbra much, and they
may be able to make up for the
transgression afterwards, this practice becomes very dangerous over
time or if the ritual involves more powerful or respected spirits.
It's extremely unwise to forcibly bind spirits from your own tribal
totem without an amazingly good reason.
The reason that talen making is so complex is that this level 1 rite is
far more powerful than all other level one rites, and even most level 2
and many level 3 rites. Otherwise, characters with this rite would have
a distinctly unfair advantage over other characters and everyone and
their brother would be tripping over themselves to get their hands on
this rite.
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