Black Spiral Dancers

*"You'll understand. Once you pass the gates, your senses will be opened. You'll smell the reek of rotting wounds, hear the voices under the skin of the earth. You'll see the truth about the world when the illusion is torn away. Come dance with us. You'll understand."*

The Black Spiral Dancers are the only werewolf tribe to have wholly turned to the Wyrm. Some show signs of degeneracy from an early age, acting out through displays of violence and madness. Like some Garou, many have survived childhoods troubled by suffering or abuse. The tribe’s inherited madness and psychopathic tendencies inevitably increase after the trauma of a Black Spiral’s First Change. Once they’ve rejoined their brothers and sisters, most react poorly to the abuse they receive from their Kinfolk and others in the tribe. Their new extended family includes werewolves who (for whatever reason) have abandoned their former tribes, accepting this one. Recruits then corrupt their souls through a blasphemous ritual known as the Rite of the Black Spiral: an initiation ceremony that intensifies and fully subjects them to the Wyrm’s corruption. Occulted in darkness, the Black Spiral tribe has remained hidden for millennia, passing on powerful Gifts empowered by the Wyrm and a never-ending hatred for Gaia and other Garou.

Millennia ago, this tribe was known as the White Howlers. These whitefurred werewolves were cousins of the Fianna, roaming the lands we now know as Britain and Western Europe. In the highlands of Scotland in the first century A.D., they lived among Picts north of Hadrian’s Wall, isolated from the rest of Western civilization. White Howler Kinfolk were known for their unrestrained fury and brutality, as tales of their heathen rituals became the stuff of legend. White Howler cubs proved their worth not only by defeating physical foes, but by going on spiritual journeys into the depths of the underworld. With typical Garou arrogance, they believed they could face the most horrific creatures of the spirit world and return unscathed.

Their greatest arena was a realm known as the Spiral Labyrinth, visited through a perilous journey they referred to as “walking the spiral.” The deeper they descended, the more imperiled their souls became, as they ventured further into the infernal realms of the Wyrm than any other tribe in existence. Spiritual corruption was like a cancer spreading throughout the tribe, as more and more of them abandoned their original tribal totem, the Lion. In the modern age, the tribal totem has long been abandoned, as the White Howlers’ legacy was ultimately corrupted by the Wyrm. Before the fall of the Roman Empire, the last White Howlers were dragged down into the Spiral Labyrinth after a valiant last stand at the infamous Sept of the Mile-Deep Loch.

Today, the tribe’s name comes from the labyrinth that ultimately destroyed the now-extinct White Howler tribe, replacing them with fanatics known as the Black Spiral Dancers. Rituals of “walking the Black Spiral” are still used to initiate cubs and wayward Garou into the tribe. Degenerating into this downward spiral is a soul-scarring journey, as it is still hidden in the depths of the Wyrm realm called Malfeas. Each petitioner must betray the associates of his former life, forsake his former spiritual beliefs, and most importantly, descend into madness.

Black Spirals possess a wide array of mental disorders, ranging from insidious hidden delusions and phobias to overt and disturbing outbursts of mental illness. Even if a Black Spiral cub is separated from its own kind, the werewolf’s downward spiral into insanity is inevitable. This doesn’t mean Dancers are non-functional, however; Garou seem to think so because the most self-destructive Black Spirals are used as shock troops against Gaian packs and septs. At their best, functional Spirals are cold and calculating psychopaths capable of infiltrating and subverting human society, and even passing as Gaian. The most obvious manifestation of the tribe’s psychosis is an enduring hatred of all Garou — an obsession that defies all reason.

Like Garou, Black Spiral Dancers run in packs and gather in numbers. Just as the Garou have caerns, Black Spiral Dancers thrive in Hives, whether they’re toxic hellholes no one would dare approach or subterranean tunnels hidden from vigilant enemies. The tribe has its own camps, rituals, and moots, many of which are dedicated to the three hydra heads of the Triatic Wyrm and its many subservient Urges. Public ordeals of victimization and orgiastic rites are common. Despite this, a Black Spiral pack can choose to remain isolated from the rest of the tribe almost anywhere, as long as they faithfully obey the whispered commands of the Wyrm.

Metis Garou are common in Black Spiral packs. Some are recruited from those who resent their second-class status in the Garou Nation; others are born into a tribe that willingly breeds metis to bolster their numbers. Black Spiral reproductive rights allow absolute freedom. The tribe’s orgiastic practices are perverse and frequent: outbreeding enemies is a biological imperative. The Black Spirals easily outnumber any of the Thirteen Tribes of the Garou Nation. Metis deformities, like other deformities, are proudly displayed.

## History

The origins of this tribe can be traced back to the days of the Roman Empire, when legions of soldiers struggled to build a nation that would place Rome at the center of the known world. In distant lands, generals conducted campaigns against chaos and barbarism. After 80 CE, their most valiant enemies were the fierce tribes of Scotland and Northern Britain. While the southern tribes quickly fell before the Roman advance, the stalwart defenders of the north held off the assaults of the Romans for over two centuries.

Hadrian's Wall marked the furthest limit of this empire with a boundary of stone and mortar. The edifice was originally constructed to defend Roman settlements from the raids of the northern tribes. On the north side was Caledonia, where dozens of tribes warred incessantly against each other. To the south, the furthest outpost of the empire served as refuges for Roman civilization.

The last defense of the northern caerns depended on the White Howlers, a fanatic and dangerous tribe stalking in the Scottish highlands. Long after the Impergium, the Howlers remained isolated in Northern Britain. This desolate landscape was also home to the Picts. Legends tell of a hero named Cluid who led them on an epic journey to these lands - thus, their descendants referred to themselves as "The Children of Cluid" or "Cluithi." The greatest Pictish warriors became Kinfolk to the White Howler tribe.

Aided by Pictish Kinfolk, the Howlers were truly awesome in battle. They demonstrated courage and ferocity in action. Their greatest totem, Samladh (pronounced SAU-lah), represented these qualities. While Roman centurions hid behind armor and shields, the Picts often fought in the nude, proudly displaying warpaint and tribal tattoos. Invigorated by the chilly Scottish winds, they raced each other across Roman battlefields, screaming horrible war cries. Many warriors painted themselves a fierce shade of blue before battle to draw upon their deepest energies. This use of warpaint and tattoos inspired the Roman name for their tribe: the "Pictii" or "Painted Men."

The white-furred Howlers fought without restraint, reveling in savagery and brutality. Ancient rituals and violent Rites of Passage had made them incredibly vicious. The most arduous of these rituals involved spirit quests into the darkest reams of the Umbra. Cubs proved themselves not only by defeating physical foes, but also by descending into the dark heart of the underworld to prove their worth. The greatest arena for these ordeals was a Malfean realm known as the Spiral Labyrinth. Picts knew the spiritual tradition of confronting these spirits as "walking the spiral"; Howlers used Gaia's blessings to travel further into the spirit world than any human mystic ever could.

While the White Howlers were masters of shocking violence, the Wyrm's legions were more subtle. Many thought that continual assaults on the realm of Malfeas would strike at the heart of hell, weakening the Wyrm's strength and purifying the bawns of their caerns. Unfortunately, Banes from outside the Malfean labyrinth had already begun to seduce and possess their Pictish Kinfolk. Slowly, they tainted the Picts, stunting their growth and corrupting their minds. While the werewolf rulers of the tribe maintained the purity of their own blood, their Pictish Kinfolk became bestial and degenerate.

From this point on, legends differ. Some modern Galliards believe that the Wyrm's servitors spawned in the Scottish moors faster than the White Howlers could slay them. Others relate that a few enemy spies within the northern septs betrayed the Howlers to their undead enemies. Allegedly, vampires and the Garou they subjugated opened Moon Bridges to call down diabolical allies. In these tales, the loyal White Howlers were completely overwhelmed and the Wyrm's assault completely eradicated all traces of the tribe.

Though the original tribe is indeed extinct, these stories are not entirely correct. By completely abandoning themselves in combat, the White Howlers' Rage became utterly uncontrollable. Their beliefs also insisted on the tradition of descending into the Malfeas to improve their spiritual insight and martial prowess against the Wyrm, placing them at spiritual risk. By following these two practices, the White Howlers succumbed to the Wyrm's temptations.

As their heroes' journeys into darkness became more perilous, the warriors who returned understood many dark mysteries of the underworld. Blasphemous revelations tested their sanity. In glimpses of insight, some survivors argued that the Wyrm was not a force of corruption, but merely one of Balance. Those who rejected this idea responded with overwhelming Rage, but as the Howlers indulged in violence, forces unseen preyed upon their Kinfolk. The tribe was never destroyed from without. It was corrupted from within.

By the time Roman legions finally broke through the Picts' defenses, the vampires who came with them were unprepared for what they found. The White Howlers had descended further into corruption than their Cainite invaders. To secure the freedom of their homelands, many within the tribe had made dark pacts with infernal forces. After witnessing the true nature of the Wyrm, they willingly opened gates and portals leading to infernal depths. These spiritual visionaries destroyed those who questioned their desperate defense of their homeland. By the time the Romans arrived at the first corrupted caern, hellspawn waited to shatter their minds and consume their souls.

The last caern to fall was the Sept of the Mile-Deep Loch, an island where the purest members of the tribe ruled over the White Howler werewolves. Elders looked out over the bleak moors of Scotland from a high peak at the center of the lake. When they learned of their brethren's treachery, they tried to summon reinforcements from distant septs, but by then, it was too late. Outsiders could do little but watch as wave after wave of Wyrmish forces assaulted the sept's defenses.

When the sept was finally defiled, black tendrils reached out from the depths of the lake and dragged the tribal elders into the underworld. Destiny awaited them in the greatest gateway to the Spiral Labyrinth, a Malfean fortress known as the Temple Obscura. There, the last heroes of the White Howlers prepared for spiritual corruption.

In the weeks that followed, the Romans were driven back past Hadrian's Wall, but at a perilous cost. The Picts had secured their Scottish homelands again, but their Garou guardians had fallen prey to the conqueror Wyrm. The caerns of the north became breeding grounds for Banes, which werewolves immediately bound into Wyrm-tainted fetishes. Eventually, the elders of the tribe returned from their final journey into the depths of Malfeas, but when they did so, they emerged as werewolves of the Black Spiral tribe.

### Dark Ages

In their early struggle, the Black Spiral Dancers were mostly confined to their Scottish territories. The arrival of Caledon the White from the Silver Fangs started several campaigns against them, in joint ventures with the Fianna, who had learned of the fate of the Howlers through one of its last Tribe members, Coruroc; and with the Get of Fenris. Unfortunately, these three parties squabble as much against each other as they fought the Wyrm-tainted Spirals. Garou and Kinfolk bred with the tainted lines of the White Howlers and amassed enough Wyrm taint that they deserted their former tribes to join the Black Spirals in their tunnels.

The Tribe itself mostly expanded its underground network, digging tunnels that connected them with the mainland and by 1230, they had come as far as Eastern Europe. The Black Spirals mostly consorted with lepers during this period, taking them under their wing and instructing them in the way of the Wyrm as a means to get revenge at the people that had shunned them. Many were also used for experiments to create fomori or breed special Banes to carry the disease on.

The Black Spiral Dancers were hit hard by the Inquisition and mostly forced back into their underground tunnels. Most took this as a lesson and dedicated themselves to the preservation of the Veil, if only to protect their own interests. During the Age of Exploration, quite a few Hives emigrated to the New World, to find new places of corruption to nurture away from the eyes of the Garou Nation.

### Victorian Age

The Black Spiral Dancers thrived in the colonization of America, mainly in the conflict between the Pure Tribes and the Europeans. Black Spiral cultists practiced foul rituals in the woods, stalked the unprotected colonies, and sought foolish mortals to abduct and suborn. By infesting carefully chosen Europeans with Wyrm-taint, they brought fresh blood into the sinister black covens of their Kinfolk. Men and women of weak virtue were also offered places of honor in the tribe's orgiastic procreation rites.

One of the greatest legends of the tribe's unholy activities concerns the village of Roanoke. There, Black Spirals harried and hunted the isolated colonists for months, summoning Banes to spread madness and hatred. The demented werewolves performed the bidding of the Eater-of-Souls, an aspect of the Wyrm that physically manifested itself in the fields outside the colony. Its efforts continued until the members of one Garou tribe — the Croatan — overcame the local Black Spirals and sacrificed themselves into the very maw of the Wyrm. Despite this, the entire village was destroyed. Though human history does not offer an account of this tragedy, the bloodshed that resulted is recorded in the Garou epic known as the Croatan Song. Others made careful alliances with other creatures of corruption, namely Sabbat vampires on the Path of Evil Revelations.

### Modern Nights

After the dawn of the 20th century, the Black Spiral tribe found another method of spreading the Wyrm's influence. Wherever the Earth is poisoned, Banes thrive. By spreading toxic waste, radiation, and filth, these warriors' "ecoterrorist" activities despoiled and corrupted the Wyld. In recent years, Black Spirals have begun infiltrating extreme environmentalist organizations as part of this crusade, exploiting the hatred of truly fanatic activists. The advent of Pentex and its associated subsidiaries also aided their cause, especially when Walks-in-Sewage managed to organize several biohazard strikes across the American East Coast. During the mid-1980s, the first Black Spiral Dancers climbed the corporate ladder and begun to insert themselves into Pentex in ways beyond simple skirmishes.

The evolution of the Black Spiral Dancers continues. Only a century ago, the Black Spirals only formed about one-fourteenth of the world's werewolf population. Now they're equal to one-tenth of the Garou population, easily outnumbering any other tribe. The Black Spirals are the only tribal society that is growing instead of decreasing, thanks to their uninhibited breeding practices, recruitment of discontent and outcast Garou, alliances with other supernatural factions, and higher birth rates.

## Appearance

Modern Black Spirals are a mockery of modern werewolves. Most possess minor mutations and other forms of disfigurement that hint at their corruption. This might be due to pollution, corruption, or radioactivity near their place of birth. In Crinos form, Black Spirals are frequently afflicted in some way: their skulls may be malformed or their jaws might slaver. A Dancer’s eyes typically burn an unnatural shade of red or green. Their fur is filthy, gnarled, or patchy; the most common shades are dirty black or a sickly, greenish white. Garou recruited from other tribes appear as corrupted versions of their former brothers and sisters. Many Spirals are deformed in some way, since nearly half the tribe is metis. A few exceptionally rare and exotic Black Spirals have the pure white fur of their White Howler ancestors.

## Kinfolk and Territory

Black Spiral Kinfolk aren’t the most stable individuals. Sanity isn’t their strong suit, and emotional stability is a struggle. Most are used to conditions of financial adversity and questionable hygiene, supporting themselves through marginal jobs and living in squalor. For reasons they never fully understand, they are inexorably drawn to the Wyrm’s corruption. This may result in a lifestyle “improved” by a variety of spiritually harmful products created by Pentex and its many subsidiaries. To keep an eye on these relations, some Black Spirals manage to secure work for them in those same corrupt companies. There’s certainly no guarantee of employment, however. Some Kinfolk stray into what may seem like perfectly ordinary homes and lifestyles; that makes the moment when their dysfunctional tendencies finally manifest far more shocking than they would normally appear.

Black Spiral Dancers have relatively few lupus for a tribe their size; they rely more on breeding metis. Their wolf Kin live miserable lives in captivity, kept in small preserves at best and in the depths of Hives at worst.

## Tribal Totem

Most Black Spiral Dancers serve the tribal totem of Whippoorwill, a spirit of ill luck and ruin. In addition to their eerie wolf calls, Black Spirals can emulate the bird of the same name.

## Character Creation

**Initial Willpower:** 3

**Background Restrictions:** Almost any Garou Background is allowed, although they tend to manifest in more sinister ways. Pure Breed is restricted, except in cases where all five dots are purchased, representing a throwback to the original White Howler bloodline.

**Derangement:** The Black Spiral breaks the minds of those who dance it. Each Black Spiral Dancer has at least one overt or covert form of insanity, represented with a Derangement.

**Beginning Gifts:** Bane Protector, Resist Pain, Resist Toxin, Sense Wyrm, Shroud

## Organization

Black Spiral Dancers are organized into septs called Hives. Caerns where they raise their young are called Pits. Black Spiral Dancers have lived underground among foul and cancerous children of the Wyrm for centuries. Their Hives are nestled amidst labyrinthine cave systems, most of which are filled with industrial waste and monstrous things.

## Black Spiral Dancer Caerns (Hives & Pits)

* Hive of the Glowing Sea, (northern coast of Russia near Novaya Zemlya)
* Hive of the Unleashed Atom (Ukraine, site of the Chernobyl disaster)
* Hell's Hand Hive (Amazon Rainforest)
* Spider's Bile Hive
* Hive of the Thrashing Serpent (Giza, Egypt)
* Klakthu (near Paulina Peak, Oregon)
* Exxon-Vladez Oil Spill (Alaskan coast)
* Hive of the Boiling Sands (Port Said, Egypt)
* Hive of the Corrupted Flesh (abandoned brothel in King's Cross. Sydney, Austrailia)
* Hive of the Jagged Maw (Umbral)
* Hive of the Melted Sands (Southern Austrailian Outback)
* Hive of the Poisoned Lungs (under Wittenoom, Western Austrailia)
* Ranger Hive (under Ranger Uranium Mine, Northern Territory Austrailia)
* The Nameless Tower (West 6th St., New York City)
* The Temple of Our Father the Destroyer (umbral reflection of an empty lot in the Bronx)
* Trinity Hive (in the gut Gram'maw)
* Vzrozhdeniye Hive (Renaissance Island, in the Aral sea between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan)
* La Be'te Noire (Atchafalaya Basin)
* The Swallowing Caves (San Luis Valley Colorado and New Mexico)

## Organization

Black Spiral Dancers are organized into septs called Hives. Caerns where they raise their young are called Pits. Black Spiral Dancers have lived underground among foul and cancerous children of the Wyrm for centuries. Their Hives are nestled amidst labyrinthine cave systems, most of which are filled with industrial waste and monstrous things.

## Camps

The Spirals are monsters set high among the ranks of the Wyrm’s forces, bound together by pacts with avatars of dark and terrible gods. Tasked with hunting and bringing down the most dangerous prey the world has to offer, they find many paths to pursue this agenda.

The Black Spirals are manifold, but they tend to fall into several categories. The Garou would recognize these divisions as camps, but the Spirals reject the natural structure and authority inherent in camps. Any of these three combinations may exist together, either in packs, or in culture-crossing individuals. This sometimes gives Spiral packs a wide array of complimentary attitudes and skills, but more often produces broken, dysfunctional packs, their natural cooperative instincts tainted by Wyrmish self-interest.

### The Aristocratic Wolf

These Spirals are members of high society, and stalk wherever the elite gather: social galas, art gallery openings, fundraisers, opening nights on Broadway, anywhere they might obtain a necessary alliance or primary advantage by doing so.

The aristocratic wolf enjoys these circles for the thrill of walking amongst his prey in human skin, listening to their vapid lies and empty dreams. The Spiral exults in deceiving these people into believing he is of their kind, and in wooing them into opening their hearts, their homes, their checkbooks, or their legs for him.

Some Spirals find such connections useful in both the acquisition of real estate and the accumulation of personal wealth, in which duper’s delight or the possible chance to eat or fuck a one-percenter is just a bonus. On more rare occasions, the Black Spiral Dancers are keyed into the clandestine movements of the Garou through hearing about stories of improbable industrial sabotage, strange acts of eco-terrorism, animal attacks or otherwise. Some few Spirals have even come into possession of occult artifacts through hapless collectors who had no idea what danger they were in.

Finally, the aristocratic wolf shapes the herd around him to suit the Wyrm’s design. Political reformers are easy targets for corruption, seduction, or to take home, and devour. There is no top-down change for the better in a city where aristocratic wolves have come to dwell, and they find few Garou capable of challenging them in the arena they’ve made their own.

### The Corporate Wolf

Pentex employs a number of Black Spiral Dancers.

On the ground level, a Black Spiral Dancer might never see corporate headquarters. These Spirals are street soldiers, warehouse security and sometimes even truck drivers. Spirals who become upper level Pentex employees have far more to offer to the company. Though they provide necessary muscle to the boardroom, their uses are far more eclectic and varied. They might be recovery specialists in a physical sense, overseeing industrial or sales-level operations, or they might specialize in digital security, detecting and dealing with spiritual malignancy that can travel through electrical circuits, telephones, or the internet.

Some few Black Spirals even become department heads in charge of all manners of business. Such Black Spirals typically occupy positions where killing or fighting are almost a guarantee, such as hazardous dumping operations, drug or weapons smuggling, or any on-site operation that is of an extremely sensitive nature.

All Spirals located at corporate headquarters are expected to commune with spirits on behalf of Pentex, to establish rapport and open negotiations, or to serve as oracle, passing down the Wyrm’s vision to his mortal associates.

### The Big Bad Wolf

Making up the majority of the tribe, these Spirals are mostly self-directed and specifically not connected to Pentex, although they may moonlight as aristocrats. The Big Bad Wolf pursues his own pleasure and gain, regardless of whether it will hurt the Garou or not, though a wise Spiral recognizes that striking at the Garou when the opportunity presents itself is far preferable to letting them attack in full force.

Hardline Bad Wolves that follow the will of the Wyrm usually fall into this category. They are the most dangerous of the Black Spiral Dancers, and the least pluralistic. Trying to reason with them is futile, and they often have little interest in material gain or in living as gods as many of their contemporaries do. Rather, they seek to hasten the end of the world by doing whatever harm they can, with the Garou as their first and foremost target. Such Spirals can be trusted to look down on their brethren who take a more cerebral, less spiritual approach to hurting the Garou, but it is a mistake to write them off as bullies and fiends. Some such wolves are quite charismatic, and stoke the Rage in their fellow Spirals white-hot, reminding them of the rightness of maiming and destroying Garou lives and ravaging their Kinfolk.

Less hardline Big Bads only wish to revel in their monstrosity. They might attack the Garou for hatred, for sport, or for some sick measure of vindication, believing themselves to be guiding the lost little wolves to the only correct conclusion. Failing that, they might enjoy giving them their errant cousins the mercy of the Apocalypse they are so willing to die for. If nothing else, such Spirals may simply enjoy killing something that thought itself mighty.

Overall, Big Bad Wolves focus less on the Garou than the accumulation of power. That power might come in the form of wealth, political prestige, or luxury — living in grand old houses, moving through lovers, and experiencing all the thrills the world has to offer. Alternatively, it might come through the accumulation of spiritual might in service to the Wyrm, collecting fetishes and the dark blessings of mighty Banes. In either case, Big Bad Wolves don’t come by these things through honest hard work, so when the blood flows it always helps to be a monster the world doesn’t believe in.

There are no limits to what such Spirals might do.

### The Princes of Ruin

Less of a camp than a widespread philosophy, the Princes of Ruin maintain that the war for the Apocalypse is over and finished. They preach a mantra of self-indulgence, claiming that the dying corpse of the world is now theirs to rule over and treat as they like, or at least it will be, once they mop up the rest of the Garou and help them realize that they are already dead. Princes of Ruin set their own self-indulgence over active service to or veneration of the Wyrm, or claim that as the triumphant champions of the Corrupter, indulging their own base instincts is categorically worship of the Wyrm.

More devout Black Spiral Dancers regard the Princes of Ruin as slackers, apostates, and insipid decadents, picking and choosing from the tenets of the Black Spiral Litany for their own benefit rather than that of the Dark Father. The Princes of Ruin regard the more traditional Spirals as rustics and religious fanatics; violence between the two philosophies is common.

In truth, the Princes serve the Wyrm whether they intend to or not. Their souls are shattered and drip with the Wyrm’s poisons, and the urges they indulge push the world deeper into the Corrupter’s talons. Arrogance and self-interest serve the Wyrm’s needs just as well as any other vices.

## Tribal Culture

The Dancers are quite insane, and usually sadistic; however, the Wyrm has given its slaves terrible powers of their own, as well as a violent hatred for the Gaian Garou. The average Black Spiral Dancer has a short and violent life, their goals bringing them into direct conflict with the remaining Garou tribes.

Black Spiral Dancers roughly resemble other Garou; however, many of them are malformed, either through metis birth or close proximity to the radioactive balefires of the Wyrm. The heads of their Crinos forms are often huge and slaver-jawed, resembling a hyena's, while their ears are frequently hairless and pointed like a bat's. Their eyes are huge and round, glowing with red or green luminescence, while their fur is patchy and usually either albino-white, grayish-green, or jet-black. Black Spirals' human forms are usually twisted and deformed, but some are quite beautiful.

### Political Culture

As a group, the Black Spiral Dancers blame all other Garou tribes for abandoning the White Howlers when they descended into the depths of the Earth and refusing to save them when it became clear that the future Black Spirals Dancers would find only madness there. While it is a rare Spiral that actually survives from those days, this belief does translate into who the dark tribe targets for recruitment; they will happily offer revenge to any werewolf who joins them.

The Black Spiral Dancers may revel in their uninhibited passions, but they are not without guidelines. The Dark Litany stands as a means of unifying the disparate Hives and spiritual allegiances into one consecutive Tribe.

In their arrogance, the Gaian Garou have written the Spirals off as puppets and handmaidens of the Wyrm, monsters more vicious and personal than Banes, but monsters nonetheless. The Spirals, however, are creatures born of two parents, an unholy union of blessed Mother and dark Father. Even if the Wyrm should fall silent under the Weaver’s webs, the Black Spiral Dancers will exist as the living seed of his acrimony. The insidious truth is that the Black Spiral Dancers owe much of their existence to Gaia. It is through their connection to her that they may carry on the Wyrm’s war and the Wyrm’s mission even if the Wyrm ceases to matter. Through their connection with Gaia, the Spirals have discovered a breed of spirits that precede the natural world, superseded by the course of nature. These spirits are rare, vast, and immensely powerful; they dwell in darkness and are older than biological life. The Spirals venerate these beings and seek to rouse them, much to the chagrin of the Garou.

### Religious Culture

The Dancers' totem is Whippoorwill, whose mad call the Dancers emit during their hunts. They name themselves after a mysterious Labyrinth that exists in the realm of the Wyrm; they are said to "dance" this Black Spiral to gain dark powers and wisdom. Indeed, to dance the Black Spiral and survive is considered by the Black Spiral Dancers to be the most sacred of feats.

The practice of "dancing the Spiral" to find communion with spirits can be traced back to many ancient spiritual traditions, including those of the Picts. Led by the guidance of their spirit totems, those who walked the spiral could commune with the elemental forces of the world. As part of this, saner Black Spirals profess that the Wyrm originally represented a force of Balance, not only between the Weaver and the Wyld, but between light and shadow. The Wyrm's servitors prevented either force from growing too powerful and upsetting the balance of creation. When the Weaver trapped the Wyrm, this balance was shattered. To being anew, the Pattern Web has to be torn down and the world be reduced into its basic components.

The *Chronicle of the Black Labyrinth* presents a complex theology. The ultimate goal of all Black Spiral Dancers is to enter the Black Labyrinth and confront their 'Urge', a negative emotion that binds them to the physical world. Confronting, acknowledging, and transcending one's Urge frees one of material constraints, and allows union with the 'Soul of All', the Dancers' name for the Wyrm.

W20 presents an additional perspective: To the Black Spiral Dancers, the Apocalypse has already happened. They believe Gaia is in Her last throes and that the Garou merely protect a corpse. Nothing they can do will avert this. The Black Spirals believe this utterly and live accordingly, without restraint and wild self-aggrandizement. In the past, the Black Spiral Dancers defined themselves through continual guerrilla war against their Garou counterparts. However, this more recent stance has proved a thousand times more potent. Though they still plot, plan, and attempt to destroy the Gaian Garou, they outwardly profess the pointlessness of the struggle, because the battle has already been decided. This has the twofold effect of rendering the Garou’s courageous piety moot, as well as sapping the resolve of the most exhausted, battle-weary werewolves. That some of them choose to fight on regardless is a source of constant frustration for the Black Spiral Dancers.

## Sterotypes of Other Tribes

Adrian Scala, a poet, writer, hate-monger, and Black Spiral Dancer, rose to prominence for a publication he circulated among the tribes of the Garou, revealing his nihilistic manifesto as well as his origin: born of a Spiral Kinfolk mother to a Shadow Lord father. He voluntarily walked the Spiral when he was thirteen, while members of his tribe were debating, in secret, (or so they thought) to have him killed, and while the Black Spiral Dancers were banging down the doors.

It was a selfless act, he said, one intended to save the family that had thrown him away. However, it taught him much about himself, and afforded him great intrigue. According to his own words, Scala held communion with the Wyrm for thirteen years, only emerging when he was 26. During that time, he claimed to have met and guided a number of powerful Garou, who had come deep into the Spiral to seek the wisdom of the Wyrm. Many of these were Garou who were now powerful and influential members of the 13 tribes. Certainly, his words inspired wrath and unleashed conflict among the Garou. Still more Black Spiral Dancers emerged to say they recognized his face or his voice, from dreams, or in the fleeting memories they held of the Labyrinth, in which he aided them.

In any case, Scala’s reputation has guaranteed him an audience, and his opinions and writings are widely circulated and hotly debated, both by Spiral hives and by those Garou who believe there is power in studying the works of the enemy. Below are his thoughts on the Garou tribes, thoughts that reflect the identity of the Black Spiral Dancers, and how they view their erstwhile cousins.

### Black Furies

We absolutely cannot abide this tribe. They are the Gorgons and the Medusae, the eyes and hands and cunts of Gaia, and more than any other Garou, we must view them all as a threat. These are the embodiments of the Great Mother herself; no other Garou is closer to her will or her essence. Which is why we must conquer them, break them down put them on their hands and knees where they belong. It is only natural, it is only right. If they are the Mother, Gaia, then we are the Father Wyrm. Claiming them would show the Garou Nation the inevitability of what we are. Our line is superior and we will breed them out. Best of all, we’ll be taking what so many Garou men have long wanted but have been so long denied.

The Black Furies are warriors born, unhindered by the poisons of testosterone-fueled minds and masculine social constructs. They are the purity of Gaia, of controlled Rage and the Wyrm suppressed and bent. Think about the power of their thighs and abdomen, taking you in as they writhe beneath you. Be sure to let the next Black Fury you meet know that this end is the ultimate culmination of her lifetime of hard training: to be your bitch. Better yet, drag one of your female Kinfolk from her hovel and throw her out in front of the nearest Fury sept so you can watch them go to pieces over whether to kill her or whether to give her shelter.

### Bone Gnawers

There’s a good reason the Garou hate these motherfuckers. For those living so close to the underbelly of the Wyrm, they prove remarkably resistant to walking the Black Spiral. Perpetually shat upon, and living in a constant state of betrayal, these lowlife subhuman scums aren’t intelligent enough to hate the Garou. Rather they persist in the places many Spirals must occupy: slums, sewers, and places of urban blight, where our folk run across them constantly. The fighting is bitter, but perhaps we should salute them, the motliest of all the Garou, for their tenacity. They aren’t afraid of getting their hands dirty, and they wallow in a state of blissful don’t-give-ashit and that makes them deadly to us.

### Children of Gaia

The Children of Gaia? Sam Haight was the best thing they ever produced. I will say this about them: those shit-stirs and fence sitters might be the smartest of the Garou, manipulating other tribes onto the front lines while they stay safe in their “communion” with the Mother. Don’t think for a second that other Garou don’t notice. In fact, if you ever have the pleasure of dismantling a pack, leave any Children of Gaia alive, but kill the rest. Let the idea that these cowards let the other Garou do their fighting while they skulk and hide become a reality for the Garou Nation. The less organized they are, the better.

### Fianna

Once upon a time, these were our closest cousins, and in their deepest heart of hearts, they want to live the way we do. Drink, fuck, and fight: that’s the real Litany their hearts sing out. But they sit around, and they tell each other stories until they’re all wound up to go charge off and die for nothing. For pride and glory. Everything they really want, they put on hold. They keep it all in, and it makes them sick.

We know a lot about that, the rot in the arrogant heart of the tribe. Every year, more Fianna metis dance the Spiral in their hearts, and we’re always willing to take them in. The Fianna are too proud to own any of their shame. They don’t acknowledge their lusts, and so hate the children born of them; they don’t acknowledge they left the White Howlers to stand alone, and so they hate us. But we remember, and we’ll never stop making them pay.

### Get of Fenris

Mother’s fiercest warriors. They never talk about the time we invited them to a fight, and they declined to show. They think we sacrificed ourselves in some noble death-charge, rather than going in alone because the Get were too lazy to help.

Like the Black Furies, the Get are a reflection of us, only twisted in a different way. They have the monstrous strength and tremendous fighting spirit of the White Howlers, and the crazy fuckass wolf-spirits and thralls of Fenris at their backs, painting them a legacy of invincibility borne out through war. They like to think they’re unstoppable, and every year sees another Get dickhead slinging a Spiral pelt over his back, but they aren’t telling the whole story, the story of how they helped make us and set us free. How every year we get bigger, badder, and worse. Now there’s more than a few of us stalking whole packs alone, going Grendel on those motherfuckers. And they ain’t got no Beowulf to save them. Beowulf walked the Spiral a long time ago.

### Glass Walkers

Cities are the Wyrm’s scales shed upon the Earth. The Glass Walkers are a problem, because they’ve learned to thrive in the world to come without shedding any of their Gaian delusions. That makes them crazy, but it also makes them good at hiding among the sheep. Lots of times, the hardest thing about dealing with Glass Walkers is figuring out what to hit in the first place. That’s the bad news. The good news is, we have all those same strengths, in greater abundance, and the city is more inviting to us than it is to them.

### Red Talons

They are quite possibly our greatest allies, but they do not know it. They do not know they can be tempted. We can give them back the world, the green Earth, the blue planet, free of this plague of humanity, a world in which the towers of the mighty have toppled. The Red Talons need only give into their Rage, and to see how the Garou have held them back and betrayed them, prevented them from getting at man’s neck. It is man, after all, who feeds the Wyrm. Man’s hatred, man’s malice, man’s lies, man’s depredations, man’s greed, man’s fucking hubris. What is so great about man? Only the Wyrm. The Wyrm is man’s sick prize. If man is the universe’s attempt to explain itself, then cancer is an explanation of man. Spiral brothers, tell the wolves: “Kill the man-kind, and your world will be free. The wind will carry your howls across the unsullied plains. Without man, the Wyrm will die.” They will look at you askance and know that the seed of the Wyrm lives on in you, but they’re too stupid and too haughty to be scared. They’ll like what you’re saying because it’s what they want to hear, and they’ll think to themselves: “When the world is quiet, and man is gone, we’ll hunt the Spirals in the night until the last of the Wyrm’s kin dies. And then the world will be ours, and all will be at peace.” That won’t happen of course, by then, that wonderful stock of lupine Kinfolk will be inextricably ours, members of our global pack.

### Shadow Lords

It’s easy to pull someone’s strings once you know what they want, and Shadow Lords are the tribe of want. Usually they want to be powerful, respected, in charge, and their own tribe pushes them to grasp any advantage to succeed. We will always find Shadow Lords willing to cut deals with us to get what they want. They will always be planning to do away with us later; they will always assume we’re going to stab them in the back and figure they’re one step ahead for having figured that out.

Honestly, if they could just get over their delusions of noble struggle, they’re a lot like us. They see what they want, and reach for it with both hands. Sometimes you’ll find a Lord who can finish connecting the dots the rest of the way and see the figure they describe is the Spiral. That doesn’t make them our friends, though; if they came over to our side en masse, they’d just want to be in charge of us. So, sure, feed their ambitions whenever they seem likely to cause unrest for the other Garou, then blackmail or ruin them. We keep playing the game because it works out for us even when they think it works out for them.

### Silent Striders

The best thing about swift messengers is that they tend to travel alone a lot. The worst thing is that all that stringy muscle makes for poor eating.

### Silver Fangs

Glorious kings, leading the charge in an imaginary war! Nothing stirs up the anthill like a dead Silver Fang. Oh no, the noble wolf and/or arrogant bastard is dead, let us weep and tear at our breasts and/or fight over his shit.

Make no mistake; this tribe has the good shit. Silver Fangs are unmistakable thanks to their obsessively pure breeding, so if you ever down one, make time to loot the body. It drives the Garou wild if you show up wielding some mighty hero’s storied klaive. And their Kinfolk! Thanks for keeping the blood strong for us, guys. Sure, the tribe will go apeshit to get their Kin and toys back, but that just means you’re dictating their actions, and that means the opportunity for more dead Silver Fangs.

### Stargazers

These guys are close to extinction, and can’t get there soon enough. What’s a werewolf with no passion, no desire, and his fury bound up in chains? Nothing, not even a punch line. Just let the modern world finish erasing the Stargazers; unlike the Red Talons, they have nothing to offer us as they pass into history.

### Uktena

As for the Uktena, treat them the same as the Children — don’t kill an Uktena unless you have to. Many Garou already think of them as Spirals-in-Denial, and we want to feed that image to keep them alienated. Just know what you’re dealing with. These guys aren’t easy to seduce, and they aren’t easy to shock or intimidate. Some are as close to the Wyrm as we are, and are yet even more passive and unemotional, gazing into us like they know every corner of our hearts. It feels like being disarmed and dismantled. Nasty shit.

If you kill one, make him disappear. Try to come back wearing his face, walk into a sept, and watch it go to hell.

### Wendigo

Fucking badass warriors like the Black Furies, but most of them without half the testicular fortitude the Furies have. They have the potential to be our worst enemies or our greatest allies. For those of you who know our history, we used to look a lot like these guys once upon a time, but when our lands were poisoned and our people raped we went apeshit and danced the Black Spiral. Guess there weren’t any bars or casinos in old Caledonia? Next time you get a hold of a Wendigo, show him a mirror, and tell him he ought to be angry about the complicity of society in his tribe becoming what it is. He ought to thank you for showing him a way down the Spiral; it’s the only way to salvage what’s left of his pride.