Black Furies

*“You dare condemn us for standing as a sisterhood? For choosing to help women first? Yes, women shouldn’t need our help. Gaia shouldn’t need Her Furies. But they do. Now stand the hell aside before I show you real pain.”*

The Black Furies are the living incarnation of a woman’s anger. They are the daughters of Luna-as-Artemis, the Huntress of the Moon. Their legends trace their origins back to Greece and Asia Minor, where they were appointed defenders of the Wyld. Wherever there are tales of women who take up arms for honor, vengeance or blood ties, the spirit of the Fury dwells.

The Furies are almost exclusively female. Any human or wolf cub of a Fury who breeds true is sent to another tribe for adoption; Pegasus, their tribal totem, will not accept male Garou. The sole exception is the male metis: Pegasus accepts these disfigured sons, perhaps out of mercy, perhaps out of a desire to ensure the Black Furies remember their own misdeeds. To make up for these losses of potential tribemates, the Furies actively recruit disaffected and angry female Garou who chafe under another tribe’s banner.

The tribe holds that women are worthy of respect, honor, sometimes even veneration. Though no Black Fury will suffer the hand of a man acting as master or tyrant, the tribe isn’t united by active misandry. Certainly some Furies will never forget or forgive. But others are willing to accept men as partners, helpmates, lovers, equals — but nothing more than equals. Lupus Furies have less of an immediate connection to the hardships of human women, as female wolves have no real discrimination to bear, but they are deeply tied to the Wyld and learn great empathy for their human and homid sisters.

Hatred claims the hearts of many Furies, but it’s not a tribal virtue. The true tribal virtues are honor, pride, the mysticism of the Wyld, and the will to exact change. A Fury aspires to keep her word, to stand tall rather than bend a knee, to guard and exult in the wildest places, and to fight until her dying breath to make the world a better place.

The Black Furies’ tribal rituals emphasize tradition and sisterhood. They hold private tribal moots frequently. Kuklokhoros are informal moots, often where the Furies conceal their werewolf nature and invite human women to attend and learn the particulars of woman’s spirituality. Ulaka magelis are more exclusive moots, open only to the Furies themselves. These meetings involve more physically, mentally, and emotionally demanding rituals, exposing the raw and bleeding heart of a wolf-woman’s oaths to Gaia.

Like other tribes, the Black Furies gather in like-minded camps internally. The Furies call their camps kukloi, or “circles.” Each kuklos answers largely to itself, although all must be held eventually accountable to Inner and Outer Calyxes, the high councils of the tribe. The Outer Calyx is the more public one: the elders who sit on this council are publicly initiated with much ceremony, and their names spread across the tribe. The Inner Calyx is more of a mystery (or a mystery cult), its members and their directives unknown to the tribe at large.

Ancient tradition and modern attitude frequently clash within the tribe, though they aren’t always at odds. Black Furies grow up aware of the many evils afflicting women around the world. Elders and cubs alike participate in struggles against modern slavery, sex trafficking, abuse, and other offenses that are all too persistent. A generation gap still persists in the tribe — many of the elders are crones who, if rumors are correct, are at least a hundred years old, and with the setin-their-ways stubbornness to prove it. Some cubs know nothing of the Wyld places, and want to focus their efforts on the Scabs where they grew up and where their sisters are still suffering. But all the Furies are united in their Rage

## History

Furies mistrust written records, seeing them as tainted from the Weaver's webs. Thus they trust solely oral records passed on from mother to daughter. This makes much of their history more myth than certainty.

### Early History

The legend passed down from early times says that the Black Furies were originally created by the moon goddess Luna, in the incarnation of the Greek goddess Artemis, and appointed as the protectors of the Wyld and avengers of the worst crimes against Gaia. The first pack of the Black Furies, the Medusae or Gorgons embodied the five Auspices and saw themselves as the unconscious "Hand" of Gaia. They settled the territories around the Aegean Sea. In time, this first pack became ancestors and then a collective totem for their descendants.

The Black Furies claim that they were the force behind the Impergium once they discovered that Man had learned how sex and childbirth correlated and reacted to this knowledge by subjugating Women and Children as property. Many Furies protested against the Concord and formed the proto-Bacchantes to continue their work of avenging crimes against women and children.

Much of their oral traditions is intertwined with Greek myths: The Furies believe that the Titans were the offspring of Gaia and a personification of the Weaver, and that their reign was an age of harmony and prosperity. The reign of the Twelve Olympians was seen as fall from this Golden Age corrupted by imbalance and patriarchy, but the intercession of their Tribal Totem Artemis, who walked among the Olympians, convinced the Black Furies to coexist with them. The Furies are the *Erinyes*, the infernal goddesses of vengeance and hounders of those who violate women, children, and the wilderness. In their stories, it was the Black Furies that hunted Orestes after he had slain his mother and seized the administration of justice in Athens after Orestes had been pardoned by Athena (a figure the Furies regard as a representation of patriarchy).

Athena also sought to subjugate Pegasus, the new spiritual patron of the Black Furies after the last of the Medusae had died and Artemis had no longer the necessary resources to continue to act as a Tribal Totem. Athene's pawn, Bellerophon, had strife with the Red Talons and this inspired the story of the clash between the Greek heroes and the Chimera. When Pegasus became old enough to rebel against him, Bellerophon gelded it, which outraged Pegasus and led it to throw him off its back over the Aegan Sea. Afterwards, Pegasus landed in a Fury Caern and proclaimed that it would never again kneel before a male, but also spoke the edict to allow the male metis of cubs Furies to be accepted into the tribe (though it would take centuries until the Furies actually consistently practiced this). The Black Furies also take credit for the destruction of Sodom described in the Bible, in retribution for the gang-rape of Lot's daughters.

The Black Furies were among those Tribes, together with the Fianna and the Fenrir, that worked to end the Roman Empire. The Furies saw Rome as tool of the Patriarch and were happy to see it gone.

### Dark Ages

Through much of the early Dark Ages, the Black Furies fought against Christianity and its persecution of wise women and faiths that were closer to their ideal of the Mother Goddess than their own. The rise of the Order of Our Merciful Mother, which sought to subtly nudge Christianity closer to venerating Gaia (disguised as Mary Mother of God) or at least respecting women and nature, sparked bloody strife within the Tribe until several Elders managed to mediate between the Order and the other camps. During the Crusades, the Furies moved to end what they saw as the systematic oppression of women. The Tribe isolated itself from the other Garou Tribes in this time, fearful of contracting the Flaying Plague.

The practices of the persecution of priests brought the Black Furies and their Kinfolk under the scrutiny of the Inquisition. The misogynistic worldview of the witch-hunters did much to set the Furies against them. While the Furies themselves did not suffer during the Burning Times to the same extent of more vulnerable supernaturals, like vampires, damage was done to their Kinfolk nonetheless.

### Victorian Age

Multiple Furies fled from Europe when the Americas were discovered, hoping to find places untainted by Man to keep safe. Instead, they met the Pure Tribes. The Furies saw that multiple sacred sites, due to the low threat of the Wyrm, were defended by merely one or two packs and seized them for themselves. In contrast to other Tribes, the Furies were often content to use diplomacy to gain the approval of the Pure Tribes to safeguard their Caerns. Their non-aggressive style of negotiation ensured that the Black Furies were among those Tribes within the Garou Nation with amiable relations to the Pure. Other Furies tried to establish Caerns in the Amazon rainforest, but were met with heavy resistance from the local Fera that no amount of diplomacy could overcome.

As the Tribe was divided into two large territories, arguments between both factions began. The American Furies demanded more packs to hold the new Caerns and defend them against the ever-growing threat of Banes and other great threats like the Storm Eater, while the European Furies were unable to spare any warriors since the power of the Wyrm and the Weaver grew to disastrous heights in Europe following the Industrial Revolution and military conflicts.

### Modern Nights

The growing movement of emancipation again split the Tribe. Some Furies believe that women are still not liberated from the patriarchal yoke, while others contend that Woman has been liberated to the extent that modern woman prefer to act like men rather than actual women. Other points of contention are the issues of abortion, which some Furies condemn as the worst kind of crime a woman can commit against Gaia, while others see it merely as a symbol of woman's right of control over her own body. Ever strengthening these schisms are the influx of young Garou who see the Black Furies as merely excuses to swagger like the males of other Tribes, or an excuse to stomp on and abuse men, instead of preservers of the Mother's mysteries.

The European Furies have recently entered an alliance with Yuri Konietzko of the Shadow Lords to police the Balkans for Wyrm Taint. Multiple Furies were also involved in the battle against Baba Yaga and her servants in Russia.

The Central American and Southern North American, i.e. South of Oklahoma, Furies are experiencing a curious Wyld Plague. The Metamorphic Plague is responsible for a growing number of male non-metis in Furies at large. The disease is far more likely to affect the infected's psyche. The plague alters a fundamental principle within the person dramatically, i.e. turns a 180 degree arc on it. Personalities, memories, and even gender can change. Also around the time of the appearance of the Metamorphic Plague, Medusa, one of five Gorgons, disappeared. Medusa was the longest living and the most powerful of the Gorgons. The other four Gorgons have separated and become four distinct totems. What this means for the tribe at large remains to be seen.

## Appearance

Furies with strong Pure Breed have particularly dark fur in Crinos, Hispo, and Lupus, often with white, gray, or silver highlights. Pure Breed is rarer among Fury metis, as their fathers are inevitably of other tribes.

## Kinfolk and Territory

The Furies stake vicious claim to many of the last, secluded virgin places of the Wyld. Their spirituality is deeply tied to these sacred groves and islands, but necessity drives them to take territories in more humansettled lands as well. The Black Furies don’t practice much ethnic preference with their Kin. They’re prone to “adopt” the Kinfolk from other tribes’ bloodlines, specifically women who found themselves poorly treated by their relatives. They value their male Kin, even if a male Kinfolk is unlikely to ever participate in any of the tribe’s inner spiritual traditions.

## Tribal Totem

Pegasus. The great winged horse-spirit has a strong resentment of men, implying there’s some truth to the myth of Bellerophon. Some Furies use “the bridle of Bellerophon” as a poetic metaphor for the hand of Man as it tries to master the most sacred things of the Wyld. Other totems valued by the Furies include Panther, the Muses, and Medusae.

## Character Creation

Black Furies have a proud martial tradition, and encourage training in Brawl or Melee. Survival, Occult, and Rituals are also common among those entrusted with the Wyld places.

**Initial Willpower:** 3

**Beginning Gifts:** Breath of the Wyld,Man’s Skin,Heightened Senses, Sense Wyrm, Wyld Resurgence

## Organization

The Black Furies are ruled by the *Inner Calyx* and the *Outer Calyx*, composed of the oldest and most renowned Furies of the Tribe. The Outer Calyx is comprised of thirteen members who dictate Fury orthodoxy and set tribal customs. Officially, the Outer Calyx are chosen randomly by lot every year, but some Furies point out that metis are never chosen, and one incumbent has remained in the Calyx for several consecutive years. The Inner Calyx is much more secretive and comprised of five members, each mirroring one of the original Medusae as the epitomy of their respective auspices. No one knows how the members of the Inner Calyx are chosen; however, some claim that Luna herself has a hand in it. Their identities are absolutely secret.

## Camps

Different ideological breaks within the Black Fury tribe are formally measured by kukloi (singular kuklos) or “circles,” which fulfill much the same role as camps do in other tribes. While members of different kukloi might not see eye to eye, they don’t fight (at least not openly). Squabbles (and in the case of the Sisterhood and the Order of Our Merciful Mother, centuries-long tensions) occur, but the Outer Calyx frowns heavily upon inter-camp hostilities that become too outwardly obvious.

### Amazons of Diana

The Amazons of Diana rarely think or refer to themselves as a formal kuklos. Instead, the term refers to any Black Fury who is primarily concerned with proving her prowess in battle. Given a choice between enacting justice on a rapist or fighting some Wyrm-creature in glorious combat, Amazons will take the open battle every time. Although more conservative members of the tribe look down on them, Amazons are valiant and forthright. They are the first to defend the Furies’ honor against outsiders, and are the tribe’s vanguard in assaults against Wyrm holdings.

### Bacchantes (or Maenads)

A Bacchante fulfills her destiny by destroying the holdings and livelihoods of the worst violators of Gaia’s laws: rapists, serial murderers, matricides, and vast polluters. She brings personal, violent punishment to the criminals she discovers. These assaults are, hidden from the eyes of humanity, and the large-scale ones are frequently mistaken for natural disasters. While the Bacchantes (sometimes called Maenads) stand beside the rest of their tribe when a Nexus Crawler or vampire pack endangers a caern, they prefer to come down like a hammer from orbit on the planners and perpetrators of Wyrm-like crimes.

### Freebooters

The Freebooters’ mission is to find new Wyld places that can be consecrated to Gaia and made into caerns. The kuklos is shrinking because there are so few Wyld places in the world. A fraction of Freebooters believe they need to find a new body for Gaia elsewhere in the Umbra, somewhere the Wyrm has not yet found. The remaining members still dedicate themselves to finding hidden Wyld places in which to build caerns or once-holy places that they can reconsecrate to the Mother Goddess.

### Moon-Daughters

The Moon-Daughters’ rituals and doctrine echo modern New Age paganism, and they push themselves to keep Gaia’s spirit alive through change, embodying the force of the Wyld as best they can. Members effortlessly adapt the trappings of the modern world to fit their magics — inscriptions once traced on rock were sketched with a quill pen in the 1700s, and might be drawn on a laptop computer screen today.

### Order of Our Merciful Mother

When the Catholic Church spread throughout Europe in the wake of the Roman Empire, the Order chose not to fight this patriarchal tool directly, but rather to infiltrate and subvert it. The Order works to reform human society using that society’s tools — politics, the arts, and religion. Garou sometimes join a human religious order when they join this kuklos. This can cause internal conflict for the Garou, who must juggle serving God and the church they join while upholding their primary responsibility to Gaia.

#### Avenging Mother (sub-faction)

The Merciful Mother has gained a measure of trust within the Silver Fangs, who view that kuklos as a valuable conduit to mortal society. Tthe Avenging Mother (a small sub-faction of the Order) exploits that trust, spying on the Fangs’ intra-tribal weaknesses in hopes of bringing down the predominantly patriarchal tribe’s stranglehold on the Nation’s powerbase.

### The Sisterhood

The Sisterhood manages networks of contacts and information that rival those of the Gnawers or Walkers. Many also work as suppliers, able to obtain anything from guns and ammo to giants’ blood — for the right price. The Sisterhood came about during the Inquisition, when they spirited Garou, Kinfolk, and wise women out of the path of the Church and to safety. As they traveled, they discovered that the information they brought with them was as valuable to allied septs as another set of claws and teeth. They do less traveling now, but their information and item brokerage is an important tribal asset.

### The Temple of Artemis

As the most conservative Fury kuklos, members of the Temple are firm allies of the Bacchantes, and serve as the wisdom to that group’s Rage. They believe that the Furies must work as a cohesive whole and allow each of the other tribes to work on its own as well. To the Temple, cross-tribe packs are a travesty and violate Gaia’s apparent intentions in separating the Garou Nation into different tribes.

## Black Fury Caerns

* Sept of Artemis
* Sept of the Black Pegasus
* Blessed Home Caern (Congo, Africa)
* Blood of the Sea Sept (Black Sea, Russia)
* Sept of the Bloodied Stair (Kom ash-Shuqqafa catacombs, Alexandria, Egypt)
* Sept of Bygone Visions (Ecube, Greece)
* Dark River Caern (Congo, Africa)
* Sept of the Moon's Blessing (Cumberland Falls, Appalachia, United States)
* North Woods Caern (Northern Minnesota near the Canadian border)
* Namorrkan Caern (Arnhem Land, Northern Austrailia)
* Sept of the Hand of Gaia (Finger Lake National Park, New York)
* Sept of the Wind Rose (Mountains of Northern Greece)

## Tribal Culture

While many outsiders claim them to be the ultimate feminists and men-hating Amazons, the Black Furies think of themselves as providing opportunities to females who would have otherwise been oppressed. Instead of working through intimidation, the Furies are usually content to help women and children through persuasion and compromise. To those who offend them or hurt their charges, however, the Furies are merciless avengers and punishers of whatever they consider crimes. The personal views of each Fury vary greatly from member to member; however honor, their connection to the Wyld, and opposition to the Weaver tend to be constants for all members.

While the Black Furies present the face of a women-only club, they count a surprising number of male metis among their ranks. In spite of legends that say Black Furies only give birth to females, male cubs are born to Furies just as often as female cubs. They ceremonially sacrificed all male cubs in the past. Now, however, most are given to other tribes, while the rest are secretly sacrificed. Most often, male homid and lupus cubs are given to the Children of Gaia.

Furies can either be born into the tribe or recruited from other tribes, particularly ones that show little respect to women such as the Get of Fenris. In part, the exchange of their newborn male cubs allows them to take away female cubs that are in dangerous circumstances.

### Political Culture

The Black Furies divide their roles and spiritual positions within the Tribe according to their age. Young Furies are considered "*Maidens*", as long as they have not birthed a child. The Black Furies believe that breeding is a sacred duty and gift, and carefully choose the fathers of their children. After that event, they are regarded as "*Mothers*". When a mother becomes too old to bear children, they are referred to as "*Crones*". Metis do not count for any of these roles.

The Black Furies have added several additional tenets to the Litany: "Suffer no abuse of Woman", "Keep the Wyld Places Pure", "Train the Weak, Protect the Helpless", and "Remember your parents". The last is a reminder that fatherhood and fathers are just as important as motherhood and mothers, and that Gaia demands equality between the sexes, not a matriarchy.

Although all Furies tend to operate with similar methods, there are lines of division in how much men are to be shunned. All Furies, no matter their view, will avenge a crime against a female. Older Furies tend to regard men more lowly than others in their tribe, viewing them as little more than oppressors and troublemakers. Despite this, they are among those Furies that are the first to point out that Man is half of the equation and should not be pushed away or denied. Younger Furies tend to have more liberal views regarding Garou in general and men in particular, and many are willing to work with males for the benefit of everyone; but there are several who have taken up rather misandric views and begin to lose themselves to their own Rage. These divisions are even present in the Gorgons, ranging from the man-hating Medusa and Isthmene to the egalitarian Helena.

### Religious Culture

As females, the Black Furies view themselves as having a closer connection with the Earth mother Gaia than any males. In exchange for their Gifts, private moots are held regularly as recognitions of these Gifts, and also to acknowledge the Tribe as a whole. Some Rites are open to Kinfolk and humans, but others, particularly the physically and emotionally exhausting *Ulaka magelis*, are exclusively for Black Furies. Some Moots also exclude male metis Furies.

While the main focus of veneration of the Black Furies is directed to Gaia and Luna (always in three aspects, Maiden, Mother and Crone, respectively), they recognize the power of the *Triptych* (their name for the Triat). To them, the Triat are the Moirai, with the Wyld personified as Klotho, who spins the thread; the Weaver (whom the Furies refer to as the "Namer") personified as Lachesis, who measures the thread; and the Wyrm as Atropos, who cuts the thread. The chief enemy of the Tribe is considered an entity known as the "*Patriarch*". Some Furies equate the Patriarch with the Wyrm, others with the Weaver, and some even with the Abrahamic God. They consider it not an embodiment of fatherhood or manhood in general, but an incarnation of sexism and the abuse and oppression of women. In contrast, the Furies revere the Wyld as a force of femininity, of instinct instead of the intellectual abstractions of the Weaver (and regarded as masculine by the Tribe). The Wyld is the force that keeps the cycles of Gaia and Luna moving and complements them.

## Sterotypes of Other Tribes

### Bone Gnawers

They defend people who need them, same as we do. Shame they often aren’t as courageous about it.

### Children of Gaia

Trustworthy. There’s a reason males of our blood usually go to Unicorn when Pegasus won’t have them.

### Fianna

It’s good to have allies who take the joy of life as seriously as the necessity of war. Pity they favor the former a little too much….

### Get of Fenris

I can’t stand anyone who thinks being stronger means being better.

### Glass Walkers

They’re examples of both why it’s important to have friends in the Scabs and why we can’t trust anyone else with the Wyld places.

### Red Talons

I understand their anger, but they have too much of it. A rabid wolf is a danger to her own pack.

### Shadow Lords

If you have anything a Shadow Lord wants, keep it a secret. They don’t want our burden, of course — but keep quiet about the grottos hidden around them.

### Silent Striders

They go almost everywhere and see almost everything. It’s easy to dismiss a wolf without a territory, but listen to them.

### Silver Fangs

A dying tree with many rotten branches. A few are still strong and healthy, but those last are hard to find…

### Stargazers

Navel-gazing at this late hour might find the answers we’re looking for, but what if it doesn’t?

### Uktena

Like us, they know wisdom is found in many lands and many hearts. But we know better than to go delving in the darkest places…

### Wendigo

We can understand what it’s like to suffer and to have Kin who suffer. Pity they see us as part of the problem, too.