Glyphs and Howls - Glossary of the Garou Nation

A:
Adren: A pupil or a student who learns from a Mentor.
Ahroun: The auspice of Full Moon, depicting a Warrior.
Airts: The magical paths within the spirit world (e.g., Spirit Tracks, Moon Paths, etc.).
Aisling: A journey into the spirit world.
Ajaba: Werehyenas.
Anamae: “Soul-friend”; most often a bond with a pack totem.
Ananasi: Werespiders.
Anchorhead: A spirit gate between the Near and Deep Umbra, often guarded by veteran werewolves.
Anruth: A Garou who travels from caern to caern but is bound to none of them.
Apocalypse: The age of destruction, the final cycle, the birth of death, the everlasting corruption, and the end of Gaia. A word used in Garou mythology to describe the time of the final battle with the Wyrm. Many consider this time to be the present.
Athro: Teacher, Mentor.
Auspice: The phase of the moon a werewolf is born under; most often thought to imply a role given to a werewolf at birth by Luna, the moon. Most werewolves accept this and try to live up to it.
Awen: The sacred Muse, the creative impulse. Some say she is a spirit, but she has never been found. Moon Dancers go on quests for her periodically.

B:
Bane: An evil spirit allied to the Wyrm, most often a corrupting element.
Bawn: A boundary area around a caern, patrolled and monitored carefully.
Bastet: Werecat.
Battle Scar: The garou nation respects those that have physical proof of battles fought, so scars earned in combat are often celebrated and can influence the werewolf's renown.
Black Furies: A tribe solely made of female werewolves, dedicated to protecting wild places and women.
Black Spiral Dancers: A fallen tribe of werewolves that have been fully corrupted by the Wyrm. Often inbred and always dangerously unhinged from the trauma of "Dancing the Spiral", a ritual where the tribe forces their members to pass through a Wyrm realm known as the Spiral.
Blight: A place utterly corrupted by the Wyrm that reflects the corruption in both physical and spirit realms.
Boli Zousizhe: A Chinese tribe of werewolves, often considered to be an off-shoot of Glass Walkers, but not part of the Garou Nation.
Bone Gnawers: A tribe of outcasts and mongrels, considered largely as the least honourable of Garou Tribes.
Breed: The parentage a werewolf is born into, be it human (homid), wolf (lupus) or the infertile mutant that is the offspring of two werewolves (metis).
Brugh: Any sort of mystic place, whether a Garou caern or a Wyrmhole. Often a glade or cave located somewhere in the wilderness.
Bunyip: A fallen tribe of Australian aboriginals that fell under the assault of western garou tribes during the War of Tears.

C:
Caern: Places of spiritual importance where the gauntlet between real and spirit is thin and that Garou have set up a protective totem spirit. These places are of immense importance to the werewolf nation that will be defended at all costs.
Celestine: The greatest spirits; the closest things the Garou have to gods. Examples are Luna (the Moon) and Helios (the Sun).
Changing Breeds: All of the different races of werecreatures, most of them given birth to by Gaia and Luna, in the present day, after the War of Rage, only the werewolves remain in any real numbers.
Charach: A Garou who sleeps with another Garou or has done so in the past. Often used as a word of anger.
Charms: Special abilities that Spirits are capable of.
Chiminage: A form of “favors done for services rendered.” A werewolf may perform a task as chiminage in order to repay a spirit for teaching him a Gift, or to repay a sept for allowing him to use its caern.
Children of Gaia: A tribe often thought of as peace-loving pacifists that have forsaken their Rage.
Cliath: A young Garou, not yet of any significant rank.
Concolation: A great moot, wherein many tribes gather to discuss matters that concern the Nation of Garou.
Concord, The: The agreement all the tribes reached nearly 9,000 years ago, after which the Impergium ended. Its traditions are still obeyed today
Corax: Wereravens.
Corruption: The act of destroying, devolving, or debasing life; also, the often overwhelming effects of the Wyrm’s actions. In the present age, it often refers specifically to the ecological ruin humans wreak upon the environment.
Crinos: The war-form of the werewolves, a nine-foot amalgamation of the worst qualities of man and wolf.
Croatan: A fallen tribe of American native werewolves that went into their doom to defeat an unknown major Wyrm monster or spirit.
Cub: A term for any werewolf that has not yet passed their Rite of Passage, regardless of actual age of the Garou.

D:
Deep Umbra: Far reaches of Umbra, the spirit realm. A dangerous place where raw ideas and thoughts become form and dreams become reality.
Delirium: The madness and memory loss suffered by humans who look upon a Garou in Crinos form.
Domain: A mini-Realm in the Umbra, usually connected to a larger Realm in the Deep Umbra.

F:
Fera: See Changing Breeds. : Garou term for shapeshifters other than werewolves; most are presumed extinct.
Fetish: An item imbued by a spirit, giving it supernatural abilities.
Fianna: An Ireland-originating tribe of storytellers and carousers.
First Change: The often traumatic experience where a werewolf first changes shape, for homids and lupus, this is always the Crinos-shape where the garou goes into a frenzy, often maiming, killing and even eating anyone who caused the initial aggravation.
Fomori: Humans or animals infested and possessed by a Bane, often horribly mutated, especially if faced with any threat.
Forms: The different shapes a garou can change into; Homid, Glabro, Crinos, Hispo and Lupus.
Fostern: Your pack brothers and sisters; those who are your family by choice.
Frenzy: A temporary loss of control, sadly common among the werewolves that forever struggle with their Rage, where the garou loses all control, most often turns directly into Crinos and attacks both friend and foe. Considered a highly humiliating moment among most garou, especially if the frenzied werewolf injures an ally.

G:
Gaffling: A simple spirit servant of a Jaggling, Incarna, or Celestine. Gafflings are rarely sentient.
Gaia: The mother spirit of all creation or just the impersonification of earth.
Gallain: The Kinfolk of the Garou.
Galliard: The auspice of Gibbous Moon, depicting a Moon Dancer.
Garou: A term the werewolves have adopted to describe themselves.
Garou Nation: A union of the remaining thirteen tribes of the werewolves.
Gauntlet: The membrane separating the physical world and the spirit realm that is thin in the furthest wild places and thickest in the heart of cities and science. Garou stepping sideways must breach it to either enter or exit the Umbra.
Get of Fenris: An incredibly warlike tribe originating from the Scandinavian and Germanic human tribes.
Glabro: A manwolf shape of the Garou. Possible to pass for a very large and muscular and hairy human in a bad light.
Glass Walkers: An urban tribe of werewolves that embrace technology over ancient rites.
Gnosis: A measure of a garou's connection to the spirit world.
Gurahl: Werebears.

H:
Hakken: A branch of the Shadowlords tribe that has separated from the Garou Nation and has instead joined the Beast Courts of the far orient.
Harano: A deep melancholy and a state of depression that frequents werewolves that have lost their packs or grown too old and jaded. Frequently leads the garou to seeking their death.
Hispo: An enormous direwolf-form of werewolves.
Homid: Both the human form and human heritage of a werewolf.

I:
-ikthya: “Of the Wyrm”; a suffix appended to a name.
Impergium: The 3,000 years immediately following the birth of agriculture, during which strict population quotas were maintained on all human villages by the Garou.
Incarna: A class of spirits; weaker than the Celestines, but still greater spirits by any measure.
Inceptor: A Garou who guides another through a rite. An inceptor is also called a ritemaster.

J:
Jaggling: A spirit servant of an Incarna or Celestine.

K:
Kenning: The empathic calling some Garou perform when howling.
Kin-Fetch: Spirits purposed to keep an eye on a human or a wolf suspected of being a werewolf before their First Change.
Kinain: The relationship among Garou who are related by blood through an ancestor. This term of endearment and pride is never used with Metis.
Kinfolk: Humans and wolves that are close relatives to werewolves, immune to Delirium. Often allies to werewolves, but can also be their bitterest foes if mistreated.
Kitsune: Werefoxes.
Klaive: The archetypical Garou Fetish weapon. A huge silver dagger used in the most dire duels and war.
Kucha Ekundu: A small African tribe of werewolves originating from Red Talons, not part of the Garou Nation.

L:
Litany: The code of laws kept by the Garou
Lupus: A Garou of wolf origin. Also the wolf form of the Garou.

M:
Membrane, The: The barrier between the Near and Deep Umbra. To breach it, an Anchorhead must be found. Alternatively, the Garou can travel through the Dream Zone.
Metis: The sterile and often deformed offspring of two Garou; generally reviled by Garou society.
Mokole: Werelizard.
Moon Bridge: A gate between two caerns; it most often appears during moots.
Moot: A sept or tribal conclave that takes place at a caern.

N:
Nagah: Weresnake.
Near Umbra: The spirit world surrounding the Gaian Realm.
Nuwisha: Werecoyote.

P:
Pack: A small group of Garou bound to each other by ties of friendship and mission as opposed to culture.
Pack Tactics: Tricks used in combat by packs of Garou where multiple members of the pack work together to seriously harm their foe.
Peeking: Peering into Near Umbra from the physical world or the other way round without having to move through the Gauntlet.
Pentex: One of the most notorious corporations that the Garou know is entirely in the thrall of the Wyrm.
Penumbra: “Earth’s Shadow”; the spirit world directly surrounding the physical world. Many, but not all, terrain features have reflections there.
Philodox: The auspice of Half Moon, depicting a Mediator.
Protectorate: The territory claimed and patrolled by a pack or sept.
Pure, The: The three tribes of werewolves originating in North America before the arrival of the western garou; Croatan, Uktena and Wendigo.

R:
Ragabash: The auspice of New Moon, depicting a Trickster.
Rage: The unnaturally powerful drive and anger at the heart of every Garou, usually contributed to Luna.
Rank: Standing of a werewolf amongst her peers, based on her renown.
Ratkin: Wererats.
Reaching: Traveling into the spirit world.
Realms: The worlds of “solid” reality within the Tellurian. Earth is often referred to as “the Realm,” implying its primacy.
Red Talons: A tribe consisting of only Lupus that still consider humanity as the greatest threat to Gaia. Rumoured to still uphold Impergium.
Renown: A measure of a werewolf's earned respect in the Garou Nation, divided into Glory, Honor and Wisdom.
Rite of Passage: A dangerous task every Garou must face to be accepted into their tribes and to be considered a fully fledged member of the garou.
Rites: Rituals of the Garou. Ranging from capable of powerful effects to simple acceptance of renown. Often take time and multiple Garou assisting in their performance.
Rokea: Weresharks.
Ronin: A Garou who has chosen or been forced to leave Garou society. It is a harsh fate to become a “lone wolf.”

S:
Sept: The group of Garou who live near and tend an individual caern.
Shadow Lords: A treacherous, often untrustworthy tribe originating from eastern Europe.
Siberakh: A small tribe of werewolves originating in the northeastern Russia and the very northernmost Americas. Uninvolved in the Garou Nation.
Silent Striders: A tribe of cursed wanderers originating from ancient Egypt, the only tribe to have been driven off from their homelands.
Silver: Lethal to werewolves, but also considered honorable to bear such cursed items if done to help the garou.
Silver Fangs: The most noble and preening tribe of Garou, present rulers of the Garou Nation, at least in their own opinion.
Skin Dancers: The hated and loathed "tribe" of Kinfolk that have learned how to steal the very essence of werewolves, enabling themselves to become one by skinning many of them.
Stargazers: Isolationist and inward-turning tribe of werewolves originating from the mountains of Nepal that seek individual spiritual enlightenment over the larger war of the garou nation. Rumoured to be soon leaving the nation and possibly following the Hakken into the Beast Courts.
Stepping Sideways: Entering the spirit world. Many elders consider this term flippant and disrespectful.

T:
Talen: A single-use Fetish.
Tellurian: The whole of reality.
Theurge: The Auspice of Crescent Moon, depicting a Seer.
Totem: A spirit joined to a pack or tribe and representative of its inner nature. A tribal totem is an Incarna, while a pack totem is an Incarna avatar (a Jaggling equivalent).
Tribal Camps: Internal groups within tribes of likeminded garou that often differ in opinion from the larger tribe at whole.
Tribe: Social groups based on shared heritage and ideals among the Garou Nation. Most tribes are originally based on specific aboriginal lineages of humans, but in the modern days, this is rarely the case anymore in most tribes.
Triat, The: The Weaver, the Wyld, and the Wyrm; the trinity of primal cosmic forces.
Tribe: The largest social unit of Garou. Tribe members are often bound by bloodlines, similar totems and lifestyles.

U:
Uktena: The first of the two remaining "pure" tribes, native northern American tribe, notorious for seeking and keeping secrets from the rest of the garou.
Umbra: The spirit world.
Urrah: Garou who live in the city; also, the tainted ones.

V:
Veil, The: A poetic term for the false assumption that the supernatural does not exist, which the Delirium reinforces.

W:
War of Rage: A time when the garou went to wage war against the Fera, the other Changing Breeds, hunting many to extinction and the rest into hiding.
War of Tears: The annihilation of the Australian aboriginal tribe of werewolves by western garou arriving to Australia with human imperialism.
Ways, The: The traditions of the Garou.
Weaver, The: Manifestation and symbol of order and pattern. Computers, science, logic, and mathematics are examples of the Weaver’s influence on the material plane.
Wendigo: A warlike "pure" tribe of north American werewolves still bitter of the arrival of Europian garou during the expansion of the west.
White Howlers: A fallen tribe from northern England that were corrupted into the horrific Black Spiral Dancers in their attempt to defeat Wyrm even before the arrival of the Romans.
Wyld, The: Manifestation and symbol of pure change; the chaos of transmutation and elemental force.
Wyrm, The: Manifestation and symbol of evil, entropy, and decay in Garou belief. Vampires are often considered manifestations of the Wyrm, as are toxic waste and pollution.
Wyrmhole: A place that has been spiritually defiled by the Wyrm; invariably a location of great corruption.