Stargazers Tribe Rites
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"For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream." |
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Tribe Rites
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Level 1
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Level 2
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Level 3
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Level 4
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Level 5
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Level One
Ancestor Veneration (Minor)
Source: WW3861 - Stargazers Revised p. 80
Description: As has been stated, Stargazers are often closer to their forebears and spiritual ancestors than most other Garou. They tend to erect and maintain sometimes simple, other times elaborate shrines to their antecedents, hoping to gain favor from them and elevate them above their once-living stations. Many Stargazers sit at these constructed shrines and pray in an effort to venerate their ancestors, partially to honor them, and partially to gain a greater connection to them.
System: The Stargazer's shrine must be composed of items appropriate to their ancestors - ancestral items, pictures, writings, or anything else that elicits an honorable and wise memory of them. If the Stargazer worships and prays at the shrine for at least an hour, every day, for a month, he may re-roll one die on any Ancestors roll (the second results stands, however) provided he makes an effort to continue venerating their ancestors daily.
Tea Ceremony (Minor)
Source: WW3861 - Stargazers Revised p. 80
Description: The Stargazer tea ceremony is both a social occasion and a meditation practice. It allows a Stargazer to center herself, both through uncomplicated conversation and through the calming simplicity of drinking hot tea.
System: The Stargazer must engage in the tea ceremony with at least one other person (they need not be a Garou) once a day for an entire lunar cycle. Should the Stargazer do so, she gains an extra die on all rolls involving understanding the motivations and desires of others. If the Garou misses even a single day's ceremony, she must start anew during the next lunar cycle.
The Rite of Meeting (Accord)
Source: WW3861 - Stargazers Revised p. 74
Description: The population of living Stargazers is growing thin, and as such, many of the tribe consider themselves fortunate when encountering a new (or previously unmet) Stargazer. This rite, known in India as the "Rite of Namah-te" and in China as the "Rite of Gong Xi," is meant to allow two tribe members to greet one another with proper respect. The rite is a traditional greeting that's been used for many centuries. Two Stargazers meeting for the first time place the flat of their palms against their chest, and bow their heads at one another. They hold the bow for as long as necessary, and then each Garou takes a small smear of ash or soil and anoints the other's forehead with it. Finally, both Stargazers utter a prayer to Gaia. The meanings to this ritual meeting are many. It is a wish for extended friendship, but in it is also the unspoken wish to have both minds joined in service to both Gaia (the Emerald Mother) and the Jade Emperor. Both Garou are equal in the eyes of those two cosmic forces, even if they are not technically equal in rank. In this meeting, egos are set aside and the two are -- however briefly -- conjoined in the service of Gaia.
System: A Stargazer may only enact this rite when meeting another Stargazer for the first time. If the two have met previously, the rite may be performed, but without any benefits. If successful, the Stargazer is considered two traits up on all friendly Social tests with the other Garou for the rest of the session. At ST discretion, using this rite when meeting a particularly prominent or spiritually significant Stargazer to the ritemaster may also grant a temporary Willpower Trait.
Level Two
Buying Back the Soul (Death)
Source: WW3861 - Stargazers Revised p. 77
Description: Also called the "Rite of Lalu-chilu," this rite is meant to help a Stargazer track the next incarnation of another of his tribe. Incarnations are important to the Stargazers -- when one dies, it's believed that, while their spirit may linger for a time, the Emerald Mother returns them quickly to the world to do her work once again. The quandary is then, so why aren't there the same number of Stargazers now as there were in the beginning? The problem is, new Garou aren't being born. The body is like a vessel, and while in the womb it sits, vacant of the ancestral incarnation. But the biology is already determined. While the ancestral spirit may "become" the new child, that new child is more than likely not a Stargazer werewolf. Hence, the incarnations are still being born, but into the bodies of kin, not Garou.
To perform this rite, the ritemaster must be present at the death of the Stargazer whose soul he wishes to track. Once the Garou has departed, this rite must be performed within twelve hours, or it will provide no answers. The one performing the rite mixes some of the fallen Garou's blood in a bowl with equal parts milk. The liquid must be stirred by the ritemaster's own fingers or hands, and then a piece of cake or bread must be soaked thoroughly in the mixture. The ritemaster eats the bread or cake, and when next he sleeps, he will be granted a vision of the newborn meant to house the next incarnation of the dead Stargazer. He will also be given a location, but no name or other pertinent information. Many Garou performing this will then seek out the newborn caught up in this transmigration of souls in the hopes that a kin-fetch spirit will be there and the child will be Garou.
System: The Stargazer must enact the rite as described above, with all conditions present. The player rolls Perception + Rituals, and the difficulty of the roll is the departed Garou's permanent Rage score. The greater the successes, the longer the vision. This allows the ritemaster to more clearly see details of the identity (or other pertinent information) regarding the child. At the Storyteller's behest, the player can roll a Perception + Investigation roll, with the difficulty being 10 minus the number of successes gained on the roll to perform the rite. This roll can allow the Stargazer to pick up on key details that may help her further track the child. Note that the presence of this rite does not guarantee that any given Stargazer will undergo a second incarnation; if all Stargazers reincarnated, the tribe would have no ancestor-spirits.
Rite of Knowing (Mystic)
Source: WW3861 - Stargazers Revised p. 77
Description: The Stargazers, ever on a quest to answer the riddles of the cosmos, often turn to divination to puzzle out some of the more oblique conundrums of the universe -- sometimes to even solve those questions that haven't yet been asked. There are many forms of divination available to Stargazers (or to anybody, really). Sciomancy is divination by shadows or darkness. Divination by smoke is called Capnomancy. Onomancy is the divination by the letters in a person's name. Tephramancy is divination by ashes, catoptromancy is divination by mirrors, and austromancy is divination using the wind as a guide. There are other popular divination tools, as well. The chosen form of divination ultimately doesn't matter, only that the Stargazer uses it and believes in it. The Stargazer lays out her divination tools as proper (which may involve throwing bones, dice, or standing on a peak and examining the winds). The items before her then literally become infused with their spiritual counterparts. Dice may begin rolling of their own accord, the winds may begin blowing and whispering in the Stargazer's ear, and ashes may hang suspended in the air and reveal a shadowy face. Secret truths are imparted to the Stargazer, though they are not particularly clear at first.
System: The ritemaster rolls Wits + Rituals (difficulty 7). She must perform the divination for at least the scope of an entire scene. Each success on the roll to perform the rite allows her to "collect" an additional Enigmas die that may be used at a later time. These added bonus dice do not need to be used all at once. (For instance, Matthias Heavens-Turning performs the rite and achieves four successes with translate into added dice for later Enigmas rolls. The next day he is trying to solve a particularly frustrating riddle given to him by his mentor, so he uses three of the four dice then. The following night he is stargazing, seeking truth about his own mission from the celestial bodies, and he adds his final bonus die to the Enigmas roll called for by the Storyteller.) The additional dice, if unused after 24 hours, go away. A Stargazer can only perform this rite once in a given week, and thus may not accumulate further bonuses by performing this rite several times in a row.
Vigor of the Departed (Death)
Source: WW3861 - Stargazers Revised p. 76
Description: Two things are important to many Stargazers: the veneration of their ancestry and the tamping down of uncontrollable rage. This ritual is an answer, somewhat, to both of these presumed Stargazer "duties."
With this rite (which can only be performed under the werewolf's own birth moon) a Stargazer calls upon his ancestors to help him understand some mastery (however temporary) over his anger, wrath, and fury. The Garou must sit in the middle of an empty room, or if outdoors must perform the rite where there are no people within sight. Then, the Stargazer must concoct a makeshift shrine to his ancestors, cobbled together of items that were important to his ancestors or somehow symbolize the departed. Finally, the Garou must also place two slips of paper, one in each palm. One these slips of paper, called kangshin, there must be written a list of her ancestor's names. From there, the Stargazer meditates upon her antecedents, and seeks enlightenment from those who have come before her.
Come morning the werewolf will find that her Rage has been lessened. The primal fury within has been dampened, and up until the next dawn of his auspice moon, the Stargazer can try to deny any frenzy with a simple memory of her ancestor's wisdom. The vigor of the departed is thus transferred, for a short time, to the Garou.
System: The Stargazer must perform the rite as described above. The player rolls Charisma + Rituals (difficulty 8). If even one success is obtained, the rite is successful. When successful, the Stargazer can attempt to deny any potential frenzy that may happen until the next rise of his auspice moon. The player may re-roll any failed frenzy check called for during the period; the results of the second roll stand. If the roll to perform the rite fails, nothing happens. If the roll botches, the Stargazer enters an instant frenzy that lasts for the remainder of the scene. This rite only functions when performed under the Stargazer's own birth moon.
Level Three
Rite of Rebalancing (Accord)
Source: WW3861 - Stargazers Revised p. 75
Description: This variation on the Rite of Renunciation has been all but lost -- though some Stargazers know it and see it as the only means to bolster their tribe's numbers. By means of this rite, a Garou of another tribe loses his tribal affiliation and instead becomes a Stargazer in blood, if not by birth. The Garou wishing to become a Stargazer may not perform this rite herself; it must instead be performed upon her by an able and willing ritemaster. In this rite, the ritemaster must take the Garou beneath the new moon and together they must stand in a body of running water (a creek, stream, or river will do). The ritemaster must, with a claw, etch the Stargazer glyph into the Garou's body, and let the blood mingle with the flowing water below. The Garou mustn't let this wound heal right away, and instead must allow it to scab over and become a natural scar. After seven days has passed, the Garou is now a full-blooded member of the Stargazer tribe regardless of her tribe of origin.
System: The rite is performed according to the description above. The player rolls Charisma + Rituals (difficulty of the Rage + 2 of the changing Garou, to a maximum of 10). The river washes away a Garou's tribe, and it also removes any semblance of Rank. Garou with this ritual performed willingly upon them begin at Rank 1. The Garou may keep the Gifts she has learned from her old tribe, but she is unlikely to learn any new ones except under very special circumstances. However, Stargazer Gifts are now available to her. The Garou may never return to her old tribe, nor will she ever gain favor again with her past tribal totem.
Rite of the Seed of Desire (Mystic)
Source: WW3861 - Stargazers Revised p. 78
Description: Desire, in and of itself, is unavoidable. Everybody wants something, and few Stargazers deny this. However, many Stargazers also openly deny their own desires, giving in only to the beneficial desires of others (or the desires of the world). Lust, greed, gluttony -- these traditional "sins" are also the seeds of desire that afflict all. Stargazers would seem the model of desire denial, and many of them are. Unfortunately, however, this repression also lends itself to the theory that every action has an equal and opposite reaction, and sometimes tamping down one's own desires causes them to pop up later at twice the strength. The longer one denies, sometimes the harder it is to deny the sweet succor of want. This ritual helps curtail that, to a degree. When performed, it literally gives spiritual form to a Stargazer's desires, in the form of an Urge-Spirit. In the Umbra around the Stargazer the Urge-Spirit manifests and can thus be communicated with, defeated, or even bound into a fetish. If the spirit is thus diminished, so are the Stargazer's prevalent "bad" desires. This rite is only performed on those Stargazers found truly desirous of negative things, however. For instance, a Stargazer with a bad chocolate habit or unrequited love in his heart doesn't usually count as one who is besieged by negative urges. Only those Stargazers who are plagued by grievous desires (or who have already given into them) are the subject of this rite. A Stargazer who is addicted to pain medication (or, alternatively, pain) is a good choice, as is a Stargazer with a dangerous love of money, women, or alcohol. The ritemaster must spend at least eight hours in the company of the 'afflicted.' After the eight hours is complete, the ritemaster must speak the mantra of desire (Aum-Klim) over the subject before blowing bone dust in the subject's face.
System: The rite must be performed as above. The player rolls Charisma + Rituals. The difficulty begins at 10, and is reduced by the number of Willpower points spent. Both the ritemaster and the subject of the rite can spend Willpower to reduce the difficulty of this roll. The successes achieved determine the temperament and demeanor of the Urge-spirit that manifests according to the following results:
| Successes | Effects |
|---|---|
| 1 | Spirit comes eventually and is initially hostile |
| 2 | Spirits manifests quickly, but is still initially hostile |
| 3 | Spirit comes immediately and is neutral |
| 4 | Spirit comes immediately and is passively benign |
| 5 | Spirit comes immediately and is friendly |
If the roll botches, there are disastrous consequences. The Urge-spirit doesn't manifest, but becomes Wyrm taint that afflicts both subject and ritemaster.
If the Urge-Spirit is successfully summoned and dealt with, the subject is "clean" of the negative desire (although it may grow strong again if unchecked). If the spirit isn't successfully dealt with and is allowed to escape and return "home" to the Stargazer at the end of the scene, the subject loses on point of Wisdom renown, and the ritemaster loses two. The Urge-Spirit has the following Traits:
Willpower 7, Rage 9, Gnosis 5 Essence 20-30
Charms: Materialize, Blast, Corruption
Thaipusam (Accord)
Source: WW3861 - Stargazers Revised p. 75
Description: The rite called "Thaipusam" is an act of consecration meant to separate a Stargazer from the profane world and officially become part of the greater sacred sphere. Few Stargazers practice it; it's mostly prominent among the Stargazers of India, despite the fact that its origins actually lie among the native peoples of Malaysia. At its roots, Thaipusam is an act of ritual piercing. The Stargazer, after washing his hands in both milk and honey, then pierces his own flesh to insert a ring. While chanting the universal mantra (aum), salt is rubbed in the wound to heighten the pain and ensure that it won't heal over immediately. The ring itself needn't be made of any specific material, though many Stargazers favor simple rings of steel, jade, or hematite, though some decorate their bodies with more ornate trimmings. The bodily location of the piercing is also significant. many pierce their ears, lips, nipples, and some even go so far as to pierce genitals, the flesh around the throat, or bunches of pinched skin around the forehead. Many elder Stargazers can be seen with countless rings adorning their scarred bodies.
System: The player rolls Stamina + Rituals (difficulty 7). If the roll is successful, the ritemaster takes a single, unsoakable aggravated level of damage. For the month following the enacting of the rite, the Stargazer may freely step in and out of the Umbra without a roll. Merely concentrating on the cleansing pain of the Thaipusam rite allows her to ease between worlds with nary a thought. This rite may only be performed (for its benefit) once a year.
Level Four
Banishment of the Self (Accord)
Source: WW3861 - Stargazers Revised p. 74
Description: This rite allows a Stargazer to dampen her own ego so she may give aid to those closest to her (typically her pack or sentai). The werewolf meditates for an hour beneath the moon and continually recites the following in whatever language she chooses: "I give my body to the hungry, my blood to the thirsty, my skin to the naked, and my bones as fuel to those who suffer cold. I give my good fortune to the unlucky, and may the breath of my life restore the dying. Shame on me if I draw back from this sacrifice! Shame on all who hesitate to accept it!" Those she chooses to aid from this ritual find their spirits lifted and find a renewed sharpness to their minds.
System: The player rolls Strength + Rituals (difficulty 7) and must spend a Willpower point for each werewolf within her pack or sentai that she intends to aid with this rite. If she desires to extend the benefits of this rite to another outside pack or sentai, she must spend two Willpower points per individual not in her pack. For the next 24-hour period, those "gifted" with the advantages from this rite can ignore all wound penalties. At the end of that 24-hour period, the Stargazer who performed this rite must sleep for a full eight hours. Until she does, she acts at +1 difficulty to all rolls.
Pilgrimage of Non-Being (Punishment)
Source: WW3861 - Stargazers Revised p. 79
Description: This rite is forced upon a Stargazer who has committed a grievous sin against sept or tribe. It is reserved for one who has brought deep shame to himself and others. The Stargazer's hands are bound, and he is lead over a period of months to a number of Stargazer holy places. At each caern, the offending Garou must eat ashes while the caern guardians condemn and then ignore the Stargazer. At the final caern, upon completing this grim pilgrimage, the Stargazer's entire identity and memory fall away, toppling like a house of cards that can never be rebuilt. He becomes tabula rasa, a clean slate, unable to regain the most simple and intimate of memories -- not even his own name.
Most of the tribe views this rite as the utmost of punishments, but a rare few view it as a reward. Some believe that one of the highest states of being is actually a state of non-being, and they seek to have this rite performed upon them so that their souls may transcend. There is and even lesser held belief that this rite is useful for curing Harano; however, to make that worthwhile, one would have to find a way to allow the old memories and identity to resurface after the rite is completed, but as yet, nobody has come forth with a means to make that happen.
System: The ritemaster must travel with the Stargazer to be punished, and must escort him to a number of caerns equal to the offender's Rage score. The punished must be taken to the very heart of each caern, where each guardian congregates, aiding in the ritual as defined above. Once this pilgrimage is completed and all caerns have been visited accordingly, the player rolls Charisma + Rituals roll (difficulty of the offender's current Rank + 4). If successful, the punished Garou loses all Renown, and must start anew. He also loses his identity and all the memories associated with it. All other Traits, however, remain the same. If this rite fails, it's assumed to be a sign from the Emerald Mother that the offending Stargazer can be redeemed by other means. A botch on this roll means that the ritemaster loses five points of Wisdom, and the offending Garou loses nothing (including his memory).
Level Five
Rite of the Beating Heart (Caern)
Source: WW3861 - Stargazers Revised p. 75
Description: These days, Stargazer caerns are particularly vulnerable places. There is, however, a rather perilous Stargazer rite that some have learned in case their caern is threatened and beyond the ability of the guardians to protect it. With this rite, a Stargazer may take the powerful heart of the caern into her own heart and secret it away from the place so its power may be planted anew, or at least added to the strength of an already existing caern. In performing the rite, a single Stargazer must first successfully perform the Rite of the Opened Caern. Once this is complete, the werewolf must then consume some part of the land surrounding the caern -- this may be soil from the ground, water from a lake, or even pieces of brick or concrete if it's an urban caern. Finally the Stargazer must plead with the totem spirit of the caern, begging and cajoling until finally the caern heart is relinquished for a time, taken deep into the Stargazer's own still-beating organ. But this rite carries with it an exhausting price; the Stargazer who takes this burden unto herself will die soon after performing the rite, as her flesh is simply too frail to handle the potent energies that accompany a caern's own spirit. Her time to affix the caern's heart back to the flesh of the Emerald Mother is severely limited. Knowledge of this rite is exceedingly rare.
System: As directed, the Stargazer must first successfully open the caern using the Rite of the Opened Caern. After consuming some part of the caern, the player must roll for the Stargazer to engage in a contest of pleas and supplications versus the caern's totem spirit. The player rolls the ritemaster's Charisma + Performance, with a difficulty of the caern's rating + 4. Even a single success allows the caern heart to be "carried" by the Stargazer, but every success increases the time the Stargazer may "carry" the caern with her. One success allows the Stargazer to hold the caern spirit within for a number of hours equal to 10 minus the caern's rating. Every success beyond the first on the roll allows for one full day to be added onto the time allowed. If the Stargazer attempts to keep the caern within past this "time limit," she takes one unsoakable aggravated level of damage per hour until she dies. If the Stargazer dies, the caern dies and cannot be recovered.
"Dropping" the caern heart into a new location requires that a number of permanent Gnosis points be spent equal to the caern's rating. If the Stargazer does not have the requisite Gnosis to spend, she may take two aggravated levels per one Gnosis point missing. She must still spend at least one permanent Gnosis point in this manner, however, or the caern is not re-anchored to a new location. At any time during the "carrying" of the caern's heart, the Stargazer may simply reject the caern spirit and eject it from her form without any roll or Gnosis expenditure - but this unequivocally destroys the caern, and it may never return.
