Rites

The Shadow is a strange, animistic landscape woven from taboos and bans. Spirits caper and clash in accordance with ancient pacts and laws. Werewolves are kindred to these otherworldly beings and can draw upon those same pacts. They do so in the form of rites — supplications and demands that take the form of symbolic and ritual practices.

Wolf Rites are powerful pacts that rely on the spiritual nature of the Uratha. Some are dangerous, many are prized secrets, and they all require werewolf ritemasters.

Pack Rites are reliant upon the spiritual bond that ties a pack together, amplifying or using it as a channel. Such shamanic rites empower all within a pack, whether they are Uratha, human, or otherwise.

USING RITES
Symbolism lies at the core of every rite. It invokes the spirit pact and compels a response. Most rites require some sort of ceremony or ritual performance, but the exact details of that performance vary wildly between regions, tribes, and packs. When a ritemaster teaches a student one of these occult secrets, the rite changes; the student adds her own interpretations of its practice, her own understanding of its symbolism.

Any Uratha who knows a rite may lead it as a ritemaster. Other characters who know the rite may aid her as a teamwork action. Uratha from different packs can come together to perform a Wolf Rite, but Pack Rites require all participants to be from the same pack. Pack Rites can also involve pack members who do not know the rite itself. These participants do not contribute any teamwork bonus but may benefit from the rite’s effects.

Each rite has a specific set of symbols that the ritemaster must include in the performance. This incorporation must have meaning to the ritemaster, but the meaning does not need to be obvious to outsiders. A writhing dance amidst the serpentine coils of a pack’s sinuous totem may fulfill a rite’s symbol of rain because the pack acquired their totem during a thunderous deluge. Failure to incorporate all of a rite’s symbols causes a dramatic failure.

The dice pool used to perform a rite depends on how the ritemaster and participants incorporate the required symbols. The dice pool consists of Attribute + Skill. A pack whose performance is a frenzied song and dance would use Dexterity + Expression; a rite of clattering talismans and whispered eldritch invocations to command a spirit instead uses Presence + Occult. Packs gravitate towards ritual performances that play to their strengths, and it is up to the Storyteller and players to agree on the appropriate dice pool for a specific ritual performance.

Most rites are extended actions and require the participants to meet a target number of successes during the performance. If the performance of a rite breaks at any point — such as a participant being attacked and injured — a dramatic failure ensues.

ROLL RESULTS:
Dramatic Failure: The rite fails and immediately ends. The ritemaster suffers the Shadowlash Condition.

Failure: The rite accumulates no successes, and the ritemaster gains the Stumbled Condition.

Success: Successes are accumulated. If the number of successes meets the rite’s target number, its Success effect takes place.

Exceptional Success: The symbolism of the rite is extremely strong, and the ritemaster gains the Symbolic Focus Condition. A number of general modifiers can affect a rite’s dice pool. 

SUGGESTED MODIFIERS

LEARNING RITES
A werewolf usually learns of a new rite through an Uratha or spirit teacher. Sometimes werewolves record rites on cuneiform cylinders or charred, sigil-scratched bones. The teaching might be a carefully codified lesson, or just a torrent of vital symbols that the student must figure out how to use on her own.

A character who wishes to learn a rite must find a source of knowledge to provide it; she then expends 1 Experience per dot of the rite. Of course, finding such a source can be difficult — she may need to chase down a wise spirit in a Sacred Hunt, or seek membership in a tribe or lodge to access its hidden knowledge. While the People freely teach some common rites, most werewolves carefully guard their hoarded lore and will only trade it for significant recompense.

Very rarely, a character might discover the existence of a forgotten or previously unknown rite. This can take careful, years long observation of the laws and bans that shape the Shadow, revealing the underlying patterns of a rite’s existence. Sometimes, the appearance of new spirits can create new rites, such as the spirits that reflect humankind’s technological development. A werewolf cannot simply invent a new rite, but they can pry such valuable knowledge free from the Shadow and its denizens.

Only werewolves can learn Wolf Rites, but both werewolves and Wolf-Blooded can learn Pack Rites.