Garou Lexicon

Common Parlance Among the Garou

Anchorhead: A spirit gate between the Near and the Deep Umbras. (See Membrane.)

Apocalypse: The age of destruction, the final cycle, the birth of death, the everlasting corruption, 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.

Auspice: The phase of the moon under which a particular Garou was born; commonly thought to determine personality and tendencies. The auspices are: Ragabash (New Moon; Trickster), Theurge (Crescent Moon; Seer), Philodox (Half Moon; Judge), Galliard (Gibbous Moon; Bard), Ahroun (Full Moon; Warrior). Details not ready yet.

Bane: Evil spirits that follow the Wyrm. There are many different kinds of Banes: Scrag, Kalus, Psychomaniae and more.

Bawn: A boundary area around a caern, where mortals are watched.

Blight: Any corrupted area in either the spirit world or the physical reality.

Breed: The ancestry of a Garou, be it wolf, human or other Garou. Details not ready yet.

Caern: A sacred place; a meeting spot where the Garou can contact the spirit world.

Celestine: The greatest spirits; the closest things the Garou have to gods. Examples are Luna (the Moon) and Helios (the Sun).

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 was ended. The traditions thereof are still obeyed today.

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 specifically refers to the ecological ruin humans wreak upon the environment.

Crinos: The half-wolf, half-human form of the Garou.

Deep Umbra: The aspects of the Umbra that lie outside the Membrane. Reality becomes more and more fragmentary the farther one travels from the Realm.

Delirium: The madness 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.

Feral: Slang term for Lupus.

The Fugue: a state of mystical excitation wherein Galliards draw forth their passion to psyche themselves in preparation for battle

Gaffling: A simple spirit servant of a Jaggling, Incarna or Celestine. Gafflings are rarely sentient.

Gaia: The Earth and related Realms, in both physical and spiritual sense; the Mother Goddess, mother of every living thing.

Garou: The term werewolves use for themselves.

Gauntlet: The barrier between the physical world of Earth and the spirit world of the Umbra. It is strongest around technological (Weaver) places, weakest around caerns.

Hispo: The near-wolf form of the Garou.

Homid: A Garou of human ancestry. Occasionally used disdainfully by ferals (e.g., "That boy fights like a homid.")

Impergium: The 3,000 years immediately following the birth of agriculture, during which strict population quotas were maintained on all human villages.

Incarna: A class of spirits; weaker than the Celestines, but still greater spirits by any measure.

Jaggling: A spirit servant of in Incarna or Celestine.

Keening: The empathic calling some Garou perform when howling.

Klaive: A fetish dagger or sword, usually of great spiritual potency and nearly always made of silver.

Litany: The code of laws kept by the Garou. Details not ready yet.

Lupus: A Garou of wolf origin.

Membrane, The: The barrier between the Near and Deep Umbras. 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.

Moon Bridge: A gate between two caerns; it most often appears during moots.

Moon-Calf: Idiot, simpleton.

Moot: A sept or tribal conclave that takes place at a caern.

Mule: Slang for metis

Navigator: a class of Theurges skilled in the arts of the Gauntlet and Umbral travel.

Near Umbra: The spirit world surrounding the Gaia Realm.

Pack: A small group of Garou bound to each other by ties of friendship and mission as opposed to culture.

Penumbra: "Earth's Shadow"; the spirit world directly surrounding the physical world; many, but not all, terrain features will be the same.

Protectorate: The territory claimed and patrolled by a pack or sept.

Reaching: Travelling into the spirit world.

Realms: The worlds of "solid" reality within the Tellurian. Earth is referred to as the Realm.

Ronin: A Garou who has chosen or been forced to leave Garou society. It is a harsh fate to become a "lone wolf."

Sept: The group of Garou who live near and tend an individual caern.

Sweatlodge: The custom of enclosed isolation around a hot fire. The heat combined with pharmaceutical preparation (natural or otherwise) usually induces visions.

Tellurian: The whole of reality.

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).

Triat, The: The Weaver, the Wyld and the Wyrm. The trinity of primal cosmic forces.

Tribe: The larger community of Garou. Tribe members are often bound by similar totems and lifestyles.

Tribunal: The Phildox process of hearing and rendering judgement upon an issue.

Umbra: The spirit world.

Veil, The: Mnemonic defense mechanism that forces the human brain to forget or rationalize the sight of a Garou in Crinos form.See Delirium.

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.

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 manifestations of the Wyrm, as are toxic waste and pollution. Also refered to as the Corrupter.

Wyrmhole: A place that has been spiritually defiled by the Wyrm; invariably a location of great corruption.

Vulgar Argot

The younger Garou use these words to help distinguish themselves from their elders.

Ape: Slang for human or homid. If the speaker wishes to indicate true contempt for her subject, she may use the word "monkey" instead.

Cadaver: A derogatory term for a vampire.

Flock, The: All of humanity, particularly those humans from whom the Garou recruit their members.

Gremlin: A malevolent spirit.

Leech: Another derogatory term for a vampire.

Run: A ritual hunt or revel that takes place at the conclusion of a moot

Sheep: Humans.

Stepping Sideways: Entering the spirit world. Most elders consider this term flippant and disrespectful.

Throat: To best another in ritual combat. Used as a verb (e.g., "I throated his sorry butt!")

Old Form

These words hail from the distant past of the Garou and display their Fianna origins. They are no longer used frequently. However, all Garou know these terms.

Adren: A pupil or student who learns from a Mentor.

Airts: The magical paths within the spirit world (e.g., Spirit Tracks, Mon Paths, etc.).

Aisling: A journey into the spirit world.

Anamae: "Soul-friend"; most often a bond with a pack totem.

Anruth: A Garou who travels from caern to caern but is bound to none of them.

Athro: Teacher, Mentor.

Awen: The sacred Muse, the creative impulse. Some say she is a spirit, but she has never been found. Moon Dancers periodically go on quests for her.

Brugh: Any sort of mystic place, whether a Garou caern or a Wyrmhole. Often a glade or cave located somewhere in the wilderness.

Charach: A Garou who sleeps with another Garou or has done so in the past. Often used as a word of anger.

Chiminage: Traditionally, a sept can make a request of any Garou who uses its caern; chiminage is the term for the request.

Cliath: A young Garou, not yet of any standing rank.

Fomori: Humans who have turned to the Wyrm and draw their powers from it. They are the enemies of the Garou.

Fostern: Your pack brothers and sisters; those who are your family by choice.

Gallain: The Kinfolk of the Garou - those humans and wolves are related to the People and are not prone to the Delirium.

Harano: Inexplicable gloom, inexpressible longing for unnamable things, weeping for that which is not yet lost. Some say it is depression caused by comtemplation of Gaia's suffering.

-ikthya: "Of the Wyrm"; a suffix appended to a name.

Inceptor: A Garou who guides another through a rite. An inceptor is also called a ritemaster.

Kinain: The relationship among Garou who are related by blood through an ancestor. This term of endearment and pride is never used when refering to metis.

Pericarp: The Near Umbra around each Realm.

Phoebe: An Incarna of Luna, representing the Moon.

Praenomen: The guardian spirit of a pack.

-rhya: "Greater in station"; a suffix appended to a name.

Urrah: Garou who live in the city; also, the tainted ones.

-yuf: "Honored equal"; a suffix appended to a name.