In Werewolf: The Forsaken 2nd Edition, we had a chance to bring all of the Uratha’s antagonists up-to-date, based on how they had appeared throughout the game line previously. Unfortunately we only had the room to detail the Pure as antagonists. In some cases they can be viable protagonists, both in historical eras and in some Hunting Grounds.
The following systems for playing as Pure characters come from the Dark Eras Companion.
Character Creation
Step Five (p. 82): Add Pure Template
Up to this point, the character is practically identical to a Forsaken character. The Pure template applied here is the key difference that separates Anshega from Urdaga.
Auspice
Unlike the Forsaken moon-slaves, the Pure have no Auspice. The luckiest Anshega are discovered just prior to their first change, or immediately after before Luna can lay her claim. These Pure need never feel the shame of the moon’s touch. Others aren’t quite as fortunate. While they have broken Luna’s chains, it was not before she could brand them with Auspice, which must be carefully, ritualistically — and excruciatingly — carved from the flesh and souls of these Uratha.
Tribe
Lacking an Auspice, tribe becomes so much more for Pure. From a character creation standpoint, the Anshega’s tribe offers a free dot in two Skills, and two starting Renown dots.
Each tribe has an associated primary Renown that every member must take. Each character also receives a second dot that can be applied to the tribe’s primary or secondary Renown.
Fire-Touched are inspired zealots, filled with mad creativity, fervor and faith. They serve as prophets and priests for the Shadow, and invent new ways for creatures of the Hisil to access the physical world. Their Gifts are Elemental, Insight, Inspiration, and Rage. Their primary Renown is Wisdom, their secondary Renown are Cunning and Glory. Their skills are Expression, Occult, and Subterfuge.
Ivory Claws are obsessed with purity of lineage. They believe that Urfarah’s heritage is passed on in the blood, and through purity they may rebuild Pangaea. They move among the wealthy and powerful. Their Gifts are Death, Dominance, Knowledge, and Warding. Their primary Renown is Purity, their secondary Renown are Honor and Glory. Their skills are Intimidation, Persuasion, and Politics.
Predator Kings are bestial savagery and strength personified. They care only for the Hunt and view humanity as an affront to the once-and-future paradise of Pangaea. They discard human trappings and embrace the predator within. Their Gifts are Nature, Rage, Stealth, and Strength. Their primary Renown is Glory, their secondary Renown are Purity and Wisdom. Their skills are Animal Ken, Crafts, and Survival.
Renown
By this stage, Pure characters have two dots of Renown from their tribe. Choose another dot in a Renown of your choice, but note that you cannot take a third dot in a single Renown at this point.
Blood & Bone
Like all Uratha, your character possesses traits called Blood and Bone. Select one of each as per standard character creation rules (p. 83).
Touchstones
Every Uratha possesses two Touchstones, including the Pure. Select these as per standard character creation rules (p. 83).
Gifts and Rites
Just as they do for the Forsaken, the spirits give Gifts to the Pure. Your character receives two Facets from Shadow Gifts available to her tribe. She also gains a Facet from any Gift in which she has the appropriate Renown, and a Facet from one Wolf Gift. Your character can’t take a Facet of a Gift in which she has no dots of Renown. Note that Pure characters do not gain (and cannot select) Moon Gifts.
Your character also begins play with two dots in rites, as per p. 83.
Step Six: Add Merits
Your Pure character receives ten dots of Merits. She can choose from any of the General Werewolf Merits (starting on p. 105) that don’t require a Forsaken tribe as a prerequisite, or from the general Merits starting on p. 110.
Pure characters can also use starting Merit dots to raise Primal Urge, at a cost of five Merit dots per dot of Primal Urge. You can also trade up to five starting Merit dots for extra dots of rites, with one dot of rites costing one Merit dot.
Additionally, Pure characters receive two dots of Totem and the Language (First Tongue) Merit.
Sacred Prey and the Hunt
The Pure tribes each have their sacred prey, much like the Forsaken. The Pure have broad definitions for their sacred prey, and the Anshega themselves are usually the ones who decide if prey meets the criteria. Players are encouraged to use this to their Pure characters’ advantage, but should be aware that trying to name someone who clearly doesn’t fall under the sacred prey definition will cause the rite to automatically fail. A failed ritemaster’s tribe is likely to view her foolishness as being disrespectful to the tribe, and may decide to include her in their list of sacred prey.
The Fire-Touched hunt those who dishonor and disrespect the Shadow. Anyone who harms or tyrannizes a spirit without provocation, or who attempts to seal away the Hisil, such as by thickening the Gauntlet or closing a locus, gains the zealous hatred of the Izidakh. This may include unwitting humans who disrespect icons or idols representing spirits. Disrespect to Luna and her servants doesn’t earn the Fire-Touched’s enmity, of course.
The Ivory Claws hunt those who dishonor their lineage. Those who break family traditions, or who defy their elders without pure reason are targets of the Tzuumfin. This runs both ways. The Ivory Claws won’t tolerate parents who weaken the bloodline by blocking strong mates for their offspring, or who heap scorn and degradation on their children and manipulate them into failing their lineage. The Tzuumfin consider all Forsaken to have dihonored their obligations to Urfarah, and are all valid prey for their hunts.
The Predator Kings hunt those who fail to honor the hunt. Humans who don’t hunt at least once per season, or those who try to end hunting are the Predator Kings’ prey, as are werewolves who break off the Sacred Hunt. The Ninna Farakh don’t automatically target those who kill for sport instead of sustenance, but their must be purpose behind a hunt for it have honor. Feeding, honing or teaching skills, or culling an overgrown population are valid reasons. Killing for simple fun is not. The Predator Kings sometimes forgive questionable hunts that used primitive or natural weaponry, but disrespectful hunts conducted with modern, high-powered weapons are never tolerated.
The Siskur-Dah
The Siskur-Dah Condition presented here supplements that in Werewolf: The Forsaken Second Edition (p. 310). It lists the effects of the Condition on characters when the rite is led by a member of a Pure tribe.
Siskur-Dah (Persistent)
Your character is on the Siskur-Dah, the Sacred Hunt. She gains a specific benefit depending on the ritemaster’s tribe.
The Fire-Touched Sacred Hunt grants your character increased influence over creatures of the Hisil. Spirits gain a bonus equal to the Uratha’s effective spirit Rank whenever they follow the werewolf’s direct instructions, or when they target the prey in combat or with their powers.
The Ivory Claws Sacred Hunt grants your character the ability to sense the familial or community relationships anyone he encounters has with his prey. The direct blood relations of the prey have difficulty protecting the prey from the Uratha. Any attempts to block or hinder the werewolf, or to refuse to provide information, suffer a penalty equal to the Uratha’s Primal Urge.
The Predator Kings Sacred Hunt grants your character Influence over the natural world equal to her effective spirit Rank. She may twist and control animals and plants to aid the hunt. The Uratha spends Essence to use Influence Effects as if she were a spirit (Werewolf: The Forsaken, p. 186–187), rolling Strength + Primal Urge in place of Power + Finesse.
Possible Sources: The Sacred Hunt rite, or being personally blessed by a Firstborn.
Resolution: The prey is brought down (a kill is not necessary) or the pack breaks off the Siskur-Dah by taking any significant actions towards ends other than the hunt.
Beat: Your character achieves an exceptional success on an action involving the prey.
Comments
34 responses to “Playing the Pure [Werewolf: The Forsaken]”
This is awesome! Thank you so much!
This is excellent. Incredibly useful for portraying Pure antagonists.
Or you know, playing them yourselves, but mostly antagonists.
This information pleases me. It’s also just great for a number of reasons.(^c^)
What are the Tribal Vows of the Pure?
IIRC Tribal vows are part of the Oath of the Moon, and since the Pure do not follow the Oath, they do not have any. Again, if I recall correctly.
Pure have OATHS OF WOLF – they are slightly differently stated to Oaths of Moon, marking difference in Pure from Forsaken. Tribal Vows should be in the Pure write up in Second Edition corebook.
They’re coming. This is a short excerpt to get systems in place for people who want to play Pure characters.
Loos great and thank you, though I do wonder why its included in Dark Eras and not in a future Werewolf the Forsaken product?
Are we going to see more 2nd edition updates to material in Dark Eras as well?
Because Dark Eras has a period where playable Pure characters are a feature, and it’s showing up before the first Forsaken 2e supplement. Rather than have a “See Book X, which isn’t even out yet”, putting the systems in Dark Eras (which we can then repeat in Book X).
Yes! Thanks so much Stew, you are the man! I love these Pure even without the strange affinity Gifts.
I’d like to ask how Hunter’s Aspect would apply to the Pure. Me and several friends in a werewolf game remain unsure of this.
Would it simply wok though the tribe’s primary renown rather then auspice? What happens if a Pure leaves a tribe?
Hunter’s Aspect is a feature of Auspice, and thus the Pure don’t have it.
If you’d rather that they have one anyway, assign one by tribe. Off the top of my head, Predator Kings get Cahalith, Fire-Touched get Ithaeur, and Ivory Claws get Elodoth.
The Predator Kings criteria seems really broad – particularly the “people who don’t hunt at least once a season” part. In rural areas, maybe, but in city areas this would encompass the vast majority of people, I would think? Unless you’re taking the broad definition of “hunt” as in the W:tF2E book, I suppose.
Is it really any more broad than the Sacred Prey of any of the Uratha tribes, though? Look at the Iron masters, their Sacred Prey also includes all humans who live in urban areas. Along with all humans that live anywhere else.
…Ivory Claws can hunt vampires like whoa.
(Awesome!)
And I take it their bonus would extend to divining a vampire’s “blood relationships” with others.
Yup!
Ivory Claws can hunt THE FORSAKEN “like whoa”.
This is cool! Now if we could just get rules for playing Bale Hounds…
This is brilliant, thank you for choosing to share this will all of us Uratha enthusiasts. This will definitely see use in my upcoming chronicle.
Am I correct in my reading that a starting pure could have up to three shadow gifts unlocked in addition to a wolf gift? (2 facets from separate gifts associated with tribe, a facet from any one gift that the anshega has at least one dot in renown for and one wolf gift)
Yes, you’re right.
Great stuff! I’m looking forward to more Pure materials for 2nd Edition.
Might we still hope to see Disease, Agony, etc Gifts in the future?
Quite possibly. New Gifts will note when they’re affinity for any tribe.
Wow, so good that the The Pure got their share too. I mean, auspice became even more proeminent to Uratha than it was on 1st Edition (more auspice-based benefits), that I expecting they should get something in return.
I mean, of couse that, conceptualy, they strip Lune’s blessings away, but they must be strong enough to put on a war. I’m running a WtF 2e campaing and I will need this suplement if I ever would use them on mine. Keep the awesome work!
Perhaps I’m a contrarian but I don’t like this as much. When 1E first came out many moons ago in my area there was a heck of a hard time getting anyone to try Forsaken because people who were longtime Apocalypse players would look at it for the same themes from Apocalypse they preferred, decide the Forsaken were default villains because they had a specific understanding of the Dark Revolt, and then complain the Pure weren’t the playable factol when they combined Pure = Good in their heads because the “pure ones” of classic World of Darkness (now One World I suppose) were ostensibly in the right about the Wyrm. By the time the 1E The Pure book came out for Forsaken those people weren’t following the game line and so didn’t know that the Pure were in the broadest strokes Werewolf Neo-Nazis. I’m not saying the Pure can’t be played in a positive light, but being ‘Forsaken’ isn’t something you call yourself; its what your enemies call you to dehumanize you so they don’t feel bad about their own misbehavior.
When I read the sacred prey of the Pure, while I know there will be deeper and more expansive information in the Dark Eras Companion that I am eagerly awaiting, I feel we’re moving back towards that “Pure as good guy” dynamic without emphasizing that good and evil in the Chronicles of Darkness are subjective perspectives, and of the two sides the Pure are the ones actively throwing away their humanity to lord over the broken earth as petty territorial tyrants until Father Wolf or Pangea returns.
I think believing any side of Werewolf: The Forsaken to be good guys is misinterpreting the setting.
While the goals of Forsaken are slightly more benign to humanity than the goals of the Pure, this is incidental. Both sides are monsters who will happily and enthusiastically hunt and kill humans who are incompatible with whatever plans they’re pursuing.
Other than that, I don’t really understand your point. It sounds like your group didn’t like Forsaken because they couldn’t shed their assumptions from Apocalypse. I don’t see how having playable Pure relates to this.
Thinking of either Pure or Forsaken as the “good guys” really doesn’t apply. The Forsaken are the more sympathetic protagonists for people to actually play because they fucked up but want to fix things.
People’s holdovers from the World of Darkness is not and won’t be a design consideration for the Chronicles of Darkness.
I’m so happy to read that last part, Stew! Thank you and all the folks any Onyx Path for making such a great game.
I think that it’s pretty clear that Pure aren’t “Good Guys”. Being a bunch of Hunters who prey on people who are trying to raise their kids the way they think is right for them (Ivory Claws), or hunting down people who never go out hunting, just buying food at the grocery store, (Predator Kings). I think it’s pretty clear that the Pure are pretty huge dicks, while at the same time, it’s *possible* for them to be portrayed in a more positive light, which for some of the players that you’re talking about, might be a more enjoyable experience.
It’s cool!
…but I’m not over the Fire-Touched not having any affinity for Purity.
So… 2ed Pure don;t have their special Gifts? It’s sad.
Not in the small amount of space we have been able to give them so far — word count doesn’t grow on trees. When we have more space, we can look at updating their Gifts.Word count doesn’t grow on trees.
First of all, I’m sorry if this isn’t the right place where I may write this question, but I love Werewolf The Forsaken and particularly the Pure so…
Is Chronicles of Darkness going to be published in spanish?
Thank you in advance.