Note: This is not finished, I still have things that need to be typed up for it, it hasen't been spell checked, and there are some parts that might need to be changed for story reasons or something.
The Setting
Map((I know, it's not that great, but it's the best I can do with MS Paint.))
[BFU: I added a smaller picture to keep the page from stretching. It is linked to the larger one and I can change it back it if you would like]
KeyBlue Lines - Major Rivers
Blue Shaded Area - The Ocean
Yellow Shaded Area - The Swamplands
Green Shaded Area - Fertile, Non-Swampy Area
Brown Shaded Area - The Wasteland
Green Dot, Number 1 - The Providence Settlement
Green Dot, Number 2 -
Green Dot, Number 3 - The ((Name TBD)) Caern.
Black Dot, Number 4 - The Dead City
Green Dot, Number 5 -
Green Dot, Number 6 - Noveau Monde
Green Dot, Number 7 -
Red Dot, Number 8 - The Shard Of Rorg
Pink Dot, Number 9 - The Walled City
The Swamplands When the Shard crashed into the earth, life began to spring up around it at a rapid pace, rejuvinating the land around it that had been destroyed by the Jaws Of The True Father. This is the origin of the Swamplands. The Swamplands are exactly what their name implies, a huge swamp. Dry ground is essentially non-existant, wet, slippery mud fills the area. Mant plants grow throughout The Swamplands, mainly woody plants, like trees. The most noteable kind of tree found in The Swamplands are "Walking Trees", white barked trees that stand above the ground on a sort of conicle ground of roots. The trees are capable of extending and then retracting these roots, allowing them to "walk" from place to place (This process is slow, and takes a few days for a tree to make any significant change in location). Because of the significant number of trees like this that are constantly moving, the entire landscape is conastantly changing, which makes navigation somewhat difficult in The Swamplands. Garou tend to rely on Instict instead of logic in navigating. Obviously, Lupis Garou are the best at this, and most packs let their Lupis members to navigate for them inside The Swamplands. At night, Wills O' The Wisp can be seen hovering throughout the swamp. These are simple materialized Gafflings that look like little floating balls of light. They re-enter the Umbra whenever someone approaches, making them difficult to work with. Occasionally a few ruins of the human cities that where there before the Apocalypse can be found being swallowed by the Swamp. Small, muddy beaches streach along the coastline.
Common Animals In The Swamplands:
Salamanders & Newts
Aligators
Various Snakes (Mostly Poisonous)
Frogs
Insects / Bugs (Mosquitoes, Leeches, Spiders, etc.)
Small Lizards
Rats
Black Bears
Bobcats
Weasel
Various Birds (Mainly Crows and Ravens)
Small Wildcats and Dogs (Desended from house pets, not capable of being Bastet or Garou Kinfolk)
Wolves (Almost all Kinfolk, imported by the Garou after the Apocalypse)
Deer
Cougars, Lynxes, and Jaguars (Bastet Kinfolk, Imported just like the Wolves.)
Fish and Sharks (On the Coastline)
The Umbra
The Umbrascape of The Swamplands looks a lot like the phisical equivilent, except much more alive. Various Wyldlings and Elementals race past Glade Children and Plant Spirits. Weaver Spirits are non-existant, with the only signs that they where ever there being a few tattered shreads of Pattern Web left on any ruined buildings and such. As mentioned above, Will O' The Wisp spirits can be found in great abundence in the Umbra during the day. At night they prefer to materialize in the phisical realm. Occasionally a Salamander spirit can be found sitting in a pool of Umbral Oil. These Fire spirits, representing oil fires, where tainted by the Urge-Wyrms long ago, and many spirits (and Garou) consider them enemys, nothing more. They try to consume anything that gets near them. Oddly enough, Wills O' The Wisp appear to be on fairly good terms with Salamander spirits, and are able to approach them safely.
Common Spirits:
Animal Spirits of any of the animals listed above
Air, Water, and Earth Elementals
Minor Wyldlings
Glade Children
Plant Spirits
Wills O' The Wisp
Salamanders
Outside The SwamplandsA band of fertile, not swampy land lies around The Swamplands. These are essentially empty plains of grass, with a few trees and rocks. This is good farmland, and some Humans have built small farms here. There are a few remnants of Human Cities here, such as fallen buildings and destroyed roads. In the Umbra there are very few spirits, mostly the occasional Glade Child or Air Elemental. Very rarely, Pattern SPiders can be found on the fams and ruins.
The Wastelands lie outside the fertile lands. Almost nobody enters the Wastelands without a very good reason, this is the most dangerous and unpleasent area known to the local Garou. The Wastelands are essentially a barren dessart, devoid of any sort of life. Harsh winds blow across the landscape, and dust storms are common. Ruined cities are common here, though almost anything usefull has been salvaged long ago. Now they just serve as eerie, but functional shelter, and reminders of what used to be here. Dark clouds block out the sun, and large crags and cracks riddle the land. In the Umbra there are almost no spirits, any that live there are most likely hostile.
The Shard Of RorgAt the center of the local shapechangers society is the Shard Of Rorg that broke off from Rorgs claw when it shattered Luna. Other shards, both of Luna and Rorg, are known to have fallen, however, no moon bridges have been sucessfully formed to link this Shard to any of them, making the local Garou fairly isolated for the last two centuries. After the Apocalypse, the Garou Nation wanted to rebuild itself. The Garou and other changers thus grouped around the shards of Luna and Rorg, as those shards had all created life at an alarming rate when they hit, and would make the best places for them to live with their surviving kin. A number of humans moved to this fertile area as well, and began to set up settlements. The new gerneration of humans born in the vicinity of the Shard showed odd psycic abilities. The Garou are not sure what causes this, but they theorize it has something to do with the Shard, as this phenomenon seems to manifest more the closer to the shard the human is born. This phenomenon does not affect Garou or animals, and is somewhat less common among Kinfolk. (1 in 10 humans born within 200 miles of the Shard manifest a basic degree of prowess, 1 in 50 can develop this power beyond the bare basics and learn new powers.)
As for the Shard itself, most Garou hold a certain amount of animosity for Rorg because of his actions during the Apocalypse. On a tribal level, only the Red Talons are sympathetic to Rorg. The Red Talons have an entire pack that gaurds the Shard. Nobody else is allowed near the shard except under special cercumstances, with the exception of high ranking and respected elders. This means that most Garou have no clue what it is actually like in the Shards area. Being permitted to enter the "bawn" of the Shard is a great honor, especially among the Red Talons, who revere Rorg most highley among Garou.
The Walled CityA ways to the west, deep within the Wastelands, lies a huge, walled metropolis straddeling a large river, spewing smoke from tall metal towers that protrude above the walls. The Garou know very little about this city, as none have managed to enter its gates and come back. What is known is that somehow it manages to sustain itself even in the heart of the wastelands, and that the inhabitants weild powerful and advanced technology unavailible to the Garou living in the fertile lands. It can safely be presumed that the humans in this city serve the Weaver, so most Garou would like nothing more to burn the walled city to the garoun.
The Dead CityAll Garou avoid the Dead City. What was once a thriving and prosperous city was flooded and destroyed during the Apocalypse, killing almost everyone inside. Now it is a small lake filled with the ruins of the once mighty city. Wraiths haunt this city, trapped for two centuries by their unresolved torments. In the Umbra the city seems to be filled with an almost palpable aura of sorrow and anguish, and numerous unplesent spirits make their homes here. Besides the wastelands, The Dead City is the only place where Wyrm creatures are known to reside anymore.
The Providence SettlementThe Providence Settlement is a small farming village on a river, near the wastelands. Most of the humans here are farmers, however, the Providence Settlement has a history as a scanvenger village. Due to it's proximity to the wastelands, numerous scanvengers have moved to Providence. Scanvengers are humans who travel the wastelands in the hopes of salvaging old technology from the ruins. Many scavengers are Bone Gnawer or Keeper Kinfolk.
(Keeper is short for Keepers of Men, the new name of the Glass Walkers)
