Garou and Rage

What is Rage? It’s not that simple a question. Unfortunately, many players tend not to think of it much beyond the dots on their character sheets, and if asked, say something like "It’s what lets me have extra attacks in combat." Rage is a vital component of Werewolf: the Apocalypse, and more than any other Trait, it defines what the Garou are.

Rage is that inner anger every Garou (and most other Changing Breeds) possess. It is a touch of the fury that Gaia feels at the destruction of the natural world, a fury she has shared with her children to motivate them in their war. It is a boiling cauldron of passion that lurks in every Garou’s heart, and no matter how small it might be, it is there, and it is something the werewolf cannot ignore.

WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE?
Have you ever been really angry? Now, I mean really, utterly pissed off? So mad you believed you could kill someone? That all you could think about was hurting who or whatever angered you?

Okay, now take that and multiply it by 10, and then you’ll come close to what your average Garou feels everyday. Rage is not something that can be ignored until you need it. It is always there, seething just under your other emotions. Ready to explode at a moment’s notice.

It is much like a caged beast, the Beast Within, if you will. And the lock on that cage is pretty flimsy. It won’t take much for that beast to bust out and wreck havoc. Rage is a ticking time bomb. It can and will blow up with little provocation. A frenzy can happen at any time, caused by as little as a snide comment or a rude gesture at the Garou.

It’s like being a borderline psychopath, always having this maddening killing urge lurking just beneath the surface. Your vision runs red too easily. In short, Garou are not happy beings. Sure, they can experience joy and laughter like any other living being. They have a full range of emotions, but everything is tainted by their Rage. It’s always there, and they always know it.

USING RAGE
The Garou may be stuck with their Rage, but they have learned how to channel it in effective ways. While they will never be able to fully control it, they can pull off some cool tricks using these primal emotions.

Rage is, partly, your determination, and is thus much like Willpower. However, unlike Willpower, Rage is not easily controlled. It gets out of hand too easily. But it does have it’s uses. Rage can clear your head when you’ve been knocked silly, speed your body beyond what any human could hope to achieve, and even allow you to claw your way back from the brink of death.

That last is perhaps the Garou’s ace in the hole. To be so passionate, so furious, that you can come back from death itself is an ability no other creature in the World of Darkness can hope to equal. It’s no easy feat, of course, and only Garou with high enough Rage in their hearts can pull it off.

LUNA’S BLESSING
Rage comes from Luna, the Celestine of the Moon, so the Garou legends say. She gifted the werewolves with this power in the beginning so that they may fight fiercely and never surrender. Fact supports this. The moon has a very acute affect on Rage.

First, there is the affect the moon phase has on a Garou’s attitude. The fuller the moon, the angrier the werewolf gets. When Luna shines her full face upon the world, the Garou are at their edgiest, ready to fly into a frenzy at the drop of a hat.

Just seeing Luna for the first time every night can regenerate a werewolf’s Rage to some degree. They say that it is Luna’s way of reminding the werewolves, subconsciously, of what they fight for.

THE PRICE OF POWER
But of course, there is a price to pay. Awakening the Beast to perform great feats comes at a cost. And that cost is the ever growing chance that the Beast will get out of control. When the Beast has awakened too much, a Frenzy occurs. Frenzies are when the Garou completely loses control of the Wolf in her heart and becomes nothing more than a berserk monster. Frenzies can only be halted by sheer will when the werewolf feels it coming on. By spending a Willpower Trait immediately as he senses a Frenzy forthcoming, it can be stopped before it begins. But after that point, nothing will help.

Garou do not approve of frenzies. It reminds them that they are not the noble heroes many of them like to see themselves as, and are instead bloodthirsty animals. It is a truth few of them enjoy contemplating. Friend, foe, innocent bystander....none of it matters to a frenzying werewolf. All are targets. All are enemies. Too often a Garou has come out of a frenzy to find she has slaughtered her own family.

Frenzies become easier as Luna shows more of her face to the world. The time of the full moon is quite rightly feared by many humans even today, for this is the time the Garou are at their edgiest, and their anger is ready to boil over at the drop of a hat. It has also been a noted fact that frenzies happen more often when a shapeshifter is in Crinos form. It is a body designed for battle, and the Rage flows more easily in this form.

And that is only if the Garou enters what is know as a “Rage Frenzy.” The opposite, “Fox Frenzy”, is even worse, from the werewolf point of view, as they become cowards who flee with their tails between their legs. Like a hunted fox, the run and hide as soon as possible, killing anything that gets in the way of escape. Cowardice is obviously not approved of in Garou society.

Perhaps the only upside of a frenzy is that the werewolf feels no pain. His Rage has overcome any hampering effects of wounds. Trait penalties from Wound levels are ignored for as long as the frenzy lasts. Even a Garou at Crippled fights as though he were perfectly healthy. Legends of werewolves fighting despite the loss of an arm or having their guts torn out are common in Garou history.

RECOVERING
Frenzies last for as long as the werewolf senses danger. If the danger has passed, or if he has escaped from it, the Garou will come out of the frenzy after he has managed to calm down and catch his breath (a minimum of three turns). Frenzies last even longer if the werewolf is hungry....

Some Garou (whose Rage score exceeds their Gnosis), won’t even remember what they did during a frenzy. Their passions have overcome their own memories, and can only rely on second-hand accounts, if there are any.

THE WYRM AND RAGE
The Wyrm poisoned the Rage that Luna gifted to the Garou, the legends say. The Wyrm found out about Gaia and Luna’s plan to craft her defenders, and the Wyrm secretly sabotaged the project by making sure their Rage would never be something the werewolves could control, by making it something that could drive them to acts they would despise themselves for.

In other words, like many other things, the Garou blame frenzies on the Wyrm. Yet there is some proof the back-up this knee-jerk reactionary claim. For sometimes, a frenzy can get so out of hand that the werewolf become a monster that commits terrible depravities. This event is known as the Thrall of the Wyrm.

These abnormal frenzies are rare, but when they happen the sickening results cannot be denied. These are not just frenzies. They are acts of depravity and perversion, brought on by the Wyrm’s influence of the werewolf’s heart.

Strangely, the Garou’s breed has an effect on just what happens. It is said the Triatic Wyrms, the three faces of the Wyrm itself, enjoy prodding select breeds into particular perversions.

Homids become cannibals, eating human, wolf and werewolf flesh with an unequaled gluttony. The Eater-of-Souls perverts the Homids, driving them to unholy consumpsions. Lupus are taken over by the Beast-of-War, removing all traces of mercy, driving them to attack the weak and helpless, destroying even fellow packmates if they are badly wounded. And the Defiler Wyrm, in perhaps the sickest event of all, pushes the Metis into disgusting acts of sexual obsession, even necrophilia.

THE CURSE
That weird guy in the corner that could be a serial killer with the way he looks at everyone. The girl next door that seems to be permanently PMSing. When a Garou’s Rage exceeds a human's current Willpower, the human knows it. It makes them uneasy around the Garou, as they can sense the Beast. The instinctual reaction that inflicts the Delirium in humanity, the subconscious memory of the Impergium and the nights of terror it created, allows humans to notice that excessive Rage.

Garou call it the Curse. It is why they must often live apart from humanity. Their Rage rarely allows them to fit in. Friendships and marriages to humans become hard as hell to maintain, the Rage always becoming a factor in the relationship. And when frenzies happen, as they always will, it can be nearly impossible for the humans in the Garou’s life to forget or forgive the bloody horrors that usually result. Even with Kinfolk it is rarely easy.

Even among wolves, it is never easy. Animals get uneasy around Garou with the Curse. Wolf packs shy away. It is only among each other that Garou find any peace, but even then their own laws forbid such relationships, for fear of the genetic dead-ends it produces.

Rage is a tool, it is a weapon, it is a blessing. It is also a double-bladed sword, cutting the Garou as well as his enemies. It is a curse and a burden... one that cannot be gotten rid of.

Use it well, and be careful.

ROLE-PLAYING RAGE
It doesn’t happen often enough. Players tend to conveniently forget how Rage factors into their character’s personality. Garou are not happy beings. They are very rarely in control of their emotions. They are passionate in the extreme. Player too often play Garou as humans who can change shape and get extra actions in combat.

I do want to see Rage taken account in a character’s personality. It’s not something you have to do all the time, but it should not be ignored, either. If your shifter’s Rage exceeds your Willpower, make sure other characters know it. Make it clear the Curse is in effect. In emotionally-charged situations, I can and will call for frenzy checks if I think it is warranted.

You have been forewarned.