Glass Walkers

While the Bone Gnawers merely survive in the city, the Glass Walkers thrive there. They see the city as just another kind of wilderness: an ocean of concrete, a forest of skyscrapers or a coral reef of condominiums. They feel that the city has a kind of spirit and life all its own, and they seek to explore the diversity that this "new wilderness" provides.

The Glass Walkers originated in Mesopotamia, where they split with the Garou and came to live in the cities despite the proscriptions against doing so. They became enforcers and mercenaries for merchants in the Middle Ages and allied with guilds and the like. They were at the forefront of technological change during the Renaissance and later in the Industrial Revolution, learning that everything has spirits, even great steam engines and assembly lines.

The Glass Walkers developed Mafia ties as a result of their enforcer past, and in the ’20s, Glass Walker gangs provided muscle to many Mob actions. With the advent of computers, the Glass Walkers learned about a new  kind of spirit— the Net-Spiders, the computer spirits. Befriending these spirits, they found themselves in control of spirits that could alter and gather information from computers all over the world, and they discovered an entirely new world called the CyberRealm. The Glass Walkers believe it is their duty to guide the cities and technology of the world to a path allied with Gaia. Indeed, they see Gaia as a part of the city itself.

Totem: Cockroach
This may sound disgusting at first, but Cockroach is the most adapted animal in any city. Some Glass Walkers hold Spider in high regard as well.

Initial Willpower: Two Traits

Tribe Advantage: Weaver’s Children
The Glass Walkers begin the game with one additional Influence Trait. Furthermore, a Glass Walker can purchase more Influence with experience (which is something other Garou cannot do). One Trait of Influence can be purchased for three experience points— subject to Storyteller approval, of course.

Tribe Drawback: Touch of the Weaver
Glass Walkers are one bid down in all interactions with non-Weaver Spirits (they must bid two Traits to begin a challenge against one). Backgrounds: Glass Walkers may not buy the Past Life or Pure Breed Backgrounds.

Beginning Gifts: Control Simple Machine, Persuasion

Wolf Form: Small-to-medium size wolves with mottled patterns in their fur (often with an "unnatural" tinge). Many of the cubs of this tribe indulge in Urban Primitivism, cutting their fur in strange shapes, piercing their bodies, submitting to silver brandings, accumulating strange tattoos and generally altering their bodies the way they want them to be.

Organization: The Glass Walkers are generally organized in a very human way. They tend to think of themselves as a corporation, with directors, middlemanagement and employees. Their caerns are usually located within cities, often in places that shock and alarm other Garou (such as the tops of skyscrapers or in the middle of abandoned factories). Many of the old-guard Glass Walkers are still very much allied with the Mafia and tend to rule their septs like Mafia families. Many young Glass Walker packs have very loose structures— Garou hackers and Computer Theurges care more for knowledge and skill than they do for Renown. Some Glass Walker packs merge with other Glass Walker packs into large, roaming "Urban Primitive" tribes.
The Glass Walkers were once allied with the Bone Gnawers, but since 1929 and the Great Depression, they have fought off and on. Still, because they both live in the city, they are usually friends, or at least allies against a common outside evil. Many Glass Walkers have positive relations with Ventrue and Toreador vampires, despite the Litany’s prohibition against dealing with the Kindred. These more civilized Kindred see the Glass Walkers as perhaps the last hope of making peace with the Garou, although competition in financial spheres has also caused conflict in the past.

Habitat: The Glass Walkers live in the cities, period. They hate the wilderness for the most part, and need civilized comforts wherever they go. Some Glass Walkers are seeking to beautify the city by planting hardy trees and creating arboretums, but this is as close to the wild as the Glass Walkers want to get.

Protectorate: The Glass Walkers watch over the city, but more specifically, in recent times, they have begun guarding and watching over the underworld of a city: the crime, drugs, prostitution and nightclubs. The younger Glass Walkers see it as their duty to watch over the worldwide computer Net— the Digital Web that stretches  across the entire globe.

Outlook: Glass Walkers see themselves as the next stage in Garou evolution. They believe that Gaia is leading them to be the rulers of a new world where the Weaver has woven her webs all over the Earth. They believe that they can help humanity and the Garou survive the coming Apocalypse by providing them with the technology and spiritual wisdom to survive. Because of this, they are somewhat arrogant. They are almost as subtle and crafty as their Shadow Lord cousins. Indeed, many conflicts between the Glass Walkers and the Shadow Lords are like great chess games using the other Garou as pieces. Their irreverence for tradition has earned them many enemies, especially among the Silver Fangs. Many tribes lust after their secret knowledge of city-spirits, especially the Uktena. The Stargazers find them interesting. They are hated severely by the Red Talons and the Get of Fenris, who have almost decided that they are of the Wyrm. The Bone Gnawers like them, but don’t get too involved in their plots, if for no other reason than survival. Strangely enough, the Silent Striders and the Black Furies do not conflict with them as much as the other tribes.

Quote: "Okay, I was cool when you asked me to leave the Gameboy behind. And I can understand not bringing along an electric generator— they’re heavy. But now you’re saying that I can’t bring my CD player into the caern because it’s upsetting the spirits? That’s crap! What do they want to hear? John Denver?"

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