Bale Hound Rites

Rite List

• Rite of the Shroud: To conceal their existence from the Forsaken, the Bale Hounds must mask their spirit brands to the Maeljin Incarna. Through the Rite of the Shroud, the Asah Gadar bond with Soulless Wolf, the so-called forgotten Firstborn, and establish a connection to the Maeljin through Viruhk-Ur. In this role, Soulless Wolf is nothing more than an intermediary that allows the Bale Hounds to possess Maeljin or Maeltinet totems without being revealed as traitors to Luna and Urfarah. The Rite of the Shroud is always taught to a Bale Hound on the night she joins the cult, and attended by the Eyes of the Maeljin after a formal Rite of Initiation. Soulless Wolf itself, any of the Maeltinet and most of the Maeljin's trusted spirit servitors can teach this ritual to the Bale Hounds.
• Rite of the Sin-Eater: In Soulless Wolf's role as the Eyes of the Maeltinet, the spirit plays a vital part in the Bale Hound cult. It is he who takes the sins of the Asah Gadar into himself, ensuring that the werewolves are able to mask their dying Harmony and infiltrate the Forsaken without their rites and ability to enter the Hisil failing completely.
• The method by which the Bale Hounds save their own souls is based on an old Christian custom, adapted and corrupted for the cultists' own uses. By tithing extensive chiminage to Soulless Wolf, the Asah Gadar pay for their dark deeds to be masked for another lunar cycle.
• Shrieking Glyphs: The walls of some Wounds have been known to display dozens of strange symbols that resemble First Tongue glyphs, but read as gibberish if deciphered. Bale Hounds use these sigils in two ways: as a way to mark the location of an Iduth-Su, so that other Bale Hounds can track down one of the Flayed Ones if he desires, and as a way of repelling werewolves with high Harmony from attempting to investigate and cleanse the Wound.
• The symbols have little effect on werewolves with Harmony scores of 4 or less, but those with scores of 5 and higher feel severe discomfort and even pain if they look at the runes on the walls, trees or ground of the Wound. The exact nature of the discomfort depends on the viewer's Harmony, and the penalties stack with those already in play from the characters standing within a Wound.
• Rite of Dead Light: The Rite of Dead Light allows Asah Gadar to keep Lunes in a semi-sentient, near-death state of constant agony. The spirit is cut off from retuning to Lina, and is utterly subservient to the ritemaster that bound it, in the hope that it will be granted release in death. In truth, the Lune is dying - dying eternally - but the Rite of Dead Light feeds the spirit just enough Essence to maintain its agonized existence forever. These tortured, bestial Lunes are known as the Iduth-Su, the Flayed Ones.
• This is no easy feat. The ritual to hollow out the Lunes and rebirth them as Flayed Ones must take place on a lunar eclipse, and within the boundaries of a Wound. If the Bale Hound can arrange this difficult circumstance precisely during the short time the moon is eclipsed by the Earth's shadow, then the most difficult part is out of the way and the Rite of Dead Light can be performed. A Bale Hound who is fully ready for this ritual will consider using the Rite of Binding on the Lune to make sure it is unable to flee the tainted Shadow landscape when the treachery is revealed.