Enki's Song
Enki's Song is a Iron Master Ithaeur.
Background
Enki's Song has always been and always will be. Before humans raised the city of Ur, Enki's Song watched them and learned of their ways. Her name was different then, but she change it because the sound of the human words pleased her. She hinted with the Get of Nabu for a time, but eventually, she died. That was not the end for the wolf who tricked death.
A year after after her death, another Farsil Luhal took the name Enki's Song. She, too, worked tirelessly for her tribe, and her actions pleased Red Wolf. Some tales say that when she died, Red Wolf took her for a lover; many more believe that she loved the Firstborn, but the spirit could not understand her. When she died, another werewolf waited to take her name. So did Enki's Song become a legacy, a title and sacred duty in one. Every Iron Master who took the name left her own mark upon the role. After 20 generations, the tribe decided as a whole that only those women who bore Red Wolf's highest favor, no matter their auspice, could aspire to the name. Every werewolf who aspires to being Enki's Song must learn the stories of her predecessors and ensure that their lives are never forgotten.
The current Enki's Song has tricked the world for well over 100 years. She's the oldest Iron Master on Earth, and the contradiction at the heart of the tribe - she is a bastion of tradition at the heart of a storm of change. She has grown distant from humanity, but still hunts - for prey and for knowledge. She takes great pleasure in mixing human tradition with her teachings, often from three or four different sources. A werewolf who stays with her long enough to learn a rite can find herself chanting in Navajo and beating a traditional African rhythm as part of a larger Confucian ceremony. When she meets other werewolves, Enki's Song acts every inch the trickster wolf, downplaying her role and power to measure the reaction of others - then bringing those who do not show her respect to heel. She has an incredible command over spirits - even those that hate her respect her power - and she will use them to her own ends. Often she bribes spirits that behave against those that invade the material realm. Her current territory includes three villages that she watches over like a mother, though her Primal Urge limits how close she can get. She prefers outwitting other werewolves, and those who can deal with her mercurial temperament find her a useful teacher.
Enki's Song looks like a woman of at least 70 years, her face scored by deep lines. Her skin has a Middle Eastern cast, though others swear she's a Native American. Her hair has long ago turned gray, and she wears it long with pride. Symbols of a hundred human ritual traditions decorate her skin, from beads in her hair to piercings, and from facial tattoos to runes burned into her flesh. One the rare occasions that she takes Urhan form, she is a large copper-furred wolf whose dark eyes are alive with hidden energy.
Using Enki's Song in a Chronicle:
Enki's Song is one example of an archetypal Iron Master, rebelling against even her tribe's desire for change while hoping to integrate human culture into her own. She's also more than little scary in her focus on ritual magic and protecting her territory - she knows she is soon going to die, and she wants to go out in a blaze of glory. Farsil Luhal look up to her with a mix of awe and fear, and currently two werewolves are building up the reputation required to take her name when she dies. In her final months, however, she is struck with her own mortality. She's been Enki's Song for too long, but she doesn't want to die. If she could just hand on the name and fade away, going back to her earlier life, she would be happy. Her duty precludes any chance of that. She could be used as a teacher, a lesson on the price of power or as a title to which a female Iron Master might aspire.
Stats
Auspice: Ithaeur
Tribe: Iron Master
Lodge: None
Mental Attributes: Intelligence 5, Wits 6, Resolve 4
Physical Attributes: Strength 3 (4/6/5/3), Dexterity 2 (2/3/4/4), Stamina 4 (5/6/6/5)
Social Attributes: Presence 3, Manipulation 5, Composure 4
Mental Skills: Academics 2, Investigation 3, Medicine 2, Occult (Rites) 4
Physical Skills: Athletics 2, Brawl (Dalu) 2, Larceny 6, Stealth 4
Social Skills: Empathy 3, Persuasion 3, Socialize 4, Streetwise 3, Subterfuge 6
Merits: Danger Sense, Encyclopedic Knowledge, Fleet of Foot 2, Language (First Tongue), Resources 3, Synergistics
Primal Urge: 7
Willpower: 8
Harmony: 8
Essence Max/Per Turn: 20/5
Virtue: Faith
Vice: Lust
Health: 9 (11/13/12/9)
Initiative: 6 (6/7/8/8)
Defense: 2 (2/3/4/4)
Speed: 12 (13/16/19/17)
Renown: Cunning 5, Glory 3, Honor 4, Purity 3, Wisdom 4
Gifts: Call Water, Know Name, Left-Handed Spanner, Straighten, Two-World Eyes, Anybeast, Nightfall, Read Spirit, Travelers Blessing, Ruin, Gauntlet Cloak, Iron Treachery, Sagacity, Sculpt, Between the Weave, Know the Path, Shatter, Backstage Synchronicity, Communion with the Land, Crash the Gates
Rituals: 5; Rites: Banish Spirit, Bind Human, Bind Spirit, Call Gaffling, Call Jaggling, Community Spirit, Eyes of Sagrim-Ur, Fortify the Border Marches, Mark of Change, Rite of Chosen Ground, Rite of Hallowed Ground, Rite of Permanence, Rite of the Spirit Brand, Wake the Spirit
References
- WTF: Tribes of the Moon, p. 150-152
