Lodge of Unity
The Lodge of Unity is a lodge in the spirit of unity and mutual support.
The spirit patron of the Lodge of Unity is a spider-spirit known as The Patriarch.
Overview
Today, the Lodge of Unity wavers between two extremes. All of its members are idealistic to some degree and genuinely dedicated to seeing unified minor “werewolf nations.” These territories would see all local packs supporting each other when danger arises, in some cases even sharing duties over a single vast hunting ground. The difference is apparent in just how the Unifiers work to bring about this trust and cooperation, because while some seek to reason with other packs and candidly lay out the benefits of unification, many Unifiers feel it would be more effective to threaten other packs and challenge for obedience. In the chaos of individual territories, idealism can resemble oppression, as “join with us or die” becomes the preferred threat of some Lodge of Unity members.
The attitude of each member naturally determines outsiders’ reactions to the lodge, and few lodges create reactions as diverse as the Lodge of Unity. For Uratha who see the Unifiers within their territory as sincere negotiators and skilled speakers, opinions can range from disgust at the “peacemonger” to admiration for (and cooperation with) the Unifier’s noble goal. In other territories, where a militant Unifier adopts a more predatory outlook, the local Forsaken might be impressed at the savage nature of unity through conquest, or possessed by hatred at this violent theft of hunting grounds. The Tribes of the Moon are no strangers to territorial conflict even amongst themselves, but warring against a werewolf who insists those who oppose his ideal of unity must be destroyed is a fight against an ugly fanaticism. The reputation of the Lodge of Unity is clearly a fluid matter in any given location.
Within the pack, Unifiers often seek the position of alpha — all the better for achieving the aim of influencing the other local packs. Other Unifiers aim for the role of beta, to serve as advisor and counsel to the pack leader. Werewolves with an eye to violently bring other packs to heel that succeed in becoming pack leaders are often cast in the image of bully sergeants or determined military tacticians. They often plan out assaults against other hunting grounds for weeks in advance, sending out scouts, gathering information through spirits pressed into service as spies and testing the defenses of their foes. When the battle comes, they might be in the thick of the fighting, lost to Rage in an attempt to achieve their goals, or holding back at the edges of the conflict, roaring orders and delivering final blows so that packmates can move on to other enemies.
At the heart of the matter, the Lodge of Unity is founded upon a simple belief: the Forsaken will eventually be destroyed pack by pack if they do not unite against their enemies. It need not be a national or global unification; many Unifiers desire little more at first than the cooperation of several local packs to present a strong front against shared foes. Dreams of one single nation can wait until mere survival is guaranteed. And, between the horrors born of Shadow and the threat of the Pure, nothing is certain.
Membership
The Lodge of Unity is focused within North America, and draws most of its members from aging packs that were devastated or pushed from their hunting grounds during the Brethren War. Recently, the new waves of members tend to come in one of two varieties. Some are conquest-driven werewolves who set themselves up as alphas over an area much too large for one pack to hold. Others idealistic werewolves, many of whom seek to eventually create a united nation of Forsaken once their own local areas are populated by allied packs. To gain membership in the Lodge of Unity, all a werewolf requires is proof of their dedication. This sounds easy enough, but involves being sponsored by an established Unifier and being brought before the Patriarch for questioning. The sponsorship itself is relatively easy to earn. An applicant must present their case to a lodge member, citing specific plans and intentions to bring the area’s local packs into union, and also naming just how they intend to go about these plans. If the applicant presents a detailed and well-considered case, then they will likely be sponsored. The sponsorship period lasts for three lunar cycles, and the Unifier meets weekly with the applicant to hear their reports and witness the progress made over time. If, after the three months have passed, the lodge member considers the applicant’s results a success, the werewolf is brought before the Patriarch, who can either be tracked down or will respond to a summoning with the correct rite. The Patriarch is a merciless inquisitor and unleashes a barrage of demanding questions. Why does the werewolf seek membership? What can they bring to the lodge? What actions in their past affect their decisions now? What spirits can their pack call allies? What other packs can they call upon for aid? The exhausting interrogation session usually lasts some hours. In the end, it is down to the Patriarch to decide if the applicant’s deeds suit the lodge’s activities, but often the spider-spirit will debate in private with the sponsor, gaining additional information and listening to any favorable words before reaching his decision.
Game Mechanics
The following are an overview of the game mechanics.
Prerequisites
- Cunning or Honor ••
- Brawl, Weaponry or Persuasion •••
- Must maintain a Harmony rating of 6 or greater
Benefits
Lodge members train extensively in different foci, and the experience costs of raising these skills — Brawl, Weaponry, Persuasion and Intimidation — becomes new dots x2 instead of new dots x3. Members also learn how to create Truth-Catchers.
Fetishes
Truth-Catcher ••: The ability to tell honesty from deception is a very useful talent. Though various supernatural means to detect the truth already exist in Forsaken culture, few are as spectacular (or as bloody) as the fetish developed by the Lodge of Unity called the Truth-Catcher. It is most often used when determining if a giver of an oath is sincere in his promises, and to decide if he can be trusted in the future, though many werewolves of the lodge also use this fetish for discovering the perpetrators of certain crimes of misdeeds. The Truth-Catcher itself is a pebble no larger than a thumbnail, painted with a crude symbol of a spider using the fetish-maker’s own blood. When used, the fetish is placed under the tongue of the person being tested, and then activated. If the speaker deliberately lies or speaks any falsehood at all during the time he has the Truth-Catcher in his mouth, the pebbles dissolves into a dozen blood-red spiders that crawl throughout the speaker’s mouth and bite him, causing severely painful swellings and three points of lethal damage. The spiders each bite once, then revert back to the pebble. Note that the lie must be deliberate to activate the fetish’s punishment — speaking a falsehood that the speaker honestly believes is the truth will not dissolve the pebble and release the spiders. If the subject does not lie, then the pebble can be returned after the questioning is completed. If the subject has lied, even if all the spiders are killed, the speaker must spit out the stone that remains in his mouth. A lesser Gaffling servitor of the Patriarch is bound into this fetish.
References
- WTF: Lodges: The Faithful, p. 140-143
