Price of Society; All-venue National 2006

The Shadow is a strange, alien place. A place which echoes the Flesh almost exactly, but an echo heard in a strange cave. A place which reflects the Physical world in its entirety, but a reflection in a warped mirror. The Shadow is strange, terrible, wonderful; it is all of this and much more.

There are places within the Shadow that owe nothing to the world of humans, reflect nothing within the world of flesh, echo nothing in the physical realms. These are the Places-which-are-Not, and they know no rules to bind them. Most are linked to some place in the Shadow, but others have no Anchor.

The Den, called Specus by some, is one such as this, a place with no reflection, a place with no past, no future. A place sacred to the Uratha, some of whom claim that Father Wolf slept here, others that Mother Luna gave birth to the First Pack within its walls. Others claim other things of this place – that it was where the decision to strike down Urfarah was made, that it was where Hikaon had made her lair when she agreed to be patron to the Hunters-in-Darkness, that it was where Kamduis discovered some great secret of the Shadow. What is sure is that the Lushar Iduthag hold it a sacred place to all Urdaga, a place where even Anshega may walk peacefully. It is not just a Tur, though any meeting of Uratha within it is considered instinctively to be ungin. It is a place of great peace, which touches the Shadow occasionally but often.

Sometimes this place, the Den, touches the physical realm and creates something dangerous and wonderful – a place where those without a spiritual half can enter the Shadow. It is also taken as a sign to meet for these Touches are rare, happening no more than a few times a decade, and the People will travel for many hundreds of miles to meet in peace, to talk that which needs to talk, to tell that which is needed to be heard, to get to know ones neighbours, brothers, sisters, cousins and rivals.

A time of celebration, of contest, of debate. A time to meet.

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