The Importance of Ritual and Rites to a feral people

Being some thoughts from the ANST Forsaken about what Rites are and why they are important.

Hello there fine peoples welcome to my rambling thoughts about what Rites are in the world of Forsaken, how I understand that they work and what they’re about – and most importantly what they can add to a game.

What are Rites?

Firstly Rites are not magic. There are (oddly) no supernatural powers involved. It’s not even something that the ritemaster themselves does. The Rite has no power, it’s just a thing, like a dance, or that little ritual you have before you leave the house where you check for your wallet, keys and mobile. So if it has no power, how does it work? What is it then? Since you ask so nicely I’ll tell you.

See a Rite is an agreement between a Spirit (or Spirits, maybe) and at least one Uratha, I say at least one because it’s a proper binding agreement and so if that werewolf talks (and shows) the knowledge can spread. In this agreement the Spirit accepts a new Ban – when something happens it will do something. It’s that simple really.

Heck, a Rite can be likened to turning on a light. You flick a switch and the bulb goes on. Brilliant! But turning the switch does nothing to generate the power, nor to bring it to you, it just lets the power run through it. When your character performs a Rite it is undertaking one half of an agreement. You do something and then some spirit (somewhere) does something. Lets look in a bit more detail shall we?

The Rite of Dedication is a simple Rite and one which allows items to shift with the character and to cross through the Gauntlet into the Hisil. Pretty simple, cheap in XP and useful, all good stuff! The explanation of how it works is that Essence (spiritual energy) is suffused into the body of a werewolf – allowing it to ignore laws of physics, and to access the spirit world. What the Rite of Dedication does is to basically suffuse Essence into some of the characters possessions – a set of clothes, a nice axe, a sandwich, a keg of beer…whatever they think they’ll need.

The Rite is actually performed by the ritemaster cutting whoever is going to be the focus of the Rite with a claw and drawing blood. The blood is then marked onto the item in question in a circle – spiritually marking it as ‘mine’ (or ‘yours’ if you prefer). At the end of the Rite, when the spirit empowering it does their mystic spirit woogey things, the blood goes and leaves not a stain. The blood (and the act of marking the items) is a kind of Chiminage for the Spirit enacting the Rite, where it is tied to the character allowing it to pass the Gauntlet and to shift in shape and size.

Fairly simple eh?

What do Rites add to the game?

Well, on the one side they’re a pretty useful set of other abilities – without Rites no-one could join a Tribe, or gain Renown, or any one of a couple of dozen other really handy wee things. They’re something which can be bartered and traded, people who know Rites are generally respected – and good people to turn to when you need something. They’re also good for story purposes – there are Rites which need a lot of people to be involved (Drawing Down the Shadow) or which can be helpful for gaining information (Questioning Rite) or for modifying the Shadow (Rite of Desert Rain). There are even dark Rites, blasphemies, which no right thinking werewolf would consider such as Transfer the Spirits Blessing which can make a fantastic part of a storyline.

More than the place in a storyline, as a reward or as something to trade – or even as a character goal (gotta learn ‘em all!) Rites have another thing that they can really add to the game – atmosphere.

For those who were at the All-venue National in York earlier this year there were several Rites performed in game – some people went off to do personal little rites, a bunch of PCs went off to do something stupid brave and had a wee ritual moment beforehand. Other people performed Rites in game, and for me the best moment was a room full of people chanting and making noise and just really going for it – everyone involved in the Rite or making sure nothing disturbed it. Fantastic stuff. There was a great atmosphere and some fantastic roleplay was had from it too.

Forsaken is odd in some ways, it’s a dirty, gritty personal game where almost every hand is turned against you. It’s a game where the focus is quite narrow – but the scope is immense! The two halves of your soul tugging you in different ways, the demands of the flesh and the needs of the spirit. Part human, part wolf-spirit, all reviled and hated…wonderful! And yet its an epic game too, there are great deeds that can be done – you could be the lone Blood Talon standing on the edge and buying precious minutes for his Packmates to get free. You could be the crafty Iron Master using technology and the works of man to change the world. You could be the learned Bone Shadow guarding the traditions and history of a suspicious and often feral race through their pacts with Spirits in the forms of Rites.

They’re a simple thing, but add so much to a game, so much depth, when they’re performed. It doesn’t take much – read the description in the book of how your Rite goes. As I said earlier a Rite is an agreement – if I give you a quid will you get me a drink? That means you need to do your part, the bit written down, but you can add and dress it up. Get some props, put some thought into how you perform your Rite – do you like to spiritually purify your belongings before enacting the Rite of Dedication by dabbing spring water on them? Do you always play the same music and bless the knife with a candle taken from a church before enacting the Shared Scent? When marking a circle for a Summoning Rite do you always use the length of knotted chord carried in your ritual bag?

Put some thoughts into how you do your Rites, think about what props you need, think about what you’ll say – and then help really bring the atmosphere to life.

Come on…do the Rite thing!

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