The Pure Tribes

Thousands of years ago, according to the teachings of the Forsaken, most of the First Pack of Uratha rose up and slew Father Wolf — but not all. Some of those ancient werewolves feared Father Wolf’s fangs. Others cared nothing for Father Wolf’s growing failure to protect the physical world adequately. (If the spirits enslaved and destroyed humans and animals, what did it matter? The weak give way to the strong.) Still others left Pangaea rather than take either side of the battle, lest they choose the one that lost.

The descendants of these werewolves do not consider themselves Forsaken; they levy the guilt of Father Wolf’s murder entirely on the descendants of his killers. They call themselves the Pure Tribes, or simply the Pure. The Tribes of the Moon are only partly familiar with their estranged siblings, though some Forsaken go over to the other side. The Pure are known to follow Firstborn tribal totems, brothers to the Tribes of the Moon’s totem spirits, but over millennia the two groups have split.

What the Forsaken do know is that the Pure have built a culture of hate. To the Pure Tribes, the world will not be healed until the Forsaken have been scourged from it. The two factions of werewolves rarely engage in open war, though. When the Pure Tribes go to war against the Forsaken, it is a guerilla war. They strike furiously against specific targets then retreat into the darkness.

The Pure Tribes hold a great deal of territory across the world, just as the Tribes of the Moon do. They can be found at the center of an urban hellhole, or in the stark heart of the wilderness; they seem to have a great contempt for the human race, yet this does not prevent them from living among “the sheep” as need be. Sometimes their territories border the territories of Forsaken packs; sometimes the nearest Pure pack is many miles away. In a few regions, the Forsaken are strong while the Pure are rare and scattered, but in most, the Pure hold the majority of territory and the Forsaken must struggle to hold on. The Pure are said to collectively outnumber the Forsaken, and many a scarred pack has reason to believe this is true.

The Pure Tribes seem to have a different relationship with the spirit world than the Forsaken do — and they seem to have different and stronger allies. When their pack totems manifest, they are terrifying things, often distorted beasts of legend rather than aspects of actual animals. The Pure also are said to practice a great variety of rites, many of which call on spiritual powers unknown to the Forsaken. If the stories are true, the Pure oppose the Forsaken’s tradition of hunting down escapees from the spirit world. Instead, they seek to reestablish the supremacy of the lords of the Shadow Realm, forging a new Pangaea where humanity once more knows its role under the spirit kings. Such a dark mirror to the Oath would no doubt please the spirits greatly.

If the Pure have a weakness, it’s that they don’t possess the favor of Mother Luna. They have no auspices, perhaps because, in their arrogance, they were never offered her blessing. Despite their utter hatred for the Forsaken and apparent willingness to murder their fellow werewolves, the Pure never use silver weapons against their cousins. Indeed, no Pure are ever seen to bear silver in jewelry or any other form. Some Cahalith suggest that Mother Luna’s curse weighs even more heavily on the Pure, but exactly how that might manifest is a secret the Pure Tribes jealously guard.

Recently, the 1990s saw dozens of coordinated attacks by the Pure against Uratha holdings across North America. The implications of these raids were very unsettling, as the Pure were able to overcome werewolf territoriality and work together toward a particular goal. The most coordinated war effort among werewolves in years was driven by hate, which does not bode well for the Forsaken.

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The Pure in Great Britain

The Highborn are in a contradictory position. They are fewer here in comparison to their archenemies than anywhere else, and yet the Highborn’s is the best territory. In Scotland, they claim the highlands, and most of the glens. In Wales, they own Snowdonia, the Gower, Pembrokeshire and Monmouthshire, and much of the rural North. And in England, the only large rural area they don’t mostly control is the moorland of Devon and Cornwall. Only in Northern Ireland do the Forsaken control more of the countryside than the Pure, and even then, that seems to be mainly because the Pure don’t actually want it.

Though it’s estimated that the Forsaken outnumber the Pure by as much as three to one, the Highborn’s control of their territory is mostly accomplished through agreements with the spirits of the land, with whom the Highborn have long-standing ancestral ties. These spirit-allies — and a belief that the land is rightfully theirs held by both Pure and Forsaken — have been the keys to the Pure Tribes’ success.

The Commoners are scared of the Highborn. As they should be, the Highborn say. But how long can this last? It just needs one pack of Forsaken to call their Highborn enemies’ bluff, to strike a blow for equality, and it could be the beginning of the end for the Highborn’s supremacy over the Isles. The Highborn don’t dare even think about it.

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