Spoiler: Application: Caliban "Finds-The-Narrow-Gate"
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1. The "Elevator Pitch."Silent Strider, Metis, Theurge. Caliban - “Finds-The-Narrow-Gate” in rites, and “Sahu” to his fellow Striders, - is an unfortunate among unfortunates, in an unfortunate world. Born of an ill advised tryst between his Black Fury mother and Silent Strider father, he came into the world cursed in body and soul - hairless and naked, and prone to seizures when panic-stricken. His delinquent father had vanished long before his birth; and his mother’s tribe famously abides no sons, forcing him to grow up lonely and bitter, tormented by his own condition and the ghosts that terrorize the Silent Striders. In a confrontation with another juvenile Metis, he provoked a fight he could not win, and had his eyes slashed out before ever he came to his first change. Deformed, tormented, haunted and blind, it may have been called a fortunate thing if Caliban had never been born. But Mole, one of the least of the animal spirits, took pity on him for the sake of the crescent moon; and the tutelage of the animal spirits gave him just enough strength and proficiency to grow and stand, if not quite thrive. And in spite of all these flaws, he has lived longer and done more than most Garou ever will - a hundred years he has walked the roads and wilds and moonbridges, hammering out his grievances with the world that wronged him by permitting him in it.
In those years, he has loved and hated, gained and lost; confronted both mother and father, and made peace; faced a brutal gradient for acceptance within tribe and nation, and made headway. He is no longer bitter. Instead, he cherishes the wisdom that only a life like his can grant, and tries to pass it on to any who will listen to a wrinkled, blind old wolf. Now the call to war has come - an opportunity to strike at the hated leeches against and perhaps, if fortune permits, to get what so few Garou ever have: a good death, after a long and storied life.
2a. How did you get the Call to go to war in Chicago? Where were you? Who told you? What are your motivations for answering? Like most Striders, Caliban was ‘between caerns’ when the call came - exchanging riddles with a cobra spirit in a penumbral glade near the Kodaya lake caern in southern India. It was much to his surprise, and the cobra spirit’s, that a child of raccoon would come all that way to find the theurge. A good war at the end of his life was something for which he had quietly hoped - though he had been made aware of the Temple of Fanum’s spiritual occupant. 2b. OPTIONAL. What was it about the Call for help that made you wary? Or suspicious? That made you think there was more to this than it seemed? If Jupiter had been badly treated, the wyrmspawn seething through the towers and streets of Chicago would not be their greatest concern…
3b. Tell me about someone your character hopes/dreads/expects to run into in Chicago, for any reason. Friend, foe, ally, villain. Tell me why you hope/dread/expect to meet them and why. Howls-In-Victory is Caliban’s opposite: a Silver Fang of the half-moon who claims numerous heroes of that tribe in her heritage and wears the purity of her breed in astonishing beauty; or so he is told. Thirty years ago, as she was poised accrue more honors still, her pack and Caliban’s were entangled in a fiasco about a botched raid on a Pentex operation (to poison Lake Peoria) that led to a total retreat in the face of the Wyrm’s forces and three Silver Fangs dead. Howls-In-Victory made an accusation against Caliban suggesting treachery, and demanding he be subjected to the ultimate punishment - Gaia’s Vengeful Teeth. But in a stunning reversal, answering her challenge before a convened panel of Silver Fang Half-Moons, the rumpled old Metis snared the purebreed in a logical trap that proved neither pack was at fault - escaping execution, and provoking a humiliation rite on Howls-In-Victory for her dangerous zeal and bad judgment. The events that followed caused the Silverfangs to lose power in the region and the Shadowlords to galvanize, and the fated daughter of Falcon who was being groomed toward House leadership suffered a disgrace from which she might never recover. Caliban had heard from one source that she died, another that she returned to europe, and another that she ended up in Chicago. He can only hope, if the latter is true, she is more forgiving now than she used to be.
4. Tell me one way that your character exactly matches a common stereotype of their Tribe, Breed, or Auspice. And tell me one way they directly defy a common stereotype of their Tribe, Breed, or Auspice.
Defies - Silent Striders - and Metis, for that matter - are famous loners, struggling to integrate into pack life and even then not for long before they must roam. These things were true of Caliban, too, but he’s had enough years to grow out of them. In truth, he has found the occasions in which he has joined a pack to be the only ones that have ever provided him with anything like family or home; but he knows he is a walking emblem of the defiance of the ancient laws, visually repulsive, socially hazardous to know. If he is alone, it is only because he is patient enough to wait for other Garou to elect him to their midst.
Matches -If Caliban does not sit comfortably in the realm of man or wolf, he is extremely natural to the spiritual element of the Garou’s threefold call. He owes his life to the mercies of animal spirits, and once they taught him the way to step sideways without needing to see (let alone find a mirror), he has spent great stretches of his life walking the umbra, negotiating with its denizens, learning their ways. He would be a great theurge elder at a respected caern if he had not had so many reversals so early in his life. Once, he overheard a conversation between theurges at a Strider moot that, if only he had been born right and lived his hundred years unencumbered, he might very well have been the tribe’s best chance at unraveling the Curse of Sutekh. It was the proudest moment of his life. But even destined for more moderate challenges, he is well molded to matters of the spirit world.
5. What are your preferred pronouns? He/Him, both IC and OOC.
6. Imagine we've been playing together for a while and I PM you and say that one of your Gifts, Merits or other trait is causing me a problem (too powerful, clashes thematically, etc). You disagree with my assessment. You don't see the problem I describe and can't really see where I'm coming from. How would you approach this? How would your approach differ if it was something non-mechanical your character is doing that I have an issue with? What if it was something you (the player) were doing Out of Character? I would probably send a reply in which I first made my counterargument, but then suggest some kind of alternative or moderation of the problem. I’ve run too many games to feel targeted or put upon by something like that, so the sooner it gets ironed out, the better. If it was non-mechanical, a theme thing, it’s much the same; I’d make my argument, but try to flex. If it felt like it was too much of a sacrifice, I’d suggest some kind of withdrawal of the character and I’d make one that fit. If it was something OOC, I’d be surprised and lose sleep over it because I consider myself very agreeable and I strive to not make problems or exacerbate them; but see above. Plead my case, offer solution. At worst case, quietly suggest a withdrawal.
7. Again, imagine we've been playing together for a while. One of the other players has a cool plan that depends on a certain rule working a certain way. The player checks with me and I okay it. You know I'm wrong. Not in a 'different interpretation' sort of way, but factually, objectively wrong. That's just not how the rule works and you know it. What do you do? How would your approach differ if it was me (the ST) whose cool plan depended on a rule that I had wrong? What if it was your cool plan? I’d probably send you a PM to make sure you were aware of your deviation from the rules. If I felt ambushed by it - if something IC the pack was doing got bamboozled because suddenly the world works different to how we thought it did - I’d probably express a little frustration about it, but I’m just not built to chew people out or make drama, so I’d get over it and try to work forward with the understanding that the rules work like this, in this game. I might ask to rejig some character points if I was building towards something that suddenly doesn’t work, but that’s it.