Moon Lake Protectorates
In Service to Gaia
In the American Midwest, the Garou are faced with the deceiving tranquillity of the wide, rural fields, wild prairies, and tall forests. The Mississipi is choked and the lands are capitalized. In the Kansas City area in particular, the Fangs of Gaia are faced with the danger of urban infestations. Worse, the Uktena whisper that the Earth is hollow beneath the lush fields, where ancient Wyrm-beasts sleep fitfully.
The Changing Breeds of the area can be split down into three main groups. The rural Garou maintain their caern and Moon Paths from the Sept of the Moon Lake. The urban Garou maintain a smaller caern in the city’s underbelly as the Sept of Memory Lane (covered under the RaW TUG). And finally, an unknown number of other werewolves -- ronin or independents -- roam the region, and rumors say that so do other, more reclusive lycanthropes.
Rules
The Sept of the Moon Lake upholds the Litany with only as much fervor as one can expect from the dominant Tribes. The Veil is, of course, sacrosanct. Individual Garou follow the Litany (or don’t) at their own whim. Non-Garou have their own laws to follow. Those that violate the Veil discover why that tenet belongs in the Litany soon enough.
Other Shapeshifters
In addition to this large Sept of Garou, any number of other shapeshifters can be found in the region. This includes the odd Silent Strider that passes through on a traveling circuit or even Ronin Garou. This also includes the Glass Walker syndicate based out of Jeremiah Industries (also covered under the RaW TUG).
Non-Garou include most of the other Changing Breeds to one degree or another. In addition to unusual wanderers or renegades, one can find Nuwisha and Corax. There are a Gurahl or two staking out their own territories in the woods beyond. Of native Bastet, only Pumonca occasionally prowl the area. But the wide-traveling werecats insures many of their Tribes may come through at one point or another. Ananasi may be at work in the region, as may Nagah. Mokolé are not native to this climate, and not likely to be encountered -- only Wanderers are likely. But the least likely Changing Breed to be found are Rokea, of course. The most common non-Garou in the area, however, are the Ratkin. They exist in great numbers beneath the city (and they too are covered under the RaW TUG).
Sept of the Moon Lake
The Kansas City region is not centrally important to the Garou of North America. But it is nevertheless a hub of activity in regards to its Moon Paths. Those ley lines that do not crisscross through Chicago cut through Kansas City’s area instead! Thus, the Sept of the Moon Lake is dedicated to those byways’ guardianship. But the caern is older than the Fianna and Shadow Lords who head up these tasks. The Uktena once commanded the caern, and they maintain a strong presence there still. Indeed, the Banetenders are at work in the region…
Location
The Sept of the Moon Lake is located north of Kansas City in the large Smithville Woods Preserve. It borders west of the expansive Smithville Lake. The entire territory is wooded, with small clearings and glades, and three creeks that all run off from the Missouri River and empty into the Smithville Lake.
Bawn
The bawn extends for ten square miles throughout most of the Smithville Woods. This includes camping sites and common hunting lands, both of which are known to have trouble with “wild wolves and coyotes”.
Caern
Square in the center of the Garou lands is located in the heart of their power and connection to Gaia. This is a Level 3 Caern of Honor. Nuada, a Totem of War, is the patron. The Fianna found this caern abandoned 75 years ago and reawakened it. In the process, they awakened a terrible Wyrm-beast. They called upon as many allies as they could, and Uktena shamans helped put it back into quiescence. They learned that the caern once belonged to the Uktena, and the Totem was once Dajoji (the West Wind). Dajoji was also reinstated to the caern. Now both Totems are represented in the caern.
Other Landmarks
The Caern Center is in the deepest clearing of the woods and well-guarded. The Pathstone is buried directly in the center of three oval boulders. Among the trees and brush to the north of this clearing are the Graves of Hallowed Heroes, their names inscribed into the trees’ barks by Garou claws. And throughout the caern area, dozens of ancient (petrified wood) posts inscribed long ago in Garou glyphs stand. These are testaments to the Garou’s battles against the ancient Wyrm-beasts that once stalked the land.
Tribal Structure
Fianna dominate the leadership of the Sept of the Moon Lake. But both Shadow Lords and Uktena vie for power. The Uktena are happy in maintaining the caern’s spiritual elements, but the Shadow Lords want it all. Though these three Tribes are the most powerful in the caern, they are hardly representative of all present Garou. There are members of almost every Tribe in the Sept of the Moon Lake.
Guardians
In addition to appointed Garou Guardians, the Sept of the Moon Lake has several packs of Wolf-spirits patrolling the Umbrascape.
Special Events
Special events are annual (or more frequent) holidays or special ritual days that the main group or groups observe as a whole community. Attendance and participation is often expected of all members, and sometimes required.
Seasonal Rites
Most Garou Septs celebrate most seasonal rites. But for the Sept of the Moon Lake, the solstices have been very meaningful in relevance to the local Garou’s long-established rhythms of war and peace in the region. Thus, the Rite of the Winter Wind and the Rite of the Great Hunt are vital and solemn affairs. All members of the Sept must attend both.
“Mind the bones of the dead, for they are one with the earth. Listen now to the whispers of the west wind and realize our unquiet doom.”
-- Ripples-in-the-Pond, Master of the Rite of the Sept of the Moon Lake
