Black Furies

You are Garou. You understand that the connections of the spirit world, of spirit and flesh, are far more than superstition. Then why can you not understand that sex has its own power and wisdom? You need to leave your pathetic pop psychology behind and accept that our roles have been set since before humanity was baking clay bricks in the sun.

- Cassandra Shadow-Watcher, Black Fury Theurge

Overview


The Furies are becoming spread all too thin in these Final Days. Their struggle to improve Woman's lot has borne some fruit, at least in some cultures. However, they have so much further to go that many despair of accomplishing their goals before the Apocalypse comes. What's more, the Furies are beginning to become far too rare to devote proper attention both to their social agendas and to defending the Wyld. Every year, more Furies die than are born, and every year, more of the Wyld places are defiled. Even their recruitment of females from other tribes is not enough, Today, many Furies feel torn between their duties, as they believe that the tribe cannot win both the war for women's status and the war for the Wyld. The Black Furies today remain too proud to ask (or trust) the other tribes to help, and some pessimists outside the tribe claim that the Furies will snap if they keep trying to bear half the world on their shoulders.

In defiance, the Furies struggle even harder in the Final Days to protect their charges. Several Furies have traveled into Bosnia/Herzegovina over the past few years, determined to put an end to the rape camps and worse that have sprung up there. Few of those crusaders have been heard from since, leading some of their sisters to believe that great and noisome powers are lurking in the area, feeding off the anguish of the locals. Other Furies have passed into Bangkok, Amsterdam, New York and Hong Kong, where they found foul evidence of a conspiracy that feeds the Defiler Wyrm with the violation of innocents. Some Furies have asked the other Garou to aid them against this network of depravity, but most, upon witnessing the suffering of its victims, are too enraged even to spare a thought for allies.

Appearance
Although the tribe originated in Ancient Greece, the Furies have since spread throughout the world, adapting to (and changing) a wide array of cultures. In Crinos, Hispo and Lupus forms, their fur is unusually dark, often with white, gray or silver highlights. By ancient law, the only males among the tribe are the metis sons of other Furies. Ancient Greek art depicts homid Furies as graceful, lithe warriors, but 21st century Furies resent being portrayed under any one stereotype. There is no universal standard of beauty or grace within the tribe, just as there is no one approach to feminism. Despite endless debates over politics and practice, no other group of werewolves can gather together urban punks, modern Amazons, feminist intellectuals and aging grande dames so effectively.

Kinfolk
Most Furies appoint themselves as the protectors of women, taking crimes against their gender with deadly gravity. Female Kinfolk often find themselves in hostile or dangerous lives before they're discovered (and sometimes rescued) by their Garou relations. Male Kinfolk are numerous, as they are essential to the tribe's survival. Their contact with the tribe is usually mundane, and relations are usually held outside sept grounds. Male Fury Kin are most often set to work cultivating influence in the human world, and some are treated as little more than breeding stock. Nonetheless, while many Furies demonstrate open impatience with men in general, this impatience does not preclude them from developing deep and soulful ties with individual males, some of which last throughout their entire lives.

Organization


The Black Furies are scattered across the world, and they jealously guard most of their caerns in the wildest, most secluded places. They allow no lupus or homid male to serve in the tribe, and they usually forbid such werewolves from the Furies' sacred sites. Oddly enough, they accept the metis sons of Furies into their ranks, although male metis never gain much prestige or responsibility in the tribe and usually remain in supporting roles.

The entire tribe takes its direction from the rulings of two circles, or Calyxes. The Outer Calyx is composed of 13 Furies, chosen by lot, who come from all over the world. These Furies coordinate the tribe's activities across the globe, and each one oversees a certain region and administrates the edicts of the Inner Calyx when necessary. The Inner Calyx consists of five Furies chosen by Artemis herself. These five are reputedly the keepers of the sacred treasures and certainly the highest law of the tribe. Each one exemplifies a certain role (or facet of Artemis) and is a sterling representative of her auspice. The five are the First Daughter (Ragabash), the Elder Crone (Theurge), the Great Mother (Philodox), the Mistress of Artisans (Galliard) and the Chief Warrior (Ahroun). These five are not always of the highest Rank; Artemis herself determines the worthiness of a member of the Inner Calyx and does not share her reasons.

Tribal Weakness


Anger: -1 difficulty to enter frenzy when provoked by men
The Black Furies have no tolerance for abusive men; they have seen first-hand the sort of violence a man is capable of visiting on a woman or child, and they bear those memories within them. Pegasus herself reinforces the Furies’ refusal to accept domineering males as “part of the natural order.” Whenever a Fury must make a frenzy check brought on by a male human (or werecreature, or vampire, or similar sentient humanlike being), her difficulty is reduced by 1, to a minimum of 2. This weakness might be overcome in cases where the Fury is dealing with a man she has otherwise learned to trust implicitly, or a man she cares for deeply.

Camps


Amazons of Diana
This secret order is dedicated foremost to the ideal of protecting women from abuse. The Amazons run the gamut from patient social workers who operate women's clinics to vicious warriors who stalk and dismember rapists and sex offenders. They rarely cooperate with male Garou and gladly perpetuate the bloody rivalry between the Furies and the Get of Fenris.

Freebooters
By comparison, the Freebooters are interested more in discovering and defending lost sacred ground or undiscovered sites of the Wyld. They operate mostly on the fringes of human society, as they prefer their missions even over tribal politics. Freebooters are known for capturing Wyrm fetishes and placing them under the tribe's protection, as well as being the advance guard to reclaim lost caerns. Always leaping into the next adventure, they certainly make for interesting companions.

Moon-Daughters
This camp concerns itself mostly with the mysticism that is its tribe's birthright, and the Moon-Daughters often distribute filtered-down Fury spirituality into various human subcultures. They are about as egalitarian and accepting as Fury camps get, and they work constantly to raise the consciousness of the humans around them. However, outsiders who dismiss the Moon-Daughters as yet another New Age or pagan sect often miss the point - the Daughters are as ferocious in battle as any of their sisters, and their patience is hardly limitless.

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