(Disclaimer; This needs to be underlined heavily. I come from a pretty well off family, only now having to deal with saving money to eat. If I get something wrong here or am ignorant/ableist, PLEASE note me about it!)
It is strange how your tastes change over the years. When I was 14 and had first gotten WTA revised core, I considered Silent Striders and Bone Gnawers my two favorite tribes. These days, Striders are still there, but Gnawers have lost their shine for me a lot. More as I’ve begun to be more socially aware.
To get everyone up to speed on the Gnawers, they are a tribe of garou (werewolves) who are the least. They are the omega wolves, runts of the litter, and the homeless who live in filth and take anyone into their tribe who is desperate enough. They get insulted and kicked about, often called not true garou by other tribes. Bone Gnawers are also heavily based on American pop culture and other very American traditions.
To my issues on them, first of all, the omega wolf is a myth. While garou society is similar the captive packs, or the Druid pack in Yellowstone by culture, the idea that some wolves are lesser and need to be the punching bags is not related to how wolves act in the wild. Wolves who are not liked simply leave to find new packs. Even the runts of the litter, if they survive that long. And why would a pack have a member whose sole purpose was to be abused and lesser? That is wasted time and wasted food they don’t have.
Second, the parts of being homeless and moochers are rather strange when most non-Glass Walker garou ARE in fact homeless and moochers. Because Rage makes it hard to hold jobs for most of them, and they have kinfolk to get money and shelter if they need it. The idea that Bone Gnawers are the lesser because they don’t have money is pretty hilarious in that context.
Indeed, one of the biggest issues I have in regards to Bone Gnawers is the way the setting, and especially the revised tribe book, treats their kinfolk and potential members. The book states that most of Bone Gnawers come from poor homes, and have no hope to reach anything but the tribe and homelessness. And on top of that, any money they receive they splurge away instantly and mooch so much their friends grow tired of them.
For me, the idea that Bone Gnawers are of the tribe because they are worthless for anything else is rather classist, not to mention defeats the point of them being a tribe, to begin with. If the garou are truly worthless, shouldn’t they be ronin rather than members of a tribe? Tribes survive by pleasing their totem and earning rank, so Gnawers are hardly worthless if they have remained a tribe so long. It also puts the poor state of the character’s life on them, because they could not have amounted to anything else.
The money thing is also a bit suspect, as Gnawers receive no stat decreases and such that would prevent them from being able to manage finances. It also, again, essentially puts the blame for the character’s homelessness and low station on them.
In general, as much as the book has a lot of cool art and ideas, it also doesn’t really do the Gnawers justice and assumes homelessness is genetic and self-caused. World of Darkness or not, but that is pretty bad.
Then there is the America focus, so much so that the tribe book doesn’t even have an ‘around the world’ section. And the history section says that most just left for America from Europe, anyway. Given Bone Gnawers are portrayed as the 'poor’ tribe, this ignores so many interesting cultural variations they could have.
To continue on the homelessness topic, as stated above, most tribes don’t really have 9-5 jobs, either. In fact, tribes like Stargazers and Silent Striders don’t have many possessions either. That combined with the fact that actual wolf packs don’t have omegas and Gnawers seem rather weird. And then, there is the fact that Gnawers exist in the same setting as Children of Gaia. A tribe that also takes many weaker garou in and also pushes community among the garou. Why aren’t the Bone Gnawers members of that tribe, then?
For me, the answer is simple. Bone Gnawers -choose- to stalk the streets, they choose to protect the weak and make their Caerns in places where no one else would. They risk themselves in the worst places in the world, braving taint and death by their foes. They take kin from those who dare as much as they do, with as little. Essentially, rather than portray the tribe as fated to be low, I rather they chose this path and life. Because Glass Walkers can be so blind to the horrors in the city and no one else cares. That, and with the growing generation of college-educated young adults who none the less are left starving, I’d say the tribe could get more members focused on its democracy and politics rather than mere survival.
Rats survive and thrive where others cannot, after all.
It is strange how your tastes change over the years. When I was 14 and had first gotten WTA revised core, I considered Silent Striders and Bone Gnawers my two favorite tribes. These days, Striders are still there, but Gnawers have lost their shine for me a lot. More as I’ve begun to be more socially aware.
To get everyone up to speed on the Gnawers, they are a tribe of garou (werewolves) who are the least. They are the omega wolves, runts of the litter, and the homeless who live in filth and take anyone into their tribe who is desperate enough. They get insulted and kicked about, often called not true garou by other tribes. Bone Gnawers are also heavily based on American pop culture and other very American traditions.
To my issues on them, first of all, the omega wolf is a myth. While garou society is similar the captive packs, or the Druid pack in Yellowstone by culture, the idea that some wolves are lesser and need to be the punching bags is not related to how wolves act in the wild. Wolves who are not liked simply leave to find new packs. Even the runts of the litter, if they survive that long. And why would a pack have a member whose sole purpose was to be abused and lesser? That is wasted time and wasted food they don’t have.
Second, the parts of being homeless and moochers are rather strange when most non-Glass Walker garou ARE in fact homeless and moochers. Because Rage makes it hard to hold jobs for most of them, and they have kinfolk to get money and shelter if they need it. The idea that Bone Gnawers are the lesser because they don’t have money is pretty hilarious in that context.
Indeed, one of the biggest issues I have in regards to Bone Gnawers is the way the setting, and especially the revised tribe book, treats their kinfolk and potential members. The book states that most of Bone Gnawers come from poor homes, and have no hope to reach anything but the tribe and homelessness. And on top of that, any money they receive they splurge away instantly and mooch so much their friends grow tired of them.
For me, the idea that Bone Gnawers are of the tribe because they are worthless for anything else is rather classist, not to mention defeats the point of them being a tribe, to begin with. If the garou are truly worthless, shouldn’t they be ronin rather than members of a tribe? Tribes survive by pleasing their totem and earning rank, so Gnawers are hardly worthless if they have remained a tribe so long. It also puts the poor state of the character’s life on them, because they could not have amounted to anything else.
The money thing is also a bit suspect, as Gnawers receive no stat decreases and such that would prevent them from being able to manage finances. It also, again, essentially puts the blame for the character’s homelessness and low station on them.
In general, as much as the book has a lot of cool art and ideas, it also doesn’t really do the Gnawers justice and assumes homelessness is genetic and self-caused. World of Darkness or not, but that is pretty bad.
Then there is the America focus, so much so that the tribe book doesn’t even have an ‘around the world’ section. And the history section says that most just left for America from Europe, anyway. Given Bone Gnawers are portrayed as the 'poor’ tribe, this ignores so many interesting cultural variations they could have.
To continue on the homelessness topic, as stated above, most tribes don’t really have 9-5 jobs, either. In fact, tribes like Stargazers and Silent Striders don’t have many possessions either. That combined with the fact that actual wolf packs don’t have omegas and Gnawers seem rather weird. And then, there is the fact that Gnawers exist in the same setting as Children of Gaia. A tribe that also takes many weaker garou in and also pushes community among the garou. Why aren’t the Bone Gnawers members of that tribe, then?
For me, the answer is simple. Bone Gnawers -choose- to stalk the streets, they choose to protect the weak and make their Caerns in places where no one else would. They risk themselves in the worst places in the world, braving taint and death by their foes. They take kin from those who dare as much as they do, with as little. Essentially, rather than portray the tribe as fated to be low, I rather they chose this path and life. Because Glass Walkers can be so blind to the horrors in the city and no one else cares. That, and with the growing generation of college-educated young adults who none the less are left starving, I’d say the tribe could get more members focused on its democracy and politics rather than mere survival.
Rats survive and thrive where others cannot, after all.
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