I KNOW SOME OF MY PLAYERS READ THE FORUMS SO THIS IS WHERE I ASK YOU TO BOUNCE.
So! Using some of Chris Allen's Pangea Unleashed as an inspiration, as well as getting inspiration from other sources (if you spot them you get a cookie), I'm posting up a fan Pangean here, as well as (eventually) getting around to posting the "Werebears" descending from him/her. Lemme know what you think!
This story is true. Winter Wolf did not earn his mantle. He stole it.
Skolis-Ur is a curious case among the Firstborn, should a Forsaken look at him too carefully. No other child of Mother Wolf has such a domain over the elements, nor does Winter hold special significance to the hunt. Death, adaptation, destruction, knowledge, cunning, even lineage, savagery, and rabid madness all foster some imagery of the Wolf on the hunt. Wolves grow more dangerous in the winter, yes, but never has a mundane wolf conjured a blizzard with it’s howl.
How is it then, that one so tied to Father’s Wolf’s legacy defies expectations so? Where does this oddity arise?
Though Father Wolf clashed with the Pangeans of old in unceasing, uncountable hunts, the Firstborn’s exploits in this time are often overlooked. Before and after the Sundering, the children of Wolf went on their own hunts, and their own titanic wars with ancient gods.
For Skolis-Ur, the greatest of such battles was with Mighty Bear, the true Queen of Winter.
Wolf and Bear had a complicated relationship at the best of times. Bear respected the prowess of Wolf, and Wolf respected the strength of Bear. Surviving in the oldest, rarest stories and texts are tales told of a godly bear spirit aiding the Great Wolf in hunts against the foulest things of Pangea that even the First Pack dared not approach.
However, Bear’s nature compelled him to transgress the Wolf’s mandate on rare occasion. Before the coldest winters, Ice Ages especially, Bear would invade the Flesh and rampage across the world, an unstoppable maelstrom of destruction. Bear would not simply kill and devour, she would go out of her way to drive game into the highest peaks and deepest valleys, destroy crops and forage, and bury streams and rivers in mud and snow. Seemingly, her purpose was to ensure as many would die in the winter as possible, not only from her claws and teeth, but from starvation and exposure as well. So it was that Wolf and Bear would clash and clash and clash. Though Wolf would inevitably succeed in dragging Bear back to the Border Marches, never was he able, or perhaps even willing, to kill Bear entirely.
Bear’s connection to the frost was more than just simple coincidence. It was a primordial connection that reached to her very core being. Perhaps it was Winter itself, that great, mysterious, Incarnae of cold and frost that commanded these crusades against the Flesh. Another love, like Wolf and Moon, that shook the world to its foundations.
This would all change with the rise of the Firstborn that would become known as Winter Wolf. The Firstborn had always been proud, stoic, and prone to solitude. But it’s coldness would come later, after it’s battle with the Bear. .
When Father Wolf weakened, the signal was clear. He could not, would not survive another battle with Mighty Bear. If unchecked, a rampage at this tenuous time would result in not just mass destruction, but perhaps the destruction of all life on Earth. The world reduced to a barren, lifeless patch of ice floating in the void.
And as such, either by command of their ailing progenitor, or by their own passion and foresight, three wolves split from the pack. One white, one ghastly grey, and another red. With them, loping at their heels, a pack of their brothers and sisters, led by the Firstborn’s hand picked champions.
There was only one hope to succeed where Father Wolf had failed. Whatever connection between the Pangean and the tide of winter must be severed. As Bear slept deep in her den, the pack did as the pack does, honing in on their specialties with purity of purpose. One had knowledge, one inspired change, yet it was the nameless pup that would prove to be Bear’s undoing.
Whatever the other two Firstborn did, it woke Bear, who stormed from his den in a roaring, desperate frenzy. The Firstborn stood its ground, and clashed with Mighty Bear. Bear’s claws disemboweled it and made it bled, she gouged its flesh with her teeth and crushed it with her strength. Yet every time the wolf crumpled to the ground and Bear thought the battle done, fangs sunk into her flank and ripped her back to furious battle. The Firstborn stood defiant, throwing itself into battle with stoic abandon, as did it’s followers. Greatest of it’s hunters, they followed the lead of their older sibling and threw themselves bodily against the great beast, a fight they couldn’t possibly survive.
Near-death and bloody, the wolf stood on shaking legs, ready to receive it’s deathblow with the resolve none other could muster. But the instant before Bear’s great claws severed it’s life, it roared in pain.
The plan had worked, that primordial, sacred connection to the frost was gone. But such power could not be simply destroyed or cast away. It had to go somewhere.And where better, than Winter Wolf?
The tale should end there. Bear slain, the Wolf triumphant. So it might be told to the Imnir that hear of it.
But such tales are lies.
Now, in the deepest reaches of the arctic where the scars of that great battle linger today, that great beast stirs once more. It is feeble, weak, and longing for its lost power and love, but it is still an ancient god, one of the most powerful to have ever trod on Earth. Even now, children long sleeping awake to a changed world. They, like their half-living mother, hunger for vengeance and flesh.
A reckoning is coming. A second round to decide the titlebearer of Winter for the rest of eternity. A war to shake the world.
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Bear is a terrifying brute of unslakable hunger and terrible strength. Her face lacks all but the barest scraps of skin and muscle. Her eye sockets are hollow, yet if one stares into them they may find shards of ice that float freely and may mimic something akin to an iris or pupil. In his arctic home, his fur is white, yet coated in ash and dried blood in wild patterns around the paws, with large sections of body scarred or ripped off to hang gorily from her mass. Teeth, human and bear, constantly appear and disappear near and inside her mouth, and wherever flesh is visible her body constantly seems to roil and churn. When he speaks it is with borrowed voices, tonally shifting between people the listener has known who have died.
Bear, Alabaster and Mighty
Rank 5 Pangaean (upon fully being awakened, Bear would be Rank 6)
Power 16 Finesse 14 Resistance 15
Willpower 10
Essence 50
Initiative 29 Defence 15 Speed 36 (Power+Finesse+6)
Size 30 Corpus 45
Influences: Bears 5, Might 3
Numina: Awe, Drain, Emotional Aura, Ghost Eater, Regenerate, Speed, Stalwart, Implant Mission, Blast
Arcana: Death 5
Ban: Bear must offer audience and refrain from hostility to anyone who comes to her wearing white (genuine) fur, although she is not bound further if the offer of audience is refused or if the visitor acts against her.
Bane: An icicle that has not been bathed in direct sunlight for over one hundred years.
Divine Bleed: The first time in a scene that she suffers Corpus damage, Bear may reflexively use the Awe, Dement, or Emotional Aura. He may also use the Create power of his Influence (Bears) for free each time he suffers damage, or he may create a Rank 1 Bear spirit instead.
Powerful Blows: Bear’s Brawl attacks in any form cause the Knocked Down tilt, as well as throw the target back a number of yards equal to successes.
Lingering Embers of Love: Any character that enters Bear’s presence is subject to the Extreme Cold tilt. No amount of mundane or supernatural weather protection will protect from this unless Bear elects to spare them. Bear never will elect to spare them.
Lord of Bears: Bear is aware of the health and emotional state (basic information like fear, pain, hunger, etc) of all Bears within one hundred miles of her location. If there are no Bears within that area, she suffers a -3 penalty to all of her Attributes. By touching a dead or incapacitated human, Bear can cause a number of newly-created Bears equal to the human's Stamina to tear their way out of the body and into existence.
Mother, Father: Any person who has suffered an Integrity break from an act of violence within one hundred miles of Bear’s presence feels a subconscious loyalty to Bear, even if they are completely unaware of his existence. They will go out of their way to aid her or her servants, even if they have never met them. They will even use deadly force if one of them is threatened, though they will still work to preserve their own life before others. The only exception to this are Werewolves who follow a Firstborn.
Monstrous Form: Bear has Armour 13, and may spend 1 Essence to shrug off any Tilt she experiences. These benefits do not apply to attacks from her Banes.
Overwhelming Presence: A mortal human who encounters Bear suffers an Integrity breaking point. If this roll is failed, the character gains the Madness persistent condition.
Forge Berserker: Upon touching an individual, Bear may impart them the ability to amplify and harness their rage. Humans gain the Insane condition, Werewolves and any other supernatural enter their natural frenzied state if they possess it, otherwise going Insane as normal. For one hundred minutes their natural weapons gain +2 damage and cause lethal damage if they didn’t already, gain 2/2 armor, and they will instinctively hunt and kill the closest living (or unliving) thing to them. For one hundred days days after the fact, they may enter this state at will as a reflexive action. They may, if desired, choose a target or group of targets up to their Resolve as targets of their rage, maintaining the rage state until those targets are dead as opposed to normal mechanics.
Carnage Consumed: Any creature that is killed by Bear or within one hundred feet of him does not leave a ghost. Instead, a Rank 1 spirit of cold, death, or bears, rises instead, containing most of the original creature’s personality and vague, swirling memories of their past life. They will, regardless of their previous life, be loyal to Bear.
Millennia of Hatred: Bear can instantly tell the tribal affiliation of any Storm Lord within one hundred miles of her, and is vaguely aware of their presence. Any time that Storm Lord uses a Gift, or attempts to shapeshift, Bear may use an instant action and a point of willpower to negate the attempt entirely. In return, Storm Lords attempting to harm or hamper Bear gain the rote quality on all rolls to do so. Finally, Bear counts as the Bane towards Winter Wolf and all spirits descended from him, and in turn Winter Wolf counts as Bear’s bane and all spirits descended from her.
Bear, the Mighty: If allowed to regain his full power and ascend back to Rank 6, Bear will gain Forces 4, Influence (Winter) 5, grow to Size 100, and all areas within one hundred miles are subject to the Blizzard, Extreme Cold, Heavy Winds, and Ice tilts, and be considered a Level 4 extreme environment. As well as any other powers the ST finds appropriate for a newly reborn god of frost and death.
So! Using some of Chris Allen's Pangea Unleashed as an inspiration, as well as getting inspiration from other sources (if you spot them you get a cookie), I'm posting up a fan Pangean here, as well as (eventually) getting around to posting the "Werebears" descending from him/her. Lemme know what you think!
This story is true. Winter Wolf did not earn his mantle. He stole it.
Skolis-Ur is a curious case among the Firstborn, should a Forsaken look at him too carefully. No other child of Mother Wolf has such a domain over the elements, nor does Winter hold special significance to the hunt. Death, adaptation, destruction, knowledge, cunning, even lineage, savagery, and rabid madness all foster some imagery of the Wolf on the hunt. Wolves grow more dangerous in the winter, yes, but never has a mundane wolf conjured a blizzard with it’s howl.
How is it then, that one so tied to Father’s Wolf’s legacy defies expectations so? Where does this oddity arise?
Though Father Wolf clashed with the Pangeans of old in unceasing, uncountable hunts, the Firstborn’s exploits in this time are often overlooked. Before and after the Sundering, the children of Wolf went on their own hunts, and their own titanic wars with ancient gods.
For Skolis-Ur, the greatest of such battles was with Mighty Bear, the true Queen of Winter.
Wolf and Bear had a complicated relationship at the best of times. Bear respected the prowess of Wolf, and Wolf respected the strength of Bear. Surviving in the oldest, rarest stories and texts are tales told of a godly bear spirit aiding the Great Wolf in hunts against the foulest things of Pangea that even the First Pack dared not approach.
However, Bear’s nature compelled him to transgress the Wolf’s mandate on rare occasion. Before the coldest winters, Ice Ages especially, Bear would invade the Flesh and rampage across the world, an unstoppable maelstrom of destruction. Bear would not simply kill and devour, she would go out of her way to drive game into the highest peaks and deepest valleys, destroy crops and forage, and bury streams and rivers in mud and snow. Seemingly, her purpose was to ensure as many would die in the winter as possible, not only from her claws and teeth, but from starvation and exposure as well. So it was that Wolf and Bear would clash and clash and clash. Though Wolf would inevitably succeed in dragging Bear back to the Border Marches, never was he able, or perhaps even willing, to kill Bear entirely.
Bear’s connection to the frost was more than just simple coincidence. It was a primordial connection that reached to her very core being. Perhaps it was Winter itself, that great, mysterious, Incarnae of cold and frost that commanded these crusades against the Flesh. Another love, like Wolf and Moon, that shook the world to its foundations.
This would all change with the rise of the Firstborn that would become known as Winter Wolf. The Firstborn had always been proud, stoic, and prone to solitude. But it’s coldness would come later, after it’s battle with the Bear. .
When Father Wolf weakened, the signal was clear. He could not, would not survive another battle with Mighty Bear. If unchecked, a rampage at this tenuous time would result in not just mass destruction, but perhaps the destruction of all life on Earth. The world reduced to a barren, lifeless patch of ice floating in the void.
And as such, either by command of their ailing progenitor, or by their own passion and foresight, three wolves split from the pack. One white, one ghastly grey, and another red. With them, loping at their heels, a pack of their brothers and sisters, led by the Firstborn’s hand picked champions.
There was only one hope to succeed where Father Wolf had failed. Whatever connection between the Pangean and the tide of winter must be severed. As Bear slept deep in her den, the pack did as the pack does, honing in on their specialties with purity of purpose. One had knowledge, one inspired change, yet it was the nameless pup that would prove to be Bear’s undoing.
Whatever the other two Firstborn did, it woke Bear, who stormed from his den in a roaring, desperate frenzy. The Firstborn stood its ground, and clashed with Mighty Bear. Bear’s claws disemboweled it and made it bled, she gouged its flesh with her teeth and crushed it with her strength. Yet every time the wolf crumpled to the ground and Bear thought the battle done, fangs sunk into her flank and ripped her back to furious battle. The Firstborn stood defiant, throwing itself into battle with stoic abandon, as did it’s followers. Greatest of it’s hunters, they followed the lead of their older sibling and threw themselves bodily against the great beast, a fight they couldn’t possibly survive.
Near-death and bloody, the wolf stood on shaking legs, ready to receive it’s deathblow with the resolve none other could muster. But the instant before Bear’s great claws severed it’s life, it roared in pain.
The plan had worked, that primordial, sacred connection to the frost was gone. But such power could not be simply destroyed or cast away. It had to go somewhere.And where better, than Winter Wolf?
The tale should end there. Bear slain, the Wolf triumphant. So it might be told to the Imnir that hear of it.
But such tales are lies.
Now, in the deepest reaches of the arctic where the scars of that great battle linger today, that great beast stirs once more. It is feeble, weak, and longing for its lost power and love, but it is still an ancient god, one of the most powerful to have ever trod on Earth. Even now, children long sleeping awake to a changed world. They, like their half-living mother, hunger for vengeance and flesh.
A reckoning is coming. A second round to decide the titlebearer of Winter for the rest of eternity. A war to shake the world.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bear is a terrifying brute of unslakable hunger and terrible strength. Her face lacks all but the barest scraps of skin and muscle. Her eye sockets are hollow, yet if one stares into them they may find shards of ice that float freely and may mimic something akin to an iris or pupil. In his arctic home, his fur is white, yet coated in ash and dried blood in wild patterns around the paws, with large sections of body scarred or ripped off to hang gorily from her mass. Teeth, human and bear, constantly appear and disappear near and inside her mouth, and wherever flesh is visible her body constantly seems to roil and churn. When he speaks it is with borrowed voices, tonally shifting between people the listener has known who have died.
Bear, Alabaster and Mighty
Rank 5 Pangaean (upon fully being awakened, Bear would be Rank 6)
Power 16 Finesse 14 Resistance 15
Willpower 10
Essence 50
Initiative 29 Defence 15 Speed 36 (Power+Finesse+6)
Size 30 Corpus 45
Influences: Bears 5, Might 3
Numina: Awe, Drain, Emotional Aura, Ghost Eater, Regenerate, Speed, Stalwart, Implant Mission, Blast
Arcana: Death 5
Ban: Bear must offer audience and refrain from hostility to anyone who comes to her wearing white (genuine) fur, although she is not bound further if the offer of audience is refused or if the visitor acts against her.
Bane: An icicle that has not been bathed in direct sunlight for over one hundred years.
Divine Bleed: The first time in a scene that she suffers Corpus damage, Bear may reflexively use the Awe, Dement, or Emotional Aura. He may also use the Create power of his Influence (Bears) for free each time he suffers damage, or he may create a Rank 1 Bear spirit instead.
Powerful Blows: Bear’s Brawl attacks in any form cause the Knocked Down tilt, as well as throw the target back a number of yards equal to successes.
Lingering Embers of Love: Any character that enters Bear’s presence is subject to the Extreme Cold tilt. No amount of mundane or supernatural weather protection will protect from this unless Bear elects to spare them. Bear never will elect to spare them.
Lord of Bears: Bear is aware of the health and emotional state (basic information like fear, pain, hunger, etc) of all Bears within one hundred miles of her location. If there are no Bears within that area, she suffers a -3 penalty to all of her Attributes. By touching a dead or incapacitated human, Bear can cause a number of newly-created Bears equal to the human's Stamina to tear their way out of the body and into existence.
Mother, Father: Any person who has suffered an Integrity break from an act of violence within one hundred miles of Bear’s presence feels a subconscious loyalty to Bear, even if they are completely unaware of his existence. They will go out of their way to aid her or her servants, even if they have never met them. They will even use deadly force if one of them is threatened, though they will still work to preserve their own life before others. The only exception to this are Werewolves who follow a Firstborn.
Monstrous Form: Bear has Armour 13, and may spend 1 Essence to shrug off any Tilt she experiences. These benefits do not apply to attacks from her Banes.
Overwhelming Presence: A mortal human who encounters Bear suffers an Integrity breaking point. If this roll is failed, the character gains the Madness persistent condition.
Forge Berserker: Upon touching an individual, Bear may impart them the ability to amplify and harness their rage. Humans gain the Insane condition, Werewolves and any other supernatural enter their natural frenzied state if they possess it, otherwise going Insane as normal. For one hundred minutes their natural weapons gain +2 damage and cause lethal damage if they didn’t already, gain 2/2 armor, and they will instinctively hunt and kill the closest living (or unliving) thing to them. For one hundred days days after the fact, they may enter this state at will as a reflexive action. They may, if desired, choose a target or group of targets up to their Resolve as targets of their rage, maintaining the rage state until those targets are dead as opposed to normal mechanics.
Carnage Consumed: Any creature that is killed by Bear or within one hundred feet of him does not leave a ghost. Instead, a Rank 1 spirit of cold, death, or bears, rises instead, containing most of the original creature’s personality and vague, swirling memories of their past life. They will, regardless of their previous life, be loyal to Bear.
Millennia of Hatred: Bear can instantly tell the tribal affiliation of any Storm Lord within one hundred miles of her, and is vaguely aware of their presence. Any time that Storm Lord uses a Gift, or attempts to shapeshift, Bear may use an instant action and a point of willpower to negate the attempt entirely. In return, Storm Lords attempting to harm or hamper Bear gain the rote quality on all rolls to do so. Finally, Bear counts as the Bane towards Winter Wolf and all spirits descended from him, and in turn Winter Wolf counts as Bear’s bane and all spirits descended from her.
Bear, the Mighty: If allowed to regain his full power and ascend back to Rank 6, Bear will gain Forces 4, Influence (Winter) 5, grow to Size 100, and all areas within one hundred miles are subject to the Blizzard, Extreme Cold, Heavy Winds, and Ice tilts, and be considered a Level 4 extreme environment. As well as any other powers the ST finds appropriate for a newly reborn god of frost and death.
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