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[Gryffon15]

I can definitely see there being plot hooks that would be interesting to explore along some of those trains of thought.

[Gryffon15]

Animal fomori are somewhat rarer then human fomori but they certainly can exist and fomori wolves would most definitely be a great enemy to the Garou.

[Gryffon15]

Well I know it's fairly well established that to be referred to as a 'dog' is considered an insult amongst the Garou. Given that the Red Talons are the ones most dedicated to the Wyld, feral nature, and self-declared opposition to humanity... I doubt they hold dogs in very high regard.

At best I imagine they might see dogs as cunning survivors who forfeited their true nature to endure... but I see this as a very minority opinion amongst those of the Whelp's Compromise. I would imagine that most Red Talons see dogs as victims of humanity and Weaver taint at best or as traitorous quislings...

[Gryffon15]

If I had the time to pull out some things from folklore and the various books of the Wyrms I'd probably write up some things along these two lines for plot hooks in these periods and regarding the fall of the wolf population.

•The Hunter Bane
Whether called 'Flint' or 'Gilgamesh' or something else entirely, this great bane embodies the arrogant hunter. They hunt to extinction, they gorge on flesh and leave the rest to rot, they are wasteful with bodies, and they are disrespectful to the spirits. They draw the ire of spirits wherever they go and taint humans and drive them...

[Gryffon15]

It's definitely a fun idea, plus if you are so inclined there's enough Easter eggs in CoD (particularly 1e) to imagine how things might transmute from the WoD to CoD.

[Gryffon15]

Oh most definitely and I wouldn't want to imply that Daoist philosophy is exclusive to the Akashyana. It's found in numerous traditions and crafts with elements almost certainly syncretizing with factions of nearby crafts and inspiring crafts of the modern world as well, particularly western orphans.

[Gryffon15]

I think the issue is probably just a matter of page count. Neither tribe or clan books really had the page count to devote to the nuances of a multi-millennia war that could have been a book in its own right. I do agree though that perhaps a few more pages with notable persons and events would have been nice, but then again, for every extra page that went to that we would have lost one from something else.

So for me this becomes the territory of headcanon and the Storyteller's Vault.

[Gryffon15]

My answer would be that vampires and garou both hold long grudges.

The Tzimisce are immortal, hand down traditions, and view themselves as the rightful and absolute overlords of their lands. They would have no patience for competition and would carry grudges for centuries if not millennia once slighted. Just ask the Tremere or the Ventrue.

The Shadow Lords are a tribe of garou, who are tradition by nature with strong oral histories and able to literally access their ancestors. Simultaneously they see themselves as divine champions on a religious crusade against creatures...

[Gryffon15]

My general understanding of the orthodoxy of the Akashyana (formerly the Akashic Brotherhood), without flipping through my books and going entirely from memory, plays out something like this:

•The Akashic Record exists and it serves to catalogue the action, inaction, and interaction of everything that has ever existed in the history of everything; including the ancient masters and the great cosmic forces. Through appropriate rites, an Akashi can gain access to the Record and correspond with all of cosmic history and use that knowledge to guide themselves and to predict the most...

[Gryffon15]

Echoes are generally bits of folklore that actually effect a far as humans imagine they should. For instance, wearing a shirt inside out might make you literally invisible to the right fae

[Gryffon15]

Honestly the Dreamspeakers, by their very nature, are probably the most difficult to offer a collective name for given there, well, everything.

The closest that I think one might be able to get might simply be 'The Seat of Spirit', similar to how the Cultists and Adepts might ape so many titles so as to require being simply called the Seats of Time and Correspondence respectively.

Although I'll also repeat that I'm no expert of the "Kha'vadi" and its etymology or the studies of indigenous peoples and/or (their) animist practices and religious traditions so......

[Gryffon15]

I think it's partially that iirc the Tremere are one of *two* mainline clans that don't have a physical in-clan discipline (including Viccissitude & Serpentis for what I expect are obvious reasons). The other being Clan Malkavian whose basically got the lack of physical abilities as part of their sctick.

I could also see Auspex definitely working for Clan Giovanni too, now that you mention it. It would be an invaluable skill for any necromancer really.

[Gryffon15]

I think that it would make sense from a narrative setting perspective and it could potentially help an ST mechanically depending on their desires.

I would wonder whether these clans would gain a slightly easier access to the abilities or if there IC access via their lineage be the primary benefit.

The next question I see rising from this is what disciplines to provide the clans to replace Necromancy or Thaumaturgy.

I could potentially see 'Fortitude' for the Giovanni and either 'Celerity' or 'Obfuscate' for the Trenere, particularly the latter, but any of...

[Gryffon15]

While it's possible, I personally think that adding any Realms risks disturbing the balance of the art mechanics and that the Setting Realm may be better suited to what you want to do with a few tweaks or additions.

[Gryffon15]

Glad ya liked and it and I did not know that they were called the VA in TR but that's interesting.

[Gryffon15]

I largely like the name changes and I agree with much of what you said above.

I'd largely use the Akashyana and Chakravanti as opposed to their prior names except perhaps for specific factions such as perhaps the occasional all-male temple who persist in calling themselves the 'Akashic Brotherhood' and calling one another "Brother" as well as the (sub-)faction of the Chakravanti who involve themselves with greek mystery cults and karmic serial killers may still use the title of 'Euthanatos', if only as a euphemism.

I can understand the concerns over Sahajiya...

[Gryffon15]

The thing is, the reason for the name change is ultimately that Euthanatos never made much since compared to Chakravanti.

The traditions philosophy is the most ascendent on the Indian sub-continent, the majority of the tradition are likely if Indian origin, and the 'Euthanatoi' as a name does a good job of representing the stereotype of the karmic serial killer but that stereotype overshadowed the tradition, a problem that's been there for multiple editions.

The Chakravanti has always made more sense as a name, has always represented the majority of the tradition's culture...

[Gryffon15]

Alrighty so I think I get what you mean to say here.

Going along with your example, I believe what you are describing is a very intentional quality of the traditions. The Council of Traditions is made up of broad umbrellas of loosely associated groups that do not all entirely agree despite the similarities of their beliefs. That tension goes back to the arrogance of the tradition founders and it's one of the big reasons why there is both so much tension within and between traditions but also between tradition and craft mages.

The hypothetical welsh mage has a few options....

[Gryffon15]

This just comes to me because of a video series I watched recently but the Korean hero 'Admiral Yi' is sometimes called one of the most loyal men who ever lived so that's a potential candidate.

[Gryffon15]

Honestly for me it's a combination of trying to keep in mind the context they would have lived it, wearing away their sense of humanity to nubs, and thinking about how many of them would be chilled by The Curse to the point of badly being able to function outside of their own mind and the great machinations of the jyhad.

I'm also the sort of ST that would make meeting a methuselah personally a once/chronicle interaction with their servants, catspaws, and manipulations being the more visible representations of their characterization which helps to maintain the mystique imo.