Looking for More Information on Void Spirits

[sufferian]

I'm looking at creating a legacy centred around wandering the Sidereal Wastes in the Astral, and Void Spirits are listed as some of the possible entities Mages encounter while wandering the wastes.

All I know about the Void Spirits is the bit that mentions them in the Werewolf 2e core where it's possible for Idigam to summon them. I'm not very familiar with Werewolf at all though, just skimmed the 2e core, are Void Spirits mentioned in any 1e Werewolf supplements? Or perhaps there's a Mage supplement that talks about them I'm unfamiliar with?

Any information, even if it's just home-brew stuff would be super helpful and much appreciated.

[Second Chances]

I don't think that there is anything else that has been anything else written about them, but I am hoping they will crop up in the Golden Age Science Fiction chapter of Dark Eras 2 since that is a Werewolf/Deviant crossover.

[Stupid Loserman]

Book of Spirits has a bit on it – a sidebar, and one of the example spirits may be a local variant, though if so it's not called out as such.

[monteparnas]

Yeah, I remember the ones in Book of Spirits. But the game says very little on them on purpose. Until them, you're pretty much alone to thinker with them. I could suggest some inspirations, though, that I would use depending on goals for the chronicle.

If you want them as the Spirit MiBs, the keepers of secrets of the cosmos, seek out for conspiracy theories, specially ones mixed with sci-fi. GURPS Illuminatti and other Steve Jackson Games' stuff can really help to get in the mood. You can google "Church of Subgenius", "Principia Discordia" and "FNORD" to find quickly a plethora of sources.

For Void Spirits as Things Beyond Human Comprehension, anything lovecraftian can do. Lovecraft itself is full of tales with bizarre alien entities at the end of conspiracies with a veneer of mundane appearance. Call of Cthulhu is an obvious read, but The Shadow Over Innsmouth is good. The Color Out of Space can give ideas on entities with counter-intuitive physics. And you're also good with anything already on Mage based on the Abyss, though you would have to think a little on how to distinguish Void from Abyss.

And finally, for a take on the Void as Nature, as a strange spirit still as linked to the world as the Nature spirits, you can read about the Void Kami of Legend of Five Rings. There are several books that talk something about them, though still keeping with the idea of alien overtones and deep mystery. The wikia of L5R is a good place to start.

[nofather]

I'm not sure what void spirits you're talking about in the Astral, can you reference a page number?

In Book of the Spirits, it talks about Void spirits as in the Void of the Japanese elements. In Werewolf second edition, it's referring to the void outside of Luna's sphere of influence, basically anything from outer space once you get a certain distance from the moon, like Ansar-Zalag's void spirit.

[Malus]

In the werewolf 2e case, void spirits as nofather mentions are basically pre or proto-idigam.

Void spirits as depicted on the astral may very well refer to the human concept of it as an element.

[Acrozatarim]

If I remember correctly, I included a tiny bit of extra mention of void spirits in the Sundered World, to build off what I put in the Werewolf 2e corebook.

[nofather]

If I remember correctly, I included a tiny bit of extra mention of void spirits in the Sundered World, to build off what I put in the Werewolf 2e corebook.

Oh yes, a few times.

'Rarely, packs come together for a greater purpose — when ordered by the Warden Moon to hunt down a void-leviathan, hunting a Pangaean who has broken Urfarah’s law, or undertaking some great work under a charismatic leader.'

'The Warden Moon is patron to the Uratha and the spirit-god of sky and void, warding the world against the beyond.'

'Lunes often descend from the Shadow into Pangaea, bearing messages no pack dares ignore. When something from the void has breached the Warden’s vigil, the werewolves answer the call to arms. Sometimes it is simply an alien spirit, lost in a world that it cannot fathom. Yet other, greater visitors from the beyond sometimes descend — colossal leviathans of incomprehensible nature, ravenous beings of raw void, and even broken prisoners of Luna’s embrace that swirl and coil with eternal impermanence.'

This seems to suggest outer space spirits more. And further adds to Luna as sort of of space defender.

I'd really enjoy a book to get into spirits of space. Mages appear to be limited by the sphere of Earth but it doesn't make sense that the Hisil would end there given what we know. Cyberspace, too, for that matter.

[monteparnas]

I still think a space-based Blue Book is a much-needed addition to the game. It doesn't need to describe anything outside Earth's actual atmosphere, but focus on Space-themed phenomena that get here. Humanity wonders about space since down of time, proto-astronomy developed before any other science, with astounding accuracy. We spend more watching the Great Void than in any other field of pure science. And we already inhabit low orbit, just a thin memory of Earth's atmosphere, more than we are present in other far reaches of this planet. Even alien abduction is a very old theme, no matter if in the days of old people used other names to the beings beyond the world they knew. After all, who said that all stories of people kidnapped by fairies were actually fairies?

And I'm pretty certain that the splats on CoD also wonder about outer space. Personally, I'm not much into closed backstories for the splats, and I like to work with legends spotted with holes, contradictory beliefs, and general wonder about the ultimate truth. How could a Mage Legacy try to explore and explain the beyond? What if Strix were not from this world, or if Kindred were not actually earthlings? Maybe the owls are the only real vampires from here. Earth's nature kept balance for eons even against extreme circumstances without need of a "keeper", until Father Wolf arrived. From where? Are there roads to Arcadia outside? How many? What if they are more common out there?

More interesting than taking any of those possibilities for the setting, is to take them for its denizens. It is not a matter of any splat being actually alien, but about some of them believing, suspecting, investigating the possibility, and how it affects their natures and societies.

[strider1276]

In Werewolf second edition, it's referring to the void outside of Luna's sphere of influence, basically anything from outer space once you get a certain distance from the moon, like Ansar-Zalag's void spirit.

Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking of when I wrote Ansar-Zalag. Of course, what exactly a void spirit is may be different in any given game - until or unless there's a more definitive answer printed in the future.

[sufferian]

Any void-spirits turn up in the new Werewolf antagonist's book Shunned by the Moon?

[Tessie]

Yes. The inclusion in WtF core is basically a preview in comparison. We also get void leviathans as mentioned in Sundered World.

[Malus]

Any void-spirits turn up in the new Werewolf antagonist's book Shunned by the Moon?

Yes. One is a Void Leviathan.

[Second Chances]

The leviathans also have loose ties to the Lodge of the Grotto

http://forum.theonyxpath.com/forum/main-category/main-forum/the-new-world-of-darkness/werewolf-the-forsaken/1235549-2e-lodge-update-the-lodge-of-the-grotto