Ancients Awaken- the Old Ones Chronicles (Changing Breeds. Discussion, Brainstorming)

[LostLight]

hello everyone.

Because I'm not feeling well, I will not be posting for the project this time. i promise I'll take my time and try to make something better!

see you next week! :P

[wyrdhamster]

1) I dislike 'Universal Creation Story' in general. I feel that it does a great injustice to the enormous cultural variance of humanity to say that everyone's basically got this One Big Myth about how X came about. There's also the fact that these Universal Creation Stories always have a distinctly eurocentric spin to them (which is understandable, for sure, I'm guessing most of us are Westerners here), which makes for serious discomfort. So, I much prefer the Hunter or Vampire approach of having numerous possible origins, and lots of disagreement as to what's real. (Yes, you can say there are Other Things possible, but when you set out a single Universal Creation Story in the first chapter, that's going to be the default and dominant one).

It can be counter with showing other explantions. Like they done in MtAw, after the corebook.

2) More specific to this... but there's a definite whiff of 'those poor primitive/weak humans' which sets my teeth on edge. This is also a common sin of the Universal Creation Story (how often do mundane humans do something important in the Mage or Werewolf origin stories?).

As Mage ST I must disagree - in Awakened eyes Sleepers ( mundune humans ) are brohters and sisters that "didn't see the light". They were stripped from gods powers of Magic. What do they need to - Awaken, of course, and recalim the Heavens.

First, there's the idea that humans are somehow evolutionary weak and need help, which does not pass the sniff test. Humans are probably the most evolved, lethal predators earth has. I'm not even talking about guns and bombs -- prehistoric humans were largely responsible for hunting mammoths to extinction, they were so effective.

As normal, our Earth, yeah, sure. Humans are best predators. But NWOD Earth? Man, vampires, werewolves, mages, True Fae, zombies. And I dont even go in to specific things from gamelines or generall, "everday wierd", like cryptids or various monster. To say that NWOD humans are "top of the food chain" is very misguided statement. To me obvious is that humanity would need Changing Breeds and, for sake of this argmeunt, Nature could give them Gift of Evolution, to let them survive AND become "top chain predator" ( even if it is somehow lie ).

Secondly, the idea that humanity needs the changing breeds to be leaders or shaman or the like is... problematic.

And I don't see it as problem. We talk about Changing Breeds Myth, just like Mage one. It's propaganda, nice tale to make youg cubs and pups understand what they are, give some basic aswers, and start community of them. If you think it's redundant, why do the Real Earth humanity make stories and tales? Why do we play in RPGs? I can tale you - to make some entertaingin answers to common questions, even if they are false. And this is how you should treat those "creation myths" - interesting tales to explore.

To sum up - LostLight's tale is good, only I would counter it with 2, 3 smaller, alternative takes on it. Enought to make people question, but not enought to make one of things I hate about Requiem - no body knows nothing. Stick with main myth, but write some alternatives to it.

[NeoTiamat]

I think you and I have a fundamentally different idea of what we want (the fact that Requiem doesn't give a definitive answer is one of the things I like best about it), so we're going to have to just agree to disagree.

[LostLight]

so- because I didn't put myself a goal to do this week, I have no new stuff to post so I've decided to put a post about why I think the story I wrote IS good :P

a) This story is meant to show the CBs point of view. There are no proofs that it is true, and in order to show it better I've made it into an IC story (something an old CB tells to a freshly changed one). Yes, this is the most dominate story in the society of the CB, but remember that the "society of the CB" is very loose and made by a network of certain breeds (mostly Spinners and Apes). The point of this story is to give the CB a reason to work together, for unlike vampires they didn't had a grand empire to unite them together. Each Breed has rose from another place, and they have no innate reason to love each other. I mean, where vampires have "wicked dead" and "kindred", here everyone are "wicked beasts". People need a good story in order to unite, and that story answer that needs.

b) About humanity being weak in the story- if humanity wasn't weak, why should they need guardians? Also, let's face it- humanity IS physically weak, and without our brain we wouldn't get so far. Heck, even in Greek mythology humanity was the poor thing which got the Fire because one stupid titan gave everything to the animals. That fact in the story serves a common reason for the CBs to unite- each of them feel the urge to help humanity, but they aren't needed. If there is a story which gives the CB a reason to think that humanity DO need them, they won't loose hope, and they may be able to evolve. Remember- the CBs are a being on the verge of extinction, in AA:CBC. If they won't find their new place in the world, they'll die out. They have no choice but to believe that mankind is weak- or else, what is the point? (also, like Wyrd said- this is the WoD. things are a lot more dangerous in there)

c) The story doesn't supposed to present humanity and/ or science as bad. Or, more exactly, not bad for most of the population. It is bad for the CBs, of course, for it what makes them unneeded. However, it doesn't to say that CBs won't use technology- instead, they must find a way to adapt to the new world. The evolution of technology is not the "ultimate evil". It is a problem, something which creates a conflict for the CBs. They need to find a way to adapt to the world to urbanism and technology or the Gift will die out.

d) Here is the problem in making CB too much like vampire- it can't. Vampire can allow itself not giving a common origin for the Kindred, for they have a united society. CBs don't have such a thing. Without a real society or a common origin, the CBs are going to turn into a random group of of shapeshifters which have almost to no connection between them- and you already have rules for that, in WATP. The goal of the project is CBC, not WATP- GMC. You already have rules to play a freaky and interdependent shifter. You don't need to to make new ones.

e) the fact that the Gift could be triggered by almost anything (spirit, ghosts, emotional stress, etc) allows the creation of many individual stories and origins, while there is still the main "propaganda" for the majority of the CBs. Also, it present the question- who will you believe? The story some old beast told you, which belongs to an whole different breed than you, or the story told by the great Lion which gave you its blessing?

f) Dagcon- that sounds interesting, and it will help me getting rid from Breed as what it is already. Thanks.

g) Although I try my best, I can't make everyone happy. I can only do what I believes to be right.

so- next week: I think I'll work on some details about how one becomes a CB, and may I'll work on a paradigm for Favors and Aspects. I think that by doing the first, people could see that there are other ways to see the origin of the CB. Plus, I think I'll do some more thinking about changing one's Breed (like Dagcon suggested) and how the Gift dies out. Mystery is not a bad thing- but with too much of it I believe you can't find you hands and feet.

[Seraph Kitty]

I apologize for jumping in like this, but I feel the need to point out... You're trying to create a united society composed of a dozen different species from totally different areas of the globe who originally became shifters for potentially limitless personalized reasons. That's what I've got out of that post, at least. I think it would be fair to say that any use of "the Changing Breeds" is going to be too diverse such that any "unified society" is going to feel forced and cheapened.
Part of the problem is it's a global phenomenon, and one that goes back into ancient history. When did the Changing Breeds become unified, and how? Was there a prehistoric channel that were-jaguars in the Amazon could use to debate the meaning of their gift with others around the world? Werewolves did - they used the shadow to get around and their spirit allies to keep in touch; there are options for that sort of thing. But what did they use, and why did they do it are going to be big questions to answer. I would probably use regional confederacies, where a cluster of Changing Breeds that would be likely to interact grew up in relative isolation, with their own understandings of what was going on, but that's just my preference.

Some questions arise, for me (and I apologize if these were previously answered, or if you're getting to them at a later date):
1) Why do people shift into different Breeds? Both in the sense of "why are different breeds a thing?" and "what determines which breed someone becomes?" For Bastet and Laughing Strangers, this is a particularly important question because they have So Much variety between species of their "breed".
1b) I noticed in your write-up of the Breeds, you stuck with the idea from Apocalypse that each has a role/purpose in the world. You said "they were given to humanity" - "who" decided what purpose each breed would have? It seems like you developed these purposes out of what these animal species do (or are perceived to do), but the species question is left unanswered. What about rabbits, possums, and foxes keeps humanity "on its toes" (or do they draw on cultural myth), and if they have a shared purpose, why would all three be needed [ie, why would people shift into all these species] in the same area (as their natural habits overlap a bit)?
2) Which humans can become Changing Breeds? Can any human, but in certain circumstances? Is there a factor in which humans can, and what is it? Because surely if every human can when faced with a "evolve or die" situation, we'd probably be overrun with them. You choose not answer this, to leave it a mystery, but that's an important question the changers would have at least tried to answer, even if the answers are various and unknowable (myths were kind of made to give those kind of answers).
3) Your myth seemed to imply that various entities have tried to become "patrons" of the Changing Breeds. Does this have any effect, or were they not able to at all? Are they the ones that trigger the first change? If so, does the class of entity which triggered it have any effect on the shifter - in their breed, their general outlook, their affinity gifts?

These are the kind of questions I'd expect an origin myth to address, because simply looking at the various changers without any explanations, those are the kind of questions that get asked. Approach it like a mortal anthropologist (or a recently changed pup) asking questions to a gathering of every species: "All of us can shift in roughly the same way; what's the relationship there? Why five kinds of primate? Why'd I become this species?" If there are points of disagreement, as I would expect, add them all in.

It's not an easy project, but you are tackling Changing Breeds.......



Okay, so, I apologize for picking at your stuff like that. I'd like to think they were helpful questions, but I know a string of them like that can look unfairly critical. My questions really were meant to say "I'd like to better understand --"
To be constructive, though, I have a thought about "origins," as a suggestion. Correct me if any of my assumptions are wrong.
The main theme behind the Changing Breeds, as you're writing them, seems to be "evolve to survive," and their gift is triggered when they face a challenge they can't overcome as a human. If that is the case, I see a point which could be made into "auspices": what did you evolve to overcome? If there are some loosely similar categories, this can become a similar axis to Sin-Eaters' Thresholds, which may be determinate in what breed or species characters change to.

Using this may be able to resolve Neo Tiamat's issue of "saying humans are weak and useless" (which I frankly share). It could go something like this: Human needs to eat; doesn't have /anything/ that makes him a good predator - slow, fragile, no natural weapons. So, to survive, he taps into something deep inside [may I be bold and say a shard of the DreamTime?], and sacrifices a portion of his humanity to become a shape-shifting predator. For an individual placed in a "hunt or die" scenario, this is the best way to survive. But, as a collective, humanity went with another solution: think. The /group/, the species of humanity evolved by becoming more intelligent tool users; individuals who didn't have that web of relationships had to tap into something else, which helped them and those who depended on them to survive, but it left them behind the rest of the species, in a sense. They chose to become bestial /instead/ of using intelligence and tool-crafting to its best effect, probably because they didn't have that option when it came to the crucial moment.
This take a few steps toward explaining which individuals Shift, doesn't reduce humanity to uselessness, and makes them feel left behind and obsolete.

It also presents an idea for a good antagonist group: what happens when an animal is put into that kind of situation; when a wolf finds itself adrift in the ocean, and nature presents its ultimatum: adapt or die?


Those are my thoughts at least. It's a tough thing you're trying to tackle; I hope I can help make it a bit more robust.
Keep up the good work,
Seraph Kitty

[wyrdhamster]

Using this may be able to resolve Neo Tiamat's issue of "saying humans are weak and useless" (which I frankly share). It could go something like this: Human needs to eat; doesn't have /anything/ that makes him a good predator - slow, fragile, no natural weapons. So, to survive, he taps into something deep inside [may I be bold and say a shard of the DreamTime?], and sacrifices a portion of his humanity to become a shape-shifting predator. For an individual placed in a "hunt or die" scenario, this is the best way to survive. But, as a collective, humanity went with another solution: think. The /group/, the species of humanity evolved by becoming more intelligent tool users; individuals who didn't have that web of relationships had to tap into something else, which helped them and those who depended on them to survive, but it left them behind the rest of the species, in a sense. They chose to become bestial /instead/ of using intelligence and tool-crafting to its best effect, probably because they didn't have that option when it came to the crucial moment.
This take a few steps toward explaining which individuals Shift, doesn't reduce humanity to uselessness, and makes them feel left behind and obsolete.

And here we come to original Accords, and this is good way, I think.

[LostLight]

Well, I didn't posted anything yesterday- so I'll post a sort essay today about how I see the reason people change-

No one knows what are the reasons to force someone to change. While it seems that it usually involves some extreme situation, like being beaten almost to the death or having to fight on your life, it isn't a 100% effective way to do so. There are enough people who enter to those situations and don't change, while there are Changing Breeds who transform without being in some weird situation. The blood in one's vines may be a factor, for from time to time families show up with an high percent of shifters in them, but there are no proofs on the subject, with many Ferals being the only ones to change in their bloodline for centuries. The thing has became even more prevalent since the decrease in the number of Ferals, with some of the more scientific or occult shifters search after the trigger to the change in an attempt to stop their species from extinction. Of course, there are shifters who claim that the all "guardians of humanity" is a myth and that the stories about the Breeds being connected is a pure propaganda made by those who seek to force unity on different species of changers. They claim that the shifters never had great numbers, with each Breed being separate and independent being. Those theories are denied by the mainstream changers, for the Feral Society is already too weak and shattered, and one doesn't need much in order to break it beyond repair.

While each change is individualistic, there are a number of things which are common to all of them. The first thing is the Catalyst- that is, the trigger to the change. According to the orthodox faith, the Changing Gift is found in any living person by the unknown force which has answered humanity's desperate call for help. That force was used by the Patrons- which are great spirits, strange shades from the underworld or stranger beings- in order to advance their own personal agendas in the world. The Patrons, however, didn't created the Changing Gift, but simply exploited it by using a special trigger which they taught to their Breed so they'll keep creating more and more of them to serve them. By using the same Catalyst again and again, the Breeds has felt that they were truly different beings from each other- but actually, it is just a different way to use the same power. According to the orthodox faith, if one were to use the exact same Catalyst on someone who has no connection to the Patron, the Change would still happen. Of course, that is denied by those who worship their own Breed's Patrons, but that debt is irrelevant- the only important thing is that something may cause the Change, and that by repeating the exact same Catalyst one would change into a certain form, named Nahual.

Once the Change is started by the Catalyst, the shifter enters into a state of madness called as the Storm. The time the shifter spend in that state changes from Catalyst to Catalyst, with some Ferals spend only a few hours in that mad state, while other could run wild for days and days. During that time, the shifter doesn't control his shapeshifting and he changes instinctively according to the situation- when around animals, he'll move into his animal form. When around people, he'll wear the skin of a man. When threatened, he'll go into his hybrid form. Rationality is not an option during that time, as the shifter tries to adjust to his Nahual and the beast tries to understand the man. This state is meant in order to allow the Feral to adjust to his different forms and instincts, and it shapes both his mind and body to adapt better to his new life.

When the Storm passes, the shifter is finally prepared to his new life- his forms are finally fixed according to his inner beast's Favors as his Nahual becomes defined, and he gains some enlightenment about how to manipulate his supernatural state through the various Aspects of his nature. Unless the Catalyst was triggered by a certain Breed or Dynasty member who knew what he was doing, the new shifter is going to be really confused about his new life. While his instincts would drive him to protect humanity- one way or another. Fortunately, the Dynasties follow the news very carefully and they know how to read the signs and recognize a Storm when it happens, so the new Feral is usually found out and educated by the more experienced shifters. However, because of the broken way they Feral Society is built now days, it may take some time- even a few months- for the Dynasties to make contact with the newly changed Feral, and some of them even go under their radar and live all of their lives without knowing that there are more like them out there. This is true especially is the shifter is taken in by one of the "primitive breeds", who deny their connection to the rest of the Ferals while serving their Patron.

The first thing a freshly changed shifter is asked about is about his Catalyst. The reason is, of course, because of the extinction of the Breeds- Catalysts which has worked for thousands of years are lately starting to fail. Tens to hundreds of Breeds may be erased in a matter of years for losing they way to create more of their kind. The Orthodox claim is that it is because mankind no longer needs them, and that they must find new ways to be needed, which means finding new Catalysts to be used. However, the terror of the Storm usually harms the memory of the shifter, and so the Dynasties must find other ways to investigate the event so they could be sure that they didn't missed any detail. Actually, there are all divisions of shifters who dedicate their time and resources in order to investigate each and every Catalyst and preform experiments in order to try and recreate a specific change. While many of those experiment have failed (which usually ends up with the death of the test subject), some successes have been noted, and are used in order to create new Breeds which are free from the powers of the Patrons.

[wyrdhamster]

LostLight, could you wrote example of your interprataion of Storm? As I understand, Catalysts are answers why mortal become shifter, yes? So no "my grandpa was a werewolf", only "I shed a skin of men, becuase love of my life was in danger"?

[Laughing Hyena]

As a huge fan of hyenas: Any reason to completely re-write the Riantes is good with me. Cause I think I've never read something on hyenas in RPGs that enraged me that much. So we went from W:tA Revised finally getting how hyenas are to nWOD's Changing Breeds just falling flat onto it's face on that regard... (And yet, Skinchangers didn't have that problem.)
Did someone just read up on Gnolls from D&D for that section, copy parts from it and call it a day, while completely ignoring all the recent research on hyenas as well as positive folklore/myth portrayals of the animal?

[Ray White]

Since there has been a changing breeds thread in the Werewolf forum ( http://forum.theonyxpath.com/forum/m...ds-mythos-help ) and since I like a lot of the ideas discussed here, I want to add my own opinions.^^

First, I am with the people who want broad strokes for origins, many stories, each told and believed by different people, maybe with the explicit understanding that likely all have their own truth in them.
Werewolves used lodges in Blasphemies for the different tales of how werewolves came to be, why not do the same here?
Make dynasties, alliances of different ferals and similar social structures the "third axis", there is plenty of room for that diversity right there and then players can also easily make their own.


I also think that LostLight's idea with patrons that can bring spirits back into it (or not) is good.
See, Animals spirits and how they work in the rest of the world of darkness, that is just too powerful a tool not to use, with all the believes about totems (remember humans having no direct spirit reflection like other animals or plants have?), or supernatural animal creature shapeshifters (Japanese Kitsune and Tanuki for example) or animal "gods" often even mingling with humans.

I would keep some tie in to werewolves, just make it so that like, say, mages and similar, Ferals are not connected to the Shadow by default.
If needed, they can buy into that as before, even if their origins might tie in to spirits somehow or be related, they are very much creatures of this world.


Two ideas of my own I think I want to throw in:

1. I suggest "animal instincts" as a kind of blessing and curse of which each breed gets a set (three most likely) which set both inherent boni as well as conditions where they need to roll whether they can keep their inner beats in check.
This could be something like a fight instinct that powers them up in combat, maybe especially in their intermediate (near man, near beast or war form) shape but in return puts them in danger of something like Kurruth / tiger storm in combat.
On the other hand, it could also be flight, for more defensive boni and the danger of a rabbit run.
To round that off, instincts to establish dominance, protect territory or kin, mate, be afraid of the unknown would round it off.
The idea is that each instinct is always negative and positive creating a distinct profile, like war against the pure having different pendants to the werewolf deathrage.

2. Make Accords the new social axis and rework them to focus on what role you fulfill in a band of ferals, including the option not to choose a role.
I think many agree that tribes where a weak concept in Forsaken, and since Changing Breeds does not have both tribes and Auspices, there is also no danger of repeating the same choices twice.
Leave social groups you belong to to a lodge like third axis, in a game focused on the player group, similar to how the pack is the big thing in werewolf, giving big overarching organisations any bigger role is just iffy.
Amusingly, I think the sun chaser makes sense as the "no role" / ghost wolf position more than anything.
A "hunter", a "guardian", a "mender / nurturer", a "questioner" or visionary and a "link" or "heart of the pack" seem rather solid choices to me which would resonate with what I see played in my groups most often.

[Omegaphallic]

I really don't like the metatheme of changing breeds, and I agree that overly mixing breeds just makes no sense. I think the way to look at Changing breeds is to break themes down by individual breeds, or. groups of closely interelated breeds M Like creating a game around the small cat breeds, like Hungery Ghosts and Klinkerashes. Here is one idea I had for "pride" of weretigers. The theme is how does a group of weretigers who are solitary, territorial, and used to being at the apex, deal with being forced by external threats and circomstances into forming a pride for survival. I based the idea off the fact that in some animal sacuaries normally solitary species have to live in closer promixity to each other then is natural for them and how they get along with each other. Another invovles the whole Hungery Ghosts organization allying with thier close relatives the Klinkerash, to ferret out some kind of occult secrets, perhaps stealing magical secrets from Mages. One breed I really like, but one doesn't here much focus on are the Weregoats. I'm thinking a group of Weregoats who have built a sex cult around themselves trying to survive the out rage of the Catholic Church, and maybe even make the that hunter conspircy the main threat to them.

[LostLight]

so, while I'm waiting for the Idigam Chronicles to be published before I'm doing any further changes in the OOC (Old Ones Chronicles), here are some thought's I've had on the subject:

1) I think I'm going to remove the concept of Breeds as "splats". No, I'm not going to saw there are no breeds at the Changing Breeds (which is stupid) but instead, that there are no "prepared pattern" for them. I mean, most people seem to want to make their own breeds, and while giving examples is good, tying up a bunch of different groups of changers into a single "family" so inorganically just because it is easier doesn't feel right. So, the Nauhal is going to be something personal- you may be a unique changer, a part of a small community or maybe a part of an ancient tradition, but it is going to be something you make, like a Krew in Geist and Demonic Form in Demon. Accords are going to be the X splat, as defining which beast are you (which would be represented at Favor discount), while Dynasties are going to be a Y splat, as defining the tradition of your breed, if you have one (which would represent in Aspect discount).

2) With Harmony representing the connection between Flesh and Spirit, I think that their Morality is going to be somewhat different now that they are "fleshy beings". Their morality should check how close they are for their inner Nahual, and while tying it to "inner balance" sound attractive, I wish to try and stay away from Werewolf- so maybe something about acting along one's instincts. I'm also thinking about changing their Virtue and Vice into something other, but I'm waiting for Werewolf to see what happens there.

3) Society- there is one. However, it is not something like the Forsaken or the Orders. It is something more in the style of the European Union- there are groups of different breeds who are willing to work together, and they try to add new breeds to their society. They are still "dying", with old traditions falling apart, but new breeds show up every day, starting new Dynasties. While they have their "United Creation Story", not everyone believe in it. Actually, I think about making the political debate about whether should the Breeds work together as part of the game, with 5 big political movements which move from Extreme "Nationalist" (meaning, someone who believe the Breeds should be separated and remove ties with other Breeds) up to Extreme "Socialist" (someone who thinks all Breeds are one, and support violent recruiting of other Breeds).

4) I'm thinking about the suggestion to allow the Breeds to change their breed, and I must say I like it. I think I should tie it to their Power Stat (which may or may not be Primal Urge) and to their Accord. Doing so may be a sin against their "Morality", especially if they are changing outside their Accord (like, from a Bunny to a Lion). They could also try to "add" Nahuals instead of changing them, which would again be depended on their power stat and could end up in creating a Chimera. I'm also trying to think why the Uratha shouldn't be able to do so. I think that it is because of the blessing of Luna- which mean that while the Forsaken are forever banned from the process, the Pure could do so. the "Socialist Changers" would support the process, claiming that it would allow them to become one, while the "Nationalists" are going to oppose it for violating their "sacred change".

5) finally, the Old Ones. From what I can tell from the preview, the Idigams are going to be too similar to what I planned the Old Ones to be, so I'm going to make a drastic change. The Old Ones are dead. They are extinct, forever a proof for what happens for a changer who stop changing and can't adapt to the new world. However, being dead doesn't make them meaning less. Their bones still hold their power, and they could change the world to how it has been thousands of years ago, corrupt people and beasts into horrible forms and even grant special Aspects or Favors to the Ferals- in exchange for their sanity. By changing a Feral, the Old One could even "return to life" in a way- meaning, the fossil would transform the changer into the form of a being which died thousands of years ago, a thing done in the same way a Feral shift its Nahual and thanks to their mutable nature.

so- thoughts?

[Leliel]

"Extinct" shapeshifters? With the ability to focus their power through their bones to create corrupted shifters of their species?

...The main antagonists are (or include) weredinosaurs. This is an awesome idea and you should feel awesome.

[wyrdhamster]

I want to add Ursara ( werebear ) character to our testing Idigam Chronicle game and some mechanical guidelines would be in order. I assume that rules and modifiers would be to make every Breed based on sum of stats the Uratha have in they forms and two versions of Death Rage would be give also to other races. What other changes would be needed? And what modifiers would Brown Bear changer have now?

Also - would new version of Breeds have the Deed Names? And will Breeds could have other Weakneses, beside the Silver, like Corax having both Silver and Gold?

[wyrdhamster]

I want to add Ursara gay doctor that forsaken his family generations old duty to Bears Cemetery in center of nowhere and gone to city for sexual life of freedom in Gay Bear community. But now his ancestral spirit has been awoken, and calls to him to return. So he would be like Ursara Sun-Chaser that need to become Den Warden. How this will work with your's idea on Ursara then?

Ursara- warriors from birth, the Ursara have seen themselves as the soldiers of mankind against the terrors of the world. Where the Bastet hunt alone and silently, and the Pack fight side by side for humanity, the bears have fought in the front, filled with majestic power and godly stamina. They were the best of warriors, brave and righteous, and humanity followed them in battle as heroes. However, the time of heroes has passed. Today, when you can kill someone with a trigger or a push of a button, brute force has became more or less unneeded. While at first the Ursara still found their place in the battlefield, the great arms race and technological improvement has left them behind in the dust. While some old bears complain about the new times and miss the past, others seek after a way to use their great bodies. Some turn to sports, becoming athletes, wrestlers and similar things. While they may get glory and fame, the rest of their breed see them as "dancing circus bears" which lost any semblance of the former greatness. Others find jobs where their physical talents are needed- like bodyguards and selectors. While it is still seen as something "lesser", it is still better than becoming a "toy for humanity". Still, some bears are still joining the military, claiming that humanity will always need brave warriors in the battlefield. Humanity think it doesn't needs heroes anymore- but the Ursara will prove them they are wrong.

Project note: I think that Shadow Realm should be totally optional, not taken away. Like 3 Aspects added on sidebar, or maybe little Appendix on few pages.