Out of Character (OOC):
Sources: Review lifted from the Werewolf: The Forsaken 2nd Edition corebook.
Already the werewolves come stalking in the wake of the idigam, assuming that the spoor they follow must belong to prey that they can understand and bring down. They don’t yet comprehend what they’re up against, an enemy that the God of the Hunt could not slay and that the Warden Moon could only seal away. The idigam are returning to the world, and they hate the Uratha.
THE MOON-BANISHED
The wilds of Pangaea played witness to an eternal hunt. Father Wolf stalked the idigam, offended by their natures, but it was a struggle he could never win. Each time he caught one of the Formless it would change and slither away, defeating his every attempt to corner or run it down. He could not complete his hunt but nor could he give it up. To do so would run counter to his very being.
After the Great Hunt had gone on for countless years, it was Luna who brought about a solution. Perhaps Father Wolf entreated the Warden Against The Void to aid him. Perhaps the Moon sought to protect the idigam from the endless pursuit. Perhaps she sought another, unknown goal. Whatever the truth, Luna gathered up the Formless and imprisoned them upon her lifeless surface.
The prison of the Formless was a place with no Essence, no spirits, nothing at all. They stared at the void reaching beyond Luna’s patrolling path, and the glimmering, mocking light of Earth lying far below. Some Moon-Banished fell into slumber. Others danced upon their captor’s surface in mad loneliness, or squatted and crooned to the void and those distant, twinkling lights. Sometimes, they heard answers.
The ages pass. In 1969 the first human stands on the Moon. To the quiescent, mad brood of idigam, the lander’s arrival shatters the silence of the void. Many Formless flee the initial, burbling rush of spirits and Essence, unable to cope with the return of life and light. The hardiest stay and glut themselves on the sustenance that pours forth. Four idigam rode back with the departing humans and came splashing down in the North Pacific. The idigam had returned to Earth.
Several lunar missions have since returned other idigam to the world. Some of the Formless escaped when they reached out to the information streams pouring between satellites. Ecstatic and exulting, these refugees hurtled to their freedom at the speed of data transfer. The few idigam still waiting in Luna’s embrace are nearly berserk from how close freedom is — and terrified that the Lunes will soon perfect a new prison for them.
THE EARTH-BOUND
Luna did not gather up all the idigam into her embrace. Those that remained in Pangaea became the Earth-Bound, captives of an entirely different kind. The Moon-Banished remained truly Formless, but the Earth-Bound had a thread of constancy woven through them from an unlikely source — humanity itself.
Only a few scraps of half-remembered, contradictory stories offer explanations as to the nature of the Earth-Bound, often taken from the messages of cryptic Lunes:
• This story is true. The Earth-Bound took on the duty of serving as monsters for humanity to hunt and battle. Their changing natures made them the perfect opponents to test the species’ mettle, always returning in a new form when defeated. Perhaps Father Wolf looked fondly on the people amongst whom his Uratha children dwelt, and wanted to give them the only gift he understood — the hunt. Perhaps the idigam were just supposed to be a distraction for humanity from deeper horrors in the darkness, defeated puppets set to an undignified task.
• This story is true. It was humanity that saved the Earth-Bound. Far from being ignorant primitives, humans were hewing their claim to the world through strength of arm and mind. They saw the hunted idigam and offered the spirits a pact — they would protect and conceal the idigam in return for the Formless Coalescing to help humanity. Humans would need many new concepts to gird themselves against the world, concepts that did not exist yet. The first of the idigam to agree to this pact eventually became the spirit of tamed fire. With the passing ages, the idigam sunk into obscurity. Humanity had less need of monsters to slay, with war, disease and the rise of empires serving as far more effective distractions. The keystone concepts of civilization became filled and set, underpinning all that would come forth in future. The few remaining idigam laid in quiet slumber. They still feared Father Wolf’s relentless jaws and a lifeless lunar prison. The return of the Moon-Banished has unleashed ripples of wakefulness through the Earth-Bound. Now these slumbering horrors rise from their lairs and find that the Great Predator is long dead. The world is their playground once more, and only the Uratha stand in their way.
ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES
Where did the idigam come from in the first place? They were present during the age of Pangaea, but these strange, ever- changing spirits reflect nothing in the physical world. They are an utter mystery to most Uratha, and even learned lore-keepers amongst the People have only managed to assemble a few theories that might explain the idigam. Thus far, none of these theories are based on strong evidence:
• The idigam are spirits of pure change: The idigam do, in fact, reflect the concept of change. Since change is present and constant everywhere in the world, everything serves as their reflection.
• The idigam are spirits of concepts that no longer exist: The idigam once had reflections in the world of Flesh, but they were the spirits of concepts or creatures that no longer exist. They were such powerful spirits that they have managed to cling to existence even beyond the demise of their reflections, but at the cost of their identities.
• The idigam are the spirits of potential concepts: Idigam are left-overs from the Shadow’s earliest history, when it was a state of pure potential as yet unscarred by symbolism. These primeval fragments seek something to be, and may yet pupate into new and bizarre concepts. It’s entirely possible that they may be servants or children of the slumbering planet itself.
• The idigam are spirits of humanity: Humanity has no direct spiritual reflection in the Shadow, although it creates a constant deluge of powerful Resonance that spirits feed from. The idigam symbolized the human species but somehow became cast adrift from their progenitors.
• The idigam are the children of Luna: Luna paired with other spirits than the Great Hunter. Being such a powerful spirit of change, however, it was only the Mother Wolf’s Essence that could match that of Father Moon and produce children of balanced nature. The idigam are the Moon’s offspring by other mates, flooded with mercurial lunar power that overwhelms any other heritage they may possess.
• The idigam are truly alien: Luna patrols the wide orbit of the moon to ward the world’s Shadow from the void beyond. Sometimes, though, things slip past — things like the idigam. They rode to Earth aboard immense vessels, meteors that tore into the planet’s surface in a cataclysm of destruction.
• The idigam are Uratha: Perhaps the strangest theory of all. The idigam are Uratha who have utterly lost themselves to Luna’s maddening love and have degenerated into pure, protean Essence. They were amongst the first generation of Uratha, bearing too much of their lunar parent’s chaotic power within their veins. Father Wolf hunted them down because he felt a parental duty to do so; Mother Luna gathered them in her embrace because, whatever else they might be, they are her children.
THE CHRYSALIS
The idigam transform a chronicle into a tale of change and evolution. The Uratha have no context to frame their struggle against the Formless. They must adapt and learn or they will die. The Formless themselves are chaos incarnate, travelers on a journey of metamorphosis.
FIGHTING THE IDIGAM
The tragedy of the idigam is that most Forsaken who fall victim to the Moon-Banished never really understand what they’re up against. Unlike other prey, no deep well of lore or repeated history of the hunt exists for the Urdaga to draw upon. The idigam are too old and too young. Werewolves who hunt the idigam assuming that they are just spirits soon find themselves caught in a nightmare. The Forsaken don’t yet know the rules of this game, and the nature of the enemy keeps changing.
Formless idigam — those in the natural protean state — are fortunately rare. However, they are also exceedingly hard for Uratha to defeat. Whatever a hunter throws at a Formless, the spirit will just slough off its old vulnerabilities and adapt with new strengths. No plan survives contact with the Formless, because no plan can account for their infinite variation.
The Coalesced are far more powerful but have shed such constant turmoil of form and focus. They display surprising and often catastrophic capabilities on a scale that the Forsaken rarely ever encounter, warping the world around them with ease. These primordial beings may have a retinue of eerie, twisted creatures that they have forged with their corrupted Essence, minions that don’t conform to Uratha hunting lore.
Above all else, Forsaken who would successfully hunt an idigam must exploit its ban and bane. Unfortunately, a werewolf’s usual tricks are of little use against the Moon-Banished. An Ithaeur attempting to use her Shadow Gaze upon an idigam may find that it is too potent for the Facet to pierce. Even getting close enough to the idigam to use the Facet is a risky venture. Seeking wisdom from spirits is equally unlikely to help because the idigam are as alien and monstrous to the their beings of the Shadow as they are to the Uratha.
Some idigam do offer an unusual opportunity, however. They make use of servitors and spawn, and these far weaker beings can offer a chance for occult research and even vivisection that might reveal some of the master’s nature.
The ban and bane of a Coalesced idigam are often only tangentially related to its form and purpose, if at all. Instead they are rooted in the physical and metaphysical surroundings of the Coalescence. This means that wily Uratha investigators and hunters might track down an idigam’s Coalescence site and delve into the traces that the Moon-Banished left behind. The “birthplace” of a Coalesced offers clues that may decipher its weaknesses.
The ban and bane of a Formless idigam is as ever-changing as its quicksilver shape. Even were the Uratha to discover the spirit’s vulnerabilities, they would be washed away again a moment later. Against Formless, the best hope is to bring as much spiritual strength to bear as possible, driving the idigam off or damaging it so grievously that even a spirit of change cannot adapt fast enough.
HUNTERS
Over four decades have passed since the first of the Moon-Banished returned. Even for so mysterious and devastating a foe, stories have had the time to circulate and build the first accumulations of idigam-lore. Many of the wider Forsaken communities are awakening to the disturbing realization that something out there possesses immense power and unbridled hatred for their kind.
They whisper many names born of the confused halftruths that survivors spread: idigam, Formless, ur-Lunes, Terrestrials, Tunguskans. No two lodges agree where these spirits came from or what they want, beyond that they desire the destruction of the Uratha. Some wonder if they are the planet’s own anger, or corrupted Lunes lost to the Maeljin, or actual aliens from space. No one yet sees the overall canvas of this new hunt in its full, horrific glory. It’s time for the Forsaken Tribes to step up and do what the Great Predator could not — to successfully hunt the idigam down.
• The Blood Talons are outraged and exultant wherever they encounter the blasphemous Empty Wolves — terrible prey that demand all the strength and might of the Uratha to defeat. The tribe spreads words of such creatures through its ranks, and seeks answers as to how these monsters come to be.
• The Bone Shadows have learned enough to fear that they are the prey, not the hunters. They possess much lore that helps with fighting the spiritual servants of the Moon-Banished, but it’s not enough to tackle the idigam themselves. More than any other tribe, the Hirfathra Hissu are taking steps to plumb the ancient history of the Shadow, seeking out Lunes and the most primordial of spirits in hope of understanding this new foe.
• The Hunters in Darkness often find themselves drawn to the aftermath in the wake of an idigam’s passing. The Moon-Banished inevitably warp the Gauntlet and corrupt sacred places of power that they visit, and the Meninna are beginning to understand that the nature of these horrors might be puzzled from the places that they form.
• Iron Masters are disturbed by the reflection of their tribe’s philos phy in the idigam. Adapt, change, become a better predator — but can the Farsil Luhal defeat something even more capable of adaptation than they are? The Iron Masters see terrible and profound sources of change that are afflicting humanity, and some wonder if the idigam are a great opportunity to learn.
What happens when the herd finally does know?
In and of themselves, though, the Moon-Banished have the potential to become something more. Each Coalesced is invariably obsessive, rooted in the world that now embraces it yet ever pursuing an answer. The nature of the question varies, but it is that sparking need to understand that first pushes the idigam to give in to the world’s urge to take form... They seek something that they cannot quite name, and push themselves in a direction that they cannot fully explain.
What will happen if an idigam ever finds what it truly seeks? If an idigam reaches that enlightening answer to its question, if it ever becomes content, then such a creature may enter a new phase of being. What might emerge from a chrysalis born of the idigam? [JS5] A new concept entirely, a new symbol that will change the world, something even more monstrous and devastating than the primordial spirits already are? Only the future can tell.
LAWS OF THE LAWLESS
This section covers the game mechanics for using idigam as antagonists and characters in a Werewolf chronicle. As strange and alien as they may appear, the idigam are spirits and broadly follow the same rules. Idigam do possess several specific traits that are detailed below.
TWIN STATES
OF BEING
An idigam is either Formless or Coalesced. All idigam begin as Formless, ever-shifting spirits of change and chaos. Some idigam that the Forsaken encounter may still be in this protean form because they’re recently descended or awoken. Hunting a Formless is a confusing, surreal battle against an ever-changing and truly mercurial enemy, but such an idigam has not yet reached its full potential.
The modern world exerts a subtle pressure on idigam to Coalesce. Perhaps, once, the idigam could prowl the spirit wilds without difficulty. In this era, following Urfarah’s death-howl and the raising of the Gauntlet, the ancient spirits experience an urge to take form. The Formless have no physical analogue or fleshly reflection and, thus unanchored, they are weak. Coalesced idigam have relatively stable manifestations, taking substance and purpose from the world around them.
The differences between Formless and Coalesced idigam are as follows:
• Formless Idigam have no Influences.
• Formless Idigam lose Essence at twice the normal rate while in the physical world.
• The ban and bane of a Formless change every scene.
• Formless cannot target others with Essence Shaping, only themselves.
• Formless only possess the Shifting Dread Power.
• Upon Coalescing, an idigam’s Rank increases by one.
• Upon Coalescing, an idigam’s Influences, traits, ban and bane become set.
• A Coalesced idigam possesses a full selection of Influences, Essence Shaping, and Dread Powers.
Both Formless and Coalesced are immune to supernatural powers that would command them, master them, or reshape their abilities, whether from Gifts, rites, or the witchcraft of other beings. The idigam can be bound or forced into dormancy, but they can never simply be leashed like a dog and forced into obedience. Their ancient, ever-flowing Essence simply shrugs off any such attempts to chain them to docility.
A Coalesced can return to Formlessness by spending Willpower points equal to twice its current Rank when it is sent into dormancy due to damage or a lack of Essence. This is extremely rare; most Coalesced have no desire to descend into Formlessness again.
RANK
The weakest idigam encountered have been Formless, usually freshly descended onto the world from their lunar prison. Such idigam are merely as powerful as an Ensih (Rank 3). The most powerful of the idigam that the Forsaken know of, the terrifying Gurdilag, was a Dihar (Rank 6) once Coalesced, but even more potent Moon-Banished may still wait in the shadows. Most Coalesced are Ensahim (Rank 4) or Dihim (Rank 5).
ESSENCE
Idigam possess deep wells of spiritual power. An idigam’s Essence Pool is double what it would normally be for a spirit of its Rank. Idigam do not lose Essence daily in the Shadow, although in the world of Flesh, Formless bleed Essence at twice the usual rate. Coalesced lose Essence in the Flesh at the normal rate suffered by spirits.
INFLUENCES
While the Formless entirely lack Influences, a Coalesced idigam possesses Influences as a normal spirit of its Rank. Lacking physical reflections, the idigam takes on Influences that reflect either its own agenda and drives or the location in which it Coalesced.
BAN & BANE
An idigam possesses a ban and bane appropriate to its Rank, as other spirits do. The ban and bane of a Formless shift to something new every single scene. Despite the best documentation efforts of those Uratha unfortunate enough to encounter a Formless, there is no discernible pattern to these changes. They have no relation to the surroundings, the activities of the idigam, or the powers brought to bear against it. A Coalesced’s ban and bane are set. These vulnerabilities reflect the world around the idigam at the moment it Coalesced, and thus can be highly esoteric or bizarre — but they are unchanging and can be exploited by those who would hunt the Moon-Banished. They reflect both the physical and metaphysical environment in which the Coalescence happened.
ESSENCE SHAPING
All idigam have the ability to manipulate and shape Essence to an astounding degree, although the Formless can only ever target themselves with these powers. An idigam usually has a number of Essence Shaping powers equal to its Rank, but this is by no means a hard rule.
Chronicle: Mage 2: The Dethroned Queen
Venue: Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition
Chronicle Storyteller: Jerad Sayler
Venue: Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition
Chronicle Storyteller: Jerad Sayler
Assistant Storytellers: Hannah Nyland & Alex Van Belkum
Lore: The Idigam - Forms of the Formless
(Idigam Part One)
(Idigam Part One)
“It is true that all of us are the
beneficiaries of crimes committed by our ancestors, and it is true that nothing
can be done about that now because the victims are dead and the survivors are
innocent. These are good reasons for keeping our mouths shut about the past:
but tell me, what are our reasons for silence about atrocities still to come?”
–
Damon Knight, One Side Laughing: Stories Unlike Other Stories
Lore: Idigam Part One
Lore: Idigam Part Two
Lore: Idigam Part Three
::Information requires advanced knowledge of Werewolf and Spirit lore (spec skills, and 3+ dot rating knowledge sources::
Lore: Idigam Part Two
Lore: Idigam Part Three
::Information requires advanced knowledge of Werewolf and Spirit lore (spec skills, and 3+ dot rating knowledge sources::
History is catching up with the Uratha, and it comes girded with madness and a burning desire for vengeance. The idigam are inconceivably ancient. They are impossibly young. The idigam are a threat from the dawn of time itself. They are a sudden new danger that has sprung upon the People from the shadows. The idigam are contradictory, ever-changing beings that shatter the stasis of the world around them. Each of the Formless is a chrysalis from which something new and startling will emerge.
The idigam are spirits, yet unlike other denizens of the Shadow. In their natural states, the Formless are roiling maelstroms of Essence. Each passing moment sees their chimera shape change and adapt in an eternal quest for perfection. Then, an idigam finds a spark of obsession, an indefinable something that holds its at ention and begins its path of metamorphosis. It anchors itself and calms the waves of its being in an instant of coalescence. The inner turmoil turns outwards. Now the world begins to change. They slink from their ancient prisons and bindings now, these primeval beings. The Formless find that the world has become a rich hunting ground, a new paradise of experience and experimentation through which they can cavort and slither and writhe. Oh, there are those who might hunt them, it is true.
The idigam are spirits, yet unlike other denizens of the Shadow. In their natural states, the Formless are roiling maelstroms of Essence. Each passing moment sees their chimera shape change and adapt in an eternal quest for perfection. Then, an idigam finds a spark of obsession, an indefinable something that holds its at ention and begins its path of metamorphosis. It anchors itself and calms the waves of its being in an instant of coalescence. The inner turmoil turns outwards. Now the world begins to change. They slink from their ancient prisons and bindings now, these primeval beings. The Formless find that the world has become a rich hunting ground, a new paradise of experience and experimentation through which they can cavort and slither and writhe. Oh, there are those who might hunt them, it is true.
Already the werewolves come stalking in the wake of the idigam, assuming that the spoor they follow must belong to prey that they can understand and bring down. They don’t yet comprehend what they’re up against, an enemy that the God of the Hunt could not slay and that the Warden Moon could only seal away. The idigam are returning to the world, and they hate the Uratha.
THE MOON-BANISHED
The wilds of Pangaea played witness to an eternal hunt. Father Wolf stalked the idigam, offended by their natures, but it was a struggle he could never win. Each time he caught one of the Formless it would change and slither away, defeating his every attempt to corner or run it down. He could not complete his hunt but nor could he give it up. To do so would run counter to his very being.
After the Great Hunt had gone on for countless years, it was Luna who brought about a solution. Perhaps Father Wolf entreated the Warden Against The Void to aid him. Perhaps the Moon sought to protect the idigam from the endless pursuit. Perhaps she sought another, unknown goal. Whatever the truth, Luna gathered up the Formless and imprisoned them upon her lifeless surface.The prison of the Formless was a place with no Essence, no spirits, nothing at all. They stared at the void reaching beyond Luna’s patrolling path, and the glimmering, mocking light of Earth lying far below. Some Moon-Banished fell into slumber. Others danced upon their captor’s surface in mad loneliness, or squatted and crooned to the void and those distant, twinkling lights. Sometimes, they heard answers.
The ages pass. In 1969 the first human stands on the Moon. To the quiescent, mad brood of idigam, the lander’s arrival shatters the silence of the void. Many Formless flee the initial, burbling rush of spirits and Essence, unable to cope with the return of life and light. The hardiest stay and glut themselves on the sustenance that pours forth. Four idigam rode back with the departing humans and came splashing down in the North Pacific. The idigam had returned to Earth.
Several lunar missions have since returned other idigam to the world. Some of the Formless escaped when they reached out to the information streams pouring between satellites. Ecstatic and exulting, these refugees hurtled to their freedom at the speed of data transfer. The few idigam still waiting in Luna’s embrace are nearly berserk from how close freedom is — and terrified that the Lunes will soon perfect a new prison for them.
THE EARTH-BOUND
Luna did not gather up all the idigam into her embrace. Those that remained in Pangaea became the Earth-Bound, captives of an entirely different kind. The Moon-Banished remained truly Formless, but the Earth-Bound had a thread of constancy woven through them from an unlikely source — humanity itself. Only a few scraps of half-remembered, contradictory stories offer explanations as to the nature of the Earth-Bound, often taken from the messages of cryptic Lunes:
• This story is true. The Earth-Bound took on the duty of serving as monsters for humanity to hunt and battle. Their changing natures made them the perfect opponents to test the species’ mettle, always returning in a new form when defeated. Perhaps Father Wolf looked fondly on the people amongst whom his Uratha children dwelt, and wanted to give them the only gift he understood — the hunt. Perhaps the idigam were just supposed to be a distraction for humanity from deeper horrors in the darkness, defeated puppets set to an undignified task.
• This story is true. It was humanity that saved the Earth-Bound. Far from being ignorant primitives, humans were hewing their claim to the world through strength of arm and mind. They saw the hunted idigam and offered the spirits a pact — they would protect and conceal the idigam in return for the Formless Coalescing to help humanity. Humans would need many new concepts to gird themselves against the world, concepts that did not exist yet. The first of the idigam to agree to this pact eventually became the spirit of tamed fire. With the passing ages, the idigam sunk into obscurity. Humanity had less need of monsters to slay, with war, disease and the rise of empires serving as far more effective distractions. The keystone concepts of civilization became filled and set, underpinning all that would come forth in future. The few remaining idigam laid in quiet slumber. They still feared Father Wolf’s relentless jaws and a lifeless lunar prison. The return of the Moon-Banished has unleashed ripples of wakefulness through the Earth-Bound. Now these slumbering horrors rise from their lairs and find that the Great Predator is long dead. The world is their playground once more, and only the Uratha stand in their way.
ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES
Where did the idigam come from in the first place? They were present during the age of Pangaea, but these strange, ever- changing spirits reflect nothing in the physical world. They are an utter mystery to most Uratha, and even learned lore-keepers amongst the People have only managed to assemble a few theories that might explain the idigam. Thus far, none of these theories are based on strong evidence:
• The idigam are spirits of pure change: The idigam do, in fact, reflect the concept of change. Since change is present and constant everywhere in the world, everything serves as their reflection. • The idigam are spirits of concepts that no longer exist: The idigam once had reflections in the world of Flesh, but they were the spirits of concepts or creatures that no longer exist. They were such powerful spirits that they have managed to cling to existence even beyond the demise of their reflections, but at the cost of their identities.
• The idigam are the spirits of potential concepts: Idigam are left-overs from the Shadow’s earliest history, when it was a state of pure potential as yet unscarred by symbolism. These primeval fragments seek something to be, and may yet pupate into new and bizarre concepts. It’s entirely possible that they may be servants or children of the slumbering planet itself.
• The idigam are spirits of humanity: Humanity has no direct spiritual reflection in the Shadow, although it creates a constant deluge of powerful Resonance that spirits feed from. The idigam symbolized the human species but somehow became cast adrift from their progenitors.
• The idigam are the children of Luna: Luna paired with other spirits than the Great Hunter. Being such a powerful spirit of change, however, it was only the Mother Wolf’s Essence that could match that of Father Moon and produce children of balanced nature. The idigam are the Moon’s offspring by other mates, flooded with mercurial lunar power that overwhelms any other heritage they may possess.
• The idigam are truly alien: Luna patrols the wide orbit of the moon to ward the world’s Shadow from the void beyond. Sometimes, though, things slip past — things like the idigam. They rode to Earth aboard immense vessels, meteors that tore into the planet’s surface in a cataclysm of destruction.
• The idigam are Uratha: Perhaps the strangest theory of all. The idigam are Uratha who have utterly lost themselves to Luna’s maddening love and have degenerated into pure, protean Essence. They were amongst the first generation of Uratha, bearing too much of their lunar parent’s chaotic power within their veins. Father Wolf hunted them down because he felt a parental duty to do so; Mother Luna gathered them in her embrace because, whatever else they might be, they are her children.
THE CHRYSALIS
The idigam transform a chronicle into a tale of change and evolution. The Uratha have no context to frame their struggle against the Formless. They must adapt and learn or they will die. The Formless themselves are chaos incarnate, travelers on a journey of metamorphosis.
FIGHTING THE IDIGAM
The tragedy of the idigam is that most Forsaken who fall victim to the Moon-Banished never really understand what they’re up against. Unlike other prey, no deep well of lore or repeated history of the hunt exists for the Urdaga to draw upon. The idigam are too old and too young. Werewolves who hunt the idigam assuming that they are just spirits soon find themselves caught in a nightmare. The Forsaken don’t yet know the rules of this game, and the nature of the enemy keeps changing.
Formless idigam — those in the natural protean state — are fortunately rare. However, they are also exceedingly hard for Uratha to defeat. Whatever a hunter throws at a Formless, the spirit will just slough off its old vulnerabilities and adapt with new strengths. No plan survives contact with the Formless, because no plan can account for their infinite variation. The Coalesced are far more powerful but have shed such constant turmoil of form and focus. They display surprising and often catastrophic capabilities on a scale that the Forsaken rarely ever encounter, warping the world around them with ease. These primordial beings may have a retinue of eerie, twisted creatures that they have forged with their corrupted Essence, minions that don’t conform to Uratha hunting lore.
Above all else, Forsaken who would successfully hunt an idigam must exploit its ban and bane. Unfortunately, a werewolf’s usual tricks are of little use against the Moon-Banished. An Ithaeur attempting to use her Shadow Gaze upon an idigam may find that it is too potent for the Facet to pierce. Even getting close enough to the idigam to use the Facet is a risky venture. Seeking wisdom from spirits is equally unlikely to help because the idigam are as alien and monstrous to the their beings of the Shadow as they are to the Uratha.
Some idigam do offer an unusual opportunity, however. They make use of servitors and spawn, and these far weaker beings can offer a chance for occult research and even vivisection that might reveal some of the master’s nature.
The ban and bane of a Coalesced idigam are often only tangentially related to its form and purpose, if at all. Instead they are rooted in the physical and metaphysical surroundings of the Coalescence. This means that wily Uratha investigators and hunters might track down an idigam’s Coalescence site and delve into the traces that the Moon-Banished left behind. The “birthplace” of a Coalesced offers clues that may decipher its weaknesses.
The ban and bane of a Formless idigam is as ever-changing as its quicksilver shape. Even were the Uratha to discover the spirit’s vulnerabilities, they would be washed away again a moment later. Against Formless, the best hope is to bring as much spiritual strength to bear as possible, driving the idigam off or damaging it so grievously that even a spirit of change cannot adapt fast enough.
HUNTERS
Over four decades have passed since the first of the Moon-Banished returned. Even for so mysterious and devastating a foe, stories have had the time to circulate and build the first accumulations of idigam-lore. Many of the wider Forsaken communities are awakening to the disturbing realization that something out there possesses immense power and unbridled hatred for their kind.
They whisper many names born of the confused halftruths that survivors spread: idigam, Formless, ur-Lunes, Terrestrials, Tunguskans. No two lodges agree where these spirits came from or what they want, beyond that they desire the destruction of the Uratha. Some wonder if they are the planet’s own anger, or corrupted Lunes lost to the Maeljin, or actual aliens from space. No one yet sees the overall canvas of this new hunt in its full, horrific glory. It’s time for the Forsaken Tribes to step up and do what the Great Predator could not — to successfully hunt the idigam down.
• The Blood Talons are outraged and exultant wherever they encounter the blasphemous Empty Wolves — terrible prey that demand all the strength and might of the Uratha to defeat. The tribe spreads words of such creatures through its ranks, and seeks answers as to how these monsters come to be.• The Bone Shadows have learned enough to fear that they are the prey, not the hunters. They possess much lore that helps with fighting the spiritual servants of the Moon-Banished, but it’s not enough to tackle the idigam themselves. More than any other tribe, the Hirfathra Hissu are taking steps to plumb the ancient history of the Shadow, seeking out Lunes and the most primordial of spirits in hope of understanding this new foe.
• The Hunters in Darkness often find themselves drawn to the aftermath in the wake of an idigam’s passing. The Moon-Banished inevitably warp the Gauntlet and corrupt sacred places of power that they visit, and the Meninna are beginning to understand that the nature of these horrors might be puzzled from the places that they form.
• Iron Masters are disturbed by the reflection of their tribe’s philos phy in the idigam. Adapt, change, become a better predator — but can the Farsil Luhal defeat something even more capable of adaptation than they are? The Iron Masters see terrible and profound sources of change that are afflicting humanity, and some wonder if the idigam are a great opportunity to learn.
• Amongst the Storm Lords, some say that this is the age of Father Wolf’s ultimate test for his children, an ancient challenge set in motion when he gave his last howl. Strange, terrible spirits plague the Forsaken and entirely new forms of warped prey emerge. This, the Iminir say, is the crucible in which the tribe will be tested and their worth as successors finally judged.
PREY
The wise amongst the Forsaken listen to the weird, disturbing stories that circulate through their tribal networks, and look to their territory and their prey in search of warning signs:
• The Pure - Where they encounter idigam, tend to suffer worse than the Forsaken. Too many of the Anshega react to the arrival of a powerful spirit by assuming they can seek its patronage. The results are disastrous. The Pure are finally piecing together the wider picture of what they’re up against, and they’re both outraged and terrified.
• Spirits - Are by no means friends or allies to the idigam. They often flee from the spiritual bow-wave of an idigam if they can, and a Moon-Banished’s arrival drives many to cross the Gauntlet and seek refuge as Claimed. Those that cannot or dare not leave the Resonance that sustains them largely try to hide. The Hisil around an idigam’s lair can be a desolate place indeed.
• The Hosts - Have an ancestral memory of the idigam. Their shards are too incomplete and scattered to truly understand the Moon-Banished, but they are possessed with fear when they encounter these primordial beings. A suitably powerful Host that has consumed many shards might actually remember enough to recall the true nature of the idigam, but for now most Hosts flee an idigam’s arrival like rats from a sinking ship — sometimes literally so.
• Humans - Are often a good barometer of an idigam’s presence. They become disturbed and erratic should one of the Moon-Banished exert its influence. More than once, human communities have started to spit out cults and conspiracies around the activities of an idigam. Animals are equally unsettled by the influence of the Moon-Banished but have less complicated means of expressing it. Notably, some Meninna seers have started charting the migratory patterns of birds around areas of known idigam activity, gleaning secrets and insight from the changes inflicted on nature by the chimeric spirits.
• The Lunes - Play a strange role in this new Great Hunt. It seems that many Lunes served as jailers and wardens over the void-prison, and the idigam often react poorly to the presence of one of these spirits. Their interventions in aiding and informing the Forsaken of this new threat, though, seem infuriatingly erratic to the Tribes of the Moon. Had the Lunes descended in 1969 and told the Forsaken of what was coming, they could have avoided many deaths. Even now, the spirits show no particular interest in enlightening Luna’s children about the full extent of the threat that has returned to the world. The Lunes have their own agenda and their own purpose, and the Forsaken are only tangential to that.
METAMORPHOSIS
The idigam change the world wherever they walk. Hunting grounds warp with entirely new species of life, and the Shadow buckles and twists. The war against the Moon-Banished and the Earth-Bound will force the Forsaken to adapt, and the battles they fight will scar the Flesh and Shadow. It’s inevitable that, with such powers unleashed, an avalanche of consequences will come tumbling down. How long before humanity becomes aware of the primordial beings worming through their midst?
PREY
The wise amongst the Forsaken listen to the weird, disturbing stories that circulate through their tribal networks, and look to their territory and their prey in search of warning signs:
• The Pure - Where they encounter idigam, tend to suffer worse than the Forsaken. Too many of the Anshega react to the arrival of a powerful spirit by assuming they can seek its patronage. The results are disastrous. The Pure are finally piecing together the wider picture of what they’re up against, and they’re both outraged and terrified.
• Spirits - Are by no means friends or allies to the idigam. They often flee from the spiritual bow-wave of an idigam if they can, and a Moon-Banished’s arrival drives many to cross the Gauntlet and seek refuge as Claimed. Those that cannot or dare not leave the Resonance that sustains them largely try to hide. The Hisil around an idigam’s lair can be a desolate place indeed.
• The Hosts - Have an ancestral memory of the idigam. Their shards are too incomplete and scattered to truly understand the Moon-Banished, but they are possessed with fear when they encounter these primordial beings. A suitably powerful Host that has consumed many shards might actually remember enough to recall the true nature of the idigam, but for now most Hosts flee an idigam’s arrival like rats from a sinking ship — sometimes literally so.
• Humans - Are often a good barometer of an idigam’s presence. They become disturbed and erratic should one of the Moon-Banished exert its influence. More than once, human communities have started to spit out cults and conspiracies around the activities of an idigam. Animals are equally unsettled by the influence of the Moon-Banished but have less complicated means of expressing it. Notably, some Meninna seers have started charting the migratory patterns of birds around areas of known idigam activity, gleaning secrets and insight from the changes inflicted on nature by the chimeric spirits.
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| Lunes (Lunar spirits) |
• The Lunes - Play a strange role in this new Great Hunt. It seems that many Lunes served as jailers and wardens over the void-prison, and the idigam often react poorly to the presence of one of these spirits. Their interventions in aiding and informing the Forsaken of this new threat, though, seem infuriatingly erratic to the Tribes of the Moon. Had the Lunes descended in 1969 and told the Forsaken of what was coming, they could have avoided many deaths. Even now, the spirits show no particular interest in enlightening Luna’s children about the full extent of the threat that has returned to the world. The Lunes have their own agenda and their own purpose, and the Forsaken are only tangential to that.
METAMORPHOSIS
The idigam change the world wherever they walk. Hunting grounds warp with entirely new species of life, and the Shadow buckles and twists. The war against the Moon-Banished and the Earth-Bound will force the Forsaken to adapt, and the battles they fight will scar the Flesh and Shadow. It’s inevitable that, with such powers unleashed, an avalanche of consequences will come tumbling down. How long before humanity becomes aware of the primordial beings worming through their midst?
What happens when the herd finally does know?
In and of themselves, though, the Moon-Banished have the potential to become something more. Each Coalesced is invariably obsessive, rooted in the world that now embraces it yet ever pursuing an answer. The nature of the question varies, but it is that sparking need to understand that first pushes the idigam to give in to the world’s urge to take form... They seek something that they cannot quite name, and push themselves in a direction that they cannot fully explain. What will happen if an idigam ever finds what it truly seeks? If an idigam reaches that enlightening answer to its question, if it ever becomes content, then such a creature may enter a new phase of being. What might emerge from a chrysalis born of the idigam? [JS5] A new concept entirely, a new symbol that will change the world, something even more monstrous and devastating than the primordial spirits already are? Only the future can tell.
LAWS OF THE LAWLESS
This section covers the game mechanics for using idigam as antagonists and characters in a Werewolf chronicle. As strange and alien as they may appear, the idigam are spirits and broadly follow the same rules. Idigam do possess several specific traits that are detailed below.
TWIN STATES OF BEING
An idigam is either Formless or Coalesced. All idigam begin as Formless, ever-shifting spirits of change and chaos. Some idigam that the Forsaken encounter may still be in this protean form because they’re recently descended or awoken. Hunting a Formless is a confusing, surreal battle against an ever-changing and truly mercurial enemy, but such an idigam has not yet reached its full potential.
The modern world exerts a subtle pressure on idigam to Coalesce. Perhaps, once, the idigam could prowl the spirit wilds without difficulty. In this era, following Urfarah’s death-howl and the raising of the Gauntlet, the ancient spirits experience an urge to take form. The Formless have no physical analogue or fleshly reflection and, thus unanchored, they are weak. Coalesced idigam have relatively stable manifestations, taking substance and purpose from the world around them.
The differences between Formless and Coalesced idigam are as follows:
• Formless Idigam have no Influences.
• Formless Idigam lose Essence at twice the normal rate while in the physical world.
• The ban and bane of a Formless change every scene.
• Formless cannot target others with Essence Shaping, only themselves.
• Formless only possess the Shifting Dread Power.
• Upon Coalescing, an idigam’s Rank increases by one.
• Upon Coalescing, an idigam’s Influences, traits, ban and bane become set.
• A Coalesced idigam possesses a full selection of Influences, Essence Shaping, and Dread Powers.
Both Formless and Coalesced are immune to supernatural powers that would command them, master them, or reshape their abilities, whether from Gifts, rites, or the witchcraft of other beings. The idigam can be bound or forced into dormancy, but they can never simply be leashed like a dog and forced into obedience. Their ancient, ever-flowing Essence simply shrugs off any such attempts to chain them to docility.
A Coalesced can return to Formlessness by spending Willpower points equal to twice its current Rank when it is sent into dormancy due to damage or a lack of Essence. This is extremely rare; most Coalesced have no desire to descend into Formlessness again.
RANK
The weakest idigam encountered have been Formless, usually freshly descended onto the world from their lunar prison. Such idigam are merely as powerful as an Ensih (Rank 3). The most powerful of the idigam that the Forsaken know of, the terrifying Gurdilag, was a Dihar (Rank 6) once Coalesced, but even more potent Moon-Banished may still wait in the shadows. Most Coalesced are Ensahim (Rank 4) or Dihim (Rank 5).
ESSENCE
Idigam possess deep wells of spiritual power. An idigam’s Essence Pool is double what it would normally be for a spirit of its Rank. Idigam do not lose Essence daily in the Shadow, although in the world of Flesh, Formless bleed Essence at twice the usual rate. Coalesced lose Essence in the Flesh at the normal rate suffered by spirits.
INFLUENCES While the Formless entirely lack Influences, a Coalesced idigam possesses Influences as a normal spirit of its Rank. Lacking physical reflections, the idigam takes on Influences that reflect either its own agenda and drives or the location in which it Coalesced.
BAN & BANE
An idigam possesses a ban and bane appropriate to its Rank, as other spirits do. The ban and bane of a Formless shift to something new every single scene. Despite the best documentation efforts of those Uratha unfortunate enough to encounter a Formless, there is no discernible pattern to these changes. They have no relation to the surroundings, the activities of the idigam, or the powers brought to bear against it. A Coalesced’s ban and bane are set. These vulnerabilities reflect the world around the idigam at the moment it Coalesced, and thus can be highly esoteric or bizarre — but they are unchanging and can be exploited by those who would hunt the Moon-Banished. They reflect both the physical and metaphysical environment in which the Coalescence happened.
ESSENCE SHAPING
All idigam have the ability to manipulate and shape Essence to an astounding degree, although the Formless can only ever target themselves with these powers. An idigam usually has a number of Essence Shaping powers equal to its Rank, but this is by no means a hard rule.
All idigam have the power to shape and channel Essence in ways that seem strange and alien to other denizens of the Shadow. The Formless can only remold their own Essence in this way, but the Coalesced possess the ability to turn their Essence Shaping powers against the outside world. The idigam are diverse beings once Coalesced, capable of all manner of bizarre and unnatural accomplishments.
DREAD POWERS
As well as the usual Numina that spirits possess, idigam often express unique and horrific Dread Powers. Formless idigam only possess the Shifting Dread Power, allowing them to constantly alter their traits. Coalesced idigam may have many more, usually between three and six Dread Powers in total.
As well as the usual Numina that spirits possess, idigam often express unique and horrific Dread Powers. Formless idigam only possess the Shifting Dread Power, allowing them to constantly alter their traits. Coalesced idigam may have many more, usually between three and six Dread Powers in total.
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