What is Rage?

As the book says, all Garou have Rage. It's their inner fire which is fanned by everything from Sister Luna's watchful glow to those irritant people who stand in your way every day. It encompasses the inherent feral cuning and ferocity that compels werewolves, as wekk as savage bloodlust and mindless carnage. Rage is both a blessing and a cuse, as it aides a Garou in shifting to their warrior forms and bestows other supernatural gifts while retaining its banelike existence that throws them into fits of wild and oftentimes uncontrollable emotion.

Your Rage Traits do not have adjectives to them. Each Trait simply represents the amoount of Rage within a werewolf. You've got permanent Rage (the size of the container, if you will) and temporary Rage Traits, which you gain and lose throughout a night of Role-Play.

Your strarting Rage is determined by your suspice. The only way to increase this total is by purchasing more than that to start with is with Freebie Points. During play, you can gain and lose temporary by everythin from your moon phase to stressful situations. The following list explains how, and may differ slightly from the Mind's Eye Theatre books.

• You can spend a Rage to gain Extra Actions in a turn

A young man who looks to be no more than twenty years old steps up in front of a group of Garou cubs. His hair was slicked back and tied behind his head, his green eyes scanning the few newcomers to his Caern. The Sept Leader was young in human years, but old as a Garou. More than five years beyond his First Change gave way to enough experience to grant him the Rank of Adren.

Over his lower arms he wore black gloves up to his elbows which were tattered and worn with metal pads as armour along them that had obviously been replaced more than a few times. He was wearing a black shirt with a picture of a wolf on it that seemed to be etched into the darkness with golden lightening strikes. His pants were of a camo design, blacks and grays like the colors of a storm.

He looked a way that the cubs could not yet put a finger on that showed his purity of his breed as a Shadow Lord. He spoke simply and flat, and began with an understanding and even tone as he did his best to explain what Rage was...

"Rage. You all know what Rage is," he began while looking over the group. "It's the very first thing you learn about being Garou, before anything else. Before forms, the Umbra, or even the different Tribes, you know in your heart that you're different than others... and others know that about you too.

"Humans, like all other animals, can feel your Rage. That prickling along their skin that tells them to be affraid or warry of this dangerous creature... they may not understand it, you know. Humans are not adapt at understanding the other-worldly nature of the world, it's ture. But, understand it or not, they will feel it. It will frighten them, and they will not understand why.

...

"From one Homid Born to another... Rage is a lot of things to a Garou, and is often moreso for a Cub. It's the first thing you learn when it comes to being Garou, because it's there with you your whole life. That instinct that tells you someone is or isn't good, that burning feeling you have when you lash out in anger growing up...

"The reason you've probably been an outcast your whole life is because humans and wolves both can sense your Rage. It's that feeling in the air around you, that prickling along their skin that reveals to them the animal hiding in the cage of your mind. They don't understand it, so they fear it. Other children pick on you, adults think you a trouble maker, and your parents--perhaps even if they are Kin--always suspect you're on drugs, or mentally touched, or whatever...

"On some level, they're all right. You're not bound by the same rules of the world as they are. You're supernatural, and you're that way your whole life. There's never a moment that you aren't Garou. That Rage, that feeling of burning, unqunchable anger, is within you since your birth.

"The biggest problem, as you may realize now, is that you've no outlet until your First Change. Ragabash have it easiest, and Ahroun have it worst, but all Garou feel the pull towards their birthright. Something about a peice of trash on a deep green lawn, a tire against a rock in a river, a car that's engine is not well kept... spewing black smoke out it's tailpipe... something about those has always bothered you... but you didn't know then what you know now... that it was your Mother in pain, being spit in the eye of, stepped on the tail of, or even burned alive... those things that have agitated and enraged you since birth had no quick rational to your human mind. They upset you, but you knew not why.

"Now you do. Your Rage is what you tap when you you want to shift forms, pull out some extra speed, or even to will yourself to keep standing when your body is ready to give way. Now that you're beyond your First Change, you must learn to control your impulse. You may be an animal, a monster to humans... but you still have a human mind about you. Every time you shift forms, you're calling upon your Rage... but even as you tap into it, and feel more to pull on, your Rage can easily destory you and everyone around you.

"Just because it is there and natural doesn't mean it's OK outside of our circles. Watch your anger, keep your Rage hidden from the humans and perhaps the animals too... because you never know who's watching. You could be the next headline, be it 'bear attacks' or 'trained dogs'... the humans may remember all or nothing of you dropping into Frenzy... but never count on the Deliruim to cover your tracks."