Rites represent the werewolf ability to invoke their distant spirit cousins, calling upon ancient bans and pacts that were struck when the world was new. Many human attempts at spirit ritual are echoes of the true power of a rite, a power that was lost to mortals at the time of the Susuru Hafarrakum. Werewolves can still make these ancient rituals work. Their half-spirit nature and claimed blood ties to both Father Wolf and Luna give their voices an urgency that mortals cannot match. These rituals must be performed in the proper manner to draw a spirit’s response and imbue the ceremony with supernatural power.
The following isn’t an exhaustive list of rites. Most of the rites detailed here have existed for thousands of years among the Uratha. In fact, many of them predate the Sundering. These rituals are simply the most common ones, found wherever werewolves are. The majority of these rites are known to the Pure Tribes as well as the Forsaken.
An alternative to choosing a Gift at character creation is the Rituals trait. The “free pick” with which you can normally choose a Gift from any list is traded for a single dot in Rituals. (No more than one dot can be acquired at character creation.) That dot grants your character access to the rites that Uratha culture knows and teaches its members. Presumably your character’s early days after the First Change are spent near or with a ritemaster, or he spends time learn- ing how to strike pacts with spirits as achieved through rote performances and services. Or, the Storyteller could agree that your character acquires awareness of such rites in the downtime of the first days and weeks of your chronicle.
One dot in Rituals grants your character a single a one-dot rite, as chosen from those listed here. More one-dot rites can be learned during play through the expenditure of experience points (see p. 247). Your character can know as many rites as you like, provided you have the required experience to spend. He cannot, however, know rites with a dot rating that exceeds his Rituals rating. So, with Rituals •, he cannot know any two-dot through five-dot rites.
More dots in Rituals can be acquired through play with experience as if the Rituals trait was a Gift list with which your character has affinity. New dots are acquired at a cost of new dots times five (see p. 247). If your character doesn’t acquire the Rituals trait at character creation, it can be purchased during the course of the chronicle. Rituals is considered an “affinity” for all Uratha, so new dots times five is always spent to increase it with experience points. Unlike actual Gift lists, your dots in Rituals are not limited by your Renown. You don’t have to impress the spirits in order to learn the skills of a ritemaster.
With more dots in the Rituals trait, your character can learn increasingly powerful rites. Remember, however, that he can have only one dot of Rituals at character creation. (Furthermore, only your free pick of Gift can be traded for Rituals. A tribe-, auspice- or general-affiliation pick — the last for the tribeless Ghost Wolves — cannot be traded.)
Each time your character acquires a new dot in Rituals, he gains a new rite of the same value. So, acquiring Rituals ••• grants him a free three-dot rite.
forces a living human or animal out of the spirit world and back into the physical
This simple, quick ritual forces a living human or animal out of the spirit world and back into the physical. While the Banish Human ritual got a lot of use before the Sundering — when a human might easily enter the spirit world — the Gauntlet serves as a hard barrier today. This rite doesn’t see a great deal of use in the modern world, as humans rarely venture into the spirit world (deliberately or accidentally). It can, however, rescue a human who’s been trapped in the Shadow Realm by accident or malice. Many modern werewolves use this ritual to interfere with the activities of human shamans and wizards who enter the spirit world.
Performing the Rite: This simple ritual takes just one turn to perform. The ritualist must be within arm’s reach of the target but doesn’t have to touch him or her. The ritualist emits a howl of rage and commands the subject to return to his home realm.
Dice Pool: Harmony (versus subject’s Resolve)
Action: Instant or contested; resistance is reflexive
If the human subject of the ritual is capable of performing magic to keep himself in the spirit world, Resolve can be rolled for him to contest the werewolf’s effort. If the human cannot perform magic, the rite involves an instant action alone.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The rite fails, and cannot be used again against the target for the duration of the scene.
Failure: If the human’s successes equal or exceed those rolled for the ritualist, the subject remains where he is. If the subject is incapable of magic and no successes are rolled for the werewolf, the human also remains in the spirit world.
Success: A banished human returns instantly to the physical world in the nearest equivalent location. If he is currently in a place with no earthly analogue (pg. 260), he’s returned to a random location that’s significant to him (such as his home or birthplace).
Exceptional Success: The subject cannot return to the spirit world for a number of days equal to the werewolf’s Harmony dots.
Suggested Modifiers –3 Target has supernatural powers (such as a ghoul or mage). The modifier applies to the roll made for the ritualist.