Post by Tami on Feb 13, 2015 15:33:09 GMT -5
Taken from the Changing Breeds book 20th anniversary pp 177 to 191
Not only are Ratkin the most numerous Changing Breed, they’re also arguably the most dangerous. Plagued with madness, they turn their Rage on any enemy of chaos, not just the Weaver and Wyrm, but also humans and any signs of progress or structure.
History
Before the War of Rage, Gaia made the Ratkin responsible for culling the human population with famine and disease, crippling the hairless monkeys before they became a threat. Seeing themselves as the planet’s last line of defense against human excess, the wererats performed their job zealously. Eventually, the Garou became jealous of their successes, coming to see each Ratkin success as their own failure to keep Gaia safe. Resentment festered, poisoning relations between rat and wolf.
After centuries of growing tension, the Garou took great pleasure in slaughtering the Ratkin during the War of Rage. The Garou killed hundreds of Ratkin in the first days of the war but, as with their rodent Kin, exterminating Ratkin is far from easy. Most fled deep into Umbral boltholes, while others went to ground in human settlements, living as either humans or rats.
From then until fairly recent times, the Ratkin living among humanity kept their numbers small. They watched and waited for their chance to regain their lost power and numbers without risking bringing the Garou’s wrath down upon them again. Seeing minions of the Weaver and Wyrm calcifying the world over thousands of years fired their Rage, but self-preservation won out — keeping their numbers small was the key to survival, but in doing so, the wererats were too few to do anything about what they saw.
Several decades ago, however, watching how sick and broken the world had become fired the madness of the Ratkin, and the wererats began making their move. They issued a call to arms, urging those who had fled to the Umbra so long ago to return, and for the Ratkin of every kind to breed, breed, breed and renew their numbers.
The Ratkin believe human civilization is beyond salvation. Their goal is to kill off humanity before it calcifies the world in the Weaver’s webs, and to tear down everything obstructing the Wyld’s glorious chaos.
As rats’ breeding cycles are shorter, and litter sizes are larger than their human counterparts, the Ratkin’s massive breeding program has created tens of thousands of new rodens Kinfolk, most of which have been exposed to the Birthing Plague. The result was a massive population explosion among rodens Ratkin, tipping of the formerly balanced scales between homid and roden wererats. Most of these new generations of wererats live in vast nests, hidden from the prying eyes of other shapeshifters. Because the vast majority of new Ratkin are rodens, the other Changing Breeds who watch homid Ratkin don’t know how much the Breed’s numbers have increased in the past 30 years.
Not only are Ratkin the most numerous Changing Breed, they’re also arguably the most dangerous. Plagued with madness, they turn their Rage on any enemy of chaos, not just the Weaver and Wyrm, but also humans and any signs of progress or structure.
History
Before the War of Rage, Gaia made the Ratkin responsible for culling the human population with famine and disease, crippling the hairless monkeys before they became a threat. Seeing themselves as the planet’s last line of defense against human excess, the wererats performed their job zealously. Eventually, the Garou became jealous of their successes, coming to see each Ratkin success as their own failure to keep Gaia safe. Resentment festered, poisoning relations between rat and wolf.
After centuries of growing tension, the Garou took great pleasure in slaughtering the Ratkin during the War of Rage. The Garou killed hundreds of Ratkin in the first days of the war but, as with their rodent Kin, exterminating Ratkin is far from easy. Most fled deep into Umbral boltholes, while others went to ground in human settlements, living as either humans or rats.
From then until fairly recent times, the Ratkin living among humanity kept their numbers small. They watched and waited for their chance to regain their lost power and numbers without risking bringing the Garou’s wrath down upon them again. Seeing minions of the Weaver and Wyrm calcifying the world over thousands of years fired their Rage, but self-preservation won out — keeping their numbers small was the key to survival, but in doing so, the wererats were too few to do anything about what they saw.
Several decades ago, however, watching how sick and broken the world had become fired the madness of the Ratkin, and the wererats began making their move. They issued a call to arms, urging those who had fled to the Umbra so long ago to return, and for the Ratkin of every kind to breed, breed, breed and renew their numbers.
The Ratkin believe human civilization is beyond salvation. Their goal is to kill off humanity before it calcifies the world in the Weaver’s webs, and to tear down everything obstructing the Wyld’s glorious chaos.
As rats’ breeding cycles are shorter, and litter sizes are larger than their human counterparts, the Ratkin’s massive breeding program has created tens of thousands of new rodens Kinfolk, most of which have been exposed to the Birthing Plague. The result was a massive population explosion among rodens Ratkin, tipping of the formerly balanced scales between homid and roden wererats. Most of these new generations of wererats live in vast nests, hidden from the prying eyes of other shapeshifters. Because the vast majority of new Ratkin are rodens, the other Changing Breeds who watch homid Ratkin don’t know how much the Breed’s numbers have increased in the past 30 years.