In 1826, the Wendigo re-awoke an ancient tribal Caern near the Columbia river. This Caern, like some other Caerns of the Pure Ones, was once a Medicine Wheel with the four aspects of the Wheel dedicated to the four seasons. For reasons known only to them, when the Wheel was re-opened it was re-dedicated to the four elements instead. Hints of the original seasonal nature of the Wheel are still evident in each of its four elemental aspects. It was called, simply, The Caern of the Wheel. Even among the Wendigo this Caern of Visions rolled counter to many of their beliefs. While most Native American medicine wheels run clockwise, for reasons known only to the spirits and, perhaps, the first Wendigo, the Wheel runs counter-clockwise. To move clockwise about it is to go against the will of the very totems that give it strength.
In 1940, fragmented reports of a Caern to the north being destroyed under odd circumstances were told by second-hand witnesses. Two more in that area were destroyed in the next two years, all with no known survivors. Then, in 1944, the Wendigo running the Caern vanished, leaving St. Claire's Glass Walkers and Bone Gnawers the only Garou in the immediate area. There were no clues left as to where the Wendigo went, and the Caern fell into dormancy.
Then, in the spring of 1991, a Freebooter pack from the Sept of Gaia's Bones, Seneca Falls, was searching in eastern Washington, and made a major find: the ancient site of this slumbering Caern. A Strider who had been traveling with the Freebooter pack was dispatched to return to Gaia's Bones with the news. Confident that the Furies would soon arrive to open the caern, Seneca Falls continued on their path, looking for other new caerns.
Unknown to Seneca Falls, however, the Strider returned immediately to The Caern of Ptah with the news rather than going to Gaia's Bones. A council was hastily convened and for reasons of their own, an Elder of that tribe was sent with a scouting party to the scene. Amidst an emerging turf war with the local kindred, the Caern was re-opened in November of 1993. The Garou called themselves the Sept of the Wheel Renewed and they found themselves guardians of an extremely powerful Caern, as such things go, and a mystery. The Caern had two totem spirits linked to it, that of Magpie and that of Buffalo; they were aware that there was once a third totem but the Wendigo had left no clue to its identity.
Finally, almost exactly a year after the site was re-opened, members of the Wendigo tribe returned to the Caern of the Wheel Renewed as did the third totem, Cougar. But it was not a warm homecoming for either the Wendigo, who found themselves at odds with the Sept, or the totem, who died the same night of its return. The discovery of the bodies of nine dead warriors at a nearby archaeological site, a pack of Wendigo who became known as Cougar's Nine, and the emergence of a new supernatural threat in the icy wastelands of the north, drove the mystery from the background into the fore.
The full story did not unfold until the Ice King, the original threat that had driven off the Wendigo, was finally defeated: This spirit, a creature from Malfeas, had destroyed several Wendigo Caerns in pursuit of the death of a bloodline of Wendigo Garou. The seers of the Wheel were able to divine that it was some the Wendigo of the Sept, and not the Caern itself, that were the prey. Hoping to save the Caern, they packed their belongings and left, accompanied by Magpie and Buffalo. Ten warriors remained behind with Cougar and all but one were lost, throwing themselves in vain against the Ice King. Only the sacrifice of Cougar himself was enough to halt the enemy's advance. When the Wendigo returned, they could only discern that both Cougar and the enemy were lost. They declared the place cursed, buried their dead, and closed the Caern.
Only in this age, with the return of Cougar's daughter, was the Ice King destroyed when it was turned back from the very gates of Malfeas by its own kind and that part of the tale brought to a close. In the spring of 1996, a Worldbender named Saul ben Isaac began to establish links to places of power in St. Claire. He chose the Caern itself as the site of one of his attacks and his minions pierced the holy site's wards and began to draw power from it. The Caern was severely damaged in the attack and is now only half of its previous strength. Saul ben Isaac was eventually destroyed by the Wheel's Garou and a handful of mages from the Chantry in St. Claire who lent their grudging help in the final struggle.
In the aftermath, the Garou happened upon a piece of ancient knowledge in a far away Strider caern. Hopeful, the Garou ventured into the Deep Umbra to retrieve this powerful, mysterious fetish from minions of the Weaver, who had seized it's Wyld power for thier own. For reason's not yet fully explainable, the spirit inside the fetish destroyed or drove off the Wheel's old triat of totems: Cougar, Magpie and Buffalo. As Buffalo died, the Caern died with him.
Saddened, angry and confused, the sept made plans to leave this formerly hallowed spot and find someplace else to serve Gaia. But one by one, signs that not all was lost began to appear. Eventually, the Wyldling spirit was called back to the spot of the Wheel, and was bound into the very land itself, causing a myriad of changes: a new totem: Aeolus (Fog), a new wheel, and a new landscape.
Still trying to cope with their new environment, the Garou of the former Wheel chose a new name, making a completely new start. The Caern of the Hidden Walk was selected by a group of Elders, so named for the mist shrouded valley in which the Caern lay.
As the Hidden Walk erupted from the ashes of the Wheel, the landscape changed; the Consumer's bonds weakened, and it began to stir. By an unhappy coincidence, the old relic was found by a group of camping students and returned to SCCU for further study. Meanwhile, unknown to the sept, a powerful vampire in Seattle, Ashley Turner, as she was now known, had an old score to settle with the Garou in Saint Claire. Her husband, the late James Bartholomew, had been slain in the great battle which sealed the spirit away as he himself attempted to turn the spirit to his own ends.
Although the medicine wheel eventually returned to the Garou who were, by now, aware of what it was, and what it could do, the damage had been done, and the medicine wheel shattered during a Rite to help restore its power. The Consumer was once again free to roam the Umbra and proceeded to cause considerable damage to the sept and the bawn. Their only hope now lay in the hands of the mysterious Ashley Turner and a bit of ancient Tremere magick: the amulet which had been fashioned to bend the Consumer's will to its bearer.
This object was eventually stolen and fashioned into a new fetish in a huge mystic rite that envolved nearly the entire sept. The mighty Wendigo avatar himself taking the Wyrm spirit to deal with. And with the fashioning of this new barrier against the Wyrm, the Consumer was once again locked away from the Realm.
The battle so far has been costly in lives and territory. Can the sept face this new challenge successfully? Only time will tell.
GarouMUSH is set in and around the fictitious city of St. Claire in Washington State. St. Claire sits at a point where the Columbia River runs roughly north-south,
and where US Interstate 90 crosses that river (the admins and founders of the
MUSH are aware that this area is neither forested, lush, nor well-inhabited in
real life; there's no need to clue them in if you're from this area, as we are all pretty happy with our illusion).
Originally a mining town, St. Claire has grown into a modern centre of trade of roughly a million people, and has all the facilities (and problems) of a city that size. It has several suburbs, all to the west of the city. Most of the land to the east of town is forested, either National or State Park land, or private land, with the exception of Kent Crossing Township.
The southern half of the city is mostly industrial and low-rent housing. It is here that you find the Regan Hope Project, a shelter from the streets for families and single people within the community. Shelter from the gangs that claim the streets as their own. Here, also, are the old wharfs along the Columbia river, long since fallen into disuse. And, most prevalent, are the factories and industries that keep the city going.
Upscale becomes more noticeable as you move north through the city, into the business district with its hollow temples of steel, glass and concrete: monuments to the Weaver. The crime here is white-collar, corporation against corporation; this is the place where the decisions are made, the deals are struck, and the fate of the city is determined.
But even more frightening than the unethical politics of the power brokers in St. Claire is the darkness that simmers below the glimmering facade of the nouveau riche. There is old power in St. Claire. Old money. Old alliances and even older enmities that go back to the dawn of history in the world. New agreements are plastered over the old wounds, sometimes, but they only hold for brief moments against the tide of emotions that separate the east side of the river from the west.
By 1849, after a return to St. Louis, Regan and Gerlord came back to the area intent on getting rich. With them was a small group of workers and other prospectors and, as word began to get out, the town of St. Claire was officially founded by that small population.
St. Claire is now the county seat of Gerlord County which includes St. Claire and the western suburbs thereof. The boundary between Gerlord County and Regan County to the east is the Columbia River. Hence, St. Claire didn't expand east past the county line (the river) but instead westward. Additionally, St. Claire's police force has no legal jurisdiction east of the Columbia River which has its own county sheriff's department and county commissioner.
In 1971, despite heavy campaigning, a proposal to rezone the east bank of the Columbia River between the Municipal Bridge and I-90 to allow industrial use failed. The corporation itching to get onto the land, Hernandez Industrial Steel, blitzed the local media with pro-rezoning commercials and the like, but a coalition of local businesses and environmental groups got the measure voted down. One point for the environmentalists.
Ten years later, in 1981, Sara Foster, an Independent candidate for the office of mayor, became the first woman elected to the post in St. Claire's history. Her legacy continued for many years and in 1993, despite heavy opposition, most notably from Councilperson Gloria Vaughn, Sara Foster was elected to her fourth term as Mayor.
In 1993, large plots of land in Regan county bordering on Wolf Woods National Park, were bought by Aspen Demilune. They remained in her hands for only a short time; when the millionaire Demilune disappeared later that winter they lay untouched. Almost two years after, with the absence of a will, acres of land went on the auction block.
St. Claire, while too young to have the character of other cities such as New York, Boston or Los Angelas, is not without its big-city troubles. It has been subject to more than its fair share of mass murders, crime, and poverty. The Cookie-Cutter murders in 1994 were a prime example of this. They were followed by a series of incidents that resulted in the eventual resignation of the city's Chief of Police. Trouble still brews and in the last few years St. Claire has attracted more unwanted attention from several mega-corporations and government special agencies than some of its inhabitants want.
Several institutions within St. Claire receive more attention within the context of Garou's fictional world. Three of these are:
The hospital is also a teaching affiliate with St. Claire City University, and works closely with the medical, dental, and nursing college. That college, along with the graduate biological sciences programs, is centered around the hospital, the Wilson Laboratory Building in particular. An additional non-affiliated high-tech research wing ensures that the hospital remains at the forefront of medical technologies.
The MUSH is based on the game system created by White Wolf Game Studio. In particular, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, Vampire: The Masquerade, and Mage: The Ascension, are all Copyright 1993 by White Wolf. We thank them for their assistance in getting this game on the air.
Comments are welcome by mailing the wizards directly.
© 1996-99, The GarouMUSH wizard corps
Last change: May 9, 1999