Foreword and Comic
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Original SA post In 1992, White Wolf published Werewolf: The Apocalypse as a sister gameline to their flagship Vampire: The Masquerade. It was a different game in a lot of ways, for one up until that point, while werewolves did exist in Vampire's world, they were known as Lupines and were basically nigh-unkillable faceless plot sticks used as a threat to keep Vampires in the cities. The Garou of W:tA were much different than Lupines, for one they were playable, and they actually had a culture and society of their own. The gameline went through some growing pains as it tried to find it's own theme, usually falling into the unfortunate trap of 'just make them angsty vampires with fur', but after a restructuring and a new line developer it started to move off in its own direction.
In 2004, White Wolf published 'Apocalypse', the last game for the Werewolf gameline. It provided a couple of different scenarios for how the world where Werewolf takes place would end, but the answer was pretty clear: Werewolf the Apocalypse, as a gameline, was over. Shortly thereafter came the New World of Darkness, with it's own Werewolves, the Forsaken. To say it was poorly received by some would be an understatement but after an initial growing pains period it too improved. But things were going to get even more confusing. In 2006, White Wolf merged with CCP, under the auspices of creating a World of Darkness MMO while White Wolf continued to produce books. Which worked fine until 2011, when almost the entirety of CCP's publishing staff was let go, including the Werewolf line dev. Which seemed to be the final nail in the coffin of Werewolf: the Apocalypse.
But then in 2012 Richard Thomas announced Onyx Path Publishing, made up of old White Wolf employees, which had licensed the rights to continue publishing White Wolf's material. Vampire 20th anniversary addition was announced and released shortly before this, followed by the book I will be reviewing today.
Part 1: Foreword and Comic.
In 2004, White Wolf published 'Apocalypse', the last game for the Werewolf gameline. It provided a couple of different scenarios for how the world where Werewolf takes place would end, but the answer was pretty clear: Werewolf the Apocalypse, as a gameline, was over. Shortly thereafter came the New World of Darkness, with it's own Werewolves, the Forsaken. To say it was poorly received by some would be an understatement but after an initial growing pains period it too improved. But things were going to get even more confusing. In 2006, White Wolf merged with CCP, under the auspices of creating a World of Darkness MMO while White Wolf continued to produce books. Which worked fine until 2011, when almost the entirety of CCP's publishing staff was let go, including the Werewolf line dev. Which seemed to be the final nail in the coffin of Werewolf: the Apocalypse.
But then in 2012 Richard Thomas announced Onyx Path Publishing, made up of old White Wolf employees, which had licensed the rights to continue publishing White Wolf's material. Vampire 20th anniversary addition was announced and released shortly before this, followed by the book I will be reviewing today.
Part 1: Foreword and Comic.
quote:
Those of you holding this book in your hands probably need no introduction to Werewolf: The Apocalypse. You already know the savage horror and the joyous exultation of Rage. You know the tragedy of a warrior-people who turned on their own, and the one last hope that still burns as long as their hearts possess the will to fight. You know the glory of a struggle against a god of Entropy and Corruption, and the triumph of delivering just one small mortal soul. You know the pain of a world and the beauty of the spirit.
This book is for you. Werewolf: The Apocalypse - 20th anniversary Edition. The Prophecy of the Phoenix will be fulfilled.
I'm going to be using this book as a guideline, glossing over the crunch except where it might be interesting to a new or returning player, and expanding on the fluff regarding the tribes and the universe.
Now like any other White Wolf book, it opens with a short story, this time in comic form. I won't be copy/pasting the whole thing as it is long and requires a fairly large picture size for the text to remain readable, curse you vectorized fonts.
Meet Blackpaw and his spirit guardian Golden Eagle. Blackpaw's caern in Yellowstone is being attacked by Wyrm Forces, and they're holding them off long enough for Blackpaw and Golden Eagle to get away and get help. Blackpaw takes a silver bullet to the shoulder, and Golden Eagle picks him up and takes him into the umbra, and then opens up a moon bridge to the Caern of the Green in Central Park.
Mother Larissa is the ranking member of the Bone Gnawer tribe in New York, and the Caern of the Green is also a pretty big deal. Larissa notes that just any old guardian spirit wouldn't have been able to bring them this far and straight to her in such a protected place, so there's something weird going on.
It cuts to some time later. Blackpaw has apparently told his story to every Garou that would listen, including Mari Cabrah, one of the highest ranking Black Furies in existance, and a packmember of the current King of the Garou Nation, Albrecht. Also present is Kleon Winston, leader of the Glass Walkers in New York City. Kleon does some internet investigating and discovered that most of Blackpaw's pack is dead, save Ten Tooth, whom Pentex have taken north into the Alberta tar sands. Blackpaw tells them that there's a bane bound under the Bison Rock Caern, and that Ten Tooth knows the glyph that will allow Pentex to unseal it. In the meantime Larissa has been stitching up Blackpaw's wound and discovered something.
Mari decides they can't wait for Albrecht to gather a force big enough to take back the Caern, and decides the three of them will go to Alberta and save Ten Tooth. Unfortunately, the nearest Caern to the tar sands is a blighted hellhole, and all it's defenders are dead. Needless to say they're not happy about this situation, but Golden Eagle intervenes.
Whatever could this mean.
The three get captured soon after entering he Pentex grounds, however, because apparently the Silver Bullet contained a nanotech tracer or something. They're caught, put in silver chains, and brought before Magda and Francesco, two of the heads of Pentex, who are currently gloating over their impending victory to Ten Tooth. After a quick big of gleeful cackling about the capture of Mari Cabrah, Francesco resumes telling Magda about the Prophecy of the Phoenix.
A note about the Prophecy of the Phoenix, it's basically the Werewolf Book of Revelation, a road map to the end times that will inevitably destroy the world.
The Prophecy posted:
Phoenix took me.
Carried me in his claws.
High above the world.
So that I could see beyond tomorrow.
And I looked.
I beheld the future.
I saw the decimation of our kin. Hunted beyond hunting, death beyond death, to the last one.
There were no more children, or grandchildren, or fathers, or mothers.
This was the first Sign that Phoenix gave to me, that the Children of the Weaver, the Humans, would give to us, the Garou.
I looked.
I beheld the future.
I saw the Children of the Weaver birthing.
A great tide of Humans, rising.
I saw more and more, until Gaia groaned at having to carry them all. Their houses overrunning, their rakes raping, their hands clawing at the parched earth, trying to feed from her.
This was the second Sign of the last days, that Phoenix showed me, that the humans would do.
I looked again.
I beheld the third Sign.
So many. So many children. So many humans. And they fell against each other, one to one, and the Wyrm brought forth corruption and gave each a measure.
And the strange Fire I saw, out of control, the great Plume rising over the wilderness, spreading death wherever it shone in that dark and cold land. And I heard the agony of the Sea as She keened, for some drunken fool had poured a lake of black death out upon her.
I turned my head away in disgust but I could not help but look again.
I beheld then the fourth Sign.
The Wyrm grew powerful; its wings fanned the breezes of decay. It spread its diseases and they were horrible: the Herd became afflicted with diseases of the head and the blood.
Children were born twisted. Animals fell sick and no one could cure them.
In these final days, even the Warriors of Gaia could not escape the palsied talons of the sickness-bringing deathbird.
A tear in my eye, I looked again and the Phoenix showed me the fifth sign.
I saw other Plumes rising like death-spears toward the beautiful sky, piercing it, letting Father Sun burn and parch Gaia. The air grew hot; even in the darkness of Winter it was warm.
The plants withered in the sun. A cry of pain and disease arose from the dying forests; as one the relations cried out tears of mourning.
Francesco is gloating since the Garou themselves say the Wyrm is going to win, since Phoenix, the spirit of life after death basically told them 'you're all going to die horribly'. Even better is the fact that Mari brought Blackpaw back with her, because his birthmark is in fact the glyph key he needs to release the beast bound under the Caern. In a startling bout of competency, he takes a picture of it, texts it to one of his subordinates, then starts choking Blackpaw to death so that no one else can do anything about it.
But then Golden Eagle saves them, because as probably everyone's guessed by now, Golden Eagle is actually Phoenix . He burns their bonds off of them and allows them to escape as the Ghosts from earlier start attacking to cover them. Blackpaw asks Phoenix why he spent so long watching after him and Phoenix shows him an 8th omen, the Garou Victorious.
Basically 'What part of 'not as it should be' did you guys not get? Fuck.'
Ten Tooth expands on this to say that the 8th sign is Blackpaw's birthmark, and it marks him as the Son of the Phoenix Spirit. Not figuratively, literally. Because this is W:TA and yes that can happen. Phoenix finishes opening the portal back to the Caern and they step through into
The arrival of Phoenix rallies the Garou to rout their enemies and they claim victory. Also Albrecht takes some time to show why he's my favorite NPC of any White Wolf storyline.
Look at that shit eating grin.
Ten Tooth tells Blackpaw that he can't stay anymore, that he has to go back with the others and tell the tale of the 8th sign. And make sure that the Garou know that they can and will win the battle as long as they don't lose hope.
Ultimately I like the comic, the art style isn't bad, and the writing isn't terrible. The only problem is that a lot of the impact of it is lost on people with less background knowledge. They spit out names like Kleon and Mari Cabrah and without knowing who you are you don't know why you should care. There's also the note about the 8th sign. Which is basically White Wolf going 'Yeah we kind of set things into a Nihilistic spiral towards the end of the game line, so we're shifting things towards the more hopeful side of things. Shits still fucked but it won't always be.'
The next chapter is the intro, which is short, but also segues into the 1st chapter, which is not. Meaning the next update will be covering 70 pages worth of content.
It might take a while