Asah Gadar
The Bale Hounds aren’t a tribe. They don’t follow one of the Firstborn or hold to the Oath — though they might pretend to. Most are recruited from within the ranks of one of the eight tribes, and they might still feign loyalty to that tribe. Their true allegiances, however, lie with spirit patrons darker in nature than even the most savage wolf-spirit.
The First Wound was torn into the very depths of the spirit world long ago, some say with the death of Father Wolf. Since that time, more Wounds have opened in the Shadow Realm to mirror the atrocities of the flesh. A Wound is festered and swollen, thick with spirits of pain and hatred, greed and fury, violence and sin. Nature is fundamentally flawed, the Bane Howlers say, because the darkest emotions are the deepest and strongest within the human heart. In a sensible and just universe, positive, creative emotions would be the strongest emotions a human or werewolf could feel. But that is not the way of the world — the conceptual spirits of pain, rage, hatred and lust are far more numerous than the spirits of unadulterated love, joy or mercy.
The Bale Hounds want to be on the winning side. They bow before the unspeakable lords of these negative aspects of the world, mighty spirits who grow ever stronger as the soul of humanity decays. If suffering and fear and loathing and lust are the most powerful forces within the soul, then the Bale Hounds will serve those forces on Earth. When those forces rise to ascendancy, the Bale Hounds will share a portion of their godhood.
So the Bale Hounds move subtly among the Forsaken and the Pure. Where they pass, more murders break out each year. More people commit suicide. Families self-destruct. A thick, corrupt perfume follows in their wake, along with the whispered word “Succumb.” It’s said that when they fall into Death Rage, they tap into a maddened, sickening strength that exceeds that of any Forsaken or Pure. Yet the true danger of the Bale Hounds is that they hunt without being seen for what they are. The marks of their allegiance are invisible to all but their own. The depths of their cruelty and loathing are hidden behind the healthy strength of their gaze. They could be anywhere.
