Summer is the traditional season of war. The People mark the season by building great fires, in which they burn war trophies and offerings to their totems. This ritual proclaims their strength and ferocity to the heavens, and empowers their resolution to continue fighting. The Pure are said to add living sacrifices to their fires to prove their devotion, a step that most Forsaken are not willing to take.
Some areas build their bone-fires on the summer solstice, while others wait for the temperature to be at its hottest. More aggressive werewolves (particularly the Pure) often favor enacting the rite in the middle of a heat wave, when violence is already rising high. In the United States, some werewolves choose to set their bone-fires on the Fourth of July. Urban packs often have to perform this rite outside their territory, though some actually burn down entire buildings as an offering.
Performing the Rite
This rite is typically performed at night, though there is no drawback to lighting a fire under the sun. The rite begins with the ritemaster appearing, torch in hand, to exhort the gathered werewolves to show their might and resolve to the spirits. As the pyre is lit, the participants throw in war trophies or personal offerings to their pack or tribal totems. Each offering is made with a howl, boast or battle cry. The offerings vary greatly: hand-carved statuettes, paper money, scalps, delicate origami, leather jackets splashed with the owner’s colors are all possibilities. Bones, of course, are the most famous offering, particularly femurs or skulls carved with an account of the former owner and how he died. The ceremony closes with a great howl led by the ritemaster, after which pack alphas usually cry out to their packs to follow them on a hunt.
