A protectorate’s sacred cairn is, on the surface, a pretty straightforward thing. It’s a pile of rocks and sticks (though, in cities some might use a small heap of car parts or even paint cans filled with rocks and sticks) that act as the focal point of a communal area.
The communal area isn’t just for socializing — it’s a spiritually sanctified area made for mediating disputes and dealing with alliance business. The cairn radiates a kind of power, drawing down tempers and mitigating madness. Werewolves can come together and talk, negotiate, even swap stories with less fear of alliance-shattering events taking place.
Some cairns are fancier than others: an elaborate circle drawn in ash and sigil-scored stones, with the center heap of rocks comprising ancient, river-worn boulders. Circles may be drawn within the circles. The whole affair might sit beneath a claw-etched willow tree. Others care little for pomp and circumstance — they throw a pile of rocks in the middle of some old rickety chairs and draw the circle with a clumsy claw. The level of devotion and preparedness matters little, only the function of the rite and capability of the ritemaster are relevant.
Performing the Rite
Every sacred cairn is a little different, and so, too, are the rituals to make them. The building of a cairn, though, always starts with the drawing of a circle to represent the moon. The circle can be inscribed in whatever material the ritemaster deems appropriate — it doesn’t matter if the circle’s actual image washes away, as it is the circle’s spiritual effect that remains. The circle, whether written in chalk, blood or some other material, is then adorned with various sigils. The sigils represent the tribes, the phases of the moon, auspices, totems and other “binding” factors of the People. Creating the circle thus requires 10 successes on an extended Intelligence + Occult roll; each roll equates to one minute of work. (This roll is performed before the actual ritual roll begins; it adds to the time spent performing this ritual.)
Once the circle is drawn, the ritemaster then puts in place the actual cairn. The cairn itself can comprise any kind of objects — most prefer organic or natural materials (stones, sticks), whereas urban werewolves might instead use hunks of concrete pinned to the ground by a pyramid of rebar. Cairns are rarely extravagant (though one protectorate supposedly uses a pile of baby doll heads wound with Christmas lights).
The heap of material is then ritually prepared. The ritemaster hand-washes each component with pure water. Then, he must drizzle his own blood atop the cairn — and this blood must be drawn from his own teeth. Whether he bites the tip of his finger or nicks his tongue with a sharp incisor and then spits the blood onto the cairn matters little, only that it is his blood drawn from his own bite.
