The children of Father Wolf learned in the earliest days that their mates and children couldn’t bear to see them in their Dalu, Urshul or Gauru forms. Lunacy was so terrible that even werewolves’ most beloved were driven to terror. The Uratha learned to avoid their war forms around their children and mates, but at times it was impossible. Whenever a werewolf was forced to take one of those forms to fight an enemy who had tracked him to his lair, his mate and children would be gripped by madness, sometimes even fleeing to their deaths. It was a grieving Ithaeur, they say, who begged Amahan Iduth for a way to protect the offspring of other werewolves from a similar fate. Mother Moon took pity on him and taught him the Rite of the Moon’s Love, which prevents Lunacy from taking hold quite as strongly as it otherwise might — at least, for those who already share a measure of wolf’s blood.
Performing the Rite
The ritemaster grasps the subject’s hands in his own and leads her in a ritual chant in the First Tongue, begging for acceptance. The ritemaster or subject must lay a single silver coin on the ground between them as chiminage to the Lunes. The ritualist then cuts his finger or hand and traces symbols of the moon on the subject’s face. The last of the blood is smeared onto the silver coin (which disintegrates into a whiff of smoke as the Lunes accept the offering), along with a final, pleading howl. The subject of this rite must possess the Wolf-Blooded Merit; the effects are cumulative.
