Legends say that, long ago, the Forsaken gathered more easily in functional societies — more than just protectorates, they marked the mountains and forests with fortified city-states that kept vigil over the spirits and loci in an effort to guard the harmony of the land. Of course, many Forsaken think that such legends are just that, legends, and thus taste faintly of bullshit. The bestial urges of a werewolf would eventually override the solidarity of such a city-state, guaranteeing the eventual downfall of such a so-called society.
Whatever the case, one rite may harken back to such a supposed time. This rite ensures that those who belong to the protectorate are quite literally marked and favored for doing so. They become tied to the land and to one another by swearing an oath (of the ritemaster’s devising). The actual domain itself actually becomes spiritually protected, as well — outsiders feel the effects when they step into a domain that is not their own.
This rite is by no means simple to perform, but its effects are lasting, more so than many rituals.
Performing the Rite
The enacting of this rite by its ritemaster is lengthy and complex. His first step is to walk the perimeter of the entire protectorate — which may be tens of miles — three times in a row. On the third pass, he must mark four spots with blood. On the northernmost point, he must mark the land with the blood of a bird. On the southernmost point, the blood of a mammal (non-human). At the easternmost point, he must drizzle human blood on the ground, and the blood of a Forsaken (himself or another) at the westernmost point. (These direction points can be roughly approximated if an exact directional “peak” cannot be easily surmised.)
When that is complete, the ritemaster must find the relative center of the protectorate. There, he will finish the last grueling stages of the ritual. He must set up a stone circle for himself, and for the next several days and nights he will visit this circle and perform various tasks. He will dance and howl. He will bite and claw at himself (likely in Dalu form) causing a number of lethal wounds equal to his Primal Urge score. He must then deliver unto the circle a number of bodily fluids: spit, blood, bile and urine. These fluids are meant to represent both a kind of purging as well as sacrifice — for forming and keeping a protectorate cannot be done without a strong measure of sacrifice on the parts of all involved.
At the end, he must shift into all five of his forms in that circle. He needn’t spend any significant time in those forms, only that he becomes each.
