The Corrupted Garou

Urge Lords

The single largest organized group of the Corrupted left in the world. This is the Garou tribe formerly known as the Shadow Lords, who turned against the Garou and sided with Set and his minions in an effort to bring an eternal shadow to the world. They loom large in the consciousness of the Garou of today, the betrayal still fresh in recent history, and Garou will often go hundreds or thousands of miles out of their way to hunt Urge Lords who cross their paths or the paths of loved ones.

What do the Urge Lords do these days? They mostly maintain small fiefdoms of misery and horror in remote corners of the world, building their strength through raids to pull in more slaves for their farms and mines and other workplaces. It is said that the Tsar Jan Ivanov, who guided the Urge Lords on the Great Betrayal, still walks the earth, his touch and breath the very essence of Corruption. Rumor has it that he is expanding his army of Urge Lord Garou and Kin at a patient, yet prodigious, rate. To what end? Even rumor will not say.

The Howling Picts

If any among the Corrupted can be said to be purebred (other than the Urge Lords), the Howling Picts must be that group. They consist of a mad, elitist group of pure White Howler extraction (or, at least, as pure as may be). This group claims to be the Chosen of Corruption, those who served first and best, unlike the Urge Lord upstarts. They bear the physical marks of this association as badges of honor, and they have some bizarre system of merit and rank based upon an individual's madness.

Fortunately, the Last Battles significantly reduced this tribe in number, leaving them a dwindling group of rarefied, inbred monsters who walk (or crawl, or slither) the Paths of Madness (once the Black Spiral, but that was cast down and is no more). They do not organize except in extremity, and tend to wander the countryside in "pickup" groups of four or five. If pressed, they will capture groups of humans and transform them into fomori to act as an expendable army.

The Seekers and the Bane Riders

These tribes, born out of the ashes of the Black Spiral Dancers, consist of the descendents of those non-Howlers who walked the Spiral in the distant past, and those who are found on or forced onto the Paths of Madness now. More numerous and organized than the Picts, less widely organized than and often subservient to the Lords, the Seekers and Bane Riders are useful tools for many of those, Garou or not, who belong to the Corruptor.

Many of the great among the Seekers claim descent from Corrupted Nuwisha, Silent Striders, and Black Furies. Their goal: to quest for greater, more powerful servants of the Corrupted Wyrm, whether they lie in the Deep Umbra or are bound into fetishes hidden on Earth. They sometimes seek these things for obscure reasons of their own, but more frequently, their quests are commissioned by Urge Lords, Howling Picts, or Nephandi of repute.

The Bane Riders claim descent solely from Uktena Corrupted in their practice of Banetending (although most experts agree that the number of these Uktena could not possibly account for the number of Riders in existence). They travel the Umbra -- both Near and Deep -- building the strength of their group strongholds by "taming" banes and installing them in such roles as guardians, fetish spirits, and spies. All sorts of services can be purchased or commissioned, and many of the more whimsical Corrupted refer to them as "Umbral Ninja."