Elementos físicos de la plaza Piso

River Keepers once dwelt along all the major rivers of the world, including (but certainly not limited to) the Nile, Amazon, and Mississippi. During the War of Rage, their roles as shamans and weather-workers to the native populations in these areas made them easy targets for the rampaging Garou, and the River Keepers died in disproportionately high numbers.

Those who survived went into hiding or hibernation, coming out only when the need was great enough to risk the Garou completing their attempt at ursine genocide. Along the Nile and the Amazon, the River Keepers were utterly annihilated, and their duties — and lands — were taken over by the Bastet of the area. In North America, the River Keepers remained active longer, assisting the Garou of the Pure Lands in their fight against the Wyrm, though they kept a low profile lest they draw the atten- tion of their European counterparts.

The coming of the Storm Eater brought the River Keepers out in force. When they returned from the deep wilderness and Umbral dens that had hidden them, the tribe saw that their Kin — ursine and human alike — had been abused, slaughtered, and driven from their native territories. Today, they work to bolster the existing bear population wherever they can. As a tribe, they are dedicated to renewing their ancient ties with the world’s waterways in order to give the armies of Gaia some unexpected resources against in the Final Battles against the Pattern Breaker.

Home Territories

Once common to all riverlands of the world, the Keepers were largely driven out of Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America, leaving the majority of the tribe along the more remote rivers of Alaska, Russia, and the Pacific Northwest. A brave few, however, have sought out the rivers of other parts of the world to make their homes, taking up their guardianship of those long-abandoned waterways in hopes of healing the damage done through centuries of neglect and misuse.

Kinfolk

Human Kinfolk of the Keepers are perhaps the most diverse of all of the Gurahl, crossing many ethnic and cultural backgrounds. From Egypt and Africa to the Americas and beyond, human civilizations have always thrived along strong, clean sources of water, and the Keepers were there to make certain the resource was not being abused.

Human-born Keepers resemble their human parent, which could mean heritage from virtually any ethnic group. Many Ursine Keepers come primarily from black or brown bear stock but also the sloth bear of India, the Himalayan or moon bear, the Malayan sun bear, and South America’s spectacled bear. In northern climes, there is also significant crossover between Keeper Kinfolk and those of the Ice Stalker tribe.

Tribal Culture

Keepers have no formal organization, though they do manage to meet informally to exchange information and gifts. They have at least one large gathering a year. Though they usually travel alone, they sometimes work in small groups.

Much of the Keepers’ culture revolves around the giving and receiving of gifts, whether material items, such as food or artwork, or less tangible things, like sto- ries, poetry, and songs. They also share Gifts and rites as part of the gifting. River Keepers also consider hosting gatherings a sacred duty.

Appearance

Homid River Keepers have the same phenotype as their human parent and exhibit the most variations among the Gurahl. Ursine Keepers resemble their bear parent, resulting in just as great diversity within the tribe’s bear-born members.

Breeds

Gurahl have only two breeds — homid and ursine. Because werebears choose their mates carefully through the use of a special ritual, metis Gurahl are unheard of.

Gurahl consider this a special boon from Gaia as a result of their generally solitary lifestyle. A deformed or other- wise flawed Gurahl would seldom survive the rigors of wilderness life on her own. Should two Gurahl mate, the union results in no pregnancy, or else a stillbirth. As the Gurahl are under great pressure to repopulate their Breed after the decimation of the War of Rage, Gurahl who choose to involve themselves in such a fruitless pairing are viewed with great sadness by the rest of their kind.

• Homid: For hundreds of years after the War of

Rage, the Gurahl removed themselves from the world — including human society — to protect themselves from the Garou’s predation. This meant that there were extensive periods — entire generations — where there were no homid werebears born at all.

Gurahl born from humans are beginning to make a comeback, though they are still sparse in number. Traditionally, human-born Gurahl were born into tribal societies that were somewhat apart from mainstream urban civilization, or among cultures with strong traditions and connections to the natural world. However, many of these families have integrated with urban culture, bringing forth a generation of homid Gurahl who are comfortable with high-tech gadgets, cars, computers, and the like.

To make up for past losses in Kinfolk, Gurahl have tried to select new groups of humans as breeding stock. While these may be from any culture, werebears are very careful in choosing their mates, and many have taken partners from among those involved in medical careers, peace-keeping duties, environmental activism, or wilderness protection.

Beginning Rage: 3 Beginning Gnosis: 4

Starting Gifts: Persuasion, Ursa’s Light

• Ursine: For centuries after the War of Rage, the

Gurahl were an almost exclusively ursine Breed. Mating with, and raising young among, their bear-Kin was seen as safer than among homids with whom the Garou might also be interacting. Even today, many Gurahl active in the modern world come from bear-parents, although hunting and territory devastation have taken a toll on the were-bear’s ursine Kin.

Where bears are endangered, ursine Gurahl are rare. Most modern bear-born Gurahl grow up within protected places such as restricted wilderness areas and national parks, retaining bear form until some crisis forces the First Change — and hopefully alerts a teacher to their presence.

Once they have taken on human form, ursine Gurahl often remain in that form out of curiosity about human affairs, learning as much as their human born cousins (though usually later in life). Gurahl born in captivity

usually escape (or are “liberated” by other Gurahl) soon after their First Change.

Beginning Rage: 4 Beginning Gnosis: 5

Starting Gifts: Heightened Senses, Voice of Woe