About Them  | Attitudes towards other Tribes  | How they view the Litany

As hungry mutts, the Bone Gnawers have survived for centuries using their canny ability to sniff out food and sneak about unseen. It’s possible that they were originally of jackal stock, although their legends say that they were the "runt" of the litter back in the old days: young, tough, and stringy. Today, they are all too used to the role of convenient scapegoats. Few Bone Gnawers have gained enough Renown to play in the greater political field of the Septs and Grand Moots.

Throughout history, Bone Gnawers have followed the dispossessed and the homeless. They hate slavery and oppression in general, but they’re often too busy surviving to care about subtleties of Garou politics. They are allied with all the dogs in any given city through a complex system of communication called the "Barking Chain". They also know the dark places in the city that are ignored, reviled, or just too dangerous for the uninitiated of the street. Because of this, the Bone Gnawers are well informed about what goes on in the streets of any metropolitan area. This is as much a survival tactic as it is a strategic activity: they need to know when it’s time to flee a sinking ship once things go wrong.

There are some Bone Gnawers who feel that the ship is sinking, and not just Boston, but all of Gaia. These Seekers speak a tale of a newly reborn Gaia deep in the Umbra, far away from the rotting carcass that is this world. It is attitudes like this that encourage most tribes to look down upon the Bone Gnawers as dirty, hungry, and without dedication to the battle with the Wyrm. They would argue that they are simply very practical and thus tend to ignore the more high-minded tribes, even making fun of them from time to time. Ignoring old Garou traditions in favor of practicality often gets the Gnawers in trouble, such as their disregard for the ban on inter-Garou sexual relations. Indeed Metis are received better by the Bone Gnawers than by any other tribe save the Black Spiral Dancers, a comparison not lost on their critics.

While the Bone Gnawers are held as the lowest of the low of the Garou, they treat their own Kinfolk more as equals. This can be mystifying to some other tribes, for whom Kinfolk are lessers, usable primarily as breeding stock and for favors in the mortal world. Indeed the familial bonds between a Bone Gnawer and her extended family rival that of the intensely loyal Fianna.

Gnawers tend to collect things that they find of interest - trinkets and toys, places and people, and, more importantly, information. They are packrats every sense of the word, as all good followers of Rat should be.  After all, information is an invaluable commodity; they are excellent survivors, and have learned to live in harmony with all the dwellers of the city, including Kindred.  To this day, their relations with the Nosferatu are excellent.

Attitudes towards other tribes:

Black Furies: Wooo. Okay first off, don’t cross them. Second, don’t cross them. Third… you get the picture. Oh, and don’t make any "bad phase of the moon" jokes around them if you like your skin. Best to just stay out of their way, ‘cause if one of them is looking for one of us, it’s probably bad news.

Children of Gaia: Gentle people, they want to see the best in anyone and any situation. They haven’t spent enough time in the city to see what the world is really like these days. And it’s probably best, ‘cause they couldn’t take it. Generally good folks, and share many of our aims.

Fianna: It seems like many Fianna have three emotions: Super-depressed, Super-angry, or Super-Happydrunk. Just watch for which mood their in and you’ll be in like Flynn. They’re pretty cool and most of them aren’t too pretentious to enjoy hanging with us. And they throw a damn fine party, I must say.

Get of Fenris: Vicious stupid bastards. We may talk about the fascist Shadow Lords, but these guys put the Seig in Seig Heil.

Glasswalkers: They figure they’re the CEO and we’re the night janitor of this old city. They play a bit high and mighty on us in public, but are not too bad in private. Just always remember that they’re looking for the bottom line.

Red Talons: Vicious stupid bastards. We wouldn’t mind seeing more Lupus around, sure, but killing all the humans ain’t gonna happen, and trying ain’t gonna solve anything.

Shadow Lords: Don’t like em, they don’t like us. Don’t trust them, they don’t trust us. If they ever even give you the time of day, look for the trap. They’d love to bury our whole tribe or send us to a reeducation camp. Don’t know which pisses me off more.

Silent Striders: If they ever stay put long enough to get to know them, they’d probably be cool. They’re too focused on their missions to have time to harass us for being Gnawers. Just who are they running messages for, really? Did I mention to be real careful if you do the old dance of the street with one?

Silver Fang: They consider themselves the noble lords of the castle, but forget that castles went out of style ages ago. They tell us how low we are, we give them a little bow, and everyone’s happy. Since they hate the Shadow Lords, and we hate the Shadow Lords, we’re practically buddies.

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How they view the Litany
Garou Shall Not Mate with Garou	Yeah whatever. If you get the itch, scratch. When the pup gets popped, it's just as much a BG as you are. Ugly! But still family.
Combat the Wyrm Wherever It Dwells and  Whenever It Breeds	Sure, why not. But hey, first time a Nexus Crawler pops up you big boys get to fight it...me? I'm going home to drink a beer.
Respect the Territory of Another	Ummm...sure. You got turf, we got turf. But turf is turf and stuff is stuff. Hey! Is that a real pair of Levi's?
Accept an Honorable Surrender	Ha! Who's going to surrender to a BG? If somebody sucks so bad that we whup their butts...they are going to hear about it forever man.
Submission to Those of Higher Station	Yeah yeah, lick their boots and make 'em feel better. What do we care anyway. Afterwards....charge them $2.00 for the shoe shine. As for BG Elders...be respectful....they can kick your butt.
The First Share of the Kill for the Greatest in Station	Hey, if they want the first slice of a week old pizza, sure. But it's a pretty crappy "predator" that can't get their own grub.
Ye Shall Not Eat the Flesh of Humans	We got the Ban of Man. Long time ago we made the rule. They got bad mojo, it's not worth it. Eating humans gets you noticed by the Manflesh Bane.
Respect for Those Beneath Ye - All Are of Gaia	Heh. Who's beneath us?
The Veil Shall Not Be Lifted	This is a very good idea. Last thing we want is Agent Mulder and his team of freak-hounds searcing our dumps for "wolfmen".
Do Not Suffer Thy People to Tend Thy Sickness	We live a darn long time. Grandma and Grandpa BG are great sources of info about a city. Oh sure, we used to kill off the old ones...but they got crutches, Medicare, and glasses nowadays
The Leader May Be Challenged During Peace	If they suck they suck, kick'em out. He with the most stuff leads, if ya wanna boot him out...get more stuff!
The Leader May Not Be Challenged During Wartime	Pah! Whatever, why would you want to be a leader anyway?
Ye Shall Take No Action That Causes a Caern to Be Violated	Ummm...Duh!

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