#queer werewolf

‧₊˚ 🦴 ⋅𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ . 𓏲ּ𝄢 iNtRo _ :

✘ Hi !! call me Isabelle, Izzy, Vurrkit, Vk, or Emotional-Support-Werewolf-Lover !!

✘ As of creating this account, I've been a little too not normal about werewolves ahAHAHAHA !!!!

✘ I've been drawn to things considered spooky since I was a little kid ^_^ !! Cozy (and weird) Autumn, Halloween, Scary Stories, Horror Media, Cryptids, Monsters, Ghouls– And just generally the supernatural ><

✘ Werewolves have always been my favorite supernatural creature though !! I looove how so many people can use the concept of werewolves and show case them in so many unique and fun ways !!

✘ Discovering and learning to accept I was grey-aego was difficult for me; I felt alone. And though I wasn't interested much in dating at the time (I love being single) knowing that I wouldn't find anyone I'd seriously want to pursue a relationship with because of the unconventional relationship I'd want.. Hurt. A lot. And made me spiral for a loooong time.

✘ But then I played monster prom lowk fell in love with every character and was like omg MONSTERS WOULDN'T GAF !!!! THEY'RE UNCONVENTIONAL BY NATURE RAHHHH LETS GO AND THEY'RE FINE ASF !!! And so then I got really into monster loving communities ;))

✘ I'm grateful to these communities and spaces as they've helped me feel accepted and understood in regards to my unconventional attraction as an ace-spec individual especially. And also bc I am freaking crazy about werewolves lately and there's a lot of content with that. And it inspired me to create my own blog!

✘ This is a self indulgent blog as an bisexual grey-aego sapphic girl x3 !! As mentioned I love how there's so many depictions of werewolves; but this blog will probably lean more into an urban fantasy interpretation as that's my personal favorite werewolf genre ehe!!

‧₊˚ 🦴 ⋅𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ . 𓏲ּ𝄢 BoUnDaRiEs / RuLeS _ :

✘ 18+ !!! This blog isn't super NSFW or anything, but I may post or reblog content featuring content not suitable for underaged individuals.

✘ ^^ On that though, please don't send me NSFW asks xP !!

✘ I'd loooove to hear opinions and hold discussions to werewolves but please remain respectful in these discussions !!

✘ Anything I personally create feel free to add onto or create content inspired by it through tags, reblogs, posts, etc !!

✘ I'm fine with reuploads of my content and don't tend to get to worked up about credit (as there's nothing I can do about it typically unfortunately) but please just don't claim you created what I made TwT !!

✘ If I feel uncomfortable by you or what you stand by I WILL JUST BLOCK !!!!11

✘ Unsure about something else? Feel free to ask !!

𓏲ּ𝄢 Credits to saradika, uzmacchiato and sisterlucifergraphics for the beautiful dividers used x3 !!!

⸝⸝ .ᐟ 𐂯 Last Updated 6 / 16 / 26 𐂯 .ᐟ⸝⸝

Design for a patch I wanna make. Time to see if I can finish it before my first con (in a week and a half lol)

Trans Gay Werewolf.

Absolute 100% yes

I think he looks really nice. I want to draw all of the picrew character creations I've made, but this is probably one of the ones I want to draw the most!

This comic was created to introduce people to the pathos of Werewolf: the Apocalypse so as to introduce the upcoming reference guide for it: Werewolf: the Essentials. A team of dedicated fans and scholars on the setting have amalgamated all the best of WtA into an easy to parse format, coming to Storytellers Vault this winter! At long last, all the deep lore on Garou Society and the denizens of the tellurian are coming together into a single series of references that span the entirety of their lore, condensing thousands of pages into a single series.

Enjoy, and don't forget to share with your friends and follow this account and @werewolfessentials to stay up to date on news!

A very special thank you to @mekanikaltrifle for illustrating the comic, and to @wolfgirlbites @excelgarou @redratt @balthazarslostlibrary and @bekandrew for their contributions to writing this!

Trigger warnings in the tags

I was born in the heart of Steinbeck country, caught between two generations—Gen X and Millennial—and rejected by both. My coming of age as a queer person in a small farm town during the late 90s was a period of loneliness and personal horror. I had no Queer elders, because almost all of them were dead, or grieving the dead. I lived a life feeling a nameless longing and sickness in my heart that had no name at the time. I only knew I was Queer because that's the label others used for me. At the time, it was a name that meant danger for the person with the label, because, for whatever reason, that person doesn't fit. Other labels were used for me of course, among them, "fairy" and "faggot" were the most common, usually accompanied by some other hellish delight the day had for me.

You see, a person with that label, is a person who lived in deep fear. And so, it became the name people used to call anything they considered "bad." This is, in many ways, why claiming titles formerly used for harm is important. I'm Queer, and that's something nobody can take away from me. I'm proud that I don't fit. I experience things in a season that others won't experience in their lifetimes. I've loved many, and felt loved, when I felt like the world was its darkest and bleakest, and at times, those were the only things that helped me get through. But in the 90s, I was on my own. It would be almost a decade until I find my people, or even a name for my orientation, the things that made me different, or even that I myself were capable of changing. I felt a longing that itself felt like a wild animal inside me that I could only barely control - but I did it, for my own safety. I don't blame anyone else that did it to survive either. I didn't start transitioning until I was well into my 30s and had already lost everything else. I was shocked I'd even lived to my 30s, because I never knew a queer person who did.

Back then though, I found my sense of self in Werewolf: the Apocalypse, and it resonated with me on a visceral level that still affects who I am today. It gave a sudden name and a face to the things I felt so isolated about. The game didn't just see me, the writers did too, and at the time, that was everything. At the core, Werewolf is about queerness—living in a body that like it doesn't belong to you, facing unprecedented changes, psychological and literal, and grappling with identity. This is the essence of my life and the lives of many others, reflected in the World of Darkness. There are many that consider the pllight of the Garou to be childish or pointless, much like what I experienced in a society that told me I didn't belong. Its easy to write horror when you see and interact with monsters every day of your life.

The struggles queer people face are mirrored in Garou. You have your first change, and your entire world is torn apart. Family and friends vanish, replaced by a complex culture war fought on multiple fronts, united in purpose but divided in methodology and conviction. United they could overcome anything in the world, but their differences presence intense cultural intersections that have to be navigated as a matter of roleplay. Yet it’s more than just a battle against those who wish for our annihilation—it’s against an apathetic public that considers the very idea of saving the earth to be childish, our supposed allies that say they care but only when it gets them the ends they desire, and internal conflict.

The term “charach,” with its negative connotations in the World of Darkness universe, can be seen as parallel to the queer experience. Just as the Garou labeled as charachs face discrimination, ostracism, and ridicule for their attraction to their own kind, so do queer individuals in the real world when they step out of the essentialist heteronormative paradigm. The fear, shame, and sense of alienation that a garou might feel upon realizing their attraction towards another garou mirrors the experience of many queer individuals, especially those coming to terms with their identity or those who are struggling to find a label that accurately represents who they are. When you experience trauma after trauma together, the only ones you trust enough to be vulnerable with are the ones you've bled with, literally and emotionally.

In the World of Darkness universe, the term “charach” refers to a Garou who violates the Litany - the set of laws that the Garou follow - by mating with another Garou, regardless of their sexual orientation or ability to procreate. The offspring of such unions, known as “crinos,” are characterized by sterility and supernatural afflictions, which reflects upon the parents’ transgression. Nevertheless, there are layers to this depiction that parallel the struggles of real-world marginalized communities. The charach taboo isn’t solely about childbearing; it applies to all relationships between Garou, even those that don’t result in offspring, thus encapsulating homosexual, bisexual, and queer couples within its scope - and beyond. This taboo essentially echoes homophobic sentiments in the real world, which, at their core, are about enforcing the colonial notion of bioessential gender roles as a sign of social civility. Moreover, the crinos - children of these taboo unions - are often physically deformed, a feature that unfortunately paves the way for players to caricature real-world disabilities. The narrative almost codifies the abuse of these characters, presenting a problematic portrayal of disability. This aspect can resonate with the experiences of those in the queer community who also identify as disabled, further deepening the parallel between the charach experience and the queer experience.

Of course, in the original game, these offspring weren’t referred to as crinos-born but had appropriated the name of an actual existing tribe. I won’t elaborate on why that is bad. Its bad.

The World of Darkness game sessions in the 1990s, where I sought refuge, were dominated by older, mostly cisgender, heterosexual white Gen X players, the Vampire players in particular who sought to make me feel as unwelcome as they could manage in their spaces. This started as the Storyteller's friends killing my character the moment play started, and as more players joined the game, evolved into a hazing ritual that got so extreme is culminated in players attempting murder and made the news. I soon realized that if I wanted a safe space at the tabletop, I had to create it myself. What I think is the most disappointing of all is that I still feel that way about the latest editions, who seem to have made it a marketing gimmick to build their platform on encouraging their fans to attack older fans, including myself and other queer fans of the game who committed no sin other than merely loving the game. If I want a truly safe and inclusive game, its still on me to provide that. The fact alone that the tradition of treating queer players as tokens at best and targets to attack at worst, well, dress it how you like, but its just a continuation of the same harmful environment that sees the regular ejection of queer players from its midst. Whatever that is, it doesn't look, smell, or act like progress.

The World of Darkness I cultivated does not echo the caricatures of the game portrayed by the older players, and perhaps it was naive of me to expect them to fix their hearts. My World of Darkness provides an authentic reflection of my experiences, my struggles, my own fears and horrors, and the wider queer community’s realities. It offers an immersive narrative that resonates deeply with those who identify with it. To reorient “charach” away from its problematic roots without erasing its core identity could be a potent representation of the queer experience. In this context, the identity of a charach, much like queer identity, is a source of strength.

The world is still scary, and only getting scarier. When the gaping void howls for our blood, stand up, and be the one to howl back in challenge. We can't depend on the majority in the room to be on our side, because they never were to begin with. We have eachother, and that's everything.

I think Werewolf is an inherently queer medium

This is all a part of a larger long-term project.

I am trying to hold the World of Darkness to higher standards of inclusivity.

Book 1: Cliath

Meet The Gaians — a chosen people blessed by Gaia of whom among them there are heroes who are born, blessed with the power to Change. They have been charged with the duty of protecting her and her brood, and among them are fellowships from every culture. They are largely comprised of Kinfolk. Vanguards of the earth, they follow the Codes and Creeds of renown in chiminage to the spirits in exchange for favor, protection, and power to strengthen their Fellowships and they form one of several primary factions.

A small number of Gaia’s chosen have been gifted the ability to shapeshift through either bite or birth into animals; warriors joining the fight against the Wyrm. The Gaians have many secret names for these shapeshifters between their cultures, and they range across many animal species and tribes, but the most common among them in these times are Garou.

This sourcebook includes information on First Changes, Rites of Passage, how people become werewolves, and what they're fighting for. Book 1 is effectively a players guide, including enough comprehensive character creation rules for people to create rank 1 Garou.

The World of Darkness is implied to exist just beneath a facade that all others take for granted as simply being a world gone wrong. When the Change happens to a Garou, human or otherwise, the world they once knew ceases to be. The Apocalypse is said to be something happening to everything, everywhere, simultaneously, and on every level. This transcends the concept of everything succumbing to a singular event but many small ones.

In many ways, the Garou themselves are emblematic of this Apocalypse, with these former lives ending and sweeping the cub into something far bigger than themselves. A Call To Action is the theme of Book 1.

Book 1: Cliath goes into warborn, bitten, wolf-born, and human-born lives leading up to the change. It presents a curated depiction of the Garou from the perspective of those who would mentor them. There are not a lot of conflicts, profound lore, or politics so much as 'this is what we are, this is what we do.' Functionally, this can be considered a Players’ Guide, containing your attributes, abilities, advantages, and Merits and Flaws. Gifts and rites will be truncated to rank 1 for the most part. Guidelines for new STs will be found here, including enough powers and enemy stats to keep their troupe of players on their toes. This will also include things like chargen and descriptions of attributes, abilities, and advantages. This will also have many details on packs and the importance of one's packmates. And what better way to introduce new players than to have it happen in an all-new setting for storytellers to introduce their players to the game: the first three chapters of Dead Mountain!

Dead Mountain isn't going anywhere. In fact, it will be used as the foundation for this series. Already-finished parts of the Dead Mountain will be released over the next few months, and a delayed release of the full chronicle will come next spring. The scope of Werewolf: the Essentials will strongly diverge from past game traditions. In past core books and settings, there was an intent to showcase the world at large, written from the perspective of people who had never been to these places. In the end, many details were laughably wrong or mediocre representations that didn’t appeal to the groups they represented. We want the World of Darkness to be HUGE. So, we will be laser-focusing this project to represent the Garou from the Pacific Northwest as an example, with guidelines on how to make your own World of Darkness at your locale HUGE too!

CALLING ALL CHARACHS!

We cannot make this happen without your help.  We are putting out the call for folx from all parts of the queer, lesbian, trans, bisexual, gay, and asexual werewolf fandom looking to help make this the best possible release we can:

Artists

Horror writers

Editors

Consultants

Hype Wolves to help spread the word

Indie TTRPG creators

Working together, we can create a game that is fun, engaging, and genuinely representative of the diverse community of players and fans who love Werewolf. To help us out, click here We look forward to providing you future updates!

UPDATE: Our team has grown huge, and we're grateful to the fandom for rising up and howling with us! We received far more applications than we were able to fully process, but we promise to deliver you the best possible Sourcebook anthology we can! Meet the Writing Team Meet the Art Team Follow our official account for future announcements! To check out a book preview and help us hire cultural consultants click here