Werewolf the Forsaken musings: Spirits of Extinct beings.
Not entirely my idea, but the product of a discussion with a friend for the game I run for them, and he hit on a fascinating idea regarding Cryptozoology as it relates to Chronicles of Darkness and Werewolf the Forsaken.
Spirits in Werewolf the Forsaken come in many varieties, from spirits of individual items, to the spirit of a concept or ideal, to the spirits of animals.
Animal species have spirits based on them. So, what happens to those spirits if the animal species they're based on goes extinct?
They just might decide to fight tooth and nail and break any taboo necessary to stay alive.
This could be one explanation for sightings of prehistoric animals and other weirdness. Spirits are immortal, but the animals no longer existing means no more are created and they'll probably be weakened which makes it more likely they'll be slain or devoured by another Spirit in the long term.
But still, some might linger. Especially if they manage to get humans or whatever to give prayers and other offerings to them.
This gives an in universe explanation for beings such as the Mothman, and the Loch Ness Monster and how they still manage to exist despite the prevalence of video cameras and countless attempts to find them. They aren't permanent fixtures of physical reality and retreat into the spirit world when they are done.
Think of how much attention and merchandise is given to just those two beings. It's enough to keep a spirit fed and strong without having to do too much work, even if it might lead to them being influenced by how so many humans percieve them.
This could also explain Dragons in general and not just Nessie-types. (Though perhaps different from the dragon bones which ancient Mages encountered in Atlantis long ago hmm...).
The great reptiles are long gone. But some of the mightiest spirits of that age still linger in the far corners of the Hisil. And they learned how to come out and extort tribute from whatever has a soul to offer it- thus the legends of demands for virgin girls, stealing a princess to lock away somewhere, gold or whatever else they work out humans prize enough to make the chiminage more powerful. Whatever the result, it gave them power, it fed them, and their legends grew, some varying into noble and wise beasts, others into horrible monsters that hungered for the most treasured property of humanity, allowing them to soothe the pain of extinction, and a jealousy of the world that had left them behind.
Especially resentful of Father Wolf and his offspring because they recall when the mantle of Predator-Guardian was carried by another, not this furred and stinking mammal and his partly human descendants.
This also raises another question:
How can the Uratha- or Father Wolf before them- guard the seas, especially the darkest depths? So deep, so inhospitable to airbreathing life, and full of many more great sea life than we could ever imagine?
The obvious answer is that they can't and this means the spirits of every dangerous thing that ever lived along with lovecraftian shit from far beyond Earth lurk there in the one place they can be safe.
Unfortunately it's also the place with no souls or places of power, so they'll be constantly trying to gain inroads onto dry land.
'In his house in R'LyehâŚ'
And that adds new kinds of horrorâŚthe war for land is always ongoing. Luna guards space with her brother Helios (and you can make an argument that Luna also guards the seas to some extent as the moon has an effect on tides. But her light can only go so far and there is so much down there we do not know).
But the oceans? Man only thinks he knows how the oceans work. There are horrors down there that remember times before man, when the world was radically different, and even to this day thumb their nose at Father Wolf and the Firstborn, who spit insults at Luna, and forever long for the worship of mortals and to drink deeply of the mystic power of Locuses and other vitally important places that are guarded by countless factions of supernaturals and mortals up on the surface.
