It started as a rant^W discussion about Changling. Then about spirits in the WoD in general. Then ... well, I worked out most of the idea as I described it to Malada, and she wrote it up and I edited it into its final form. See what you think. --Ky
In the ancient days humans scavenged the kills of other beasts or harried the old and sick of the great beasts of the land. And they come into conflict with the wolves, who often hunted and scavenged in the same manner. Many times both human and wolf packs would descend upon the same prey and each would growl and threaten the other, hoping to snatch the food away before more dangerous animals appeared to take it away from both of them.
Yet the humans knew that where there were wolves, there would be prey. And by watching the wolves from afar humans gained knowledge of hunting tactics. And some of the humans thought that if somehow the two could work together more prey could be brought down. For the humans had the cunning to turn stones and sticks into weapons, and the wolves could run like the wind and scent prey from a distance. Together, they could be a formidable team.
This was still a time when the spirits roamed the Earth and would freely converse with both human and animal. And at a time when the Moon was round and full, the shamans of the humans called upon Her spirit to witness and power a great ceremony. And they called upon the Wolf Spirit, and made a great pact, that mortal humans and wolves would learn to live and hunt together for the benefit of both. And the Moon declared that there should be a living sign of this pact - a creature both man and wolf, spirit and flesh.
So shamans mated with the wolves, and the wolves with the shamans, and from these matings were born the first Garou. They had three forms; one for when they walked among the humans, and one for when they ran with the wolves, and one to stand between: Crinos. This last form would have both the strength of the human and the speed of the wolf to act as protector and guardian to both species. It was this form that the spirits blessed because it was the perfect balance between wolf and human, spirit and flesh. And as a further sign of their agreement both human and wolf agreed never to kill the other, or eat of their flesh, because they were now kin. And for years the pact was kept, and the Garou were honored in both the pack of man and pack of wolf. And during this time the fully-flesh wolf children of the pact lived with humans and became other than purely wolf; they became the first dogs.
Then the worlds of flesh and spirit were rent apart, and the Gauntlet rose up between flesh and the spirit. The Garou, being part spirit, were torn and sickened by the rift. Being fractured and incomplete in their guardian form drove them to madness whenever they shifted into or through it, and the madness spread into their other forms as well. And in their Rage they attacked both human and wolf. In their turn, betrayed by the Keepers of the Pact, the humans took to killing the wolves, but they found the meat repulsive and would never eat it. The wolves too abandoned their pledge, and now would eat of the flesh of dead humans, but they rarely killed them.
And the Garou faded from the knowledge of both human and wolves. In time they forgot where they had come from and came to believe that they had been created as warriors, and that was why they Raged. And Luna wept for Her torn children and gave them into the care of Her older sister, the Earth, foreseeing a time when warriors would be sorely needed. But the dogs stayed with the humans and kept the vow.