Drawing Down the Shadow

{{Werewolf/Rite
|Rituals=5
|Action=Extended
|Restriction=
|Source=Werewolf The Forsaken Sourcebook
|Pages=p. 163
}}

The origins of this rite are lost in prehistory. However, lore states that it was learned after the murder of Father Wolf and the rise of the Gauntlet, as a desperate measure learned to keep the physical and spirit from drifting too far apart.

This powerful mystical rite allows werewolves to pour Essence into an object and create a locus, a place where the spirit world is close to the physical. The rite is difficult to master and never performed lightly, for the consequences are potentially very dangerous. A new locus can be a valuable resource, or it can be a gateway through which new threats bleed into the world from the Shadow.

This rite requires a significant amount of Essence to enact; the object must be saturated with spiritual energy before the peak of the rite’s power can forge it into a beacon of Essence in its own rite. As few packs are able to muster the amount of Essence required from their personal reserves — and fewer still would willingly leave themselves so vulnerable by doing so — the rite incorporates the use of touchstones. The spirits invoked vary from place to place - a wise ritemaster will call on spirits that are strong locally, yet will not call the names of spirits that might prove powerful rivals for the new locus.

===Performing the Rite===

The ritemaster must select an appropriate object to be the focus of the rite; an object that might over time have become a locus in its own right is ideal. The pack piles their collection of touchstones around the object to be empowered in something of a loose cairn. Then, each werewolf participating in the rite cuts their palm and lets a measure of their blood run onto the assembled touchstones. The ritemaster dips a claw into the blood, and paints a series of glyphs surrounding the locus to better channel the Essence.

Surrounding the core of the ritual is an exhausting and time-consuming series of chants, dances, howls and even impromptu ritual combat meant to increase the flow of emotional energy in the area. The rite is half-improvised. The ritualist knows the common themes that must be included in the pack’s efforts, and leads the group through them. The culmination of the rite is a great howl that lances across the Gauntlet into the Shadow, and binds flesh together with spirit in the form of a new locus.

This rite cannot succeed in the area of influence of a Barren.

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