Mysterious, cunning, deadly. The Nahual are a breed of werejaguars that separated from it's kin the Balam and embraced the Dark Paths. They were careful to erase all trace of their existence; only the mexican supernaturals know of them, and mostly from hearsay; not even the Arcanum or the mighty Technocracy hold records on them, thinking the Balam the only werejaguars around.
It's not known when they turned from Gaia, but it must have been very early in history, as they engineered the downfall of Ce Acatl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl from his throne, thus gaining the eternal emnity of the Ehecatl Garou. The Nahual obey Tezcatlipoca, god of evil and mischief, patron of sorcerers, thieves and merchants. Brother of Quetzalcoatl, he is Yaolli Ehecatl, the Night Wind. Many Garou that learn of them feel an instant hatred for the traitors of Gaia, and will call them servants of the Wyrm. But that's far from the truth. they serve the Darkness; not the dark corruption of the Wyrm but the dark side of Gaia, or Coatlicue, as they call her, as Tezcatlipoca is her son. However, their dealings with dark things have given them a feel around them that can be picked up with Sense Wyrm; they sense like Wyrm, but in a strange way and not completely.
Scheming is almost second nature to them; they have shrugged off the prejudices of the Bete regarding civilization, and have entrenched themselves in positions of power ever since the Aztec Empire.
As many Garou have found out, the Nahual are formidable enemies, mainly because they prefer to attack with sorcery and plots rather than with fangs and claws. The curiosity of all Bastet is ever present in the Nahual, who hunger for the secrets of magic even more than the Uktena, and they have achieved results that shock many and outrage even more.
The ultimate goal of the Nahual is domination. The first step is to recover Mexico from the Technocracy and the Sabbat, and to subjugate Garou, Mage and Kindred alike. Sometimes Garou are admitted in their trust, but they must overcome a gruesome Rite of Passage that will pit the Garou against her inner darkness and glimpse the face of Tezcatlipoca.
Their rise in power has been slow but steady: in the Aztec Empire they created the Jaguar Knights and took over education of the common populace. They worked along with Clan Huitzilopochtli, but planned to betray and destroy them in the long run. The Conquest halted their plans as they had to adapt to the new society. It was from this time that they came in contact with the european Kindred and Magi, and learned from each what they could.
Later in history, they backed up many reformist movements so as to never let anyone have a firm hold over mexican politics, influencing through their Pride or directly themselves.
One of the misteries surrounding these Bastet is the fact that Nahuals of high rank practice the vampiric disciplines of Thaumaturgy and Necromancy. Garou Philodoxes assure that they obtained that dark knowledge from dealing with the Wyrm, but rumor says that they have captured and tortured vampires who knew those disciplines and extracted the knowledge from them. Any Tremere will corroborate the rumor along with an oath to exterminate the Nahual.
Sphere Magick is barred to them, much to their chagrin, but they have found a way to go head to head with any mage, be it Tradition, Technocracy, Marauder or Nephandi. Benefitting from the magical forces that struggle naturally in Mexico, the Nahual have forced Paradox Spirits into fetishes, ready to release them when a Mage magicks at them.
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Homid (monkeychild): Gnosis 2
Metis (halfbreed): Gnosis 4
Oncas (wildcat): Gnosis 6
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Human: normal.
Glabro: Str +1, Dex +1, Sta +2, App -1, Man -1. Diff. 7
Crinos: Str +3, Dex +3, Sta +3, App 0, Man -3. Diff. 6
Hispo: Str +2, Dex +3, Sta +3, Man -3. Diff. 7
Oncas: Str +1, Dex +3, Sta +2, Man -3. Diff. 6
- Pride: Same as Kinfolk. Nahuals control their Pride with an iron fist; they teach their Pride about the dark secrets, but with a death penalty to those who reveal them; should a Homid Nahual be born to one of the Pride, it's immediately taken to be educated by the Nahual elders; the parent of the child awarded with great honor. They follow both paternal and maternal lines, and the Prides' spouse must be kept ignorant of the Pride's origin.
- Den Realm: The Nahual have Den Realms as the other Bastet, but they have no control over the Gauntlet; it's the same as the surrounding area. This is because they can step sideways outside their Den Realm with the aid of a mirror. For this reason the Den Realms will be located on caerns or places of high Wyld energies.
- Mentor: Mentor 4 and 5 allow the Nahual to buy 1 point in either Thaumaturgy or Necromancy at the cost of 5 freebie points.
- Nahual: A new background available only to Nahuals or other Bete raised by the Nahual. This background measures the rating of the werejaguar's personal nahual, explained later.
Stereotypes:
All Garou: Ignorant, primitive, self-righteous fools.
Black Furies: Pitiful feminists.
Bone Gnawers: You must be joking.
Children of Gaia: Misled do-gooders.
Fianna: Ignorant and pompous.
Glass Walkers: They may have a clue, but still they are Weaver-fascinated
idiots.
Get of Fenris: Barbarians.
Red Talons: Primitive savages.
Shadow Lords: Egomaniac amateur powermongers.
Silent Striders: Too afraid to stay in one place
Silver Fangs: Braindead and the most self righteous.
Stargazers: Too afraid to touch the darkness they see.
Uktena: Most likely to talk to us, still they are neophytes in the
Secrets.
Wendigo: Racist extremists; rejects of August Derleth.
Mexican Tribes: see each tribe's stereotypes.
Kindred: Useful toys of the Dark. A power to be reckoned, though.
-"..."- Michelle, 9th.Gen. Ventrue
Mages: We can admit envy; that pitiful homids should master Reality itself.
-"I really don't want to know". Martin, Virtual Adept
-"Death to the Wyrmspawns!". Hippolita-Black Fury Ahroun
-"I'm outta here". Pedro-Bone Gnawer Ragabash
-"Evil creatures". Eva-Children of Gaia Galliard.
-"Come and get it, kitty." Ciaran-Fianna Galliard
-"I don't mess with them." Miguel-Glass Walker Philodox.
-"You are dead meat!". Jurgan-Get of Fenris Ahroun.
-"Traitors! Die!". TornEar- Red Talon Philodox
-"They too will fall under our might.". Gonzalo-Shadow Lord Ragabash.
-"Dark things". Kahleb-Silent Strider Theurge
-"They are a blemish on Gaia; death to him all". Corin- Silver Fang
Philodox
-"I wonder..."- SingingStar- Stargazer Galliard
-"I want what they know"- Claw-that-Runs-Uktena Theurge
-"They must die!" Cutterwind-Wendigo Ahroun
-"Upstart thieves!" Julian, 7th.Gen. Tremere.
-"Come to the Dark Side, Luke...mmph! Ha, ha, ha!" - Mario, 8th.Gen
Malkavian.
-"Powerful allies, worthy enemies". "Navajas". 7th Gen. Huitzilopochtli.
-"A Darkness so dark it might actually shed some light", Don Luis,
Dreamspeaker.
-"Minions of the Nephandi, no doubt.", Matias, Order of Hermes.
Gifts
In addition to the Bastet gifts and Beastmind, Trackless Waste and Gaia's Vengeance (all Red Talon Gifts, as stated in WPG), the Nahual have learned several Gifts from many Tribes and have Necromancy, Thaumaturgy and Hedge Magic available as Gifts; no one really knows the extent of their knowledge, but they have displayed use of Theurge and Ragabash gifts; Uktena, Wendigo, and Stargazer as well as Wyld Runner gifts. They have learned Gifts of their own, which are:
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Curse of the Rabbit (Level 2): By rolling Manipulation+Medicine, the
Nahual can impose a state of intoxication upon her victim; each success will
reduce for the remainder of the scene a point of Dexterity, Wits or
Perception, whatever the Nahual chooses for that individual success. The
difficulty is the victim's Stamina+3.
The Smoking Mirror (Level 3): When success is achieved in a Gnosis roll against a difficulty of the victim's Willpower, the Nahual can make all reflections of the victim seem like a distorted, Wyrm-corrupted image. The more Rage (or less Humanity or high Angst) the victim has, the more horrible the reflection is; each mirror, pond, glass and anything else that casts a reflection exaggerates grossly the darkness within. The duration is a day per success, during which travel to the Umbra is impossible. The victim must make a Willpower roll against the Nahual's Gnosis to avoid going insane.
Summon the Night Wind (Level 3) This gift creates a howling wind that only exists in the victims' mind. The Nahual spends a Gnosis point and rolls Willpower against the Gauntlet. The victim suffers both physical and mental effects, all cumulative:
| Successes | Physical | Mental |
|---|---|---|
| * | Cold breeze | Nagging sensation; very distracting: +1 difficulty to all rolls. |
| ** | Biting cold wind | Head throbbing: -1 die to all rolls. |
| *** | Strong and cold wind. Roll Per+2 to avoid dropping paper items | Headache. -1 die and +1 more difficulty. |
| **** | Wind so cold it hurts (no damage) | Loose coordination. -1 additional die to Physical rolls. |
| ***** | Icy gale. Roll Dex or fall. | Loose concentration. -1 additional die to Mental rolls. |
| ****** + | Biting hurricane. Victim is blown back. | The soul freezes and the mind screams. Lose 1 point of temporary Gnosis and fall unconscious. |
| 10 succ. | Death. | |
Gift of the Nahual (Level 4) The Nahual can transfer his soul to his nahual, an animal linked to her (chosen when creating the carachter). The Nahual must defeat the Gauntlet with a Gnosis roll. When in her nahual, the Bete can use her Gifts with a +3 difficulty and cannot travel to the Umbra; she assumes the animals Physical Attributes as well as Appearance and Manipulation, but retains Charisma and the Mental Attributes, as well as all Abilities performable in her current body. Damage done to the nahual animal is damage done to the Nahual, even when she doesn't inhabits it. 5 successes allow for an actual shapechange; the Nahual thus has no penalties whatsoever.
Curse of the First Sun (Level 5) Tezcatlipoca grants this Gift only to his priesthood, as it gives the Nahual the power to invoke the Gift that destroyed the First Sun. With a succesful roll of Charisma+Occult against the Gauntlet and the expenditure of 3 Gnosis points, the Nahual calls a host of Tezcatlipoca's horde; the roars can be heard in the physical world but they themsleves cannot be seen but from the Umbra, in which they appear as a hellish mass of attacking jaguars. Any living thing caught in the spirits' wake will suffer aggravated damage equal to the Gnosis of the invoking Nahual in the form of savage slashes of invisible claws.
Fetishes and Talens
Left Arm of a Dead Woman.
Level 2
Gnosis: 4
This is indeed the skeletal remains of a woman's arm addorned with feathers and carved with intrincate designs. When activated, it will paralize any creature for as long as the owner concentrates and points the fetish at its target.
The Black Tear
Level 5
Gnosis: 7
This is a pendant made from a black pearl. Upon activation, the owner must roll Manipulation+Empathy against the victim's Willpower. Even one success will cause the victim to experience all the loss, pain, humilliation and remorse she has experienced in her life in the same second. This will stun all people with 8-10 Willpower; knock unconscious those with 4-7 and sink in a catatonic state those with 1-3. This drains all recoverable Willpower points.
Wyrm creatures are unaffected by this fetish.
NOTE: This fetish was conceived by a player at a convention game I ST'ed; we worked it out together. I forgot his name but credit goes to him, wherever he is.
Paradox Talens
Gnosis: Sphere level+3
The Nahual ocasionally go in hunts for Paradox Spirits; the most daring go to Paradox Realms, the most opportunistic save the ocassional mage by trapping the Spirits aimed at him; otherwise, they search the land for stray Paradox (and believe me, in Mexico there is plenty; the French call Mexico the most surrealistic country in the world). These talens are used then when the Nahual face a Mage of any kind. Activation means freeing the Spirit and directing it to its target, usually breaking the vessel, which is appropriate to the Sphere the Spirit belongs to (e.g. a battery for Forces, a watch for Time, a compass for Correspondence, a plant for Life, a stone for Matter, a feather for Spirit, dice for Entropy, a holy simbol for Prime, a calculator for Mind, etc.). No matter how successful the Mage is, Paradox from the talens always gets at her. These talens automatically protect the Nahual if she's victim of Sphere Magick, but break and don't attack the Mage. The talens only works against magick of the same Sphere as the Spirit that inhabits them, and only for effects of equal or less levels of the trapped Spirit's level.
Rites
Bind Paradox
Level 3
This rite allows the binding of Paradox Spirits to the Talens.
Gift of Blood
Level 1
This is a gruesome ritual performed mostly on Kindred; by drinking the blood of a person, the Nahual learns a fraction of the "doner"'s knowledge and powers for a day. Use the total Blood Points to get the percentage. The Nahual can then transcribe or practice the knowledge gained so that he might replicate it later. This was how the Nahual learned Necromancy and Thaumaturgy.
Travel to Mictlan
Level 4
This Rite sends a person on a travel to the Far Shore of Mictlan, the Realm of the Dead. The soul is departed from the body for a number of days equal to the successes achieved in the Rite. This way, the traveler can learn from the dead or, if he is very lucky, talk to Mictlantecuhtli, Lord of this realm, himself.
Rite of Bonding
Level 2
This rite is performed as a baptism of a child Nahual, binding a nahual animal to her. Another use of this rite is to bond a person to the enacting Nahual; it might be a bond of friendship, in which the bond works both ways, or a bond of slavery; similar to a vampiric Blood Bond.
Rite of the Smoking Mirror
Level 3
This is a more powerful version of the Smoking Mirror Gift; it's used as a Rite of Passage for all new Nahual and for those who wish to join them. The Rite will open a Moongate to Tezcatlipoca's Realm: the Ursa Major constellation. The traveler will gaze into a pool of silvery liquid, steaming from a magical heat, and the gate will open. Tezcatlipoca will show the traveler her own darkness, which is nothing compared to the image shown by the homologous Gift, for that is illusion; this is real. All that is horrible of herself is shown to the traveler and she must accept it. This most be roleplayed. She must roll Perception+Enigmas against her Rage; each success drains a Gnosis point and the traveler must roll Willpower against 7, failure meaning madness (curable); a botch means death. When all Gnosis has been drained, Tezcatlipoca replaces it to its former level; but the Gnosis now carries his taint. After the Rite; the traveler is a full Nahual, or a most trusted ally.
Rite of the End of the First World
Level 5
Only used in the direst of circumstances and only known to a handful of Archpriests, this Rite can pierce the Umbra directly to Tezcatlipoca's Realm and call his horde of jaguars. The damage done is similar to that of a tornado. The Nahuals must convince Tezcatlipoca that his aid is indispensable and the mean justifiable. The enacting Nahual performs his Curse of the First Sun Gift with a dice pool made up of all his assistants' Gnosis. 15 successes must be achieved on the first roll.
The Nahual can only learn these disciplines if a) has a powerful Mentor that teaches him (as mentioned in Backgrounds) b) achieves Rank Four, in which Thaumaturgy and Necromancy are availables as Gifts. The disciplines must be purchased with experience as New Gifts (Level Four) for the first point, and as if they were Gnosis for the next ones, taking four as the base point (e.g. the second point is purchased as if it was a fifth point; the third as if it was the sixth, etc.). In any case, the Nahual's ranking in either of these disciplines cannot excede her Renown Rank.
Nahual power the disciplines with their Gnosis, rather than with blood, although experiments on the use of extracted vampire blood are underway.
Hedge Magic is purchased as a Gift and is available at Rank 1.
At birth, Nahual are bonded with an animal, a nahual, that holds special influence on the child throughout his life. Very similar to the Garou Totems, the animals inpose bans and bestow special grants to their bondling, but they are too numerous to list here; take the Garou Totems and adapt them or make your own.
Unlike the Totems, the nahuals are a real animal, existing in the real world; the animals are special in their own way, as they are infused with a strong spirit force coming from the Wyld and the Nahual's own soul. The animal can travel to the Umbra and has the standard Charms of a normal dweller spirit. By using the Gift of the Nahual, the werejaguar can enter or shapechange into his nahual.
A great advantage is that the nahual, wether it's present or not, aids the bondling by granting her strength in whatever the nahual is strong. This translates in game mechanics as providing a Dice Pool according to the nahual's nature. This number of dice in this Pool is set as the Nahual Background rating; a rating of 4 will put four dice in the Nahual Pool. The Nahual Pool is used similar to the dice pools in Shadowrun II, but is restricted depending on the animal. A coyote nahual's pool is used to aid in rolls that involve Wits and Dexterity, a hawk nahual's in Perception; an owl nahual's in Gnosis, a wolverine in Rage, etc. Be creative.
The Pool only refreshes at the beginning of a new day.
A major disadvantage of the nahual bond is that damage to either bondling is suffered by the other as aggravated damage. That is why Nahuals keep their nahuals very well protected and a secret to even her fellows; you kill the animal and you kill the werejaguar. The animal has the same health levels as the Nahual; regardless of size or species.
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This page was done by Alejandro Melchor, and last modified in 28/Sep/1995