Certain Gifts also exist that are granted by powerful spirits called Planetary Incarnae, also known as the Celestial Totems. These Gifts are documented in the book Rage Across the Heavens, although some might eventually be paraphrased here if it becomes important to the game.

 

Earning Celestial Gifts

There are three things that can make you eligible to earn a Celestial Gift. At least one of these three things must be true.

 

• Celestial Merits: You have an appropriate Merit from that Celestine, also documented in Rage Across the Heavens. These Merits can be taken at character creation. You may purchase these merits with ST approval, which represents discovering the spirit's influence in your life. Even if you possess merits from multiple Celestines, you may only ever gain the Gifts of one through this method, which will be clearly marked on the PCs sheet notes.
• Tribal Affinity: You are a natural-born member of the preferred Tribe of the Celestine. At least one of your parents (kin or Garou) belonged to this Tribe, and you followed in their footsteps. If you ever renounce your Tribe, you lose the corresponding Celestial Gifts.
• Your pack follows a Celestial Totem: If you violate the Totem's Ban or leave the Totem's service on bad terms you will lose the Gifts it has taught you. Leaving on good terms with the Totem (as determined by the STs) will not have this effect. If the Celestine believes you joined the pack just to learn their Gifts, you lose them.

 

Rank-Specific

Celestial Gifts are rank-specific. You must be at least Cliath to learn a level one Gift, Fostern to learn a level two, etc., all the way up to Elder to learn a level five.

 

Maximum Three Celestines

You may never learn Gifts from more than three different Celestines total.

 

XP Costs

Celestial Gifts are out-of-Tribe, Breed, and Auspice. Therefore, level one and two Gifts cost 4 XP; level three and four cost 7 XP; and level five costs 10 XP.

 

The Pact

You must make an oath to the Celestine that pledges the following:

 

• You will never teach the gift;
• You will never share the gift through a means like Friend in Need or an Unbroken Cord; 
• You will never abuse, misuse, or over-rely on the Gift, as determined by the Celestine (i.e., the STs) -- which typically means using the Gift only rarely;
• You will not use the Gift to harm Gaian Garou or spirits without very good reasons in accordance with the Totem's views;

 

And last of all, the Pact will require an additional cost such as the sacrifice of permanent Gnosis, taking on a Flaw, agreeing to assist the Celestine's spirit allies in whatever they ask, etc., worked out between you and the Celestine. This pact will be described on the Notes section of your sheet.

 

If you ever violate the pact you will suffer a great curse from the Celestine. The curse may range from a serious hindrance (such as the loss of the Gifts or permanent Flaws) to extremely deadly (fireballs from the sky, loss of all Gifts, 5-7 point Flaws), all according to the nature of the Celestine's anger.

 

Storyteller PCs and Celestial Gifts

All above restrictions apply to Storyteller PCs learning Celestial Gifts, including the required running of scenes to obtain them. The player rep will be informed whenever a Storyteller PC earns such a gift.

 

Celestial Gift Rules

These Gifts are documented in the book Rage Across the Heavens, although some might eventually be paraphrased here if they become important to the game. Their MET translations will be determined by the STs and included in the Notes section of your character sheet. The STs reserve the right to modify these rules at any time.

 

Meros

 

Basic

 

Sense of the Transformation

Activation Time: Personal

To Learn: You must learn this gift from Meros, the Planetary Incarnae.

Activation Cost: One Gnosis

Effect: With this Gift, the Garou can identify states of transformation or significant changes within creatures or objects. This Gift allows the Garou to ascertain whether or not someone is dying of a disease or if a female is pregnant (even in extremely early stages). In the same fashion, the Garou can choose to determine if an object is about to break or cease functioning. The Garou need only concentrate on her target to activate this Gift.

 

Shorten the Road

Activation Time: Personal

To Learn: You must learn this gift from Meros, the Planetary Incarnae.

Activation Cost: One Gnosis

Challenge: Social vs 7 Traits

Retest: Survival

Effect: This Gift enables the Garou to cut normal travel time by a third, even in the Umbra. This feat may take shape in a number of ways – either through a series of fortunate coincidences or else through clearly supernatural means.

 

Nerigal

 

Basic

 

Battlesense

Activation Time: Reflexive

To Learn: You must learn this gift from Nerigal, the Planetary Incarnae.

Required: Must be approaching a battle.

Activation Cost: One Gnosis

Effect: The Garou can sense the best direction from which to make an attack, taking into account the terrain of the battlefield, the numbers and placement of the enemy and the available forces at the Garou's command or allied with her.

 

Shards of Icy Rage

Activation Time: Normal

To Learn: You must learn this gift from Nerigal, the Planetary Incarnae.

Activation Cost: One Rage 

Follow-up Cost: 1-4 Mental Traits

Effect: The Garou summons forth 1 (plus 1 for each Mental Trait spent) ice lance that they may hurl at an enemy with a Physical Challenge (retest Athletics).  Each shard must be thrown separately, however it takes only a single action to throw all of the shards.  Successful attacks inflict 1 level of aggravated damage.  When spending rage for this gift, the Garou may not spend rage for any other reason (including Gift activations and extra actions).

Duration: Any ice lances that aren't thrown melt by the end of the round.

 

Zarok

 

Basic

 

Aura of Leadership

Activation Time: Normal

Activation Cost: One Gnosis

Challenge: Social vs Target's Willpower

Effect: this Gift surrounds the Garou with an aura of authority that enables her to assume the mantle of leadership for a brief period of time. Others react to the Garou as if she was their pack leader — including the pack leader. Of course, there may be repercussions after the effects of the Gift have passed.

Duration: One Scene

 

Proclamation of Action

Activation Time: Normal

Activation Cost: One Willpower

Challenge: Social vs Target's Willpower

Effect: It put a damper on discussions that have gone on too long. (“Enough talk. Let’s do it!”).This Gift enables the Garou to force an end to discussion and take the course of action the character thinks is best. The werewolf can literally command others to act as he bids, although only if they had been previously dithering over a course of action.

Duration: One Scene

 

Intermediate

 

Undisputed Ruler

Activation Time: Normal

Activation Cost: One Gnosis

Challenge: Social vs Target's Willpower

Follow-up Cost: 1 social trait per day of service

Effect: This Gift allows a Garou to take over the leadership of a small gathering of humans (whether a paramilitary group of town council) or a group of spirits for a period of up to 1 month. During this time, the targeted group accepts the Garou as their leader, rendering her the honor, respect and obedience due her position. The group demonstrates a high degree of loyalty, obeying the Garou’s instructions in a manner appropriate to her position (as orders if they are paramilitary, or as legally binding decisions if the position is akin to that of a town mayor, for instance). If the Garou uses this Gift in the Umbra, the targeted group of spirits will follow the Garou’s commands as if she were a greater spirit such as an Incarna. This Gift is only successful against mortals and spirits of no greater than Jaggling status, although “borderline” supernaturals such as ghouls and Kin are susceptible. 

Duration: 1 day to 1 month

 

Katanka-Sonnak

 

Basic

 

Find the Heart's Flame

Activation Time: Normal

Activation Cost: One Gnosis

Challenge: Mental vs 14 Traits

Effect: With this Gift the Garou can identify sources of energy or power, even when they are hidden or unfamiliar up to 50 feet. The Garou must concentrate to detect the pulsations of power that emanate from even a dormant energy source. This becomes useful when travelling in some of the more alien reaches of the Umbra where familiar objects take on strange appearances. This Gift also enables the Garou to identify machinery such as generators or solar batteries regardless of their appearance or attempts to conceal them. Spirits that serve as energy or power foci also register to the Garou’s senses when this Gift is in effect.

 

Flame of the Wind Rider

Activation Time: Personal

Activation Cost: One Gnosis

Effect: This Gift makes the Garou harder to damage by engulfing her in a ghostly blue-white flame. In addition to serving as a form of armor, the flame also offers protection from cold, including the intense cold of the far reaches of the Aetherial Realm and the freezing damage inflicted by certain creatures of the Wyrm. 

Armor Type: You gain 2 points of barrier armor, do not take extra damage from Silver, and have damage reduction to cold equal to your rank.

Duration: Until the end of the scene, or until destroyed by damage.

 

Intermediate

 

Ride the Solar Winds

Activation Time: Normal

Activation Cost: One Gnosis

Challenge: Mental vs 14 for each person being carried.

Effect: This Gift allows the Garou to ride the solar winds that sweep through the Aetherial Realm without worrying about being thrown off course by storms. Use of this Gift also increases the Garou’s movement rate, lessening travel time between locations within the Aetherial Realm.

 

Hand of the Sun

Activation Time: Normal

Activation Cost: One Rage, One Gnosis

Challenge: Must touch the target

Effect: The Garou’s hand blazes with a terrible heat and gives off a white-hot light, similar to a branding iron. The Garou may touch an individual and mark them indelibly (and painfully) with a brand of shame. Any Garou who encounters the victim in the future immediately recognize the mark as a sign of that person’s treachery, dishonor or other grave crime. Vampires ignite when touched by the Hand of the Sun.

A victim touched by the Hand of the Sun takes two health levels of unsoakable aggravated damage and receives a permanent circular scar. The scar cannot be removed by any means short of amputating the part of the body which contains the scar. The fire lasts for one scene, although the Garou may extinguish it beforehand if she so chooses.

 

Advanced

 

Cleansing Flame

Activation Time: Normal

Activation Cost: One permanent Rage 

Challenge: Willpower vs 12 traits for an area no larger than a house, or Willpower vs Target 

Effect: The Garou can pinpoint an area (or an individual) and set the target ablaze with an intense and purifying flame that rages for 60 seconds and then dies out completely. The fire can burn out all Wyrm-Taint (Temp and Perm) or human-made pollution from an area or cleanse an individual (provided the target survives) of Wyrm-Taint. The fire does not spread beyond the target area or person and can not be quenched by normal means. For instance, if the Garou targets a house occupied by powerful Wyrm presence, the fire blazes through the house destroying any vestige of the Wyrm's corruption and leaving untouched anything not tainted by the Wyrm.

If an Wyrm-Tainted individual is set ablaze, they must succeed a physical challenge vs 14 traits or die  from shock. the Flame destroys Fomori utterly; Black Spiral Dancers who survive the Physical challenge must make a Gnostic challenge vs 7 traits, or lose their Wyrm-taint and it's Derangement. Such purified Garou are stripped of all Rank and Gifts; they may well fall again to corruption, but they are given a second chance.

 

SOKHTA

 

Basic

 

Lambent Sight

Activation Time: Personal

Activation Cost: Gnosis

Challenge:

Effect: Allows the Garou the ability to see under circumstances where sight would normally be impossible, such as in conditions of total darkness (inside a deep cave, for example) or if the Garou is blindfolded. This Gift provides illumination for the Garou equivalent to that of a full moon.

 

Moonpool of Sokhta

Activation Time: Unique

Activation Cost: Gnosis 

Challenge: Mental vs 14 Traits

Effect: This Gift enables a Garou to transform clear, standing water into a pool which offers visions of possible futures. Wilderness ponds, small mountain tarns, pools of clear rainwater or even basins filled with water can serve as a conduit for the images. The scenes that appear within the pool depict what might happen unless something occurs to change the course of events. The Garou must concentrate on the event (or series of events) to get a sense of the outcome. The pool may reflect either literal or symbolic images. The Storyteller should determine the clarity and accuracy of the visions. A botch produces false visions or an extremely chaotic jumble of meaningless images.

 

Intermediate

 

Moonriver

Activation Time: Personal

Activation Cost: Gnosis

Challenge: Physicals vs 14 Traits

Effect: the Garou may swiftly travel across the surface of a body of water which reflects the moonlight. She can follow a river or cross a lake so long as she follows the “trail” of the moon’s light. If the light becomes obscured at any point (such as when a cloud passes across the moon), the effects of the Gift end and the Garou may have to swim or wade to shore. 

 

Mooncat

Activation Time: Normal

Activation Cost: Gnosis

Challenge: Physical vs 15 Traits

Effect: This Gift allows the Garou to assume form of a small white cat (one of Sokhta’s favored animals). This ability can prove useful for getting into small places (or escaping from such) and remaining hidden. The Garou has the senses of a cat for the duration of the Gift, including good night sight, the ability to absorb information through her whiskers and extreme flexibility of movement – however, she also retains the power of a full-fledged Garou, and is much more dangerous than she looks. Anyone studying the cat closely can tell that it is not a normal feline because the cat’s eyes always reflect the current phase of the moon regardless of the surrounding light sources. While in cat form, the Garou retains her Lupus-form Attributes, may soak silver as if it were ordinary damage (although silver damage is still aggravated), and can inflict aggravated damage with claw and bite attacks as usual.