Shadow Lords

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The Shadow Lords are a fictional tribe of Garou (werewolves) in White Wolf Game Studio's Werewolf: The Apocalypse role-playing game.

The Shadow Lords are a group of manipulative Garou, originally of Slavic origins, but the tribe's main focus is on ability rather than race. They have a sibling tribe of Garou, the Hakken, who dwell in the Far East and are organized along feudal Japanese clan lines.

These black-pelted followers of Grandfather Thunder are one by one masters of Machiavellian intrigue. The power-structure within the Shadow Lords tribe is a hierarchy where you can only climb higher through means of deceit, treachery and other forms of skullduggery. Also means such as blackmail, intimidation or downright assassination are not unheard of. The Shadow Lords’ lives are like a daily game of chess and a constant struggle for power. They have great insights into psychology of their enemies and have no scrupulous to exploit anyone’s weak spots if needs be. Shadow Lords respect power and condemn weakness, any cub who’s not strong enough in their eyes is banished from the tribe.

The Shadow Lords' goal is simple: to push the Silver Fangs off the throne and obtain power over the Garou Nation; the Shadow Lords and the Silver Fangs have been bitter rivals ever since the ending of the Impergium. None of the other tribes like them very much, or at all, but even the ones who hate them most don't question their ability to get things done.

[edit] Camps

As with most tribes, the Shadow Lords recognize that there are many ways to accomplish one goal, and that trying to hold themselves to one path reduces their chances of success. For the Shadow Lords, success is all, and they provide different paths to that in their tribal camps.

• Lords of the Summit - perhaps the largest camp, the Lords of the Summit tend to be the stereotypical Shadow Lords - power-hungry, manipulative, ambitious, and arrogant. This by no means makes them less dangerous foes.
• Bringers of Light - if there is one group of Shadow Lords that receives something close to general respect, it is the Bringers of Light. These Shadow Lords are the ones who interact with evil powers, such as Black Spiral Dancers or vampires, and attempt to bring them down from within.
• Children of Crow - taking Crow as their totem, these Garou act as advisors and "fixers" to leaders within the Garou Nation, supporting the strong and the wise while plotting the downfall of the unworthy.
• Judges of Doom - Philodoxes all, the Judges of Doom seek out and punish those who break the Litany.
• Children of Bat - one of the newest camps, these Shadow Lords follow the recently-redeemed totem of Bat and use his powers on Gaia's behalf.
• Lazarite Movement - a pan-tribal movement dedicated to equal rights (or any rights, in some cases) for metis.

[edit] Hakken

Not as much a camp, but more of a sect, the Hakken underwent isolation from the rest of the world during the Edo period along with the rest of Japanese society, and have become one of the primary Garou tribes in the islands of Japan. During this time, the Hakken almost entirely lost their ranks of the lupus breed (as wolves in the islands of Japan were almost entirely killed off during this period), and today are almost entirely composed of homids. This imbalance has wrought considerable change on their culture, making them markedly distinct from other Garou in their practices. They are often considered in the West to be "Asian Shadow Lords", however they focus on honor instead of overthrowing the Silver Fangs. They are the only Garou who hold any sort of influence in the Beast Courts of the Emerald Mother, the Asian coalition of the Changing Breeds.