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In Short

The deceptively titled Blasphemies presents only a few pages of alternate creation myths and a few supporting Lodges. By far the book is focused on Storyteller ideas and potential antagonist groups, especially cults and the corrupt Bale Hounds. New Lodges unconnected to anything are presented as well, so there is some material for players too.

The information on spirit cults is, by far, the most interesting part of the book. It is very evocative and does a perfect job of filling the reader with those creepy ideas that work so well in the World of Darkness. Discussion of spirit motivations and why spirits interact with the world is extremely helpful given that spirits are a major part of any Werewolf: The Forsaken game.

The alternate creation myths are interesting and creative. The Lodges are flavorful and have an aura of mystery about them, though they are narrowly focused. The chapter on Bale Hounds, corrupt Werewolves dedicated to the seven deadly sins, provides a more subversive antagonist for Storytellers who want a more tangible foe than most spirits provide.

The Physical Thing

This 144 page hardcover showcases above average production value. The art, in particular, is sharp and evocative. Every chapter begins with a full page art piece, and frequent use of smaller pieces and lodge specific symbols is found throughout. The standard two column layout found in other White Wolf books is used, and when combined with the good formatting makes for an easy to read product. No index is provided, but given the size of the book and layout of the material one is not needed.

The Ideas

There is good news though. While the new creation stories are nifty, they are by far not the best part of this product. Chapter 2 provides a detailed discussion of spirit and werewolf cults. Spirits are already a common antagonist in Werewolf, and the discussion of different types of cults that form around spirits and what sorts of relationships develop is very enjoyable. It pushes the horror feel of the setting even further along. Imagine a family dedicated to appeasing their god – a local pain spirit. If a pack learns of this, how do they deal with it? Do they kill the spirit? The family? What if the family worshiped purely out of fear? What if the spirit, in a twisted sort of way, was actually helping the family? Many examples are provided in the discussion, and Storytellers interested in running any game with cultists (including Mortals only) can take a lot of good ideas from this section.

The new Lodges tend to be interesting but narrowly focused, and are discussed in more depth below. The Bale Hounds, werewolves dedicated to indulging in one of the seven deadly sins, make for excellent corrupters and manipulators behind the scenes of pack politics. They can also serve as an excellent bridge with the Pure, as both the Forsaken and Pure certainly have an interest in stamping out these vile abominations.

Ultimately this product is focused on mystery and everything it presents is meant to add more mystery to a Werewolf game.

Under the Cover

Chapter 1 Heresies 16 pages.

This chapter begins with a discussion of how various cultures around the world have viewed wolves in order to generate ideas for Storytellers interested in building their own creation myths. In addition a discussion of what makes up a creation myth, how existing tribes and mechanics may need to be changed with a different creation myth, and suggestions for introducing a new creation myth are all provided.

Here is a run down of the creation myths:

Creation of the Great Wolves

Werewolves are descended from human children raised and fed by Mother Wolf. These children gained the power to shape change through her milk and eventually slew their jealous father in self defense.

Curse of the Werewolf

An ancient wolf-king led his followers on a path of cannibalism whereby they gained the power to change forms. This group was cursed during a coup to rage and only through the grace of Luna were they spared the harshest aspects of the curse. This myth has a strong Greek theme.

The Book of the Wolf

For the crime of rape two brothers are transformed into wolves of differing sex and forced to breed for years. Their strange children are ultimately taken in by Luna and given new duties in the world.

Children of the Sleeping Goddess

Devoted to Gaea and Luna, werewolves are people who never forgot how to change shape as the world changed from its mystical beginnings. Over time they became drunk on their power over others and set about dominating the world. Luna revealed their weakness of silver to those they were fighting, and soon they were weak and scattered. While Luna forgave the werewolves their prideful transgressions, Gaea never did.

Chapter 2 Brotherhoods 46 pages.

Brotherhoods presents a detailed discussion of cults and the subjects of worship. The chapter kicks off with different types of cults that can apply in a variety of situations. For example, a half page is given to discussing a Cult of Personality. Another half page is given to discussing a Cult of Appeasement. Etc. The descriptions are good and help make cults more than mindless servants of darkness that attack the PCs with knives while screaming.

Next a discussion is presented laying out what spirits get out of the bargain. Essence, of course, is ultimately what the spirit gains but how the spirit goes about gathering Essence is the interesting part. A Grief spirit needs grief to feed off of. To this end it could attach itself to a person by pretending to be a ghost of a loved one. It says and does things that amplify the grief. Perhaps it convinces the person to attend counseling sessions where it can feed off the grief of others as well. The ideas are pretty neat and help give spirits believable motivations. This portion takes up the majority of the chapter and discusses all manner of tricks and arrangements spirits will work to create in order to reap the benefit of human worshipers.

The Claimed (those who allow spirits to inhabit their bodies), the Hosts, and Werewolves are the last three groups of entities around which cults form. The book discusses what these cults tend to be like. Cults around the Hosts, for example, seem to involve little in the way of open communication. More often those that live in proximity to the Hosts seem to adapt to their presence and subtly work to benefit them in return for trinkets and other things the vermin may bring back to their home.

One of the great things about this chapter is that every type of cult (in terms of the creature being worshipped) has several example cults presented with it. The Friends of Hazel, for example, are the friends of an 11 year old girl whose magical rat “Harry” and his talking rat friends visit in return for food and attention. The Durkwood Logging Company consists of loggers who worship an insane werewolf. The werewolf attacked the loggers, hamstrung those that would not worship him, and rewarded those that would. These almost feral worshippers will now do anything to please their dark god.

Chapter 3 Hidden Lodges 38 pages.

This chapter presents a series of Lodges, some of which fit with earlier themes in the book and others that seem more independent.

Lodge of Arkadia

This Lodge is connected with the Children of the Sleeping Goddess myth. The thrust of the Lodge, beyond belief in that creation story, is that they wish to admit their failings and avoid the sin of pride. They also embrace their dual nature of human and wolf, spending time both contemplating that nature and exploring it in the wilderness and city.

Lodge of Mania

As the name suggests, members of this lodge are insane and have developed gifts that tap into that madness as a source of strength. The lodge views madness as an important part of the werewolf nature and chooses to embrace it instead of shun it.

Lodge of Fevered Light

This lodge represents a quasi-Christian church ministering to the fringe element. The Lodge focuses on family, honest, the promotion of personal power, and physical purity. This is a Pure lodged and the entire Church front is used to fund the Pure’s fight against the Forsaken. This entity could make for a fantastic villain, and given its cell-like nature it could be extremely difficult to fight.

Lodge of the Crossroads

These werewolves are intrigued by modern American mythology and investigate places and objects of power across the states. Whether it’s a tale about the Hat of Davey Crocket or the supposed location of a crossroad the Devil appears at every year the Lodge of the Crossroads is sure to want to investigate. More than just curious, the Lodge hunts entities of the Shadow that seem drawn to these objects and places of dark American myth.

Brotherhood of the Crossed Swords

Descended from the conquistadors of the 15th century this lodge is dedicated to order. Controlling a significant amount of territory in Central and South America, the lodge is focused on holding onto power and territory at any cost.

Lodge of Quetzal

Opponents of the Brotherhood, this lodge is ultimately descended from the Aztec empire and has been fighting against the Brotherhood for some time now. Things have not gone well, and now the lodge wages a guerilla war as best it can against a much larger and powerful enemy.

The Mots

Mots are interlinked Lodges with related Anglo-Saxon, Germanic, and Norse traditions. They have similar legends and beliefs, but are still individual Lodges. The following Lodges are Mots.

Valkyrja Mot

One of the most prestigious Mots, this Lodge is composed solely of the most powerful warrior-women found among The People. With a strong Norse theme, this lodge has high requirements and a difficult initiation which exclude all but the strongest warrior women from joining.

Eiwaz Mot

Formed partially from racist groups and similar subcultures, the Eiwaz Mot is composed of Werewolf racial supremacists who believe the Uratha are a superior race. Distrusted by other werewolf groups, this Mot exists to provide an antagonist that could belong be backed by all manner of villains. It might be a Pure recruitment organization, a Lodge of Bale Hounds, or something even more sinister.

Chapter 4 The Bale Hounds 34 pages.

This creature is a werewolf who has sworn an oath to the Maeljin, powerful dark spirits embodying the seven deadly sins, who then serve that vile creature in return for greater power. Unlike other adversaries, the Bale Hounds are insidious and can spread discord and sin from within a lodge or pack without the members ever realizing that they are under attack.

This chapter presents a discussion of why werewolves become Bale Hounds, how they initiate themselves into the ranks of evil, and the methods they employ to steal resources from other groups. The chapter then breaks down the Bale Hounds by Malejin they serve. A lot of this is intuitive. The Bale Hounds that follow Mammon (Greed) will steal, tempt others with riches and their fondest desires, and bribe spirits to wreak havoc in order to advance the werewolf’s ambitions.

There’s a lot here, which is both good and bad. Those who are uninterested in yet another werewolf antagonist wont find anything else of interest here, unlike Chapter 2 which has broadly useful ideas. The Bale Hounds are meant to be a dark, wholely evil group with little room for gray. They can provide great adversaries for storytellers who want a corruption from within sort of tale as well as those who just want blatantly evil werewolves for the PCs to fight. I also think that they’re here as an option for tying into different creation myths, including the default myth as an evil 9th tribe of werewolves.

My Take

It is always difficult to give a product a final score. While I want to give the book a four for Chapter 2 alone, the rest of the book doesn’t hold up in terms of usefulness. The Lodges are too spread out in terms of theme and the Bale Hounds, while a good villain, occupy too much of the book for a new faction. The theme of the product is to provide mysterious adversaries and ideas for a Werewolf campaign, and the product certainly succeeds at that.

Were I to start a Werewolf campaign tomorrow I would make heavy use of Chapter 2. I would probably use Chapter 2 in any World of Darkness game I ran, as the discussion of cults is just great and they are certainly a good malevolent entity to bring into any horror game. The new Lodges are a little too unusual or distant for the most part, though there are several I’m certain would appeal to players (Crossroads and Valkyrja). The Bale Hounds just don’t break new ground. As flat out Evil werewolves they lose a certain amount of the gray area that is a part of the World of Darkness.

Finally, if you find the idea of spirit cults at all appealing I strongly recommend this product. While I find the book to be merely average on the whole, Chapter 2 really is outstanding and could easily drive many World of Darkness games.

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