The following is a brief lexicon of terms in broad use among the Garou. Garou have taken words from many different sources, and an etymological study of their language would unearth a veritable babel of tongues. However, any attempt to understand Garou and their culture must being with the peculiar language they have created and with which they define themselves. Besides their own language, Garou can also communicate with wolves or speak any human language they know.

Common Parlance:

These words are in common use among the Garou.

Anchorhead: - A spirit gate between the Near and Deep Umbras. (See Membrane.)

Apocalypse: - The age of destruction, the final cycle, the birth of death the everlasting corruption, the end o Gaia_ a word used in Garou mythology to describe the time of final battle with the Wyrm. Many consider this time to be the present.

Auspice: - The phase of the moon under which a particular Garou was born, commonly thought to determine personality and tendencies. The auspices are: Ragabash (New Moon Trickster), Theurge(Crescent Moon; Seer), Philodox(half Moon; Judge), Galliard (Gibbous Moon; Moon Dancer), Ahroun(Full Moon), Warrior).

Bane: - Evil spirits that follow the Wyrm. There are many different kinds of Banes; Scrag, Kalus, Psychomachiae and more.

Bawn: - A boundary area around a caern, where mortals are watched.

Blight: - Any corrupted area in either the spirit world or physical reality.

Breeds: - The ancestry of a Garou, be it wolf, human or other Garou.

Caern: - A sacred place; a meeting spot where the Garou can contact the spirit world.

Celestine: - The greatest spirituals the closest things the Garou have to gods. Examples are Luna(the moon )and Helios(the Sun).

Concord, The: - The agreement all the tribes reached nearly 9,000 years ago, after which the Imp0ergium was ended. The traditions thereof are still obeyed today.

Corruption: - The act of destroying, devolving or debasing life; also, the often overwhelming effects of the Wyrm's actions. In the present age, if often specifically refers to the ecological ruin humans wreak upon the environment.

Crinos: - The half-wolf , half-human form of the Garou.

Deep Umbral: - The aspects of the Umbra that lie outside the Membrane. Reality becomes more and more fragmentary the farther one travels from the Realm.

Delirium: - The madness suffered by humans who look upon a Garpi of Cromps form.

Domain: - A mini-Realm in the umbra, usually connected to a large Realm in the Deep Umbral.

Feral: - Slang term for Lupus.

Gaffling: - A simple sport servant of a jaggling, Incarna or Celestine, Gafflings are rarely sentient.

Gaia: - The Earth and related Realms, in both a physical and a spiritual sense; the Mother Goddness.'

Garou: - The term werewolves use for themselves.


Hispo: - The near-wolf form of the Garou.

Homid: - A Garou of human ancestry. Occasionally used disdainfully by feral(e.g., "That boy fights like a Homid")

Imperqium: - The 3,000 years immediately following the birth of agriculture, during which strict population quotas were maintained on all human villages.

Incarna: - A class of spirits: weaker than the Celestines, but still great spirits by any measure.

Jaggling: - A spirit servant of an Incarna or Celestine.

Kenning: - The empathic calling some Garou perform when howling.

Klaive: - A fetish dagger or sword, usually of great spiritual potency and nearly always made of silver.

Litany: - The code of laws kept by the Garou.

Lupus: - A Garou of wolf origin.

Membrane, The: - The barrier between the Near and Deep Umbras. To breach it, an Anchorhead must be found. Alternatively, the Garou can travel through the Dream Zone.

Metis: - The sterile and often deformed off spring of two Garou. Generally reviled by Garou society.

Moon Bridge: - A gate between two caerns; it most often appears during moots.

Moon-Calf: - Idiot, simpleton.

Moot: - A sect or tribal conclave that takes place at a caern.

Mule: - Slang for metis.

Near Umbra: - The spirit world surrounding the Gaia Realm.

Pack: - A small group o9f garou bound to each other by ties of friendship and mission as opposed to culture.

Penumbra: - "Earth's Shadow" ; the spirit world directly surrounding the physical world; many, but not all, terrain features will be the same.

Protectorate: - The territory claimed and patrolled by a pack or sect

Reaching: - Traveling into the spirit world.

Realms: - The worlds of "solid" reality within the Tellurian. Earth is referred to the Realm.

Ronin: - A Garou who has chosen or been forced to leave Garou society. It is a harsh fate to become a "lone wolf".

Sept: - The group of Garou who live near and tend an individual caern.

Tellurian: - The whole of reality.

Totem: - A spirit joined to a pack or tribe and representative of its inner nature. A tribal totem is an Incarna, while a pack totem is and Incarna avatar(a Jaggling equivalent).

Trait, The: - The Weaver, The Wyld and the Wyrm. The trinityof primal cosmic forces.

Tribe: - The larger community of Garou. Tribe members are often bound by similar totems and lifestyles.

Umbra: - The spirit world.

Veil: - Slang for Delirium.

Ways, The: - The traditions of the Garou.

Weaver, The: - Manifestation and symbol of order and pattern. Computers, science, logic and mathematics are examples of the Weaver's influence on the material plane.

Wyld, The: - Manifestation and symbol of pure change. The chaos of transmutation and elemental force.

Wyrmhole: - A place that has been spiritually defiled by the wyrm. invariably a location of great corruption.