by Nils Mikkelsen (Werewolf: The Wild West | Fiction)
These are the words of Speaks with Anger,Daebaudjimoot (Galliard) of the Wendigo, elder of the Sept of the Sacred Hunt:
"Long ago, at the height of the Great War against the Manitous the three brothers came to this land, the Grandmother’s Crucible, the White Man's New Mexico, to carry the war to the heart of the Horned Serpent and his people. When we came we found them, the Hisatsinom,Those-who-came-before, Garou as we are, but apart. They had come here long before, soon after we came from the Sky World and in this then corrupt place they made their homes.
"We allied with them, and took joy in their company, for they were of the People, long lost cousins and many were the songs we sang and many were the battles we fought together.
"Together the three brothers and our cousin took the war to the Horned Serpent and his people fled south in fear, his manitous to forgotten parts of the Ghost World, and his greater manitous bond into endless sleep.
"We made our homes here, little brother to the South to watch the Horned Serpents people, elder brother to the North to purify the Serpent Peoples homes, middle brother between, to remember the songs of the war. And here, in the place of the Sacred Hunt all three brothers dwelt to maintain the sleep of the great manitous and provide a place of peace.
"Our cousins took their place among us for a time, but began to draw apart. And in these dark days they are ever apart from us, yet with us always.
"Look into the fire and the shadows and listen, this is the tale of how the Hisatsinom became the Anasazi.
"With the defeat of the Serpent people, the Hisatsinom began to grow in number. They swelled in number such that neither hunting nor traditional farming could not sustain them. The Garou among them wept at the suffering of their kin and resolved to stop it. Through strange journeys to the Ghost World, even to the realms of the Spider, their shamans learned new ways of farming, ways that went against Grandmothers’ will. The very courses of water were warped to feed the corn, and the Earth was made to produce in an abundance that was unnatural and reeked of the Serpent. All of these things the Hisatsinom did, to maintain their too numerous kin.
"Wendigo once dwelled among them, but in the softness of the cornfields their understanding of him changed, warped by the influence of the Serpent and Spider. As their numbers grew so to did their need to land to plant their foul corn, and they warred with the other tribes to take their land. These wars were not conducted in accordance with tradition, they were of the Serpent, and the Horned one taught the Hisatsinom a mockery of Wendigo’s ways. "To consume the flesh of your enemy is to take his strength" the Serpent whispered, and they listened, and passed the lore on to their kinfolk. Such did the manitous come to walk among them.
"In time the three brothers became aware of the corruption and a great war was made upon the Hisatsinom. Many battles were fought, many heroes died; to recite their names would take until sunrise, but in the end the Hisatsinom fell and their kinfolk with them. Some fled to the Ghost World and there they remain; for the three brothers enacted a Great Rite, severing the Hisatsinom, now the Anasazi, the Moqui, from the Grandmother.
"But nothing lasts forever, with the death of middle brother the rites are weaker, and every day less powerful. I have seen the Moqui in dreams and in the Ghost World. "Some say they walk the earth in White Skins now. I do not know, but I weep for the future."
Notes on Terms
Anasazi "Ancient Enemies" (Dineh/Navajo) is the name given to the wyrm-corrupt in the area, it is used in the same manner as Black Spiral Dancers, in fact many Pure Ones regard the BSDs as the Anasazi returned, despite the differences in kinfolk.
Moqui "the Dead" (Hopi) is the epithet most commonly used to describe the Anasazi in order to avoid the curse of using their true name.
Hisatsinom "Those-who-came-before" (Hopi) is the original term used to describe the first settlers in the crucible of the Grandmother.
The Sept of the Hollowed Hills
The home sept of the Hisatsinom was established soon after the great migration by a coalition of Uktena warriors and Wendigo mystics. They dwelt in isolation from their tribal brothers for thousands of years, and had formed a sub-tribe of their own. They regarded the arrival of the other tribes during the war with the Great Banes with some hostility and regarded them as interlopers. They were somewhat involved with rituals that bond the Great Banes but grew more and more insular. They took to breeding almost solely with humans and they and their kin had a huge population for the area. To sustain their population they subverted the Grandmothers plan for the Crucible, to be a place of testing and struggle. Rather, their theurges discovered techniques of raising corn in a weaver realm and their use of these weaver techniques eroded their connection with the Grandmother. Over time they began to adopt religious practices from the Toltecs to include human sacrifice and cannibalism. At the outset these rituals were somewhat like the sacrifices of the Corn-King, however, as the land struggled against the unnatural weaver demands placed upon it, more and more sacrifices were required to maintain their society and the Wyrm crept into their hearts.
Over time the Wyrm taught the Hisatsinom a corruption of Wendigo’s ways, to consume the flesh of one’s enemies was to take his strength and knowledge. The Garou among them passed this belief to their kin, and cannibalism became entrenched in Hisatsinom culture.
As the other tribes became aware of the Hisatsinom’s true nature they were horrified by both the wyrm and weaver corruption of their kin. A war was undertaken against them, which resulted in the virtual destruction of the Hisatsinom. Some few escaped into the Umbra, but the were trapped there by a great ritual that stripped them of their connection with Gaia and renamed them the Anasazi. This ritual is lost to modern Garou, but it is somewhat like the rituals used by Bane-tenders. Maintaining the former homes of the Hisatsinom undisturbed is a significant part of the ritual, and this aspect is being threatened as white men come into the area. With the loss of the Croatan, the rituals cannot be enacted properly and the Hisatsinom constantly push at the Gauntlet to return to the Tellurian.
The Anasazi in the Wild West
They should be considered a sub-tribe of Garou dwelling mostly in the Penumbra of the Southwest. Their long exile in the Umbra was attenuated their spirit halves. Given the small number of Anasazi Garou, their kinfolk play a much greater role than usual, and their time in the umbra has allowed them to enact rituals of their own and to develop wraith-like powers and abilities.
They believe that when the rituals are no longer performed they will be able to return to the world and wreak vengeance upon their enemies. Also if any of their number, kinfolk or Garou could wear the skins of seven beings of their type, human for kinfolk, Garou for Garou, then they could cross the Gauntlet. To this end they have a rite which attracts other wyrm-tainted beings to their holdings for this purpose.
Many Pure Ones regard the Black Spiral Dancers as Anasazi come across the Gauntlet.
They have adopted the Aztec god of Flaying, Xipe Totec, as their totem, and have formed alliances with the Tzitzimime, the Star Demons of Central American mythology.
Although wyrm-corrupt, they should be considered very different from the Black Spiral Dancers. They came to wyrm through the Weaver, and continue to regard their primary allegiance as to a wyrm-corrupted version of the weaver, rather than the wyrm itself. This self-delusion does not change their true nature but they have not been gifted with the madness of the Wyrm.
Anasazi Gifts
Bane Protector, Level 1
Black Spiral Dancer
The banes come to the summoner in the form of Weaver spirits.
Cloud of Night, Level 1
Uktena
Curse of Hatred, Level 2
Metis
Ears of the Bat, Level 2
Black Spiral Dancer: Developed in the caves in which they dwell. Anasazi ears do not grow in the unnatural manner of BSDs.
Wyrm Speech, Level 2
Black Spiral Dancer
Blood Omen, Level 3
BSD Theurge
Dagger of the Mind, Level 3
Black Spiral Dancer
Rattler’s Bite, Level 3
Metis
Call Elemental, Level 4
Black Spiral Dancer
Fist of the Wind, Level 4
Uktena
Summon the Flayer, Level 5
The Anasazi variation of Call the Cannibal Spirit summons a form of Xipe Totec, rather than Wendigo.
Madness, Level 5
Metis
Anasazi Rites
Call to Like Spirits
Level: 4
Type: Occult
This rite acts as an spiritual siren song for the wyrm tainted and corrupt, and draws the worst elements to the region, be they BSDs, Mockeries, or simple outlaws, they all serve the Anasazi purpose of weakening their binding or can be used in the flaying rituals.
The Rite of Flaying
Level: 2
Type: Occult
This rite allows to the Anasazi to strip the skin from their victims in a single piece and ensures that the victim survives the experience. It requires the use of a ritual knife.
Donning the Seven Skins
Level: 5
Type: Occult
This rite allows the Anasazi to step sideways and return to the Tellurian. It requires the skins of seven like beings who must have been flayed by the benefactor of the rite.
Devouring the Soul
Level: 5
Type: Occult
This rite works somewhat like past lives. The ritualist rolls wits +rituals (diff 8), and each success grants the ritualist one additional die from attributes, abilities or Rage, Gnosis, or willpower. The effects last for a lunar month. Requires that the ritualist consume the flesh of the individual from whom they draw the abilities.
The Great Sacrifice
Level: 5
Type: Seasonal
This rite maintains the corn on which the Anasazi feed. The victim is chosen before the harvest and must be physically perfect. In times of drought purebred Garou have been used as the sacrifice. As the rite is enacted the victim is released in the cornfields and is hunted by a chosen few, both Garou and kinfolk. (It is considered bad form to change forms during this hunt). After the sacrifice is killed his flesh is consumed by the hunters and his bones and entrails buried in the cornfields. If properly enacted the corn will produce in greater abundance than is natural, if botched, the corn is inedible.
