The Time of Madness

The Time of Madness

follow suit. So it was that the greatest tragedy in our history occurred. In the area that is now called Yugoslavia, in a city that was known as Krapina, the Neanderthal Ananasi gathered at the will of the Great Mother and destroyed all of the humans of the city in a feeding frenzy that lasted over five days. When the last of the humans died, they turned on themselves, and the Ananasi fed on Ananasi — not out of hunger, but out of necessity. All of the Children of Ananasa from that region died in a space of less than three days. This was the first great death, and it shall always be remembered. It is not remembered with pain; Ananasa took the human frailty of pain from us at this time, making us understand the will of the Mother is greater than the frailty of the Children.

The death of the lesser Ananasi cleared the path for our second birth. All things in life are built on the triumvirate, and our first physical birth began the web, while the second birth began spinning the pattern. When the time is right, Ananasa will guide us to the completion of the web, and the third birth — the Great Birth itself — will lead us to our ultimate goal.

With the Children that remained — the greater Ananasi — a link was forged. As they grew out of Africa, they left behind them a trail, each point connected to the last. Over a period of 10,000 years the Ananasi traveled in both human guise, and as the hunter that followed the prey, until they had encompassed the world. Our kind knew the workings of their brethren on the opposite end of the globe, and they know these actions to this very day. This link is called Ananasa’s

Web. By keeping in connection with the Ananasi nearest you, you will always know what they are doing, and the next down the line will learn from them, and this will continue until the will of one is the will of all, and all serve the will of

Ananasa. You may think of your own plans, and act on your own impulse, but all is under the guidance of the Great Mother. She is the force that keeps us all linked, and she is the will that keeps us all alive. Through this link we are all of one purpose; Ananasa’s Web is the ultimate extension of Ananasa’s wisdom, keeping her children organized despite themselves.

We may fight, even to the point of war with ourselves and others, but it is all under the leadership of the Mother-Queen.

One of our kind did not take the same path as we in this lesson. The colony that took to the lands of eastern Asia created a very different life for themselves, taking the human identity as only a guideline, and breaking from the strands of Ananasa’s

Web. Our brethren there have decided to take the name of

Kumo, and they now follow the way of the Wyrm. It is obvious that Ananasa has allowed them this action, giving them the free will to allow the corruption to enter their body, yet it is well known that they continue to serve our Queen in their actions.

The path that Ananasa has set them upon is one that we do not understand, but who are we to question the will of our Creator?

With hardly a thought for the consequences, Weaver started separating the spirit from the flesh in an effort to prevent Wyld ever creating another form of Changing Breed.

Wyld tried to resist but could not. With Weaver bound to the imprisoned Wyrm, using Wyrm’s powers to a certain extent,

Wyld was weakened. Symmetry was lost. The Great Web was spun, and the spirits that tried to break through the barrier often found themselves stuck in the Web. Even as the first strands of the Web fell in place, the damage was done to Gaia.

In those days there was only one continent upon Gaia’s back,

Pangæa. The great continent shattered, drifting across the waters and settling as several smaller places. Now there is not only one land, but multitudes of lands. That was not how Gaia was created, but that is how she stands now, fractured, injured but healing. The strands of the Great Web hold the continents in place, but barely. There are places where the continents shake and fracture, where the webs that pulled Pangæa apart are so strong that they cause the very land to crumble.

Weaver would have worked faster, but the new order caused problems for her as well. The Wyrm continued to struggle, trying to break free and do his work, but it was not meant to be. All Wyrm managed to do was hurt himself, until eventually his mind broke. His balance was destroyed.

The Triat was broken and the symmetry of the universe destroyed. Though it took centuries, possibly even millennia,

Wyrm was eventually able to begin his work again, but his goals were distorted by the pain he endured. He no longer sought to devour or to Uncreate, but rather to Recreate in his own warped image. Wyld continued on, creating and changing. Weaver had no choice but to finish what Wyld started, and spent much of her time shaping the things created by Wyld. For that reason, the Great Web has never been completed — though of late, the task is getting closer to finished than is comfortable. You see, while each member of the Triat does its job to the best of its ability, the balance is gone. Weaver has grown more powerful, and Wyld grows ever weaker. Wyrm is distracted and cannot do what he must; his pain and madness eat at him constantly. The

Great Web grows stronger, separating the Umbra from the

Gaia Realm, crushing the Changing Breeds’ connections with their spiritual halves and making it more difficult for them to do what Gaia and the Wyld demanded of them. The Great Web has become a flawed, tangled mess, and no self-respecting spider can stand a messy web.

Ananasa tried to stop Weaver from breaking the spirit and the flesh, but she was punished for her indiscretion. Weaver imprisoned Ananasa in an opal the likes of which had never existed before. It was a gem of pure stasis, flawless and complete, without the smallest weakness. She then threw Ananasa to the Wyrm, believing that Wyrm would devour her.

She was wrong. Wyrm is insane, but he has not forgotten his love of Weaver. Weaver is not his to possess, but

Ananasa is. So he holds Ananasa as a treasure, one that must be preserved and cherished. More importantly, and more unfortunately, for a time she was a tool by which he could control her Children, the Ananasi.

The Time of Madness The woman rested a moment, stepping back from her students and allowing another to come forward. She was dark where the first speaker was light, but just as beautiful. Where her predecessor walked with calculated grace, she moved with deadly precision. Hers was the gait of a hunter.

The Wyrm held Ananasa silent for a great length of time, leaving us to believe our God had abandoned us. During the

Great Silence, humans were born, and as with the other

Changing Breeds, we were drawn into them. They were soon to be the dominant species, and they were even then touched by the Weaver. The Weaver wanted nothing to do with us, was enraged by the actions we had made against her, and so the Wyld merged us with the humans. We became as we are now, one part spider, one part spirit and one part human. As with all the Changing Breeds, we had a symmetry lacking in most of the other creatures on Gaia’s back.

Despite the absence of the Mother-Queen, we continued on, doing as we always had, ensuring the Insects would never return to plague Gaia again. The Weaver’s silence was considered an ill omen by most, but Wyld still looked out for us, giving us aid when he could and guiding us gently. Many of the Ananasi began looking to the Wyld as a surrogate, and some even began to follow his tenets, seeking protection form the wrath of the Weaver. Most did not.

Then Wyrm made his presence known to us. Wyrm sent his minions to talk to our leaders, and explained that

Ananasa was alive, but now his captive. He made an offer to spare Ananasa, if we, her children, would serve him faithfully. We had no choice. We agreed.

Wyrm is insane. Make no mistake about that. His struggles against the Weaver shattered his mind into fragments, and each fragment has its own agenda. There’s no great determination on Wyrm’s part to make us follow a particular path. Instead the Dark Ones, the messengers of the Corrupter, told us what to do, and in order to keep

Queen Ananasa safe, we did it. Often the tasks made no sense. Perhaps we would be forced to kill entire villages of people, perhaps we would simply be told to give the local humans who looked to us for advice the wrong answers to their questions. There was no rhyme or reason to our tasks.

At least there didn’t seem to be any.

In truth, Wyrm is cunning in his insanity. He worked not only against his enemies, but also against the will of some of the

Damhàn. He worked slowly and patiently, corrupting them and twisting their views away from where they should have been. Over the course of almost 200 years, Wyrm insinuated his philosophies into the minds of our ancestors, twisting them from the inside. And we, who were never prepared for this sort of situation, let him. There came a point where the silence from the Mother-Queen was no longer an emptiness in all of us. For some, that void had been filled with Wyrm’s poisons.

Even when the situation was at its very worst, there were those of us who held on to the belief that Ananasa was alive, and looked to that fact as our saving grace. Principal among our leaders at that time was a male, one of Ananasa’s chosen, who had lived for centuries already. His name was Anansi, and there are some who claim he was the very first of us to hatch, and the first to touch Gaia. Others merely say he was the first of us to follow the Wyld, turning away from Weaver and Wyrm, and seeing them as weak in their twisted states. Only Ananasa can say for certain what the truth might be in this matter.

Anansi was almost unique among us. He reveled in the feelings of human emotions and he thrived on the challenges each day found for him. He lived a life that most of us could never hope to fully understand. Emotion is a foreign thing to most of us, muted and barely understood. We were not meant to dwell on past victories and defeats, we were designed to handle the tasks before us, and Ananasa always felt that emotions could be a great hindrance to accomplishing our goals. Most of you born of humans have already realized the fact that little of your past lives is significant.

That is the Blessing of Ananasa. She protects us from our pasts, from the dangers of too much love and too much hatred. She keeps us strong, that we might do her work. We are truly lucky and should be grateful for this gift.

Anansi did not fall to the Wyrm’s ways when he heard about his Queen’s capture. Instead he climbed the Great Web, leaving Gaia behind in order to search for her throughout the Umbra. His quest was long and painful, and there were times when he must surely have despaired of ever finding her. Still, he persisted. When he left he made clear to his followers that they must not, under any circumstances, obey the Wyrm or his minions. They obeyed him.

While all around the world, the Damhàn turned to the service of the Wyrm in order to keep Queen Ananasa safe,

Anansi himself continued his quest. Long before he was finished, the Ovid discovered what had happened, but not everything that had happened. They saw that we had become servants of the Corrupter and lashed out against us, claiming that we were their enemies. First among our accusers were the Garou, werewolves and fierce warriors.

They used our time of servitude as an excuse, attacking not only us, but the other Changing Breeds as well.

I need to reiterate something to you before you can completely understand the magnitude of what they did:

Gaia created most of the Ovid. The spirit of the Earth, gave each Breed a goal to accomplish. But we were not created by

Gaia, we were created by Queen Ananasa, and we were given no such tasks. Our creator was silent, captured by the

Weaver’s deceptions and thrown to the Wyrm. We were a lost people, and in us the Wyrm found easy prey.

Somewhere along the way, the Garou fell to arrogance.

They decided that their goals were the same as Gaia’s and that they should handle the matters of protecting the planet. They had long ago said to us that we were not needed, that we were obsolete. We did not agree. Long before the Wyrm took hold of us, there was enmity between our race and theirs. The bitterness was seeded by their arrogance, by the presumption that their words were more important than ours, the selfassurance that they could better handle the humans we advised than we could. Skirmishes had previously broken out from time to time, but never to the magnitude we would soon know.

Just as the Wyrm used us as servants, the Garou used us as an example. The arguments between our people had never been substantial: We ignored their petty cries to leave the humans alone. They claimed sacred right to cull the herds of humans, to choose those who could live and those who would die at their claws. They called this sacred duty of theirs the “Impergium” and held it as their most trusted charge. They used this claim of theirs to start the War of

Rage, and they used us as an example. Over the course of several years they did all they could to destroy our Kinfolk, never understanding the ways in which we dealt with the humans we sometimes use as mates.

We are not an emotional race, but we are a proud race nonetheless. The Wyrm took note of what they did, and he fed our pride, fueled angers such as we had never known before, and demanded that we retaliate.

Many among the Garou ask themselves what started the War of Rage. We know. We started it, because they pushed us too far. With whispers of our own we told the other Ovid what they had done, and we also told them they would likely be next. In a few cases, where we were apparently wrong, we helped fan the flames, determined to make the “Warriors of Gaia” pay for their insolence. Before long, all the Ovid were engaged in a war with the Garou.

And in the Umbra, Anansi kept looking, until he found the home of the Wyrm, the place called Malfeas. He moved carefully, quietly, and finally, he found our queen.

She was locked away, held captive within an opal of incredible size and impossible strength. Try though he might, he could not free her.

Ananasa saw her chosen, and smiled. Though she could not speak to him, she made her desires clear. She did not want freedom from her opal prison, for that powerful gem offered her protection from the Wyrm’s foul embrace. What she wanted was the ability to speak to her children again. Anansi left her in the Wyrm’s lair and made his way back to the Gaia Realm.

What he found there angered him, and shocked him beyond words. Entire races of the Ovid were gone, destroyed by the War of Rage. Still, he had a duty to perform, and that took priority over his feelings about the war. His followers told him all that had happened in his absence, and Anansi began to scheme. Anansi gave the matter contemplation for almost a full month, and then he prepared himself. If all went as planned, he would stop the war and aid his Queen at the same time.

Anansi went to the Corax, and told them that he knew of a treasure too perfect to be denied. When they asked him more questions, he hemmed and hawed until he knew they would bite, and told them where the treasure was. The Corax considered the treasure and knew they had to have it, but also knew they could not survive a journey to Malfeas.

The Corax, who remained neutral in the War of Rage, in turn told the Garou of the treasure, claiming that the Opal was nothing less than the Heart of the Wyrm, and that if they could get their hands on it, they could destroy the evil influences of the Corrupter, freeing Gaia.

And the Garou fell for it, just as Anansi knew they would.

The greatest warriors of the Garou gathered together and made their plans, taking information from Anansi — given freely to the Corax, who gave it to the werewolves — and prepared for their greatest assault. They would storm the Wyrm’s lair and capture his heart, freeing the world. They sang songs of conquest, and in the process they called more warriors to them, forgetting their sacred war against the other Ovid.

The Changing Breeds that remained took advantage of the lull and beat a hasty retreat, hiding in most cases, fighting on in others. The Garou stormed the Deep Umbra, attacking Malfeas and seeking the Heart of the Wyrm. Many of them died, and they were the lucky ones. Others were taken by the Wyrm and devoured, regurgitated only when he was done twisting their minds and bodies as he had been doing to the Ananasi for years. Those Garou still live, hidden in the darkest places slowly fighting the war that we once fought for the Corrupter.

The Opal was drawn from the bowels of Malfeas, blackened by the efforts of the Wyrm to break into the prison that held our Queen. The Garou attacked it again and again, doing everything they could to destroy the prison, foolishly believing that they could kill the Wyrm with such ease. Finally, after they had reached the point where they hoped to escape with the Heart and take it to another place, a safer place, Ananasa made her presence known, thanking them for aiding her. Despite their best efforts, they could not break the Opal, but with their help, she had managed to create a flaw, one large enough to suit her purposes, and small enough not to cause her any risk at the hands of the Wyrm.

The Garou were outraged! They howled their defiance to the stars, ready to war against the Corax. They likely would have too, if Anansi had not spoken up and told them that the

Corax were also pawns. For while Anansi did not mind using the wereravens for his purposes, he did not want them to suffer for his actions. That was not his intention. With a simple claim of credit for all the Garou had accomplished and suffered, he drove the werewolves to hate him far more than the other Ovid. They chose to take their anger out on the Ananasi, and Anansi planned to let them… after a fashion.

Have you ever tried to hunt down something that didn’t want to be hunted? It can be a challenge. Wolves are large; spiders are small. We can hide almost anywhere. We can be hidden in a thousand places, no one ever the wiser.

There are distinct advantages to being a small army of spiders, especially when the Garou are on your trail.

The Garou searched, tried their best to find us, and in many cases their best was sufficient. But we have always been patient, and we have always been willing to make sacrifices for the sake of Ananasa. Some of us died that the rest might live. They are remembered.

Perhaps the war between our races would have continued forever, but we had other plans. We had other problems.

Not all of us returned to the fold when Ananasa spoke to us.

Some stayed with the Wyrm, traitorous vermin who call themselves the Kumo. They are not our kind; the Wyrm has seen to that. They are mockeries of what we are, what we were meant to be. They have lost the symmetry to be complete.

Make no mistake about this, the Kumo are vile. Should you see them, destroy them. They no longer recognize the face of the Mother-Queen, and that is an unforgivable sin.

But we shall talk more of them later. For now we talk of our history. The changes we have endured for the love of our queen.

Great Ananasa spoke to us, a rare thing, far rarer even than meeting her as you have just now. For she spoke to all of us, a drain on her power and dangerous in that it could have revealed her presence to the Wyrm. She told us that we had done well in her absence, and warned us of the trials to come. “You will be hated and feared,” she said, and so we were, and so we are.

“You will suffer great losses in my name,” and so we did and so we have. “In the end, you will be triumphant, for you will know that my way is the only clear path to follow.” And we have followed her way ever since, and in small measures, we have seen the truth of her words. Victory and redemption do not have to be fast, nor do they have to be complete. We are not called the Patient Ones without good reason.

After the First War of Rage The world began to change not long after the War of

Rage. Perhaps the changes were actually in place before then, but if so they were not evident. What, you might ask was the biggest, most immediate change? Well, that would be the release of the humans from the Garou’s Impergium.

Somewhere along the way the Wolves changed their minds. They decided that humans should not be culled, but should rather be allowed to multiply, to expand their horizons and grow in numbers. I have heard this decision called wise and foolish in equal measure. I have heard the Children of Gaia speak of the resulting changes that have come about as good things, and I’ve heard the same from the Glass Walkers and the

Bone Gnawers. I have also heard the other werewolf tribes speak of the same decision with regret, and many have contemplated returning to the old ways — sometimes realizing that any such decision would come far too late to do any good.

I have heard it called many things, but always these answers skirt around the issue. What caused this change in the Garou mentality? What made then suddenly decide that their human Kinfolk should be allowed to propagate in numbers undreamed of?

The answer is simple, brothers and sisters. The answer is the Weaver.

Weaver saw the potential in humans, their desire to be so much more than they already were, their penchant for tools, and their desire to understand the universe around them, and decided they could use a helping hand. With

Ananasa out of the way, no longer able to speak of balance and symmetry, Weaver found a new assistant in her grandest schemes, one only too willing to learn and to help. Weaver grew stronger, and all the while, we sat and waited, we learned what we needed to learn from our Queen.

There was a time when the Garou thought they’d all but destroyed us. We did nothing to disillusion them. They beat their chests with typical hatred and savagery, while we watched and learned.

Then they did what we always knew they would do; they turned upon themselves with no others to fight. That particular battle continues even today. The Garou fight themselves endlessly, often with words, sometimes with weapons, each convinced that their way is the only possible way to save the world from the Wyrm. We are an arrogant race, but we can admit to our flaws and work towards surviving them. The Garou have never been as fortunate.

Over the centuries we have watched them do their work, carrying out their sacred duties to Gaia and the Wyld, never understanding what they have lost along the way. We do not follow the Wyld, we do not follow the Weaver or the

Wyrm. We follow Ananasa, and we allow ourselves to be a part of her tapestry, the plan she is weaving to rectify all that is wrong with the world and the Triat. We are threads upon her skein, and if we fail to see all of the patterns, we can rest easy in the knowledge that she shows us what we must see.

Queen Ananasa told us to wait, to be patient, and to learn. We did so. But what she did not explain, what we do not fully understand even now, is what she taught us in the time after the First War of Rage.

Ananasa spoke to the strongest, wisest members of her Children, speaking to each separately, and she gave instructions to them on how she wanted her Children led. She spoke to Anansi and his brethren, telling them that they should follow the laws of the Wyld, reveling in change and chaos, but cautioned them to never forget that they are Ananasi, and therefore forged from equal parts of the Triat. Anansi spoke to his brethren, and they soon turned to the path of the Kumoti, followers of the Wyld’s Ways. She spoke to others, telling them that Weaver’s Way was best, but cautioned them again to remember their birthright as the first spirits crafted by Weaver,

Wyrm and Wyld. She made clear to them that they should respect all parts of the Triat as necessary, but also cautioned them that Weaver was mad, and Wyrm fractured and insane.

Arachne was the first to lead the Tenere, who follow the path of order as Weaver was meant to. Lastly, she spoke to the remaining leaders of the Ananasi, ordering them to follow the

Wyrm, not as he exists now, but as he once was. “Wyrm no longer knows how to control his impulses,” she cautioned. “He no longer knows what must die and what should live on. Do not fall to this trap. Remember that all things should exist if they were created by Wyld and shaped by Weaver.” All were told to follow separate paths, and all were told to follow those paths as best they could, never forgetting that they were a part of the Triat. Hatar was the first to lead the Hatar, who must follow the path the Wyrm once followed.

One last warning she gave to the Damhàn: “You have betrayed the trust of the other Ovid, making a great sacrifice on my behalf. For this I love you. But you have made enemies that will neither forgive nor forget what you have done. Now you must each follow your own way, and you must be merciless in the pursuit of your goals. The other Ovid are young and often foolish, they haven’t your understanding of the universe. They will attack you, and they will try to kill you. For that reason, you must never forget that you are family. Family is strong where those