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as well as Jordan and Lebanon. These people were living in the cradle of civilization; they were the probably the first people to discover plant farming, animal domestication and, most importantly to us, they created some of the first cities. Among the most important of these was Jericho, which held two thousand people and was surrounded by a stone wall three meters wide and four meters high.

That wall, along with our geographical knowledge of the area, gives us some hints as to the social environment of the day and what our ancestors may have been doing.

Ancient Palestine was a rough topology, filled with steppes and valleys that greatly limited the civilization’s expansion, which is why Egypt overtook it. When you add the massive wall surrounding Jericho, you begin to get an image of the people as rugged and used to battle.

Our ancestors probably did a number of things here. First of all, they set about adapting human invention and belief to their own use as our tribe always has. So far we’ve yet to unearth fetish human skulls used for contacting spirits, but we can live in hope. Second of all, this is when we most likely develop our attachment to the city (as opposed to just humans in general), and it’s interesting to note that the markings on the aforementioned icons seem to resemble tents. Did the early tribe associate Cockroach with the city? And finally, we remained warriors, but it is probably around these times that the first notions of urban combat are discussed in our tribe.

There are numerous other questions that can be asked and will sadly probably never be answered. What was the Umbra like within the early cities? Did the building of cities offend spirits, or birth new ones? I’ve heard stories of spider-motif icons being unearthed, too, so that really makes me wonder about how much was being shared about the Weaver. I’d sorely love to know the answers to these questions.

Slick Sims shrugs: I guess this is the pice we pay for the pemnency of the written history. The tribes that still rely completely on oral history never really switched over traditions and thus have this continual line. We ruptured our own history in the switchover and have tried to pick up the pieces ever since. (B/&unM U d 3 4 4 M Many, many years passed in this area. There was a whole lot more fighting, most of it tremendously ugly.

I could imagine the tribe’s faith in humanity was waning when, sometime around 2000-1800 BCE, someone goes and writes a book that makes them remember what it first was about humanity that they loved so much. No one knows who the author was, but the book is called Job. You can find it as the 18th book of the Bible, but it was the first one ever written. And whilst I know other tribes are fond of deploring human religion, just read this book and you’ll see why they instantly liked it. Amid the bloodshed, and senseless violence, this writing was humble. Reflective. It held awe for the Almighty that was in kind, if not in magnitude, exactly how they held Gaia.

However, the religion behind it spread fast. And suddenly the tribe had a massive problem. Judaism was monotheistic, it believed in only one God. It was more tightly constructed than previous religions and suddenly the early tribe’s worship of Gaia stood out. What did they do?

What many other small religious groups, including Judaism, would do when forced into a society with another dominant religion. The tribe gave the outward show of being Jewish whilst secretly continuing with their own rites. Some of it was easy -Judaism used a lunar calendar that made worshipping Luna easy. Once the Psalms were written, they used the more militant ones in their War rites.

Other efforts were stranger. A Talmudic reading described the world two thousand years before the world’s creation, when Seven things were created: The Torah, the Divine Throne, Paradise, Hell, the Celestial Sanctuary, a jewel on its altar engraved with the name of the Messiah, and a Voice that cries aloud “Return, 0 you children of men.” Other texts peculiar to our predecessors suggest that our tribe used this tale to help cubs understand the various Fera. We were the voice that cried aloud, to the Fera who did not listen. The MokolC were the Torah, the Bastet were the divine throne. Paradise were the C o r a (bet you’re happy), whilst the Ratkin were hell. The Gurahl were the Celestial Sanctuary with the Ananasi the engraving.

I’ve no idea what all the analogies mean, exactly, but the whole reading is clearly a lesson on the origins of the Fera and their place in the order of things. No matter how you interpret it, it’s fascinating stuff.

The one problem with Slick‘s theory about the switch between written and oral histories is that, in theory, the very oral history would become part of the written one. In year such and such, we talked about our past in so and so terms. It’s possible that we lost our connection in such a way, but it theoretically shouldn’t have to happen.

Another possibility is that we’re simply ignoring the most obvious connections in our Western arrogance. Whilst most outsiders, and more than a few inside the tribe as well, see us as anexclusively Western tribe, there’s been a long Chinese tradition that was unveiled to us when we became aware of the Boli Backup-Circuit asks: That’s agood question. Why does their legend cite only wolves? With the Boli Zouhisze, I’d have expected a more encompassing myth that accounted for all shifters, not just the Garou. Aren’t there several various types over there?

Supposedly, but the Boli Zouhisze have never really been a part of the system. It’s strange, although it’s been explained to me as having to do with Cockroach. In amongst the Asian Fera, insect imagery is associated with the Wyrm. As aresult, the Boli Zouhisze aren’t very well received. In fact, they seem to get treated worse than the Ananasi despite the fact that the Eastern spiders are actually Wyrm-tainted, according to my contact over there, who admittedly would be biased. It’s still quite fascinating.

What’s also fascinating is how clearly the myth is influenced by human mythology. All five men figure in Chinese myth, with Huang Di as the first pre-dynastic ruler. The Boli Zouhisze version omits Shun, the lord after Huang Di who appointed Yu to fix flooding.

Which was one of the first Chinese technologies; the Chinese were remarkably advanced. By 3000 BCE, they had farming, spears and basic tools, animal domestication, excellent mathematical skills, and the ability to carve jade. This was a level of advancement not achieved by the Native American tribes in 16OO CE, for a comparison. The Boli Zouhisze were there as they went, using the human inventions to create their own. One trick they were very fond of, reportedly, was binding air spirits into spears in order to make them much lighter, yet no less sharp or potent, than normal. Because they were much lighter, the blade could be made much larger. Ancestor worship was also common in China by 2000 BCE, and certain Boli Zouhisze claim that they introduced this to the humans rather than the other way around. However, they still don’t seem to be able to contact their ancestors today, like the rest of our tribe.

By 400 BCE, changes had begun to sweep through China. Whilst the rise of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties were the most major for the country, the major change for our tribe was the rise of Confucianism, along with the response from Taoism and Legalism.

Though far from the first human philosophy (Or even the first philosophy their tribe had encountered,) these philosophies apparently intrigued the Boli Zouhisze, in particular Confucianism and Legalism. (Taoism, incidentally, also arose in this period, but its passive ways didn’t sit well with the tribe.) Confucianism was an ethical philosophy, which believed that everyone, ruler or lowest female serf, had their role to play and that trying to break that role would only bring about hurt. It held much appeal for some of the tribe, for whilst its focus on traditionalism irked Zouhisze. Calling them a camp or just apart of our tribe is unfair; they’re almost an entirely different tribe. And yet the writing is on the wall, they’re an urban-based tribe who revere Cockroach. They’re our people. I daresay they were as surprised by us, but we’ve interacted well and we’ve learned much about what our tribe was doing in Ancient China from them.

The Boli Zouhisze are unique among all the Garou in that they have a one-tribe creation myth, suggesting that there were no other tribes in China back in their legendary days. According to their myth, the world formed of two forcesofwhicheachwastwo, ayin-yangwithinayin-yang.

One force was that of life and death, the other of chaos and order. Originally they were each one, but as they split the Umbra and Earth formed. In each thing, living or inanimate, every force existed, but no creatures were so perfect as the humans and the wolves. The wolves were the greatest of killers, and yet kept families, and exemplified perfect chaos. The humans made many lives, yet knew to take them, and were the most ordered of beings.

BackupXircuit gets confused: I understand the fourforces, Gaiaand the Triat, right? But that reference to wolves suggests that the Garou will be the main player here.

Outinthe West, Igetthat, butinAsia?Howdotheyignore the other Fera? And what’s this about humans “knowing to take” lives?

Human sacrifice, Backup. The Chinese did it.

Yikes .

According to the myth, five men came forward as greater than all others. The first of these was Fu Xi, the Ox-Tamer, who learned how to farm the land and make a family. The second was Sheng-Nong, the Divine Farmer, who invented the plough and the hoe.

And then Huang Di, the Yellow Lord. He created the bow and arrow, boats, silk, writing and ceramics.

Another man, Yao, created the calendar and ritual.

And last, Yu created flood control.

Elizabeth @nereader notes: Huang Di fits really nicely into ehe Northern Myth. A great man creates the bow and avow, and the Garou snap up the invention with &e.

Also they fit into the five auspices, and the Boli Zouhisze often hold them up as examples. Yu, who tricks nature, is a Ragabash; Yao is a Theurge for obvious reasons. Fu Xi creates relationships and is a Philodox, Sheng Nong a Galliard, whilst Huang Di is an Ahroun. According to the myth, the wolves saw what the humans had done and saw that they had none among themselves whom could match the accomplishments. Turning to Luna, who favored them, they begged her for the chance to do as great things as the humans. And she turned them into Garou. It’s interesting how they cite us coming exclusively from wolves whilst simultaneously exalting humanity, isn’t it? some of them, the strong definition of social roles clicked strongly with their Garou mindset. (Take a guess: Did auspice roles become more, or less important in these times?) Other aspects also seemed to mirror Garou society, such as the Mandate of Heaven as discussed by Confucian scholar Mencius, where the people will rise up against an unjust ruler but support a just one. For the Boli Zouhisze, this seemed to be adirect mirror of the Garou way of challenging. Indeed, some suggest that it was Confucius that taught the Garou their ways! More likely, however, it was wolf instinct that taught them that, just as with the rest of us.

The flip side to this was Legalism. Where Confucianism offered idealism, adherence to tradition and a basic belief in human goodness, Legalism threw over pragmatism, a refusal to believe one law applied equally to any two situations and a frequently blunt belief that the rulers knew best for the ruled. Much like Confucianism, it was concerned with the harmony of a society but held that rigid order and organization of government had far more to do with that than any innate role in society or personal virtue. It never had the easy segueing into Garou philosophy that Confucianism had, but its strong rejection of tradition held something for the Boli Zouhisze soul. I guess its proof that yes; they’re the same tribe as us. z?i&i%zh& h.JM/fl& (BOflB@kh?

Of course, a mere fifty years later, they encountered another philosophy that would radically alter China: Buddhism. Just as the Western tribe had difficulty existing in a society with religious beliefs sharply contrasting to theirs, now the Boli Zouhisze needed to discover how they could disguise their own Gaia worship withinasociety that was quickly becoming strongly attached to this new view of life.

Unlike the relatively quickly adapting Western tribe, the Boli Zouhisze had profound difficulty in adapting to the new ways, so much so that many of the tribe actually considered latching onto the Taoist beliefs that the tribe had spumed, since Taoism was rising at the same time. In the end, however, the same difficulties the tribe had with Taoism to begin with still stood, and it was hard to see how Taoism could offer a better cover than Buddhism. Early efforts of hiding with Buddhism focused around using the skandhas as names for the five auspices. Sunna, a word referring to our perceptions, was also our codeword for the Ragabash. Vijmna referred to both consciousness and Theurges; whilst Philodox took sunkharam, the sku& describing our mental capacities. Emotions, or vedana represented the Galliards; and mpu was both the physical body and the Ahroun.

The tribe mostly survived this period by clinging to the still far more powerful Confucianism, (the Han