Bone Shadows

The tribal symbol of the Bone Shadows

The Bone Shadows (Hirfathra Hissu in the First Tongue, lit. "ghosts of the bones") are one of the five Tribes of the Moon. They focus on the ephemeral worlds beyond the realm of flesh, courting and sometimes hunting its strange denizens.

In the eyes of the Bone Shadows, the delicate balance between the world of flesh and the world of spirits that existed in Pangea was lost when Father Wolf fell. As his heirs, it is their duty to maintain it again. In their eyes, the threats the other Tribes face are just the symptoms of the greater calamity, while they tend to the wound itself. To this end, they hoard knowledge, often preserving it in carved bones and similar trinkets. They actively seek out the unknown, studying and cataloguing it before binding it safely away or casting it into the depths of the Shadow. Almost all of them have their little rituals, omens of good luck or bad, and charms they carry for protection. Even those not laboring under bans brought on by low Harmony often display strange taboos and aversions.

Tribal Oath

Pay Each Spirit in Kind. (Su A Sar-Hith Sa in the First Tongue). The Bone Shadows seek to treat the denizens of the Shadow Realm fairly. That means repayment of debt or honoring promises, but also the punishment of any spirit who tries to cross them. Vengeance is a virtue to the Hirfathra Hissu.

Totem

The Bone Shadows revere Kamduis-Ur, Death Wolf, the most inquisitive and quietest of her brethren, sometimes also referred to as Kig-Ur, the Seeking Wolf. Kamduis-Ur is said to have bonded with the first Bone Shadows when they constructed a ritual so complex that it drew her attention from across the Gauntlet, or when they learned enough from the little tracks she left that they were able to approach her with an offer regarding their oath.

Bone Shadows in Blackmouth

The heart of the Hirfathra Hissu in Blackmouth was the old Blackwood Pack, and since their fall in the '90s the tribe has fragmented into a web of rumour mills and fragile alliances.

Notable members of the tribe who have appeared in chronicles set in Blackmouth include:

• Lucan Black, member of the Wardens, recently changed gothic dreamer and singer, drawn to the Hirfathra Hissu by the macabre imagery.
• The Blackwood, mythologised last survivor of the first Blackwood Pack, whose rampage of revenge for the death of her pack cut a bloody swathe through the kindred.