By Kevin Winger ([email protected])
She had to do something. She needed a final card to play. She needed a new child to do as the others could not. So she sat and thought. Who should she give the gift of changing skins to? She looked to the Boar, powerful but not the brightest. She looked at Wolverine; no it already had too much rage of its own. She looked out at all the animal folk and could see none worthy.
Mother Gaia drooped her head in despair. When she opened her eyes she saw the smallest of pebbles at her feet and an idea came to her. Why give the gift to an animal? The only thing that had never let her down was the earth itself. She would give the new gift to the very rocks themselves. But how? She looked out once again and what she saw surprised her. She saw churches and old castles everywhere with rock shaped in the forms of men and beasts all about their facades. She made up her mind, the Talla were born.
Because they were made in the cities, they generally stay there. Very few are comfortable in the forests and wild places their cousins prefer. A Talla's appearance in its human form differs little from other humans and though most appear to be of European descent they can come from all backgrounds. In fact what the Talla are in the simplest terms are weregargoyles. There were 4 to start born in the year 1900 and have done little but breed and teach their young. To this day their numbers range almost as large as the garou and they span the globe. They are born with an almost adult's perception and intelligence, which is called the "Wisdom of the earth" by other Talla and because of this are taught quickly and easily what they are and why they are. They have no need for a Rite of Passage.
The Talla are Gaia's rescuers and for this they need brains and brawn. The Brawn comes in 3 other forms the Talla can assume.
First is the homid form all Talla are born in. They refer to this form as the Normal. It resembles a normal human in all respects. There is no set body type to this form; the talla are as individual as any normal human though most are of average height and weight (Note: The Talla's "normalness" is one of its methods of hiding; no Talla can be above Appearance 2 in this form.) All difficulties are at 6 just as the other shifters. All characters start with Willpower of 6.
The second form is called the Motion form. This form is the equivalent to the Crinos war form. In this form a Talla looks most like a Gargoyle given flesh. They grow to between 8 and 9 feet tall no matter what their size in Normal and can weigh in excess of 900 pounds. Now in this form is where the Talla split into breeds. There are two breeds, the Daemon, which takes the form of the basic medieval Gargoyle resembling a demon or other monster with a basic human form. The second is the Animis, which is the equivalent of a lupus. These Talla become animal-like creatures, anything from giant serpents or devil hounds to legendary creatures like the Griffin and the dragon. There are no two Talla alike in this form; each takes on the qualities of the traditional gargoyles or monsters of the culture they live in. An English Daemon may look like something out of a Disney cartoon (that will remain nameless) where a Chinese Animus will become a coiled dragon out of myth. There are little else different between the forms, Animis retain their human personalities and intelligence in all forms. (note: when creating these forms the Archid form characteristics from the Mokole must be used in the same way to the Storyteller's discretion, and remember not all gargoyles have wings, use your imagination). Difficulty 6 in this form. Daemon and Animis characters both start with an Earth Gnosis of 4 though Animis start with a Fire Gnosis (Rage) of 5 and Daemons with 4. Strength +4 (to a max of 10) Dexterity +2 Stamina +3, Manipulation -3 (+2 in intimidation rolls). Appearance differs; it can go up or down depending on the individual form. The Storyteller assigns the plus or negative. Damage is the same as a crinos Garou. Because of cultural fears this form does insight the Delirium though in a reduced form much like the Bastet.
The third form is called the Golem. It is just that: the creature out of Jewish myth. The Golem appears to be a man or beast-shaped moving statue and little else. Though the Talla retains all its personality and intelligence in this form it is next to impossible to express it. Where the first two forms are referred to as the flesh forms this is the first of the stone forms. The Golem is basically a rock form of the Motion form though it grows to between 13-14 feet high and can weigh in excess of 1800 pounds. All things like wings and horns disappear in this form and it takes on a smooth abstract look. Speech of any form is impossible. The benefits of this form are its strength and its stamina. In Golem a Talla is as hard as a rock and just as strong, though it is also slow moving (all dexterity drops to 1 no mater what it was before). Needless to say it is quite easy to out maneuver in this form but should you ever get in it's clutches you are as good as dead. Strength +6, Stamina +5 all social drop to 0. The only real attack this form can make is a grab and squeeze or grab and bite; all punches and melee attacks would be too slow, anyone in a mauled or better state would be able to avoid them. Grab and squeeze/bite attack is at an 8 difficulty if the target is in wounded or better state 6 at mauled and 3 at crippled or incapacitated. Damage is strength +4. Once the hold has been successfully attained, breaking free is nearly impossible and with every turn the victim takes another level of damage but only at Strength this time. The form has a natural difficulty of 8. It can also withstand any attack made with anything like fists or claws. To cause damage you must chip and crack the Golem like rock (they are immune to fire cooler than a chemical fire) so things like sledge hammers and high powered machine guns are advised. What does and doesn't cause damage is up to the storyteller. In this form the Talla insights no Delirium with the exception of many eastern Europeans and most orthodox Jews. In these cases it is the same Delirium as in the Motion form.
The last form is the Still form. In this form the Talla is in its purest stone form. It becomes what inspired Gaia, a statue. The Talla becomes solid stone and enters a stasis state. Its size is limited to its weight in Normal form, so in Still the Talla will often be small. Its appearance is that of a miniature of its Motion form to the last detail. Because no movement is possible all physical and social traits are 0 though all mental stays the same. The Talla can remain awake if it chooses; all senses are the same as Normal. In this it can be the perfect spy. Who would think the quaint gargoyle you bought at the bazaar was listening. As well in this form the Talla is indestructible. It can not suffer any damage at all and does not age. So it is possible for a Talla to live thousands of years if it remains for most of that time in Still. Othe wise it ages at the same rate as garou. Difficulty 11 on everything but perception which is 5.
Now on to reproduction. There are no Metis or lupus (other than animis) breeds of Talla; all are born human. When Gaia created them she took into account all the mistakes she made with the others, so the Talla do not share the Garou's curse. They are free to breed together though the chance of a Talla being born is the same as a Talla human couple. Talla are born at the odds of 1 in 4; any without the shifter gene between two Talla are stillborn. If delicate care is taken to carve a gargoyle and the spirit of the rock is awakened a Talla may enact a level 5 rite to awaken the statue as a Talla; this has never been successful though. All gargoyles created in this fashion have gone into a rage and a non stop frenzy. All of these Talla soon died from injuries caused in the frenzy.
Talla have no connection at all to Luna so like the Nuwisha they have no Rage. And since they have very little connection to the Umbra because they did not exist in a time when there was no Gauntlet they get all their gnosis directly from the mother herself. All a Talla needs to regain Earth Gnosis is to sit and meditate on a open spot of earth or rock embedded in earth. Earth Gnosis is identical to normal Gnosis in all ways. Instead of Rage the Talla get their anger and will to fight directly from the mother as well. Called Fire Gnosis it works in the same fashion as normal Rage though to regain it a Talla must burn himself in some way so that he may more acutely feel the mother's pain. (note: because of the Talla's more direct link to the mother she naturally regains 2 points of Fire Gnosis in a night's sleep)
The Talla's one true weakness is Obsidian. Gaia did not wish her newest children to become too powerful. She needed something as a safe guard if they ever fell to the Wyrm. What she came up with was the first true weapon ever created by the humans. The black volcanic glass she herself creates in the depths of the furnace of the earth, obsidian has the same effect as silver to garou though in Still form the Talla still takes no damage from it.
Talla at this stage are hiding; even with numbers to rival any of the other shifters they do not yet wish to show their hand. When they become stronger, with real armies their plans are to attack the Weaver full on. They are sound in the belief that if the Wyrm is freed from the Weavers webs that the Wyrm will balance back out and become the benign figure of entropy it used to be. Their plans do not include any of the other shifting breeds. To the Talla all the Bete are just the Beta versions of Gaia's chosen, and they are the bug free editions. If any of them get in the way then the Talla will not be held responsible for the loss of an obsolete cousin.
Talla Gain renown in much the same way as Garou do. Though they take personal honor among their own kind to great heights and it is easily the most important to them. Their honor systems though only concern their own kind. If a Talla is less than honorable to another shifter he is no less in his peers eyes. To raise rank half or more of a Talla's renown must be in honor; otherwise treat him as a Raggabash. Glory is just the same as a Garou's, with the exception that it is centered on the Weaver rather than the Wyrm. They still accord glory for killing tainted Wyrm beasts but not so much as something like a Technocrat or a net spider. Wisdom and the spirit realm have little to do with each other until the 5th rank. Wisdom in the early ranks is calculated by how well a Talla can hide.
Rites are things the Talla have little use for. They have learned and used punishment rites on occasion, but have created few rites of their own and use them even less. The same can be said of Talens and Fetishes; their weak link to the spirits makes such things very hard for them to make so they worry little about them.
Talla have an absolute minimal connection to the Umbra because of the time that they were born in. To reach the Umbra takes a Gift called Promised Land, which is identical to the Bastet gift Walking between the Worlds, with the exception that it is a rank 5 gift. Talla otherwise learn gifts much in the same way as Garou and use most of the Garou gifts. All homid gifts are available to Daemon and all lupus to Animis. Tribe gifts can be learned by all Talla native to the region that the tribe is from. For example, all British Talla are capable of learning Fianna gifts and all Egyptian Talla can learn Silent Strider gifts. All Auspice gifts are attached to rank. Rank 1 Talla can learn Raggabash gifts but only of that rank. Rank 2 Talla can learn Galliard gifts and Raggabash gifts up to rank 2 and so on. Rank 3 is Philodox; rank 4 is Ahroun and rank 5 is Theurge. At the 5th rank Talla are capable of learning all Auspice gifts. After so many gifts learned the difficulty for learning new gifts gets higher. The limit is roughly 10 Auspice gifts, so choose wisely what gifts you wish to learn. Talla are not able to learn Metis gifts because there are no Metis; such impure old world gifts are below them as they believe. As well because of the Talla's weak link to the Spirit realm all gifts are taught by other shifters, other Talla or by a spirit if it can cross the Gauntlet into the material world. This weakened link also keeps Talla from gaining a Totem until the fifth Rank; totems work in the same geographical way that tribal gifts work. Fianna totems to British Talla, etc.
Dragon's Tongue (Rank 3 Animis) Like the Bastet gift, Spitfire, but rank 3 and it can only be used in the Motion form. It is taught by a fire spirit
Legend's Wing (Rank 2 common) Same as the Strider gift Speed of thought, but it can only be learned by those with the capability of flight. It only applies to flight, not ground movement and is restricted to Motion form.
Blend (Rank 1 common)
Bastet: Little kitty with eyes so bright, how did you miss the fall of the light?
Corax: Birds can see much but who cares when none understand their squawking?
Gurahl: You sleep as the world passes you by. Stay safe big brother; we will need you to heal Gaia when we make her safe.
Ananasi: Squish.
Mokole: Gentle giants that remember it all. Too bad the memory is so foul of late.
Nagah: Why did you fail? You waited too long to strike brother snake.
Nuwisha: Laugh off in your secret spaces and come home when all is done. We don't need your help.
Ratkin: SqueeeeK!! Squish
Rokea: Just what was your job anyhow?