Just as the Garou serve as Gaia's
warriors, the Gurahl embody Gaia's wisdom and healing protection. Peerless
as nuturers, the werebears, oldest of the changing breeds, seek to purify
the land they call their own. The innate sagacity and their knowledge of
the rythyms of life, the seasons and the passage of time, mirror their
innate closeness to their great mother. Gaia showered her first born with
a multitude of gifts. To them she entrusted the secrets of life and death,
of how to restore life to those that died that others might live.
Although noted primarily
as healers and purifiers, Gurahl are feirce and powerful when driven to
anger. While not noted for their quickness, the great werebears are pillars
of strength in the ongoing battle for Gaia's wild lands.
Accordign to their legends,
the Gurahl stand as the first and best beloved of Gaia's children. They
were once formidable gaurdians of the natural world, and their compassionate
hearts allowed them to form strong bonds with the first human tribes that
inhabited the lands the Gurahl protected. Native American legends tell
of bears who willingly gave their lives to provide necessary food and clothing
for their weak furless and clawless brothers and sisters. Bear cults of
the early people of the far north gave honor and respect to the Gurahl
through rituals and offerings and through callign upon the protective ferocity
of the great Bear spirit to aid them in battle.
Like the humans and bears
that form their natural kinfold populations, the Gurahl now dwell in primarily
artic and subarctic and cooler temprate climates, although they once existed
through out most of the world. Gurahl drew their earliest human breeding
groups from the primative tribes of Siberia, Scandinavia, India and central
Asia. Tribes of the North of North and South America later served the same
purpose after the Gurahl crossed the bridge between Siberia and the purelands.
Today, though some human kinfolk may remain int he other territories, few
Gurahl exist outside of North America, where most of their ursine kinfolk
still survive.
The Gurahl breed with the
surviving bear populations and few Gurahl kinfolk in some of the most isolated
regions of the Northern hemisphere. Hre the werebears are making a comeback
of sorts and beginning to appear with some regularity again. In most other
areas they are quickly vanishing.
Almost exclusively concerned
with preserving the wilderness where there bear kin live and dwell, the
Gurahl don't involve themselves with Human endeavors nearly as much as
the Garou do. This narrowed focus is changing as the werebears seek to
become a force in the world once again, in a last ditch effort to preserve
themselves and Gaia's wilderness lands. In many areas they find it necessary
to seek out new humans with whom to breed; it has been so long since they
turned to their human kinfolk that many branches of those once great family
have died out. Many Gurahl now support or, in some cases spearhead international
efforts to protect and encourage the proliferation of Bears and the propagation
of endangered bear species. Gurahl sometimes join wildlife activist and
wilderness preservation groups or serve as teachers of long lost secrets
of herbal healing and preservers of ancient tradition.
Quote - "We remember well the betrayel
you call the War of Rage. Though we forgive your short sightedness, we
do not forget. We hope to save the world, but our healing touch can transform
into the killing claw with great swiftness. Do not think to take us unaware
a second time"
-Garou: Our little brothers contain
so much anger that it is difficult to remain in their vicinity for long.
Some of them, particularly the ones who call themselves Gaia's children
show signs that they wish to repair the harm they caused us during the
War of the Rage. We respect the children of Uktena and the Wendigo, who
accompanied us to the pure lands. The others have much to learn from their
wiser kin.
-Bastet: Aloof, mysterious and
far too curious for their own good. ZWe admire their beauty and their grace
but regret they do not take seriously their responsibility for others.
-Corax: They are excellent sources
of information and gossip, but they tend to confuse fact and rumor. Their
greed and inquisitveness make their company annoying after only a short
time.
-Nuwisha: Like us, they know many
secrets and mysteries. Unlike us, they place to high an emphasis on redicule
and jesting. Tricksters have their place, so long as they keep their distance
and choose other targets for their jests.
