The history of this Caern is a mysterious one, but the most creditable legends amount to stories of Nunnehi who frolicked here, and after them, Dreamspeakers who worked their mystical powers upon this earth. Many other theories suggest that other supernatural forces have left their marks here, but none can be certain. At some point, the native Garou laid claim to the lake, and these were a sept of Uktena devoted to the acquisition of power. Parties of adventurer-shamans set out on heroic missions to recover some lost artifact, to explore the darkest recesses of the Umbra, or to uncover lost secrets spread about the globe.

The most recent inheritors of the Ghostwoods were the Garou of the Darkwind, a hybrid group of Wendigo and Uktena members. Little is known of what happened to this sept of peacekeepers, but they were known to cultivate relationships with others of almost all species in their attempts to introduce an element of universal harmony in their abode. Once they petered away, it was this practice of diplomacy that led to the occupation of the Caern by Verbena, who were readiest to accept the Darkwind's offers of friendship.

A chantry of Verbena has since controlled the Caern as a Named Node from which it has drawn its power. Salem Darkchylde, at the head of this company, warded over the former bawn, employing a Guardian to defend the lake, caring for the land as his own. It was during this period of peace that he committed a grave error that later both came to haunt him and benefit him.

Discovering the traces of an unburried werewolf slain among the standing-stones, Darkchylde indulged in an experiment; he resurrected the fallen soldier, the Uktena Philodox by the name of Argent. Though in life he had been a dedicated and vigilant guardian, devoutly obedient to Gaia and his Litany, death had twisted the Garou, leaving him with the seeds of his later madness in the form of bitterness. Hateful for the unceremony of his demise, the uncaring attitudes of his leaders, the unrelenting sensation that his life had gone to waste in his service, Argent lost his soul to corruption with every passing day, feeding Banes which had been attracted by his hunger for revenge. He set his heart to a new goal-- personal fulfillment. To do that, though, he would have to seize the Caern from the mages.

Here, Malice Ardens, the warChief of the Den Wendigo, joined the scene. Dissenting from what he viewed was a failing a sept, the elder mounted a campaign to build a new following. In commemoration of the history of its founding, he christened his sept in the name of the autumn's early frost, calling it the "White Equinox." He had known of the Darkwind Sept, of its passing, and he also knew something of Argent, but he was totally ignorant of the current state of affairs. When he led a modest crew to the Caern for the first time, he was expecting to find an abandoned, overgrown site called the Ghostwoods. He and his party found themselves caught Argent's prepositioned ambush and the awakened Guardian of the lake. This first exchange of blows was a stalemated battle, and all three parties withdrew. When Malice returned, he brought with him a posse of armed volunteers to seize the bawn by force.

Salem Darkchylde awaited the return of the Equinox, seeking a diplomatic resolution. Although Malice was distrustful, he accepted a truce in exchange for the revelation of Argent's second, more formidable surprise attack. By the night's end, the Banes were vanquished, the Uktena traitor had been slain, and the Garou and the mages were allies. The Wyrm had been driven from the hallowed soil.

Things have changed. The eerie secrets and hidden evils around the Caern have begun to show themselves....

The enigmatic "Ghostwoods Ghost" roams the forests, striding by the Garou without heed like an uninterested watchman on his rounds. But his outward peacefulness can instantly erupt into terrifying violence when he comes across someone he appears to "dislike." To the Garou's belief, this is limited to those of the Wyrm, but the Ghost's motives are probably quite different.

The Vhujunka, an underground race of hideously intelligent evil, lurks on the either side of an umbral passage beginning in the Heart of the Caern. The broken gateway has been sealed now, but only after weeks at war with a power well beyond the scope of anything the White Equinox had ever seen. On the night of the winter solstice, when the struggle came to an end at last, the sept had lost its first Warder and Alpha, Malice Ardens, to the enemy. Since then, the Heart of the Caern has remained an uneasy place to visit.

The sept, after an interim period of leadership under the joint authority of the Council of Two Elders, Janeke Runs-with-Wolves and Tasha Silverblood, now accepts the former's role as Alpha. Steps-through-Storms, the pumonca who was tolerated under Malice's influence, has become an acting Warder for the sept, having established a Den-Realm in the bawn to defend their territory.

This is the current state of affairs in the dark corner of the forests.