Post by Da Boss on Jul 9, 2020 0:14:20 GMT -5
There have been traces of some kinds of hominid remains found around the waterfalls of the Sept of the Moon Bow dating back since long before humankind realized they could fully walk upright on two legs. Few that are not blessed by Gaia with being able to wear more than one skin are certain what drew people to this place originally. The garou know, and they celebrate Luna's guidance for each night that they are blessed with her light.
Nobody is sure who first decided to place a sept next to the falls or why they chose Unicorn as the totem originally. What is known is that, unlike Stag's Heart to the Northwest of here, this Sept was taken from those people in a rather quick and decisive manner. There are no stories and legends that remain of those times other than a few that are surely mistaken after so many hundreds of years of retelling. What is known is that throughout all of the histories that are known, this Sept was someone else's and then suddenly it wasn't under some kind of rather peaceful transition into the hands of the Uktena. Whenever this event may have taken place, it long predates the Uktena gaining control over Stag's Heart and may even predate the creation of Mammoth's Rage. Of that, nobody is certain. But the garou of the Sept of the Moon Bow believe that it is true and will often remind their "younger" neighbors.
The wars that raged across the rest of the Protectorate of the Bloodied Ground never really touched the Sept of the Moon Bow. This was a place that was too difficult for the Wendigo to strike while their wars were being fought against the Uktena for dominance of the area. This place was one of peace and prosperity, where garou came to be rejuvenated and reborn, not where they came to fight and die. As such, it was a place that lacked the political might once the pace was settled. There it would remain, tucked away in the mountains, always to be ignored.
All of that was to change as the Europeans made their way through the Cumberland Gap. While located in very close proximity to the pass through the Appalachian Mountains, the Sept would not really see an incursion of the Europeans for many decades after their arrival. In fact, the first contact between the Sept of the Moon Bow and the new settlers happened at Stag's Heart, and it is often theorized that it was the Uktena from Moon Bow that first proposed the idea of trying to get the white people to win their war against the Wendigo. This idea is rarely believed or even tolerated within the Sept of the Moon Bow, however, as it would be entirely out of their nature to have ever promoted conflict between one peoples and another.
Whomever it was that first suggested the tactic, it wasn't long after that the Europeans managed to find the twin waterfalls that are in the middle of the bawn. Nobody is quite certain how that happened originally, the Uktena will tell you that it was the European garou and their kinfolk that first found them and began moving in. The others are adamant that it was the Uktena who failed to defend their territory against the normal humans and they came first to the area. Either way the result was the same, and the Sept soon found itself populated to bursting.
These newcomers however did nothing to attempt to oust the Uktena that ran the Sept. In fact they seemed quite content to simply pitch in and help out anywhere they were able. At first, it seemed that the Bloodied Ground Protectorate might be willing to give up its name and its reputation. However, by the turn of the 1800s, diseases that were unknown to the Uktena kinfolk combined with a large number of intermingling of the tribe had caused the native populations to become all but extinct in the area. With their disappearance and thinning out, the Children of Gaia soon assumed command along with a rather large contingent of Bone Gnawers that had begun settling into the hills and mountains that surrounded the caern.
By the time the Civil War broke out, there were no true Uktena left at Moon Bow, just some Children of Gaia and some Bone Gnawers that, if you looked at them in the fading evening sunlight might have been able to pass as a distant relative. The war itself never really touched the Sept, other than some tensions that ran a little hot from some of the Bone Gnawers that found it rather pleasant that, at least somewhere, there was a people that even they could down upon. The area around the Sept was far too mountainous, and too covered in forests, for there to be any kind of large troop movements and the result was merely some minor skirmishes between families more than anything that would resemble a battle.
By the end of the war, the area seemed almost completely forgotten except for the few legends about a waterfall in the area that made rainbows from moonlight. On paper, the Sept seemed to change hands rather frequently, although the deeds always managed to fall back into the hands of the kinfolk families that lived within close proximity. However, the region as a whole would soon find itself cast from isolation and back into the spotlight as somebody, somewhere, finally found the maps which marked the Eastern Coal fields that had been discovered back when European settlers had first started to arrive. At the same time, the protectorate came under the near totalitarian leadership of the Silver Fangs. Never ones to start a war where one wasn't needed, Moon Bow was willing to bend the knee in the name of peace, robbing Stag's Heart (or at least the rebellious Fianna) of their relied upon allies against the influx of Northern tribes.
The turn of the twentieth century was a difficult time for the Sept of the Moon Bow. While Mammoth's Rage and Stag's Heart were complaining about packs going missing that were patrolling along the protectorate's borders, Moon Bow's protectorate patrol packs were reporting that nothing was out of the ordinary at all. However, with the rediscovery of the Easter Coal Fields, and the massive demand across the country for coal, there was a war that was beginning in the hillsides. Well, more accurately, beneath the hills and mountains. As the mining companies moved in, and their waste was dumped next to the openings of the mines, the area began to become infested with banes. Worse still was that the Columbia River itself was becoming ruined to the point that the fish and wildlife that relied upon it for clean water were dying off. Moon Bow had no time to deal with potential threats from afar, the Wyrm was on its doorstep in the here and now.
With the outbreak of the war, the problems only got worse. The demand for coal exploded and while there were few among the Sept's kinfolk that were called up to the war, the Spanish Flu combined with the black lung disease that many of the kinfolk were developing from trying to work any job they could find. Making matters even worse was the continued death of the surrounding woodlands from the poisons being dumped by the coal mines themselves. Death had come to the Sept of the Moon Bow, and it would leave its claw marks across everything that it touched.
Once the war was over, the economic recession that plagued the majority of Kentuckians never really hit around the Sept of Moon Bow. How could it? There was money to be had for any kinfolk willing to sacrifice their lives in the mines, while corrupting Gaia just so that your family could eat. It was at this point that the leadership of Moon Bow had enough of kinfolk being willing to wo whatever it took for them to put food on the table, and dedicated the sept solely to the cause of war against the Wyrm's efforts in mining. This might have seemed like a good idea at the time. However, less that a week later the stock market crashed and the Great Depression came. Unlike the kinfolk at Stag's Heart that had other opportunities to fall back upon, and who had large kinfolk families that were able to sustain them, the people of Moon Bow had nothing unless they were willing to defy the Alpha's orders and go to work in the mines. Many kinfolk made that call, and many of them were killed for their insolence, before the Red Talons of Mammoth's Rage began to supply the Sept. Sure, you were trusting in the one tribe that wanted nothing more than to see your existence wiped off the face of Gaia, but at the end of the day you take the food you're offered when it is the difference between life and death.
With the outbreak of World War 2, and the call to arms from the Get of Fenris, the Sept of the Moon Bow was left with a rather difficult decision to make; would they abandon their place as the peacemakers of the Bloodied Ground Protectorate or would they find fascism to be an acceptable practice while millions were being slaughtered (although without their knowledge) on the other side of the world as a crazed despot was using the garou that were loyal to him to wage a war unlink any other. In the end, the sept caved against their principles and sent troops; kinfolk and garou alike, to go and die in the war. However, not being as talented in the arts of warfare as the Get of Fenris, or even the Fianna, the loses to the sept were massive. It was this decision perhaps more than any other which began to send Guards-the-Peace-with-Fury, a mere cliath that was barely out of his Rite of Passage, down the route that would one day lead to his doom.
Reduced in numbers as they were, and yet still with more garou on hand than Stag's Heart, it was Moon Bow and Mammoth's Rage that bore the brunt of the war with the Wyrm in the South in an effort to defend the Protectorate of the Long River. Long had Long River been an ally of Moon Bow, both sharing the same sacred waters from the Cumberland River, and both honoring the spirits which inhabited that place. However, while there were more garou to be sent into the war, it was again Moon Bow which suffered the heaviest loses. With nothing but cliaths to throw into the battle while the higher ranking garou were either guarding the sept or fighting in the Get of Fenris' war across the ocean, there was nobody else to answer the call. In the end, almost an entire generation of Moon Bow was wiped out and it was questionable if the Sept would survive after losing so many in the South and across the oceans. The sept was reinforced from Stag's Heart, increased patrols along the protectorate's southern border were increased, and the Children of Gaia hoped for the future.
There are some who will tell you that, after the fall of the Long River and the end of the Get of Fenris Civil War, there were a few years of peace. Those are people who were never at Moon Bow. As their garou returned home from Europe, depleted in number though they were, they immediately launched into a full campaign against the mining operations of Eastern Kentucky. While Stag's Heart was off playing politics with the Silver Fangs, Moon Bow was bleeding and dying against all sorts of Wyrm corruption within the mountains and hills.
However, when the kinf of the Sept sends out a call to war, and comes knocking to make sure that you send your best, you don't have much of a choice. So it was that Moon Bow found itself embattled in yet another war that it wanted no part of, and still without returning to its former strength. While the other garou from the Bloodied Ground Protectorate went in search of glory, fame, and repair old wrongs, those from Moon Bow were just doing their duty in order to have their Sept left in relative peace. As the wars dragged on and on, and dissent against them grew on the home front, the leaders of Moon Bow decided that it was time for a change. Something had to give, and from the way things were going, that something was going to be the fall of the Sept. The leaders recalled all of their theurges from across the world, removing them from the fight, and gave them a simple task, that seemed impossible; find a way for the Childrren of Gaia to serve within the Bloodied Ground Protectorate, while at the same time remaining loyal to the ideals of peace.
The theurges claim that they were gone for a few months in the umbra. In reality, they were thought lost for over a decade. When they did finally manage to return, they brought news of a new spirit they had uncovered; a black unicorn with fire in its eyes and whose hooves were like hammers famming on rail spikes. A spirit of war in the name of peace, a true contradiction the likes of which could only exist within the realm of spirits. They discovered the Black Unicorn.
Almmost as soon as Black Unicron first began to appear to the garou of Moon Bow there were reports of a massive Wyrm force that was marching North. The new spirit came to the Children of Gaia and told them that this would be a feint, and that a larger force was aimed towards the East. The spirit told that the forces sent against them were split and divided and could be easily defeated if the garou were willing to play into their own form of divide and conquor. These messages were spoken to deaf ears. After all, what did the Children of Gaia know of tactics compared to the Get of Fenris and the Red Talons? For the first time in as long as anyone could remember, a Wyrm offensive was halted and it was Moon Bow that had suffered the fewest casualties and had given the least ground in order to win the war. While Black Unicorn had managed to help Moon Bow in surviving, without the manpower from those that were still on the other side of the world fighting in the name of the Silver Fangs, it would not be enough to prevent the fall of the Shawanese Protectorate.
Under this auspicious new sign, the Children of Gaia from Moon Bow were able to finally shift their full focus to the Wars in the East. After a few key victories, and a few tactical retreats, it was determined that both sides should call a cease fire, and an armistace was declared. Having gained some new found respect for the garou of Moon Bow, the Get of Fenris began to grow concerned about their place within the Protectorate. How could they remain the key generals of the Kincaids, if it was the Children of Gaia who were winning the battles? The Get of Fenris even went so far as to suggest that the leadership of Moon Bow were making secret deals with the protectorate's enemies in order to gain their victories. Thus began the protectorate's involvements in the Amazon, each side hoping to prove once and for all that they were worthy of the respect and deserving of their rolls in warfare.
Sending so many to fight, die, or live on in fame, to the Amazon would prove to be a rather unfortunate incident for Moon Bow. With so much of the new blood gone, the leadership quickly fell back into their old ways of provoking the Get of Fenris. This in turn cased a response from the Fenrir. Soon, things were spiraling out of hand as each side began engaging in a geurilla war against the other. That is when Clay County came up with his idea of a challenge to end all feuds.
Guards-the-Peace-with-Fury was sent to be the representative from Moon Bow in the conflict. While this was an intelligent choice due to his capabilities, there were far more Children of Gaia that could, and should, have been called upon for this task. Guards-the-Peace-with-Fury was too close to Black Unicorn, held too much hatred and violence in his heart towards the tribe that had been the cause of his grandfather and father's death. For more than six hours he battled against Hammer-Calls-Forth-the-Thunder at Stag's Heart. For more than six hours he was forced to call upon every gift and trick that he knew to fight the Get of Fenris into a stalemate. It was in that moment, when the two were seemed to be the most equally matched, that something changed within Guards-the-Peace-with-Fury. His eyes began to glow red and it is said that his attacks began to fall with enough force and ferocity to have rivaled Gaia herself. Nobody is quite certain what happened next, although there is plenty of speculation. What is known is that, given this mighty second wind, Guards-the-Peace-with-Fury managed to kill Hammer-Calls-Forth-the-Thunder before his strength left him. The Child of Gaia slumped to the ground before falling over and being immediately treated by the best healers that the Sept was able to call upon.
After the battle, the Get of Fenris retreated to their small territory north of Stag's Heart, where they have remained to this day. Moon Bow's reputation and renown lept forward, and suddenly there were calls from anyone in need of warriors flowing into Moon Bow, as the secret of Black Unicorn was out. The Children of Gaia were not just capable of being garou like the others, they now had a war totem that was worthy of being called that name. And not only that, the unicorn spirit which now inhabited the Sept of the Moon Bow was one of these mythical Black Unicorns.
Not long after this, the Wyrm once more began to pour across the southern border in numbers never before seen. The entire protectorate believed that their end had come, the protectorate to their immediate south had gone, the one to their southeast had gone, they stood as the gateway into the North. Some rumored that there were spies within the protectorate; kinfolk or even some garou whose hearts had turned against Gaia, and they were feeding information to the Wyrm in return for some future promise and that is why the Wyrm always seemed to strike as soon as numbers depleted. However, under the leadership of the Kincaids and their new Battle Masters, the garou from Moon Bow and the Children of Gaia under Black Unicorn specifically, the initial onslaught of the tainted forces was stopped. What followed was a mirrored reflection of the ways in which the humans fought war. While the humans had developed the blitzkreig as a solution to trench warfare, the garou and forces of the Wyrm had developed the slow push of trench warfare as a response to the blitzkreig. The goal was no longer to win a quick and decisive victory. The goal was to inch forward, day by day, as you reclaimed the ground that the Wyrm was attempting to seize.
For five long years this tactic was working in favor of the Gaian forces as ground that was thought lost forever was reclaimed and spirits that were believed to never be known again were captured and purified. They were winning the war for the first time that anybody could remember. But it was coming at a heavy price. This manner of warfare is like the tide, constantly moving inward without a care of what might be in its way. Yes, once lost territory was being regained, but the Bloodied Ground Protectorate was losing garou every day. Ground was being gained, but at such a high price that it was only a matter of time before the battles began moving in the Wyrm's favor. After meditating, communing with Black Unicorn, and discussing the messages and visions they had received. Finally, they came to the determination that what was needed was deception and solid tactics which would lead them to victory. The only real problem was, where were they to strike?
It was decided that the protectorate would send out ten packs across the southern border on a special mission. Move deep into the territory controlled by the Wyrm to scout out where the strongholds of the Wyrm were located. Then, as they returned back, strike at different targets to conceal their real purpose on moving into the south. Of the roughly fifty garou that left, fifteen would not be there when the reports were given. Their names would be remembered as being those that gave their lives so that the protectorate could have a chance at winning the current war against the forces of the Wyrm. By dying, they gave the others at a chance for success.
The call went out immediately for everyone to rally together for one gaint strike into the heart of the Wyrm, where the missing pack had disappeared. Some were hesitant to follow the Children of Gaia to war still, especially the Red Talons of Mammoth's Rage, but this was a good plan. This was a plan that was going to work. The discussions were short on the issue. This was the place that the Children of Gaia had earned with blood and bone. This was the will of Black Unicorn.
As the forces of the Gaians crashed into the forces that the Wyrm had arrayed against them and driving them back. Further and further towards where the expected hive was located the garou drove. The battles were getting fiercer and fiercer as the Wyrm knew that its death was nigh. And then the advance stalled out. Those who are more touched with the spiritual who were there tell of a great black steed that crashed into the Gaian forces, with hooves and a mane of fire, eyes that glowed as coals, and skeletal wings that stretched out without feathers that were still able to carry the beast aloft. In the umbra, the theurges spoke of this being existing upon both sides of the guantlet at the same time. It collided with the herd of Black Unicorns that marched alongside their garou charges, and one by one the unicorns began to fall. They were outmatched by this powerful new threat.
As the unicorns began to lose in their battles, the totems of the other packs that were there for aid began to falter, severing the ties that bound their packs. Soon, what had seemed like a victorious and glorious plan was in snatched from the hands of the garou and given over to the Wyrm. With shocking alacrity, the forces of the Wyrm turned and launched a counterattack.
Meanwhile, back at the Sept of the Moon Bow, the spirits themselves began to scream out warnings to the Get of Fenris that had remained behind as a rear guard. The great divide had been breached, and the Wyrm was pouring across the Ohio River just north of the Sept. This new army spread out and began a fapid advance along the interstates and parkways designed to allow the humans to have a mobile force that could be rapidly deployed across the country. The few Children of Gaia that were too old or too scarred to leave with the army realized that the gravest of errors had been committed; they had discounted the East where the Wyrm had been quiet for too long. In a last ditch effort to save the Bloodied Ground, they called forth the Incarnae Stag to send word to their brothers and sisters in the south to sound the retreat.
As the last of the Children of Gaia were cut down at the Sept, and lone pack of Get of Fenris was preparing to make their final stand, there was a shimmering of light from the Cearn Heart. A moon bridge ripped an opening from the spirit into the tellurian, and a united army of Black Furies and Bone Gnawers came flowing through with King Albrect himself in the lead. The Caern Heart of Moon Bow was turned red on that day as the ground became slick with the blood of the fallen and the skies were filled with the cries of the dead and the dying. In the end, the only surviving garou from when the battles began was an elderly Get of Fenris woman, found holding onto a kinfolk that nobody remembers the name of as he died in her arms.
Down South the retreat was sounded, but it was a bloodied affair. Now more evenly matched against the Gaian Garou the Wyrm was willing to harry them the entire way back North. Instead of a giant battle that would settle the fate of the protectorate and the region as a whole, they were left with a constantly shifting battle where troops had to be constantly marching North only to hold position so that tey could reinforce the rear guard. With one final last ditch effort at the mouth of the great tunnel under the mountains, the forces under the command of Moon Bow made their stand. For hours the fighting was fierce until the bodies of the dead were piled so high that they clogged the tunnel itself, allowing the garou to slink away in defeat. While the garou had failed in killing off, or even really finding the true location of the Wyrm Hive, they had managed to narrow it down to a small hundred mile radius. And they had managed to kill the majority of the Black Spiral Dancers that had followed them to give chase. They may not have destroyed the Hive, but they had dealt the single breatest blow against the Wyrm lands to the South that had ever been done for as long as they had amassed on the Souther Border.
Ten years have gone by in relative peace since the Great Moon Bow War, a fact that the elders of the Sept are proud to say is the result of their leadership and that of Black Unicorn. The protectorate has now undergone its longest period of relative peace in the modern era. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like the other Septs seem to realize this truth; peace comes at a price. It was one the Children of Gaia were willing to pay, but the others have chosen to ridicule and have begun to ostragize the garou from Moon Bow. This matter won't last long. They are the chosen of Black Unicorn, they are the generals of the protectorate, and very soon they are going to have to remind people of this fact. Just as they showed the Get of Fenris so many years ago...
The End... For Now...
Nobody is sure who first decided to place a sept next to the falls or why they chose Unicorn as the totem originally. What is known is that, unlike Stag's Heart to the Northwest of here, this Sept was taken from those people in a rather quick and decisive manner. There are no stories and legends that remain of those times other than a few that are surely mistaken after so many hundreds of years of retelling. What is known is that throughout all of the histories that are known, this Sept was someone else's and then suddenly it wasn't under some kind of rather peaceful transition into the hands of the Uktena. Whenever this event may have taken place, it long predates the Uktena gaining control over Stag's Heart and may even predate the creation of Mammoth's Rage. Of that, nobody is certain. But the garou of the Sept of the Moon Bow believe that it is true and will often remind their "younger" neighbors.
The wars that raged across the rest of the Protectorate of the Bloodied Ground never really touched the Sept of the Moon Bow. This was a place that was too difficult for the Wendigo to strike while their wars were being fought against the Uktena for dominance of the area. This place was one of peace and prosperity, where garou came to be rejuvenated and reborn, not where they came to fight and die. As such, it was a place that lacked the political might once the pace was settled. There it would remain, tucked away in the mountains, always to be ignored.
All of that was to change as the Europeans made their way through the Cumberland Gap. While located in very close proximity to the pass through the Appalachian Mountains, the Sept would not really see an incursion of the Europeans for many decades after their arrival. In fact, the first contact between the Sept of the Moon Bow and the new settlers happened at Stag's Heart, and it is often theorized that it was the Uktena from Moon Bow that first proposed the idea of trying to get the white people to win their war against the Wendigo. This idea is rarely believed or even tolerated within the Sept of the Moon Bow, however, as it would be entirely out of their nature to have ever promoted conflict between one peoples and another.
Whomever it was that first suggested the tactic, it wasn't long after that the Europeans managed to find the twin waterfalls that are in the middle of the bawn. Nobody is quite certain how that happened originally, the Uktena will tell you that it was the European garou and their kinfolk that first found them and began moving in. The others are adamant that it was the Uktena who failed to defend their territory against the normal humans and they came first to the area. Either way the result was the same, and the Sept soon found itself populated to bursting.
These newcomers however did nothing to attempt to oust the Uktena that ran the Sept. In fact they seemed quite content to simply pitch in and help out anywhere they were able. At first, it seemed that the Bloodied Ground Protectorate might be willing to give up its name and its reputation. However, by the turn of the 1800s, diseases that were unknown to the Uktena kinfolk combined with a large number of intermingling of the tribe had caused the native populations to become all but extinct in the area. With their disappearance and thinning out, the Children of Gaia soon assumed command along with a rather large contingent of Bone Gnawers that had begun settling into the hills and mountains that surrounded the caern.
By the time the Civil War broke out, there were no true Uktena left at Moon Bow, just some Children of Gaia and some Bone Gnawers that, if you looked at them in the fading evening sunlight might have been able to pass as a distant relative. The war itself never really touched the Sept, other than some tensions that ran a little hot from some of the Bone Gnawers that found it rather pleasant that, at least somewhere, there was a people that even they could down upon. The area around the Sept was far too mountainous, and too covered in forests, for there to be any kind of large troop movements and the result was merely some minor skirmishes between families more than anything that would resemble a battle.
By the end of the war, the area seemed almost completely forgotten except for the few legends about a waterfall in the area that made rainbows from moonlight. On paper, the Sept seemed to change hands rather frequently, although the deeds always managed to fall back into the hands of the kinfolk families that lived within close proximity. However, the region as a whole would soon find itself cast from isolation and back into the spotlight as somebody, somewhere, finally found the maps which marked the Eastern Coal fields that had been discovered back when European settlers had first started to arrive. At the same time, the protectorate came under the near totalitarian leadership of the Silver Fangs. Never ones to start a war where one wasn't needed, Moon Bow was willing to bend the knee in the name of peace, robbing Stag's Heart (or at least the rebellious Fianna) of their relied upon allies against the influx of Northern tribes.
The turn of the twentieth century was a difficult time for the Sept of the Moon Bow. While Mammoth's Rage and Stag's Heart were complaining about packs going missing that were patrolling along the protectorate's borders, Moon Bow's protectorate patrol packs were reporting that nothing was out of the ordinary at all. However, with the rediscovery of the Easter Coal Fields, and the massive demand across the country for coal, there was a war that was beginning in the hillsides. Well, more accurately, beneath the hills and mountains. As the mining companies moved in, and their waste was dumped next to the openings of the mines, the area began to become infested with banes. Worse still was that the Columbia River itself was becoming ruined to the point that the fish and wildlife that relied upon it for clean water were dying off. Moon Bow had no time to deal with potential threats from afar, the Wyrm was on its doorstep in the here and now.
With the outbreak of the war, the problems only got worse. The demand for coal exploded and while there were few among the Sept's kinfolk that were called up to the war, the Spanish Flu combined with the black lung disease that many of the kinfolk were developing from trying to work any job they could find. Making matters even worse was the continued death of the surrounding woodlands from the poisons being dumped by the coal mines themselves. Death had come to the Sept of the Moon Bow, and it would leave its claw marks across everything that it touched.
Once the war was over, the economic recession that plagued the majority of Kentuckians never really hit around the Sept of Moon Bow. How could it? There was money to be had for any kinfolk willing to sacrifice their lives in the mines, while corrupting Gaia just so that your family could eat. It was at this point that the leadership of Moon Bow had enough of kinfolk being willing to wo whatever it took for them to put food on the table, and dedicated the sept solely to the cause of war against the Wyrm's efforts in mining. This might have seemed like a good idea at the time. However, less that a week later the stock market crashed and the Great Depression came. Unlike the kinfolk at Stag's Heart that had other opportunities to fall back upon, and who had large kinfolk families that were able to sustain them, the people of Moon Bow had nothing unless they were willing to defy the Alpha's orders and go to work in the mines. Many kinfolk made that call, and many of them were killed for their insolence, before the Red Talons of Mammoth's Rage began to supply the Sept. Sure, you were trusting in the one tribe that wanted nothing more than to see your existence wiped off the face of Gaia, but at the end of the day you take the food you're offered when it is the difference between life and death.
With the outbreak of World War 2, and the call to arms from the Get of Fenris, the Sept of the Moon Bow was left with a rather difficult decision to make; would they abandon their place as the peacemakers of the Bloodied Ground Protectorate or would they find fascism to be an acceptable practice while millions were being slaughtered (although without their knowledge) on the other side of the world as a crazed despot was using the garou that were loyal to him to wage a war unlink any other. In the end, the sept caved against their principles and sent troops; kinfolk and garou alike, to go and die in the war. However, not being as talented in the arts of warfare as the Get of Fenris, or even the Fianna, the loses to the sept were massive. It was this decision perhaps more than any other which began to send Guards-the-Peace-with-Fury, a mere cliath that was barely out of his Rite of Passage, down the route that would one day lead to his doom.
Reduced in numbers as they were, and yet still with more garou on hand than Stag's Heart, it was Moon Bow and Mammoth's Rage that bore the brunt of the war with the Wyrm in the South in an effort to defend the Protectorate of the Long River. Long had Long River been an ally of Moon Bow, both sharing the same sacred waters from the Cumberland River, and both honoring the spirits which inhabited that place. However, while there were more garou to be sent into the war, it was again Moon Bow which suffered the heaviest loses. With nothing but cliaths to throw into the battle while the higher ranking garou were either guarding the sept or fighting in the Get of Fenris' war across the ocean, there was nobody else to answer the call. In the end, almost an entire generation of Moon Bow was wiped out and it was questionable if the Sept would survive after losing so many in the South and across the oceans. The sept was reinforced from Stag's Heart, increased patrols along the protectorate's southern border were increased, and the Children of Gaia hoped for the future.
There are some who will tell you that, after the fall of the Long River and the end of the Get of Fenris Civil War, there were a few years of peace. Those are people who were never at Moon Bow. As their garou returned home from Europe, depleted in number though they were, they immediately launched into a full campaign against the mining operations of Eastern Kentucky. While Stag's Heart was off playing politics with the Silver Fangs, Moon Bow was bleeding and dying against all sorts of Wyrm corruption within the mountains and hills.
However, when the kinf of the Sept sends out a call to war, and comes knocking to make sure that you send your best, you don't have much of a choice. So it was that Moon Bow found itself embattled in yet another war that it wanted no part of, and still without returning to its former strength. While the other garou from the Bloodied Ground Protectorate went in search of glory, fame, and repair old wrongs, those from Moon Bow were just doing their duty in order to have their Sept left in relative peace. As the wars dragged on and on, and dissent against them grew on the home front, the leaders of Moon Bow decided that it was time for a change. Something had to give, and from the way things were going, that something was going to be the fall of the Sept. The leaders recalled all of their theurges from across the world, removing them from the fight, and gave them a simple task, that seemed impossible; find a way for the Childrren of Gaia to serve within the Bloodied Ground Protectorate, while at the same time remaining loyal to the ideals of peace.
The theurges claim that they were gone for a few months in the umbra. In reality, they were thought lost for over a decade. When they did finally manage to return, they brought news of a new spirit they had uncovered; a black unicorn with fire in its eyes and whose hooves were like hammers famming on rail spikes. A spirit of war in the name of peace, a true contradiction the likes of which could only exist within the realm of spirits. They discovered the Black Unicorn.
Almmost as soon as Black Unicron first began to appear to the garou of Moon Bow there were reports of a massive Wyrm force that was marching North. The new spirit came to the Children of Gaia and told them that this would be a feint, and that a larger force was aimed towards the East. The spirit told that the forces sent against them were split and divided and could be easily defeated if the garou were willing to play into their own form of divide and conquor. These messages were spoken to deaf ears. After all, what did the Children of Gaia know of tactics compared to the Get of Fenris and the Red Talons? For the first time in as long as anyone could remember, a Wyrm offensive was halted and it was Moon Bow that had suffered the fewest casualties and had given the least ground in order to win the war. While Black Unicorn had managed to help Moon Bow in surviving, without the manpower from those that were still on the other side of the world fighting in the name of the Silver Fangs, it would not be enough to prevent the fall of the Shawanese Protectorate.
Under this auspicious new sign, the Children of Gaia from Moon Bow were able to finally shift their full focus to the Wars in the East. After a few key victories, and a few tactical retreats, it was determined that both sides should call a cease fire, and an armistace was declared. Having gained some new found respect for the garou of Moon Bow, the Get of Fenris began to grow concerned about their place within the Protectorate. How could they remain the key generals of the Kincaids, if it was the Children of Gaia who were winning the battles? The Get of Fenris even went so far as to suggest that the leadership of Moon Bow were making secret deals with the protectorate's enemies in order to gain their victories. Thus began the protectorate's involvements in the Amazon, each side hoping to prove once and for all that they were worthy of the respect and deserving of their rolls in warfare.
Sending so many to fight, die, or live on in fame, to the Amazon would prove to be a rather unfortunate incident for Moon Bow. With so much of the new blood gone, the leadership quickly fell back into their old ways of provoking the Get of Fenris. This in turn cased a response from the Fenrir. Soon, things were spiraling out of hand as each side began engaging in a geurilla war against the other. That is when Clay County came up with his idea of a challenge to end all feuds.
Guards-the-Peace-with-Fury was sent to be the representative from Moon Bow in the conflict. While this was an intelligent choice due to his capabilities, there were far more Children of Gaia that could, and should, have been called upon for this task. Guards-the-Peace-with-Fury was too close to Black Unicorn, held too much hatred and violence in his heart towards the tribe that had been the cause of his grandfather and father's death. For more than six hours he battled against Hammer-Calls-Forth-the-Thunder at Stag's Heart. For more than six hours he was forced to call upon every gift and trick that he knew to fight the Get of Fenris into a stalemate. It was in that moment, when the two were seemed to be the most equally matched, that something changed within Guards-the-Peace-with-Fury. His eyes began to glow red and it is said that his attacks began to fall with enough force and ferocity to have rivaled Gaia herself. Nobody is quite certain what happened next, although there is plenty of speculation. What is known is that, given this mighty second wind, Guards-the-Peace-with-Fury managed to kill Hammer-Calls-Forth-the-Thunder before his strength left him. The Child of Gaia slumped to the ground before falling over and being immediately treated by the best healers that the Sept was able to call upon.
After the battle, the Get of Fenris retreated to their small territory north of Stag's Heart, where they have remained to this day. Moon Bow's reputation and renown lept forward, and suddenly there were calls from anyone in need of warriors flowing into Moon Bow, as the secret of Black Unicorn was out. The Children of Gaia were not just capable of being garou like the others, they now had a war totem that was worthy of being called that name. And not only that, the unicorn spirit which now inhabited the Sept of the Moon Bow was one of these mythical Black Unicorns.
Not long after this, the Wyrm once more began to pour across the southern border in numbers never before seen. The entire protectorate believed that their end had come, the protectorate to their immediate south had gone, the one to their southeast had gone, they stood as the gateway into the North. Some rumored that there were spies within the protectorate; kinfolk or even some garou whose hearts had turned against Gaia, and they were feeding information to the Wyrm in return for some future promise and that is why the Wyrm always seemed to strike as soon as numbers depleted. However, under the leadership of the Kincaids and their new Battle Masters, the garou from Moon Bow and the Children of Gaia under Black Unicorn specifically, the initial onslaught of the tainted forces was stopped. What followed was a mirrored reflection of the ways in which the humans fought war. While the humans had developed the blitzkreig as a solution to trench warfare, the garou and forces of the Wyrm had developed the slow push of trench warfare as a response to the blitzkreig. The goal was no longer to win a quick and decisive victory. The goal was to inch forward, day by day, as you reclaimed the ground that the Wyrm was attempting to seize.
For five long years this tactic was working in favor of the Gaian forces as ground that was thought lost forever was reclaimed and spirits that were believed to never be known again were captured and purified. They were winning the war for the first time that anybody could remember. But it was coming at a heavy price. This manner of warfare is like the tide, constantly moving inward without a care of what might be in its way. Yes, once lost territory was being regained, but the Bloodied Ground Protectorate was losing garou every day. Ground was being gained, but at such a high price that it was only a matter of time before the battles began moving in the Wyrm's favor. After meditating, communing with Black Unicorn, and discussing the messages and visions they had received. Finally, they came to the determination that what was needed was deception and solid tactics which would lead them to victory. The only real problem was, where were they to strike?
It was decided that the protectorate would send out ten packs across the southern border on a special mission. Move deep into the territory controlled by the Wyrm to scout out where the strongholds of the Wyrm were located. Then, as they returned back, strike at different targets to conceal their real purpose on moving into the south. Of the roughly fifty garou that left, fifteen would not be there when the reports were given. Their names would be remembered as being those that gave their lives so that the protectorate could have a chance at winning the current war against the forces of the Wyrm. By dying, they gave the others at a chance for success.
The call went out immediately for everyone to rally together for one gaint strike into the heart of the Wyrm, where the missing pack had disappeared. Some were hesitant to follow the Children of Gaia to war still, especially the Red Talons of Mammoth's Rage, but this was a good plan. This was a plan that was going to work. The discussions were short on the issue. This was the place that the Children of Gaia had earned with blood and bone. This was the will of Black Unicorn.
As the forces of the Gaians crashed into the forces that the Wyrm had arrayed against them and driving them back. Further and further towards where the expected hive was located the garou drove. The battles were getting fiercer and fiercer as the Wyrm knew that its death was nigh. And then the advance stalled out. Those who are more touched with the spiritual who were there tell of a great black steed that crashed into the Gaian forces, with hooves and a mane of fire, eyes that glowed as coals, and skeletal wings that stretched out without feathers that were still able to carry the beast aloft. In the umbra, the theurges spoke of this being existing upon both sides of the guantlet at the same time. It collided with the herd of Black Unicorns that marched alongside their garou charges, and one by one the unicorns began to fall. They were outmatched by this powerful new threat.
As the unicorns began to lose in their battles, the totems of the other packs that were there for aid began to falter, severing the ties that bound their packs. Soon, what had seemed like a victorious and glorious plan was in snatched from the hands of the garou and given over to the Wyrm. With shocking alacrity, the forces of the Wyrm turned and launched a counterattack.
Meanwhile, back at the Sept of the Moon Bow, the spirits themselves began to scream out warnings to the Get of Fenris that had remained behind as a rear guard. The great divide had been breached, and the Wyrm was pouring across the Ohio River just north of the Sept. This new army spread out and began a fapid advance along the interstates and parkways designed to allow the humans to have a mobile force that could be rapidly deployed across the country. The few Children of Gaia that were too old or too scarred to leave with the army realized that the gravest of errors had been committed; they had discounted the East where the Wyrm had been quiet for too long. In a last ditch effort to save the Bloodied Ground, they called forth the Incarnae Stag to send word to their brothers and sisters in the south to sound the retreat.
As the last of the Children of Gaia were cut down at the Sept, and lone pack of Get of Fenris was preparing to make their final stand, there was a shimmering of light from the Cearn Heart. A moon bridge ripped an opening from the spirit into the tellurian, and a united army of Black Furies and Bone Gnawers came flowing through with King Albrect himself in the lead. The Caern Heart of Moon Bow was turned red on that day as the ground became slick with the blood of the fallen and the skies were filled with the cries of the dead and the dying. In the end, the only surviving garou from when the battles began was an elderly Get of Fenris woman, found holding onto a kinfolk that nobody remembers the name of as he died in her arms.
Down South the retreat was sounded, but it was a bloodied affair. Now more evenly matched against the Gaian Garou the Wyrm was willing to harry them the entire way back North. Instead of a giant battle that would settle the fate of the protectorate and the region as a whole, they were left with a constantly shifting battle where troops had to be constantly marching North only to hold position so that tey could reinforce the rear guard. With one final last ditch effort at the mouth of the great tunnel under the mountains, the forces under the command of Moon Bow made their stand. For hours the fighting was fierce until the bodies of the dead were piled so high that they clogged the tunnel itself, allowing the garou to slink away in defeat. While the garou had failed in killing off, or even really finding the true location of the Wyrm Hive, they had managed to narrow it down to a small hundred mile radius. And they had managed to kill the majority of the Black Spiral Dancers that had followed them to give chase. They may not have destroyed the Hive, but they had dealt the single breatest blow against the Wyrm lands to the South that had ever been done for as long as they had amassed on the Souther Border.
Ten years have gone by in relative peace since the Great Moon Bow War, a fact that the elders of the Sept are proud to say is the result of their leadership and that of Black Unicorn. The protectorate has now undergone its longest period of relative peace in the modern era. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like the other Septs seem to realize this truth; peace comes at a price. It was one the Children of Gaia were willing to pay, but the others have chosen to ridicule and have begun to ostragize the garou from Moon Bow. This matter won't last long. They are the chosen of Black Unicorn, they are the generals of the protectorate, and very soon they are going to have to remind people of this fact. Just as they showed the Get of Fenris so many years ago...
The End... For Now...