As I sit here in my chambers, unable to sleep, I am drawn to write down these things, so the knowledge of my actions will not be misinterpreted when I am gone.  I have no delusions, I know the line I hold is very close to the abyss of damnation, but it must be held if we are to reclaim that which was taken.

To understand my actions, you must know my history – So that is where I will start.

I was born Jacob Brasen on January of 1967, in a small piece of land on the north side of Tasmania.  My mother died during my birth, and I do not even know my fathers name.  I was taken in by the woman who attended my mother during this time, Barbara Howle.

Barbara raised me as best she could. Taught me a little about the land and a little more about the body.  She taught me to heal with the herbs and grasses of the land. She was a very kind and loving mother.

But that was not to be my path. Barbara was taken from me by phenomena.  We very cold and barren winter in 1979 from which she never recovered.

Having no family to speak of, I was taken by the state and sent to a public boarding school.  A life very different from the one I was accustomed to.

I spent the remainder of my childhood far from the land hat I loved.  Trapped in a cage that was surely as much a haven of the Wyrm as any I have seen.  Graven Public Boarding School taught me many things besides history and geography. It taught me what it meant to be alone. It also taught me fear and anger, two things that were never a part of my prior life.

But even then I was able to escape the grasp of the Wyrm, though I did not know what that meant at the time.  On a stormy night in November, when I was 16, I stole away from Graven Public and fled to the open spaces of the land I had once called home.

For fear of being caught, and returned to that hellish place, I stowed away on a cargo ship and set sail for Australia.

After a few months of wandering, feasting from the land I had so missed, and sleeping beneath the heaven, I came across another traveler.  A man much older that I, with silver hair, and a face much weathered with age.  But he had a very calming voice.  His name was Stewart Ryan.  He told me of some of his travels, and asked me of mine.  It was nice to have someone to talk to after so long.  We became fast friends, and I looked to him as the father I had never known.

We traveled together for many years, even though time has much less meaning in the Outback, where one day passing into another is only marked by the appearance of the moon.  I learned much about the land from Stewart, but I was to learn much more about myself shortly.

One night, when I awoke from what I thought was another nightmare, I found myself naked and covered in blood.  Standing over me was Stewart. He knew it was time to tell me of my destiny.

Stewart told me that I was Garou, one of a race of spiritual warriors created to serve Gaia, the Holy Mother and Creator in this realm and beyond.  I belonged to the tribe Bunyip, all but extinct.  He told me of the Wyrm, an entity so black and corrupt that it will not be sated until all creation is in chaos, and how it had tricked a Garou named Silver Talons and his tribe into hunting and slaughtering the Bunyip.  It did this by leading them to believe that our tribe, one of the most spiritual and devoted, was merely a minion of the Wyrm.

When the last Bunyip was thought to be killed, it was revealed to Silver Talons that it was he who had been corrupted by the Wyrm, not the Bunyip.  In a great howl of pain, Silver Talons ran off into the night, never to be seen again…

Stewart taught me a great deal.  I was instructed in combat, taught the Klaive, and to hunt. I was to help defend Gaia in the upcoming wars.  I was taught to be aware of Gaia’s pain, which is inside of all Garou, and use that rage to become even more powerful that I had ever imagined. But I was also taught to listen to the voices inside my head and heart.  These voices were the cries of my brothers, who even though slaughtered by the Wyrm, would reach out to me from beyond to guide and watch over me as I completed my destiny.

After cleansing our territory of the stench of the Wyrm, Stewart said that he had taught me all that he could teach.  He told me to travel to Canada and join a tribe of Garou know as the Silent Striders, whom he believed would take me in as their own.

I left Stewart with my heart full of sorrow as we parted.  I vowed to myself that I would avenge my people.  I would travel to the lair of the Wyrm and use its minions to destroy it as it had used Silver Talons to destroy my kind. 

I also vowed to one day find Silver Talons and make him pay for his misjudgments and blindness.  I would never decide a beings fate until they showed it through their own actions and words.

I found the Silent Striders in a remote area called the Boundary Waters.  They accepted me as their own.  I was not ready to disclose my true breed for fear of being judged as the rest of my kind was. I spent three years with them defending Gaia from all that aimed to destroy her, but the visions and nightmares long forgotten returned.  The need to avenge my tribe and hunt down Silver Talons for his crimes grew stronger.

I then traveled south to a place called Nevada, to join with another group of Striders.  I was looking for information on Silver Talons. One of my visions told me to search for Keeper of the Lore, a Garou who might have some information on Silver Talons.  I found out little accept that he believed Silver Talons still survives, but has become truly tainted by the Wyrm.  Perhaps changed into one of the wyrm-spawn, the Black Spiral Dancers. He , however had no idea of Silver Talons current location.

It is here that my path first starts to darken and my destiny starts to rise.  While roaming through the desert one still evening, a companion and I came across a very old Native American who seemed to be Garou.  He told us of a Great War taking place in a city called Chicago between the Garou and Vampires.  Saying that he was to old to make the journey, he would send us there if we would vow to find out who was responsible for the start of the war and destroy them.  Of course we jumped at the chance to serve Gaia in this manner, quickly agreed and parted for lands unknown.

It was not until much later that I would learn that I had been deceived by the Wyrm.  This creature was not Garou, but a demon that would use me for his own devices.  It is a demon that will no longer plague this earth the next time we meet.  

That is, after I tell him that it was not I, but he, who was used by Gaia to get me to this place.  For it is here that I finally begin to fully understand my destiny.  It is here that I would discover a Priestess of Gaia from long ago.  Ripped from her life by the Wyrm, but not her belief, she remains lost, driven mad by the torture of her soul.  It is here that I will try to reclaim her for Gaia.  It is here that I will fight my fight.  I will make a stand with whatever allies Gaia sends me, and together start to heal the long open wounds of our beloved  Mother.  For even though the voice of Gaia is faint in this city, I know that she will not grow stronger simply by destroying that which the Wyrm creates, but only by the salvation of the souls lost in the battle. 

So it is here that I must walk in the shadows and risk my soul, for in the service to Gaia, I can think of no greater honor.