A note about my own pet caern, Per Wepwawet (not a very original name, but it's based west of Thebes, which was sacred to that particular god.) Those few Striders who know it is real and not mere legend call it a lost cause. Hidden from its foes deep below the Valley of Kings in the lowerst roots of the tombs, it has been fighting a losing battle for centuries to preserve a few bones and trinkets which, other Striders argue, would be safer elsewhere. Its militant score of defenders, however, proudly descended from the artisans of ancient Deir el-Medina and the last surviving Egyptian jackals whom they guard, refuse to admit defeat.
1963-5
Aswan High dam is erected. A Strider movement with grassroots among kinfolk sought to stop this building project, but as usual, the enemy's grip on their homeland was too great. Their efforts did, at least, manage to get many of the more well-known monuments cut up and moved to high ground, but all the sacred shrines and sites which they wished to remain hidden were lost under the water. Many fetishes were moved into Per Wepwawet. The mostly lupus pack, Defenders of Hapi, temporarily leave their post keeping guard over the desert wolves, and attempt to destroy the dam. Sekhmet djed Ma'at is their militant alpha, a five year old Fostern born of a w'nesh mother and a Garou father.
1967 The Defenders of Hapi leave Per Wepwawet and begin to travel, seeking other Striders to bring fresh blood into the failing caern. During this time they make a name for themselves outside of Egypt.
1970 Sekhmet makes Adren.
1973 Hapi's pack returns; Sekhmet is appointed Talesinger.
1976 Sekhmet makes Athro; Ibis Scans-the-Ground, her token homid and beta, Adren. Apep, an ambitious Dancer from one of the nearest hives, starts a new push to locate Per Wepwawet and destroy its guardians. He lures them out by attacking the already-scarce jackal population; Sekhmet1s pack begins a long painful struggle against them.
1977 The Waykeeper of the sept, Shemayit, has a vision first of two pups born out of the Nile at Sirius' first rising, and sees them grow and walk down a long road towards a weakened, enemy-besieged caern. The caern turns green upon their arrival. Shemayit interprets this to mean that cubs born to Hapi's pack will herald hope and healing at a desperate hour; she guesses the caern may be Per Wepwawet itself.
The same year Apep allies himself with a Euthanatos mage and the tide begins to turn against Per Wepwawet. There's no talk of cubs anymore; every night is a new skirmish in the umbra.
1980 Sekhmet's pack finally roots out the scorpion's nest of Dancers dangerously close to finding Per Wepwawet. All of her packmates except Ibis and his half-brother, Heru Ma'i, are slain in the battle. The mage curses Sekhmet that she will bear cubs neither by wolf nor human. Badly wounded, she flees far into the desert to heal or die.
1981 Ma'i finds her in the spring with the desert wolves and insists that they must fulfill Shemayit1s prophecy, not telling her that he had dreamed also that while one cub would be hope, the other would spell despair. The twins Sebek and Sepdet are born in the umbra Aug. 2.; he tells her the first is stillborn. They are attacked by Dancers; Sekhmet and Sepdet flee on a moonbridge. Sebek is taken back to the hive; Sepdet's father, who stays behind to keep the Dancers from the bridge, is not slain but disappears. (Ibis reported seeing him some years later in Alexandria).
1980s Sekhmet raises Sepdet amongst the jackals. Ibis grudgingly assists, keeping her secret. She returns often to Per Wepwawet as its Talesinger. Sekhmet, Ibis, and several other members of Per Wepwawet are present at the Grand Moot in 1987, the first time that many Striders have seen them. Ibis does not return after the Grand Moot, but picks up on a few leads and moves across the ocean, searching for the caern which he believes lies in the Americas.
1990 Sepdet is discovered. Sekhmet is declared ronin, stripped of name and rank, bound, and left in the umbra of the far desert. Sepdet is dropped off in the umbra on the opposite riverbank, and makes her way into Thebes. She ends up travelling downriver to Cairo, where, after several years of scrounging in ghettos as dog or human, she falls in with Bone Gnawers.
1992 Sepdet and her Gnawer friends stowaway on a ship and reach Florida. Her uncle stumbles across her in New Orleans, and finally begins her theurge training. Much of their time is spent near the Sept of the Western Eye, near where Ibis has a human wife.
1993 Ibis hears about the Wheel Renewed, and sends Sepdet out with a riddle to find it.
1994
Feb 3: Sepdet arrives in St Claire, makes contact with the local Bone Gnawers, and is sent to Renaissance.
(from my first log, Feb 12:)
At the Sept of the Wheel Renewed, the following positions exist:
Sept Alpha (Leader of the Sept): Horus (Galliard Silent Strider)
Claw of the Sept (First of Ahrouns): Banestriker (Ahroun Get of Fenris)
Talesinger (First of Galliards): Windhowl (Galliard Fianna)
Keeper of Ways (First of Philodoxes):Arjun Fletcher (Philodox Glass Walker)
Master of Rites (First of Theurges): Warstripe (Theurge Get of Fenris)
Shadow Walker (First of Ragabashes): (Empty)
Caern Warder: Aspen Demilune (Philodox Child of Gaia)
Groundskeeper: Thorn Slowly Wins (Theurge Silver Fang)
Gatekeeper (Umbral Watcher): (Empty)
Master of Rites: Warstripe (Theurge Get of Fenris)
Master of the Challenge: Batrana Dracul (Philodox Shadow Lord)
--Note these must have been slightly out of date, since Aspen was gone by then.
Feb 22: Horus leaves. Sepdet formally brought to the caern by Tep that night. The arrival of the Black Fury pack Seneca Falls, summoned by Warder Adrian Nightrunner to be Guardian pack, is perceived by many as prelude to takeover. Horus defuses tensions, appoints several new positions (I think Oaken to Groundskeeper, Thorn to Master of Rites, Toxic to Talesinger, Chaser to Shadow Walker, Stormcrow to Gatekeeper, Anubis to Waykeeper, and confirming Adrian as Warder), hands the sept to Arjun and departs for Malfeas.
Anubis and Thoth call a meeting of StridersÐTep, Nephthys, Su, Ali, and the cubs Jeremy and SepdetÐto inform them that the Striders' job is to defuse tensions between the Furies and the sept. (Thoth: "Furies come in. Some people say they may be takin' over. And you know what we're gonna do about it? Nothin'.") Anubis, appointed Waykeeper, appoints Thoth to lead the tribe.
(My dates from here to August may be a bit shaky, since all my logs were lost)
March: 12: Bloodfang dies, Sepdet's first battle. Sepdet's first vision, a Dancer with balefire banes and silver claws. (Called, irreverently, the 'Cookie-cutter' Dancer from the gruesome way he carved up his victims.) Toxic asks Sepdet to join Renaissance. Members: Toxic, Tep, Storm, Ilyera, Katlyn Passes-the-Hat, Erik Walks-outside.
April: Black Spiral Dancer pack, led by Ga'thkk (Silvernails) dispatched by pack Renaissance and Arjun Fletcher. Storm killed.
May: Shaz dies, exploded by bane implanted by Snowdon. Lost cub Wilhelm found to have aided Snowdon the rogue mage; sentenced to Great Hunt by Anubis. (Sepdet ended up killing him). Dia Fire-Drums, a galliard Get with the heart of a Fury, arrives and becomes Sepdet's unlikely best friend. Eligio Sacateca arrives following vision of burned Wheel; takes Sepdet as pupil. Horus returns from Malfeas during Moot to announce the death of Aspen. Su challenges Judith, alpha of Shadow Lords, for Fostern, and goes to her with Boston; Judith returns alone. Su is missing for many months.
June: Eligio and Sepdet's sweat lodge ritual brings powerful vision of old enemy waking up, the Wheel burning, and a spiral staircase of gulls (this is still not entirely resolved). Dusty killed by Ian and Babushka, two new Dancers in area. Great Hunt on midsummer's day ends in failure; Ian escapes and blows up Oaken, FK, Judith, and Broken Claw.
July: Sepdet appointed Groundskeeper by Arjun Fletcher, to replace Oaken.
late July/early August: Sepdet rited by Cindi, a Fang theurge, on a group Rite of Passage with Jess Looks for Directions, Dia Fire-drums. Their assignment was to act as adult Garou with pack Moonshadow on their secret mission to Alaska to retrieve some extremely ancient fetishes for Stormcrow, through dangerous Wendigo territory. While there, Dia, Jess, and Sepdet had a side excursion in the umbra where they rescued a dying avatar of Salmon by destroying a clearcutting lumber mill that was poisoning Salmon's spawning grounds. Thoth confirms rite upon return, after Sepdet guesses most of Strider secret during a private interview. Dylan Burns-Bright arrives at Wheel while they're gone. Bone Dancers menacing Garou in the city, partly searching for fetishes brought back by Cyllan and Moonshadow, partly to kill Toxic; Toxic goes into hiding to throw them offguard.
August: Annie Ceyla killed by a Dancer. Sepdet and mother go on Paths of Dead, against Thoth's advice, seeking signs of her father. Sneetches, Seneca Falls, and Unbidden all converge on Boston hunting down Amanda the Nephandi and her ally dubbed the Puppet Master, who had been sending zombies through St. Claire and had trapped Oaken's spirit. They track the latter to the Van Dorn institute, where they find Su trapped and caged (kept alive, in fact, by a vampire who ghouled her. I'm not sure if anyone knows this IC.) The battle against the foes are inconclusive, but the Garou return home with rescued comrades.
Thoth leaves St. Claire in anger after packmate Ron Vidar slain in an honor dispute with Song Weaver. Anubis appoints Anpwhotep elder. Horus has not been seen in some time, again wandering.
Greater bane Darkness Falling Soul Stealer waking up, and Sepdet, Eligio, Jace, Therru and Song Weaver contacted by spirits of the 400-year-old pack Silver Sorrows, warning of him. Sepdet starts being plagued with visions about this.
September: Puppet Master tries to rouse the dead of St. Claire. Banestriker, Brutus and Kevin Callahan lead a battle party in the umbral attack to defeat it, ascending to the clouds to reach its lair. (Timeline: "Miraculously, no Garou are lost in the battle." That's because Dylan and Sep had to heal Banestriker, Brutus, Kevin, and all the other idiots who nearly died falling down from the sky!) Uktena and Walkers have bitter feud over secrets for which the Dancers are hunting Garou--largely Walkers--trying to find the necklace that Cyllan refuses to reveal she has. Noor arrives in this stretch.
September: Darkness Falling Soul Stealer sends avatar to destroy caern wards and try to kill Sepdet; Toxic dies in caern's defense in early September. Sepdet sacrifices father's fetish knife to repair wards, assisting Eligio. Soul Stealer kidnaps Eligio a week later, attempts to make him walk spiral. Hunting party lead by Stormcrow, Sepdet, and Song Weaver finds the bane's hiding place, rescues Eligio, and binds bane into a pool with a powerful Rite. Stormcrow appoints Eligio as bane-tender.
October: Horus returns again, revealing dead of Adrian. (No one knows, IC, but each of them had argued that the other should be Warder; they fought over it, and in the end, Horus killed her. He only reported publically that she had "fallen from a high place", and had saved his life.) Sepdet has close encounter with wary Wendigo spirit on High Promontory, Stormcrow tells her it was merely an echo from the past.
October? Jeremy rited after visionquest, in which he was transported back to legends of Egypt and convinced an avatar of Sekhmet to stop culling humanity and turn her might against Set.
December: Wendigo pack Heart of Winter arrives during moot; warnings of Ice King on the move. Justice, Red Sky, and Stormcrow battle for position of Warder; Horus steps in when Red Sky prevails and challenges. Horus takes Warder position. He dispatches Su and Jeremy to Wheel of Ptah, to get weapons to use against Ice King. They meet Bes and Amarna (I think).
late December-early Jan 1995: Sepdet summoned to birth-caern; Nile floods threatening to unearth and destroy several important hidden Strider fetishes under Karnak in Thebes. Sepdet captured and tortured by Dancers. Noor al-Mizhrai rescues her during Rite of Passage.
Feb. 95: First Feralia. Fight at Plastics factory; Renaissance, now consisting of Noor, Tep, and Sep, and Gauntlet are two of the main packs in the fight. Five Striders!
March: Ice King battle; Jeremy and Nightwings, Gauntlet's owl totem, fall in the fight. Bottled fire-spirit brought back from Casablanca by Jeremy and Su is used to melt down Ice King, helping turn the tide of battle. Meanwhile, Horus killed by old enemies in edge of umbral bawn while caern's defenses and attention are divided. His bones are scattered far and wide in the umbra to avoid being found.
I think Blinks arrived right around Jeremy's death, since I remember thinking Jeremy would be able to teach him.
Midsummer: Second failed great hunt; Anubis nearly killed along with many others. Sepdet starts seeing father in dreams again. Short umbra quest trying to find him.
Aug. 2, 1995: Sepdet's 14th birthday, wins combat against Thorn for rank 2. Goes on quest to learn whether Horus is really dead; returns with bones three weeks later. Nekheb arrives, first accosts Tep, then Sepdet, hinting at her father's fate.
Fall 95: Paul and Rholeen arrive? Nepthys is seen one last time in September, I think, and then wanders off again, in a squabble over her right to sleep on the Tablestone.
September: Joseph arrives. Anpwhotep, Elder, plagued by split identity of Jackal and Michael. Sebek's pack comes looking for Sepdet to "rescue" her from Wheel; he pretends to be their prisoner and begins calling Renaissance and allies for help. Magpie missing; Sepdet, Eligio and Joseph attempt to summon one of her jagglings to find out what's wrong and a Salamander answers, nearly killing the trio. Maury and Noor killed in showdown against Chris McDowell.
October: 10/10, Sebek "rescued"; Sepdet and Sebek take shelter with Bone Gnawers while waiting for Renaissance to hunt down his pack, now teamed up with the Hanford hive. Deepsprings dies in Dancer ambush by Hanford pack. Rholeen and Paul pass 5-part Rite of Passage in legendary realm; Blinks fails. Isis arrives.
November: Aaron arrives? Tep cubnaps him and his photo makes front page news; FBI step up their searches. 11/15 Sepdet catches Sebek with packmate; she, Mac, Cassius and Hazmat kill both. Sepdet flees the city and taken in by Thorn and Chloe for healing. Seeker arrives. Renaissance officially dissolved. Sepdet, Thorn, and Quiet hold rite to shroud caern against FBI searches.
December: Sepdet's vision of Cypress Rising, Salamander, and Thorn's death. Thorn and Song Weaver killed defending caern against banes and Dancers, the Moot of Cypress Rising's arrival. Sepdet, Paul, Dylan, Shattered-Moon, Joseph and Wayfinder form Whispers on the Wind to assist Eligio in tending umbral caern.
January: Per Wepwawet's location discovered by Dancers; besieged. (Jan 25) Sepdet's Harbinger test. Nekheb in Egypt.
February: Second Feralia. Nekheb disappears during Rite. Blinks-at-Fire Rited after saving Wheel Striders from Dancer ambush. Red Man assault. Shattered-Moon, Sepdet's adopted cub, dies in battle after Sepdet sends her as scout for one of the packs. Isis framed by unknown agents, suspected to be Dancers, who fake tapes showing her burning two children alive at a gas station. Markerstones of ben Isaac being investigated by Gauntlet and Whispers.
April: Joseph wins Ice Spear of Wendigo after leading rite honoring Buffalo and Totems. Wheel attacked and weakened by minions of ben Isaac; Sepdet begins sacrifice-rite attempting to strengthen it.
May: Eligio and Echen lead assault against ben Isaac. Sepdet's rite ends with Wepwawet, Horus, and Shepitra confronting her.
June: Hanford hive and Salamander defeated; Ereskigal Despair-runs-Dry falls against Salamander; Furies and Get of Cypress Rising found caern of Last Days.
July: Meretseger arrives.