Galileo Crosses-the-Stars is a Homid Ragabash Stargazer. He became the Master of the Challenge at the Sept of the Moon's Blessing following the disappearance of the previous Master of the Challenge in 1993.[1]
Biography[]
Galileo was born on top of Mt. Pisgah beneath the stars on the same day humans landed on the moon. His Garou father, Siddhartha Travels-with-Beauty, was present at his birth. The young boy spent his childhood traveling in the company of his parents as they roamed the mountains on a perpetual pilgrimage. Galileo's mother, Amina, was one of the fair folk, a changeling who belonged to the nomadic faerie race known as the eshu. From the beginning, the boy was taught both Garou and faerie lore, on the off chance that the child might reveal himself as either a Garou or one of the fae. Because he was always on the move, Galileo's parents served as his only teachers.
Unfortunately, the boy's First Change was more traumatic than his upbringing would suggest. During one of their circuits through eastern Kentucky, the family passed through a small community which had just been visited by the Reverend Jimmy Tucker, a notorious inciter of racial and religious bigotry. The odd-looking trio - a man apparently of mixed Asian and Anglo blood, a lovely woman with African and Native American features, and a child who was obviously of indeterminate ethic background - was attacked by a group of tough-looking mountain men wielding knives, clubs, broken bottles and tire irons.
Seeing a rare eruption of Siddhartha into Crinos form, Galileo likewise transformed. The two fierce Garou easily defeated the thugs, but not before the attackers had beaten Amina to death. Howling their despair amid the mangled bodies of their foes, Galileo and his father bore their mother's body away from the town to bury her beneath the stars. Siddhartha tearfully explained to his son the full tragedy of Amina's death from iron; her faerie spirit was forever lost to both this world and her cherished, lost world of the Dreaming.
From that time on, the boy and his father traveled the mountains together. To help assuage his grief, Siddhartha taught his son all he know about the Stargazers, even journeying to the tribe's holy places in distant lands to introduce Galileo to as many of the mysteries of the tribes as possible and to restore his own failing spirits. Galileo finally parted from his father in Tibet, where Siddhartha chose to live out the end of his life in the company of other members of his tribe. Galileo returned to the mountains of his birth, and has been searching ever since for other evidence of his mother's people - or any of the children of the Dreaming.
When a chance visit to the Sept of the Moon's Blessing on the night of the moonbow revealed Luna's splendid, multicolored rainbow to Galileo, the Garou was fascinated by the phenomenon. He has since become the sept's Master of the Challenge, where his acerbic, sometimes tragic, humor and sarcasm as well as his mastery of the art of Kailindo ensures that all challenges within the sept are both creative and thought-provoking. As often as permitted, Galileo travels the Moon Bridges between the Appalachian caerns, serving as a messenger for the various septs as well as using his visits to continue his own private search for the fae.
Image[]
Galileo is a man in his mid-20s with dark black hair shot through with red highlights. His exotic features hint of some Asian ancestry, as well as a smidgen of Native American and Anglo stock. He likes to wear white or cream-colored clothing: loose fitting muslin shirts and drawstring pants. In wolf form he is a slender black wolf with a mahogany undercoat. His Crinos form is both frightening and graceful.
Stats[]
Position: Master of the Challenge, Sept of the Moon's Blessing
Breed: Homid
Auspice: Ragabash
Tribe: Stargazer (The Zephyr)
Nature/Demeanor: Visionary/Jester
Physical: Strength 3 (5/7/6/4), Dexterity 5 (5/6/7/7), Stamina 4 (6/7/7/6)
Social: Charisma 5, Manipulation 5 (4/0/0/0), Appearance 3 (2/0/3/3)
Mental: Perception 4, Intelligence 4, Wits 5
Talents: Alertness 2, Athletics 4, Brawl 2, Dodge 4, Empathy 2, Expression 4 (subtle jibes), Instruction 3, Primal-Urge 3
Skills: Animal Ken 2, Etiquette 1, Kailindo 4, Meditation 3, Melee 2, Performance 4 (spontaneous poetry), Stealth 3, Survival 2
Knowledges: Area Knowledge (Appalachian Mountains) 3, Enigmas 4, Faerie Lore 2, Investigation 2, Medicine 2, Occult 4, Rituals 4
Backgrounds: Mentor 3
Gifts: Balance, Open Seal, Persuasion, Sense Wyrm, Smell of Man, Blissful Ignorance, Inner Strength, Staredown, Surface Attunement, Taking the Forgotten, Clarity, Flyfeet, Merciful Blow, Open Moon Bridge, Reshape Object, Luna's Blessing, Preternatural Awareness
Rank: 4
Rage 4, Gnosis 7, Willpower 9
Rites: Rite of Cleansing, Rite of the Opened Bridge, Rite of the Opened Caern, Greet the Moon, Greet the Sun, Rite of Becoming, Rite of Talisman Dedication, Rite of the Questing Stone, Rite of Ostracism, Satire Rite, Stone of Scorn, Voice of the Jackal
Fetishes: None
References[]
- ↑ WTA: Rage Across Appalachia, p. 54
- WTA: Rage Across Appalachia, p. 87-88