Khara were weresabertooths. They were the first tribe of the Bastet - also referred to as Two Twin’s Cubs by their descendants.
Overview[]
Despite their fearsome teeth, the weresabertooths were as much creatures of memory with strong ties to the Mokolé-mbembe. Sabertooths were some of the first cats, and the Khara claimed to be the eldest of Cat’s children. The Khara were as inquisitive as any Bastet tribe, but their mandate extended beyond the finding of secrets to the remembering of secrets.
Khara had a certain gravity about them in all their forms. They weren’t clumsy or bulky, but they had powerful muscles and thick, durable frames. Their distinctive sabre teeth jutted from their jaws in their Crinos, Chatro, and Feline forms. Different lineages had different configurations of teeth, either one or two sets of long upper canines. Some had a set or two of long lower canines as well.
History[]
According to the oral traditions shared among the Bastet, the Khara first came forth when the human wizard Palar and the great sabre-tooth Akuma joined forces against a mighty manifestation of Asura (what Garou call the Wyrm) in the form of a great dragon. Although the two managed to slay the dragon, they were grievously wounded. Their mingled blood, alongside the tears of their Kin, touched Seline’s heart and she descended from the Moon to the Earth to mourn alongside them. Her tears formed the first Khara, born from the blood and tears of cats, men, and the Moon. Mixed in their essence, however, was a shard of the dragon’s essence and soon, the Khara grew proud and terrorized their Kinfolk like the Asura had done. Enraged, Seline cursed them with their weakness against silver, as well with the essential Curse of Rage. As Luna’s behest, the first tribe was divided across the world and the Khara soon found mates in the native great cats. Their bloodline diluted further and further, until the nine tribes of the modern Bastet were born.
Although the Khara as a tribe are gone, their legacy remains in the fierce chatro forms of every Bastet that incites full Delirium in humans.
Culture[]
Sadly for those who came after, the Khara refused to keep records of what they had learned, claiming that giving a secret physical form made it too vulnerable. They passed their secrets orally within the tribe from generation to generation, and when the last Khara died, the tribe’s secrets died with her. Their pride prevented them from passing on what they knew, believing to the last that they could save themselves. Such was their taboo against writing was that it showed even in their rituals. When the Khara encountered a secret that should not be remembered by anyone, they would inscribe it on the teeth of a dead sabertooth and bury the head far away from any paths.
Organization[]
The Khara lived in small family groups led by the eldest female. Their society was divided on gender lines, with males encouraged to earn Renown by discovering secrets and bringing them to the females. In turn, the women judged what only the Khara should remember, what secrets were minor enough that they could passed along to the Mokolé or other Bastet, and what should be forgotten by the world. The secrets that a Khara remembered took on a spiritual significance. The tribe defined each individual by the secrets they kept, and each Khara could add to their prestige by learning new ones — either by seeking them out or by stealing them from other Khara. Many weresabertooths gave their secrets cryptic names that hinted to their content, not just as a way to frustrate spies but to help index what they knew.
Kinfolk[]
With the extinction of their animal Kin, the most notable being the Smilodon, the Khara went extinct long before the rise of the first human cities and thus predate the Wars of Rage and the Impergium. Human Kinfolk traces of the Khara survive in the people who would become the Apache, Comanche, and Hopi tribes of Native Americans, but any human Bastet Kinfolk has some amount of Khara lineage within him.
Trivia[]
- The Khara were first introduced in the Bastet Breedbook in 1997.
- The name 'Khara' most likely comes from a shortened form of Kharakhar, from the Coptic Gnostic literature "Pistis Sophia." Kharakhar was the governor of the second hall with a face of a cat and served punishment for souls.
- Smilodon species include: Smilodon gracilis, Smilodon populator and Smilodon fatalis. They are part of the Machairodontinae subfamily of Felidae. Other species of sabertooth cats include Amphimachairodus, Homotherium, Dinofelis, Tchadailurus, Lokotunjailurus, Nimravides, Xenosmilus, Hemimachairodus, Machairodus, etc.
- Fossils of Smilodon was first discovered in the 1830s by Peter Wilhelm Lund in Brazil.
- The clouded leopard is not part of the Machairodontinae subfamily, but has the longest fangs in the Pantherinae subfamily. It sometimes considered a "modern" sabertooth.
- The Khara may be inspired by 1930s sword and sorcery stories and the "lost world" subgenre of the late 1800s.
References[]
- WTA: Bastet, p. 34
- WTA/cMET: Laws of the Wild: Changing Breeds 1, p. 105-106,
- WTA: Changing Breeds (book), p. 248-249
Werewolf: The Apocalypse Bastet Tribes |
Bagheera · Balam · Bubasti · Ceilican · Khan · Khara · Pumonca · Qualmi · Simba · Swara |