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| - A Caern is a site of great holy and mystical power to the Garou, with powerful totem spirits bound to it. Their worship of Gaia centers on these magical regions, and usually their gatherings (moots) take place at them. The group of all Garou who live at or near a given Caern and participate in the activities of that Caern is referred to as a Sept. In 1826, the Wendigo re-awoke an ancient tribal Caern near the Columbia river. This Caern, like some other Caerns of the Pure Ones, was once a Medicine Wheel with the four aspects of the Wheel dedicated to the four seasons. For reasons known only to them, when the Wheel was re-opened it was re-dedicated to the four elements instead. Hints of the original seasonal nature of the Wheel are still evident in each of its four elemental aspects. It was called, simply, The Caern of the Wheel. Even among the Wendigo this Caern of Visions rolled counter to many of their beliefs. While most Native American medicine wheels run clockwise, for reasons known only to the spirits and, perhaps, the first Wendigo, the Wheel runs counter-clockwise. To move clockwise about it is to go against the will of the very totems that give it strength. In 1940, fragmented reports of a Caern to the north being destroyed under odd circumstances were told by second-hand witnesses. Two more in that area were destroyed in the next two years, all with no known survivors. Then, in 1944, the Wendigo running the Caern vanished, leaving St. Claire's Glass Walkers and Bone Gnawers the only Garou in the immediate area. There were no clues left as to where the Wendigo went, and the Caern fell into dormancy. Then, in the spring of 1991, a Freebooter pack from the Sept of Gaia's Bones, Seneca Falls, was searching in eastern Washington, and made a major find: the ancient site of this slumbering Caern. A Strider who had been traveling with the Freebooter pack was dispatched to return to Gaia's Bones with the news. Confident that the Furies would soon arrive to open the caern, Seneca Falls continued on their path, looking for other new caerns. Unknown to Seneca Falls, however, the Strider returned immediately to The Caern of Ptah with the news rather than going to Gaia's Bones. A council was hastily convened and for reasons of their own, an Elder of that tribe was sent with a scouting party to the scene. Amidst an emerging turf war with the local kindred, the Caern was re-opened in November of 1993. The Garou called themselves the Sept of the Wheel Renewed and they found themselves guardians of an extremely powerful Caern, as such things go, and a mystery. The Caern had two totem spirits linked to it, that of Magpie and that of Buffalo; they were aware that there was once a third totem but the Wendigo had left no clue to its identity. Finally, almost exactly a year after the site was re-opened, members of the Wendigo tribe returned to the Caern of the Wheel Renewed as did the third totem, Cougar. But it was not a warm homecoming for either the Wendigo, who found themselves at odds with the Sept, or the totem, who died the same night of its return. The discovery of the bodies of nine dead warriors at a nearby archaeological site, a pack of Wendigo who became known as Cougar's Nine, and the emergence of a new supernatural threat in the icy wastelands of the north, drove the mystery from the background into the fore. The full story did not unfold until the Ice King, the original threat that had driven off the Wendigo, was finally defeated: This spirit, a creature from Malfeas, had destroyed several Wendigo Caerns in pursuit of the death of a bloodline of Wendigo Garou. The seers of the Wheel were able to divine that it was some the Wendigo of the Sept, and not the Caern itself, that were the prey. Hoping to save the Caern, they packed their belongings and left, accompanied by Magpie and Buffalo. Ten warriors remained behind with Cougar and all but one were lost, throwing themselves in vain against the Ice King. Only the sacrifice of Cougar himself was enough to halt the enemy's advance. When the Wendigo returned, they could only discern that both Cougar and the enemy were lost. They declared the place cursed, buried their dead, and closed the Caern. Only in this age, with the return of Cougar's daughter, was the Ice King destroyed when it was turned back from the very gates of Malfeas by its own kind and that part of the tale brought to a close. The Wheel Renewed stands now as a place of serene beauty with an awkward but managing Sept and a very large character base. It weathers bane incursions and Wyrm plots like an old oak tree, losing a few branches to the storm but managing to keeps its roots firmly planted in Gaia. And, even in its strength, the signs of the coming Apocalypse have their effect upon the Wheel Renewed as much as any other place in these days. In the spring of 1996, a Worldbender named Saul ben Isaac began to establish links to places of power in St. Claire. He chose the Caern itself as the site of one of his attacks and his minions pierced the holy site's wards and began to draw power from it. The Caern was severely damaged in the attack and is now only half of its previous strength. Saul ben Isaac was eventually destroyed by the Wheel's Garou and a handful of mages from the Chantry in St. Claire who lent their grudging help in the final struggle.
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