Red Talons

Continuing my changes to Werewolf the Apocalypse.

My changes to the Red Talons would be relatively slight. As they are not based on any existing human culture, they have no shallow cultural cliches to fall back on. That said, I have never liked Griffin as their totem. The interpretation of Griffin as an anti-human being wanting vengeance for the loss of extinct animals doesn’t fit with any metaphorical interpretation of Griffin in mythology. More importantly, it’s weird for the most nature-based tribe to not have a real animal as a totem. So here is my idea for the Red Talons’ totem:

Red Talons

As far as the Red Talons are concerned, only they are pure, only they are still untainted by man and civilization. They list all the sins of humanity, all of the creatures that have died because of them, and they remember. They remember them all. The Red Talons make them their totems. Their tribal totem is Smilodon, the great sabre-tooth cat that once ruled the land before it was cut down by humanity with their tricks of technology, but they have made totems of all the great ones: the Spotted Lion, the Woolly Mammoth, the Dire Wolf, the Auroch, the Cave Bear, all who have perished by the hands of man. Generally any largely Red Talon pack will follow an extinct totem, most likely a predator, making sure to honour its spirit. Any proper Red Talon refuses to serve a “tainted” totem, which is any based on a mythical creature (such as Unicorn or Pegasus) or especially an animal that has been urbanized, such as Rat, Coyote, Cockroach, or Crow. Red Talons consider such totems to be corrupted at best, traitors at worse.