| Steel Angel | |
| Location: | Los Angeles, California |
| Composition: | Glass Walker run, heavy Bone Gnawer presence. Many other tribes present. |
| Totem: | Cockroach, Cougar, Coyote |
| Nature: | Survival, Transformation (Level presumed 5) |
| Sept Alpha: | Formerly: Eyes-of-the-Tower, Glass Walker Ahroun of unknown rank |
| Caern Warder: | unknown |
| Moon Bridges: | unknown |
| OOC Information | |
|---|---|
| Player Contact: | Staff |
Current Information[]
This sept fell victim to a combination of the Spiral Revolution along with the invasion of one of the Wraith Queens. It fell in the early months of 2015 and the woefully few survivors scattered to the winds.
Archived Details[]
Written by Francisco-player/Heart-player/Ileah/Satyridae. Feel free to discuss this article through the discussion tab; if you have comments you would care to email, please direct them to satyridae@gmail.com. Please contact Heart-player or the Wizards on the MUSH or via email before making worldview changes!
Note: This page is meant to serve both as a description of the sept and as a creative resource for GarouMUSH players who wish to be connected somehow with Steel Angel. These goals are not always compatible, and will be dealt with accordingly.
Steel Angel is the Los Angeles sept largely populated and run by Glass Walkers, though every tribe has representatives there, the city being the hub of diversity that it is. It's fairly large and powerful, though it is not well-respected by more conservative septs--the Glass Walkers of the sept are extremely liberal and free-thinking, in general.
- Mission: The motto of the sept is "The Shepherds of Mankind". They have built their ideologies around two main poles. Firstly, that the humans of their city must be looked after, tended--even culled, when necessary. Quality of life is high on the agenda. Secondly, that the city and her desert environment be brought into harmony with each other. These terrifically ambitious goals are marshalled by the sept officers, and almost everything Steel Angel does as a whole is meant to further one or the other. However, there are a lot of obstacles in the way, as we'll see.
- Location: The sept occupies the roof and top floor of Two California Plaza. The roof has been transformed into a hanging garden which shelters the caern and the spirits of the caern. More to come on this.
- Totems: Cockroach for Wisdom, Cougar for War, and Coyote for Cunning. No, the honorable and honor-driven need not look here for answers. Steel Angel is about both survival and transformation, two goals that do not leave a lot of room for traditional Garou thought on honor and glory.
- For this reason, Steel Angel's immediate allies are few, and almost any Old-World-influenced sept is going to turn from them in disgust. I say almost for the sole reason that there are always exceptions to the rule. I can't think of one right now, however.
- For those interested, there are Alternate Steel Angel Totems that do not fit into the GarouMUSH worldview.
- Population: Glass Walkers are high on the list, followed by Bone Gnawers and the rest of the tribes. The Kinfolk of the sept are valued and guarded closely (no matter what the stupid 3rd edition tribebook says). Other Garou might call them uppity, but overall they are not, they know their place. They're just used to contributing ideas. In a city as big as Los Angeles, the Kin are an indispensible part of Garou operations.
- Young, wild Garou and old, embittered Garou tend to be the ones who drift in. Not every Garou in Los Angeles is a member of the sept, though of course all must announce themselves and follow guest-protocol.
- Sept officers: The sept alpha is known, at this point in her life, only as the Eye of the Tower. She's an Ahroun Glass Walker of black homid extraction, badly scarred yet graceful and very, very dangerous.
- Other supernatural forces: There are unique features to Los Angeles, ones that the discriminating player may well want to leave out when dealing with GarouMUSH worldview. Specifically, the Anarch Free States vampires, as outlined in the sourcebook Los Angeles by Night: Unlife and Death in the Anarch Free States. Additionally, the Technocracy has risen to dominance in the LA chapter of the Ascension War. Traditions mages stay under the radar. The Garou very determinedly avoid mages of any stripe, except when they need killing. Changelings, wraiths, numina, and their splatbook ilk are not discussed here.
Other influences and considerations[]
- Diversity: LA is one of the most culturally diverse cities in the US, and likely in the world. It's a topic that is too big for this page, but easily researchable. In short, don't feel constrained in the ethnicities and cultures available to the Garou and Kin of Steel Angel.
- The California Indians: Before the white man came, California had the highest density of languages in the world. The California Indian tribes are numerous even now, and they're growing in political and economic power. Uktena, Wendigo, and regular old native-blood werewolves have a lot of potential here.
- Hollywood Bowl: The Hollywood Bowl and its surrounding park are one of the city's treasures, a natural ampitheater that has been host to concerts since the 20s. There's a well of power developing underneath it, one that the Garou have begun to keep a close eye on. Somewhat bizarrely, this task has fallen largely to the Bone Gnawers of the city. Many of them are unaffiliated with Steel Angel, and there's strong talk of forming their own sept around the power in Hollywood Bowl.
- City Farming: The Glass Walker camp, City Farmers, are prominent and respected in the sept. Their Gift, Agroculture, is invaluable. Beautification and urging plants to grow in unexpected places--the caern's hanging gardens are a prime example--is one of the primary ways Steel Angel tries to bring nature into the city.
- Deednames: Strictly for my own amusement, I'll often use "natural" features of the city in a deedname. Francisco's deedname, Skyscraper, is a symptom of this. Other ideas include Chews-Through-Chain-Link, Fireplug, Severe-Tire-Damage, and Neon. Yes, it's very silly. Feel free to use it or not, but I thought I'd present the concept.
People from Steel Angel[]
Residents:
- Francisco Delgado
- Rhiannon MacKenzie
- Quentin Michaels
- Dexter Zakaeda
- Timothy Cheung
- Dominic Garcia
- Molly Rearden
- Trace Garza
Visitors/Not strictly residents:
NPCs and potential contact resources[]
- Jacob Chen Bone Gnawer Ragabash
- Jorge Delgado Glass Walker Galliard
- Frederick Jensen Bone Gnawer Ahroun
- Tricia MacKenzie Glass Walker Galliard
- Robert MacKenzie Glass Walker Kin
- Noah MacKenzie Glass Walker Philodox
- David MacKenzie Glass Walker Kin
- Jason MacKenzie Glass Walker Kin
- Tom Sandoval Bone Gnawer Kin
- Olivia and Kirk Zakaeda Bone Gnawer Kin
- Troy Zakaeda Bone Gnawer Kin
- Diego Zilldjian Glass Walker Ahroun
- Jonathan Mahler Get of Fenris Theurge
- Stayin' Alive Pack
So you want to be from Steel Angel[]
You may be concerned that there's no room for your character concept in the sept. Well, it would have to be pretty dramatic, like your character strongly believes in blowing things up as a solution to all problems and can't be persuaded otherwise. In which case, I wish you Godspeed in your quest for approval.
The thing is, Los Angeles is a big city. A very, very big city. There's room for almost anything and anyone there.
Steel Angel itself is a highly diverse sept. There are gang-bangers and businessmen. There are City Farmers, punks, hippies and hackers. Not unlike Hidden Walk.
If you're interested in being from LA but not from Steel Angel, there's room there too. You'll almost certainly either be a guest of the sept or actively avoiding them, but I'm open to suggestions. In addition, there are Garou in the sept who have to be in LA more or less permanently on their own personal agendas, and joined up to have the comfort of society, and access to sept resources. Of course, they pay for it with time and blood when called on to serve the sept, but that's life.
In the event you had no idea about all this and your Garou is already from the LA area and you made up other stuff, whatever. I sure don't care. Also, see: LA is a very big city, literally hundreds of miles of sprawl. There's room for everybody. I focus largely on the downtown area and immediate environs in this article.
Links[]
Wikipedia article on Los Angeles Highly informative, many excellent links.
Glass, Steel and Stone - Los Angeles Some lovely pictures of the LA cityscape, and individual sections of the famous parts of the city.
Downtown Los Angeles Walking Tour An intimate tour of downtown.
los angeles: past present future USC's presentation of the city's timeline.
Architecture in Los Angeles, California An exhaustive list of the major buildings in LA. A lot of the links to other sites are old, but this is a great place to start if you're interested.
California tribes A listing of the federally recognized California Indian tribes and reservations.
The Arboretum LA's Arborteum and Botanic Gardens. Very cool place. Please note that you will not see penguins on the bird walk.
Californios, Spanish Days, Vaqueros, California Missions The first Angelenos.