09-18-2013, 11:01 PM
Gnosis: That Other Dot
There is a charge in the air completely unlike the discomfort that comes with Wrath. You know the latter. It burns, eats, erodes and destroys. It fuels the beast and devours the soul and leaves behind an inhuman engine. A machine devoted to Obliteration.
This charge however, is the source of that Wrath. Not the opposite. Deep inside the boundaries of a Garou (And rarely, a Kinfolk) soul there can be found a sliver of something so pure, so absolute in it's existence, so rooted in a time before Humanity, that it defies and defeats civilization, society and the training ground of life that is the Modern Day.
This sliver is realness. Authenticity with abundance. It defies logical concern, not because it is illogical, but because it needs no explanation. No understanding. It's known. Period. There is and never will be a question, from the slimmest connection to the broadest wonderment, that you are different. More than Rage, the unreasoning and Will, the resisting, Gnosis is Reality.
Not the way Humanity sees it. Not the way it was defined by the corrupt Triat, but in the state that life has always meant to exist as. It is Pangaea. It is the Primordial Touch. It is the boundary of Enlightenment, Mages desperately want to achieve, the Golconda of Vampiric desire, the utter, ecstatic belief that drives Werewolves into a suicidal war effort they have no hope of winning. It is the single connecting force to Gaia that proves the right and wrong. It proves the presence of Taint. It proves corruption. It proves the Balance, within and without.
Gnosis is the Reason to fight. It is the meaning, the measure and the Mother.
When considering the effect it has on a Garou, Gnosis is not simply a spiritual charge or Gaian 'Battery' but a solid sliver of reason that is more convincing than any argument, any detraction, any attempt at obfuscation can hope to compete against. A Garou's Gnostic self is the defining factor and source of his reason for being what he is.
Take for instance the Lost Cub scenario. A frightened creature, freshly monsterized, bent to the whim of a Rage and Will they can't explain and yet deep within them, stirred to fullness, bloomed if you will, that Gnostic presence gives them a purpose even if their rational and logical mind cannot hope to define it. It is there, very real, very sure, the surest of things in a situation and circumstance that has turned everything else upside down.
That unhealthy, abnormal feeling they have had their entire lives, suddenly becomes the anchorhead, the foundation and the cure for their restless nature. It is the Wonder, the Scope and the Scalpel that helps to alleviate their humanity and bring about a connection to something far deeper.
Not Greater.
Deeper.
I say 'alleviate their humanity' because this is it exactly. The human no longer exists. The Garou is still mortal, still beast, still animal, still something but the Human they once were (or can be occasionally in the case of metis and lupus) is a show. A facade they walk around in. That flip performed at the first change and in subsequent events, turns the perspective of the city (even towns, villages and the smallest of communities) into something obscure. Something antithetical to the nature that they have always had.
That Gnositic self suddenly stares through that lense of pure reality, that has and always will be, right up to death, and shows the gray, illogical, irrational boundary of Humankind and just how sloppy and misaligned it is to what has been, should be, and, if the Garou have their way, will be again.
Gnosis the trait, Gnosis the Spiritual, Gnosis the Religion, Gnosis the Grease between worlds. It exists as the defining reason for Garou continuance. Garou definition. Garou tongue, litany, law and interaction. Boil all that they do down to it's root, core and source code and you've got nothing but Pure Reality. Undiluted by experience, time or age. A simple gauge and measurement of how unlike the rest of the world they are.
There is a charge in the air completely unlike the discomfort that comes with Wrath. You know the latter. It burns, eats, erodes and destroys. It fuels the beast and devours the soul and leaves behind an inhuman engine. A machine devoted to Obliteration.
This charge however, is the source of that Wrath. Not the opposite. Deep inside the boundaries of a Garou (And rarely, a Kinfolk) soul there can be found a sliver of something so pure, so absolute in it's existence, so rooted in a time before Humanity, that it defies and defeats civilization, society and the training ground of life that is the Modern Day.
This sliver is realness. Authenticity with abundance. It defies logical concern, not because it is illogical, but because it needs no explanation. No understanding. It's known. Period. There is and never will be a question, from the slimmest connection to the broadest wonderment, that you are different. More than Rage, the unreasoning and Will, the resisting, Gnosis is Reality.
Not the way Humanity sees it. Not the way it was defined by the corrupt Triat, but in the state that life has always meant to exist as. It is Pangaea. It is the Primordial Touch. It is the boundary of Enlightenment, Mages desperately want to achieve, the Golconda of Vampiric desire, the utter, ecstatic belief that drives Werewolves into a suicidal war effort they have no hope of winning. It is the single connecting force to Gaia that proves the right and wrong. It proves the presence of Taint. It proves corruption. It proves the Balance, within and without.
Gnosis is the Reason to fight. It is the meaning, the measure and the Mother.
When considering the effect it has on a Garou, Gnosis is not simply a spiritual charge or Gaian 'Battery' but a solid sliver of reason that is more convincing than any argument, any detraction, any attempt at obfuscation can hope to compete against. A Garou's Gnostic self is the defining factor and source of his reason for being what he is.
Take for instance the Lost Cub scenario. A frightened creature, freshly monsterized, bent to the whim of a Rage and Will they can't explain and yet deep within them, stirred to fullness, bloomed if you will, that Gnostic presence gives them a purpose even if their rational and logical mind cannot hope to define it. It is there, very real, very sure, the surest of things in a situation and circumstance that has turned everything else upside down.
That unhealthy, abnormal feeling they have had their entire lives, suddenly becomes the anchorhead, the foundation and the cure for their restless nature. It is the Wonder, the Scope and the Scalpel that helps to alleviate their humanity and bring about a connection to something far deeper.
Not Greater.
Deeper.
I say 'alleviate their humanity' because this is it exactly. The human no longer exists. The Garou is still mortal, still beast, still animal, still something but the Human they once were (or can be occasionally in the case of metis and lupus) is a show. A facade they walk around in. That flip performed at the first change and in subsequent events, turns the perspective of the city (even towns, villages and the smallest of communities) into something obscure. Something antithetical to the nature that they have always had.
That Gnositic self suddenly stares through that lense of pure reality, that has and always will be, right up to death, and shows the gray, illogical, irrational boundary of Humankind and just how sloppy and misaligned it is to what has been, should be, and, if the Garou have their way, will be again.
Gnosis the trait, Gnosis the Spiritual, Gnosis the Religion, Gnosis the Grease between worlds. It exists as the defining reason for Garou continuance. Garou definition. Garou tongue, litany, law and interaction. Boil all that they do down to it's root, core and source code and you've got nothing but Pure Reality. Undiluted by experience, time or age. A simple gauge and measurement of how unlike the rest of the world they are.