[WoD] A Theory

[Ancient History]

Current thoughts: in the WoD, it all comes down to spirit.

In Vampire: The Masquerade, Dark Ages Vampire, Kindred of the East, Kindred of the Ebony Kingdom etc; what it boils down to is that vampires are souls in dead bodies. Eastern Kindred are more like "Risen-Plus" because they can access both Yin and Yang Chi, but essentially, all Vampires are Risen-plus. Descendents of Caine/Lilith draw some of their power from their inherent nature as souls in dead bodies, and the rest from the curse in their blood, which holds an echo of magik (and/or divine power). Now then, Eastern Kindred may well be descendents of Caine/Lilith that happen to have changed due to a magickal paradigm shift, but since they're basically incompatible with Western Kindred now, I think the point is moot. incidentally, I think Saulot created the Obeah/Valeren discipline based on the Eastern kindred's similar Discipline, but used his own ability as a Progenitor to do it rather than actually learning it from a Cathyan elder.

In Werewolf: the Apocalypse and Dark Ages Werewolf, the various Changing Breeds are actually Yang-aspected animal spirits mainly restricted to physical form. I know, the whole Eastern terminology of Yin and Yang is not amenable to everybody, but it works, okay? Changing breeds are spirits aspected to Yang energy. Thoughts: Wyld= Yang=Gnosis, Wyrm=Yin=Rage, Weaver=balance=physical world. Werewolves regenerate and reincarnate, sorta stuck in a loop.

In Changeling: the Dreaming, faeries (that is, spirits stuck in a physical aspect, like werewolves, except they're not actually animal spirits) gradually decay in life from highest Shide to lowest Sluagh. Essentially, the fey follow a cycle of rebirth, each rebirth coming up at a lower level, until they're Sluagh, they die, and that may well be it.
Changelings are fey stuck in human from (sortof), subsuming the mortal's spirit (well, squishing the avatar at least). True fae live in the Yang world.

In Wraith: the Oblivion, ghosts are really real. Spirits of humans (and others) who died and stay in a shadow-world, the Yin world. Now, some can go back into the material world as Risen, essentially corpses with dead spirits in them. THis makes them a bit like vampires, and a bit like the original mummies ('cept the first mummies had living spirits and the spell that bound them caused them to re-incarnate.)

Which brings us to Hunter: the Reckoning, Mummy: the Ressurection and Demon: the Fallen. In all three of these, what essentially happens is that when the Sixth Great Storm hits the Yin/Underworld, some spirits jump out to the material world, bond with human spirits in human bodies, and go from there. Now, some of these are Mummies, under the auspices of Osiris, and some think they were angels (Hunters) or fallen angels (Demons). Personally, consdiering there were crazy spirits playing around the Abyss in Wraith that thought they were angels and demons lends me to think perhaps the latter two cases are mere mistakes...but, that's just me.

Now then, if you're willing to take nearly everything at face value, then the world is currently, but was not always, split up into the Yin WOrld (underworld), the Yang World (Faeryland) and the material World (plus a bunch of WAY out there worlds). When the Three-that-were-one split up, the Changing Breeds became stuck in physical forms. After that, everything goes to pot, but I don't want to spout anymore cosmology. In fact, I forget the reason of this post. Fuck. it ends here.

[CykoSpin]

I think Red Mage has the best WoD theory:

If you read enough White Wolf books, you get the feeling that 98% of the Earth's population is made up of Vampires, Werewolves, Wraiths, Mages, and Changelings. They're all waging this secret war for the benefit of one old guy named Henry living in a cramped apartment in Kent, Ohio. Or is it just me?