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The Rainchildren Tribe is a vast family, mostly descended from one specific couple: the "recessive" eponymous ancestor RainChild and his human wife Beatrice Conner. Rain Child is one of few known examples of a "recessive" who did not go nuts upon turning into a wolf. He was born the poor, deprived son of a white whore in the early1800's. His father was a bitter, wandering natve american man who was a brief customer of the brothel, and his name was Rain... something. Nobody remembers.
After a really bum life, the kid decided to off and seek his fortune, eventually coming to California to be a prospector in the '49 gold rush. He was 17 by then, and had experienced strange urges and spiritual foreshadowing, but had no idea he was a werewolf. He got mugged by claim jumpers and left for dead naked in the mountains in winter. Finally his wolf nature kicked in, he grew a tail and a shag coat, and he learned to survive by eating small animals and living in caves. Possibly he did not experience the typical "mass-murdering freak out" that occurs to recessives because there were no humans for a hundred mile radius. Anyway, he became a master of his nature by the winter's end.
Some time next year, he met and fell in love with Beatrice, the wilderness-loving daughter of um, some guy that had reason to live out in the wilderness. We'll work that out later. She ended up discovering his supernatural aspect, and married him for it (cue happy music). They had 12 children, all of whom were werewolves, and the family grew from there, carefully chosing mates of course. Some were human, some were actually wolves, and in later generations, some were even werewolves of other tribes, once contact was made. The tribe was forced out of the Sierra Nevada and into the coastal range they now occupy by several bad encounters with the Howler Tribe packs that were still then roaming the Rockies and Sierras (this was well before Wyrmfoe's time of course; later the Howlers moved to the south coast). RainChild died a hero's death in 1899, at the middle-age of 69 (I won't say how right now, but he is unquestionably dead). Beatrice died of old age three years later.
Over time, the Rainchildren, prolific as they were, began to fragment and drift apart. Wolves themselves do not remain living in clumps, and the Rainchildren, though mostly descended from and born of human-born mothers, do have a stong wolfishness in tem. Some elders of the family packs (parents and grandparents) began to miss the old sense of community from their youth, and felt that the tribe was losing a strength, but attempts to stay in contact wavered. Then in the 1960's, one cousin returned from Berkely with a marvelous pattern for a social reunification, and after garnering support from the more monetarily solvent packs, she founded the Rainchildren Commune as a haven and center for the tribe. A majority of packs gathered to form their own minor town, with commisary, home schools, gardens, craft shops, rec centers, religious temples, meditiation and study huts, library, council hall, and pack lodges.
At the suggestions of werewolves from elsewhere who had married into the Rainchildren, a traditional wolf-tribal governemt was formed, wherein the fathers of each pack, and the grandmothers in each pack, became the ruling council, advised by the tribe's shamans (if they are not already on the council as Elders) and influenced by a periodic moot gathering of every tribal member old enough (and bold enough) to hold the stick and speak before the assembly. The great tribal moots became festivals of merriment and communal affirmation. More frequent moots are also held, gathering only the council and specific audience-seekers. Should there be times of war, a War Leader is chosen and granted the courtesy of special authority, so that the council cannot endlessly debate, but gives pre-approval for some actions, and must give rapid decision yes or no to larger questions. There is also Great Aunt Hortense, the eldest living descendant of Rainchild and his only living granddaughter, who acts as special council whenever she feels like it. She is found baking in the commissary as often as debating divination with the shamans.
A good number of the packs dwell in the commune, but not all. Packs live throughout the forested areas of Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties. Some came to live (until very recently as some of you will recall) in the growing suburban areas that were the claimed domains of the Bloodkin. This was simply due to their being quiet about it. Part of the reason was that the tribal council had formed several agendas, seeking to teach mankind not to pollute, to live responsibly, to love thy neighbor, etc. Some packs and individuals are focused inwardly, forming the core community, and some feel a calling to be the outreach workers, dealing with human society to accomplish the tribe's goals. This may include running human-interface businesses for profit, working in government or bisiness to influence policy, etc.
Also, werewolves had non-werewolf siblings, non-werewolf friends and relations who knew they were weres, non-werewolf friends and relations who did not know, and so on. A vast network of contacts, informants, friends, and employees eventually formed, allowing many Rainchildren to infiltrate or at least gain information about Bloodkin domains and remain undetected. Often this had nothing specific to do with the Bloodkin themselves, but the Rainchildren had by then learned that there was no great love between them and the undead.
The Rainchildren are rather eclectic in many ways despite the existance of the council. In fact, that was the reason for its formation. Some packs are still granola-nut new age hippies, which has given the tribe such a reputation, but some are iron-hard traditionalist vampire hunters. Most are just normal folks trying to make a living and be good to their family, which happens to be a family of werewolves. The majority of the tribe are human-born, since they are descended from the human Beatrice, but there are some packs whose wolf-born mothers or grandmothers married into the tribe.
In 2005, the Rainchildren number about 300 (this includes children and non-werewolf siblings and mates, but not in-laws). There are some children being born now who are 7th generation Rainhildren. That doesn't determine any power points or anything, but it's important for family pride.
That being said, I'd like to set the new Rainchildren character playing in the early 1970's, so this puts the tribal population a little lower, and their influence network a little less robust. When we begin the "live play" gaming after character dev, it'll be 1973, and I'd like your characters to be about 12-14 years old, having recently experienced their first change.
Modern characters are most likely generation 6 of the Rainchildren tribe.
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