The Great Enemy (Lupines)

The Lupines have existed as the principle rival and "Great Enemy" of the Kindred for all of history.  As Vampires became creatures of the cities, the Lupines existed in the liminal spaces, on the edges of civilization - though exceptions do exist, much as the Gangrel and some other clans favor the wilderness, some Lupines prowl the concrete jungle, though many have a loathing for cities so profound it appears to be religious.

Chicago has a bloody history with the Lupines - in 1993 an outright war broke out when Prince Lodin declared a Blood Hunt on all Werewolves found in his domain, an order of extermination that backfired brutally and led to his downfall, and the decimation of both the Kindred and Lupines of the city.  The war ended when both sides discovered that the Sabbat and a group of diabolist Lupines had fomented the conflict in order to seize the city for themselves.

The Armistice after the war was fraught and punctuated with aggression on both sides.  Prince Jackson came to power by supporting the Gangrel Primogen Inayanga as she incepted a peace treaty with the wolves.  This treaty was short-lived; as soon as Inayanga departed the city, the new Gangrel Primogen Rosa Hernandez tore the treaty up, and any Lupine that presumes too much in Chicago is in her silver crosshairs.  Now what exists is a fragile truce, with Jackson forbidding his Kindred from claiming domains in "Lupine Territory" and restraining Hernandez from going on the warpath - for now.  The one thing every Kindred in Chicago fears is another war with the Lupines.  Though the wolves might growl and swagger and claim otherwise, the fact that the truce holds - for now - means whoever pass for rational thinkers among them find war just as undesirable.

Werewolves aren't invincible.  Kindred of might and skill can and do kill them.  They face some of the same pressures as the Kindred, and are forced to operate covertly for fear of attention of FIRSTLIGHT and other organizations.  As a race, they don't have their hands on the levers of society the way the Kindred do, though they can pull a few.  But they're big.  They're fast.   They have strange powers of their own.  And they operate in packs, so they're seldom alone.  

As a reminder of just how dangerous the Lupines can be, during a conflict between a single large pack and the Court of St. Paul/Minneapolis, Tremere Justicar Ian Carfax - an elder and a powerful Blood Sorcerer - met his final death.  Know where you are, Kindred.  Travel swiftly between cities, stay off the back roads, and don't travel alone...

(For reader edification about what really went down in the Twin Cities between the Court of Minneapolis/St. Paul and the Great Lakes Pack, read World of Darkness: Crimson Thaw.  It isn't nearly as simple as the official accounting of events would have you believe, but is it ever?)

The View from Without:

The Werewolves are savage, bestial, and hate the Kindred with a passion that borders on unreason.   Most have animistic beliefs.  Some Lupines are powerful shamans, with powers that rival a blood sorcerer.  All are dangerous in combat - Lupines who cannot fight are nonexistent, and they travel in packs, which acts as a force multiplier and makes them even more dangerous.  Their most glaring weakness is their reluctance to engage with modern technology, and a deep-rooted misanthropy that tends to place them on the margins of civilization - they can be maneuvered around and covertly pressured in ways most of them find difficult to fight.  They appear to have a number of different "tribes" reflecting different cultures of origin and interpretations of their religion.

The View from Within:

Vampires are unnatural, manipulative creatures.  Dead things should not walk or talk, and everything the Kindred create is ruinous and wicked.  To sustain themselves they spread their cities across the surface of the world like a stain.  They should be negotiated with only when all other choices are worse - in Chicago, all other choices are worse.  If they stray beyond their cities into the wild places, then they are prey and nothing more.