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The Dreamspeakers/Kha’vadi

© 2022 Paradox Interactive © 2022 Onyx Path Publishing

Chapter Five: The Dreamspeakers/Kha’vadi
"I want you to understand none of this was me...it was the people who stood up."
— LaDonna Tamakawastewin Brave Bull Allard

Overview
The name you know us by is not our own. The sacred languages and shrouded rites documented
by your scholars as raw and naive are knots tied in a hallowed net of intermarriages, honored
oaths, and divine reciprocity. Where you and yours record unintelligible chants and backwards
bongo beating, we endure, we maintain, and we empower. The so-called Awakened claim the
greatest authorities over our many worlds, crowning themselves gods and monarchs over all, and
in this, all of the peoples. But they choose not to acknowledge the People of the Grass, the
People of the Salmon, Spider’s Children, Stone’s Flock, Moon who Transforms and all of her
daughters, or even the get of all of the books, recordings and cameras and computers they hold
sacrosanct. Our worlds overflow with great nations who deserve all the respect due to the most
ancient wizard, crouched upon her fallen tower, for all of eternity, and more.
There are those who believe they have a mandate to steal secrets from God, and those who
believe that they must sing God’s word until every soul becomes one with her. There are those
who deem themselves the arbiters of which deaths are sacred, and which are profane, and those
who are certain of their own will, certain their own visions are the greatest of potentials in their
world. We are none of these, and for being none of them, we are feared and segregated,
admonished, and dismissed. But our pact is one of respect and mutuality. We are given a gift,
this is true, but it does not cast us great, or chosen, or divine. Our gift is that of connection. We
are siblings to the Grass and cousins of the Salmon. Our people have wed Spider’s Children and
been adopted by Stone’s Flock. We are the stewards of the Earth and all her realms. We are
caretakers and protectors. We are parents and children. We are stalwart guardians of traditions
ancient and revered, and we spin new tales and new customs around an infinitely transforming
world, the place where our children will open their eyes.
The name you wrapped us in, Those-Who-Speak-With-Dreams, the Dream-Speakers, is paint
splashed across the walls of the first mountains, a road-sign in the depths of the jungles. Turn
and witness the path we walk from behind, we walk contrary, or not at all. You call us
intermediaries and intercessors, but we do not walk between two worlds, forever torn — we walk
the dream path, where all worlds are one, and all nations are tied together. Names are a tool
forged in a dreamless world. Call us the Dreamcallers, Kha’vadi, the Wise People, the People of
High Degree, or the Dreamspeakers, but we are beyond name and beyond measure. We are the
dreams of our ancestors made real, we are those who survived, and those who endured, and we
are unbound, and unbroken.

History
“Survival is in the mouth.”
― Yvonne Vera, Nehanda
Here there is a large drum, fastened from gifts given to us by Alligator, by Buffalo, by Eagle, by
Vulture, and by Dogwood. Here there is a large drum without a name and its face is unpainted.
This is the first drum and the last drum. Each beat is the song of our ancestors. Each beat is the
song of our children. Open your throats, and the beats come forth, rhythmic, from time before
memory, and until the last babe closes their eyes.
Dagot’ee!
One drummer comes and takes their seat beside the drum. They open their mouth and lift their
hand, the stick invisible in the darkness. Their voice is thunder, and the stick beats down upon
the head. Thud, thud, thud! “This is our story!”
The People wander in the darkness, searching for food and searching for light. They search for a
long time, but do not know time: no sun lights the sky and no moon hides within the night.
Exhausted and demoralized, the people summon the Dreamcaller forth to give them direction,
but no one comes when they call. They cry out and wail and still no one comes. The path leaders
grow together and call a council, “We must choose the Dreamcaller, because they will not
choose themselves.” This is agreed upon and they turn to the People once more and with their
lips, point to the youngest of them, She Has No Parent. She Has No Parent explains, “I am not
the Dreamcaller, I know nothing of the Dream!” But the council of path leaders is already
decided. “You are the Dreamcaller, show us the way!”
She Has No Parent thinks about what to do and comes up with a way to lead the People in the
right direction. “I have decided,” she begins, “Take the best horse from the best rider. Throw the
warmest and most beautiful blanket over its back. Fill the saddle with food and waterskins and
then attach the finest bow and a full quiver, as well as a path finder’s rifle and bandolier! Then,
put the horse down in the valley.”
The People leap to obey. The wisdom of the Dreamcaller is not questioned. The Dreamcaller
spins the world into being, and to challenge their demands is to sever the knots that bind all of
being together. The People collect the best horse and blanket and fill the saddlebags with rations.
Slung over the saddle are the finest bow and rifle and plenty of ammunition. The horse is led
down into the valley and the People wait.
Time passes without measure (no sun lights the sky and no moon hides within the night) and the
People are still lost. “Go and check on the horse,” demand the path leaders. The scouts climb
down into the valley and feel around with their hands, finding no horse, blanket, or saddle. When
they return they report that they found nothing. “Where has the horse gone? Did the Dreamcaller
take it? The Dreamcaller has taken it. She told us she knew nothing of the Dream!”
The oldest grandmother says, “She is the Dreamcaller, and she has shown us the way.”
“Look to the valley below us,” the first drummer thunders, “and see the stones there with
hoofprints left behind. Every time you walk through this valley, remember the story of She Has
No Parent.”
Mhoreso!
A second drummer joins the first, seated opposite. They open their mouth, and a great wave
comes crashing against the stones as they strike the drum head. Thud, thud, thud! “This is our
story!”
Mother of Loving Spirits tends her garden and her children. The walls of her city are ancient and
beyond memory— if not dream — but the roots of her flowers dig into the drystack, filling
forgotten holes with growth. One day, Mother of Loving Spirits dreams, the city will be held
aloft on the roots of her children. She wanders the grounds and sits beside the plants which
molder and rot. She tends the sickest saplings, knowing the blight will spread if left to its own
device. Her children, loving spirits and loving Wise alike, recognize her strength and cherish her.
Mother of Loving Spirits is, herself, the plant that grows in the cracks of the drystack.
But a bitter wind blows, and upon it come the spores of the spirit-eaters. Mother of Loving
Spirit’s garden stretches from one edge of her city to the other, and while she is walking, the
spores settle behind and beneath her. She does not see them as they nestle into the roots of the
child we now only name Outcast. Outcast becomes the rot. At first, Outcast settles to spread the
sickness within the drystack but the spirit-eaters have another message, a greater one.
They whisper to Outcast, “The drystack must fall, but you cannot break it from within. Each
stone is carved to the shape of another, and each one hand-chosen by Being to sit within the
curve of another. The drystack is too strong for you alone to destroy.”
Outcast, infected with the fears and terrors born of the spirit-eaters begs, “But what then shall I
do, because I have all of these roots, and they have only ever touched the drystack. It is all I
know to touch!”
The spirit-eaters hiss back to Outcast, “No, you are wrong. You are blind and foolish, and you
must think of who tended you when you were sick. Who touched you? There it is. You can see it
now.”
So Outcast turns his face upon Mother of Loving Spirits, showing the rot in his limbs and in his
roots. Outcast confesses his deeds, spreading the rot within the drystack, but ask of Mother of
Loving Spirits for healing.
Mother of Loving Spirits sees him. There are some who tell this story and confess now that she
is a fool. They speak it more gently, naming her naive, naming her too loving, but she is neither
of these things. She is the first Mother who has a name, for good or ill, and her hand guides her
children toward growth and renewal – toward strength. Mother of Loving Spirits is a believer but
is not without sight or wit.
Mother of Loving Spirits sees Outcast for what he is.
Still, she goes to him.
Calling to her child, Mother of Loving Spirits sings the song of purification and prepares
medicine in her shell bowl. She bends before Outcast and, with wisdom, closes her eyes. With
prayer song on her lips, and medicine in her hands, she sings into the Dream that her husband
might hear. Outcast sees her, crouched, with closed eyes, and with the spore-grown thorns upon
his limbs, Outcast lashes out, driving the thorn into Mother of Loving Spirits’ heart so deeply
that Outcast then drowns in her blood. Look here and see the drystack walls of Mother of Loving
Spirits’ city. They still stand. See them and remember her story.
Many of us sing songs of Mother of Loving Spirits, and this is only one, but you know this song,
and you sing it with me, and this song makes us one. It makes us strong. The song carves our
shapes into one another, and we are her drystack.
Ekileer!
A third drummer arrives, branch in one hand and stone in the other. “These are the gifts of the
land,” she sings, as the sun and all of its fires burst forth from her lips. She ties the stone and
branch together and sings with the others, beating the drum with her land-gift. Thud, thud, thud!
“This is our story!”
The Council sings a story of cannons that fell the walls of Mistridge. This is the beginning of
their great war. Cannons and walls are the language of war they understand best. We do not
know the others for centuries, and when we do they look upon us with pity and disdain — yet
still they see us as weapons for their war.
War comes to us just before, just as, and for long after the Council does. The story of our war is a
bear who follows the same path as the Ascension War, but is a different animal, with different
prey. The bear of defeat is hungry — it hollows itself out over and over and over again, gnawing
on the bones of its brethren — and so it ranges far looking for anything that will sate its hunger.
It finds us.
We are not unprepared, we are overwhelmed. The war comes to our shores shaped by the
Serpent’s footprint. The war comes to the great island carved on the back of Turtle. The war
comes to us from ships sailing down the nine rivers upon the back of Frog. Everywhere we are,
the war finds us. Our blood, our families, are all of our relations. We do not only look to siblings
and cousins, we look to the other peoples of the world — the families of Serpent, Turtle, and
Frog, of Wolf, and Eagle, and even Bear — to find those brave enough to bear their visions. And
the People sing to us — we know the war is coming, but we are warriors all, and we refuse to put
down our knives.
First, they steal food and stones, the gifts of the land. Thud, thud, thud! Then they steal the land
itself. Then they steal the women! They steal the children! THUD, THUD, THUD! Now, finally,
with nothing left, they steal our stories, they steal our art, and they steal our faith, selling it at
J.C. Penny and on Etsy to put more dollars in filthy, bloody hands!
Now the Council sings of the War at its end. They sing of peace treaties and truces after we
demanded them for centuries. Is their war over? Who are we to decide? We were never consulted
on it, only dragged into it. Is their war over? Maybe. Is ours? As long as our people’s spirits are
the targets of Hollow Bear’s forever hunger, our war is never over. You do not need to look to a
lake or mountain or wall to know this — it is carved into our hearts.
Niltse!
A fourth drummer joins the circle, their face hidden behind a stone mask embedded with
turquoise. A fifth and then a sixth and seventh drummer join. Two more join, their masks
fashioned of copper cables and glass, until there are nine. Each beats the drum in the same tempo
and rhythm with the others. Thud, thud, thud! Their mouths, partially hidden behind their masks,
open to sing, and a great storm billows forth. A great fog is summoned, obscuring the drummers,
but the drumbeat continues. “This story belongs to us!”
In the beginning, there was the family. The Creators blow spirit into every child. Every person is
also Being. We know our Being and see the Being in our siblings, in our cousins, and in our
distant relations. We see the Being in the Creators above, who rest in the sky, singing to us on
the winds that blow from the five directions. The vines and roots that connect us to our families,
and across the land to all of our relations, seem too short to reach Creators.
The relations are called together, and it is agreed, all will jump as one, and reach for the sky.
Together at once, across the world, all the People jump and reach for the Creators, for the stars.
Most of the People fall back to the land and continue on their way. But some of the People are
stuck there, in the sky. Some you know, and accept — Eagle and Vulture, already part of this
song, Hawk, Heron, and Bat. But others are there as well, and you can see them still. They are all
our relations, the Northern Lights, the stars made up of connections and relations into the Fawns,
the Lost Hunters, Spider, and Coyote’s Daughters.
And all of those who become stuck in the sky, they are bound to the Creators, and they are still
bound to the People.
We are the Children of Stars, the people between and of Being. We touch Creation and bring it to
all our relations.
Anej.

Current Events
“Protect your spirit...because you are in the place where spirits get eaten.”
― John Trudell
We have never been willing participants in the Ascension War. Our choice to join the Council of
Nine Mystick Traditions was born out of an understanding of dangers that were coming to our
families, to the land, and to all of the People. There is an idea that there can be only one idea, but
that is not our path. Now, however, that the War is declared over, we stand in our lands,
devastated and ruined. Our families and communities are torn apart, our relationships ripped
asunder, and traditions and spirituality stolen and made mockeries of.
But we are a people of great love, and great survival. We weathered the most brutal violence the
War had to offer and stood our ground. Our power is in medicine, in healing, and more than
anything, in the ties that bind us together and make us powerful. We are more than Kha’vadi, and
we are more than Dreamspeaker — we are the People, and we endure.
The most pivotal event separating the then from the now is the Avatar Storm, and although it
turned all of Awakened society on its head, it upset the Kha’vadi more than any of the
Traditions. Those Without Name wandered and tended the Other Side more carefully and with
more intent than any other Tradition. More Dreamspeakers were lost within the Umbra and
destroyed by the Avatar Storm than any other singular Tradition. The Four Winds, a faction of
Kha’vadi devoted to Umbral exploration and understanding, simply ceased to exist. Primus Tom
“Laughing Eagle’’ Smithson’s disappearance unsettled a Tradition which never held much
political power within the Council. Smithson, perhaps the most prominent Dreamspeaker to
disappear, took ancient knowledge of the spirit ways with him, and left many young
Dreamcallers without guidance and teachings.
Entire Umbral Chantries disappeared overnight and accessing Horizon Realms created by the
Kha’vadi became impossible. Realms such as the Yambula’kitino and the Lodge of the Gray
Squirrel deteriorated and became ghost towns, bereft of the Wise People who cultivated them.
The greatest loss was the vast realm of memory built and sustained by the Baruti, Motlobo wa
Poloto. Centuries of teachings, stories, songs, memories, and dreams were severed
instantaneously from the Kha’vadi who relied upon their connection to the other side. The
Keepers of the Sacred Fire still sing stories of mourning and perform rites of remembrance for
the sacred places which were torn from them. There are those who believe that the Council of
Nine are better off for having lost access to their carefully crafted Horizon Realms, that they’re
now forced to live in “the real world” and deal with the problems therein, but that belief carries
an arrogance which the Kha’vadi cannot afford. The people from whom the Kha’vadi descend,
and the traditions they’ve inherited, have been subject throughout history, and presently, to the
greatest crimes of genocide and erasure, and for them, the sacred spaces that were their Horizon
Realms represented homes untouched by violence, hearts untouched by sorrow, and families
never torn asunder by the “progress” of colonizing nations.
In the wake of the Avatar Storm and the devastation of the Dreamspeakers spiritual connections,
the youngest members of the Tradition have set their eyes on goals that are within their reach. A
few, certainly, seek to reconstruct the sacred places of old, but that work is long-term,
painstaking process. More Kha’vadi refocus their efforts on maintaining spiritual and familial
ties, as well as nation to nation relationships. The Tradition has seen a powerful resurgence in a
philosophy of community first, an idea which is far from alien to them, but sometimes lost when
one has access to the kind of power that the Awakened do. The Dreamspeakers who most
embraced disconnection from family and community were the first claimed by the Avatar Storm.
Those who remained cleaved to their connections, whether they be actual family, local spirits,
and tribal nations, or broad-reaching Black and Indigenous resistance movements, organizations
devoted to decolonization, and multi-nation camps devoted to protecting sacred places at risk
from the power-grabs of heartless trillionaires and global corporations. The advancement and
accessibility of the internet, and in particular social media, is a gift to young Kha’vadi. Although
the common stereotype that comes with being one of the Wise People is that of being a
technophobic throwback, the truth is much more complicated. The Dreamcallers do not shy away
from technology at all, and in fact will argue that their own technologies and sciences are sacred
ways of knowing. For centuries these practices were uncorrupted by Western science, itself
devoted to control, colonization, and destruction. Presently, Dreamspeakers, especially the
Ghost Wheel Society, devote themselves to rediscovering, maintaining, and pursuing those ways
of knowing. So, for a Tradition so focused on connection and community, social media has
become a natural home. This also serves as a powerful tool to bring the People of High Degree
together and bind them more powerfully in unified causes — at least against those who would
oppose them — they are certainly still as capable of infighting as any passionate family.
Although the Ghost Wheel Society walks at the forefront of the efforts to further spirit-led ways
of thinking and sciences, technologists can now be found among every Dreamspeaker faction,
from the Keeper of the Sacred Flame teaching her grandmother how to livestream her prayer
songs to millions of followers, to the Baruti archivist who also builds and maintains carbon
neutral data storage to record hundreds of thousands of stories and performances, both traditional
and contemporary, to the Red Spear Society warrior who battles cyber warfare from militant
multinational corporations who seek to disrupt resistance movements. Today, the Dreamspeaker
that entirely eschews technology is rare, and those few are supported by those who embrace it.
April 2016 was a turning point for the Dreamcallers which brought all this together. It cannot be
stated clearly enough that Standing Rock did not happen due to the influence of the Awakened or
any other supernatural power. It was, however, a powerful beacon to the Wise People, and many
of them flocked there to show support to their nations and kin. Here at this place, where the
powers of greed and destruction sought to corrupt the sacred places where ancestors, memories,
families, and traditions were one and the same with the land, the people came together from
disparate nations across the globe to link hands and share prayer and protect the water and
heritage of the Standing Rock people as one. The Kha’vadi, already slowly being carved into a
Tradition of connection, were inspired by the people who, throughout history, were meant to
lead, teach, and guide themselves. The Dreamspeakers who came to Standing Rock humbled
themselves in this lesson and took to maintaining the camp (the most prominent of them being
Rocio Medina-Carillo and Sister Moriah, see p. XX), self-imposing camp clean-up duties,
working in soup kitchens, and even guarding and maintaining the composting toilets. But they
watched, and they learned, and they’ve taken the lesson of crossing barriers of belief and culture
for themselves, as opposed to having the Council forcefully manufacture it for them.
Not all practitioners of the ancient ways agree with this movement, however. Although factions
such as the Akinkanju emphasize the need to maintain unique cultural identities and preserve the
traditions of one’s own peoples, there are those who have bucked against the solidification of the
Dreamspeakers. If they were ever a political faction at all, the Solitaries (also sometimes called
Independents) are essentially no longer part of the Tradition. Their paradigms and practices
follow a lot of the same foundations and priorities as the Dreamcallers, but they have no interest
in maintaining community connections, or really any connections at all. The surviving
Dreamspeakers who were once part of this group splintered away and became Orphans (although
some few have joined the Disparate Alliance, working closely with the Thunder Society and
Itz’at).
The most terrifying consequence of the greater unification of the Dreamspeakers is that their
enemies, who once dismissed them just as quickly and out-of-hand as their allies, are now forced
to take them seriously and have dialed up their response to Black and Indigenous-led resistance
efforts across the globe. The strength the Dreamspeakers have drawn from building stronger
communities has not gone unnoticed, and the Technocracy and Nephandi alike (although their
methods greatly differ) have taken to attacking those communities within, fostering jealousies,
bickering, in-fighting, and lateral violence. They use the same tools the Kha’vadi have embraced,
the internet, the media, and academia, to stir trouble from within. Just because the Wise People
have strengthened their familial and spiritual ties does not mean that they must not constantly
defend and reinforce them.
We are in the eyes of the world now, and our spirits must be protected. Good thing that’s what
we’re best at.

Notable Personalities
"In the West [reality and non-reality] cannot go together. They are in opposition.
The African says yes, it has two features, but they cannot be separated."
― Sophie Oluwole
The Kha’vadi don’t place as much importance on individual Medicine-Workers as the other
Traditions might. Leaders come and go, and while their positions are important, and leave some
lasting impact, in the end all their efforts are geared toward the next generation. So, while the
Dreamspeakers commune with their own ancestors with reverence, they also do not dwell on
great people of the past except as stories that further their teachings and beliefs.
Inarguably, the two most well-known Dreamspeaker ancestors are Naioba and Star-of-Eagles,
the legendary founders of the Tradition who both died centuries ago. Each of them are spoken of
with reverence, and Naioba in particular has had hundreds of stories spun about her and her
importance in the unification of a Tradition that might not have otherwise ever remained whole.
But both Naioba and Star-of-Eagles are gone. The power that they now carry within the
Tradition is in what they stood for and what they believed. They were a symbol of the
possibilities inherent in the marriage of disparate traditions and beliefs, and how they might
come together in harmony, which today’s Dreamspeakers still seek to accomplish.
Walking-Hawk also hailed from the same era as Naioba and Star-of-Eagles, his participation in
the March of the Nine sealed the fate of the Dreamspeakers’ connection to the Council of Nine
Mystick Traditions for centuries to come. Like the founders of the Tradition, Walking-Hawk is
gone, but his legacy is often misunderstood. Walking-Hawk was known to be a naysayer of the
concept of the unified Traditions, and that was why he was chosen for the March. He did not
believe that any good could come of the alliance, and the other members read this as him having
a general bad attitude. But that bad attitude was also born of whispers of the ghosts of his
ancestors, and visions of what his children would endure.
Even the Laughing Eagle, Tom Smithson, is but a memory now. His political presence astride
the Seat of Spirit did not carry so much weight while he sat upon it, but he also did not care to
use it. Like many members of the Four Winds, his interests were usually cast as far away from
the internal structures of the Council as they could be. Laughing Eagle is considered another
casualty of the Avatar Storm. The Lodge of the Gray Squirrel, once a bustling hub of activity
created and maintained by him, is now merely a realm of forever rolling hills, covered in tall
grass. From time-to-time herds of wild horses, bearing similarities to the spirit-horses he once
tended, can be seen galloping in the distance.
Some of the old ones do remain, and the two oldest known members of the Kha’vadi, Tasygan
and Adambara, heavily influence the contemporary affairs of the Tradition. Although she does
not claim any kind of leadership role, Tasygan is the head of the Baruti in all but official title and
none have made more efforts than she to recover the lost knowledge of Motlobo wa Poloto.
Tasygan takes upon herself the impossible task of collecting stories from every Dreamspeaker
there is. Once her realm was solely devoted to the protectorate of her homeland, Tuva, but now
she is a world-traveler and story-collector. She’s almost always seen in the company of
Adambara, the Spider, who has long been a traveler before she joined with Tasygan and the
Baruti. However, her goals have always explicitly been the expansion of her web. Adambara is
one of the primary forces within the Tradition working to keep individual Dreamcallers
connected to one another. The Kha’vadi recognize these two elderly women, and know that
when they come calling, the rainbow follows.
Politically, the two most active and prominent Kha’vadi are Rocio Medina-Carillo, a Cora Indian
schoolteacher operating out of Nayarit, and Pulmari, a political activist who resides in the
southern tip of the Andes. The pair of them have consistently presented a unified front to the rest
of the Council of Nine and share the Seat of Spirit. Although the shared seat is unusual, they both
point out that it is not without precedent, as the founders of their Tradition shared the seat as
well. However, Rocio and Pulmari have severely different views on where the Tradition should
head, and their infighting is infamous within the Tradition.
Rocio is a member of the Keepers of the Sacred Flame and emphasizes the importance of
maintaining time-honored traditions. Chief among these is the Wise People’s responsibility to
their own communities, human and spiritual alike. Despite her status in the Sacred Flame, she is
also renowned for making unusual and unlikely connections. The circle of magi she leads are
primarily Dreamspeakers, but her second is Marisol Coronado, a Yaqui Virtual Adept.
Pulmari, one the other hand, trained at the knee of Xoca, a Dreamspeaker once notorious for
engaging with the Technocracy explosively and decisively. When Xoca left the Dreamspeakers,
disgusted with the Council’s tightened reigns on war against the Technocracy, to join the
Thunder Society, Pulmari took his place as one of the biggest firebrands within the Tradition.
They are the nominal leader of the Red Spear Society (they’ve been challenged a dozen times
since taking the role, but haven’t lost it yet), and unlike Rocio, they believe that the time for
holding onto old songs and dances and making peace are over. They carry a strong hatred of the
Union but an even stronger one of the Nephandi. They insist that Rocio and her ilk have the right
to resist with non-violent prayer and ritual, but once that fails, the Red Spear Society will be
standing right behind them, and they are prepared for war.
When the Thunder Society formed and expressed their disgust with the Dreamspeakers, they
suggested that harboring ex-Technocrats was just as dangerous as harboring “reformed”
Nephandi, accusing the Kha’vadi of both. The splintering nearly tore the Tradition apart, and
many believed that the Spirit Smiths were the ex-Technocrats that the Thunder Society were
pointing their fingers at. In fact, the Spirit Smiths were one of the few factions that hadn’t arisen
from a history of colonization and as animosities grew, they nearly left the Tradition to form
their own Craft as well. Instead, Sister Moriah stepped in.
Sister Moriah
Sister Moriah, an emerald-eyed Creole woman long operating out of New Orleans and tending to
the impoverished communities therein, is the current head of the Ghost Wheel Society. Like
many Dreamspeakers, she never sought that role, but it was given to her when she called the first
Ghost Wheel Council and invited the remaining members of the Spirit Smiths to be one with
them. The merging of these two factions was one of the first steps toward healing after the
sundering caused by the departure of the Thunder Society, and since then Sister Moriah has
expanded her influence from tending to Louisiana’s poor, to pushing the Ghost Wheel Society
toward using their medicine-work in the inner cities to build support and infrastructure for those
who need it most. After Rocio and Pulmari, she is one of the most recognized faces among
Council mages, merely because the Ghost Wheel Society is more willing to work side-by-side
with them than any other Dreamspeaker faction.
Attributes: Strength 2, Dexterity 2, Stamina (Formidable) 4, Charisma
(Compelling) 4, Manipulation 3, Appearance (Striking) 4, Perception 3, Intelligence
3, Wits 3
Abilities: Alertness 2, Art 2, Athletics 1, Awareness (Penumbral) 5, Empathy
(Trauma) 4, Expression 3, Intimidation 3, Leadership 3, Streetwise (Houseless
communities) 5, Subterfuge 2, Crafts (Jury-rig) 4, Drive 3, Etiquette 1, Firearms 3,
Melee 1, Stealth 2, Survival (Streets) 4, Technology 3, Computer 2, Cosmology
(Protocol) 4, Enigmas 3, Esoterica 3, Occult 2, Politics 3, Science (Engineering) 4
Arete: 4
Spheres: Correspondence 1, Entropy 1, Forces 3, Matter 4, Prime 4, and Spirit 4.
Willpower: 7
Health Levels: OK, OK, -1, -1, -2, -2, -5, Incapacitated
Armor Rating: 1 (Layered clothing)
Powers: Bullet-Rider’s Blessing (p. xx)
Countermagick: 4 (Permanent effect)
Equipment: Rusted out pick-up truck, switchblade, Derringer, glass beads,
backpack full of busted motherboards and spare clothes, jewelry made from
shells, concrete, opossum bones, and copper wire, wire-wrapped raccoon claw
earrings (Fetish which offers protection against hostile Numina).
Appearance: Sister Moriah is a tall and reedy Creole woman with sparkling green
eyes. Her bone structure is fine and birdlike, but she is also over six feet tall. She is
long of limb and in another lifetime, she could have modeled. Her ‘locs are
graying and always decorated with various glass, bone, and metal baubles. She
dresses eccentrically in long, draping, dark fabrics, but always wears sensible
running shoes. Everywhere she goes, she carries a canvas backpack over her
shoulder.
Roleplaying Notes: Although you speak with excellent manners and always show
consideration and concern for whom you are speaking with, you also carry
yourself with a constant sense of always having somewhere to go, or something
to do. You genuinely care for those who need your help, but your sense of
purpose keeps you forever on the move. Speak with a mild Creole accent and
weave meaningless enigmas into your conversations when you are annoyed with
who you are speaking to, or when you want to leave.
Focus: Creation is Innately Divine and Alive (Mage p. 569), Craftwork (Mage p.
574), and Blessings and Curses (Mage p. 588) and Devices and Machines (Mage p.
591)
Báòkú
Báòkú is a professor of philosophy at the University of Abomey-Calavi who has worked closely
with the Baruti over the years and has spent many weeks and months in prison cells at their side.
Although they earned many of those prison sentences at various protests, more often than not,
Báòkú has been imprisoned by the state for teaching questionable practices, or merely for their
refusal to abide by any concept of binary gender. Báòkú emphasizes a brand of political and
philosophical thought that encourages both decolonization of the state and of the self. After
initiation as one of the People of High Regard, Báòkú began to make treatises to the Tradition at
large about how to manage the concept of being named by colonizers, and indirectly takes some
responsibility for the internal name change (though they do not prefer Kha’vadi themselves).
Báòkú specializes in dealing with the strange and enigmatic spirits of the High Umbra and insists
that the Dreamspeakers have not done enough work throughout their history to foster those
relationships. They are renowned for critiquing the Tradition from within, but when asked about
leaving the tradition, they only say, “This is my home.” Although not a direct leader of any kind,
the Tradition considers Báòkú instrumental in the founding of the Akinkanju.
Attributes: Strength 3, Dexterity 3, Stamina 2, Charisma 3, Manipulation 4,
Appearance 2, Perception 3, Intelligence 5, Wits 4
Abilities: Awareness 2, Brawl 1, Empathy (Emotions) 4, Expression (Academic
essays) 4, Streetwise 1, Subterfuge 3, Etiquette 3, Meditation (Personal
assessment) 4, Research (African philosophers) 5, Academics (Philosophy) 5,
Computer 3, Cosmology (High Umbra) 4, Investigation 2, Law 2, Medicine 2,
Occult 2, Politics 3
Arete: 4
Spheres: Correspondence 4, Life 2, Mind 4, Spirit 4, Time 3
Willpower: 8
Health Levels: OK, OK, -1, -1, -2, -2, -5, Incapacitated
Armor Rating: 0
Powers: Dwennimmen (p. XX)
Countermagick: 0
Equipment: Laptop, pristine binders full of notes, multiple books on philosophy
and decolonization.
Appearance: Báòkú wears inexpensive suits and stands with a slight hunch. They
are always wearing glasses and sport a closely shaved head. Their most prominent
feature is the series of adinkra tattoos which peek out from underneath their
collar and their sleeves.
Roleplaying Notes: Speak lightly but with confidence. When you explain an idea
or a subject, slowly sink into more and more academic language until you stop
and correct yourself (unless of course you are speaking with someone well-versed
in such). Although you are soft-spoken you never back down when you believe
you are right. You are not unwilling to use Mind on individuals who would make
your existence difficult, but sometimes you allow them to mistreat you to make a
point.
Focus: Bring Back the Golden Age! (Mage p. 568), Reality Hacking (Mage p. 581),
and Circles, Pentacles, and Other Geometric Designs (Mage p. 590), Meditation
(Mage p. 594), and Thought Forms (Mage p. 598)
Paradigm
 “He made a story for all of them, a story to give them strength. The words of the
story poured out of his mouth as if they had substance, pebbles and stone
extending to hold the corporal up...knees from buckling...hands from letting go of
the blanket.”
― Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony
Like any of the Mystick Traditions, defining a distinct paradigm amongst the Kha’vadi proves
challenging. There are common practices and methodologies, but when the Council of Nine
named the Dreamspeakers as a single and unified entity, their goal was to define something they
could not — and would not try to — understand. When a Mbuti Dreamspeaker presses his lips to
his dying father’s mouth to capture his megbe there is little in common with a noaidi
Dreamspeaker singing joik to echo the concept of a place sacred to them and both are distinct
from a danzante Dreamspeaker dancing the words of her elders into the spirits of her children.
Every single Clever Person is a part of their community and a representative of their people and
ancestors first, and Kha’vadi a distant second. When two Dreamcallers come from the same
community, their practices are still likely to differ, as certainly there are many roles for a spirit
worker to play for her people. The Tradition, however, has endured centuries of mystical conflict
with the Union and Nephandi and suffered through the brutalization, genocide, and complete
erasure of their peoples. Throughout many attempts to strike at the heart of the Dreamspeakers,
they have survived and continued to grow in strength and closer together due in part to the
beliefs they have in common.
Outsiders often boil down the practices and paradigms of the Kha’vadi to shamanism and, less
often — but more precise — animism. But boiling this Tradition down to a narrow idea of
beliefs not only fails to scratch the surface, but also creates a lot of misunderstandings. You
cannot call the Wise People “the shaman Tradition” when shamanism itself is common among
most of the Traditions. Further, to label a practice as shamanism and stop there is falling short of
the fact that there are different kinds of shamanism, and more importantly, different purposes.
Arguably, the Sahajiya practice shamanism just as much as the Kha’vadi, but their purpose in
doing so is to seek the otherworldly, out-of-body experience which challenges their otherwise
limited perception and brings enlightenment. The People of High Degree, on the other hand,
when they are shamans at all — many are not — practice it more often out of a desire to
communicate with the spirit and with the aspects of Creation that lie hidden from humanity. The
goal for Dreamspeaker shamans is not the altered state, it is the ability to build a bridge between
distinct peoples, Spirit Workers and the spirits themselves. Building those bridges and
maintaining those relations are at the foundation of the faith principles which unite the Kha’vadi
under the banner of a single Tradition.
Animism, the idea that all non-human entities in the world are possessed of spirit, carves at the
tree of Dreamspeaker paradigm more precisely, but is still burdened with its conceptual,
academic roots. Animism is still an idea created by a culture who seeks definition and control to
take power over that which it does not understand. By their nature, the Kha’vadi seek to break
out of definitions and control, particularly those imposed by cultures which do not care to know
them. The significance of animism in understanding their paradigm is in the concept of relational
identities. Animists believe that all non-human aspects of reality carry their own spirit, or
essence, just as humans do. Every mountain and river, deer and lizard, hurricane and earthquake,
the stars, sun, and moon all have their own souls, personas, and most importantly, families.
There are nations that consist of blizzards and thunderstorms and gentle drizzles. There are clans
of dogs and families of ducks. Each one of these is a sovereign nation with its own rights and
histories, and each should be respected as one would respect a neighboring people, or the next
town, or a bordering state. Further, none of us are peoples whose relations are limited by
siblings, parents, and children. Intermarriages are historically, and presently, common. Hawks
who make their home in the sky are our aunties, severe mountain-faces are our grandfathers. The
ocean and moon are the grandmothers and the stars our collective ancestors. But each family
comes from a different land, and lives a different way, and for that we entreat upon them with
particular protocol.
The tools and foci of the Kha’vadi are many and varied, Medicine People use feathers, sacred
grasses, shells, and bones to entreat upon the natural world. The Ghost Wheel Society teaches the
use of copper wires and microchips, diesel engines and solar panels to appease the traditions of
the Glass and Steel Peoples, the Children of Asphalt and Clay Rabbit. Other, specific practices,
such as sacrifices to the saints and cybernetic implants are also employed by the Wise People,
but all of these tools boil down to one specific practice common throughout every member of the
Tradition: protocols. When human beings entreat upon one another, and call each other for
assistance, there are thousands upon thousands of protocols which vary between cultures and
innovated by subcultures. When making a business deal, you might “shake on it,” or when
visiting your grandmother, you might bring her groceries by. Listing every possible protocol
used to build and maintain relational bonds is impossible, but the limitlessness of protocols is
also inspiring. It might make common sense that entreating with a spirit of purification demands
the burning of sage and a prayer, or that calling for the assistance of a wolf spirit might
necessitate the sacrifice of a prey animal or wearing the teeth or claws of the wolf around one’s
neck, but the spirits of electricity might be pleased to deal with you after you’ve put a fork in a
socket, or Glass Mothers might wish to see their bodies perforate your skin. Not all protocol
demands sacrifice, nor is sacrifice uncommon. Practicing good protocol requires respect,
support, and consideration of the spiritual concerns of the being you call upon.
Two Traditions share a similar, dangerous initiation rite. The Chakravanti and Kha’vadi alike
demand that their members enter a death-state and survive it to become fully fledged members of
the Tradition. The Agama Sojourn practiced by the Chakravanti is more well-known, partially
because these death-mages are known for walking the blade’s edge between living and dying,
but also because the Sojourn is somewhat uniform Tradition-wide, and easier for outsiders to
recognize and describe. The death journeys practiced by the Kha’vadi are as unique as the many
cultures that they draw upon, and usually involve customary funerary rites from among their own
people. The how of the journey is less important than the why, however. Dreamspeakers are,
one-and-all, a people who straddle the places where the many worlds are the same and often
insist that the difference between life and death, between material and spirit, between reality and
non-reality are not simply dualistic states but matters of perception and ways of being. Breaking
out of that binary perception, however, is challenging in a world that insists on strict definitions.
One of the best ways to break a young Medicine Person of that perception is to bring them into
the death-state while still living. Surviving this harrowing journey is not enough to prove that the
potential Dreamspeaker is ready to join the Tradition. Survival is the basic requirement but
understanding that life and death are not opposite states, but co-equal ones is the first, and most
important, step in understanding the journey of the Wise People.

Ghosts, Death, and the Unseen World

What does entering the world of the dead have to do with the world of spirits which
 the Dreamspeakers are supposedly so good at and so focused on?
Everything.
Although the metaphysics of the World of Darkness separate the Umbra out into
many layers of spiritual reflection, including the Underworld, the realm of death in
which ghosts reside, the Dreamspeakers do not necessarily differentiate the dead,
i.e. ghosts, or Wraiths, from the Umbrood. Of course, they are not foolish either,
and understand that dealing with the dead, or with ancestors, and dealing with
spirits of the land and animals require completely different sets of protocol, but
either way, they consider them a type of spirit that should be given respect. Many
Dreamspeakers are just as likely to refer to Umbrood as ghosts, as they are to refer
to Wraiths as Ancestors or spirits.
Traversing the Underworld is a dangerous practice for any mage, including
Medicine People, but so is traversing the Penumbra and Middle Umbra—they are
merely different flavors of peril.
Beyond this, most Dreamspeakers do not necessarily see the Umbra as one world
and the material as its reflection, but instead see many worlds, sometimes four or
five, sometimes hundreds, all layers on top of and interacting with one another.
Once again, it all comes down to connections and relations.

Rotes
These effects reflect the rotes used by the notable Dreamspeakers detailed above. Variants of
these effects see use throughout the Tradition.
Bullet-Rider’s Blessing
(• Entropy, ••• Matter, ••• Spirit)
Through earning the favor of specific spirits of technology, Sister Moriah makes a deal with
them to walk between the borders of their power and becomes capable of pulling off miraculous
effects like ignoring bullets or cameras to fail to capture her image or even causing a plane she is
on to fail to take off.
System: First, Sister Moriah must make a compact with a spirit of technology that represents the
specific technology she wishes to interfere with. The good relationship built with that spirit
reflects out into its Court, Brood, or Nation, and for the duration of the compact, the specific
technology has no effect on her whatsoever. If she makes a compact with bullets, bullets never
touch her. If she makes a deal with the spirit of elevators, no elevator that she is standing within
will operate. The relationships spirits have with one another are paramount in the use of this
Rote, and because of this, she cannot choose overly broad technologies such as weapons,
vehicles, or engines. But knives, boats, and steam engines would sufficiently qualify. This has no
effect on supernaturally enhanced technology.
Dwennimmen
(•••• Mind, •••• Spirit)
By invoking one of their adinkra tattoos, Dwennimmen, the Ram’s Horns, Báòkú invites The
Voices, an Umbrood denizen of the Well of Souls into the sacred symbols inked on their body.
In doing so, the Akinkanju temporarily becomes a powerful spirit-fetish, capable of invoking the
power of The Voices.
System: This powerful alteration of self invokes the strength of the Avatar itself, offering up
unheard of mental and spiritual resilience for the duration. All negatives due to wounds, or any
other kind of distraction are cancelled out. All attempts to mentally coerce or influence Báòkú
must first test against their Willpower before any other tests normally required (or against their
Willpower × 2 if Willpower is the normal resistance roll). Finally, every turn, Báòkú regains a
lost point of Willpower. This cannot cause the user’s Willpower to rise above the maximum.
While Báòkú exists as a living spirit-fetish, they cannot access their Arete or Sphere-magick
(though previously invoked effects continue into their normal durations). Báòkú may end this
effect prematurely at will, but the process of doing so is tortuous and exhausting, costing 5
Willpower points.

Unlikely Allies
"Am I a part of this prophecy? For when the Eagle and Condor come together we
can heal the world. When the Seventh Generation stands up to heal the Hoop,
when the Black Snake comes to devour the Earth we must stand to stop it, for it
will kill the world. That is what I see. That is where we’re at."
― LaDonna Tamakawastewin Brave Bull Allard
In 2017 LaDonna Brave Bull looked back on her experiences at Standing Rock, after seeing
militias release dogs to maul pregnant women and children who were singing prayer songs in the
presence of the bulldozers that were digging up the graves of their ancestors. After the video of
this assault went viral, thousands of people devoted to protecting the sacred swarmed to Standing
Rock to stand up alongside the Indian Tribe protecting their own lands and waters. Among them,
she recalled, were the “Aztec dancers” who displayed tall and beautiful plumage as they danced,
and afterward, they stopped to smudge the people who needed healing. The Eagle and the
Condor, she said, come together and heal the world. The Kha’vadi have never been strangers to
allying themselves with other healers — they, themselves, are a massive alliance of Medicine
People — and that is how they found themselves willing members of the Council of Nine,
despite its often-misguided efforts. The Spirit-Speakers are blessed, even when their allies
cannot, or will not support them and their causes, in being guided by the spirits and their own
ancestors. Although often a significant challenge, the Dreamspeakers are so often willing to bite
their tongues to get the job done, and in this, they’re often seen working their wisdom alongside
the most blasphemous Chorister, the condescending Hermetic, and the ignorant and disrespectful
Virtual Adept.
The Traditions
It is well-known that, historically, the closest allies of the Kha’vadi were the Sahajiya, the
Verbena, and the Chakravanti. All three of these Traditions share common practices and
paradigms with the Dreamspeakers, particularly that of shamanistic ritual (of which the Sahajiya
arguably practice just as much as the Dreamspeakers do.) Like the Verbena, the Dreamcallers
demand strict adherence to ritual protocols and engage in self-sacrifice to guide and heal their
peoples. Like the Chakravanti, the Wise People undergo initiation rituals which demand that the
practitioner cross the veil of death and return. But more importantly, all three of these partner
traditions are deeply concerned with healing — that is to say, not the physical practice, although
that is something all of them are exceptionally gifted at — but the healing of the soul of the
people and of the world. All of them see different paths to healing, but healing is the ideal end.
Even the bloodiest handed Chakravanti turns to death to cut out disease.
The rest of the Traditions are another story. While they have never shied away from working
with the Akashayana, sometimes their practices bear little in common. Where the Dreamspeaker
sees that all the world is super-real, and deserves an equal treatment, the Akashayana see the
world as illusion, and a reflection of the self. Where they can connect, however, is their mutual
reverence of their ancestors, and together they will fight to protect their heritage and legacies.
Today, Akashayana and Dreamcallers (particularly the Akinkanju) are often united in efforts to
fight the corruption and misuse of ancestral lands, as well as working to pass down ancient
traditions to their rightful inheritors.
Their relationship with the Celestial Chorus has proved much more challenging over the years.
The Chorus has often been at the forefront of genocidal movements, particularly cultural erasure.
However, the Dreamspeakers are nothing if not resilient, and although the evangelical nature of
the Chorus has caused them centuries of horrors and grief, they are still able to see the idea of the
unification of the One as being on par with their own internal beliefs of maintaining and building
communal ties. Along with that effort, although the Chorus might often engage in strange
versions of spiritual protocol, their angels and other divine beings are not unlike the spirits whom
the Medicine People engage with. More importantly, Kha’vadi who have survived during
centuries in which the Chorus brutally wielded their powerbase, did so by merging with their
traditions. Although the Chorus claims to be monotheistic, the Dreamspeakers saw the many
faces of the gods and spirits behind their One True God and engaged with them as such. Today,
the Dreamspeakers often work hand-in-hand with the Celestial Chorus in community building
and advocating, as well as facing spiritual corruptions.
The Society of Ether and the Virtual Adepts have always proven challenging to work with
because of their mutual disrespect for the methods and beliefs of the Dreamcallers. That said, as
Medicine People whisper sacred languages and offerings to the spirits of cell phones, satellites,
and Tesla coils, the two aforementioned Traditions have shown increasing, if begrudging respect
to the Dreamspeakers. Perhaps they still might speak dismissively, “I’m so glad they finally
caught up.” The Dreamspeakers know better, though, and are often willing to fight with both in
their own arenas with traditional sciences and technologies.
Unfortunately, the Dreamspeaker relationship with the Order of Hermes is the most damaged,
and hence, the most challenged. The Order of Hermes prides itself as masters of magick without
compare, but the Kha’vadi have watched them steal the magicks and practices and medicines of
other peoples for centuries, and their memories are long. Of course, they see that the Order is the
head of the Council of Nine (if not remotely the heart) and are willing to assist them in meeting
greater goals, but few of the Wise People will allow a Hermetic to speak down to them,
particularly considering the many failures the Hermetics have been responsible for in the last
century.
The Technocracy
Relationships with the Technocracy are even more challenging. Like the Choristers, the Union
has spent centuries destroying the lands and spirits which the People of High Regard consider
their sacred protectorate. Like the Hermetics, they have stolen the medicine of the Wise People
and twisted it into something more war-like while claiming they were the first, the innovators, of
technologies which belonged to more ancient peoples. And like both the Akashayana and
Chakravanti, the memories of the Kha’vadi are long, and unforgiving. There are very few
Dreamspeakers who will rush into a relationship with the Union, even in the face of potential
gain.
Nevertheless, because of the pursuit of Indigenous sciences across the world, the Dreamcallers
find themselves with more family drawn into the service of the ideals of the Union, if not the
Union itself. The point at which the Dreamspeakers are most likely to find themselves willing to
work with the Technocracy is either when the Technocracy makes active efforts to aid their
communities, or else when their communities join them.
More than any other Convention, the Dreamspeakers are likely to work with the Progenitors.
Although some factions of the Progenitors choose to use medicine for war-work, most of them
are dedicated to healing, and on this, the Kha’vadi can see eye to eye with them.
One may also wonder about the Void Engineers and it is true that the metaphysical disciplines of
both groups find them working side-by-side from time to time, it is also true that their ideals
(containment vs. relational) are completely at odds with one another, and they find themselves
far more likely to come into conflict than to ally with one another...except, of course, when some
unspeakable horror from beyond the worlds rears its ugly head.
The Disparate Alliance
One would assume that the Kha’vadi might have an easier time working with the Disparates than
any other Tradition, considering that they are always the furthest from the central politics and
power structures of the Council of Nine and that they are most likely to be skeptical of the
society of which they are a part. However, political divisions complicate their position with the
Disparates. The defection of Xoca to the Thunder Society (see p. XX) and the hundreds of ex-
Dreamspeakers like him chose to part with their own Tradition to seek another path, seeing the
Council and its corruptions as irreparable.
Despite this, the Dreamspeakers share common bonds — both paradigmatic and relational —
with the Thunder Society. Not all Dreamspeakers are Indigenous people of the Americas, but a
significant percentage of their membership are, and all of the Thunder Society is. Further, the
Thunder Society exists as a Craft due to the ideological split between Dreamspeakers who seek
unity and those who wish to eschew every aspect of Western tradition and colonialism. The
Thunder Society might not even have allied themselves with the Disparate Alliance if not for
their concern that the Nephandic corruption which threatens the heart of the Council has also
found its way into the Dreamspeakers themselves.
In the jungles of Central America, the Kha’vadi have found their most fruitful alliances with the
Disparate Alliance working alongside the Itz’at. Although this Craft is difficult to understand
(and their origins are beyond uncertain), they also have displayed a focus empowering and
building their own communities and because many of their communities are the same as Central
American Medicine People, they very often find themselves working together to enact the same
goals. However, the strangeness of the seemingly time displaced Itz’at often has the
Dreamcallers holding their cards close to their chests. The Itz’at clearly follow a
Master/Apprentice leadership structure, but when the Masters are ever-present and never seen,
and even the spiritual brethren of the Wise People know little to nothing of them, the Kha’vadi
cannot help but wonder what the ultimate motivation of these hidden Masters might be.
Future Fates
“When we revolt it’s not for a particular culture. We revolt simply because, for
many reasons, we can no longer breathe”
― Frantz Fanon
This chapter is written with the assumption that you will use the version of the Mage: The
Ascension metaplot in which the Avatar Storm occurred and then slowly resided.
Understandably, the Avatar Storm has a massive impact on the Tradition that sits upon the Seat
of Spirit, and how you choose to handle it in your own game will impact the state of the
Dreamspeakers.
If you decide to run a campaign in which the Avatar Storm never happened, consider that the
Four Winds will not only endure, but that they are one of the most prominent factions within the
Tradition. They do not carry much political power, but they have the most knowledge and
wisdom about the Umbra and spirits in general and are responsible for bringing those teachings
back to the more terrestrial members of the Tradition.
Additionally, the Dreamspeakers will still have their many Horizon Zones, which were
especially important to the Keepers of the Flame and the Baruti. The Keepers of the Flame will
be somewhat less interested in focusing their efforts on the material world and the Baruti will
still be collecting stories at Motlobo wa Poloto instead of engaging in more intensive memory
training and lineal passage of knowledge from teachers to apprentices.
That said, it is still likely that Laughing Eagle will retire as the Primus of the Dreamspeakers, as
the Avatar Storm has nothing to do with the increased political engagement the Tradition is
undergoing, and he has no real reason to want to hold onto the position if he respects the new
leadership.
If you choose to run the Avatar Storm as extant, much of the material still applies, but the
Tradition is both considerably weakened magickally (their Sphere of expertise is the most
dangerous one to use), but also in extremely high demand from the other Traditions, who need
powerful spirit-guides for when they must pass through the Storm.
Whichever version you use, the Kha’vadi are at a crossroads as far as their future is concerned.
The philosophies of the Keepers of the Sacred Flame and the Red Spear Society are dominant
and equally vying for Tradition leadership. But you do not have to keep them equal in your
games. It is possible that Rocio could gain more support than Pulmari, weakening his
effectiveness and causing the Tradition to focus on inward concerns and maintenance of ties. On
the other hand, the anger that dwells within the hearts of the Kha’vadi has been brewing for
centuries, and Pulmari’s leadership could force them into being one of the most militant
Traditions on the front lines of the many wars against their people and the Council of Nine.