In contrast, male initiation is a harsher, bloodier, and more harrowing experience. A girl-child that undergoes the First Change is often taken under the wing of their closest Changing female relative that, if not that child’s birth mother, becomes a kind of foster mother, and gives her direct instruction on the traditions of the tribe, and mentors her until she has children of her own. The Primal Beast a Bwana becomes is the stuff of legend a great, Grey-Brown African Hippo, tipping the scale at well over 2 tons.īackground: Though the changing gift presents itself in either gender, a prospective Bwana faces a different initiation into the life depending upon their gender. It is in the Dire-Beast form that the Mabwana find their greatest strength, preferring to crush their foes under their titanic feet, or snapping foes in two between their jaws. In, War-Form, a River Lord becomes a mountain of flesh and gristle, their porcine physique belying a slow, grinding death delivered with contemptuous ease, with tusks like steak knives. Prominent Canines stud their now lanterned jaws, and their hands and feet become webbed and razor-sharp claws.
In Throwback form, the Bwana’s hide takes on a Red-Brown cast, and goes from careworn to stiff. They tend to dress with modest practicality, favoring styles that aren’t adversely affected by life on the water. Almost all boast a strongly set jawline and thick-fingered hands. Mabwana generally go clean-shaven as adults, even amongst females, while body hair is practically nonexistent. Although the vast majority of the breed are of clearly African stock, more than a few Arab, Berber, and Turkish kin have been known, all built solidly. In all of their dealings with outsiders, they generally prefer to be left alone, and quite vocally, if not physically, make interlopers aware of that position.Īppearance: What the River Lords lack in height, they make up in bulk. While they grudgingly accept the company of the Riverkin and Winged Folk, they cannot abide the company of Werecrocs, Lion-shifters, or Hyena-folk. The River Lords have an uneasy relationship with many of the other Beast Tribes that live in their territories. Here, unlike most of their Breed, the River Lords form their petty kingdoms and emirates, usually around a single male Alpha, and his network of paramours, male sycophants, and his many, many children. The River Lords, though long bereft of their soul-kin, at least outside of the tribe’s ancestral home in sub-Saharan Africa, always congregate near waterways, especially where the grazing is good, predators are few, and contact with outsiders is limited.
Ranging as far north as Anatolia and as far west as Modern Spain, despite the ethnic revolutions of the past 500 years, the Mabwana Mto (muh-bū-wah-nuh em-dtO, singular: Bwana Mto) have managed to cling to their riverine homes across much of their kin’s former lands. While not the most numerous Titan Breed, nor the most outwardly social, the River Lords balance tight-knit family ties with a diverse cultural outlooks.