Shifter/History
Minnesota – Land of 10,00 lakes and rumored to have once been home to hundreds of caerns – now only a few remain in the far north of the state. Currently, Minnesota has the second largest population of wolves, with only Alaska beating it out. In the northern reaches of the state, the Kinfolk of wolves and even some cats are flourishing – in the rest of the state, such is not the case. The problems started, as they often do, in cities before they were cities.
Problems go all the way back to 1776, when colonial explorer and mapmaker Jonathan Carver “discovered” a cave of white sands, soft sandstone walls and petroglyph carvings of bears, turtles, snakes, fish and humans. His published discovery would lead to the caves eventual desecration when a railroad expansion project destroyed the petroglyphs in the late 1800’s.
What man did not know but is still carried in the history of many shifter races: Carver’s Cave, better known as Wakan Tipi, was a caern. What Carver described as “an unsearchable distance” was in fact the unlit vestibule, where a short dive into icy waters would lead you to a passage and the caern’s heart. How Carver managed and cajoled his way in, no one is certain.
With the settling of Minnesota, came more and more visitors. Native Kinfolk were forced out, with Garou eventually leaving with them. The site earned the strange moniker “the foremost relic of antiquity” in the region. And like many tourist spots in the 1800’s, the visitors did more damage than protect. Names were carved in the walls next to the ancient petroglyphs; trash was thrown in the pristine spring water; swimming and boating inside the cave was not unheard of. The caern became utterly unusable.
Then came the railroad expansion, and with it needed explosions. Subsequent concussive shocks from the explosions destroyed the glyphs; the underwater passageways were obliterated, and the heart of the caern was gone. By this point, shifters in the city were few and far between. With expansion bringing more and more people, more and more technology of the day, the cities were not safe.
Was this the beginning of the Third Ring, no one knows. Those who dare to come to the Twin Cities have a lot to contend with. A very unfriendly Umbra, massive urban sprawl, and no place they can call their own within 200 miles.