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BREEDBOOK

What's the difference between the Nyctalus and the Camazotz?
Nothing at all actually. The Werebats first turned up in the Spikeyverse a long time ago, long before breed book Mokole introduced the Camazotz and Nyctalus was the term I had used. I felt then that using the Aztec Bat Gods name would centralize the breed in south America and distract from the rest of the world. Guess I fucked up there. Nyctalus, Comatotz, Camazotz, Werebat, use whichever name suits your gameworld best.
The fact that the Werebats were considered extinct in the canon world of darkness presented a bit of a problem until I reread some of the Werewolf sourcebooks and considered some of the salient facts about Bats. If you have had enough of lost tribes and clans suddenly turning up and want to ignore the Spikeyverse and its concept of Shapeshifting Chiroptera being reborn, then ignore them, or use them purely for historical games.

Werebats

"Life on earth is a complex jigsaw, each plant or animal being connected to others by complex processes we call ecological functions. Some examples of ecological functions are pollination, seed dispersal, decomposition of wood after death by termites and fungi so that the elements can be reused by the next generation, providing food resources."

"So Boy, what do you think of your new form, eh? What do you mean its ugly, you sound like a damn Corax. Good job I'm not more religious eh, what with you disin' Her gifts. No, no, don'' bother to introduce yerself. I know who you are! D''a think a new Nyctalus comes by every day. No! We are growing, but not enough for us to get all blasé, not enough to miss every detail of a new boy like you!

Me? You can call me Marianne. Ha ha ha, geddit?

No? I'm a fruit bat.

Flying fox.

No? Marriannis bat you cretin! Nights wind, but you gotta lotta learn boyo. Well, start at the beginning I guess……"

THE FIRST TIMES
Once, before the war of Genocide, the Nyctalus and the Corax shared a responsibility as the messengers of Gaia. The Corax, children of Helios the Sun, were active during the sunlit hours, but were smart enough to pass on the job at sunset to those who were children of Luna, the Nyctalus. Since the first night we have nested in caves and there we met with our closest allies, the bears. In the back of caves the Bug munchers learnt the a few healing Gifts of the Gurahl, passing them on to us, thier brothers who nested in tree's. The history of the Nyctalus is an Echo of the Gurahl's own story. We learnt much from them and often imitated them. In time our ways were almost indistinguishable.

From your expression I can tell you find that strange. Consider the lifestyles of our beast breeds. Those who are closer to Her ways than Homids such as, well, such as you! We share many common traits with the Gurahl; both Bears and Bats hibernate, Bats do it by slowing their heart rate and dropping their body temperature as low as 2C, a kind of self induced coma. We go into a state of Torpor because we can't just put on extra layers of fat like the bears, have to stay trim for flying y'see. We have used this skill to escape natural disasters such as earthquakes or Garou Genocide tactics.

Several Nyctalus, mainly females, are also allied with the Mokole…

Pardon, ah, you have heard of Mokole Mbembe in your choking city? Good. Yes that is who I mean. Yes dinosaurs do still walk the Earth in Africa! And in Southern America and Egypt and Australia for that matter! Shut up and listen! The Mokole and our Spring born shared ideas on birth, fertility and nurture of the young. For a time it looked as if some of them would join us in our sacred duty. Imagine that Boy! They can remember when all trees were the size of your Sky scrapers and the Dragonfly's were the size of seagulls…..Ahhhhh!

Then when the Garou decided to end the Impurgium, a sacred task set them by Gaia, We began our second task. As the Humans began cutting down vast tracks of woodland to build houses and farms, we followed them. With our knowledge of the Plant kingdom and some of the Gurahls healing gifts, we set about restoring the Garden. Gaia was pleased and she approached us with love. She asked that we take up the role as Healers of her Garden as well as the Role of Nights messengers.

We were honoured and accepted without question. The Gurahl, the healers of the peoples had already started their great retreat and only a few of these gentle creatures remained. Beside these healers stood the Nyctalus, healers of the Savage garden's flora, husbanders of Gaia's bounty. Man's ingenuity was not the only cause of plant loss. Natural decay, forest fires, disease and animal feeding caused the natural cycle of vegetable matter to keep turning. And as it did, the eyes that watched were the eyes of Bat's children, the messengers of the night.

Over time the Breeds of our race began to specialise in one job or the other. The Flying Foxes and their ilk, always the closest to Her Garden, became its guardians, while the Cave dwellers continued with the gathering of knowledge and acted as emissaries to the other changing breeds. Some of our Race were warriors and some were Bards, we had those who learnt secrets in the Darkest caves and those who ruled our selves and our kin. The Nyctalus were split by breed and time of their birth, but were always loyal to each other. The Tribal schisms that began to plague the Garou and the Bastet seemed Alien to us. We were all Her children in the beginning, and will be in the end.

THE WAR OF RAGE
Nearly a quarter of all the mammals are bats with almost a 1000 species world wide and over 100 in the south American rainforests alone. It is not surprising then that when Luna gave the gift of changing to Gaia's children she chose also a Bat. Even as she chose the fiercest to be her guardians and the most inquisitive to be her eyes and the oldest to be her memory, Gaia chose the gentlest to be her healers and the most talkative, the Corax, as her messengers.

But we were also messengers, our sonar can detect things no human can. No Wolf or Cat either for that matter. We saw much and spread news of what transpired in darkness to our siblings. In times of war we were not without means, we can carry almost half our own bodyweight on the wing. More than once we flew endangered cubs or Eggs to safety.

Then the Garou, the mothers mistake, frustrated after having to stop slaughtering humans and other weaker creatures began to slaughter their brothers and sisters. They started with the Children of bear, because their lawkeepers knew that the Gurahl would be slow to fight back. Then they turned on the Bastet because cats are far more attractive than dogs. Then they just got a little kill happy and went after anyone who was not exactly the same as them. Those they deemed as 'close to the Wyrm', the Mokole, the Naga and the Nyctalus suffered the most brutality, but all suffered. All except the Corax, I wonder why? Some say that the Corax helped the Garou find Nyctalus nesting caves or tree's so that they would not have to share their position as those most in the know. But then again, they haven't told the Wolves that we still live, and I know they know….

What? How do I know? Weren't you listening? We know exactly how much the Corax Know, we used to do their job. We did it better than them in fact.

How did we survive? Well, same as the others. We ran the Hell away and hid, didn't we. Everybody did, except the collaborator Corax. Had a hard time of it we did. Especially as the White Howlers, as was, started growing wings and sonar ears. Just what the Garou needed to declare us as servants of the Wyrm. After that, even the Children of Gaia and the navel, sorry, star gazers started offin' us at every turn.

What are they? The Stargazers and the Children of Gaia? Hah! They are Tribes of the Garou. What? Of course they have Tribes. It's just that instead of being divided along understandable lines like Genetics or capability, they are divided by the Location of their Homid breed. Any way, the War …

Many Nyctalus took refuge in small religious communities, and later in Buddhist monasteries, safe in the mountains. Then our so called allies the Stargazers turned up one night and slaughtered thousands of our Kin. Bastards.

As for the Shadow Lords, they changed tack so many times that they didn't know if we were friend or foe anymore than we did. Helped us out in the end though. Killed the last of us, they did. Don't look so confused idiot. It was Magic, all done with mirrors and such. During the so called second War of rage a pack of Shadow Lords led by Dark-Claw-Of-Vengeance captured the last known Camazotz down in Mexico. They tortured him into confessing of consorting with the Wyrm and then killed him. His dying scream was so loud and echoed by the earth, the Shadow Lords realized their mistake and stopped fighting the other fera in Mexico, pretty much. Their guilt was our salvation, because when they discovered that there was still pockets of us left, they fought long and hard to keep us away from the other Lupines. When our elders decided in the 18th century to once again retreat into Hibernation in Her womb, it was the Shadow Lords who created the Smokescreen. Their elders manipulated their pups into believing they had slain the last of us in Southern America and we disappeared from Her sight.

All of us who had learnt how to sleep the sleep of the Dragon hid. The Mokole's gift to their younger cousins saved us all. First the Gurahl, then the Mokole and the Nagah, then much later, the Nyctalus, all went and hid. Even the Bastet thought we died and so did the Corax. But we survived, reduced in numbers, yes, but strong. We retreated to our sacred caves and the Winter Born used magic to hide us from the Genocidal Garou. We even had an o.k. relationship with the Ananasi back then. They spun Webs over the caves and the Wolves were fooled into thinking them uninhabited. It's not my place to say, but maybe the Insectivores should have been a little more choosy with their diets. Unlike the Gurahl, not all Nyctalus retreated, just most. Those who remained tended the new born, the Kinfolk and most importantly, the Garden.

SURVIVING THE HOLOCAUST
We waited much longer than the others before going into mass hibernation. And even then we could not remain away for long. Over the centuries, we kept returning. Hoping the Garou had stopped their killing. Each time we were cut back to the bud. Each new Generation had ideas and plans to survive, but they eventually gave in to the inevitable and followed the Ancients back into the deepest caves.

While we slumbered several things outside of our control added to the view of bats as servants of the Wyrm. We have spoken of the Black Spiral dancers, the Wyrm wolves who subjugated the Gifts of bat, and in modern nights, Hollywood and pop culture haven't helped either. But in the Supernatural community it was the Leeches of the dark ages who did the worst job for our public image. One group in particular, Vampires from the Shadow Lords homelands, the Tzimisce. These Tzimisce held Bats in Awe and many claimed descent from our greatest hero Attila. What? Yes, That Attila. Research his crest if you doubt me, and the myths of his death. In war these corpse minions could take on the form of a giant bat almost indistinguishable from the Camazotz war form. The Garou Hadn't forgotten us back then and it didn't take a genius to work out what they reported back at their meetings. The wheel of ignorant assumption destroyed our millennia of peaceful work in her Garden. The world we are awakening to is one that hates and fears us as monsters, we have much to overcome I fear.

THE GREAT AWAKENING
Less than three decades ago we began to awake. The Winter believe that the Mokole held one last secret about the sleep of the Dragon and they awoke us. What we found as we left our caves was both joyous and soul destroying. The first site to greet us was those Nyctalus born while we slept. These hunted and world weary youths lifted our Harano dulled hearts and the celebrations lasted a whole month. But duty called and eventually they began to show us the state of our Savage Garden. We share the Gurahl's shame at abandoning Her work, but we have had far more success in making amends.

THE MODERN ERA
"The modern world holds many terrors. In some places bats are eaten and 1000's are netted each night. Any Garou who see us, call us Black Spiral Dancers and kill us on sight. The Balaam smile to themselves and pretend not to notice. The Vampires called the Sabbat have sent emissaries to win us to their cause, some of their priests offering us worship in return for nothing more than our presence. But we now that these leeches are tools of our old enemies, the Tzimisce Wyrm, and we politely refuse. Some Mages who call themselves speakers of Dreams are our allies, as are the Verbena, but the Akashic Brotherhood are our closest friends among such Homids. Showing honour where the Stargazers failed. But in general, the World of Darkness is not ready to learn of our continued existence."

Camazotz
The revered vampire bat god, "Camazotz," killed dying men on their way to the center of the earth. "Zotz" was the Maya word for bat. Throughout the Maya ruins in southern Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras, hieroglyphics and graphic depictions of the vampire bat can be found. The glyph for the great Pre-Columbian city of Copan in Honduras was the head of a leaf-nosed bat. Some Maya groups called themselves "people of the bat," living in "Zotzilha" (bat's house), a kingdom of mountain caverns. Present day "bat people" still live isolated in the rugged highlands of Chiapas in southern Mexico in the Mayan community of Zinacantan, "place of the bat."

Melbourne Australia, gray headed flying foxes in the botanical gardens feeding exclusively on the fruit trees within the cities, in gardens. People worried because the botanical garden s have rare plants that date back to the first colonies. Bats strip the bark of trees as they roost and bat poo damages plants below.

Zotz
Bat-god of caves, he is the patron of the Zotzil Indians of Mexico.

Yeh Yen	Chinese, swallow of the Night
Chauve-souris	French, bald mouse
Flaggermaus	Norwegian, flying mouse
Slepi misi	Serbo-Croatian, suggests blindness
Nycteris	Greek, denotes obscurity
Pipistrello	Italian, suggestive of evening
Vespertilio	Latin, suggestive of evening
Ratapignata	French, fluttering flight
Gaucky bird	Scottish, aberrant bird
Sciatham leathair	Irish, aberrant bird
Denever	Hungarian, Bat
Mitatarat	French, suggests a mammal - bird hybrid