It's been awhile since I've done one of these articles, so today I'm going to be tackling something I've been wanting to tackle for a bit, the biggest, meanest baddie of all in the entirety of the Old World of Darkness line, the Wyrm of Entropy.
Now, the Wyrm is a really hard antagonist to pin down, because it's not really an embodied figure. While in Werewolf: The Apocalypse, it's the main big bad and acts as a sort of Satan figure to Gaia, I've listed it as an antagonist for the entire World of Darkness because it extends into all the gamelines. The Wyrm isn't really a character so much as it is a sentient force, sort of like Chaos in Warhammer or the Dark Side of the Force in Star Wars. The Wyrm is a force of corruption, one that twists otherwise natural things into its own, mutilated image, and its tendrils are felt in every single gameline of oWoD.
So, starting in the Werewolf cosmology, since that's where it originated, the Wyrm was originally a force of destruction and rebirth, an engine that recycled the static patterns of the Weaver (order) and returned them to the Wyld (chaos), thus ensuring the continuation of the cosmic cycle. One day, the Weaver became sick of this, and wove the Pattern Web (our current universe), trapping the Wyrm inside. The Wyrm went mad, and struggled to escape, and in its struggles, managed to slice itself into many smaller pieces, that descended onto the Pattern Web, spreading many minor spirits of ill and evil called Banes. The Wyrm itself was fractured in its struggle, losing its original identity and becoming a three headed hydra, and becoming a spirit of decay, corruption and entropy, both of the spirit, the physical, and the mental.Its ultimate goal is the unmaking of the Pattern Web, finally freeing it to continue its great work and return it to its original identity.
Now, that all sounds like a very sympathetic backstory, now doesn't it? That's until you remember that the Wyrm's original purpose really doesn't leave many survivors, and ultimately, it wants to dissolve the world into total, mindless chaos, in the name of some great cosmic cycle. Now, the Wyrm can't really be blamed for its madness, but its methods definitely leave a lot to be desired. The Wyrm no longer represents the idea of a clean death and rebirth, something the Euthanatos may believe, but something wholly tainted, the slow and painful slide into oblivion. The Wyrm may have been a positive force of renewal once, but you could arguably say that it was its own first victim, and it's now been totally corrupted into something broken and evil.
Now, I know I overuse this word a lot, but the thing that makes the Wyrm such a good antagonist is how insidious and subtle it is. In fact, the Wyrm may well be the subtlest of any RPG Antagonist ever printed. There's a lot of debate as to what it even is, both in and out of universe. The Garou would have you believe that the Wyrm is literally an enormous, universe-sized bane trapped in the deep Umbra, and woven into the very strands of creation, and that all its servitors and banes are extrusions of itself into Gaia, trying madly to tear her apart and break free. Mages will tell you that the Wyrm is a metaphor the ignorant were-folk talk about, and really, it's a representation of Entropy, the balancer between Stasis and Dynamism, a natural part of the cycle of the universe. Even the Wyrm-aligned mages, the Nephandi, each have different ideas about what exactly they serve. Infernalist Nephandi will tell you that the Wyrm is a ridiculous legend spawned by their compatriots, who have been suckered into the werewolf's religion, and that devils and demons are the only true force of evil in the world. Malfean Nephandi would argue, however, that devils and demons are mere masks for the Wyrm's true tendrils. Vampires will naturally just shrug and go back to politicking. Really, though, what the Wyrm is isn't very important. What's really important is the way it infects the world like a cancer that needs to be excised.
Now, the Wyrm has many servants, both knowing and unknowing, and those servants don't always get along. The reason for that is, every time the Wyrm tries to enter reality through a certain vector, it further mutilates itself along the strands of the Pattern Web locking it away. The pieces that result are self-willed spirits, eternally a part of the Wyrm, but perfectly capable of going against the greater whole, or other parts of the Wyrm. Because of this, the Wyrm comes across very chaotically. It's literally schizophrenic, and every Bane and Maeljin has their own agenda, and doesn't necessarily care whether you serve the Wyrm or not. Because of this, the Wyrm has great power to infect, twist, and mutate things to its service, but not a great amount of power to really coordinate them. A prime example of this principle in action is vampires. Vampires have no idea the Wyrm even exists, and yet descend from Caine, arguably one of the triatic Wyrm's earthly incarnations. Likewise, Pentex, a Wyrm empowered company, fights against the Giovanni and the Camarilla daily, two other Wyrm organizations, for control over the world's economy. This is the main advantage for those seeking to fight the Wyrm, as, in its mindless urge to devour all, it's very easy to turn the Wyrm's fangs back onto itself. All Wyrm minions, as a rule, are selfish assholes, a symptom of the degradation of the spirit their patron represents, and while they may be omnipresent, a near constant taint, they're easy to outfox if one has the brains.
Like Chaos, interacting with the Wyrm should feel dirty, but in a very impersonal way. The Wyrm literally represents the cracks in the world where the filth seeps in and mingles. Coming into contact with the Wyrm in any form will almost certainly taint you, and like a virus, you're going to spread that taint to others. It won't necessarily make you evil, however, and that's something a lot of Werewolf players forget. Not everything the Wyrm touches is evil, and likewise, Wyrm taint isn't something that black and white. There are good vampires, who struggle to maintain their humanity, and still stink of corruption as much as any Formor would. One thing that a lot of GM's forget is that, while the Wyrm is all powerful and evil, all of its minions, from the rampaging Black Spiral Dancers to the Nephandi, the Formori and even the Kindred, are its victims. Most of them didn't ask to become servants of corruption, or were duped or mislead into the coils of the Wyrm. This doesn't make them any less evil, and it doesn't mean that they're worthy of anything other than a swift, painful death, but an important theme of the Wyrm is the slippery slope. Sometimes, the most innocuous things, things that seem perfectly normal in one's daily life, can lead one down the path of corruption, and really, that's the saddest thing about the Old World of Darkness.
Finally, I feel the need to address the motivation of the servants of the Wyrm, because to me, they never made any sense. W:TA did many, many good things, but one thing it never really excelled at is characterizing its baddies any more than a Captain Planet supervillain. Those Wyrm minions who willingly serve the Wyrm, like Nephandi or Black Spiral Dancers, what do they gain out of their service? Yes, it is nice to be able to spit flesh-dissolving acid or summon barbed tentacles out of one's back, but even they have to realize that the Wyrm's endgame doesn't leave any of them alive. Now, you could argue that some (or a lot) just don't give a shit, and would be happy to burn the world even if it did have the unfortunate side effect of burning them with it. You could argue that the Wyrm is so changed an insane that it won't destroy the universe, merely turn it into an eternally rotting hell, where its minions can play around and torture humans forever, which, really is gonna get old at some point. In my World of Darkness, the Wyrm offers tangible rewards for its service, far greater rewards than other members of the Triat, and remember, the Wyrm is far, far, far more powerful than lesser spirits like Gaia and Jehovah, so those rewards are going to be a lot shinier. The ultimate reward for a true servant of the Wyrm is to become a Maeljin. Now, this isn't exactly canon, but when the end comes, call it the Descent, call it the Apocalypse or Gehenna, the Wyrm will assimilate all its minions back into its being, where they will live on, the only permanence in a constantly transient world, doing what they love most: destroy things. The servants of the Wyrm ultimately represent humanity's urge to self-destruct and debase themselves, and for their actions, will be rewarded with the hells of their dreams to torture and be tortured for all eternally, exactly what they would have wanted. Now that's a goal as lofty as Ascension or Golconda, now isn't it? All you have to do to earn it is feed the entire world down the maw of your master.
Some neat works of fiction to inspire games where the Wyrm is the antagonist:
The Secret World: I'll admit that I have barely played this, but from what I have played, this is one of the few MMORPG's I'd recommend. It's story, voice acting, and everything about it is detailed and top-notch, and actually, really, really feels like an oWoD RPG. The Filth is exactly what the Wyrm should be, an endless tide of horror that comes in different shapes and sizes, and corrupts everything good about the world as it devours it.
In The Mouth of Madness: Man John Carpenter is good for cosmic horror, isn't he? In the Mouth of Madness constantly wars in my mind with the Thing for my favorite Carpenter flick, and for good reason. It's a very good example of very subtle horror, slowly corroding away at the fabric of ordinary existence. This is exactly the Wyrm's mode of operation, slowly insinuating itself into reality, until before you know it, you're already doing its work.
The Filth: A very, very funny, occasionally nightmarish, and totally deranged comic by Grant Morrison, kind of a sister series to the Invisibles. It follows the agents of the Hand, the immune system of reality, as they track down and destroy glitches within reality, who are either nightmarishly evil and supervillainous, or just kind of pathetic and pitiable. Still, like a cancer, they all need to die for the world to live.
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