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Ratkin are a kind of Changing Breed. As most breeds, Ratkin were given a mission by Gaia, and that would be controlling human population by eating their food and spreading disease and pests and it worked until Garou decided to exterminate all of the other Breeds in the so called War of Rage. Since them, the Ratkin had to live in the margins of human society and could barely make it but because of the rapid urban growth, they recovered and once again are in ascendance. Ratkin are feral and brutal, mainly because they are Wyld-touched, meaning they can not only frenzy like others shapeshifters but also hallucinate in a state called Rapture.

Ratkin are still very distrustful of Garou even now, because one of their aspect was completely destroyed during the War of Rage, the equivalent of Garou's Galliards or Bards. However, before they were slain, they foretold that in the final days the Ratkin would come back from their secret refuges just as happened.

History
The Ratkin have always been the skulkers-in-shadows, the outcast, the unwanted. Wherever they live, they impede human civilization. Their original job was to keep a watch on the humans and make sure they didn't grow too far great. They ate surplus grain to keep the humans from growing out of control. They used to play with urban Faeries and befriend the Bone Gnawers and the vampires who would have them, but they all knew their noble purpose and never shied from it. Protectors of man. Shepherds of man. Until the wolves decided they were Gaia's gift to human• kind, that they would enforce their law and their will with tooth and claw instead of subtlety and natural selection. The Ratkin were herded together and slain en masse. Only a few of the children of the Rat were left alive, and those went into hiding, burrowing deep into the wainscoting of the city. They learned to live where no-one else would live: in the empty, forgotten buildings of the city, the ruins, the hollow walls.

The race of Ratkin have grown steadily more and more bestial over the years, since it is much easier for them to mate with one of their rodent cousins than it is to seduce a human. They are among the ugliest of Gaia's children. They seethe with Rage, with anger against those who have vanquished them, with anger against those who dwell in the sunlight realm. They remain outside society, seeking only to protect themselves and stay alive. They found that the Bone Gnawers still did not bear them ill will, and soon forged a lasting alliance with them. The Bone Gnawers held them in religious respect, believing them avatars from Rat himself. The Ratkin still believe the Garou cheated them of their birthright as protectors of humanity. Still, they feel they are the lords of the shadow city, the warriors of those who dwell in the sewers. From time to time their rage boils up and they attack Garou, leeches, and humans alike.

Organization
The Ratkin have one tightly-knit den. Every Ratkin knows every other Ratkin. There are so few left that it is easy to know most of the others, and tales are told of the elder wanderers who are rarely seen. They have family reunions every once in a while, usually held in the largest human city they can find: Tokyo, New York, Singapore. The eldest rule, but all Ratkin are essentially bound only by their family ties. Regardless of their actual relations, they tend to adopt new familial titles like Aunt, Uncle, Grandfather, Brother, deciding in some complex and mysterious way where they all fit in the Ratkin "family tree."

The Ratkin often hire themselves out as assassins. They are not hard-bought: their needs for survival are many. They will accept money or barter for an assignment to slay a Garou, a vampire, or a mage. The only time they will not attempt the assassination is if Rat himself warns them away. Ratkin are hardened, and have grown to hate most of humanity, Garou, the leeches and mages. Wererats have turned their back on Gaia, since they feel She has tumed Her back on them, and seek only to survive the upcoming Apocalypse. Their curiosity as a race is the only thing that prevents them from leaving Gaia to whatever fate she may suffer -- that, and the fact that deep in their collective psyche lies the hope that Gaia (or the Garou) will one day come to them and plead for aid. It is said that a lost tribe of Ratkin left Gaia many years ago for another realm, where they now live as lords and ladies. This realm, called Paradise, is believed mythical by most Ratkin. Only those few rats, metis, or homid Ratkin who survive the birthing plague can be wererats.

The Umbra
Ratkin move through the Umbra by stepping through Shadows, just as Garou step sideways. They have a network of rat-tunnels through the Umbra that are so small as to be undetectable by Garou, tunnels that stretch from city to city and span across the entire world. Otherwise, they don't spend much time in the Umbra.

Language
The Ratkin speak in a language of clicks, squeaks, and barely audible whispers. Their language is always spoken quietly, and few outsiders perceive it as anything other than random noise. Some Ratkin have learned to speak the Bone Gnawer's version of the Garou tongue.

Habitat
The Ratkin live in the ruined parts of the city. They usually stay in rat form, since rats usually have an easy time hiding from humanity. They fearlessly protect their domains, and anyone who threatens them will feel the bite of their pain-daggers.

Aspects
Ratkin choose a specific career within the Ratkin community based on their talents and abilities, and hallucinations they experience during their Rite of the Birthing Plague. They often have an apprenticeship with one of their Aspect to help them learn their Way.

Warrior: Ratkin Warriors are the defenders of their kind, well-versed in combat. They usually they learn guerrilla tactics at the hands of their masters and learn to utilize the environment of the underground world to aid them in hunt and battle. They originated the Rite of the Pain-Dagger. A Ratkin is not considered an adult Warrior until she makes her own such dagger.

Tunnel Runner: Ratkin Runners are the messengers, scouts, and spies of the Ratkin. They are the originators of the Rite of the Bolthole, and know the secret means from traveling from city to city. Curiously enough, some Runners "adopt" a Bone Gnawer or Nosferatu out of a strange combination of admiration, respect, and curiosity, and will aid their adopted child in many activities.

Shadow Seer: Ratkin Seers are the shamans of the people. They interact with the spirits and other animal dwellers in the city, and often are friends with electricity spirits or Glass Elementals.

Knife Skulker: Ratkin Skulkers are the ritualists, the servants of Rat, among the wererats. However, they see themselves more as public servants. They watch everything in secret, using the Runners for information, and make judgments on the Ratkin and their dealings with the rest of the world. From time to time, the Skulkers serve as assassins, using their abilities to sneak past guards and dispatch enemies of the Ratkin. They know the Rite of the Questing Stone and many of the punishment rites. They also conduct the Rite of the Birthing Plague for untried Ratkin.

There was, at one time, a Galliard•like aspect among the Ratkin, the bards and singers of their kind. They were the first to die in the great war that the Garou waged on the Kin to the Rat because they were the go-betweens, the representatives of the Ratkin to the Garou. Their tradition is completely dead, their rites lost, and Ratkin culture has fallen into the keeping of the Tunnel Runners, who try to perpetuate the ancient traditions of the people.

Racial Abilities
All Ratkin have absolute sense of direction underground and an excellent spatial sense. They are able to tell how far and how deep they have traveled, and often know their way around a sewer maze or a tunnel network without ever having traveled there before. They have very good night vision, even in human form. They have incredible hearing.

Ratkin possess the same healing factor as werewolves and are immune to all forms of disease (something in the Birthing Plague causes them to build up immunities against everything). In truth, they never get over the Birthing Plague, it simply remains dormant inside them and serves as a hyperimmune system. If, through some magical means, the Ratkin are cured of this plague, they will cease being wererats and revert to their normal breed species. Metis Ratkin will die.

Breeds
The Ratkin can't easily pass on their shapechanger nature to their offspring. Only those children who are subjected to the Rite of the Birthing Plague stand any chance of becoming wererats; offspring who don't undergo the rite are forever Kinfolk. Since children born to two Ratkin parents are infertile, the Ratkin subject all their metis to the rite. Unfortunately, metis are less likely to survive the Birthing Plague. Only the fact that the Ratkin have no taboos about breeding with one another ensures that there aremetis wererats at all.

Forms
The Ratkin, hardly the most warlike of the Changing Breeds, possess only three forms: Homid, Crinos and Rodens.

Homid: Most Ratkin seem normal enough in their human form. However, few of them could be called pretty without a heavy dose of charity. The majority are short and homely, with compact, sleek frames. Beautiful or hulking Ratkin aren't unknown, just rare.

Crinos: A Ratkin's Crinos body is nowhere near the towering battle-form of the Garou. The wererat gains maybe 15 percent in muscle bulk, but his height doesn't increase more than a few inches. However, he becomes exceptionally lithe and can traverse any hole he can put his head through. A wererat in Crinos may attack with his claws, but only his bite causes aggravated wounds. His tail is totally prehensile in this form, and may even wield weapons. The Ratkin may use no more than half his Strength with his tail, but moderately complex manipulations (like untying knots) aren't beyond him.

Rodens: In rat form, the Ratkin seems to be nothing more than a largish wharf rat.