Harano is often compared to depression, but that’s not unlike comparing a werewolf to a wolf. The two are similar, but several degrees apart. Harano directly affects the spirit of its victim. Harano is not intelligent; it's not a spirit or entity (although some Garou would swear that it is.) It is a condition that progresses, ironically enough, by the victim’s inaction. From a mechanics point of view, Harano can start out as a moderate to sever depression. If the Garou does not seek treatment in this stage of the illness, she becomes darkly introspective. They develop an obsession with the seeming hopeless situation of Gaia. The victim falls further into despair, inadvertently fueling their own waking nightmares. The Garou then becomes delusional as the condition progresses, alternately cursing at and weeping for events that haven’t even happened. In the later stages of Harano, the physical body starts to suffer as the Garou forgets to sleep, eat or even bathe. Eventually, if the Garou doesn’t take their own life first, they’ll literally waste away to the point that their physical body fails.

Harano is not a glorious death.

Pack and sept mates will do all that they can to help the afflicted individual recover. Despite the careful ministrations of well meaning friends, the battle of Harano is one that must be fought and won internally. Suffering from Harano is one of the worst fates that a Garou could face.

From a story perspective, Harano is so much more than an illness or “condition.” It is the hopeless cry of the Garou who have been abused for far too long. As a nation that has been at war for millennia, the Garou grow weary. Their collective spirits long for a reprieve from the endless battles and relief from the eternal winter that has made their hearts grow cold. The world that the modern werewolf has been born to is a mockery of the glory that Gaia originally bestowed upon Her favored people. Those who came before were careless with their charge, and the modern werewolf is left with the unenviable task of somehow picking up the pieces. It's no wonder that some go mad in the process

Nevertheless, the Garou continue forward, despite the overwhelming odds against them. Some claim that they do this out of habit, or their sense of obligation to Gaia. While that’s true in part, the reason they refuse to lay down their arms is because there is still hope, however insignificant it may seem. As long as Gaia blesses the Nation with those who breed true, there could be a better tomorrow.

The trouble begins when a werewolf loses sight of this fact. Rather than embracing the progress of the cause, a werewolf hangs on to the losses of the past. Rage turns into sorrow, sorrow gives way to hopelessness, and death becomes the most attractive escape. The seed of Harano is planted in the spirit of every Garou. Anyone can fall prey to its deceptive lure. Harano is feared, perhaps even more than the Wyrm because of its predictably destructive power.

A story involving a character with Harano will be dark and morbid. Every individual involved will understand what the afflicted werewolf is going through because they fight the same internal struggle on a daily basis. It is only the slender thread of hope that prevents the entire Garou Nation from collapsing.

HARANO
As the werewolf experiences setbacks, and the apparent futility of their struggle becomes apparent, so do they slide toward harano, a state where they succumb to hopelessness and give up on serving Gaia. For such Garou, the war isn’t worth fighting anymore. Wretched creatures, Garou in harano may abandon their Totem Spirit’s Favor and Ban, and some even seem to lose the ability to shape change at all.

Little by little, harano can set upon even the most confident of Garou, eroding their confidence with self-doubt and emptying whatever hard won victories that might have been. Harano is most common among werewolves who bear leadership roles, but it can seize any Garou by making them doubt the value of their contribution.

HARANO IN PLAY
Every time the Garou suffers a major setback, or a none Garou/Fera are put in danger or damaged due to the actions (or inactions) of the Garou, the player must make a Harano test, with a dice pool equal to the amount of filled dots in harano(This test is made at a minimum of one die; do not use Rage dice for this test.) The Difficulty is usually 7, but the Storyteller can decide that severe setbacks or other crises warrant a higher Difficulty. Failing the test results in a box being filled on the harano tracker, from right to left. If the tracker ever becomes filled, the werewolf has succumbed to harano, leaving the service of Gaia and their role as a playable character. Those with harano prone flaw have a +1 dc to test.

DESPERATE RAGE
A Garou player can voluntarily fill one of the harano boxes to increase their Rage to 5, which represents them tapping into their finite reserves of desperate fury. This can be done only once per session, and the Storyteller can decide to prohibit this if playing a limited one-shot story.

DESPERATE RESTRAINT
A Garou player can voluntarily gain a dot in harano to suppress a frenzy or thrall, this includes from supernatural sources.
STAGES OF HARANO
You gain the effects of each stage you are at and below, for example those at stage 3 are also affected by stage 1 and 2.

Stage 1: you gain the carless flaw.

Stage 2: you have a -1 diff to frenzy.

Stage 3: you gained the PTSD flaw.

Stage 4: You can no longer naturally gain WP, powers, gifts and deals to regain wp still work.

Stage 5: You have fallen to harano.

LOSING HARANO

There are two main ways to lose harano.

Moot

At the moot you can make a dc 8 WP roll to try to lower your stage of harano, those with harano prone flaw are at dc 9. Failure means you Don’t lose harano, and a botch gains you harano. A success lowers your harano by 1.

Spirit quest

A spiritual quest into the umbra can bring even those in deepest of harano back. The kind of quest will be dependent from player to player and will be hard and dangerous. You can bring others to help, but there will be parts only you can solve. This can cure multiple stages of harano depending on the results of the quest.