Kvitton

As for the unbelievers, their works are as a mirage in a spacious plain which the man athirst supposes to be water, till, when he comes to it, he finds it is nothing ...
- The Koran 24:39

Children of Daenna in spirit as well as Blood, the Phuri Dae are most closley associated with the Seeds of Knowledge. There is an ongoing debate among the Phuri Dae as to whether their family includes only the traditional Guardian of Eiavelan, the Seed of the Brightest Waters, or if one of their number also guards Bonnerin, the Seed of the Balanced Scale. This is actually only a more concrete manifestation of the turmoil within the Phuri Dae as to whether they represent the epitome of all Rom, or only an important part of the whole.
If they are only a single, albeit necessary, component, then it is generally said that some individual kumpania will jumble together to form a kinetic whole, a jump-start on the evolutionary train, becoming more than the sum of their flesh and spirit and Blood. Such a kompania would surely play an important part, perhaps the starring role, at the Convergence.
This line of thinking is certainly not held by the conservative members of the Phuri Dae, who have occationally been sneered by others of their kind as the stuffed shirts and self-important seers of the Rom. Thouse accusing the Phuri Dae claim that having to carry such a heavy burden of knowledge and responsibility has bowed their spiritual backs and crushed their sense of the possible. The disenfranchised among the Dae are the only ones who feel the sting of such words, and it only makes them redouble their efforts to lance the boil of disinformation and doggerel that so infects the gaje as a whole.
Those Rom more invested in their anointed role as holders of all knowledge woth knowing doggedly maintain the dogma that, as the epitome of Daenna's children in both spirit and Blood, the Phuri Dae will most certainly be the ones to minister at the Convergence. As such, say the cockier Dae, the carefully guarded knowledge of those Rom in the present and the Seeds, now wedded in a yet-barren union, will spring to life as the first fertile drops from the spirit realm touch the unliving egg of dry materialism.


In the recombining of spirit and body, when the elements - earth, air, firea and water - are empowered to transcend into some new reality we can only now call spirit, we will see the ultimate expression of the soul. But for now, these Rom wait and watch in the stagnation they term patience, while other families play a far more active role in transforming the world.
But such entropy has not afflicted all the Phuri Dae. Many of the younger members, and certain American branches in particular, say that the Phuri Dae must do more than watch and wait for the so-called Convergence. Instead, they assert, the Phuri Dae must plunge into the gaje world's doings, using their knowledge of the true workings of the world, the dirty errata of reality behind the stage flats of normalcy, to tear off the veil of scientific assurance that so many people maintain. Only by expanding the understanding of all those who share this earth can the Rom prepare the world for the Convergence and the mind-bending possibilities to come ...
Our view of the Convergence and our role among the gaje cause great fear and consternation among the rest of the Rom. They know the vampires, the Camarilla, would turn a great deal of energy and resources toward destroying us should the Masquerade (the "no monsters" placebo-fiction bottle they feed to the gaje) be actively threatened. So too would many of the werewolves rage at any of us who would dare to expose them to the harsh light of open existance. At least they have the gaje on their side.
The gaje cling tenaciously to their anti-magical, pro-science, all explainable, no monsters-in-the-closet script, and it will take some major shredding and twisting to take that stuffed-animal-of-a-reality away from them. All in all, not an easy assignment. But a growing number of us Phuri Dae are willing to take it on, extra credit or no.
Not to say we're suicidal; such reality expansion is most often accomplished with some subtlety. The schocked mind too often shrinks in denial rather than expanding with sudden comprehension.
Most of us carefully show the world magic - and then deny it; perhaps by presenting a play depicting the role of the Garou in the world, and then dismissing it as fancy. Traveling families and kumpaniyi of Gypsies set up and run strange games where people can play at being vampires in the midst of unsuspecting humands - but it's only make believe, right?
Such conditioning, the thinking goes, will prepare at least some gaje for the expanded realities of the Convergence and the reconceptualizing that that transformation will require. Those gaje who truly seem to recognize the truth-in-possibility of our games and shows may find thelselves traveling farther into the rabbit warren of realities we Rom so freely travel. We watch out for those gaje (and in some cases, those shilmulo and werecreatures) ready to be nudged along, whose minds are flexible and will not shatter in madness.
When we spot such a mental contortionist we often invite her to learn more, presenting private showings and telling stranger and truer tales, even inviting the gaje to travel with our kumpania. If the gaje has a particurlarly flexible mind, we will go all the way, encouraging her to pry away at the shiny plastic coating of the sugar-dipped placebo world, to pop the balloons of censored reality and watch the pieces fly. To experience the fullness of the many layered vinegar-sweet universe ..."
Through such converts, allegedly including Byron, Blake and Lovecraft, the Rom have achieved greater influence in gaje thinking. Many such gaje go on to write, produce and develop various pieces of "fiction" that actually present glimpses of the truth beneath surface reality. Movies, books, games, TV programs, tabloids and all the cacophony of mass media now have nuggets of truth buried among the fuzzy blur of banality and drivel that is their normal fare. Thus does their tactic of truth-by-denial show-and-tell spread its influence and stretch the limits of the gaje's world.
Despite the fictional presentations and retractions, these tactics have begun to draw the occasional Glass Walker werewolf, who do not appreciate the mocking, unraveling tendencies of the pseudo-truths they notice surfacing in the mass media. Although few of these gaje yet know the true source of such information, it cannot be long before they realize who must be behind such deliberate airings of secrets and decide to retaliate as they see fit.
The Phuri Dae trace their specific history back to the time of great flooding. It is said that Noahe was a Rom of truly powerful mind who also happened to be the Guardian of the Seed of Knowledge (before they were split up). Noahe and her family were forewarned about a plot to destroy the people of that land (in particular the Gypsies).
In response, Noahe built a great ark to save her people, herself and, most importantly, the Seeds. Many Phuri Dae believe the flood was created by certain mages bent on destroying Noahe and the other Romani because they feared the Gypsies' powers and perhaps even desired the Seeds. But others say it was just a werewolf scheme to rid the world of some particularly disgusting gaje ensconced in the same land as Noahe and her people.
Whatever the cause, the Phuri Dae escaped with their knowledge, and since that time, the family have felt that they are the especial guardians and lore keepers among the world's chosen. Noahe's demonstration of the usefulness of both magic and the Sight also set the example for much of the Phuri Dae.
Today the Phuri Dae believe the world is preparing for an even bigger cleansing, perhaps through a great flood of reality-expanding knowledge. Although a great number of Phuri Dae now live and travel in North America, many still reside in Europe and the Middle East. In all areas, persecution is increasing as governments attempt to rigidly control both knowledge and power in their countries.
Ever suspicious of the Gypsie and their tejection of conventional authority, certain European governments have stepped up programs of sterilization and systematic persecution and ejection of the Rom. Still others attempt to steal the Gypsies' children away, claiming all Rom to be unfit parents by definition. The same governments, and other less willing to actively persecute the Rom, watch in near-silence as Gypsies are barred from stores and attacked in the streets of their cities. After all, they are just Gypsies, not real people, think the officials, walled-off and encased in their houses of whitewashed decay.
The Phuri Dae know such desperation is a signal that the dam built of half-truths and denial is near breaking, but they also fear the effects such policies have on their own culture and families. Every Gypsy sterilized, starved, stoned or stolen means there is one less Rom available to carry the contraband knowledge of the Blood and to chip away at the cracks of conventional gaje thought.
Since the time of Noahe herself the Phuri Dae have been especially adept at the art of gaining and manipulating knowledge for their own advantage. Although a somewhat subtle power when compared to, say, the Lupines' aggressive skills, it has served many of the Phuri Dae well throughour the ages. Known as Patteran (the sign of knowledge and of the Phuri Dae), many of the Phuri Dae poesses this gift.

- Teeuwynn