The Pack, also referred to as The Fated Six, later on the Fated Five, consists of the characters played by the players of A Song At Tara. Some entries will be marked as spoilers.
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In General
The Pack provides examples of many different tropes when considered as a whole. It has undergone a few changes along the way, and provides examples of::
- Dark and Troubled Past: Several of the pack have varying degrees of this:
- Aaron had to deal with a stern, abusive father through all his childhood and early adolescent years.
- Conall was a juvenile delinquent who hung out with rough characters, and was headed for a criminal life before heading to Ireland.
- Liam killed his sister, Ciara, during his First Change, and his family was split further as a result of his actions.
- Síomha lost her mother while young, and her father became more absent as a result, due to him having to work more and make ends meet.
- Tali was buried alive in a coffin as a child by a Fomor disguised as a school bully.
- Taryn was subject to intense bullying during her childhood, and she ended up slaughtering a bully during her First Change.
- Deadpan Snarker: Most of the pack, and the players playing them, fit this trope easily.
Aaron "Guards-the-Pack" Blackwell
A Shadowlord Ahroun played by Daniel. Aaron provides examples of:
- Do Not Go Gentle: Aaron's death occurs in his apartment alone and fighting off over a dozen Kindred serving Victoria Rogers. He takes many of them down with him before succumbing.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: A result of being an Ahroun, and Daniel bestowing him with a whopping 7 points of Rage. Several instances occurred where Aaron either had to be restrained by his pack, or leave a room to prevent him losing control.
- Lonely Rich Kid: Aaron spent most of his childhood dealing with his abusive, demanding Shadow Lord father, and his caring but ineffectual mother, and was expected not to have friends, but to have followers and vassals. After a few years with the pack, Aaron is able to integrate with friends more comfortably.
- This Means War!: Aaron's death is the catalyst for Kat Markussen to declare all-out war with the vampires of Dublin, and the conflict itself is named Aaron's War because of it.
Conall "Drenched-in-Gore" Burke
A Get of Fenris Ahroun played by Heine. Conall provides examples of:
- Blood Knight: Like a good Get of Fenris. His usual response to the sudden appearance of a horrific Wyrm-monster is a flatly intonated but very sincere "Cool". And then there was the time he rushed to attack the Bloodwolf, a massive spirit of predatory savagery, basically just because he could.
- Jerk Jock
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Conall straddles the line between this and Jerk with a Heart of Gold. In the end, by leaving Dublin and killing the Caern in the process, he lands firmly in Jerk with a Heart of Jerk Territory.
- Secret Identity: Conall Burke is in fact an alias, and the character's real name is Dennis Fram.
Fenna "Throatsplitter" Mortensen
A Get of Fenris Ragabash played by Helle. Fenna provides examples of:
- Deadpan Snarker: As noted above, most of the pack fits this at one time or another, but Fenna deserves extra comment because of her role during moots: the Fool, who functions along the lines of a court jester, using snark and sarcasm to confront bad ideas and attitudes.
- Pungeon Master: Being a Ragabash, Fenna is often ready with a double entendre for any situation and a putdown for anyone getting too big for their boots.
- Secret Identity: Fenna is known to all of her skater friends, and to the world in general, as Lina.
- The Woobie: Let's see... Fenna is forced to leave her parents behind in Denmark, becoming a missing person in Dublin; had to watch her friend Nuala suffer an excruciating death while she and the pack could do nothing to save her; had her parents taken hostage; received the severed fingers of her parents (wedding rings still attached) to demoralise her; unwittingly killed her own mother while her pack unwittingly killed her father, both of whom had been made into fomori; and discovered that one of her close skater friends was secretly one of her greatest and most sadistic enemies, and was the one responsible for her misery. It's little wonder that, by the end, much of her humour has soured or vanished.
Síomha "Questions-the-Ways" Ni Braoin
A Fianna Philodox played by Rasmus. Síomha provides examples of:
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Síomha only ever expressed romantic inclinations towards Aaron and Conall.
- Holier Than Thou: Síomha often comes across as rather condescending towards her packmates. She aspires to human values, denying her Garou side, sometimes to a near-fanatical degree.
- Ignorance Is Bliss: Síomha outright says this at one point. She would've rather lived out her entire life, blissfully ignorant of the greater scope of the World of Darkness, than be forcefully conscripted into an impossible war against overwhelming foes.
- Lonely at the Top: Síomha admits, in a moment of weakness, that despite being extraordinarily beautiful, quite smart and rather popular back in her pre-Garou days, she never really connected with any of her peers, and had an easier time being around adults.
- Missing Mom: Síomha's mother died when she was young, of an aggressive form of cancer.
- Never My Fault: Rasmus, Síomha's player, admitted that one of, if not her greatest weakness, is a huge lack of introspection.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: Early on, in an argument with Síobhan, Síomha informed her that she'd have much rather woken to find herself a Disney princess than a big furry warrior in a war she doesn't understand. This struck a nerve with Síobhan and the other Garou, and Síomha was henceforth viewed as a prissy princess who couldn't be assed to help, and it did little to endear her to them.
- Stepford Snarker: Did not take to being a member of the Garou well at all, and tries to bury that beneath a cool, aloof facade. It gets worse when Conall leaves the caern and pack, and Síomha enters into Harano as a result.
Taliesin "Finds-the-Words" Blevens
A Children of Gaia Galliard played by Chris. Taliesin provides examples of:
- Beware the Nice Ones: Despite being a Child of Gaia, and a fundamentally good person, Taliesin has demonstrated several times that he is not to be messed with:
- When Tali has to confront a Black Spiral Dancer who has broken into his mother's house, with the intention of killing his mother, Tali body tackles it to the ground and, after much scrambling and clawing, tears the hapless minion in half.
- As a general rule, whenever Tali's voice drops about an octave and takes on a growling tone, the pack's enemies are about to have a very bad day.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: He has to be reminded from time to time that he can't save absolutely everyone no matter how much he wants to.
- Disappeared Dad: Tali's father, Ioan, was a Garou who left when Tali was an infant for reasons he never discovered. Myfanwy later tells Tali that Ioan became obsessed with honour and fighting for the Garou Nation over everything else, including being there for his wife and young son. When he left, and didn't come back, it was probably due to him dying in battle.
- Good Is Not Soft: Tali has been described several times throughout the campaign as a genuinely good, kind and decent person, and demonstrated those qualities on just as many occasions. None of this has detracted from his being a Garou, and by extension his willingness to fight and to kill as the need arises.
- The Heart: Tali is explicitly chosen and told by Raven to fill this role in the pack, in the very first episode. This is bought up a few times over the course of the chronicle. And he embraces it, even to the point of psychological martyrdom.
- Heartbroken Badass: Goes through this for a few episodes after Sandy is forced to leave Dublin, and he is ostracised by the Sept.
- The Lancer: Taliesin becomes Aaron's Beta, the second in command of the pack. He is later promoted to Alpha after Aaron's untimely death.
- Meaningful Name: Taliesin, a Galliard, is named after the Taliesin of Welsh history and legend.
- In one of the later episodes, Tali even quotes a few lines from the poem 'I am Taliesin', which presents itself from the point of view of the mythological poet, though the poem was not actually written by Taliesin.
- Mercy Kill: Tali granted the request of an unwilling ghoul, Maria O'Hara, and snapped her neck to spare her the miserable future she would have otherwise had.
- He also euthanised several wolves in Dublin zoo, some of whom he'd known from his first change, when they had been fatally Wyrm-tainted by Gina Masterson and her cronies.
- Mistaken for Gay: By his own mother, no less. It was cleared up quickly and non-judgmental in any case, but still not what the poor boy needed at that point in time.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Chris, playing as Tali, tries to maintain a passable southern Welsh accent, since that is Tali's nationality. He doesn't always succeed.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: With Sandy van Hartegan. The attempt at a relationship lasts mere days before Tali is discovered by the Sept and punished by his own pack, while Sandy is forced to flee back to Holland.
- Tell Me About My Father: During the build-up to the big battle in the final arc of the chronicle, Tali finally asks his mom about why his dad left them both.
- The Stoner: Played with. Taliesin does smoke weed, but being a Garou, it doesn't have any real effect on him. Mostly, he smoked them as a means to give him focus, and later to honour his mentor, PeaceNick.
- Warrior Poet: It comes with being a Galliard, being good in frontline combat and recounting the pack's deeds at Moots, but Tali/Chris's poetry really heightens the extent to which this trope fits.
Taryn Tamara "Bites-the-Flames" Jones
A Glass Walker Theurge played by Aja. Taryn provides examples of:
- An Arm and a Leg: Taryn has her left arm torn off at the elbow by a vengeful Michael Blackwell as the pack assaulted his home.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Being a Glass Walker, Taryn has been shown to be able to control electronic water trucks with a Tamagotchi.
- She also successfully makes a prosthetic arm for herself after the events of the chronicle, combining skills in mechanics, medicine and Garou Theurgecraft to make the prosthetic a fetish.
- Super-Toughness: With the gift Steel Fur, and a high stamina rating, Taryn is able to shrug off almost any wounds possible, including being hit by two separate explosions and then having a building collapse on top of her.
- Took a Level in Badass: Taryn went from being the weakest and most timid member of the pack to a resolute warrior who is almost literally Made of Iron.
Liam "Killer-of-Banes" Cavanagh
A Fianna Ahroun played by Heine after Conall leaves the group. Liam provides examples of:
- Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Has this going on with Aideen.
- Fair Cop: He's an active member of the Gardaí when introduced, and is good-looking enough that people ask "Who's the eye candy?"
- Ghost Memory: Liam begins having these later in the chronicle, seeing visions of events from several centuries in the past. These culminate in the reveal that Liam is the descendent and heir of the ancient Irish hero and Garou, Cú Chulainn.
- The High King: Liam is proclaimed Ard Righ (the Gaelic for High King) of the Fianna in the final episode, and goes on to lead the tribe in a more progressive, reformist manner than his predecessors.
Mahdi "Deadeye" El-Amin
A Silent Strider Theurge played by Rasmus after Síomha's death. Mahdi provides examples of:
- Fridge Brilliance: Mahdi doesn't have a native human language and has picked up English piecemeal while traveling the world. Of course his accent is inconsistent; it's a hodgepodge of all the other accents he has learned from.
- Genius Ditz: While beloved by the pack and players as sweet, naive and quite humourous, Mahdi has moments of genuinely smart ideas, particularly when he devised the plan to trawl Liffey clean with a net woven of pure moonlight, courtesy of a giant spider spirit and a lune spirit.
- It should be noted that Mahdi is generally quite intelligent, but being a Lupus Garou, he does not human very well, and so expresses his intelligence in comically wolfy ways.
- "Knock Knock" Joke: Mahdi was very fond of these, despite not understanding most of them, though he only told one such joke to the pack.
- Literal-Minded: Downplayed. He understands figures of speech just fine...but only on a case-by-case basis. When he encounters one he's not familiar with, he tends to take it at face value until it's explained to him.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Rasmus, Mahdi's Player, has a tendency to veer into an Indian accent at random. He usually lampshades it.
- Team Pet: His natural form being that of an animal, with all the attendant mannerisms, often puts him in this role.
- What the Hell Is That Accent?: Mahdi has an accent but it is rarely consistent and generally hard to place at the best of times.
- Younger Than They Look: He appears about twenty in Homid form but is actually only seven or eight.
