RORY "NIGHTFIRE" DEVANEY
Rory Devaney grew up the second child of four, in a small Ireland
coastal town in the northern province of Ulster. Fishing was the primary
source of income and support for the whole village, and many of the people there
were fishermen. Rory's father, Sam, was a fisherman Or so people believed.
In actuality, Sam was both a Garou and an IRA squad leader. He would fish
by day and fight by night, whenever his squad was called for duty. He was
very good at both of his jobs, but somewhat less than careful. Several
Fianna belonging to the Brotherhood of Herne camp determined his nature and
found out where he lived. Upon finding this out, the Brotherhood launched
an attack on the village, targeting specifically Sam Devaney. They found
him at the dinner table, surrounded by his family, and they attacked. Sam
fought viciously, but was not able to overcome his more numerous assailants, nor
able to even save his wife in the process. The children were left alone.
With their parents dead, the Devaney children became wards of the courts.
Knowing they would eventually be split up, they swore to remain in contact with
each other, and have kept that promise to this day. Rory quickly became
one of the children teachers and caretakers despair about. He was
certainly bright enough to become nearly anything he wanted, but he gravitated
toward the rougher crowd of kids, constantly getting into fights. More
often than not he lost, but he learned and as he grew older, his defeats became
fewer and further in between.
Upon his coming of age, Rory became no longer a ward of the court, and found a
job as a bouncer in a local pub. During the day, he spent his time at the
local gym, boxing or wrestling or studying various martial arts. His
trainers there described him as a natural. After several months, he found
himself invited to an unofficial boxing club, where fights were put on for the
amusement and gambling value of others, often fighting to the death. Rory
quickly rose in the ranks, and eventually came into position to challenge the
resident champion, a monster of a man by the creative [not] name of Brutus.
The fight was long and hard. Rory gave as good as he got, but Brutus
seemed to not feel any of it. As the fight progressed, Rory got a nagging
feeling something was wrong here. As if his hands were guided by an unseen
presence, he began targeting vital areas, hitting with all his strength.
While such tactics were not illegal as such in this arena, they were frowned
upon and Rory had stayed away from them thus far. Time and time again he
struck, putting more and more into his blows, but Brutus showed no reaction.
Finally, desperate to survive, he formed his hand into a sharp blade, a
manoeuvre he'd learned while studying karate, and drove the point of the
hand-blade into Brutus's kidneys.
It should have pole-axed the man, no matter how big he was. Instead,
Rory's hand pierced Brutus's flesh and a sticky green foul-smelling pus erupted
from his side. The pus hit Rory in the face, and his pain, combined with
the frustration and desperation of the fight, triggered his First Change.
He raged, and slew the fomor on the spot.
In the audience was an old Garou by the name of Daystorm, who calmed the youth
down and took him back to his place to explain things. The next day, Rory
found himself at Daystorm's caern, where he began learning again. This
time, he was taught strategy and tactics to go along with his combat abilities.
To aid in this, Rory joined the IRA. He would have been placed into the public
corps, which was mainly for display and little else, but for the fact that his
recruiting officer had seen Rory at several of the fights and knew what he could
do. He quickly took the lad aside, and invited him to join the
"real" IRA, which Rory did. In mere months, he had risen to
command of his own squad.
Rory's Rite of Passage was a harrowing tale of either bravery or foolishness,
with more than his fair share of luck being just enough to see him through.
A daring raid on a munitions warehouse in northern Belfast provided several
cases of Stinger Surface to Air missiles, guarded by Fianna of the Brotherhood
of Herne camp. Not all of the pups sent on this rite survived, but those
who did were hailed as heroes. Coupled with this was a traditional Fianna
challenge - in this case, Rory was buried to his waist in earth, and given a
hazel stick. Nine Fianna Ahrouns stood in a circle around and cast nine spears
each at him, in no specific order. Several times, it seemed the young lad
would be impaled, but each time, the flashing hazel stick would smash one of the
spears, sending it into the others and spoiling their shots as well.
For some unknown reason, or for a reason only known to him and the Sept elders,
Rory left Ireland and came to America. He stayed in Boston for some time,
but before long, left the Fianna Sept there as well.
Within a few days of travelling, Rory found himself in the midst of a revel
after a moot at the Sept of the Eagle's Eye. The first of the revelling
Ahrouns to come upon him, being young and less in control of themselves,
attacked him and were rebuffed. Again and again they threw themselves at
him, only to be thrown back. The fight lasted briefly, before elders of
the sept came upon the scene and set the younger ones right. Rory was
accepted into the Caern and sept and remains therethis day.