View source for First Change

The first time a garou changes form is called the 'First Change'. For most Garou their First Change is a traumatic experience. The First Change is commonly triggered by an emotional outburst, ussually one of anger and accompanied by a vicious frenzy. The resulting bodycount, with claw and bite marks, is often a threat to the Veil.

During the middle ages, some septs used to charge into villages where their unsuspecting kinfolk lived, in order to provoke the First Change in young Garou living among the kinfolk. This is the source of the stories, people can turn into a werewolf after being bitten by one.