Storytellers Vault Idea Source

Onyx Path publishing in December of 2013 produced for the Werewolf: the Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition the sourcebook Changing Breeds. Of the many shapeshifters presented in the sourcebook were the Mokole or werereptiles. Origionally the Mokole were simply werelizards and werecrocodiles but in the 20th Anniversary they added the Ao, which bred with turtles and tortoises. I have been working on writing for the Storytellers Vault and with returning to Rocky's blog I am now thinking of writing an Ao character, fiction, and sourcebook. It would include to Rokea, my faverite Gangrel vampires the Mariners, and most likely not the last two paragraphs from the quote below, unless using them historically. 

To quote Changing Breeds page 249 to 250 "Ao - The Turtle Varna.

The lost turtle varna of the Mokole had many names. In the Indian Subcontinent, they were called Kurmaraja, names after the tortoise whose body formes the boundaries of the world. In North America, they were knows as the Kahaila, and were credited with creating the world. As a varna, they referred to themselves as the Ao, naming themselves after an elder so great he would even be remembered in the myths of humans as the Chinese seaturtle who sacrificed his legs to hold up the sky. Despite being scattered all over the world, the Ao shared a connection unique among the varna. This may be because they were the oldest varna, or because their patient and contemplative nature was not given to rifts or divisions. Turtles are an ancient family was perfectly adapted to its niche millenia before most of life on Earth today had evolved. 

Most of the world's myths about turtles identify them as creators and preservers, and this was true of the Ao as well. Among the longest-lived varna, other Mokole saw especially old

Ao as living wellsprings of Mnesis, the eyes that had beheld a thousand thousand memories now given to all in dreams. As the Ao include a large number of sea turtles, they had the most contact with the Rokea — appraising the weresharks of happenings on land, and lending an extra set of teeth and claws when the Rokea found something worth destroying.

The Ao included all manner of turtles and tortoises, with the following statistics: Str +1, Dex –1, Sta +4, Man –4, Rage 3. Ao benefit from the Armored Scales characteristic in Suchid form but could only move at half their Homid form’s land speed. Turtle Ao had a swimming speed equal to their Homid form’s land speed.

The Mokolé dream different dreams when searching Mnesis to find what caused the Ao’s disappearance. Some claim that their own solitary, secretive natures doomed the turtle varna. Starting around 540 BCE, other Mokolé began to notice that the Ao’s numbers were dropping. When asked about it, however, the Ao would dissemble or, if pressed, simply refuse to answer. The turtle varna became more and more rare until, by the beginning of the first century CE, they had vanished altogether. Some Mokolé ascribe sinister causes to the Ao’s disappearance, while others believe it was part of the natural cycle, and that the Ao will arise again if the time comes right.

A few weresaurians believe that the Ao were not doomed because they did not die. They point to the lack of any sign of dismay or struggle, and say that the Ao did not succumb but were called into the Umbra to serve Gaia in some unknown capacity. Perhaps the Mokolé varna best known as preservers and creators foresaw the Apocalypse years before anyone else and retreated to an Umbral realm where they could weather the storm and return at the time of the Earth’s most desperate need."