Editing Dreamspeakers (section)

== The Ways Old and New ==
Dreamspeakers don't really have a hierarchy in any way that matters beyond age and experience with the Spirit World; apprentices are chosen from within their communities and are coached up until the Master (and the spirits) decide they've learned enough; at which point they become the masters themselves. Most adherents of their way meet in the Nevada desert once a year to update everybody on what the hell's going on in their particular faith/culture/faction, and then leave peacefully having satisfied the idea that they are a unified front through this specific ritual. 

While there are factions of Dreamspeaker, it is largely based on shared methods of interacting with the spirits rather than any cultural difference.
* '''Baruti''': The Storytellers. They regale the tales of lost heroes and places to any who listen in order to commune with the spirits and use elements of these legends and myths to improve their bodies temporarily or perform impressive feats based on the protagonists. Initially extremely culturally tied, most Baruti these days found that tales of Anansi and tales of Superman actually work just as well for their purposes, and many have moved from the oral tradition into ethnography, pop literature, novels, and horror stories. Usually with a historical bent to it of course.
* '''Ghost Wheel Society''': The New School. While many Dreamspeakers call upon centuries of tribal and cultural study far away from large cities or nation-states, the Wheelers of the Ghost Wheel Society brought the basic concepts to the urban realm, and have become the arbiters of the modern era; they believe strongly that the old ways are dead if not dying, and must either be adapted for the current age or their form of magic will end entirely. As such, they've adapted their practices to work with technology, plastic, and metal in ways that the old ways could not possibly understand how to work. While useful, they're not very well liked historically as they've always had a bent towards little cults, fringe social movements, and living unsavory lives.
* '''Keepers of the Sacred Flame''': The Old Masters. The Keepers are possibly the oldest faction, or even oldest form of "organized" magic in the World of Darkness, clinging to extremely formal, culturally enclosed, tightly memorized, and ancient methods of communing with spirits; often with frequent visits to the Umbra in order to do so. They believe they are only the most recent links on the chain in the longest and oldest tradition in the Dreamspeakers, and that their culture, like all culture, is the key to understanding the Spirits.
* '''Red Spear Society''': The Spirit Warriors. The most "organized" of all Dreamspeakers due to their desire to kick ass and take names, existing as the entire tradition's "military arm". They imbue their weapons and themselves with awesome spiritual power through talismans, war dances, and synchronized rituals between more than one person. While they have allowed their fellow brethren to survive, they are not universally liked due to their extreme emphasis on martial prowess and inherently violent nature; some even find their use of war spirits anathema to their work and chase them out if they become too rowdy.
* '''Solitaires''': The Outcasts. Because of the way Dreamspeaker magic works, it's entirely possible to receive no cultural or formal training in the Tradition in order to Awaken. When that happens, it usually produces a Solitaire. Solitaires are already loners or extremist spiritualists by nature and shy away from even rural society whenever they get the chance, to the point that many of them take up the call of the wild and adopt animals as their new "tribe", as it were. While their magic is generally quite slow, it's usually extremely powerful and most other Dreamspeakers respect them for their results, if not their outlook.
* '''Spirit Smiths''': The makers and builders. Spirit Smiths come from an ancient cultural understanding that the ability to make something beautiful or useful out of hard rock and metal from the earth is a kind of magic unto itself, and the Spirit Smiths have spent the ages perfecting these secret arts from special spirits that can react to their rituals and create some really good stuff. Probably the smallest of all factions within the Dreamspeakers, as they now only number around 200, though they're very well organized.

Given that the Dreamspeakers Tradition represents for the most part a cross-cultural syncretic blend of various beliefs and cosmologies, it should go without saying that there are isolationist hardliners who choose to go off and form their own Crafts, often with only about ten people. Still, since they aren't the end-all-be-all of shamanism, they tend to mostly attract the more open minded pragmatic types. Notably absent for the most part are the spirit-focused practices of Voodoo and Santeria, practitioners of which almost always align themselves with the Bata'a craft instead. That said, relations between the two groups are fairly friendly. 

{{WoD-Traditions}}