A French word, akin to mestizo in Spanish. It originally denoted "half breeds" - Québecois offspring of French and Native parents in Canada's pre-Confederation era, but has come to denote Canadians of mixed Indian and non-Indian ancestry; the term is usually used if one parent is Native, but is also used if one parent is Métis. It all depends on who you ask, I suppose.

A subset of non-status Indians, and generally less politically organized (and much harder to count) than the First Nations communities.

One of the Titans.

Presided over all wisdom and knowledge in the world. Was seduced by Zeus and became pregnant with Athena.

Eaten by Zeus to prevent a prophecy from becoming true. It is said that Zeus gained his wisdom when he ate her.

Also a word in the Ancient Greek of Homer.
The working and the work of transformative, shape-shifting intelligence, the ability to imitate the enemy and beat him at his own game. Also, the circular reciprocity of what is binding and what is bound.

In the Odyssey, both Odysseus and Penelope exhibit metis. Odysseus saves himself in the Polyphemus episode (Book IX) with a perversion of xenia parallel to that of Polyphemus (since the cyclops eats his guests instead of being a proper host). Odysseus identifies himself as "Nobody," so that when the other cyclopes ask Polyphemus what is wrong, Polyphemus replies "Nobody is hurting me!"

Penelope's metis of the (re)marriage bed is manifested in Book XXIII, lines 1-230. This is the heroine's metis of recognition of true identity. She resolves ambiguity through "secret signs" known only by Penelope and Odysseus (l.107-110). She pretends that she has moved the immovable marriage bed, the bed known only to Odysseus who build it around a living olive tree, a secret guarded by Penelope so that no other man has seen it (l.225-230).

Metis, named after the aformentioned Titan mate of Zeus, is the innermost known moon of the planet Jupiter. It was discovered in 1979 by Stephen Synnott. Along with Adrastea, it lies in Jupiter's main ring and is the likely source of that ring's material. Most of the little information known about Metis was taken from the Voyager space probe.

Data:
Mass: 9.56*10^6 kg
Equatorial radius: 20 km
Orbital period: 0.294779 days
Rotational period: unknown
Mean distance from planet: 128,000 km
Mean density: 2.8 g/cm3
Mean orbital velocity: 31.57 km/s
Escape velocity: 0.0253 km/s

In the Werewolf: The Apocalypse roleplaying game (published by White Wolf Game Studios), metis is the term for the result of a union between two shifters of the same breed (two Garou, two Bastet, two Ananasi, et cetera).

Metis Biology

The product of such a union, at least in the case of the Garou1 is always another werewolf, rather than the usual one-in-ten probability that the child will exhibit the recessive lycanthropic trait2. Compare homid- and lupus-born Garou.

Metis are always born in Crinos form, just as homid Garou are always born in homid form and lupus Garou are always born in, well, lupus. They always carry at least one physical deformity of some kind, such as hairlessness, missing or deformed limbs, or damaged hearing. Metis are sterile; however, they are capable of the physical act of mating.

Metis Garou and Garou Social Structure

The easy source of new Garou cubs provided by the mechanism that produces metis would be a godsend for the Garou, whose numbers have been shrinking with every generation as Gaia decays more and more under the corrupting influence of the Wyrm. Unfortunately, through an unfortunate accident of culture combined with the Garou's overweening traditionalism and pride, metis are viewed as the very lowest of the low; they are the Unwashed, the Corrupted, the Outcast.

The reason for this is because of the congenital deformities of metis Garou. This has caused the Garou to believe that metis carry the mark of the Wyrm, and must be corrupt; some believe that they are spies planted by the Wyrm amongst Gaia's warriors; others simply believe that they are inferior.

For this reason, the Garou Litany forbids Garou to mate with Garou. Some of the other shifters have injunctions about mating, but by no means all. Even some Garou tribes adhere less stringently to this tenet of the Litany than others -- the Children of Gaia, Glasswalkers and Bone Gnawers are noted for ignoring this tenet, and are far more likely to be accepting of and friendly to any metis Garou that they may meet than members of the other tribes.

At the other extreme, metis Garou are killed at birth by some of the more hard-line Garou tribes (particularly the Shadow Lords, Silverfangs and Get of Fenris). This practice is falling out of vogue, however, as the Garou get rarer, and have begun to need every warrior for Gaia they can get their paws on.

...And some of the more liberal (and mystical) Theurges of the Garou Nation whisper that the metis may be Gaia's salvation...

Footnotes

1This writeup will deal with Metis from the Garou perspective, since the Garou are the most common shapeshifters in the World of Darkness and, well, the game is called Werewolf: The Apocalypse, not Bastet: The Spying or Nuwisha: The Tricking... and DEFINITELY not Corvax: The Shiny Thing...

2This is how a Progenitor or an unEnlightened scientist would view the Garou "gene". The Garou view of the (in)frequency of shifter births is rather more vague; the Garou don't really bother to try and explain it. One must remember that Garou are not entirely material creatures -- part of their being is literally spirit matter...

Mé`tis" (?), n. m. Mé`tisse" (?), n. f.[F.; akin to Sp. mestizo. See Mestizo.]

1.

The offspring of a white person and an American Indian.

2.

The offspring of a white person and a quadroon; an octoroon.

[Local, U. S.]

Bartlett.

 

© Webster 1913.

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