Beastmen

The Nature of Beastmen

Beastmen are a category of mortals, humans with the characteristics of animals, categorized by many as amongst the weaker forms of Godblooded. Though their animal traits grant them a number of strange powers and vulnerabilities [OOC: making use of the rules for mutations, though the ‘mutations’ of beastmen are neither random nor sourced from the Wyld, instead representing entirely natural features] but they remain humans, having hun and po souls (thus ability to become ghosts), possibility of enlightening essence (like all Godblooded, Beastmen have a natural cap of Essence 3), and are valid targets for Exaltation.

Creating Beastmen

Beastmen are by far the most common form of Godblooded, found in large numbers around the edges of Creation.

This is because, unlike most Godblooded, Beastmen breed true: a beastman which breeds with another beastman of the same type produces a matching beastman child, a beastman breeding with a human will produce a matching beastman child 90% of the time (on a roll of 2 to 10 at conception) unless the human is of higher permanent Essence (in which case the child is human on a roll of 2 to 10 at conception). Amongst beastmen who do not match, breeding produces a child matching the parent with the highest essence. If essence is equal, the beastman child will match the mother 50% of the time (on a roll of 6 to 10 at conception).

Beastmen did not appear completely out of nowhere, however. Like the Half-Castes of the Solar Exalted, they originate when the power of the shard within a Chosen of Luna interferes with the reproductive processes natural to humans.

When conceiving a child, Lunar Exalted have a chance that the child will become a beastman. When conception occurs between a Lunar and a being which is not producing a Godblood or similar special offspring (such as potential Terrestrial Exalts, demonblooded, or Half-Castes), the Lunar rolls a die and adds their permanent Essence (add both partners Essence if two Lunars are mating). On a total of 7+, the child conceived will be a beastman. This is not a voluntary effect, nor will the parents be certain of the child’s status until birth (barring some magical means of scrying the womb). The beastman so created will be appropriate to the Lunar Exalt’s spirit shape/totem animal… in the event of two Lunars mating, the result is unpredictable, and will match the mother 50% of the time (on a roll of 6 to 10 at conception), regardless of comparative Essence rating.

An exception to this process, and thus one of the most reliable ways for a Lunar to create beastmen of varying types, occurs when a Lunar in human form mates with an animal: the resulting offspring are beastmen children matching the animal partner. A Lunar in animal form mating with a human likewise produces beastmen appropriate to the animal shape it has taken. Such conceptions roll as normal to determine if the offspring is a beastman, but if it is not then it simply fails to be conceived at all, the two parents’ incompatible essence failing to be catalyzed by the Lunar shard. While many in Creation (some Lunar Exalts included) find such bestiality horrifying or repugnant, other Lunars argue its efficiency at producing beastmen to fill specific niche roles is undeniable. While a few Silver Pact elders such as Tammuz and Mubeeos Dak argue strength is achieved through social rather than purely physical engineering, the majority of the Pack (Ma-ha Suchi and Rain Deathflyer prominent amongst them) see the beastmen as a key component in creating strong societies within the Thousand Streams River and strong personal armies to defend Creation & their interests.

While not directly represented in these rules, beastmen will lose animal features over generations should they continually breed with humans. This process is highly dependent on the types and qualities of the beastmen involved as well as their human mates, along with environmental factors, and is best left to the Storyteller’s discretion in determining the nature of such ‘humanized’ beastmen. The reverse, breeding with non-humans to increase animal traits, does not occur: beastmen are bestial humans, but humans, no more compatible for mating outside their species than any other human.

The Role of Beastmen

Beastmen are found across Creation, serving in a number of roles and affiliations.

Bred since the First Age, and able to perpetuate themselves, they exist as remnant kingdoms in the former domains held by Stewards under the Solar Deliberative, as minorities in urban areas dominated by humans, in savage tribes eking out existence on Creation’s rim (or even as warlords ruling human tribes, where their animal talents allow them to dominate competing chieftains). Lunars form them to give themselves powerful troops for their military campaigns, or specialized talents to bolster societies they are tending. Gods of the Bureau of Nature are often enamoured with beastmen as they can be at once an animal within their purview and a human with soul capable of offering prayer: some Lunars provision beastmen to their divine allies in exchange for assistance and alliance. Lunars also find reason besides practical advantage to form beastmen, for a Lunar Exalt is at once of Creation and outside of it, at once human and beast, and a beastmen tied to their totem is a being who, unlike the hosts of humanity and beast, may truly feel like family.

Views on Beastmen

Beastmen are viewed differently across Creation. To many tribes and nations of the Threshold, they represent a more potent and terrifying foe than the already-ferocious marauders which assault their walls, but to others they stand as powerful warriors who can serve as mercenary shock troops or rise to tribal leadership.

In areas under the influence of the Realm and the Immaculate Order, or touched by other hatreds, beastmen are unwelcome and often slain on sight: the Immaculate Faith holds beastmen to be tainted monsters, created by the vile Lunar Anathema in sordid rituals or consumed by the warping energies of the Wyld… in either case, their very existence is an affront to the Perfected Hierarchy. The Blessed Isle is unwelcoming, as is Linowa. On the floating slopes of Mount Metagapala, beastmen are enslaved in vengeance for ancient abuses. Given the terror felt by many at the huge beastmen armies known to roam the far East and Southeast, many states there have traditions such as drowning beastmen caught in their territories using a mixture of narcotic herbs and mud, or even pouring molten lead over them, in belief that this will stop their souls from reporting back to their demonic masters.

In cosmopolitan Nexus, however, beastmen can walk the streets to barely raise an eyebrow. In Halta they are citizens, accorded a form of religious respect as beings touched somehow by the divine, and in the Shandir Woods they form a ruling priesthood for the Raptor God Yesryk.

In some areas, such as the Dwelling of Serpents who Walk like Men, generations of interbreeding with humans have seen beastmen slowly return towards human form, and these find more general acceptance in Immaculate-dominated areas than those displaying horns, snout, or tail.