ANIMALISM
Contents
Introduction
The Cainite Beast is a primal, animalistic force. While most Cainites will never know their Beasts on a fundamental, such a creature speaks to his own. The vampire with Animalism pushes that to extremes, commanding legions of beasts to do his bidding.
Without the Animal Ken Skill or the Animalism Discipline, animals become uncomfortable in a vampire’s presence. Some attack, some run, some cause commotion. Vampires with Animalism present a dominant air, attracting such creatures and cowing them.
● WHISPERS TO THE WILD
Whispers to the Wild establishes a foundation upon which all other Animalism powers build. The vampire’s Beast reaches out and touches an animal’s mind, facilitating communication between the Cainite and the lesser creature. The vampire speaks or imitates the animal’s native sounds, and the animal understands. The vampire understands ideas the animal expresses. Additionally, the animal may follow the vampire’s wishes, if the vampire makes a compelling command.
System: No roll is necessary to talk with an animal. However, the vampire must make eye contact to initiate Whispers to the Wild. Once she’s established the power, she does not need to maintain eye contact for the current scene.
Commanding an animal requires a Manipulation + Animal Ken roll. The difficulty depends on the creature; more complex creatures, particularly predators, are more prone to the vampire’s whims. Taking the animal’s shape with Protean or Animalism or speaking to the animal using familiar sounds makes such commands easier. Highly dangerous commands are much more difficult. Use the following chart to determine the difficulty.
| Situation | Difficulty |
| Predatory mammal (wolves, cats, bats) | 5 |
| Other mammals and predatory birds (rats, owls) | 6 |
| Other birds and reptiles (doves, snakes) | 7 |
| No current eye contact | +1 |
| Using animal sounds | -1 |
| Currently taking the animal’s shape | -2 |
| Dangerous command | +1 |
| Deadly command | +2 |
While animals may do dangerous or even potentially deadly tasks for the Cainite, they will not commit directly suicidal tasks, nor will they violate their base biological natures. Cowardly animals tasked with guard duty will not engage and combat an invader, for example. They might run to their master and report the threat, however.
Successes determine the animal’s dedication to the cause. A single success will ensure the animal’s compliance for the current scene. Three successes will guarantee a regular task for a week or more. Five successes will command indefinite loyalty.
●●CALL THE WILD
With this power, the Beast instills the vampire’s voice with a deep affinity for a given animal. She howls, shrieks, caws, or otherwise imitates an animal noise. Any animal of the chosen species within earshot are summoned to the vampire, and some will come, depending on the vampire’s raw ability.
Call the Wild only calls animals and makes them favorably disposed to the Cainite who performs it. They will not attack, but will not inherently obey without application of Whispers to the Wild. If the vampire was particularly successful in calling the beasts, Whispers to the Wild may benefit from a decreased difficulty, at Storyteller discretion.
System: Name a type of animal. This can be highly specific or general; the Cainite can call a species, a specific group (male wolves, for example), or a single, named animal (the rat with which I spoke two nights ago). Roll Charisma + Survival (difficulty 6). Consult the chart below for results.
| Successes | Result |
| 1 success | A single animal responds |
| 2 successes | One quarter of the animals respond |
| 3 successes | Half the animals respond |
| 4 successes | Most of the animals respond |
| 5 successes | All of the animals respond |
●●●SONG OF SERENITY
As Animalism uses the Beast to communicate with animals, this extension of Animalism allows the Beast to express influence over another Cainite’s Beast, or a mortal’s very will to fight.
Song of Serenity washes away all strong emotions, turning a victim apathetic and listless.
System: Roll Manipulation + Intimidation if asserting dominance through fear, or Manipulation + Empathy to sooth the victim into complacency. Both rolls are difficulty 7. This is an extended action, requiring successes equal to the victim’s Willpower dots. Failure negates all previously accumulated successes, and the vampire must start from scratch. A botch renders the victim immune to the vampire’s Animalism for the scene.
When a mortal is cowed, he cannot gain or use Willpower. He will not act proactively. He won’t even defend himself, unless his life is clearly threatened. In a life and death situation, he can spend a point of Willpower in order to take actions in self-defense. To recover, the player rolls Willpower (difficulty 6) daily until he’s rolled successes equal to the vampire’s Willpower.
On vampires, the roll to shake the effects occurs every scene. Additionally, effective use of this power allows a frenzying Cainite an additional roll to resist frenzy, identical to their initial resistance roll. Vampires under Song of Serenity cannot be provoked to frenzy.
●●●●SUBSUME THE SPIRIT
By making eye contact, the vampire may force an animal’s higher functions aside and possess the beast. The vampire’s body falls to a motionless state not unlike torpor, while her consciousness becomes one with the animal’s husk.
System: The vampire must make eye contact with the animal. Roll Manipulation + Animal Ken (difficulty 8). The successes allow the vampire access to some of her mental Disciplines in the animal’s form.
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