Animalism

Animalism expresses the vampire’s kinship with the Beast — not the spiritual predator within, but the animal world without. Vampires with Animalism can communicate with, command, and eventually possess animals. At high levels, they can manipulate the Beast itself.

Animal hostility: Vampires without Animalism or the Animal Ken Skill cause animals to become agitated in their presence. Animals sense the predator within.

Maneuver requirement: Most Animalism powers require sustained eye contact with the animal or target (where noted). Loss of eye contact breaks the connection.

Powers

● Feral Whispers

Cost: None | Pool: Manipulation + Animal Ken, difficulty varies by species | Duration: Sustained (requires eye contact)

Communicate with and command animals. The vampire can speak to animals — not in words, but in a primitive language of intent and sensation that all creatures understand.

Difficulty by species:

• Predators (wolves, cats, birds of prey): difficulty 6
• Other mammals (dogs, horses, deer): difficulty 7
• Birds, reptiles, fish: difficulty 8

More successes produce clearer communication, more precise compliance, and better command of uncooperative animals. The animal cannot be compelled to do anything suicidal or fundamentally unnatural to its species.

●● Beckoning

Cost: None | Pool: Charisma + Survival, difficulty 6 | Duration: Until dismissed

Emit a call that draws one species of animal from the surrounding area toward the vampire. The summoned animals arrive favorably disposed and willing to cooperate.

Successes determine what fraction of animals in earshot respond: 1 = one animal, 2 = a quarter, 3 = half, 4 = most, 5 = all available animals of that species within range.

●●● Quell the Beast

Cost: None | Pool: Manipulation + Intimidation (coercive) or Manipulation + Empathy (soothing), difficulty 7 | Duration: Special

Suppress the emotional drive in a mortal — their passions, their will, their Beast. This extended action requires accumulated successes equal to the target’s Willpower.

On a mortal: they become calm to the point of near-catatonia — unable to use or recover Willpower. They recover via daily Willpower rolls (difficulty 6). This does not affect vampires in the same way.

Alternative use (soothing): Focused on a frenzying vampire, 3+ successes can help end or reduce the Frenzy — the vampire feels their own Beast acknowledged and settled by a master of animal instinct.

●●●● Subsume the Spirit

Cost: None | Pool: Manipulation + Animal Ken, difficulty 8 | Duration: Until the vampire chooses to return or is expelled

Possess an animal completely. The vampire’s body enters a torpor-like state; consciousness transfers to the animal host.

Discipline access follows the success ladder (same structure as Dominate’s Possession). Each success beyond 1 unlocks further Discipline access within the animal’s body.

Events exciting enough to overwhelm the animal’s instincts may forcibly eject the vampire’s consciousness. Damage to the animal body affects the vampire’s physical body equally. If the animal body dies, the vampire falls into immediate torpor.

●●●●● Drawing Out the Beast

Cost: None | Pool: Manipulation + Self-Control/Instinct, difficulty 8 | Duration: Until the transferred Frenzy ends

Transfer your own Frenzy into another visible target. The target receives the Frenzy (and the vampire exits Frenzy or avoids it entirely).

Successes determine cleanness of transfer: 1 = random target, 2 = target must spend WP or take 1 Lethal damage to refuse, 3+ = clean transfer to intended target.

Failure: the vampire enters a doubled Frenzy (worse than normal).

Warning: If the vampire leaves the target’s presence before the transferred Frenzy ends, the vampire permanently loses their Beast. Without the Beast: cannot spend Willpower, cannot recover Willpower, grows lethargic and passive over time, slowly withering. Recovery requires finding someone to give the Beast back to — a rare, dangerous ritual.

Elder Powers

Eye of the Szlachta (●●●●● ●)

Cost: None | Pool: Use Subsume the Spirit system (V20 pp. 131–132)

Tzimisce elder power.

Many vampires can possess wild animals, but some Fiends can ride any ghoul that shares their blood. By locking eyes with her ghoul, the Fiend transfers her soul directly into the creature. Primarily used to calm a rampaging vozhd in a disposable vessel, or to fake death in a cleverly fleshcrafted ghoul.

The mechanics of this power use the Subsume the Spirit system (V20 pp. 131–132) exactly, but the power only works on ghouls who carry the vampire’s blood.

Flesh Bond (●●●●● ●●●●)

Cost: 1 Blood Point per absorbed animal (smaller animals) | Pool: Stamina + Animal Ken, difficulty 7 | Duration: Sustained

Tzimisce elder power.

The vampire can physically merge her body with animals, becoming one flesh.

Smaller animals: The vampire can absorb multiple small creatures into her body. Each absorbed creature costs 1 blood point per 5 points in the animal’s blood pool (e.g., 20 rats at 1/4 blood pool each costs 1 blood point total). The vampire cannot feed to recover the spent blood until she releases the animals. At any time, she can ingest the absorbed creatures, acquiring their collective blood pool; the exsanguinated corpses are expelled from her body.

Larger animals: The vampire cannot fully absorb large creatures but can physically merge her body into one with a successful Stamina + Animal Ken roll (difficulty 7) and 1 blood point. She can move with the animal (e.g., travel inside a bear during the day) but has no control over it unless Subsume the Spirit is also used. Auspex readers examining a merged character notice an unusual tinge in the aura.