Table of Contents

The Beast is a primal, animalistic force. While most Kindred will never know their Beasts on a fundamental level, 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.

Feral Whispers 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 Kindred 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, and may convince the animal to follow its commands. No roll is necessary to talk with an animal. However, the vampire must make eye contact to initiate Feral Whispers 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, while insects and other invertebrates tend to be beyond them. 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	5
Other mammals and predatory birds	6
No current eye contact	7
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.

Additionally, the vampire may instead roll Charisma + Animal Ken (difficulty 6) and name an animal to summon. It can be a species (wolves), a specific group (male wolves), or a single, named individual (“the three-legged wolf I spoke to last night”). The number of animals within earshot that respond is determined by the Storyteller.

Due to the nature of the Beast, many vampires see themselves as more closely related to beasts than mankind. For those that focus on developing their connection to animals, this isn’t inherently untrue, as these Kindred are capable of accessing another creature’s senses. The vampire can see what the animal sees, and hear what it hears, making ghouled companions into useful spies. To cast their senses to an animal within her line of sight, the player rolls Perception + Animal Ken (difficulty 6). The number of successes rolled determines the duration of the established bond.

Success	Result
1 success	15 minutes
2 succsses	30 minutes
3 successes	1 hour
4 successes	3 hours
5+ successes	Until sunrise

Until the bond expires, or is willingly ended, the animal can travel as far from the vampire as desired. The vampire has no direct control over their actions, and perceives the world exactly as the animal does; sensory disciplines such as Auspex do not apply, although certain creatures may have bonuses to different senses at Storyteller discretion.

While their senses are with the animal, their body remains awake, but is left with a limited sensory awareness of what is happening around them. All Perception difficulties to notice what is taking place in their immediate vicinity are increased by three, though physical injury will immediately sever their connection with the animal.

As Animalism uses the Beast to communicate with animals, this extension of Animalism allows the Beast to express influence over another vampire’s Beast, or a mortal’s very will to fight, alongside those of lesser creatures.

Song of Serenity washes away all strong emotions, turning a victim apathetic and listless.

Roll Manipulation + Intimidation if asserting dominance through fear, or Manipulation + Empathy to soothe 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 rolls 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.

Animals are likewise cowed into submission similarly to mortals, but are also made more tractable to the vampire’s commands. Other Animalism powers have their difficulty reduced by two.

Not all Kindred run with coteries, and those with such an expert understanding of lesser creatures almost have no need. The vampire has such an intimate understanding of their Beast that they’re able to stoke a similar preternatural fervor in a large group of creatures. Imitating the effect vitae has on ghouls, animals and mortals alike are given some of the Curse’s blessings at the cost of its animalistic perils. Bonding creatures to the vampire’s pack is an extended action, requiring the player to roll Charisma + Animal Ken (difficulty 7 for animals, 8 for mortals, -1 if they’re already the vampire’s ghoul) once per scene. The number of successes required is equal to an animal’s Willpower, or twice a mortal’s Intelligence rating.

Once successfully bonded, the animal regards the vampire with deference, recognizing the vampire as their master (or, in the case of wild creatures, the alpha of its pack). All Animal Ken rolls targeting the creature are reduced by two, and rolls to act on issued commands, and with the rest of their pack in tandem, receive additional dice equal to half the vampire’s Generation (rounded up; minimum of one). They always know where the vampire is located, and can find them even when separated by extreme distances.

Mortals under the effects of this bond receive the same benefits, however the Beast is unnatural to them. The difficulties of all Mental rolls increase by one as they struggle with foreign instincts. Should they remain bound for a number of weeks equal to their Humanity rating, their Intelligence rating decreases by one, and will continue to decline at that same rate. If not released in a year after being initially bound, the drop is permanent. Anyone reduced to Intelligence 0 is forever rendered little more than a feral troglodyte.

The Beast stirred in bonded creatures makes them a little harder to contain, putting them at risk of frenzying not unlike their master. When provoked, the vampire is threatened, or witnessing another inciting incident, the animal must roll Willpower (difficulty assigned by the Storyteller, +1 if also ghouled). Humans roll their Self-Control rating instead.

The vampire can establish a pack of creatures equal to their Animalism + Animal Ken rating. Once the bond is established, it will remain until intentionally revoked by the vampire, or the creature is killed. When a bonded creature is slain, the vampire must immediately roll to resist Frenzy (difficulty 7), even if they didn’t witness the event themselves.

With this mastery of Animalism, the vampire’s Beast is forced outward. It seeps out of their pores as vitae, oozes out of their mouth as a dark mist, or otherwise manifests as a physical shape outside of the vampire’s body. However it appears, this tangible presence is feral and ravenous, stopping at nothing to wreak havoc on the world for as long as it's able. The player must spend three points of Blood, and roll Manipulation + Self-Control/Instinct (difficulty 8). The Beast takes three turns to manifest, with each success on the roll reducing it by one turn. Should three or more successes be rolled, the Beast manifests instantaneously. On a failure, the vampire is instead immediately thrown into a frenzy that lasts twice as long, and is twice as difficult to shrug off. Botching this roll is even worse; the Beast warps their own physical form, reducing their Appearance rating to 0, and preventing Willpower from being spent to redirect or prevent their wrath.

Manifested, the Beast possesses Attribute, Ability, relevant Discipline, and Willpower ratings equal to half those of its host body (rounded up); the Beast is a rabid manifestation of the Curse, so it won’t benefit much from Mental and Social Traits, but it could make use of Perception or Wits. Relevant Disciplines are the physical Disciplines (Celerity, Fortitude, Potence), and simple concepts the Beast could make use of, such as the Heightened Senses of Auspex, or the Feral Claws of Protean. Without these Disciplines, it will deal bashing damage unless holding or clinching a target to bite them, which deals aggravated damage like a vampire’s fangs. Mental or mystical Disciplines are particularly out of its reach.

The heart of a vampire’s hunger, the Beast is ravenous. It can consume three points of blood per turn, and will gorge itself on its poor victims. If vitae is required for a Discipline power, it will draw from its own blood pool, but will sap blood points from its host’s blood pool should it be necessary. It is incapable of spending Willpower, and resists powers as if it were a vampire in frenzy.

The Beast will remain manifested until there are no more victims within reach, or the vampire reins it in. Upon rejoining with its host, their blood pools combine; should this put the vampire over their maximum blood pool, the excess is violently secreted, dealing one bashing damage per point in excess. This damage cannot be soaked, but can be healed normally.

On the rare occasion the vampire should lose track of their Beast, they will become increasingly lethargic; immune to frenzy, but unable to spend or regain Willpower until they repossess it. Locating a lost Beast is normally a trivial task if only due to the carnage left in its wake, but it isn’t unheard of for it to find an impromptu host.