Animalism

Animalism
Clans	Ahchinkxat, Akunanse, Annunaku, Cipactli, Gangrel, Gangrel Antitribu, Guruhi, Iltani, Karai Pyhare, Kinyonyi, Naglopers, Nosferatu, Nosferatu Antitribu, Ravnos, Ravnos Antitribu, Tzimisce
Bloodlines	Ahirmanes, Anda, Bekaak, Bohagande, Caitiff, Coyotes, Cuetlachtli, Dracul, Gorgons, Kolduns, Lhiannan, Mariners, Noiades, Nomads, Panders, Phuri Dae, Taifa, Zoidones
Sects	Anarchs, Ashirra, Camarilla, Cradle of Civilization, Drowned Legacies, Independents, Jati, Laibon, Quiet Nations, Sabbat, Shining Kingdoms, Teteoh
Rituals	None
Combination Disciplines	Animalism Combination Disciplines
Rarity	Common

Animalism gives Kindred power over the animal kingdom, allowing them to control, understand, and manipulate animals. Vampires who use it are often seen as feral, unsettling, and foreign to the more civilized sensibilities of the rest of the supernatural world, especially since this discipline allows them to avoid more human servants such as ghouls and spend more of their time communing with creatures instead.

Animalism can not only allow vampires to interact with animals but also with the Beast that every vampire struggles to control. This skill is very useful but can often earn Animalism users dislike from other vampires, who don't particularly like being reminded that, deep down, they have more than a little in common with a simple wolf or bat.

Basic Powers

Bound Famulus

You permanently bind an animal to yourself, creating a psychic bond that links you together; in addition to the creature becoming comfortable with and attached to you, treating you like another beloved member of its species, you may also use any Animalism powers you wish on it without spending additional blood to do so. The animal must be living and you must turn it into and maintain it as a ghoul; if at any point it reverts to being a normal animal again, this power's effects end. You can only have one famulus at a time - trying to make a second one automatically releases the first.

Child of the Night

You have an innate sense of animals in the area. You may become aware of any mortal animals (including ghouls, but not innately supernatural animals such as chimerae or shapeshifters) within a mile of you, from tiny insects to huge zoo animals. You do not know anything in particular about them, just that they are alive and approximately where they are in relation to you.

Feral Whispers

You may speak to a single animal that you make eye contact with or touch, and both you and it understand one another for the remainder of the scene. This speech is largely telepathic so it can carry complex ideas and concepts, although you do make noises or movements consistent with communicating with the animal you are speaking to. Other animals cannot understand you, even if they are of the same species.

Sense the Beast

You can sense the Beast inside of other creatures that have one, including mortals, ghouls, shapeshifters, and other vampires. You can tell when a person does or does not have a Beast, allowing you to separate out some creatures from others, and you instinctively sense the Beast's mood when relevant, able to tell when it may be agitated or upset no matter what the person's outward mood appears to be.

Because you can sense the Beast's mood and how close to the surface it may be, you also know a moment in advance when someone is about to enter Frenzy, allowing you to try to either calm a situation down or intentionally escalate it.

Beckoning

You may choose a single type of animals - say, cats, or dogs, or monkeys - and summon all examples of that creature that are present in the nearby area, causing them to come to your location as quickly as possible. Animals will not risk certain death or injury in order to come to you, and you must be specific about the type of animal you choose; for example, calling all cats in the area will cause only housecats to arrive, not big cats such as lions or leopards. Animals that are summoned this way are under no obligation to remain in the area once they reach you, nor are they automatically friendly.

Discerning Palate

You can draw information from the flesh of others, devouring knowledge along with food. You may learn the basic powers and history of any creature whose flesh you eat. You must actually swallow and digest meat from a creature in order for this power to work, so while it isn't impossible for vampires to use, it is often difficult to do so without becoming violently ill soon afterward. The creature you consume flesh from can be alive or dead, but one is understandably more common.

Obedience

You may give an animal a single simple command that it is obliged to obey. This must be something that the animal can understand how to do, and that it is capable of at least attempting (for example, you can't command a dog to fly, but you can command it to attempt to steal someone's keys). It also cannot be anything that would obviously kill or seriously injure the animal, which will balk if asked to do so.

Animals thus commanded do not necessarily do anything else you want them to do without further instructions, and they are under no obligation to follow the spirit of your command instead of the letter. Animals aren't guaranteed to even understand what you want if you aren't clear about it, and even if they do, they may not have any reason to do what you want if they are not forced to.

Intermediate Powers

Quell the Beast

You may cow a mortal person or animal into a state of meek acceptance through either fear of your own Beast or soothing comfort to theirs. They become timid and likely to obey instructions for the rest of the scene, although they will not passively allow themselves to be seriously hurt or killed, and they retain their normal thoughts and personality.

Since some powers require others to be able to bring the force of their personality to bear, this power prevents them from doing so. This can be helpful when it allows you to stop an enemy from using certain powers, but can be dangerous when used on an ally who is now more vulnerable than usual.

Song of Serenity

You may soothe a vampire out of Frenzy, causing them to immediately return to their normal consciousness. This may help a vampires to calm down and avoid hurting themself or others, but it does not mitigate any other factors caused by the Frenzy (for example, animal features gained by the Gangrel when they Frenzy).

If this power is used before someone is about to enter the Frenzy, it prevents them from doing so for the remainder of the scene. If they try to enter a Frenzy, either through the use of powers or intentional antagonism, they are unable to do so.

Unliving Hive

You make yourself a natural home for colonies of tiny animals, such as insects, worms, or microbats. A swarm roosts permanently in your undead flesh, using you as a home base for their normal activities and becoming attached to you as if one composite ghoul. If the swarm is destroyed or lost, you can use this power to invite another. While this power allows you to have an easy built-in group of creatures to use other powers on, it is also understandably extremely unsettling to others, who may notice creatures crawling in and out of your body or clothes.

Subsume the Spirit

You may possess the body of an animal that you make eye contact with, controlling its movements and perceiving through its senses for the rest of the scene (or until you choose to release the link). The animal is vaguely aware of what you are doing with its body, although it likely doesn't understand it and will remember the incident as an odd dream. You can't do anything the animal wasn't already capable of and cannot use physical disciplines (such as Celerity, Fortitude, Potence, Protean, or other things that affect your physical form), and you can't spend blood to heal the animal, which doesn't have the same supernatural body that you do, but you can use mental disciplines and skills like Auspex that only require your sensations to work.

While you possess the animal, your own body is left as if unconscious and unrousable; you are unaware of its surroundings and what is happening there. If your body is killed, your mind may remain within the animal you have possessed indefinitely, but most Kindred that this happens to slowly lose their original personalities over time and become one with their animal host, eventually losing their former selves.

Advanced Powers

Dominion

You are capable of controlling flocks, swarms, schools, and other large groups of animals that are individually small. This means you can direct swarms of insects to sting your enemies or schools of fish to swim into nets, as well as convincing flocks of small birds or bats to do your bidding or spy for you. You can interact with the animals the way you would if you were using Obedience on a single larger creature.

Drawing Out the Beast

If you are about to Frenzy, you may choose to rip your own Beast out of your chest and hurl it into another nearby living creature, causing it to Frenzy in your place. You may only do this exactly when you would otherwise Frenzy, and only if there is a suitable mortal, animal, shapeshifter, or vampire nearby.

You must be present when the being in question stops Frenzying in order to take your Beast back; if you are not, it remains with them, making them much more prone to Frenzy, and you are unable to use any Advanced or higher powers due to being drained of your inner drive. You must find the person with your Beast and make physical contact in order to retrieve it if this happens.

Elder Powers

Animal Succulence

You may gain enough sustenance from feeding on animals to remain healthy and powerful, making it completely unnecessary to drink human blood. The animal must be large enough to contribute a significant amount of blood, and of course animals may be even more difficult to feed from than humans due to their instinctive hatred of the undead

Beast Walk

Once you have used Subsume the Spirit, you may transfer your spirit from animal to animal, hopping to a new body as long as you can perceive another living animal nearby. The animal must be large enough to have a reasonable ability to think like a vampire, ruling out most insects and many tiny sea creatures. Once you leave one animal for another, the first animal is completely free of your influence unless you return to it.

Deep Song

You may affect the instinctive inner beasts of those who listen to you, influencing their emotions and comfort level with a song, growl, or other appropriate noise. Much as ancient people used music to soothe angry and savage creatures, so you can tap into the same subconscious communication. This power cannot truly end a Frenzy, but may make it less severe by distracting or confusing the rampaging vampire into being less violent. Likewise, it cannot fully prevent or redirect a strong emotion from a listener, but it will influence how they perceive and react to that emotion.

Eye of the Szlachta

Although the Dominate Discipline is required to possess most mortals, you can possess ghouls with your Subsume the Spirit power, reaching into them not through their conscious minds but through the nascent Beast that their position as servants to the undead instills in them. Just as in other powers that allow you to leave your body, it will remain inert and helpless until you return to it, and remaining within the ghoul's psyche too long runs the risk of beginning to be overwhelmed by their personality.

Gap of Ages

Your power over beasts extends through them and into their lineages; you can give commands, the same as in Obedience, that affect not only the animal in front of you but all of its descendents, allowing you to command entire broods of creatures with a single look or touch. If a creature's descendents crossbreed with another animal (for example, a dog who has puppies with a coyote), you can still command the hybrids as well as long as they have a majority of blood from the original animal.

Pact with Animals

When you drink the blood of an animal, you may gain some of its most powerful qualities, becoming more animalistic but also increasing your strengths and senses. These additional powers remain for the rest of the night, vanishing once the sun rises. What powers you gain depend upon the animal you drink from; for example, drinking the blood of a bear might give you great strength and endurance, while drinking the blood of a peacock might give you a flamboyant social flair.

Quell the Herd

You may calm entire groups of people, ending frenzies and quieting tempers across everyone who is in the same scene with you. Just as in Quell the Beast, this prevents those affected from being able to spend Willpower and makes them highly submissive, which may in turn make them less able to use their powers or defend themselves.

Shared Soul

By touching or perceiving a nearby animal, you can join your mind to its; you temporarily meld together into a gestalt, sharing the creature's thoughts and emotions. You are able to reach back into the animal's memories to discover what has happend to it recently, as well as reading any particularly powerful or important memories it may have. Of course, animals often forget details or notice different things than human beings do, and this power can only give you access to what a creature remembers, not a flawless account of events surrounding them.

Shepherd's Innocence

You can become innately attractive and beloved by animals in the scene with you, regardless of their size, species, or mood; not only do they want to come close and interact with you, treating you like a cherished packmate, cub, or other appropriate relation to them, but they are less likely to be violent or upset, finding your presence soothing for the rest of the scene. Most animals will not fight or prey on one another around you while this power is active, although occasional very strong instincts may overwhelm them.

Song in the Dark

You may call to the great creatures of the deep earth, summoning them up to burst out of the ground itself. These might take the form of massive worms, insects, or even more exotic creatures that do not exist on the surface world; whatever they are, they are large enough to easily kill human beings and their movements cause earthquakes and foundational damage to whatever area they arise in. The creatures can be directed to do simple large-scale projects, such as hollowing out caverns or tunnels, but generally cannot do anything else (besides causing large-scale damage and terrorizing mortals).

Species Speech

Instead of speaking only to a single animal at a time with Feral Whispers, you can now speak to all members of that animal's species without needing to use any powers a second time.

Tainted Oasis

You may impregnate the ground in an area with your own blood, bleeding significantly into the earth, which absorbs it and redistributes it into the local plant life. Animals that feed on those plants - or on animals who have fed on those plants - become physically hardier and stronger as well as gaining a personal attachment and loyalty to you. These animals are not truly ghouled and continue to age and behave as normal, but they lose any fear or dislike of you (although not of other vampires).

Tier of Souls

When you drink blood, you may absorb some of the memories and skills of the creature your drink from, whether animal, mortal, or supernatural, or undead. This might give you the ability to access heightened animal senses, learn what has happened to a human being in the recent past, or even duplicate basic-level Disciplines that a vampire or ghoul possesses. These additional benefits last only for the rest of the night before disappearing.

Beast Shard

You can distill a bit of your Beast into a spiritual shard, which you can embed into others. Anyone who carries a piece of your Beast becomes more likely to Frenzy, and they also become more vulnerable than usual to your Disciplines while they carry it, making it very difficult to resist you. You can only have a small number of people carry your shards at the same time, and you can never give away all of your Beast this way.

Conquer the Beast

You have become in control of your very Beast. You may Frenzy at will - and also stop Frenzying at will, entering violent rages when it suits you only to be able to return to your normal conscious mind when you need to.

Master's Voice

You may speak to any and all animals, regardless of species, for the rest of the scene; as long as they have some way of communicating, you can perform it instinctively.

Send the Eighth Plague

You may summon large swarms of destructive vermin - locusts, flies, rats, and so on - and direct them to destroy an area, eating crops or destroying structures. Termites can take down buildings, locusts eat entire fields of grain, or rats destroy all other smaller creatures nearby. The swarm remains until it finishes doing what you directed it to, or until some larger force like a storm or a pesticide spray stops them.

Stampede

Although mortals do not have a Beast of their own, you can force them to behave as if they do, spraking an animalistic panic in a large group so that they riot and stampede. Once you've used this power, the mortals affected must recover from their panic on their own - often only after extensive violence or the intervention of professionals.

Twist the Feral Will

By touching an animal, you can bend it to your will even without giving it noticeable commands; it telepathically responds to whatever you ask it to do without the need for further interaction, and furthermore it continues to obey your thoughts even when you leave the area.

Crimson Fury

If you allow someone to drink your blood, you can cause them to Frenzy with a look or touch at any time as long as it remains in their system; if they are a being that usually doesn't Frenzy, such as a normal human being or Changeling, they Frenzy as if they had a Beast of their own, drawing from yours. As a side effect of this power, anyone who attempts to diablerize will find their Beast suddenly attacked by yours; if your Beast is victorious over theirs, they are unable to diablerize you and must flee the area.

Mass Summons

You may summon all animals, regardless of species or health, within miles of your current location. The animals come directly to you as long as they can do so without risking severe injury or death, even if you move before they arrive, but this power does not force them to get along or to do anything else without using other Animalism powers.

Taunt the Caged Beast

You may cause a ghoul or vampire to enter a rage Frenzy immediately by touching or perceiving them. The Frenzy proceeds as normal after that, and unobservant witnesses may not even be able to tell that you were involved at all.

Twin Spirits

You may possess the body of an animal, using all its skills and senses, while remaining active in your own body at the same time. You experience the senses of both bodies simultaneously and can act separately in each body, although doing so may be disorienting. The possession ends at the end of the night, when your body becomes inert for the day, releasing the animal from your control.

Unchain the Beast

You may release the Beast within a ghoul or vampire with a look or touch, letting it rampage through them. The Beast is able to literally attack that person from within, causing significant damage for as long as it remains active; it can only be stopped by supernatural powers or when the affected person is knocked unconscious or dies.

Eyes of the Forest

You may sink into the earth, extending your senses into any creatures that live on it instead. You perceive through the senses of all living animals in the area simultaneously, even senses you do not normally possess yourself, and can remain doing so for the rest of the night. Although your body is not vulnerable during this time, severe shock on the part of the animals you inhabit (for example, a forest fire that kills or injuries large numbers of them) may force you back out of their perceptions and back to your usual self.

Flesh Bond

By touching a living animal, you may meld your flesh with it, creating an amalgam creature with physical characteristics of both of you. Your minds are also merged, giving you access to the animal's senses (and it access to your thoughts). You can remain melded for as long as you wish, but the longer you do, the harder it becomes to eventually separate yourself from the animal again later. While ghouled animals are hardy enough to survive this process unscathed, it causes significant trauma and distress to regular mortal animals, which may die when separated from.

Free the Beast Within

You may Frenzy on command, and furthermore, your Frenzy is controlled and conscious - while you gain the enhanced strength and violent rage of the Frenzy, you are still able to direct your actions and remember them later. While in this voluntary Frenzy, you become physically stronger, faster, and more resistant to pain, as well as gaining the ability to cow ghouls into submission or fleeing with a look.

Army of Beasts

All creatures within a mile radius hear your call and obey your power; you are able to control them centrally, directing what they do and where they go, even if they are far away from you. You have absolute power over them and can push them to do things contrary to their natures or even to harm or kill themselves, as well as performing any errands they are physically capable of and fighting on your behalf. If you send the animals out of the area, they are freed from your control, but any new ones entering automatically fall under your sway.

Important Things to Keep in Mind

Animalism allows Kindred to interact with animals, but it does not necessarily make animals like Kindred (who usually make animals uncomfortable) or incline them to want to obey orders unless a power explicitly says so. It goes without saying that while Animalism can affect the Beasts of Kindred and even creatures like shapeshifters, it is not a good idea to use it on them injudiciously, and anyone who notices you doing so is likely to be hostile as a result.