More Homebrew: Advanced Kinship for Changelings

[HelmsDerp]

Arcane said something in another thread about expanded kinship mechanics that struck a chord with me. Beasts have a number of options for growing closer to whatever splats they choose to associate with, kinship merits, kinship nightmares, passing resemblance. On the flip side other splats can benefit from Family Ties and Mother’s Kiss but there are no options to represent becoming more Beast-like.
This is a merit for Changelings with Family Ties to a Beast, meant to represent a deepening interest in their overlapping connection to dreams and narratives with metaphysical weight.
Kin to Nightmares 1-5
Prerequisites: Occult 2, Family Ties with a Beast
1: Changelings beginning to explore the darker reaches beyond the Dreaming Roads gain an Occult specialty in the Primordial Dream.
2: Continuing exposure to the strange magic of Beasts grants the Changeling an intuitive understanding of how to work with, and against, them, granting a +1 on all teamwork, contested, or resisted rolls involving a Beast.
3: Extended experience in the Primordial Dream allows the Changeling to understand the similarities and differences with human dreams well enough to attempt dreamweaving within Chambers, albeit with difficulty. Unclaimed Chambers impose a -4 on dreamweaving rolls, and attempting to alter the Lair of an unwilling Beast is nearly impossible, suffering a penalty equal to the Horror’s Resistance.
4: At this level of connection the Changeling learns to protect themself from the hazards of the Primordial Dream. They may spend a point of glamour to ignore a minor Lair trait for a scene, or a point of glamour and a point of willpower to ignore a major one.
5: At the highest level of understanding the Changeling learns to seize the threads of narrative the way Heroes do, and may apply Anathema to Beasts, subject to all the normal restrictions.

[Primordial newcomer]

Almost all of these are detrimental to the Beast, why would they want Kinship in the first place with them? And I think it's way too extreme to allow them Anathema. That's uniquely Heroes in my opinion

[HelmsDerp]

Bear in mind that a Beast can only have one Anathema at a time and that once placed it can only be removed by the Beast. The most ironclad defense against a Hero placing Anathema is ironically to already have one. Helping someone else acquire that kind of power is an act of tremendous vulnerability and requires commensurate trust, but it also gives the Beast a measure of control in what weakness they have and how it's protected.

Similarly, a Changeling who can dreamweave in the Primordial Dream, even poorly, is a Changeling that can screw with your Lair, true. They're also someone who can bolster your defenses.

This is very intentionally a take on kinship that emphasizes that getting close to people means opening up enough to let them see what most effectively hurts you, and trusting them to help instead. It deliberately mirrors how Kinship Nightmares are frequently specifically aimed at hurting the splat they were learned from.

[Primordial newcomer]

Bear in mind that a Beast can only have one Anathema at a time and that once placed it can only be removed by the Beast. The most ironclad defense against a Hero placing Anathema is ironically to already have one. Helping someone else acquire that kind of power is an act of tremendous vulnerability and requires commensurate trust, but it also gives the Beast a measure of control in what weakness they have and how it's protected.

Similarly, a Changeling who can dreamweave in the Primordial Dream, even poorly, is a Changeling that can screw with your Lair, true. They're also someone who can bolster your defenses.

This is very intentionally a take on kinship that emphasizes that getting close to people means opening up enough to let them see what most effectively hurts you, and trusting them to help instead. It deliberately mirrors how Kinship Nightmares are frequently specifically aimed at hurting the splat they were learned from.

While I'm admittedly still against the Anathema since I think it should be Heroes only (and because a Hero should be able to even more easily use it against you, since he never had to put himself at risk to actually inflict it) I can see your reasoning.

Overall, I think my main issue is it leans too much to just being harmful to the Beast. I feel like it's just not balanced enough. But again, you do make a fine point. It should also present intimacy not only in care, but in vulnerability.