The Power of Man's Red Flower-Idle Thoughts on Possible Beast Crafting

[ArcaneArts]

So every once in a while, we'll get a thread about Beast crafting, and the usual citation is of the various Giant's being crafters of things, like the cyclops forging Zeus's lightning bolts, and there's the usual underlying vibe of "Well, everyone else has some kind of special magic item thing, why not Beasts" and if my tone is not an indicator, I usually dismiss these threads readily-not becaus I expect them to be bad, but it answers a question I don't think the game asked.. Nevertheless, I have idly swirled the idea around in my head on occasion, partially because some ideas never come up and I think they should, partially because I once asked "So if we did something like the Clan Books Sam's team does for Requiem, what would be the special subsystems of each Family?" and I made the same connection everyone did with Giants but went a different way in my thoughts.

So, I don't have, like, an actual recommendation on how to do Beast Crafting? I honestly wouldn't try, and I'll address that, but in the interest of at least hopefully directing people to more pleasing attempts for me, I'm gonna point at some of the tenets I think would be the most useful for trying to make it happen, useful precedents for the doing.

1) Horror Mask
Yeah, I'm kind surprised the one instance we have of crafting isn't raised up more and considered for these sort of projects. A few things to take note of is that crafting is probably part of the Obcasus Rites in general, there's a predilection to improve what's already there than providing something new, and there's a predilection of the self as expressed through the item. "The gun is an extension of the person's power in the east, where as it empowers the person using it in the west", that sort of thing.

2) Perfected Materials
Yeah, here's another one I don't see come up a whole lot when it seems obvious to me. As natural world walkers and people who could hypothetically set up a centrifuge running through multiple worlds with Obcasus Rites (at risk, admittedly), Beasts do a lot of the footwork that makes it easier to refine materials into their perfected forms. It'd also be cool to understand perfected materials in their context with other entities who aren't mages, and it's a neat short hand of bringing the divine into the material in the way that Beasts-as-gods work with, and those properties being extrapolated from is also just good ideas.

3) Devouring and Incarnation
As with all instances for regarding the relationship between the Astral Dreaming and the real and who wears what like a sock puppet, it pays to notice Devouring as the major exception to the no manifestation aspect of the goetia/dreamborn and consider what it says about crafting with Beasts. Incarnation is also not an inapt metaphor for Astral crafting, realizing the ideal in ascendant harmony and suicidal apotheosis. Emulation and paralleling both of those are decent angles of attacking how to understanding crafting in Primordial.

4) Crafting as Mankind's "I Wanna Be Like You"
Mankind has always taken inspiration from the world around them for the tools they make, and in particular their animal kin. In fact, a lot of tools are often made in the hopes of somehow translating those traits people see in the animal and the world onto themselves, pretending to the wildness as though one were as strong as a lion or as calm as a placid lake. If I were ever going to seriously try for Beast crafting, I'd probably honestly call them Pretenses, probably develop them akin to near-field gadgets or Dramaturgical principles, making it a way to play with the form and function of Atavisms and Lair Traits primarily, stuff like that.

5) Crossover and Cult
If the points about perfected materials as a result of world-walking and the notion of crafting as Obcasus Rites and the fact that this is Beast wasn't a tip off, yeah, sure, the kin you have involved with craft should probably influence-crafting with a changeling might allow a loophole for reducing any costs, crafting with a Sin-Eater might allow for taking a doom for a power boost, etc. But actually, this section is more for the general notion that I take from my own conclusions, which is that these craftings probably are less important for the Beasts themselves and more of use to kin and cultists than to the Beasts directly, with the general idea that they already benefit from their own strengths and weakness, but can fill in for others or otherwise empower them as being a psychospiritual actor-and-prop for them. Which brings me around to the thing.

The General Gist of My Problem with Beast Crafting.
I'm about to run gob-smack straight into any "Why Human When Supernatural" argument thread had that's gone on for any significant length of time, but there is something very weird about the splat that acknowledges and even finds power and wisdom in the animalistic, atavistic part that is present in humanity even to this day having a craftable thing. Sure, as those afore mentioned threads will eventually point out, humans are not the only tool using species on the planet, and while we are the most adept at that train so far demonstrated, that fact points out that tool-creation-and-usage is still an animal trait, and likewise there's no reason to imagine Beasts as somehow rejecting it-I have trouble seeing Beasts, as a whole, taking issues with wheelchairs or eyeglasses, let alone guns and knives, for examples.

But there is something in that Beasts lean into the sweat of the brow and the strength of their flesh, where in it feels imagistically stronger for one of the Children to tear someone apart with their hands rather than with knives, even if those knives sing with the song of thunder and flash across a throat to the dance of lightning. THere is something in that the Beast is the source of power, that tools used by them are an extension of them telling their Legend their way, and in this way the tools are incidental to the Beast's own strengths and force of being acting.

Or in other words, I just never really felt like Beasts gain anything narratively or thematically from having their own crafting thingamajig. Making tools that are powerful feels at odds with a series that turns towards relationships, self-understanding, and self-expression as power. If anything, it feels more like Hero schtick than Beastly, and Heroes don't need an extended crafting system for their relationship to tools in this sort of narrative.

I dunno, it's a me thing.

[Satchel]

Because I am a comparison freak, I'm just gonna go hop around the list re: how magic items work in other gamelines to put the concept in perspective as an additional set of notes:

Right off the bat, the only splat that has "create a magical item" as part of their innate kit is the Unchained, and they manage that on account of being self-aware constructs of the occult ruleset they're imposing on the world. Flowers of Hell introduced a whole bunch of additions to the Installation system in a way that basically cemented Demon as the go-to game if you want to mess around with "super-science" from the creator's side of the slab.

Mages get second-closest to the Demon standard on account of the Arcana providing spells and Attainments enabling them to enchant items, though most of the stuff that isn't full Imbuement works through alterations of material properties, messing with luck and fate, or locking up ephemeral beings in physical vessels. Bigger stuff can't be fabricated directly without story-length projects and/or picking up stuff that fell from Heaven; commonplace fare is the magical equivalent of what you could do with a workshop and a binding ritual.

Vampire technically works if you squint and count Gargoyles as "magic items" instead of "constructs," but that's more on the Blood providing a horrifyingly diverse collection of powers in aggregate and particularly as they relate to life and death the corruption thereof. We shan't linger too long on this one while more direct and defined lines are still on the table.

Promethean hits on similar points to Vampire and Mage — every Promethean can raise lifeless matter to a state of animation with sufficient investment, some of them have the skills necessary to create magical items capable of heightened durability/supernatural effectiveness/magical power-storage, and the splat's general rarity means the ability to occasionally turn objects into keys to the Azothic Memory is not what you would call a reliable source of what people are generally talking about when it comes to "magic items" for a splat. On that end of things…

Werewolf fetishes work by locking up a spirit in an appropriate object through the power of a Rite. Talens work by spirits bleeding a bit of their power into an item. Some of the powers they grant just duplicate spiritual Influences, while others modify Gift Facets you have to know to benefit from. The Uratha don't have any special ability to make fetishes without using the power that comes from a spirit, and their hunting and maintaining territory factors into that — they're prisons as much as they are sources of power.

The Bound only have two ways to make Mementos on purpose, and one of them is a fairly powerful Ceremony that essentially does what the Fetish Rite does with the added horror that you're doing it to a personlike actor with a demonstrable capacity for suffering on account of how they're literally made from trauma, while the other way involves a material meditation on how you died that strains your relationship with the thing that brought you back to life. Less reliable sources involve stealing from the Underworld, resolving ghosts' unfinished business, or otherwise messing with death. Their powers are typically minor, and their more universally desirable qualities for Sin-Eaters are largely fungible — mortal cultists can certainly point to the fact that that waterlogged diary is seemingly imperishable and can drive anyone who reads it to suicide by drowning, but the important bit, mechanically, is that it provides you a source for the Key of the Depths that you can use to buff your Haunts and/or round out your death-bling collection.

Changelings can only reliably create tokens by piling oaths onto an object, and the types of oath define what the token can do on top of the fact that an oath-forged token is a liability if it falls into the wrong hands. The two next-most-reliable methods involve sacrificing an object that means something to you in the hopes that its dramaturgical qualities produce the right effect or enlisting the assistance of a hobgoblin to steer those same qualities, both of which are in some ways the direct opposite of "changelings creating tokens." By the same metric, stolen tokens are Stranger fare that can't be fabricated by player characters.

Mummy is in many ways built around the fact that the Arisen can't create vessels themselves, and while vestige creation is now a part of the standard kit for a sorcerer of any especial practice, the scarcity of relics is owed to the difficulty of reliably producing them without the lost techniques and context of the Nameless Empire — the most recurring source is the things keeping Eternal immortals living up to their name, and someone had to die-but-not-quite to make those and isn't too interested in showing them off or sharing them.

Deviant, like Vampire, concerns itself with a broad category of being, but its powers are its template and the powers being mostly inseparable from the people is a key part of the issue — conspiracies might have Icons derived from their findings in attempting to reproduce Variations or weirder effects, and I'm as fond as ever of using Sacred Flesh out-of-Clade to model magical trinkets and whatnot, but those are respectively manifestations of "large and/or magically-backed organizations get to tweak the standard rules in ways single PCs can't" and "this is the Variation specifically for letting other people use Variations" rather than any sort of magic item crafting system.

Hunter has its R&D systems but is definitionally the least-magical splat as a whole for obvious reasons and, as with Deviant, tends to allocate novel uses of occult power to conspiracies with the pull to get the resources they would need for that as mortals without an innate source.

The branches of the metaphysics that Beast deals with most closely concern themselves with spiritual power over the world through ordeal on the one hand and narrative manipulation of humanity on the other hand, which the Begotten mostly a) manage personally as actors/props/setpieces, as discussed already, and b) do not have an innate faculty for due to not being native to the Bright Dream and therefore can best come to possess Temenos-touched items secondhand by orchestrating their creation/finding them and taking them. Their power works much more like the Kindred's than the more structured formats found in games with core item-creation mechanics like Demon, Mage, Changeling and Mummy, so Beastly crafting would likely be served best by either taking cues from Werewolf and Geist to use Dreamborn as power sources (risky business at the best of times, given the consequences of pulling stuff out of the Astral) or leaning into the conspiracy model of Deviant and Hunter (albeit potentially using an unsuspecting populace moreso than direct structure).

Like, it'd be a neat bit of symmetry for the Begotten to have reason to deal with uncanny objects as the third leg of the game's existing excuses to hunt down weird cryptids and sites of Fortean phenomena — lord knows it'd add another angle for Collectors to engage with — but material culture in Beast is presently better-served acting as pieces of the family history than as divine panoplies or a contemporary field of innovation separate from human culture in general.

[21C Hermit]

Yeah, Heroes would be more up to the whole crafting game, Monster Hunter-style. Samson’s donkey jawbone might not have been from a real donkey, and Herakles’ lion pelt cloak must’ve been one hell of a trophy to boast about.

[GibberingEloquence]

ArcaneArts I did include a "Nightmarish Crafting" system in my Beast Homebrew Compendium. I tried to gesture in the overall thematic direction you did, but my system is not very Beastly at the moment, and hinges too much on Changeling's mechanics for Tokens. Fortunately, you and Satchel gave me some ideas. If I turn them into a decently substantial revision for "Nightmarish Crafting", I'll post such a revised version here, and then on the compendium.

[Teatime]

I feel that arts and crafts aren't an intuitive fit for Horrors. Even for Anakiim it would be a humanising aspect, separate from them being fears of helplessness. However, I see a way to introduce these concepts in a way that doesn't dilute the gameline's themes. Back when rules for Horror-spawn first came out, I read an observation that for once it's the Horror that receives a power from the human, rather than vice-versa. Humans are able to create progeny, whereas Horrors* can't, and it's that human capability that alters the Horror's nature. What if arts and crafts are also depicted as a gift from the human half? I'm not even talking about occult objects, but said wheelchairs, eyeglasses, guns and knives. Imagine being an id-monster, living submerged in a swamp. Waiting for an unwary soul to get too close, but hiding when people with torches as spears walk by. Fire and artifice weren't something you understood, you just knew them as a threat or distraction. But now, after Devouring, they're a gift you can make use of. What you hated or dismissed, now you can use for your benefit, and it comes with new concepts like expression, imagination and skill. Granted, I'm not offering anything of gaming utility, but themes inform rules (or lack thereof), so hopefully this could be useful.

* Mother of Monsters can, and it can be a fascitating enigma in-universe.

[ArcaneArts]

I feel that arts and crafts aren't an intuitive fit for Horrors. Even for Anakiim it would be a humanising aspect, separate from them being fears of helplessness. However, I see a way to introduce these concepts in a way that doesn't dilute the gameline's themes. Back when rules for Horror-spawn first came out, I read an observation that for once it's the Horror that receives a power from the human, rather than vice-versa. Humans are able to create progeny, whereas Horrors* can't, and it's that human capability that alters the Horror's nature. What if arts and crafts are also depicted as a gift from the human half? I'm not even talking about occult objects, but said wheelchairs, eyeglasses, guns and knives. Imagine being an id-monster, living submerged in a swamp. Waiting for an unwary soul to get too close, but hiding when people with torches as spears walk by. Fire and artifice weren't something you understood, you just knew them as a threat or distraction. But now, after Devouring, they're a gift you can make use of. What you hated or dismissed, now you can use for your benefit, and it comes with new concepts like expression, imagination and skill. Granted, I'm not offering anything of gaming utility, but themes inform rules (or lack thereof), so hopefully this could be useful.

* Mother of Monsters can, and it can be a fascitating enigma in-universe.

A good and useful consideration I hadn't thought of on the subject. Thank you!

[TempleBuilder]

I think I agree with the sentiments above, for the most part, but I’d take note that monsters in stories that do have tools and items are often defined and characterized by them, often to the point where there is little difference between the two. See all the tropes about how one’s weapon or what one makes shows off a aspect of their character. Frankly, to the Horror, there probably isn’t a difference between knife and claw. Both are used to hunt, intimidate, and wound. To the human, there is a world of difference, one is something separate, and other is a part of you. I feel like a system would have to merge the two perspectives somehow. Like the stuff I’m thing of would be the one ring from lord of the rings, or the video tape from the ring, which it’s not really apparent if the monster is metaphysically separate from the object.

Back when rules for Horror-spawn first came out, I read an observation that for once it's the Horror that receives a power from the human, rather than vice-versa. Humans are able to create progeny, whereas Horrors* can't, and it's that human capability that alters the Horror's nature. What if arts and crafts are also depicted as a gift from the human half?

Oh hey…what if Beast made occult objects that *were* Horrorspawn? Like, being made same way as one picks up Horror detritus, but invested in a object instead being incubated? Maybe it is special material for a Obcasus rite, which is then invested into a object?

Edit: Horrorspawn break the normal rules for ephemeral entities too if I remember, as Dreamborn have no manifestations by default, and yet Horrorspawn are arguably a variant with of claiming to get their physical body. I think that’s what’s happening anyways.

[ArcaneArts]

Oh hey…what if Beast made occult objects that *were* Horrorspawn? Like, being made same way as one picks up Horror detritus, but invested in a object instead being incubated? Maybe it is special material for a Obcasus rite, which is then invested into a object?

Edit: Horrorspawn break the normal rules for ephemeral entities too if I remember, as Dreamborn have no manifestations by default, and yet Horrorspawn are arguably a variant with of claiming to get their physical body. I think that’s what’s happening anyways.

Do you want mimics? Cause that's how you get mimics.

EDIT:...why is my brain starting to run with this.

[Heavy Arms]

So, given that my longest running Beast PC was a crafter as well:

I really didn't have many issues with the lack of "magical crafting" until some things later down the line.

For the most part, it was very interesting and fun play to see where crafting was synergistic between Legend and Life,and where it wasn't. I have to say though, a trap master Beast is terrifying in ways that can sate many types of Horrors. As my PC was an Eshmaki Tyrant, he had a penchant for turning hunters into prey as one of his main sources of showing off his superiority. He'd rub salt in the wounds by introducing himself to his targets earlier to make it clear he's got full access to high powered guns, night vision scopes, and so on, then hunt them in the night with his Eshmaki tricks, Stone Age weapons, and a bunch of basic traps scaled up for human sized prey, and then revealing to them at the end that he was the guy they met a few days ago, and he was using a flint knife to make things interesting against their expensive rifles and kit.

You could go much more engineer about it and copy the Saw movies; the fame of the Saw franchise itself would have plenty of people in a panic just waking up strapped into some weird device. Hell, the Saw films are an extended exploration of how messed up trying to teach a Lesson via death traps really is (and what exactly it looks like if it "works").

The one thing I struggled with later regarding more magical aspects of things is largely ran into #3: Interacting with astral space, though particularly Lair, and a Beast's ability to bridge dreams and reality. If the whole idea is to break out of the hero myth on some level, why can't my Beast dip his arrows in hydra blood, or skin a mystical lion for supernaturally good armor? That's hero stuff, sure, but I want to be able to steal their stuff as part of shaping my myth into my direction. Being able to infuse an item with some sliver of my Horror's essence so it becomes more than it's mundane counterpart feels like it should be something I can do with Beast; esp. in an era where many iconic weapons are now the things of villains instead of heroes.

[ArcaneArts]

The one thing I struggled with later regarding more magical aspects of things is largely ran into #3: Interacting with astral space, though particularly Lair, and a Beast's ability to bridge dreams and reality. If the whole idea is to break out of the hero myth on some level, why can't my Beast dip his arrows in hydra blood, or skin a mystical lion for supernaturally good armor? That's hero stuff, sure, but I want to be able to steal their stuff as part of shaping my myth into my direction. Being able to infuse an item with some sliver of my Horror's essence so it becomes more than it's mundane counterpart feels like it should be something I can do with Beast; esp. in an era where many iconic weapons are now the things of villains instead of heroes.

While I feel Beast's Kinship element might make it better if there was a crafting-for-emulation thing where you get those things without the Hero-like violence*, I will note that Cinder and I both want an animal-Beast-adjacent (We both agree on calling them Chimeras), and part of the reason is this sort of thing.

*which isn't to say Beast shouldn't be allowed to dip their claws into the cooling bodies of their fellows for a bloody, poisonous good time, or flense the skin of their peers and wear it as a fair and tender mask that will steel them against knives and bullets, or other Heroic acts, because Beasts should be allowed to be their own form of prick and even allowed to be hypocrites, but that a) a system for 'Trophies' is good and interesting and seperate from normal crafting discussion, and b) probably says something about the differences between sacred and profane forms of tool creation amongst Beasts, or the difference between 'Pretenses/Mimics' and 'Trophies'.

EDIT: Unrelated, I dunno if I should tell y'all to stop giving me ideas or not. I don't want to take Beast Crafting seriously, but something is stirring in my noggin.

[Heavy Arms]

Well, on that specific bolded line of thought, you could avoid literal crafting fairly easily. Some sort of "temporary Atavaism," mechanic via harvesting from dead Begotten and astral beings could do much of the heavily lifting. Crafting could just be a stylistic description instead of a requirement of the underlying mechanic.

I think, in the end, it's less about Beast doing specific special forms of crafting, than addressing certain metaphysical issues (like "can I bring this astral thing into physical reality") which can then have crafting layered into it by character that are inclined towards that specific approach.

When I'm thinking about the PC I mentioned, he took the concept of "crafting his own legend," very literally sometimes. One of his chambers was a cabin in the woods he built himself, used for Feeding, and had werewolves do things in as well, until he could make it a chamber that had all sorts of things built in because he physically made it that way and then reinforced it with actions. There doesn't need to be a special crafting mechanic as much as a clear path of how a craft-inclined Beast would translate their skills across the boundaries between different states of being.

[ArcaneArts]

Well, on that specific bolded line of thought, you could avoid literal crafting fairly easily. Some sort of "temporary Atavaism," mechanic via harvesting from dead Begotten and astral beings could do much of the heavily lifting. Crafting could just be a stylistic description instead of a requirement of the underlying mechanic.

I think, in the end, it's less about Beast doing specific special forms of crafting, than addressing certain metaphysical issues (like "can I bring this astral thing into physical reality") which can then have crafting layered into it by character that are inclined towards that specific approach.

When I'm thinking about the PC I mentioned, he took the concept of "crafting his own legend," very literally sometimes. One of his chambers was a cabin in the woods he built himself, used for Feeding, and had werewolves do things in as well, until he could make it a chamber that had all sorts of things built in because he physically made it that way and then reinforced it with actions. There doesn't need to be a special crafting mechanic as much as a clear path of how a craft-inclined Beast would translate their skills across the boundaries between different states of being.

Well, while I got distracted, I feel like it does tie into both a lot of how I've pointed crafting here goes and ties into the assumption-like quality the majority of Beast's interactions, in a "I had this Lair defining action with you, some of your legend is now mine". If you ever catch me talking about how some people might mistake you for your kin or the way you take on some of the person you sate on as they might take from you if you do in a Thoughtful Way^TM, it's that sort of thing.

[GibberingEloquence]

Chimeric Binding (Advanced)

Dice Pool: [Variable Attribute And Skill] – 6

Time Per Roll: One day

Duration: Permanent

Bonus: +1 to +3 on all rolls if incorporating supernatural tools and materials, especially those acquired from an otherworldly realm such as the Hedge, Shadow, Underworld or Astral. Also +2 on all rolls if the Obcasus Rite is performed to create a Chimera that symbolically resonates in a significant way with the Beast’s Family, Hunger, Horror/Lair, Legend, Kin, Menagerie or any combination thereof.

Cost: Binding a supernatural entity such as a Ghost, Spirit, Goetia, Bluebook Horror, Hobgoblin or miscellaneous monsters. Horrors and Horrorspawn count, but not Supernal Beings, Abyssal Beings, Angels of the God-Machine, Qashmallim of the Divine Fire, and equivalent entities. The [Attribute + Skill] used in this Rite must symbolically resonate with the nature of the bound entity and the item which will become its vessel, but defaults to [Power + Crafts] or [Resistance + Occult].

By bridging the gap between material reality and otherworldly realms, the Beast makes it possible to turn their denizens into a source of power for occult items that symbolically resonate with his Family, Hunger, Legend, Horror/Lair, Kin and similar traits. The entity is summoned at the end of the Rite via Skeleton Key, a Primordial Pathway, the powers of one the Kin participating as a Trapping, or equivalent. The Beast and the other participants must channel the entity into the item prepared for the Rite.

This cannot be achieved via supernatural powers of mind-control or equivalent, but the entity can also be convinced to let the Beast bind it into the item, especially if the Beast promises to release the entity later and offer a proportionate recompense. Releasing the bound entity uses the same means as bringing it to the Consecrated Temple. The process of convincing the entity to do this can be modeled as Social Maneuvering, and can be done beforehand. Discovering how to create a Chimera in the first place is its own process, which likely requires Research, Uncovering Clues, or equivalent.

The result of binding the entity is referred to as a Chimera, and is similar to results of an Ephemeral Being using the Claim Manifestation on an object. However, the bound entity becomes incapable of physically affecting the world around it on its own, and can only attempt to influence the user via an action similar to an Ephemeral Being trying to Urge its Fetter. This is contested by the user’s Resolve + Composure + Supernatural Tolerance.

The Chimera’s effects and properties are adapted from whatever powers the bound entity possesses naturally, and the item must symbolically resonate with the nature of the bound entity. It has the same pool of Supernatural Fuel as it did before, and the user can refuel it by performing actions within the purview of the bound entity, similar to an Ephemeral Being absorbing Essence from a source of the Resonance Condition.

The Chimera and its general vicinity count as the Resonant Condition for the bound entity or equivalent, which prevents the passive loss of its Supernatural Fuel and counts as a prerequisite for relevant powers, but the Chimera also suffers from the Ban and Bane of the bound entity, or the closest equivalents, and adjusted to the form of an item if need be. The Chimera has the same Durability as that of the object serving as the vessel for the bound entity, with bonus Durability equal to the [Skill] used in the Rite.

It passively removes Structure Damage at the same pace the Beast leading the Rite passively loses points of Satiety as determined by the latter’s Lair, as long as the Chimera is placed inside the Consecrated Temple in which it was created. It can also be Repaired, usually with the same dice pool used to create it. Each -1 imposed takes 1 hour and removes 1 Structure Damage, and if the person doing the Repairs is a Beast or someone who has Family Ties with them, they gain bonus dice for Repairs equal to [Lair] or equivalent type of Supernatural Tolerance. Being struck by or exposed to the Bane or equivalent weakness immediately destroys the Chimera, and releases the bound entity, with all the consequences that entails for the context of the scene.

Being struck by or exposed to the Bane or equivalent weakness immediately destroys the Chimera, and releases the bound entity, with all the consequences that entails for the context of the scene. The user of the Chimera rolls thematically fitting dice pools to activate the powers of the Chimera, with bonus dice equal to this Supernatural Tolerance, or the Supernatural Tolerance of the bound entity, whichever is higher. When the Chimera is involved in a Clash Of Wills, use [Highest Resistance Attribute] of the user + [Highest Between Supernatural Tolerance Of The User Or Bound Entity].

Activating the powers of the Chimera depletes the Supernatural Fuel of the bound entity as usual, but if it uses Satiety, and the user is a Beast, they can recharge the Chimera as a reflexive action with their own reserves of Satiety. Otherwise, the Beast must rely on other items that store a compatible type of Supernatural Fuel to use as “batteries” for the Chimera, ask a compatible Kin to recharge it with their reserves, or make use of a miscellaneous method, such as bringing it to specific regions of otherworldly realms or to a Chamber in the Beast’s Lair which counts as a Vein (see the “Find A Vein” Merit for more information).

Any Hero who acquires a Chimera has +3 dice for Heroic Stalking to find the Beasts involved in the Chimeric Binding, as well as their Kin if the Hero has the Kinslayer Gift. At the ST's discretion, the Hero also has +3 dice for the activation of other Heroic Gifts, such as Saint's Whisper, Loremaster, and Open Gate. These bonuses are increased to +5 if the bound entity knowingly and willingly helps the Hero. When someone else uses the Chimera to perform actions that would Feed the Beast's Hunger, then the Beast can use that person as a proxy in order to gain Satiety.

This works even if the Beast is not physically present or aware of this person's actions. However, if the person is willingly and knowingly performing these actions to spread and strengthen the Beast's influence over the Primordial Dream, then they can use the Beast's Legend as if it was their Virtue, and the -2 penalty for Satiety Potential imposed by "someone else procuring the meal for you" is negated. Chimeras always give +1 die for Satiety Potential if used by a Beast whose Hunger symbolically resonates with the nature of the bound entity.

The Beast does not have to bind only entities, if the player thinks it does not fit his PC's concept. Beasts can also bind phenomena such as the ghostly echoes of destroyed objects of mythic importance, Astral reflections of cursed items associated with urban legends, the mortal remains of hobgoblins used as fertilizers for strange gardens in the Hedge, and so forth. In such cases, the Chimera cannot do any form of Urging and is thus comparatively safer to use, but its powers tend to be more limited in some way.

In any case, the Beast must always draw upon his spiritual link to other supernatural entities and phenomena to incarnate them inside physical vessels as part of his mythic role as an embodiment of fear. In other words, no Chimeras can ever be created to decrease the amount of fear in the world, or otherwise promote concepts associated with the humanity-centered symbolism of the Bright Dream, especially symbols that oppose the 7 Hungers that form the metaphysical ecosystems of the Primordial Dream. For example: not a single Beast with a Hunger for Power can make Chimeras with the intent of helping the downtrodden and exploited earn their freedom and independence from those controlling or limiting them.

Likewise, a Collector cannot donate to charities for the purposes of this Rite, but can still help the poor like anyone else would, especially if it matches his Life trait. Keep in mind that it is possible to cause fear while technically helping others, or even performing actions that superficially clash with the purview of each Hunger. So a Whisperer can indeed make Chimeras that conceal information, as long as it is done with the intent of causing fear of the truth being revealed.

For example: the Whisperer can make and use a Chimera to hide a secret and thus lure a victim into their Lair, but it must be for the purpose of scaring the victim into revealing their secrets. You can always make Chimeras which might be hypothetically used for positive actions, as long as it results in more fear in the world despite such help. This cannot be feasibly mechanized in an objective way, so the ST and players must use their own judgment and frame the validity of the Chimera in a qualitative / narrative way.

Exceptional Success: The Chimera and its general vicinity count as a source of the Open Condition, it gives +2 dice for Satiety Potential if used by a Beast with a relevant Hunger, and it imposes a Clash Of Wills with Rote Quality against any supernatural power meant to destroy or alter it, as well as remove or control the bound entity or phenomenon. The user gains bonus dice equal to [Skill Used For The Rite] for resisting the Urging or equivalent action of the bound entity, or a flat +5 dice for Repairs if the Chimera was created with a bound phenomenon.

The Beast who led the Rite can always summon the Chimera to his immediate vicinity, which counts as a form of Primordial Pathway that does not require a roll, but takes an Instant Action, which becomes reflexive if the Beast spends 1 Willpower Point. The Beast who led the Rite can also send the Chimera to the immediate vicinity of anyone who shares Family Ties with him, is part of his Brood, or belongs to his Primordial Cult. The Chimera passively removes Structure Damage from itself in proportion to the pace of passive Satiety loss determined by the leading Beast’s Lair no matter where the Chimera is, and if it is placed inside the Consecrated Temple where it was created, each such interval removes additional Structure Damage from the Chimera equal to the [Skill] used in the Rite.

Example Of Chimeric Binding:

Orville Chesterfield is a Namtaru Ravager who fancies himself an iconoclastic and transgressive artist, with a predilection for theatrical and revolting performances that expose the repressed ugliness of the world. He prefers to make his victims feel socially targeted by the ideas conveyed through his artworks, rather than resorting to physically hunting the prey or equivalent. This is why his Legend is Vicious and his Life is Honest. His Horror is like a Ghoul from the Cthulhu Mythos, and his Lair has Chambers which combine the feral and macabre with the civilized and mystifying, such as fusing graveyards with churches, and sewers with banks.

He desires to create a Chimera similar to his Horror/Lair, whose vessel will be a painting and the bound entity will be a Rank 3 Spirit of Fear and Revulsion. His goal is to unveil the painting for Feeding his Hunger in front of an audience which is susceptible to the fear of having "degeneracy and/or impurity" lurking inside their genetics and/or communities. Orville also plans on enhancing his performance by using the "It's In Your Blood" and "Fear Is Contagious" Nightmares. His dice pool in this case is [Intelligence + Expression].

Orville includes some Trappings of Obcasus Rites, such as a backpack's worth of ritual tools (i.e. canvas, pigments and brush themed around his Legend, Hunger and Horror/Lair), a suitable Grimoire, and assistance from a supernatural that shares Family Ties with him (i.e. a Darkling Artist of the Autumn Court with a Mien similar to Orville's Horror and compatible beliefs about art). Orville also performs the "Horror Mask" Obcasus Rite, and will combine this Horror Mask with a torn-apart and shit-stained business suit as part of his performance.

After completing the Chimeric Binding, Orville and the aforementioned Changeling smuggle the painting into a formal dining event for socialites, which Orville had been banned from joining due to his previous actions for Feeding his Hunger. When a guest stains the painting by throwing wine at it and calls Orville a disgusting freak with no talent, the entire audience begins to scream in horror and vomit in revulsion as they feel that they are viscerally transforming into something inhuman and hideous from the inside.

As they stare at each other and drop all pretenses of civilized behavior to hurl the foulest insults imaginable and start petty fights, Orville laughs hysterically and congratulates himself for an outstanding performance that wouldn't be possible without help from his biggest fans. What he didn't expect is that one of these socialites is a Hero who had been Stalking him and joined the event with the intention of confronting Orville. Once the guests regain enough composure to start rioting against Orville, said Hero uses the Saint's Whisper Gift to denounce Orville's ideas as deranged perversions of the natural order and a threat to decent people in society who have done no wrong. After the Anathema is placed on Orville, he uses "Shadowed Soul" to dive into the shadows behind this painting and disappear. Upon looking at the back of the painting, the audience sees the following message:

"John 8:7."

[Super Vlad]

I'm going to just plug my Primordial Shards that I created earlier, about Beast magic items

[GibberingEloquence]

Added an example of Chimeric Invocation to my previous post.