Wranglers

Those who use magic to work with animals.

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Accipitrary

Alignment: Unaligned
Animal: Raptors

Hunters who bond with hawks and falcons via the ritual of the hunt. Accipitraries are much like survivalists, but they specifically attune to hawks and falcons. Most mortal societies once depended upon hunting for their survival. Many still do. Hunting is a sacred rite for many because it represents survival. Hunting is an ancient conflict, therefore, and one of the most powerful in the world. While there are cultural variations in how the ritual of hunting works, there are commonalities in how tapping into the magic of survival works:

• A ritual initial hunt in which they offer their own blood
• A specific prey caught or killed on their first hunt that they attune to for life, always a prey that hawks or falcons also hunt
• A period of attuning to that specific prey and use every part of it
• A period of attuning to that specific prey by being prey, becoming deeply vulnerable
• A follow-up hunt or hunts in which they attune to a predator, some kind of hawk or falcon
• A period in which they define their range or territory

Specific powers will vary depending on the prey and predator they attune to, but they will have variations on the following:

• Camouflage: some form of STH bonus coming from blending in with their territory, coming from their prey attunement.
• Patience: some source of patience for waiting on their prey, often coming from their prey attunement. This often takes the form of circling.
• Determination: some source of WIL for not giving up in seeking resources to survive.
• Tracking: some form of heightened abilities while following a specific prey.
• Senses: heightened senses based on their predator attunement, usually eyesight.
• Blood: blood magic invocation by offering some of their own gives bonuses to tools or weapons.
• Companion: an animal companion that joins them when they are most desperate, usually their hawk or falcon attunement.
• Range: bonuses while within their territory.
• Special tools or weapons: reflecting their territory and/or their hawk or falcon attunement, involving feathers or talons.

All survivalists must be resolved to the hunt as their form of survival and not take meat they did not earn. This does not mean refusing to accept a meal, but that they cannot eat if they have not done some work for their range, predator, prey, or their own survival within the last seven days. Self-reliance is a source of power for them, and though they can accept help from others, they will start to lose magical power if they rely solely on others - unless that other is their hawk or falcon companion.

Their companion is always a local hawk or falcon (or one local to where they first became an accipitrary if they are from elsewhere). They will have the ability to communicate with it, see through its eyes, and direct its actions (with consent).

PRO +3 ATH +2 STR +2 AWA +3 WIL +3 PRS / STH +3

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Beanna

Alignment: Fey
Animal: Elk

Wielders of ancient fey lore who can turn into elk. Pronounced “banna” or “byanna”, depending on accent. Beanna are attuned to the life energy of the fey, a power they gain by making offerings of their own life or that of their enemies, gaining the power to become an elk. Most beanna make a deal with a powerful fey, offering parts of their life (usually causing them to senesce more quickly). Their benefactor is usually one of the ancient fey elk known as the adharcach.

Beannas are warriors and protectors whose role is partly to oppose the Wild Hunt. They are an ancient tradition in fey circles whose purpose is to serve as both defenders and distractions. They are the epitomes of life as the Hunt is a representative of death in fey societies, and thus, they have powers given them by denying and refusing death even as they give up their own lives. They exist in this contradiction with power - though they experience senescence earlier, they live just as long. Their elk forms remain powerful no matter what.

Their powers include the following:

• Elk form: they can take the form of a giant elk (see Irish elk) at will.

• Adharca óil: antlers of life-drinking; anyone gored with their antlers must roll STR against the magic of the antlers (varies by individual) or lose part of their lifeforce as well (permanent loss to STR and WIL, early senescence).

• Vanishing: in elk form, they can vanish at will twice per day for 30 seconds.

• Eerie presence: in non-elk form, their PRS is eerie, making intimidation and deception easier but persuasion and seduction harder.

• Hagly glamour: in non-elk form, they can heighten features caused by senescence to make themselves look “hagly”.

• Healing blood: their blood is a healing draught of power 10, +3 per wound level above normal.

• Forward protection: standing in front of a person to defend them against a deadly opponent gives them and their protectee bonuses to STR.

• Refusal of the call: they may ignore death blows by the Wild Hunt seven times, each time gaining +1 to STR permanently in elk form. If they save someone else from the Wild Hunt, they gain another +1 STR permanently to elk form, and this has no upper limit - however, saving a group of people counts as “one”.

• Fey sending: anyone they kill, they can mark for special guidance through the afterlife, and they can repel spectral undead with their antlers.

Beannas are usually spiritual leaders in fey communities.

Non-elk: PRO +2 ATH +1 STR +3 AWA / WIL +1 PRS -2 STH +1
Elk: PRO +2 ATH +2 STR +8 AWA / WIL -2 PRS -3 STH -2

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Frith

Alignment: Celestial
Animal: Lagomorphs

Wranglers of the rabbits of contentment. A frith is a wielder of celestial emotion who manifest magical rabbits that spread contentment. To wield their magic, a frith must help others find a level of contentment, usually by disrupting the purveyors of discontentment, exploitation, and violence in the world. They are cunning, mischievous, and defiant, creators of spaces where contentment is possible in a world of horrors. They are, effectively, amateur celestial tricksters who can summon cute bunnies to make others feel better.

To become a frith, one must first find a place to feel at peace. Most find a nice shady spot in the wilderness, but some find their own peace in their homes, communities, or public spaces in cities. Next, they must observe the discontentment created by the powers around them, and they must make the decision not only to act, but to keep acting until a level of change has come. Then, they must devise a plan. This plan must be devious, troublesome, and perhaps a little absurd. Then, they sleep, and in their sleep, the three rabbits will come to them. The first, Trouble, will help them with their plan. The second, Egress, will help them get away with it. And the third, Contentment, will give them peace of mind when the time comes.

When they awaken, they must enact their plan. If it goes well, someone in the area of effect of their plan will feel their life change for the better, and a bunny of contentment will come to that person. Meanwhile, the frith will return to their place of peace to find the three rabbits and a brood of way too many bunnies of contentment. And a new mission: to spread these bunnies throughout the world, one person at a time.

Friths are trickster rogues who engage in acts of absurd terrorism against the oppressors and exploiters of the world and deliver bunnies of contentment to people whom they have helped. When they engage in these schemes, their benefactor rabbit spirits will grant them special powers depending on the job. The more bunnies they deliver, the better the powers will get. Consult the GM per job for different powers.

PRO +1 ATH +3 STR -1 AWA +3 WIL / PRS +1 STH +2

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Psittacker

Alignment: Elemental
Animal: Tropical Birds

While on Shem, psittackers are common in the tropical zones, on the moons, they exist around the hottest regions of the Green Moon's equatorial belt. They attune to the climate there and learn to speak with and influence the tropical birds, specifically the parrots and cockatoos of the area.

In order to attune to the climate, they must perform various rituals and survival quests within the harsh conditions of the equatorial zone, surviving for a Shem-year and a day, all while finding and bonding with the psittacopasserine birds there. Eventually, the birds will surround them, cover them, and carry them into the canopies or nests, where they will be tested one final time. If they pass, they gain various abilities:

• Pstitacospeech: all psittackers an speak to any psittacopasserine birds.
• Parroting: psittackers can parrot the speech of anyone they hear speak.
• Plumage: if psittackers dress colorfully, they can blend into environments they should not reasonable blend into, gain PRS bonuses, or make people think they are dangerous.
• Prolonged life: psittackers can prolong their own lifespans by spending more time with parrots and cockatoos.
• Plotting: any two psittackers plotting together gain AWA bonuses to do so.
• Pouring rain: psittackers can pour water from a bucket to call rain.
• Pearl: if a psittacker feels compassion for someone, they can, once a Shem-year, produce a pearl for them.
• Pleasure: psittackers may induce physical pleasure with a song.
• Power of place: psittackers can build a nest or other home that gives them bonuses to specific skills while in it.
• Prosperity: psittackers can give prosperity to someone who does a great service to the protect the Green Moon or the psittacopasserines there.

Psittackers often work as protectors of rain forests and the equatorial wilds, but they also sometimes find work as entertainers, thieves, or other criminals.

PRO +1 ATH +2 STR -1 AWA +2 WIL / PRS +3 STH -1

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Shepherdess

Alignment: Celestial
Animal: Sheep

Not mundane shepherdesses, but those empowered by kindness, these shepherdesses have influence over sheep, but gain other magic to help people and their communities. Shepherdesses are protectors, herders, and feeders. They are critical to the communities they live in, combining their labor, witchcraft, and kindness. They are never men.

For every act of kindness a shepherdess commits, they gain a little magic. The act must benefit someone in need, someone not an enemy of the people - not an abuser, an oppressor, an exploiter, etc. - and someone who does not pay for the kindness otherwise. No non-celestial magic may be used for the act, and the witchcraft fo the shepherdess may not be used directly - though the giving of wool, mutton, or sheep is common.

Shepherdesses study herbalism, medicine, and basic domestic skills with other shepherdesses, and they gain magic of witchcraft from them as well. But most of their magic comes from the acts of kindness. The more acts of kindness they perform, the more they can do with their magic:

• Protect flock: a spell to give protections to their literal or metaphorical flock.
• Shepherding mark: the shepherdess may touch and mark either a person in their community or a sheep and know where they are at all times.
• Wool of warmth: the shepherdess may make any mundane wool magically warm.
• Shearing touch: the shepherdess may shear the wool (or hair) off a sheep or someone in their community with a touch.
• Finding spell: the shepherdess may sacrifice something to know exactly where a lost sheep or member of their community is.
• Herding spell: the shepherdess may guide sheep or members of their community with a spell.
• Liniment: the shepherdess may enchant liniments to be healing.

Many other spells are possible. Consult the GM.

PRO -1 ATH +2 STR +1 AWA +2 WIL +2 PRS +1 STH -1

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Uberant

Alignment: Elemental
Animal: Tricow

Uberants herd the tricows, the three-headed cows of the moons and other places in the cosmos, whose milk resembles the galaxy. To be effective herders of tricows, they must be attuned to the cosmos, specifically the galaxy, its rotation, and its beauty and power. They spend hours each night communing as they watch over the herds, and during the days, they spend hours tending the herd. They are skilled animal husbanders, herders, and farmers, and they know how to gather, process, and use the galactic tricow milk.

After many Shem-years of work, they are tested, given raw tricow milk to drink, and sent alone into the night to commune with the galaxy. If they pass - if they are a friend to the cosmos - they are graned powers to do their work, powered by drinking tricow milk:

• Galactic positioning: they know their galactic position and also the position of their herd at all times.
• Cosmic spin: they can feel the spin of the cosmos and attune to its movements to maintain balance, no matter what forces play upon them.
• Tricow speech: they can speak to tricows.
• Strength of three: they can drink a large quantity of milk and temporarily triple their STR, but this will exhaust them afterward.
• Triple perception: they can see as if they had three heads once per turn.

Even when not working their herd, they will be accompanied by a tricow.

Other abilities are possible. Consult the GM.

PRO / ATH +1 STR +3 AWA +1 WIL / PRS -1 STH -1

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Wildling

Alignment: Elemental
Animal: Any

Wranglers who bond with animals by imitating them, going partially feral to do so, and thus gaining the ability to communicate with them, influence them, call upon their aid, or mimic their abilities. Some wildlings specialize and thus have different occupation names, but they operate the same: all-legged (arthropods), birdspeaker (avians), ickthyologer (fish), furfriend (mammals), snail racer (mollusk), spinydancer (novotheria), oddmasker (other animals), inverter (pluribi), reptilist (reptiles), and wormfarmer (worms).

Wielders of animal magic who commune with animals by imitating them and traveling or living with them, taking on their habits and gaining their powers. They wear headgear that symbolize their animal friends after they leave them.

Wilding is the art of bonding with animals and taking on their qualities. The primary method of bonding with animals used by wildlings is to imitate them in their presence. They must find a wild animal and gain its trust enough to get close to it to begin imitating it. They do not merely need to copy movements, but to copy the general behavior of the animal, and for that, they must know about the animals and why they behave the way they do. They do this through intense observation and training from their mentors.

Some animals will not allow a wildling close very easily at first, so they must take more extreme measures: living with them. This can be very difficult in animals who are not trustful of mortals, and so it takes a long time. No animal takes more than a year and a day to bond with after the wildling has begun imitating them successfully.

To bond with an animal, the wildling must so perfectly imitate them that the animal believes them to be one of them. Then they must perform a ritual dance with the animal. If they are truly attuned, they animal will follow their movements. At the end of the dance, they will have bonded. The wildling will then be able to take on characteristics of the animal, use its senses, communicate with it, and more. The exact movements of the dance vary by culture.

The more a wildling imitates it, the more they become acclimated to how the animal lives. They then become less threatening to animals. Sometimes, they acclimate too far and lose their ability to act like their own species. Most wildlings are a little weird to other mortals' standards. Some wildlings acclimate so far they completely forget how to be their own species. They go feral and believe they are their primary bonded animal. If this happens and they do not break out of it within a few years, they usually end up taking on the animal form permanently.

There are several broad categories of animal. Depending on the species of the wildling, these can be more or less difficult to bond with. Most mortals are mammals and thus bond better with mammals. Merfolk, fish folk, and undines bond better with fish, etc. Consult the GM for details. Plant folk, fungus folk, and non-animal mortals cannot be wildlings.

A wildling typically bonds to an individual animal, but in doing so, they become more readily able to bond with other animals of that species. If they bond with multiple species within a genus, the whole genus becomes easier to bond with. And so on, up to phyla. An experienced wildling with hundreds of reptile bonds will be able to more easily bond with any kind of reptile, for example. They become very sympathetic to their chosen taxon, if they choose a specialty. Some choose a single species. Some form major bonds with a small group of diverse animals. Some choose an entire class or family.

A caged or domesticated animal loses its wildness and thus some of its nzwara murazvo, making them nearly impossible to bond with. Feral animals (those who have un-domesticated themselves) can be bonded with, though it is a little more difficult.

Some powers of a wildling include the following:

• Animal features: transforming their own bodies to take on features of the animal. If those physical features are paired with abilities, they will gain those abilities.
• Animal forms: the ultimate use of a wildling's powers is to take the form of an animal. Because of issues of mass, they cannot usually take the form of animals much smaller than they are or much larger, but they can take forms close to their size of animals that aren't usually that size. For example, they could become a six foot tall ant or six foot long whale. However, these distorted forms cannot last long as they use up too much energy to maintain. Very powerful wildlings can merge their consciousness with an animal, thus allowing them to experience animals of different sizes. The form a wildling takes will always match their own relative age as well - an elderly wildling will become an elderly animal and so on. It is rare for children to learn wildling skills, especially not so well as to be able to take an animal form, but if they did, they would take on a juvenile form.
• Animal abilities: animals abilities can be mimicked by a wildling if they have bonded with that animal, or they can be taken on if they are powerful enough.
• Animal senses: wildlings can take on the keenness of eye of an eagle or the sharp nose of a dog the same way they would any any other ability, but they can also move their consciousness into the animal and experience what the animal is sensing, temporarily. They can see through the eyes of their bonded animal, for instance. They cannot think the animal's thoughts, though. Their thoughts remain their own, so they can smell what a dog can smell, but they do not necessarily process the smells the way a dog would.
• Animal vocalizations: communication between wildling and animals is vital. Before they bond with any animal, they must learn to communicate via what mortal means they have. Once they have bonded, they can share thoughts and instantly communicate with their bonded animal. But they can also more skillfully communicate with other animals of that species, and often within the same genus. The more they bond with, the better their communication skills become, though animal type matters greatly.

Other abilities are possible based on the animals being bonded with. Consult the GM.

PRO +2 ATH +3 STR +1 AWA +2 WIL +1 PRS -1 STH +2