Wildling

Wielders of nzwara murazvo who commune with animals by imitating them and traveling or living with them, taking on their habits and gaining their powers. They wear headdresses that symbolize their animal friends after they leave them. Many believe these arts to be the origin of zoanthropes.

Note: any creature from the Diversity is potentially a companion of a wildling except for those in the categories of monsters, esoteric creatures, or any of the infernal bestiary.

Wilding

Wilding is the art of bonding with animals and taking on their qualities.

Imitation

The primary method of bonding with animals used by wildlings is to imitate them in their presence. This is sometimes called "running wild", though wildlings do not like the term. 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.

Co-dwelling

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.

Bonding Dance

To bond with an animal, the wildling must so perfectly imitate them that the animal believes them to be one of them. They must fully understand the animal and almost instinctually act like them. And 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.

Acclimating

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.

Ferality

Some wildlings acclimate so far they completely forget how to be their own species. They go feral and believe they are wolves, dolphins, or falcons, for example. 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. Some believe this to be the origins of both talking animals and animal folk.

Animal Types

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 nations are mammals and thus bond better with mammals. Merfolk, fish folk, and undines bond better with fish. Tantum, kashirum, and arthropodal folk bond better with arthropods. Ka'ar, reptile folk, and serpentines bond better with reptiles. Avians and sylphs with birds. And so on. For a full list, see wilding by species. Plant folk, fungus folk, and non-animal mortals cannot be wildlings. The chart below shows what a standard human or metahuman faces when trying to bond with a different classification of animals. The +/- scores indicate how much from base the difficulty typically is, with variations down the species level:

• Mammal: the easiest and the standard. +-0
• Reptile: requires extra warmth. +3
• Bird: requires extra lightness. +4
• Amphibian: requires hallucinatory experiences. +5
• Fish: requires underwater experience. +6
• Arthropod: requires extreme modifcations. +9
• Mollusk: requires slime. +11
• Worm: requires undulation. +10
• Amalgamation: the varying animals amalgamated change what the modifiers are.
• Monster: requires bravery and viciousness. +7
• Esoteric: requires significant mysticism. +8
• Other: tiny animals, sponges, starfishes, rotifers, etc. Requires significant modification. +12

Individual vs. Taxon

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.

Domesticated or Captive Animals

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.

Animal Features

A wildling who remains acclimated for a long period to a specific animal will be able to transform their own bodies to take on features of the animal. If those physical features are paired with abilities, they will gain those abilities. For example, they can fly with wings, breathe underwater with gills, and analyze scents the way an ant does. The more extreme the transformation, the more difficult it is. Wings, gills, claws, antennae, etc. are moderately difficult, but a full serpentine lower body or to take the form of a sponge is much more difficult.

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. This can range from venomous bites like a snake to the esoteric powers of a shadow cat. The more different an ability is from the wildling's own, the harder it is to acquire. Esoteric abilities are always more difficult. Though it is possible to take almost any ability from an animal, if the ability is useless in the body of a mortal, they tend not to be chosen, and even if they are, they remain useless.

Some are so radically different from a mortal's body that they do not function even if they are taken on - external fertilization rarely has any meaning to mortals whose species do not reproduce that way (especially if they require a partner). Other reproductive abilities, like budding, can be taken on, but they often have tragic and disturbing consequences.

Some abilities that require significant biological alterations are only possible with those alterations. For example, if an animal needs wings to fly, the wildling cannot take the ability to fly without also taking on wings.

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. They might not recognize, for instance, smells that indicate danger the way a dog might.

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.

Tools

Wildlings use many tools to help them connect with animals.

Headdresses

If an animal bond ends for any reason after more than three years, the wildling will be able to take on the powers and abilities of the animal by wearing a headdress that resembles the animal. This usually requires animal skins, feathers, scales, and so on.

Furs and Skins

In order to gain animals' trust, wildlings will seek out animals that have died naturally and take their skins and furs (or feathers or scales) and make rudimentary clothing out of them. It is essential that it not be too complex or whole. Even if they do not have skins or furs (etc.) to wear, they will go naked rather than wear clothing.

Animal Pheromones

Many modern era wildlings resort to using animal pheromones to help attune with animals. Some ancient wildlings do as well, though they come at more honestly, by gathering it from animals rather than trying to synthesize it.

Claws, Fangs, and Stingers

Many wildlings will take on animal weaponry - claws, fangs, stingers, mandibles, venoms, etc. - in order to fight with. It is not uncommon to meet a wildling with two different kinds of claws, sharp teeth, or a scorpion's tail.

Ochre Slime

Ochre slime is a form of nzwara murazvo that has taken on a viscous, fluid form. It occurs naturally in areas with a high species count (wetlands, rain forests, jungles, etc.) in a concentrated area. If found, it can be used to improve one's chances of attuning to an animal by smearing it over one's naked body.

Skills

Wildlings' skills vary greatly by culture and individual, but here are some common ones:

• Tracking
• Wilderness survival
• Camping
• Hunting
• Fishing
• Swimming
• Climbing
• Digging
• Direction sense
• Foraging
• Herbalism
• Zoology
• Psychology

Variants

There are many cultural variants of wildlings, especially since fauna around the world varies greatly. Some notable ones include

• Brachos: a wildling martial artist of eastern Palhur whose actions match that of certain animals in a form of capoeira.
• Ezdach: a Ranic wildling who rides the animals they bond with.
• Iguzogide: wildlings, usually in Taggarus, who end up fighting major companies (as "terrorists") who are harming animal territories.
• Mayya: a Palhuric wildling girlchild gone feral.
• Wild chorus: an all-animal chorus that some wildlings commune with.
• Zookeeper: a rare few zookeepers use nzwara murazvo as wildlings do, but at a very low level.
• Zoologer: some zoologers use nzwara murazvo as wildlings do to supplement or support their studies, and vice versa.

Similar Occupations

• Birdspeaker: those who spread information and send messages via birds.
• Ferreter: those who use ferrets or similar animals in pest control measures.
• Imba Gadzira: using nzwara murazvo to create nests that protect animals.
• Mouskein: using rodents to steal with.
• Onye Na-Agbanwe Odidi: a powerful zoanthropy user who risks becoming an animal permanently.
• Pathfinder: scouts who use wilding to better know their terrain.
• Any user of zoanthropy.

Clans

In southern Palhur, the Bemaadizid people have a long tradition of wilding, so much so that they have developed a clan and doodem (totem) system. Doodemen are symbolic animal connections that the clans take on. There is a complex system of clan lineages and connections, but at the core is that many members of their clans are wildlings (though they use another term) who take on the clan doodem. Animal-based clan systems occur in other cultures.

Persecution

Wildlings are generally not targeted by laws specifically, but many laws apply to their work - "ownership" of certain animals, trespassing laws, and so on. They do come into conflict with many logging and oil companies, ranchers, and others whose industry encroaches upon wild territories. This leads sometimes to laws targeting their efforts to fight back.

Stats

These are the basic stat modifiers from base of the species of an unbonded wildling:

PRO +2
ATH +5
STR +1
AWA +2
WIL +1
STH +2
PRS -1