> I'd like to write some adventure taking place in Beast Valley, for a
> group of beastmen. So I'm going back to basics, wondering about their
> society and more particularly, their magic.
> I suppose they are animist ?
Most of them are. A few, such as ducks, are not and considered beyond redemption.
> I also suppose the Lady of the Wilds is
> one of their main spirits ? But I don't know much beyond that. If
> anyone has idea about a Beastman Tradition, I'll take it.
Arachne Solara is the major entity in the Beastfolk pantheon.
My ruminations on the beastfolk (in Tradetalk #7 IIRC) was the wars of Man and Beast destroyed the peaceful oneness of the Green Age and that only the beastfolk (because of their dual natures) are truely able to know peace and bring it to others.
From this it follows that the beastfolk must integrate (in a non-rules sense) both their human (rational thought) and beast (primal passion) natures to know the Green Age. A Centaur, for example, typically indulges in archery, poetry and the lyre to get in touch with his human nature while for his equine side, he gallops through the woods.
Even though they are animists, I do not believe the beastfolk use fetishes - the imagery looks wrong to me. Instead I think they gain their magic through participation in their grisly hactatombs. Here the Beastfolk tear apart the sacrifices (both man and beast). The torn fragments of the sacrifices then grow back together into godlike creatures that tear the dancing beastfolk apart. When the beastfolk finally come to their senses the next day, they are alive and whole and the sacrifices are gone. Depending on how well a Beastfolk is attuned to his dual natures, the sacrifices might have bestowed him with new magic when they remade him. The new magic is related to the nature of the beastfolk - the magic that a centaur knows is different from the magic that a minotaur knows.
The secret of the beastfolk religion is to come back to life through a hectatomb even if you were killed far away from it.
> btw, it seems reasonable to me to imagine some 'exchange' process
> concerning magic and spirits between beastmen and grazers. Of
> course, on a small scale, but I suppose nevertheless that some (rare,
> PC ?) centaurs may have some fire/bow magic coming from hte Grazelands.
> Does that seem OK ?
Some leakage is always possible but generally the Grazer magic is only usable through strict taboos and respect for the ancestors while the Centaurs have a different attitude on almost everything. For such reasons, I don't expect the exchange in magic to be easy or cpmmon.
--Peter Metcalfe
--Peter Metcalfe
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