[Beast]Family

Beast: The Primordial

One of the big themes of Beast: The Primordial is family. The characters in Beast refer to themselves collectively as “the Children” (or, if they’re feeling formal, “the Begotten”) and consider themselves the offspring of the Dark Mother. The first monster, the mother of nightmares. Lilith, Tiamat, Hekate, the Queen Mother of the West — she’s been called a hundred different names in tongues still living and long dead alike, described in a thousand ways across ten thousand years, but these days her Children usually call her the Dark Mother. Some say she was the first being to travel the Primordial Dream and absorb its secrets, then brought them back to this world and formed them into her children. Others claim that she is the Primordial Dream given form, and that when she walks once more the world will know fear like it hasn’t since the dawn of time.

Intrinsic to the theme of family are a couple of sub-themes, if you will:

One Big “Happy”

Regardless of the truth, all Beasts recognize the Dark Mother as the first of their kind; not only that, but the first of all monsters. As far as the Begotten are concerned, vampires, werewolves, changelings, and other stranger things are simply younger siblings, branches of the family tree that have diverged but still share common roots. While other beings may scoff, Beasts have powers and abilities that seem to back their claim.

Drama

No one gets along with their family all the time. Families fight, and in the case of the Children, that “fighting” can involve bloodthirsty, frenzied creatures who are capable of wreaking terrible destruction. Is it still just a family squabble if it leads to gore in the streets and nightmares across the dreamscape?

Skeletons in the Closet

Beasts are fundamentally a part of the World of Darkness. They seek out the unseen, the strange and arcane, not because they wish to solve the mysteries (which would be rude), but because they feel that they should be involved. If the extended family is up to something out in the dark, well, maybe one of the Children can be of some assistance? Or, at least, can share in the bounty? But Beasts have their own angle on this investigation of the World of Darkness, of course. The more they learn, the more they uncover, the bigger and more diverse their Lair (but that’s another update).

The Children recognize branches of the Dark Mother’s line, which they simply call Families. Players creating Beast characters choose one of these Families as character creation. The Families are: