Beast
A beast usually refers to a creature or entity that, for the most part, has the typical features of an animal.
Beasts are usually of animal intelligence and hence have Cunning as a Characteristic instead of Intelligence.
Mythical Beasts
A beast may be a mundane beast with no special qualities beyond its obvious properties. Beasts may also be aligned with one of the Realms of Power, which may or may not be noticeable to a careful beholder, depending on whether the behavior of the beast (deliberately or unconsciously) is secretive or indifferent about its true nature.
Beasts aligned with a Realm almost always have at least minor mythical powers associated with that Realm. Again, it mostly depends on the creature's nature and personality whether it is willing to reveal such powers, or rather tries to remain incognito. In the latter case, the beast will most probably act and behave like a typical representative of the respective mundane species, whereas an agent of a Realm that tries to attract the beholder's attention might act atypical or intelligent, or might even appear as if acting completely randomly.
There are also mythical beasts in Mythic Europe that are quite obviously not mundane creatures. Dragons, griffins, and pegasi would be examples of such creatures that (more or less) clearly do not belong to the mundane world. In such a case, a responsible scholar might prefer the term "creature" instead of "beast".
References
- ArM5 p. 184, 191.
- of Mundane Beasts: RoPM p. 140
Related Topics
- Beast of Virtue, RoPM pages 55, 140
- Corrupted Beast, RoPM p. 77
- Heartbeast: a Bjornaer Mystery
Related Sites
Legacy Page
The history of this page before August 6, 2010 is archived at Legacy:beast