Chronicles of Darkness - Beast: the Primordial

Primordial Character Template
Primordial Genre Directory

The nightmares are real,

AND YOU'RE ONE OF THEM.
Now, let us feast.

- Zmei

Overview

You are a Beast, and you must feed. Your Hunger drives you, and your Hunger might damn you. Indulge too lightly and your Horror will take matters into its own hands, roaming the Primordial Dream for sustenance and awakening murderous hatred in spiritually weak individuals. Feed too deeply and too often, and you become sluggish, sacrificing the raw edge of Hunger for the languor of Satiety. You must decide how to grow your Legend — will you be the monster incarnate, the thing that all other monsters fear? Or are you doomed to die under a Hero’s sword?

In Beast: The Primordial, you are one of the Begotten: a human being with a monster's soul; not just any monster, but one of the great monsters of legend: A titan, dragon, gryphon, kraken, or the great unseen threat. You’ve been having the same nightmare for a long time, possibly all your life, the kind of nightmares humans have had since the dawn of time. Maybe you were stalked by an unyielding, unseen hunter; dropped from great heights; pulled down into the waters, slowly drowning; left helpless in the face of overwhelming power; or perhaps something so ugly was hunting you that just the thought of seeing it might jump-scare you enough to wake up.

However, you decided you were done with being a victim and turned to face the monster; in doing so, you realized that YOU are monster- you have always been the Beast. Now that you embrace your true nature, you understand yourself so much better. Even though this experience may have been dramatic, it is also a huge relief: the Beast understands why it is different, why it never felt like it fit in, and where its strange urges come from.

Special Note

In our Chronicle, Beast: the Primordial characters are included in all genre VSSs (excepting Vigil and Descent) on a High-Approval basis, rather than in Primordial-specific VSSs.

Genre Staff

Global Chronicle Storyteller (CST Chronicles of Darkness): Alex Strange

Families

To the Begotten, all monsters of this world are descendants of the Dark Mother. They themselves, however, have determined five lineages of Horrors centered around a specific set of primordial fears of humanity. These fears and images are reinterpreted and reimagined with every passing generation, but on some level, they haven’t changed in thousands of years. Some draw on a common set of mythological monsters that manifest in the Horror connected to a Beast.

Some interpret the other members of the supernatural world (like vampires or werewolves) as specific branch-families that lost contact to the Dark Mother.

• Anakim, nightmares of helplessness and hopelessness
• Eshmaki, nightmares of darkness
• Makara, nightmares of the depths
• Namtaru, nightmares of revulsion
• Ugallu, nightmares of exposure

Hungers

Hungers are special expressions of the Horror. They cast the "role" of it within the Primordial Dream. Because of this, Beasts generally accept that each of them has a particular need that has to be fulfilled, no matter how repulsive and immoral it might seem.

For Beasts, the Hunger is everything, a primal need that always lurks within them. Its complexity depends on a Beast's Satiety. Should a Beast have a very high Satiety, the demands of its Hunger will become increasingly complex. If it has low Satiety, any form that fits its particular Hunger will suffice.

A Beast can sate its Hunger in a number of ways, and a brood can often find a way to hunt that allows all of its members to increase Satiety. This, however, can lead to complications, since different Beast experience different Hungers. Sometimes, they need to go out and feast on their own. Others instead turn towards their Kin, seeing in them new, wonderful ways to sate themselves.

• Collectors: The Hunger for the Hoard
• Nemeses: The Hunger for Punishment
• Predators: The Hunger for Prey
• Ravagers: The Hunger for Ruin
• Tyrants: The Hunger for Power