The Primordial Beasts

A recurring bit of worldbuilding that has been going on throughout my Greylands campaign have been the Primordial Beasts - large, quasi-divine animals of varying power and influence.

Unlike the Sun God (who’s religion now dominates the world), and the Wild Gods (who still have pockets of worshipers doggedly holding onto their ways), the Primordial Beasts don’t really offer much in the way of magic to those who follow them, as there simply isn't much there to give. They are barely godlings in their own way, and even then that applies only to some of them.

However that has never stopped some people (contrarians, as they are usually called) from trying anyway. And so the Beasts do occasionally get small pockets of non-animal worshipers.

This has actually caused surprisingly little friction with the Sun God’s followers. After all, while some of the Solar religions are more syncretic than others and incorporate acceptable versions of the Wild Gods, the veneration of Primordial Beasts is such a backwoods and rare occasion that most church leaders simply don’t even believe it to be true. And with how little it produces in terms of tangible effects on reality - who can blame them?

And yet, those who dedicate themselves to a Primordial Beast do get a small benefit or two from it. As such, below I will explore in some more detail the three Primordial Beasts that players have encountered so far throughout the campaign, and what (if any) potential powers aligning yourself with them can bring you. Who knows, maybe it’ll be something players are interested in doing in the campaign.

Simple Rules for Beast Worship

A character who devotes themselves to the veneration of a Primordial Beast must spend at least one downtime action per month in maintaining a shrine to the beast in question, offer sacrifices and generally refrain from harming normal animals of the appropriate type, save for ways allowed by the Primordial Beast in question.

Failing to follow these duties for 6 months or longer simply withers away the connection. Depending on what boons the devotee was granted, they may or may not still keep them anyway - the Primordial Beasts usually don’t have enough divine power to exert punishment. Faith is lost not through grand gestures, but through apathy.

Medved (Bear)

Description: The Master of the War Bears is arguably the single most potent and powerful of the Primordial Beasts currently alive. He still causes fear and respect in humanity, for those were instilled within their collective unconscious very firmly in the old and hazy past. He keeps them current too by the presence of his favored children, the War Bears.

Medved likes to travel a lot, usually setting up camp in some border territory or forgotten piece of unfinished Chaos and spends his days in leisure, merriment and laziness. He has enough personal magical power that he can change his appearance at will. When dealing with humans he often makes a point to appear as a large, hairy, bearded, and usually buck naked, man. In most other cases he appears as an impressively massive brown bear with a golden shine to his fur.

 
Cult Requirements: Being a man’s man (in every way you can imagine), Medved greatly prefers and favors male characters, however he will still accept anyone’s veneration if given.

Boons: Characters that worship Medved get +1 to reaction rolls when interacting with War Bears and +1 to the morale of War Bear hirelings. Furthermore if the character is looking for new hirelings and there are War Bears around, at least one will always be willing to consider joining them (and only them).

A devotee of Medved of level 2 or greater can also temporarily set their Strength to 18 and perform Feats of Strength (ripping off doors, hurling small boulders, bending iron bars etc) for 1d4-1 turns (the -1 is because Medved sometimes just zones out and forgets about you). They can use this power once per day.

Markings: Male, non-ursine members of the cult find themselves becoming noticeably hairy over time.

Svine (Swine)

Description: Svine is a minor Primordial Beast, really little more than a very big and ponderous swine with a faint aura of magic around her. She is quite happy with that, as humanity keeps her children well fed and taken care of, breeding more and more of them all the time. Sure, the wilder ones tend to get hunted down and killed, but that is how life goes.

Her current residence and center of power, if you can even call it that, is a small commune of Wild Gods-worshipping pagans living in the magically desiccated zone known as the Greylands. She is given veneration, offerings and worship by these people as well as physically taken care of by them.

Svine appears as a fat and quite large swine, covered in glittering fur and with shining tusks. She does not have the power (or the desire) to change her shape.

Cult Requirements: None

Boons: Svine is willing to grant some of her larger and more aggressive children to aid her followers. These War Boars have the same stats as the monster entry. A devotee may have as many war boars for followers as their character level.

War Boars do not require upkeep, still take up a follower slot, and as long as treated well will never abandon the person they follow, even if that person stops being a devotee of Svine.

Markings: Especially devoted followers sometimes find themselves granted boar heads in place of their usual faces. The effect is only ever temporary though, lasting for several months to a year at most.

Vuycho Vulk/Uncle Wolf (Wolf)

Description: Uncle Wolf was once as powerful as Medved is now, if not even more so. His presence sent humans fleeing in terror, for they knew that his arrival heralded only bloody death for them and their kin. His family to this day are feared by humans, even if not respected much and though humanity keeps trying to eradicate them, wolves are smart and also know the value of cooperation just as well as humans do.

In his day he was able to freely turn himself into multiple forms - a human warrior, a giant wolf, a large black shadow that stalked the night. He cut his way through entire kingdoms, gorging himself on their livestock, their children and everything else he wished.

That all changed once he got himself killed. Nowadays Uncle Wolf is barely venerated or worshiped at all. Oh sure, human mothers still use his name to scare their pups into obedience, but in reality he can’t do shit to anyone anymore. And yet, he still persists. Despite being dead, his aura of fear is still there, still lingering in the primal parts of the human brain.

He has mellowed out significantly since being decapitated - not having a physical body makes it hard to revel in bloodlust and carnage like he used to. Nowadays he is just happy for anyone to remember him and leave him an offering once in a while.

Cult Requirements: Vuycho Vulk still pines for the good old days and so will generally only grant boons to warriors or at a pinch, thieves. War Bears can join, because he finds it deeply amusing.

Boons: Once per day, a devotee of Uncle Wolf can channel that deep-seated fear in any targets they choose within a 20ft radius. Those targets all have to immediately make a morale check, and if failed will stop whatever they’re doing and flee in terror. This ability does not work on the undead or, for that matter, on wolves.

Markings: No overt ones, though devoted followers of Uncle Wolf just make humans around them kind of uncomfortable, even if people can’t quite place why.