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Thread: Blooded Animals

  1. #1

    Blooded Animals

    I recently ran across a reference to blood hounds and it got me thinking what other blooded animals could be out there. Clearly any animals that would likely be on a battle field could have absorbed divine essence and passed that down to its offspring. A selective breeding program like those used in kennels for blood hounds could preserve the other animals bloodlines. Is there anything canon out there on blooded horses, blooded falcons, etc.

    Edit: Here is a clarification of my post.

    Blood Hounds are a canon creature found in the Blood Spawn sourcebook. They are blooded dogs breed in at least three kennels on Cerilia and sold for about 2 GB each. I am looking for other canon sources of blooded animals. Presumably other blooded animals would have similar origins to Blood Hounds. Blooded Mounts such as horses and varsks would be consistent with the canon lore on blood hounds.
    Last edited by Halvor2; 07-26-2018 at 02:51 PM. Reason: Clerification of post

  2. #2
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    Yes there is precedent. The most prominant example is the awnshegh known as The Boar. Further, Pegasus and the Stag of Sielwode from Blood Enemies are both blooded beings that began life as normal animals.

    Though i think managing bloodlines through kennels would be difficult, as i would expect blooded creatures to not do well in captivity- bloodlines usually result in ambition, and have a tendency to break out and do their own thing.

    -Fizz
    Last edited by Fizz; 07-24-2018 at 02:16 PM.

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    Site Moderator AndrewTall's Avatar
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    I think that most animals in the canon with a bloodline are linked to Azrai - the basilisk, the sea awnies and so on. That ties in with Azrai's bloodline being more 'contagious/corrupting' than the others.

    I would expect that as each god had sacred animals, those would be more likely to reflect a bloodline than animals not linked to the deity.

    As Fizz notes however I would expect any breeding of bloodlines to be highly risky or unsuccessful - milking bloodlines is a player staple but thematically doesn't work, though arguably the Gorgon's guidance of bloodlines could be seen as a canon example of such a breeding program, and one of th ebooks notes that bloodlines are rare amongst the karamhul/sidhe due to low amounts of breeding since Deismaar.

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    Quote Originally Posted by AndrewTall View Post
    I think that most animals in the canon with a bloodline are linked to Azrai - the basilisk, the sea awnies and so on. That ties in with Azrai's bloodline being more 'contagious/corrupting' than the others.
    Those ones though all started out as humans. I think the OP was referring to blooded beings that began life as animals.

    To your point, you're probably right that most man-to-beast awnshegh have been of Azrai. But there is precedent for others. Borelas the Badger and the Golden Unicorn come to mind, both ersheghlien.

    -Fizz
    Last edited by Fizz; 07-24-2018 at 11:47 PM.

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    Site Moderator geeman's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Halvor2 View Post
    I recently ran across a reference to blood hounds and it got me thinking what other blooded animals could be out there. Clearly any animals that would likely be on a battle field could have absorbed divine essence and passed that down to its offspring. A selective breeding program like those used in kennels for blood hounds could preserve the other animals bloodlines. Is there anything canon out there on blooded horses, blooded falcons, etc.
    I don't think there are a lot of examples of actual animals from Deismaar other than blood hounds, but there are examples of "animals" that have a bloodline, or would according to the rules. Some creatures appear to gain a bloodline in "non-traditional" ways. That is, bloodtheft doesn't seem to only work by stabbing through the heart. Some creatures gain a bloodline by devouring a blooded individual or otherwise being exposed to that bloodline, and they gain powers in a way that is comparable to bloodtheft. In addition, some awnsheghlien are specifically described not only as animals "elevated" by a bloodline, but also as mating with animals and having progeny. In fact, there are several awnsheghlien in the original canon who have spawned quite a few offspring, and those offspring might be more or less animals, depending on how one reads that source material. In particular, I'd take a look at Blood Enemies as it has a few that might suit your purposes. For instance:

    The Hydra. His realm, the Harrowmarsh, is described as "infested with" among other things, awnsheghlien, his offspring. The "hundreds or even thousands" of hydrakin in particular are "random results of the Hydra's asexual reproduction" which should make for all kinds of possible degenerate forms, and even offspring (asexually produced or not...) of those degenerate forms.

    Similarly, the Sphynx is specifically described as mating with both humans and felines. "The Sphinx's progeny from both human and leonine mates are a mixture of semi-sentient felines that can speak, albeit in broken sentences, and slightly feral humanoids that are intelligent though dangerously temperamental." That first category sounds much like what you're describing.

    Several other creatures might have such offspring. In addition to those already mentioned here by other posters, the Spider, the Serpent, the Wolf could all easily be spawning whole broods of "blooded" animals. Others are maybe less likely such as the Kraken, Seadrake or the Minotaur all of whom seem, based on their descriptions, less inclined to mate, but could be reinterpreted/revised to suit such a theme. Any of the female awnshegh seem similarly less likely candidates simply because of the time necessary to gestate, but also because as a group they don't tend to be as animalistic a theme/inspiration as the male examples. The Harpy, however, seems like she could be interpreted to create some sort of blooded falcon/eagle/hawk progeny, though that description specifically lists the harpies and war birds that make up some of her military as not blooded.
    Last edited by geeman; 09-12-2018 at 06:29 AM.

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Fizz View Post
    Yes there is precedent. The most prominant example is the awnshegh known as The Boar. Further, Pegasus and the Stag of Sielwode from Blood Enemies are both blooded beings that began life as normal animals.

    Though i think managing bloodlines through kennels would be difficult, as i would expect blooded creatures to not do well in captivity- bloodlines usually result in ambition, and have a tendency to break out and do their own thing.

    -Fizz
    The reference to Blood Hounds I can across comes from the Birthright Sourcebook: "Blood Spawn" It mentions Blood Hounds as descendants of war dogs and such that were at Mount Deismaar. It also references the existence of three kennels in Cerilia with the possibility that wealthy regents may have set up their own as well.

    According to the source 95% of blood hounds have tainted bloodscores with a blood mark that appears on their fur and the ability to track blooded individuals. 5% of blood hounds are exceptional and may have a limited pool of other blood abilities such as long life.

    Costs of bloodhounds are listed as 2 GB+ and the source refers to them as something of a status symbol. They are one master dogs that will only accept a blooded individual as their master. There are some interesting bonuses if the dog and and owner share the same bloodline derivation.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Halvor2 View Post
    The reference to Blood Hounds I can across comes from the Birthright Sourcebook: "Blood Spawn" It mentions Blood Hounds as descendants of war dogs and such that were at Mount Deismaar. It also references the existence of three kennels in Cerilia with the possibility that wealthy regents may have set up their own as well.

    According to the source 95% of blood hounds have tainted bloodscores with a blood mark that appears on their fur and the ability to track blooded individuals. 5% of blood hounds are exceptional and may have a limited pool of other blood abilities such as long life.

    Costs of bloodhounds are listed as 2 GB+ and the source refers to them as something of a status symbol. They are one master dogs that will only accept a blooded individual as their master. There are some interesting bonuses if the dog and and owner share the same bloodline derivation.
    Ah yes, i recall that. I think i misinterpreted your initial post- i read it as though there were kennels that were breeding in order to build up bloodlines- slowly breeding the dogs to have increasingly stronger blood scores, not just preserving the line.

    Breeding such critters, even with a tainted bloodline, is clearly a rare and highly specialized chore- only 3 kennels in Cerilia and 2GB per pup- not something the novice can start up easily. Perhaps because most dogs have tainted bloodlines they can be controlled. So i think my initial skepticism is still justified.

    As for other animals, while there are several examples of animals gaining a bloodline, the only one i know of as definitely being at Deismaar was Haelyn's charger, Pegasus. So i don't think it's a leap to say any animal that was at Deismaar could have descendents with a bloodline, though like the hounds, likely very diluted.


    -Fizz
    Last edited by Fizz; 07-26-2018 at 09:20 PM.

  8. #8
    Site Moderator Magian's Avatar
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    I agree with Fizz. I think you can tie in any species to Deismar that you want.

    However, you could also give them a stronger bloodline if you want as well. This is not a Birthright example, but in "A Song of Ice and Fire" Arya's dire wolf Nymeria (named after a Warrior-Queen) is the alpha of a super-pack of wolves in the Riverlands that is speculated to be a formidable force, so much so that literary analysis suggests that it will prove to be an influential device in a coming battle. We can easily connect the lines to some form of pack/tribal domain for a blooded wolf that leads a group and passes it's bloodline through their own alpha pups. Perhaps this is stretching the domain rules too much. It does give an idea of how to explain why an animal bloodline isn't so diluted.
    One law, One court, One allied people, One coin, and one tax, is what I shall bring to Cerilia.

  9. #9

    Newly blooded animals

    What about blooded animals and bloodtheft? Could an animal close to a successful bloodtheft attempt receive excess bloodline strength as the power goes to the closest, next powerful creature? I could see this happening with familiars or animal companions that are close to their partner as blood theft occurs..

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    Quote Originally Posted by Hawkfeather View Post
    What about blooded animals and bloodtheft? Could an animal close to a successful bloodtheft attempt receive excess bloodline strength as the power goes to the closest, next powerful creature? I could see this happening with familiars or animal companions that are close to their partner as blood theft occurs..
    I don't see why any rule that applies to the standard races can't apply to any animal.

    A transfer of bloodline to a familiar or companion could set up some interesting storylines. For instance, consider a familiar or companion, with his new powers, out to avenge its slain master.

    -Fizz

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