Blooded Animals

[geeman]

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 think there would necessarily be a "daisy chain" of bloodtheft, if you will, even between beings that are as closely connected as wizards and their familiars. Animal companions of druids/priests of Reynir and rangers seem even less directly associated than wizards/familiars. You could, of course, make a particular DM fiat exception in your campaign or background materials, but there's not much in the canon to support such an idea. For instance, you could have an exceptional situation to explain the existence of a particular kind of blooded animal. A familiar whose master committed an act of bloodtheft and somehow died in the attempt, or what if a wizard stabbed himself (by some freak accident, suicide or bizarre act of desperation) while his familiar was perched on his wrist? That then familiar becomes a sort of blooded animal, free to develop and live on its own.

That said, I like to think of awnshegh as going through a sort of supervillain origin story with a particular theme. Rather than just any old life & death situation activating their mutant powers, awnshegh powers come about as a result of blood, death and betrayal. You can do blood and death, or you can do blood and betrayal, or you can do all three concurrent or consecutive, but you can't do death and betrayal without blood. Blood is compulsory. They're all blood, you see. (With apologies to Tom Stoppard.) If one sticks to that kind of thematic system, then there are other ways blooded animals could come about as a result of something like a bloodtheft. The whole "stab through the heart" issue has always been somewhat game mechanically abstract to begin with, and I've personally always thought that other types of killing blows or deaths could make as much sense. So, I've written up awnsheghlien descriptions in which the origins of the creature come from a scion's blood seeping into the sand to animate as a kind of spirit. The Vulture ate the heart of a vulture that had, in turn, been feeding on the bodies of executed Vos nobles, which awakened his awnshegh nature. The Flayed Man came about after bleeding to death on the piles of bodies in a mass grave. Kettil the Leech was the result of a blood transfusion gone wrong.

So, I'd argue that you could come up with blooded animals in any number of thematically valid methods. They could be the result of experimentation/breeding by a wizard or group of scions. Any of the temples might be breeding their totemic animals using stock that was somehow infused with a bloodline (particularly a god whose priests have access to shapeshifting abilities....) They might come about as a result of an awakened animal stealing a bloodline in a way identical to the way humans do it and then passing it along to its progeny. The spell that is in 3.5 called Baleful Polymorph has all kinds of possible ramifications. Consider the historical (but probably anecdotal) story of Caligula wanting to make a senator of his horse. In BR, he could at least make an attempt at such a thing....