Nuclear Beasts

More Shadow Ideas

Types of Shadows

Rangers generally classify Shadows as one of four general types.

Obsessions: these spirits have some goal or purpose that they were prevented from completing in life and they exist solely to fulfull it. They attach themselves to Beasts who are frustrated by a similar need. So a spirit with an obsession about reaching a particular place in Los Angeles might take over a Beast who got lost trying to find his way back to his village. Obsessions generally aren't directly dangerous to other Beasts, only to the one Beast whose mind is being increasingly dominated by an urge to perform some task... a task that may well no longer be possible.

Furies: these spirits are still filled with rage and frustration against whomever they blamed for their troubles in life (usually they're mad about the Last War in general, but sometimes it's more personal than that). They adhere to Beasts who are really angry at someone else and drive them to attack that person in a murderous rage. If the target of their anger is successfully killed or at least beaten into a bloody pulp, the spirit will sometimes become quiscient... but more often it'll just pick a new "enemy" to unleash its anger upon. When a Beast goes into a wild rage, it's often said that "the Furies are upon them". This is sometimes used as an excuse for a violent crime, in which case Rangers are often asked to determine whether the person really was controlled by a Fury or not.

Malignants: the worst and most dangerous of all Shadows, these spirits are creatures of pure, distilled evil. They embody feelings like jealousy, sadism and general viciousness. Unlike Furies, however, Malignants tend to be disturbingly smart. They are quite capable of lurking in a Beast's mind for years, gradually motivating them to increasingly cruel and depraved acts until it finally becomes obvious that they are no longer sane. Malignants experience a sick glee when they do something wrong, and this emotion is shared by their host. As such, a Beast with a Malignant tends to become addicted to causing pain and destruction.

Malignants are also capable of forming attachments to other Beasts, although it's generally more of a violent possessiveness than actual affection. Entire clans, especially ravener clans, have fallen under the sway of malignants until every Beast is governed by one of these cruel Shadows. Such tribes are extremely dangerous because they generally reserve their worst acts for outsiders and content themselves with petty cruelties amongst themselves. A group of Malignants working together to sow evil and dismay can be a truly terrifying force and most Beasts would rather perish than be captured by such a tribe. The deaths of their captives are always long, drawn out and excruciatingly painful.

Malignants attach themselves to a little core of evil inside a Beast. As such, almost anyone is potentially a Malignant host, since most Beasts repress and hide any evil urges they might have. Furthermore, once they do adhere to a host, they are the hardest of spirits to banish and they almost always go into dormancy instead of being banished completely. Because of this, the Caretakers generally advise that Malignant-possessed Beasts just be killed. Rangers are not encouraged to try and free them from the spirit, although there have been successes in the past.

Many Beasts believe (pretty much as an article of religious faith) that normal Beasts are nearly incapable of evil and that all cruelty and selfishness in the world comes from the influence of Malignant spirits.

Whimsies: generally the mildest and least dangerous of Shadows, a Whimsy is a human spirit that has forgotten or refuses to believe that it is dead. Hosts generally suffer from confusion and distraction as the spirit influences their actions in bizarre ways. They may chatter about ancient events or desperately try to find their car keys. A Whimsy is distinguished from an Obsession in that it hasn't got a specific, singular goal that occupies its mind. Instead, its mind wanders randomly through fragmentary memories, causing its host to have problems telling whether something is real or just part of the Spirit's memories. It's believed that Whimsies most commonly attach themselves to daydreaming Beasts, although this may just be a popular superstition.

Banishing a Shadow

There are a number of ways of banishing (temporarily or permanently) a Shadow.

1. Inspire the Beast to break free by reminding them who they really are and what they have to live for.
2. Obsessions can be removed by completing their task or at least convincing them that it is done.
3. Some spirits (especially Whimsies) can sometimes be banished by convincing them that they really are ghosts. This has a tendency to just put them into dormancy, however, as most Shadows lack long-term memory and soon forget their ghostly state again.
4. Weaker and milder Shadows can be driven away by inflicting physical pain and injury on their hosts. Nobody really likes this solution, since it involves deliberately torturing the unfortunate Beast until the spirit can't take it anymore, but it does work on many mild and relatively innoffensive spirits.
5. Hypnotise the subject into blocking out the spirit. This sometimes drives the spirit away completely, but it's unreliable as a long-term solution.
6. Remove the spirit with psychic powers. This is somewhat dangerous, and often involves first transferring the Shadow to the psychic, then attempting to banish it there. The problem, of course, is that the Shadow might adhere to the psychic more strongly than their previous host, leaving the psychic Beast under its influence and unable to be rid of it.
7. Kill the host. The most dramatic and permanent resolution, usually reserved for Malignants.

Exterminators: Once in a great while, a Malignant spirit actually manages to possess one of the computer intelligences that run an ancient robot. Such machines gradually become more and more unpredictable in their actions, then eventually go on murderous rages, attacking and killing any Beast that they can catch. Exterminators often shun the use of their most powerful weapons, preferring to kill Beasts up close and personal, in as bloody of a manner as possible. They are known to engage in grotesque acts such as hanging severed heads or even entire corpses from their metal frames or in some hidden hideaway, always hunting for more prizes to add to the collection.

When its murderous rage is temporarily sated, an Exterminator will sometimes go back and resume its original duties. Other times it simply sits and waits, as though bereft of purpose so long as the spirit is dormant.

Psychic Powers and Shadows: Beasts with psychic powers are most vulnerable to possession by Shadows. Beasts who have no psychic powers and no psychic potential get a +4 to resist Shadows and thus rarely become hosts. The "Psychic Potential" Gift is free. It lets you take psychic powers in the future if you want to, but removes that +4 bonus.

Other Names for Shadows: other common names for Shadows include Demons, Ghosts and Echoes. The term Echoes is preferred by those who wish to emphasize that Shadows aren't really people in any sense of the word; they're just psychic residue left by people who died during the Last War.

Mastered Shadows: some Shadows are so weak (or their hosts so strong-willed) that they can be repressed and controlled indefinitely. The urges that they exert on their hosts are easily ignored and the Beast can live a fairly normal life. A Mastered Shadow is basically a free trait that you can take. If you ever use it in a contest (by deliberately unleashing the Shadow and using its urges to aid you), you must afterwards make a willpower test vs its trait to see if it continues to influence you. Taking a strong Mastered Shadow is a bad idea, as it will generally turn into an unmastered Shadow the first time that you use it.

No one ever has more than one Mastered Shadow. Shadows just don't like to share hosts. If you do somehow end up with multiple Shadows, the weakest one will eventually leave.

Posted by Kiz at August 27, 2004 09:53 AM