All the Monster Progenitors of the WoD are or were Beasts
Caine, Father Wolf, the Gentry, Lucifer... They all started out as Beasts. Then they became Incarnate and devised a means of creating "children" to spread their Myth. It's how modern Beasts can form kinships. The Fears are ancient and powerful Incarnate Beasts.
Well, they are personifications of fear, if on a far greater scale than Beasts.
On the Family/Hunger combinations:
- The Ichor/EAT: Makara Collector (the Camper Hive Mind). Maybe the original Namtaru?
- The Rake: Eshmaki Predator
- The Blind Man: Namtaru (Inevitability of old age) Collector (steals memories and keeps them in his archives).
- The Archangel: Obviously, not actually the afterlife here, so I would say Anakim Tyrant, possibly with kinship to ghosts or Geister/Sin-Eaters.
- The Plague Doctor: Namtaru Ravager.
- The Black Dog: Namtaru Nemesis or Predator.
- The Eye: Ugallu Nemesis or maybe Predator.
- The Slender Man: Eshmaki (elusive until it is too late) or Ugallu (standing there, watching you)? Possibly a Ravager, maybe a Predator.
- The Convocation: Definitively Ugallu, not sure about the hunger.
- The Wooden Girl: Obvious Collector, Family unknown.
- The Empty City: Originally a Lair. However, when its Beast was killed, it somehow absorbed parts of its Soul and became a sentient nightmare on its own. Collector, maybe Makara (metaphorical fish out of water).
Pedobear is a Beast
More specifically, a Anakim - he is a blank eyed bear, his victims... are children — and obviously a Predator. In his Life, he is some Japanese nerd with a Lolita complex. He started his meme himself to spread nightmares about him across the world. Obviously some of his victims end up unable to cope from the trauma, and become Heroes paranoidly suspecting everyone of being child molesters.- Reminder, Beasts don't create Heroes. Heroes are not former victims of Beasts. Though I do believe the Heroes drawn to kill Pedobear would be all for starting a Pædo Hunt.
Blackbeard was a Beast.
Really, his entire modus operandi was "scariest pirate ever" which would definitively be a perfect career for a Makara Collector. He had access to the Unbreakable Atavism, as demonstrated in his last stand. The Incredible Hulk is an unwilling Beast
Specifically an Anakim with Cyclopean Strength, Looming Presence and Titanic Blow. Banner refuses to feed until the starved Hulk finally snaps, breaks free, and feeds its Hunger for Ruin in a spectacular manner. Batman is a Beast
Most likely a Nemesis Eshmaki who specifically targets criminals, and avoids using his abilities as much as possible so he won't hunger too fast. He keeps it in check by scaring the crap out of Gotham's criminals, thus allowing him to put his nature to use. The Joker might also be a Hero he accidentally created once, which would explain why he is so difficult to kill and why he is obsessed with Batman.- Reminder, Beasts don't create Heroes.
Beasts are just as delusional as Heroes
The book says that Beasts exist to teach lessons, that their lessons are needed more than ever now, that they are the only ones who have all of the answers, and that Heroes are too egotistical to see this. But this is all said from the perspective of Beasts. There is nothing stopping them from just killing people and teaching nothing, their lessons are often incredibly severe despite the safety net of modern society meaning that our mistakes aren't liable to get us killed anymore, and most of their interactions with and claims about the supernatural of often demonstrably wrong (i.e. saying "What would happen if I tore off your masks? Would anything remain?" to Demons like they were harmless shapeshifters rather than the reality hacking super beings they really are). Add in the fact that a Beast's Horror seems to do everything it can to create and attract Heroes and claims that Heroes are the ones messing with the natural order of things ring hollow. The truth is that Beasts were meant to act as antagonists for humanity to overcome and Heroes were meant to be spiritual leaders that helped overcome Beasts, but now we've outgrown the need for both and the fact that this is the World of Darkness means that this has twisted not just Heroes, but Beasts as well.- The Demon entry doesn't sound like it's suggesting Demons are harmless without their "mask", but more like they are without any identity without them (which is technically true). Also, the whole "Beasts create Heroes" was jossed in later rewriting, so this argument doesn't work anymore.
- It's also worth noting that just because Beasts serve a purpose in teaching humanity lessons, that doesn't make their doing so any less evil. As C.S. Lewis said
To afflict humanity "because affliction is good for them" is not indeed to break the Divine Scheme, but to volunteer for the post of Satan within that scheme. And if you do his work, you must be prepared for his wages.- Heck, the Mummy testimonial even questions if a Beasts lessons are, or ever were, needed by humanity anymore.
Tamatoa is a Beast
Most likely a Makara or a Namtaru, and definitely a Collector, which would explain his obsession with collecting shiny objects. Heroes are a broken reflection of Champions.
- In the days of the Kingdoms, it was the duty of the Champions to be the guardians, the dragonslayers, the ones who killed the monsters and protected the helpless. When the Darkness wove the Trap and sealed the Champions (along with the other Hopeful) in the Dreamlands, suddenly Beasts could run rampant, killing and destroying with nothing to stop them. This destabilized the Primordial Dream, and it responded by pushing on anyone who was broken enough to be open to its influence, trying to create new Champions to replace the missing Hopeful. But the power of the Primordial Dream is far less gentle or precise than that of the Light, and where the Champions were elevated from the strongest of souls, Heroes are created from among the weakest. So instead of being empowered, Heroes were overwhelmed, their own selves subsumed by the archetypes of the Dream.
Bunsen Is a Beast is pro-Beast propaganda.
Pennywise the Dancing Clown, from the 1986 horror novel It by Stephen King and the films it inspired, is a Beast
- The fella's almost certainly an Inguma or Eshmaki Predator who’s somehow managed to thoroughly intertwine the town and his Lair with each other.
- Actually, he comes off more like an Insatiable, with his power to induce apathy and control others bringing to mind a Schism.
Someone will find a way to cross this game with the Scion setting
Possibly by allowing Heroes to be patterned on Scions. This game was originally intended to be a Cape Punk RPG with the PCs as super-villains
The Phantom Thieves are a group of Nemesis Beasts
They target either other Beasts or corrupt Heroes. Most Beasts don't believe the "teaching through fear" thing.
It's a self-justification they try to use to stop themselves from going mad from guilt. For anyone with a shred of morality before becoming a Beast, suddenly needing to literally force others to suffer to survive is going to be horrible. The reason "teaching through fear" became so popular was first because it was a very convenient excuse that looked good on the surface, and later it simply became the "traditional" justification. Of course, as with all erroneous justifications, this clearly doesn't go well, with many Beasts using it to justify worse and worse things.