Line #14 NightmareFuel/BeastThePrimordial


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/b4fda215e72bb10dcac4243f1c6afc4ecb3c0c97d53291271a2028649e666f8a.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:Do not fight a Beast on his [[EldritchLocation Home turf]].]]
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4	* Let's start with the fact that a Beast is literally a spiritually-incarnated nightmare come to life. Remember some of the nightmares you had? Well, a Beast's soul is ''literally formed from their essence''.
5	** There is also the implications of being a Beast to begin with. You feel compelled to harm, dominate, scare, steal from, or even outright '''kill''' people around you, while still retaining a human conscience to tell you this is wrong. And should you ''try'' to resist these urges and let yourself starve for it, the mythological monster you have as a soul will go on a rampage in people's dreams to feed itself. But perhaps worst of all is that ''anyone'' human around you, including your loved ones, can suddenly turn into a super-powered psychopath obsessed with killing you. [[ParanoiaFuel It doesn't matter how good your relationship with them were, how much they used to love you: the moment they turn, they will immediately feel compelled to attack and murder you]].
6	* The existence of Lairs, [[EldritchLocation places that Should Not Be]]. And hints so far imply that Beasts can drag humans inside of them, trapping them inside the Beast's own personal world. Oh, and did we mention that, if you try to escape, some Lairs can lead you to [[{{LandOfFaerie}} The]] [[{{TheHedgeOfThorns}} Hedge]]? Or [[DarkWorld The Shadow]]? Or even TheUnderworld?
7	** To say nothing of the fact that, in its Lair, a Beast no longer has to bear the metaphysical weight of the human world. Meaning? [[OneWingedAngel It can revert to its true, terrifying form]]...
8	** Worse, a Beast needs not to actually drag you to its Lair in order to benefit from all these advantages. When they open a Primordial Pathway, they aren't using some form of portal; they are causing the location in the physical world to temporarily overlap with one of the Chambers in their Lair. Meaning that, for a moment, the place in the physical world ''becomes'' part of their Lair, allowing the Beast to benefit from all the HomefieldAdvantage and to revert to its true form. And don't bother trying to leave the area; all the exits will just lead you to a different Chamber, where you will be trapped when the Beast finally closes the Pathway, leaving you alone in the Lair as an easy bit of prey for her Horror...
9	** Moreover, while it's easier for them to open a Pathway in the locations the Chambers of their Lairs are based on, they are ''not'' restricted to it. ''Any'' place can do the trick, as long as it shares even the slightest similarity with her Lair. A Makara's Lair looks like an underwater cave? She can opens a Pathway in a swimming pool, or any place where it's wet or dark enough. An Eshmaki's Lair is a gigantic maze? Any place with enough corridors and/or walls will do. [[ParanoiaFuel It's incredibly easy for you to attack a Beast in a place resonant with her Lair without even noticing.]]
10	** And then there are the various traits a Lair can have. These include complete darkness, acid rain, sharp objects everywhere on the ground, bugs everywhere, and many, many more. A Lair is ''not'' a safe environment for a Beast's enemies.
11	* Atavisms, powers that invoke a Begotten's true form and its physical abilities, are two different kinds of Nightmare Fuel. If you happen to be a supernatural individual yourself, the human disguise you see [[GlamorFailure slips]], and you see the seemingly normal guy [[JumpScare turn into a dragon]] long enough to spit fire at you or a giant long enough to pick up a car and throw it. If you happen to be a [[{{Muggles}} hapless mortal]], however, you don't see the Beast form... just the normal guy ''breathing fire or throwing a goddamn car at you''.
12	* Then you have their ''other'' set of powers, Nightmares, which basically consist of how they can MindRape you in various terrifying ways. All a Beast has to do is either touch or stare at you and speak a few words, and suddenly you fall under the illusion that your entire body is rotting away, [[YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm have a vision of something so terrifying that your fright can cause you physical harm]], the delusion that maggots and/or bugs covering your entire body, or be overcome with the conviction that your entire life is meaningless, to give a few examples. Oh, and they can create ''more'' of these by taking inspiration from other supernaturals. A Beast who spends some time with vampires can learn to transmit Nightmares to people through her blood rather than a stare or contact, while one who hangs out with werewolves can cause victims to randomly suffer psychotic rages and attack everyone in sight. Those who associate with mummies can develop a Nightmare inflicting LaserGuidedAmnesia.
13	* The fact that [[TabletopGame/HunterTheVigil Slashers]] ''do'' trigger Kinship with Beasts is all kind of disturbing, even in-universe. Keep in mind Slashers are overall still humans, and many of them don't even ''have'' supernatural powers. [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters Yet they are still monstrous enough that Beasts actually feel like they belong in the Dark Mother's family.]]
14	* The only thing worse than the Beasts are the Heroes who fight them. At least in the Beast's case, they don't mean to hurt people (sometimes) and usually ''try'' to limit collateral damage; but Heroes are more than willing to kill people if it means getting to the Beast, and are firmly convinced that they are the main characters of a story that operates on ProtagonistCenteredMorality. Even Hunters think these guys are insane.
15	** There is also another thing to consider: Heroes have a HealingFactor that allows them to survive against impossible odds and recover from any injuries. [[ImplacableMan They are incredibly hard to kill]], [[TheDeterminator won't give up or listen to reason]], and are [[AxeCrazy obsessed with killing Beasts, with no regard for anything that gets in their way]]. They essentially are a slightly different kind of ''[[TabletopGame/HunterTheVigil Slashers]]'' who just happen to target Beasts. No wonder Hunters don't like that.
16	** Another scary thing about the Heroes? They can use their connection to the Primordial Dream to drag in regular people in order to use them as their "followers", essentially using them as mooks to support them against the Beasts. This is bad enough if they do it with civilians and give them guns or bats, but just imagine what happens when they get cops (or worse, military personnel) to join them. To make it worse, they [[WeHaveReserves have no regard for the people they drag in their mad quest and will sacrifice them without a second thought]].
17	** While Heroes might sound [[DracoInLeatherPants sympathetic]] at first, the book offers some examples illustrating how bad they can be. Notable mentions include a girl suddenly deciding she needs to kill her boyfriend, or a group of activists who plan to place a ''bomb'' under a house. And then, you have this bit of text showing the trial of a Hero who ''[[MoralEventHorizon burned a Beast's entire family alive]]'', with the Beast herself confirming none of them were Begotten.
18	*** A particularly disturbing one is Marian Jones, who used to be a nice, quiet housewife with two kids, and lived a happy life... until one of her sons went through a Homecoming at the age of seventeen. After a few vain attempts to understand why her son was suddenly becoming distant, staying out late at night, and keeping secrets, she started suffering nightmares involving his monster form. She eventually came to the conclusion her son had been replaced by the monster of her dreams, and her response was to [[OffingTheOffspring try to kill him]] (notice that by this point, her son had likely done nothing wrong intentionally -- the nightmares like the ones she suffered are something Beasts have no control over and typically happen when they are starving because they didn't feed enough). When her murder attempt failed, causing her son to run away and her husband to understandably call the police, she ran off with all their money and dedicated the rest of her life to become a [[KnightTemplar religious zealot]] traveling around the world, killing all the monsters she can find ([[FantasticRacism not just Beasts, but also vampires, mages, changelings]] -- as far as she is concerned, [[TheWitchHunter if it's magic, then it's evil and must be destroyed.]] [[CategoryTraitor Even regular humans who spend too much time with monsters can become her targets if she is in a bad mood]]). And she is ''still'' looking for her son, being somehow convinced that he is the source of all monsters in the world and will cause them to all disappear if she kills him.
19	*** While ''Conquering Heroes'' goes out of its way to portray sympathetic Heroes, it has a real piece of work in the form of [[EgomaniacHunter Dwight Whittaker]], [[TrapMaster the Web Weaver]]. A [[TheSociopath borderline sociopathic]] bomb disposal operator who deserted the army when they put him in a desk job away from his beloved bombs (because they suspected he was going to [[MadBomber set them off to see what would happen]]), he killed his superior officer and took a job as a mercenary in the Amazon, quietly using his time there to learn all there was about poisons. The one person he liked (who explicitly regarded him as a {{Yandere}} in the making) was a Namtaru anthropologist who he nearly burned to death when the Beast was sating his hunger, [[{{Irony}} and then thought that said Namtaru had eaten his crush]]. That wouldn't be so bad, except Dwight's [[MotiveDecay not in it for revenge]]; rather, what he really hates is the fact that Beasts come off as [[TheResenter better than he does]]; the instant he realized his first real prey had a family, [[IHaveYourWife he started on a campaign of kidnapping and murder]], ending when his target tried to negotiate for an antidote to a long-acting poison Dwight applied to his family...[[ShootTheShaggyDog provoking the voice-trigger fuse bomb he put in that phone]]. He's become TheDreaded for any Begotten who see his [[CallingCard distinct silver spiderweb]]; not because he's the strongest Hero, not because he's the smartest, but because he's the most cruel. Even ''SerialKiller'' [[PsychoPsychologist Michael Bellinger]] comes off better than he does (as Michael at least restricts his palate to monsters, and part of what makes it fun for him is [[GoodFeelsGood removing the people who are hurting his patients]]). And the kicker is that he barely ''remembers'' the Namtaru, he doesn’t even remember what he looks like.
20	** Heroes use Integrity for their KarmaMeter, more or less like ordinary humans; while it's not ''quite'' a measurement of how good or bad someone is, it's still a pretty good indication most of the time. Most of the example Heroes have about 4~5 (for the record, the Integrity for a starting character is 7) - the ones in that range have at least some kind of purpose, or feel guilt about what they do. Most. The last two Heroes mentioned, Marian Jones and Dwight Wittaker? They both have a measly Integrity '''2,''' and absolutely lack any scruples or real justifications.
21	** It's worth noting that not ''all'' Heroes are deluded, narcissistic, egomaniacal quasi-Slashers. Marlena Sarcosa, from ''Conquering Heroes,'' hates Beasts, but has a very understandable reason for it considering that one killed her wife, and only really hunts down Beasts that prey on her community and does her best to protect the people who live there. ''Beast Player's Guide'' has Merivan, who ''helped'' her Beast daughter put down the monstrous Rampant and become an Incarnate whose Myth was healing and protecting the innocent. And the corebook ''does'' explicitly say that not all Heroes hunt down the Begotten - it's just that those are the kinds that you have to worry about. Like Beasts, being a Hero is what one makes of it. In other words, the kind of loathsome behavior Heroes are notorious for have no more excuse than a Beast who uses what they are as an excuse to terrorize and bully humans.
22	* Each of the Inheritances that a Beast can have/achieve is its own kind of scary:
23	** The Retreat happens when a Beast abandons her human part to become her Soul/Horror alone, leaving nothing but an Ephemeral incarnation of a nightmare who wanders in the Primordial Dream and ''might'' retain some memories and personality of its former self. What makes it actually scary, however, is that this rarely happens on purpose: any Beast can go through this Inheritance against her will if she is killed while separated from her Horror (usually when she has fed well enough that her Horror goes back to sleep, leaving her temporarily BroughtDownToNormal). Better be careful to not raise your Satiety meter too high...
24	** The Merger is what happens when a Beast decides to stick to the physical world so hard she pulls her Horror into it and literally merges with it, warping its body in the process. The resulting creature is a usually mindless monster with no humanity left who becomes obsessed with satisfying its hunger in the most primal way. And unlike the Retreat, we are ''not'' talking about an Ephemeral Being here; the Merged Beast is a one hundred percent physical monster who can and will most likely hurt you if you cross its path. Worse, their mere presence warps the landscape around their territory over time to reflect them, essentially turning it into a physical version of their old Lair, and attract supernaturals.
25	** The Beast Incarnate, perhaps the scariest of the six, has the Beast subvert its Legend to become [[LivingLegend a true Myth]], turning into an even more powerful version of itself. It can now [[OneWingedAngel switch at will between its human and monster forms]] without bothering to open a Primordial Pathway, travel to the Primordial Dream no matter where it is, and perhaps the scariest of all "[[BroughtDownToNormal shut down]]" Heroes. This is the ''good end'' Inheritance, as while the Beast is not human anymore in any way, their conscience survives the transition and merges with their Legend to become a Myth -- their brand new role and position as a monster-god. But the worst part is ''how'' you ascend: at best, aside from having at least Lair 8, you can do it by [[CurbStompBattle defeating a Hero in such a one-sided way that he is made completely and utterly ‘’irrelevant’’ in your Myth]], becoming the undisputed leader of a Hive... or you can spread your Myth by feeding in a particularly spectacular and brutal way (such as killing a lot of people) in order to mark everyone.
26	*** To illustrate the horror the last one implies, we get a text describing a method used by a Beast to reach the Beast Incarnate: it makes a cave its home, spreads stories to attract people, then whenever people come to visit it, kills or makes some of them disappear while releasing the others on the condition they will talk about what they saw to someone else, spreading the story. Rinse and repeat.
27	*** Also, keep in mind that nothing stops the Incarnate from being pretty damn evil in the first place. ''Conquering Heroes'' has [[MorallyBankruptBanker Luca Rohner]], an Incarnate Eshmaki who had his Devouring ''[[CreepyChild in childhood]]'', and from the instant he realized he could become more powerful by being a bully, [[EnfanteTerrible he became one of the worst Ravagers to ever live]], eventually having his Incarnation in college. Today, he's essentially the ruler of Zurich's supernatural community, and he's well-known for his feeding strategy: he waits for some poor sucker to come to him for financial investment, or an intern who wants him as a mentor -- the more promising, the better. Then [[HopeCrusher he slowly takes his clients and students apart, piece by excruciating piece]], watching as they fall apart meeting his deliberately impossible standards and keep on losing due to his hidden hand, all in the promise it will be worth it...[[YankTheDogsChain and then once he's had his fill, he yanks it away]], finding the DespairEventHorizon a fine dessert (he especially loves the taste of someone being DrivenToSuicide). And everything he does is ''perfectly legal''; he's so powerful in his mundane life he doesn't even need to use his supernatural abilities to have food just walk into his waiting claws.
28	** The Divergence results in complete severance of the Beast and Horror. The way this is achieved? The Beast starves its Horror until the two fall on each other, consuming one another. Worse, the two aren't completely separate, and the Horror usually finds the Beast an annoyance...
29	** Erasure is when a Beast destroys its Horror completely. [[PoweredByAForsakenChild It starts with stealing a soul from another human]], and ends with killing its own Horror. It's noted that some outsource this to other Beasts...or Heroes...
30	** Speaking of Heroes, Beasts can become them in an Inheritance called Inversion. The Beast finds an Anathema for its Horror, then uses it to keep the Horror near death while drawing power from it. The Beast now acts much like a Hero, stalking and killing others like a serial killer. [[AllYourPowersCombined And she has access to Nightmares, Atavisms, and Anathema]].
31	* ''Conquering Heroes'' adds the Insatiable, aka [[EvilCounterpart what would happen if Beasts lacked even the barest scrap of humanity]]. They inflict a HatePlague on the world by simply ''eating'', because they have to eat humans in order to feast on them -- preventing their fears from joining the Primordial Dream, and allowing spiritual entities to access the physical world more easily. In effect, they ''MindRape humanity's subconscious just by existing''. They see Horrors and Beasts as [[FoodChainOfEvil upstart prey]] who just exist as a source of good homes by stealing their Lairs, and their true forms are so estranged from humanity that mortals [[YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm are driven mad with fear and confusion upon seeing them]] -- and have a significant chance of doing that to supernatural beings, too! Each of the examples is pretty terrifying in its own way:
32	** [[DiabolicalMastermind The Authority]], a cruel overlord of all the crime in his city who came into his power [[CreepyChild in childhood]], learning he could turn his body into molten lava and using it to [[DisproportionateRetribution gleefully murder his bullies in the most painful way possible]]. He's since become the nearly faceless lord of almost ''[[EqualOpportunityEvil every supernatural faction in his home]]'' out of sheer raw power and the fear people have of him.
33	** [[MysteriousWatcher The Blind Man]], perhaps the oldest Insatiable alive today, [[TimeAbyss having been around since at least the Achaemenid Empire]]. While he ''acts'' like he just has BlueAndOrangeMorality, in truth that's just an expression of [[JustToyingWithThem his Hunger for Prey]]; he knows fully well how unsettling he is and acts deliberately insane to sweeten the fear of his eventual meals. That and the fact that he has [[EyeScream insects for eyes]], would be bad enough, except there's a reason he constantly has a damp stain around his chest; [[MisterSeahorse he's continually laying eggs from his navel]], eggs he claims are nothing less than pieces of the Primogenitor that one day will all hatch simultaneously and unleash an ''even more'' EldritchAbomination on the world than any of his brethren. You do ''not'' want to know what happens if you eat one -- and he's good at ''tricking'' people into eating them anyway.
34	** [[TheCracker Null Snyper]], a vicious {{Troll}} and psychotic cyberbully who transformed into a [[StarfishAlien Void]] Insatiable when she realized she drove a friend of hers to suicide with her caustic commentary...and ''[[EvilFeelsGood loved every minute of it]]''. She's become a digital spider fit for being the ultimate Internet predator, ruining lives from the safety of her HackerCave; she's long figured out how to turn the worst elements of hacker and especially Men's Rights Activist culture to her advantage, realizing she can create an army of [[InternetJerk borderline sociopathic minions]] simply by posting the right rant, and relaxing while her pawns gradually tear apart some poor sap's life [[ForTheEvulz because they can]]. Even worse, she [[PostModernMagik never needs to leave]]; she's realized she can inflict Nightmares over things like ''[[ParanoiaFuel Skype]]'' and so long as she's observing someone take their own life or lose it in some other way due to her manipulations, she can eat almost as well as if she was there. Her only limitation is that she's terrified of leaving her house, and as she gets physically hungrier, that is going to change...
35	*** Perhaps the scariest part is that most of her online capabilities ''aren't'' supernatural. She has Computers (Hacking) 5, which makes her one of the best experts on that in the entire world, and she has further Merits to enhance that already ridiculous skill into the stratosphere. She's not even that powerful, especially compared to the other Insatiables in that book, but she's arguably one of the best mundane hackers in the ''entire setting.''

Context NightmareFuel / BeastThePrimordial