Shoptalk: Animal Is Weird

The Animal Purview is one weird mess. It can be taken many different ways without even bothering to apply what could be called 'house rules'. Just different ways of reading the poorly-defined RAW version of Animal can give you radically different variations in how the Purview is handled in a game. It's so messy that I even have to break down the different ways it can be interpreted differently.

Association Interpretations!

1. Super Literal: If your parent is Associated with Hummingbirds, you gain an association only for Hummingbirds. You get no XP discount on any other manifestation of Animal. This method of reading also means that each type of Animal requires its own Relic to channel. You would need one Relic for Hummingbird and another for Eagle. Essentially, each type of Animal is a totally different Purview. The only thing that unites Animal (Hummingbird) and Animal (Eagle) is that they both have The Beast as their Avatar. Note: Protean Understanding causes some issues under this interpretation because it suddenly causes all the different Purviews to unite as one at Legend 11.
2. Semi-Literal: So long as your parent has any form of Animal as an Associated Power, you get an XP discount on any form of Animal. So even if Daddy has Animal (Hummingbird), you can still get a discount for learning Animal (Shrike). Under this interpretation it's a 50/50 call if you would need multiple Relics for Animal, or only one. 

How Divided Is Divided?

1. Really Damn Divided: If there is any reasonable difference between two types of animals, then they are considered two different types of Animal. This interpretation would say that Animal (Butterfly) is different from Animal (Moth) and that Animal (Cat) is different from Animal (Tiger). Obviously this is going to cause some issues when categories like Cat are much broader than others like Lynx, but the people who hold this view are almost always very specific about what types of Animals are allowed. Typically, broad categorizations such as Cat or Bird-of-Prey would not be acceptable. 
2. Divided Indeed: This is a little bit more lax, but still fairly strict. People who fall here tend to say that even if you pick something like Animal (Tiger), you're just doing that for fluffy fun. You actually have Animal (Cat) and can apply your Animal Boons to any creature that falls under a similar taxonomic category as your specific totem beast. 
3. What Divide?: Aten is mostly to thank for this category, since he is listed as having Animal (Flying Creatures). It opens the door for extremely broad categorizations of Animal such as Sea Creatures, Varmints and Bugs.

As I said, all that chaos is without any House Rules at all. That's just different takes on what's actually printed in the books, since the books don't provide clear, well-written guidelines for how to deal with Animal. If we added in all the ways people House Rule the Purview, we'd be here all night just going over the different possible solutions. We won't do that. Instead, I'm going to explain how I handle the Animal Purview and explain why I do it the way I do.

The Atlanta Way

Animal is a single Purview with two Boons that have a unique function. The first is Animal Attunement, which replaces the RAW Boon of Animal Communication. When you purchase Animal Attunement, you select a single type of creature with a fairly narrow scope. Something like (Deer) or (Wolverines) or (Trout). At the broadest you might choose (Bears) or (Hawks) without having to specify as far down as (Polar Bear) or (Gyrfalcon). For example, lets say you have a new Scion and he learns Animal Attunement (Bears). Congratulations, he is now attuned to Bears. He can communicate with bears and he can use all his other Animal Boons on them. He can use Animal Command on them, he can turn into a bear with Animal Form.

Here's where things get fun. Animal Attunement is one of only two Boons in the Purview (so far) that have a special allowance to be purchased multiple times. Meaning that you can attune to different animal types by re-buying the first Boon. If your hypothetical Scion with Animal Attunement (Bears) was to purchase Animal Attunement (Wolves) he can now use all his Animal Boons on both bears and wolves freely. He can turn into a wolf or a bear, he can command both with equal ease, he can even create bears and wolves from his blood using Create Animal. If he learned Animal Attunement (Wolverines), he adds that critter to his list of totems and can use all his Animal Boons on wolverines, too. He doesn't need to purchase Animal Form three different times. Once he knows how to turn into an animal, he can turn into any of the animals he's got an Attunement with. 

The other Boon that can be purchased multiple times is Animal Aspect. The reasoning here is that it would be unbalanced to allow Animal Aspect to affect any Attribute, so it is limited to affecting 2 Attributes per purchase (one physical, one not). If our hypothetical Bear-Wolf-Wolverine Scion was to purchase Animal Aspect (Stamina + Perception) to reflect the power and keen senses of a bear, he can later come back and purchase Animal Aspect (Strength + Charisma) to reflect the ferocity and pack leadership qualities of an alpha wolf. Just because an argument can be made that bears have great strength, it doesn't mean that our Scion can use Animal Aspect on Strength with his first purchase. He isn't purchasing Animal Aspect (Bear). You could argue too many ways and tease the system a bit too much under that, especially with more flexible totems like Dogs and Cats. I can pretty much see Cats as embodying any of the nine attributes, depending on what kind of Cat you're talking about. So Animal Aspect is an odd man out, and it's restricted based on which Attributes it can affect, not which of your totem animals it is drawing from.

Under the Atlanta system, you only need a single Relic to channel the Animal Purview. You don't need a new Relic for each animal you Attune to. Your Relic that you got back when you only had Attunement (Bears) still works for you when you want to use a Boon based on your Attunement to Wolverines. The Relic channels the entire Animal Purview, not a specific totem beast.

Now you all know how Animal works in Atlanta. I know that many people won't agree with my system, and for many different reasons. Why did I choose to handle Animal this way? Because it's fair. None of the other Purviews, not even freaking Magic, are split up like Animal is. Magic doesn't even know what it's doing with itself, but somehow it's all under the same umbrella. Earth allows you to control dirt, stone, mud, sand, crystal and metal all at once. What does a God of desert sands have in common with a God of dark, underground caves? How are their powers any closer together than those of a God of Lions and a God of Lemurs? 

If you treat Animal with each type of creature being essentially its own Purview, then you're charging your players double, triple or more. They're learning the same damn thing over and over again and the only benefit they get is that now they can turn into a wolf and a bear instead of just a bear. What, in mechanical terms, did that gain them? Nothing. What is the mechanical difference between Animal Communication (Wolf) and Animal Communication (Bat)? Or between Create Animal (Whale) and Create Animal (Grasshopper)? Why did they need to pay dozens, maybe hundreds, of experience just to manifest the exact same power with a different flavor when it is encouraged that they diversify and add flavor to the manifestations of every other Purview in the Game at No Cost.

I see nothing being gained by forcing someone who wants to be represented by more than one Animal to spend twice as much XP as someone who wants to both heal wounds and cause plagues. Let's say your Animal Scion is spending 20 XP learning how to turn into a Bear while your friend spends 20 XP and learns the Riastrad. Awesome. Now lets say your Scion wants to learn to turn into a Wolf. That's another 20 XP. Your friend, meanwhile, is spending 20 XP and learns how to make invisible barriers with Unseen Shield. They learned a totally new power, something they couldn't do at all before. You simply learned how to do something you could already do, but with different special effects. 

The current system turns Animal into one huge XP-sink for anyone that wants more than one totem. It assumes that it takes exactly as much work to embody two animals as it does to embody two different elements. With the effort involved in buying up both Animal (Hummingbird) and Animal (Eagle) you could as easily have bought up Darkness and Fire. That is not equivalent. That's not even close.

The Attunement system lets you purchase extra totems at a cost, without having to relearn an entire Purview. You just have to learn enough to make a connection to those other animals. Huitzilpochtli doesn't have two Purviews, one for Eagles and one for Hummingbirds. He has one Purview: Animal, which he expresses through the trappings of both Eagles and Hummingbirds. At the end of the day, that's all it is. Expression and fluff. Don't punish a player for wanting to have some variety of expression. None of the other Purviews do.