Animals Attunement: Cross-Evolution
By Ryan Roth
It is said Jordi created this attunement in celebration of the diversity
of the world's ecological sphere, long before the human problem began to
grate its nerves. It makes use of the fact that Jordi's angels, on
average, tend to have more vessels than other angels.
This is one of Jordi's older attunements, but it doesn't give it out
nowadays (well, not often anyway). The reason is that the attunement can
cause problems when used in areas where humans live, and Jordi has
grudgingly learned that angels usually need to be s u btle around them.
In addition, the wide spread use of this attunement in the early days of
human civilization was noted to cause more than a few Ethereals to come
into existance.
Many of Jordi's older servitors still have this attunement though,
particularly his Seraphim, who can use it frequently without being
observed.
Cross-Evolution
In order for this attunement to work, the angel must have two accessible
Vessels at his disposal (Vessels in Body Bags are not considered
accessible). The vessels should also be of different species, but this is
not a requirement. The vessels must, however, be living creatures.
Kyriotates cannot make use of this attunement unless they have the means
to have vessels of their own.
When used, this attunement allows the angel to reach out to his alternate
vessel, as if to switch between them, but instead of pushing his existing
vessel into null-space, he keeps it, and fuses the two vessels together.
The result is a hybrid vessel, which can access the natural abilities of
both species. For example, an angel with a human vessel and a fish vessel
can fuse them together to create a kind of 'fish-man' vessel, equipped
with improved swimming ability, the ability to breathe water, and
opposable thumbs. Any two natural species can be combined in this way,
allowing for some truely bizzare combinations. The advantages gained can
mimic the NC songs, but only does so at an effective level of 1, unless
the angel also knows that song and is willing to spend the essence to
activate it as well. The advantages can also increase certain skills by
+2 for general skills or +4 for specific skills (such as Tracking by scent
alone. The GM is the final arbiter of what advantages are gained, but no
more than three are possessed by any one hybrid vessel. Each use of this
attunement can generate a different collection of advantages; the angel
can pick which advantages he incorporates into the hybrid when he creates
it.
Examples of advantages include, but are not limited to:
Water-breathing vessels: gills, 50% increase in swimming speed
Reptilian vessels: Fangs (as per NC:Fangs at level 1), Scales,
Climbing skill bonus +2 (For tree dwelling lizards, geckos, etc)
Canine vessels: Tracking by scent (+4 to Tracking skill), Fangs
Avian: Wings (NC:wings/1), increased visual perception
Primates: Tail (NC:tail/1), limited tool use, Climbing bonus
Humans: Ability to manipulate tools and environment
The angel cannot pick an advantage which is not naturally possessed by
one of the existing vessels (so the ostrich-man isn't able to pick Wings,
despite being Avain; he can run really fast, though).
The hybrid vessel lasts until the angel ascends to the Celestial Plane or
switches vessels normally. It is in effect a third vessel. Using this
attunement costs two Essence to fuse the vessels, plus the rather stiff
requirement of having more than one vessel in the first place. For game
mechanic purposes, the effective level of the hybrid vessel is the
average of the two vessel levels, rounded down. It is impossible to
combine more than two vessels in this manner. Should the hybrid vessel
be killed, each of the vessels used to create it each lose half their
vessel rating, rounded down.
An example: Rover the Malakite of Animals needs to track down someone.
He is currently residing in his doberman vessel (Vessel/4), but also has a
hawk vessel (Vessel/3). He decides to combine them; since he needs to
find his target quickly, he incorporates into the hybrid Wings, Tracking
ability and increased visual perception - three advantages is his limit.
His doberman body sprouts large wings and its eyes increase in size as he
takes off, scenting the wind for his prey while scanning the ground
visually for his target. The doberhawk is effectively a Vessel/3. If he
is killed while in the hybrid, his doberman vessel will be reduced to a
Vessel/2, and his hawk vessel becomes a Vessel/1. Had his hawk vessel
been a Vessel/1, the doberhawk vessel would be Vessel/2, and killing it
would destroy the hawk vessel.
It should be noted that Angels of Animals who use this attunement to
incorporate a Choir animal into the hybrid do not gain their immunity to
disturbance unless that is selected as one of their three advantages.
It has been shown that using this attunement to fuse together to animals
of identical species can be done. This gains the angel no advantages, but
the hybrid does take on an apperance which is a combination of the other
vessel's (e.g. mixing a collie vessel and a golden retriever vessel will
result in a dog hybrid that appears as a collie-retriever mixed breed.)
If done with two human vessels, for example, the hybrid will look like a
different person, although features of the other two vessels will be
apparent, as if the hybrid vessel was a child or relative of the other
two. This use of the attunement is rarely used by Jordi's people, as it
is uncommon for them to have a human vessel, let alone two.
Finally, while Jordi rarely gives out his attunement any more, some of his
higher-ranking Word-bound have come up with their own limited versions.
The Angel of Fish, for example, can give out this attunement with the
added restriction that one of the vessels must be a fish of some kind.
Jordi encourages all his Servitors to be cautious with this attunement; it
doesn't want to see one of his Servitors caged and dissected by human
scientists trying to understand how evolution created such a creature.
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