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1 (updated 05/04/2018)
MES CoD-X 

Chronicles of Darkness-X 
Beast the Primordial Player’s Guide
Introduction 
“Horror is like a serpent, always shedding its skin, always changing. And it will always come back. It
can’t be hidden away like the guilty secrets we try to keep in our subconscious.”
--- Dario Argento
Beast the Primordial in the CoD-X chronicle is focused on interesting familial, political, and antagonistic
dynamics in a world facing real dangers to the general survival of the Children and their Kinships. The
Children must work to rebuild their Hives, and decide whether to help their Cousins rebuild their societies.
Expect, in playing a Beast, to walk the line between teacher and monster, to seek out truths behind
threats and blessings alike, and to cooperate with others in a dynamic global Legend.
The following sections are contained within this Guide:
★ Background: This section provides a brief overview of the history and themes of the Children
within the Codex setting.
★ Character Creation: This section provides a brief overview of the Families, Hungers, and the
Dream.
★ Begotten Culture: This section presents Beast culture in CoD-X, to include Mythology and
Religion, Hives and Broods, and Allies and Antagonists.
★ System Shifts: This section discusses changes to the systems presented in the book.
★ NPCs of Note: This section presents Beast the Primordial NPCs that are well known throughout
the setting.

Background 
Themes
“I realize today that nothing in the world is more distasteful to a man than to take the path that leads to
himself.”
- Hermann Hesse 

Family Understands 
The primary and encompassing relationship for many Beasts is that of family. Sometimes this is the family
that you were given, either by mortal parents or the Dark Mother’s blessings. Sometimes this is the family
you make, linking into Broods or Covies or simply connecting one on one. Whatever the case, the sense
of family acquired is important to Beasts, and in the Codex chronicle is even more influential, as the
Compacts provide an opportunity to bring the disparate branches of their family tree closer together.

The Link between Wisdom and Fear 

While some would happily trade away feelings of fear or anxiety, they serve an important role in our lives
and survival, teaching us caution, respect, limitations, strength, and ever heroism. It is not the ability to
avoid fear or to ignore it, but the ability to master it and act in spite of or because of fear that drives
humanity to it’s peaks of achievement. Or so the understanding of Beasts goes. Not all their victims may
agree, as the line between an experience which motivates and one which cripples can be be thin or even

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nonexistent. This is the tightrope Begotten endeavor to walk with their lessons, with the responsibility they
have received as the tools of humanity’s fear and wisdom.

The Primordial Dream 

The exact nature and meaning to be found in the Primordial Dream is something that Beast characters
innately sense and yet it remains one of the more elusive mysteries of the World of Darkness. Certainly it
contains all the fear and wisdom they draw on to teach humanity, but still more suspect that it draws on
much more. While the Primordial dream is the innate home of the Beasts’ Horrors, it is not always kind
even to them. It is the home of their Mother, but her love isn’t quite the same as her mercy, and even
Horrors should walk carefully in the realm of nightmares.

Timeline
★ Prehistory 
➜ Emergence from the Dream. The Origins of Beast are tied up with the various stories about
the birth of the world. Ex nihilo, Creation from chaos, World parent, Emergence, and
Earth-diver are the more common templates, and each has a way in which Horrors and the
Dark Mother figure into the narrative, sometimes as shadowy observers and sometimes as
active participant. What the truth is? Only She might know.
➜ There was a time when Heroes and Beasts fulfilled complementary roles. A time when
Heroes only hunted the Beasts who fed more than they taught. A time when they
understood their watch over the Primordial Dream as a way to interpret the ripples in the
Dream, not to hunt them down.
★ Ancient History  
➜ The Stories that would come to define human understanding of the Beasts and Heroes
began to take on a more solidified and complex life in the ancient histories as humanity
articulated it’s oral traditions in new ways and spread their cultures competitively across the
globe.
➜ Centers of Culture and Society shape the narrative, from the trials of Heracles to
Bellerophon's folly to Rama’s epics. The stories written shape not just the ones that come
after but the world that repeats them over and over. In the same breath, however, there are
the stories mostly lost to time, like Sauska and Hedamma’s strange uncertainty, and other
shadows of monsters seen but rarely known in modern nights.
★ Post-Classical History  
➜ The rise of Beowulf and the beginning of the Western World’s shift toward Abrahamic faith
and the renaissance period takes place here, where many myths replace gods with kings,
the two no longer being synonymous. Yet outside the relatively new civilizations of the west
the myths of divinity thrive strong, as do some of the older molds of Heroes.
➜ The idea of the Vigil as something other than just the duties of community guards or warriors
emerges in this time, and from the start clashes occur both with Beasts and Heroes, though
during this time Heroes often had an easier time using or working alongside groups of
Hunters, as the noise of the Dream was surmised to be less chaotic outside of dense city
centers.
★ Modern History  
➜ For most of modern history, the dynamics and stories played out among the Children has
been more or less consistent, even as variations across country and geography are noted,
the clutter of the modern psyche has lent a scatteredness to Beasts and the Dream different
from previous eras. The 10 Second War and its aftermath changed everything, however, as
Hives were decimated, Broods torn asunder, and the societies of their Kin shaken to their
cores.

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Historical Figures
A number of historical figures have been rumored to walk the primordial dream, either as a Beast or their
Hero nemeses. Those with the strongest linked evidence in Beast circles (those who possess an actual
spec in History, Beasts, or Heroes) are guessed to be: Ranavalona I, Countess Elizabeth Báthory de
Ecsed, Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud, and Uesugi Kenshin and Takeda Shingen.

Character Creation 
The Families
The six Families of Beasts all stem from an iconic, primordial fear. Humanity’s nightmares are varied in
their details, but boil them down and they usually reflect one of a few simple anxieties. In the prehistoric
mire of humanity’s birth, early people looked at the sky and saw a vast, endless, expanse of nothing, from
which death could descend at any moment. The ocean — indeed, any body of water — was an abyss,
concealing hungry, lurking creatures in its depths. The firelight only extended so far; past its warming
boundaries, fanged death awaited. These fears and images are reinterpreted and reimagined with every
passing generation, but on some level, they haven’t changed in thousands of years. The ocean might be
a literal ocean or the “sea” of humanity, but the kraken remains. A person might feel “small” before an
actual giant or a group of people who sit in judgment, but the fear of powerlessness is the same.

★ Anakim:  Nightmares of Hopelessness, the Giants are power incarnate. Giants once ruled the
world, from the Greek Titans to the gargantuan Ymir of Norse mythology. Time and time again, they
were overthrown, slaughtered, and cast into the pit. They always survived. Smiling grimly to
themselves, they gnaw on old bones and wait in the darkness for the age when they will rise again.

Once, some Beast lore says, the Anakim were the firstborn of the Dark Mother. When she freed the
terrors of the world from their secret hiding place and held back hope from the world, she made sport
with the strongest of them, giving birth to giants in the Earth. Others say that she made love to the
very sons of God, and that her children married the sons of humanity and left the terror of
hopelessness in the blood of the mortal race.
★ Eshmaki: Nightmares of Darkness, the Eshmaki are the reason everyone fears the dark. The
Eshmaki is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. He sees the people around him as victims in waiting; a
cud-chewing herd waiting for someone to save them — or for their comeuppance. Tearing down the
world is the only way to make it better. Either way, his is an often-solitary existence. People
instinctively shun those who walk arm-in-arm with death and destruction.

When the Dark Mother gave birth to the Eshmaki as She Who Lives in Her Shadow, she did so in the
dark. Some other Children think it was out of shame, but the Eshmaki know better. They know she
was giving them life in their natural element, birthing and leaving the first Eshmaki in their natural
element, so that they might understand loneliness but never fear being alone.
★ Makara: Nightmares of the Depths, the Makara are the leviathans and krakens in our midst. Not all
Makara are aquatic, but all of them bring the fear of the depths. Depths of the ocean, certainly, the
crushing pressure and endless dark, but also the depths of the earth, the depths of knowledge. They
bring of fear of knowing that one has passed a threshold and that turning back is no longer possible.
Mystically minded, the Leviathan feels a deeper connection than most with the Mother of Monsters
and strives to learn her secrets. She is patient, though. Water is relentless. It erodes mountains,
carves canyons, and washes away cities. The ceaseless work of civilization is to hold it at bay, but in
the end, water always wins.

For this family, the Dark Mother was the Queen of the Deeps. She spawned the Makara somewhere
in the dark fathoms. It was only after millennia that they joined humanity on the surface, and learned

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 to keep the ocean within and the dry husk around it. This Family is the oldest. Sea monsters predate
everything — humanity, mammals, dinosaurs, even trees.
★ Namtaru: Nightmares of Revulsion, the Gorgons are the most hideous of Beasts. Gorgons take
the cruel lessons of stories to heart. If you are different, unclean, or unwanted, you will be cast out.
You will be reviled, feared, and treated as subhuman. They know because they, too, have been
untouchables, forced to live apart or in hiding: outsiders, freaks, and nonconformists.

People tell uncharitable stories about them and the Dark Mother. They call the Namtaur her shunned
progeny. They say she cursed them for some ancient slight. But once again, they’re ever so wrong.
The Mother of Monsters gifted the Gorgons with a face to match their function, a unique “beauty” that
goes far more than skin deep.
★ Ugallu:  Nightmares of Exposure, the Raptors see the world differently than everyone else;they're
death from the skies. Ugallu are shrewd predators. They watch and wait until their prey is vulnerable
and then snatch them from above. Some kill quickly, breaking the creature’s neck or piercing the
heart with their talons. Others, like the golden eagle, carry the victim aloft and let her fall, dashing her
body on the rocks below. Either way, their prey lives in constant fear of an invisible enemy who can
strike at any time.

Whoever else her children may have been, they know the Dark Mother as Mama Crow. She was a
creature of the skies, like the Raptors themselves, in the hot, sticky nights of the first cities. Her
paramours were other Beasts of the air. Some others say they were angels, but any angel whose
blood runs in their veins had good reason to say “be not afraid.”
★ Talassii:  Nightmares of Confinement. reclusive by nature, the Captors have borne the sting of a
single Hero’s curse for millennia, branding them as kidnappers at best and rapists at worst. The
Talassii may kidnap, but they truly excel as jailers. While Horrors may lick their chops at the idea of
hurting and humiliating their prisoners, Talassii actively restrain themselves from unnecessarily cruel
or unusual punishments, unlike the Anakim. The chase and the capture can directly provide an
appropriate environment for the Captor’s lessons,but the cause or method of confinement matters
little. The true lesson comes from being actively kept from one’s home or safe place, and lacking the
everyday freedom humanity takes for granted.

The Hungers
Every Beast has a Hunger. More properly, the Horror experiences the Hunger as a primal, iconic need.
The specifics of the need vary — one Beast consumes flesh and blood, another consumes trust or
innocence, but both share the Hunger for Prey. As a Beast’s Satiety falls, the Horror grows ravenous and
less choosy about what it eats. As it feasts, it becomes sated and its tastes become rarefied. Some
Beasts prefer to stay well fed so that they can act like gourmands, choosing their meals and eating when
they will. Some Beasts stay lean and hungry, eating only when necessary, relishing the feeling of power
from their hungry Horror. Some Beasts try to stay fed, but never seem to manage.
★ Tyrants  -  Hunger  for  Power:  Tyrants are Beasts who crave power, feeding off the act of
besting someone and proving their own superiority. They bask in the fear, respect, and trembling
worship of those beneath them, whether standing at the top of the pyramid or controlling things from
the shadows while their subjects tremble at the thought of their unseen king. A Beast is always more
than merely human; a Tyrant thrills in reminding those below him just how powerless tiny mortals
really are against the stuff of nightmares. Should a Tyrant fail to find proper subjects during his
waking hours, his Horror stalks through the dreamscape and brings them subjugation while they
slumber.
★ Collectors  -  Hunger  for  the  Hoard:  Whether a Collector gathers diamonds, or gold, or
priceless antiques, all of these are mere vessels for something far more important: the worth that

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 humans place upon things. Her greed is a reflection of the greed of humankind, craving only those
things that are already jealously guarded by others. Nothing is quite so satisfying to a Collector as
having something that someone else wants, then watching as he scrapes and crawls and fails to take
it back.
★ Predators  -  Hunger  for  Prey: Predators have the most primal and basic of Hungers: the
desire to hunt. The Hunger for Prey differs from the Hungers for Power or the Hoard in that the victim
must lose something intrinsic and personal. The Beast sates its Hunger in the taking, not the keeping,
the pursuit and sometimes even the kill.
★ Nemeses  -  Hunger  for  Punishment:  Nemeses feed by punishing the guilty, or at least
those they perceive to be guilty. They might tear someone to pieces right after the act, or they might
wait for years before finally revealing what they know and making their victim pay. The Nemeses keep
the guilty conscience of humankind on edge, keeping the transgressors looking over their shoulders
even when they should know, rationally, that they’ll never get caught.
★ Ravagers  -  Hunger  for  Ruin:  A Ravager must destroy to feed. It’s not exactly the act of
violence that he feeds from, it’s the change it causes in the humans who notice. When someone
witnesses the destruction caused by a Ravager, or its results, they are suddenly aware of how fragile
they are and start to wonder just exactly what will be destroyed next. The state of uncertainty and fear
is what satiates a Ravager, leaving those in the wake of his rampage wondering what could have
caused so much damage and when it might be back.
★ Whispers  -  Hunger  for  Secrets:  The Whispers find secrets, but unlike the collectors, they
don’t horde them, rather making sure that dark secrets or hidden things are revealed or never
forgotten. They ensure that humans aren’t allowed to creatively edit their past crimes or mistakes, but
rather are made to keep those lessons close to their hearts, whether they want to or not.

Begotten Culture 
Kinship 
Some Beasts feel that other supernatural beings, like Beasts, share an intrinsic connection to the
Primordial Dream, but chose somewhere along the way to solidify that connection. That is, a vampire is a
very specific kind of nightmare creature — it is a human corpse brought to life by the blood of another
vampire that burns in the light of day. A werewolf is a human being that changes shape, becoming a
vicious predator, but silver is Anathema to it. The vast cultural beliefs that both of these creatures share
are not invalid — werewolves really are the spiritual children of Father Wolf, while changelings really are
people who escaped captivity in the service of otherworldly beings — but all of that stems from the
Primordial Dream. Other Beasts note that while this explanation does have the advantage of granting the
Begotten a kind of “elder sibling” status, it doesn’t have a shred of real evidence beyond “some
supernatural creatures map, in a sideways manner, to the fears of humanity.”

The truth of the matter is that Beasts seem to have an intrinsic connection to the supernatural in general,
but that doesn’t indicate a common origin with other supernatural beings. The Primordial Dream responds
to all sorts of mystical phenomena, and the Begotten are inextricably part of the Primordial Dream. This,
in all likelihood, is the source of their connection with other beings, the kinship that they feel, and the
reason that they can use their powers to amplify and mimic the ability of other creatures. Kinship cannot
be denied. Beasts have many ways to aid their cousins and bring them back into the fold: helping feed
their alien Hungers, augmenting their supernatural abilities, and even teaching them how to walk the
Primordial Pathways. If their bond is strong enough, Beasts can even bring them into their Lairs.

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Mythology and Religion

Worship of the Dark Mother 

Each of the Families has a slightly different take or bent on the origins, nature, and characteristics of the
Dark Mother. She has many names, and many faces, in every culture across the globe, but for Beasts the
reverence is more than simple faith. For them, the Dark Mother is soul-deep knowledge. They are
Devoured with a glimpse of her, and the certainty never wavers that she loves each of them, that they are
her family. Some take this to extreme lengths, forming extensive cults or chasing their perceived goals or
contact with the Dark Moth, some consider their take to be personal and theological, interaction with her
Legend as a lesson of it’s own or example to be followed..

The Legends and Stories  

Beasts are keenly aware of the influence that stories and legends have on the world, from its impact in
the primordial dream, to the way it inspires the mortal populace, to the level to which it has come to define
both themselves and the Heroes that hunt them. Many of the Children devote themselves to the study
and understanding of such stories and the history they’re steeped in due to this, hoping perhaps to extract
some means of escape from old tropes or dark fates.

Cults 
Like many other kinds of supernaturals, Beasts can attract followers to their superhuman power or
charisma. Most often they, like others, move through the processes of the Mystery Cult participating to the
degree they find suits their whims and Legend. Some, however, lead cults in their own right, and with a
slightly different goal. Primordial Cults are focused on parts of a Beast’s nature, and oftentimes lack the
veil of mystery that other supernaturals’ cults do. They feed the Horror, and aid the Beast in their work,
often fully knowing what it is they’re serving, or at least knowing enough to be thrilled or terrified.

Begotten Society
The Laws of Beasts 
Not much of Beast society is codified beyond the local Hive, but with the Devouring comes innate
understandings that all Beasts share and understand on a visceral level. The newly Devoured may not
have a way to articulate this understanding, but it is there, and thus even ignorance is not an excuse
when it comes to the Laws the govern all Beasts.
★ We are All Family
➜ The Children are all part of a greater family, stretching back to the Dark Mother.
Observance of this principle is why they refer to themselves as “Begotten,” even if She
isn’t literally their birth mother. Beasts consider it their responsibility to take care of one
another. Sometimes that means tough love, of course; a Beast who can’t or won’t curb
her predatory impulses attracts attention from Heroes or extended family, and that
endangers all of the Children. For the most part, however, Beasts are expected to try and
figure out why one of their siblings is out of control before taking violent or punitive action.
In the nights since the Ten Second War, a collective push to include other supernaturals
more than just incidentally in this has been made, but some doubt whether all of their
Cousins are capable of holding to it and understanding the meaning of Family the way
Beasts do.
★ We are Allowed to Be What We are
➜ Beasts are monsters. They can’t be otherwise. They must be allowed to hunt, feed, and
even kill. Beasts debate over how monstrous they’re allowed to be before some
intervention is appropriate, and some of that debate involves the specifics of the region,
what kind of extended family is about and what their priorities are, what Hero activity has

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 been like, and who the Apex is, as most often if falls to the Apex to deal with any who
step too far outside the bounds of what the Begotten were created for.
★ Eat to Live, Don’t Live to Eat
➜ Beasts must be more than their Horrors. The Horror only wants to sate its Hunger, but a
Beast isn’t just that Hunger. A Beast can use her Hunger to teach the world, to bring it
wisdom (not knowledge). Beasts expect their siblings to do so, to bring some kind of
lesson with them when they choose their victims. Feeding for survival, of course, is
different; if the choice is “feed without teaching” or “starve,” no Beast would begrudge a
brother a little mayhem. At the same time, though, Beasts encourage one another to
consider how their feeding affects the world. They must be more than the monsters from
the stories, otherwise the Heroes are right about them.

Clashes 
While Family comes first for many, that does not mean that they always get along, and loving each other
doesn’t always mean being nice. Sometimes, conflicts arise, and tough love is needed. Usually, inside a
Hive, an Apex decides where the trouble lies and deals with it, but not every Apex is so hands-on, nor is
every meeting of Beasts with locals to a Hive. In cases where Beasts on equal footing need to settle a
matter, there are a few choices. Some possibilities include: Parallel hunts the success of which are
judged by the other Begotten present, a tribunal of Horrors, which in some older Hives traditionally
includes an Unfettered Beast in it’s number, physical clashes themselves, or competitions of learning like
riddles or investigations. In matters of great importance and drastic disagreement, some Beasts even
take excursions into the Mother’s Lands to try and seek wisdom from the Dark Mother herself or one of
her closer brood.

Broods 
The human need for companionship never goes away, even when humanity does. If anything, a Beast
feels its loss more keenly. The Devouring opens the door to a Family the
Beast never even knew he had. They accept him for what he is, no questions asked, and stand by him
when the Hero comes to shed his blood.

Beasts sense each other in a general way. They instinctively know someone is in their city and will
eventually cross paths in the Primordial Dream. The call of Family is strong, especially the cry of a
hungry, newly awakened Beast. The newcomer is found trying to find his kin and make sense of what he
is now, his big brother or sister (if any) nearby and dozy from consuming his soul.

Beasts band together for the same reasons humans do: camaraderie, convenience, and mutual
protection. They lack the world-spanning secret societies of mages and vampires, but the bonds they
share are far more intimate. Indeed, the brood is Beast society as far as its members are concerned.

Hives 
Within a brood, the bond shared between broodmates is more than mere friendship. They have a
common soul and sense of identity. Their Lairs stitch themselves together over time, creating an
expansive shared hunting ground in the Primordial Dream. White cliffs descend from an Ugallu’s
mountain roost and drop into the frothing ocean where a Makara makes its Lair, and a Namtaru broods
within an adjoining underwater cavern. Using their shared Lair, broodmates can communicate in their
dreams regardless of real world distance, though traveling far apart feels wrong under any circumstances.
Furthermore, an individual Beast is no longer limited to aspects of his own Lair. He can draw strength
from places resonant with his broodmates’. Lairs as well. He can even learn to use their Nightmares and
Atavisms as they grow more and more alike.

The Apex 
Beasts have an odd relationship with cities and population centers. So many people in a small area raises
the chance for a brush with the supernatural, and therefore raises the chance of forming Chambers. The

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Chambers in a given area are unconnected, unless Beasts add them to their Lairs and join them with
Burrows. The Chambers in a hive, though, all share some similarity, some small aspect granted by who-
or whatever supernatural figure looms largest in the area’s Primordial Dream. The Children call this being
the Apex.

An Apex Beast is not necessarily a leader. She might take no interest at all in the other Beasts of a
region, focusing only on her own goals, lessons, or Legend. She might also set herself up as a dictator,
using her power in the Primordial Dream to enter other Beast’s Lairs and subjugate them, send
nightmares to their human friends and family, and force their Legends to bend to hers.

The Primordial Dream 

The Primordial Dream is, at its most basic level, the collective fears of humanity. As human beings
emerged as a species and developed the ability to see patterns, to recognize one thing as reminiscent of
another, it in turn developed the ability to fear ideas. A shadow might look like a predator, and elicit a
response of terror — what caused the terror, then? Not the shadow; shadows are harmless. Not the
predator; that never existed. What caused the terror was the idea of the predator, as expressed through
the shadow and interpreted by the person’s mind. That predator, then, a hundred times more terrifying
and deadly than any naturally occurring monster, takes its place in the Primordial Dream.

Noise: Over time, the population increased and people came together in ever-larger communities. The
human mind is equipped to recognize a finite number of other people — approximately 150-200. Anything
past that number isn’t a “person.” This works well in a small group, but as the number of humans grew,
people’s minds became overwhelmed by the number of unrecognizable beings around them. This led to a
number of effects; xenophobia, paranoia, and increased tribalism among them. It also meant that the
simple, uncomplicated language of the Primordial Dream was drowned out by the noise of billions of
voices, all experiencing the fear of being surrounded by strangers.

Horrors: The Primordial Dream is vast and dark, but it isn’t empty. It contains endless vistas, each
corresponding to a place on Earth in which a human being was shaken to her very core. When the
population was small, these “Chambers” were few and far between. As humans spread, however, their
terrors spread with them. Now the Primordial Dream holds myriad Chambers, most of them floating
unconnected with those around it. Each of these Chambers reflects some hapless person losing a bit of
herself.

In the metaphysical geography of the Primordial Dream, Chambers are closest to the waking world. As
more Chambers are created, the older Chambers are pushed further out into the formless deeps. Such
Chambers become disconnected from their origins, their features taking on a combination of accurate
memory and imagined narrative. Eventually, something from the outer darkness crawls in — a Horror.

Lairs: Every dragon has her cave, every kraken his ocean. A Beast is both a human being and an
ancient, Primordial self: his Horror draws other souls into itself as their hosts sleep and sates its hunger in
their nightmares. Beast and Horror are permanently entwined — at any time, a Beast can concentrate
and see through his Horror’s eyes, deep in the Primordial Dream. When the waking world is especially
similar to his inner landscape, he can even step through physically, vanishing to fully inhabit his other self.
The monstrous form that victims see in their dreams is only part of a Beast’s Horror, albeit an important
one. The dream landscape the Horror hunts in is as much a part of the nightmare as the monster at its
heart, and equally vital to the Beast. That landscape grows as the Beast explores his Legend,
incorporating places from his physical life as it expands. It’s his sanctuary within the Primordial Dream, his
hunting grounds — his Lair.

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The Inheritance 
The Devouring itself is a defining moment in a Beast’s life. A new vista, the Primordial Dream, opens up
before her. At that moment, she knows that her life has changed and she can no longer go back. She
can, however, go forward. Beasts who hear the siren call of the Dark Mother echoing through the
Primordial Dream can, in time, sing it back. Her Horror resonates with the Mother’s, pushing past the
flesh and the dream into something else, something new. Something far more than what she was.

★ The Retreat — The Beast Unfettered: This is the monster who lives in your head. It’s an
anxiety dream taken form, a gliding shadow stalking through jungles grown in dream logic, feeding
on your deepest self-loathing, all without fear of Heroes or nagging self-control. When a Beast dies
while her Horror slumbers, sometimes her Horror goes free. Usually, it’s an accident: the Beast
underestimates the Hero or trusts a sibling she shouldn’t have (too often it’s those we love who hurt
us most) while she is vulnerable. Other times, it’s surrender. Not all Children want the Dark
Mother’s gifts. The constant craving of Hunger can be all consuming, especially when it stands at
odds with the Beast’s moral compass.
★ The Merger — The Beast Rampant: This is the monster who lives under your bed. It’s the
ache that rises in your gut when you hear the word beast. The hulking thing of muscle, fur, and
fangs that mauls cattle and carries off peasants to their dooms. The Rampant Beast takes stock of
her Life and discards it. Living in the world of people is the nightmare she needs to wake from, not
the inviting darkness of her Horror.
★ The Beast Incarnate: This is the monster who rewrote the tale. He’s the Beast other Beasts
fear. He and his Horror see eye-to-eye and tooth-to-tooth. They become one body without the cost
of the Beast’s Life, a being with no need for solid flesh who walks as mortal or monster at the whim
of dreams. He transcends the bounds of his Legend without feeding, yet fears no Heroes. He needs
no spool of thread to navigate his Lair. He is his Lair. The Beast Incarnate is one who opts out of
destiny. He is a Beast so steeped in the narrative of his Legend that he knows all the twists before
they come up. No plot points go unforeseen: not when his brood betrays him for his hoard, nor even
when his own sister takes up the mantle of Hero. Through this self-awareness, he sees the tapestry
of his fate laid out in full, dyed with the blood of his Family: the monster, the warrior, the
confrontation. The slaying. He gazes at the loom of inevitability and rips out the threads.

Allies & Antagonists

Enemies 
★ Heroes: The other beings connected innately to the Primordial dream, whether by intention or
defection now dedicate themselves to hunting down and destroying Beasts, wherever they make
themselves known. Expect detailed advice and assistance in the upcoming Heroes Guide for STs.
★ The Hunters: In the wake of the 10 Second war many mortals turned the Vigil to defend
themselves against the creatures they glimpsed within the darkness. Task Force Valkyrie an
organization created to hunt supernaturals of all flavors.
★ Demons: Beasts have never been fond of the Fallen, recognizing them innately as something
Other than the family of supernaturals and humanity to which the Begotten are bound. In the wake
of their betrayal in the 10 Second War, the Children feel very vindicated about their distrust, and are
usually in agreement that no time should be wasted attempting to work with these things outside
the Dark Mother’s protection.
★ Horrors, Inheritance, and Rogues: Not all Beasts make the lives of their Families easier.
The Unfettered Horror can be dangerous when angered, and the Merged are a threat not just
physically but in their desperate hunger’s impact around them and the inevitable drawing of Heroes
to say nothing of Hunters. These are accepted dangers, but spoken of less is those Beasts who
have chosen to Eschew the Laws of Beast Culture for reasons other than Inheritance, and pose a

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 sometimes incidental sometimes direct danger to the rest of their Families. These Rogues often fall
into a few different camps.
➜ The Cult of the Fall: The Cult of the Fall is a new movement taking root in a cross-section of
supernaturals led mostly by the Beast contingent, who tend to target areas of high tension
between Heroes and Beasts, hoping to cull such conflict, even going so far as to target
Dreamers before they become one or the other.
➜ Lawbreakers: There are always those who believe for one reason or another the rules don’t
apply to them, or that they can face the consequences of ignoring them. Beasts, as indicated
by their second law, are naturally forgiving of the mistakes and natures of their Family, but
never mistake that forgiveness for a tendency toward mercy. Those who kill other Beasts
over personal disputes, or who cull humanity indiscriminately to fulfill their lusts,

Other Supernaturals 
★ Changelings: These Cousins have been through much, and have much to teach the Begotten,
though there is always the ongoing tension that some Beasts wonder whether they might share
Kinship with their former captors as well.
★ Mortals: Mortals can posses Kinship if they have some supernatural core to them, but most of
the human race is less a sibling and more a charge. It is the duty of Beasts to guide mankind with
much of the knowledge they’ve forgotten, and it often a Beast’s lessons aren’t of a pleasant
variety.
★ Werewolves: The wolves understand a Hunt like few others of the Cousins. While many Beasts
gravitate toward Werewolf packs for the safety and companionship, those that stay often find
themselves fascinated by the duties and paths lived by them as something wholly different from
the material’s mundanity or the rhythms of the primordial dream.
★ Vampires: The Kindred are a naturally distrustful and often deceitful bunch. It is hard to get
them to accept the idea of Family and Kinship as the Beasts understand it, but that very same
bond and loyalty is what often motivates a Kindred to be interested in working with or at the very
least using a Beast’s assistance. Those who do so honestly often fare far better than those who
make the mistake of trying to chain a Beast.
★ Beasts: Not simply kin, but Family in the truest sense, the Children take this truth of their being
as seriously as other supernaturals take any of their own core laws.

System Shifts 
Please see the appropriate addendum for all pertinent rules clarifications and changes here.

Apex and Spiritual Center

Since the Icarus Event, an Apex in a domain has always been a Beast, unless there are no Beasts in the
area. The Apex is not necessarily a leader, but is the most potent Beast in a domain. Most Apex Beasts
are aloof, preferring to remain influential without exerting authority unless they are correcting a problem.
Potency is typically determined by Lair size and mortal-related merits, but can include other variables and
is determined by the ST.

The Hive Trait is chosen by the VST based on the Lair traits of the Apex. It should be a trait that does not
hamper other Beasts in their Lair, but is omnipresent, especially in the Hive. An Apex can use the Hive
Trait one extra time per Chapter, so long as they are in their home domain. After The Event, Apexes have
remained solely the dominion of the Beasts, but become something separate from the Spiritual Center
that affects the highest fear in an area. That still exists with whatever being commands it, and its effects
are still certainly felt in the Lairs of those in the Hive.

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Lair
A Beast is always immune to its own Lair traits, even if Slumbering. Lair is intended to be a representation
of the strength of one’s Legend, the way they embody and incorporate their Horror and the strength and
spread of the fear they inspire. High Lair should be represented by not only personal competence but a
way to affect the world in a broad and lasting way, from the creation and maintenance of Chambers as
well as in the landscape of the Hive or city they inhabit. In particular, attempting to maintain a growing
Legend on one’s own inevitably attracts the violence of Heroes, while Beasts that use influence, cults,
and their own Broods to help spread out the attention the fear they inspire causes are those who manage
to reach the higher levels of Lair. For the purposes of the MES CoD-X Chronicle, the Lair trait is capable
of adjusting, up or down, based on the strength of one’s Legend or other factors. This can be used to
justify a higher Lair rating in background.

Kinship
For the CoD-X chronicle, Lineage is changed thusly:
★ Descended from the Dark Mother: Changelings, Fetches, Goetia, Hobgoblins, Huntsmen,
Kerberoi, Mages, Spirits (including Idigam, Ridden and Hosts), Strix, True Fae, Vampires,
Werewolves
★ Fundamentally Human: Ghosts (including Geists and Hedge Ghosts), Ghouls, Hunters (with
supernatural abilities), Proximi, Psychics (mortals with supernatural merits but no other template),
Sleepwalkers, Stigmatics, Wolfblooded, and templates found in Hurt Locker
★ Kinship Does Not Apply: Abyssal entities, Angels, Demons

NPCs of Note 
The Dark Mother
The most important figure in the stories and history of Beasts, the Dark Mother’s actual origins and nature
are a hotly debated topic among broods and the Supernatural community as a whole. On one thing there
is agreement though: she is the origin for many, she loves them very dearly, and she is utterly terrifying.

Saul Harris
He was a Beast like any other. Some still walk the earth that remember him as their Broodmate. Some
claim he died in the Ten Second War, fighting a martyr for all. Some say that’s a lie to keep him safe.
Whatever the truth, the Cult of the Fall has become something of a problem for Beasts in the modern day.
It consists mostly of a small subset of followers, most not Beasts themselves, who seek to put an end to
the Primordial Horrors that fuel a Beasts’ Devouring. Sometimes they even go so far as to kill a Dreamer
before they can reach their Devouring, all in pursuit of ending the cycle of violence and hatred between
Beast and Hero.

The Asura
No one is entirely certain when this Unfettered Beast began to roam the primordial dream, but the
particulars of it’s Horror haunt even the fears of other Begotten. It’s Nemeses Hunger is particular,
seeking out those other Children who have strayed from the purpose given to them by the Dark Mother,
and who feed their own desires with no regard for the lessons they are charged with giving to humanity.

Lily Jol
There are a lot of stories about the dutch-british Journalist who has embedded herself in warzones and
natural disasters across the world. While they are all daring, the most dangerous are very much not for
public consumption. Early in her career, many a Beast with the appropriate Hunger looks at the light she
shined on injustice or the fear she stoked of dangers and saw something to admire. Some reached out to

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meet her, some saw her at press events. Almost none made it out entirely unscathed. Once Heroes
become public figures, especially beloved public figures, facing them becomes less of a challenge and
more of a trap.

Hokusai Tawaraya
There is links to Chambers in the primordial dream, but a Beast named Tawaraya has proposed that there
may be some Primordial Pathways still linking to the Mother’s Land in the world today. He was inspired by
mounds about Japan said to be the graves of particular Horrors from times past, vanquished by
much-lauded Heroes. In these places, he speculates, there may remain links to Lairs older than the ones
traversed today, and while empty of their original owner, full of something Else...

Nhlanhla Dinfa
The University of Cape Town hosts a specialist on myth and legend of no small renown. While many
humans go to this professor for knowledge, Beasts especially seek after this Incarnate for the knowledge
he has accumulated in the Deep Primordial Dream, and his especial skill in dissecting encounters and
records of the Dark Mother. He has long been on a quest to piece these together to some particular
purpose, but he and his Brood have been tight-lipped as to what this end might be.

Sireen al-Bacchus
An Iraqi native and expert in archeology and anthropological analysis, Sireen has worked on some of the
oldest sites and ruins in the world, endeavoring to unlock their secrets. She has co-written with scholars
across the globe, a perhaps less than surprising number of which are other Beasts. It is rumored that she
has walked the Mother’s Lands in the Primordial Dream and returned.

Darana
In the deadly wilds of Australia there lives another kind of expert. Whether she was christened after the
goddess of the same name or adopted the title after her Devouring is somewhat unknown, but the results
of her studies are felt throughout the Dream in her portion of the world. Darana has for some time been
attracting Heroes with the intention of ‘fixing’ them. Her methods, and her successes if she has any,
remain a mystery except for those few who have managed to seek her out and make it back from her
Hive alive.

The Call To Adventure

A charitable community of thrill-seekers and extreme sports enthusiasts, with membership and
scholarship grants for talented youth across the globe.