Being around beastment increases your corruption. How? Are they inherently radioactive with chaos warp?

jh

I think they are. I view it as what a human can become if they fall to base mutation, by extended contact with them (and it has to be extended in my opinion, two-3 days over general contact not five minute fight with four of them. I would also allow corruption if they wandered into the home grounds of a heard) the body is slowly inflienced by the warp energy which changed them into what they are (wether the beastmen went from human to beastman or it was born into the Beastman race). I also believe (not sure that this is true) because a beastmen represents chaos and mutation they radiate a low level minor energy which corrupts anything in it's vicinity over time, the greater the quantity of Beastmen the more prevalent the energy. Thats why I make the areas around herdstones particularly corrupting and creepy, not just in it's immediate vicinity. Of course I have no idea if this is correct or not that's just what I do, lately I've been trying to make the Beastman more sinister than "you walk down the road and there are 3 beastman"

On the topic of beastman birthing, does the army book reference something how Beastmen are created excluding human mutation? I don't have it but I'd be keen to know. Do they have "cows" as such or She-Gors or something? Do you reckon they'd have the whole alpha male gets the females thing going?

I think this is a case of having preconceived ideas of how things are supposed to work conflicting with how they actually work.

Fenderstat said:

According to the current line they were created once the Warp Gates collapsed. It released massive amounts of warping energy that mutated whole tribes of men.

As reproduction is not discussed about any race (other than skaven) one can only assume things. I believe they might have some females among them but the brutality of their lives tends to point them kidnapping humans to bear their children. Also humans tend to leave mutated children into the forest when they dare not to kill them and then there are the turnskins (born human mutate to beastmen at some point).

Once upon a time the beastmen weren't such a simple race of goatmen but a varied bunch of beastly mutants. This changed mainly because these type of beastmen are easier to produce for war-gaming. But I still like to think my beastmen varied and having their ranks filled with mutated men who have escape certain death from their communities.

This leads me to think that the beastmen do not "radiate" warping powers. It is their vile acts, rites and utterly chaotic nature that taints those around them.

doc_cthulhu said:

I continue to use bands of "mutants" alongside the (now) more traditional beastmen throughout the forests of the Empire as is suggested in 1st Edition. Some men (and children) mutate into "man-beasts" and gather together around herdstones but there are also still some that develop dog-heads, eye stalks, fish lips, 3 arms or what-have-you and flee to the wilderness to find some measure of "acceptance" amongst their own kind.

I also don't generally treat mutants and beastmen as "toxic", but certainly the places that they dwell and the profane rites that they chant will seethe with Corruption and should be avoided by the sane and self-concious.

I tend to agree that corruption is not gained from exposure to beastmen themselves exactly, but rather the exposure to their rituals and items which they readily adorn with chaos paraphernalia, and use in chaos worship. Being held in a cage and exposed to acts of barbaric chaos worship, while in proximity of Herd Stones, or Bray Shamans during rituals is certainly grounds for corruption - the voices and "distractions" it incurs, at least.

I suppose another way to put it... someone who works at a chemical plant may be radioactive (I use the term in a very cliche 70's monster movie manner), but not because they themselves are inherently radioactive, but rather they are constantly exposed to sources of radiation.

Of course, as stated, the Beastmen are one of the many resultant "abominations" created by the mutative chaos waves, so they are inherently tied to chaos - but no more than all the other fantastical creatures that were also created in the same manner, not all of which worship chaos.

I also agree that I prefer the more varied nature of the former Beastmen depictions, having heads of various beasts such as horse and sheep. The fiction, at least, seems to retain this descriptive aspect.

I don't think they are. Ideally they would carry about something that was, however, likely to have a corrupting influence, or maybe one of their champions does, but the rank and file...Nah. Maybe around the herdstone would cause something.

The reason I ask is one of the players howllowed out a beastman skull and wears it into combat as a helmet. Why do players do stuff like this? I've had other players say their characters carry around the dead body parts (fingers, etc.) of varied animals. Nothing to the extent of Your Highness, but it still seems disturbing.

jh

Emirikol said:

I love it! I hope my players would still do the same. I think you should play up the skull powers. Maybe it whispers to the character at night and tells him how to turn into a hedge wizard. Or something! Award (and punish a bit too).

I like how people assume the Witch Hunters are wrong when they say that merely being near chaos is bad.

It's especially entertaining when said people grow horns.

Emirikol said:

That's awesome! I love it when players do that kind of stuff!

To address that scenario, I would let your desire as GM to reign on that one. If you wanted to introduce the idea of the "helmet" slowly corrupting and twisting the wearer, that sounds like it would be some eerie-good fun. If that's not something you want to deal with, it's safe to say that such behavior would be free of ill-effects.

To take a GM-neutral position on it, I don't generally think wearing beastmen "trophies" would impart Corruption. The only exception I can see would be if it happened to be the skull of a potent Bray shaman, in which case the skull and horns could be saturated with dark power.

Bloody Sun Boy said:

I completely agree with BSB here.

From my reading they are mutants. While they initially were created when the gates collapsed, later on individuals simply are born, or mutate to become, beastmen of different levels. There is a story in one of the Army books about a man within a town who had hooves, and hid them from the townspeople. When they cast him out, he was taken in by first a band of mutants, and later by the beastmen themselves, as he had hooves.

It talked about a stratification in beastmen culture between those who were merely mutants, and those who looked more and more like beasts. Those with hooves or fur were above the mutants, and those with horns were above them.

That is kind of tangential to the question of course. I get the impression that they are a corrupting influence in both the sense that they actively seek to defile things around them, but also mere contact with them breeds corruption in the way that contact with a person who has been irradiated may be harmful to your health.

Emirikol said:

A couple of stress points and the odd disease check is order there old boy.

Yeah, my players are the same, they headed back to Marienburg with boat full of troll guts, a severed arm and a dead cultist. Troll guts? Ok trophies away. Cultist? Cult of manaan offering a bounty, severed arm?

...

So the Gold wizard can make sight gags. That's...pretty much it.

I need to make him take some more disease checks.

Ok Beastmen are creatures of chaos they were born because of chaos and every act they do is thus an act of chaos even if they themselves don't know it. Warpstone on the other hand isnt something your average old beastman carries around or is infected with, to them it's a sacred item normaly given to shamans to make powders and potions. Or stuffed into a tree and then imbuned with magic to turn it into an evil mutant tree.

Beastmen don't like mutants. They aren't mutants themselves they are now actual creatures much the same way as Griffins and Manticores. They are birthed of chaos but aren't just mutants anymore, their a constant breed, a new species as it were. Beastmen have females, She-Gors you could say but you wouldn't be able to tell one from the other because Beastmen calfs can eat meat from the off. Minatours are much the same they just have cows instead and the bulls often have fights to see who gets mating rights. Normal Beastmen sometimes fight for mating rights but they genearaly "get it on" in their spare time along with drinking and brawling, and yes they will do the unpleasant act with humans. Theit not picky. If the unfortunate woman were to get pregnant she'd probabely die giving birth to the beast, and sometimes women who are too close to chaos will have Beastmen babies from the warping influence.

If you want a character who radiates warpstone energy and can call the stuff down from the heavens, use Moonclaw although I wouldn't recommend it he's a nasty wizard and can control Morrslieb to give himself more power. He's the child of Morrslied afterall.

"Beastmen are not mutants and don't like them" is a bit harsh to say don't you think. Every edition of WFRP tells us that mutants are left in the woods for beastmen to find. Then there are turnskins mutants that born as humans and join beastmen herds when they go through their "true transformation":

Well its true. Beastmen live by strength and normal mutants as well as their weaker more pathetic kin are labled Ungors which they just use as food, weapons practice, to torment or as meat shields. They hate most mutants unless their actually strong enough to stand upto a Gor in a fight, and mutants are to them are just twisted humans and they HATE humanity. A rare few mutants will be powerful enough to be considered "blessed" by beastmen standards but those are few and far between. But mostly Beastmen will actually only keep mutants around if they get bored and want some sport to run down, they are evil in nature and they do evil just for the sake of it not for any greater cause then to gain power. sometimes at least, mostly just because then can.

Why does everyone assume that the only way to get corruption is "bad magical radiation?"

Why can't chaos just be innately infective?

I think Doc raises an important point. I always got the impression that it was warpstone that acted like magical radiation, while more generally contact with chaotic things effected in a different way.

An example would be a book full of the scribbles of a Tzeentch cultist, even looking upon such a thing could increase a characters slide into Chaos.

Beastmen are the children of chaos, and so simply being in contact with them must effect characters in some way. That said, I think less so than the book example.

Well generally being around beastmen might drive people insane not so much corrupt them. Beastmen don't really corrupt things unless they use their magics. Books corrupt very easily as does the search for power. But I suppose seeing beastmen alot or even getting captured by them might lead to corruption as people might think well "their very strong I wonder if I can get that strong" or if captured beseeching the gods knowingly or unknowingly to help them escape. But then again corruption can be gained from the most inocent things and the best of intentions. But I suppose very powerful Beastmen and creatures of Chaos might corrupt just by their pressence from the majesty and power of Chaos about them.