Michael's Note: This section has been heavily edited and rewritten, and bears little resemblance to Henrique's original chapter. The main reason is due to the GURPS magic system being so different than virtually all HERO System magic systems. I have done the best I can to preserve the flavor of the original material, while also making it workable within HERO System game mechanics.
Beast magic is a special and very powerful class of magic. It is not very well known outside the Sanjiyan's sphere of influence, and is very dangerous for normal magicians, so it's usually only practiced by demons, Wu, Sanjiyan, and other very powerful creatures.
In beast magic all the spells are related to the creation or summoning of living creatures to perform the desired effects and the control of those creatures. Almost every single spell useable by a normal magician (i.e. one who uses "regular" magic) can be performed by a beast magician, provided he knows (and controls) a beast capable of generating the desired effects. The College of Demonology, found in the 4th Edition Fantasy Hero sourcebook is an excellent example of how a magician can purchase certain forms of beast magic spells.
Due to the nature of beast magic, its spells are of a great aid in combat, as they can be more powerful and effective than "normal" magic spells. On the other hand, they are much more dangerous to acquire.
Although other aspects of beast magic can be found in the 3x3 Eyes story line, the "summon beast" subset of beast magic certainly receives most of the attention, due to its powerful advantages in combat. This is reflected in this text, as very few of the beasts described lack combat skills. The GM is encouraged to build his own beast spells for his NPCs, and to allow his players to create their own beast magic spells (usually by basing them off of other, allowable, spells already in use in the campaign). There are beast mages capable of developing new beasts, like Benares in the 3x3 Eyes manga.
The basis of most summon beast magic are rituals capable of enslaving a beast to the caster's will. The most widespread ritual, and the only one known by most of the beast magicians, will enslave only beasts that hatch from eggs. In turn, the beast will be granted a form of immortality. This ritual requires the following spell --
BEAST ENSLAVEMENT
Effect: Major Transform (free-willed beast into magician's willing slave), BOECV
Target/Area Affected: One Character
Casting Time: Full Phase (Attack Action)
Casting Procedures: Gestures, Incantations
Duration: Constant
Range: No Range
Magic Roll Penalty: N/A
END Cost: 11
Description: This is the ritual needed to put a beast under one's control, by binding the beast's existence to the operator's blood. Although the ritual is quite simple, it's one of the most dangerous parts of beast magic.
A magician who wants to control a beast must hatch the beast's egg using some of his own blood. The egg will hatch, and the beast will awaken, usually wild and in a state of rage. The beast will want more blood, and will hunt down the person whose blood hatched it. To complete the ritual, a blood alliance must be forged by marking the beast with the magician's blood. This is normally done by cutting a symbol (clan marks, arcane symbols, or other meaningful characters) on one's palm and applying it to the beast's forehead or another exposed main body section (like the head or torso). Arms, legs, or tentacles are never marked, perhaps to avoid the possibility of a beast going berserk if the marked limb is lost. Wu and Sanjiyan will always use the Sanjiyan Unkara's variation of the AUM Devanagari character (the dot-dash-three symbol). The mage must press his hand against the beast's body for at least 15 seconds, more if the beast is very large, while he recites the words that will create the binding between them.
Naturally, it's much safer to dominate and knock down the beast before attempting this spell, since it will NOT stay quiet and be willing to lose its freedom. Most magicians will hatch the egg inside a magic circle, to trapping himself and the beast within, and preventing it from escaping before the ritual ends. Normal magicians may find this a very deadly condition, and may not walk out of the circle alive.
A failure on the Transform attempt means the beast rejected the enslavement. Since the ritual cannot be restarted by another person (the beast cannot be hatched twice!), that beast is lost and will retain its free will. The caster might then attempt to cast any spells he might have that allow him to control animals, in order to cut his losses.
Each beast enslaved by this ritual acquires the Psychological Limitation: Willing And Faithful Servant (Very Common, Total) 25 points, and loses all self-initiative.
After the beast has been enslaved, it will fade out to an alternate plane, where it will be available for summoning upon its master's mental or vocal command, and instead of dying it will disappear (and become re-available for summoning) if it takes too much damage. In other words, the beast now has a Triggered Extradimensional Movement power, where the Trigger is the beast's STUN or BODY reaching 0. The magician also needs to buy a Summon allowing him to summon his beast. Said Summon must use the Advantage Slavishly Devoted (+1) (see below). See page 239 of HERO System 5th Edition, Revised for more information on adding abilities via Transform.
Game Information: Major Transform 6d6 (free-willed beast into magician's willing slave; heals back if magician is killed or through counter magics), BOECV (Mental Defense applies; +1), Works Against EGO, Not BODY (+1/4), Reduced Endurance (1/2 END; +1/4) (225 Active Points); All Or Nothing (-1/2), Concentration (1/2 DCV throughout casting; -1/2), Extra Time (Full Phase; -1/2), Gestures (must cut symbol into palm, requires both hands; -1/2), Incantations (throughout casting; -1/2), Limited Target ("beasts": -1/4), No Range (-1/2), Spell (-1/2). Total Cost: 47 points.
Each enslaved beast will require a Summon power of its own. Note—this means the mage will be Summoning a specific creature, i.e. a creature he has previously enslaved. Game Masters may wish to have magicians purchase the Specific Being (+1) Advantage, however the requirements of this Advantage don't seem to mesh well with the idea of Summoned beasts in 3x3 Eyes (i.e. the bests can't really be killed [the return to their alternate plane first] and the beasts always seem to arrive healthy, awake, and ready to fight). However, if the GM wishes for a more dramatic effect when summoning beasts, the Advantage may be suitable. If a specific beast is killed, the GM may wish to allow the player to convert those points into another beast of the same type. In addition, summoned beasts are not purchased as Followers—this Perk is reserved for familiars only (see below for more).
The typical Summon Beast Summoning spell should like this:
Summon XXX-point [name of beast], Slavishly Loyal (+1); One Recoverable Charge (-1 1/4), Costs Endurance (-1/2), Gestures (-1/4), Incantations (-1/4), Requires A Beast Magic Roll (-1/2)
The final cost of this spell will depend on the actual cost of the beast in question. Failing the skill roll means the beast has not been summoned, the mage pays the END cost, and the beast cannot be resummoned for 10 minutes. Other equally harmful and fitting effects resulting from a failed magic skill roll are left to the GM's evil imagination.
Any order to a beast requires a PER roll on the part of the beast. Failure means the beast couldn't understand the order and will disregard it. A "critical" failure (for example, rolling a 16 or better) means the beast misunderstood the order and will do something the operator doesn't want it to do. A summoned beast may be dismissed by its master anytime with a successful Magic Skill roll (with no Active Point adjustments).
An interesting side effect of the beast enslaving ritual is that an enslaved beast becomes completely immune to any spells that are designed to control animals. This should be expressed as a very large amount of Mental Defense, with the Limitation of "Only Versus Mind Control" (at least a -1).
Although beast magic is available to Sanjiyans, they will usually prefer to have powerful familiars instead of enslaved beasts. Friends are always better than slaves anyway, and familiars can have higher INT than beasts, and act on their own.
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