Animals

Animals in Mythic Europe are often not completely mundane, their nature associated with various Mythic qualitis in the style of medieval bestiaries. For example, a weasel's touch may heal poison and a crow might see beyond mere appearances. Not all animals need exhibit such qualities in your Mythic Europe, not even all the animals of this kind - but such Mythic charectaristics serve well to differentiate Mythic Europe from real Europe, and can add a lot of color to the setting.

Still, mundane animals are rarely powerful enough to see much use as antagonists. Animals in Ars Magica usually see use as Bjornaer heartbeasts, familiars, or serve as the mechanical basis on which the Storyguide depicts a creature of Might, aligned with one of the Realms of Power.

There is no comprehensive bestiary of the animals of Mythic Europe. The best ArM5 treatment is given in HoHMC 38-43, which provides guidelines on how to create the statistics of any sort of animal, and the bestiary-like description of 20 animals (page 41).

The core book provides no statics on mundane creatures. However, Atlas Games provided the statistics of several creatures through the Book of Mundane Beasts.

See Also

• Rules for animals can be found in Houses of Hermes:Mystery Cults
• Beast of Virtue
• The Medieval Bestiary (for Fourth Edition) provided a large assortment of animals, including much Mythic information about them. While some mechanical aspects might be better treated under the HoHMC guidelines, the book contains many descriptions and examples that can serve as inspiration as well as suggestions on the other uses of animals in the saga.