#the bound pathologic

the kin's numbers are severely depleted after the plague, and the amount of kin that could be receptive to such energy are even lower (herb brides and odonghs), but to dump it all into them would be, essentially, to make a few-dozen demigods. that can't happen. where does the rest of boddho's essence go?

well, there just so happen to be around 30 special people in a town not too far from her birth and death place, and while they aren't receptive to such energy in the traditional way, their bodies can handle being vessels - to an extent. better said, their bodies can and will change to *become* better vessels for such magic.

now that i have yapped about the vaguely reasonable background for this, i can say what i've come here to say:

you know how naga daniil and minotaur artemy are so popular?

make the rest of the bound like that. using their listed assigned animal when possible, and using vibes if not.

example: maria, assigned as a cobra, would also be a naga. georgjy and notkin, assigned as a condor and owl respectively, would be harpy-type things. andrey would be forced into the river, being a shark merman. etc etc, the list goes on! the magic of the steppe and of nature, the rotting essence of mother boddho, will be stored in these vessels and will transform these vessels to suit its needs - it will bring them back to nature, to the steppe, through any means it must.

now go forth and take this as an excuse to draw more blank-taurs (i have seen One rendition of peter as a salamander by meirimerens, thats the kinda energy i mean. )

and now, how i imagine all of them being, as written descriptions

For a general group of terms so i dont end up repeating myself a bunch of times -

a harpy would mean a human torso and head, with bird legs, and aestetically (not functionally) identical wings to their given 'species' attached to them pterodactyl-style (pinky finger outstretched to provide bone structure for wing, while other fingers or still available and useful for grasping).

a waist-down taur would mean a (mostly) human upper body, save for optional claws or head accessories, with the lower body consisting of their animal's tail and hind limbs. think fauns / satyrs and some interpretations of a minotaur.

a neck-down taur would mean the same thing for the human part, normal upper body save for details, with the lower body consisting of their animal's fore And hind limbs and tail, reserved for animals with tubular shapes and stubby short hind legs where it would just make more sense for them to be built like that instead of the other way. think centaurs (and potentially naga, if you look at it a certain way).

if something doesnt fit in one of these, itll be described there.

Daniil Dankovsky - Obviously, a naga, we all know this.

Artemy Burakh - waist down taur, minotaur, this is again a very common consensus

Clara Saburova - neck-down taur, rat. less common but also because she in general is a bit less talked about, so id say it isnt a surprise.

Alexander Block - Eagle? harpy? irdk for him. he doesnt have an assigned animal and i dont really gaf about him so. yea

Alexander Saburov - waist-down taur, wolf. dogboy alexander saburov there i said it i think he would do good. the big scary dog being all bark, no bite (having power, but never acting on it)

Andrey Stamatin - waist-down taur, shark merman, as said in example.

Anna Angel - neck-down taur, antelope centaur. i can just imagine her being spooked by like a mouse and leaping 5 feet in the air before sprinting away

Aspity - a unique one. a waist-down taur of a mantis, she has the thorax, but she also still has the arms, just under her normal ones and attached to a human torso.

Eva Yan - waist-down taur, a faun but like also a deer. idk i think she could pull it off

Georgjy Kain - as mentioned, a condor harpy. i dont have much to say about him, though honestly, who does?

Grace - a heron harpy. also not much to say about her i fear..

Grigory "Bad Grief" Filin - a lot of harpies in a row. hes a vulture, as assigned by the fandom :3. he calls his lair a 'nest' in essentially every context he can.

Kasper "Khan" Kain - neck-down taur of a hedgehog, though the spines creep a bit up his human back as well.

Katerina Saburova - neck-down taur, i think she would be less of a cat girl and more of an eternally tormented yet elegant sphinx-like creature. which makes it even funnier (sadder? in a way?) imagining her staying with loser dogboy saburov.

Lara Ravel - lara, meanwhile, is a catgirl. waist-down taur, i think she is a tuxedo-patterened siberian forest cat.

Maria Kaina - cobra, neck-down taur, as mentioned in the example. she would use this as a way to hit on daniil once or twice, mentioning that the similar transformations couldn't be a coincidence, but he ignored her in favor of being gay, as usual.

Mark Immortell - a merlin harpy. would be the only one to truly monetize his new form, and would do so by doing "flying" stunts (really just falling slightly slower than normal and without damage) on stage to draw more attention.

Murky - lemur. neck-down taur. you Will find her in trees or on roofs or really anywhere that can be climbed, staring down at people.

Notkin - as previously mentioned, an owl harpy. was genuinely surprised when jester remained by his side after the transformation, and the other soul-and-a-halves saw it as a sign that his half-soul was, indeed, true.

Oyun - unlike artemy, he is a neck-down taur of an auroch. i cant think of much for him, other than that he would let taya ride around on his back if she wanted to go wandering around the steppe or something.

Peter Stamatin - monitor lizard neck-down taur. look, i like salamander as much as the next guy, but monitor lizards are basically the same thing except scaly and actually assigned to him by the art book.

Stanislav "Stakh" Rubin - neck-down taur, tiger. nobody lets him inside closed spaces with objects on shelves, because there is almost never a moment where his tail is not swishing like an aggravated housecat.

Sticky - waist-down taur aka catboy (kittenboy?), it just seems right for him. a human enough size to still fit into places, but with legs that let him jump and run to places he couldn't get before, it suits him.

Taya Tycheek - jerboa, waist-down taur, you will almost always find her sitting on top of the tallest surface around she could jump on, much to the chagrin of her caretakers.

Victor Kain - tiger, also a neck-down taur. while rubin is the standard orange, he is the elusive silver... i am choosing to ignore that that trait is mostly inbred.

Victoria "Capella" Olgimskaya - waist-down taur, though she only really has the bottom half of the thorax and one set of legs with a set of 'arms' below her arms. her wings are HUGE relative to her, but still not functional. i think she would be a papilio machaon :3

Vlad Olgimsky Jr - waist down taur of a bear. i dont think he'd be affected all that much, honestly, nor do i have much to say.

Vlad Olgimsky Sr - so. he's assigned whale. and as funny as that would be im just gonna say he died. he's just dead in this au. he's not importabt :3