Fox Saliant Studios

In a day like the modern one, in a city like many we know, a greedy corporation seeks to harness a dangerous power known as UNSTABLE ENERGY, specifically to stabilize it so it can be easily collected, harvested, used and sold. However, in their efforts to condense the energy from living things, an accident has occurred, releasing blobs of UNSTABLE ENERGY out into the city, and beyond!

Upon touching these blobs of instability, people are changed, allowing them to interact with the unstable energy in their own bodies and tap into the primal forces within their own bodies and minds. This inner monstrosity, their "Animal Heart" changes their bodies, causing them to become monstrous behemoths with fantastic powers, capable of wreaking untold destruction.

Not all seek to destroy, but with as many motivations as a human can have, when you multiply that by animal instinct and hunger, who knows what kind of havoc these "rampagers" will bring with them? Especially with the corporation sweeping in to try and reclaim what they falsely see as rightfully theirs.

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Hey there! Spooky here, and this is a forum thread for Fox Saliant Studio's "Animal Heart" setting. Something that's blown up a bit recently, so I wanted to give people a way to participate! It's still a loose thing, currently; I'm not sure if it's going to be visual novels, another comic, an illustrated story, an RPG Maker game, or what-have-you, and what sort of priority it's going to take, so I'm just going to put this here so people can poke at it and have fun with it whenever I'm not working on it myself!

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Rampagers

Those who come in contact with the UNSTABLE ENERGY in its raw form are changed by its nature. Though all living things, be they human, animal, plant, fungus or whatever else possess this energy, most things are unable to tap into even a small percentage of it. Being exposed this this strange, manifest version allows those who come in contact with it to bypass this and tap into their full potential. Their bodies mutate wildly as they take a shape, perhaps, as some would philosophize, closer to their true selves. Regardless of how one feels about it, however, in the eyes of most, they become huge, rampaging monsters capable of both horrific damage and destruction, as well as great feats of valor and heroism.

Regardless of whether or not the world is ready, the Rampagers are coming.

Creating A Rampager

Creating a character to function in the setting is simple. You have a human character and a monstrous rampager form that compliments or contrasts the original human's in a particular way. Usually this is an animal, though it can be some combination of animals, animal like humanoids, or perhaps even mythical creatures. It really just depends on what sort of "animal heart" that person possesses. In addition, the rampager may have some affinity for a set of powers, be they elemental or thematic, that extend from themselves. Breathing fire, exuding poison, spraying water, and the like. This isn't strictly necessary but it will help them function in the various conflicts that they run into, both with the corporation and the other rampagers they're likely to encounter whose needs and desires run counter to their own. A thoughtful backstory for the human is a must; even better if they're just regular people with regular jobs or activities whose lives are upended (or even improved) by them becoming giant monsters. Try to build from the ground up, coming up with a person first, and then the monster they become and how that affects them. Now, let's break it down bit by bit with some more in-depth points.

Human Persona

Each Rampager is a human at the core. They have human bodies when they're low on energy or trying to conserve it, but even at their biggest and most monstrous, they have human thoughts and human motivations. At the core of every Rampager is a regular person, shaped by experiences, trauma, mental disorders, politics, and moral philosophy. From a tired cashier working at grocery store, to research scientist, to a professional dock worker; they have lives and needs that are sidelined or at the very least changed by the change that has happened to them. Most of all, try to keep them believable. There are very few high profile assassins and supersoldiers in this universe, and we'd like to keep it that way.

Also, their human gender presentation and sex does not have to match their monster form's. Just thought y'all would like to know.

Monster Persona

Each Rampager has a monster form that they turn into. This ranges in size from two to three times the size of an average person, to easily an order of magnitude larger. They don't get ultra kaiju size, but they can scale buildings pretty handily, even if they can't stomp them flat without notice. There's a little more to creating an effective monster form than just "make it believable" though, so try and follow this general template:

- Keep it somewhere between anthro and feral. (You can go more towards feral if you want, and giant kemonomimi are fine if they're really wild, I'd be a hypocrite if I didn't allow it, but no giant humans or elves; anything like that.)

- Try to find a unique aesthetic design. (Same species/type as another is fine as long as they are aesthetically distinct. You can have more than one kind of bird as long as they're unique in visual design and function, for example.)

- Try to find a unique execution on a theme for your character's powers. (Again, similar powersets are fine as long as they're used differently.)

- Mythological creatures and things like fungi or slimes are okay, but keep it to somewhat biological creatures. (No people mutating into machines or stone golems; that doesn't really follow.)

- Your design can change minorly over time (and no one gets these things right on the first try, anyway) but try to avoid characters shifting into different mutations each time, or mutations that are shapeshiftery by nature. Even things like slime molds and ameoba, or ones with camouflage tricks like chameleons can only do so much. Once a person changes into a Rampager, what they become is their nature and that's what they have to deal with. This is supposed to be a representation of their true self, after all.

- Rampagers are super heroes/villains but they're not Superman. The Rampagers are ridiculously durable, and they regenerate based on how much unstable energy they consume by eating (live meat being the most effective, though anything in enough quantity works) or absorbing directly from sources of unstable energy. Thus, they are extremely hard to kill (and ideally that shouldn't happen really all that often) but it should always be a risk. Invincibility shouldn't be among their powerset, and all Rampagers have the ability to lose.

- Much like forms, stick to one theme when it comes down to powers. Side things that make thematic sense or seem like your character would be able to do it is fine, like all flying types are going to generate some wind, though they may not have wind generation specialty and some things are just going to be strong, even if they can shoot water blasts, but don't give your character both ice and lightning powers. That's just bad form.

- The powers of a Rampager should originate FROM the Rampager in some way, and not be activated indirectly. No "bending".

Extra Info

Once you're done with that, try to come up with a human name, a moniker (that is a name that the Rampager is known by, either decided by themselves, or given to them by the press usually one word or a compound word), and a Chaos Level (this is a numerical value from 0 (lowest) to 10 (highest) that represents how much trouble each Rampager is bound to cause simply by going out and doing what they do. This is not a measure of how good or evil they are, but simply how restrained and in control of themselves they are. A restrained Rampager with a highly damaging moveset will probably have a higher chaos rating than one that's more destructive but also has less ability or opportunity to be destructive. This is generally collateral damage, civilian and corporate causalities, and wanton mayhem, and can change over time as you get a better grip on their personality and actions.)

Once you've gotten that done... well, you have yourself a big mutant stuck in a world that doesn't understand them. Good luck!

Links and Things

Fox Saliant Studios Subsite - Animal Heart (Under Construction)
Animal Heart - Rampager Info Assembly Doc (Read-Only)

Rampager Index

Here's a list of all the Rampagers currently available in the thread! If you want to add yours, post a short blurb and the relevant stats and it'll be added to the bottom of this post! You can try and keep all yours in one post if it's more convenient to you, but I'll scan for new ones now and again.

Originals
Scorch - Dr. Elizabeth Barrows (Monitor Lizard)
Powerline - Dr. Jodene Powers (Wolf)

Spooky Static
Tugboat - Gloria Atwater (Orca)
Windshear - Avianna Bronte (Songbird)
Patches - Valerie Parrish (Stray Cat)
Vermin - Blair Easton (Termite/Cockroach)
Toxica - Tracy Oxford (Dart Frog)
Sphinx (in development)
Shrimp/Lobster (in development)
Mosquito (in development)
Eldritch Being (in development)
Raptor (in development)

Azure Dreamer
Ninetail - Eunice Carter (Fox)
Wildcard - Cheryl Ellsworth (Rat)
Basilisk - Abigail Dixon (Cobra)
Mystery - Isabella Dickinson (Owl)
Bat (in development)
Squirrel (in development)
Cheetah (in development)

Leibun
Tremor - Dr. Jane Liddell (Rabbit)
Yukon - Miko Nakamura (Moth)

I'm working on conceptualizing a rampager who's part plant and part...deer? I think? Like I'm thinking of one of those weird Ulcerated Tree Spirits from Elden Ring except being a little more grounded and being able to pull in nutrients and spread herself further. Maybe a little posession too but the exact limitations of her powers can be debated later. I feel like consumption and being a creature that's growing more and more and getting more out of hand is the key here. Something weak which buds into something monstrous and powerful.

She's something of an adaptation of a character I've talked to some friends about named Lady Dameler. Initially she's kinda like a patchwork sorceress with some mummy and frankenstien's monster theming as a means to contrast with the other characters who are based on classic monsters. Something like Darkstalkers kinda. Anywho, perhaps she would have some of that here, though being allowed to lean into the animal/naturalistic theming a bit more.

In terms of her initial personality she wouldn't have changed much. Being a generally frail rich girl who was overlooked and neglected by her family and ended up with an obsession towards the occult as a means of escapism. She probably sees the Rampager crisis as something of a divine intervention and the Outer Gods bestowing their powers unto their "chosen" as a means of reshaping the planet in their image.

Though since this is kind of a fighting game setting I imagine she would serve as something of a zoner, attacking from afar and not really needing to get her hands dirty, unless she had an alternate form which was made to move more actively? Perhaps that can be conceptualized later as the concept itself is still in the moldinf phases. Though 100% a boss character who may or may not become playable. Perhaps the more active form is the playable version and the larger "main body" is the boss version of the character

That's all I have for now though! Still wanna workshop this and see what I can come up with

Name: Kiko Rangi
Moniker: Blueshift
Type: Cobra/Raptor
Chaos Rating: Medium (I'd give her a 6, mainly from her huge size)
Archetype: Big Sister Guardian
Powerset: Disappearing into shadows, silent movement, super jumping, numbing venom

Kiko is a set of contradictions. In many ways, her Rampager form is everything she is not allowed to be as a human. As a human, she's short, boyish, an MMA star on camera frequently with a strict diet and training regimen. As Blueshift, she's huge, busty, can use her powers to hide away from prying eyes, and eat anything she wants which just results in a larger reserve of UNSTABLE ENERGY. In both forms she prefers a hit-and-run style of combat to control the pace of a fight as her stamina and toughness are notably her weaknesses.

Growing up as the oldest of 4 sisters in a rough neighborhood, Kiko learned very early on how to defend herself when her small stature was the opposite of intimidating. She got into a lot of fights over the years, and even weakened several gangs hold on the surrounding neighborhoods. She's mentored several friends, neighbors, and even strangers she's saved from attacks, on proper self-defense techniques. Barely graduating high school, she caught a lucky break getting in to MMA as a profession. Secretly though, she hates the limelight. She never wanted to be famous, just respected. To blow off steam she likes to ride her motorcycle at unsafe speeds along the highway.

She first encountered UNSTABLE ENERGY when a blob of it hit her from behind while she was riding her motorcycle across the city's suspension bridge. The subsequent weight of her first Rampage snapped the bridge and caused havoc with traffic for nearly a year, something she still feels ashamed about.

Name: Daniel Morrow
Moniker: Elderthing
Type: Worm That Walks
Chaos Rating: Moderately-HIgh
Archetype: Meek Grad Student/Domineering Tyrant
Powerset: Tactile Telekinesis (mostly used to keep himself together), Very Minor Non-Tactile Telekinesis, Telepathy, Psionic Blast, Swarm Discorporation, 360-degree Vision

The City was a refuge for Daniel. An escape from the predations of his father and younger brothers. Rough and tumble farm life was never a good fit for him, after all. He took to his studies like few others, thankfully, and a full-ride scholarship rescued him from the clutches of his family. But the damage was done. Even a casual conversation was difficult for him, and he was just as much a failure at making friends in the physics lab as he was in the fields. He seemed doomed to be a hermit, with only his research for company. But then the labs got a new specimen to study: a sample of UNSTABLE ENERGY.

As Daniel examined the UNSTABLE ENERGY and tried to learn its properties, he found himself exposed to it. As he mutated, bits of him coming off as horrid worms that grew rapidly, terrified out of his mind, a new thought came to him. A thought that came along with unfathomable power. All his life, he had been at the whim of those around him. especially those who were far less mentally capable than he was. All agency taken from him. All sense of control. If he was going to change, then so was that. Now he will be the one in control. Everyone would be under his beck and call. And no one would have to suffer in the way he had suffered ever again. And if he had to take that control? So be it.

As Elderthing, Daniel is a collection of man-sized dark purple worms kept in a humanoid shape with his powerful mental abilities. Several of them end in bulging, orange eyeballs, which make up his head. Each of these worms is self-aware and able to act independently, but aren't able to accomplish very much on their own. Only in the hivemind that is Elderthing can they achieve their new goal of world domination. Needless to say, being able to think clearly is difficult when your mindscape is a cacophony of disparate voices, which sometimes leads to fits of destructive emotion as Daniel tries to figuratively and quite literally keep himself together. Additionally, Elderthing is physically weak for a Rampager, unable to match peers of equal size in feats of strength and having to rely on his psionic powers to defeat them, especially the blast that comes from his head of an indescribable color. His gestalt nature means that blows tend to land poorly, but anything that disrupts his focus tends to cause him to collapse into a mostly helpless pile of worms.

As his human self, Daniel is much more mentally stable, if far less forceful and charismatic. His time as a Rampager frightens him greatly, but the allure of power and the intense anxiety he suffers from means that taking on that aberrant form again is inevitable. In the meantime, his attention has turned to the Corporation that first produced the UNSTABLE ENERGY, in an attempt to learn more about this thing that has changed him. And has changed others...the other Rampagers are going to have to be dealt with. The world can only have one supreme ruler, after all. And only Elderthing is fit for the job.