Help With Totem Animals?

[alchemyprime]

Hey thee Playground. So I was thinking;

I want to make a rainforesty setting (or rather, flesh out the one I already have) in my campaign world, the ever growing Vaxt.

This is the land of Frombel, a rainforest held in place by the action of the 13 Godtrees. Otherwise, the continent would frost over.

We have 13 trees: Frombel himself, the Fathertree, and his original 12 progeny

Ava, the Fire Tree
Luso, the Water Tree
Kaja, the Wind Tree
Susu, the Earth Tree
Puch, the Death Tree
Krimba, the Ice Tree
Atlquo, the Sun Tree
Povan, the Moon Tree
Leent, the Vengeance Tree
Laja, the Fertility Tree
Akwa, the War Tree
Meevan, the Shadow Tree


These trees all talk through Totem Spirits. What effect would this have on the campaign?

A modified cleric, the Shaman, will be the main religious leader, and the healer type class. They will have a Soultree (a small tree planted when they are born) and a Totem.

When they enter the class, they gain a vision from their Totem, and their Soultree becomes like a little version of the Godtree that guides them. Everyone does this as a rite of passage into adulthood (at least of the tribes that revere the trees).

But I need animal and beast totems to apply to each Godtree. So far I only have

Panther - Shadow, Death
Ant - Death, Earth
Scorpion - Death, Vengeance

The only reason I made these totems was for a friend's assassin character (he is watched by Puch, with the Scorpion as his Totem).

But does anyone else have some cool animal totem ideas?

[Jjeinn-tae]

If Meso-American culture is not out of line, there is the Quetzalcoatl, great feathered serpents heralding the morning star, thus fitting quite nicely with Atlquo, Tree of the Sun.

It would probably have sun, and either invention, death, or resurrection in its portfolio.

[TARDIS]

Firstly - though I don't know if you're running 3.X or 4.e - have you checked out the spirit shaman class from Complete Divine? May be what you're looking for in terms of flavour for your cleric class.

As for animals, well... I don't know what kind of rain forest you're going for here, be it Amazonian, African, Indian, Australian, Central American or otherwise, but based on your description of the intended culture, I'll make the assumption of something Amazonian (Panthers can be jaguars or leopards, so those don't help place them at all...) (also, this might be helpful in the setting if your 'peaceful shamanistic tribes' find themselves confronted by some imperialist Mayincatac (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Mayincatec) empire - a familiar story in a completely different setting. Maybe worth thinking about)

So then, thinking about some of the iconic Amazonian animals then... we've got vampire bats, caimans, anacondas, dolphins, piranhas, harpy eagles, opossums, maned wolves, poison arrow frogs, macaws and parrots, spiders, spider monkeys, dragonflies, river turtles, tapir, and brocket deer for examples here. Not certain how much you want, or how specific you want to get into each specific genus of animal... but this might help!

[alchemyprime]

If Meso-American culture is not out of line, there is the Quetzalcoatl, great feathered serpents heralding the morning star, thus fitting quite nicely with Atlquo, Tree of the Sun.

It would probably have sun, and either invention, death, or resurrection in its portfolio.

I was thinking the mythicalesque animals for Frombel himself, so I like the Coatl for Frombel and Atlquo! :smallbiggrin:


Firstly - though I don't know if you're running 3.X or 4.e - have you checked out the spirit shaman class from Complete Divine? May be what you're looking for in terms of flavour for your cleric class.

As for animals, well... I don't know what kind of rain forest you're going for here, be it Amazonian, African, Indian, Australian, Central American or otherwise, but based on your description of the intended culture, I'll make the assumption of something Amazonian (Panthers can be jaguars or leopards, so those don't help place them at all...) (also, this might be helpful in the setting if your 'peaceful shamanistic tribes' find themselves confronted by some imperialist Mayincatac (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Mayincatec) empire - a familiar story in a completely different setting. Maybe worth thinking about)

So then, thinking about some of the iconic Amazonian animals then... we've got vampire bats, caimans, anacondas, dolphins, piranhas, harpy eagles, opossums, maned wolves, poison arrow frogs, macaws and parrots, spiders, spider monkeys, dragonflies, river turtles, tapir, and brocket deer for examples here. Not certain how much you want, or how specific you want to get into each specific genus of animal... but this might help!

Some of those are a little too specific, but I like a lot of those...
Tapir for Povan
Frog is very much both Luso and Akwa to me (poison weapons anyone?)
Dragonfly I like for Kaja and Atlquo
Turtle for Kaja and Susu
I really really like Tyrannosaurus for Susu and Akwa...

Yes, this is a more Amazonian/Central American flavored land (I do have an Indian themed land as well, and a small African one too, but those are another continent). I like the imagery from the Incans, Mayans, Aztecs, but also the idea that the south pole is this big rainforest (X-Men has ruined me).

And I ave looked at the Spirit Shaman, and this Shaman will actually be a bit like a fusion of that, OA Shaman and Dragon Shaman (yeah, I'm working on different animal abilities based on Totem that will be like Cleric domain-ish).

[lightningcat]

The dead level (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/cwc/20070227x) fix for the Spirit Shaman has a list of animals and associated characterists. It might give you ideas.