Animus

An Anima<ref name="6.1e1"/> or Animus<ref>Launch SHELL (ANIMUS_LIBRARIAN|unbind -5m30s
[...]
Ray: Your Librarian Animus is wandering about in my private teaching area. She’s chatty. Deal with her. - [3.9 spoilers] SunnyDay Logs</ref> is a type of being defined by a task, profession or intent.<ref name=":0"/> Physical and embodied, they are considered somewhere between spirits and Incarnations.<ref name=":0"/> They are so defined by their purpose as to arguably be incapable of good nor evil.<ref name=":0"/> By carrying out their task, they are sustained (i.e. no need for food) and empowered to continue carrying it out.<ref name=":1">“…animus that we know doesn’t need to eat either,” Avery was saying.

“The gunman?”

“No comment.”

“Pretty usual. Nina gets her sustenance by reading. She gets resources for pursuing her aim that way too. Money to buy train fare to get to the next big city, to visit the various bookstores and yard sales there.”

“I’ve not had much luck at the yard sales,” Nina said. “Some graphic novels. But that’s the province of another sort of Animus. A snack and curiosity for me, nothing of particular interest.” - Excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.5</ref><ref>“You trashed my truck?” Matthew asked.

“I scraped the side,” John said. “And left it by the side of the road about a half hour up the road. I’ll fetch it as soon as this situation is resolved, and I can cover the costs.”

“You have money?” Lucy asked.

“I take it off the Others I kill.”

“Do Others have that much money?” Verona asked.

“I don’t spend much,” John said. - Excerpt from Out on a Limb 3.1</ref>

They are believed to form from spirits congealing into something solid, using a "path" that has been "worn down" by humans performing a task as a mold. They appear without a concrete background or identity, in contexts where people are disinclined to look too closely into their history.<ref name=":2">“How does someone become an Animus?” Verona asked.

“You don’t, as far as I know. Or if you do, you lose so much ‘you’ that you’re essentially someone or something else altogether,” Zed answered. “They tend to emerge from paths that are carved out by humanity. Enough people have gone looking for books or tried to track down information that the path was worn out, and spirits were able to consolidate into something solid. Sometimes the path is carved out by many, other times it’s carved out deep. ‘Many’ gives you a Nina. Deep can give you… I don’t know…”

“A pugilist, who wanders, looking to take down the undefeated,”

Nicolette supplied. “Or a nemesis, to answer and match the investigator or rising star that’s doing well.”

“Would have to be a rising star in an underground band scene or something,” Zed said. “They don’t have backgrounds and can’t spring up in contexts where people would be free to dig into who they are.”

“I was spitballing, but yeah. The nemesis is only a theory, anyway.” - Excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.5</ref> Because of these reasons they can be bound by immaterial or Visceral means.<ref name="6.1e1">“When deciphering an Other that you can name or can’t name, it’s good to start at the fundamentals. Material or immaterial make a fine starting point. Do they have bodies? Is that body solid and consistent in form? I’m not speaking of shapeshifting, but of biology, or if the head remains a head. If so, they’re material, visceral if you want to use correct terminology. If they don’t touch ground, their forms are mutable, or they don’t exist primarily in this realm, they may be immaterial. This can be deceptive. Our temporary school librarian, for example, is an Anima, and Anima straddle the line in such a way that they can be bound by both the visceral and the immaterial.” - Excerpt from Cutting Class 6.1</ref> Reportedly as they are a role, they can be be lonely.<ref name="Lone"/>

Know varieties

Champion- Subordinate to the incarnation Battle, all about fighting which means assessment and combat ability and more,<ref>

Aloysius takes a Champion for a familiar, Adonis Johnson, a moderate-tier Animus that had spent his prior existence wandering the world to find the best people to fight with. Johnson’s roots are in the incarnate, serving Battle, but he himself is essentially physical and could be mistaken for human. His expression of power is through his innate awarenesses and talents, and should Aloysius feed Johnson with power, the familiar would exaggerate his ability to assess enemies, sense raw fighting potential, would fight better, and would be better able to rise to any challenges. That same conduit of power can flow the other way, serving Johnson’s power by assisting him in his duties even though he is ‘free’ of those duties so long as he is a familiar will give the Animus power. His underlying purpose is to remind the great fighters that anyone can lose, so defeating the powerful will serve to fill the well of power that both Aloysius and Johnson draw on. Should Aloysius require it, he may draw on the connection and express a few Champion powers and abilities like those described above, albeit through the lens of Aloysius as a person. - excerpt from Famulus, quoted in Bonus Material: Famulus Text</ref> a Pugilist who seeks out and defeats powerful fighters would likely be an example.<ref name=":2"/>

City Personifications - tied closely with City Magic these anima are representation of the people and the cities they personify.<ref>When we left that day it was with the added company of Kennet’s Anima Corporeal. The spirit of the city made flesh.
[...]
I could imagine the city or township spirit taking over the council– many city spirits are in fact Lords and trade on the power of how distinct their city’s image is.
[...]
At the same time however Ken is our town in totality… including parts I don’t tend to grapple with. I knew those parts existed because of the customer service side of my work at Buckheed but now I face it daily. In lieu of family Ken turns his focus to tiredly minding the spirits of Kennet. He does have a drinking problem. He does have a drug problem. These things are (usually) background.

If Lis is the average of a small group then Ken is that stretched out to Kennet as a whole. The dynamics and effects are similar but reversed: Lis extends herself out and Ken can (if he wants) divide himself down into rough regions.
[...]
More than anything however is that Ken cares about the people and well being of the town - [8.7 Spoilers:] New Other Correspondence</ref> Useful and diverse they have drawbacks to their use as does everything. Importantly a personification does not have the manifest as an animus, as it can take other forms such as purely spiritual.<ref>Too many bad things happen if an old practitioner f- messes up, and other practitioners don’t know they’re dead or worse, when they had responsibilities we were all counting on them to do. [...] Like the perimeters. Like protecting a population, or a specific object that would be catastrophic in the hands of the wrong Others. Spirits can manifest as representations of a major city. What happens to that human representation of Windsor can be extrapolated out to the city in general. Just imagine what happens if that manifestation becomes regular, and goblins get their hands on it.”

“Or the wrong practitioners,” Lucy said.

“Or- yeah. Probably more likely to happen, even.” - Excerpt from Gone Ahead 7.4</ref> Ken is one example.
Dog of War - purpose is to wage/perpetuate/exemplify a particular conflict.<ref name=":0">“The Carmine Beast predated us,” the Aurum said. “But not the Alabaster Doe.”

“She was an Animus, a walking intent,” the Alabaster said. “Much as your Dog of War is one.”

“I- I’m not familiar with that.”

“Forces between spirit and incarnation that exist for purpose. Often malign, but not always. Physical. They are defined by the task they accomplish. The Swordbearer animus exists to find the noble and heroic, equip them, and send them on their path. The Dog of War exists to perpetuate the senselessness of war. Muses inspire art.”

What did she do?”

“Before she was the Carmine Beast, she reminded civilized men who had come here why their ancestors were so afraid of the deep night,” the Alabaster said. “Henhouses emptied, livestock slaughtered. Howling that shook hearts, and fangs that took the lives of people who were in the midst of discovering just how dark a forest can be without the torches, candles and lamps of a nearby city.”

“Was she evil? I know we asked, but- before?”

“She wasn’t good or evil so much as she simply was. Just as she was the Carmine Beast. The role precedes all.” - Excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.1</ref><ref>[Dogs of War] are technically Animus; spirits with form and motive action, perpetuating war by their manner of being.
[...]
As Animus, [Dogs of War] are weak to things that are especially effective against incorporeal things, to the extent that battlefield superstitions can delay them or give them cause to move on to other targets - Pact Dice Bestiary: Dog Tags</ref>
Hangmaiden - and animus based around the trope of fate and relationships, variants might tap into other things like poisoned hierarchies or societal rot bringing in exploiters.<ref>HANGMAIDENS by Wildbow</ref>
Hysteria<ref>Lauren picked things up again, “He’s not locked to one place. He can appear and disappear. My education was limited. One-note, but the nonsensical part of it, he’s silly, dream-like. Lost? Or Anima something?”

“You might be thinking of Anima Hysteria or something like that. - [

https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2021/09/14/break-3/ Excerpt] from Break 3</ref>

Librarian - concerned with knowledge and words, particularly books, known for searching tomes out and matching people with the right book.<ref name="Lone">“Being an Animus can be a lonely existence. For a Librarian Animus, life is defined by the search for books, visits to bookstores, meeting people in a moment and giving them that one perfect book.”

“I wonder how that is for someone like John,” Lucy said. “Moments of violence? It feels like he’s moving away from what he is whenever he’s being social and nice.”

“I don’t know,” Zed replied. “That’s not me disagreeing, it’s me not knowing. - Excerpt from False Moves 12.9</ref> one example is Nina Lecerf.
- An animus that collects comics<ref name=":1" />
Master Craftsman - skilled at creating (possibly magic) items<ref name=":3" />
Muse - purpose is to inspire art.<ref name=":0"/>
Nemesis - a theoretical animus that exists to match and counter a specific exceptional person.<ref name=":2" />
Observer - They who watch; who see the events that could become important, have an effect by existing, may answer to some Greater Power depending.<ref name=ob>Observers

The Observer is an Animus, a spirit given flesh and drive to singular ends, and is often seen as a harbinger (not Harbinger) of ill tidings and catastrophe. In truth, however, they take the form of mortals who remain a step away from things, watching from a distance and often from places that are hard to immediately access (such as the far side of a chicken wire fence or a window). They study events by a system that only they truly understand, sometimes focusing on tertiary players in the grand scheme of things, rather than the people or objects closer to the primary event. The primary event, in any case, is a catastrophe, great moment in history, or something important to the ambient spirits that warrants a more focused eye on events than their ambient awareness can provide. The Observer is often neutral, expressionless, and avoids taking actual part in the events, except perhaps to take items of apparent inconsequential value. Because of the nature of the events they observe, those observed are almost always jumpy or aware something is off, so the Observer may end up having small effects in the course of events as they amplify paranoia or serve as red herrings themselves.

The events can include the formation of non-practice cults and religions (including masonic lodges or fraternities that are breaking new ground), the testing of new science, networks of criminal activity forming in the background of suburbia or broader institutions (such as academia or law), the performance of new major and untested rituals, the subversion of City, Hero, bloodline, or other forms of subtle Order, and freak disasters, natural or manmade. They may or may not have an apparent or obvious supervisor to whom they report, and it may be their role to provide exposition to the group or individuals that higher powers assign to the issue at hand, if they see fit to intervene. - Wildbow on Discord</ref>
Predator - Unnamed beasts whose purpose was to remind settlers in North America of the terrors of the wilderness.<ref name=":0"/>
Swordbearer - purpose is to find heroes, equip them, and send them on their path.<ref name=":0"/> May have the ability to create artifacts from nothing, depending.<ref name=":3">In Chapter Two we discuss the Others for whom craftsmanship is tied to their being. The Dwarves of Deep Midgard, Artisan Fae of the Spring court, Master Craftsman Animuses, and some Peddlers (a broad category encapsulating your ‘magic shop’ Other, including those similar to the aforementioned Gnarling). We’ll discuss ways to shape the self and put yourself into your craftsmanship, including titles, signatures, and immersive crafting.

Chapter Three will cover Others who create the material from nothing, sometimes with its own properties. Greater powers such as gods may create something from nothing to bestow a gift on a chosen champion, some Animuses for whom giving powerful gifts is a common practice (swordbearers), some goblins I hesitate to attempt to label (the labels intentionally change), and those Others with access to a strong means of translating power between states. - excerpt from Forged Hearts, quoted in 4.5 Bonus Material: Bedtime Reading</ref>

Trivia

Anima seem most likely to adopt or acquire human names.
The concept behind anima is grounded in tropes, the soldier, the fates, the excellent librarian, the prize fighter, these are all tropes or roles that can have common personality traits associated with them. There are websites that cover tropes actually.

References