A post about multiple consciousnesses (there's a word for ya!) reminded me of this house of Lessima... (Amber-based content ahead!)
Amicus Herdmind - (Or, in on an insectile basis, called Swarms. Most still go
for larger creatures.) [**A 50 point base, plus depending on how many splits
are possible and what they are.**]
Herdmind is the ability to split one's self into a variety of other, similar selves. Ava Cabrone is an Amicus Avia Herdmind, and she's not only herself, she's a flock of 12 birds. At any point, besides her shapeshifting being inhibited in any factor, she can split herself up into any amount of birds from two to twelve. (I had set it at about 5 points of endurance per animal. If your shapeshifting is mass limited, keep that in mind before your players want to be an entire wolf-pack.)
The major prerequisite of this, is, of course, Advanced Shapeshifting. On top of this, is some sort of mindset, a sort of MPS that can deal with the multiple bodies as individuals, but still part of a seperate whole. Right now, the rule seems to be some sort of tragedy in someone's past. (Ava had her fears of being alone.. Stanley, who is a mouse herdmind, was dying of Chaos Cancer... that sort of thing.)
It will mix with Pahth, Crow, Shauning, Spectre, Crystal, and Ethereal. However, it does not account for whatever creature they want to be, and requires paying for the Amicus trainings separately... (If there are Herdminds of other Houses, it's more an exception than any kind of rule...)
A Trump contact will, if properly made (they usually can only be contacted in full-human form by the standard Trump.. otherwise, an Advanced Artist can get in all pieces) contact each seperate part of the herdmind. Most magics fail against them because an effect has to get to each "piece" to really be useful.
They can still be humanoid at 50% animal and 50% self.. Nothing less; the body splits into a large type of its animal at any tries.. (I've so far ruled out human herdminds..)
"True form", in a general sense, is unreliable; it depends too much on how each one happens to see his or her self. But for the most part, if they're physically very spread out, figure it doesn't have much effect, while if they're close together, it may recombine them. Probably depend on Psyche advantage as compared to distance.
At Advanced Shapeshifter level, they can, of course, shapeshift creatures of power into having item abilities in their forms.. Ava, for example, might have one of her selves (Avabirds) on her shoulder with a 2 point danger sense, one with a 4 point combat mastery on her other shoulder.. those points fade, as well as do all temporary enchantments or conjurations, or whatnot, if the creature shifts into the human.. it can't shift back and have it back. Herdmind also overwhelms any other forms besides the human, herd, and large herd forms; if this happens because of a tragedy, all previous forms are forgotten or blocked out. Automatic shapeshifting may have unexpected, terrifying effects.
The LintKing7 adds:
Hivemind (Insectile) - Two types, actually, and probably difficult to work into a player character; I'm still playing around with it, really. Mainly it gives a connection... Predominantly, it lets people share out abilities to a good extent - say, if one member of the Hive is a good swordsman, and another is in a duel, he can, to an extent, safely shift himself to use the first one's skill with it, much like Psycheshifting to someone to gain their knowledge. There are certainly limits to this, particularly with regards to borrowing Powers...say, if one has Spectre, it IS possible for another to help them coordinate somethng Spectrish, but they can't actually Spectre themselves without really Shifting into the first, which will be a little safer than an equivalent Shift without a Hive connection, but is still risky.
The second type is Dominant, where the Queens are. Queen is just
terminology, but females are traditional and more common for it. These are the ones where one person is definitely in control..and yes, they do indeed
tend to be very dominatrix-like.
[**As I currently have it, it's 10 points +2 points per member, for each. E.g., 14 from each for a 2 member hive, 16 each for 3, 18 for 4, 20 for five..etc. This mainly because the very nature of it allows them to share out the phenomenal cost it should require; say, by the time you've got five people able to share their learnings and abilities pretty freely, they have 100 points going simply into letting them do that...but yeah, it was only 20 each which is pretty cheap.
In the Dominant case, the Queen covers all the 2-pointers. That is, it's still 10 from the others to get in (yes, some will, for whatever reason), but if it's two, that'll be a 10/18 split...by five, she's paying in 60 to their 10 a piece. But it does give her control over the Hive aspect, and some access to their minds..
It's also somewhat possible to FORCE someone into a Dominant hive, but then, in addition to everything else it takes, you have to pay the full points, and yes, they can resist, and will continue to resist under most circumstances.
So to hold two people costs 48 points for the connection, PLUS she has to hold control over them..which means at least a psyche equivalent to their combined total, and if it's not significantly over they've got a very good chance at breaking free..in which case THEY actually gain the (in this case 16) points that went into holding them, while the other 4 (for the other two connects) are simply lost.
This method has been used occasionally in the old slave trade to truly bind someone to an owner, but it's very, very rare to find anyone who has any hope of holding more than one person this way with any reliability.**]