Beast Lord

The "Lords/Sovereigns of Beasts" or simply Beast Lords/Beast Aristocrats are a "race" in the world of Arknights.

Overview

Dolly, the "Sovereign of Sheep", and his beastkins, "Little Black Sheep"

The "Lords of the Beasts" are literal talking animals, animals that are identical with our world's, with supernatural power such as immortality, teleportation, and immense knowledge that can be traced back to the "First Civilization" of Terra. In fact, they claim to have never been "born", rather claiming to be "manifestations" since time immemorial. Furthermore, they have a rather peculiar origin — having their minds and their original bodies forcefully separated. These attributes make them similar to land and animal spirits in our world's mythologies like European familiars, Ainu kamuy, Native American manitou, and East African shetani.

The Beast Lords are often confused with other anthropomorphic Ancients like Wei, the Rat King, and Gopnik, or even the Feranmuts, the "deities" of Terra. However, they are not related to both of them. Similar with the Elves and the Feranmuts, the Beast Lords have no reliance to Originium unlike the rest of Terra. Rather, they are even considered to be the "opposite" of Originium's traits.

Due to their origin as animals, the Lords have a primitive "impulse" similar to animal instincts that influence the way they live. However, such instinctive impulses can be overcome, thus allowing them to comprehend intelligence and human knowledge, as well as formulate their own meanings of life.

Each Ancient Terran race has a Lord representing them. For example, Amma, as the "Lord of the Deer," represents the Elafian race. There can be multiple Lords representing the race, like the Signore dei Lupi representing the Lupo race.

Relationship with humans

Despite having their power outside of the realm of Originium, the Lords of the Beasts could actually manipulate the Originium granules inside the Terrans' bodies. Thus, they are able to stay side by side with the Terrans. Through the Terrans' Originium granules, they can create an illusion upon them, hence making they mistreat the Beast Lords as ordinary Terrans or ordinary animals. Some also choose to reveal themselves to only certain people as in the case of Dolly's Little Black Sheep.

Most Beast Lords choose to coexist with the Terrans while others approach a more aggressive method like the Signore dei Lupi.

Beastkins

Beastkins, sometimes erroneously called Spirit Animals by the Terrans, are fragments of the Beast Lords used to communicate with the Terrans. Their nature is similar to the dæmons in His Dark Materials, and most of them are corporeal and harmless. It is through beastkins that the Terrans treats the Beast Lords as ordinary animals.

Nevertheless, the manifestation of beastkins are the result of the Beast Lords' manipulation of the Terrans' Originium granules. As a matter of fact, those with Oripathy could easily attract a beastkin on their side, or in the other way round, their physical contact with them could easily contract the disease. Whenever they come close to a Terran, the Terran will feel a familiar feeling onto the beastkins.

• Little Black Sheep
• Miss Christine
• Royal Companion
• Haze and Mousse's "kittens"
• Vigil's Wolfpack

Notable

• Amma
• Duck Lord
• "Lords of the Dogs": Several unnamed Beast Lords who were captured by the Bolívarian military. They were believed to be experimented upon and from whom the "hounds" were born via their Kins.

Signori dei Lupi

Not to be confused with Signore dei Lupi, the song part of Il Siracusano OST.

Emperor alongside several Signori dei Lupi

The Signori dei Lupi are a pack of lupine Beast Lords living in the wastelands of Siracusa who represent the will of the wilderness. For millennia, Il Signori have been playing the "great game", a battle royale where they hunt down each other with the last one standing deemed worthy to claim the title as the leader, or "Alpha" of the pack. Since il Signori are immortal due to being Beast Lords, they instead decide who would win the game by having individuals acting as their proxies known as Wolf Fangs, or simply Fangs, hunt down and kill each other.

Il Signori are permitted to do anything in the great game with one exception: do not involve humans other than their own Fangs into the game, including interfering with their affairs. Any Signore who breaks this rule will be considered to have lost the game at best and expelled from the pack at worst.

• Agnese: A Signora dei Lupi who raised Lunacub, but sent her to Rhodes Island to keep her out of Il Signori's game by not making Lunacub her Fang.
• "Grandma": Mentioned in Projekt Red's Archive files, the "Grandma" is a Signora dei Lupi who raised Red to become her Fang.
• An unnamed Signore dei Lupi who made someone that would later became Crownslayer's teacher their Fang. This is why Projekt Red picked up the scent of a "true wolf" (referring to Il Signori) from Crownslayer during their encounter. This Signore's Fang was later killed by Red as part of the game.