Modern vs. Medieval Terminology

Selective breeding and crossbreeding are modern terms. A medieval breeder would never use the terms "selective breeding" or "crossbreeding." Using animals that have the desired physical characteristic — be it shape, color, size, or temperament — as studs and dams is simple common sense. The breeder is breeding for the best results; he doesn't know that there is a specialized term for what he is doing. Crossbreeding along breeds — mating an Irish horse with a Norman horse, for example — is still focusing on the desired physical qualities. When crossbreeding along kinds, a medieval breeder would say he is breeding mules, referencing the final product as a name for the activity. If, in your saga, a magical female horse could breed with a magical male eagle and produce a hippogriff, the breeder would call it "breeding for hippogriffs," rather than "crossbreeding" a horse with an eagle.

fierce long-maned breed, trying to generate a medium-maned lion with an even keel. Because the male's inherited traits usually suppress the female's, the breeder must wait for the rare occasion when the male's traits augment existing traits instead of overriding them. Crossbreeding also includes breeding different kinds of creatures to make a third; a horse and a donkey can crossbreed and produce a mule. While many breeds can generally crossbreed, most kinds of mundane animals cannot. A mundane wolf cannot crossbreed with a mundane bear.

With mundane creatures, breeding for the beast is most successful in certain kinds of animals, namely horses and dogs. Breeding for the magical beast can follow similar lines. Success is possible only in specific kinds of magical animals. In Mythic Europe, however, it might be possible to crossbreed different kinds of animals. A griffin is an amalgamation of a lion and an eagle, and as well as mating a pair of griffins, it might be possible to produce a griffin by mating a magical lion with a magical eagle. One of the Inner Mysteries of House Bjornaer allows a Bjornaer magus to create an inner heartbeast chimera that is a hybrid of more than one mundane animal (Houses of Hermes: Mystery Cults, page 31). This suggests that creating chimeras (hybrids of two or more animals) might be possible through breeding for the beast.

Breeding for the beast also refers to the practice of breeding a magical beast with a mundane beast of the same type, hoping that the offspring will be magical or that a