Being Italian

Question: So aside from the difference in names, would there be other distinctions between the Greek and Roman versions of Dodekatheon? It seems that most people think they're interchangable, But I don't see gods such as Janus on the family tree. Would there be a different skill set for some gods in the Roman version? or is it not worth the time? Is there a supplement that would include some of the minor gods such as Janus and Iris? Obviously Iris is interchangable to some degree with Mercury. Thoughts?

The incestuous free-for-all that is Greco-Roman divine geneaology is a mess almost untangleable by mere mortals. It's insanely large, incredulously complicated, and prone to changing completely depending on what area you're in and who you're talking to. You could have a doctorate on the subject and I guarantee you'd still probably have to say, "Shit, I don't know, let me go research that" about twenty-five percent of the time.

The Roman gods and the Greek gods really are not the same. Scion chooses to mash them together because of their similarities, and while I would normally whine and flail my arms (kind of like I do whenever someone starts mashing the Aztecs and Maya together), in this case I think it's very definitely the right choice. Unfortunately (for those of us trying to make sense of it, anyway), despite having plenty of Italian gods and customs of their own, the Romans were enormous fans of the incredibly pervasive Greek myths that were right next door to them, and basically cut and pasted their religion over the top of their own, creating a new collage of deific attributes and names.

The Dodekatheon themselves, in the strict sense of the Twelve Olympians and the Dii Consentes, are at this point by and large the same. Athena and Minerva are not particularly differentiatable anymore; the Romans adopted Athena's myths for Minerva and dumped a lot of their own into the back alley of obscurity (though some survive in scholarship on Menrva, the Etruscan goddess who predated Minerva). It's an exercise in futility to try to make the two different playable goddesses, because they'd be basically functionally identical. Similarly, there's no point in trying to separate Zeus and Jupiter or Aphrodite and Venus; they may not have the same origin, but over centuries of determined syncretization, they're the same figure now for all practical purposes. Other gods are more obviously different, as is the case with Ares, a savage war-god representing bloodlust and fury, and Mars, who not only embodies the much more regimented and sensible war-style of the Romans but is also a god of farming and fertility, something Ares has nothing to do with. But overall, there's just no feasible way in Scion for the Dodekatheon and the Dii Consentes to be separated into two functioning pantheons. It'd be like peeling a piece of paper in half and claiming you'd created more paper.

But this does leave purely Roman gods in a weird limbo. The Dodekatheon are presented as very Greek in Scion, which is unsurprising considering their vast popularity and influence on other religions, but that doesn't leave any room for the likes of Janus, Silvanus or Vortumnus. They don't have any relationship to the Greek gods, being purely Roman in origin, so there's no place for them on the family tree. For a lot of Scion games, they sort of fade away into the background to make room for the superstars of the Dodekatheon.

Personally, I much prefer letting the Roman gods come out to play; they're literally a cast of thousands that can cause no end of headaches for Dodekatheon players, and their slightly less well-known status makes them perfect candidates for Legend 9-11 antagonists, guides, helpers and friends. Janus, in particular, turns up semi-frequently in our games to harass Terminus and Aiona for past slights (we seriously considered statting him as playable, but couldn't come up with enough associateds for him - Psychopomp, sure, but being god of beginnings and endings doesn't translate into purviews very well!). I think it's possible to come up with a supplement for native Italian gods - I would probably draw from both the Etruscans and the later Romans - but it'd be difficult to find enough gods that I you could justifiably say were Legend 12, considering that their entire problem is not being as well-known and legendary as the Dodekatheon.

We tend to assume that the Etruscan and native Roman gods were basically divinely subsumed into the Dodekatheon at some point, perhaps in a similar manner to the situation between the Vanir and the Aesir. Whether that means that indigenous gods like Mars and Juno never existed or were pushed aside to make way for their Greek counterparts is a decision for each individual game; I think a mix of approaches, assuming that some were displaced and others actually just Roman views on the Dodekatheon gods, can work well (history's on your side with the second - some gods that don't seem to have been around before the syncretization process, like Bacchus, were probably just invented to mirror the Greeks anyway). You can also play with the idea of disenfranchised Roman gods agitating from within the pantheon - my favorite candidate for this is Summanus, but there are scads of Roman deities just waiting for their moment in the limelight.

Our PCs have actually carried on the Greek syncretization torch with Goze, who literally took the place of the original Roman god Terminus (with a little magical meddling help from good old Uncle Odin, of course). His recurring problems with pissed off Dii who find the entire situation appalling and unconscionable are one of the most hysterical features of any Dodekatheon family reunion.