Thursday, July 5, 2012

Do Not Want

Question: Has Jioni, Aiona or Vala tried to be raped by an aggressive male member of their pantheon and exactly how common is such a thing among the gods? (I know it is unfortunately and tragically common among the Dodekatheon).

Er... no. No PC ever tries to be raped. But I'm sure you were asking if anyone had ever tried it, not if the ladies themselves had encouraged it.

As far as actual assault goes, no, I don't believe those three have had to deal with that (which, in the case of very poor grapplers like Aiona and Vala, is a good thing). Actually, I take that back, because there was that one time Gregory the satyr hit everyone except Vala with Bacchanalia and Vivian found herself part of an orgy with him and all the other members of her band. A similar scene happened when Pan dropped Bacchanalia on a city and Sophia ended up sleeping with the entire male complement of a nearby bar. Neither case involved assault, but they were certainly spiritually rape - forcing the ladies to have sex when neither of them would have agreed to if asked.

Of the three, only Jioni is really consistently hit on by other gods, but the worst it's gotten was Cernunnos waving his penis in her face, and she just went home and called Erebus for a booty-call when that happened. She's extremely charismatic and has always enjoyed sexual liberty, so she has had encounters with men of her pantheon (most famously with Simbi Makaya), but no one has ever pushed her when she didn't want them to.

Aiona is pretty much so unpleasant and has been so unremarkable for most of her career that she really hasn't had an issue with gods wanting to have sex with her at all, much less pressing the issue. She's gained a lot of Epic Charisma lately, so that might change, but she's still kind of a basement-dwelling troll person, and not many (especially among the physical-perfection-obsessed Dodekatheon) are really into that.

Vala has taken great pains to stay as physically unremarkable as possible since she was a Hero, and so far that's served her well; she's plain and she likes it that way, and she tries to stand next to hotter people whenever there's a chance it might be a problem. Vala's not interested in any romantic or sexual entanglements, not even voluntary ones, so she does her invisible girl act as often as possible. It also helps that she's a daughter of Odin, which makes most of the eligible bachelors of the pantheon her brothers and therefore not possibilities without breaking one of the major rules of the Aesir. Her father has been making noises lately about all the babies she's going to have for the Aesir, however, so while no suitors have appeared, she's getting very nervous about what, exactly, he thinks he's planning for her.

Unfortunately, sexual assault (in both directions thanks to people like the Morrigan and Ishtar, but females definitely get the worst of it by far) is a pretty well-known and sadly common behavior across most of the world's polytheistic myths, so it's likely to come up in a Scion's career unless, like Folkwardr, they are so hideously unpleasant to be around that it never enters anyone's mind. High levels of positive Epic Appearance and/or Epic Charisma make it more likely that some god with a bad reputation for that kind of behavior - Apollo, Tezcatlipoca, Odin, whomever - is going to take an interest, and sexual dangers are just as real in Scion's landscape as other physical threats. Whether or not it's a big issue in a game totally depends on how comfortable the Storyteller and players are with it, and that's as it should be - if it's going to make the game uncomfortable or upsetting for people, it probably doesn't need to be included, or should only happen offscreen. Some pantheons are better about it (comparatively few instances in Japanese myth, for example) and others are worse (Greeks), but traditionally, mythology overflows with it. Gods are badly behaved and often horrible people.

It's actually odd that you asked about those three PCs, since they're among those who have the least worries when it comes to overly amorous gods targeting them. The person who by far has to deal with the most unwanted sexual overtures is poor Sowiljr, who has to make resist rolls and sometimes physically dodge pretty much every time he meets a new person who swings his way (and even some who normally don't). His only saving graces are a high resist average and Eztli's willingness to administer beatdowns on his behalf.

17 comments:

  1. Didn't Aurora have a crush on the ill-fated Wolfgang from early on in her career? Clearly she has at least some interest in men romantically.

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    1. She certainly did have quite a crush on poor, ill-fated Wolf. But that doesn't necessarily mean she's interested in any other dudes, or at least hasn't been to date.

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    2. Ah okay. :) I've started reading the Fiction on the site on and off in chronological order and I'm only up to 'Non Amo Asgard' so I hadn't a clue whether Aurora/Vala had ever learned to love again.

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    3. I'm sure it will be addressed someday in her future. :)

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    4. I am coming all the way back to this unfortunate post just to say that I just finished "The World Goes Headlong" and it seriously broke my heart. I think Aurora might be, interestingly enough, the most human of all the Scions I've read about. Geoff is relatable, but that whole Aurora story was a punch to the emotions.

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    5. Aww, thank you - that's something every builder of a character loves to hear. Poor Aurora really is one of the most oddly human Scions, I think you're right. Unfortunately for her.

      But hey, there's always hope. Or at least, that's what she says, being the goddess of hope herself.

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    6. You dont happen to work at a publishing company do you? Cause thatd be really convenient :)

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  2. I just wanted to mention that questions like this, whether it was worded incorrectly or not, come off as tasteless and slightly offensive and (frankly) a bit creepy.

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    1. Amy, I concur.

      I'll go out on a limb here and say that questions about a character's particulars are cool. Questions about the role of sex (and even rape) in a game are cool. When the two are combined repeatedly by the same questioner, it comes off as creepy. If as a bystander I'm creeped out, I can only imagine how the players of said characters must feel.

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  3. tasteless or not, it's a part of divine myth and shouldn't be shied away from. I was the one who asked this, and I mean have the female members of the bands been in such situations, because unfortunately most females in myth have been in such a situation so I thought it would be something your female members would have to guard against. It is a testament to the patriarchal viewpoint of most myths. If you find it tasteless that is your opinion, It was not my intention, but I thought it should be brought up.

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    1. It's an interesting question. A related question has been brought up to me in the past by a member of my group asking me if I'd allow rape in my games, considering how serious of an issue it is and how uncomfortable the subject is. Authentic or not, I don't feel like rape can do anything to make a game more fun. I (personally) prefer the approach of a spurned God becoming wrathful and jealous (a la Apollo and Cassandra) and performing all sorts of wicked curses on a beautiful Scion who rejected them. I guess it depends on your group, but I just feel like rape is a topic best left out of the fun.

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    2. Agreed. it is an extreme thing to add to your games, and not for everyone. As I stated before I did not mean to be creepy or offensive, but the issue is extremely relevant to not only myth but history as a whole. I guess it was more of a question of how much of the gods bad behavior you put into your games. If I offended anyone I apologize.

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    3. John's stories use what's required. It has been in our games and has been initiated from both NPC and PC sides but usually only in extreme cases. It usually involves a virtue extremity and a horrible horrible repercussion later on.

      As far as the PC angle went, it's was initially very difficult to forget that you're not a superhero. You're supposed to be the embodiment of an aspect of humanity. When you get into the mindset of being above the law or embracing what could truly be called Hubris, you have nowhere to go but down.

      I don't remember if it's been in a story as it's not really a pleasant topic but Terminus in his Hero Career raped a NPC. I, as a player, don't know what i was thinking. I was probably too into the Greek Vengeance mindset and just let my whims take me. John expertly made me pay for it in game over a long period of time. When Terminus has his change of heart, this devastates him and really shakes him to the core. In fact, more so than his imprisonment for killing the innocents in France, his own act of vengeance comes full circle and shreds the selfish, egocentric, Goze that he once was and he's never going back down that road. Sure he still has bouts of Vengeance, but it won't ever manifest itself that way again. And that's not even a player choice. The character could never let himself do that again.

      And now he's a Penetant forever more.

      Hope this gives some insight

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    4. But John Doe will ear rape you!

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    5. thats why he's dead!

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    6. So that brings up a good question - do your characters' natures change throughout the game?

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    7. Not often, certainly, but once in a blue moon if circumstances warrant, yes, they do. Characters usually make the shift when they jump from Hero to Demigod or Demigod to God, but they've been known to do it in between if a radical change in their lives makes it necessary. Goze switched from Gambler to Penitent after his stint in Psychic Prison made him realize how much he had to atone for; Sangria switched from Rogue to Traditionalist after human laws stopped applying to her but it became obvious how very much divine laws did.

      John Doe never got to change natures, because he got himself thoroughly dead. Ironically, he was supposedly a Gallant.

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