Question: I know she's nowhere near famous enough to be Legend 12, but what level of Legend and associated powers would you give Amphitrite? I ask specifically because I have a trio of players who want to play as Scions of The Real Housewives of Olympus, and while Hera and Persephone are fine, I can't find much to give Amphitrite other than Water.
I have a bit of a secret soft spot for Amphitrite myself, so I feel you; she's a pretty excellent lady and it's tragic that she doesn't get as much love as the other ladies among the Dodekatheon. She probably isn't Legend 12, but there are traces that many scholars believe suggest that she was the original goddess of the Mediterranean, and that Poseidon's marriage to her symbolized him taking on that mantle, rather than it being something he had always embodied. Apollodorus calls her a daughter of Oceanus and Tethys, making her older and more cosmic a figure than any of the other goddesses except for Aphrodite, and she appears whenever important goddesses and female Titans are having a powwow, rubbing elbows with the likes of Rhea and Themis. Early Amphitrite myths set her as the supreme power in the sea; Poseidon's power comes from being married to her, not the other way around, though as time wore on and the Olympians became all-important, she diminished and Poseidon became the pre-eminent power over the waves.
All this makes her a possible candidate to be a Titan Avatar, actually, what with the personification of the sea and the ancient origins and the supplanting of her role by the gods, but that doesn't help you out for Real Housewives much, so we'll look at her as a goddess instead. Water is a given, but considering that she is often described as "ox-eyed" or "beauteous" and that Poseidon chased her all over the place upon first seeing her, I would say that you could give her Epic Appearance associated without too much trouble. Any other associations are slim pickings; you might grant her Animal (Dolphin) based on the myth of it being the only animal that could convince her to come back and marry Poseidon, or perhaps Epic Dexterity on the strength of her ability to flee so quickly that even one of the three crowned Olympians couldn't keep up with her. There are some archaic references to her as the "goddess of the spindle", but since there's no Spinning purview, that doesn't help us very much.
If I were going to try to shoehorn something together, I'd probably go with her having Water and Appearance at Legend 10, or Animal (Dolphin), Water, and Appearance as a Legend 11, with Dexterity or Charisma as poor alternate options if you need more. She doesn't really fit the playable roster very well, but since you're working toward a specific idea, you can probably fudge a bit and your players will run with it happily. And, as I said, she's one of my favorites, so far be it from me to discourage her use as a major player in-game!
So here's a question - how do you work benevolent Titan avatars into your game? For example, Amphitrite sounds like a Titan Avatar...but she's Poseidon's wife so is she really going to be stomping around The Drowned Road trying to destroy Olympus? And Danu...does she really have any reason to destroy the Tuatha, her own pious children? Would they have Dark Virtues, or just the virtues of their respective pantheons? Your views on Titans are so, while making sense, hard to grasp within the context of Scion... :(
ReplyDeleteSo many questions! Good questions, though, so we don't mind.
DeleteTitan Avatars aren't really "benevolent"; I suppose some could be, but most are probably just neutral, forces that are so large that ideas about whether or not they're good for humanity don't really matter to them anymore. Someone like Danu happens to be a Titan that represents life-giving and -sustaining things, so in a sense she's "benevolent", but on the other hand it's entirely possible she doesn't think like the gods or worry about their problems much. It would depend on the individual Titan and how they were being used in a story.
But Titans don't necessarily need to be on the warpath; a Titan like Danu might spend most of her time in her Titanrealm not bothering with the World, or her effects might not always necessarily be bad for the World if she were in it (for example, her servants are probably more akin to fairies and guardians of the wild than more violent Titans'; they might be good for people or they might be bad, but it would depend on what was happening). As a Storyteller, you get to make the decisions about a Titan that isn't up in everyone's grill and who probably has motivations of their own, whether it's politicking against other Avatars, staying neutral in the war, held in check by some pantheon's plans or strictures or otherwise not fitting the mold. An Avatar is an expression of a facet of the greater Titan, but that doesn't mean they have to be jumping all over the gods all the time; greater Titans encompass neutral and even positive forces as well as negative ones (though even those are often too powerful to really have around without things getting blown up).
We've been wanting to mess with the Dark Virtues system for a while; at the moment, we play each god and Titan by personality to decide what their Virtues are. Danu might have Zealotry, because she along with the rest of the realm is a force of growth and nature, but she might also have Piety reminding her of how much she loves her pantheon, and any other combination that makes sense.
No spinning purview, but it gives something to work on from the associated abilities angle, at least.
ReplyDeleteOh, definitely - some Craft would certainly be in order.
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