Mothers of Monsters

Question: Why did Flidias and Taweret end up as Avatars of Emamu? They both have pretty firm grounding as goddesses and Taweret is really nice according to the Egyptians.

They sure do have grounding as goddesses, but so do most Titans, which, for most cultures, is just a label that means "gods that are really old/disconnected/cranky". The Titan Avatars that were considered legitimate gods by their people far outnumber the Avatars that are mere monsters; sure, you've got your Apeps and Surtrs, but they're literally the only two Avatars on our site right now that weren't considered to be deities. All the others are established as gods or goddesses, and that's perfectly fine. Titans aren't necessarily a separate species; they're more a classification that lets you know which side of the war a deity is on, the human-aligned or the cosmos-aligned, and that idea is further illustrated by the fact that both gods and Titans can under special circumstances cross that line and become their opposite number.

Flidais, as we've mentioned before, could be played as either a Titan or a minor goddess. Taweret's a more thorny thicket of a lady to navigate, however, because like many other figures in Egyptian mythology she has many conflicting associations and changes in character over time. She definitely has positive connotations, particularly as the Lady of Birth and patron of the childbed, but she also has very obvious negative and frightening factors, starting with the conception of her as a creature amalgamated from part of the lion, crocodile and hippopotamus, the three most dangerous and feared wild animals in the Egyptian world. She may have the ability to be a nurturing figure, but she also has obviously dangerous qualities as well, most likely to illustrate the power of childbirth and motherhood and to make her a good protective figure for mothers and their children. Scholars still debate how much she's meant to be connected to the terrifying Ammit, the eater of souls in Duat, who is basically the same monster but with her animal parts in a different order.

Taweret also gains some odd connotations as the Egyptian religion progresses and various deities become syncretized together. She is frequently associated with Set, even in one spell invoked as a fighter against Apep alongside him, but by the same token once Set was demonized in the later stages of the religion, so Taweret was tarnished by her association with him. When, extremely late in the religion, Set was associated with his ancient foe Apep, Taweret was as well, and became briefly considered his consort (although she's also been linked to Set and Sobek at various other points).

All of this is very late-period stuff, of course, so if you prefer to stick with earlier Egyptian religion you can ignore most of Taweret's connections to yon darkness. But even without those, we think Taweret's a decent choice for an animalistic Titan Avatar (obviously, or we wouldn't have written her up that way for the supplement!); her frightening aspects in conjunction with her aspect as a figure related strongly to motherhood make her a good fit for a mother of monsters, a fusion of the frightening and bestial with the genitive and gravid. A scary combination no matter which way you slice it.

Of course, you're free to use Taweret as a goddess if you want to, and more power to you if you do! She's an interesting character when used either way, and I think there's just as much fun stuff to do in either case. It's also possible that, when we brush up Emamu for the website, she won't remain as one of the Avatars, though she just as likely might. The jury will be out until we get to working on more Titans, but no matter what we do, as always every game is free to use given deities however best first their stories.

Personally, I think Taweret is probably terrifying. But then again, so are a lot of gods and Titans.