Princess of Heaven

Question: I know you guys aren't working on the Shen rewrite anytime soon, but have you considering making Mazu a PC parent? I just recently learned about her (I've honestly never looked that much into Chinese mythology until now), and she seems to have a strong cult following with temples throughout the world dedicated to her and an interesting origin myth. The only problem I see is that her only real association (that I can find) is Water.

Are you guys tired of hearing me say that various gods are super neat? Too bad! Mazu is awesome!

She's probably not Legend 12, but that shouldn't stop you from playing one of her Scions if you want to; she's certainly a deity in good standing with a robust modern following, and as long as you're not too hung up on getting more XP discounts, that's really all you need. I would probably peg her around Legend 10 and a new up-and-comer among the Shen, rocking Water, Perception (for her ability to psychically project herself places to aid her family) and possibly Charisma (for her current epic popularity) as her associations, depending on how liberal you want to be.

Mazu, who is one of a large group of Chinese gods who were said to be humans who later ascended to godhood after performing extraordinary feats in life, seems like an obvious case of a Scion-become-god, which makes her a perfect NPC to interact with new Scions following in her footsteps. She's closer to their struggles than someone ancient and primordial like Nuwa, and her reputation for compassion makes her a likely aide and confidant to Scions who make the appropriate requests, bring the right gifts and know which fork to use at dinner. Thanks to the Buddhist revisionist story of her origin as a child granted to a childless couple through Guanyin's good graces, she was probably originally a Scion of that goddess, and now ranks among the youngest of the Chinese gods. (Of course, if you don't want to use Mazu, you could also follow the theory that she's an avatar of Guanyin and not a separate persona, but that's less fun.)

We wouldn't put her up there with people like Sun Wukong or Fu Xi in terms of importance, but if we ever get around to the project where we stat all nine zillion lesser gods, and finish our Celestial Bureaucracy retrofit, she's a distinct possibility for inclusion at a slightly lower Legend level!