Skillful and Wise

Question: I am currently preparing for an upcoming Scion campaign where I am the Storyteller. One of the players has chosen to play a Scion of Kothar. What can you tell me about him? What are his major myths?

Kothar is the best, guys! He is the most badass of crafter gods and I am way excited that someone is playing his Scion! If you didn't already see us recommending it in the comments, he should totally have the new Artistry purview associated, in addition to the things you see associated with him in the downloadable supplement.

Kothar (whose full name, Kothar-wa-Khasis, means "skillful and wise", commentary on his awesomeness) is the major crafting god of the Elohim, but he was also a major figure in Egypt in his time, where he had his own temples and was worshiped for his creative force, even occasionally being considered an alternative face (or rival!) of Ptah. His association with Egypt (where he was worshiped as the builder of temples for the other, less handy gods) was so strong that even the Canaanites considered him to actually live there, the only one of his pantheon not to make his home with the other sons of El. As a result, he represents foreign artistry and wonders from afar, probably because the ancient Canaanites were not as advanced in the crafts and sciences as some of their neighbors and consequently imported most of their technology and tools.

Kothar's most major myths revolve around his involvement in the battle between Baal and his brothers and the ascension of the storm god to the throne. Due to a lot of behind-the-scenes machinations by El and Asherah, Yam, the sea god, was crowned king of the Elohim and sent to fight Baal, whom he believed would try to overthrow him; their battle was cosmic, fierce and spanned across the fields of heaven, and Baal, despite all his thunderous might, found himself losing to the overwhelming power of the relentless sea. Although Kothar was in the middle of building Yam's royal palace, he secretly supported Baal (and had in fact earlier gone to Yam's undersea abode and threatened that he would be slain by a magical weapon if he didn't back off), so when he saw Baal losing he leapt into action and forged Baal's mighty magical clubs, Yagrush (Chaser) and Aymur (Driver). He swooped into battle, performed magical incantations over the clubs to make them especially potent, and handed them off to Baal, who with their power was able to overcome and defeat Yam once and for all. Kothar then proclaimed Baal's new lordship to the gods, presumably rather pleased with himself.

Later, after Baal has been established as king, he gets into a potentially lethal insult-war with his brother Mot, god of death, and as a result demands that Kothar, who is building Baal's new lordly palace, not put any windows into its walls. This is an echo of the ancient Canaanite concept of death (especially in one's sleep) entering via the window; presumably, Baal is trying to avoid leaving Mot anywhere to come in and get him. However, Kothar, being the magical wisdom dynamo that he is, also realizes that if the house had no windows, Baal's life-giving rain would not filter down to the world below, so he refuses and spends quite a few lines of poetry trying to convince Baal to change his mind. There's a lot of arguing, but when it comes down to it, Kothar will not build Baal a window-less palace, and he is eventually forced to accede lest he not get any of this sweet god-architecture to live in.

Kothar is, like Hephaestus, the source of most important relics and magical items in the Canaanite pantheon; in addition to Baal's clubs, he also crafted the gold-and-silver temple relics of Asherah (given to her by Baal as a peace offering) and the peerless bow of Aqhat, which was so perfect that the goddess Anat demanded it for herself and then destroyed the Scion who refused to hand it over to her.

Kothar is a little bit like what you would get if you crossed Ptah with Hephaestus but threw in liberal amounts of sassiness and mysterious magical ability. He's one of my personal favorites among the Elohim, and I can't wait to see what happens for those bringing him into their stories!