Right of Blood

Question: I've been looking at Scion Visitations for grandchildren. What would happen if a potential Scion is the grandchild of one god and the child of another? Would both gods have a chance at claiming him, or would the grandparent have to ask for an adoption to claim the grandchild?

An excellent question! Both gods have an equal chance to claim the child.

Before a Scion is given a Visitation, she's just a mortal - probably a pretty awesome mortal as mortals go, but human nonetheless. If she were just a human, she could never aspire to Scionhood, but it's the divine blood in her veins that makes it possible for her to start on the long road to Legend and glory. That blood came from her divine parent and/or grandparent, and is only activateable by them, preventing just any old god from swooping in and nabbing her for their own purposes, but if she carries blood from both, whomever gets there and activates their ichor with a Visitation first is the one who lays claim to her as an official Scion.

Multiple gods messing around in the same genetic line isn't common (it might be kinda weird going after the one mortal on the planet you're already related to, not to mention the fact that Lugh deciding to sleep with Nuada's daughter might cause some sudden and spectacular political problems if Nuada doesn't appreciate it), but this issue actually does come up frequently for Scions, who may have children before becoming gods themselves, in which case those children can be claimed as Scions by their grandparents. In our main storytline, Geoff and Sangria had several children as Scions; although they are now gods themselves, their oldest daughter, Ahuiliztli, was claimed as a Scion by Huitzilopochtli while they were still Legend 9. Technically either of them could have adopted her, but he got there first, so she's a hummingbird warrior forevermore (which is fine with her mother, although I'm sure daddy would have preferred she go join the valkyrie corps).

That does in fact mean that there are some gods who, thanks to already having a lot of divine children who can make Scions, probably never have to go out and make new Scions of their own if they don't want to. Any son of Ganesha or Skanda could be claimed as a Scion by Shiva or Parvati, if they decided to exert their grandparental rights over the kid, and any daughter of Ares or Hephaestus could be activated by Hera if she wanted to, thus neatly solving the issue of where she gets her Scions without even requiring a Scion Adoption Rite to take place. Just think - any Scion of Heimdall or Thor or Bragi could have been a Scion of Odin if he'd felt like taking them over, and how different would their destinies have been then?

Despite the fact that grandparents can take children as Scions, if there's another god involved it's entirely possible that they shouldn't and will regret it if they do. As in all divine interactions, there's a price for everything; custody battles are ugly even among mortals, never mind among the gods, and a grandparent and parent fighting over their offspring will probably end up having to bribe one another with important gifts or favors, argue about who's the best choice or even have it out in an actual fight if there's a conflict over who gets to take on a particular child. This is also the only situation in the game where one god can actually steal another god's Scion - and while it's possible, heaven help you if you do so and the other god decides to make an issue of it. If Enki just takes off with one of Marduk's kids without telling him, the likelihood of livid court hearings, Justice boons flying every which way and massive political fallout is pretty darn high, no matter how well they normally get along.

Now, I know of a few Storytellers who only allow the grandparent rule if both gods actually went forth and participated in the Scion-making process - that is, they're fine with Nuada adopting his granddaughter who also happens to be Aengus' daughter, but only if Nuada had a child with a mortal and that child then slept with Aengus to create the granddaughter. Under that rule, Nuada would be disqualified from tapping any children of Aengus that were only related to him through Aengus himself. I don't know that this is really necessary; it doesn't hurt anything in the game to leave players room to play with their exact parentage versus their Scion patronage, and it allows Storytellers to do some neat plot things with the political interplay between gods and their children and servants. I can only see it being a problem if you're afraid of rampaging elder gods stealing all the Scions en masse, and if that's happening, I would assume your Storyteller has a reason for it.

At any rate, having and maintaining and gifting and directing Scions is a pain in the ass, so most of the older gods are probably only too happy to let their kids deal with that headache and only take on Scions of their own when they absolutely need something done without anyone else's interference, anyway.