Question: Hi, I have two questions to ask. How does a god transform into a purview Avatar? Like for the Flood, does their body just turn into a human-shaped water construct, or is there more? My second question is that I plan to write Scion fiction, so do you have any tips on how to to start it?
Your first question has already been answered in this blog post! Go ye and read.
As for your second, a few people have asked me about writing Scion fiction, although it's always been over email before so you guys haven't seen it here on the blog. Most writers will tell you that giving advice about writing is fucking impossible and usually not helpful, but I'll do my best!
When I started writing Scion fiction, I did it very freeform; I wrote up the events of game sessions as stories rather than inventing any plots of my own, and I didn't do it every game, only when something happened that I thought was interesting. I approached it sort of like tuning in to a TV show every few episodes, and I was only writing for the other players who already knew what was going on and who all the characters were, so I didn't have to do any background work or setup.
That gave me a good springboard to get comfortable, and I'd recommend doing something like that to get yourself ready to both branch out into more new stories and people to share them with (unless you're naturally all about sharing and you don't get uncomfortable about showing your work to others, in which case, awesome, go for it!).
Other than that, though, it's mostly just general writing advice I have for you. Don't worry if the first few things you write aren't what you want them to be; you can always revise them, and anyway, writing is like anything else. It takes practice, and that means that your earliest things will of course not be as good as ones you create later when you've had more time to hone your skills. Write things you're interested in, because if you write about something you think is boring, you'll have a hard time doing it and you'll bore the audience besides. Talk to the players who have characters in your story, if there are any besides yourself, because they'll know more about their characters than you do. Have fun!
I can't get a lot more specific than that, because writing's different for everyone. Some people have to write five thousand words a day and just edit them down, others write once a month when inspiration strikes them, some listen to music, others need silence, and so on and so forth. Find what works for you and go with it, and remember that Scion's all about heroic tales and divine myths, and it's awesome that we get to write those down.
Oh, and use your spellcheck and grammarcheck.
Seriously. There's no catch all writing advice, except know your material (and if the topic isn't serious even that can be taken lightly).
ReplyDeleteAnd now I'm just thinking of actual gods' avatar forms. I know only Zeus, from the myth where he had sex with Dionysus's mom in his full glory and his...lightning killed her. Yeah, lightning, let's go with that (though iirc that really depends what you're reading and who's translating)
Any other examples of avatars on myth though? Purview avatars, not deva representatives incarnations.
A case that is kind of both. There is a passage in the Mahabharata, when Krishna is reciting the Bhagvad Gita to Arjuna, when Vishnu appears in all his glory encompassing the universe in himself. I know that sounds very Crown like, but I've always felt it was a lovely image for the Sentinel, a being that literally holds the universe in itself and keeps it safe.
DeleteI can think of two other instances in Hindu myth that might be charitably thought of as Avatar demonstration: Firstly, when Kali appears to Shiva as ten Goddesses at once, which sounds like Ultimate Appearance or maybe the Void (to split herself ten ways) or hell, the General (using Army of One without all the penalties), but I understand that lower level shapeshifting or illusion could achieve the same effect. I only mention this because the text always implies that what is going on is far more impressive than 'just' shapeshifting. The second is the case of Ganga, who might have assumed The Flood during her descent to the World, since the force of the flow was apparently strong enough to split continents and what not. The problem is, despite being a very important Goddess in Hinduism, and having a surprisingly large body of myths, I'm not entirely convinced Ganga is Legend 12 and thus even capable of having The Flood.
Other than that, I can think of a bunch of times Gods clearly use Avatars, like Dagda holding the Sun in place, Demeter bringing Famine to the World, or Isis using The Saviour to resurrect Osiris, but all of these are cases of 'offscreen' uses of Avatars, so I'm not sure they count for your question.
I've always thought of that passage of Vishnu possibly being Ultimate Appearance, where he appears as all things at one time and blows Arjuna's mind. :) The Sentinel's a neat idea, too!
DeleteI also agree, the Dagda stopping the sun for nine months is obvious use of The Glory, and Isis resurrecting Osiris is obvious use of The Savior. Less sure about Demeter, since she might have just been using Endless Season for winter and kept it rolling until she was appeased, but that might also be a good place for that.
A lot of the creation narratives are probably uses of Ultimates/Avatars, too. Svarozhich is probably using The Creator when he sculpts the universe and most of the gods out of horse dung, and Ptah is probably doing the same thing less fragrantly when he speaks it into being. Kagutsuchi probably used The Devourer when he spontaneously created the volcano chains of Japan at barely a minute old, and of course every time someone resurrects themselves from the dead, they're using Ultimate Stamina - Shango from his suicide is a great example.
Ovid's description of the Zeus and Semele encounter is awesome, it sounds just like a poetic description of becoming the Storm - he rises up into the sky, gathers stormclouds around himself, chooses the least powerful thunderbolts in his arsenal so as not to hurt her too bad, and then pops back down to earth. "Her mortal frame could not withstand the fury of the heavens." That's why you don't mess with Zeus, he only has to stand there to melt you.
DeleteYeah, Semele, had forgotten her name but that's the scene I mentioned. Seriously, sex as an avatar, crazy stuff
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