Bad Seeds

Question: Loki: So polarizing. So tragic. So evil. Love 'im. Anyway, all his kids are borderline eldritch horrors. What if you wanted to play this up in a game where you had a kid of Loki? How would YOU handle it? More prophecy stuff, or some weird, unique power that's kinda useful in game, but a MAJOR plot point in Ragnarok? Also, you guys should TOTALLY design your own game. In the future. After you make Scion as awesome as it can be. (I'd pre-order it!)

Indeed, most of Loki's children are not fun to be around at all. Jormungandr, the monstrous world serpent, and Fenrir, the great wolf, are some of the showstopping end-of-the-world monster powers of Norse mythology, and their sister Hel is clearly no picnic to be around, either, even though she's mostly humanoid. His children with his wife Sigyn (as opposed to with the giantess Angrboda, who brought us the exciting trio above, or the stallion Svadilfari, by whom Loki gave birth to eight-legged spider-horse Sleipnir) are generally normal in contrast and are never said to have any abnormal traits or frightening attributes, but even Vali and Narvi end up with similar problems when Odin turns the former into a monster wolf and has him eat the latter, after which Narvi's guts end up being used as chains to bind Loki to his prison. It's not your normal happy family landscape.

Honestly, however, we wouldn't handle that with unique powers or plot devices most of the time; Scions of Loki are, like all Scions, free to make their own Fates and may or may not choose to become monsters as their characters progress. Don't get us wrong - we love it when Scions end up embodying something from their parents' myths or bringing some cosmic story cycle around full circle with their actions, but while we're happy to lay some groundwork for that as Storytellers, the choices are always ultimately theirs. After all, it would be pretty shitty to tell people who wanted to play Scions of Loki that they were going to turn into monsters whether they wanted to or not. They might be predisposed that way, it might be something they worry about, they might do it or they might not, but PCs are always in charge of themselves. We might make a point of offering plot decisions or possibilities that could lead to monsterfication, but we'd still want pursuing them to be something the player decided to do independently.

NPC Scions of Loki are mostly the same deal, but a little more flexible; as Scions they still have free will and are perfectly capable of not being monster people if they don't want to be, but we'll be working them into the story wherever they're most important and relevant based on the metaplot and the actions of the PCs that might affect them. We still wouldn't have them born with any special power or random features just because Loki's their dad, any more than we'd say all Netjer Scions were born with animal heads or all Scions of Agni had to have Fire, even though those are things that always happen to those peoples' children in mythology. But as agents of the story instead of independent player-driven characters, it's totally possible we'd move them toward filling mythologically resonant roles as children of Loki. It all depends on the story.

As for children of Loki who aren't Scions, that's a lot easier; if they were children with Titans, like his kids with Angrboda, then the little monsters will be titanspawn and of course prone to coming out weird, twisted and ready to rumble from day one. Children with lesser immortals, such as alfar, could go either way, and would again depend on the plot of the game, what the players were doing in the story and what our overall goal for the cycle is. Children with other gods are likely to be gods themselves, like Vali and Narvi, but whether or not they have some monstrous features would again depend on what's going on in the story and would be a natural part of their divine powers, whether due to Birthrights or purviews. Gods often have weird stuff going on, after all, and far be it from Loki's family tree to be the exception.

We've had a few Scions of Loki in our games, and wouldn't you know it, they actually did not go the monster route at all (or at least not overtly). Two of them were pretty regular joes, albeit sneaky and underhanded; they both died in demigodhood, so whether or not that would have ever changed is a question that may never be answered. The other one did end up repeating the roles of some of Loki's children, but unfortunately for him, it was not any of the tales of powerful monsters but rather the doom of poor Narvi that most affected his life with its echo. Ironically, the fenrir pup one of these Scions owned, a titanspawn descendent of Loki several generations renewed, actually managed to rebel against his monstrous nature, become more humanoid, and join the Netjer as a wolf-headed god working under Anubis in the Duat.

But we did actually have this exact situation come up, only in regards to Hermes instead of Loki. Hermes, who has similar issues with children his pantheon considers weird and abnormal (Pan and Hermaphroditus, in particular), got progressively more and more pissed off with Goze as the Scion started collecting animal parts and failing to be socially acceptable to the rest of the Theoi, and finally just started sending him to various gods to be "fixed" in the hopes of avoiding being embarrassed by his progeny yet another time. Goze being Goze, it was a rocky road, but that same concept - of there being patterns in the cycles of the gods and even of the gods being aware of them - was very present in their intra-familial struggle.

But anyway, have fun with your Scions of Loki. They don't have to be monsters, but then again they don't have to avoid embracing monsterhood if that's what they want to do. The world is their oyster (at least until the Aesir decide to use them as devices to punish their wayward father).