Question: Is there any opposition to birth control in the Amatsukami? Because I may have accidentally impregnated Amaterasu while disguised, under Tsukiyomi's orders.
Oh, you wacky kids.
There's no particular prohibition against birth control in Japanese mythology that we know of; certainly they had forms of it in ancient Japan, most commonly "caps" of bamboo that would be placed inside the vagina to prevent sperm from reaching the cervix, although they weren't the most medically advanced technology and results were therefore spotty. Most of the gods in the Japanese myths we have are intending to reproduce because that's one of their cosmic jobs, so the issue hasn't come up, but theoretically they could decide to avoid having any more children and that probably wouldn't be an issue for anybody.
However, if Amaterasu is already pregnant, it sounds like it's too late to worry much about birth control. You're now in the realm of worrying about whether or not abortion is okay, if you want the pregnancy terminated without a birth, or whether adoption or infanticide is okay in cases of illegitimate children.
Unfortunately for you, adultery was a serious offense in Japan (both ancient and modern) and the Kami are likely inclined to punish it severely. If neither you nor Amaterasu are married, that problem's out of play, but illegitimate children are still not going to have a smooth life among the status- and politics-obsessed Japanese gods, who will probably never allow them to rise all that high in the ranks. It's hard enough being a Scion among the Kami, who are very tough sells when it comes to allowing "lower-class" or bastard children to have any kind of status; being the illegitimate child of someone already on shaky footing is hardly going to help that poor kid have a future as much more than a page. Of course, the most dangerous issue there at all is the fact that Amaterasu sure as hell doesn't want an illegitimate child being a smudge on her reputation, so she's likely to take some kind of action - most likely send the child, far, far away and never allow anyone to know about him or her. Infanticide, usually by exposing the baby in the wilderness or otherwise sending it off with no hope of survival (as Izanagi and Izanami did with Hiruko, their deformed leech baby, who they pushed off the coast in a boat), was practiced at various times in Japan's history, but it's unlikely that anyone with Valor will consider that a viable option, and anyway Amaterasu is probably not going to suffer anyone with her imperial blood in their veins to be left to die.
Abortion, surprisingly enough, is probably not an issue; it also was practiced fairly freely in ancient times, although it was more dangerous then, and it was only made illegal comparatively recently in the nineteenth century, when the Japanese government decided that a larger population would be good for the country. Among the divine, all it takes is a little Health boon usage or just normal medical knowledge.
But we don't really know the circumstances surrounding your accidental babymaking here, so we don't know which, if any, of these options might help you out. If you were in disguise and Amaterasu thinks this pregnancy is legit, she probably won't want to take any such action and would consider it an attack on her if you did, and you might want to go on letting her believe that rather than having to out yourself and face her undoubtedly furious retaliation. Political scandal is one of the most important things to avoid as a member of Amaterasu's court, so you may want to just never bring this up and let everyone live happier lives. If it does come up, you may want to take the baby yourself and keep the secret of who its mother is, or else adopt it out to someone who doesn't ask too many questions. If you're below God-level, the baby will be a potential Scion, so it might be a valuable asset to some other deity who can't or doesn't have their own children.
Of course, different gods have different personalities, and those are under the control of your Storyteller, so don't take our word as gospel. Some of them may have a personal problem with birth control or unwanted pregnancy that goes beyond this, and we don't have any real understanding of your situation, so our answers are vague.
This question is so tantalizingly mysterious - all "What do I do?", no "Here's what I already did!"
Is it 'impregnate dangerous Goddesses' month? I mean, I know it's February and everything, but this is becoming an epidemic!
ReplyDeleteOn a more relevant note, is Amaterasu still married? Or did she officially divorce Tsuki-Yomi/Susanoo/Takamimusabi (I'm sure I messed at least one name up there)?
We would consider her to have officially divorced Tsukiyomi, since she banished him totally from the kingdom; same thing with Susanoo, if you consider them to have ever been together. Takamimusubi still hasn't done anything exactly, but since we suspect he's a Titan, we're not sure if she's up for still letting him hang out and be her consort/advisor.
DeleteI think Amaterasu may be one of the figures I've seen the most different choices made by various STs - anything from she's a nun now to she's still married to Tsukiyomi and unhappy about it to she's having relationships with PCs, all around the gamut.
Also you impregnated Amaterasu under Tsukiyomi's orders. If anything happens to the kid, how will he react?
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to tell from the wording of the question, but I don't think Tsukiyomi told him to knock Amaterasu up - I think he told him to impersonate someone (who? Tsukiyomi himself?) and in the course of that, he had sex with Amaterasu and accidentally got her pregnant.
DeleteBut it's a good point, either way - Tsukiyomi is bound to have a strong opinion on what should happen now.
Just what kind of games are folks running? What's with all the "I got Goddess X pregnant, now what do I do?" questions? Perhaps keeping it your semi-divine pants would be a good start? Is it part of some long-term story, with character development and consequences, or just "I bonked Goddess X, Yay me!"? If the former, the ST should have consequences figured out. Otherwise, I would have thought that condoms would solve many of these issues before they start. Here's a question - seriously asked - just how big a role does sex and pregnancy play in people's games? (I direct all this in general terms, not just this posting, btw)
ReplyDeleteOur game tries to be "methodologically honest" (best way I can think to phrase it), so it plays a big role.
DeleteAt the hero level, its one of the most horrifying parts of brushing with the supernatural, and it happens on a frequency that you might expect from the ancient cultures from which they stem. What makes it alien is how casually the supernatural beings approach sexual violence or forcing new sexual norms - that's where the true horror lies.
At hero level, the female characters have been through the wringer of multiple sexual encounters, often forced, and pregnancies and subsequent miscarriages and even forced abortions. Its been awful. Worse, sexual assault is not the only way the supernatural and ancient worlds interact with our PC's - general wind-whammying has forced characters into "culturally approved" liaisons with each other.
Remember that its a modern conceit that villains are only after death, or that the "good guys" respect your boundaries.
The male PC's with Epic Appearance have mostly been insulated from the consequences of leaving a string of pregnant women in their distant wake. Defending female PC's with Epic Appearance has left a string of dead bodies, however, which we've had to dodge occasionally.
At our level, the consequences have generally been psychological and personal. We still have one PC pregnant by another PC while they were both mind-whammied in the Spring Court, which has led to IC tensions. The creeping danger on the horizon comes from the Spring Court having aborted the child the Morrigan had sired on that same PC.
In short, sex, like violence, plays a methodologically scaled role in our game. Its alien and terrifying, like the rest of the Scion world, as it should be.
On a related note : Our ST is very good at watching for triggers with his players, though, so this has been ramped up as players became more comfortable and overcame IRL concerns. Be very careful of this in your game - past victims or relatives are not always forthcoming, especially in a group, and you can do a lot of damage by blindsiding someone with this kind of thing.
This is all good stuff from James' game. Although I would note that sex can be happy or fun when the divine is involved, and sometimes is in ancient myth; but more often, tragedy ensues.
DeleteYour male PCs are lucky, James - our poor high-Appearance dude, Sowiljr, has had to deal with more sexual assault attempts than any single person in our games. A lot of male gods swing that way just fine, or else don't seem to care about their usual preferences when His Royal Hotness is around. And we've also had cases where goddesses assaulted male Scions in our games, which, while rarer, is still a traumatic thing for them to go through.
Good disclaimer, I fully support it. Be careful with this stuff, folks. :)
Those male PCs have been lucky indeed, my Epic Appearance guy has had people kill themselves and each other because he wouldn't be with them, "loved" to the brink of death by Sekhmet, assaulted by a bunch of Giantesses and nearly prison-raped by Heracles.
DeleteTo be honest, though, he's set himself up for most of those... he's not exactly a gentleman like Geoff is.
But being pretty is hard, man. *flicks hair behind ear*
Sorry if my post above sounded harsh - it's just that this question, on top of the Aphrodite-themed one last week, plus all the Virgin Goddess stuff, put me on alert for gratuitous shenanigans.No offense was intended, and I apologise if any was taken. I know that there is a history of violence and lack of consent around the topic of sexuality in ancient cultures and myths - I guess my question is, how does that contribute to a fun game session?How is it entertaining to play a female character who has been raped or charmed repeatedly (or even once), become pregnant, had miscarriages/abortions, and so on as described above? I mean, I can read about what's happening in Syria, but would I want to play a campaign set there, and deal with torture, rape, and murder as a PC victim of it all? By all means, if your group is comfortable with it, then different strokes, but I still have to ask why?
ReplyDeleteNah, I know where you were going, no worries!
DeleteI don't think anyone's going to say that playing a character going through that is fun, per se - even when it's make-believe, there's no fun involved in sexual assault. However, part of the overall enjoyment of the game is in seeing how the characters grow and change, how they handle dangers and obstacles of various times and how those things affect them, and who they become as a result of adversity. We definitely don't lean toward the majority of the danger and adversity facing our PCs being sexual - in fact, it's a fairly small percentage - but it is one of the many things that can happen to them, and for some players it's a worthwhile story to explore what that might do to a given character and how they might choose to respond to or change because of it.
But, it is something that I can't imagine playing if there was someone at the table who was uncomfortable with the whole concept, so it's definitely a what-your-group-wants kind of situation, just like any other triggery subject.
I think its the difference in what is "fun." Fun can be, just having fun, but especially in RPGs you can also have fun in crafting a mythic story. And often part of that story is torture, rape etc. Im not saying at all that its necessary, but sometimes it can make an excellent story. Its the same reason we have novels and plays with those themes.
DeleteIve had roles in plays where things like that effected me, and I did it because it was enriching and powerful and emotional. Looking back, it was fun, but in a different way then we usually use the word fun. If that makes sense.
I totally get where you're coming from. I've found it depends on the group. I mentioned this in regards to romance in a comment on another post, but sex/pregnancy have been pretty much on the same boat.
DeleteI've had varying experiences ranging from not being a factor whatsoever (my main group, which plays for roughly 3 to 4 hours a week, so things are usually kept really pragmatic) to a character-driven occurrence (resulting, as Anne mentions, in new interesting conflict/drama that encourages character growth) to "okay guys stop it this is getting weird".
John is right, though. It completely depends on the players and the kind of stories they want to be a part of. I usually let my players set the tone of the game, I try to test the waters with mild situations that come naturally within the story, if I see the players being reserved or withdrawn from the matter then it stops there, and we focus on other themes (or they may still happen, but they are talked about OOC instead of played), but if they want to explore it they are free to do so, as long as everyone on the table is okay with it.
My wife and I have been co-running a Scion-like campaign for 19 years now [geez - is it THAT long?!?!], and the subject of rape has come up in game around a half-dozen times, always off-camera, always as part of something that had groundwork laid [i.e. Zeus has a track record of being a rapist, so if he catches you alone...], and always with an eye to advancing the story, not being gratuitous. It sounds like other folks are okay with staring into the abyss, as it were, which comes back to different themes and groups being comfortable with varying degrees of sexuality and violence in their games. Honestly, there's no issue with that, if everyone is okay with it - I just don't think I would be, TBH, which is where my puzzlement comes from. Thanks for the answers!
DeleteWow, compared to your games, my games have been the very definition of tame. Like dear gods and goddesses, we have not really dealt with Sex and Sexual Assault. The only two times that happened was on the Island of Circe with the group members that had over 2 Epics Appearance were all banged in the middle of the night by her and my character, sitting at 2 Appearance and no epics was drugged by the Femme Fatale of the other group, assaulted after she took all of his secrets and then 'asked him to save her'. Thats it. Man.. That game looks like a small kitten now..
ReplyDeleteOn another note, I would hate to be a Japanese Scion whose bloodline on his mortal side had Barakumin in it. Man, those Kami would be furious if he became a god and they would have to deal with him..
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