Question: Hey, John and Anna. I wanted to ask you if you believed that Marishiten has any place being in the Amatsukami? She is a Buddhist and all, and it seemed that White Wolf just threw her in the Scion Companion. What's your opinion on the matter?
Hey, there! We've actually talked about Marishiten before, so I'm going to direct you on over to the previous blog post on the subject.
It's been a little while since we talked about Buddhism, but it's worth noting here that a god being Buddhist does not mean they shouldn't be allowed in a pantheon. Buddhism is a cross-cultural religious phenomenon that involves a lot of gods, and it would be just plain wrong to pretend that Buddhist gods weren't vibrant and important deities worshiped alongside the gods of Hinduism, Shinto, Bon, Shenism and everything else the eastern countries has to offer. Marishiten certainly isn't Shinto, but she is thoroughly Japanese, and it makes much more sense to put her in with the Japanese gods than in some weird, cobbled-together pantheon of Buddhist gods from eight different cultures.
Showing posts with label Marishiten. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marishiten. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Now You See Her
Question: Out of curiosity, why did you keep Marishiten as a PC God? On a related note, what was your inspiration for using her as Thokk in your "Lines of Convergence" story?
Marishiten, unlike most people added for the World at War section of Scion: Companion, seems to be a major enough deity that we decided she merited inclusion when the rest of them got the boot. Not only does she have an illustrious past as the Hindu Marici and consequently a few different forms in different Asian countries, but she was pretty big potatoes for the samurai clans and performs a lot of functions, including organized warfare and illusion, that most of the rest of her pantheon does not. She also has some pretty rad stories to her name, including ruining hunters' lives by running around as a temptingly awesome trophy and then destroying them when they fail to recognize her inherent divinity. In short, she's a pretty cool lady who we thought made a pretty cool addition to the divine landscape; we like Marishiten!
Marishiten took Thokk's place in Lines of Convergence on Amaterasu's orders, in an attempt to hasten the onset of Ragnarok by preventing Baldur from being resurrected. Odin had previously been part of a large assault on Japan in order to steal some precious relics from it and prevent the Amatsukami from activating a major Titan defense system they had built (part of this event was seen at the end of the story Half-Soul, from Saki's point of view) and had thus incurred the enmity of the Amatsukami, and Marishiten's pivotal presence in that particular story is one of many incidents designed by the Japanese gods to wreak their vengeance on the Aesir and their leader. Aurora and her band had no way of knowing this, of course, though after they discovered Thokk they began to harbor suspicions about why they seem to keep tripping over signs of Japanese hostility everywhere they go.
Marishiten was chosen for that particular plot because of her strong ties to the Illusion purview, which made her the best choice to stand in for Loki in a story that hinges on an illusion obscuring Thokk's true identity. Of course, nobody was supposed to see through it, but exactly how that happened - whether Marishiten wasn't trying very hard, Fate was meddling or Aurora is just that badass - remains an unanswered question.
Marishiten, unlike most people added for the World at War section of Scion: Companion, seems to be a major enough deity that we decided she merited inclusion when the rest of them got the boot. Not only does she have an illustrious past as the Hindu Marici and consequently a few different forms in different Asian countries, but she was pretty big potatoes for the samurai clans and performs a lot of functions, including organized warfare and illusion, that most of the rest of her pantheon does not. She also has some pretty rad stories to her name, including ruining hunters' lives by running around as a temptingly awesome trophy and then destroying them when they fail to recognize her inherent divinity. In short, she's a pretty cool lady who we thought made a pretty cool addition to the divine landscape; we like Marishiten!
Marishiten took Thokk's place in Lines of Convergence on Amaterasu's orders, in an attempt to hasten the onset of Ragnarok by preventing Baldur from being resurrected. Odin had previously been part of a large assault on Japan in order to steal some precious relics from it and prevent the Amatsukami from activating a major Titan defense system they had built (part of this event was seen at the end of the story Half-Soul, from Saki's point of view) and had thus incurred the enmity of the Amatsukami, and Marishiten's pivotal presence in that particular story is one of many incidents designed by the Japanese gods to wreak their vengeance on the Aesir and their leader. Aurora and her band had no way of knowing this, of course, though after they discovered Thokk they began to harbor suspicions about why they seem to keep tripping over signs of Japanese hostility everywhere they go.
Marishiten was chosen for that particular plot because of her strong ties to the Illusion purview, which made her the best choice to stand in for Loki in a story that hinges on an illusion obscuring Thokk's true identity. Of course, nobody was supposed to see through it, but exactly how that happened - whether Marishiten wasn't trying very hard, Fate was meddling or Aurora is just that badass - remains an unanswered question.
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