Political Pantheon Party!

Aha! I bet you thought we forgot to vlog today, didn't you? Shows what you know! Not only did we remember, we actually did a whole pile of vlogs in one day, so that if we end up in a scheduling crunch in the weeks to come, you won't go without answered questions and our cheerful faces.

Question: What would you guys think of a game where Scions deal with a number of NPCs in the world bringing their pantheons back to prominance, all the while secretly guarding Zeus's "successor"?

Question: Why does Hades have Epic Stamina associated?

Question: I'm a little bit intrigued by the Orisha. It's crazy how everyone is married to everyone. How does that really work? Are they a big happy family or what?

Question: I'm STing a game and my scions (of Hel, Hades and Odin) are getting to God soon, and I need some ideas on how to make their rise to God memorable.

Question: My scion of Izanagi is finding himself being attracted to Amaterasu. He blames his attraction on being named the god of the moon (Tsuki-Yomi died), so is this argument valid? Also, should he be disgusted with himself since he is attracted to his sister? Would she be his full or half sister, since Izanagi created her and her brothers?

Question: Hey, I noticed that in your Eastern Promises and Gangs of New York games you only allow your PCs to pick four pantheons that actually had some level of cultural interaction. Just wondering if any other major pantheons on your site that could have that kind of thing going on, like say the Celtic pantheons, for instance?

Question: In your games, when and how did the gods learn that the Titans had escaped? Was there some big explosion in the Underworld? Did they simply slip out unnoticed until someone actually checked and saw that they had flown the coop?

Question: The Aztecs have a god of homosexuality despite their obvious dislike of the concept. How does the rest of the pantheon treat him?

Question: Norse vs. Borgovi? SWEET! But, say Loki tricked Thor and Perun into a room together - what would happen? A SPECTACULAR light show, or lots of drinking? OR something else?

Question: Power and responsibility go hand in hand. And with every great decision comes regret. Regret for what could have been, should have been, and what ultimately was. What do the gods regret?

Today's vlog is about gods, pantheons and related issues of their politics and powers. Happy viewing!

Old Man Winter

Question: I dearly love your Bogovi write-up. I've been wanting to play a Slavic Scion for ages. Thing is, this Scion's a child of Stribog, and there's a huge dearth of information (legends etc.) about him! Tell me you good people have dug up something more?

Ask and ye shall receive, my friend. I have a soft spot for Stribog, who is sort of a curmudgeonly old recluse that nobody loves and who has no social skills to deal with this situation, and there are indeed interesting stories involving him in Slavic myth.

Probably the most poignant involves the moon-goddess Chors; Stribog had fallen in love with her, but she was only interested in the star-god Radegast and ignored his clumsy overtures. Knowing that Radegast wasn't really interested in Chors, Stribog sneaked into his hall during daylight one day and stole his cloak of stars. He covered himself in it and went to Chors' house, where, thinking it was Radegast finally deciding to return her love, she welcomed him and they made love, conceiving a child. Radegast, however, noticed his cloak missing when he went to do his nightly rounds, and when he found it mysteriously returned later and his servants who had spied Stribog told him what had happened, he complained to Svarozhich. Chors was miserable, Radegast was vengeful, and Svarozhich ruled that Stribog was to be punished by having the still-unborn child taken from him; Svarozhich used magic to draw it from Chors' womb and then dissipate it into nothingness, declaring that the child was now and forever only a dream. The baby would have been the goddess of autumn, which is why there are Slavic goddesses of spring (Lada), summer (Zhiva) and winter (Morena), but not the other season. (According to the myth, it's also the reason that the proto-Slavic word for autumn is yesen, from sen, to dream.)

Nobody addresses how those particular gods' relationships go down after that, but I have to assume that Stribog is probably not popular with either Radegast or his lady-love, and it's the only myth I know of that involves him making any attempt at romance.

The other major story I know of involving Stribog starts with Perun randomly deciding he wants humanity to love him one day, deciding to accomplish this by trying to give them the gift of fire by using lightning bolts to set trees aflame (thunder gods tend to not be very smart). Stribog, as the master of the winds, had been charged by Svarozhich with making sure that fire didn't spread over the earth too much, so every time Perun did this he blew it out. Eventually, after the humans stopped panicking that Perun was going to kill them and realized that fire was pretty neat, Perun went to Stribog and begged him to turn a blind eye to this last fire, saying that it was just a little one providing some comfort and nobody would notice. Stribog agreed, thinking that the fire would eventually die like the others, but humanity figured out torches and then the secret was out. Perun got dragged up before Svarozhich and thoroughly screamed at for breaking the law regarding not interfering with mortals; his excuse was "there are holes in my quiver, some of my thunderbolts must have accidentally fallen out". Stribog was the only person who could prove this wasn't true, but since he didn't want to get in trouble for being an accomplice, he stayed silent and Perun got off with a slap on the wrist.

There are a few other small mentions of him here and there, usually having to do with wind, rain or snow. I believe he's the one that blew the whistle on Mokosh having made the first Scion, leading to the unilateral ban on them that was in effect before the Titans broke out, and while a lot of gods are noted as having secretly given gifts of knowledge or power to humanity, he's one of the few who never does, so he's probably one of the most hardline gods on the stance of not interfering with humanity.

These myths, incidentally, are mostly drawn from Ivan Hudec's excellent Tales from Slavic Myths, which I recommend to anyone who's interested in the subject (they're a lot more poetic there than in my condensed retelling, plus there's some seriously gorgeous art). It's super expensive thanks to only being in print in Slovakia, but I was able to find a copy at a local university library, so there's a chance you might be able to find one without having to shell out a zillion dollars for it.