Scion AMA: Sangria Tecuhtli

Today's set of questions is for Sangria Tecuhtli, better known as Eztli, goddess of blood and warrior of the Teotl. Eztli is not particularly communicative, but luckily her nahualli, the great bat Cuacitlali, is a little more forthcoming and inclined to jump in and share her opinions.

Anne's Fiction Corner

I may still be pretty much useless on the computer, but with the help of dictation software and a whole lot of painkillers, I'm unconquerable nonetheless. Today's story is Qualities of Heat, starring Sophia Archimedes with appearances by Geoff Matheson, Mitchell Gozer, Marcus James, Sangria Tecuhtli and everybody's favorite mysterious Aztec Scion. It is a tale of expectations versus reality, reason versus passion, and what happens when violent temper collides with unexpected outcome.

Skeins of Fate won the voting this time (although it was pretty close), so they're up next! We're down to just two to vote on now, so let the rivalry begin!

• If you vote for Eastern Promises, you're voting for stories from the nineteenth-century band in a world of colonialism and industry - Leona Middleton, Samuel Vanderbilt and Paniwi Bayteru of the Netjer, Faruza Alinejad and Yadi of the Yazata, Mohini Misra and Padma Billingsworth of the Deva, James Howard and Alvin de Lafayette of the Anunna, and many more. They're currently fighting corruption among local authorities, learning what other cultures have to offer them and finding ways to survive no matter what the cost.
• If you vote for Strawberry Fields, you're voting for stories from the wild-eyed Celtic band - Dierdre O'Riordan, Seamus McMann, Jude Shriver and Auggie MacDonough of the Tuatha de Danann and Alaina Bertrand and Ignatius Rex of the Nemetondevos. They're currently gearing up to challenge the combined might of the military and their shadowy puppeteers, while reaching out to their kinsmen around the world.

And off we go!

King of the North, Queen of the South

Question: I loved your fanmix for Aurora and Wolf! (Even though it made me sad...) Do you have any more for other characters, and if you do could we see them? Pretty please?

Hey, your wish is our command. We actually have several of these, which is either a sign that we're awesome and full of creative love for our characters, or we need to get out more. Or both.

When we talk about romance in our Scion games, things almost always begin and end with the same two people: Sangria and Geoff. Here's a playlist for them, two heroes who were never meant to be together but who even death couldn't rip away from each other.

Cross-Universe Teotl!

New art time! This time, we have a really neat treat: GriffinGuy24, who many of you know and love from the Onyx Path forums and our own comment threads here has done some artwork of not only our own characters, but with his own Scion Alan Lord guest starring with them. Alan and our own Aztec PCs have obviously never actually met, since they're in different games, but he created some imagined scenes of what interacting with them might look like.

In this one, Alan tries to do some sciencing, but Maquicelotl is just as big a pain in his ass as he is in Geoff's. Jaguars are territorial creatures. There ain't room enough for them all on this pyramid.


In this one, Alan, who is all about being in touch with nature, tries to mediate between Yoloxochitl and her axolotl nahuatl, with whom she never gets along because she has no Animal Ken or Animal boons and is basically salamander kryptonite. It seems to like him way more than it likes her.


And in this one, Eztli has gone into Courage Extremity, so Alan, who is built to soak a lot of hits but doesn't have the hierarchical clout to try to pawn the job off on someone else, has been sent by the pantheon to let her knock him around until she gets it out of her system. In the back, their nahualli are similarly embroiled.

Basically, all of these are adorable, and we love the look into what it might be like if the characters of these games collided! And of course, you know I can never have enough Aztec deities running around here. Thanks for these, Griff!

Tea with the Queen

All right, folks - new art!

This here is some fantabulous lineart of Jioni and Eztli. Sowiljr sent Jioni, Queen of Erebus, off to a coffeeshop on a mission to help Eztli be better at politics. Basically, her job was to try to teach Eztli how to be a queen, which Eztli was failing at spectacularly due to a combined disinterest in politics and inability to take her husband's position as "king" of like five people seriously.

But, undaunted, Jioni took her to a coffeeshop and sat down and tried to explain politics, which was endlessly entertaining. Jioni would explain things in awesome, expressive, badass ways; Eztli would stare at her in noncomprehension or answer in monosyllables. After about two hours, the entire mortal population of the coffeeshop had cleared in terror, and Jioni had succeeded in teaching Eztli that when you go to the house of another ruler, it's polite to tell them they have many tables. Which is now all she knows how to say in political situations.

By the excellent Raven Saith!

The artist originally intended to do a full digital color picture here, but real life caught up to her and she had to set the project aside. But it's still super neat - how about Sangria's totally uninterested expression and badass muscles, or Vivian's sassy pinkie finger? - so we're posting it anyway, because we like it, darn it. I'm especially tickled by the suspiciously child-sized toothmarks on Sangria's arm. Battle scars of motherhood.

And, since it's lineart, how about this - anyone who feels like coloring it, go ahead and do so! Show it off to us later. :)

Status Report: Still Flailing at the Unknown

Question: Can we get an update on what is happening in your three games?

We sure can - in fact, let's ring in the new year with one!

Things are rough in the god-level game, where our Legend 11 superstars are having serious trouble juggling their loyalties, their secret missions and their political obligations. They're still on a secret mission from their parents, who charged them with gathering the omphalus stones of each of the Titanrealms in order to use them in a ritual to reinforce Tartarus, which is in danger of breaking open again now that they've managed to get a bunch of Titans back into it but nobody really bothered to go and spackle up the cracks they got out of last time. Going to Titanrealms is dangerous and difficult and takes up a whole lot of time, and in the meantime Sowiljr's position as king of the Aesir is suffering because he's not around to do it. They recently also figured out that removing a realm's omphalus stone makes it more powerful, so they're just beginning to realize they may have royally screwed some of the other pantheons who were fighting those Titans and just got suddenly overwhelmed by extra power. And while they have a few friends among the gods, they know that their parents are still incognito after Ragnarok and they're not allowed to tell anyone they're alive, which means they can't ask for a lot of help with their mission without having to field uncomfortable questions. Already some of the Bogovi are angrily trying to stop them, because what they're doing is pretty much directly opposed to both Harmony and the usual Bogovi mindset of not touching things that aren't yours.

At this exact moment, Sowiljr and Jioni are in Gimli (the renamed Asgard, post-Ragnarok), trying to get it ready for the Kingsmoot, a meeting of all the pantheon heads that Sowiljr has called in an effort to get everyone to make some policies, alliances and plans that help the overall war, not to mention solidify his own tenuous position as king of like two people. Folkwardr has likewise called, or is trying to call, a Magemoot to deal with the problem of the Titanrealm of Fate having been severely screwed up by Theoi shenanigans, making the Fate purviews not work properly, but he's unable to get much going on that since he's currently trapped in the Titanrealm of Illusions with Eztli, who he's desperately trying to get out since he knows she's ill-equipped to do so herself. Eztli, in turn, almost got out once but refused to go when she realized that Tonatiuh, the sun god of her struggling pantheon, was trapped there, too; she refused to leave him, and all three are now fighting to survive and remember who they are before the Titan eats them whole. Sowiljr is miserable over Folkwardr and Eztli being stuck in there, but knows that he both can't really help them and that he doesn't dare not show up to this major political event he's throwing, so he's just doing the best he can and trying not to Loyalty extremity every day. Jioni's just tired. Of everyone.

In Eastern Promises, the current band consists of Alvin, James, Leona, Mrs. Young and Haji, the same misfits from the last adventure, who have just begun a new saga in order to fulfill requirements asked of them by Fate after James used Deus Ex Machina to save their lives in the last story. They've been sent to go to the Garden of the Hesperides and retrieve a box for Ishtar; they have no idea what's in the box, nor are they feeling great about going to the Garden of Hera Kicks Your Ass, but Fate wants what Fate wants. They've just begun to get some clues that not all of the gods may be around, although where they are and what happened to them is anybody's guess, and that they're largely on their own when it comes to dealing with their supernatural problems. Most recently, James attempted to get permission from Queen Victoria to marry Leona, only to be told in the politest terms possible that he wasn't about to get permission to marry anyone who's half brown and he has a duty to the Crown to marry someone more suitable in case his children come up to inherit the throne one day, which he's trying to combat by finding a way to prove that Leona is descended from the pharaohs and therefore appropriate marriage material; and Alvin, in order to save his drowning comrades from an angry Proteus, agreed to spend a night with the god as his eromenos and is exploring a strange but interesting new world of sexuality. Mrs. Young hates everyone and wants to go home. Haji's good, though.

Finally, the Gangs of New York game just brought their story, starring Zoe, Skylar, Russel, Isaac and Anton, to a thrilling conclusion where somehow most people survived. Isaac accidentally got himself dragged into a world where he exists as pure computer code, and there met the mistress of the giant technological web, who turned out to be Arachne; she offered him the chance to stay with her and influence the web (and thus the world) from within, which he accepted, bowing out before the final game session. Back on earth, where all the Scions of the current story are duly appointed superheroes (codenamed Containment Prime) in the employ of the United States government in charge of defending New York City from supernatural threats, Skylar fled a monster attack that destroyed an Army base and was subsequently sentenced to death for abandoning his duty; Zoe and Anton made a desperate helicopter trip from New York to Washington, D.C. in an hour and half in a stolen military jet, being attacked by monsters all the way, to barely make it in time to stop Congress from voting in his execution. Zoe made an incredible patriotic speech about Skylar's value to the country and the need for superheroes, successfully saving him from death and the group from disbandment, and Anton made sure it went viral so that the United States as a whole is now on the superhero bandwagon. Meanwhile, Russel and Skylar, defending New York on their own, teamed up with a surprisingly skilled human cop they ran into to take on the last of the fire demons that have been plaguing the city recently, in a fierce battle that nearly killed all of them but finally managed to take her down and save the day.

At the end of the story, Zoe was recalled to Washington to coordinate political concerns for the new group (and deal with the fact that Isaac has gone AWOL and, since he's a former terrorist, that's super not good), Anton went with her as bodyguard and chauffeur, Russel missed his opportunity to try to tell Zoe he has feelings for her because of Skylar's bionic interference, and all was well in the Big Apple. The next story will rotate characters again, so Zoe, Isaac and Anton will go out and Russel and Skylar will stay in, and we'll pick up with a new crisis and set of heroes next week.

So, you know, they're keeping busy.

It just occurred to me that this post is queued, so there might have been a game or two between when I wrote it and when it goes live, but that just adds to the mystery, I think.

Blood Begets Strength

It's my favorite time - new art time!

From the artist who was our very first contributer, way back in the depths of a year or two ago, we have this fantastic portrait of a demigod-level Sangria with an incredibly adorable version of Chicahua hiding behind her. He is too cute for me to even stand it.

By the wonderful Zhantilniiraala!

Even more awesome, she came for a visit in person and gave us the originals of her Better Next Time-themed art, so now we have actual, solid art in our hands! We're going to frame these suckers, so they can look down on themselves in the future during game and despair.

Beloved Bear

Question: I saw that Geoff has a different name (Tlazohtlaloni) on the Teotl family tree. What does the name mean and how did he earn it?

Tlazohtlaloni means literally "beloved one", with the masculine ending so you know it's a dude who is being beloved here. It was given to him by the Teotl to describe his place in the pantheon as Eztli's consort; as far as they're concerned, his job is literally just to be her beloved. That's what he's allowed into Acopa for.

Geoff's in a strange situation on Acopa thanks to that really awful thing his pantheon did; they have to tolerate him because he's legally married to Eztli and she's important to them, but he doesn't really have a place among them and is always treated as something of a potentially disruptive outsider. From an Aztec point of view, he also fills all the traditionally "feminine" roles in his marriage to Eztli, including taking care of the children, making food, taking care of her day-to-day needs and being protected by her, while Eztli does most of the traditionally "masculine" things like going to war and ensuring the family's safety, all of which means that even when he's not doing anything, he doesn't look quite right to them.

He's working on trying to gain more acceptance in his adopted pantheon, ingratiating himself with the Tezcatlipocas and even trying to find a way to make contact with a nahualli of his own, but it's slow going since the Aztec gods are unwilling to change and unlikely to forget the tragic events of the recent past. So, until then, he's Eztli's "beloved one" to them, and will be until they decide he's distinguished himself in some other way.

(It's a pretty good name for a god of marriage, though, and they've been starting to let him kind of take that role on, so progress is being made!)

Two Guys, a Girl and Rampant Bloodletting

Question: Hey, I was reading some of your fiction about Geoff lately (awesome job, by the way!) and it got me thinking about Jay Ortiz. It seems like he hates Geoff, but is that only because of the Norse thing? Is it possible that Sangria might have something to do with it? (wink, wink)

I see what you're doing with that winking there, questioner. It's hard to say, actually - Jay is a pretty mysterious guy.

He has plenty of reasons to dislike Geoff without anyone else needing to get involved; Geoff set in motion the violent takeover of Jay's homeland and people by foreign powers, which is not something anyone forgets easily. Of course, Geoff didn't mean to do that and was very upset about it when he found out about it, but that doesn't make it any better. In fact, it might make it worse - seriously, you got my family and home blown up not because you were trying to but just because you're stupid?

And of course Geoff doesn't really help the situation much, since he dislikes Jay right back (watching two high Charisma characters trying very hard not to like one another is pretty hilarious, by the way. Every few minutes they almost give each other the finger guns and then overcompensate with violent hatred). Geoff's angry with Jay for blaming him for crimes that he personally didn't commit even if his family did, and for his obvious opposition to Geoff wherever he can get away with it. Fiction hasn't caught up to the post-Ragnarok landscape yet, but Jay most recently caught Geoff at a really, really bad moment and implied that he didn't actually care about his family, so even though they're getting along a little better now that they're both gods, there's not a lot of love lost on either side.

But Sangria? Well... to tell you the truth, Jay's not a very tell-you-about-his-inner-struggle kind of a dude, so exactly what he thinks about her is still a mystery, even from the players in the game. She's not a particularly pleasant person to be around, nor is she fun to have a conversation with, so it's unlikely that he secretly fell in love with her and hates Geoff's guts for stealing her away or anything like that (although it is tempting to make an awesome Mexican telenovela out of the situation, isn't it?). But she is one of his people, and furthermore a daughter of one of the Tezcatlipocas, making her the only crown princess of the pantheon at the moment opposite his crown prince. It's entirely possible that he's offended as shit that she ended up married to some Norse dude, and the fact that that happened because said Norse dude knocked her up by accident probably doesn't help matters all that much. And now there are white people all up in his country all the time, imprisoning and using his countrymen, and if there's one thing Jay hates above all others, it's people who restrict the freedom of others. (And, even though he tries his best only to do it when it's for her own good or the good of others, Geoff restricts Sangria's freedom a whole lot, too.)

It's actually possible, although never confirmed, that Jay and Sangria might have been meant to be married at some point; it would be a very smart political alliance that solidified the supremacy of the Tezcatlipocas, and the two of them make a fantastic team, with Jay directing everything through his amazing social powers and Sangria carrying out his orders with wrecking-ball efficiency. Nobody was expecting Geoff to wander in and make a completely different alliance. We don't know that for sure, of course, but it's a solid bet that Huitzilopochtli and/or Tezcatlipoca had some plans for one or both of their kids' eventual matrimony, and the introduction of a surprise Aesir might very well have made them start over at square one. Jay still isn't married, although whether that's because he likes being single or for some other motive nobody has ever asked.

But yeah, Jay's probably not nursing a broken heart behind the scenes or anything. He just doesn't like the guy, and he's got lots of reasons for it.

Ironically, it's actually Geoff that occasionally gets jealous of Jay and Sangria, not the other way around. She tends to just do what Jay says instead of arguing with him the way she does with Geoff, and there have been times that the two of them connected on an Aztec-blood-bonding level Geoff couldn't that irritated him.

Also, Chicahua at one point told him he wanted Jay to be his dad instead of Geoff (although really, the kid does that all the time). Cue the angry, testosterone-laden glaring.

ART!

It's time for MORE ART! ART!

This one is something completely different, and we love it. From a master graphic artist of the great white north, here's an image of Goze, Sangria and Geoff as the young gods of the Teotl. Goze appears here as Iocolincolatl, the psychpomp god in charge of bringing whatever gods the Aztec people need most to their city; Sangria appears as Eztli, the bloodmother, warrior bat-monster and mother to her people; and Geoff appears as Tlazohtlaloni, god of marriages and life-giving ponds and beloved of Eztli.

In traditional Aztec art style, with bonus totally adorable evil baby. This is my new favorite thing of the moment.

ART!

Anne's Fiction Corner

It's that time again, and I hope you guys are all ready for this story, because our players definitely weren't. Today's story is The Fall of Tenochtitlan, starring Geoff Matheson with appearances by Sangria Tecuhtli, Mitchell Gozer and Marcus James, not to mention an insanely star-studded supporting cast. It is a tale of divided loyalties, devastating betrayal and events that change the world forever.

I just realized that for some reason I accidentally labeled the progress bar as Sangria Fiction this past round, even though it's technically Geoff fiction. But that's okay; Geoff may be the narrator and it may be his story, but you'd better believe it's Sangria's story, too.

Before I put up a new voting poll, I want to turn to you, the readers and players, for a little advice about how to plan for new fiction as we move on! John and I have been wondering if the current method of voting is really the best one, since it tends to skew toward always the same characters. I love all the characters, so I'm generally happy no matter what, but there are a few different things we were thinking of trying.

• Vote for individual characters, just like we do now. Everybody votes for whomever they're most interested in, and life continues as normal.
• Vote for individual games - that is, Better Next Time, Eastern Promises, Gangs of New York, Strawberry Fields, whatever. Everyone votes for the storyline they want to see more of, and then I'll write the next story in that line, which might be from any of the characters involved.
• Vote for individual characters, but rotate the voting per game. This time we vote only on Eastern Promises characters, next time we vote only on Gangs of New York characters, and so on.

Or something else that you guys think of that I haven't. Or maybe nothing needs to change! I don't know, I'm very unfocused right after I finish something.

Winona won with some kind of crazy old woman wizardry, so she'll be getting the next story. Tell me what you guys think, and we'll put up a new voting poll soon!

Anne's Fiction Corner

What, a new story done in under a month? It's true! Today's story is Children of the Sun, starring Sangria Tecuhtli with appearances by Marcus James, Mitchell Gozer and a seriously distressed Geoff Matheson. It is a tale of vengeance, family ties and uncontrolled power that finally finds an outlet. It's also the worst. Seriously, just the worst.

Geoff won the vote with a slim margin of only one, so he'll get the next story! The new voting poll will go up momentarily, and with the really close voting lately, I'm totally excited to see who will come up next!

• If you vote for Aurora Dahl, you'll be getting a story about the fallout of a divine war and the passing of ancient responsibilities on to reluctant young Scions.
• If you vote for Darcy Jolie-Pitt, you'll be getting a story about two sisters trapped in a foreign underworld, trying to find their way back to the light.
• If you vote for Faruza Alinejad, you'll be getting a story about unlikely friendships and the sacrifices bandmates sometimes make for one another, physical or spiritual.
• If you vote for Leona Middleton, you'll be getting a story about a headstrong girl bucking the demands of her society and setting her sights on a truly impossible dream.
• If you vote for Mitchell Gozer, you'll be getting a story about the long, hard road of repentance and the violent nature of divine divorce courts.
• If you vote for Mohini Misra, you'll be getting a story about her band undermining a corrupt raja and making difficult decisions about whether or not love can overcome evil.
• If you vote for Seamus McMann, you'll be getting a story about the clash between divine and mortal authorities and one band of Scions' determination to rescue one of their own at any cost.
• If you vote for Sophia Archimedes, you'll be getting a story about her stormy non-relationship with a certain notorious Scion.
• If you vote for Will Nordstrom, you'll be getting a story about his childhood and growth into one of the last Vanir Scions in the world.
• If you vote for Winona Nelson, you'll be getting a story about the struggle of poverty, the entropy of the universe and all the ways a normal woman can end up at the very bottom.
• If you vote for Woody Anderson, you'll be getting a story about a very old Norse Scion adapting to the ways of a new culture and finding a way to honor new family members.
• If you vote for Yadi, you'll be getting a story about her origins as a street rat in the back alleys of Tehran and her hopes for a better life as a child of the righteous gods.

Incidentally, I know Vivian was a super popular option on the last poll, so many people may be wondering why she isn't on this one. It's not because we don't love her - we just realized that her story can't happen until Goze's has gone through. So if you're looking for some Vivian love, vote for Goze and she'll be back in the next round!

Lazy post....but one that makes today a theme

Getting hit by sangria: If science worked in scion like it does in real life.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-fL8zopddI

Sucker Punch

Question: I am a bit afraid to ask... how do you survive being hit by Eztli? The first hit is skinshedded, but after that?

Alas for Eztli's foes, for she wields a great and totally uncontrolled power, and she's not picky about whose face it hits first. You're right that getting hit by Eztli is now An Experience; at this point, only gods with Strength associated with them are rocking a meaner left hook, and her job is almost exclusively to mow things down while the rest of the band does the things that require finesse or emotional response or brains.

But she doesn't automatically murder everything - far from it. Just like every other combat PC in the world, she tends to fight things tailored by the Storyteller to challenge her, because otherwise there would be no point. Eztli's enemies are usually other gods, Titan Avatars and Typhonian beasts that are far from pushovers, and she still has her share of major scenes in which she has to turn it up to eleven or twelve to triumph.

As for other PC-style enemies, though... well, survival is harder, not gonna lie. After the initial skin-shed, nobody else in her band could survive a direct shot to the face from her if she really meant it (luckily for them, however, she usually doesn't, and they only get the love taps that are a hazard of the business for hanging out with super-strong loose cannons). Most Scions and gods at her level couldn't unless they were expressly built for survivability; if you want to survive someone who's put most of their effort into breaking your face, put yours into keeping that face intact.

To start with, Stamina knacks are your best friends when trying to keep from being pulverized (by any majorly strong enemy, not just our favorite Aztec psychopath). Damage Conversion and Divine Damage Conversion are musts to ensure that you can apply your best soaks to the incoming damage, and Unbreakable allows you to blow as much Legend as necessary to deal with overflow that your normal soaks can't handle (of course, it's a lot of Legend at once sometimes, but it beats dying). Some of these will be rendered moot if she happens to get her Armor Crusher on, but Earth Body has the awesome side effect of letting you apply your armor even if she would normally ignore it. Dexterity knacks, while they won't always spare you actually taking the hit, can bring the pain down to a more manageable level as well, especially Roll With It to increase your soaking capacity and Untouchable Opponent to bring down the threshold successes that are about to be translated into broken bones.

Secondly, you can never have too much armor when you're trying to keep yourself in one piece. In addition to the good old Stamina standbys of Body Armor and Impenetrable, anyone invested in Earth should be rocking out their Earth Armor and Earth Body to get further tasty protective layers, while Greenskin in Fertility, Devil Body in Fire, Phase Body in Moon and Colossus Armor in War can all further boost your attempts to become teflon. There are also various powers that you can employ to try to stop her from hitting you quite as hard as she otherwise might, including Solar Shield in Sun, Battle Cry and Warrior Ideal in War and Do Not Want in Appearance.

Honestly, though, if you're not built to be a massive juggernaut of mountain-like indifference to damage, just don't get hit again (you might need Between the Ticks to get the chance, though). There's a lot to be said for using Guardian powers to cower behind shields while your friends deal with it (Woody's preferred method of handling Eztli on a rampage) or Psychopomp powers (or the infamous Out of the Frying Pan) to just peace out before things can get any uglier. Eztli, like every other dangerous god, has blind spots and areas in which she's not very skilled as well, so exploiting those can often give you a better than average chance at survival; she's something of a beast when it comes to resisting mental and social powers aimed at her, but her tragically low Perception rolls make it child's play for anyone with Illusion to misdirect or entrap her without her getting anywhere near them, not to mention making it extremely difficult for her to find anyone good at hiding until the storm blows over. Even mortals have been able to successfully evade her by hiding behind trees and telephone poles.

But yeah, your options are basically A) be awesome at taking damage like a champ, or B) get the fuck out of Dodge. It's not impossible for PCs to be at the same level of survival that Eztli herself is at for damage output; not only is she personally great at that stuff (she's got to survive things that are just as badass as herself, after all), but Sverrir is also a badass when it comes to soaking and surviving, and the two of them are probably the most evenly-matched opponents among the younger generation of gods. And, if you think you have time for it, you can always try to go with option C) get Sowiljr to call her off, although once in a while that results in Virtue Extremity and then things become very, very unpleasant for everybody involved.

Eztli has reached a level of physical danger that allows her to now outclass most gods, and it's definitely no joke to be on the receiving end of her anymore. In a recent game, Tezcatlipoca had been put to sleep by Hypnos and she tried to wake him up by slapping him, and she accidentally caved in his skull. It was quite an eye-opener for the PCs, who had until that point really not thought about the fact that she probably could decimate some of the gods they'd always thought of as eternal and all-powerful if the circumstances were right.

Eater of Stars

Question: Eztli has conquered the Titanrealm of stars?

If you ask her, most definitely. Coyolxauhqui probably has a different opinion, though.

Bat on a Hot Tin Roof

Question: If you don't mind me asking about your games, I have a inquiry about Eztli. I've watched her Twitter with the humorous bat outbursts. My question is, when she does transform into her bat-self, does she speak and act like that to the band? Is she locked in a complete primal mindset? What is she like when the bat comes upon her?

Cuacitlali really is the bomb for in-game tweets. Sangria's just hanging out there not caring about much, like she does, but the bat has opinions and it will share them with you at the top of its voice.

Because of the way nahualli work, it's not really accurate to say that Eztli ever transforms into Cuacitlali. Cuacitlali and Eztli are equal halves of the same soul; they are the same person and both of them are always present. They can and do manifest differently depending on what's happening at the time, so often you'll see one of them, the other, or both at once, chilling in double manifestation. Eztli tends to appear as only (mostly) humanoid when they're in political or social situations where a bat would be inappropriate, usually because Sowiljr tells her to dial it down; Cuacitlali, being a bat, is also very cranky about bright lights and tends to not appear when things are too well-lit. In moments of heavy emotional stress or danger, Cuacitlali often appears by herself, with Eztli completely absent; it's in this form that she threatens enemies, bothers Sowiljr for attention or tries to eat people, because as the more emotional side she often overrides Eztli's natural indifference. Cuacitlali also tends to bust onto the scene whenever stars are present. She is, after all, the eater of stars, as she will tell you whenever prompted.

And, of course, they can also both hang out together in the same scene, which also happens fairly frequently. It's not uncommon for Eztli to march around with her band while Cuacitlali sits brooding on Sowiljr's shoulder, or for Eztli to tend her children while Cuacitlali keeps watch or plays with the littler bats. A nahualli is just a different facet of an Aztec Scion or god, not a different person or creature that must be summoned or transformed into; generally, Eztli and Cuacitlali are mostly interchangeable and can turn up in any combination, because they're the same person in the end.

That said, though, they do have separate "personalities" - or, more accurately, they manifest different facets of their shared personality. Eztli's all pragmatism, duty and law, and she's the part who drives getting things done, safeguarding her people and following the rules of the Aztlanti. Cuacitlali runs all the passionate and reactionary parts of the whole, and is the one who actually gets angry with interlopers, demands sustenance and complains about discomfort, or possessively hisses at anyone else who gets too close to Sowiljr. The bat can't really "come upon" Eztli, because Eztli is the bat all the time (in fact, thanks to Bestial Nature, they're not all that dissimilar-looking anymore) - the only time you could say it really came upon her was when she discovered it at her apotheosis. But the bat can take different "actions" than Eztli classic would have, thanks to expressing different parts of her personality that she wasn't aware of before she was aware of Cuacitlali itself.

But yes, Cuacitlali is pretty much all yelling all the time when dealing with others. She, like Eztli's more "human" half, operates primarily on instinct; the only difference is that she's emotional about it where Eztli usually isn't, so she tends to be more volatile and temperamental about it. She routinely tries to eat Folkwardr (or tries to convince Sowiljr to let her eat Folkwardr, anyway), snaps at and assaults other gods and magical creatures, whines about being hungry (her favorite thing to do is beg Sowiljr to let her bite him, because he's so deliciously magically tasty) and shrieks whenever irritated or angered, which is often. Nobody can actually understand her unless they have Animal Communication (Bat), so her screaming is usually confined to Sowiljr, Terminus (when he was alive) and other bats. Everybody else just hears this.

Both Eztli and Cuacitlali are pretty primal to begin with; it's not like Eztli was ever overly "human" to begin with. If anything, Cuacitlali's the more human half of the equation - emotional and responsive, as opposed to Eztli's brute-force instinct and disinterest. If Eztli had more qualities of humanity, so would Cuacitlali, but they are what they are, and neither is really ever going to understand or resemble mankind all that much. She's one of those animal gods that is closer to the beast than to mortal man.

Love Me Do

Question: What do you think would happen if someone cursed Sangria with supernatural, uncontrollable empathy? Meaning, she was forced to feel the emotions of others around her.

Most of the time, violence, probably.

We actually messed around with this idea some way back in the day when the Better Next Time band were still demigods; Goze picked up Perfect Actor and we all went on a short binge of trying to figure out what Sangria would do if he dropped various emotions on her. It turned out to be mostly a non-issue because Goze never got all that much Appearance and Sangria's resistance roll is beastly, but for a while it was a fun issue to debate. We busted out Plutchik's wheel and everything. It was intense.

But the quick and easy answer is probably confusion and violence, most of the time. Sangria's not just standoffish or reserved; she is actually schizoid. She is broken. Her brain chemistry does not work properly. That means that these aren't just going to be emotional events she isn't ready for or won't enjoy, but often things that have legitimately never happened to her before and that she has no frame of reference for how to deal with. Add to that the fact that she's a hair-trigger quick destructive force, and throwing emotional crisis into her face is kind of like throwing a lit match into a bottle of grain alcohol.

So unless she was living on the planet of the happy flower people where nobody ever had negative emotions and she could just wander around confused about what was happening, she'd probably roll over into psychotic death machine pretty quickly. Something would suddenly be happening to her that had never happened before, she couldn't stop, she didn't understand and that was hurting and confusing her; the immediate instinctual response would be to destroy whatever was doing this obviously malevolent thing, which would just cause more negative emotions to build up around her, which would keep on fueling her until she'd either cleared the area or was unconscious. It would be a vicious cycle.

Sangria's not an entire emotional blank; she does have a limited spectrum of responses, including confusion ("something's not normal"), surprise ("something I didn't expect just happened"), respect ("something is in charge of me"), determination ("something is in my way"), dismay ("something I did failed") and disapproval ("something is wrong"). They're just a lot more muted than most peoples' reactions, and they leave out most of the emotions that involve heavy interaction with others. And she actually does occasionally have supernatural empathy foisted on her; Geoff's frequent use of Engender Love sparks very direct, strong emotion, which she understands as "a thing that happens when you're married to somebody" (Geoff's explanation), and when something goes really, really wrong she touches off Riastrad, in basically the same kind of reaction I was describing above.

Basically, if there weren't someone really, really skilled helping her manage the situation on deck with a lot of armor, dropping supernatural empathy on Sangria would make her full-blown crazy. She might be able to get used to it over time, but the collateral damage in the meantime would be off the charts.

Anne's Fiction Corner

If you've been itching to know how the Better Next Time team's travails in Duat turned out, itch no longer! This new story is out just in time for Valentine's Day, because Geoff is everybody's valentine.

Today's story is Sunrise, Sunset, starring Geoff Matheson with appearances by Sangria Tecuhtli, Marcus James and Mitchell Gozer. It is a tale of conflicting loyalties, the consequences of murder, and young people trying to fill shoes that are entirely too big for them.

Next up, duly voted in, will be Woody Anderson dealing with the aftermath of accidentally falling into the well of Mimir. New voting options will go up in a minute.

Whee! Stories!

Knocked Up

Question: So what's the deal with Sangria and Geoff? Their relationship is like a divine version of Knocked Up where Geoff marries her because he feels responsible for getting her pregnant. Does Sangria love or care for the poor guy at all? Or is she just an emotionless psychopath that's just using him for breeding stock?

Question: Geoff and Sangria - sometimes I think their relationship is kind of cute, but then other times it seems like it's just awful. Do they regret getting married? What's life like for Geoff being stuck with a crazy woman who would probably gut him if she could get away with it?

We've had a couple of questions about this lately, so I figured now, with all this interest about Geoff's love life, was a good time for a guest blog by the man himself. I sent these questions off to Geoff's player for his perspective, and because he is a champion he actually sat down and wrote something instead of telling me that he's a very important lawyer who doesn't have time for this kind of stuff. Check it out:

What a couple of questions. Welp, I guess I should start at the beginning…

Geoff originally decided to marry Sangria after Pan called down a bacchanalia. If you read Geoff’s origin story (which by the way is an amazing piece of fiction and gets me right in the feels every time) you know that his mother never married and never took another lover after Baldr. Geoff watched his mother grow old alone, but never saw resentment or anger at what had happened. She felt she was blessed to have such a wonderful child. When Geoff was old enough to realize what had happened, he made a vow that he would never abandon his children or the mother of his children. At first it was because he felt it was his duty, and that he would be dishonoring the memory of his mother if he were no better than his divine father. He had to do what was right.

While Sangria was an amazing physical specimen and at this point I think divinely beautiful (besides the bone arm), it still felt like a burden. It was a duty Geoff had taken on; he had to protect his family, and to honor the mother of his unborn child. After the birth of Aren, everything changed. Geoff had a family again. He had only briefly met his father, who as soon as he had appeared was gone again. But now he had a child, but it wasn’t only his child - it was Sangria’s as well. They shared something so powerful and amazing that as he immediately was filled with love for his child, he began to grow to love the woman who had carried and brought this child into the world. She was the vessel that had given him what he had always wanted: a family.

Another way to look at it is like an arranged marriage. When he and Sangria first tied the knot (literally), he only knew about her as the terrorist, the warrior, the cold-blooded killer and mother of monsters. But as the battles passed, as his family grew closer, he learned more about Sangria; about her unwavering and completely selfless loyalty to her family. How she would sacrifice everything she had or was to make sure that no harm befell her children or her husband. He learned that she had never known nor felt love. She had only ever known duty, and that after their marriage day her duty shifted to include him. He came to learn that she would never be the wife who gave him a hero’s welcome home, or weep at seeing him leave. But she would never leave him, never betray him, and always keep him and their children safe. She would honor Geoff. That came to be enough.

A long way down the road after they both had achieved apotheosis, Geoff began to learn more about his wife. She had acquired a nahualli, a bat named Cuacitlali (Eater of Stars). This creature, this animal, was basically her emotions or her id. All the emotion she had built over the years for Geoff and never understood or been able to express, Quacitlali could. It is one thing to be snuggled by a beautiful woman, and quite another to be snuggled by a human-sized vampire bat.

As it stands in the game currently, Sowiljr loves Eztli. He even affectionately calls her Xochiyotl (it means "gentle flower"). It amuses him, but also shows how in his mind Sangria is his everything. He is rebuilding his pantheon as the new All-Father, and he is going to be a better father to his family and to his people than those before him. His mother raised him better than that.

Hope that helped with the people who have trouble seeing how this relationship works.

TL;DR - It was rough at the beginning, got better once children started showing up, post-apotheosis realized how much she cared about him, and now are very happy together (although she is still dumb as a brick, so that has its own challenges).

Life together, on the other hand, is a loaded question. It is a constant struggle making sure that Eztli doesn’t dash off into the stars to try and destroy everything in her path. Ptah had a good idea when he figured out a way to distract and control Sekhmet all the time. As I said above, she is real dumb, but powerful. Together they are an unstoppable force, which as a player is how I like to think of them. She is the warrior, the unflinching soul who will wade into the middle of Hell itself, while Geoff is the king, the politician or general who has plans and plays the game of thrones (I couldn’t help myself). There is no regret from Geoff for having married Sangria. He would like for her to be able to smile and laugh and be happy (and trust me, he is working on it ;)). So I would have to say that life remains…exciting... yes, that is the word I will choose.

Thanks, everyone, for your interest in our game and in Geoff and Sangria! I never thought that this character would grow so much and gain an actual following! It always makes me smile when I hear that you guys are talking about him or thinking about him. =)

Hugs and Kisses,

Geoff
(Mat)

So there you guys have it, straight from the sun-god's mouth. As for Sangria's perspective, I'm not going to get as detailed as he did, but I will say that if she were going to go out and pick a guy just to use for breeding stock, it would probably not be a Norse dude.

What you guys should be worried about is Eztli versus Folkwardr. Every game that one of them doesn't try to murder the other is like a miraculous victory.

Treason and Plot

Question: So I read in your fiction that Mixcoatl betrayed the Aztlanti and became a Titan. So why did he turn right then? Was it because doing it before the Titans escaped from Tartarus would have been suicidal?

The episode in which Mixcoatl begins his concerted assault on the Aztlanti appears in the story Drums of War, in which Sangria responds to her father's call to arms while Geoff is off learning uncomfortable truths about his Norse brethren. While we have had gods go Titan during game - Danu was one, since we already had a Scion of hers in play - Mixcoatl actually isn't one of them.

Mixcoatl was already a Titan in our game, and was locked in Tartarus with the rest of them. Why that was the exact moment that he fully roared back to ruin the Aztlanti's day is unclear; maybe he was late getting out of the prison, or maybe he was gathering his power and recruiting allies before making a head-on assault on the pantheon; Quetzalcoatl had recently been severely injured in an altercation with the Amatsukami and was mostly out of commission at this time, meaning that he wouldn't have been available to run interference between his father and his people. Whatever the reason, Huitzilopochtli and the rest of the pantheon were not surprised by Mixcoatl's attack. They had to have been expecting it to happen fairly soon after the sundering of Tartarus, and they weren't wrong.

Sangria and Huitzilopochtli both refer to Mixcoatl as a traitor because, from their point of view, he is the definition of one. He's Aztlanti by blood, the father of several of its gods and the maintainer of part of its universe, yet he is choosing to break every bond of sacred loyalty and duty to assault his own people and destroy the world they maintain. He is and always will be a traitor in their eyes.

Prior to Mixcoatl charging in to lay seige to Acopa, the Aztlanti were primarily trying to deal with Coatlicue, who was not being overtly dangerous enough for anyone to get away with hurting her for fear of being murdered by Huitzilopochtli, but who was also laying the groundwork to severely damage them in the future. With the all-out assault from the stars, however, almost all of the Aztlanti efforts have been turned to the war in the heavens.