Vendidad and Veda

Question: You've mentioned that in your games, the Yazata and Deva aren't very friendly. How do you deal with Vayu, considering the Deva Vayu is very similar to the Yazata Vayu-Vata, and the Deva Vayu is the father of one of the Pandava? Does the Deva Vayu not exist in your games, is he a facet of the Yazata Vayu-Vata? Are they two separate entities, or a dual natured entity, straddling the line between the pantheons?

Vayu's one of my favorite dudes in all of Scion, I think, mostly because of the questions you're asking. He's one of the few gods who is very obviously a Deva and also very obviously a Yazata. They're not just guys with similar names; they are literally the same person, with the same described attributes and stories. It's pretty awesome, because all by himself Vayu is illustrating the original point at which those religions were the same, as well as illustrating the way they grew apart.

In our games, Vayu is technically a Yazata, but he keeps his foot in the door for the Devas. The Devas consider him a Deva, while the Yazata consider him a Yazata, and he doesn't tell either of them that they're wrong (which, in all technicality, they aren't). Without giving too much away for the players reading this, the long enmity between the two pantheons does not extend to him; he's playing both sides, not necessarily maliciously, but just because it's more helpful to him not to be anyone's enemy. He's not the only one, either; Haoma, also a member of the Yazata, does much the same by remaining a nominal Deva as Soma, his ancient Vedic equivalent. There are a few other non-playable gods who come to mind (Aryaman and Airyaman, for example) who continue to maintain membership in both pantheons, dating from before the millennia-ago schism that divided them.

The Devas and Yazata and their deep-rooted dislike of one another is one of the coolest political situations to play with in Scion, in my opinion; figuring out what caused it and whether or not the rift can be healed makes an awesome goal for any Scion of either pantheon pantheons, as does conquering or humiliating the enemy pantheon once and for all or (like Vayu and Haoma) trying to stay neutral between both of them, whichever a character is more likely to lean toward. To illustrate this, we actually did an experiment in the Eastern Promise game, where we offered any Scions of Haoma or Vayu the option of choosing to take Asha or Samsara as their PSP at character creation (they can't switch later or have both, but they get the initial choice). While so far there were no takers, I don't see a problem with doing the same in other games if you like the idea - it certainly might lead to some interesting philosophical clashes even if the Scion never tries to go over to the other side, so to speak.

I'd note that Haoma and Vayu do not themselves have both Asha and Samsara; they both probably only have Asha, as they have fully committed to being members of the Yazata. But their status as straddlers of the line and participants in Deva culture means that the ichor of both pantheons is present in tiny amounts in their Scions, which allows them to make that choice for themselves.