Princes of the Universe

Question: How does Worship translate to power in Scion? Companion mentions that they are pretty powerful because they are still being worshiped.

I assume the "they" you're referring to are the Devas, and I suppose that's true, to a point; they have an extensive base of worshipers in the World and as a result are very well-known and venerated to a degree that most other pantheons aren't. But, in Scion's world, being fancy and beloved is pretty much as far as that goes.

Because worship, in Scion, doesn't translate to power. There is actually no mechanical benefit whatsoever to having humans worship you; they don't give you power in any way other than to stroke your ego and make you feel like the awesome deity you are. It doesn't matter if you have ten kazillion mortals fervently praying to you every day, or if no one remembers you even exist; the only different is in how much static is coming in through your Hear Prayers knack.

There are exceptions, of course. The Aztlanti do gain power from worship (specifically sacrificial worship), but that's because that's what their PSP does, not because it's a feature of the system itself. And, of course, mortals who are Fatebound to you can provide bonuses with the power of their belief, but just believing in you isn't enough to get someone Fatebound to you; you have to be there, in person, blowing Legend around them for that to happen, so the likelihood of more than a tiny fraction of the Devas' worshipers actually being Fatebound to them is slim to none. People who are Fatebound to a god do often form or found cults or religions in their name, but not all (or even most) of the members of those religions are Fatebound. Even if a mortal devoutly believes in you and all your divine exploits, his daily prayers and sacrifices have no effect whatsoever on you if he isn't Fatebound. And even Fatebound mortals aren't always part of your religion; it's entirely possible for a mortal to be Fatebound to you without believing you're a god at all, or without being a member of the religion in which you are worshiped.

This often seems weirdly counter-intuitive to players and Storytellers, especially if they're new to Scion, but it actually makes a great deal of sense. Fatebonds are what make the World go 'round; gods don't like getting saddled with too many Fatebonds, so they stay out of the World, which in turn has caused many of their religions to die out or be mostly replaced by others, which is why the still-thriving Asian religions are an exception. Trying to keep track of worship as a quantifiable mechanic would be a messy, unbalancing endeavor; how would you decide who was getting worshiped "enough" and who wasn't? Where would you draw lines, and based on what criteria? What about people that everyone believes in, but nobody worships? What's the difference between belief and worship? It's a realm of misty, unexplainable questions that don't really add anything to the game, so it's not hard to see why the game's writers left the idea out. The idea of gods requiring worship is a fairly recent one anyway, with a few notable exceptions; most ancient cultures worshiped gods because they wanted their blessings, wanted to avoid their wrath, or recognized them as awesome figures who deserved respect and obeisance. They didn't do it because they thought the gods needed it or got some kind of benefit from it; they did it because they were gods, and when you're confronted with a god, there's not much else to do besides worship or run away. (The Aztlanti are, once again, the exception - the Aztecs did believe that their gods needed sacrifice in order to keep the universe from collapsing, but again, that's just them, not something that applies to all pantheons.)

Companion, I think, is suggesting that there's a sort of prestige to having a thriving world religion, which is not untrue. The Devas are in a pretty enviable position, still respected, adored and worshiped by millions of people; even if that doesn't give them any mechanical crunch to play with, it's still something that other gods might easily envy and that they themselves probably feel pretty good about. But other than that, having a living religion is pretty much nothing more than something that looks really nice on their godly resumes.