Between Two Worlds

Question: How would you handle someone wanting to be a Scion of a Mesoamerican god that was neither Aztec nor Maya? For instance: I want to play a Scion of Cocijo, but I’m not sure whether I should use Itztli or the PSP in your upcoming Maya pantheon (which sounds like it will be awesome, by the way), or if, perhaps, I should just write a new PSP? The problem with that would be that I have no idea what that PSP would be about. Any suggestions?

Oof. And then there were Zapotecs.

Well, speaking as someone suffering through writing two different PSPs right now, I would not suggest writing a new one. While in a perfect world every pantheon on the planet would have their own full roster and developed PSP, in the practical world of Scion that would require an army of genius mythology and game-design savants working around the clock, and we do not have that. Writing PSPs is super difficult and takes forever, and requires very careful work and balance between you and your Storyteller to make sure the end product is both fun and balanced for the game; I would suggest that you go for that option only if you're deeply committed to making the Zapotec pantheon a major part of your game. If you're just writing it for one guy who won't be doing much in Oaxaca and whose pantheon will have next to no presence in the game, it probably isn't worth it.

Just using Itztli is probably the easiest solution to your dilemma. Like most Mesoamerican civilizations, the Zapotecs had a strong blood sacrifice component to their religion and believed that such offerings were the conduit through which they were able to communicate with their gods. The concept of communion through sacrifice appears to be stronger for the Zapotecs than the Aztec idea of sacrifice as fuel source, but both are present, and you could reflavor individual Itztli boons as necessary. It might also be a good tie-in if you're planning to explore any of the ties between the Aztecs and the Zapotec gods they imported into their own pantheon; Cocijo isn't one of them (unless you consider him a cognate with Tlaloc), but there are several others and the two pantheons clearly have a close connection of some sort.

If you're not liking the idea of picking up a PSP that doesn't strictly belong to the Zapotec - which would be reasonable, because PSPs are very culture-specific - you might also talk to your ST about what kind of provision s/he might be willing to make for a character who doesn't have a PSP. We talked about the issue of what to do for gods from pantheons that don't have PSPs a bit in these old comments, and I think there are a lot of good suggestions there; your ST might be willing to let you play a Scion from a pantheon without a PSP and just give you some other kind of advantage instead, though what exactly would be up to the two of you to work out together.

A final option would be to simply consider your Scion a son of Cocijo, but to consider Cocijo himself an aspect of Tlaloc, making you technically an Aztlanti Scion with Itztli despite always interacting with your Zapotec dad. If your Scion happens to be from the Oaxaca area and Tlaloc decides to turn up as Cocijo, you could ride that Zapotec-flavored train all the way into the station without having to sweat the small mechanical stuff, and even set yourself such lofty goals as trying to rebuild the Zapotec pantheon and people. Shoot for the sky. As long as your ST is cool with the god appearing as Cocijo instead of his more famous Aztec incarnation and has some idea for why he would do that, and you yourself are cool with the syncretism, it'll solve your problems pretty neatly.

I'm flattered by your faith in my Maya-writing abilities! I wish I had more to give you guys, but unfortunately I'm only through the roster and PSP, so it'll be a while yet before I have the rest of their cosmology sorted out and ready to PDF up. So don't wait around for that PSP to come out if you want to play your character now! But if you're really keen on it, maybe talk to your ST about the possibility of swapping if it turns out to suit you better when it's finished.

Personally, I'm totally psyched that you're interested in playing a Zapotec PC, because they're pretty neat and often overlooked, and people tend to assume that since the Aztlanti made off with so many of them there aren't any purely Zapotec gods left to play with (not true! Cocobi and Cozaana beg to differ!). Whatever approach you take to the PSP, I hope you have an absolutely awesome ride with them.