With Strange Aeons

Question: Are Titans the natural evolution of gods who grow apathetic with the world? Are most gods destined to eventually become jaded, gaining in power over the eons, until they end up aloof embodiments of primordial power?

Well... maybe. I think that's definitely one way of approaching it.

As we've talked about before, there's a repeating cycle in many world mythologies where the older generation of deities is eventually overthrown by the younger, who rise up and then are later overthrown by their own children in turn. Scion both underlines this theme by giving players the opportunity to play those new children, rising up in power in a world made by their ancient forbears, but also subverts it, providing the war with the Titans as a different antagonist so that Scions are breaking the cycle by fighting their grandparents' generation instead of their parents'. There's a strong feeling in Scion, at least as written in the books, that the gods of the pantheons are "good guys", and since Scions are also good guys, they're not going to overthrow them and instead need something else to antagonize them. That's not surprising, since the gods of mythology were the ultimate good guys (or at least important guys) to their ancient cultures, and we've carried that idea forward with us to the modern day. Vikings love Thor! Samurai love Hachiman! So we love them, too, and we play Scion to hang out with them!

But many of the Titans were "good guys" in their day, too. Sure, there are bad apples who have always been malevolent and dangerous - creatures like Apep, Typhon or Angra Mainyu - but there are plenty of others who were, in their time, what the gods are to humanity now. Cronus presided over the idyllic Golden Age of humanity, when there was never crime or want or hunger; Danu is revered as the ancient mother of the Celtic peoples, giving rise to entire races and personifying their heritage. The actions of creation Titans like the Kotoamatsukami, Tiamat, Gaia or Svarog are the very stuff that created the world itself, without which there would be no huamnity (and in some cases, no other gods, either!). But these figures are all still Titans, no longer entirely one with the gods; they've either become so aloof, ancient and distant that humanity largely forgot about them or remembers them only as a faraway, uninvolved power (Tethys, for example, or El), or some triggering event caused them to become part of that cycle of uprising and revolt, as when the Dodekatheon rose up against Cronus and his siblings or the Tuatha de Danann destroyed the reigning powers that had possessed Ireland before them.

Theoretically, this makes it very likely that the current set of gods - many of whom have been entrenched in their positions for hundreds if not thousands of years - may themselves become Titans. They may be too inflexible to adapt to the new world of humanity, now that they're involved in it again; they may not understand what new humanity needs, or worse, try to drag them back into behaving in a way that suits them. They may have lost interest in the doings of mortals who no longer carry the same morals and prize the same gods that they once did, or they may look down on a world that doesn't show them due respect and lash out against it. They're in the perfect position to become Titans, and Scions, rising up now, are in the perfect position to become the new gods. The presence of an even older generation of Titans considerably confuses the issue, but even that doesn't preclude the cycle from continuing; it rather shows you where the gods maybe going, a sort of snapshot of the future.

So in a sense, yes, it's easy to say that Titanhood is a natural stage in the development of a powerful and important god. Lesser gods won't make it up there because they aren't potent enough powers, but if Dyaus Pita is a Titan because he grew past the point of being involved in humanity, doesn't it make sense that Indra may grow there, too, leaving his stormy Scions to take his place?

But at the same time, this isn't a sure thing, and not every god (or Scion) has to follow those rules. Some ancient, primordial gods remain involved with humanity and benevolent, acting by proxy through the other gods, like Ahura Mazda or Olodumare. Are they then Titans, because they don't directly do things, because they never truly interact with the world, because they're too big to be regular gods? Some ancient, primordial gods do keep doing things and are directly involved in their worlds, like Ra or Svarozhich. Are they not Titans, even though they were born millennia before some of the other gods and fill classic Titanic roles of world-creator and -shaper?

We talk a lot about the difference between Titans and gods, and we know what works for our games in the system as it is right now; Titans are beings that are too large and cosmic to really be able to interact with humanity, or too violent and opposed to it to be allowed to roam free. Gods are beings that are friends, providers or neutral parties to humanity, who have human-like passions and stories of their exploits. Titans are expressions of the great powers of the universe, thinking beings who are nevertheless not truly free agents because they serve the interests of the great power that motivates them. Gods are individual figures who may make whatever choices and allegiances they wish, but who are bound by the whims of all-consuming Fate. Titan Avatars have awe-inspiring superpowers gods can't because they draw on the power of their realms. Gods have personal expressions of their ultimate power that Avatars can't because they are their own selves in a way Avatars aren't anymore.

But when you boil it down to its essential root, the only difference between the two is this: one is a set of gods who are about humanity, and the other is a set of gods who are about the forces of the universe. And that's basically it.

We've had a lot of questions, suggestions and complaints on both sides of the fence about the difference between gods and Titans and why we treat them the way we do. Some people are furious that we would consider figures who aren't inherently evil to be Titans, or that we would treat Titans as having grey moral areas rather than being flat black-and-white antagonists. Some people are irritated that we still make a distinction between Titans and gods at all, complaining that since they're all just divine figures at various stages of development we should throw away any mechanical differences between them. Some people are offended by the inconsistent decisions about who and who isn't a Titan across different pantheons, citing differences in age, generation, association and behavior. And some people just want to see more maps and don't understand what the big deal is - who cares what they are exactly, as long as you can send your PCs up against them and watch them shine?

It's really not a question of whether gods become Titans so much as it's a question of what the definition of a Titan in Scion really is, and there are as many different ways to look at it as there are different Storytellers. For our part, we would say that gods becoming Titans is one of many evolutionary paths available to them; some gods will become so old, disconnected and aloof that they become Titans, while others will remain vital members of their pantheons despite their great age and still others will fade into the woodwork, remaining eternally minor gods whose Legend was long ago eclipsed by more potent members of their religions. It's not only possible for many gods to naturally evolve up into Titans, it's now distinctly likely, thanks to the pressure of various wars around them, the completely changed face of humanity since the last time they were involved and the rise of a new generation of modern Scions and gods to challenge them.

But it's not mandatory. There will always be a handful of the old guard who stick around practically forever thanks to their close ties to their people. There's no magic age when a god's expiration date is up and he flips over to Titan, and no magic answer that will please all Storytellers everywhere.