Question: Are there any significant stories around about Astarte? My player is gonna be a Scion of hers, but I can't seem to find much of her doing anything besides being a cheerleader for Baal.
Ooh, one of the terrifying ladies of the Canaanite lands! There are indeed stories about her exploits, although not quite as many as someone like Baal who has an entire surviving myth cycle to his name.
Astarte is interesting because she is one of Baal's two wives along with Anat, and without a lot of material on the two of them, it sometimes seems like they're fairly identical or interchangeable, with Astarte the less well-defined of the two. Both are goddesses of love and sexuality, goddesses of war, and unflinchingly dedicated to the well-being of their husband Baal; but where Anat has separate stories of wading in the blood of her enemies, marching forth to defeat Mot and bearing Baal's child as a heifer, Astarte lacks these extra myths in the main body of Canaanite religion. We have to look a little harder to find stories of her actions, moving out to the wider world of Phoenician myth and her syncretizations with other cultures. We can start with Philo of Byblos, who in his description of Phoenician religion tells us that Baal and Astarte are the rulers of the universe; Anat may be the war-leader who destroys Baal's enemies, but Astarte is the queen who rules alongside him politically.
The most famous of Astarte's appearances are indeed in Baal's set of myths, which are overall the most well-known Canaanite myths we have. When Yam is declared king of the gods and Baal almost attacks the messenger in a fury, Astarte and Anat both restrain him, one on each arm, and remind him that murdering the messenger is not the wisest of all political moves. And when Baal defeats Yam, Astarte rebukes him for his unnecessary cruelty, telling him that Yam was already his prisoner and that killing him would be inappropriate, before moving on to declare before all the gods that since Baal has won, he should now be hailed as king of the gods without question. Different interpreters of the text have different ideas of what's going on here; Astarte may be telling Baal to back off of Yam because he's their sibling, or because since he was invested with power by El himself it would be politically foolish to outright kill him. But her call to the other gods to accept Baal is also a political power play, and a pretty ballsy one since El, who has previously been in charge of choosing who will rule after him, has not yet authorized that shift in power. Calling for Baal's rulership is in a way directly challenging El, who placed Yam above him, and calling the other gods to support Baal is something of a power coup away from the old father of the pantheon.
But these are pretty small mentions of Astarte, and clearly part of Baal's story rather than her own. However, the story of Astarte and Eshmun is all about her, with no whisper of Baal in sight. In that story - related by Photios, a Greek writer, who in usual Greek style uses Greek names for those involved and calls Eshmun "Asclepius of Beirut" since he is associated with healing like the Greek figure of that name - Astarte (here called Astronoe, "the heavenly" or "the starry", referring to her position as the morning star) falls in love with Eshmun, whose youthful beauty so impresses her that she begins purusing him relentlessly. Eshmun is afraid of her, since she is clearly a powerful and dangerous goddess (and possibly because he doesn't want to be on the receiving end of any jealous retribution from Baal) so he flees from her, and when he realizes he can't escape her completely, finally castrates himself so that she'll have no further interest in him. She catches up to him a moment too late, and he dies in her arms; full of grief, Astarte heals his wounds "with her body's warmth" and he becomes a god of healing, whose shrines were visited by those ill or injured. Eshmun does not appear in other myths besides this one, but is probably a Scion; Greek writers in the area claim he was the son of Apollo, which likely means the god Resheph, who is likewise a plague-associated archer who was often glossed as Apollo by Greek and Roman writers. In Syria, male cultists dedicated to her sometimes ritually castrated themselves in honor of her, echoing Eshmun's sacrifice.
The story of Astarte and Eshmun is more than a little bit similar to the story of Aphrodite and Adonis; in both cases, the love goddess falls in love with a beautiful young semi-mortal, who eventually dies because of her infatuation with him but becomes a resurrected divine figure in his own right. The ancient cults of Anat and Astarte (and Ishtar, over in Babylon) probably influenced Aphrodite and her stories considerably, and since Adonis is likewise a Canaanite import, it's very possible that the story of Aphrodite and Adonis was borrowed from this one about Astarte and Eshmun. Originally, anyway, although by the time Adonis' cult became important with its own mystery religion, they had become firmly separate figures.
The other place Astarte turns up in a major myth is, surprisingly, in Egypt. Thanks to being geographically close to one another, several figures from the Canaanite religion were imported into Egyptian cults in the northeast; gods with similar associations were often syncretized, so that some myths became attributed to Egyptian gods despite being originally of Canaanite origin. This led to the rise of a few areas in which Set and Baal were syncretized, since they were both temperamental storm gods with delusions of kingship, and in some of those areas the idea arose that Set was married to Anat and Astarte, who were given to him as consolation prizes when he lost the rulership of the gods to Horus. In those cults, it is Astarte who is the major figure in the myth of the sea falling in love with her and demanding her as tribute lest it overflow and flood the countryside, and it is for her sake that Set must go out and conquer the sea. It's an interesting syncretized myth, since the sea as the antagonist might have some roots in the Canaanite myth of Baal fighting Yam, with Set standing in for his fellow storm god. Further south in Egypt, Nephthys becomes the lady of the myth instead of Astarte since she is Set's traditional wife, but it's still a neat place to mess around with if you're looking for stuff to do with the Canaanite goddesses.
Astarte may not be the no-holds-barred bloodbath runner and war-monger that her conquering sister Anat is, but she's still an improtant goddess with a lot of neat stories and imagery. Good luck to that Scion of yours - they're about to head out into a the wonderful world of the few intrepid children of the war goddesses, and it's a dangerous place.
Friday, January 31, 2014
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Mix and Match
Question: Why do you need Unintended Purpose rather than Breath of Life to create human/machine hybrids with Human Hybrid?
Well, the flippant answer is that Breath of Life didn't exist yet when Human Hybrid was written, but we'll get more in-depth for you.
There's a fundamental difference between the way Artistry creates things and the way other purviews create things. Artistry, for the most part, doesn't create life; instead, it creates things, and only the most powerful of creator gods are able to use Breath of Life to invest those things with thought and purpose. Artistry is intended to be the purview of arts and sciences, craftsmen and builders, but it is not the set of powers intended to create living things. Those powers belong to the purviews associated with life; Fertility for the growing of plants, Animal for the husbandry of beasts, and Health for the life of humans. The Breath of Life boon is intended to give life to something that is already unliving, that was created without the spark of existence in it, but it was never meant to participate in the creation of life on its own. It can make your creations live, but it cannot give you the power to force your creations into other living things.
But, you say, Chaos isn't meant to create life, either! And that's true, for the most part. Unintended Purpose is a creation boon in the limited sense that it can reform things into new things, but it isn't supposed to make living creatures, either. However, what it is supposed to do is change and combine old things into new things; it is doing the same thing as Human Hybrid (and Impossible Hybrid over in Fertility and Hybrid Chimera in Animal), just with inanimate objects instead of living ones. So, since they're all doing the same basic thing - combining things that didn't go together into new things that now do - they're the boons that can cross over.
Well, the flippant answer is that Breath of Life didn't exist yet when Human Hybrid was written, but we'll get more in-depth for you.
There's a fundamental difference between the way Artistry creates things and the way other purviews create things. Artistry, for the most part, doesn't create life; instead, it creates things, and only the most powerful of creator gods are able to use Breath of Life to invest those things with thought and purpose. Artistry is intended to be the purview of arts and sciences, craftsmen and builders, but it is not the set of powers intended to create living things. Those powers belong to the purviews associated with life; Fertility for the growing of plants, Animal for the husbandry of beasts, and Health for the life of humans. The Breath of Life boon is intended to give life to something that is already unliving, that was created without the spark of existence in it, but it was never meant to participate in the creation of life on its own. It can make your creations live, but it cannot give you the power to force your creations into other living things.
But, you say, Chaos isn't meant to create life, either! And that's true, for the most part. Unintended Purpose is a creation boon in the limited sense that it can reform things into new things, but it isn't supposed to make living creatures, either. However, what it is supposed to do is change and combine old things into new things; it is doing the same thing as Human Hybrid (and Impossible Hybrid over in Fertility and Hybrid Chimera in Animal), just with inanimate objects instead of living ones. So, since they're all doing the same basic thing - combining things that didn't go together into new things that now do - they're the boons that can cross over.
The Song of My People
Question: As regards Theme Music: presumably, the player picks the song they think fits their character. But does the PC make that same choice consciously? Or does Fate just play DJ at the right/wrong moment, and "in character" the PC is stuck with it?
If you mean does the character say, “I think Mariah Carey really represents the inner me,” and thereafter “Hero” plays whenever he does anything important, then no, probably not. You’re consciously choosing a song out of character, but in character, the Scion is calling upon his awesome charismatic presence to make the hills around him come alive with song. He’s not orchestrating what song that is, just saying, “Hey, environment, celebrate me through music.” It’s always the same music because that’s his signature style, but he doesn’t consciously choose it during the game itself. It’s basically the same as when you decide to buy a particular boon; you know you’re choosing something out of character, but in character that Scion just knows he developed a new power, not that he chose between a couple.
Using the power itself, however, is a conscious decision on the Scion’s part, so he never needs to fear that it’ll turn on randomly when he doesn’t want it to. He activates the knack and cues up his Theme Music whenever he wants to be particularly impressive or socially interesting, the life of the party or the center of attention. He should know he’s doing it (barring him being exceptionally stupid when it comes to understanding powers), so he should also know better than to do it when it’s going to piss someone off or is a politically bad idea.
Of course, he can do it whenever he wants to, though. Some guys just have to walk into Zeus’ temple blaring “The Boys Are Back in Town” and face the consequences.
If you mean does the character say, “I think Mariah Carey really represents the inner me,” and thereafter “Hero” plays whenever he does anything important, then no, probably not. You’re consciously choosing a song out of character, but in character, the Scion is calling upon his awesome charismatic presence to make the hills around him come alive with song. He’s not orchestrating what song that is, just saying, “Hey, environment, celebrate me through music.” It’s always the same music because that’s his signature style, but he doesn’t consciously choose it during the game itself. It’s basically the same as when you decide to buy a particular boon; you know you’re choosing something out of character, but in character that Scion just knows he developed a new power, not that he chose between a couple.
Using the power itself, however, is a conscious decision on the Scion’s part, so he never needs to fear that it’ll turn on randomly when he doesn’t want it to. He activates the knack and cues up his Theme Music whenever he wants to be particularly impressive or socially interesting, the life of the party or the center of attention. He should know he’s doing it (barring him being exceptionally stupid when it comes to understanding powers), so he should also know better than to do it when it’s going to piss someone off or is a politically bad idea.
Of course, he can do it whenever he wants to, though. Some guys just have to walk into Zeus’ temple blaring “The Boys Are Back in Town” and face the consequences.
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Souls that Walk
Question: In your Inue supplement, which Shua purview to does each legend 12 god have? And what happens if any of them have the same one?
We addressed this somewhere in the bucket of comments, but here's a post so people can find it in the future. :) All the lower-Legend gods should have their Shua already detailed in their writeups, but the big fish should go as follows:
Pinga, Nakturiak, Tornarssuk and Tulungersak all probably have Shua for their specific animal totems (so Caribou, Eagles, Polar Bears and Ravens, respectively). They're the rulers of those specific animals and in charge of protecting them from wilderness and disasters as well as making sure that they're available to hunters when needed and thriving as part of the local ecosystem.
Aningat and Seqineq, as the deities of the moon and sun, almost certainly have Shua for their celestial bodies. Aningat controls and embodies the moon, its influence over the human body and the tides, while Seqineq embodies and administers the warmth and light of the northern sun.
Likewise, Sedna and Nunam are the gods of the ocean and the land, and probably have Shua for Water and Earth respectively. Sedna is in charge of many sea animals, but it's really the sea, with all its cold, frightening depths, that she is most associated with and that she can whip into a killing frenzy when angered, and Nunam personifies the earth itself, from which all life is grown and to which it returns. You could make a case for Nunam having Shua (Fertility) instead, considering that she is also the inventor of most plants, but we like the earth connection a little bit more.
And finally, there's Anguta, the hideous psychopomp that nobody likes. He doesn't exactly have a strong connection to any natural phenomena and is definitely the hardest to peg, but we would probably give him Shua (Darkness), based on the purview's connections to fear and misery and Anguta's own practices of terrifying, punishing and hiding souls in the oblivion of his dark house.
In general, two gods having the same Shua shouldn't make a whole lot of difference. Just like you might have more than one god with the same associated purviews in a pantheon, the same Shua doesn't mean there will be conflict; one person with Shua (Water) might have it because they're associated with freshwater lakes, and that doesn't interfere with Sedna as the mistress of the ocean at all. The only way there might be a conflict is if two Inue try to use their level 10 power, Tlam-Shua, to inhabit the same area of their concept, and in that case, we would probably say that both gods roll their total number of boons in the associated purview, and the winner is the one who embodies the area. But since the Inue are fighting a continual battle against the Titans in their homeland, most of the time we don't imagine that issue comes up much; it's much better for two gods to spread out and be able to inhabit (and thus protect) two different areas, rather than stacking up on the same one. We could see it being a problem if both gods were trying to dive into their element to escape something that was about to kill them, and only one could succeed... but hopefully that isn't happening much. That sounds like the worst situation ever.
Shua is about embodying a single element or concept as its very soul; the Inua who does so gives it its power and drive, and can control how strong and effective it is by supporting it or withdrawing her support from it. More than one god can do so without conflicting; after all, the more gods support an element, the more powerful it becomes, so as long as they don't step on one anothers' toes politically, they're probably perfectly happy to have the help.
We addressed this somewhere in the bucket of comments, but here's a post so people can find it in the future. :) All the lower-Legend gods should have their Shua already detailed in their writeups, but the big fish should go as follows:
Pinga, Nakturiak, Tornarssuk and Tulungersak all probably have Shua for their specific animal totems (so Caribou, Eagles, Polar Bears and Ravens, respectively). They're the rulers of those specific animals and in charge of protecting them from wilderness and disasters as well as making sure that they're available to hunters when needed and thriving as part of the local ecosystem.
Aningat and Seqineq, as the deities of the moon and sun, almost certainly have Shua for their celestial bodies. Aningat controls and embodies the moon, its influence over the human body and the tides, while Seqineq embodies and administers the warmth and light of the northern sun.
Likewise, Sedna and Nunam are the gods of the ocean and the land, and probably have Shua for Water and Earth respectively. Sedna is in charge of many sea animals, but it's really the sea, with all its cold, frightening depths, that she is most associated with and that she can whip into a killing frenzy when angered, and Nunam personifies the earth itself, from which all life is grown and to which it returns. You could make a case for Nunam having Shua (Fertility) instead, considering that she is also the inventor of most plants, but we like the earth connection a little bit more.
And finally, there's Anguta, the hideous psychopomp that nobody likes. He doesn't exactly have a strong connection to any natural phenomena and is definitely the hardest to peg, but we would probably give him Shua (Darkness), based on the purview's connections to fear and misery and Anguta's own practices of terrifying, punishing and hiding souls in the oblivion of his dark house.
In general, two gods having the same Shua shouldn't make a whole lot of difference. Just like you might have more than one god with the same associated purviews in a pantheon, the same Shua doesn't mean there will be conflict; one person with Shua (Water) might have it because they're associated with freshwater lakes, and that doesn't interfere with Sedna as the mistress of the ocean at all. The only way there might be a conflict is if two Inue try to use their level 10 power, Tlam-Shua, to inhabit the same area of their concept, and in that case, we would probably say that both gods roll their total number of boons in the associated purview, and the winner is the one who embodies the area. But since the Inue are fighting a continual battle against the Titans in their homeland, most of the time we don't imagine that issue comes up much; it's much better for two gods to spread out and be able to inhabit (and thus protect) two different areas, rather than stacking up on the same one. We could see it being a problem if both gods were trying to dive into their element to escape something that was about to kill them, and only one could succeed... but hopefully that isn't happening much. That sounds like the worst situation ever.
Shua is about embodying a single element or concept as its very soul; the Inua who does so gives it its power and drive, and can control how strong and effective it is by supporting it or withdrawing her support from it. More than one god can do so without conflicting; after all, the more gods support an element, the more powerful it becomes, so as long as they don't step on one anothers' toes politically, they're probably perfectly happy to have the help.
Puntastic
Thanks everyone for the awesome puns last night. Got a lot more work done today, and you can see it more clearly because of the progress bars being way more specific now. Yay!
Also because of all the work(Anne's been home injured so I have to work on her stuff all) I have to record my book Vlog after game tonight. So it'll be up, but very late.
Another Brick in the Wall
Question: How exactly does Ishtar have the power to rip down the walls of Irkallu? She doesn't seem statted for it, not having any Ultimate physical Attributes.
Indeed, Ishtar is not statted for destroying really, really difficult-to-break stuff. Oh, she probably has the breaking-stuff Strength knacks, and as a war goddess she’s definitely rocking Seige Juggernaut, but we’re not talking about some chump castle; we’re talking about the wall of the Underworld itself. It’s implied in Mesopotamian myth that the walls being broken would result in all the dead spilling out into the world of the living again, so we must assume that it’s a pretty big metaphysical deal.
But Ishtar probably doesn’t have some secret nuclear weapon at her disposal or anything. There are a few possibilities, but we think the most obvious one is that she’s just lying. She has Ultimate Manipulation, remember, and a reputation for having an awful temper to boot; all she has to do is say she’s going to do a thing, and by god, everyone will believe her. They can’t not believe her. She is hella convincing when she throws a tantrum. She may even believe it herself, because if there’s ever a lady who believes her own crazy-ass press, it’s probably Ishtar.
It might also be possible that Ishtar’s referring to her very direct link to the Underworld through her sister, Ereshkigal; sure, Ereshkigal is mightily pissed off with Ishtar after the incident with the Bull of Heaven, but before that they might have had a close relationship, and it might be understood that if Ishtar wants to cause problems in Irkallu, all she has to do is call up her sister and tell her these jerks upstairs are being mean to her. Ereskigal herself has also threatened to allow the dead out of the Underworld when insulted (way to go, there, Nergal), so it’s not too far-fetched an idea.
Either way, though, we suspect Ishtar would be in for a rude surprise if she actually tried to knock a hole in the Underworld. She would probably need to get somebody else in to do that for her.
Indeed, Ishtar is not statted for destroying really, really difficult-to-break stuff. Oh, she probably has the breaking-stuff Strength knacks, and as a war goddess she’s definitely rocking Seige Juggernaut, but we’re not talking about some chump castle; we’re talking about the wall of the Underworld itself. It’s implied in Mesopotamian myth that the walls being broken would result in all the dead spilling out into the world of the living again, so we must assume that it’s a pretty big metaphysical deal.
But Ishtar probably doesn’t have some secret nuclear weapon at her disposal or anything. There are a few possibilities, but we think the most obvious one is that she’s just lying. She has Ultimate Manipulation, remember, and a reputation for having an awful temper to boot; all she has to do is say she’s going to do a thing, and by god, everyone will believe her. They can’t not believe her. She is hella convincing when she throws a tantrum. She may even believe it herself, because if there’s ever a lady who believes her own crazy-ass press, it’s probably Ishtar.
It might also be possible that Ishtar’s referring to her very direct link to the Underworld through her sister, Ereshkigal; sure, Ereshkigal is mightily pissed off with Ishtar after the incident with the Bull of Heaven, but before that they might have had a close relationship, and it might be understood that if Ishtar wants to cause problems in Irkallu, all she has to do is call up her sister and tell her these jerks upstairs are being mean to her. Ereskigal herself has also threatened to allow the dead out of the Underworld when insulted (way to go, there, Nergal), so it’s not too far-fetched an idea.
Either way, though, we suspect Ishtar would be in for a rude surprise if she actually tried to knock a hole in the Underworld. She would probably need to get somebody else in to do that for her.
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Weather boon pun
Anne and I are talking about a rain boon.
Anne: animal could rain frogs, cats and dogs. Health could rain blood. Earth could rain meteors.
John: ......could darkness have a rain of terror?
Anne: get out forever
Art Above, Art Below
Question: How does the Artistry Purview interact with Caan Cab (Tal'ich 6)?
We would go ahead and attach Artistry to the Earthly aspect of Caan Cab, since it has to do with the creation of things and working with your hands, rather than the more effervescent powers of the heavens. That does give Earthly one more purview than Celestial, but sadly we don’t have an even number of purviews right now.
We would go ahead and attach Artistry to the Earthly aspect of Caan Cab, since it has to do with the creation of things and working with your hands, rather than the more effervescent powers of the heavens. That does give Earthly one more purview than Celestial, but sadly we don’t have an even number of purviews right now.
Vestiges of a Distant Past
Question: With the Nemetondevos, how much information about them is still available in the world? Is your write-up about their temperament and powers backed up by actual facts? Or are you just kinda making things up for them?
Well, first of all, we are not making anything up. We try not to do that. But the Nemetondevos stuff on this site is under the “inactive pantheons” cut on its page for a reason, and that’s because the supplement detailing them is for the most part scraped together with a butter knife and filled in with cement.
There is information left about the Nemetondevos, but there isn’t very much. Several of them are clearly cognate deities with Irish or Welsh gods of other pantheons (especially the smith god Gobnhios, who is clearly borrowed from the Tuatha Goibhniu), while others gained Roman cults among the conquering armies of Caesar (the most famous of these is the horse goddess Epona, who became the patron of the Roman cavalry). But for those who are purely continental Celts, there is very little to go on; their peoples were pre-literate and therefore did not write down any stories, the majority of their worship centers were open-air and made from natural materials which means they fell apart over time, and the conquest of Rome replaced a great deal of indigenous belief with transplanted mythic ideas from the Roman pantheon. For many Gaulish gods, we know only vague associations, such as the fact that Belenos’ name comes from a root meaning “light” and therefore he’s probably a sun god, or the fact that Borvo’s shrines are almost always located near springs and therefore he’s probably a god of water. For others, we know only their names.
In Scion’s framework, the Nemetonevos are probably, as a majority, not Legend 12, and so while we have used them in our games occasionally, they are no longer on our major rosters and will probably be dispersed to appropriate places later on. A few of them do make the cut, with Cernunnos probably the most famous, but in general most of what you see on them came from the Biblioteque Interdite supplement and was invented for Scion, so it has only a little grounding in what the ancient Gauls themselves might have believed.
Well, first of all, we are not making anything up. We try not to do that. But the Nemetondevos stuff on this site is under the “inactive pantheons” cut on its page for a reason, and that’s because the supplement detailing them is for the most part scraped together with a butter knife and filled in with cement.
There is information left about the Nemetondevos, but there isn’t very much. Several of them are clearly cognate deities with Irish or Welsh gods of other pantheons (especially the smith god Gobnhios, who is clearly borrowed from the Tuatha Goibhniu), while others gained Roman cults among the conquering armies of Caesar (the most famous of these is the horse goddess Epona, who became the patron of the Roman cavalry). But for those who are purely continental Celts, there is very little to go on; their peoples were pre-literate and therefore did not write down any stories, the majority of their worship centers were open-air and made from natural materials which means they fell apart over time, and the conquest of Rome replaced a great deal of indigenous belief with transplanted mythic ideas from the Roman pantheon. For many Gaulish gods, we know only vague associations, such as the fact that Belenos’ name comes from a root meaning “light” and therefore he’s probably a sun god, or the fact that Borvo’s shrines are almost always located near springs and therefore he’s probably a god of water. For others, we know only their names.
In Scion’s framework, the Nemetonevos are probably, as a majority, not Legend 12, and so while we have used them in our games occasionally, they are no longer on our major rosters and will probably be dispersed to appropriate places later on. A few of them do make the cut, with Cernunnos probably the most famous, but in general most of what you see on them came from the Biblioteque Interdite supplement and was invented for Scion, so it has only a little grounding in what the ancient Gauls themselves might have believed.
Monday, January 27, 2014
Extreme Sportsmanship
Question: My game is just a parade of one Virtue Extremity to the next because four characters have Vengeance, two have Order, and two have Valor. They all trigger off each other and nobody can keep up with the loss of Willpower. How do I get my game back on track?
Good old Virtue conflicts. Our beginning advice is to sit down and talk to the players out of character.
You’re definitely feeling that everything’s a disaster all the time, but do the other players and/or Storyteller feel that way? Are they also frustrated by the constant Virtue Extremities or feeling like they can’t get anything done, or are they having a good time and loving the dramatic sparks flying as their personalities clash? If you’re the Storyteller and all your players are having a great time, it might not be broke and you may not have to fix it.
But it sounds like you’re having a lot of frustration and problems and it probably is broke, or it might be a little of column A and a little of column B, and it could use less column B. So, let’s look at how to fix it in-game, and how to fix it out-of-game.
The in-game fixes are easy – so easy, in fact, that you guys probably already know about and use them. Stunting can, of course, get you back Willpower, although it’s never 100% sure since different Storytellers give out two-die stunts on different criteria. Charisma knacks like Blessing of Importance and BFF are the star Willpower-returners, along with runners-up Believe Your Own Press and a few scattered knacks in other Attributes like Appearance’s Lasting Impression. Several boons also allow you to get some Willpower passed around, including Crescent Glow in Moon and several of the higher-level Sun boons. And, if you’re lucky enough to have a Moon-oriented Scion, Mirror of Lunacy is straight-up designed to prevent Extremities from running rampant. This doesn’t mean that your whole group has to invest in a bunch of powers they aren’t statted for, but if your characters inside the game itself are occasionally realizing, “Hey, Jimmy seems to go crazy a lot,” they might decide to prepare for that situation by boning up on their Charisma. It’s not a permanent solution, but other “crowd control” powers that can temporarily distract or incapacitate an Extremitying Scion can also help mitigate the problem, and at least give everyone else time to figure out how to contain the problem child or move him somewhere that he won’t hurt too many people.
Normally, though, when we’re having a higher percentage of unhandled Extremity craziness in our groups, we like to take a second to remind the players out of character about how these things work. Remind them that people are going to freak out when they do certain things, and that by now that should not be a surprise; if you know you have people with you who have Valor, then you know you run the risk of triggering them if you perform too many backstabs near them, and if you know you have people with you who have Order, you know better than to think you can break a bunch of laws and they’ll never have a shrieking fit over it. This absolutely doesn’t mean that you can’t do things that trigger one another; a Scion’s gotta do what a Scion’s gotta do, and often your own Virtues would get upset if you didn’t. But it does mean that since you know you may cause problems, you can actively try to avoid those things. You know you’ve got a Valor guy, so make sure you distract him when you do something underhanded, or sneak off to somewhere he won’t find out what you did. You know you’ve got a Vengeance guy, so throw up a smokescreen and keep him from seeing the object of his hatred if you don’t have time for him to go bananas right now. You know you’ve got an Order girl, so wait until she leaves the room before you start shoplifting.
Virtues are inconvenient and they often fight among themselves, but it’s key that you remember what Virtues your bandmates have and act accordingly. You may not know their exact spread or exact dots, but if you’ve been stuck in constantly-triggering Extremity hell for a while, you definitely know some things that will touch them off. Hide those things. Lie about those things. Do those things when they’re not around. Leave before you do those things. Use powers to cover up those things. You don’t need to necessarily buy a lot of sneakin’ stats for these things, either; a lot of the time, it’s just about the timing. If you know you’re going to stab a guy to death, for goodness sake, send the Valor people down the street for milk first or something.
This won’t work all the time; sometimes they won’t miss what you’re up to, or sometimes you’ll get away with it but they’ll find out later and still freak out. Sometimes your plan was flawless but they happen to innocently ask something about it at just the wrong moment and you’re a bad liar. But it certainly helps some, and that’s usually enough to take the pressure off so that the majority of the time your Willpower-producers can handle the rest.
You will still trigger one another sometimes. That’s just the breaks of being in a band. But if your character knows that can happen and takes steps to avoid it, you should be able to deal with it without resorting to frothing attack fits all the time, and trust us, those other players will probably often appreciate being kept in the dark rather than constantly pushed over the edge into murder territory.
Good old Virtue conflicts. Our beginning advice is to sit down and talk to the players out of character.
You’re definitely feeling that everything’s a disaster all the time, but do the other players and/or Storyteller feel that way? Are they also frustrated by the constant Virtue Extremities or feeling like they can’t get anything done, or are they having a good time and loving the dramatic sparks flying as their personalities clash? If you’re the Storyteller and all your players are having a great time, it might not be broke and you may not have to fix it.
But it sounds like you’re having a lot of frustration and problems and it probably is broke, or it might be a little of column A and a little of column B, and it could use less column B. So, let’s look at how to fix it in-game, and how to fix it out-of-game.
The in-game fixes are easy – so easy, in fact, that you guys probably already know about and use them. Stunting can, of course, get you back Willpower, although it’s never 100% sure since different Storytellers give out two-die stunts on different criteria. Charisma knacks like Blessing of Importance and BFF are the star Willpower-returners, along with runners-up Believe Your Own Press and a few scattered knacks in other Attributes like Appearance’s Lasting Impression. Several boons also allow you to get some Willpower passed around, including Crescent Glow in Moon and several of the higher-level Sun boons. And, if you’re lucky enough to have a Moon-oriented Scion, Mirror of Lunacy is straight-up designed to prevent Extremities from running rampant. This doesn’t mean that your whole group has to invest in a bunch of powers they aren’t statted for, but if your characters inside the game itself are occasionally realizing, “Hey, Jimmy seems to go crazy a lot,” they might decide to prepare for that situation by boning up on their Charisma. It’s not a permanent solution, but other “crowd control” powers that can temporarily distract or incapacitate an Extremitying Scion can also help mitigate the problem, and at least give everyone else time to figure out how to contain the problem child or move him somewhere that he won’t hurt too many people.
Normally, though, when we’re having a higher percentage of unhandled Extremity craziness in our groups, we like to take a second to remind the players out of character about how these things work. Remind them that people are going to freak out when they do certain things, and that by now that should not be a surprise; if you know you have people with you who have Valor, then you know you run the risk of triggering them if you perform too many backstabs near them, and if you know you have people with you who have Order, you know better than to think you can break a bunch of laws and they’ll never have a shrieking fit over it. This absolutely doesn’t mean that you can’t do things that trigger one another; a Scion’s gotta do what a Scion’s gotta do, and often your own Virtues would get upset if you didn’t. But it does mean that since you know you may cause problems, you can actively try to avoid those things. You know you’ve got a Valor guy, so make sure you distract him when you do something underhanded, or sneak off to somewhere he won’t find out what you did. You know you’ve got a Vengeance guy, so throw up a smokescreen and keep him from seeing the object of his hatred if you don’t have time for him to go bananas right now. You know you’ve got an Order girl, so wait until she leaves the room before you start shoplifting.
Virtues are inconvenient and they often fight among themselves, but it’s key that you remember what Virtues your bandmates have and act accordingly. You may not know their exact spread or exact dots, but if you’ve been stuck in constantly-triggering Extremity hell for a while, you definitely know some things that will touch them off. Hide those things. Lie about those things. Do those things when they’re not around. Leave before you do those things. Use powers to cover up those things. You don’t need to necessarily buy a lot of sneakin’ stats for these things, either; a lot of the time, it’s just about the timing. If you know you’re going to stab a guy to death, for goodness sake, send the Valor people down the street for milk first or something.
This won’t work all the time; sometimes they won’t miss what you’re up to, or sometimes you’ll get away with it but they’ll find out later and still freak out. Sometimes your plan was flawless but they happen to innocently ask something about it at just the wrong moment and you’re a bad liar. But it certainly helps some, and that’s usually enough to take the pressure off so that the majority of the time your Willpower-producers can handle the rest.
You will still trigger one another sometimes. That’s just the breaks of being in a band. But if your character knows that can happen and takes steps to avoid it, you should be able to deal with it without resorting to frothing attack fits all the time, and trust us, those other players will probably often appreciate being kept in the dark rather than constantly pushed over the edge into murder territory.
Powers from the Future!
Question: Frost and Illusion, the two purviews introduced in Ragnarok, are incredibly light in terms of boon numbers. Do you have any ideas for other boons in those purviews?
Throw in Stars, too, which was introduced in the Yazata supplement. The three purviews have seventeen, sixteen and thirteen boons respectively, which puts them significantly below the beefier sets of parties in the game.
We do indeed have ideas for new boons in these purviews. We have ideas for all kinds of boons, but we haven't been working on them as a project since they seem to be unpopular in the voting. However, we can give you some idea teasers here, and you guys can either let them inspire you to lobby for more boons or use them as starting points to write your own.
Frost: For this purview, we're considering more powers involving temperature and environmental effects, imprisoning others in ice, or imparting spiritual chill rather than physical.
Illusion: For this purview, we're considering powers involving dreams and the creation or control thereof, effects that give longer lasting duration or permanence to illusions, glamours and mirages, or things that the illusionist can make use of as if they were real.
Stars: For this purview, we're considering powers that allow Scions to see through the stars, embody stars and constellations themselves, guide others, or create portents or signs in the heavens that can be seen by all.
So hopefully that will give you some idea of what we're thinking of, and some hope for the future of purviews. We're aware of which purviews need the most love, and we hope to give them that love someday soon.
Throw in Stars, too, which was introduced in the Yazata supplement. The three purviews have seventeen, sixteen and thirteen boons respectively, which puts them significantly below the beefier sets of parties in the game.
We do indeed have ideas for new boons in these purviews. We have ideas for all kinds of boons, but we haven't been working on them as a project since they seem to be unpopular in the voting. However, we can give you some idea teasers here, and you guys can either let them inspire you to lobby for more boons or use them as starting points to write your own.
Frost: For this purview, we're considering more powers involving temperature and environmental effects, imprisoning others in ice, or imparting spiritual chill rather than physical.
Illusion: For this purview, we're considering powers involving dreams and the creation or control thereof, effects that give longer lasting duration or permanence to illusions, glamours and mirages, or things that the illusionist can make use of as if they were real.
Stars: For this purview, we're considering powers that allow Scions to see through the stars, embody stars and constellations themselves, guide others, or create portents or signs in the heavens that can be seen by all.
So hopefully that will give you some idea of what we're thinking of, and some hope for the future of purviews. We're aware of which purviews need the most love, and we hope to give them that love someday soon.
Sunday, January 26, 2014
Astride a Pale Horse
Question: What's the origin of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and how could they be worked into Scion?
The Horsemen are a purely Christian invention, which makes them difficult to work into Scion unless you’re already rolling with the monotheistic punches. They appear in the Book of Revelation (6:1-8), during the description of the end of the world, and each of the four – Conquest, Death, Famine and War – is described and let loose upon the earth, presumably to thoroughly destroy it in the process of the apocalypse.
To begin with, it’s not really certain whether or not the Horsemen are supposed to be literal – in fact, considering the highly symbolic nature of the rest of the things in Revelation, it’s much more likely that they’re poetic personifications of future disasters, rather than supposed to be actual creatures or beings in their own right. The passage indicates that the Lamb (God, in his form as his son Christ) will release these calamities upon the earth without restraining them, allowing humanity to die en masse in the confusion, and thereafter avenge the righteous on all the wicked who oppressed them and end the world so that everyone is taken to their eternal reward in paradise or damnation, respectively. Each of the Horsemen is merely described by color and one or two symbolic items that indicate their function; Conquest wears a crown, War carries a sword, and Famine carries a set of scales to weigh out food, with Death the only one not carrying anything (and the only one actually ever named; the “names” of the others are just labels for their functions, since the scriptures do not name them).
This is the only time the Horsemen are ever mentioned in any religious text. Revelation contains a lot of images of personified creatures that are actually just symbols of ideas – the Whore, for example, represents Babylon as the empire that was traditionally oppressing the Jews rather than being an actual person – and so it’s likely that the Horsemen are likewise a literary convention. Christianity denies the existence of any other deities besides God, so the Horsemen could hardly be gods themselves; if you were to consider them discrete creatures, they would most likely have to be either angels (wreaking havoc at the command of God) or demons (wreaking havoc because God has stopped preventing them from doing so).
As for Scion, you’re going to have to get very creative if you want to work these guys from their totally monotheistic roots into the polytheistic craziness of the game world. If you’re already using God in some fashion – as an alias of Aten or El, a god who is equivalent in level to the others but deluded into thinking he’s more powerful, or whatever – then the Horsemen are best used as creatures at his command. After all, the only time we’ve ever seen them is when he afflicts the world with them during the end of days. If you don’t use monotheism, you can certainly play with the images of horseman gods and their importance in mythology, but you will probably inevitably lose the eschatological scenario attached to them, unless you do some fancy footwork indeed to try to relate the Book of Revelation to some other culture’s apocalyptic scenario.
There are various horsemen gods, including the Canaanite Resheph (who with his bow pears more than a passing resemblance to Conquest) and the Roman Epona (who was long a patroness of soldiers and might stand in for War), but when it comes to why they’d be hanging out together, how they would have gotten roped into Christianity or what all that means, you’re on your own.
The Horsemen are a purely Christian invention, which makes them difficult to work into Scion unless you’re already rolling with the monotheistic punches. They appear in the Book of Revelation (6:1-8), during the description of the end of the world, and each of the four – Conquest, Death, Famine and War – is described and let loose upon the earth, presumably to thoroughly destroy it in the process of the apocalypse.
To begin with, it’s not really certain whether or not the Horsemen are supposed to be literal – in fact, considering the highly symbolic nature of the rest of the things in Revelation, it’s much more likely that they’re poetic personifications of future disasters, rather than supposed to be actual creatures or beings in their own right. The passage indicates that the Lamb (God, in his form as his son Christ) will release these calamities upon the earth without restraining them, allowing humanity to die en masse in the confusion, and thereafter avenge the righteous on all the wicked who oppressed them and end the world so that everyone is taken to their eternal reward in paradise or damnation, respectively. Each of the Horsemen is merely described by color and one or two symbolic items that indicate their function; Conquest wears a crown, War carries a sword, and Famine carries a set of scales to weigh out food, with Death the only one not carrying anything (and the only one actually ever named; the “names” of the others are just labels for their functions, since the scriptures do not name them).
This is the only time the Horsemen are ever mentioned in any religious text. Revelation contains a lot of images of personified creatures that are actually just symbols of ideas – the Whore, for example, represents Babylon as the empire that was traditionally oppressing the Jews rather than being an actual person – and so it’s likely that the Horsemen are likewise a literary convention. Christianity denies the existence of any other deities besides God, so the Horsemen could hardly be gods themselves; if you were to consider them discrete creatures, they would most likely have to be either angels (wreaking havoc at the command of God) or demons (wreaking havoc because God has stopped preventing them from doing so).
As for Scion, you’re going to have to get very creative if you want to work these guys from their totally monotheistic roots into the polytheistic craziness of the game world. If you’re already using God in some fashion – as an alias of Aten or El, a god who is equivalent in level to the others but deluded into thinking he’s more powerful, or whatever – then the Horsemen are best used as creatures at his command. After all, the only time we’ve ever seen them is when he afflicts the world with them during the end of days. If you don’t use monotheism, you can certainly play with the images of horseman gods and their importance in mythology, but you will probably inevitably lose the eschatological scenario attached to them, unless you do some fancy footwork indeed to try to relate the Book of Revelation to some other culture’s apocalyptic scenario.
There are various horsemen gods, including the Canaanite Resheph (who with his bow pears more than a passing resemblance to Conquest) and the Roman Epona (who was long a patroness of soldiers and might stand in for War), but when it comes to why they’d be hanging out together, how they would have gotten roped into Christianity or what all that means, you’re on your own.
Saturday, January 25, 2014
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.
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!
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!
Players Tell All
Guest vlogging continues! There's no intro this time because it's really just the second half of last week's epic one-hour marathon, but the players are back to tell you more of their opinions. And they're just enjoyable.
Question: A lot of Scions are going to be illegitimate children of their divine parents. Could you mention the social ramification for bastard children in the different cultures we have Pantheons for?
Question: In any of your games, have Scions ever been revealed to the public? If so, how did the public react - to both their existence, and their parents existence?
Question: My group constantly fights. Nothing much gets done. We're all good friends in real life, but when we sit down for a game everything goes to hell. Mostly it is the fault of Virtues, but not always. Any advice?
Question: It seems like Scion is full of great victories and horrible failures. What would you say are your best MVP Scions and worst screw-up Scions in your games?
Question: Is Vidar proud of Folkwardr? I'm curious as to Vidar's fatherly feelings towards his new son.
Question: Bring in the players for this one! If YOU were a Scion, which pantheon would you like to be a Scion of? Which pantheon (speaking strictly from their Virtues) do you think you'd be a part of by that metric? For bonus points, what purviews and Epics would you give yourself or see yourself getting? I've seen too many arguments from recent questions, hopefully this one is just pure fun. Right? Please?
Our players are some pretty great folks. A round of applause to them for doing this and being such sports about it!
Question: A lot of Scions are going to be illegitimate children of their divine parents. Could you mention the social ramification for bastard children in the different cultures we have Pantheons for?
Question: In any of your games, have Scions ever been revealed to the public? If so, how did the public react - to both their existence, and their parents existence?
Question: My group constantly fights. Nothing much gets done. We're all good friends in real life, but when we sit down for a game everything goes to hell. Mostly it is the fault of Virtues, but not always. Any advice?
Question: It seems like Scion is full of great victories and horrible failures. What would you say are your best MVP Scions and worst screw-up Scions in your games?
Question: Is Vidar proud of Folkwardr? I'm curious as to Vidar's fatherly feelings towards his new son.
Question: Bring in the players for this one! If YOU were a Scion, which pantheon would you like to be a Scion of? Which pantheon (speaking strictly from their Virtues) do you think you'd be a part of by that metric? For bonus points, what purviews and Epics would you give yourself or see yourself getting? I've seen too many arguments from recent questions, hopefully this one is just pure fun. Right? Please?
Our players are some pretty great folks. A round of applause to them for doing this and being such sports about it!
Friday, January 24, 2014
Book Club: Great Hunt 1
I promised not to clog up the blog to much with my new book club project. So this is just a quick note to say updates will be every wednesday night(sometimes more frequently if something interesting forces me to make a video).
So just remember you'll need to check that on youtube because there wont be a regular post about it. For anyone who hadnt heard about it yet, its a new video series where I(and maybe you) read a bunch of new books and mine them for scion materials. We're starting with the Great Hunt and the group votes on each new book as they come up. Very excited about the project, and still looking for a name.
Lines of Love
Question: Given that sources identify both Tsuki-yomi and Takamimusubi as Amaterasu's consort, how reasonable an explanation is "she was married to both of them, but at separate times?" Or is there some factor that makes that too easy an answer for mythology? (Every time I try to slog through the Nihon Shoki, I pass out and wake up with my cat chewing on my hair...)
But wait, it gets better! Some scholars also believe that Amaterasu's consort may have originally been her other brother, Susanoo, in pre-Kojiki myth, but that this connection fell out of favor and was later replaced by her more famous consort relations. This is mostly based on their joint relation to the later important imperial bloodlines of Japan and their close relationship before his banishment, but it's also more than a little conjecture, so feel free to ignore it if it's giving you even more of a headache than usual.
If you want to go strictly by the texts, Tsukuyomi is the only one officially named as Amaterasu's consort; no one ever outright says she has a formal relationship with Takamimusubi. Takakmimusubi is definitely around, though, and constantly involved with Amaterasu; he calls councils for her, acts as her advisor during them, jointly bestows gifts upon her grandson Ninigi when he goes forth into the World, negotiates with Okuninushi for the disposition of the earth at her side, and generally seems attached to her hip whenever matters of state are at hand. Of course, he could just be a really awesome vizier/seneschal who knocks it out of the park on advising her, but there are moments when he seems almost on an equal level of power with her, or at least able to speak on her behalf. There are also several textual clues that suggest their closeness, including the fact that Amaterasu's son and Takamimusubi's daughter marry in order to give birth to Ninigi; neither's extra parent is ever mentioned, and the Kojiki already has an established pattern of sibling marriage among gods that could be continued here. The emperors of Japan are therefore also descended from both Amaterasu and Takamimusubi, although it's more often the sun goddess who is remembered as their imperial patron in modern times.
Much of the theory of the two being consorts comes from ancient cultural evidence, which is by necessity not very exact because a lot of it involves anthropologists drawing conclusions from scarce evidence or trying to reconstruct ancient thought patterns. Amaterasu's position as the ruler of the cosmos in an otherwise strongly male-dominated pantheon and culture has been debated for centuries; nobody denies that she's in charge, but there's a healthy debate over how that happened, what it means and why her image as a female who is the greatest among powers doesn't translate to a more even-handed treatment of women in the rest of her culture's myths. One of the leading theories is that Amaterasu is a holdover from very ancient religion, before Shinto was codified, written down and officially instated as the country's dominant religion; in such ancient times, communities were co-ruled by a priestess who wielded all the religious power and a politician-consort who wielded all the temporal power. The priestess was the major figurehead, spokesperson and charismatic power, making proclamations backed up by the clout of the gods, while the politician was in charge of advising her on decisions and supporting her to present a unified front to any malcontents. It's not hard to see why some scholars of Japanese history think this is where Amaterasu's power over the pantheon comes from: she may be a vestige of a time when that priestess-politician dual rulership was the norm, and therefore she is the driving power of the pantheon while her politician spouse, Takamimusubi, supports and enhances her.
If you want to consider her to have been married to both of them - and I don't see why you wouldn't, since despite the lack of direct evidence of Takamimusubi we think it's a neat theory and a reasonable mythological choice - you could certainly claim that she married the one after divorcing the other. Timelines in the Nihon Shoki are hard to really pin down, but her spectacular falling-out with Tsukuyomi over the death of Uke Mochi might have marked the end of her first marriage (also to a male consort who perhaps acted in that political capacity for her), whereupon she instead took on Takamimusubi as her consort instead. If you want to throw Susanoo in there, too, you could say that she went from Tsukuyomi, who she banished for angering her, to Susanoo, who she banished for angering her, to Takamimusubi, who presumably tries pretty hard not to anger her if he can help it.
It's not a strong theory (i.e., there's really not much evidence aside from theoretical comparisons to other nearby peoples in Asia, most notably the Ainu), but a few scholars also believe that the ancient matriarchal Japanese culture might have allowed polyandry, the marriage of more than one man to the same woman, in the same way that much later Japanese culture allowed men to have multiple wives. If you like that theory, Amaterasu could have more than one consort at a time without breaking a sweat, just as later Japanese emperors kept multiple concubines.
But wait, it gets better! Some scholars also believe that Amaterasu's consort may have originally been her other brother, Susanoo, in pre-Kojiki myth, but that this connection fell out of favor and was later replaced by her more famous consort relations. This is mostly based on their joint relation to the later important imperial bloodlines of Japan and their close relationship before his banishment, but it's also more than a little conjecture, so feel free to ignore it if it's giving you even more of a headache than usual.
If you want to go strictly by the texts, Tsukuyomi is the only one officially named as Amaterasu's consort; no one ever outright says she has a formal relationship with Takamimusubi. Takakmimusubi is definitely around, though, and constantly involved with Amaterasu; he calls councils for her, acts as her advisor during them, jointly bestows gifts upon her grandson Ninigi when he goes forth into the World, negotiates with Okuninushi for the disposition of the earth at her side, and generally seems attached to her hip whenever matters of state are at hand. Of course, he could just be a really awesome vizier/seneschal who knocks it out of the park on advising her, but there are moments when he seems almost on an equal level of power with her, or at least able to speak on her behalf. There are also several textual clues that suggest their closeness, including the fact that Amaterasu's son and Takamimusubi's daughter marry in order to give birth to Ninigi; neither's extra parent is ever mentioned, and the Kojiki already has an established pattern of sibling marriage among gods that could be continued here. The emperors of Japan are therefore also descended from both Amaterasu and Takamimusubi, although it's more often the sun goddess who is remembered as their imperial patron in modern times.
Much of the theory of the two being consorts comes from ancient cultural evidence, which is by necessity not very exact because a lot of it involves anthropologists drawing conclusions from scarce evidence or trying to reconstruct ancient thought patterns. Amaterasu's position as the ruler of the cosmos in an otherwise strongly male-dominated pantheon and culture has been debated for centuries; nobody denies that she's in charge, but there's a healthy debate over how that happened, what it means and why her image as a female who is the greatest among powers doesn't translate to a more even-handed treatment of women in the rest of her culture's myths. One of the leading theories is that Amaterasu is a holdover from very ancient religion, before Shinto was codified, written down and officially instated as the country's dominant religion; in such ancient times, communities were co-ruled by a priestess who wielded all the religious power and a politician-consort who wielded all the temporal power. The priestess was the major figurehead, spokesperson and charismatic power, making proclamations backed up by the clout of the gods, while the politician was in charge of advising her on decisions and supporting her to present a unified front to any malcontents. It's not hard to see why some scholars of Japanese history think this is where Amaterasu's power over the pantheon comes from: she may be a vestige of a time when that priestess-politician dual rulership was the norm, and therefore she is the driving power of the pantheon while her politician spouse, Takamimusubi, supports and enhances her.
If you want to consider her to have been married to both of them - and I don't see why you wouldn't, since despite the lack of direct evidence of Takamimusubi we think it's a neat theory and a reasonable mythological choice - you could certainly claim that she married the one after divorcing the other. Timelines in the Nihon Shoki are hard to really pin down, but her spectacular falling-out with Tsukuyomi over the death of Uke Mochi might have marked the end of her first marriage (also to a male consort who perhaps acted in that political capacity for her), whereupon she instead took on Takamimusubi as her consort instead. If you want to throw Susanoo in there, too, you could say that she went from Tsukuyomi, who she banished for angering her, to Susanoo, who she banished for angering her, to Takamimusubi, who presumably tries pretty hard not to anger her if he can help it.
It's not a strong theory (i.e., there's really not much evidence aside from theoretical comparisons to other nearby peoples in Asia, most notably the Ainu), but a few scholars also believe that the ancient matriarchal Japanese culture might have allowed polyandry, the marriage of more than one man to the same woman, in the same way that much later Japanese culture allowed men to have multiple wives. If you like that theory, Amaterasu could have more than one consort at a time without breaking a sweat, just as later Japanese emperors kept multiple concubines.
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Working hard
Lots of work today on scion the past week. Fatigue counters? What's that?
#secretproject #speculate
Also having new video for reading project up soon. Taking Anne to the hospital set me back a bit. Check out her robot arm!
The End is Near
Question: You know how there's that prophecy that says Zeus will be killed by a child of his? How many examples of this sort of situation exist in myth? I ask because I'm using Comprenion as a major antagonist in a game, and destined deaths of gods are a big part of the antagonistic Fate Titan's agenda.
Ooh, neat. Enforcing Fate, even when it's horrible and unpleasant (or especially then?), should always be on the Fate Titan's agenda. It doesn't care about your squishy little feelings. It cares about destiny.
There are actually a lot of examples of the foretold downfall or death of a major figure in mythology, but Zeus' case is rare because it hasn't happened yet. Most of the time, the prophecy comes to pass within the same myth that it was delivered, meaning that there are very few open-ended prophecies of death lying around. One example would be Balor, who upon learning that his daughter was destined to bear a child who would kill him locked her up in a tower, only to be thwarted by Cian's wizardly powers and eventually killed as predicated by his grandson Lugh at the second battle of Maige Tuiread. The prophecy is immediately followed up by myths that show it coming to pass. Another would be Ra, who forbade Nut to have any children after foreseeing that one would overthrow him, only to fail when she sought Thoth's help to give birth and thus created Isis, who stripped Ra of his power, and Osiris, who took his place.
There's actually a great reason for this; it's because such myths, which progress from foretold doom to realized fate, reinforce the idea that destiny is inescapable and incontrovertible. By showing the unlucky main character's understanding of his fate and attempts to avoid it, the final moment when he fails reminds the audience of the tale that one's fate can never be avoided. Often, the actions taken by the doomed person are what actually causes his death (such as when King Laius abandoned the infant Oedipus in order to avoid the prophecy of his son killing him, thus making it possible for the child to grow up without knowing him and later kill him by accident), also suggesting to those who hear the tale that trying to avoid your destiny only makes things worse.
Most prophecies are storybound, so it's rare for a prophecy to still be unfulfilled - in essence, that means that your Scions are still in that story, and they've entered it in medias res somewhere in the middle between the speaking of the prophecy and the eventual end which hasn't happened yet. It's easy to do that with new prophecies you make up for your game, but harder to find ones that were part of some other as-yet uncompleted story.
However, your biggest and easiest targets for this are the Aesir, sort of en masse. The prophecies of Ragnarok are very clear that they are going to die, and give very specific details of how; Baldur will be killed by Hod as a result of Loki's interference, Nanna will kill herself out of grief, Hod will be killed by Vali in retaliation, Loki will be exposed and bound underground until he escapes to lead the fire giants into war against the pantheon, Odin will be eaten by Fenrir who will in turn be killed by Vidar, Thor and Jormungandr will kill one another, Tyr and Garm will kill one another, Heimdall and Loki will kill one another, and Freyr will be slain by Surtr because he lacks his famous sword, which he long ago traded away in order to woo his wife Gerd. These prophecies are exactly that kind of "in-progress" story; the foretelling has already happened and the Aesir are aware of their prophesied doom, but it hasn't yet happened (although some of the groundwork, such as Thor's established enmity with Jormungandr and Freyr's loss of his sword, has already been laid).
Keep in mind also that many cultures don't conceive of prophecy and predication the same way - it's mostly Europe that is fond of very definite "This is going to happen" prophecies. Many cultures in Asia prefer an if-then model - if thing A happens, then thing B will happen - meaning that disaster can be staved off as long as thing A is prevented (which can be a long time but is usually not forever - they may have a different concept of Fate, but it's still usually triumphant in the end). Among the Orisha, such strict prophecies are almost unheard-of, and nobody ever has a destiny they can't avoid; their concept of destiny is that it is something that is ever-changing and must be worked at hard to be achieved, so they have their hands full trying to make sure their Fate does come to pass, rather than trying to avoid it (and they believe that failing to realize their destiny means that they've generally failed at their entire life). Comprenion must encompass all of the ideas of Fate expressed in various mythologies, so don't leave these guys out just because they're doing it a little differently.
The Titanrealm of Fate loves enforcing destinies. It's what it does, and if it's mad at a pantheon, heaven help them (see: Aesir, all dying, prophecies of). We love involving PCs, especially ones who dabble in Fate purviews themselves, in those great foretold events so they can see it in action firsthand. Tell us how it goes!
Ooh, neat. Enforcing Fate, even when it's horrible and unpleasant (or especially then?), should always be on the Fate Titan's agenda. It doesn't care about your squishy little feelings. It cares about destiny.
There are actually a lot of examples of the foretold downfall or death of a major figure in mythology, but Zeus' case is rare because it hasn't happened yet. Most of the time, the prophecy comes to pass within the same myth that it was delivered, meaning that there are very few open-ended prophecies of death lying around. One example would be Balor, who upon learning that his daughter was destined to bear a child who would kill him locked her up in a tower, only to be thwarted by Cian's wizardly powers and eventually killed as predicated by his grandson Lugh at the second battle of Maige Tuiread. The prophecy is immediately followed up by myths that show it coming to pass. Another would be Ra, who forbade Nut to have any children after foreseeing that one would overthrow him, only to fail when she sought Thoth's help to give birth and thus created Isis, who stripped Ra of his power, and Osiris, who took his place.
There's actually a great reason for this; it's because such myths, which progress from foretold doom to realized fate, reinforce the idea that destiny is inescapable and incontrovertible. By showing the unlucky main character's understanding of his fate and attempts to avoid it, the final moment when he fails reminds the audience of the tale that one's fate can never be avoided. Often, the actions taken by the doomed person are what actually causes his death (such as when King Laius abandoned the infant Oedipus in order to avoid the prophecy of his son killing him, thus making it possible for the child to grow up without knowing him and later kill him by accident), also suggesting to those who hear the tale that trying to avoid your destiny only makes things worse.
Most prophecies are storybound, so it's rare for a prophecy to still be unfulfilled - in essence, that means that your Scions are still in that story, and they've entered it in medias res somewhere in the middle between the speaking of the prophecy and the eventual end which hasn't happened yet. It's easy to do that with new prophecies you make up for your game, but harder to find ones that were part of some other as-yet uncompleted story.
However, your biggest and easiest targets for this are the Aesir, sort of en masse. The prophecies of Ragnarok are very clear that they are going to die, and give very specific details of how; Baldur will be killed by Hod as a result of Loki's interference, Nanna will kill herself out of grief, Hod will be killed by Vali in retaliation, Loki will be exposed and bound underground until he escapes to lead the fire giants into war against the pantheon, Odin will be eaten by Fenrir who will in turn be killed by Vidar, Thor and Jormungandr will kill one another, Tyr and Garm will kill one another, Heimdall and Loki will kill one another, and Freyr will be slain by Surtr because he lacks his famous sword, which he long ago traded away in order to woo his wife Gerd. These prophecies are exactly that kind of "in-progress" story; the foretelling has already happened and the Aesir are aware of their prophesied doom, but it hasn't yet happened (although some of the groundwork, such as Thor's established enmity with Jormungandr and Freyr's loss of his sword, has already been laid).
Keep in mind also that many cultures don't conceive of prophecy and predication the same way - it's mostly Europe that is fond of very definite "This is going to happen" prophecies. Many cultures in Asia prefer an if-then model - if thing A happens, then thing B will happen - meaning that disaster can be staved off as long as thing A is prevented (which can be a long time but is usually not forever - they may have a different concept of Fate, but it's still usually triumphant in the end). Among the Orisha, such strict prophecies are almost unheard-of, and nobody ever has a destiny they can't avoid; their concept of destiny is that it is something that is ever-changing and must be worked at hard to be achieved, so they have their hands full trying to make sure their Fate does come to pass, rather than trying to avoid it (and they believe that failing to realize their destiny means that they've generally failed at their entire life). Comprenion must encompass all of the ideas of Fate expressed in various mythologies, so don't leave these guys out just because they're doing it a little differently.
The Titanrealm of Fate loves enforcing destinies. It's what it does, and if it's mad at a pantheon, heaven help them (see: Aesir, all dying, prophecies of). We love involving PCs, especially ones who dabble in Fate purviews themselves, in those great foretold events so they can see it in action firsthand. Tell us how it goes!
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Story Swapping
Question: You've mentioned that you contact professors and other scholars as part of your writing process for pantheons. What kind of reactions do you get when asking for information for a game project? Positive, neutral, negative? Beer?
You know, I don't think we've ever run into anything truly negative. The worst that ever happens is that they just ignore us, and we sympathize. Professors get a whole lot of email, and I know some of them don't have time to even look at it if it didn't come from an email address provided by their university.
To be honest, most of them ignore us. And, if I were a busy-ass archaeologist or professor or scholar who gives a lot of conferences all over the world, I would probably ignore us, too. The sad truth is that a lot of professionals just don't have the time to shoot the shit over drinks with us, especially since there are people they've already promised to do that for - students, interns, colleagues, people who are paying them - that take precedence. Often, those who do respond do so extremely belatedly, shooting back an email months after we first contacted them. Considering the snail-like speed of our own email responses these days (sorry, guys!), though, I can't say I blame them for that, either.
(Side note - you guys, did you know I have 153 questions from you guys sitting in my inbox? No lie, that is the number that we haven't answered yet. If you sent in a question and are wondering why we never answered it, it's probably in that giant tornado of email possibilities somewhere. Sorry.)
But, once in a while, we do get to talk to people, and when we do it is a total blast. Professors and scholars in these areas are usually pretty passionate about them - I mean, that's what they do with their lives, right?! - so they love to talk about them. Most often, if they happen to live somewhere within a three-hour driving distance or so, we'll drag ourselves out there to see them in person, because when writing a detailed email feels like a chore, having an animated chat in an office or museum foyer can seem like a lot more fun. When we do communicate by email, people are usually happy to give us a few minutes now and then, although giant missives are usually out of the question.
But not much beer. That's mostly my fault - I don't drink. John would probably love to get professors drunk and sway down the street arguing about the relative level of gayness in the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus.
You know, I don't think we've ever run into anything truly negative. The worst that ever happens is that they just ignore us, and we sympathize. Professors get a whole lot of email, and I know some of them don't have time to even look at it if it didn't come from an email address provided by their university.
To be honest, most of them ignore us. And, if I were a busy-ass archaeologist or professor or scholar who gives a lot of conferences all over the world, I would probably ignore us, too. The sad truth is that a lot of professionals just don't have the time to shoot the shit over drinks with us, especially since there are people they've already promised to do that for - students, interns, colleagues, people who are paying them - that take precedence. Often, those who do respond do so extremely belatedly, shooting back an email months after we first contacted them. Considering the snail-like speed of our own email responses these days (sorry, guys!), though, I can't say I blame them for that, either.
(Side note - you guys, did you know I have 153 questions from you guys sitting in my inbox? No lie, that is the number that we haven't answered yet. If you sent in a question and are wondering why we never answered it, it's probably in that giant tornado of email possibilities somewhere. Sorry.)
But, once in a while, we do get to talk to people, and when we do it is a total blast. Professors and scholars in these areas are usually pretty passionate about them - I mean, that's what they do with their lives, right?! - so they love to talk about them. Most often, if they happen to live somewhere within a three-hour driving distance or so, we'll drag ourselves out there to see them in person, because when writing a detailed email feels like a chore, having an animated chat in an office or museum foyer can seem like a lot more fun. When we do communicate by email, people are usually happy to give us a few minutes now and then, although giant missives are usually out of the question.
But not much beer. That's mostly my fault - I don't drink. John would probably love to get professors drunk and sway down the street arguing about the relative level of gayness in the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus.
Man vs. Food
Question: How would eating contests work in Scion?
Hmm, depends on the kind of eating contest! Are we talking who can eat the most? Who can eat a specific portion the fastest? Who can eat the craziest thing without losing their lunch? Two people enter, no one leaves until one person has burst their intestines?
As far as who can eat the most, we would probably start with some good old Stamina + Fortitude rolls, to represent how much food you can pack into yourself and how quickly your digestive system can handle it. We might allow a few other rolls for specific stunts - maybe a Strength + Fortitude roll to force food into yourself even when you can't take any more, for example - but Stamina's going to be your main go-to stat. Once you've reached the point of eating more food than your body can physically contain, which is up to the Storyteller to decide on, failing those Stamina rolls will result in vomiting, but succeeding might mean that you start taking lethal damage from rupturing your own organs. Appearance knacks like Undeniable Resemblance or Unusual Alteration can also be used to change the size of your organs, allowing you to do weird, grotesque things like growing extra stomachs or just extending the one you have to that it goes all the way down into your feet or something. As the saying goes, you could literally store your food in hollow legs.
As for eating fastest, that's probably a simple enough opposed Dexterity + Athletics roll, to jump around and move food into yourself as quickly as possible, but it'll probably never occur without the Stamina rolls soon following. If you need to eat something that is particularly tough or difficult to break (rock candy? bones? foods designed for stone giants?), you might need some Strength + Athletics rolls as well to be able to tear, crush or break it with your supernaturally strong and hard muscles and teeth. And then there's the gross-out kind of eating contest, where everyone has to eat something horrifying like cockroaches or blood stew or super lemon intestine hot sauce. Those are the moments that the Scions with Selective Palate were born for, because everything tastes like a strawberry daquieri to them, but for those who can't fool their taste buds into thinking they're not eating an alien fetus with tabasco, Stamina + Fortitude, or perhaps Stamina + Awareness, would be our choices to make sure that you don't have an embarrassing incident with not being able to keep your food down.
Every Storyteller will probably want to play it by ear, or if they know an eating contest's coming in the story, plan ahead with the general rolls you'll need. But then, have fun; mythological eating contests (and drinking contests!) are all about kicking back, heroically letting loose and then epically regretting it in the morning.
Hmm, depends on the kind of eating contest! Are we talking who can eat the most? Who can eat a specific portion the fastest? Who can eat the craziest thing without losing their lunch? Two people enter, no one leaves until one person has burst their intestines?
As far as who can eat the most, we would probably start with some good old Stamina + Fortitude rolls, to represent how much food you can pack into yourself and how quickly your digestive system can handle it. We might allow a few other rolls for specific stunts - maybe a Strength + Fortitude roll to force food into yourself even when you can't take any more, for example - but Stamina's going to be your main go-to stat. Once you've reached the point of eating more food than your body can physically contain, which is up to the Storyteller to decide on, failing those Stamina rolls will result in vomiting, but succeeding might mean that you start taking lethal damage from rupturing your own organs. Appearance knacks like Undeniable Resemblance or Unusual Alteration can also be used to change the size of your organs, allowing you to do weird, grotesque things like growing extra stomachs or just extending the one you have to that it goes all the way down into your feet or something. As the saying goes, you could literally store your food in hollow legs.
As for eating fastest, that's probably a simple enough opposed Dexterity + Athletics roll, to jump around and move food into yourself as quickly as possible, but it'll probably never occur without the Stamina rolls soon following. If you need to eat something that is particularly tough or difficult to break (rock candy? bones? foods designed for stone giants?), you might need some Strength + Athletics rolls as well to be able to tear, crush or break it with your supernaturally strong and hard muscles and teeth. And then there's the gross-out kind of eating contest, where everyone has to eat something horrifying like cockroaches or blood stew or super lemon intestine hot sauce. Those are the moments that the Scions with Selective Palate were born for, because everything tastes like a strawberry daquieri to them, but for those who can't fool their taste buds into thinking they're not eating an alien fetus with tabasco, Stamina + Fortitude, or perhaps Stamina + Awareness, would be our choices to make sure that you don't have an embarrassing incident with not being able to keep your food down.
Every Storyteller will probably want to play it by ear, or if they know an eating contest's coming in the story, plan ahead with the general rolls you'll need. But then, have fun; mythological eating contests (and drinking contests!) are all about kicking back, heroically letting loose and then epically regretting it in the morning.
Closer than Kin
Question: So Lugh is sometimes said to have been fostered by Goibniu, sometimes by Manannan Mac Lir and sometimes by Tailtiu. So was he fostered by all of them? And how does that work? Just something that I've been wondering about and figured you'd know more about it than I do.
Guys, let's talk about fosterage in ancient Irish culture!
Fosterage - the practice of farming your children out to be raised by a different family for a few years during their childhood - was an incredibly important feature of social life among the ancient Celts, especially prominent in Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Kids might be fostered anywhere between the ages of two to fifteen, although girls were fostered less often and younger since they were expected to come home and get married younger than boys were, and were generally kept by their host families for at least four to six years. The basic gist of the idea is that one family would send their child, along with some wealth (usually livestock, but it depended on the family) to make sure they were provided for, to live with another family for several years, learning their trade and basic schooling before returning home to enter their adult lives. Richer families fostered more often, since they were more likely to have the goods needed to support the kid they sent off; you couldn't send a child to a foster family with nothing, since then you would be placing an unfair burden on the fosterers to try to feed another mouth with no help. But people of all classes did do it, even those who didn't have a lot of money to start with, and often fostering ended up in a sort of trade arrangement, where two families swapped kids and then later swapped them back again.
There are two main points to fosterage. The first is that, by growing up for a while in another family with alternative parents and siblings, children gained with a strong sense of loyalty to more people in their clans and homelands than they would have had if they had only lived at home. In essence, as adults those people had two families who were not necessarily related but to both of whom they owed gratitude, respect and filial feeling, which in turn meant that they were more likely to keep solid alliances with others in the area and defend more than just their own homestead from invaders or famine. Especially during the periods of history when Celtic areas were populated by several only loosely-connected clans or tribes, fosterage helped make sure that there was a reason for people in the area to work together and respect one anothers' boundaries and honor.
The second reason for fosterage was simply to make sure that the child got a good education. Whenever possible, children would be fostered out to someone that could hopefully provide them good learning opportunities; druids, chiefs and lords were popular choices, as well as monks and other churchmen once Christianity was established. They would have the opportunity to learn different things than they could have learned at home, broadening their experiences and giving them a better perspective on their territory and neighbors, ally and enemy alike, than they could have gotten in only one household. For the lower-class children who went into fosterage, they were also often sent so that they could begin learning a useful trade from their new family, which might later lead into apprenticeship and eventually a career that would be able to feed a family.
While most children were only fostered to a single family, it wasn't unheard of for a child to be sent to more than one, particularly if he didn't get along with the people in his first foster home or there was a political falling-out between the two families, so Lugh could certainly have been fostered with more than one person. Lebor Gabala Erenn does indeed say that Lugh's father Cian gave him to Tailtu to foster, and he's called her foster-son in passing in the Cath Maige Tuiread as well; there is no more information about what happened to him during that time, but the only other thing said about Tailtu after that is that she died while Lugh was king and he founded the summer harvest festival in her honor. In the story of the Sons of Tuireann, Lugh is repeatedly referred to as the foster-brother of the sons of Manannan, and furthermore runs around liberally using a bunch of the sea-god's magical items with apparent impunity, so it seems like there's also a firm fostering relationship there (and indeed, Lugh goes on borrowing Manannan's shit pretty much forever). It's also possible that Lugh is foster-brothers with Manannan's children because they were also fostered with Tailtu at the same time that he was, although his relationship with their father seems too close for him not to have been fostered there as well. To add another layer of complexity, there's some theorization that Tailtu is herself a daughter of Manannan (although she also definitely has Fir Bolg blood connections, so this is up for debate), in which case she and her father could both have welcomed Lugh in as a foster-son at the same time. Finally, Goibhniu does raise Lugh for at least a while and teach him various crafts (which makes lots of sense, since fostering your kids out to their uncles was a common practice and at least one genealogy has Cian and Goibhniu as brothers), and in at least one version it's implied that Manannan might be the one who drops young Lugh off with him instead of Cian, implying a fosterage timeline. (Of course, in another version Goibhniu finds Lugh as an infant, so pick your flavor.)
Lugh's actually a great example of the fosterage system at work, because his special attributes all seem to be traceable back to his fostering adventures as a child. It's because Lugh lives in the family of Manannan mac Lir that he gets access to a bunch of sweet relics and prophetic insight and has ties to the wilder, sea-oriented half of the pantheon that isn't necessarily descended from Danu, which gives him a much better political understanding and position when he later becomes the High King; and because he fosters with Goibhniu, he also grows up knowing, understanding and eventually allying with his Tuatha relatives, even though he is also half Fomorian and grandson of the great Fomorian king Balor. And it's because Lugh lives in the family of Goibhniu that he learns countless different skills, trades and crafts from the craftsmen among the gods, and because he fosters with Manannan that he learns the esoteric arts of wizardry and medicine and herbalism, leading to him becoming the god most reknowned for knowing how to do everything.
It's possible, maybe even likely, that Irish mythology doesn't mean to be strictly literal about who Lugh's foster parents might have been; by referring to various people as his foster parents, it can imply that he has a wide breadth of experiences and training and therefore could be said to be able to do anything, illustrating his position as the most skilled among gods. But on the other hand, bonds of fosterage were considered extremely important, even trumping blood in some cases, so if you want to make some calls to determine where his deepest loyalties lie, that's a valid choice for any game. We personally are pretty comfortable with his status as the foster-son of Manannan mac Lir, but any of the others are good for a game, too.
Guys, let's talk about fosterage in ancient Irish culture!
Fosterage - the practice of farming your children out to be raised by a different family for a few years during their childhood - was an incredibly important feature of social life among the ancient Celts, especially prominent in Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Kids might be fostered anywhere between the ages of two to fifteen, although girls were fostered less often and younger since they were expected to come home and get married younger than boys were, and were generally kept by their host families for at least four to six years. The basic gist of the idea is that one family would send their child, along with some wealth (usually livestock, but it depended on the family) to make sure they were provided for, to live with another family for several years, learning their trade and basic schooling before returning home to enter their adult lives. Richer families fostered more often, since they were more likely to have the goods needed to support the kid they sent off; you couldn't send a child to a foster family with nothing, since then you would be placing an unfair burden on the fosterers to try to feed another mouth with no help. But people of all classes did do it, even those who didn't have a lot of money to start with, and often fostering ended up in a sort of trade arrangement, where two families swapped kids and then later swapped them back again.
There are two main points to fosterage. The first is that, by growing up for a while in another family with alternative parents and siblings, children gained with a strong sense of loyalty to more people in their clans and homelands than they would have had if they had only lived at home. In essence, as adults those people had two families who were not necessarily related but to both of whom they owed gratitude, respect and filial feeling, which in turn meant that they were more likely to keep solid alliances with others in the area and defend more than just their own homestead from invaders or famine. Especially during the periods of history when Celtic areas were populated by several only loosely-connected clans or tribes, fosterage helped make sure that there was a reason for people in the area to work together and respect one anothers' boundaries and honor.
The second reason for fosterage was simply to make sure that the child got a good education. Whenever possible, children would be fostered out to someone that could hopefully provide them good learning opportunities; druids, chiefs and lords were popular choices, as well as monks and other churchmen once Christianity was established. They would have the opportunity to learn different things than they could have learned at home, broadening their experiences and giving them a better perspective on their territory and neighbors, ally and enemy alike, than they could have gotten in only one household. For the lower-class children who went into fosterage, they were also often sent so that they could begin learning a useful trade from their new family, which might later lead into apprenticeship and eventually a career that would be able to feed a family.
While most children were only fostered to a single family, it wasn't unheard of for a child to be sent to more than one, particularly if he didn't get along with the people in his first foster home or there was a political falling-out between the two families, so Lugh could certainly have been fostered with more than one person. Lebor Gabala Erenn does indeed say that Lugh's father Cian gave him to Tailtu to foster, and he's called her foster-son in passing in the Cath Maige Tuiread as well; there is no more information about what happened to him during that time, but the only other thing said about Tailtu after that is that she died while Lugh was king and he founded the summer harvest festival in her honor. In the story of the Sons of Tuireann, Lugh is repeatedly referred to as the foster-brother of the sons of Manannan, and furthermore runs around liberally using a bunch of the sea-god's magical items with apparent impunity, so it seems like there's also a firm fostering relationship there (and indeed, Lugh goes on borrowing Manannan's shit pretty much forever). It's also possible that Lugh is foster-brothers with Manannan's children because they were also fostered with Tailtu at the same time that he was, although his relationship with their father seems too close for him not to have been fostered there as well. To add another layer of complexity, there's some theorization that Tailtu is herself a daughter of Manannan (although she also definitely has Fir Bolg blood connections, so this is up for debate), in which case she and her father could both have welcomed Lugh in as a foster-son at the same time. Finally, Goibhniu does raise Lugh for at least a while and teach him various crafts (which makes lots of sense, since fostering your kids out to their uncles was a common practice and at least one genealogy has Cian and Goibhniu as brothers), and in at least one version it's implied that Manannan might be the one who drops young Lugh off with him instead of Cian, implying a fosterage timeline. (Of course, in another version Goibhniu finds Lugh as an infant, so pick your flavor.)
Lugh's actually a great example of the fosterage system at work, because his special attributes all seem to be traceable back to his fostering adventures as a child. It's because Lugh lives in the family of Manannan mac Lir that he gets access to a bunch of sweet relics and prophetic insight and has ties to the wilder, sea-oriented half of the pantheon that isn't necessarily descended from Danu, which gives him a much better political understanding and position when he later becomes the High King; and because he fosters with Goibhniu, he also grows up knowing, understanding and eventually allying with his Tuatha relatives, even though he is also half Fomorian and grandson of the great Fomorian king Balor. And it's because Lugh lives in the family of Goibhniu that he learns countless different skills, trades and crafts from the craftsmen among the gods, and because he fosters with Manannan that he learns the esoteric arts of wizardry and medicine and herbalism, leading to him becoming the god most reknowned for knowing how to do everything.
It's possible, maybe even likely, that Irish mythology doesn't mean to be strictly literal about who Lugh's foster parents might have been; by referring to various people as his foster parents, it can imply that he has a wide breadth of experiences and training and therefore could be said to be able to do anything, illustrating his position as the most skilled among gods. But on the other hand, bonds of fosterage were considered extremely important, even trumping blood in some cases, so if you want to make some calls to determine where his deepest loyalties lie, that's a valid choice for any game. We personally are pretty comfortable with his status as the foster-son of Manannan mac Lir, but any of the others are good for a game, too.
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
The Road to El Dorado
Question: What is your opinion on El Dorado? In the real world it's a fiction, but could it exist as a Terra Incognita or something? Would it be more closely related to the Inca, the Muisca, or neither of them?
Gather around, friends, and let me tell you a story about the legend of El Dorado!
El Dorado is originally a Muisca myth - or at least, it comes from things the Muisca were doing, but they don't really have a lot to do with what the eventual legend turned into. If you're not sure who the Muisca are, they're another South American empire, based around where Colombia is in the modern day; they ruled northeast of the top regions of the Inca empire and out of the way of most of the inner jungle-dwelling Amazon peoples, and had their own developed culture and religion until, like everyone else in South America, they discovered that Spanish people were really big jerks a few centuries ago. For those looking for another major pantheon to help share some real estate down south, the Muisca are a great place to start.
But, anyway, El Dorado. The phrase actually means "the golden one" or "gilded one", and refers to a religious practice of the Muisca in which an important person (usually the heir to the throne) would cover himself in gold dust and paint and then sail out into the middle of a sacred lake to make an offering to the most important local god, in the hopes of ensuring divine support of his upcoming rule. Depending on the account - which are all passed down from Spanish chroniclers, as usual - El Dorado would then either dump a bunch of offerings, including a lot of gold, over the side of the boat into the lake for the god, and/or dive in himself in order to commune with the deity, after which he would come back to shore and, assuming nothing catastrophic happened, be hailed as the new ruler.
If you're wondering how "guy who goes out to make gold sacrifices once in his reign" got translated into "secret city made entirely of gold in the jungle", you're doing so with a lot of scholars. The growth of the legend of El Dorado as a place is something of an anthropological case study in weirdness. It's well established that the conquistadors were motivated mostly by profit; Spain wanted all the delicious new territories, resources and riches of the New World, preferably before any of their rivals in Europe got their hands on them, so they were constantly on the lookout for anything that looked especially valuable or useful to be shipped back home. Because many of the Mesoamerican and South American civilizations used gold heavily in their decorating, especially for religious purposes, many of the invaders got the impression that the Americas must be positively brimming with free gold for the taking, if only they could find it (or convince the natives to tell them where it was). The El Dorado practice contributed to this idea; if the native people had so much gold they were going around rolling in it and then throwing it in lakes, the Spanish reasoned, they must have so much of it that they practically had to throw it away, which meant that there must be secret treasure repositories around here somewhere; and because tossing stuff into lakes as a tribute to the gods was fairly widespread in imperial South America (the Incas did that, too), they reasoned that this was a widespread phenomena and everyone was clearly filthy rich.
So what started as an observation of a cultural practice quickly jumped to an assumption of wealth, which in turn moved on to an interest in finding and exploiting that wealth. Of course, the Muisca and other native peoples did have gold and other precious metals, but they weren't exactly plating their houses with it, so they weren't able to give the conquistadors the giant bananas treasure that they wanted, and those conquistadors in turn continued to believe that the natives were holding out on them or that they just hadn't found the secret treasuries yet. From there, the idea of a secret palace, and then city, made entirely of gold and precious jewels (or at least full of them) was born; the Spanish had never dealt with a jungle the likes of the Amazon, and had no trouble imagining that the best place to hide things was somewhere in the unbreachable, enormous wilderness that they could not meaningfully penetrate.
Native people caught on to all this pretty quickly, and then they actually contributed to the myth (because all's fair in love and brutal conquest, right?). Some of them, seeking to get rid of conquistadors or simply get them off their backs, gave them false directions to a mythical "El Dorado" somewhere in the jungle, knowing very well that there was nothing there but hoping that hostile wildlife or dangerous conditions might take out any explorers searching for it, or at least keep them busy for a while. And when you retell a story long enough, eventually more people start to believe in it, and the story became a modern myth that probably contributed to the deaths of a lot of people, Spanish and native South American alike. People started putting El Dorado on their maps of South America, out of creative license and the desire to make the continent look more legendary and awesome, which had the side effect of confusing others into thinking that the place had actually been found and sometimes even taking pilgrimages out into the middle of nowhere, often dying in the process. People started claiming they had found it for attention, and then ending up embroiled in violent and sometimes even murderous fights with other people who wanted in on it. Spanish people believed that the place was known to native people in legend and they could get there if they could just figure out where it was, and native people believed that the legend was something the Spanish brought with them that they also knew nothing about.
So, let's come back around to Scion. El Dorado certainly could exist as a Terra Incognita if you want it to - that would certainly explain why humans can't find it, right? It's a legendary land that is rumored to exist but nowhere in the real world, which is what Terrae were invented for. The weirdness comes in with the fact that it's a very recent invention, and that it wasn't a myth of the cultures it's attributed to at all but rather one invented about them by outsiders. The Muisca had no legend of a city of gold, so there's no reason such a Terra would exist in their cosmology, nor the cosmologies of any other South American pantheons in the area.
But that doesn't mean you can't invent an El Dorado for Scion if you want to. Maybe some psychopomp god created it after the legend rose to prominence, making themselves a little pocket Terra for their own purposes. Maybe it's a Terra from Muisca legend that was simply misunderstood or misnamed by the Spanish, and bears only a passing resemblance to the idea of El Dorado. Maybe someone used the Wyrd and caused it to spontaneously be created by Fate, responding to the presence of a new myth about it that had no other cosmological home. Or, maybe it doesn't exist yet, but some modern Scion who knows and loves the story might decide to create it as his or her own personal Sanctum or Terra. Anything might be inside it; since there's little detail in the myth except that it's full of gold and jewels, your imagination can run wild. Anything, from stereotypical heaps of golden treasure to a looser interpretation meaning fields of golden flowers or fruits to a symbolic "treasure" that is actually cultural in some way, can go.
Man... now I just want to go read about the Muisca. I have a serious focus problem.
Gather around, friends, and let me tell you a story about the legend of El Dorado!
El Dorado is originally a Muisca myth - or at least, it comes from things the Muisca were doing, but they don't really have a lot to do with what the eventual legend turned into. If you're not sure who the Muisca are, they're another South American empire, based around where Colombia is in the modern day; they ruled northeast of the top regions of the Inca empire and out of the way of most of the inner jungle-dwelling Amazon peoples, and had their own developed culture and religion until, like everyone else in South America, they discovered that Spanish people were really big jerks a few centuries ago. For those looking for another major pantheon to help share some real estate down south, the Muisca are a great place to start.
But, anyway, El Dorado. The phrase actually means "the golden one" or "gilded one", and refers to a religious practice of the Muisca in which an important person (usually the heir to the throne) would cover himself in gold dust and paint and then sail out into the middle of a sacred lake to make an offering to the most important local god, in the hopes of ensuring divine support of his upcoming rule. Depending on the account - which are all passed down from Spanish chroniclers, as usual - El Dorado would then either dump a bunch of offerings, including a lot of gold, over the side of the boat into the lake for the god, and/or dive in himself in order to commune with the deity, after which he would come back to shore and, assuming nothing catastrophic happened, be hailed as the new ruler.
If you're wondering how "guy who goes out to make gold sacrifices once in his reign" got translated into "secret city made entirely of gold in the jungle", you're doing so with a lot of scholars. The growth of the legend of El Dorado as a place is something of an anthropological case study in weirdness. It's well established that the conquistadors were motivated mostly by profit; Spain wanted all the delicious new territories, resources and riches of the New World, preferably before any of their rivals in Europe got their hands on them, so they were constantly on the lookout for anything that looked especially valuable or useful to be shipped back home. Because many of the Mesoamerican and South American civilizations used gold heavily in their decorating, especially for religious purposes, many of the invaders got the impression that the Americas must be positively brimming with free gold for the taking, if only they could find it (or convince the natives to tell them where it was). The El Dorado practice contributed to this idea; if the native people had so much gold they were going around rolling in it and then throwing it in lakes, the Spanish reasoned, they must have so much of it that they practically had to throw it away, which meant that there must be secret treasure repositories around here somewhere; and because tossing stuff into lakes as a tribute to the gods was fairly widespread in imperial South America (the Incas did that, too), they reasoned that this was a widespread phenomena and everyone was clearly filthy rich.
So what started as an observation of a cultural practice quickly jumped to an assumption of wealth, which in turn moved on to an interest in finding and exploiting that wealth. Of course, the Muisca and other native peoples did have gold and other precious metals, but they weren't exactly plating their houses with it, so they weren't able to give the conquistadors the giant bananas treasure that they wanted, and those conquistadors in turn continued to believe that the natives were holding out on them or that they just hadn't found the secret treasuries yet. From there, the idea of a secret palace, and then city, made entirely of gold and precious jewels (or at least full of them) was born; the Spanish had never dealt with a jungle the likes of the Amazon, and had no trouble imagining that the best place to hide things was somewhere in the unbreachable, enormous wilderness that they could not meaningfully penetrate.
Native people caught on to all this pretty quickly, and then they actually contributed to the myth (because all's fair in love and brutal conquest, right?). Some of them, seeking to get rid of conquistadors or simply get them off their backs, gave them false directions to a mythical "El Dorado" somewhere in the jungle, knowing very well that there was nothing there but hoping that hostile wildlife or dangerous conditions might take out any explorers searching for it, or at least keep them busy for a while. And when you retell a story long enough, eventually more people start to believe in it, and the story became a modern myth that probably contributed to the deaths of a lot of people, Spanish and native South American alike. People started putting El Dorado on their maps of South America, out of creative license and the desire to make the continent look more legendary and awesome, which had the side effect of confusing others into thinking that the place had actually been found and sometimes even taking pilgrimages out into the middle of nowhere, often dying in the process. People started claiming they had found it for attention, and then ending up embroiled in violent and sometimes even murderous fights with other people who wanted in on it. Spanish people believed that the place was known to native people in legend and they could get there if they could just figure out where it was, and native people believed that the legend was something the Spanish brought with them that they also knew nothing about.
So, let's come back around to Scion. El Dorado certainly could exist as a Terra Incognita if you want it to - that would certainly explain why humans can't find it, right? It's a legendary land that is rumored to exist but nowhere in the real world, which is what Terrae were invented for. The weirdness comes in with the fact that it's a very recent invention, and that it wasn't a myth of the cultures it's attributed to at all but rather one invented about them by outsiders. The Muisca had no legend of a city of gold, so there's no reason such a Terra would exist in their cosmology, nor the cosmologies of any other South American pantheons in the area.
But that doesn't mean you can't invent an El Dorado for Scion if you want to. Maybe some psychopomp god created it after the legend rose to prominence, making themselves a little pocket Terra for their own purposes. Maybe it's a Terra from Muisca legend that was simply misunderstood or misnamed by the Spanish, and bears only a passing resemblance to the idea of El Dorado. Maybe someone used the Wyrd and caused it to spontaneously be created by Fate, responding to the presence of a new myth about it that had no other cosmological home. Or, maybe it doesn't exist yet, but some modern Scion who knows and loves the story might decide to create it as his or her own personal Sanctum or Terra. Anything might be inside it; since there's little detail in the myth except that it's full of gold and jewels, your imagination can run wild. Anything, from stereotypical heaps of golden treasure to a looser interpretation meaning fields of golden flowers or fruits to a symbolic "treasure" that is actually cultural in some way, can go.
Man... now I just want to go read about the Muisca. I have a serious focus problem.
Monday, January 20, 2014
Not Exactly Santa's Workshop
It's not the fastest we've ever finished a pantheon - the Bogovi still hold that honor - but we're still feeling pretty proud of ourselves. Finished in almost exactly three months, the gods of the Inuit of the far frozen north are ready to join your games. Be careful when you call upon the Inue, because when they answer, they answer with mighty force.
It's been a while since we've been so jazzed about working on a pantheon, but these guys made it easy. For one thing, we finally have an official pantheon representing North America! It's not nearly the justice that continent deserves, but it's a start. For another, their unique worldview and status as gods of an area that few enter and even fewer understand made for some fascinating research and incredibly interesting deities (not to mention terrifying, in many cases). Like the Polynesians before them, the Inuit have a spread of different languages and regional variations in their pre-Christian religion, but we hope we've done a good job of being faithful to their shared concepts and presenting their most important mythological ideas.
Also, there are more gods in this supplement that will kill you for breathing near them than ever before. So that's a nice bonus for all you sadistic Storytellers out there.
As always, feel free to ask anything you like in the comments, and we'll be resetting the voting poll for new pantheon goodness momentarily. The Hittites won this round because all of you are awesome people who know a quality dead-cuneiform-preserved pantheon when you see one, so they will be next. (And I can't wait!)
If you're one of the lucky players in our games who have previously run into Sedna, Sila or Tornarssuk, now you can go read up on them and realize how very much worse things could have been. That's because we love you guys.
Edit: Now with 100% more Virtues and 100% less embarrassing cover typo. Sorry to those who already downloaded the first version of the PDF, but it's otherwise identical!
It's been a while since we've been so jazzed about working on a pantheon, but these guys made it easy. For one thing, we finally have an official pantheon representing North America! It's not nearly the justice that continent deserves, but it's a start. For another, their unique worldview and status as gods of an area that few enter and even fewer understand made for some fascinating research and incredibly interesting deities (not to mention terrifying, in many cases). Like the Polynesians before them, the Inuit have a spread of different languages and regional variations in their pre-Christian religion, but we hope we've done a good job of being faithful to their shared concepts and presenting their most important mythological ideas.
Also, there are more gods in this supplement that will kill you for breathing near them than ever before. So that's a nice bonus for all you sadistic Storytellers out there.
As always, feel free to ask anything you like in the comments, and we'll be resetting the voting poll for new pantheon goodness momentarily. The Hittites won this round because all of you are awesome people who know a quality dead-cuneiform-preserved pantheon when you see one, so they will be next. (And I can't wait!)
If you're one of the lucky players in our games who have previously run into Sedna, Sila or Tornarssuk, now you can go read up on them and realize how very much worse things could have been. That's because we love you guys.
Edit: Now with 100% more Virtues and 100% less embarrassing cover typo. Sorry to those who already downloaded the first version of the PDF, but it's otherwise identical!
Vintage Portraits
Are you guys ready for super awesomeness? Today we've got a gorgeous set of portraits for the current Eastern Promises group. They are some good-looking divine adventurers. (Well, except for Haji.)
All by the fantastic Julian Lancaster. We can't decide what we love most about these - Alvin's smarmy face, James' aristocratic sneer, Leona's cat-with-cream smile, Mrs. Young's unconquerable misanthropy, or the fact that Haji is apparently wearing a coat with nothing under it. Everything is wonderful.
Alvin:
Haji:
James:
Leona:
Mrs. Young
All by the fantastic Julian Lancaster. We can't decide what we love most about these - Alvin's smarmy face, James' aristocratic sneer, Leona's cat-with-cream smile, Mrs. Young's unconquerable misanthropy, or the fact that Haji is apparently wearing a coat with nothing under it. Everything is wonderful.
Plastic Surgery
Question: In Scion, how would one go about trying to create the Frankenstein Monster?
Well, that depends on whether you want to do it the way Frankenstein did! Scion has more than one way to try to do this sort of thing, so there's no question that you can do it - of course you can! - but rather a question of how close to Frankenstein's method you want to cling.
If you want to do it exactly the way it's done in the classic novel, with the quintessential mad science approach of building machines and using the power of brains, then you want to approach this bad boy with Artistry. Lords of divine buildery who have the Breath of Life boon can simply cobble the monster together, point their fingers at it and say presto, and it'll be a one hundred percent genuine, living and moving creature, albeit one made of kind of icky stuff. This is how Scion would allow you to do exactly what Frankenstein does - build it with weird science and press the on button.
And before someone comes in complaining, "But I don't want to have to be Legend 11 to build Frankenstein's monster! He was just a human!," first remember that Dr. Frankenstein is a fictional character and not part of Scion's universe, so his Legend rating or lack thereof is pretty irrelevant. We don't have to try to assign a Legend level to things fictional characters do when they're in different universes from Scion's, because that is crazytown and we could spend the rest of our lives trying to do that without succeeding. (Although you can, of course, bring as many fictional characters into your games as you want to. They just aren't part of the default setting so the game won't necessarily be balanced for them.)
However, not wanting to have to wait until you're a master of the universe to make Frankensteinian horrors is a legitimate gripe, so let's explore other ways we could do that.
Artistry's still a strong contender here, actually; you just may have to put your back into it a little more than you would need if you were already at the level of going to Freemason meetings with Ptah and Svarozhich. You could build an automaton or moving robot, from pieces of corpse if you really wanted to, with the normal rolls for crafting something magical, and build an artificial intelligence into it in order to make sure it could speak and make decisions like Frankenstein's famous monster. Of course, AI isn't quite the same as giving something independent life... but then again, is it? When you can make magical items and crazy super technology, is it really far-fetched that you might be able to create an AI that is its own life form? Only your Storyteller and the difficulty they impose on your attempts can say for sure. (It should go without saying that this method involves a lot of dedicated work on the project, though. Which is okay, because it took Frankenstein his entire life, so it's not unreasonable for it to take Scions a while.)
Another option, since you're reanimating dead body parts to walk and live again, would be the Death purview. While the boons in that purview that can convince dead people to get up and run around were written with raising a single one-piece zombie in mind, we might be willing to let a Scion who carefully sewed together parts from various different corpses use Unquiet Corpse to create a zombie from the newly-made composite body. If you or your Storyteller aren't down with that, or you just want something with a little more zazz than a shambling and mostly-mindless zombie, Revenant is specifically designed to let Scions create undead creatures with powers and intellect of their own. Frankenstein's monster isn't a very ancient critter like a vampire or a wight, having been invented recently in nineteenth-century literature, but we would still probably let a Scion take a swing at it.
And, of course, the Health powers of Human Clay and Human Hybrid could create or alter new humans to look a lot like Frankenstein's monster. They wouldn't be exactly the same - Health can't reanimate the dead, and it can only create mortals, not supernatural bananas creatures, unless you combine it with something else - but you could still get the same general feel.
So if you're all about putting together weird patchwork dead people and then awakening them to become your mortal enemy, you can definitely do that. Just be wary, lest you, too, end up in a kill-or-be-killed existential struggle.
Well, that depends on whether you want to do it the way Frankenstein did! Scion has more than one way to try to do this sort of thing, so there's no question that you can do it - of course you can! - but rather a question of how close to Frankenstein's method you want to cling.
If you want to do it exactly the way it's done in the classic novel, with the quintessential mad science approach of building machines and using the power of brains, then you want to approach this bad boy with Artistry. Lords of divine buildery who have the Breath of Life boon can simply cobble the monster together, point their fingers at it and say presto, and it'll be a one hundred percent genuine, living and moving creature, albeit one made of kind of icky stuff. This is how Scion would allow you to do exactly what Frankenstein does - build it with weird science and press the on button.
And before someone comes in complaining, "But I don't want to have to be Legend 11 to build Frankenstein's monster! He was just a human!," first remember that Dr. Frankenstein is a fictional character and not part of Scion's universe, so his Legend rating or lack thereof is pretty irrelevant. We don't have to try to assign a Legend level to things fictional characters do when they're in different universes from Scion's, because that is crazytown and we could spend the rest of our lives trying to do that without succeeding. (Although you can, of course, bring as many fictional characters into your games as you want to. They just aren't part of the default setting so the game won't necessarily be balanced for them.)
However, not wanting to have to wait until you're a master of the universe to make Frankensteinian horrors is a legitimate gripe, so let's explore other ways we could do that.
Artistry's still a strong contender here, actually; you just may have to put your back into it a little more than you would need if you were already at the level of going to Freemason meetings with Ptah and Svarozhich. You could build an automaton or moving robot, from pieces of corpse if you really wanted to, with the normal rolls for crafting something magical, and build an artificial intelligence into it in order to make sure it could speak and make decisions like Frankenstein's famous monster. Of course, AI isn't quite the same as giving something independent life... but then again, is it? When you can make magical items and crazy super technology, is it really far-fetched that you might be able to create an AI that is its own life form? Only your Storyteller and the difficulty they impose on your attempts can say for sure. (It should go without saying that this method involves a lot of dedicated work on the project, though. Which is okay, because it took Frankenstein his entire life, so it's not unreasonable for it to take Scions a while.)
Another option, since you're reanimating dead body parts to walk and live again, would be the Death purview. While the boons in that purview that can convince dead people to get up and run around were written with raising a single one-piece zombie in mind, we might be willing to let a Scion who carefully sewed together parts from various different corpses use Unquiet Corpse to create a zombie from the newly-made composite body. If you or your Storyteller aren't down with that, or you just want something with a little more zazz than a shambling and mostly-mindless zombie, Revenant is specifically designed to let Scions create undead creatures with powers and intellect of their own. Frankenstein's monster isn't a very ancient critter like a vampire or a wight, having been invented recently in nineteenth-century literature, but we would still probably let a Scion take a swing at it.
And, of course, the Health powers of Human Clay and Human Hybrid could create or alter new humans to look a lot like Frankenstein's monster. They wouldn't be exactly the same - Health can't reanimate the dead, and it can only create mortals, not supernatural bananas creatures, unless you combine it with something else - but you could still get the same general feel.
So if you're all about putting together weird patchwork dead people and then awakening them to become your mortal enemy, you can definitely do that. Just be wary, lest you, too, end up in a kill-or-be-killed existential struggle.
Sunday, January 19, 2014
They Have Opinions
Okay, you guys, today we're doing a vlog treat (one day late, but we needed to ambush the star-studded cast). Today's vlog is being performed totally unplanned and unscripted by three of our fabulous players, who took time out from their busy schedule of being screwed over by other king gods to answer some player-centric questions. In fact, they were so awesome at it that it was over an hour long when it was done, so we split it into two parts and you'll get to see the second half next week.
In the meantime, here are some questions!
Question: Does high positive/negative Appearance usually affect internal band interactions? Or is it often forgotten/shrugged off by players and their PCs? For instance, does Woody often find himself getting lost in Geoff's eyes, or is he just used to it?
Question: Have you used Gods in your games as NPCs, actually involved alongside the PCs, not just as observers/catalysts, and if so, which ones?
Question: Has your PCs been in a Avatar vs. Avatar fight?
Question: Sowiljr has a keycard for the handsome gods club. What is that? A cult for him or a mens' club for gods? Or what?
Question: Okay since every pantheon seems to be big messed up families I gotta ask: who is your "unfavorite" in each pantheon?
Awesome shout-out props to Alex Preston-Bosch for the fancy new opening credits - he is awesome!
In the meantime, here are some questions!
Question: Does high positive/negative Appearance usually affect internal band interactions? Or is it often forgotten/shrugged off by players and their PCs? For instance, does Woody often find himself getting lost in Geoff's eyes, or is he just used to it?
Question: Have you used Gods in your games as NPCs, actually involved alongside the PCs, not just as observers/catalysts, and if so, which ones?
Question: Has your PCs been in a Avatar vs. Avatar fight?
Question: Sowiljr has a keycard for the handsome gods club. What is that? A cult for him or a mens' club for gods? Or what?
Question: Okay since every pantheon seems to be big messed up families I gotta ask: who is your "unfavorite" in each pantheon?
Awesome shout-out props to Alex Preston-Bosch for the fancy new opening credits - he is awesome!
Sisters
Art time again!
Today we have a gorgeous portrait of Alison Margaritas and "Sissy", an enigmatic figure who might be her savior but then again might also be something much more dangerous altogether.
I love this picture. It's emotionally heavy and still unsettling at the same time... like the entire situation.
Too awesome.
Today we have a gorgeous portrait of Alison Margaritas and "Sissy", an enigmatic figure who might be her savior but then again might also be something much more dangerous altogether.
By the ever-talented Samantha Braithwaite!
I love this picture. It's emotionally heavy and still unsettling at the same time... like the entire situation.
Too awesome.
The Beatin' Stick
Question: I'm running a Hero-level Scion game where several characters have been breaking all sorts of laws while still staying within their Virtues. I want them to encounter a Demigod who focuses on Justice and can deliver some righteousness on them if need be. However, they mainly focused on their Epic physicals and rarely if ever use Willpower or their Virtues. Is there really anything I can use against them besides Star Chamber?
First of all: we've heard you guys. Justice's low levels suck. We have put it on the giant list of Things That Need Fixing, and hope to do so sometime before the death of the universe. But in the meantime, let's look at what we can do here as a Demigod-level Scion.
To begin with, while not using Virtues might take some of the low-level Justice powers out of the game, bleeding Scions of their Willpower can still have a major impact. There are powers that cost Willpower, and even if they don't have any of those, having no Willpower will make them very prone to Virtue Extremity. Justice isn't the only thing that can de-Willpower a Scion; your just-beatdown-minded Demigod could also employ knacks like Opening Salvo, Scathing Retort or Knowing Glance. If you're really looking for ways to make sure these Scions suffer some of the consequences of their actions, they don't even have to break their Virtues; if they're low on Willpower and the Demigod punishing them breaks their Virtues, they'll have just as much of a spiritual crisis on their hands.
But anyway, on to the main event: Justice boons and how to use them on people who don't care about anything but their punching stats. First of all, if there's a particular misbehavior that your Scions are often guilty of that isn't technically illegal, you'll want to give this Demigod Code of Heaven so he can kick their asses even if they haven't strictly broken a law. If one of their favorite shenanigans is listed on the Code of Heaven table, consider making your Demigod from that pantheon so that they have a free ticket to clock these kids one if need be. This prevents the dreaded Lawyering.
Punishments in the Justice purview often depend on what the person did and what your goal is in punishing them. Are you trying to make them realize there are consequences for doing that thing, or just consequences for misbehaving in general? Are you trying to rehabilitate them, or just slap them one for being bad? Are you trying to punish them as in doing something that inconveniences them, or something that devastates them, and is it okay with you to punish them in a permanent way, or are you trying for something severe but temporary?
Depending on the answers to those questions, you have several options. Scarlet Letter is a hilarious good time, and while it won't necessarily prevent them from enjoying their beating-stuff stats, it can instantly torpedo their social interactions, or at the least very thoroughly embarrass them and make others not trust them as much. Banish is a great choice for use against a Scion in a retaliatory way; it keeps them away from whatever it is they may have just screwed up, and can be vastly inconvenient or dangerous for them, especially if they have to do things within that banishment area, and instead they're separated from some of their group and can't help the mission succeed or ride to anyone's rescue (or have anyone else nearby to rescue them, for that matter). At best, the whole group will have to stay outside the area of the banishment until he can participate, which will suck and possibly make them miss windows of opportunity, and which often gets the whole group on the "let's not do that again" bandwagon since they were all affected even though only one person actually had the boon used on him. For the high-level Justice Demigod, Psychic Prison is an absolute devastation maneuver; it not only causes significant psychological harm to the person it was used on (but actually only takes a few minutes of real time to happen, so whatever mission they're on isn't even impeded!), but also drains away social stats to represent that damage. These may be primarily physical Scions, but I'd lay odds that at least some of them would not be pleased to suddenly lose dots they previously possessed. And, also at that high level of Demigodhood, Sanctify Oath is another bombshell, and visits endless botchery on Scions who break promises (which the Demigod should, of course, ask them to make when he suspects they're going to misbehave).
However, for a whole group full of mostly physically-oriented people who need a love-tap from Justice, I think your best possible choice might be Sympathy Pains, which ties several people together so that all of them suffer pain and damage simultaneously. Tie them to innocent bystanders, so that if they get hurt everyone suffers; tie them to their enemies, so that they have to accept their punishment if they want to win the day; tie them to the Demigod himself, so that he's untouchable to them unless they want to punch themselves in the face. Sympathy Pains is designed to be used against physical characters who think with their fists and need to be reined in by forcing them to confront that what they do hurts others, so it's flexible enough to be used in a lot of situations for these characters.
Of course, they may find a way to pull one over on your Justice-y Demigod, and if so, well, them's the breaks - sometimes the PCs take out a lovingly-crafted NPC, and that's that. But since Justice is designed to deal with people who have managed to get away with some bullshit in spite of their other obligations or Virtues, using it on Scions who are consistently being dicks is just the way the gods intended things to be.
First of all: we've heard you guys. Justice's low levels suck. We have put it on the giant list of Things That Need Fixing, and hope to do so sometime before the death of the universe. But in the meantime, let's look at what we can do here as a Demigod-level Scion.
To begin with, while not using Virtues might take some of the low-level Justice powers out of the game, bleeding Scions of their Willpower can still have a major impact. There are powers that cost Willpower, and even if they don't have any of those, having no Willpower will make them very prone to Virtue Extremity. Justice isn't the only thing that can de-Willpower a Scion; your just-beatdown-minded Demigod could also employ knacks like Opening Salvo, Scathing Retort or Knowing Glance. If you're really looking for ways to make sure these Scions suffer some of the consequences of their actions, they don't even have to break their Virtues; if they're low on Willpower and the Demigod punishing them breaks their Virtues, they'll have just as much of a spiritual crisis on their hands.
But anyway, on to the main event: Justice boons and how to use them on people who don't care about anything but their punching stats. First of all, if there's a particular misbehavior that your Scions are often guilty of that isn't technically illegal, you'll want to give this Demigod Code of Heaven so he can kick their asses even if they haven't strictly broken a law. If one of their favorite shenanigans is listed on the Code of Heaven table, consider making your Demigod from that pantheon so that they have a free ticket to clock these kids one if need be. This prevents the dreaded Lawyering.
Punishments in the Justice purview often depend on what the person did and what your goal is in punishing them. Are you trying to make them realize there are consequences for doing that thing, or just consequences for misbehaving in general? Are you trying to rehabilitate them, or just slap them one for being bad? Are you trying to punish them as in doing something that inconveniences them, or something that devastates them, and is it okay with you to punish them in a permanent way, or are you trying for something severe but temporary?
Depending on the answers to those questions, you have several options. Scarlet Letter is a hilarious good time, and while it won't necessarily prevent them from enjoying their beating-stuff stats, it can instantly torpedo their social interactions, or at the least very thoroughly embarrass them and make others not trust them as much. Banish is a great choice for use against a Scion in a retaliatory way; it keeps them away from whatever it is they may have just screwed up, and can be vastly inconvenient or dangerous for them, especially if they have to do things within that banishment area, and instead they're separated from some of their group and can't help the mission succeed or ride to anyone's rescue (or have anyone else nearby to rescue them, for that matter). At best, the whole group will have to stay outside the area of the banishment until he can participate, which will suck and possibly make them miss windows of opportunity, and which often gets the whole group on the "let's not do that again" bandwagon since they were all affected even though only one person actually had the boon used on him. For the high-level Justice Demigod, Psychic Prison is an absolute devastation maneuver; it not only causes significant psychological harm to the person it was used on (but actually only takes a few minutes of real time to happen, so whatever mission they're on isn't even impeded!), but also drains away social stats to represent that damage. These may be primarily physical Scions, but I'd lay odds that at least some of them would not be pleased to suddenly lose dots they previously possessed. And, also at that high level of Demigodhood, Sanctify Oath is another bombshell, and visits endless botchery on Scions who break promises (which the Demigod should, of course, ask them to make when he suspects they're going to misbehave).
However, for a whole group full of mostly physically-oriented people who need a love-tap from Justice, I think your best possible choice might be Sympathy Pains, which ties several people together so that all of them suffer pain and damage simultaneously. Tie them to innocent bystanders, so that if they get hurt everyone suffers; tie them to their enemies, so that they have to accept their punishment if they want to win the day; tie them to the Demigod himself, so that he's untouchable to them unless they want to punch themselves in the face. Sympathy Pains is designed to be used against physical characters who think with their fists and need to be reined in by forcing them to confront that what they do hurts others, so it's flexible enough to be used in a lot of situations for these characters.
Of course, they may find a way to pull one over on your Justice-y Demigod, and if so, well, them's the breaks - sometimes the PCs take out a lovingly-crafted NPC, and that's that. But since Justice is designed to deal with people who have managed to get away with some bullshit in spite of their other obligations or Virtues, using it on Scions who are consistently being dicks is just the way the gods intended things to be.
Friday, January 17, 2014
Best and Brightest
Question: What qualifies a human for Legendary Mortal status?
This is a question that the original books never really clarify fully, so we all have to muddle through on our own. Actually, we don't have a lot of Legendary Mortals running around in our games, but they are theoretically possible, so we have a few general suggestions for them.
There are only two times the books directly give us a way for a mortal to become a Legendary Mortal. The first is in Scion: Ragnarok on page 43, where it notes that a mortal who escapes death by willing his own survival after someone uses The Best Trick on him becomes permanently Legendary, and the second is in the Scion Storyteller Screen on page 8, where it says that any mortal who sleeps with the legendarily virgin goddess Epona becomes Legendary in his own right. Beyond that, mechanics for Legendary Mortals are never addressed; Scion: Demigod mentions that they exist, but never says anything about how they get to be what they are.
So it's sink or swim, Storytellers! We have actually never officially codified what creates a Legendary Mortal in our games (other than obvious things like the Bestow the Mantle of Fate boon). Mostly, we haven't worried about it because it's more of a setting issue than a game one; Legendary Mortals are out there in Scion's universe and useful for explaining the actions of a few rare legendary figures who don't make sense as either Scions or normal humans, but they don't make appearances in games much. Of course, some of you guys may have Legendary Mortals running in and out on the daily, but for us it's seldom a front-and-center issue.
However, while we don't have directly outlined rules for this, we do have general guidelines. The idea of Legendary Mortals is that, once in a great while, there may be a human who does something so incredible and myth-worthy that Fate itself notices her, and as a result she is woven into the story and remembered in a way that most mortals could never aspire to. She still can't ever rival the powers of the gods or their children, who are divine in their own right, but she has become a legend among humans and so impressive that even the gods might remember her name. Legendary Mortals must also be legendary in their own right - that is, they must be legendary because of their own actions or abilities, not simply because they're in close proximity to someone else who is already legendary (like a Scion). Average humans, or even extraordinary humans, are not made Legendary simply by doing things within the normal human scope, nor do they become Legendary themselves when their only claim to fame is the actions of a Scion or Titanspawn near them or involving them. However, in most cases a Legendary Mortal must also be in some way involved with or be able to affect the supernatural or divine. They must touch something that is already Legendary, but also be worthy of that Legend themselves.
This is all super subjective, of course, so different Storytellers will probably have different standards of what kinds of acts warrant a mortal being elevated to Legendary status. Normal feats, even though they are awesome for humans, don't cut it; lifting a car off a trapped friend, cracking an ancient language's code in spite of decades of failure from others before him, or managing to orchestrate a government's downfall with flawless manipulation and leak tactics are all impressive, but they are things that humans at the top of their game can do. A simple brush with the supernatural won't do it, either, or else every human who barely manages to survive a vampire attack or creates a work of art after being inspired by a Muse would be Legendary, too. But a mortal who defeats a Scion in single combat in front of his divine parent, and is rewarded by becoming his bosom companion is a Legendary Mortal; a mortal who catches the undying love of a god and marries him in spite of her human fragility is a Legendary Mortal; a mortal who destroys a divine treasure that had been hidden for thousands of years and is cursed with immortality as a result is a Legendary Mortal. Stuff like that.
It sometimes helps to look for figures in ancient myth that appear to be Legendary Mortals, and base your assumptions on them, as well. One of our favorites is Odysseus, who despite having some divine blood way back in his family tree is too far removed from it to be anything but human and has no special powers, but who still manages to turn the tides of a war fought by the gods themselves with his cleverness and escape many supernatural trials to find his way home. Another example might be Beowulf, who manages to fight and overcome supernatural creatures despite not being supernatural himself, and becomes a hero remembered in legend forever in spite of eventually dying at the hands of a monster he could not hope to defeat. Lugalbanda, the mortal father of Gilgamesh who married the goddess Ninsun and was posthumously said to live among the gods as a king forever because of the renown of his son, might be a Legendary Mortal, or Kunti, the mortal woman who through ritual managed to summon down the god Surya and then bear his child in spite of being a virgin.
Finally, the most important thing for deciding that someone is a Legendary Mortal: just like a Scion, his or her deeds must live on as myth. What they do must matter enough to be remembered - not just front-page news this week, not just remembered as a landmark case in education for a few years, but enduring, retold stories. That's how Scion measures Fate paying attention to and caring about someone, and a Legendary Mortal must do something that matters enough to become a legend. That's why they're so special, after all; even though they aren't themselves magical, they still did something that made them remembered along with the creatures and divine beings who are.
This is a question that the original books never really clarify fully, so we all have to muddle through on our own. Actually, we don't have a lot of Legendary Mortals running around in our games, but they are theoretically possible, so we have a few general suggestions for them.
There are only two times the books directly give us a way for a mortal to become a Legendary Mortal. The first is in Scion: Ragnarok on page 43, where it notes that a mortal who escapes death by willing his own survival after someone uses The Best Trick on him becomes permanently Legendary, and the second is in the Scion Storyteller Screen on page 8, where it says that any mortal who sleeps with the legendarily virgin goddess Epona becomes Legendary in his own right. Beyond that, mechanics for Legendary Mortals are never addressed; Scion: Demigod mentions that they exist, but never says anything about how they get to be what they are.
So it's sink or swim, Storytellers! We have actually never officially codified what creates a Legendary Mortal in our games (other than obvious things like the Bestow the Mantle of Fate boon). Mostly, we haven't worried about it because it's more of a setting issue than a game one; Legendary Mortals are out there in Scion's universe and useful for explaining the actions of a few rare legendary figures who don't make sense as either Scions or normal humans, but they don't make appearances in games much. Of course, some of you guys may have Legendary Mortals running in and out on the daily, but for us it's seldom a front-and-center issue.
However, while we don't have directly outlined rules for this, we do have general guidelines. The idea of Legendary Mortals is that, once in a great while, there may be a human who does something so incredible and myth-worthy that Fate itself notices her, and as a result she is woven into the story and remembered in a way that most mortals could never aspire to. She still can't ever rival the powers of the gods or their children, who are divine in their own right, but she has become a legend among humans and so impressive that even the gods might remember her name. Legendary Mortals must also be legendary in their own right - that is, they must be legendary because of their own actions or abilities, not simply because they're in close proximity to someone else who is already legendary (like a Scion). Average humans, or even extraordinary humans, are not made Legendary simply by doing things within the normal human scope, nor do they become Legendary themselves when their only claim to fame is the actions of a Scion or Titanspawn near them or involving them. However, in most cases a Legendary Mortal must also be in some way involved with or be able to affect the supernatural or divine. They must touch something that is already Legendary, but also be worthy of that Legend themselves.
This is all super subjective, of course, so different Storytellers will probably have different standards of what kinds of acts warrant a mortal being elevated to Legendary status. Normal feats, even though they are awesome for humans, don't cut it; lifting a car off a trapped friend, cracking an ancient language's code in spite of decades of failure from others before him, or managing to orchestrate a government's downfall with flawless manipulation and leak tactics are all impressive, but they are things that humans at the top of their game can do. A simple brush with the supernatural won't do it, either, or else every human who barely manages to survive a vampire attack or creates a work of art after being inspired by a Muse would be Legendary, too. But a mortal who defeats a Scion in single combat in front of his divine parent, and is rewarded by becoming his bosom companion is a Legendary Mortal; a mortal who catches the undying love of a god and marries him in spite of her human fragility is a Legendary Mortal; a mortal who destroys a divine treasure that had been hidden for thousands of years and is cursed with immortality as a result is a Legendary Mortal. Stuff like that.
It sometimes helps to look for figures in ancient myth that appear to be Legendary Mortals, and base your assumptions on them, as well. One of our favorites is Odysseus, who despite having some divine blood way back in his family tree is too far removed from it to be anything but human and has no special powers, but who still manages to turn the tides of a war fought by the gods themselves with his cleverness and escape many supernatural trials to find his way home. Another example might be Beowulf, who manages to fight and overcome supernatural creatures despite not being supernatural himself, and becomes a hero remembered in legend forever in spite of eventually dying at the hands of a monster he could not hope to defeat. Lugalbanda, the mortal father of Gilgamesh who married the goddess Ninsun and was posthumously said to live among the gods as a king forever because of the renown of his son, might be a Legendary Mortal, or Kunti, the mortal woman who through ritual managed to summon down the god Surya and then bear his child in spite of being a virgin.
Finally, the most important thing for deciding that someone is a Legendary Mortal: just like a Scion, his or her deeds must live on as myth. What they do must matter enough to be remembered - not just front-page news this week, not just remembered as a landmark case in education for a few years, but enduring, retold stories. That's how Scion measures Fate paying attention to and caring about someone, and a Legendary Mortal must do something that matters enough to become a legend. That's why they're so special, after all; even though they aren't themselves magical, they still did something that made them remembered along with the creatures and divine beings who are.
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Green and Wrinkly: The Sexiest Fruit
Question: Are there any gods, rituals, or anything else mythological associated with avocados, or more importantly, guacamole?
I hope you were ready to talk about how avocados are really testicles, because that's what's going to happen.
Avocados probably originated in Mexico, and most of their historic importance has been there; there is still some debate among horticultural scholars over whether the fruit started in Mexico and was later dispersed via seeds and trading to various other parts of Central and South America, or whether it started somewhere else and we just happen to have noticed it most prominently in Mexico, but our oldest evidence of consumption and cultivation of them comes from the central Mexican area. People chowing down on avocados is an old, old tradition, predating most of the familiar cultures of the area by a couple of millennia at least.
Our English word "avocado" is a slightly Spanish-transformed version of the original Nahuatl word for the fruit, which is ahuacatl (say it out loud, you can hear the resemblance). What's exciting about that is that ahuacatl is also the word for testicles, and there's a good reason for that.
Because they tend to grow like that. So you can see where people might have gotten the idea that they should name the fruit as if it were tree-junk, because that's pretty much what it is. Guacamole is just as excitingly dude-part-related; the word is another corrupted but still very close loan from Nahuatl, and in its original form was ahuacamolli (literally, "testicle sauce").
Now, I don't know of any avocado deities in particular; there are plenty of Central and South American fertility gods who probably include avocados in their general responsibilities (like Yum Caax, the Maya forest-god, for example), but none who just make the avocado and the avocado only their most important job. However, in several myths where a divine fruit is involved, especially in a fertility and birth context, scholars love to debate whether or not the fruit in question might be an avocado. In the Maya myth where Hun Hunaphu/Hun Nal grows into a tree from his severed head and impregnates the underworld goddess Xquic - depending on the version, by spitting into her hand or by getting her to eat a fruit from the tree - has been theorized to be perhaps suggesting that he grew into an avocado tree, thanks to the avocado's connection to fertility and male reproduction. The Inca myth of Coniraya impregnating Cavillaca by tricking her into eating a fruit full of his semen is also possibly an avocado, or in some versions a lucuma (which is a really similar fruit, in fact). There's no conclusive proof in either case, but when there's a fruit that is supposedly a testicle, and there are women getting pregnant from eating or looking at mysterious fruits, it's not a huge logical leap.
As for rituals, though, one of the oldest ones on the books: the avocado was considered an aphrodisiac by various Mesoamerican peoples, especially the Aztecs and Maya, so it would be consumed, as fruit or guacamole, by men who wanted to pep up their own testicles in preparation for a night of hot heir-siring. I've even seen a few books claim that the Aztecs prevented unmarried women from going outside during avocado harvest time in case all the sex in the air might accidentally cause them to start popping up pregnant, although I haven't been able to find a firm source on that one.
But, at any rate, avocados are all about dude fertility in Mesoamerica and South America, so if your Scion chronicle wants to use them, look out for dangerous levels of sexiness.
I hope you were ready to talk about how avocados are really testicles, because that's what's going to happen.
Avocados probably originated in Mexico, and most of their historic importance has been there; there is still some debate among horticultural scholars over whether the fruit started in Mexico and was later dispersed via seeds and trading to various other parts of Central and South America, or whether it started somewhere else and we just happen to have noticed it most prominently in Mexico, but our oldest evidence of consumption and cultivation of them comes from the central Mexican area. People chowing down on avocados is an old, old tradition, predating most of the familiar cultures of the area by a couple of millennia at least.
Our English word "avocado" is a slightly Spanish-transformed version of the original Nahuatl word for the fruit, which is ahuacatl (say it out loud, you can hear the resemblance). What's exciting about that is that ahuacatl is also the word for testicles, and there's a good reason for that.
Because they tend to grow like that. So you can see where people might have gotten the idea that they should name the fruit as if it were tree-junk, because that's pretty much what it is. Guacamole is just as excitingly dude-part-related; the word is another corrupted but still very close loan from Nahuatl, and in its original form was ahuacamolli (literally, "testicle sauce").
Now, I don't know of any avocado deities in particular; there are plenty of Central and South American fertility gods who probably include avocados in their general responsibilities (like Yum Caax, the Maya forest-god, for example), but none who just make the avocado and the avocado only their most important job. However, in several myths where a divine fruit is involved, especially in a fertility and birth context, scholars love to debate whether or not the fruit in question might be an avocado. In the Maya myth where Hun Hunaphu/Hun Nal grows into a tree from his severed head and impregnates the underworld goddess Xquic - depending on the version, by spitting into her hand or by getting her to eat a fruit from the tree - has been theorized to be perhaps suggesting that he grew into an avocado tree, thanks to the avocado's connection to fertility and male reproduction. The Inca myth of Coniraya impregnating Cavillaca by tricking her into eating a fruit full of his semen is also possibly an avocado, or in some versions a lucuma (which is a really similar fruit, in fact). There's no conclusive proof in either case, but when there's a fruit that is supposedly a testicle, and there are women getting pregnant from eating or looking at mysterious fruits, it's not a huge logical leap.
As for rituals, though, one of the oldest ones on the books: the avocado was considered an aphrodisiac by various Mesoamerican peoples, especially the Aztecs and Maya, so it would be consumed, as fruit or guacamole, by men who wanted to pep up their own testicles in preparation for a night of hot heir-siring. I've even seen a few books claim that the Aztecs prevented unmarried women from going outside during avocado harvest time in case all the sex in the air might accidentally cause them to start popping up pregnant, although I haven't been able to find a firm source on that one.
But, at any rate, avocados are all about dude fertility in Mesoamerica and South America, so if your Scion chronicle wants to use them, look out for dangerous levels of sexiness.
Johns New Project(post two)
What should I call this project? Im open to any ideas. Right now...I got nothin.
If possible, keep your questions and comments for this to youtube. For this project only, I'd like to move our presence over there a bit(not that I'll ignore questions here or anything...).
Thanks to everyone who voted. Like I mention in the video, if you're gonna get a copy of the book to read along with me, let me know asap. Otherwise Im just as happy reading it and giving you guys updates as I go. But I do think you'll get more out of it(especially ST's) if you read it along with me. Plus if people read it we can have more of a dialogue about ways to incorporate it into scion, and less of a class about it. Which IMO is preferable for everyone.
Link to buy the book:
http://www.amazon.com/Way-Animal-Powers-Part-Mythologies/dp/0060551496
Note to self about video:
Figure out why videos freeze at the very start on my eyes. Also get more of my face in screen...I swear when I filmed it you could see more of me.
If possible, keep your questions and comments for this to youtube. For this project only, I'd like to move our presence over there a bit(not that I'll ignore questions here or anything...).
Thanks to everyone who voted. Like I mention in the video, if you're gonna get a copy of the book to read along with me, let me know asap. Otherwise Im just as happy reading it and giving you guys updates as I go. But I do think you'll get more out of it(especially ST's) if you read it along with me. Plus if people read it we can have more of a dialogue about ways to incorporate it into scion, and less of a class about it. Which IMO is preferable for everyone.
Link to buy the book:
http://www.amazon.com/Way-Animal-Powers-Part-Mythologies/dp/0060551496
Note to self about video:
Figure out why videos freeze at the very start on my eyes. Also get more of my face in screen...I swear when I filmed it you could see more of me.
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Grand Theft Relic
Question: Hermes is known to like to steal things. What do you think he'd have handy from his pilfering on any given day that would be interesting, infuriating or a possible plot seed? You can apply the same question to any interesting gods known to steal.
This is a weird question. It's like a sideways version of the classic "who would win in a fight" question we get now and then, because it's a theoretical question about stuff that you could do in a game, but not that is actually going on in mythology. The answer could be literally anything; Hermes is the god of thieves and has Ultimate Attributes that make him able to steal from practically anybody. He could have anything in his closet. He might have any plan that involves stealing an important relic, or he might be fencing stolen things for others, or his Sanctum might look like an episode of Hoarders with all the random crap he's accumulated. Or he might not steal anything particularly interesting or important, because Mystery exists and unless he has a really great reason to take something it just may not be worth the hassle of people getting pissed off at him when they find out. I mean, he got out of that thing with Apollo intact, but that kind of thing's tiring..
So really, the answer is "Whatever your story needs him to have". There's really no way to guess what he should or might have because that depends completely on what he's doing in any given story. The same goes for the other famous gods who sometimes turn thief - Eshu, Loki, Quetzalcoatl, Stribog and so on. They have whatever they might have stolen to further whatever plot they're in right now. Without knowing what circumstances they're operating under, you might as well ask what clothes they'll be wearing next Tuesday. We don't freaking know.
This is a weird question. It's like a sideways version of the classic "who would win in a fight" question we get now and then, because it's a theoretical question about stuff that you could do in a game, but not that is actually going on in mythology. The answer could be literally anything; Hermes is the god of thieves and has Ultimate Attributes that make him able to steal from practically anybody. He could have anything in his closet. He might have any plan that involves stealing an important relic, or he might be fencing stolen things for others, or his Sanctum might look like an episode of Hoarders with all the random crap he's accumulated. Or he might not steal anything particularly interesting or important, because Mystery exists and unless he has a really great reason to take something it just may not be worth the hassle of people getting pissed off at him when they find out. I mean, he got out of that thing with Apollo intact, but that kind of thing's tiring..
So really, the answer is "Whatever your story needs him to have". There's really no way to guess what he should or might have because that depends completely on what he's doing in any given story. The same goes for the other famous gods who sometimes turn thief - Eshu, Loki, Quetzalcoatl, Stribog and so on. They have whatever they might have stolen to further whatever plot they're in right now. Without knowing what circumstances they're operating under, you might as well ask what clothes they'll be wearing next Tuesday. We don't freaking know.
Fourfold Faces
Question: I don't quite 'get' Tal'ich. I mean, I love the mechanical aspect of it and I think it's a very cool PSP, but while I understand the concept achieving excellence through Arete, gaining power through sacrifice through Itztli, or escaping the bonds of Samsara, I don't understand the cultural and mythological basis of Tal'ich. Could you give me some examples from Mayan myths? And, for the record, you guys do amazing work!
Thank you! We're always glad that someone enjoys the things we do.
Tal'ich is one of the most complex purviews we've ever written; that doesn't necessarily mean that the K'uh are a more complex pantheon than all the others or anything, just that their relationship with themselves and their universe required more fiddly detail to illustrate than some others. The basic concept beneath it is that the Maya gods consistently appear as dual or quadruple aspects of themselves, which handle different duties and carry different symbolic attributes to illustrate this. The K'uh are individuals, but they are also dual and quadruple creatures, many in one at the same time.
Maya myth is a little bit scarce thanks to The Great Spanish Exploding, but we do still have some great examples of this motif being repeated throughout Maya stories and deity personalities. Pauahtun (also called Bacab) often appears in Maya myth as a single figure, especially in his role as the codical God N; however, in the creation myth of the Chilam Balam, there are four Bacabs, which collectively act as earth deities who support the sky and allow it to be thrown into chaos and destroyed when they abandon their post to go gallivanting around the world. Similarly, Chaac appears as a single deity in myths where he brings storms with his lightning axe or fights other gods, but also as four Chaacs in the myth where they collectively break open a mountain to release the maize or the image of the group of them striking the earth with lightning bolts simultaneously as part of a giant lightning storm.
Duality, of role and personality, is yet more common; pairs of gods who are opposing aspects of one another are a common phenomenon among the K'uh, often as married pairs or twins, usually displaying largely similar qualities with a few important difficulties. The Hero Twins are a classic example of this, with the majority of their attributes (cleverness, magic, ball-playing, fertility powers) in common, but one key area in which they're different, in their case that one is the sun deity and the other the moon. Itzamna and Ix Chel are both ancient, primordial creator gods with major control over the natural world, differing mostly in the fact that one is male and the other female; and another step down, Ix Chel and Awilix are related but opposing aspects of the same figure as well, with both representing themes of femininity and power but one old while the other is young. Scholars of Maya mythology have been fascinated by the alternate-aspect theme in its deities for a long time, and debates rage over whether various sets of gods are separate because they grew from a single original source, or actually really a single god that simply manifests in two different ways, or something that encompasses all possibilities, similar to the Christian theory of the Holy Trinity being three distinct entities that are really just aspects of one God.
So Tal'ich is attempting to illustrate this idea of the Maya gods as being many in one. The directional boons (Likin, Xaman, Chikin and Nohol, along with their auxiliary boon Chun) tie into the tendency of some of the K'uh to act in fourfold forms. The dual boons (Uinic Chupla, Utzil Keban, Caan Cab and Sucun Palil) likewise illustrate a K'uh Scion's ability to switch between opposing aspects. And Pakte, the ultimate boon, both allows them to take on these differing aspects all at once (as gods occasionally do in Maya mythology) and provides for the possibility for their aspects to split off and become new deities themselves, thus explaining the existence of some pairs that seem to have become established separate from one another.
A little while ago, while talking about this phenomenon, I made a little (very little, very rough) possible family tree for the K'uh showing where some of the splits might have taken place:
This is just one possible setup, though - scholars are endlessly trying to figure out which figures might be the same as which others, not to mention the thorny thicket of the differences between Yucatec, Lacandon, Tzotzil, K'iche and other branches of Maya mythology that sometimes slightly change the lines of descent. Any of the sets of twins might be considered aspects that split off from one another (the Hero Twins, their father and his twin, their brothers the Howler Monkeys), and there are also theories that Itzamna and K'inich Ahau might be apsects of the same original deity, Sucucyum and Yum Cimil might be split aspects related to death, and Tepeu might be an alternate aspect of Huracan that split off at some point as well.
Basically, Maya gods and their different aspects are complete and utter craziness, and Tal'ich is there to try to help their Scions get in on that madness as much as they want to.
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Tal'ich is one of the most complex purviews we've ever written; that doesn't necessarily mean that the K'uh are a more complex pantheon than all the others or anything, just that their relationship with themselves and their universe required more fiddly detail to illustrate than some others. The basic concept beneath it is that the Maya gods consistently appear as dual or quadruple aspects of themselves, which handle different duties and carry different symbolic attributes to illustrate this. The K'uh are individuals, but they are also dual and quadruple creatures, many in one at the same time.
Maya myth is a little bit scarce thanks to The Great Spanish Exploding, but we do still have some great examples of this motif being repeated throughout Maya stories and deity personalities. Pauahtun (also called Bacab) often appears in Maya myth as a single figure, especially in his role as the codical God N; however, in the creation myth of the Chilam Balam, there are four Bacabs, which collectively act as earth deities who support the sky and allow it to be thrown into chaos and destroyed when they abandon their post to go gallivanting around the world. Similarly, Chaac appears as a single deity in myths where he brings storms with his lightning axe or fights other gods, but also as four Chaacs in the myth where they collectively break open a mountain to release the maize or the image of the group of them striking the earth with lightning bolts simultaneously as part of a giant lightning storm.
Duality, of role and personality, is yet more common; pairs of gods who are opposing aspects of one another are a common phenomenon among the K'uh, often as married pairs or twins, usually displaying largely similar qualities with a few important difficulties. The Hero Twins are a classic example of this, with the majority of their attributes (cleverness, magic, ball-playing, fertility powers) in common, but one key area in which they're different, in their case that one is the sun deity and the other the moon. Itzamna and Ix Chel are both ancient, primordial creator gods with major control over the natural world, differing mostly in the fact that one is male and the other female; and another step down, Ix Chel and Awilix are related but opposing aspects of the same figure as well, with both representing themes of femininity and power but one old while the other is young. Scholars of Maya mythology have been fascinated by the alternate-aspect theme in its deities for a long time, and debates rage over whether various sets of gods are separate because they grew from a single original source, or actually really a single god that simply manifests in two different ways, or something that encompasses all possibilities, similar to the Christian theory of the Holy Trinity being three distinct entities that are really just aspects of one God.
So Tal'ich is attempting to illustrate this idea of the Maya gods as being many in one. The directional boons (Likin, Xaman, Chikin and Nohol, along with their auxiliary boon Chun) tie into the tendency of some of the K'uh to act in fourfold forms. The dual boons (Uinic Chupla, Utzil Keban, Caan Cab and Sucun Palil) likewise illustrate a K'uh Scion's ability to switch between opposing aspects. And Pakte, the ultimate boon, both allows them to take on these differing aspects all at once (as gods occasionally do in Maya mythology) and provides for the possibility for their aspects to split off and become new deities themselves, thus explaining the existence of some pairs that seem to have become established separate from one another.
A little while ago, while talking about this phenomenon, I made a little (very little, very rough) possible family tree for the K'uh showing where some of the splits might have taken place:
This is just one possible setup, though - scholars are endlessly trying to figure out which figures might be the same as which others, not to mention the thorny thicket of the differences between Yucatec, Lacandon, Tzotzil, K'iche and other branches of Maya mythology that sometimes slightly change the lines of descent. Any of the sets of twins might be considered aspects that split off from one another (the Hero Twins, their father and his twin, their brothers the Howler Monkeys), and there are also theories that Itzamna and K'inich Ahau might be apsects of the same original deity, Sucucyum and Yum Cimil might be split aspects related to death, and Tepeu might be an alternate aspect of Huracan that split off at some point as well.
Basically, Maya gods and their different aspects are complete and utter craziness, and Tal'ich is there to try to help their Scions get in on that madness as much as they want to.
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