Scion AMA: Sophia Archimedes

Today, the short and probably not particularly sweet answers of Sophia Archimedes, better known as Aiona, goddess of the eternal flame. She is generally annoyed that people, who are stupid, are talking to her. God. People.

Her player let me know that if you have follow-up questions, I can field them over to her. :)

Anne's Fiction Corner

I may still be pretty much useless on the computer, but with the help of dictation software and a whole lot of painkillers, I'm unconquerable nonetheless. Today's story is Qualities of Heat, starring Sophia Archimedes with appearances by Geoff Matheson, Mitchell Gozer, Marcus James, Sangria Tecuhtli and everybody's favorite mysterious Aztec Scion. It is a tale of expectations versus reality, reason versus passion, and what happens when violent temper collides with unexpected outcome.

Skeins of Fate won the voting this time (although it was pretty close), so they're up next! We're down to just two to vote on now, so let the rivalry begin!

• If you vote for Eastern Promises, you're voting for stories from the nineteenth-century band in a world of colonialism and industry - Leona Middleton, Samuel Vanderbilt and Paniwi Bayteru of the Netjer, Faruza Alinejad and Yadi of the Yazata, Mohini Misra and Padma Billingsworth of the Deva, James Howard and Alvin de Lafayette of the Anunna, and many more. They're currently fighting corruption among local authorities, learning what other cultures have to offer them and finding ways to survive no matter what the cost.
• If you vote for Strawberry Fields, you're voting for stories from the wild-eyed Celtic band - Dierdre O'Riordan, Seamus McMann, Jude Shriver and Auggie MacDonough of the Tuatha de Danann and Alaina Bertrand and Ignatius Rex of the Nemetondevos. They're currently gearing up to challenge the combined might of the military and their shadowy puppeteers, while reaching out to their kinsmen around the world.

And off we go!

Anne's Fiction Corner

Just in time to not be heartwarming for the holidays, here's New Wounds and Old Feuds, a new story starring Sophia Archimedes, with appearances by Mitchell Gozer, Geoff Matheson and some other people she doesn't like very much. It is a tale of old grudges, new wars and unreasonable vengeance, not to mention the sins of both the parents and the children coming home to roost. Sometimes you have to learn the lessons of the Roman Empire the hard way.

By popular demand, the next story will return to Geoff and his shenanigans in the Egyptian underworld. The poll has been reset to the right with the new set of characters who are ready to have the next story; vote for your favorite and next time the roster will change again.

Out of my own curiousity: if you were one of the four people who voted "Other" on the last poll, who did you have in mind?

Anne's Fiction Corner

Hey, everybody! Fiction's been slow lately because of working on the Birthright project and various other things, but it's never forgotten. Today's story is Skilled Labor, starring Sophia Archimedes with appearances by Mitchell Gozer, Geoff Matheson, Marcus James and Sangria Tecuhtli. It is a tale of mystery and origins, and a reminder that it doesn't matter if you're a phenomenally powerful demigod offspring of an ancient deity; if you borrow dad's car and crash it, it's still coming out of your allowance.

In case anyone is interested, by the way, there's a third poll up over on the right at the moment, where you can vote on which character you'd most like to see new fiction about. It won't work quite the same as the other polls - the winning character isn't always guaranteed the next spot, since sometimes I have to write another character's story first in order to make the next part of that person's tale make sense, blah blah continuity - but it'll give me a good idea of what you guys are interested in seeing, and I'll stick to it whenever I have the chance.

Players are all voting for themselves as we speak, I'm sure.

Playing Barry White in the Overworld

Question: Which god-level Scion currently has the most active libido? I know Sowiljr and Jioni played the field a lot as mortal heroes but have pruded up as gods, hence the question.

I cleaned up your question a bit, anonymous, because it was worded in a way that came off as less than respectful. No hard feelings, though.

I suspect this question is more for the players than for us; I mean, I know who tends to have the most active sex life (Jioni - sexytimes with Erebus are always on deck), but I wouldn't know if Folkwardr secretly struggles with unbridled passion or anything like that. There are only the four gods running currently, and all of them are faithfully married; Jioni and Erebus see each other fairly regularly, but Folkwardr hardly ever sees Ahouva, and Sowiljr tends to hold Eztli at arm's length (whether it's because he's afraid of having another giant basket of babies or hesitant because she's a bat-monster is unclear). Of the god-level PCs who only recently departed, Yoloxochitl had firmly regressed to childhood and entirely sworn off icky adult things like sex and romance, Terminus was married to Circe and reasonably afraid of suggesting much boudoir time considering their history (but even more afraid of even thinking about cheating on her), Aiona only remembered that sex existed when someone else having it was inconveniencing her, and Vala had never had a romantic relationship as far as anyone knows. The only other person you could really call libidinous was Zwazo, who definitely did try to woo the ladies when the opportunity presented itself and has a lot of little mini-Zwazos wandering around the world in various places, but was often too distracted by things like monsters and confusing African politics.

Just like most mythic figures, they run the spectrum from virginal and uninterested to passionate and excitable. It all depends on their personality and image as deities.

Incidentally, while Jioni quite enjoyed choosing her lovers as she went as a Hero and Demigod, Sowiljr's tomcatting days came to an abrupt end as soon as he married Eztli at around Legend 5 or so, so he really can't compete in that arena. (Not that that is having any effect on the seemingly endless parade of divinely attractive ladies bent on making him give it another try.)

Anne's Fiction Corner

Hey, everybody!

By popular demand (by which I mean a few people who emailed me so I'm sure you know who you are), we're going to start announcing when new fiction comes out here on the blog, both so it's more apparent for those not paying a lot of attention to the Updates page and so there's somewhere for commentary and people who want to tell us about typos. Exciting!

To inaugurate this new practice, today we have the new story Fathers and Sons. It is a tale of light in the darkness, familial responsibilities and mysterious regicide, and stars Geoff Matheson with appearances by Sangria Tecuhtli, Sophia Archimedes, Mitchell Gozer, Marcus James and Aurora Dahl.

For those of you interested, happy reading!

The First Greco-Japanese War

Question: Are you going to put up fiction for Sophia Archimedes (I.E. Aiona)? I would like to read about the start of the feud between her and Hachiro Koga. Will Hachiro become a god as well? His character sheet has him at eight legend already and I think at this point he has to ascend keep up with Aiona and Terminus and get revenge on them. Also what does Izanami think of Aiona and her actions? Finally was Hachiro's sister ever awakened, and did Sophia and Goze really murder her in cold blood?

Right now, Aiona's player is sneezing uncontrollably somewhere, wondering what the heck is going on.

I see you have a touch of the prophecy yourself - there will indeed be fiction for Sophia in the (hopefully) near future, including a story that sheds more light on the conflict between her, Izanami, and Hachiro Taro Koga. The players have been kind enough to already make all these awesome stories, so things are just being held up by my slow, slow pace at writing them down (sorry!).

I don't want to spoil the forthcoming story, but I can say a few things: Hachiro is most definitely going to become a god, Izanami is not Aiona's biggest fan, and while Aiona may seem less dangerous than Eztli, in practice we are never quite sure who the most frightening femme fatale of that game really is.