Trouble at Home

Question: My friend uses your Darkness boons in our game. He just used his Heart of Darkness boon on Hera (he is a son of Zeus). Is he fucked?

Well, that depends.

First of all: which Virtues did the boon affect, and is she still under its effects right now? If he successfully turned her Vengeance into Forgiveness, she will not only not be upset with him for existing right now, but will probably actively seek to accept, forgive and welcome him into her family. The reversed Virtue will make her feel an overwhelming need to turn the other cheek when it comes to her husband's offenses against their marriage, and to accept his illegitimate offspring even though doing so flies in the face of both her own emotions and the laws of the pantheon.

While that's going on, he's safe - at least, from Hera herself. He is still an example of total not-okayness according to Greek law, so while no one will probably outright call him on it since they wouldn't want to risk going up against Zeus (and lots of them are in the same boat anyway, being illegitimate children themselves), people are still probably going to give him a bit of the side-eye. People like Apollo, Artemis, Dionysus, Persephone and Hermes are all Zeus' offspring by women other than his wife, and all of them have had to suffer her vengeance as a result, so many of them might be outright offended that your friend is "cheating" by bypassing that. They all had to pay their dues and have to live in constant awareness of Hera's bad mood, so they may not appreciate some uppity little former human child getting special treatment that they didn't. (A few of them might be okay with it for the moment just because Hera would also be willing to forgive and welcome them abnormally right now, too... but they probably know better than to think that's permanent.)

Secondly: does Hera know he did that? Did he straight up use a boon on her while standing in front of her when she was going to smite him, or something? Is there any chance she could think someone else might have done it? Because when she snaps out of it, not only is her Vengeance going to shoot back like the most painful, terrifying rubber band ever to be shot at your Scion's forehead, she's also going to be on the warpath for whomever dared screw around with her emotions that way. Hera is not stupid, and even if she didn't know the power was used at the moment it was, there's no way she'll think that she randomly had a change of heart for no reason when she hasn't had one in the past three millennia, that just happened to make her behave in a way that is counter to not just her own feelings but her entire existence as goddess of legitimate marriage. She will know someone used magic on her to force her to act in a way she will find abhorrent, and she's going to want someone's head for it. Like... she will have double Vengeance against him now.

Your friend's best bet at surviving (and/or not being consigned to misery forever because of unending curses/madness/murder of everyone he loves) Hera's likely backlash is to try to pin the crime on someone else. If she thinks somebody else did it - Hermes, say, who she never liked much anyway - he might escape the mightiest part of her wrath if it gets pointed at the messenger god instead. Of course, that won't protect him from her violent backlash if he's stupid enough to be in her presence when Heart of Darkness wears off, nor will it prevent him from being in trouble if she does blame Hermes and Hermes gets on the hatetrain to find out who just ruined his day, but it might give him a chance to prudently hide himself while the fallout dusts the lovely fields of Olympus.

The good news is that Hera also has Valor, and a hefty respect for her cranky husband, so she probably won't outright kill your friend. (Unless he is dumb enough to be like lying there letting her feed him grapes when she comes out of it or something, in which case he might be toast before she even thinks about it.) But she will destroy his tools and friends, kill people he loves, cause horrible misfortunes to follow him everywhere he goes, and generally make him wish he was dead in order to punish him for his deeds. He's already a Scion of Zeus, so some of that might have been in store for him anyway; maybe he thinks it was worth it for the couple of days of relief, since she hated him anyway, or maybe he'll discover that it somehow got way worse than he ever imagined. A lot of that is up to your Storyteller, and we can't predict what they might decide to do.

He could, I suppose, try to keep using it on her all the time so she never snaps out of it. But that's super hella dangerous and unlikely, since he would have to be near her every time it was time to refresh it, keep beating her probably very rad resistance roll every time, and hope that none of the other gods realized what he was up to and took issue with it (Ares, for example, is probably going to come at him with a dose of his own Vengeance if he realizes that this guy is mind-whammying his mom and setting himself up to be a member of the family the way only legitimate children like himself are supposed to be). And Hera having a ton of anti-Theoi Virtues is just going to cause general problems anyway; if your friend is changing all of them, there will be inevitable conflicts with the other gods when her Sadism Virtue starts causing massive problems for her pantheon full of Valor, or her Censorship clashes with their Expression in an ugly way.

And finally, when I posed this problem to John, his immediate response was, "Oh, shit. Zeus is going to kick that guy's ass." It might seem at first blush that Zeus would not care about this, because Hera being pissed off about his affairs is probably something he doesn't love dealing with, but honestly, this is way not worth it for him. Not only is it going to cause disharmony and fights within his already very temperamental and fractious family, but he's going to have to deal with a wife who has directly opposed Virtues to his own, which can't help but get nasty pretty quickly. And, while he does have to hide from Hera when he's out schmoozing or occasionally try to run interference to keep her from taking out his kids, that's probably not actually all that big a deal for him. Yeah, he loses some lovers and kids here and there, but he still gets to go have affairs, most of the kids live long enough to do important things that enhance his Legend, and at the end of the day he's still got Hera and his legitimate children, all of whom he loves. The current system has been working for him for thousands of years, and your friend probably just screwed a lot of it up.

So... I mean, yeah, he is going to have problems, your friend. Not necessarily insurmountable problems; he can probably find ways to weasel his way out of the worst of the trouble, find the gods who will high-five him for his actions instead of going after him with a pike, and add the tale to the canon of legends about impressive things he's done. But he's done a dangerous deed, and it's going to have dangerous consequences. You may want to avoid standing too close to him for a while.

Like Every Goddamn Question, Our Inbox Is So Full You Guys

It's time for another big fat post full of quickly-answered questions! Just know we love each and every one of you, question-askers, honest, and you can always ask for clarification in the comments if you didn't get what you were looking for.

Question: is there any mythological basis for Thor's greatest fear being a warm bed? (Just something I read in a novel).

Not that we know of, but we would hazard a guess that your book might be referring to the idea that Norse warriors aspired to die gloriously in battle, and would therefore be very unhappy with the idea of dying in bed.

Question: Sorry if this has already been covered, but doesn't Aengus have Artistry associated with him?

Nope, sure doesn't. While Aengus is theorized to be possibly associated with music and the arts, we don't have any real evidence of this and no stories of him being particularly artistic, so we did not give him the Avatar of Artistry. However, if your game likes a more artsy interpretation of Aengus, you can always assume he has some Artistry boons at his disposal.

Question: Months ago I asked why Cernunnos was so powerful because he had nine purviews. Rather than allude to his purviews this time, I'm just asking, why is he so powerful in general? Like, I know that he's the Horned God of Wicca, and I know he's a heavily occultic fertility deity, but based on his description in the Nemetondevos description, he seems like he should have intelligence and/or maybe wits as Associated as his attributes.

Cernunnos is undeniably the most recognizable (and therefore Legendary) of the Gaulish gods whose legends survive into the modern day, but unfortunately we don't really know all that much about him, nor do we have anything but piecemeal information about his associations and exploits. Cernunnos on our site is presented as an Odin-like patriarch because that's how he's written in the Scion Storyteller Screen, but honestly most of that is conjecture. You might want to check out this post about the problems of reconstructing Gaulish mythology.

Question: I want a sentient, witty, wise-cracking animal sidekick. Which would be better: creating a Follower or using Create Nemean/Typhonian? Thanks guys, love you guys and all your work!

Nemean and Typhonian creatures are generally not very bright or socially graceful, so you would probably want something smarter than that if you wanted a wise-cracking sidekick who you could actually have conversations with and hurl witty insults at enemies alongside. Birthright Creatures give you more opportunity to tailor your animal's stats to what you want it to do, and you can also use Epic Enhancement on them if you want to bolster any of their stats, so that's probably more what you're looking for.

Question: Was Anshar really evil? He kinda looks like a really senile sky god to me.

Anshar's clearly a Titan, so that really depends on whether or not you think all Titans are evil (we don't think so, although they are all pretty dangerous even if they aren't actively malicious). Like other ancient sky-father Titans, you could certainly play him as simply distant from and uninvolved in his pantheon.

Question: Are Dwarves and Svartalfar the same creature? Norse mythology is confusing.

No, but they do both live in Svartalfheim and some named svartalfar are occasionally also referred to or alluded to as dwarves, so the confusion is understandable. The Norse word for dwarves is dvergr, and is used to refer to creepy little short creatures that are crafty, morally questionable, and really awesome at making magical items like Mjolnir and Brisingamen. Svartalfar means "black elves" and is confusing because it's equated to both dverger and dokkalfar ("dark elves") in various places, which are fairly clearly attested as two different races, with the dark elves described as dwelling underground and being black of skin, and different in appearance from their light elf cousins.

Basically, some scholars think the svartalfar must be the same as the dvergr since they seem to live in the same or similar places and share some traits, but others point out that there are different terms and associations at work and that there's no reason to make that leap. So really, Storyteller's call on that one. We play them as different.

Question: Would it be possible for Artistry Gods to design relics that could enable Gods and Scions to better navigate the Titan Realms? Like relic goggles to give people temporary Epic Perception rankings to see around Keku? Or some kind of Fire-resistant suits to allow survival in Muspelheim?

Yep, sure is! Hephaestus actually made some flame-retardant armor for one of our groups to go to Muspelheim at one point. Artistry can make all kinds of neat stuff, although it's probably difficult and time-consuming to do so.

Question: When you have the Animal purview, you choose an animal to specialize in. We, in my game have been in minor fights about how specific you have to be. For example, the guy with Animal (Jackal) complaining over how he has less utility as the guy with Animal (Dog). Should one be penalized for being more general, or should I allow the more specialized guy to go outside the limits of his animal from time to time?

You might find this post helpful when trying to determine how specific an animal should be! Animals that are less commonly available do often have less utility than your Animal (Housefly) or Animal (Cow) people who can be fairly assured of their animals being around a lot, but Scions can always go seek out their animals at zoos, parks or in natural areas where they might occur, and of course at later levels they can summon or even create them at will. We do occasionally allow Scions with animals that are kind of close to try to use their boons on something that isn't technically their creature, but always at a disadvantage; for example, if your guy with Animal (Jackal) wanted to use his boons on a coyote, we would have him only understand some of what it was saying since the message would be garbled, or increase the difficulty of using other powers on it significantly to illustrate that he was trying to affect something that he isn't really aligned with.

Question: I know shape-shifting Appearance knacks makes this somewhat of a mote point, but for those Scion who don't invest in them, I was wondering what rolls would you make for disguise. And when say disguise, I'm taking about everything from putting on a wig and Groucho Marx glasses to applying Hollywood SFX prosthetics to change your race or sex.

It would depend on exactly what you were doing, but most of the time we would have you roll something along the lines of Appearance + Stealth or Manipulation + Stealth to actually sell the disguise itself, and probably a side order of Manipulation + Empathy and/or Wits + Empathy to not look suspicious while doing it. Tailor to individual Storyteller tastes.

Question: Can a scion with Animal Communication use social knacks on animals he can communicate with, or does he have to use Animal Obediance?

He has to use Animal Obedience, or else just be able to convince it to do what he wants through good old-fashioned charm. His refined powers of pulling a fast one on humanoids are lost on their animal brains.

Question: Have you ever considered a more free-form system for boons (e.g. Mage spheres or Dark Ages fae magic)? If you have, what worked? If you haven't, what would you imagine succeeding?

Nope, sorry. Spheres work pretty well in Mage, but we have no desire whatsoever to import them into Scion. You might want to check out the official forums, though, since we know there are a few games out there that do that sort of thing.

Question: What does the Darkness Virtue which Reverses Virtue due to the Inue? Nothing? Fire becoming Water? etc.

It reverses exactly; someone affected by Heart of Darkness with the Fire Virtue would abruptly have Anti-Fire. They would hate Fire in all its forms, attempt to stamp it out and campaign against its use and existence, and generally do everything that they could to destroy it with exactly as much fervor as they would normally want to protect and encourage it.

Question: What do you think the Godrealm and Underworld of the Orisha are?

You're looking for this post!

Question: How are Fatebonds handled with the Doppleganger boon from the Illusion tree? For example, say someone created a doppleganger of a fellow Scion and had the doppleganger interact with mortals--utilizing the boons it would have such as subtle knife and stolen face--would it be possible to incur a Fatebond in that way to the person being 'doppleganged'?

Question: Hello, John and Anne! Hope you guys are well. My group uses your resources and revisions on Scion (love 'em!) and I just recently started looking at the blog. You've answered a lot of questions that I've been curious about, and many that haven't even occurred to me. Now, I was wondering if you could answer another question, or if perhaps it's already been addressed. How exactly does a Fatebond work if you've stolen someone's face and then committed the acts that would Fatebond?

Fate is not fooled by your piddly doppelgaenger, nor your attempts to pretend you're someone else. It knows that the person being impersonated is not the one spending Legend, and therefore will not attach any Fatebonds to her; it also knows that you are the one spending Legend, so you're going to get the Fatebonds from doing so no matter what you look like. And before you ask, the same goes for any other way of impersonating someone or meddling with the free will of other people.

As always, jump into the comments if you're so moved.

Greek Week

Hey, everybody! It's vlog time, and this week is Greek Week! The kind where we talk about a bunch of Greek mythology stuff, not the kind with beer and toilet paper togas. (Although we could potentially do both. That would be a fun Saturday.)

Question: I read your blog about how the Theoi don't like anything that deviates from normal human physical perfection. So, then why do the Theoi have Gods with Animal associations? Wouldn't that mean that any Greek God with Animal would pretty much never use Animal Feature and/or Animal Form? Okay, maybe Aphrodite could get away with giving herself a pair of swan wings (since you mentioned that the Theoi don't mind wings) but if Ares gave himself ANY wolf feature, wouldn't that be kinda wrong to him?

Question: How do you guy treat Charon, as he is son of two Titans - a god, titanspawn, or even a Titan?

Question: When I was reading your post on how other pantheons laugh about the Greek/Romans small "swords", I realized that since different pantheons may have different standards of beauty, then how does having a high Apperance in one pantheon affect another who may have a different version of an ideal apperance?

Question: How might the Virtues of a Roman Scion differ from those of his or her Greek counterpart?

Question: Hera's Vengeance demands that she continue to punish Zeus' bastards forever. However, in some versions of the Heracles myth, Hera ritually adopts Heracles as her own son when he achieves apotheosis. Would that satisfy Hera's Vengeance toward him? Technically he isn't a bastard anymore. Hera has formally claimed him as her own son. Would she still need to fight her Vengeance around him? Would this option apply to other Scions of Zeus who manage to become gods?

Question: I know this will sound stupid, but what exactly is Tartarus?

Question: Valor is the Virtue of acting honorably, right? Does that mean Scions with Valor can't lie? Can't steal? Can't work undercover?

Please pardon the lack of question text in the video - the editor crashed on me so I had to rush it to make sure it go out on time.

Next week, more themes, plus the exact same faces and clothes you saw this week.

Heart of Flame

Question: I really like the Inue supplement, so thanks again for all your work on that. The first PSP boon replaces Conviction with an "elemental" Virtue, which compels the Scion to promote and protect the "principle" of the selected element, leaving him or her with "Fire Virtue" or "Moon Virtue." Could you explain what this means, exactly? Would someone with "Fire Virtue" become a pyromaniac who prevents firefighters from doing their job and who starts forest fires just because? And how would Stars work?

Question: Hi! I finished the Inue and read about their purview, which is really interesting. The problem is, I do not know how you can act out a Virtue that responds to an element. Is it still possible to roleplay it - for example, Fire = being passionate and expressive?

We talked about this a little bit in the comments when the Inue were first released, but since it's a new kind of thing, we thought a post about it might be helpful for everyone. And since we've talked in depth about what the normal set of Virtues do, it seems only fair to address these.

In answer to the second question, no, the purview Virtues from Inue cannot be "interpreted" or "stunted" into abstract concepts. Having the Fire Virtue means that you are all about protecting and promoting fire, as in the element, not theoretical ideas that are poetically associated with fire. Being passionate and expressive is the Expression Virtue; there would be no need to create a second Virtue that does the same thing.

Instead, these Virtues are specifically geared toward the preservation, support, encouragement and natural domination of the elements or heavenly bodies they are tied to. You are compelled to act in the best interests of your chosen purview's concept at all times, meaning that you want it to flourish and act the way it wants to, and that you are opposed to people who want to thwart, pollute or mismanage it. If it helps, you could think of them as a little bit like having Conviction that applies only to that specific thing - you have Conviction that urges you to always take action to protect Water, or Conviction that specifically only wants you to support the Sun.

Since we know they can be a little hard to conceptualize, especially for the purviews related to heavenly bodies which are less straightforward than the elemental ones, here's a Virtue-by-Virtue breakdown of guidelines for how to handle each one.

• Animal. A Scion with the Animal Virtue has an innate drive to protect, care for and crusade for animals in everything she does, specifically her chosen totem animal. She wants to encourage the natural safety and spread of the animal and therefore wants it to be free of hunting or harvesting by humans and wants its habitat to be safeguarded and spread, usually beyond what it has now - she cares more about these animals having safe and optimal lives than humans, in many cases. She can and will want to stop people from hurting or killing the animals, even if humans need to do so to survive (such as needing the animals for meat or needing to kill them to prevent them from attacking them), which can often be difficult in wilderness areas where humanity and animals are in direct conflict. Scions with the Animal Virtue may trigger a Virtue Extremity if they hurt, confine or upset an animal (or allow others to do so, such as allowing someone to kill an animal for food or allowing an animal to be kept in a zoo that treats it poorly), attempt or allow destruction of their natural habitat or needs in a way that will cause them difficulty or danger in the future, or participate in any action that forces animals to become subservient or unhappy thanks to outside dangers.
• Darkness. A Scion with the Darkness Virtue is aligned with the forces of night and shadow, opposed to illumination and invested in the darkness as an important part of the natural world. He wants to keep places and creatures in the dark, especially those that naturally live in shadow, and needs to blot out bright lights and provide safely dark areas whenever he can, and he is especially the champion of creatures, people or activities that are more common in the dark or require shadow to survive. And, of course, he can't help but want to have and use as many Darkness boons as possible. Scions with the Darkness Virtue may trigger a Virtue Extremity if they try to provide or allow any kind of light in a previously dark place, escape the darkness instead of conducting business and pleasure within it when possible, or in any way participate in the institution of light where things should naturally be dark.
• Earth. A Scion with the Earth Virtue is the champion of soil, stone and all other natural bones of the earth. She is inclined toward dedication to the earth's maintenance and well-being, and wants to ensure that the soil isn't disturbed unnecessarily, that it is treated properly by farmers and casual travelers alike, and that it remains unspoiled and capable of whatever life-bearing or chemical properties it is meant to have. Scions with the Earth Virtue may trigger a Virtue Extremity if they do not prevent pollution or massive destruction or upheaval of the earth by unnatural means, if they do not educate others on the proper use and care of the earth they administer, or if they allow or participate in the abuse of earthen resources in strip mines, chemical dumps or similar operations.
• Fertility. A Scion with the Fertility Virtue protects and nurtures plant life in all its forms, wherever and whenever he encounters it. He is the guardian of the natural cycles of vegetable life, and is motivated to make sure that plants are respected by humanity, that natural preserves remain lush and indisturbed, that plant resources are used responsibly and that the ecosystem of the local flora remains balanced and thriving. Scions with the Fertility Virtue may trigger a Virtue Extremity if they allow destruction of healthy plants, fail to correct imbalances in plant life in a given environment, or ever prioritize human needs (such as food or clothing) above the needs of the natural world of green and growing things. To the Scion with this Virtue, a mighty tree being allowed to live out its life in peace is more important than a human family being able to survive the cold night by cutting it up for firewood.
• Fire. A Scion with the Fire Virtue prioritizes flame over all other natural elements, and seeks to allow its spread and prevent its smothering wherever possible. As such, it is one of the most dangerous Virtues in terms of accidentally endangering others. People with the Fire Virtue want to have and use Fire boons, to set fires in receptive areas (for constructive purposes, such as clearing brush or hurting enemies, as often as destructive ones), to prevent fires from being put out or restricted and to encourage the use of fire for whatever uses it might be applied to, including warmth, cooking, cauterization or anything else that humanity might use it for. They often suffer from temptation to set fires even when doing so might be detrimental to the local environment, especially if confronted with very flammable material or easy access to do so. Scions with the Fire Virtue may trigger a Virtue Extremity if they try to put out fires, prevent the spread of fires, discourage others from setting or feeding fires, or otherwise inhibit the element's natural action.
• Frost. A Scion with the Frost Virtue is allied with the forces of cold, winter and the frozen elements of ice and snow, and must act accordingly. She wants to encourage creatures to survive - or not - in frozen locations in such a way that they do not alter the cold environment itself, believes in the helpful properties of freezing for purposes of preservation and renewal, and always tries to uphold the cold as an important part of the natural order rather than giving in to the human desire for warmth. A Scion with the Frost Virtue may trigger a Virtue Extremity if she allows or creates any kind of heat that significantly raises the temperature of a cold location, fails to campaign against things that threaten frozen natural areas (such as global warming or thermal mining), or allows the melting of ice or snow for any purpose.
• Moon. A Scion with the Moon Virtue loves the silver disc of the night skies and does everything in his power to respect it and make it continuingly relevant and important to life on earth. He tends to want to be able to see the moon whenever it is out, making it difficult for him to stay inside at night (or even during the day, if it's out), and wants to encourage others to study, venerate and respect it as the important celestial body it is. Scions with the Moon Virtue may trigger a Virtue Extremity if they encourage or allow airborn pollution that obscures the moon, allow others to remain disrespectful or ignorant about it, allow space technology that might damage or deface it or inhibit technology dedicated to studying and celebrating it. This extends also to artistic representations of the moon, or literature related to understanding and promoting the moon, both of which the Scion is motivated to encourage and protect. Like the other celestial purviews, the Virtue tied to Moon is a little more difficult to adjudicate for Storytellers, so if something comes up that isn't covered here, use your best judgment as to what constitutes the Scion promoting or protecting the moon in some way.
• Sky. A Scion with the Sky Virtue is the champion of air, sky and wind, a lover of natural storms and calm skies alike, and she campaigns to make sure that they remain safe and pollution-free and that their natural phenomena and inhabitants go unmolested. She tolerates human intrusion into the lofty heavens only when it brings with it no danger or damage to the environment, and is happiest in wide open spaces where she can feel the wind on her face. Scions with the Sky Virtue may trigger a Virtue Extremity if they allow any kind of air pollution, acid rain or other related environmental poisoning, tolerate human inventions that invade airspace with detrimental consequences (jet fuel pollution or engines that destroy airborne wildlife), or prevent the natural consequences of storms from affecting the landscape.
• Stars. A Scion with the Stars Virtue wants to promote and dedicate his time to the celestial sphere, specifically the stars and satellites that twinkle in the night skies. He not only wants to ensure that he (and everyone else, when possible) has an unobstructed view of the stars, but also that everyone learns about and respects them, seeks to promote them in art and culture, and appreciates their natural beauty. A Scion with the Stars Virtue may trigger a Virtue Extremity if they allow pollution or too many structures that obscure the stars, perpetuate or fail to correct ignorance or disrespect of them, or do not protect or appreciate artwork and study regarding the stars when given the opportunity.
• Sun. A Scion with the Sun Virtue is dedicated to the respect and preservation of the sun, that awesome power that lights the world and warms it from afar, and she will go to great lengths to make sure it is appreciated and protected. She is a proponent of mankind harnessing the power of the sun safely to better the world (i.e., through solar power or related technologies) and wants light to be freely and constantly available to everyone all over the world; and likewise, she is opposed to darkness and wants to illuminate it whenever possible. Scions with the Sun Virtue may trigger a Virtue Extremity if they allow obscurement of the sun's light, tolerate misinformation or destruction regarding the sun or artwork related to it, or destroy any kind of benign sun-related technology.
• Water. A Scion with the Water Virtue is dedicated to the protection of water and marine ecosystems wherever they occur, and to responsible and safe use of them. She doesn't mind humanity using water to drink or cook with in moderate amounts, but she is concerned with making sure that the world's water resources remain clean and that their natural paths and behavior are not diverted. A Scion with the Water Virtue may trigger a Virtue Extremity if she allows or contributes to water pollution, attempts to dry up or divert the natural flow of water, or ever puts the wellbeing of other elements, creatures or natural features above that of oceans, rivers, lakes or other water sources.

We like to think of it a little bit like considering what the Virtue would want if it were a living being - Fire wants to burn, Darkness wants to shroud things in shadow, Stars want to shine and look down on the world below, and so forth. These are not comprehensive; there may be situations that aren't covered here, and your Storyteller will, as always, be the final arbiter of what does and does not fall within a Virtue's scope.

Hopefully that helps out all you would-be Inue Scions out there. The Virtues granted by the Shua purview prioritize the needs, spread and importance of their chosen purview's elements above all other concerns, so just like a Scion with Order cares more about the law than about any reason given for breaking it, no matter how good, a Scion with Fire cares more about flame burning and acting as it naturally does than about anything or -one who might be hurt by its rampage.

Dereliction of Duty

Question: Is Duty really a valid Virtue for most pantheons, particularly the Aztecs? I've done a little research into them, and it seems as if worlds 1 through 4 were destroyed more from the gods being petty and spiteful and neglecting their duties than anything else.

Well, in answer to your first question, yes, Duty is hella a valid Virtue for some pantheons to have. It represents a cultural drive to put the needs of the culture itself – its people, values, customs, and your job within it – above your own selfish needs, and to support the whole because you know that your value comes from being part of it. Not every culture espouses Duty, but when they do, they do it hardcore: it’s where things like the samurai code of honor in Japan come from, or the Polynesian insistence on incredibly complex social and aristocratic roles. And the Aztecs, who embody Duty like it’s motherfucking going out of style.

You’re right; the destruction of the first four worlds represents four different failures of Duty. But that’s important and intentional. These are cases of a myth that proves the rule by showing its exceptions: when people do not do their Duty, everything is horrible and awful, forever, it’s the worst. A culture that did not give a shit about duty would not write a story about how people failing at duty equals the literal failure of the universe. That’s something you’re only going to get with people who want you to know that duty is so important that if you break it everyone might die and you’re the worst person who ever lived.

The thing about the Teotl is that they embody Duty, constantly, their entire lives, all the time. They are gods who literally have to hold up the universe all the time, or it’ll break – they have to make sure the rain falls, the sun rises, the earth stays solid, the crops grow, and the second one of them drops a ball or gets distracted or just isn’t up to it that day, there are disastrous consequences in the world. The Aztec gods were conceived of by their people as being ceaselessly dedicated to maintaining the world, very literally performing that awe-inspiring Duty every minute of every day, and if they ever stopped or thought their Duty wasn’t important, the world would collapse and everyone would die. And that leads to the Aztec culture itself, which decided that they also had a duty to support and uphold the universe for everyone’s sake, and therefore offered regular blood sacrifices to their gods. They made it their duty to empower the gods to keep doing their duty – in essence, a massive chain of Duty all the way from mortal to god, with anyone who proved to be a weak link severely looked down upon or even punished.

The myth of the four suns illustrates this in a big way. Just like the World now, those Worlds were doing fine – until one god failed in his Duty. In the first and second, it was because someone attacked him; in the third, because he went into a jealous rage; and in the fourth, because she became hysterical and couldn’t keep it together. And each time that Duty was failed, the world literally ended. That’s how important duty is to these guys; if you don’t do it, you failed the entire universe.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that they don’t fail at their Duty once in a while – every god and Scion does, at some point. And they also have other Virtues that may sometimes conflict with Duty, and if Duty loses out, that’s a problem for everyone. But on the whole, their entire religion is built around the idea of the gods dutifully supporting and protecting the universe, humanity dutifully supporting and appreciating them, and everything continuing to exist only because they do that. They are massively Dutiful. Duty is everybody’s cosmic job.

We are fans of you asking questions about Virtue appropriateness, by the way, because there are definitely some in the game right now that we think bear consideration, or maybe don’t fit as well as another one would. But this is definitely not one of them.

Fighting the Good Fight

Iiiiit's vlog time! Today we have those fancy new lights and I look less like a zombie, but I'm also on pain drugs so I sound a little bit more like a crazy person than usual. Trade-off. Next week I hope to be more functional, and of course John is here being a helpful rock of sanity.

Today's questions are on a bunch of topics including Titans, relics and politics, but they're all about the greater world of Scion at large. So here we go!

Question: In your games, I'm assuming that the gods are very much besieged on all sides by Titanrealms and Avatars aplenty, and the corebooks make a point of saying how Avatars have to stay in their realms most of the time to avoid being rebound. My question is, if the terrifying nature of the Titanrealms is what is preventing various pantheons from attacking them en masse, what is it that's preventing Avatars from doing the same to the gods? Do Overworlds (and Underworlds, I guess) have similar built-in defenses?

Question: Why do relics bite when not bound to you? There seem to be multiple myths where people take each others' weapons and use them, and I can't name any where that has actually damaged the person (without the involvement of a curse/geasa).

Question: How do you deal with gods that have unique powers that don't seem to fit in with any of the purviews? The best examples I can come up with are mostly from the Deva. For example, Shiva's "Destructo-Eye?" The guy opens his third eye and shit just blows up! How does one make that happen in Scion? For that matter, Shiva and Kali are both known for their destructive dances wherein they dance and the world just starts to fall apart. How do these things work in your system?

Question: How would you represent Diomedes in Scion, given how he's Mr. "I'm totally a mortal man but I'm so badass that I fuck up Scions and gods alike, and then Athena made me into a god when I died?" I mean, the dude got in a fight with *Ares* and kicked his ass!

Question: I've been doing some (admittedly small) amount of research into the Orisha. Is Courage really a valid Virtue for them? They certainly talk a big game, but most of their conflicts are tricks and pranks against each other rather than huge monsters (compare to the Theoi). At the same time, they seem to highly value Intellect. Particularly with Orunmila.

Question: Could the Olympic Games have been a Birthright? It may sound stupid, but you've discussed relic songs before, and your Birthright PDF has a Shinto shrine for the Kami. Could Zeus have gotten some cool bonuses when mortals dedicated their great victories in his honor?

Question: This might be a weird question, but what are the likely consequences (politically) when a Titan (and its Avatar) manages to overpower a pantheon?

Question: How do you guys feel about the idea of making Titanrealms a one-per-purview deal? Currently I'm having to choose between one realm per pantheon (where the realms don't match up to purviews, e.g. the Kami opposed by the realm of corruption) and one per purview (e.g. the kami are opposed by Izanami as a death titan but the realm itself is split between them and the K'uh), and I can't decide which I prefer. What do you think?

Question: So my game master is most likely planning to have my character's godly parent marry her away as part of inter-pantheon politics. I know how common a practice that has been through time; is that something you have dealt with before? I'd like to know more about how the gods use their children in the politics game now that it has expanded so much since the start of the war.

Question: So, among a handful of us, "Goddamnit, Stribog" has become a touch memetic. What the chuffing hell is he doing?

Oh, Stribog. I know the players hope you never change.

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.

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!

Two-Faced

Question: What are the reversed Virtues given to people via Heart of Darkness? Like, would Courage be replaced with Cowardice, or with an alternate Virtue that's deemed an opposite... somehow?

Hmm. Well, we first got this question and we were like, "Duh, question-asker, it is obvious, they are the opposites, this person was probably drunk when they sent it in," and then we went to go congratulate each other and eat doughnuts and generally be assholes. But then we thought about it a little more and we were like, "Oh, wait, this is actually pretty complicated," so here we are to apologize for our earlier behavior.

The problem with Heart of Darkness is that it seems totally straightforward and easy in its assertion that a Virtue is reversed to its opposite number, but in reality that is actually a totally subjective call, so it's understandable that there's some confusion. While what something's "opposite" is usually looks pretty obvious, it's got room for interpretation, so one man's obvious may be another man's second-best, I-guess-that-makes-sense version of what they think should actually be the Virtue's opposition. One person might say that the opposite of Order is obviously Chaos, moving that person to support entropy, breakdown and madness at every turn; but another might say that the opposite of Order is obviously Injustice, moving that person to intentionally commit crimes, subvert the law and otherwise be a massive pain in everyone's ass.

So here's what we're going to do. We're going to give you a quick table of about what we would consider the opposite Virtues for Heart of Darkness (some of which have been used in our games before), so you can refer to it as a handy reference if you want to. But it's pretty off-the-cuff, so if you happen to be a Storyteller who firmly believes in a different interpretation of a given Virtue's opposite, feel free to go wild with it instead.

Virtue	Opposite
Ambition	Complacency: This person wants to keep the status quo.
Conviction	Apathy: This person doesn't believe in or care about anything.
Courage	Cowardice: This person is terrified of and actively avoids danger.
Duty	Irresponsibility: This person refuses to accept accountability.
Endurance	Sloth: This person avoids difficulty and revels in laziness.
Expression	Censorship: This person shuts down all forms of expression.
Harmony	Excess: This person destroys balance wherever she sees it.
Intellect	Ignorance: This person hates knowledge and learning.
Loyalty	Treachery: This person looks for every chance to betray others.
Malice	Compassion: This person wants to help and take care of others.
Order	Anarchy: This person hates rules of all kinds.
Piety	Hubris: This person accords respect to no one but herself.
Rapacity	Asceticism: This person avoids all sustenance and pleasure.
Valor	Sadism: This person revels in the suffering of others.
Vengeance	Victimhood: This person refuses to stand up for herself.
Zealotry	Divinity: This person opposes the Titans and supports the gods.

The idea here is not just to have a Virtue with a word that is opposed to the word that represented the original Virtue, but also to encourage those afflicted to behave in ways directly counter to how they would normally act.

I feel like, in that faraway future when we rework Darkness, we will probably end up making a similar table. But in the meantime, this should give you a basic jumping-off point.

Brothers in Battle

Question: You've discussed before that, in general, having disparate pantheons together in a campaign can be problematic. What generally are the guidelines you use for determining if pantheons play nice with each other, if only in terms of their Scions fitting well? If you could give specific examples (say, with the Teotl, not that I plan on running a game where they're prevalent wink wink) of what pantheons work with another one and why, that would also be awesome. Thanks!

There are two important guidelines that can help you plan for future band harmoniousness, and those are the Virtues of the Scions in question and the historical interaction between their pantheons/cultures.

Virtues are the easiest go-to place to compare; as a general rule, the more Virtues a pantheon has in common with another, the less likely their Scions (and gods) are to get upset with one another. Virtues in alignment means that those Scions will agree with one another a lot more about what needs to be done, understand where their bandmates are coming from a lot more of the time, and spend much less time and effort grappling with intra-band conflicts of morality and theology. For example, the Teotl and K'uh are likely to get along very well, since they have the shared morals of Conviction, Courage and Loyalty in common; they'll respect one anothers' bravery, be able to count on one anothers' loyalty, and even when they disagree they'll at least respect the integrity of the other person's refusal to compromise. Another good example would be the Bogovi and Netjer, who despite not having much in common in terms of culture or history can still be down with each others' religious dedication, determination to preserve the World's balance and adherence to the rule of law.

That doesn't mean that bands with different Virtues can't get along, but it does mean that it's much more difficult and will require a lot more compromise, conflict and personal growth on the parts of the characters, something that not every player wants, needs or enjoys doing in their games. We love our god-level PCs, but when their group started and it included one Scion (Sangria) with Conviction, Courage, Duty and Loyalty and two others (Goze and Sophia) with Expression, Intellect, Valor and Vengeance, can you guess how well they got along? The answer was not at all. They hated each other. Sangria didn't understand (or care about trying to understand) the Greeks' abstract ideas about the importance of art and culture, and they went stark bananas from not being able to handle her murdering innocent people for power and doing what she thought was her job no matter how evil or destructive they perceived it to be. Their Virtues were opposed about 75% of the time, with the result being that they had to learn to adapt or die (luckily, the former). They survived it and it added a lot to their characters and development arcs, but it also generated a lot of conflict and heartbreak along the way, probably more than the game strictly needed.

Opposed Virtues don't just not get each other - in many cases, they actively hate each other. If one Scion has Expression and a mighty need to create magical artwork all over the world and the other has Harmony and a stringent code that prohibits putting magical shit anywhere in human territory, those two Scions are going to end up throwing down (or worse, trying not to and then going into Virtue Extremity). If one Scion has Courage and leaps into action to destroy every enemy in his path no matter whether they're already injured and the other has Valor and can't stand to see the helpless be harmed, those two Scions are going to end up punching each other in the face on the battlefield instead of their enemies. The Scion with Vengeance fucking hates the Scion with Order, who refuses to let her visit sweet revenge on those who have wronged her, and the Scion with Order is just as upset in return with his bandmate who sees nothing wrong with committing every felony on the books as long as she gets to destroy someone she hates.

Now, there will always be opposed Virtues in your Scion band - always, always, always. You can't avoid them. Scions' own Virtues sometimes oppose one another (I hate this guy with a Vengeance, but he's a wuss and my Valor says I can't hit him! Argh!), and even if you get Scions of the closest possible Virtue sets together, they'll always have one or two Virtues that don't match and that get in the way once in a while (I'm a Netjer Scion and my Conviction makes me accept that sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do, but my Bogovi buddy I normally agree with keeps saying he can't shirk his Duty even if it's clearly the best course of action! Argh!). And some Scions will come in as a normally closely-aligned pantheon but take a different Virtue at character creation, which you may not know ahead of time as the Storyteller (unless you ban them from doing that, I guess). This is normal and will make for good play; if nobody's Virtues ever clashed, they wouldn't be able to develop as characters nearly as much, so don't panic or give up if your carefully-crafted group of all normally-compatible Anunna and Elohim suddenly explodes into a screaming match of Conviction vs. Vengeance. Characters will disagree, sometimes heatedly and with gusto, from time to time over the course of the game. As long as it's not so much that the group can't function (which is what this question is trying to help you set up to avoid from the get-go!), that's perfectly all right.

Virtues are only half the equation, however. They're great measures of how much ideological common ground a pantheon might have with another, but they don't necessarily have a strong bearing on how those ideas are interpreted in the real world or what might have happened between them in the past. That's where historical interaction between the pantheons comes into play.

The Kami and the Shen have very similar Virtues - with Duty, Harmony and Valor in common, the only place they differ is that the Kami prefer Endurance and the Shen prefer Intellect. (Yes, I know we talk about changing these a lot, just follow me for the explanation for now.) Does that make them automatically prone to being best friends? Not necessarily, because the history of interaction between Japan and China, both mythologically and in the World, has not always been a very cordial one. The Kami, as the deities of Shinto, might be nursing a grudge thanks to the invasion of the foreign gods of Chinese Buddhism onto their turf centuries ago, leading the fall of Shinto as the only state-approved religion and the introduction of all kinds of new practices and deities that didn't follow the old ways. The Shen may not have forgiven the Kami for their continual wars on the mainland over the past few centuries, both in mythology and among mortals, especially the very fresh tragedy of the massacres committed by Japanese attackers during the Sino-Japanese wars of the last two hundred years, which might or might not have involved divine interference. Scions, as modern people from either of those cultures, may bring their own baggage along with their parents' - a Scion of the Shen whose grandparents died during the Japanese war crimes of the 1930s might have no tolerance whatsoever for agents of the Japanese gods, regardless of how much they have in common philosophically, and a Scion of the Kami who sees herself as the representative of a religion dying out because of Chinese influence might hate her opposite number on principle thanks to his pantheon's campaign against hers. Gods on either side can also easily influence their childrens' perceptions; even if the Kami weren't necessarily involved in the Sino-Japanese wars, for example, it really only takes a single comment from one of the Shen that they were behind it/didn't bother to stop it/benefited from it, and their children will act accordingly.

This works in reverse as well. You might think that the Theoi and Netjer would absolutely hate one another, since they don't have even one measly Virtue in common between them, but while there have definitely been vicious conflicts between them in the past, there have also been long periods of historical cooperation and cultural trade. They're not in love or anything, but they often can and do get along much better than their Virtues would suggest, especially when they have a common goal. The Yazata and Bogovi only share Order and are otherwise wildly different in Virtue setup, which might suggest that they would have nowhere to begin getting along with one another, but their history suggests otherwise, with the two religions often influencing and borrowing from one another, to such an extent that there are even a few crossover deities between them.

It looks kind of like we're saying, "Who knows, apparently Virtues don't mean anything," but that's not what we're trying to do. Rather, we're saying that Virtues are almost always a great starting yardstick for whether or not Scions will get along within a band; but, other factors, such as history, religious affiliation and previous experience may affect that, so make sure you know the interactions of the pantheons you're thinking of combining instead of just their four Virtues and how those stack up to everyone else's. And - and this is probably the most important thing you can do as a Storyteller to make people suck it up and get along in a band even when they don't want to - make sure you always give the Scions who work together some common goals. Even if they're not getting along right now, even if they really think things the other people do are fundamentally wrong, even if they despise one anothers' guts, they'll still usually pull it together when they know they have to all work together to achieve something that's important to each of them. It might be because their parents told them to, it might be because the specific situation requires other people with skills they just don't have, or anything else, but common goals will always go a long way toward making sure people put in the effort to deal with one another instead of just stomping off home or taking a pike to their bandmates' faces.

Oh, by the way: Teotl Scions will probably get along best with Scions of the K'uh, with whom they share most of their Virtues and with whom they have a history of cultural interaction and exchange, several crossover deities, and an understanding of some religious concepts that other pantheons don't always get (blood sacrifice being the main one). There may be some bad blood between them from the K'uh side thanks to later Maya communities being conquered by the suddenly expansionist Aztecs near the end of Mesoamerican civilization and the general Aztec attitude that they are the best and everyone else in Mesoamerica had better recognize it, but nothing that would cause too much of a conflict between them. Runners-up (each with two Virtues in common) would be the Aesir (probably respectable as fellow warriors but also deeply irresponsible by Aztec standards), the Apu (with no cultural context but similar ideals of courageous battle and duty to the community giving them some common ground) or the Orisha (equally badass and passionate and with a close connection to their people, but maybe a little too hung up on things like their personal problems to be as effective as deities as they should be).

In closing, we'd just like to point out that while these things all help intra-band harmony, they don't guarantee it; and further that we don't know if you need to try that hard to make sure everything is as close to the same for everyone as possible. Often, we set up possible pantheons for a new game based on them all having only a single Virtue in common, or being in a particular cultural group in spite of their Virtue spreads, and those approaches can and have worked, too.

Edit: In case it might be helpful for some, here's a quick chart of who's got Virtues in common.

Pantheon	Three Virtues in Common	Two Virtues in Common	One Virtue in Common	No Virtues in Common
Aesir	Nemetondevos	Alihah, K'uh, Orisha, Teotl, Tuatha	Anunna, Apu, Atua, Deva, Elohim, Kami, Theoi, Yazata	Bogovi, Netjer, Shen
Alihah	None	Aesir, Atua, Elohim, Orisha, Theoi, Tuatha	Anunna, Apu, Bogovi, Deva, Kami, Nemetondevos, Netjer, Yazata	K'uh, Shen, Teotl
Anunna	Elohim, Netjer	Apu, Bogovi, K'uh, Orisha, Teotl, Tuatha, Yazata	Aesir, Alihah, Apu, Nemetondevos	Deva, Kami, Shen, Theoi
Apu	None	Bogovi, Deva, Kami, K'uh, Netjer, Shen, Teotl	Aesir, Alihah, Anunna, Atua, Nemetondevos, Orisha, Yazata	Elohim, Theoi, Tuatha
Atua	Elohim	Anunna, Bogovi, Orisha, Teotl, Tuatha	Aesir, Alihah, Apu, Kami, K'uh, Nemetondevos, Shen, Theoi	Deva, Yazata
Bogovi	Netjer	Apu, Atua, Deva, Elohim	Alihah, Anunna, Kami, K'uh, Shen, Teotl, Tuatha, Yazata	Aesir, Nemetondevos, Orisha, Theoi
Deva	None	Bogovi, Kami, Netjer, Shen	Aesir, Alihah, Anunna, Apu, Elohim, K'uh, Theoi, Tuatha, Yazata	Atua, Nemetondevos, Orisha, Teotl
Elohim	Anunna, Atua	Alihah, Netjer, Orisha, Tuatha	Aesir, Bogovi, Deva, K'uh, Nemetondevos, Teotl, Theoi	Apu, Kami, Shen, Yazata
Kami	Shen	Apu, Deva, Nemetondevos, Theoi	Aesir, Alihah, Atua, Bogovi, Teotl, Tuatha, Yazata	Anunna, Elohim, K'uh, Netjer, Orisha
K'uh	Teotl	Aesir, Anunna, Apu, Bogovi, Nemetondevos, Netjer, Orisha	Atua, Deva, Elohim, Shen, Tuatha, Yazata	Alihah, Kami, Theoi
Nemetondevos	Aesir	Kami, K'uh, Teotl	Alihah, Anunna, Apu, Atua, Orisha, Shen, Theoi, Tuatha, Yazata	Bogovi, Deva, Netjer
Netjer	Anunna, Bogovi	Apu, Deva, Elohim, Yazata	Alihah, Atua, Kami, K'uh, Orisha, Shen, Teotl, Tuatha	Aesir, Nemetondevos, Theoi
Orisha	None	Aesir, Alihah, Anunna, Atua, Elohim, K'uh, Teotl, Theoi, Tuatha, Yazata	Apu, Nemetondevos, Netjer	Bogovi, Deva, Kami, Shen
Shen	Kami	Apu, Bogovi, Deva, Theoi	Atua, K'uh, Nemetondevos, Netjer, Teotl, Tuatha, Yazata	Aesir, Alihah, Anunna, Orisha
Teotl	K'uh	Aesir, Anunna, Apu, Atua, Nemetondevos, Orisha	Bogovi, Elohim, Kami, Netjer, Shen, Tuatha, Yazata	Alihah, Deva, Theoi
Theoi	None	Alihah, Kami, Orisha, Shen, Tuatha, Yazata	Aesir, Atua, Deva, Elohim, Nemetondevos	Anunna, Apu, Bogovi, K'uh, Netjer, Teotl
Tuatha	None	Aesir, Alihah, Anunna, Atua, Orisha, Theoi	Bogovi, Deva, Elohim, Kami, K'uh, Nemetondevos, Netjer, Shen, Teotl, Yazata	Apu
Yazata	None	Anunna, Netjer, Orisha, Theoi	Aesir, Alihah, Apu, Bogovi, Deva, Elohim, Kami, K'uh, Nemetondevos, Shen, Teotl, Tuatha	Atua

Born Again Belief

Question: How do you make a new Virtue from an IC perspective? Let's use a hypothetical "Liberty". What does a character have to do to make that a real Virtue he can buy and pass down to his own children?

This answer probably isn't going to be a lot of help to you, but: you don't, and nothing. It is not possible to create a new Virtue within the game.

Virtues are a basic core stat, intended in their spectrum to describe most of the major personality themes that occur across divine heroes and deities in various world mythologies. You don't create a new one as a character within the game any more than you would create a new Attribute. It's hard enough to even change your Virtues in the game - it requires a Magic god screwing with your personality before you're at god-level or the intereference of rare star-rated Relics, and even then is pretty damned uncommon - let alone try to somehow create a new one and replace your own with it and make it something attached to a bloodline which is totally unprecedented. In other words, this is bonkers and we would never allow it.

If you feel that something is really important enough to be a Virtue, we would always say that it should be a core Virtue within the game, attached to the pantheons that should espouse it and available to any Scion at character creation. If you think Liberty needs to be a Virtue that some pantheons support, it needs to be added to the base system right alongside Courage and Harmony and all the others. It should never be something only you or a few people you designate can get, because Virtues are supposed to be fundamentally possible for all.

There's no such thing as a Virtue that only one person, or even only one group of people, has; Virtues are universal and should be things that apply to more than one culture, not personalized super-stats. If you want to set up a particular thing that your people believe in that isn't a game-wide Virtue, Conviction's always a good place to start, as the Virtue that enforces your most important core beliefs; teach your followers and children that that idea is important and Conviction will always be there to make sure they care about it. It might also be a cultural or familial ideal that isn't Virtue-enforced but is still important to you and your children, like the Greek emphasis on beautiful physical form or the Arab respect for all religious figures, even if they don't worship them themselves.

But, alas, we would never allow in-game creation of a Virtue. If that's something your Storyteller is willing to let you go for, you'll have to work out the details with him or her.

The Virtuous Player

What's up, guys! We said we would take Thanksgiving off from vlogging here in the U.S., but we have a vlog ready anyway, so here we are! Today we're talking about problems that plague players, and hopefully giving some good advice about how to handle them when they arise in your gaming group.

Question: The Scions in my group who have Order have been having a really hard time lately, as the group as a whole can't seem to not break the law in the course of their adventures. Which Virtue have your Scions found to be the most inconvenient or gotten them into the most trouble?

Question: Help! I'm a combat character and social characters in my party constantly tell me what to do. I can't even get angry at their characters or they pop Boys Will Be Boys, Blame James, or just outright lie with God's Honest. Please don't tell me that the answer is I always have to play someone smart, witty or attractive!

Question: Is it possible for a Scion who's achieved godhood to eventually lose all touch with their original humanity and embrace Titanhood?

Question: How does the Order Virtue handle vigilantism in areas where it is illegal? Does it make an exception for your divine right as a Scion to adminsiter justice, or will a Scion in this situation just be on the phone with 911 all day?

Question: What are the limits of boons like Fire Immunity or Safely Interred?

Question: I play a Fate character and I'm getting burned out. My ST ignores Fatebonds because they're too complex and my Prophecy boons are reduced to dice adders because the visions are irrelevant or never come to pass. When I tried Avoid a Fate, it still happened because it involved a PC and the ST said dictating what players could do messed with the narrative. Is this normal for Fate purviews, or am I getting shafted? Any advice on dealing with it?

Question: Two of my players have Malak. The problem is that the entire campaign can't focus around two cities. I try my best, but other characters can use their PSP every game, while Malak users sit on their thumbs half the time. Any ideas on how to get use out of Malak away from their cities?

Question: Can Epic Perception see ghosts? I know an ST who insists that only Death Senses can let you see ghosts, but that seems counter-intuitive to me - there's a Perception knack that lets me see Fate itself, but not the occasional wandering soul?

Socializing in the Sky

Are you guys ready for another session of marathon vlogs? Here they come! Today's is about politics and insanity among the gods, who never seem to have getting along near the top of their to-do lists.

Question: From a social perspective, what does it mean to the gods when one god has more associated purviews and/or Epics than another god?

Question: Would it be possible for a god, through either Fate-dickery or Magic or just sheer force of will, to change their modus operandi? I have a game idea that partially revolves around the idea of Odin abandoning his normal methods to try the novel approach of honesty and good faith in order to avert Ragnarok. Is this plausible?

Question: Can you elaborate on the relationship between the Yazata and the Deva? Why do they see each other as enemies?

Question: You always talk about gods leaving the World because of Fatebonds. Why did they stay in the first place? They would have known about Fatebonds during that time. Was the risk just worth the reward?

Question: Would it be accurate to say that pantheons that have more Virtues in common (such as the Aesir and Nemetondevos) would be on better terms with each other than those that have few in common (like the Anunna and Theoi)?

Question: Every god has a rivals and enemies listing on their page, but what does that MEAN to them? To be specific, Odin has enemies - does he hate them, or are they merely names on his "to kill list"? When you say a god has enemies, does that mean hatred and active attempts at murder and sabotage, or something less intense and more passive?

Question: I've got a Scion game coming up where all the PCs are either Kami or Teotl. I was wondering if you had any ideas for ways in which those two pantheons would interact, as I'm currently drawing a blank.

Just be nice, everyone. Is that so hard?!

Affairs of the Soul

Our marathon vlog series continues, this week with a two-for-one subject deal! Look at us go. We're not tired at all.

Question: I was just reading the Fatebinding rules on your site and something confused me. The way that the rules are written makes it seem like Scions have to be Legend 3 before they can get Fatebonds. Am I understanding that correctly?

Question: I remember John saying a while ago (in comments) that Fatebonds in general don't buy Attributes below 3 dots, but is there a theoretical maximum? Could one measly Fatebond and enough time buy a character up from zero Epic to ultimate attribute?

Question: What happens when the total amount of XP Siphoned by Fatebonds exceeds 100%? For example, if you pick up seven Level 10 Fatebonds - you'd end up with 105% of your XP being siphoned to meet your Fatebonds' expectations. Do you end up with more XP, but no discretionary spending?

Question: What would happen to the entire universe of Scion if Fate was either destroyed or could no longer influence the Gods?

Question: Neith is said to be a goddess that "made" Fate. how does that work in Scion?

Question: What's the difference between a Valor pantheon and a Courage pantheon? What makes you decide to give the Theoi Valor instead of Courage, or give the Tuatha Courage and not Valor?

Question: Have you ever considered having the Virtue Benevolence? Helping others, even sometimes at great cost to oneself?

Question: Is Malice going to be one of the core Virtues of the Inuit? It might be a little strange to have a Dark Virtue, but from your description the Inuit people were constantly scared shitless of their gods.

This is our fiftieth vlog - how the time flies. We should do something special, right?

Hey, guys. We're aware that our video is being a massive pain in the ass right now and refusing to load, and since we're stuck on a hotel connection this weekend, it's not being polite about our attempts to fix it. Please be patient - we promise it'll be up some time tonight.

We decided to celebrate our fiftieth vlog with technical difficulties.

Can't Live With Them...

Question: My character has Vengeance and Loyalty. Someone got on both lists, so is there a way to drop that person from one of them or am I doomed to be a walking, talking Virtue Extremity?

You are doomed. Virtues are not convenient things; it sucks for there to be someone who makes you so insanely angry you must act against them, but who is also your family member/bosom friend/wartime comrade/someone you owe, but that doesn't mean you get to weasel out of one of those things. It is a part of your divine personality to take care of those you're loyal to and back them up no matter what, and it's also a part of your personality to smite people who have done you wrong, and neither of those things will stop being true. You're about to ride a very sad train.

However, that doesn't mean you're unable to do anything ever again, or that you'll spend your life in shrieking Extremity all the time. As with all Virtues, if you want to act against them you're going to have to dedicate some Willpower, so find ways to make sure you're as juiced up on it as you can be if you're going to have to be around this person a lot (I assume they're in your band or something from the question, but if not, also avoid the shit out of them when you can!). If that other person is a player, they can also get Willpower-granting powers to help you not go bananas on them, and if they really want to be proactive (possibly because they fear your vengeful rage), they might be able to invest in powers to trick or misdirect you so that your Virtues never activate, such as only appearing in disguise as someone you don't hate.

Of course, the really balls-to-the-wall heroic Scion thing to do is to not fight those Virtues all the time. You're not really meant to; do it too long, and you'll eventually Extremity and they'll take over whether you want them to or not, right? You have two options here: you can try to satisfy both of them when you can, or you can commit fully to one and tell the other to go to hell. If you try to satisfy both Virtues, you'll play a constant dangerous game of deciding which is more dangerous, which you can afford to indulge right now and how much Willpower you have to cover it; generally speaking, following one will almost always trigger the other, so choose your battles wisely. If you commit to one completely, you'll be saying that either this person's transgression against you is so great that they have to pay no matter who they are, or that your loyalty to them can't be broken even by whatever they did and you'll have to swallow the anger down. You'll probably want to choose the one you have the most dots in to commit to, since it has both a stronger hold on your Scion's personality and will prevent you from having to roll the higher one and thus risk Extremity more, but it's a roleplaying decision that only you can make. Once you do that, do it to the hilt: go all out to murder or bring this person to ruin, or righteously defend this person from all ills and dangers and suffer in silence. Choosing one of the Virtues to follow is easier in that it doesn't involve all the balancing and considering of trying to play both of them, but it also means that there will be a lot of times you hate what's happening and simply have to ride that feeling out.

If you're still a pre-God-level Scion, you can also try to lose one of those Virtues completely, thus preventing you from having to follow its dictates. The Shape the Soul boon in Magic allows a high-level magician to rewrite your Virtues, potentially changing them to new ones; however, you might have a hard time finding a magician god who A) feels like doing that for you and won't feel any conflict with his Virtues, B) is accessible and willing to pay for it, and C) you can convince or give something he cares about to get him to do it. That's a pretty tall order, more so the lower in Legend you are, but technically possible. You could also try to find relics or artifacts that might affect your Virtues, such as Kebauet's waterfall in Duat, which are few and far between but definitely do exist. Figuring out what those things are and where to find them will be a task in and of itself, possibly one requiring Mystery or tracking down other people who have secret knowledge, and your Storyteller will be the final arbiter of where those things are and whether it's feasible for you to go after one. And if you want to play the most dangerous game, you can try hanging out with a Titan Avatar or its servants long enough to get one of your Virtues replaced with a Dark Virtue; you have a 50% chance of losing either Loyalty or Vengeance that way, but of course also the massive downside of fraternizing with a dangerous enemy and ending up with a Dark Virtue that is probably even more problematic than your original one.

Actually, having a single person who activates both your Loyalty and Vengeance is a pretty fantastic roleplaying tool, no matter how you try to handle it; you're a divine hero trying to do whatever you think is right or good or pragmatic in your fight to aid the gods, and here's this person who you both love and hate, who you have to deal with but who drives you to distraction. That's a perfect recipe for heroic saga and inner conflict, and your story sure as hell will be interesting and emotionally charged. Those Virtues are maneuvering you to become part of a classic tale, one that only you will choose your role in, and that's what Scion is all about.

Borrowed Feelings, Real Attachment

Question: Each of the Legend 12 Bogovi presumably has Dvoeverie at max for at least one Virtue. Could you give any examples from your own game table or from mythology of a Bogovi god/dess' fifth virtue? Stribog, perhaps, given how large a part he's played in your Bogovi adventures?

John grumbled that this was an unfair question, because it depends so much on how a given Storyteller plays a god's personality and might vary completely depending on how many extra Dvoeverie Virtues you think they actually have. It might be only five, but then again it might be all twelve. Probably not, because that god would be batshit crazy and off the rails and probably dead, but technically possible.

But hey, we can take a few stabs at them anyway! We'd guess that Svarozhich probably has Courage, linked possibly to his Duty, thanks to the tales of his ceaseless near-death battles with Chmarnik. He probably uses it to pick up either Jotunblut from the Aesir, granting him extra badassery in his desperate combats, or maybe Me from the Anunna, bolstering his power over his elemental creation powers. Stribog, John tells me, absolutely has Conviction, which enables him to do whatever he wants if he really wants it enough, even when it breaks rules; he's not very good at truthfulness so despite the history of cooperation between Bogovi and Yazata he probably doesn't use it for Asha, but he, too, might get some use out of Me boons that increase his powers over wind and frost. Perun's a shoe-in for Courage with a healthy side helping of Jotunblut, while on the flip side Veles' love of illusionary shenanigans that teach lessons might manifest itself as Expression, probably giving him some sweet Arete with which to pull off ever bigger and nastier feats. Morena, who murders her husband for his infidelity and makes him live in the underworld in a house made of his own bones half the year, sounds like a lady with Vengeance to us, again probably dipping into the Greek pool.

Of course, while the Virtues are forever, the different PSPs can be swapped out per story, so whatever your Bogovi gods are doing in a given story or plot will affect what they might take on as their extra suite of powers. Which pantheon's powers they align with also always has neat political ramifications - Norse, Greek and Persian are old standbys, but how did a Bogovi goddess get Itztli when she's half the world away from the Aztec lands, and what did that entail? The boon doesn't require swapping fluids with a god of that pantheon or anything, but it's still a great place for Storytellers to nonkey around with politics and cultural crossover.

Hearts in the Dark

Question: How do you deal with Titanic Virtues? You've mentioned that your characters sometimes get one, but you also reference the fact that some Avatars retain some of their original pantheon's Virtues, like Cronus with Vengeance or Danu with Piety. So, what Titanic Virtues do you use and who has them?

Hmm, Dark Virtues, that's something we haven't talked about in a while. It's definitely an area under construction right now, but let's dive in!

To start with, we currently use the same Dark Virtues that are presented in the books: Ambition (advancing your own agenda and seizing power at all costs), Malice (delight in the destruction and suffering), Rapacity (the need to fulfill one's own desires no matter what) and Zealotry (blind devotion to the goals and orders of the Titanrealm). These Virtues are common in Titans and their spawn, but may also occur in gods or Scions, depending on what happens to them and what choices they make.

We've talked a lot, on and off, about whether or not the Dark Virtues are the best way to handle Titanic personality disorders. On the one hand, they're simplistic; they were designed as "bad guy stats" and it's very clear that that's what they are. They in turn tend to make it very difficult for anyone who has them not to become a bad guy, which can be an interesting personal struggle but also makes it very easy to go flat. However, at the same time they're a great way to express that Titans are on a fundamentally different mental plane than gods, motivated by things that far transcend normal human morals and don't care a lot about the sorts of things that affect mortal hearts.

All Titans having the exact same Dark Virtues is confusing and weird, though, because it not only gives them all the same baseline personality (unlike gods and Scions, who have many different Virtue spreads), but also removes any cultural delineation, making an Aztec Titan the same as a Japanese Titan the same as a Norse Titan. We've never liked that - why should different cultures' gods have all these cool unique features, but their Titans are all just Evil Dude #3? So instead, we consider that, like gods and Scions, Titans may sometimes - in fact, often - have different Virtue spreads than their fellows. Any given Titan Avatar is likely to have a Virtue or two from their home pantheon as well as some Dark ones, and we'd consider Titans that have only Dark Virtues to be the exception, not the rule.

It would take forever to go through all of the Titan Avatars and what exact Virtues we think they should have, and anyway a lot of that is going to depend on a particular Storyteller's preference; some may prefer to play a given Titan as more sympathetic or on a closer wavelength with his pantheon than others. But Prometheus is a good example; we're certain he has Intellect, which manifested pretty spectacularly in his need to give humanity the secrets of the divine and the tools to discover and create. On the flip side, he probably doesn't have Rapacity, since we never see any evidence of him indulging any kinds of hungers or desires.

This is a two-way street, incidentally; gods can have Dark Virtues, too, and we think many of them do. We're almost certain that Tezcatlipoca has Malice, probably instead of Loyalty, because he is a dude that absolutely loves ruining peoples' days and reveling in their tears, but who still performs his Duty, holds his Convictions and shows no lack of Courage. And Scions can have Dark Virtues as well; we don't allow them to start with them, because gaining a Dark Virtue is a major personality shaper and should be something earned or experienced during play in our opinion, but they can gain them from interaction with Titans, poor decisions or magical meddling of various kinds. It doesn't happen very frequently, but it definitely can, and has to several of our PCs. It's very, very hard to manage as a PC, but can also be very rewarding to roleplay.

Rolling in the Deep

Question: Are you required to spend Legend to resist social powers if you are in Virtue Extremity or Riastrad?

Well... I'm slightly confused about the spending Legend portion of your question, because normal resistance rolls don't involve spending anything; they use a power, you roll, you see who got higher. But maybe you're referring to the resistance knacks (Crazy Like a Fox, Disorienting Countenance, Parapet of the Mind), which do have a Legend cost associated?

Resistance rolls work exactly the same as they normally would when you're in Virtue Extremity; if someone tries to use their magical mojo on you, you automatically roll Willpower + Integrity + Legend and need to pay for your knacks if you want to try to apply them to the situation. The Virtue Extremity itself doesn't afford you any special extra resistances or anything, so it's totally possible for people to force you around in various ways while you're under its effects. That doesn't mean that they can shut off or circumvent the Extremity, however (only Mirror of Lunacy can do that), only that they can use the knacks while you're freaking out. That means that you will still be in Virtue Extremity if someone Overt Orders you to do something; you'll likely immediately go back to whatever you were doing as soon as its effects end or spaz out in an even more spectacular manner as soon as you can, but the power did work as normal.

Much to the deeply detrimental amusement of us Storytellers, that means that well-meaning bandmates can often trigger extra Virtue Extremities on top of you by trying to prevent you from acting on your current one. To use a real-world example, if Eztli and Sowiljr encounter a giant monster that he doesn't want to fight because they're in a hurry to go elsewhere, he might order her to leave it alone, forcing both of them to roll their Courage. Sowiljr fails the roll and is good to go - he has more important things to do than punch sea serpents all day! - but Eztli succeeds and hits the Berserker Fury Extremity, hurling herself at the monster in spite of his protests. If Sowiljr then tries to get in her way to stop her and gets a bone-shattering shot to the face, the fact that Eztli is already in one Virtue Extremity won't prevent her other Virtues from rioting over this misbehavior, so now she also has to roll her Conviction and Duty. If she succeeds on those rolls, too, she'll go into Morbid Self-Sacrifice Extremity as soon as her Berserker Fury is over, and then Fanatic Zeal immediately thereafter. We usually call this being stuck in "rolling Extremity", where the PC immediately rolls over from one kind of insanity into another as they process all the horrible shit they've dealt with lately. (The exception to this is the Extremity you're already in; if you went into Expression Extremity this scene because a painting was destroyed, and then someone also burns a bunch of priceless drawings in your immediate vicinity, you won't have to roll your Expression again. You're already busy freaking out about that.)

Rolling Extremity, as you might imagine, sucks a lot and is very dangerous to the continued survival and sanity of both the PC having the problem and everyone around them. It doesn't happen very often, and although a character can do it to himself, it's more often the result of his bandmates trying to pull off some damage control that misfires. That doesn't mean you can't try to perform damage control when you have an Extremitying friend on your hands, of course - just that, like all other times in the games, you should be aware of your bandmates' Virtues and the fact that you might cause a meltdown if you blatantly oppose them too much. And give them Willpower if you can.

By the way, since we're talking about social powers and Virtue Extremity, it's also worthwhile to point out that we make sure that no social knack gets to just shut down an Extremity and render it useless. For example, if in the above scenario Sowiljr responds to getting his face broken by using Compelling Presence to stop Eztli in her tracks, that'll work just fine, but he can't just sit around for the rest of the scene and expect her to be normal again when she snaps out of it. That's a pretty obvious bending of the knack's intent, and since Eztli is effectively in a sort of timestop, where she can't do or see or think anything but Sowiljr, she'll come out of the Compelling Presence with exactly as much Virtue Extremity left to get through as she had when she went in. Thanks to the memory-erasing effects of the knacks, she may not even remember why she's so upset, but she still will be. Virtue Extremities are a big deal and a serious moment of crisis for a character, and anyone who doesn't have direct control over insanity (i.e., people with Moon high enough) is helpless to stop it.

Riastrad has specific clauses involved in its writeup, so it's a special case that doesn't always follow the rules of other Virtue Extremities. Because it drops your positive Appearance to zero, your Bedazzling Image and Disorienting Countenance may be totally useless to you now, but on the other hand if you have negative Appearance you'll gain a dot, so you may be better than ever before. Where normal Virtue Extremities can't be talked down by unpowered use of plain old stats, Riastrad has a clause that allows others to make an extended Charisma + Presence roll to try to bring you out of it. Riastrad tends to hemorrhage Legend like nobody's business, but if you have some left over, there's no reason you can't spend it on resistance knacks if you want to. (Unless you put Army of One on your Riastrad, in which case knack usage is off-limits to you as it is to everyone with that boon active.)

Basically, there's no difference in the mechanics of resisting powers than there always is; the only difference is that you're batshit crazy at the moment, so you might respond to those powers differently or react after they've been triggered more strongly than at other times. That's up to individual players' roleplaying and the Storyteller's call, though, so, as with any time Scions have lost their minds, anything could happen.