Scion AMA: Sophia Archimedes

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

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

Scion AMA: Sangria Tecuhtli

Today's set of questions is for Sangria Tecuhtli, better known as Eztli, goddess of blood and warrior of the Teotl. Eztli is not particularly communicative, but luckily her nahualli, the great bat Cuacitlali, is a little more forthcoming and inclined to jump in and share her opinions.

Lady of Light, Lord of Night

Question: Thanks for doing the AMAs, they are awesome! I'm enjoying the little playlists you put in them, but you mentioned a long time ago that you had full-length song lists for some of your other characters. Any chance we can see some of those? Please?

This question has been sitting around in the queue for a week or two now and I've been avoiding it because of many other projects, but better late than never, right? The last two were romantic mixes (...sort of? Do Aurora and Wolf qualify?), but this one is for a different kind of relationship: the bond between Alison and Colin Margaritas, star-crossed siblings who revolved around each other as the centers of their respective universes, but were always kept apart by the unconquerable gravity of their different natures. He was youth and carelessness, madness and innocence, darkness and confusion and strong emotions; she was adulthood and responsibility, clarity and knowledge, light and justice and logic. It shouldn't surprise anyone that Colin, in the end, tried to take responsibilities onto shoulders that were never suited for them, or that Alison, in her extremity, became the most sanely logical kind of mad.

Covers after the jump, because free time is for chumps.

Scion AMA: Kettila Blomgren

It's time for Kettila! Also known now as Yoloxochitl, the child goddess, she's a bundle of Peter Pan complex goodness and wacky bloodletting shenanigans. She will murder you with a happy smile on her face, but she'll obey the rules of bedtime. And answer questions!

Scion AMA: Geoff Matheson

The Scion AMA continues, this time with Sowiljr, better known to some as Geoff Matheson, a Las Vegas chef turned reluctant Allfather! He does not have time for autographs and would like everyone to stop trying to touch him, please, but is otherwise happy to answer a few questions.

Scion AMA: Eastern Promises, Mark II

And finally, it's time for the current crop of Eastern Promises kids, as well as several of their previous cronies! They are all about answering some questions. Enthusiastically!

Scion AMA: Aurora Dahl

If you're a fan of all things Norse and the most Norsey prophetess ever to meddle around with them, it's your AMA day! These questions are being answered by Aurora, later Vala, daughter of Odin and goddess of hope and foreknowledge.

Scion AMA: Eastern Promises, Mark I

The first round of Eastern Promises characters are here to tell you about their experiences! We'll hear from some members of Faruza's merry globe-trotting, cow-collecting band, as well as Alvin's group of high-class miscreants in a world that really ought to be catering to their needs way better than it does. Also, bonus Yadi.

The one drawback of the Eastern Promises rotating roster is that when characters are out of play, we all miss them and want them to come back and be ridiculous all at the same time.

Scion AMA: Gangs of New York, Mark I

It's time for some AMA questions again, this time from the most infamous group of all: Michael Chambers, a.k.a. The Great Terrorist, and his band of cronies. New York has never been the same. This set is mostly dudes since most of the ladies are still working on their questions, but never fear, there will be more borderline internationally illegal incidents to come later.

Scion AMA: Mitchell Gozer

All right, folks, you asked some awesome AMA questions and the players delivered. We'll be doing posts like this over the next few weeks with various characters' answers, and some bonus playlists for their hilarious hijinks and soulful tragedies as well.

First up today is Mitchell Gozer, Scion of Hermes, now known as Terminus, the god of luck and last chances. Or, "that guy who dies all the time and swears at the Moirai a lot".

Son of Wolves, Daughter of Ravens

Question: Are we ever gonna see the sad Aurora/Wolf mix tape you mentioned in the "Scion Symphony" blog?

Sure.

We made this a while ago, and it's a continuum that covers all of the relationship between Aurora and Wolf, from their roots at Legend 5 through the final events of Ragnarok. It's not too much of a spoiler to say that they will be seeing each other again, even though they're currently separated in the fiction.

As you guys know, we commit when we do ridiculous things for Scion games, so there are album covers and relevant excerpts involved. I'm hiding them behind a cut so we don't spam the whole blog with song lyrics.

Songs that Shape the World

Question: If you wanted to use Artistry to make a magical dance/song, would you have to still gather supernatural components or is it a separate process?

It depends on what you're trying to do with the dance/song, actually! Just as the magical components needed to build a relic item depend on what its intended function or purpose is, so the intended purpose of a work of art affects what materials you might need for it.

Dance and song are performance arts, so the process can be slightly different; most crafter Scions will do both the blueprinting and building phases of creating objects Artistry, but sometimes a Scion might perform something she didn't write or write something she intends for someone else to perform. When that happens, the process is the same, but there are just two different people performing the rolls for its separate phases - the composer or choreographer making the Intelligence + Art roll to create the piece, and the performer making the Charisma + Art (or in some cases Dexterity + Art, depending on what's going on) roll to properly perform it.

So: you want to write a magical song. What does that mean, exactly? What happens when it's sung? How does it affect people who sing or hear it? Does it always do that, or only under specific conditions? The answers to these questions determine the difficulty of creating and performing it, just as they would for the building of a solid object, and also determine whether or not it needs special materials in order to achieve its full potential.

Those special materials are less straightforward than they would be for a smithing or weaving project, but they can still run a range of different needs. Your Storyteller might decide that in order for performers to understand and be able to reproduce the song's magical effects, you have to write it on unicorn-hide parchment with a phoenix-quill pen, and if you use anything else it'll just be a pretty but ordinary piece of music. Or, maybe in order to achieve the right state of mind to write this thing, you need to partake of one of Xochipilli's sacred hallucinogenic mushrooms, and simply no other inspiration will do.

Once you get to the performance phase, perhaps performers need to be in a certain kind of space to do it properly, or they need certain props or costumes, or they have to bathe in the sacred Ganges for ten days immediately prior to attempting to pull it off. Maybe the dancers need special shoes made from the feet of cats or the whitest clouds above Olympus, or the singers must be accompanied by specific instruments played by specific people. You won't know any of this until you complete the planning phase and write the music, of course, but the Storyteller will let you know, and you'll be free to notate it along with the piece before handing it off to a performer. Scions may be writing "rubato, with the clapping of six hands that belong to the same person" in the margins of their songs as often as mortal composers write "largo, with feeling."

Of course, if you just want to write normal music or create a normal dance routine, albeit one so badass and amazing that no mortal could ever have dreamed it up, none of this applies. You'll make great rolls, the audience will be bowled over, but nothing magical will happen. And if you do write something magical but you (or whomever performs it for you) neglects to use the right props/conditions/whatever, it'll still be an incredible piece of artistry but will not actually do anything magical, just like building a relic out of only ordinary materials instead of whatever your plans called for will just get you a very finely-crafted non-magical thing.