Winter is Coming

Question: Why did you keep the Frost purview? There is way too much overlap with Water and almost anything Frost can do you could justify Water doing as well, except for the emotion effects.

Actually, we don't feel there's any overlap at all, and the reason is simple: symbolically and mythically, Frost and Water have almost nothing to do with one another. While we (and ancient humans, too) are perfectly aware that frost and ice turn into water if you melt them and vice versa, that doesn't make them the same thing. They represent entirely different areas and concepts - water has to do with life, flowing, change and sudden overwhelming force, while frost has to do with cold, barrenness, winter, death and stagnation.

If you look at myths from any culture, you will never see a god of water who is therefore a god of frost, and that's exactly the reason. They do and represent entirely different things. A god like Uller, who is aligned with snow and ice, has nothing at all to do with water; a god like Poseidon, in charge of the watery depths, has nothing whatsoever to do with frost. I don't know of a single deity that does both things, and that's because mythology treats them as entirely different areas; they may be changeable, but that doesn't make them the same.

Just because a single Hero-level boon lets you use the rules of science to change the state of water or ice does not mean that the two purviews are interchangeable, or even that they overlap that much. It'd be asinine to tell Scions they had to buy up Water through the roof if they wanted to be gods of winter; those things just aren't the same.

(Also, I'm really not sure why you think you could duplicate Frost boons easily with Water, because it just ain't so. At the very best, some of those boons could be duplicated if you were willing to waste a lot of extra actions and Legend on using Changing States first and then doing whatever it was you wanted to, but that doesn't exactly sound like a barrel of fun, and some, like Uller's Stride, Flash Freeze or Blizzard Call, can't be successfully imitated by Water at all. I'm not sure why anyone would want to bother trying to use the one instead of the other.)

Politics!

Question: What's the deal with marriage in your Scion games? Is cross-pantheon marriage frowned upon by the gods or is it cultivated as the cement which holds together alliances? Since Pantheons seem to function as royal families or dynasties unto themselves, what's your take on godly marriage in a many-pantheon world?

This question is well-timed, since Sverrir just spent an especially harrowing couple of hours trying to deal with a few different pantheons' demands and offers of marriage alliances with him thanks to Vanaheim's resurgence. It's tough to be the king.

Whether or not cross-pantheon marriage is frowned upon generally depends on the pantheon in question, the gods in question and how everything went down. More insular and less foreigner-tolerant pantheons like the Aztlanti or Amatsukami are probably more likely to frown on it as a rule (though of course that doesn't mean they won't do it if it seems like it will benefit them, just that they won't like it), while those more concerned with political savvy or with a history of combining bloodlines through marriage like the Pesedjet or Aesir may have much less of a problem with it. Then, too, there are specific cases where pantheons are not getting along and are probably going to go all Montague and Capulet if their members try to cross-marry; few Nemetondevos/Dodekatheon or Deva/Yazata marriages are going to have smooth roads ahead of them. And finally, specific gods may have their own opinions on what is and isn't a good match - Ares may be fine with a Dodekatheon Scion marrying a Tuatha berserker, but those not interested in their territory being regularly blown up may be less than pleased.

It's certain, though, that marriage in Scion never comes without political ramifications; at best, you can marry a mortal or lesser immortal who has no strong affiliation, which will mean that you've basically removed yourself from that specific political arena (which will be helpful sometimes and crippling at others). This is what Folkwardr did by marrying Ahouva; she has no political ramifications so he there are no real consequences, and he doesn't have to be part of the marriage alliance conversation anymore unless somebody kills her, which he's very vigilant about making sure doesn't happen. Yoloxochitl went for this option in an even purer form by just making herself permanently underage, but it's anyone's guess whether or not the Aztlanti are going to let her stay that way or inform her later that she'd better age a decade because there's an important alliance that needs sealing right now.

Everybody else's lives are more complicated. Sverrir spent his last game dealing with emissaries from the Pesedjet, Tuatha and Dodekatheon asking for his line to be married into one of theirs, as well as possibly something similar with the Amatsukami (but since they wouldn't tell him what they wanted unless he went to a private conference with them before he talked to everyone else, and he didn't do that, it's probably just as likely that they wanted to bribe him not to make a marriage alliance with anybody). The marriage between Sowiljr and Eztli is of course now legendary in itself, having spawned a war and several extremely ugly political incidents (but it was also unavoidable, thanks to him knocking her up at Legend 4, so everybody is kind of stuck with it). Jioni's marriage to Erebus has given her a great deal of power among the Dodekatheon but has also made her a figure of some resentment, while at home nobody cares because most of the Loa don't view Erebus as particularly special or something they should be concerned about, and of course she also got him to start a war that ended up dragging the Aesir into the fray as well. And, of course, Odin's been spending the last couple of years hunting up what he considers the best marriage prospects for Vala, something she is not at all pleased about but which will eventually have to be handled in some way.

Alas, even marrying within your own pantheon isn't politically a "safe zone" - just ask Terminus, who ended up having to get hitched to Circe to stop a pretty epic intra-pantheon feud from continuing.

Marriages between pantheons almost always mean some kind of alliance, especially if they're intentional, for the same reason they usually do among human families that intermarry; Family A's son/daughter/sister/brother/whatever is now living with Family B, so they have a vested interest in helping defend Family B if they get attacked or in making sure that they're prosperous so they can in turn send some of that wealth back home. Occasionally, as is the case with Terminus, they also happen to smooth over an incident or an insult to restore the status quo - that is, sorry we did whatever you're super pissed off about, here's one of us to live with you as a peace offering and guarantee that we'll behave in the future.

And then there are the kids like Sowiljr and Eztli that just spring a surprise marriage on everyone... and when that happens, everybody gets to scramble to see what advantage they can make out of it.

Ashes to Ashes

Question: I was reading Faruza Alinejad's character sheet and it says her Guide Shmashana is a Yakshini. Isn't a Yakshini a Hindu figure? Did she get this Yakshini because of Vayu's strong Hindu identity? More importantly, how does the Yakshini feel about helping a Yazata Scion, or did Vayu convince her Faruza was actually a Hindu Scion?

Shmashana is indeed a yakshini and yakshini are indeed entirely Hindu; Shmashana in particular is the guardian yakshini of graveyards and cremations, death associations that match Vayu's (and Faruza's). She is summoned via a handful of ash from a sacred cremation ground, which Faruza keeps in a small box. She also has a bit of a 'tude whenever she's forced to show up.

Your guess is a good one - Faruza is running aroud with access to a yakshini thanks to Vayu's strong ties to the Devas, among whom he claims membership despite being one of the Yazata. While Shmashana is probably more likely to be closely associated with Shiva, who is the official lord of cremations and graveyards and other creepy things, Vayu's death connotations probably allow him to hold some sway over her as well (and one assumes he and Shiva are probably on at least passingly cordial terms anyway). Faruza herself is not really sure what Shmashana is, other than a strange magical being that sometimes appears in a cloud of ash and refuses to provide any useful information; if she realized she was hanging out with a servant of the dreaded daevas she'd probably panic, but for the moment she merely sees her Guide as an enigma that must serve some purpose if her father sent it to her.

Shmashana appears to be under orders (or possibly even magical coercion) not to reveal her true nature to Faruza, nor to in any way let slip that she isn't the kind of creature that would normally be friendly with a Scion of the Yazata. More than once she's caught her tongue or switched directions mid-sentence rather than say something that might cause Faruza to question her origins or loyalties. Nevertheless, she is obviously not very impressed by Faruza and usually makes it known that she considers her ineffective and a little bit stupid whenever she is summoned for advice. Faruza, in turn, wonders what Shmashana is supposed to do to help her when her response to any question is usually, "I don't know. Why aren't you smart enough to figure it out?"

Neither of them seems to know what to do with the other, though their relationship will probably grow more close and complex given some time. In the meantime, considering that Faruza is literally surrounded by Deva Scions (Nisha, Akhileswar, Penelope and Sanjiv; she is a lone Yazata lighthouse in her band), it's not outside the realm of possibility that she might learn to understand her Guide a little better, or that Shmashana might intentionally try to influence her into acting more like her companions than the devout Persian instructor she was in her mortal life.

The Great Evils

Question: Could you perhaps tease us with a list of who the Titans and avatars are?

I do love being an academic tease, so yes. Also, hopefully writing this post will somehow make our ability to work on the project this weekend even greater!

We're starting with six basic Titans, but not the same ones the book begins with; instead, we're beginning with antagonists for the six pantheons we consider the most "core" to the setting, namely the Aesir, Anunna, Aztlanti, Devas, Dodekatheon and Pesedjet. (Don't worry, fans of evil beasties opposing other pantheons - they'll get their turn, but if we waited until everyone was done to start posting these things, there might be a revolt among the people.) The Titanrealms are pretty much finalized, but we're still working with individual Avatars and creatures within them, so much of our list is subject to change.

However, I will tease you with a list of the six starting Titanrealms themselves and their dominant Avatars:

Emamu, Titanrealm of Beasts, led by Tiamat and opposed to the Anunna

Keku, Titanrealm of Darkness,, led by Apep and opposed to the Pesedjet

Maya, Titanrealm of Illusion,, led by Mayasura (or is it) and opposed to the Devas

Muspelheim, Titanrealm of Fire,, led by Surtr and opposed to the Aesir

Ourea, Titanrealm of Nature,, led by Gaia/Kronos and opposed to the Dodekatheon

Tamoanchan, Titanrealm of the Heavens,, led by Mixcoatl and opposed to the Aztlanti

Of course, anything could still happen if we have an amazing brainwave that demands immediate action, but these are pretty solid for the moment. Several other crazy demands on our attention have finally wrapped up lately, so hopefully we'll have enough time to really buckle down with these guys now.

I can't wait. Big bad guys are the best bad guys.

Something for the Mantel

Question: What are some especially memorable Trophies your Bands have gathered from the fallen forms of their formerly fearsome foes?

Despite your exciting alliteration, this question doesn't really have an exciting answer. Trophies are, unfortunately, pretty inconsequential and even boring most of the time in our games, whether we use the ones from the books or try to invent something appropriate on our own. The Trophies of fallen creatures and enemies are occasionally useful, but they really only go through three phases of player interest: the phase where the high Intellect characters care because they want to identify them, the phase where craft-oriented characters care in case they can turn them into something else, and the phase where someone puts them into a bag, forgets about them and eventually loses them when they use Skin-Shedding or run through a lake of fire or something. The only person we've ever had with a fourth phase is Terminus, who has a museum-slash-junkroom in his Sanctum where he hoards any and all items with even a hint of magic about them.

The most memorable moment for a Trophy in my recollection, however, was very early in the Better Next Time game, when the band killed the first giant they'd ever seen. They were able to identify that its heartsblood would give them some kind of physical bonuses, but nobody rolled high enough to really figure out specifics; when Chuck tossed one back to buff himself in combat, it dropped his Intelligence below zero and he went instead through a fit of insane, ravening berserker rage while the other PCs sort of panicked and ran around avoiding him. The days when +/-2 bonuses and penalties to things mattered are long past for that band, but they still refer to giantsblood as "Chuck Clark Juice".

The problem with Trophies is that they can never compete with relics; they're always going to be so limited and underpowered by comparison that most PCs don't bother with them (especially if they're particularly large or otherwise a pain to transport). They're fantastic for crafting-oriented Scions, as they make great raw materials and bases for creating relics later, and especially at Hero-level can be good buffs in specific situations, but they use their utility pretty quickly. And that's actually really okay with us; they shouldn't be able to compete with relics, which are a much bigger deal and more difficult to get, but neither are they earth-shatteringly badass. They're more like incidental magical objects Scions might pick up along the way than things that end up being important or featured.

Trophies that Scions take to creatively weave into their own legends are way cool, though, such as when Geoff absconded with a fallen giant's bone club (pretty standard giant femur with minor combat bonuses) and eventually had it forged into his sword Hvitingr. A Trophy's primary purpose is to give the PCs fodder for cool stuff they want to do; more often than not, they won't need or bother with it (unless you're tailoring monsters to directly appeal to them), but the few times they do it's usually worth the whole shebang.

Underworld Pleasure Cruise

Question: Reading the writeup of the Babylonian underworld, and comparing it to the Slavic one, I'm often surprised how different the underworlds tend to be in terms of their palatability. When your players have to go to one or the other of them, generally what are their reactions to the grimness or lack thereof? And speaking of which, what are the overall opinions of the major death gods on the level of reward or punishment in the other guy's underworld?

Players almost always hate Underworlds, which makes sense because they're alive and the Underworld deck is therefore stacked against them. To be fair, they haven't been to any of the really pleasant ones other than Mag Mell (and that didn't go so well since Manannan mac Lir was really pissed off at them at the time), but in general the Virtue checks (difficult to succeed at all of if a Scion happens to not be a native to that Underworld's pantheon), obstacles, resident creatures and excessive rules always manage to get them down. Geoff temporarily voted Duat the Worst Place in the Universe while he was stuck in there (though that title has since been passed on to Erebus), Aurora and her band have been to Hel multiple times and hated it more each one, Darcy and Hime are not at all happy to be stuck in the black pit that is Yomi, Kettila still has nightmares about crossing the Styx and the general reaction to Dubnolissos is always to flail around screaming about why the monsters here are so freaking huge.

I think they would probably find pleasant Underworlds to be a refreshing surprise, but aside from the Mag Mell fiasco and Sowiljr's occasional uneasy forays into Nonantztochan, they really haven't had the opportunity yet. Being less than high-Legend means that you get grunt work, and grunt work means it's generally something the higher-Legend people above you didn't want to do. They probably don't really mind having to visit Raj on errands, but going to Irkallu is something that everyone probably foists off as far as that buck will pass.

Death gods are a stentorian and autocratic bunch; it's most likely that they probably think every other Underworld is stupid and doing it wrong. Owners of pleasant paradises like Raj or Mag Mell probably think owners of miserable deathtraps like Mictlan or Yomi are being unnecessarily cruel and harsh; owners of stringently regulated domains like Hades and Mord Keshvar probably think everyone else is appallingly sloppy and vulnerable. Notoriously tight-fisted Death gods like Hel, Hades or Ereshkigal probably think career reincarnators like Yama are completely mad to circumvent their responsibilities by releasing dead people back into the World, and the reincarnators in turn probably think everyone else is wasteful, greedy, maladjusted or just refusing to help humanity for some inscrutable reason. And these little tiffs don't always have to be between different pantheons; when you have several Underworlds among the same set of gods, disapproval may be even more strident. I would expect that Izanami and Susanoo don't agree at all on how dead people should be disposed of, while the large number of Aztec afterlives is just begging for someone to disagree with something somewhere.

As with most things in Scion, it's a mix of the cultural landscape those gods come from and their individual personal leanings. Mictlantecuhtli is never going to approve of the ridiculous shenanigans going on over in Naraka, and Veles would probably be appalled by the hideous mess that is Nepesh, but luckily they probably don't have to go to one anothers' houses much, so uneasy truces exist all around.

But Scions do have to go to their houses. Poor Scions.

Sniper Slipup Solved

Question: Does Wind Reader, paired with Sharpshooter, allow you to add your total number of Sky boons to your damage roll when using guns?

Ahaha, see, this is what I mean when I talk about players always finding a way to do things they aren't supposed to.

No, Wind Reader, like the other level two enhancement boons (Tectonic Strength, Glacial Resistance, Fluid Endurance and Pheromones) is never intended to be used for damage rolls, only for the performances of tasks and badassness in other arenas. We included the inability to use Tectonic Strength for damage in its text, but apparently forgot that Perception can also be used for damage with the appropriate knacks. These boons should never be used for that; there are plenty of damage adders in the game, but these aren't meant to be some of them.

Wind Reader's been corrected to reflect that being able to hear extra well due to the wind carrying sounds to you does not translate to being able to shoot people harder.