If you need to sum up Scion in a single sentence, it’s this: “Who you are is very much tied to who you are to other people”.
Even more than politicians, the Gods know the power of a good narrative – and good public relations. No God is an island, no Hero exists without someone setting her story in motion. You are bound and defined by your relationships. It’s in the name of the game: being a scion of something means you’re from a greater parent, which right there defines your identity by someone or something else. Or, to use a convenient phrase, it serves to start defining your Legend.
Most of the Gods in Scion belong to the pantheons, Gods who have a shared narrative – a shared Fate. By extension, Heroes and Demigods belong to their ranks as well (and no few Legendary associates and, yes, even a select few Titans, like Helios). In the prior edition, the pantheons were largely bloodlines, which tied into the children of the Gods being literal blood relations. They were all family to some degree or another, and descendants of those pantheons kept within the family. Problems arose, though, when we tried to address gods existing within different pantheons (like Yama, who’s got a foothold in China, Japan, and India) or the process of interpretatio. So we’re moving away from that slightly in Scion 2e – pantheons are no longer purely divine bloodlines, but socio-magical constructs within Fate, bound to cultures across the World. This means they can be bigger, more metaphorical, and more importantly it means Gods may belong to one (or more) pantheons, manifesting Incarnations in a variety of different cultural aspects. Pantheons bind the Gods together and to the World, and they provide mighty coalitions against the Titans, many of whom seek the World’s subjugation or destruction.
Pantheons are truly massive Paths that serve to define your character’s tie into the mythology of the World, where all myths are true, and where all myths have some truth to them. It means your character is tied into living myth, some of which is half-remembered and ill-defined by the smoothing down of Fatebinding and Legend. It means the curious cognate between Aesir and asura is something more, a sign of ancient enmity between the pantheons, partially forgotten by both. It means that while Tinia, Zeus, and Jupiter are worshiped by three very different cultures over thousands of years, they can be said to be one God, in a myriad of Incarnations and changes in Legend over the centuries. There are a few diehard Etruscan Gods and many Greek Gods and a few purely Roman ones (like Janus and Quirinus and Divus Iulius), and some Gods who can be all three at once – but there is only one Olympus.
As Scions grow in power, they give up more and more of themselves in the bargain, tying their power into their deeds and their followers, until they potentially become Gods in their own right. And if they’re dissatisfied…well, we’ve got some thoughts on making your own pantheons in-character.
The pantheons we’re writing up for Hero are:
Aesir – The Norse Gods
Deva – The Hindu Gods
Kami – The Japanese Gods
Manitouk – The Algonquian Gods
Netjer – The Egyptian Gods
Orisha – The Yoruban Gods
Shen – The Chinese Gods
Teotl – The Aztec Gods
Theoi – The Greek and Roman Gods
Tuatha de Dannan – The Irish Gods
Each pantheon will cover about seven to thirteen Gods apiece, along with a description of common Birthrights. There’s other Gods I’d love to cover before Demigod, mind you, like expanding the Orisha to fully cover the Loa, or covering the Nemetondevos, the fallen Gods of Gaul, destroyed by Divus Julius prior to his apotheosis. Or even talking about Gods without a pantheon, such as tutelary Gods (though no few tutelary Gods joined a pantheon later on). And when we do get to Demigod, I really want to sink my teeth into Mesopotamian, Polynesian, Slavic…lots of myth to choose from.
But that’s in the future. For the present, Hero and Origins are in first drafts, and I hope I can show you some finished product next week. So, we talked about both this week, and you get to vote on which you’d rather see expanded on next week: The Callings, the Archetypes that help to define a Scion’s powers; or Fate, the web of relationships that binds the Gods to the World?
Vote in the comments!
Music: If only your actions matter, then nobody knows what it’s like to be the bad man, do they?
Comments
77 responses to “Pantheons [Scion Second Edition Open Development]”
Nice soru again!!
I’d like to see how fate evolved in the second edition actually.
Question*
Not soru!!! Damn autocorrect!!
Ok I give up.
All I wanted to say was “Nice work”
my keybboard is sorta broken,so i understand your pian *internet hug*
Fate would be nice!
I’d love to see more about Fate.
Callings, please!
I’m very excited to see some less-represented Pantheons make the cut in the corebook.
Oh. This is awesome. But I have to ask, will the Norse pantheon be Aesir only, or will it be Aesir an Vanir?
As to the vote, I vote for Callings. I wanna know what that is.
I’d assume the actually named Vanir who joined the Aesir will appear (Njord, Freyr, Fryja). But the nameless Vanir are… well… nameless.
Just like in the myths, the Vanir have effectively joined and married into the Aesir, making the latter the dominant pantheon. Vanaheim is closed off from the World, only accessible through winding branches in Yggdrasil.
I thought in the original myths the Aesir and Vanir made peace with a hostage exchange (Freyr and Freyja for Hoenir and Mimir), but didn’t otherwise merge.
If they wanted to call them by a more generic name, it’d be “The Asa” which just literally means “The Gods.”
But considering the influences I’m seeing here from other sources, I’ve already had this argument once.
Calling!
We’re chomping at the Bit to take the podcast group into Scion 2.0
http://ragnarokandroll.podbean.com/
Callings Please!
And today, I learned about the Yoruba people. Thanks, Onyx Path! I actually bought Werewolf 2nd because its Dark Eras chapter taught me about the Stonewall riots, so now I guess I have to buy Scion even harder?
Voting for Callings.
Calling all Fates… :p
Fate.
Fate please!
Callings.
Also how much of a bribe do you require to share the detailed list of gods in the first book?
I’m also really curious to see the mechanical influence of a patron god on a scion (like, is it just a few favored purviews and epic attributes like before?)
Callings, please
I vote for Fate. I’ve been hoping you guys streamline that since day one.
Call it anal, but I’m troubled by the aesthetic similarity of “Theoi” and “Teotl”. True, both are grammatically correct (which is a vast improvement over the first edition), but couldn’t anything possibly be done about the names sounding the same? This is the kind of thing that feels very insignificant while writing, but ever so slightly wrong thereafter when referring to multiple Pantheons. I believe there should be no possibility of mistake when counting their names – not even mentally.
*says Theoi and Teotl aloud*
They don’t sound anything alike. They neither rhyme nor are alliterative.
They are both two syllable words in which the first one is effectively identical and the second is similar.
How are you pronouncing these words?
I completely agree. That’s gonna get real confusing in reading.
i would love to see more native american deities like the Mayan or even things like coyote(not sure if the manitou would be using the totems or not.).
Callings please!
Are you pronouncing Theoi like Tea-oi? Because that’s not correct. Greek has dental “thee” sounds like English does.
Actually Ancient Greek did not. Th in Ancient Greek was an aspirated t. In fact h indicated aspiration rather than lenition as it does in modern Greek.
For example Athena is pronounced closer to the English Atena. Hephaestus is closer to Hepaestus than Hefaestus.
Calling!
Callings!
And Yay Corebook Tuatha!
Callings for me!
Really excited to see the Yoruba pantheon in the core book! Are you still interested in trying to get the Nemetondevos into the core book as a stretch goal? I really want to try and make my Scion of Andarta from 1st edition without having to spend hours semi learning and translating french. lol
If so, I’ll certainly be one of those people backing a good amount to hopefully make it happen.
Scion is looking like it’s going to dominate all my STing time for quite a bit when it’s finally released. Better work on pushing my beast campaign along…
Oh, and Callings please.
Also slightly curious, any particular plans to add the Yazata back into the game in demigod, god, or a supplement like in 1st edition? Their pantheon specific purview was very interesting to me.
Leaning towards Fate.
Also happy to see up to 10 Pantheons at start.
New definition of Pantheons seems good to me will allow more coverage than previous definition
Callings!
are the Teotl just Aztec or like how the Theoi are Greek, Roman, Etruscan and probably a bunch of others are the Teotl a broad swath of Mesoamerican divinities that some might be purely Aztec, some Mayan but there’s enough sharing there’s one real pantheon?
Callings please! Also, I wouldn’t mind hearing about how more recent cultural folk heroes and national personifications relate to the established pantheons, assuming that’s a thing in Scion 2e.
It totally is! I’ll talk more about it later.
You have made me a very happy man. 🙂
Silly question; will the Netjer use their Egyptian names, or the way lamer Greek ones?
I’ll vote for callings.
I would like to see more on callings.
Fate, please. I’m especially interested in how Fate acts as an entity, how Gods and Titans differ in their relationship to it, and in Gods of Fate in various pantheons.
Callings
Also, is the kickstarter scheduled/announced yet?
The KS is slated sometime around September after GenCon.
That is the plan, yes!
I love the idea of Pantheons being more social in nature. That will make the setting so much more interesting and complex.
I’m voting for Fate, BTW. It’s such a defining part of Scion’s setting, and I need to see how it works this time.
I’d first like to say that I’m impressed with the range of diversity on the Pantheons. Now I have a lot more to play with!!!
Also what is Origins? Not familiar with that title.
I’d vote for the Archetypes
As I understand it, Scion: Origins is the second edition corebook, containing the basic rules and setting information. Like the (New) World of Darkness/Chronicles of Darkness Storytelling System Rulebook, it outlines the world (or, in this case, the World) and tells you how to play at or slightly above the mortal level.
Callings, as being, again, the relatively new mechanic.
Callings
Callings.
I really would like to know how the Creator Calling (if it still exists) differs from the Forge Purview. Everything else seems well delineated but there seems a lot of overlap between those two by the names.
Callings.
I do hope that the Incas and the Mayans get their own treatment in following books (or supplements).
Yup, they’re on the docket for later books.
Excellent. Thank you.
I’d love me some Callings
Callings Please. Good stuff.
Still want a Scion of Prometheus and stick it to the Greeks for all the wrongs they inflicted upon us clay men.
One small thing, you don’t really use Yoruban – it tends to be just Yoruba
Callings, pleaee!
Looks good! Putting my vote in for Callings!
I looked at the pantheons and they seem very well. I also noticed that the Algonquins got picked to represent the Native Americans. Good for them. Perhaps the Yazata will be placed in a future book, yes? Can’t wait to see how this plays out when the print is done.
I have to wait until Demigod for Mesopotamian, ahhh . . .
I want to see Callings next.
You have Divus Iulius in this?
OMJ* PLEASE TELL ME DIVI FILIUS AUGUSTUS IS HIS SCION.
I’ll vote for Fate… Callings are nice and all, but oddly enough, they were a bit more restrictive than Fate to some degree, since Fate was almost reactive to how you played your character. Callings kind of stuck you into a single role immediately, which could be tricky if your image of your character evolved too much during creation and/or early play.
*Oh my Jupiter
Well…he certainly could be, it’s doable within our framework.
Callings, please!
If it’s still time, i vote for Callings too.
Voting for Fate, though I’d be happy if callings win.
Is it possible to play a Scion of Verdandi, or shoot, maybe even Prometheus. In Scion 1e, Gods/Titans with a strong connection to Fate/Foresight/Kenning were out of bounds for player characters. Frustrating because they are some of my favorite characters of mine.
At some point are you thinking of doing an Pantheon of Americana? There’s a lot to draw from, just in existing icons: Blind Iustitia, Prudentia, Libertas enlightening the world, Concordia, etc. Or would those all be Incarnations of Columbia Fair?
Bring forth those Callings! 😀 (Also, all praise the Tuatha!)
First of all, thank you for some more information! I’ve been yearning for that for a long time and even more now that my players are getting to Godhood! (Yeah, I never thought it would be THAT tricky… water boons as attacks OMG, we argued for like ages!)
I would go for Fate even if Calling seems important. Fate has always been the heart of Scion so, I’d rather see that developed first! 🙂
I’d like to see more about Callings.
I am loving how you are taking into account via Incarnations that Roman and Greek religions were *not* the same thing, although at times similar. The more I learn about those religions, the more need I feel to stress it.
FYI, this post isn’t under the Scion tag for some reason.