A while back I looked at the Titanomachy sourcebook for Scion Second Edition. I want to show you the character options from that book today, and also catch everyone up that it is the final week for Scion: Demigod on Kickstarter. If you like Scion and haven’t backed that yet then head over there now and get on board!
Karen Maddison, Daughter of Balor
Let’s start things off with a straightforward Scion, someone with divine blood in their background. Karen Maddison was born to legend and divinity, she just didn’t know it. I imagine her early career (and possibly her Origin-level adventures) had her suspecting that her parentage was supernatural but thinking she was the daughter of one of the other Tuatha Dé Danann. Instead, on rising to Hero level of power she learned that her father was actually the Titan Balor, King of Drought and the Evil Eye. Not the best news.
Mechanically, we make Karen the same way as other Hero-level characters like Jessica and Erik in my previous post. To sum up our complicated concept (a conflicted Scion of Balor who wants to change her destiny) and add a bit of humanity, let’s make Karen’s concept as “Journalist Weighed Down by Fate.” For a short-term deed she’s going to try and break a big story. Long-term she wants to figure out what influence Balor has had on her life before she realized he was her father.
Moving to Paths we’ll have an Origin that reflects her knowing she’s always been special: Best and Brightest. The three skills are Athletics, Culture, and Persuasion to reflect an all-around charmed existence due to knowing she was special from childhood. Her Role Path is going to reflect her chosen career of Hard-Hitting Journalist (some nice double-meaning there) with the three skills of Academics, Firearms, and Integrity. Lastly is the Tuatha Dé Danann Pantheon Path which has two chosen skills (Culture and Close Combat) and she picks a third which I’m going to make Leadership. The choice of Leadership reflects the unseen influence of her warlord-god father Balor seeping into her life, and I’m going to name the path Resistant Child of the Evil Eye.
Karen is an author and a smart one but she’s first and foremost an active and adventurous soul. I’ll prioritize her Origin Path as primary, her Pantheon Path as secondary, and her Role Path as a primary. For Attributes, her Physical Arena is going to by primary, then Social, and then Mental. This makes her a pretty active but also a charismatic investigator and her Approach will be Finesse to mark her as different from her father’s Forceful approach to things.
Next up is Callings and Knacks which brings us to the contents of Titanomachy really for the first time. Balor’s Callings are listed there as Destroyer, Tyrant, and Warrior, only the last of which are familiar to us from Scion: Origin and Scion: Hero. As I noted in my review, Titans have five new Callings which are destructive and chaotic just like the Titans themselves. Although Karen is fighting her heritage, I feel like I have to use one of these new Callings to try them out so the first of Karen’s natures will be Destroyer. She’s might be aiming for good and heroic actions but Karen has a temper inherited from her father and she can let that get out of hand when she doesn’t keep it in check. The others will match her chosen career a little more: Hunter (tracking down stories) and Sage (writing the truth).
I’m going to give her two points for the “godly” Callings of Hunter and Sage and one dot in her “titanic” Calling of Destoyer. She gets a Knacks from her Callings equal to the Calling’s rating so that’s going to be Eyes in the Blinds (spying on an area), Keen-Eyed Predator (sharp senses), Palace of Memory (eidetic memory), and Presence of Magic (sensing the supernatural) as well as a titanic Knack of Asphalt Apocalypse (rip apart the ground around you). Karen is a keen and resourceful journalist but when she gets angry the world around her can just rip to pieces, much like the legendary fury of Balor the Smiter.
Next up are the Birthrights which Karen has seven dots of. She’s going to have a Camera of Vision (2-dots) which is a relic that lets her see through illusion or deception and an aos sídhe Guide (2-dots) which will be a reskinned satyr (ew). Three of those dots, though, is going to be a Follower that Karen definitely isn’t excited for: a fomorian warrior who is convinced that she will be the next leader of the Fomoraigh. This warrior follows Karen’s orders but they are pretty nasty and easily get carried away.
For Purviews, Karen gets the signature Geasa of the Tuatha Dé Danann (even though she’s part of the “dark side”) and her other purview comes from her divine parent and so again we turn to Titanomachy. Balor offers Chaos, Death, Fire, Health, and War which are all just lovely… For Karen, I’m going with Death since that’s got some ability to use secrets and knowledge which matches her I think. I’m picturing scenes where Karen’s hit a dead end and has to ask the “unquiet dead” for answers which is not pleasant and also a reminder of her father.
After picking purviews and Boons, we get to the finishing touches like any other Scion character. In the end we’ve got a Scion of the Tuatha Dé Danann that is similar to some of the others we’ve seen from that pantheon. She’s got different strengths and weaknesses for sure but a lot of the time she’ll play similarly to Carolyn or Kyle from my original Hero-level band. On the other hand, she’s got a Calling which is pure destruction (and a knack that can level a city block) as well as a fomorian warrior following her around. These are the obvious ways that her Titan heritage factors in but Karen also will be marked as titanspawn by other creatures and they can react accordingly, something for the Storyteller to play up.
Now, though, let’s look at a different approach to titanborn characters: an unrepentant “hero” on the side of one of the Titans themselves.
Lisbet Martell, Handmaiden of Jörð
With Karen Maddison we saw a descendant of a Titan who hated that lineage and was trying to move past it to join the ranks of the gods anyways. In Lisbet Martell, I want to take a different approach and look at someone who is not only tied to a Titan but they are sympathetic to that figure and want to help them. Lisbet is going to be a former huldra, a guardian spirit from Norwegian folklore, who has been Chosen by the Titan Jörð as a servant. Though she’s certainly a Titan and prone to destruction and the desire to tear down the work of the Æsir, Jörð is ultimately driven by some pretty justified grievances against Odin who murdered her father Ymir and also left her alone while she gave birth to their son Thor. She wants to bring down the All-Father but I don’t know that we can truly hold that against her…
Huldra are figures of protection in the stories, watching over the charcoal kilns of woodcutters while they slept. They only do this if treated with respect, however, and I can see a huldra feeling empathetic to Jörð’s case of being screwed over repeatedly and just wanting to set things right. I think the huldra that came to call itself Lisbet Martell might have entered our story investigating the happenings in Boston before hearing the voice of Jörð offering help and guidance. Lisbet was won over and before the rest of the band (and potentially Lisbet’s player) knew it, she was an enthusiastic proponent of Jörð’s cause.
We’ll streamline the process here so that Lisbet’s section isn’t as long as Karen’s above but we want to pick out Paths first because they’re so important. Her Origin Path will be Guardian Spirit to reflect her huldra start and Role Path will be Enemy of Injustice. Her Pantheon Path will reflect how those things relate to her adoptive mother: Handmaiden of Jörð. She gets three Callings as well, one of which will be Hulder (already written on p. 312 of Scion: Hero). Another should come from Jörð and again we have a mix of “normal” and titanic Callings in Titanomachy: Guardian, Lover, and Primeval. This time I have to go with a “normal” Calling since Guardian is such a great fit, but she’s also a nature spirit so I’m going to pick Primeval as her third Calling.
Lisbet is going to have one Knack from her Hulder Calling (Go Around which lets her designate an area as off-limits) and two Knacks for Guardian (A Purpose for her dedicated goal and A Vigil for her supernatural focus). Lastly, I’ll pick out two Knacks for her Primeval Calling which has been growing even stronger since throwing her lot in with Jörð. Land’s Favor (“conspiring with the land” to help you) seems a nature fit and Whirling Cosmos (changing combat benefits for three rounds) as an option for fighting.
She’ll get Geasa as her pantheon purview and picks from Jörð’s impressive list for a second (we’ll go with Earth). That’s it for now, but if she gets one later it might be a Passion purview for her growing obsession with bringing people to justice. That’s it, a supernatural Scion like the Hero-level Mac from the Hero-level band but with some key differences. In some ways, Lisbet and Mac are even farther apart than Karen and other human Scions since Mac is a hound loyally serving the Tuatha Dé Danann gods while Lisbet is a spirit fighting against the goals of most of the Æsir gods. At a fundamental level they are polar opposites and it will be interesting to see that play out. From a campaign standpoint, can Lisbet even succeed in helping Jörð get her due or is she destined to descend further and further into titanic madness? Depends on the Storyteller and campaign but certainly an interesting set of questions!
Conclusion
There other options here (an all Titanspawn campaign, two separate groups forced together by circumstances, etc) but I think Karen and Lisbet show how character generation with Titanomachy can go. It’s not a completely new system so you can easily integrate it into your existing Scion campaign (or teach people both if you’re starting new) but there’s plenty to make Titan-based characters different from standard Scions. Best yet, it’s just as easy to make new Titans as it is to make new gods so your campaign can expand to incorporate any facet of mythology that you want.
Don’t forget to back Scion: Demigod on Kickstarter if you’re interested and stay tuned for more Scion posts as this next wave of content arrives!
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