Hello Scions,
Our next manuscript chapter will be available on Tuesday, October 25th. Chapter Two: Game of Immortals will talk about what comes after Apotheosis, outlining three possible venues for the godly Scion characters to express their newfound power. To whet our appetites, we're going to have a sneak peek at some bits from that chapter today!
And, with just over 50% of the votes, backers have asked to preview the Divine Rule section of this chapter!
Scion: God elevates Scions to true Godhood, granting them a new perspective on The World’s treasures and troubles. On the one hand, becoming a God represents a character ascending to lofty heights of cosmic power and influence, able to shake the firmament with their word and will. On the other hand, Gods feel the grip of Fate more tightly, and many act in The World only subtly to prevent themselves from becoming bound in chains of myth.
To that end, Scion: God offers three main venues for Gods to interact with one another and The World — Incarnations, divine rule, and cults and religion. Collectively, these three venues form the Game of Immortals, giving structure and momentum to Godly chronicles.
Divine Rule provides a framework for the far-reaching plans of the Gods as they jockey for position within the Overworld. Rather than relying on their Skills and Attributes, divine rule centers the action on a God’s Purviews, Callings, and Legendary Titles, using them as tools to construct Realm-shaping miracles. Plans enacted through Divine Rule operate at a vast and ambiguous timescale, often tying up a God’s free Legend for days, weeks, or more as they work to address large-scale change in their divine Realms.
Divine Rule
Prosaic actions within a divine realm are as effortless or strenuous as its divine inhabitants wish them to be. A God of the Hunt provides venison, fowl, and fixings for their guests’ dinner as easily as breathing, a reflexive-action without the need for agency or thought. A divine architect raises enormous palaces as a matter of an afternoon’s interest. Mundane concerns exist utterly within control of the divine unless they wish it otherwise.
Mechanically, Gods and characters of similar Legend may choose to succeed at mortal trivialities unless they wish to make sport of it. In a Realm they are native to or familiar with, this includes any additional effects generated by Stunts or exceptional successes. In The World or unfamiliar Realms, Gods always act at Scale 5 (with Legend 12 Gods acting at Scale 6), but may choose to succeed effortlessly by spending a point of Momentum when confronted with challenges or opponents of Tier 1 or lower. If they do so, they succeed with a number of successes sufficient to overcome Difficulty and any Complication present, with additional successes for Stunts equal to their Legend should the scene require it. However, intervening in The World in such a way risks the serious Fatebinding and warping of divine nature that full Gods are prone too, so most avoid it if at all possible, resorting to Incarnating instead.
Similarly, a God might choose for many reasons to allow a legitimate contest between their interests and that of a less powerful competitor to occur. Barring opposition of Godly tier, however, such contests are always at the God’s sufferance. There’s always time to turn Arachne into a spider, or for Sun Wukong to destroy the basketball court in a single bombastic dunk. Even when opposed by otherwise powerful individuals such as Demigods or mighty denizens, Gods enjoy Scale 5 before the use of specific Boons or other abilities. Even if a precocious human, denizen, or Demigod would inflict lasting harm on a God, outside of very specific circumstances (such as the conclusion of a Demigod’s struggle for a Mantle), a God can choose to withdraw to a familiar Otherworld and restore any passing insults to their form by the end of the episode.
True omnipotence is rare in Scion’s World, however. Should beasts of famine and omens of hunger sweep across the hunter’s realm, even they might struggle to feed their friends. No matter how fabulous the architect’s sprawling palace processions are, if their otherworldly home is hostile to structures built on mortal scale, they may watch their buildings swallowed up by hostile landscapes in as little time as they built them. And if the divine rulers of the realms oppose the feeding and housing of guests, venison and spacious heavenly penthouses alike may go unused. Solving Realm-scale problems, making major and lasting changes, and opposing Gods or similar powers requires more than just being divine.
Divine Sinews: Approaches to Omnipotence
No matter a God’s particular interests, abilities, or eccentricities, Legend imbues them with mythic power and allows divine intent to become world-shaking action. The Mantle of a God gives them many ways to do this, channeling their power through the resonant aspects of their identity. This requires attention and effort, which even the greatest of beings eventually have in (at least temporarily) limited supply.
Actions at the level of divine rule can solve problems, create wonders, and trounce all but the greatest enemies in short order. A God spends or Imbues Legend according to the approach and action they’re taking, the total of which is referred to as their effect. Complications at this level demand an additional expenditure of effect when a God undertakes a divine rule action unless they accept the Complication’s consequences. Stunts in Divine Realm play require the investment or expenditure of Legend instead of successes, imbued or spent as the action and stunt dictate, which do not normally count towards an action’s effect.
Resolution takes place in a narrative scene or procedural action as appropriate. Sometimes, Herakles’s moving suddenly erupting mountains accompanies a harried conversation to find out why in The World Pele is visiting and demands a scene. Other times, the Olympian might move the new burning peaks between scenes if the Akua is no longer present to talk to. And sometimes, it involves multiple dramatic scenes as Herakles simultaneously tries to avoid volcanic calamity, Pele’s divine wrath, and a diplomatic incident he desperately wants to avoid.
By Will Alone: Divine Fiat
A God may apply brute will, driving mythical force before them like a bludgeon. Their desires will be fulfilled: “how” is an unnecessary afterthought.
Divine Fiat is the least efficient approach; the God spends the Legend they put towards the task, one-for-one. They cannot reclaim it and must wait to regain it normally.
This is the least subtle approach; the rulers of the Divine Realm the God is acting in, the masters of any Purviews they are affecting, and any nearby Gods will be aware exactly of what the God has done, and even lesser nearby beings will be aware that they’ve done something. A God who attempts to avoid detection when using divine fiat must spend an additional point of Legend.
This is the least focused approach. Without additional benefits from Callings, Purviews, or Titles, even a Legend 12 divine ruler gets only the effect they put into the brute force approach and no more: Zeus spending 1 Legend to raise a mountain might see it knocked down by an irate, newly minted godling spending 1 in return, despite his otherwise vaunted status.
Marvels, Mysteries, and Miracles: Miraculous Investment
A God’s command over their Purviews provides powerful and long-lasting changes to their divine realms. Their mastery of individual might calls upon and reinforces the power of an even wider concept.
Miraculous investment is an efficient and focused approach. The God Imbues a Purview with Legend to command a result, such as draping an otherworldly forest with continual night through the Darkness Purview, or calling upon Journeys to connect the disparate parts of a shifting realm. When used to create, modify, or destroy Realm Conditions, they create an additional point of value (so spending 3 Legend to create the Realm Condition “A Forest in Shadow” would create a 4-point Condition). If using an inherent Purview, they create an additional free point of value (so if that were from an Innate Darkness Purview, it would create a 5-point Condition). Miraculous investment has access to the following Stunt when creating Realm Conditions
Impress Upon Worlds (1s): If you spent Legend to create a Realm Condition, it immediately becomes a permanent feature of the Realm. Those trying to remove or interfere with it must use similarly permanent means (such as arc-length Imbued Legend or uses of similar Stunts) to have any effect.
Miraculous investment is not subtle. Anyone with the Purview used in the same Divine Realm will know of the act, as will masters of the purview, unless the God takes steps to avoid detection — either through Realm Conditions that obscure them or engaging in Divine Opposition against those looking at them.
A God may have one miraculous investment Imbued for most purviews they have access to, while each Innate Purview may have up to three.
Unity and Effort: Working Together
Two or more Gods can combine their efforts, each contributing Legend and effect to the final result. Additional Gods can use any approach they like, but must follow that approaches limitations and drawbacks. Similarly, any participating character can purchase Stunts or buy off Complications, but must pay separately to fuel them.
How Do I Do It Summary
Doing things on a divine scale requires Effect which you generate through various approaches, usually spending or imbuing Legend through the approach. Effect determines how big, effective, and hard to oppose your action is.
Your approach determines how you do something on a divine scale. Approaches differ in what they require to work, as well as what additional abilities they offer or costs they require.
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Divine Fiat: You do it with the expenditure of raw divine power. Just spend Legend, and gain that much Effect. However, it’s obvious on a divine scale, and expensive, since you always have to spend Legend.
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Miraculous Investment: You call upon your power over a Purview to act through miracles related to that Purview. Imbue Legend, mark the applicable Purview, and gain that much effect. It’s especially good at propagating Purviews: If you’re making an ongoing Realm Condition, gain an extra point of Effect, and you have access to a stunt to make permanent realm changes. However, it’s notable both to local divinities and masters of the Purview. Each Purview can only support one investment at a time. You’re better with your Innate Purview, which gives you another additional point for Effect or Stunts when making Realm Conditions, and which can support up to 3 investments.
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Working Together: Multiple Gods can contribute Effort to a task or action, but each must abide by the limits of the approach they choose and pay any relevant costs.
Problem Variations and Common Complications
Simple problems can be quickly solved by Gods without taxing the divine energies too seriously. No matter their rating, if a God imbued Legend to solve them, they may reclaim their Legend and any other committed resources at the end of the episode.
Complex problems represent pervasive or widespread issues, such as realm-wide outbreaks of divine pests, magical malcontent rapidly spreading through realm inhabitants, or multiple fronts of apocalyptic weather. Divine efforts must overcome each component’s individual rating separately to avoid the problem continuing and spreading.
Persistent problems reoccur every arc. Whether endemic to the otherworld they occur in, a continuing consequence of the realm’s relationship to The World, or terrible issues inflicted by an outside force, solving them won’t stop them from reoccurring next arc. Still, if the bureaucracy’s “loafing problem” isn’t solved the workforce will fall into complacency and sloth, and if enough blood isn’t shed to keep the moon shining brightly since it started to dim the rest of the Teōtl will be extremely upset. Tending to persistent problems are one of the things that can thrust a deity into prominence amongst the highest, especially if a Pantheon’s leaders are unwilling or unable to address them.
Dangerous problem Complications represent forces dangerous enough to harm divinities attempting to solve them. Ruinous environmental effects capable of burning away divine flesh, Fate-twisted societal-ills that can abrade the divine Mantle even in the otherworld, and hideous beasts so nefarious and powerful they can scare even the immortal may possess this Complication. If a God fails to fully buy off a dangerous problem Complication, the God suffers a Divine Wound.
Durable Complications indicate a problem that will return if not fully rooted out, whether due to particularly hardy constituent parts, such as a horde of demons that’ll reform if not utterly expunged, or a potentially cyclical issue, such as increasingly dangerous and out of control spring revels. If a God resolves the problem but doesn’t buy off the durable Complication, the God solves the problem for the remainder of the arc…but it will return, potentially worse, after that.
Developing Situations cover any events that might cause a Problem or its Complications to change. Storyguides should follow what makes sense to the narrative; if a character goes out of their way to befriend and provide leadership to bands of unruly centaurs before trying to rid the Otherworld they dwell in of strife, it may make sense to reduce the required Effect by 1. If iniquitous human sorcerers and witches have been trying to sneak into heaven for nefarious purposes and the Orisha have been too preoccupied to stop them, it’s possible that a pesky 1 point Problem is suddenly
persistent. This shouldn’t be used punatively but as a way to reflect the ongoing effect of the story on The World and Otherworld, and Storyguides should be receptive of player suggestions for how situations might develop and change over time.
Wonders and Disasters: Realm Conditions
Realm Conditions track important features, changes, or projects in the divine realm. A sprawling palace complex to house divine servants, the multitude of servants themselves, or an endless storm which keeps away the uninvited might all be features a God creates and maintains through Realm Conditions.
Realm Conditions create narrative realities for the divine realm. If Hotei creates an ongoing Realm Condition for “Lucky Travels” all who cross the realm will experience fortunate and easy journeys, unless an outside force powerful enough to oppose the Realm Condition works against it. Less powerful efforts simply won’t do; a demon might wish to bedevil travelers, but without the ability to oppose the Condition’s effect, it would always find them benefiting from lucky breaks and happenstance.
Realm Conditions are as durable and expansive as the power put into them. If Karttikeya imbues 3 Legend to organize and instruct an invincible army for the defense of a Loka, a would-be invader must be able to exert at least 3 Effect at the Divine Rule level to overcome it. Realm Conditions affect major regions or subrealms by default, while some abilities may allow a single Condition to affect a wider area. If Dionysus surrounds himself with alcoholic vapors confusing all who approach him for 3 Legend, Zeus must generate 3 Effect to have a discussion with the God of wine (and perhaps ask him why he’s being so unsocial.)
If they exist for long enough, Realm Conditions can become permanent salient features of a Realm. At the end of an arc, if a Realm Condition still exists, a God may choose to release their direct control of it. If they do, they regain the Legend imbued and the Condition because another ongoing aspect of the Divine Realm. This happens automatically for Realm Conditions created through Legend spending instead. If Hotei chooses to make “Lucky Travels” a permanent part of the lands around dammed great river of Heaven, it would indefinitely exist independently of the God, unless someone else undertook active efforts to destroy it.
Realm Condition Stunts
Gods pay for Realm Condition Stunts by imbuing or spending additional Legend as required. They don’t count towards a Realm Condition’s effect, but instead offer some other benefit to the Condition or God.
Dire Hazard (2l): You create a Condition dangerous to even other divinities. Attempts to manipulate, degrade, or destroy it suffer from the “Dangerous Problem” Complication at a rating of 1 for each time you purchase this stunt, which may be multiple times for a single Condition.
Endless Reach (3l): The Realm Condition extends to affect an entire great realm or group of lesser realms, whether you’re Sobek desiring to fill all four directions of Pet with crocodiles for some reason, or Sun Wukong letting the entirety of Heaven know how great you are (again).
Personal Aura (1l): The Realm Condition travels with you, affecting whatever local otherworld you find yourself in, and even The World if you dare travel there in full divine splendor.
Divine Difficulties
Since Divine Rule actions use Legend, anything a character does that engages with the system represent effort and opportunity that can’t be used elsewhere. Even moreso than with regular actions in Scion, Storyguides should give wide latitude to players throwing their divine weight around before calling for a Divine Rule action. Many things Gods do won’t raise to the level of Divine Realm actions, and it’s fine to let players style on fools with their divine might through piles of Scale once in a while. Divine Rule actions specifically come into effect when characters want to make lasting changes and affect matters of ongoing import at the Godly level.
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Effect 1 problems and conditions are the sort of things that a determined Demigod might be able to solve on their own. Horrific, community destroying monsters that don’t dare challenge the Gods directly, social curses and contagions which vex and bedevil mortals but which a transcendent saint or teacher might undo, and natural disasters which only great heroes could overcome all qualify.
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Effect 2 problems are those that have increased in intensity or spread in scope past what even a Demigod can normally manage. Creatures that would blight nations in the world or cause consternation to the natives of an Otherworld, disasters that might end civilizations or leave lasting marks in celestial realms, and society-wide malignancies or more focused but wholly-beyond-mortal supernatural effects.
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Effect 3 problems and conditions have reached a point where even the heroic efforts of multiple Demigods or massive otherworldly populations probably can’t rectify them. They rarely manifest in The World unless actively created by God or similar force. In Otherworlds, creatures or other independent threats at this level can become de facto rulers of great swaths of a realm unless a God steps in, supernatural dangers and effects will totally reshape life for those affected, and social ills or trends are utterly consuming for those they touch.
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Effect 4 concerns threaten most of a smaller realm or a large portion of a greater one. Unless actively concealed, every God in the Otherworld will be aware of them, and effects of less scope but similar intensity can directly challenge the salient features of a given Realm or Region. Creatures and individuals at this level are often actively contained or courted as allies, to prevent the possible havoc they might wreck in Divine Realm or World.
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Effect 5 threats and conditions are the greatest powers, dangers, and effects in the cosmos not actively being cultivated, supported, or spread by Gods or equivalent beings. Creatures at this level would be World-ending terrors if they ran rampant, supernatural effects could rewrite the very fabric of lesser beings and their surroundings, and social effects might transform a society into a form utterly alien to its older self.
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Effect 6 and greater threats and conditions solely result from the actions and powers of Gods, Titans, and similar beings, and always represent a major investment to create and unleash. Attempts to unleash such powers will alarm most Gods no matter the result, as these are forces which can reshape the cosmos entirely.
OK, that's just a taste of the section on Divine Rule, just enough to give us an idea of what's in store for us when we get the full chapter. When we see the full text we'll also see more on Realm Conditions, guidance on Godly Strife and Divine Opposition including Divine Conflicts and Divine Wounds, and more guidance for Storyguiding Divine Rule. Not to mention all of the fun stuff about Incarnation and Religions! Lots more coming our way, but this sneak peek is a fun way to get our thoughts percolating.
Speaking of sneak peeks and speculation about what might be coming next... don't forget that the Scion: God Creator Panel II is streaming on Onyx Path's twitch channel tonight.
https://www.twitch.tv/theonyxpath
Hosted by Scion: Godsend Storyguide Gilbert Ramos, Creator II panel features Scion: God writers Hiromi Cota and Spider B. Perry talking about Scion: God.
In addition to that broad and interesting discussion, this one will likely have some teaser info about what might be coming for Scion after God, as well as a load of discussion on how Scion and mythological canon work (and don’t work) together.
