Scion (role-playing Game) - Setting

Setting

Scion is a role-playing game wherein players take on the roles of mortal descendants of gods embroiled in a divine war between the gods and their ancestors, the Titans: powerful, primordial embodiments of concepts such as water, chaos or light which recently escaped after thousands of years of imprisonment in Tartarus.

The pantheons presented draw from mythology giving players the ability to associate their characters with any of the six pantheons provided in the game:

  • Pesedjet - The gods of Ancient Egypt, including Anubis, Atum-Re, Bastet, Geb, Horus, Isis, Kebauet, Osiris, Ptah, Set (or Seth), Sobek, and Thoth.
  • Dodekatheon - The gods of Greek mythology, including Aphrodite, Apollo, Ares, Artemis, Athena, Dionysus, Hades, Hephaestus, Hera, Hermes, Persephone, Poseidon, and Zeus.
  • Aesir - The gods of Norse mythology, including Baldur, Beowulf, Bragi, Forseti, Freya, Freyr, Frigg, Heimdall, Hel, Idun, Loki, Njord, Odin, Sif, Thor, Tyr, Uller and Vidar.
  • Atzlánti - The gods of the Aztec civilization, including Huitzilopochtli, Miclántecuhtli, Quetzalcoatl, Tezcatlipoca, Tlaloc, Tlazoltéotl, and Xipe Totec.
  • Amatsukami - The Shinto gods of Japan, including Amaterasu, Hachiman, Izanagi, Izanami, Raiden, Ryujin, Susano-o, and Tsuki-Yomi.
  • Loa - The god-spirits of the Vodou religion, including Agwe, Baron Samedi, Damballa, Erzulie, Kalfu, Legba, Ogoun, and Shango.

In the Scion Companion, the following pantheons were added:

  • Tuatha Dé Danann - The gods of Ancient Ireland, including Aengus, Brigid, The Dagda, Danu, Dian Cecht, Lugh, Manannán mac Lir, The Morrígan, Nuada and Ogma.
  • Celestial Bureaucracy - The gods and immortals of China, including Chang'e, Fuxi, Guan Yu, Guanyin, Houyi, Huang Di, Nezha, Nüwa, Shennong, Sun Wukong, Xiwangmu and Yanluo.
  • Deva - The gods of India, including Agni, Brahma, Ganesha, Indra, Kali, Lakshmi, Parvati, Sarasvati, Shiva, Surya, Vishnu and Yama.

And on May 19, 2010, White Wolf released a Persian-inspired pantheon:

  • Yazata - The gods of Persia, including Anahita, Ard, Haoma, Mah, Mithra, Sraosha, Tishtrya, Vahram, Vayu and Zam.

Further diversification is encouraged by inclusion of instructions for creating custom pantheons and adapting existing but unaddressed spiritual traditions (Although many Scion players on the official White wolf forum choose to not include these deities in their games as they aren't part of any real religion, while others choose to treat them as ascended Scions). In addition, recent PDF supplements include:

  • The Yankee Pantheon - The gods and folk heroes of The United States of America, including Betsy Ross, Br'er Rabbit, Columbia, John Henry, Johnny Appleseed, Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, Rosie the Riveter and Uncle Sam.
  • The Allied Pantheons - The gods and folk heroes of Britain, France and Russia, including Baba Yaga, Britannia, The Citizen, d'Artagnan, John Bull, Madame Guillotine, Marianne, Robin Hood and Rodina Mat.

A further supplement, released only in France, provides one additional pantheon:

  • Nemetondevos - The ancient Celtic gods of Gaul, including Andarta, Belenos, Camulos, Cernunnos, Epona, Esus, Gobnhios, Nantosuelta, Sukellos, Taranis and Teutates.

The basic assumption on which this game is based is that the game world is similar to our modern world with just one difference. This difference is that all the old myths are actually true. The characters that players create are considered to be the offspring of a god from one of these mythologies, and their purpose is to serve their parent. These services are required as the Titans of myth are also real, and they have returned or are trying to return to the world and are against the current gods' reign. Adventures set within this milieu range from the mundane of a simple recovery of lost ancient artifacts to a modern version of the 12 tasks of Hercules.

As each volume expands the scope of the game, characters go from being enhanced humans in Scion: Hero to full-fledged gods in Scion: God. The scale also grows, from adventures in the physical world in Scion: Hero, to adventures in the Underworld and various Terra Incognitae in Scion: Demigod, to adventures in the Overworld with its Titanrealms (environments which are the bodies of the titans) and Godrealms in Scion: God. The primary antagonists of the game are the so-called Titan Avatars that are different personifications of the various primal Titans that exists in Scion. One such Titan Avatar being Aten and another being Surtr.

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