Scion - Hero, story help needed.

[LadyGareth]

Ok, I am running a Hero level Scion game for my husband and a friend of his. I have the story I am working on right now, but the major overarching story i am having trouble with.

The World Now

First off, Ragnarok has already happened, and while the players (this is a world that has been being story-sticked for a while now) managed to stop the world from burning, the next story the players screwed the pooch and the Yazata titan of time almost destroyed the world. The gods had to bind him into the fabric of reality to make time go in a straight line again. So the world had a giant re-set button pushed on it.

The Gods have all chosen to set up their worshippers in different locations than they had before, trying to not make all the same old mistakes, and have allied themselves with other pantheons. There is still a war going on after all. So, as it stands, the Pesedjet and the Loa are allied, with the Pesedjet being the major Gods of their nation and the Loa are more considered great spirits that are worshiped in house and home. If you want someone to bless your crop, go to the temple, if you want someone to bless your garden, or this or that childbirth -so on so forth- call the Loa.

The remaining Aesir have taken the Atlantian gods under their wing and all the gods have agreed they are on strict probation.

The Dodekathian and the Amatsukami are nominally allied. They have separate worshipers and separate peoples, but the two interact nicely.

Fenris has become a God, and most of the Aesir are dead. Also in the battle at Ragnarok a Dodekathian Scion/god was killed Saving Tyr's live. This will be important later.

Story lines

With the re-set of the world, most of the Major fate-bindings are broken this led to Hera marching right up to Zeus and demanding a divorce before marching right out of Olympus. She is currently making trouble with the Pesedjet by vying for Isis's position. Before she left however, she spread it far and wide that her ex-husband was destined to be killed by one of his children, so that all of the world who knows of Zeus, know of his doom, so that he would be bound into that in the new world as he was in the last.

This is important to one of my characters because even thought she doesn't know it, she is the daughter of Zeus, adopted by Athena. The plot that follows her story is that she is the child destined to kill Zeus, just as Zeus tried to kill her mother by eating her before she was even born. The thought going through my brain is instead of committing patricide and then being killed by her own children in payment and continuing the horrible cycle, that she could somehow force Zeus to forsake his legend and become very low level. One thought I had was making him go for a swim in the river Lathe (I'm not sure I spelled that right).

Continuing, my other player is the first Scion of Fenris as a god. Now, the thought I was having for his story is actually rather simple. Ares is out to kill him. His last Scion, Christina, and one of his most powerful, was killed my Fenrir in the final battle after her battle with Garm. Ares is seeking revenge for her death. This also ties in nicely to The daughter of Athena, because when she was trying to make a joke, she told one of the priests of the Aesir that Ares and his priests would rape little boys (the joke was funny, but I don't want to type it all out). He thought she was serious, and now the entirety of the Norse people think Ares and his followers rape little boys. Needless to say, Ares is a little miffed about that.

Right now my Scions are attempting to raid a dragons nest and steel one of the eggs. That's ok, I've got story for that, but after that I am not sure where to go.

I hope I gave enough information without giving waaaaay too much.

Thanks and HHHEEEEELLPPPP!!!!

LadyGareth

[Selrahc]

So the world had a giant re-set button pushed on it.


Can you explain that a little more? As I'm understanding it, you're saying that the world is now some sort of "Under construction fantasy realm" rather than being connected to the modern world. Without knowing much about the new world either cosmologically or otherwise there isn't really much to suggest. Lots of setting up of heirachies one would assume. A smart mortal scion could be looking at carving out a kingdom or empire of legend.

The idea of a major event severing all the ties of fate and allowing gods to place themselves into new roles is an interesting one. Worth considering is how this makes the gods act. The Aesir were doomed to Ragnarok in part because they relied overmuch on prophecy. We could also see characters exploiting things like Hera to Zeus, but on a more malevolent scale still. The Titans pushing the gods into prophecies of doom and ruin. Some gods trying to push things into a pattern they like.

And remember cosmologically the only thing seperating the gods from the titans is fatebinding. By tying their destinies to humanity the Gods managed to become distinct from the titans. with all fatebindings reset, their could be ripple effects into the very nature of the gods.

[LadyGareth]

They are still somewhat fate-bound by what they believe about themselves and each other.

For the most part, kingdoms/empires have already been established. It is not fantasy, but the world as set in the bronze age, with a few minor technological advances beyond that time frame. The Gods sent their demi-gods, who were able to go into tera-incognita and escape the Yazata Titan's attack, to the world to guide them into kingdoms and set up their worship.

The Gods themselves are mostly absent working through Scions so to avoid serious fate-binding like they had before. Ragnarok, having happened, and the Dodekathian being tied up as they were taught them their lesson.

Of the Aesir, some minor gods, three player characters that made it to godhood, Frayer, Tyr, Vidar, Baulder, and Sif survived Ragnarok; as well as several demi-gods.

When the Titan of time attacked, he did so with great force all at once, retroactively wiping the Yazata and their Scions from existence, and undoing the nature of causality. The Several Gods were able to at least save reality by binding his chief avatar into the very nature of time to put it back on course, but the world was so wrecked that they decided it would be easier for everyone if they just made it anew.

So now we sit in the bronze age, with war with the titans still going strong, scions working for the gods again, and all out war about to break loose.

P.S The world got set back, it's still the same template, and only, I stress, Only Earth got re-set, the rest of it is still pretty much the same.

[Selrahc]

P.S The world got set back, it's still the same template, and only, I stress, Only Earth got re-set, the rest of it is still pretty much the same.

So.. are the scions from Bronze Age societies?

The way you're saying *Earth* is getting me wondering about the artefacts humans have put out into space. The International Space Station. The Voyager Probe. It might be an interesting culture clash to see things like that influencing Bronze Age civilization.

Similarly, the souls of the dead will primarily be from later periods than the current one. Again you can have this interacting with your world in some fashion.

If the gods remember the past, one thing you could have happening is a scion who originated in the modern world attempting to recreate it through using the remnants. What he doesn't know, or doesn't care about, is that to attempt to recreate the modern world brings about a world ending problem. Of some sort.

[Lord_Gareth]

Lord_Gareth here - Lady_Gareth's husband (she doesn't do underscores for some reason), player, and world co-creator here to answer some questions and, hopefully, help spark some discussion.

The Yazata are (well, in the context of this game world, were) the Persian gods. Their special foe, Arhiman, was the chief avatar of the Greater Titan of Time Unbounded. When Arhiman struck, he annihilated the nature of causality, causing the past, present, and future to crash together. The only non-divine survivors were all in various Terra Incognita that have their own odd conceptions of time, such as the Primal Cavern, the Dark Wood, or the Great Henge. When the gods re-made the World, they based it on their previous creation (so we didn't have to make a new map), but placed their chosen divine tribes in different locations and artificially accelerated the technology to a rough Bronze Age, with some small exceptions. Various demigod survivors of the apocalypse founded the various cities, and are the only known users of Before Weapons (generally speaking, enchanted guns).

As such, anything humanity did - ever - is gone unless it was taken into an Overworld Realm first. Only the gods remember. As far as anyone is concerned, this is the first mortal society to exist outside of the direct presence of the gods ever.

[LadyGareth]

To add some further clarification, all those souls in the underworld(s) are still there, and all of them are from the 'previous world'.

I had some vague idea's, but I am having trouble getting a coherent story put together. So far, I have been able to swing a few sessions that everyone has enjoyed by just pulling it out of my butt. I'm pretty good at that, but I'm having a hard time connecting the main villains of this plot line to what's happening now.

I've been watching some inspirational movies, and gotten some story-idea's for that.

I plan to run these characters all the way to God, but first I have to get them to demi-god.

I am drawing a complete blank here, and I can only give them so many off-the-cuff sessions before they start to notice.

[Selrahc]

Set up the Church of Fenris. Fenris has outgrown his mythological function. He has bested fate, but doing so carries a price. He would do well to carve himself a new niche before fate casts him back into the old mould it had carved for him. And Fenris probably wants that less than anybody else. Spending eternity in chains is probably even less fun if you have almost limitless power.

So since one of the Scions is a child of Fenris, have them be tasked the goal of establishing Fenris's church amongst the mortals. It's a "Hero" level quest, but the character effects can lap over to later game. It could bring them into conflict with other gods, scions and titanspawn quite easily and it feels like an actual worthy goal.

EDIT: Fenris Scion is obviously doing it on behest of her sire. Athena scion could be working on advice from Athena that Fenris could be falling back on his old ways, as well as being assigned to try and soften Fenris through his connection to humanity.