[Emergence] Modern Fantasy - Chosen Champions of the Gods - Adult Percy Jackson

[Aethyrium]

Welcome to Emergence, a unique-setting modern story-teller guided sandbox that takes some inspiration from White Wolf's Scion role playing game. If you will indulge me for a moment, I'll break that down. Emergence takes place in a unique setting, or as unique as an a clone of modern earth filled with supernatural fantasy elements can be. What is a story-teller guided sandbox? A new format for me, and one that is intended to provide endless evolving opportunity for character growth and experience. Emergence is a game that features a larger metaplot to which the characters are inescapably shackled to, that for better or worse will march forward and serve as a backdrop to create momentum in time and circumstance for the characters. However this game is as much about self realization and discovery as it is the metaplot, as Avatars the characters have been thrust into a world that they had no idea existed and are now expected to deal with. The relationships built with their patrons, each other, and their new relationship with the world plays as much or more a role in Emergence as their interaction with the forces that seek to destroy them.

In Emergence, the Avatars (player characters) are the chosen champions of a particular deity from an ancient pantheon. That's right, the Gods are real, and they have been locked in an epic battle against the Primordials since the dawn of creation. It's a war that has long raged beyond the realm of Earth, but recently has started to spill over. Unable to fight on so many fronts, the Gods have empowered champions among their mortal children to take up the battle on Earth. But this divine appointment does not come by request, it is a responsibility - a burden - thrust on those who have been chosen without their consent. Regardless of who you were before the Emergence, you are now a divine warrior charged with the protection of the mortal realm. Deal with it.

• Will Emergence feature a co-GM?
  It is possible that I will look to take on a partner for this project. At this time it will depend almost entirely on how much interest and work ends up being involved in the project.
• What section of the forums?
  Extreme. This is due to the potential varied nature of the characters and the story, not specifically because it is the intent for the game to be extreme (sexually) in nature. Individual tolerances will be respected.
• What are the posting expectations?
  Two answers to that question. First, when it comes to individual scenes and non-story teller guided action, no requirements will be put on the players involved. You should feel comfortable exploring the world, your character, and your new friends at whatever pace is enjoyable for you. I do ask that you do not allow scenes to stagnant if more than two individuals are involved, out of respect for everyone. Second, when it comes to story teller lead scenes, a post will be made every set amount of days; usually this is every 4-5 days, or every 5-6 days, depending on group size and character-to-scene participation. In short, you should expect a story teller post, on average, once every 5 days. But note that missing a GM cycle is not an issue, and will only be discussed if multiple cycles are missed consecutively.
• Is there a sexual focus in the game?
  No. However it is embraced and expected. And while not a focus, that does not mean that it may not show up as a major theme under the right circumstances, who knows.
• Short summary of player roles?
  You are playing a newly emerged Avatar, a divine champion selected by a patron deity from an ancient pantheon, to do battle on behalf of mortals everyone against the invading forces of the Primordials.
• Will tagging be used?
  Yes, and it is mandatory. The provided headers must be used, and the Tag and Mentioning lines appropriately filled out - please don't get creative in this space. Tag who you are directly interacting with, Mention anyone who you reference. This provides other writers much needed information on what posts to prioritize and react to.
• Are players allowed to create or use the environment?
  The game world is almost entirely based on the real world, so long as you keep in tone with that, you may create or use extensively. People, places, things, events, these are all fine so long as they are reasonable. If ever in doubt, ask.
• How many people are you accepting?
  Unknown at this time. In the range of ten would be ideal, but more or less is honestly equally as likely. This will largely depend on the characters submitted.
• Will all submissions be accepted?
  No. Your character must abide by the creation rules, be setting and story appropriate, and ultimately bring something to table. I reserve the right to reject a character submission on any ground, at which point it will be on you to retool or recreate as needed. It should go without saying that based on this, character acceptance will not be first come first serve but rather acceptance by merit.
• Face claims?
  Yes. Please announce in recruitment or OOC as applicable so it can be recorded.

• If you have an unusual character idea that may not 'fit', please PM me before making your sheet.
• At the start of the game, players will be limited to a maximum of two characters. This may (likely) be lifted in the future.
• All of E's rules apply and will be appropriately enforced.
• If you will be absent for a period of time, please communicate with me so proper arrangements can be made to facilitate smooth narrative.
• Posts should be in third person, past tense. Please watch spelling and grammar.
• In all cases, please avoid "post quoting" in your post. Previous posts have been read, we should be able to read your post and figure out what you're reacting to without having to reread snippets from other posts.
• Don't control the actions of anyone else, worry about yourself.
• If concerns arise, please involve me to settle disputes or problems. I'm happy to help!

[Aethyrium]

When it all started there was just Fate.

It was through Fate that came the firsts, the Primordials. Beings beyond scope, themes, essences, aspects of reality and yet still somehow living - if their form of existence can truly be called that - things. It was Fate that guided the Primordials and spawned creation.

Among the many things created by the Primordials were the Gods. Like their parents the Gods were bound to Fate and swayed by it greatly, able to wield it and change it to their will. Through Fate the Gods saw that the Primordials were the beginning of all, but also the end of all. As aspects of their dominion they too were bound to Fate, bound to spread their dominion unceasingly in a way that would in time undo creation. Driven by this knowledge the Gods turned against their Primordial parents and attacked them. Their campaign was quick and efficient, and unknown to the Primordials until there was nothing that they could to stop it. In time the Primordials were caged, banished, shackled, and imprisoned so that they could never interfere with Fate again. So began the great era of the Gods, and they basked in their own glory and nurtured creation with their knowledge of Fate.

But the Gods became complacent in their stewardship, and the Primordials became bitter in their prisons. Just as the Primordials had been blind to their Fate at the hands of the Gods, the Gods didn't see that Fate would release the Primordials. Freed from their eternal bondage, the Primordials waged a terrible war against the Gods. It is a war that has been raging beyond Earth longer than we have been here. But now it has started to spill over, perhaps even be targeted - after all, Earth is the favored jewel of the Gods.

September 17, 2017 was the first time a Primordial minion was seen on Earth, though it wasn't known as such. It's a bigger conspiracy than alien life having visited Earth, only more valid because there is evidence of it - even if most of it has actually been covered up. Something was found rampaging around the Canadian wilderness. It caused damage to some private properties, but the details are sketchy past that. Since that event though more and more instances of it have cropped up over the world, and while most details get quickly squashed it's hard to contain growing awareness of the fact that humans are not alone out there - even if they can't quantify what else is. June 22, 2021 is when things really heated up on this controversy, as Hunter Army Airfield was all but destroyed by an attack by one of these creatures. What was conspiracy is now a hot topic in politics, there was no hiding the tragedy that saw over 400 U.S. soldiers killed. The world is scared as incidents like this become more common, and those in charge are doing what they do best... Struggling to figure out how to handle it all.

Now, October 8th, 2022, something different has happened. The Emergence. An inexplicable event in which some individuals have been granted what amounts to superpowers. You're one of them. You went to bed just like everyone else, but when you woke up that morning something was different - everything was different. Then came the compulsion, the dire need to get away - or rather to go somewhere else. Now you find yourself in South Station in Boston, and rather suddenly you feel like you're exactly where you need to be... And as you look around, you can immediately tell that you're not the only one.

You're about to learn that the Gods are real, and you're their champion, an Avatar. You have a duty now to defend this world against the enemies that threaten it. Nothing is ever going to be the same.


Who are you? What are you? How do you fit in? What do you want? What are you going to do? Who are they? What about them? How does it all work? Why is any of this even happening?

You're an Avatar, and as hard as it might be to accept it's a reality that you can't deny. But what that means for you isn't as simple. Your whole life is changed by this event, and those people now around you are going through the same thing. Like it or not you've been drafted into a war that no one else can fight. Can you really bring yourself to turn your back on everyone? Not likely, but that doesn't mean you always have to like it. And now the way people talk, you're one of the dreaded "Outsiders" that is on everyone's lips these days. You turn on the news and some political figurehead is talking about mass extermination of anything not human, and now that means you.

These are central tensions to Emergence. You're not who you were yesterday, and who you'll be from now on is really up to you. You've been granted incredible powers, but what are you going to do with them? What about all the people from your life? It's not like you can tell anybody, there's too much anger and pain about the Outsiders. And it's not like anyone could possibly understand. Except these other people, and now you're bound to them in this whole mess. They can understand but you don't know them. Conflict, internal and external. Emotional and physical. These are paramount to the concept of the game, fitting in and finding a new sense of belonging. Self discovery and evolution of self. Understanding and coming to terms with the whole thing.


Fate is an unseen, but powerful force that often interferes with, if not outright dictates, events. All beings - Primordials, Gods, Avatars, and Humans - are influenced by Fate, and no one is completely free of the trappings of this mysterious and largely unknown force. Call it what you want... Kismet, Karma, Judgment, or Destiny... it is inescapable. Oftentimes, a being may be an agent of Fate's design without even realizing it. He or she may make decisions they firmly believe to be acts of free-will, while unknowingly carrying out the exact plan fate intended for them. Further, Fate is most often seen in repetition. If, for instance, in the life of a mundane person, a character makes a regular habit of visiting the same bar and speaking with the same people, that bar may hold significance to their destiny. It may be where they are meant to meet with the person they will spend their life with - or the person meant to end their life. It may be that they're meant to be tipped off to a job opening that will lead them to make significant breakthroughs in their lives. It may be that a simple conversation with a person that do not even realize is suicidal may keep that person from going home and swallowing a bullet... and that person may go on have a child who one day finds the cure for cancer. Fate is as immediate as it is far reaching, and a simple act can have far-flung effects.

This is not, of course, to imply that players have no say in what happens to their character and how. Fate is both a force within the setting, as well as a way for me to nudge the game in one direction or another if something has veered too far off the course of the primary plot. I urge players to bring fate as a concept into their RP as much or as little as they like, but to always keep it in the back of their head that fate is a force to be reckoned with, and that even in what seems to be random, utter chaos, fate often has a plan.

Perhaps the most effective aspect of Fate is the aspect of belief. Throughout the centuries, humans have been creative narratives from the events going on around them. They fashioned the stories of the gods, and there is some wonder about whether or not the Gods didn't spring from those stories. The human imagination is the most powerful generator of Fate, and it can lock even the most powerful of beings - the Titans and the Gods themselves - into paths and actions they may not have had any intention to be a part of otherwise. This isn't to imply that if a bunch of humans imagine that Zeus smote a king who challenged him, that he would do so even though he didn't want to. No, in fact, his thinking and emotions would shift to accommodate that belief - provided there is enough force behind it. Humans are never aware that they are doing this, and in fact if you told them, most wouldn't believe you anyway. As such, if an Avatar begins to garner a reputation, and people begin to follow their life and draw conclusions about them... if enough people begin to expect a Avatar to act a certain way, acting outside of that belief can be difficult, if not outright disastrous. The source of fate is, in a way, the imaginations and beliefs of mortals.

But Avatars can affect Fate too, in a process called Fatebinding. Avatars are like magnets for the world around them. People, places, and things are pulled toward them as if by some unseen gravity. When an Avatar uses their divine abilities or gifts to alter the intended outcome of Fate to suit their own desires, they instigate a Fatebinding event.

For example:

Kelly, an Avatar of Athena, is in the heat of a battle in a war-torn city in the Middle East. The city has largely been abandoned by humans, making it the perfect place for a battle between her and a Primordial minion. She's just killed a Fenrir and looks around to find another adversary to fight when she notices a small child, hiding amidst the damaged buildings. The wall beside him is about to be knocked in by a giant that's just been knocked back by one of Kelly's teammates. Without thinking, Kelly makes use of her Epic Dexterity to reach the child, and when it becomes clear that she won't be able to get away from the wall before it falls on them, she covers him with her body and uses her Aegis Boon to grant him divine protection. This boon will protect him from enough of the damage that he won't be crushed. She has, in essence, averted the child's intended death as expected by fate, and as such, the child has become fate bound to her.

The strength of a fatebond varies based upon the effort put in to averting fate's designs. An Avatar who uses only one minor ability to avert fate (using subliminal warning to save a single human police officer from walking into the line of fire, for example) might only be fatebound to that officer for the next 24 hours. Meanwhile, if an Avatar uses an extensive number of boons and epic attributes to avert a mass killing event, they may end up with a strong connection to everyone saved (and everyone they prevented from carrying out their plan to kill people, if there are any). This situation may turn into the Avatar having numerous loyal followers who will be willing to help him whenever he is in town, to one or two who may want to join him on his exploits, to even a nemesis or two who feels as if the Avatar has thwarted their chance at glory.

[Aethyrium]

Simply put, a Patron is one of the Gods that belongs to one of the Pantheons. The Pantheons bring structure and order to Earth and the neighboring mythic realms. It is the Patrons that imbue the Avatars with their divine powers. The relationship between the Avatar and the Patron is one that little is known of, and is to be explored in game. Each Pantheon puts emphasis on different things and ways of behavior, that should somewhat bleed into the character - and always have, for even though the Emergence is a very recent event, these Avatars were chosen as such the moment they came into existence. Further, each Patron has traits that will more greatly bleed into the character.

The Aesir are badly swayed by Fate. They are greatly motivated to find away around their almost universally foretold doom. They challenge individuals and communities to strive for greater justice and firmer commitments to order. Primordials are to be killed first; questions can be asked later using magic, if necessary. They have aggressive solutions, and that has earned them a preponderance of enemies.

The Amatsukami emphasize the continuity of nature, where all of its natural wonders and the interactions between the living and the non-living create beauty. For them to light a candle is to cast a shadow, and to kill a butterfly is to cause a drought. No action is truly separate from any other. Due to this they rarely take the most direct route to whatever their solution to a problem is, that way they have more time to find the perfect way to handle things.

The Atzlanti are opposed to the Aesir in that they are the least affected by Fate. For them continuity is more important than community or individuality, what matters is that everything keeps working. They are cruel in a way that other pantheons are not, bloodthirsty, agressive, and violent. To them change is inacted by blood, and blood must be spilled to inact change.

The Dodekatheon seek to ensure everyone knows their place, but equally important is it for some to rise above their stations and create new patterns. They are as much subdoers as they are empowerers. They believe in refinement and the mastery of things. However they are plagued with hubris, and believe that no matter how poorly it has gone before, the next one will be the right one.

The Loa contrast the Amatsukami in that they favor the retaining the energy of the place, rather than the world. The whole of nature is not as important as the wholeness of the here-and-now. Why bother saving the World if the people die and their towns are in ruins? However in pursuit of this unity, prosperity, and peace at a local level the Loa sometimes lose sight of the bigger picture.

The Pesedjet concerns itself with justice through social order. Everyone must know his or her place, and each post must be filled with the right person. Disruptions to social stability are a concern for them, movements of refugees, poverty, unemployment, and revolutionary movements spur these Gods to action. Their greatest weakness is that same stability at any cost, however. They prefer minimally disruptive solutions to problems, trusting old patterns to maintain the status quo.

Use this information, in conjunction with information about the God that you choose, to help determine some of the aspects that bleed over into your character. It's likely that some of them have always been present, after all the Patron's chose the character, not the other way around - and thus most likely would have chosen someone that would end up being compatible with who they are and the to the Pantheon they belong. But the Patrons can make mistakes, and their influence is only a bleed, not an overwhelming force. All of this to say, great leeway is afforded to you, but please don't try to go obtusely against the grain.

One area to pay attention to is the rivals portion of each Patron. While the Gods are all in it to protect creation from the Primordials, how they go about that can vary wildly. The Gods tolerate one another as much as needed, but to some degree are out for themselves. If your character encounters an Avatar of a rival god, they should immediately feel 'off'. Maybe reluctant or hesitant, not entirely trusting. This can be overcome, but their first instinct - no matter how good the first impression - is to not trust or get close to these individuals, they just feel wrong. This should be used to create gentle tension between some characters, not be overtly disruptive.


Baldur
Epic Attribute: Appearance, Charisma
Boons: Guardian, Sun
Rivals: Hel, Loki, Apollo, Horus, Izanami, Kalfu, Miclantecuhtli

Freya
Epic Attribute: Appearance, Charisma
Boons: Fertility, Health, War
Rivals: Hel, Sif, Athena, Bastet, Erzulie, Raiden, Tezcatlipoca

Freyr
Epic Attribute: Charisma
Boons: Fertility, Health, Sun, War
Rivals: Thor, Erzulie, Izanagi, Poseidon, Set, Sobek, Tezcatlipoca

Frigg
Epic Attribute: Charisma, Intelligence
Boons: Magic, Prophecy, Sky
Rivals: Freya, Huitzilopochtli, Ogoun, Poseidon, Susano-o, Thoth

Heimdall
Epic Attribute: Perception
Boons: Guardian, Sun
Rivals: Loki, Hermes, Izanagi, Legba, Ptah, Shango, Xipe Totec

Hel
Epic Attribute: Appearance, Manipulation
Boons: Death
Rivals: Freya, Baron Samedi, Dionysus, Izanagi, Osiris, Quetzalcoatl

Loki
Epic Attribute: Intelligence, Manipulation, Wits
Boons: Chaos, Fire, Magic
Rivals: Heimdall, Odin, Thor, Amaterasu, Baron Samedi, Geb, Hachiman, Hermes, Quetzalcoatl, Shango, Thoth, Zeus

Odin
Epic Attribute: Charisma, Intelligence, Manipulation, Perception, Stamina, Wits
Boons: Death, Magic, Mystery, Prophecy, Psychopomp, War
Rivals: Loki, Apollo, Horus, Huitzilopochtli, Ogoun, Susano-o

Sif
Epic Attribute: Appearance, Charisma
Boons: Fertility
Rivals: Loki, Artemis, Bastet, Erzulie, Huitzilopochtli, Susano-o

Thor
Epic Attribute: Charisma, Stamina, Strength
Boons: Sky
Rivals: Loki, Hermes, Izanami, Kalfu, Set, Tlaloc

Tyr
Epic Attribute: Charisma, Stamina, Strength, Wits
Boons: Justice, War
Rivals: Loki, Dionysus, Legba, Set, Susano-o, Tezcatlipoca

Vidar
Epic Attribute: Stamina, Strength
Boons: Justice
Rivals: Loki, Hades, Izanami, Kalfu, Set, Xipe Totec


Amaterasu
Epic Attribute: Appearance, Charisma, Strength
Boons: Fertility, Sun
Rivals: Susano-o, Tsuki-yomi, Apollo, Kalfu, Sif, Thoth, Tlaloc, Xipe Totec

Haciman
Epic Attribute: Charisma, Dexterity, Wits
Boons: Animal, Fertility, Guardian, War
Rivals: Raiden, Ares, Freyr, Horus, Ogoun, Xipe Totec

Izanagi
Epic Attribute: Charisma, Strength
Boons: Psychopomp, Sky
Rivals: Izanami, Atum-Re, Baron Samedi, Dionysus, Loki, Quetzalcoatl

Izanami
Epic Attribute: Appearance, Charisma
Boons: Darkness, Death, Earth
Rivals: Izanagi, Bastet, Freyr, Poseidon, Shango, Thor, Tlaloc

Raiden
Epic Attribute: Appearance, Dexterity
Boons: Guardian, Sky
Rivals: Amaterasu, Artemis, Athena, Erzulie, Freya, Hera, Isis, Sif, Tlazolteotl

Susano-o
Epic Attribute: Strength, Wits
Boons: Chaos, Psychopomp, Sky, Water
Rivals: Amaterasu, Athena, Hel, Legba, Odin, Quetzalcoatl, Thoth

Tsuki-yomi
Epic Attribute: Charisma
Boons: Darkness, Moon, Psychopomp
Rivals: Amaterasu, Artemis, Freyr, Ogoun, Sobek, Tezcatlipoca


Huitzilopochtli
Epic Attribute: Charisma, Stamina, Strength
Boons: Animal, Death, Guardian, Magic, Sun, War
Rivals: Tezcatlipoca, Ares, Horus, Ogoun, Susano-o, Thor, Tyr

Miclantecuhtli
Epic Attribute: Appearance, Charisma
Boons: Animal, Death, Guardian
Rivals: Quetzalcoatl, Amaterasu, Athena, Frigg, Ptah, Shango, Thoth

Quetzalcoatl
Epic Attribute: Charisma, Intelligence
Boons: Animal, Fertility, Guardian, Earth, Health, Justice, Psychopomp, Sky, Water
Rivals: Tezcatlipoca, Athena, Dionysus, Loki, Ptah, Susano-o, Thor, Thoth

Tezcatlipoca
Epic Attribute: Appearance, Charisma, Dexterity, Manipulation, Wits
Boons: Animal, Darkness, Magic, Moon, Mystery, Prophecy, Sun, War
Rivals: Quetzalcoatl, Damballa, Geb, Hachiman, Hephaestus, Odin

Tlaloc
Epic Attribute: Appearance
Boons: Earth, Fertility, Health, Sky
Rivals: Quetzalcoatl, Heimdall, Hera, Izanagi, Legba, Osiris

Tlazolteotl
Epic Attribute: Appearance, Charisma, Manipulation
Boons: Earth
Rivals: Huitzilopochtli, Aphrodite, Bastet, Erzulie, Freya, Raiden

Xipe Totec
Epic Attribute: Stamina
Boons: Death, Fertility, Guardian, Health
Rivals: Quetzalcoatl, Anubis, Shango, Sif, Susano-o, Zeus


Aphrodite
Epic Attribute: Appearance, Charisma, Manipulation
Boons: Arete
Rivals: Hephaestus, Amaterasu, Bastet, Erzulie, Freya, Sif, Tlazolteotl

Apollo
Epic Attribute: Appearance, Charisma
Boons: Arete, Health, Prophecy, Sun
Rivals: Hades, Baldur, Raiden, Shango, Thoth, Xipe Totec

Ares
Epic Attribute: Stamina, Strength
Boons: Arete, War
Rivals: Artemis, Athena, Hephaestus, Hachiman, Horus, Ogoun, Thor, Tlazolteotl

Artemis
Epic Attribute: Dexterity, Perception
Boons: Arete, Health, Moon
Rivals: Hera, Freyr, Isis, Legba, Susano-o, Tezcatlipoca

Athena
Epic Attribute: Intelligence, Wits
Boons: Animal, Arete, Health, Justice, War
Rivals: Ares, Hephaestus, Bastet, Huitzilopochtli, Kalfu, Legba, Thor, Tsuki-yomi

Dionysus
Epic Attribute: Charisma, Stamina
Boons: Arete, Chaos, Fertility, Mystery
Rivals: Hades, Damballa, Hachiman, Hel, Horus, Xipe Totec

Hades
Epic Attribute: Charisma, Manipulation
Boons: Arete, Darkness, Death, Earth
Rivals: Dionysus, Baron Samedi, Frigg, Izanami, Osiris, Quetzalcoatl

Hephaestus
Epic Attribute: Intelligence, Stamina, Strength
Boons: Arete, Earth, Fire
Rivals: Aphrodite, Ares, Athena, Anubis, Damballa, Heimdall, Raiden, Xipe Totec

Hera
Epic Attribute: Charisma, Manipulation
Boons: Animal, Arete, Health, Magic
Rivals: Aphrodite, Athena, Zeus, Amaterasu, Erzulie, Isis, Sif, Tlazolteotl

Hermes
Epic Attribute: Dexterity, Intelligence, Wits
Boons: Arete, Magic, Psychopomp
Rivals: Apollo, Poseidon, Huitzilopochtli, Izanagi, Kalfu, Legba, Odin, Tlaloc, Thoth

Poseidon
Epic Attribute: Charisma, Manipulation
Boons: Animal, Arete, Earth, Water
Rivals: Zeus, Damballa, Frigg, Geb, Quetzalcoátl, Susano-o, Tyr

Zeus
Epic Attribute: Charisma, Manipulation, Strength
Boons: Justice, Sky
Rivals: Apollo, Hades, Amaterasu, Atum-Re, Horus, Huitzilopochtli, Odin, Shango


Baron Samedi
Epic Attribute: Charisma
Boons: Darkness, Death, Earth, Health, Psychopomp
Rivals: Kalfu, Hades, Hel, Izanami, Miclantecuhtli, Osiris

Damballa
Epic Attribute: Charisma
Boons: Animal, Health, Mystery
Rivals: Baron Samed, Artemis, Atum-Re, Hachiman, Huitzilopochtli, Loki

Erzulie
Epic Attribute: Appearance, Charisma
Boons: Guardian, War
Rivals: Kalfu, Amaterasu, Aphrodite, Bastet, Freya, Tlazolteotl

Kalfu
Epic Attribute: Charisma
Boons: Chaos, Darkness, Magic, Moon
Rivals: Legba, Amaterasu, Artemis, Bastet, Freya, Miclantecuhtli

Legba
Epic Attribute: Charisma, Wits
Boons: Prophecy, Psychopomp, Sun
Rivals: Kalfu, Frigg, Hachiman, Hermes, Huitzilopochtli, Sobek

Ogoun
Epic Attribute: Manipulation, Strength
Boons: Fire, War
Rivals: Baron Samedi, Athena, Heimdall, Isis, Izanagi, Xipe Totec

Shango
Epic Attribute: Charisma, Strength
Boons: Justice, Prophecy, Sky
Rivals: Kalfu, Raiden, Sobek, Tezcatlipoca, Tyr, Zeus


Anubis
Epic Attribute: Perception
Boons: Animal, Death, Guardian, Justice
Rivals: Set, Baron Samedi, Hermes, Izanami, Tezcatlipoca, Vidar

Atum-Re
Epic Attribute: Charisma, Manipulation, Perception
Boons: Animal, Sun
Rivals: Horus, Isis, Athena, Erzulie, Freyr, Huitzilopochtli, Susano-o

Bastet
Epic Attribute: Charisma, Dexterity, Perception, Wits
Boons: Animal, Moon, Prophecy, Sun
Rivals: Isis, Frigg, Hera, Ogoun, Raiden, Tlazolteotl

Geb
Epic Attribute: Intelligence
Boons: Animal, Earth, Fertility, Justice
Rivals: Sobek, Damballa, Dionysus, Hel, Izanagi, Quetzalcoatl

Horus
Epic Attribute: Strength
Boons: Animal, Justice, Moon, Sky, Sun
Rivals: Set, Hachiman, Kalfu, Loki, Tlaloc, Zeus

Isis
Epic Attribute: Charisma, Manipulation
Boons: Fertility, Guardian, Health, Magic, Mystery
Rivals: Thoth, Amaterasu, Hermes, Odin, Ogoun, Quetzalcoatl

Osiris
Epic Attribute: Charisma, Manipulation
Boons: Animal, Death, Earth, Fertility, Justice
Rivals: Horus, Set, Hades, Hel, Izanami, Kalfu, Miclantecuhtli

Ptah
Epic Attribute: Intelligence
Boons: Fire, Psychopomp
Rivals: Horus, Baldur, Dionysus, Raiden, Shango, Xipe Totec

Set
Epic Attribute: Manipulation, Strength
Boons: Animal, Chaos, Guardian, Sky, War
Rivals: Horus, Isis, Osiris, Athena, Erzulie, Quetzalcoatl, Sif, Susano-o, Tyr

Sobek
Epic Attribute: Stamina, Strength
Boons: Animal, Fertility, Water
Rivals: Thoth, Artemis, Damballa, Hachiman, Miclantecuhtli, Odin

Thoth
Epic Attribute: Intelligence
Boons: Animal, Justice, Magic, Moon
Rivals: Ptah, Set, Amaterasu, Athena, Erzulie, Hermes, Odin, Tlaloc, Vidar, Xipe Totec

[Aethyrium]

An Avatar is someone that has been chosen by a God. It didn't happen recently, but instead when you came into existence. It's been something affecting you for your entire life and you had no idea. It's why you're so good at the things you're amazing at, and might even shape why you don't like certain things. It's why when you focus really hard you seem unstoppable. Even if circumstance said you were playing life on hardmode, being an unemerged Avatar meant you had some buffer that extended only around you. You had a purpose, you had a Fate. Now that the Emergence has taken place though, something entirely new has awakened in you. What once was a buffer is now the cheat codes...


The first and most basic of the abilities given to the Avatars of the Gods is their ability to rise beyond the power of mere mortals. Epic Attributes represent the heroic, fantastical, superhuman elements of what you are. They are the divine enhancements to your normal traits. As you are chosen some of these from your Patron bled into you, and others grew out of who you were. An Epic Attribute represents your ability to go beyond mortal limitations. Importantly it isn't just static enhancements, but also minor powers that are attached to them. As you gain more of an Epic Attribute you gain a wider array of powers associated with it. Epic Attributes don't always mean success, but they do mean greatly increased likelihood of it. The powers attached to Epic Attributes can be passive, or active (utilizing willpower) for a larger more potent effect. Usually they have short duration's (a scene) when activated.

Each character's Patron has one or more Epic Attributes associated with them. You gain one level of the Epic Attribute of your choice within their associated attributes just for being selected by them. After that, Avatars are free to develop any Epic Attributes that they want - this is just their divine power fueling their natural gifts. So they can turn to and develop whatever suits who they are.

Contained in the spoiler are examples of Epic Attributes. These are taken from Scion from which the game draws inspiration. You could directly use these, but they are present to give you an idea of scope and power of what they should be.

Epic Attribute Samples

Epic Strength

• Crushing Grip
  The Avatar is a fearsome wrestler and grappler not to be trifled with. When he’s locked in a clinch and has taken control of it, the character can not only inflict the normal amount of damage any normal human could, but can inflict lethal damage as well. A character can still choose to hold an opponent without inflicting damage, or he can choose to break the hold. He can even soften his touch and inflict just enough damage to knock back or stun as well. The damage the character can inflict when his temper gets riled, though, is tremendous and often quite messy.
• Holy Bound
  This knack can only be used by those who have boons in the Sky purview. Most characters with points in Epic Strength can jump further and higher than others, but those with the Holy Bound knack can defy the laws of physics, allowing them to jump 24 yards upward (the equivalent of jumping up to a seventh story balcony) or 48 yards forward.
• Holy Rampage
  The Avatar is especially good at breaking inanimate objects. When he chooses to break something - whether he’s punching it, kicking it or throwing his shoulder against it - the item’s durability crumbles (within reason). This bonus applies only when the character attempts to break an inanimate object that is either freestanding or under his control. If someone else has control of the object in question, the Avatar must take it from him first.
• Hurl to the Horizon
  Baseballs, manhole covers, beer kegs and other thrown objects become tiny specks in the distance when the Avatar throws them. Having this Knack doubles the distance she can throw something as a feat of strength. It also quadruples the Range of a normal thrown item. This Knack doesn’t make the character any better able to see or hit a target, however. Nor does it impart extra damage to an attack committed with a thrown weapon.
• Uplifting Might
  The Avatar can lift and hold tremendous loads that would stagger even other Avatars with Epic Strength, doubling what a Avatar with standard Epic Strength can lift.  This Knack doesn’t affect a character’s ability to break or throw an object.

Epic Dexterity

• Cat's Grace
  This Knack imbues a Avatar with the uncanny ability to remain on his feet despite treacherous terrain or an enemy’s best attempts to knock him down. For instance, a character with this Knack never suffers knockdown from an attack. The character still suffers the damage, but he remains on his feet. Furthermore, a character with this Knack ignores unstable footing and treacherous terrain. He still suffers speed penalties for moving through ankle to knee deep water or mud, but suffers no penalties on other terrain.
• Lightning Sprinter
  The Avatar is a lightning bolt on two legs, zooming past in a blur, trailing leaves or grit or loose debris from the ground he’s already covered. This Knack doubles the amount of distance he can cover. What’s more, it negates the movement penalties a character should accrue for moving through water or mud that is from between ankle- to shoulder height in depth as long as the character began his Dash action on terrain with no such difficulty. As long as he keeps dashing, his feet skim the surface of the water or muck like a skipping stone. If he should slow down or stop, however, he sinks into the sucking terrain to suffer the normal penalties.
• Monkey Climber
  As long as she has sufficient hand and footholds, the Avatar scuttles up vertical surfaces with cavalier ease. Where a normal climber can cover only half the distance she could cover in a normal time, a Avatar with this Knack suffers no such restriction. Furthermore, as long as the Avatar has at least one hand (or both of her feet) on the surface she’s climbing, she can do other things (such as fire a gun or pull something from a pocket). The Avatar cannot “Dash” while climbing, but the bonus to her movement granted by her Epic Dexterity still applies.
• Trick Shooter
  Not only do the Avatar’s Epic Dexterity bonus successes add to his Marksmanship, he now doubles his accuracy if he takes time to aim as well. What’s more, the Avatar can disarm an opponent with a ranged attack or mark the opponent without causing them harm. A character must take time to Aim in order to do this, though. If a character fires from the hip or blazes away in a cordite-reeking, brass-raining, muzzle-strobing gunfight, only bonuses from his Epic Dexterity apply.
• Untouchable Opponent
  The Avatar might as well be a ghost for all her enemies can lay a hand or a weapon on her. She ignores unstable terrain during a fight as well.

Epic Stamina

• Damage Conversion
  The Avatar can all lethal damage from a single attack into non lethal damage, though an overload of non lethal damage can still render the Avatar unconscious. This Knack cannot convert indirect damage such as poisoning or bleeding out in to something less grave. The Knack works only on incoming damage from a single attack.
• Holy Fortitude
  The character is the epitome of the holy ascetic. The periods for which she is able to go without food, water and sleep all double. The amount of time she is able to work at a strenuous task without stopping also doubles.
• Inner Furnace
  The character rarely lacks for sustenance. As long as he can find some sort of organic substance (from rotting quail eggs to a piece of notebook paper on which someone blew her nose), the Avatar can eat it and survive. And as long as he finds a source of water (no matter how stagnant or polluted it might be), he can drink it and survive. Any pestilence or poison lurking in what he consumes burns in the fires of his superior constitution. The same goes for drugs or poisons he ingests on purpose, or for any Mickey Finn a ne’er-do-well might try to slip him. He’s still just as susceptible to airborne toxins and any drug injected into his bloodstream, but any drug that has to go through his stomach first stops there. This Knack does nothing to suppress the gag reflex or make an unappetizing meal taste better.
• Self-Healing
  The can repair damage to their own body, one thing at a time and injuries healed are limited to the number of points in Epic Stamina. That damage can be lethal or nonlethal, and the healing takes place in an instant without leaving a scar. (Damage caused by poison or blood loss is beyond the power of this Knack to heal.) Avatars who are interested in building their reputation and spreading their legends quickly find this Knack to be one of the more effective tools of doing so, as bruises, lacerations and bullet holes vanish before astonished onlookers’ eyes.
• Solipsistic Well–Being
  The philosophy of solipsism holds that only the self exists. Accordingly, if a solipsist isn’t aware of something, that something doesn’t exist. With this Knack, a Avatar applies this odd philosophy to damage that surprises her. For a single attack that the Avatar doesn’t see, hear or otherwise perceive coming, the Avatar can completely ignore it as if it never happened (thereby suffering no damage from it). Of course the attack does actually happen - any ammunition used is spent, onlookers might be covered with the Avatar’s blood, the would-be assassin might be standing right there holding a dripping knife, but such concerns are immaterial to the Avatar victim. The number of attacks this can be used to ignore is limited to the number of points spent in Epic Stamina.

Epic Charisma

• Benefit of the Doubt
  Sometimes, for a Avatar to be able to help people - or convince them to stay out of harm’s way - those people have to accept ideas that would seem patently ridiculous if they weren’t true. Something in the Avatar’s bearing or expression convinces a single listener not to dismiss what he’s saying. Maybe it’s the fact that the Avatar is taking his words so seriously, or maybe he just has an honest face. Maybe he came highly recommended by a respected colleague. Whatever the reason, the listener gives the Avatar the benefit of the doubt in regards to what the Avatar next tries to explain, despite what he might be otherwise inclined to believe.
• Blessing of Importance
  The Avatar is especially good at winning people over by making them feel special and wanted. The Avatar need not necessarily believe that the person is important or special herself. This Knack works very well on mortals, but it’s less effective on Avatars, who are usually wise to their charismatic peers’ ways. How well this works on a Avatar is based on the number of Charisma and Epic Charisma points the Avatar has vs the willpower rating of the other Avatar.
• Charmer
  With the sheer, raw charm this Knack represents, the Avatar can smother an upwelling of panic, suspicion or utter hatred directed at her for one scene. One scene is usually long enough to convince a person that it would be in his best interest to help the character, but it’s up to the Avatar (and the player’s roleplaying) to actually say the right words. During the scene in which this Knack is in effect, the suppressed emotion doesn’t go away. It merely remains beneath the surface. If the Avatar can’t set the person’s mind at ease by scene’s end, the suppressed emotion returns in full force the next time the Avatar leaves the affected person’s presence.
• Inspirational Figure
  The Avatar’s well-chosen words can play on humankind’s social mentality, giving hope and courage to not just one listener, but a group. The Avatar gives a speech to gathered listeners - whether he’s calling upon them for help, raising their spirits after a local disaster or strengthening the bonds of community among them. As long as his words are intended to inspire them in some way, every person who can hear him listens spellbound and gains willpower at the end of the speech. The only limit is that the listeners must be able to hear him clearly without him using the aid of any amplifying or broadcasting equipment. This Knack inspires other Avatars as easily as mortals, but it doesn’t inspire Primordials. Nonetheless, Primordials are compelled to at least let him finish his speech before carrying out whatever they’re up to.
• Never Say Die
  Not every Avatar can knock down foes like bowling pins and scatter Primordials body parts in her wake. Yet some are just so full of optimistic joie de vivre, even when they take a beating for some spectacular failure, that you just can’t help but love them. A Avatar might be accident-prone or have an infuriating talent for picking fights with Primordials that are out of her league, but she takes her lumps with a smile and inspires her fellows with her can-do attitude. All she has to do is flash a thumbs-up, holler an “I’m okay!” or show a smile full of dangling teeth. The character can inspire her fellows thus only once per scene, but she can do so even if she’s knocked to Incapacitated or killed - after which, she collapses.

Epic Manipulation

• Blurt it Out
  This Knack represents a gift for making people speak their minds. Avatars who have it normally corner a person who has information they want, strike up a conversation, direct that conversation toward the information in question, then pry it loose when it’s top of mind. Others confront victims who are surrounded by family, friends or coworkers, in order to make those victims admit damning information when it will do the most harm. The information must have legitimately come up in conversation. The Avatar cannot simply shout “J’accuse!” then use Blurt It Out to force a random confession from a guilty person. A victim still has a slim chance to catch himself before bringing disaster crashing down, if his integrity and willpower are high enough.
• God's Honest
  When she’s trying to convince someone of something, the Avatar puts her hand to her heart, puts her hand on a stack of Bibles, holds up her right hand with her pinkie and thumb crossed in the palm, or performs some other gesture of sincerity. When she does so, her would-be mark accepts that the Avatar is telling the truth about the subject at hand, no questions asked, for the rest of the story. Only solid, incontrovertible proof showing that what the Avatar said was undeniably false will convince the mark he’s been fooled. Even then, whoever’s showing him the proof will have to convince him that the proof is genuine and not some clever forgery. A Avatar with this Knack doesn’t have to lie when she uses it. She can also use it to convince a recalcitrant skeptic of the actual truth. If the Avatar does so, no mortal force can convince that person that the Avatar was lying (not even professionally faked “proof” to the contrary).
• Overt Order
  Sometimes, the direct method is more effective than the cleverest of intricate schemes. With this Knack, a Avatar barks out a command that the target must obey. The command must be one the Avatar can give and the victim can perform. “Freeze!” is acceptable, as is, “Don’t shoot!” or, “Shoot him!” Ordering someone to go home and shoot his wife won’t work because doing so would take longer than the knack's effect will last. A victim of this Knack can interpret the command loosely to make it not directly suicidal, but not if all he’s trying to do is keep out of trouble. For example, if a victim draws a gun and the Avatar commands him to shoot himself, the victim can shoot himself in the hand or the foot rather than blowing his own brains out. Same thing goes if a Avatar uses this Knack at a seedy pool hall to command a smarmy drug dealer to pick a fight with a burly ex-con at the next table. The dealer might reasonably believe that the ex-con could kill him, but he still can’t weasel out of the command. He doesn’t have to walk up and take a swing at the guy, but he still has to do something, such as singing out a racial slur or throwing a beer bottle at the guy’s girlfriend. The dealer can cheese it immediately, but he’s still got to pick the fight first.
• Stench of Guilt
  This Knack gives a Avatar an insight into the workings of a victim’s mind. If the Avatar hears a topic come up while the victim is speaking that reminds the victim of a misdeed he’s keeping secret, the Avatar senses the presence of that secret. The victim needn’t feel guilty about the wrongs he’s done, but as long as he’s taken, or is taking, pains to hide them, the Avatar catches on. This Knack can’t reveal what secret the victim hides, nor does it point out specifically what was said in the conversation that reminded him of the transgression. Conversational context is usually enough for a crafty Avatar to figure out where to start looking, though.
• Takes One to Know One
  Liars and tricksters know their own. If some matchstick man tries to run a scam, Avatars with this Knack know exactly what sort of person they’re dealing with. Whenever the Avatar hears a person knowingly tell a lie, the Avatar is automatically aware of the deception. This Knack doesn’t reveal what the truth actually is. Nor does it work on text written by someone who knows it’s false or when someone speaks untrue words in a language the Avatar does not understand.

Epic Appearance

• Center of Attention
  Whether he’s Hugh Jackman on the set of The View or the Phantom of the Opera going unmasked at the masquerade ball, the Avatar commands the attention of everyone in the room. This Knack is best used when making an important entrance, but it can also serve as a wonderful broad-spectrum distraction. The character walks into a room, and all eyes in the room (as well as the eyes of people watching remotely via live security camera broadcast) turn the character’s way. The character can hold everyone’s attention for a number of minutes equal to his Epic Appearance points. The onlookers can carry on with what they’re doing and keep talking among themselves, but their attention remains fixed on the Avatar. Primordials and Avatars can resist this Knack if their willpower is high enough.
• Come Hither
  Some Avatars are so beautiful you can’t help but be drawn to them, and a Avatar with this Knack makes that compelling attraction inescapable. Whether she beckons across a crowded room, emails a picture of herself along with an invitation or sends a picture message from her phone with the text caption “GYAOH,” the object of her desire makes all due haste to reach her. The intended target must be able to see an image of the Avatar, he must understand that the message is intended for him, and he must have a reasonable idea of how to find her. Avatars whose Epic Appearance represents divine ugliness cannot use this Knack. Also, it doesn’t work on beautiful Avatars with more dots of Epic Appearance than the one using the Knack.
• Dreadful Mien
  Some Avatars are so hideous that seeing them spurs the primitive centers of the human brain toward reckless flight. Most humans can clamp down on this instinctive response and remain in such Avatars’ presence, but this Knack overrides that social nicety. The character directs his unholy monstrousness at a single unlucky victim in his presence for every point of Epic Appearance they have. Overwhelmed, the victim runs for his life and hides somewhere until the next sunrise. People affected by this Knack run away with self-preservation in mind, though, so they won’t sprint blindly into traffic or try to swim across a shark tank to safety. Avatars whose Epic Appearance represents divine beauty cannot use this Knack. Also, it doesn’t work on hideous Avatars with more dots of Epic Appearance than the one using the Knack.
• Lasting Impression
  The Avatar has an effect on a subject that’s slow to fade away. Thoughts of the Avatar creep into the victim’s mind unbidden either to undermine his concentration or to uplift his spirit. A beautiful Avatar can use her Epic Appearance to make a character feel good about himself, while a hideous Avatar inflicts quite the opposite effect. The Avatar unsettles him so deeply that he loses concentration and feels great terror. The Avatar can use the Knack on only one person at a time, and the target must be able to see her in person.
• Serpent's Gaze
  The person whom the Avatar is trying to affect locks eyes with her and is unable to look away. For combat purposes, the victim is rendered Inactive until the Avatar breaks eye contact. The Avatar can still act, but they must be able to act without breaking eye contact. This Knack works equally well whether the Avatar’s Epic Appearance involves beauty or its opposite.

Epic Perception

• Perfect Pitch
  The Avatar can be a musician’s best friend or worst nightmare, as she has the innate ability to detect even the subtlest variation in musical pitch. Her sense is so refined that she could catch a single missed note in an otherwise flawless performance of a Rachmaninoff concerto. The lone flub in the middle of the performance rings as clearly in her ears as if someone’s cell phone had gone off during it playing the Spongebob Squarepants theme song. The Avatar’s sense of hearing is also refined enough to be able to identify with absolute certainty a phone number or security code just by hearing the distinctive key tones.
• Predatory Focus
  The Avatar is a hunter par excellence. He can track his prey by scent alone or by almost-invisible physical signs. With this Knack, the hunter can follow his prey across any sort of terrain as long as the prey continues to flee and does not take significant pains to mask its scent or minimize the disturbance its passing causes. (The former entails such extremes as swimming a mile upstream in a rushing river or taking refuge inside a functioning hog-rendering plant. The latter includes little short of levitating or flying.)
• Refined Palate
  The Avatar has exceptionally precise senses of taste and smell (as the latter enhances the former). With a faint sniff or a tentative taste, the Avatar can figure out what ingredients compose a certain concoction, and in what proportions. She can also sniff out drugs or poisons that have been added to what she was about to wolf down, as well as detect airborne toxins by the way they make the air taste. This Knack doesn’t tell a Avatar what an ingredient is if she isn’t already familiar with it. (She would realize that what’s making her iced tea sweet isn’t sugar, for instance, but she wouldn’t know if it was Equal or Splenda if she’d never had either artificial sweetener before.) Instead, the Knack registers each component separately and provides an indication whether such components would be dangerous to consume. The Avatar also remembers the taste and smell of various ingredients she experiences so she can recognize and identify them if she’s exposed to them again.
• Subliminal Warning
  Whenever the Avatar enters an area where an ambush is waiting, even if he has no reason to suspect he’s in danger, certain tiny clues set his subconscious on edge, preparing him for an attack. When the attacker finally springs the surprise assault, the Avatar hears the tiniest rustle of fabric, sees the slightest flicker in his peripheral vision or feels the gentlest twitch of displaced air, and the clues he already noticed all add up.
• Unfailing Recognition
  The Avatar can automatically recognize any people to whom she is Fatebound. She can pick their faces out of a crowd with just a glance. She can recognize their voices despite electronic distortion or overpowering background noise. She knows their scents and their body language and even the exact feel of the way they shake hands. She can also recognize an impostor when someone tries to mimic the voice or appearance of someone to whom she is Fatebound. Recognizing others is not quite as easy. The timing of when the Avatar recognizes a person is entirely up to the Storyteller as dictated by the needs of the story. If the private investigator who’s been dogging the Avatar’s heels tries to slink up to the character in disguise at a crowded charity fund-raiser, the Avatar might see the gumshoe coming a mile away (even despite the fake beard, the fat suit, the spray-on tan and the sex change). If a Avatar of Loki who’s a rival to a player’s Avatar of Anubis arrives in disguise to deliver a cryptic warning, the Avatar of Anubis might not recognize her old foe until the trickster disappears with a wink behind the elevator’s closing doors. Finally, as a side effect of this Knack, a Avatar can always recognize when someone who is not in disguise is biologically related to a person she knows well (regardless of whether that person is Fatebound to her). She cannot intuitively grasp what that relationship is, but she knows it’s there—even if the person in question doesn’t.

Epic Intelligence

• Fast Learner
  By buckling down and intently studying certain subjects, the Avatar internalizes them in a fraction of the time it would take a lesser intellect.
• Know-It-All
  The Avatar is widely read and has a ridiculously well-rounded education. She might not be a master of any single subject, but she knows a little bit about a wide range of disparate, esoteric subjects. (She could explain the intricacies of the Teapot Dome Scandal in terms of the interpersonal dynamics of the Justice League, then explain why typing “while one fork” into a UNIX system is a bad idea, before wrapping up with an explanation of how a Venus’s-flytrap works.) Normally, the burden of portraying this Knack falls to the player, so it behooves her to keep an ear to the ground for obscure trivia she can work into her character’s dialogue during the game. Google is the player's friend.
• Math Genius
  The Avatar is a walking, talking calculator. She can divide up a 10-party restaurant bill so everyone pays only what they owe or calculate the standard deviation of oil prices over the last 15 years, all while holding an intense conversation about whether Republicans or Democrats are worse tippers. As long as she knows all the figures involved, she can crunch the numbers in her head with only a moment’s pause. She can also use mathematical shorthand and rapid calculation to estimate things like how many jellybeans are in a glass jar at the State Fair or how many Primordials-possessed Civil War re-enactors are currently rushing toward her across the picnic grounds.
• Perfect Memory
  The character remembers everything about his past from before the game started to the current moment in the story. If ever the player forgets a salient point or key bit of information from previous sessions, he has but to read back over past posts. It’s a good idea for the character’s player to take copious notes on each session’s events and double-check them with the Storyteller, if only to alleviate some of the stress on the Storyteller.
• Teaching Prodigy
  With this Knack, a Avatar can help someone else become a fast learner. When she makes significant efforts to tutor a student in a subject - a distinction best left up to the Storyteller - the time and effort required on the student's part to learn is cut in half. The catch built into this Knack is that a Avatar cannot teach a student an Ability that she (the teacher) doesn’t have. Nor can the teacher help a student surpass her in mastery of a subject—which is to say, the Avatar cannot teach her student more than she knows.

Epic Wits

• Instant Investigator
  The Avatar can take an intuitive “read” of a crime scene and make a reasonably accurate assessment of what transpired there. By taking a single, sweeping glance, the Avatar can tell what crimes were committed at that scene (if it was more than one), how many perpetrators were involved, how long ago it happened, roughly the sequence of events that took place and what means the perpetrators employed to cover up evidence. The difficulty increases the longer it has been since the crime occured, the more contaminated the scene has become, and how thorough the cover up of evidence was. This Knack doesn’t reveal specific, plot-sensitive information that isn’t readily apparent (such as who the perpetrators actually are), but it should provide enough clues in a single glance for the character to develop solid leads that further the story.
• Meditative Focus
  Whether she’s hunkered down behind a burning car in a war zone, caught out on the yard during a prison riot, stranded on the crowded deck of a storm-tossed ship or just mall-walking during the frenzied heights of the Christmas rush, the character never loses her cool. No matter what’s happening, she keeps her mind on what she’s doing while maintaining sufficient vigilance to avoid getting caught up in the hubbub all around her. As such, the character is able to tune out environmental  distractions.
• Opening Gambit
  Sometimes, victory in conflict is all about being the guy who makes the first move, and the Avatar is usually that guy.  If more than one character involved in a combat scene has this Knack, the character with the highest (Wits + Epic Wits) total goes first.
• Rabbit Reflexes
  When an unexpected attack targets the character with this Knack but the character’s player fails to notice the attack coming, the Avatar instinctively defends herself. The character cannot preemptively attack her attacker or even shout out a warning to her comrades, as she’s reacting to an attack that’s already taking place, but she is much more likely to dodge or parry that attack.
• Social Chameleon
  Being thrust into a situation full of strangers who have bizarre customs and weird manners (such as a sorority house at the height of rush) can be disorienting, but the character with this Knack handles herself with remarkable aplomb. By observing the behavior of the people around her and reacting preternaturally quickly to their reactions to her behavior, she can fake like she fits in just about anywhere, with any class of people. She still has to dress the part, and the language barrier might pose its own problems, but she won’t embarrass or draw attention to herself unless she goes out of her way to do so on purpose.

The final gift from the Patrons are birthrights. Birthrights are objects, items, weapons, and sometimes even places that grant power. A famous example of a birthright would be Thor's Mjolnir. A Birthright can do many things: they can have passive magic all their own, not tied to a particular theme; they could have a unique activated ability that can be used by willpower; they could be an enhanced item; they could grant access to another theme so long as they are with you; they could grant access to particular boons. Potentially limitless in usefulness and application, Birthrights are highly sought after, powerful relics handed down to the Avatars to help defend against the Primordials. The more powerful the Birthright, the more it can do!

[Aethyrium]

While Epic Attributes are minor powers that amplify your traits, Boons are the outright divine powers given to you by your Patron. Boons are more or less magic. More powerful and diverse than Epic Attributes, Boons are divided into categories, or themes. Each Patron has a number of themes in which they domain over, and the boons they grant within those themes are potentially limitless. Unlike Epic Attributes which are open to anyone, a character may only use powers from a theme which they have access to. These powers are varied but rated on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is utilizing the most basic or fundamental aspects of a theme and 10 is complete mastery and overwhelming supernaturally extrapolated potential of a theme.

Characters can have boons up to level 3, and may learn any boon but may only activate boons for which they have access to the theme.

Contained in the spoiler are examples of Boons taken directly from Scion. These do not need to be the boons that you use, but absolutely can be. These have not at all been formatted to detach them from the Scion game, so replace mentions of "Scion" with "Avatar" and "Titanspawn" with "Primordial" and you'll get the basic idea. These examples should serve to give you an idea of the power level of the boons you're trying to create, and what level to rate them as.

Boon Samples

Animal

• Animal Communication (1)
  The Scion can understand and make himself understood by an animal as he speaks his native language and the animal responds with its own postures, scents and/or vocalizations. This Boon doesn’t make animals smart, calm or loyal, but most are curious enough about having a person address them that they’ll hear a Scion out before defaulting to aggression, panic or indifference.
• Animal Command (2)
  The Scion names one task that the animal must perform. The task cannot seem suicidal or impossible to the animal, but the animal cannot balk at an order that doesn’t immediately seem so. “Hey rabbit, go rip that lion’s throat open,” would seem impossible to the rabbit so commanded. “Run to that grass across this street,” would be a fine order for that same rabbit, though, even if cars were zipping by. The order can describe a single immediate action (“Bite that guy!”) or one with a single condition (“Come find me when a blue car stops here.”). If he lacks the previous Boon (Animal Communication), the Scion can deliver his command only through simplistic nonverbal signals.
• Animal Aspect (3)
  By meditating on a token representing his animal, the Scion takes on a metaphorical characteristic associated with it. A Scion might take on a snake’s sinuous grace, a peacock’s beauty, an elephant’s proverbial memory or any other justifiable characteristic.

Chaos

• Eye of the Storm (1)
  When the Scion finds herself caught up in a chaotic situation unrelated to her—whether she’s dodging a tornado’s debris or emerging from a bar to find a berserk mob rushing toward her to clash with a line of riot cops down the street—she can activate this Boon and become an island of calm in the tumult. She is miraculously untouched in the confusion, and she remains so for as long as she doesn’t actively involve herself. She still suffers normal environmental movement penalties, but environmental dangers such as falling rocks, stampeding beasts or thrashing rioters all fail to touch her.
• Hornet's Nest (2)
  If the Boon succeeds, the Storyteller should determine and reveal in general terms what action the Scion can take to either cause the most chaos in the scene or defuse the potential chaos inherent in the situation. The revelation should be something simple like “opening the parrot cage,” “staying in the hallway,” “winking at the Scion of Sif” or “calling the Scion of Ptah’s cell phone.” The Storyteller should explain only which action will lead to which outcome, not how.
• Paralyzing Confusion (3)
  This Boon turns a person’s rational thoughts into seething, chaotic noise. The victim freezes in place, suddenly unable to think, speak or act. He’s unaware of what goes on around him, and he has no memory of the moments before or after the use of this Boon. How long the effects last will be determined by the Storyteller, and it erases the victim’s memory from the moment the action was taken to the moment it wears off. If the victim has more points of  willpower than the user has in the Chaos purview, the power doesn’t work.

Darkness

• Night Eyes (1)
  Darkness no longer inflicts visibility penalties on the character. He can see in pitch-blackness almost as well as he can see in bright sunlight, losing only the ability to perceive colors. (Objects he sees in darkness are black-on-black yet perfectly distinguishable in a way that’s conveniently impossible to describe to someone who doesn’t have this Boon.) The Scion cannot see through physical impediments.
• Shadow Mask (2)
  The Scion pulls a shadow down from the brim of his hat or up from beneath his collar and wraps it around his head, rendering him completely unrecognizable to human eyes or electronic surveillance equipment (even equipment designed specifically to see in darkness). His voice becomes an unidentifiable whisper. The Scion can see through this mask, and other Scions using Night Eyes can recognize him through it. The shadow mask lasts for a maximum of 24 hours. The Scion can will it to disperse before that period elapses, but otherwise, it remains in place the whole time even if the Scion is unconscious. It doesn’t disperse even if someone shines a bright light in the Scion’s face.
• Shadow Refuge (3)
  The Scion can hide within any shadow into which his body fits. He need only position himself within the three-dimensional area of the shadow. If he does so, mundane attempts to find him—even those aided by electronic equipment—fail. Supernatural attempts aided by Epic Perception or an Arete in Awareness (or both) proceed as normal, contesting the searcher’s (Perception + Awareness) against the Scion’s points in Darkness + Dexterity. The Scion can hide within the shadow as long as it remains large enough. He can move with it as it moves, within reason.

Death

• Death Senses (1)
  The Scion can see ghosts even when those ghosts don’t choose to manifest. To her, ghosts are livid, physical presences, sensible to feeling as to sight (as well as smell and hearing). She still can’t harm the fragile ectoplasmic shell of a ghost who hasn’t manifested, however. The sense of touch this Boon grants is illusory. If the Scion tries to exert enough pressure to cause damage or restrain the ghost, her hand passes through it. The Scion can also look at a dead body and know what killed it, if that cause isn’t already obvious. The answer she gets is somewhat generic (the reading would tell her a person had been poisoned, for instance, but not by what poison), but it’s conclusive despite the presence of falsified or misleading evidence. Generic causes of death include suffocation, drowning, poison, burns, internal trauma, bleeding, hunger, thirst, exposure, illness, heart attack and old age.
• Euthanasia (2)
  When a living being is incapacitated with lethal or heavy damage due to wounds or a terminal illness, the Scion can end that being’s suffering. The Scion must touch the being. If the Scion wants to know whether the victim is truly willing to die, she can meditate for several minutes on the subject and if she has as many points in empathy as she does in the Death purview, she can determine it definitively. Animals usually answer in the affirmative and titanspawn usually do the opposite, but human beings and Scions are unpredictable. Regardless, the subject’s willingness is ultimately immaterial unless the subject is another Scion. The power doesn’t work on a Scion unless that Scion is actually willing to die. (Even then, however, Fate or the Scion’s divine parent might intervene to keep the Scion alive a little longer.)
• Unquiet Corpse (3)
  By touching a corpse or its grave with her hand or her Birthright, a Scion can raise that corpse as a mindless zombie (or its pantheon-appropriate equivalent) under her control. Only those limbs that are present and firmly affixed to the zombie’s torso (if only by leather straps and wood staples) function when the zombie rises. The zombie remains animated until either it is destroyed or the Scion who created it dies.

Earth

• Safely Interred (1)
  Whether the character is caught up in a landslide, buried in a shallow grave by the roadside or trapped in the rubble of a collapsing building, he need not fear the earth’s embrace as long as he has his Earth Birthright. No amount of collapsing rubble can break the Scion’s bones (or the Birthright itself), and he won’t suffocate no matter how much dirt piles onto him. If he lacks the strength to free himself, however, he does run the risk of either starving to death or dying of thirst if no one digs him out. Yet, it would not be the earth that kills him, but his own lack of fortitude.
• Echo Sounding (2)
  By stomping or otherwise knocking on the earth, the Scion gets a sense of its general composition and density, as well as finding holes or caves beneath the surface. If he’s looking for something specific in the earth—such as gold, oil or a human body—this Boon reveals its distance from him and depth from the epicenter at the expense of the other information. The Boon works only at ground level or on the up-thrust surface of a mountainside, but it works through floors and pavement. It gives the Scion a semispherical reading with a radius equal to one half mile per point in the Earth purview.
• Shaping (3)
  The Scion can sculpt stone, concrete, fired clay or metal with his bare hands. The substance becomes malleable like wet clay for as long as he touches it. The Scion can affect up to one cubic foot of material at a time. Once he breaks contact with the substance he is shaping, it loses all malleability and sets in its new form. Creating works of art require points in the Art trait.

Fertility

• Green Thumb (1)
  The Scion need only touch a large plant (such as a tree or bush) or a one-square-yard patch of smaller plants (from a window box of daisies to a sheet of algae). That plant or patch can then survive for a whole year (or for its whole life if its natural span is shorter) without food or sunlight or water. The Scion’s ministrations keep the plant healthy through drought, nutrient deficiency, unnatural darkness or other environmental shortfall. The plant’s surroundings must be within its natural tolerances for the plant to survive, though. (This Boon can’t nurture seaweed on the desert floor, for instance.) Also, this Boon doesn’t protect against or cure any blight or damage from herbivorous noshing.
• Cleanse (2)
  Every gardener and farmer has to deal with blight or vermin sometimes, but doing so is easy for a Scion with this Boon. Any blight or infestation ends immediately upon contact with the Scion. Blight clears up as if it had never occurred, and vermin suddenly find the affected plants unappealing. This Boon affects large plants (or square yards of a patch of smaller plants). This Boon doesn’t protect against future blights, and it stops only the current generation of vermin infestation.
• Bless or Blight (3)
  With a blessing, the Scion protects a patch of land from all natural blights and vermin infestations for one year. Alternatively, she can curse the land with a blight that either kills the plants within it outright or makes them so attractive to vermin that the resulting infestation has the same effect.

Fire

• Fire Immunity (1)
  The Scion takes no damage from fire, he need never worry about suffering from smoke inhalation, and even the most intense heat is nothing more than a comforting warmth to him. This immunity remains in effect regardless of what substance is burning. It doesn’t, however, extend to his clothes or to any item except the Birthright through which he channels the Boon.
• Bolster Fire (2)
  Normally, fire needs oxygen to breathe and fuel to consume. With this Boon, a Scion removes both necessities from a single flame for one scene. He could keep a single torch (or even a match) lit for hours as he explores a dark labyrinth. He could cause the tiny spark at the end of a fuse to burn in place without moving. This Boon is also good for keeping a source of flame from consuming the breathable air in an enclosed space. The Scion must be able to see the flame he intends to bolster, but once he uses the Boon, he can leave its presence without canceling the effect. The fire he bolsters with this Boon can be no larger than that of an average campfire (roughly a yard in diameter). If no source of flame is available, the Scion can create a fire the size of a candle flame from thin air. It burns at the end of his finger or from some point on the Birthright he uses to activate the Boon. The flame isn’t strong enough to cause damage in combat, but it can ignite a flammable substance easily enough.
• Fire's Eye (3)
  The Scion can see out of any fire that A.) is already within his line of sight or B.) he affected with Bolster Fire. The Scion cannot hear what is happening around a distant fire, and his field of vision remains the same through the fire as it is through his eyes. He may physically move his head or turn his body in place to change his remote perspective, though. While he looks through the fire, the Scion can’t see from his own perspective. He may maintain his remote perspective for as long as he wishes.

Guardian

• Vigil Brand (1)
  The Scion touches a person, an object or the entrance to a location and lays a mystical brand there that marks that subject as being under her protection. Thereafter, whenever that subject is in physical danger (as determined by the Storyteller), the Scion receives a reflexive intuition to that effect. Should the scion concentrate on the subject of the brand, she gains a clearer understanding of the subject’s condition, location and current situation. The Scion can also use this Boon to check up on a subject at any time, but only one subject at a time. A Scion cannot brand herself with this Boon, but she can brand as many other subjects as she pleases. A subject can be branded by more than one Scion at the same time. Each brand is unique to the Scion who made it.
• Aegis (2)
  By touching a mortal or an object, the Scion grants it a measure of divine physical protection for the next 24 hours.
• Ward (3)
  By touching the entrance to a location, the Scion lays a ward on the area that bars entrance to a certain type of threat. Such a ward could bar ghosts, walking dead, a breed of titanspawn, human beings, lesser animals or Scions. The ward acts as a sphere with a circumference area equal to 500 square feet per point of Guardian purview the Scion has. The Scion can ward an area against as many different types of threats as she wants, but each threat requires its own ward. Wards are not indestructible and given the time and effort, they can be broken through.

Health

• Assess Health (1)
  The Scion can instantly, automatically assess the current medical condition of a single living patient in his presence. He can tell how extensive the damage is, as well as any physical addictions he suffers, any illnesses or diseases with which he is infected and any genetic defects that afflict him.
• Blessing of Health/Curse of Frailty (2)
  The Boon can take away a patient’s reproductive capabilities or restore them, provided the patient already has all the necessary organs. This effect lasts for one year per point in the Health purview. Used on a pregnant patient, the Boon can make her unborn child come into the World strong and healthy or sickly and deformed. The Boon can cure or create any of the following conditions: a physical deformity, a life-threatening birth defect, a chemical dependency, an illness contracted from the mother, physical damage suffered in utero or a non-specified immune system effect. A Scion can also use this Boon on an infant within the first 24 hours after its birth.
• Heal/Infect (3)
  The Scion can repair a patient’s injuries or inflict harm directly. On one hand, he can heal as damage or illness as he wishes. Alternatively, he can inflict as much harm as he wishes. The Scion can use this Boon on the same person only once per day. He can use it on as many different people in the same day as he wishes.

Justice

• Judgement (1)
  This Boon aids a Scion immensely in determining guilt, one of the foundations of meting out justice. When she confronts someone she suspects committed an injustice and accuses that person of having done so, she stands a chance of determining whether the subject is guilty or innocent. If the subject is guilty and their willpower is lower than the Scion's rating in Justice (and as long as no other boons or knacks are in use), the scion will determine the subjct's guilt definitively.
• Guilt Apparitions (2)
  When a Scion knows that someone is guilty of an injustice but she lacks either the evidence to prove it or the leverage to make him admit it, she can rely on this Boon instead. To use it, she accuses the guilty party of the injustice (be it in person, in a letter, over the phone, via skywriting…). If the subject's willpower isn't high enough to withstand the effect of the boon, the accusation causes the victim to periodically hallucinate like Macbeth or his wife. These hallucinations occur randomly, torturing the guilty party with the knowledge that justice hasn’t been served and slowly wearing him down. The effect lasts for a number of days equal to the number of points the Scion has in Justice.
• Shield of Righteousness (3)
  This Boon can protect an innocent victim from suffering someone else’s due punishment. The Scion cries out against the injustice—a simple “He didn’t do it!” will suffice. Doing so, she renders any attempt to inflict harm on the innocent victim completely impotent, sparing her the harm. Whether the victim is being stabbed by a jealous wife, shot by a firing squad, lynched by a mob, hurled off a cliff by a duped Scion vigilante or whatever, he suffers no damage from that action. For the Boon to work, the Scion must be present at the site of the unjust punishment, and the victim must actually be innocent.

Moon

• Smoking Mirror (1)
  By looking up at the moon the character sees reflected in it a bird’s-eye view of the surrounding terrain. This perspective allows a clear view of a radius in miles equal to the Scion’s score in the Moon Purview. The Scion may focus on any point in the reflection and see it clearly, but he can’t see through physical objects or change the angle from the top-down perspective. This Boon doesn’t function on new moon nights, but it can see down through thick clouds on any other night. If the moon is visible during the day, the Scion can use this Boon then as well.
• Tidal Interference (2)
  The Scion exerts a pull on all enemies with whom he’s in close combat. The enemies become locked on the Scion using the boon, making them the focal point of their rage. This effect lasts for the rest of the combat scene.
• Phase Cloak (3)
  The Scion turns himself away from his enemies much as the moon turns its face away from the earth. This Boon can be used to hide only a part of the Scion's body from view, and the less exposure the moon has, the more of the Scion is hidden. A full moon ensures that the Scion cannot be hidden at all.

Psychopomp

• Unerring Orientation (1)
  In a locale she knows well, such as her hometown or a national park she visits every autumn, the Scion knows how to get from any point within to any other point. In an unfamiliar locale, her sense of direction defaults to a standard compass rose. Should someone give her correct directions in an unfamiliar locale, she retains them thereafter. If she studies a map of an unfamiliar city for five minutes, that information remains imprinted on her mind until she leaves that city for longer than a week. The Boon can also reveal to a Scion how far away and in what direction the location she considers home lies. Alternatively, if the Scion finds herself in a strange place—if she’s been drugged and kidnapped, for instance—this Boon can tell her how far she is and in what direction she traveled from the last place she wasn’t lost.
• Where Are You? (2)
  If someone makes remote contact with a Scion (by telephone, instant messenger, telepathy…), the Scion gets a sense of how far away he is and in what direction. She might not be able to direct the person to her location, but she can follow her nose right to the location whence the contact originated. The sensation remains even after the period of contact ends, but it doesn’t follow the person around if that person moves. It can only lead a Scion to where the communication ended.
• Unbarred Entry (3)
  The Scion can pass through a solid surface as if either she or it were intangible. She can pass through only as much space as she could cross in a single step - through a wall or a locked door, for instance - and doing so is a simple action. All the Scion’s clothing and items make the transition with her, but she can’t pull anyone else along behind. If the solid surface is too thick for her to be able to pass through, it remains as solid to her as it does to everyone else. This Boon doesn’t literally make the Scion intangible, however, so she can’t use it in combat to avoid damage or to step through a ring of fire without being burned.

Sky

• Sky's Grace (1)
  The Scion takes no damage from falls of any height. Alternatively, the Scion can double the distance he can jump either straight up or horizontally. If the Scion has the Holy Bound Knack as well as this Boon, the base distance he can leap doubles, then doubles again. Also, Sky’s Grace can mitigate knockback the character suffers from successful attacks. If an attack knocks the character back, he may stop himself in a sudden gust of wind.
• Wind's Freedom (2)
  The Scion laughs in the face of gravity. The distances the Scion can move remain normal, but they now apply to the Z-axis as well as the X- and Y-axes. All the normal rules for movement remain in place, except that the character can now move freely through all three dimensions (i.e., he can fly). He can even hold still in midair if he wants to. The only thing a character can’t do in midair that he could do on the ground is jump, as there’s nothing to jump off of. If the character drops the Birthright that makes this Boon possible or allows it to be destroyed, the effect ends immediately.
• Storm Augmentation (3)
  Jagged threads of lightning coil around the Scion’s fists or weapon, or swirling winds sweep around him as he moves. On any successful attack, he may make thunder crash or winds gust violently. This can cause the enemy to be knocked back or even clear off their feet.

Sun

• Penetrating Glare (1)
  As sunlight only dims when it passes through thick clouds, so too can a Scion’s vision cut through physical occlusions. When the Scion receives this Boon, she sees clearly through such physical impediments as smoke, fog, murky water (if the Scion is in said water) or even translucent barriers through which other people can see only silhouettes. The character can even see perfectly clearly in dim light (i.e., light no less intense than a single birthday candle). In total darkness, however, she’s just as blind as the next person.
• Divine Radiance (2)
  This Boon allows a Scion to emit sunlight. She can either radiate a glow from her entire body, shining with the intensity of a 100-watt incandescent light bulb, or focus that light to a narrower beam. For instance, she could narrow the focus of the light to come from her palm or her eyes to act as a high-powered flashlight. The Scion can emit soft light thus for one scene. Alternatively, the character can concentrate her light into a single intense burst that gleams from some reflective surface on her person, be it from the steel edge of her weapon, the metal buttons on her jacket or the surgical-steel head of her tongue stud. The Scion could even focus the light down to a pinpoint intense enough to scorch an object or ignite a flammable accelerant. (The pinpoint is not intense enough to damage a victim in combat, though.)
• Heavenly Flare (3)
  Concentrating, the Scion builds up and releases a flash of sunlight that’s impossible for anyone within line of sight to miss. If any character within sight has a fortitude lower than the number of points the Scion has in their Sun purview, they are temporarily blinded, even if they are wearing special sunglasses or a helmet to filter out light. If the victim's fortitude is equal, they are simply distracted. If their fortitude is greater, they are able to ignore the flash of light unhindered.

War

• Blessing of Bravery (1)
  Intoning a benediction over a person or group prepared to engage in battle, the Scion bolsters their courage and determination. Every character on the Scion’s side of the conflict who hears the benediction benefits from it. The Scion may amplify his voice electronically, but he must be present at the battle and give the blessing live.
• Battle Cry (2)
  During a battle, be it a pitched field engagement or an alley fight between a Band of Scions and a gang of frost giants, the Scion can loose a horrible battle cry that unnerves his foes. Every fighter on the Scion’s enemies’ side who hears the unearthly shriek falters. The Scion may use electronic equipment to amplify this battle cry so every enemy present can hear it, but he must be present on the battlefield himself for it to work. He can let out this battle cry only once per combat scene.
• Warrior Ideal (3)
  The Scion adopts some idealized warrior aspect, from howling berserker to unquestioning enlisted man to fearless officer to pitiless samurai. This attitude unnerves and intimidates any opponent who faces him in combat. This idealized aspect can be invoked only once during any given battle.

Water

• Water Breathing (1)
  The Scion need never fear drowning, and she is no longer affected by extremes of water temperature. She can breathe water as easily as air, and she is neither scalded by boiling water nor subject to debilitating frostbite from ice. Having boiling water poured on one’s flesh still hurts, mind you, and being bound in ice or cast adrift in frigid water can still numb and paralyze a Scion. Neither of those extremes can cause the Scion actual physical damage, though. If the Scion is breathing water, any toxins in that water affect her just as breathing in airborne toxins would on land.
• Water Control (2)
  The Scion can exert limited physical control of any water that is touching her. She can remotely manipulate a hand-held object she can see in the water, although she can take no other physical actions at the same time. She can stiffen the water beneath her feet in order to walk on its surface. She can even have the water push her along from all sides. The Boon also allows such random tricks as having the Scion instantly dry off by flinging all water off her body or creating a water bridge so an aquatic creature can swim from one container to another. This Boon works only on liquid water. Her command is not such, however, that she can use water to restrain or inflict direct physical damage against an opponent with a liquid shape of her creation.
• Changing States (3)
  Defying the laws of thermodynamics, the Scion can instantly change the state of a body of water just by touching it. With this Boon, she can take liquid water, steam, ice or fog and change any one into any of the other three. Water under this effect is also subject to the Scion’s Water Control as long as the Scion maintains contact with some portion of it. The Scion can now inflict damage against a single opponent with blasts of steam or with ice projectiles. The character may also create a club, axe, knife or sword out of ice and use it as a normal weapon of that type. Water in an altered state doesn’t melt, freeze, boil or condense as it normally would in its current environment for the duration of the effect. As altered steam, it maintains a constant temperature of 220 degrees; as altered liquid water or altered fog, it stays at 70 degrees; as altered ice, it stays at 14 degrees. (That’s all Fahrenheit, by the way.) When the effect ends, the water instantly resumes its original state and temperature.

Pantheon-Specific Purviews

Arete
Arete is a Greek word meaning “excellence,” a quality highly valued among the Greek Gods. In fact, showing off one’s surpassing skill or total command of a field of study is a recurring theme throughout many legends about them. Granted, most of those legends involve some pompous mortal claiming to be the best there is at what she does and an offended God’s reaction to that claim not being very pretty. Nonetheless, the Greek Gods and the society that venerated them held the concept of excellence in such high regard that it became a Purview specific to them.This Purview doesn’t bestow specific powers, exactly, as much as it magnifies one’s talents to divine proportions. When a Scion takes an Arete, he assigns to it one of his Abilities. (That Ability must be rated at three dots or higher first.) The Arete increases the Ability's rating by twice the number of ranks placed in to the Arete.

Cheval

• Rada's Eyes (1)
  The Scion can experience another person’s perceptions as if they were her own. These perceptions include input from all five senses, though not the character’s subjective reactions to that input. To use this Boon, the Scion must have a picture of her victim, some genetic token of the victim’s (such as a lock of hair or several drops of blood) or something the victim created (from a printed-out email to an ice sculpture). By meditating on the item and relaxing her own perceptions, the Scion experiences the victim’s perceptions clearly and distinctly. The victim is unaware of the Scion’s attention, but the Scion remains only semiaware of her own surroundings. If something obvious is happening around the Scion, they may be able to notice it. If something less obvious happens around the Scion, though, the Scion doesn’t notice while her perceptions are distracted. A Scion can experience the perceptions of a mortal human being without being noticed as long as she has at least one of the requisite items. To use this on a Scion, however, you need all three items.
• Petro's Hands (2)
  The Scion can now exert some control over a victim whose senses she’s observing. The Scion must be actively experiencing her victim’s perceptions with Rada’s Eyes. If the Voodoo Scion’s victim is a mortal or a Scion with fewer points in willpower than the scion has in the Cheval purview. Should she succeed, the Voodoo Scion can then perform one physical action through the victim’s body. She can do anything from simply forcing the victim to hold still and look intently at something the Scion wants to study to making the oblivious victim jump out of the way of a shinobi assassin’s leaping kick. A Scion can exert this control over a victim only once per scene, and no other purviews or knacks can supplement it.
• Horse (3)
  The Scion can now exert total control over her victim for a limited time. She must be using Rada’s Eyes to share the victim’s perceptions, and she must have more points in Cheval than the Victim does in Willpower. If the Scion succeeds in her possession attempt, she can “ride” around inside her victim’s body for one scene (or less if she chooses to end the effect early). She exerts all of her own mundane traits, except for Appearance, through the effectively empty husk, losing all sense of the situation around her own body. If the body she’s riding suffers damage as a result of her actions, she feels the pain, but it’s only a phantom psychosomatic pain. Her own body suffers no damage. Once the spirit horse body suffers enough damage to render it Incapacitated or to kill it, the Scion loses her connection with it and returns to her own body. If the Scion’s real body suffers damage as a result of something going on around it, the Scion remains unaware of it until her spirit returns home. If someone or some event destroys the Scion’s body while her spirit is away, her spirit simply winks out of existence. A victim of possession has only dreamlike, halfglimpsed memories of what his body did when he was possessed. If the actions the Scion took were especially traumatic to the victim, the victim might block them out altogether.

Heku

• Ren Harvest (1)
  Whenever someone speaks of the Scion’s deeds, or whenever he sees news of his exploits in print somewhere, the Scion's reputation grows beyond simply that conversation or writing, increasing how well known he is. This knowledge can pertain only to certain circles, or it can be general knowledge found in tabloids and blogs. The story must pertain specifically to the Scion, and the context should be clear. Also, it must be uttered or written without the Scion’s direct knowledge. He might reasonably expect to see or hear it, but he cannot literally command someone to say or write it so as to reap the benefits. This Boon pertains only to evidence that his reputation is spreading.
• Sekem Blaze (2)
  Sekem is the light, the power and the energy of the Scion’s soul. With this Boon, he channels that powerful light through his gaze to intimidate a foe. Such a foe can be an animal, a person, a Scion or even one of the titanspawn, and the Scion need only look it in the eyes. An animal who sees the Sekem Blaze in the Scion’s eyes immediately ceases any aggression toward the Scion and flees. A mortal or ghost so affected calms down and remains cowed for the rest of the scene. A Scion or titanspawn with fewer points of willpower than the Scion's rating in Heku is as affected as a mortal, but a Scion or titanspawn with an equal number of points may counteract the effect. Anyone with more points of willpower remains unaffected. A Scion can attempt to affect only one victim per action with this Boon. If the Scion attacks a victim he has cowed with this power, the effect ends after the aggressive action.
• Sekem Barrier (3)
  The radiance of the character’s divine heritage illuminates his entire body, affecting all who look upon him. The effects of this are the same as the effects of Sekem Blaze (and the effectiveness is determined in the same matter using willpower vs Heku points), but instead of impacting only a single victim, they impact all beings within the immediate vicinity.

Itztli

• Maguey Sting (1)
  By piercing her flesh with a maguey thorn, an obsidian blade, a surgical scalpel or even just a rusty straight pin, the Scion sheds a portion of her blood. This blood serves as a token offering to her divine parent, who rewards her with a temporary boost of 2 points in any attribute or ability. This boost lasts for 24 hours
• Combat Sacrifice (2)
  The Scion stands unflinching before her raging enemies, sacrificing her safety in the pursuit of her goals for the scene, allowing them to behave as if their willpower were maxed for one scene. This boost lasts only for the duration of the current scene and cannot be used more than once per day.
• Obsidian Mutilation (3)
  As with Maguey Sting, the Scion ritually sheds her blood and receives a concomitant reward in a single attribute or ability. Unlike Maguey Sting, though, this sacrifice doesn’t top out at 2 levels. Instead, the character sacrifices a much larger amount of blood and gets up to 4 temporary points in a given attribute or ability. The character may perform this ritual only once per week.

Jotunblut

• Bestial Endowment (1)
  By sharing blood with it, the Scion grants a beast a single extra point in either Strength or Stamina. The beast becomes loyal to only the Scion, who can also train him as normal, but that loyalty must be renewed once every month.
• Human Endowment (2)
  By sharing blood with them, the Scion may imbue a human with two free Attribute points that can be spent into the human’s Strength and/or Stamina. The human remains loyal to the Scion for a single month but grows irritable around other people. A Scion cannot use this Boon on a beast.
• Heroic Endowment (3)
  By sharing blood with them, the Scion can now imbue a human with three free Attribute dots to be spent into the human’s Strength and/or Stamina. The person remains loyal to the Scion for three months (roughly one season) and remains equally irritable with other people. A Scion cannot use this Boon on a beast.

Tsukumo-Gami

• The Wakeful Spirit (1)
  With a little persistence, a Scion can capture the attention of the spirit of an inanimate object and speak to it for a few minutes. When she does so, the object takes on anthropomorphic features - the grains in a wooden door, for instance, might flow into the shape of a face -  and speaks in a way befitting the size and importance of the object. Unremarkable, unimportant objects have dim-witted, semi-conscious spirits, whereas unique objects to which people form emotional attachments are eloquent, knowledgeable and charming. In speaking to a spirit, a character can find out information the spirit has directly experienced. A car’s spirit can talk about where it’s been or who’s been in it. A lamp’s spirit can talk about the last time the master of the house used its light. A wishing well’s spirit can talk about how many people have wasted their pittances on false hopes. The older and more interesting the object is, the farther back and more clearly its spirit can remember key information. Spirits don’t differentiate easily between non-spirit beings, though, and they consider it rude to talk about the goings-on of other spirits if the spirits in question are doing their jobs properly. Also, most don’t pay too much attention to their surroundings unless something truly unusual happens.
• The Watchful Spirit (2)
  The Scion can not only coax information from a kami, but also set it to some passive task on her behalf. She can, for example, have the kami watch out for a specific person, observe any titanspawn who approach, or remember and repeat anything another Scion says to it. This period of duty lasts for a number of days equal to the number of points the Scion has in Tsukumo-Gami.
• The Helpful Spirit (3)
  With the proper shows of respect and decorum, a Scion can convince the kami within an object to enhance the mundane function of that object. Be it anything from a weapon to a baby grand piano, the item must be one that requires a skill to use successfully. If the character uses this Boon on one of her Birthright items, she can enhance only its mundane function.

Special Purviews

Magic

In a sense, every power a Scion’s Boons, Epic Attributes and Knacks grant her could be considered magic. Yet, one power seems magical even to them—namely the ability to direct and influence the mysterious force of Fate. All Scions (and even the Gods themselves) are subject to Fate, but only a select few are graced with the power to read and influence it.

A Scion gains one free new spell of the increased value for each new point of the Magic Purview he gets. Additional spells of equal or lesser value are purchased individually as Boons of the all-purpose Purviews are (for the same bonus point or experience point cost). Some sample spells are provided here, but in theory, the number of possible spells is limitless.

Scions with this Purview may design their own spells, but examples are given for each level of advancement. Inherent in each of these spells is the power to undo someone else’s application of the same spell. The target of a spell is automatically Fatebound to the spell’s caster

Spells

• Ariadne's Thread (1)
  The caster declares a target (a person, place or thing) and can thenceforth unerringly track where that target has gone by following the perturbations he leaves in the threads of Fate. If the target is a place, the caster can always find his way back there, no matter how disoriented or lost he has become. This spell’s effect lasts for one day per point in the Magic purview.
• Unlidded Eye (1)
  This spell allows its caster to see magic and supernatural powers that are normally invisible to mortal sight. It also faintly reveals the threads of Fate that entwine people, revealing strong or thick threads and allowing the caster to determine a Scion’s or other supernatural being’s scores in their attributes.
• Bona Fortuna (2)
  The caster calls upon Fortune for a good luck streak. For every point in the Magic purview, the Scion gets a single good-luck moment. This can be used only once per day and must be re-cast every day.
• Evil Eye (2)
  The caster curses a single target with a withering glance or insulting gesture. If the Scion's points in Magic are higher than the victim's fortitude, the victim suffers a loss of one point out of any two attributes of the caster's chosing, but no more than one point in any attribute. (IE the victim can lose a point in strength and a point in charisma, but cannot lose two points in either). The effect lasts for one scene unless ended prematurely by the caster.
• Trading Fates (2)
  The caster grants another person a good luck streak, as he can do for himself with the Bona Fortuna spell. The cost for casting this spell, however, is that the caster must himself accept a streak of bad luck either at the same time or at some point in the future, that mirrors the measure of good luck he gave his target. IE if he gives good luck to a friend who wins $5,000 on a lotto card, he himself must lose $5,000 or something worth that much.
• Deus Ex Machina (3)
  The caster calls for help—and Fate answers in its own way. The most improbable—even impossible—escapes can be delivered by this spell. If the caster hangs from a cliff by his fingernails, a sudden earthquake might cause a ledge to jut out beneath him, catching his fall. If he’s tied to a train track before a speeding train, the train might leap the track over him, continuing on its way as if he weren’t there. The caster cannot choose the manner of help he gets; he has thrown his lot in with Fate and gets whatever destiny brings. Basically, the Storyteller can get as dramatic and creative as he wishes, but he is under no onus to do so. He can choose a quite mundane rescue if he so desires (the Scion hanging from a cliff is pulled to safety by a boy scout). The caster is Fatebound to the person, place or means of his rescue.
• Demand A Labor (3)
  The caster can demand that a person perform a task for him. This is called a labor, or sometimes a geas, and until the target of the spell completes the task, he is not whole. Until he is victorious, he cannot do anything that is not required to live. (IE he cannot sit and watch TV or read a book, but he can stop to have food or sleep).

Mystery
The Purview of Mystery represents an understanding of the interconnection of bizarre, seemingly random events—an understanding mortal minds are unequipped to achieve. Gods and Scions with this Purview not only recognize this interconnection, but they can read significant clues from it. To use this Purview, the Scion clears her head and looks at the World around her without analysis or expectation. Based on what she sees, the character makes heretofore-denied intuitive leaps of logic as objects in the World around her spark off subconscious connections. The player may then ask her Storyteller pointed, specific questions about various events that have occurred in game—one question per point in Mystery. The Storyteller need not expound upon his answers (they can be quite terse and to the point, in fact), but he/she must answer them as honestly and directly as he/she can.Using this Purview cannot reveal facts about things that will happen in the future, nor can a character use it to gain insight into events that don’t concern either her or the members of her heroic Band.

Prophecy
The Purview of Prophecy offers the Scion who masters it glimpses into the machinations of Fate itself. The warnings of future events that the Purview offers are invaluable, but the Scion who relies on them overmuch risks becoming an unknowing agent of Fate itself. The more points a character has in Prophecy, the more precise their glimpses of Fate become.

[Aethyrium]

When you go to create your character for Emergence you will need to make a few choices about them. Most notably is that you will need to spend a couple of points on Traits. This is to create some character distinctions, give a sense of strengths and weaknesses that can be gauged and to ultimately allow for meaningfully demonstrated progression. Here is what you need to know:

Step 1: Spend 19 points across your Attributes. No Attribute (aside from Willpower) can be higher than 5. Willpower may be raised up to 10.
Step 2: Pick your Epic Attribute from your Patron, this is the number after the '/' in your Attributes section. (A character with Strength 3 and Epic Strength 1 would look like this: Strength 3/1).
Step 3: Spend 7 points on Epic Attributes, Boons, or Birthrights. Make your character awesome, with the following rules in mind:

• You may never have an Epic Attribute greater that your base Attribute in the same Attribute.
• You may never have an Epic Attribute level greater than your Willpower.
• Boons cost as many points as their level, but do not need to be purchased in order. For example, using the examples, under the Darkness theme you could purchase 'Shadow Mask' without having purchased 'Night Eyes'. It would cost you 2 points. If you wanted both 'Shadow Mask' and 'Night Eyes', it would cost you a total of 3 points.
• Use the examples of guidelines to your Boon levels, and the GM may adjust as needed.
• You may have multiple Boons from the same theme of the same level if you so desire.
• Character will not begin play with any Birthright you create, but you will be given any Birthright you select very early on. Basically in the process of the opening scenes of the game.
• If you create a Birthright, you can sink any number of points into it. For each point you give it, it gets an effect. Be transparent about what you 'spent' the points on when creating these, the GM will inquire. When in doubt, work with the GM to create your awesome item!

Attributes are the foundation upon which your character is built. All characters, player or otherwise, avatar or human, have attribute scores. No character will start the game with a score higher than 5 in any attribute. All attributes start with 1 free point already assigned to them, and you may add more points. To get a general idea of how these numbers translate to the real-world capabilities:

• ●○○○○: Below average. All things have this by default, and outside of magic you cannot drop lower than 1.
• ●●○○○: Average. The most basic average Joe ranks 2 in most scores.
• ●●●○○: Above Average. Someone who regularly trains at the gym, or has pursued some degree of higher education would be considered above average.
• ●●●●○: Advanced. A person who isn't quite perfect, but on their way toward it. Professional models, non-Olympic athletes, high-end professionals would qualify for this rank.
• ●●●●●: The pinnacle of human potential. An olympic gold medalist, a world-famous supermodel, the people on the bleeding edge of scientific advancement would rank here.

Physical Attributes
Character's three physical attributes govern how strong, swift, and resilient they are.

• Strength
  As the name implies, Strength represents a person’s raw muscle power. Characters use Strength for physical activities such as lifting, jumping, climbing and throwing, as well as inflicting damage in hand-to-hand combat or breaking inanimate objects.


• Dexterity
  Dexterity is a measure of a person’s reflexes, balance and hand-eye coordination. Characters use Dexterity to determine how fast they run, how easily they hit their opponents in combat, and how well they operate tools, instruments and vehicles.


• Stamina
  Stamina represents a person’s overall hardiness and resistance to illness and injury. Characters use Stamina to resist the effects of sickness, poisons or injury. It also governs tests of physical endurance, such as long-distance running, swimming underwater or mountain climbing.

Social Attributes
Character's social attributes define a their power of charm, persuasion, and sheer physical magnetism.

• Charisma
  Charisma is a measure of a person’s social grace and strength of personality. Characters use Charisma to charm their enemies, to win friends and allies and to inspire people when things look bleak.


• Manipulation
  Manipulation represents a person’s talent for persuasion and leadership. A character uses Manipulation to convince people to do what he wants, whether by trickery, deceit or force of will.


• Appearance
  Appearance measures a character’s capacity to influence peoples’ reactions by virtue of her physical looks and demeanor. It’s not an absolute measure of a character’s attractiveness. Rather, it represents how adept she is at using her looks to affect those around her. Characters use Appearance when they want to intimidate, inspire or attract others using their physical looks alone.

Mental Attributes
Character's mental attributes govern how observant and rational they are, as well as how quickly they think on their feet.

• Perception
  Perception represents a person’s awareness of her surroundings and her ability to notice telling details that others might miss. Characters use Perception to gather and process information and to remain alert for signs of danger.


• Intelligence
  Intelligence is a measure of a person’s reasoning ability, memory and imagination. Characters use Intelligence when they must draw upon their memory, creativity or powers of logic to find solutions to complex problems.


• Wits
  Wits represents how well a person can think on her feet and react to unexpected situations. Characters use Wits to talk their way out of tight spots, to reach the right decision in a moment of crisis or to react quickly in the face of danger. It is also used to determine how quickly a character acts in combat.

Willpower
Finally there is Willpower, which is its own attribute. Willpower is something everyone has, though your character has more of - and always has. Willpower is a fuel for your divine abilities, it lets you succeed when you might otherwise fail, it is how you force the more powerful divine abilities you attain to manifest. It is through your Willpower that you defy the odds and shape Fate. Unlike other Attributes, Willpower is rated on a scale of 1 to 10, but you start with 3 free points in it and there is no cap on how high you can raise it.

Code (Sheet) Select Expand


[float=left][img padding=5]https://via.placeholder.com/250x300[/img][/float][b]Character Name:[/b]
[b]Nickname:[/b]
[b]Pantheon:[/b]
[b]Patron:[/b]

[b]Age:[/b]
[b]Gender:[/b]
[b]Nationality:[/b]
[b]Sexuality:[/b]
[b]Height:[/b]
[b]Weight:[/b]
[b]Hair Color:[/b]
[b]Eye Color:[/b]
[b]Face Claim:[/b]
[center][table]
[tr][td][color=black][b]Strength[/td][td]1/0[/td][td][color=black][b]Charisma[/td][td]1/0[/td][td][color=black][b]Perception[/td][td]1/0[/td][/tr]
[tr][td][color=black][b]Dexterity[/td][td]1/0[/td][td][color=black][b]Manipulation[/td][td]1/0[/td][td][color=black][b]Intelligence[/td][td]1/0[/td][/tr]
[tr][td][color=black][b]Stamina[/td][td]1/0[/td][td][color=black][b]Appearance[/td][td]1/0[/td][td][color=black][b]Wits[/td][td]1/0[/td][/tr]
[tr][td][color=black][b][/td][td][/td][td][color=black][b]Willpower[/td][td]3[/td][td][color=black][b][/td][td][/td][/tr][/table][/center]

[b]Physical Description:[/b]

[b]Personality:[/b]

[b]History:[/b]

[b]Likes:[/b]
[b]Dislikes:[/b]
[b]Strengths:[/b]
[b]Weaknesses:[/b]
[b]On's & Off's:[/b]

[b][u]Epic Attributes[/u][/b]

[b][u]Boons[/u][/b]

[b][u]Birthrights[/u][/b]


Character Name:
Nickname:
Pantheon:
Patron:

Age:
Gender:
Nationality:
Sexuality:
Height:
Weight:
Hair Color:
Eye Color:
Face Claim:

Strength	1/0	Charisma	1/0	Perception	1/0
Dexterity	1/0	Manipulation	1/0	Intelligence	1/0
Stamina	1/0	Appearance	1/0	Wits	1/0
		Willpower	3

Physical Description:

Personality:

History:

Likes:
Dislikes:
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
On's & Off's:

Epic Attributes

Boons

Birthrights

[Aethyrium]

Faceclaim Reserves
Danielle Victoria - Amarlo
Damian Galkowski - Xurtan
Tracy Spiradakos - Wyatt
Katherine McNamara - Caela
Adonis Bosso - Intimate Ink
Chris Hemsworth - Juggtacular
Lucas Bloms - Vergil Tanner

[Aethyrium]

I am now taking visitors.

[Intimate Ink]

Interest. :)

[Amarlo]

...;-; I am also interested.

[Totoro]

Potentially / tentatively interested. Pretty busy but love the concept.

[Wyatt]

Interested, will have to reread the set up more fully, but very intriguing.

[Winds Of Lust]

Awww man, no Tuatha Dé Danann faction? Oh well, still interested, will see what I can do about crafting a interesting character as soon as I can

[Amarlo]

I'm going to be face claiming Danielle Victoria if that's okay? o.o

[Wargtass]

oh hell yeah

Bookmarked, I'll return with my thoughts once I am done with work. 

[Xurtan]

Awww man, no Tuatha Dé Danann faction?

Right?! So much for The Morrigan. No Inari, either, as far as other pantheons go. Oh the shame of it all. :(


That aside: claiming interest, claiming Damian Gałkowski as FC, and considering a few different gods right now. Unsure which is going to work best for the idea I have in mind, so I might muse for a bit, or you'll just... get a sheet from me tonight. Either/or. Did you want them posted here or PM'd?   

[Wyatt]

If we can reserve face claims please reserve Tracy Spiradakos for me (-:

[Amarlo]

@Aethyrium - I'm a little confused when it comes to 'Fatebinding". I understand the mechanics of what causes it, but I'm not entirely certain of what it is. With the example written in mind, by the little boy being bound to Kelly... That means the way she thinks is affected by the way he perceives her?

[Wargtass]

I have one idea immediately, but it would mean an extent of collaboration with another player. I always loved the duality of Horus and set, so if anyone would be willing to play one of the two, that would be neat to explore.

[HairyHeretic]

@Aethyrium - I'm a little confused when it comes to 'Fatebinding". I understand the mechanics of what causes it, but I'm not entirely certain of what it is. With the example written in mind, by the little boy being bound to Kelly... That means the way she thinks is affected by the way he perceives her?

Assuming its working much the same way as Scion does, a Fatebinding a magical link between the character and the person they're fatebound to. The fatebound individual fulfills a role in relation to the character. It might be a good one, bad one or neutral. Fate, however, will work all kinds of shenanigans to make sure the paths of the two cross, and that the fatebound individual is able to fulfill that role in the characters' life.

[Aethyrium]

Had quite the busy day today, so no replies right now. I apologize. Thank you all thus far for the interest. I should be able to get to everyone tomorrow evening. :)

[AndyZ]

Tagging to check over later

[Aethyrium]

Alright! Got some interest going, awesome! Thanks everyone. :) Looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with.

To answer Amarlo's question, HairyHeretic has it right. Fatebinding essentially ties the fates of the two people together. They're going to keep winding up interacting, because Fate. And the bound person is sort of... Attached to the fate of the binder. Like the next paragraph (post example) says, it creates relationships. There's a... Fate Debt, I guess is the best way to put it?

[Amarlo]

Sounds like a potential hassle for you in the long run. o_o

[Xurtan]

Sounds like a potential hassle for you in the long run. o_o

Actual magic guarantees a fatebind, too, so *shrug* Fate itself is a large part of Scion, that doesn't seem like it has vanished even with the quasi-system design.