The Demonic Pantheon

[SpoonR]

Cool.

Steven Brust's book "To Reign in Hell" has a very sympathetic Lucifer & co, although it has very different metaphysics from Scion. Not sure how much of it could be adapted.

[CreepyShutIn]

This is really cool, but I do have one question: How exactly is a soul damned to Hell? It's never stated, there are just mentions of damned souls going to various Princes. One would think that El wouldn't want to feed a stream of new recruits to his enemy, so it's not really clear how or why they end up there.

[Mysteris]

That's a good question I hadn't considered at first. Off the top of my head, I would judge that there is an Angel of Judgment. Possibly Shekinah or Metatron. Possibly even Yeshua (Jesus) handles the judgment aspect now that he's done his first tour through mortality. I imagine El has a very strict criteria as to what qualifies for His ordered, regimented Heaven, and possibly Jesus is more merciful and understanding of human failings. The criteria hasn't judged, but Jesus is more inclined to recognize and understand mortal limits, frailties, and extenuating circumstances than whoever was handling it before. Still, there's a limit. Beyond a certain amount of sin, a soul is disqualified for Heaven and exiled to Hell. It's not ideal, but it's considered a temporary solution. Heaven believes that after the Final Battle they'll process those souls and send them off to the Lake of Fire, rejects who weren't worthy of El's mercy or His new World. Jesus argues for a more merciful approach to the damned and it is yet to be seen whether he'll be able to persuade El to a gentler way.

[Mysteris]

So, thanks to some constructive criticism, I've come to realize that Apollyon is actually an angel, and not a fallen one. So I replaced him with Belial. He has all the characteristics and abilities of the earlier Apollyon write-up, just a new name. Also, Phanuel is the Angel of Judgment, responsible for determining who goes to Heaven or Hell.

I'm going to add a bit more about the Pantheon-specific purview in a moment.

[Mysteris]

Demonic Signature Purview: Harmatia

Harmatia is a word that means "to err" or "to miss the mark". The Demons missed their mark by failing in the Great Rebellion. But humans also miss the mark every day, in myriad upon myriad of ways. The demons have learned that there is a type of mystic sympathy between their plight and the struggles of humanity, and by helping one another both can achieve their goals. By forming a contract with a person, the demon gains a means to manipulate Fate towards a specific purpose. The human gains what they desire, the demon gains a measure of power, and mystically links their souls in such a way that when the mortal dies, their connection ensures that the mortal's soul comes to reside with the demon in Hell. The contract can be spoken, written, even conveyed across the Internet if the contracting Scion so desires. The purview of Harmatia then, is the guiding of humanity to meet their mark and in so doing, bind the demons closer to the humanity they rebelled for and strengthen their might.

Innate Power: When a Demon enters an area they become attuned to all the various sins and vices of the humanity nearby. The pride, greed, wrath, sloth, lust, gluttony, and envy of humans and supernatural creatures opens itself in the Scion's mind's eye like a sixth sense. While the Scion does not gain detailed knowledge of each individual case, they do get a general sense of who is controlled by what deadly sin, or mixture of deadly sins. This sixth sense gives a demon a -2 Difficulty modifier when it comes to attempts to get a person to act on or form a contract based on the sin (s) that are dominant in their heart at the moment.

Know the Soul's Price
Cost: Free
Duration: One Scene
Action: Complex

Ask the Storyteller what one thing a given Storyguide character in the scene most desires, whether consciously or subconsciously. The Scion gains a +2 modifier on an attempt to form a contract with that person based around obtaining what the person most desires.

Greasing The Wheels
Cost: Spend 1 Legend
Duration: One Session or Indefinite
Action: Simple

By imbuing more force into the contract the Scion speeds up the obtaining of what the mortal desires, but at the cost of the mortal becoming deeper and deeper in debt to the Scion. The mortal becomes a Follower of the Scion for at least one session, and the Scion can spend xp to permanently purchase that person as a follower at the same level of the Fatebond formed after the session ends.


Your Soul Is Mine
Cost: Imbue 1 Legend
Duration: One Action
Action: Simple

By imbuing a legend, the Scion is able to briefly summon up the souls of those whose contracts they have fulfilled. If the person is still living, they experience this as an out-of-body sensation. Otherwise the souls of the damned rise from Hell. While summoned, the Scion can communicate with and command these souls as if they had the Death Purview (even if they do not), and draw upon the bonds of their contract to gain a +2 enhancement on any one roll.

[CreepyShutIn]

This is all really impressive! Kinda wanna make a Scion of Azazel now, quietly cutting deals to build an information network all over the world. Just one thing I can't find, though: Where's the pantheon motif?

[Mysteris]

Pantheon motif? I'm not sure I understand the question.

[glamourweaver]

Pantheon motif? I'm not sure I understand the question.

All Pantheons have motifs they can use for performing Marvels. If a character doesn’t have a Relic or a specialized Purview, it’s the one Motif they start with automatically.

Like the Deva have meditation and mantras, the Aesir have runes and thread, the Netjer use words of power and shabti, etc etc

[Ramnesis]

That's a good question I hadn't considered at first. Off the top of my head, I would judge that there is an Angel of Judgment. Possibly Shekinah or Metatron. Possibly even Yeshua (Jesus) handles the judgment aspect now that he's done his first tour through mortality. I imagine El has a very strict criteria as to what qualifies for His ordered, regimented Heaven, and possibly Jesus is more merciful and understanding of human failings. The criteria hasn't judged, but Jesus is more inclined to recognize and understand mortal limits, frailties, and extenuating circumstances than whoever was handling it before. Still, there's a limit. Beyond a certain amount of sin, a soul is disqualified for Heaven and exiled to Hell. It's not ideal, but it's considered a temporary solution. Heaven believes that after the Final Battle they'll process those souls and send them off to the Lake of Fire, rejects who weren't worthy of El's mercy or His new World. Jesus argues for a more merciful approach to the damned and it is yet to be seen whether he'll be able to persuade El to a gentler way.

Depends on which religion you are most taking inspiration and from what era, and even then the details are going to vary. That said, the broad concept is not "Too much sin disqualifies a soul," it is "What sin remains on the soul." Both Christianity and Judaism (I know less about Islam, but this pantheon isn't taking as much inspiration from there) consider that sins can be forgiven or atoned for, though the methods differ. There are a few exceptions for both, but they are specific. Many branches of Christianity say that if someone dies with a mortal sin still on their soul (i.e. have not confessed/asked forgiveness/etc) that will ensure a place in hell, but that's a time limit not a threshold of sin. Many others hold that those in hell only stay there until they seek forgiveness. Judaism often holds that anyone who dies with their atonements incomplete goes to hell, but that hell is temporary until the atonement is complete. Only those who do no good at all in life stay in hell forever.

Obviously it is all more complicated than that, but those are the broad strokes. Also obviously, the real criteria here are what goes best with your pantheon.

[CreepyShutIn]

The basic question with a Pantheon Motif is always this: How is magic done in this cosmology? What do people do to make things happen? Sure, some people and some items have weird, specific stuff, like Sun Wukong's laser eyes that are rarely used and never explained, but generally speaking there's a broad set of actions you can take that cause magic to work. Call to the gods; inscribe mystic runes; mix up roots and herbs; speak words of power; etc.

[glamourweaver]

The basic question with a Pantheon Motif is always this: How is magic done in this cosmology? What do people do to make things happen? Sure, some people and some items have weird, specific stuff, like Sun Wukong's laser eyes that are rarely used and never explained, but generally speaking there's a broad set of actions you can take that cause magic to work. Call to the gods; inscribe mystic runes; mix up roots and herbs; speak words of power; etc.

Wukong’s laser eyes are probably a Boon, hence no motif needed.