Divine Drift

[Krat05]

So this is something I've been putting together, slowly, & it finally feels done. The basic idea that gave birth to it is basically "what if a scion inherited some divine essence from someone not responsible for their scionhood?"
This will be covered in roughly four posts:

1. Basic overview of how it works, plus some terminology
2. Some example Divine Drifts that I cobbled together to help me figure out the mechanics of it
3. A custom Knack I built that felt appropriate & needed given the topic
4. A general wrap-up

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Divinity: responsible for your Divine Drift.
Divine Patron: responsible for making you a scion.

You have some connection to a divine figure (god, titan, or primordial) other than your divine patron. A Divine Drift squeezes into the same slot as a Calling.
To implement decide which divine character will be acting as the divinity. Look at their Callings, their personality, stories in which they feature, powers which they wield. Select 3-8 Knacks that make sense. A fairly straightforward strategy would be to pick two Knacks from each of the divinity’s three Callings, & it’s the one I used when building the example Divine Drifts, but really the Knacks can from basically anywhere as long as the fit with who the divinity is.
It could be worth it to look at coming up with a custom Knack if you have a good idea, can have it make contextual sense, & works mechanically in-game.
A scion cannot have a god/titan/primordial as both divinity & divine patron, the Divine Drift would, for want of a better phrase, get overwhelmed by the nature of the incoming divine power & effectively disappear.

[Krat05]

Aesir, Loki: Liminal (Experience Traveler, Unobtrusive Visitor); Lover (Fluid Appeal, Soothing Presence); Trickster (Blather & Skite, In Sheep’s Clothing)
Example Keywords: Liminal Keywords; Lover Keywords; Trickster Keywords

Kami, Amaterasu: Judge (Eye for an Eye, Indisputable Analysis); Leader (Grand Entrance, Perfect Poise); Sage (Master of the World, Presence of Magic)
Example Keywords: Judge Keywords; Leader Keywords; Sage Keywords

Theoi, Echidna: Creator (Innate Toolkit, Perfect Rendition); Guardian (A Fortress, A Purpose); Monster (Chimera Hide, Taste of Blood)
Example Keywords: Creator Keywords; Guardian Keywords; Monster Keywords

Tuatha, Bres: Adversary (Let’s Contain Multitudes, Sudden but Inevitable); Guardian (A Talisman, A Warning); Tyrant (Ready Displeasure)
Example Keywords: Adversary Keywords; Guardian Keywords; Tyrant Keywords

[Krat05]

Custom Knack, Foreign Virtues: The divinity responsible for your Divine Drift is of a different Pantheon/culture to your divine patron. You can use the virtues of the other pantheon/culture as opposed to your assumed virtues.

• Let’s make something clear (something that did not initially occur to me), you do not need to have a Divine Drift, of any kind, to pick up the Knack Foreign Virtues. I personally have come up with an additional two ways for how/why a character might have this Knack.
  1) The character in question had the Supernatural Origin Path Saint prior to becoming a scion & the sainthood connected to a different Pantheon/culture than the one your divine patron belongs to.
  2) The character in question means to fully change the Pantheon they are bound to, possibly in preparation or as a step in their apotheosis. This is probably going to make certain in-game people grumpy.

[Krat05]

Right, the wrap-up.
So why did I break the details up like this? Simple, it looked like it would be easier for me.
What happens when a scion goes through apotheosis, with the Foreign Virtues Knack & doesn't become a god belonging to the pantheon that lines up with what those virtues are? The virtues are swapped out for the appropriate ones, however the nature/personal interpretation of the now gone virtues gets incorporated into the nature of the young god in some way or other.
One last thing, going back to the idea that birthed this, Divine Drift is merely what I came up with. I figured out how it would basically work but I look at it & think it needs some refinement. Maybe there's a better way to represent this concept. So, anyone got any solutions/theories/etc. that they would like to share?

[notMidas]

This is definitely a thing that happens in game! I think I would just use a Guide birthright to represent it though. It has the callings, knacks and purviews as part of the build. As a GM, I would allow a scion to switch virtues if they were narratively aligning themselves with a diffrent pantheon.

[Krat05]

It's been a little over a day since I started this thread, & I decided to review it on the off chance that I missed something.
I feel slightly embarrassed to say that I did.
The wording detailing what causes a Divine Drift is incredibly vague, presumably I worded it that way for a reason but I can't think what that reason was. To cut through this vagueness I'm going to look to my inspiration for this that is outside of Scion.
In Rick Riordan's series The Heroes of Olympus there are characters described as being "Legacies", descended from the Olympians but by enough generations that they did not qualify as demigods.
Also from that series we have Frank Zhang, who is a (in my opinion) prime example of a scion (of Mars) with a Divine Drift (in the form of his shapeshifting).
The Divine Drift (though I completely forgot to mention it in the earlier posts) is something that's come into the blood & sits in there, potentially dormant in a lot of cases, until rendered active some way or other. Maybe the family is descended from an actual god, maybe a blessing is responsible, or maybe it was a scion & you inherited some of the god's power through being descended from that scion.
And now I've remembered why I named this Divine Drift. It refers to the divinity drifting down in the blood through the generations.
One, more thing to mention. Under these conditions I'm going to have to say that no character can have multiple active Divine Drifts, you can multiple dormant Divine Drifts, but only one be active.