Scion: Justice Pantheon

Prince Charon

Well-Known Member
#1
Now in the correct forum (I think).

Inspired partly by the <a href='http://forums.spacebattles.com/showthread.php?t=201961' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>Scionverse</a> stories by arthurh3535 (Arthur Hansen on FF.net), particularly <a href='http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7076943/1/The_Other_Path' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>The Other Path</a>, and partly by the <a href='http://wiki.white-wolf.com/whitewolf/index.php?title=Fan_Made_Scion_Pantheons' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>fan made pantheons</a> on the Scion wiki.

This is not so much a thread for one specific story, as for creating a setting and Pantheon, defining the characters, and posting whatever appropriate snippets any authors here are inspired to create. Since there's a reasonable chance that someone will ask, I'm defining 'appropriate' in this context as 'anything that fits the thread, and will neither get the poster banned, nor the thread locked'.

This world is somewhat unlike the standard Scion setting, in that beings with Powers and Abilities Far Beyond those of Mortal Men (and Women) are not secret, and in fact, are fairly well known, as Heroes, Demigods, and even Gods sometimes battle Titanspawn, and other beings, in public - though they try to keep it out of the cities, or to drag the combat outside the city, if it starts in one (not that Titanspawn are really cooperative about that). The true extent of those powers and abilities is not so well known, nor is the fact that these beings are Gods, Titans, and other beings of Legend. Most people think the powers of the Scions and Titanspawn, and other such entities, are the result of lab accidents, alien superscience, psychic powers, Secrets of the Mysterious Orient, and so forth, and quite a few believe that anything not caught on camera is exaggeration or hallucination... until they see it, themselves. In this world, the supers (and some other characters) from the DCU are Gods and Scions, Titans and Titanspawn, <a href='http://wiki.white-wolf.com/whitewolf/index.php?title=Lesser_Immortal' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>Lesser Immortals</a>, and so forth. Whether the Marvel supers are 'real' is outside the bounds of this thread, but you can start one for them, if you like. As the Justice Pantheon doesn't have much in the way of a Godrealm or Underworld (though they do have a few <a href='http://wiki.white-wolf.com/whitewolf/index.php?title=Terra_Incognita' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>Terrae Incognita</a>, on both sides), they remain active on Earth, far more than any other Pantheon.

I haven't worked out yet what the Virtues of this Pantheon are, though Courage or Valor should certainly be one of them, nor the Pantheon-specific Purview. Justice is a Purview that most or all members of the Pantheon should have, but its not Pantheon-specific. Some elements of <a href='http://wiki.white-wolf.com/whitewolf/index.php?title=The_Vanguard_of_Avalon_%28Fan%29#Questing_-_Pantheon_Specific_Purview' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>Questing</a>, the Pantheon-specific Purview of the <a href='http://wiki.white-wolf.com/whitewolf/index.php?title=The_Vanguard_of_Avalon_%28Fan%29' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>Vanguard of Avalon</a>, would fit this Pantheon fairly well, but not the Purview as a whole. 'Title', perhaps renamed 'Secret Identity', fits nicely enough not to need modification, and 'Damsel's Rescuer' would need little to no change, either. <a href='http://wiki.white-wolf.com/whitewolf/index.php?title=The_Vanguard_of_Avalon_%28Fan%29#Knighting_Ceremony_.28Questing_.E2.80.A2.E2.80.A2.E2.80.A2.E2.80.A2.E2.80.A2_.E2.80.A2.E2.80.A2.E2.80.A2.E2.80.A2.29' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>Knighting Ceremony</a> would fit a lot of the Origins in the comics, even if it does bend the rules a bit, and isn't something all GMs would allow. For this thread, its permitted, as are the <a href='http://wiki.white-wolf.com/whitewolf/index.php?title=Apotheothena' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>Apotheothena</a>, though the latter should be very rare. The personalities that the Justice Pantheon has 'now' are the long established ones, not the new ones from Flashpoint - in universe, Flashpoint was probably never written.

To clarify, the Justice Pantheon encompasses all the major and most of the minor DCU superheroes, and the Titanspawn and Antagonistic Gods who oppose them likewise encompass the DCU villains.

The earliest confirmed sighting of the Superman was in 1939, at the World's Fair, where he was seen and filmed fighting a minotaur. At first, this was believed to be a publicity stunt, until the superhuman levels of strength, speed, and durability that both possessed became practically undeniable. He was the first Scion to operate so openly in many centuries, but far from the last The Superman's first two Fatebound Heralds, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, always claimed to have met him years before, while living in Cleveland, but what evidence there is of this is sketchy. Whether Kal'El was born of human belief directly (unlikely, given the short timeframe), the Scion of an alien God, or the Scion of an existing Pantheon (most suspect Apollo or Zeus, which has lead to rude and inaccurate speculation about his relationships with his admitted cousin Kara Zor'El, and his suspected cousins (or sisters, or aunts, or nieces) Diana, Donna, and Cassandra), among those beings in the know. The development of Superman's powers as seen in the comics does fit a progression from Demigod to God.

Heroes like Batman, and villains like Lex Luthor, who in the comics are explicitly not superhuman, might be 'just very impressive mortals', or <a href='http://wiki.white-wolf.com/whitewolf/index.php?title=Legendary_mortals' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>Legendary Mortals</a>, or they might be Scions with subtle powers (Batman canonically sneaks up on Superman, which ought to be impossible!), instead of blatant ones, or whose only unsubtle powers are associated with their Relics in the public's mind (the <a href='http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Theodore_Knight_%28New_Earth%29' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>Starman</a> might be an example of this). The fact that many don't seem to age, or age very slowly, would seem to lean toward the more paranormal options.

Jay Garrick is pretty blatantly a Scion of Hermes (which would have made WWII uncomfortable for him, as seen below), while Hawkman, Hawkgirl, and Doctor Fate are pretty clearly related to the Pesedjet (Egyptian Pantheon - yes, the Hawks are both Scions of Horus; Ancient Egypt didn't have much of an incest taboo; let's not look at it to closely) - you could have Doctor Fate as a Scion of <a href='http://wiki.white-wolf.com/whitewolf/index.php?title=The_Vanguard_of_Avalon_%28Fan%29#Merlin' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>Merlin</a>, instead, but Egypt fits the comics far, far better. <a href='http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/John_Zatara_%28New_Earth%29' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>Zatara</a> and <a href='http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Richard_Occult_%28New_Earth%29' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>Doctor Occult</a>, OTOH, would work quite well as Scions of Merlin.

A thought I had on the Green Lantern is that its the Lantern itself (the 'Power Battery', in other words) that's the (very strange) God, with Alan Scott and his successors being Fatebound companions, but that doesn't explain Jade and Obsidian, who are rather obviously his Scions. So, lets say he's one of the Gods whose powers are believed to come from their Relics. This also works with Alan later not needing the ring or Lantern: he outgrew the need for the Relics.

The 'Lantern as Scion' explanation works better for the later Green Lantern Corps, with the Guardians being powerful alien Gods, and the Lanterns they give out being very odd Demigod-to-God level Scions or Lesser Immortals, which lend their power to their mortal wielders. If you really want to use the <a href='http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Emotional_Electromagnetic_Spectrum' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>Emotional Electromagnetic Spectrum</a>, the <a href='http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Entity#Sentient_Embodiments' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>Sentient Embodiments</a> could be Gods or Titans, or something in-between, and again, the Lanterns are their Scions. Since it matters to the discussion, <a href='https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Sentient' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>sentience</a> refers to the ability to feel, while <a href='https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Wisdom#Sapience' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>sapience</a> refers to the ability to think. The Entities and Lanterns would be sentient, but not very sapient, and have fairly low Willpower scores (the Lanterns on the far ends of the spectrum, Red and Violet, having the highest wills, and the Lanterns in the center, Green, having the lowest, thus requiring wielders with especially strong wills). An easier option might be that the members of the Corps are Scions of some description, Apotheothenae, or Legendary Mortals, with the Lanterns and Rings being Relics, just as with the Golden Age GL. Not sure if that's the best option, though.

World War II is likely to have been somewhat more like it was in the comics than as described in Scion: Companion, but that business with the Spear of Destiny should be the version from S: C. The reason Superman couldn't just end the war all by himself is because the Aesir, Dodekatheon, and Amatsukami were in the way, not because of Super Mind-Control, and a lot of beings in the Justice Pantheon still haven't forgiven them. The Dodekatheon have it easier, having been deceived, and having punished the deceiver, but many still think they should have done as the Flash, or Wonder Woman and her faction of Amazons, did, and defied the God they thought was Zeus. Of course, the treatment of Medusa in ancient Greece was a very large factor for the latter, and lacks the excuse of an imposter being involved.

The team name of the Teen Titans was an attempt to Fatebind more of the actual Titans to humanity. While this had little overall effect, some Titanspawn who chose to side with humanity did join the team, most notably Raven, Spawn of Trigon the Terrible. (Scion: Ragnarok has rules for Titanspawn switching sides like that - the short version is that if you knowingly go against your <a href='http://wiki.white-wolf.com/whitewolf/index.php?title=Dark_Virtues' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>Dark Virtues</a> enough times, you swap them out for Godly Virtues appropriate to the Pantheon you're joining; Raven had the advantage of being raised to do this).

Unless people really don't want aliens to be involved, I'm declaring that they exist, they have their own sort of Gods, and some do visit Earth, though not as many as the public might believe. That way, I don't have to figure out what Earthly God made the Martian Manhunter and Miss Martian - speaking of whom: as the Martian race were conscious shapeshifters (though their Gods were and are far better at it, of course - the mortal Martians were more like very flexible sapient chameleons with inflatable sacs under their skins), the Green and White Martians, and other colours, are more like a cross between political parties and religions/philosophies than races. M'Gann's parents were of the White Party, more-or-less aligned with Earth's Titans, but she choose to change her allegiance to the Green Party, more-or-less aligned with Earth's Gods, before becoming a Teen Titan. Tamaraneans are ruled by their Gods directly, so Koriand'r is indeed Princess of Tamaran (which may have been destroyed).

Wow, I wasn't planning on writing that much when I decided to type this up.

Thanks to drakensis and Doomsought in <a href='http://forums.spacebattles.com/showthread.php?t=202809' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>the thread on SB.com</a>, we have the Virtues for the Justice Pantheon: Duty, Loyalty, Order, and Valor. A few specific members swap out one or two of those for another (like, Plastic Man and the Creeper aren't so Orderly, IIRC), but those are the standards.

Now for a harder part: creating the Pantheon-specific Purview. Still like the idea of copying or modifying a couple of bits from <a href='http://wiki.white-wolf.com/whitewolf/index.php?title=The_Vanguard_of_Avalon_%28Fan%29#Questing_-_Pantheon_Specific_Purview' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>Questing</a>:

<a href='http://wiki.white-wolf.com/whitewolf/index.php?title=The_Vanguard_of_Avalon_%28Fan%29#Title_.28Questing__.E2.80.A2.29' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>Title (Questing ò)</a>

Can be pretty much used as-is, perhaps even with no more than the name being changed to 'Secret Identity'.


<a href='http://wiki.white-wolf.com/whitewolf/index.php?title=The_Vanguard_of_Avalon_%28Fan%29#Traveler.E2.80.99s_Aid__.28Questing_.E2.80.A2.E2.80.A2.29' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>TravelerÆs Aid (Questing òò)</a>

Eh, no. Doesn't fit.


<a href='http://wiki.white-wolf.com/whitewolf/index.php?title=The_Vanguard_of_Avalon_%28Fan%29#Damsel.E2.80.99s_Rescuer_.28Questing_.E2.80.A2.E2.80.A2.E2.80.A2.29' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>DamselÆs Rescuer (Questing òòò)</a>

Needs some modifications, mainly to account for Purity not being one of the Virtues the Justice Pantheon uses (Valor or Duty work well for the nature of this Boon), but otherwise fits quite well. Might even used the same name.


<a href='http://wiki.white-wolf.com/whitewolf/index.php?title=The_Vanguard_of_Avalon_%28Fan%29#Helpful_Shelter_.28Questing_.E2.80.A2.E2.80.A2.E2.80.A2.E2.80.A2.29' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>Helpful Shelter (Questing òòòò)</a>

No, doesn't fit.


<a href='http://wiki.white-wolf.com/whitewolf/index.php?title=The_Vanguard_of_Avalon_%28Fan%29#Fruitful_Wandering__.28Questing_.E2.80.A2.E2.80.A2.E2.80.A2.E2.80.A2.E2.80.A2.29' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>Fruitful Wandering (Questing òòòòò)</a>

Not this one, either.


<a href='http://wiki.white-wolf.com/whitewolf/index.php?title=The_Vanguard_of_Avalon_%28Fan%29#Convenient_Aid_.28Questing_.E2.80.A2.E2.80.A2.E2.80.A2.E2.80.A2.E2.80.A2_.E2.80.A2.29' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>Convenient Aid (Questing òòòòò ò)</a>

New Powers as the Plot Demands! Very fitting for a Sliver Age or Golden Age fic or game, not so much for a more serious one, so we may need an alternative for those.


<a href='http://wiki.white-wolf.com/whitewolf/index.php?title=The_Vanguard_of_Avalon_%28Fan%29#Hammer_of_Fate_.28Questing_.E2.80.A2.E2.80.A2.E2.80.A2.E2.80.A2.E2.80.A2_.E2.80.A2.E2.80.A2.29' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>Hammer of Fate (Questing òòòòò òò)</a>

I don't think so. Need something else for this level, IMHO.


<a href='http://wiki.white-wolf.com/whitewolf/index.php?title=The_Vanguard_of_Avalon_%28Fan%29#Godhood_Title_.28Questing_.E2.80.A2.E2.80.A2.E2.80.A2.E2.80.A2.E2.80.A2_.E2.80.A2.E2.80.A2.E2.80.A2.29' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>Godhood Title (Questing òòòòò òòò)</a>

Eh, maybe, unless someone comes up with something more fitting.


<a href='http://wiki.white-wolf.com/whitewolf/index.php?title=The_Vanguard_of_Avalon_%28Fan%29#Knighting_Ceremony_.28Questing_.E2.80.A2.E2.80.A2.E2.80.A2.E2.80.A2.E2.80.A2_.E2.80.A2.E2.80.A2.E2.80.A2.E2.80.A2.29' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>Knighting Ceremony (Questing òòòòò òòòò)</a>

Needs a new name, but otherwise fits.


<a href='http://wiki.white-wolf.com/whitewolf/index.php?title=The_Vanguard_of_Avalon_%28Fan%29#Master_of_Fate_.28Questing_.E2.80.A2.E2.80.A2.E2.80.A2.E2.80.A2.E2.80.A2_.E2.80.A2.E2.80.A2.E2.80.A2.E2.80.A2.E2.80.A2.29' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>Master of Fate (Questing òòòòò òòòòò)</a>

This is another iffy one, but it works for now.

So, thoughts?
 

Prince Charon

Well-Known Member
#2
Edited the OP to clarify a couple things.

Also, have been thinking about another Boon for the still-unnamed Purview, probably replacing Traveler's Aid or Helpful Shelter (perhaps with a more powerful, related Boon at one of the higher levels): Given how difficult it is to be fully unobserved in a modern city, what with all the cameras everywhere, there's a need for a distraction, or some means of creating a disconnect between 'Where'd Kent go?' and 'Superman is here!' I haven't gotten into much detail, but the general idea is that it gets Fate to create coincidences, that make it harder for people to witness you switching identities, or deduce your ID from gathered evidence, both of which are potential weaknesses in Title/Secret Identity.

So, thoughts?
 

Prince Charon

Well-Known Member
#3
Have been thinking about the Superman's origin in this world. Here's one possibility:

One day in the late 1920s, a boy named Calvin Kepinski, the adopted son of Polish immigrants, discovered that at least one of his parents was far greater than he had ever considered. Cal was the son of a Greek God (or Goddess), though Hermes, who brought him his Birthrights, did not say which one, nor who Cal's other parent was. Early in his career as a Hero, Cal used a variety of disguises and aliases, to protect his mortal parents and friends, though its likely that he never went as 'Superboy'.

Little is known of his early adventures, as even disguised, he preferred to stay out of sight when doing anything obviously superhuman. Likewise, it is believed that he had relatively few adventures this early in his career, since he had school to go to, and then college, and very few Titanspawn and other such beings were about. Some time around 1933, though, in Cleveland, his actions were witnessed by two young men who soon became his Fatebound Heralds: Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. The two of them, writer and artist, had begun work on a character called Superman, whose powers and abilities were quite similar to Cal's. He allowed them to use one of his discarded aliases, Clark Kent, and occasionally wore costumes similar to the one they designed. It is not known how many of the adventures of Superman in the early comics were fictionalized versions of true events, and how many were pure fiction.

In 1936 or '37, Cal met a Scion of Merlin named Giovanni 'John' Zatara, a professional magician, and amateur detective. Zatara suspected that Cal's other parent was also divine, and possibly of the Vanguard of Avalon, particularly when Merlin arranged for Zatara to give Cal a pair of Glasses of Disguise, granting him access to the first Boon in the Purview of Questing, Title. The fictional Clark had long been drawn wearing glasses, but these were meant to suggest timidity, not as a true disguise. Still, 'hypnotic glasses' were eventually written into the comics.

By the time of his appearance as Superman at the World's Fair, Cal was a Demigod approaching full Godhood. It was not long, before he learned to fly.

I would say that the Pantheon-specific Purview was probably developed after WWII, and certainly after Cal became a God.


One of the things I decided to fit things into my understanding of the Scion framework was that while aliens exist, they are not in and of themselves extremely super. They may have unusual abilities, but they are mortal, with mortal limits, as in the Martian example, above. Alien Gods and such are a different matter, but the ordinary aliens of a particular race are just people who aren't human, with powers and abilities that RL biologists and physicists probably wouldn't call bullshit on (apart from specific planets not being inhabitable in RL, which is a matter of differing conditions between our universe, and this Scion/DC universe - though in Mars's case, the planet has been dead for a very long time, apart from a few people in God-enhanced suspended animation).

This also means that if aliens are especially humanoid, its probably not a coincidence. If the sample origin I gave Superman above is true, then the story of him being an alien was one Siegel and Shuster made up, and Krypton probably didn't exist. If he's an alien, he knew or suspected by the time he met them, and told them the story. It might be some combination, though.


Humanoid aliens fall into four broad categories:

1: Descendents of humans, protohumans, and related primates taken from Earth in the past (such as the reduction in human population prior to the Toba event), in some cases genetically engineered to better adapt to their environment. Aliens that look like humans in bodypaint and simple prostheses, like Tamaraneans, Graxians, and Talokians, or that just look like humans, like Rannians and Kryptonians, would likely fall into this category.

2: Lifeforms genetically engineered to resemble the human form. Some are the descendents of other Earth creatures taken to other worlds in ancient times. May overlap with the first and third categories.

3: Aliens that are roughly humanoid in shape, because of parallel evolution. Unless also genetically engineered, they tend to be pretty clearly non-human, like the native Martians, and the Dominators.

4: Aliens, usually Gods, who aren't actually humanoid at all, but take on humanoid forms (or control humanoid robots, clones, et cetra) when interacting with humanoids. The Guardians of the Universe fall into this category. Probably. Unless they tampered with the DNA of lots of evolving sapients, to make them more Malthusianoid. They might have.
 

Emerald Oracle

Well-Known Member
#4
I realize this is a necro, but I was reading through this idea, particularly the superman bit, and a thought occured to me. In the comics the house of El, i.e. the Kryptonian family from which Superman Hails, are explicitly descended from the sun god Rao. Gratned the last time this was majorly touched on was about ten years ago now, but there is some evidence in the comics for a full set of Kryptonian gods. Rao was the top god and Sun god, but there are also three others who there is evidence of which you might want to add or not Charon. These being the Flamebird, the Nightwing, and Vohc the Builder/Breaker, loosely corresponding to fire/destruction/day, darkness/knowledge/night, and Creation which then became Destruction. I don't know if you're still interested in this idea, but a lot of superman's stuff fits with the whole son of a Top God thing if you wanted to use that at all, and you mentioned the idea of alien deities so I just thought I'd put that out there.
 

Prince Charon

Well-Known Member
#5
Emerald Oracle said:
I realize this is a necro, but I was reading through this idea, particularly the superman bit, and a thought occured to me. In the comics the house of El, i.e. the Kryptonian family from which Superman Hails, are explicitly descended from the sun god Rao. Gratned the last time this was majorly touched on was about ten years ago now, but there is some evidence in the comics for a full set of Kryptonian gods. Rao was the top god and Sun god, but there are also three others who there is evidence of which you might want to add or not Charon. These being the Flamebird, the Nightwing, and Vohc the Builder/Breaker, loosely corresponding to fire/destruction/day, darkness/knowledge/night, and Creation which then became Destruction. I don't know if you're still interested in this idea, but a lot of superman's stuff fits with the whole son of a Top God thing if you wanted to use that at all, and you mentioned the idea of alien deities so I just thought I'd put that out there.
Thank you. I'm glad there's interest in this idea. Is there an online reference I've missed for the Kryptonian pantheon? The Superman wiki <a href='http://superman.wikia.com/wiki/Kryptonian_Gods' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>entries</a> are a bit vague for most of them (though the mention of Jax'Ur's connection to Vohc is helpful), and the DC Database just has Rao.

Jor'El being an active Scion himself fits with his Silver Age adventures on Kyrpton, and his building such excellent rockets, with minimal resources, when it seems that no-one else on the plant was doing so, with the notable exception of his brother, Zor'El.

As for the other gods, we have Supergirl possibly being from Krypton, herself, Krypto the Superdog, and perhaps the clone Superboy, or one of the less famous escapees.
 

Emerald Oracle

Well-Known Member
#6
Well, here's a link to ANOTHER god from Krypton on the Superman wiki. A brief perusal there seems to match what I remember from the comics

<a href='http://supermanrebirth.wikia.com/wiki/Cythonna' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>http://supermanrebirth.wikia.com/wiki/Cythonna</a>

A look there may help. There was also a graphic novel called Heaven's ladder I think? it may or may not help


EDIT:
It appears that the Kryptonian, whatever else, is big on the Dualism given the Nightwing/Flamebird and Rao/Cythonna dualities.
Also Jor-El as Scion entertains me a bit because he clearly spent all his dots in Mental and avoided Social like the plague given the fact that no one believed him about the whole world ending thing.
Also, if you're looking for even MOAR alien gods, the Thangarians have a surprising bit of detail about their stuff, possessed of a powerful trinity, as well as 7 all-powerful devils that were worshiped as gods with the most powerful known as Onimar Synn (http://www.comicvine.com/onimar-synn/29-19003/) and the Fallen One Thasaro (http://www.comicvine.com/thasaro/29-18986/)
 

Prince Charon

Well-Known Member
#7
IIRC, the JSA (who ought to be pretty powerful, by now) fought and defeated Onimar Syn at one point.

Yup, right around the time that Carter Hall came back from the dead and was Hawkman again for the first time in about 10 years. There was this whole big fight where he used a relic called the Claws of Horus, forged in Ancient Egypt from Nth Metal by Nabu, Lord of Order, to focus the power of the love between his soul and Chay'ara's to destroy an insanely powerful ancient Demon who had taken control of all the Nth metal on Thanagar. It was pretty cool.
Also, IIRC, something that fits Scion very well.
A lot of that run of JSA fits into Scion pretty well. The major recurring antagonists were Johnny Sorrow: a herald of the King of Tears an eldritch abomination that wished to overwrite all of existence with itself, Mordru: Lord of Chaos possessing the body of Arion of Atlantis, one of the greatest of Atlantis' mages from the Golden Age of Atlantis, and Obsidian: Darkness Incarnate as well as the son of Alan Scott, who at this point had basically become one with the Starheart, the sum of all Chaotic Magic. The run has a pretty epic feel and fits the aesthetic of Scion fairly well too.
Thinking about it, yes, so very much. Can you think of any others that fit particularly well?
 

Emerald Oracle

Well-Known Member
#8
Well from DC it depends what time frame continuity you're looking at. Post Infinite Crisis there was the Shadowpact who were the go to folks for Mystic threats for a while. You also had the Justice Society from that time frame dealing with Gog and Magog and all that stuff for awhile including the repercussions of Kingdom Come in the main Universe. And Kingdom Come had a bit of a White Wolf/Scion aesthetic, in that it was all about how the Superpowered and normal people of the world interacted and reacted to one another. If you're looking for more mythic bits then Captain Marvel is also a pretty good place to look given he's a legacy mythic champion. He's the third champion of that line, after Shazam himself (as VLAREM) and Black/Mighty Adam. There's also the Spectre who could probably be classified as either a very powerful titanspawn who's been extremely fate-bound to a mortal or a scion of the Judeo-Christian god in its own right if you want to go there. In terms of actual children of Gods in DC Pre-new!52 there's Raven (as Trigon is certainly powerful enough to count as a deific parent and she's clearly swapped her titanic virtues for those of Azerath) and Cassandra Sandsmark Daughter of Zeus who you might have seen in that one scion fic from Arthur Hansen. Wonder Woman counts in the New 52 as well given she's been retconned in as the daughter of Zeus herself, which raises interesting questions given that Cassie has a totally new origin/power set in the new timeline.

Any of that help?
 

Prince Charon

Well-Known Member
#9
Emerald Oracle said:
Well from DC it depends what time frame continuity you're looking at. Post Infinite Crisis there was the Shadowpact who were the go to folks for Mystic threats for a while. You also had the Justice Society from that time frame dealing with Gog and Magog and all that stuff for awhile including the repercussions of Kingdom Come in the main Universe. And Kingdom Come had a bit of a White Wolf/Scion aesthetic, in that it was all about how the Superpowered and normal people of the world interacted and reacted to one another. If you're looking for more mythic bits then Captain Marvel is also a pretty good place to look given he's a legacy mythic champion. He's the third champion of that line, after Shazam himself (as VLAREM) and Black/Mighty Adam. There's also the Spectre who could probably be classified as either a very powerful titanspawn who's been extremely fate-bound to a mortal or a scion of the Judeo-Christian god in its own right if you want to go there. In terms of actual children of Gods in DC Pre-new!52 there's Raven (as Trigon is certainly powerful enough to count as a deific parent and she's clearly swapped her titanic virtues for those of Azerath) and Cassandra Sandsmark Daughter of Zeus who you might have seen in that one scion fic from Arthur Hansen. Wonder Woman counts in the New 52 as well given she's been retconned in as the daughter of Zeus herself, which raises interesting questions given that Cassie has a totally new origin/power set in the new timeline.

Any of that help?
Some of it, though I think I mentioned Raven earlier in the thread, among others.

The New 52 can go... hang, though.
 

Emerald Oracle

Well-Known Member
#10
Ah, so you did, and quite rightly too. Silly me, not thinking to check back in the posts. OK, we'll ignore the New 52 then, not like there isn't the better part of a century of stories to mine before that anyway. :)

As far as other examples... The Knight and Squire might be a link into the British fan-pantheon if you like, or into the WWII Allies Pantheon otherwise perhaps? Cyril Sheldrake, the Knight, is the former Squire and is also the son of the previous Knight, who in turn was the squire of Sir Justin during World War II, Sir Justin being a Knight of the Round Table and Liegeman to King Arthur as well as one of the Seven Soldiers of Victory.

The New Gods may or may not feature in as well. If they do then Aurakles, the First Superhero from 40,000 BC might be of use? He has the mission to "bring order and meaning where incoherence reigns". There's not much on him, though his descendent, the Bulleteer, known in prophecy as The Spear that was Never Thrown and destined end to an entire race of civilization devouring monstrosities had a miniseries. I'm not sure whether they should have their own pantheon or not, but if they do then New Genesis probably has Expression, Valor, Intellect, and Harmony as virtues and Apokolips could probably work off either Dark Virtues or as an even more evil and vicious version of the Aztlani.

Solstice is, by some accounts, an actual adopted scion of the Devas, though the hows and the wherefores are a bit murky and again there isn't much on her.

There's also a possible explanation for why there isn't any info on Babylonian gods, as in mainline DC Continuity they were actually aliens who were an offshoot of the Maltusians, the race that eventually became the Guardians of the Universe, the Controllers, and the Zamorans. This was shown in a Green Lantern annual back in 2000 when he teemed up with a half-human half-Babylonian god hero named Sala who ended up with the Ringstaff of Ishtar. You can of course take or leave any of that but it's more data which is always useful when planning settings I find.
 
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