Tellus: Character Concepts (Ulma Variants and Moon Folks Redux)

By default, the four major races available to players on Tellus are Ulma (Humans), Dragon Clans (Dragonborn), Sky-Folks (Siren) and Gigas (Firbolg and Goliath) with the possible fifth being the Moon Folks (originally Eladrin, but more on that in a bit...), who current write up predates the current version of that setting. Some groups of Ulma, while technically 'human' can exist having the stat blocks of other races. One thing with Tellus is that, beyond the basic core assumptions nothing is properly 'canon' until I run a game.

Moonfolks and Daeva (Aasimars)

Taking cues from D&D 4e and Vedic mythologies, the Daeva is a suitable replacement for the Aasimar stat block. Not so much the descendants of Celestials as a form of true Celestials themselves (albeit mortal), the Daeva work well with the many concepts highlighted in the last post, where Ulma are sometimes born touched by Divine powers or possibly reincarnations of great celestial souls.

Remember the Moon Folks and how sometimes a Moon Folk is born to a human? Well, forget the part where I said those were Eladrin: Moon Folks are now a sub type of Aasimar. These are a stable population of aloof Daeva-like beings who nearly always reincarnate in their celestial abode on the moon rather than being a form of Bodhisattva-like beings. The two, nonetheless, are higher souls with a strong inclination toward White Magic and extremely long lifespan. Of course, if there ever was a race of token oh-so-pure good guys who would produce an edgy bastard with delusion of Godhood and Justice it would be Daeva...

Mutated Ulma

Mera may not be very 'anime' but
she's still an example of 'pretty fish people'.

The vast majority of Ulma are of the basic, unmodified stock and only distinct among each others via variations in phenotype which don't really change much. Southerners, for example, tend to have darker skin and some groups have enough Dragon Clan blood to have more reddish hue to their hair and eyes or have slightly larger builds but these are still baseline Ulma. Having spread over Tellus for centuries, if not millennia by now, some of the Ulm have deviated from their original stock through exposure to the planet's energies or through contact with the beings native to the world. These races are human in ancestry and nature but they are physically and mentally distinct enough to be considered a separate race. Most of them are limited to a single population living in a specific area whose geomantic energies have infused the people more deeply.

• Dwarves, if they exist on Tellus, would be fairly similar to the stock D&D race. They would descend from ancient clans of hardy miners and metal smiths and indeed would have inspired the early development of the Sheradil Empire's technology. These Dwarves would be similar to the D&D race but have human-like lifespan. Indeed, Dwarves could be seen as almost an exaggeration of the best and worst Ulma traits, when compared to the other races: proud, industrious but also fearsome and war-like.
• Gnomes stats may be appropriate to the bizarre and stunted people of the chaotic land of Ysmin. The people there aren't really normal Ulma anymore by any stretch of the imagination, having become odd, small gnomish beings. They never seem to quite fully develop to adult size while paradoxically also appearing quite aged, leaving them as short and stunted weirdos with bulbous noses, busy eyebrows and crazy hair. Weird stuff.
• Triton are unique in that they are the only fully aquatic Ulma. Interestingly, they claim to not be Ulma and their own race in spite of looking just like Ulma but with gills and (usually) blue or green hair. They also don't lay eggs, birthing live young as all Ulma do. Even more puzzling, they seemingly do appear in the oldest records of the Sky-Folks suggesting they existed before modern Ulma. In addition, unlike baseline Ulma they can be Sorcerers.

Tellus: Character Concepts (Ulma)

Just me throwing around some crude characters ideas (for my JRPG-inspired setting) made up of one or two sentences so my potential players can use them. It might also double as NPC ideas, who knows? Many of these are taken from the excellent blog Middle Finger of Vecna.

Ulma

The term Ulma is fancy-pretentious-alternate-name for the 'Human' of Tellus. They fill the same setting niche as human in other settings. However, it isn't impossible to introduce rare variants of Ulm which are functionally another D&D race. These individuals tend to belong to a single clan or small nation and have become changed by exposure to magic. On the whole, Ulma are an ambitious lot and capable of producing great heroes and horrific villains in equal measures. They are the least innately magical race but that has never stopped them from producing many arch mages through sheer pluck and ingenuity. Visually most Ulma exist in this weird artistic style of looking indistinctly neither Asian nor Caucasian, as is often the case with JRPG characters but there are other tribes and nations which look different. They also take many of the ideas and concepts associated with Dwarves, such as clans and giant cities carved in stone. They, likewise, are the most technologically advanced race and have begun developing devices we would associate with 'magitek' or 'steampunk'.

Arcane Spellcasters

Etrian Odyssey Harbinger, aka
a good style for a JRPG-styled Warlock.

While Ulma are the least innately magical race, this hasn't remotely stopped them in attempting to master all forms of magic and inventing quite a few more in the process. Being the most common race also help in ensuring Ulma spellcasters remain plentiful, even if truly powerful individuals remain quite rare. The vast majority of Ulm spellcasters belong to the Black Mage or White Mage class. These are examples which deviate from this norm. These tend to be Bards or Wizards, as Sorcerer are nearly completely unheard of in Ulma barring the truly rare and unusual individual.

Wizards

The arts of the Wizards have developed alongside (or aside) from the modern Black Mages. Their magic is a tad more complex and unusual as it draws upon disparate sides and energies of magic. Many of their techniques and spells have since been absorbed by the standard Black Mage class in the modern age, leaving the more unusual Wizards to be seen as strange orthodox techniques passed down through a mentor and student relationship. Other Wizards are unusual because they come from rare and bizarre cultures.

• Each of the once-core Arcane Traditions of the Player Handbook could be chosen, with the player character and heir to this decayed and half-lost tradition. Potentially this could even make their form of magic nearly unique and at the heavy risk of being lost forever.
• In fact, Universalists are quite likely to be the more common type of Wizard, even if they are more likely to be found in exotic lands.
• War Magic is a new style developed by the many military schools of the Sheradil Empire. It fully embrace the idea of magic-as-weapon. They are likely to be distrusted and any defector will be hunted down and captured as to not spill the secrets of this new tradition.
• You are a Tattoo Mage, member of an exotic culture called the Chiwel. You were heavily influenced by the colorful markings found on the body of the Dragon Clan people, both natural and unnatural. Your odd bodily markings mark you as a foreigner wherever you go.
• You are a Chaos Mage (Kobold Press Chaos Magic) of the tradition of the School of Chaos. As a native of the bizarre land of Ysmin, you live in a particularly unstable region charged with unusually high amount of random energy. You are wacky, bizarre and probably a comic relief.

Warlock

Just because innate magical affinity is rare and set a birth doesn't mean there aren't other ways of obtaining power. The Warlock is just that. In-universe, most Warlocks are generally unique due to the nature of their pact.

• In a moment of despair you forged an Fiend Pact with a powerful Fiend. This experience has likely horribly scarred you (physically or mentally) and made you really, really edgy. You probably dress in all black and red! That said, odds are you aren't evil. Just mopey. Any kind soul might even manage to help you turn your powers toward the forces of good.
• The Hexblade is a suitable alternative to a Fiendish Pact but the details remain mostly the same. Alternatively, you are a Hexblade because you have bonded with some ancient cursed weapon from the distant past. This weapon isn't so much as a physical object as some metaphysical curse.
• Japan is generally less bothered by gambling, thus a Lady Luck Warlock is well suited to the setting as some dashing rogue with unusual luck. Backstory may or may not be irrelevant.
• Your Patron is a Feline Spirit and this has left its mark on you, complete with cat ears! Yes, its stupid. I know.

Other Options

Then there are some even more oddball cases:

• The Eldritch Knight, Arcane Trickster and Arcane Archer (cut from its Elven association) are all example of a magically-gifted character who turn his or her skills toward wielding magic in a way which complement their fighting style. Overall 'magic knights' are fairly common in JRPG.
• An alternate Hexblade from Vecna's Middle Finger also works as does their take on the Magus. They also have a Spellthief which is a valid archetype in its own right.

Divine-Aligned Characters

Paladin from Final Fantasy
Tactics Advance.

The faiths of Tellus are deliberately vague, given that most JRPG tend to either go into too much depth (because of plot relevance) or not enough depth (because its not relevant and they just want something vaguely like a D&D Cleric around) when it come to established and fleshed out religion. The general assumption is that, in addition to the lifestream-esque Animism and the Taoist aspects of duality implied by the magic system, there are Gods but they are not an active force. Gods, at least the way I see it right now, are an abstract force and made up of archetypal beings/forces within the natural magical energies of all living things. Thus Cleric and their ilk exist but at no point will a God pop into existence to solve a plot. That said, Ulma, as the main civilization in the current era of Tellus, provide many opportunities for characters with a religious background. It can be assumed most deities worshiped by the Ulma are of the usual stuff you'd expect to be praising: Gods of healing, protection, the light and all that stuff.

Cleric

Clerics are not ordinary priests but rather people with a stronger connection to these ill-defined archetypes which exist within the magical energies of all things. In addition to White Mages, they tend to form the spell casting elite of whatever local faith exist. Some are humble and pious individuals while others are self-serving dickheads. In general, the Gods have no direct power over their Clerics. A good example of a Cleric-like player character would be Yuna from FFX. She's well meaning and self-sacrificing...despite not even realizing the darker truths of her faith. Another good example would be Agnes Oblige from Bravely Default.

• Your character is a shrine maiden, taking cues from Shinto beliefs. An inciting event is what drags your character into action, possibly against her will. This is the kind of character well suited to be 'the childhood friend' to someone else. Life or Light are suitable domain.
• You are a  Water-Keeper, a member of southern sects dedicated to the preservation of life and water. Born in the harsh desert environments of southern lands, you wield the powers of the Water domain. What was the inciting event/backstory element which made you travel from your homeland?
• An alternative/addition to the concept of the Water-Keeper is that you are an Elemental Priest, dedicated to one of the four Elements. Such power is generally associated with Black Magic but you are neither evil nor destructive: instead you harness the constructive and transformation aspects of each Element. Your magic is quite rare and poorly understood by the main civilizations of the world.

Other Divine Options

Not every Divinely-touched character is of the Cleric class. Some are even not directly empowered by divine energies so much as driven by Faith alone.

• Your character is a Sin-Eater Paladin and his class would likely be listed as a 'shinigami' in the game menus. The odds of you being a gloomy, misunderstood androgynous emo are relatively high but none can call you selfish. Your mission is to purify souls so they pass on and don't become fiends.
• Deeply driven by your faith, you fear that too many individuals abuse the sacred powers of magic and see it as nothing but a tool. Lacking any magic yourself, you have trained in the way of the Spellbreaker. Balance must be restored. Magic and faith are so much more than the tools of tyrants!
• As a Celestial Pact Warlock, your patron is a being associated with the (hopefully more positive sides of) the Light side of magic. You yourself lacked a proper connection to magic but nonetheless, faith, pluck and a desire to do good have imbued you with powers.
• As a Divine Soul Sorcerer you are an extremely rare being touched with a level of innate power very few, if any Ulma, naturally has. It is likely you bear some fancy mark, such as silver hair or something like that. Whatever the true origin of your power is, its bound to be linked to some major event. It is recommended to pick Good or Law as your Affinity.

In general, people with a connection to the Divine are rare. Even more rare than the one-in-several-hundred magically gifted individuals. Usually each major region will only see a few divinely-touched individuals per generation, of which most never have the potential to get past 1st or 2nd level in overall power. This has left the ranks of many churches and sects filled more with White Mages than proper Clerics. Some of the more exotic Divine Casters, such as Divine Souls, are believed to be tied to very specific cosmic events ill-understood by mortals or even be the reincarnation of ancient heroes and saints.

There are rare and ancient bloodlines which produce a much higher-than-average level of divinely-attuned individuals. Many of these can be traced back to ancient heroes and mighty kings. Several of these even predate the emergence of Ulma and were once Sky-Folks or members of long-lost races unknown to modern historians. Since Ulma can cross-breed with Sky Folks, these bloodlines may have some ancient and latent blessings beyond modern magical and scientific understanding. In time of great need, perhaps they act some sort of vessel to these ancient souls.

Eastern Flavor

Etrian Odyssey Ronin.

Wutai Rule: Most RPGs, no matter what their mythology, include a land based on ancient Japan. Full of pagodas, shrines, shoguns, kitsune, and sushi, this completely anachronistic place is the source of the entire world's supply of ninja and samurai characters.

-The Grand List of Console Roleplaying Game Cliches

Just about every JRPG out there, at least those from the NES to PS1 era had a tendency to feature ninjas and samurai no matter how heavily the setting was ripped straight out of Dungeons & Dragons. This, of course, make sense: these games were made in Japan. Not only that but Asian pop culture as a whole is replete with wandering swordsmen (be they heroes of Wuxia from Chinese novels or Ronin roaming Feudal Japan), spellcasters and assassins. Oh and monks who know kung fu.

• You are an exiled warrior or prince from some faraway Eastern land. Alternatively you are some morally dubious mercenary who is slightly older than the rest of the party (but still 'the old man' even if you're barely scratching forty!). Either way, you are a Samurai and most of the fanbase will think you're cool.
• Do I need to point out the entire Monk class?!

Age of Fantasy: Refluffed and Mixed Armies

One Page Rules is pretty great, as I wrote before. Its simple, its efficient and admittedly it might lack some of the more nuanced depths of a full blown game of Warhammer (Fantasy, 40k or 'Fantasy 40k') but it gets the job done and its free so you don't have to pirate or buy an army book that will be outdated in a few years. Well okay that's a lie: that statement only applies to Space Marine players. If you've been playing Sisters of Battle or Dark Eldar you probably didn't even noticed anything happened after 3rd edition! Well, at least its not as bad as those poor Warhammer Fantasy fan who saw the game they loved for decades die off and be replaced by Age of Sigmar.

One of the more interesting aspects of the OPR systems is that it is much easier to create a mix and match army because everything is costed the same, using a point buy-like system. There is no army which can 'cheese' units with certain rules for a lower point cost because special rules cost the same for everybody. Age of Fantasy, in particular, is basically Warhammer Fantasy and Age of Sigmar with the numbers filed off, with armies and units from both able to coexist as the default rules use AOS but there is a variant rule set called 'Regiments' which allows one to modify an army and play it in those big blocks Warhammer Fantasy Battles was famous for. These rules permutations, alongside with the games being free makes it very easy to turn the basic game into whatever you need. Hell, maybe you don't even have minis dedicated to wargaming and only have minis for D&D or other tabletop RPG: those works too!

How it works is simple: there is a Primary Army whose main choice of Hero units and spell list is decided by and a Secondary Army which provide new units. Armies can be found here.

The Lords Of The Evermore (Death Elves)

Primary Army: Wood Elves

Secondary Army: Vampire Undead

Golgari Thug by Johann Bodin

Called the 'Children of Decay', the 'Princes of Renewal' and the 'Rotting Elves' in common language these beings are a group of Wood Elves dedicated to the transition between life and death, followed by the return to life (eventually). Their name of 'Rot Elves' is a crude name meant as an insult and does not reflect their appearance as these beings appear as healthy as any other elves. In war they bring forth armies of moldy skeletons and other horrid undead raised from their gigantic wooden necropolis. The Lords of Evermore are not an evil faction in spite of their use of necromancy but they are nonetheless sinister and distrusted by the common folk. They are primarily psychopomp and guardians between the realms of life and realms of death, striving to uphold a delicate balance. Indeed, their Undead are not true Undead but rather corpses reanimated by nature spirits. Their 'Ghouls' are not Ghouls as others know, but rather beings who have chosen to remain within the material world and be bound to their swamp and woodland infused corpses and keep growing as eternal guardians.

The Deep Sea Kingdoms (Atlanteans)

Primary Army: Deep-Sea Elves

Secondary Army: Eternal Wardens

Artist Uknown.

The Atlanteans are kindred to Men but living in the ocean, both they and land-dwelling modern humans an offshoot of the original, long-lost human stock. Entire kingdoms of sea-people exist beneath the waves and, in times of war, they will emerge from the ocean's floor to defend themselves. In addition to various sea hunters and marine creatures, these distant relatives of ancient humans have many great heroes wielding ancient artifacts from ages long past. These magical weapons and armor work just as well on land as they do underneath the sea. The greatest Atlantean heroes are garbed in orichalcum, arcane veils and the scales of long-extinct sea drakes. They wield spears and hammers which call upon the fury of the sky and sea.

Lion Beast-Thanes & Mammoth Cults

Primary Army: Beastmen

Secondary Army: Ogres

An example of how mixing the same armies but taking different units can create two thematic armies.

The Lion Thanes are a feral, loosely organized (but fiercely loyal in times of need) society of leonine beast-men. They answer to their lord, the Lion Thane, who is both a wise and courageous soul but also a vicious tyrant. He is a (beast) man of honor and terrible oaths but does not tolerate any dissent. Lion Beastmen vary from near-human to massive, atavistic giants who look more like Ogres crossed with Lions. Their females with human-like heads still find it near impossible to grow more than a few inches of hair.

• Their ranks include lesser enslaved cat-kin (Pet Goblins), their distant relatives of giant Dire Lions (Saber-Tooths) and atavistic Lion-Men (Abominations).

The Mammoth Cults are an anarchic group of Beast-Men who follow and worship the Great Mammoth, which is a monstrous mountain-sized immortal Mammoth and the father to all of their kind. They are all extremely hairy and even the most human-like of the Mammoth-men is a hulking, hairy brute with protruding teeth and a somewhat comical and often floppy nose. Those whose blood run true or who receive the blessing of the Mammoth grow to massive size and resemble enormous shaggy Ogres with gigantic tusks.

• The largest of the Mammoth-men are Ogre units, with Giant Mammoths (Giant Bisons) and Ice Mammoths acting as their massive mega-calvary.

Hidden Mole Kingdoms

Primary Army: Beastmen

Secondary Army: Dwarves

Mole Monster by Mattkaz.

Mole-Men are, well...they're Mole-People what else can one expect with a name like that? They are a type of Beastmen aligned with the Mole. With their short, stumpy (yet powerful) limbs and underground livings they have been the on-and-off allies and enemies of the Dwarves. While an industrious people, they retain the innate primal power of all Beasts and the ability to breed mighty, massive champions and beasts with mole heads and sometimes even barbed tentacles for noses! Terrible Mole-Centaurs and Mole-Hounds complete this menagerie of underground beasties.

Godbound: Host of the Guardian Deities

Blame a steady dose of God Eater (which I mentioned as possible inspiration for a game here), Code Vein (which I am currently playing) and some happenstance discussion on the infamous Stormcast Eternals of Warhammer: Age of Sigmar which resulted in the revelation that Stormcasts are actually one of the most anime things in current Warhammer. Now combine all this with Godbound being the default system/setting of the blog and you get an abomination.

Things are going to get a bit more 'anime' in here albeit not so obviously (or a way you'd think) at first.

Taken From Mortality, Reforged Into Weapons

Art by Francois Cannel

Picture a place similar to the Bright Republic, if you will: on the surface very much like 20th or early 21st century Earth. You have electronic devices, you have television, you have cars and all those things we take for granted today. In truth, this is not Earth: it is but a fragment of what was once the world, where the Former Empires fought with Made Gods to control the Throne of Heaven. This place is in truth nothing but a fragment, a Realm floating inside the Uncreated Night. The truth of its nature hidden by the world governments. Leave this large island nation and the sea grow dark and full of mutated monsters, the ocean buffeted by horrible storms which bring flotsam and jetsam of other worlds.

Now picture a young man, late teenage years. The kind of person who is suitably generic enough to be an Anime protagonist. His sister died a few years back in a tragic accident. So tragic and brutal that it was a closed casket funeral. In truth, her body was never found because there was no body. As this young man is coming back from school, unbeknownst to him, he's being stalked by a monster which has found the right resonating energies and complex metaphysical frequencies inside his soul and flesh. The creature attack, nearly killing him when in a flash of light a woman in fearsome-looking biomechanical armor arrives and vanquish the monster. She retracts her helmet to reveal she's, in fact, his thought-to-be dead sister. She says to him that their 'Host' (whatever that is) has suffered crippling losses and need to replenish their ranks and while she dislikes it, she and her superior knows her brother is metaphysically well suited to the task. She explain to him that usually they take people during or after their moment of death but sometimes they just grab people while they still live. Before he can ask what is going on, two more of these strange people appear to take him, expecting his sister to hesitate at the last second. At this moment, more monsters attack and his sister decide to fend them off while the two figures take her brother to another place.

She dies a suitably tragic death which makes for a very good scene for episode 1! Gotta have some punch in the first episode, especially if the next five are boring. But I digress.

The Guardians are artificial demigods created by a being simply called the Maker. In truth, He is a horribly crippled Made God whose very body, bones and metaphysical energies were bound to the Realm the once-mortal Guardians come from. Through his shattered yet still very extensive knowledge theotechnical enhancements he has passed on to various Sages the knowledge to create a form of Arrayed (artificial Godbounds) to serve as protectors and warriors. Guardians are organized into small, independent cells called Hosts which consist of a home base, the Theurge technicians which maintain them and roughly between two and five Guardians.

Each Host only has the resources to sustain a limited number of Guardians. Each of them is a powerful but unstable demigod. Guardians are semi-immortal, but at a severe cost. Should their mind/soul survive the destruction of their body and the core of their form be recovered a Guardian can be reconstructed, This form of immortality is not without serious drawbacks, as each resurrection has a severe toll on their still-mortal minds and their metaphysical matrix. Each resurrection exort a toll/price: from loss of emotion, loss of some senses, loss of memory to the more extreme where they 'glitch'. After only two or three deaths a Guardian is a shell of their former self which often exude a sense of deep 'wrongness' to mortals. Most demand to be put out of their misery eventually, their core. One would assume such a death isn't too common but it does happen among the Guardians, more so than in other Pantheons. As lesser, incomplete artificial Godbound they are weaker than the baseline from the Godbound core book.

In a nutshell: Godbound+Warframe+Stormcast Eternals channeled through series like God Eater, Gantz, Claymore, Evangelion and Madoka Magica.

Form and Function

Boris Tsui's art of this Stormcast lady seems relevant.

As previously established, a Guardian is a form of Lesser Godbound and Arrayed. Their physical human form is destroyed and remade, merged with a core of rare and expensive theotechnical materials which act as a form of matrix which contain the information of their form, mind and souls. While artificial in nature, their biomechanical flesh mimic the real deal quite well (unless damaged and glitching).

• At will (or automatically, when threatened) a Guardian's form become biomechanical. This looks like a suit of smooth, organically-shaped metal (usually of some bronze or coppery color, but there are ways to 'repaint' it, as it is one form of personal identity and vanity they are allowed to have). This is not technically armor by default. The mask of a Guardian looks like a fearsome face with a mane of brightly colored hair, not unlike a Buddhist Guardian Deity (or 'Fierce Deity') which are their namesake.
• Should a Guardian decide to wear armor, it will seamlessly fused and merge with their 'shell'. The process can be reversed instantly and at will. This allow them to use equipment as they see fit but ensure it will not clash with their built-in augments.
• Guardians are chosen from fairly young people because they can adapt to the change from the transformation and rebirths more easily and will go crazy later.

As Lesser Godbound, the Guardians are still mighty but considerably less so than a basic and complete Godbound. In combat they can easily shrug off attack from lesser foes just fine but fighting a more serious threat like a Parasite God or mightier Uncreated will require everything a team/Host has to emerge victorious. They walk a fine thread between the heroic-level play of Godbound and the high risk, high reward style of other games.

In spite of all this, the Guardians are still Godbound and thus deities even if their limited state. They have 'handlers' for sure, the Sages, those theotechnical experts. Their creator, the Maker, only has a limited window of communication and thus each Host is left to its own devices when it come to the proper course of action. In general most will default to the oldest and most experienced of the group but this can also be issue because they are likely completely disconnected from their original humanity.

The Guardians are part superhero living in the shadows, part adventurers and part brotherhood of demigods. They must juggle between the defense of their home Realm, which is always ten seconds away from unraveling (as most Realms in the Godbound universe are) and spontaneously turning people into monsters or having Uncreated pop in the middle of a stadium and their excursions through the Uncreated Night to other Realms to confront the threats directly and harvest enough of the rare and exotic materials needed for them and their realm to survive. In between this they must deal with rogue Gods, deep seated rivalries, their own agendas and of course their declining humanity.

Losing Humanity

I haven't written down the mechanics concretely yet, but Guardians essentially acquire the reverse of binding a Word when they come back from the dead. These are passive effects which negatively impact them as reality slowly unravel around them or their souls erode. For example, they might become so cold/fearsome that no mortal can stand their presence or animals might reject them constantly. The lesser effects will drain away their emotions, their (mundane) senses and bits and pieces of their humanity. Some might become constantly fused to their armor, making it impossible for them interact with ordinary people in their native Realm.

Godbound/Scion: Titanspawns

The Titanspawns are monsters and enemies of the Gods. In practice however, the lower ranks of Titanspawns are enemies of the God's children, meaning they are the primary major threat that a Scion will fight. They are creatures like the Hydra, the Kraken or the rank and file Giants of Norse mythology among other things. Some are unique, one off monstrosities while others are whole races of Titan worshipers and servants. Titanspawns are dark creatures, filled with evil intent and devotion or dark virtues as the Scion rulebook calls them. Ambition, Malice, Rapacity and Zealotry are what drive and define the Titanspawns.  Some are nothing but animals and brutes while others are exceedingly intelligent.

Giants by Greg Danton

Chimeras & Nemean

Named after the Greek monster, the term Chimera is a catch-all term for Titanspawns which are an amalgamation of two or more things. The most obvious and common forms of these are either a mixture of different animals or animals+human body parts but in modern times it also include machinery. Nemean, on the other hand, named after the Nemean Lion are any form of mundane animal which has been infused with the power of the Titans making it grow in size and aggression. Mechanically these creatures are the easiest to stats as they are well-represented with the various stats for particularly large animals, such as the Big Hunter or Predator King. Larger Nemean would be similar but with more HD while Chimera are likely to posses one or two gifts befitting their bizarre nature or, in some cases, completely at odd with it!

Giants & Thralls

The being most often associated (and conflated) with the Titans are the Giants, or Gigantes in Greek. They are most recorded as Titanspawns in Greek and Norse myths but in truth they are quite universal, unfortunately. A giant physically resemble a large humanoid, most between eight and fifteen feet. Some look like perfectly formed human, albeit very large and muscular. Most....don't. Giants tend to be ugly looking brutes which would remind people of cavemen, what with their beetle brow, hunched shoulders or even more deformities. Most of them are just big, dumb, ugly and smelly brutes. Their ranks also include Frost Giant, Fire Giants, Cyclops, Oni, Trolls and more.

A Thrall is the byproduct of a mortal being fed a Giant's blood, or Eitr. The transformation make them into battle-crazed, hulking brutes with little regard for fear or wounds. These angry bastards are the primary minions of Giants and are used muscles to reinforce their ranks.

Giants have HD, high attack and damage but are somewhat slow and easy to hit (being quite large). Generally the higher the HD the larger the Giant's stature and the more powerful it is in terms of having Gifts. More powerful Giants may require magical weapons or Gifts in order to harm.

GIANT	HD	AC	Atks	Dmg	Move	Morale	Saves	Effort
Thrall	3	7	+3	1d8	30’	11	14+	1
Lesser Giant	6	10	+6 x2	1d10	20’	11	12+	3
Giant	10	9	+10 x2	1d12	20’	11	10+	4
Greater Giant	14	8	+10 x2	2d6	20’	11	8+	5

The Gifts of most Giants are straightforward ports from the Words of Might and Endurance, with a few from Earth perhaps for Giant spawned from the Greek Titan Avatars. Fire Giants obviously are immune to fire and Frost giants are immune to cold. Trolls are a bit trickier and have various odd powers, including possibly those of Sorcery while Cyclops can have gifts of Artifice.