Godbound/Scion: The Titans, Part 1

Recently I've finally gotten the chance to give a decently thorough reading of Scion's Second Edition and its lore. As is typical and expected of White Wolf Onyx Path, just about everything in there is seriously quite the mixed bag. For every idea expanded and reworked into something better suited to developing a campaign and characters there are ten more terrible ideas. In particular, the Titans have seen a fairly massive chance: their nature and roster, in particular, have been both expanded and yet also contracted. Titans have gained in variety and what is defined as a 'Titan' as well as gained new and interesting ways to interact with the world. Yet, at the same time, they have become smaller (pun intended). Gone are the massive Titan Realms and the idea that Titans are these vaster, more primordial beings, at least in comparison to 1st edition lore.

This is my own rework of the Titans, combining what I personally consider to be the best part of either version of the lore, as well as notes and scraps which survived from John's Scion Resources. There will be quite a bit of incoherence where the old lore meet the new lore. This is perfectly intentional, as this gray area of where the lore changed between version of the games add further gray areas to what Titans are as well as what they could be.

A lot of these ideas also overlap with my Urban Fantasy concepts. This is because I've taken quite a bit of cues over the years from games such as Scion. Unsurprisingly a lot of material could end up reused in some capacity for either games and, as such, these posts are also tagged as 'Urban Fantasy'.

The Nature of Titans

Marduk vs Tiamat by Christian Johnson

Defining what a Titan is will be a complicated matter, as previously mentioned, due to the fusion of 1st and 2nd edition lore. Some of them are truly massive, primordial beings, less of an individual and more of an aspect of a greater concept, as these often were in the game's first edition. Others are more classified as such due to their action and nature in opposing the gods of a pantheon. Then there are beings which would be Titan by nature, but aren't because they aren't directly opposed to the gods of a pantheon. The Titans are beings which can/must include on or more the following traits in order to be classified as a Titan:

• Some Titans are Titans by Nature. All Titans share a connection with one or more concept of the natural world. This doesn't always make a being a Titan, as there are obviously Gods tied to such concepts, but the Titanic beings whose nature is Titan-like tend to embody these concepts on a less 'human' level and more of a 'conceptual' level which makes them appear more alien to the Gods and mortals alike.
• Some Titans are by Calling, which make them beings whose archetypal nature make them enemies of the Gods. They are adversarial, destructive and/or tyrannical beings which the Pantheon have held at bay, defeated and/or locked away.
• Some Titans are simply Titans because they are Monstrous. There may be gods with monstrous traits, yes, but some Titans are monsters on an archetypal level. This is the natural state of beings such as Jormungandr, Apep or Typhon. These also include beings which are Titans-like or Titan-derived through their own nature, even if they seemingly defy taxonomy.

This slightly contradictory nature does mean that the Titan roster include both the vast, cosmic beings of 1st Edition (which were called Titan Avatars) as well as the more oddball beings of 2nd edition which are always tied to a specific element or concept. Some Titans are tied to the Titanrealms (which are both a location and part of their body/essence) while others are more akin to rogue agents.

• Titans can create Titanspawns, which is the somewhat catch-all term for their minions. How exactly they are created varies, ranging from actual physical birth to more abstract creation as well as the infusion of a Titan's power into another being, such as creating massive Nemean beasts or deliberate twisting of a mortal into a semi-divine monstrosity.
• A rare few Titans can create Scions. This is not a common ability, especially not for the more primordial of the Titans but the 'lesser' of the Titans, those singular beings of great power and destruction often posses the ability to create Scions. Generally most posses only a single mean/type of Scion they create, such as creating them the 'old fashioned way' (such as the rogue being and enemy of the Shen, 'White Eyebrows' impregnating a woman) or through slightly more arcane creation means. A rare few Titans have taken up the concept of Chosen or Incarnation, but this is a somewhat slow and abstract process where a mortal is slowly remolded, through their actions (accidental or deliberate) into a Scion/incarnation of a Titan.