Tabletop Game / Scion

Find your destiny. Live the myth. Embrace your fate.

Scion is a tabletop roleplaying game by White Wolf, though not one that takes place in either of that company's trademark Worlds of Darkness. Instead the setting is the world as we know it, but there's one big difference: the various gods and goddesses of mankind's pagan pantheons really exist. The myths about them are true, and they do walk the Earth in human guise, looking for men or women to mate with.

Player characters are the offspring of such unions, making them technically demigods, though in game terms they are referred to as Scions. They grew up unaware of their nonhuman heritage, until one day they received a visitation from their divine parent, and were told the truth about their origins.

Being a demigod sounds cool, but there is a catch: the Titans, ancient powerful entities, and your grandparents on the important side of the family, once vanquished and imprisoned by the gods, are breaking free, and a cosmic war has begun between the two. The characters must join the fight, and in the process grow in power until they too become gods in their own right.

Think of it as Exalted meets American Gods or The Wicked + The Divine.

The rulebook (Scion: Hero) includes six possible pantheons to choose from, using the time-tested White Wolf concept of making members of different groups team up into a motley crew. They are: the Pesedjet (Egyptian), Dodekatheon (Greek), Aesir (Norse), Amatsukami (Japanese), Atzlanti (Aztec), and Loa (Voodoo). Additional pantheons include the Tuatha De Danann (Irish), the Celestial Bureaucracy (Chinese), and the Devas (Hindu) from Scion Companion, as well as nationalistic pantheons of America and the Allies in the same sourcebook for running games during World War II, and it's implied that yet more pantheons exist as well - there's a PDF covering the Yazata, the Persian pantheon (Yazata: The Persian Gods), as well as a supplement not available in English detailing the Gaulish pantheon; several fan-made pantheons can be found on the net as well. There is also the Atlantean pantheon, although they are canonically dead after having been corrupted by the Titans; details on the actual pantheon and their Cosmology are in Demigod, while the pantheon's original Virtues (Duty, Intellect, Order, Piety) and Purview (Scire) are in Scion Companion.

At GenCon 2012, it was announced that Scion had been acquired outright by Onyx Path Publishing, a company set up to handle White Wolf's tabletop RPGs, and a new edition was planned.

2e changes things up, with the corebook, Scion: Origin, covering ordinary and supernaturally-touched mortals, including pre-visitation Scions, holy people of the pantheons, sorcerers and Fatebound mortals, along with minor supernaturals such as kitsune and satyrs. Hero 2e enables the creation of fully-fledged Scions, who now come in a number of types: being the child of a god, as in 1e; being directly created by a god; being chosen by a god; and being the reincarnation of a dead hero or god. It also offers ten core pantheons, nine of which are revised from 1e - Netjer (Egyptian), Theoi (Greek), Aesir (Norse), Teōtl (Aztec), Kami (Japanese), Óríshá (Yoruba; an ancestral pantheon of Voodoo's Loa), Tuatha dé Danann (Irish), Shén (Chinese) and Devá (Hindu) - with the tenth being the Manitou (Native American Algonquin). Further pantheons are planned for later books, including Native Australian mythology.

The game's default setting has also received a major shakeup, with the assumption of a World of Darkness-like state in which the mythical is hidden away from the public replaced with a more in-depth look at the realistic implications of powerful gods and monsters existing throughout and influencing history, both openly and behind the scenes. The modern-day World is one where pagan religions are popular and accepted, and where the mythical hides in plain sight, with tengu nests among Japan's skyscrapers and Norwegian government troll preserves.

A Kickstarter campaign to get 2e Origin and Hero into stores launched in late September 2016. It was fully funded in less than an hour and by its end had exceeded its original goal by over $300,000. Completed stretch goals enabled, among other things, introductory fiction by Kieron Gillen, the game's license being opened up to fans and other companies, and the creation of a 2e Companion featuring the Loa (Vodou), Nemetondevos (Gaulish), and Yazata (Persian), with 1e's Atlantean pantheon being used as the example for building your own pantheon, reimagined in terms of New Gods-style divine technology. The second edition was officially released on June 5, 2019. A campaign for 2e Demigod was held in September 2020, with the book's pantheons including the Anunna (Mesopotamian), Apu (Incan), Atua (Polynesian), Bogovi (Slavic), and Tengri (Mongolian), which is available for purchase as of July 2022. The campaign for 2e God was held in October 2022, which added yet more pantheons: the Balahala (Visayan Philippine), the Ilhm (Phoenician), the K'uh (Mayan), the Pālas (Buddhist), and the Zemí (Taíno).

A funding campaign ran in January/February 2021 for two supplements: Dragon, which allows you to play as descendants of Dragons, and Masks of the Mythos, which introduces a pantheon based on the Cthulhu Mythos.

Has a characters page.

Not to be confused with the Tomb Raider artifact, the Toyota car, or the CrossGen comic.

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This game features examples of:

• Adaptational Heroism: In a way, the Primordials in 2E serve the same function as the Greater Titans did in 1E. The difference is the Primordials representing the entirety of whatever aspect of reality they embody...also extends to understanding why their aspect completely dominating reality is a bad thing. A few of them even make Scions to assist their pantheons.
• After the End: The first act of "Ragnarok" has the Earth being hit by a massive asteroid that brings about the end of civilization. The protagonists are safe from the brunt of the damage by virtue of being at Alfheim at the time of the impact, but the Midgard they return to is a bitter, violent post apocalyptic wasteland terrorized by jotuns as well as bandits, in the grip of the prophesied Fimbulwinter.
• All Japanese Swords Are Katanas: Averted. One of the template characters is a daughter of Susano-o who fights with the legendary sword Kusanagi, which is not a katana.
• All Myths Are True: Literally - in fact characters get to meet just about every mythical figure out there. But, to paraphrase Gargoyles, few myths are accurate: Daedalus did not make the Labyrinth, Hermod and Vali aren't gods yet, and other little altered tidbits (like who Thokk really is, for instance...).
• Alternate Continuity: First and second editions, with 2e helpfully providing a translation guide in the Companion for those who want to convert over.
• Alternate History: One of the biggest thematic changes in the 2nd edition was to replace the implied yet poorly implemented Masquerade of the first one with an Urban Fantasy setting in which the gods have been involved in human history, such as the Knights Templar aiming to wipe out pantheistic worship during the Crusades and Julius Caesar conquering Gaul to eliminate the Gaulish pantheon and secure his own apotheosis. By default, divine meddling in history isn't public knowledge, but the setting can be customized to suit taste.
• Amazon Brigade: Amazon Followers, who only accept female Scions as leaders, are this. It's also possible for PCs to have an all female entourage.
• Amazonian Beauty: The Amazons, of course. Any brawny lady Scion that has a decent Appearance stat classifies as well.
• Anti-Villain:
  • Out of the six sample "evil" Scions in first edition, only two - Kane Taoka and Seth Farrow - are truly nasty. Sly's a pawn, Orlanda's a victim of Love Makes You Evil, Marie's just egotistical (and pulls a Heel–Face Turn in God), and Victor's just following orders (he is a soldier).
  • 1e God also offers another group of antagonists, the "Keepers of The World", a group of gods who are pissed at their pantheons and want to separate the mortal world from other realms. None of them are truly evil (unless the Storyteller takes the suggestion to have one of them turn to the Titans, and even then The Mole is most likely a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds or Well-Intentioned Extremist), and considering their background story, their goal is rather justified.
  • The White Snake, from the 1e Companion, who strove to prove she could be a person rather than a supernatural beast, fought to save her mortal husband's life... and ended up getting imprisoned for several centuries. Consequently, driven by her intense loyalty, she wants revenge on the Celestial Bureaucracy.
• Army of The Ages:
  • The Einherjar warriors that show up in modern times come from the 18th century through the mid-1970s, outfitted in whatever gear they had on them when they "died".
  • Also the Anauša (from the 1e Companion), who come from any royal guard or army that tied itself to the reputation of the Persian Immortals, from the classical era up through the 1970s.
• Ascended Extra: Quite literally—Xochiquetzal was first introduced in Scion: Extras as one of the joke gods, and was promoted to a full-time member of the Teōtl in 2E.^note Notably, she is the only Extras-introduced god to do so.
• Ascended Meme: In-Universe, the principles of Deific Fatebinding are basically this. In short, what humans believe about their gods can literally become reality, as Fate reshapes Gods to fulfill the expectations of Humans.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever:
  • A common type of Titanspawn foe faced by Scions are Nemean animals; regular animals infused with the power of Titans and grown to massive sizes, maybe twice or even ten times as big and with supernally tough hides. They can be any mundane animal, from the iconic lions to hogs, worms or sharks, and if killed, their hides can be skinned and forged into equally-tough armor for Scions. And then there are Typhonian animals, which can be hundreds of times bigger and be a comparable threat to the gods.
  • And then there are giants. All kinds of giants: frost, fire, cyclops, oni, Daidara-bocchi...
• Badass Normal: Simon Telamon, who was introduced in the 1e Companion as a Guide Birthright. He's just a mortal, but is too good a soldier to be a simple Follower. The only thing unusual about him is that he's the reincarnation of a mortal hero, Telamonian Ajax. For bonus points, he pulls a Big Damn Hero and rescues Tommy and Yukiko from a banshee in a short story. There is also a note that reincarnations of other ostensibly mortal people of great resolve would be like this, such as Alexander the Great, Cao Cao or JFK.
• Battle Trophy: A section monster descriptions had in 1e was what kind of trophy a PC could take from killing such a monster, and what effect it had during gameplay.
• Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Hitler's Spear of Destiny was actually Odin's spear Gungnir, given him by Loki in the alternate setting set out in chapter six of the 1e Companion. Lady Liberty, Br'er Rabbit, Uncle Sam, Robin Hood, Britannia, d'Artagnan, Baba Yaga and sundry others are all gods. The French, Russian and British ones work together out of the need to fight the Germans whereas the American ones are a different Pantheon.
  • In addition, Beowulf was a Scion of Freya, whose "death" was, in reality, his ascension to godhood. And Hernán Cortés? Turns out the Aztecs didn't think he was Quetzalcoátl returned, because they'd learned from Quetzalcoátl that Cortés was his son. Cortés, understandably, did not take it well when Quetzalcoátl finally revealed himself to him, resulting in his immensely conflicted behavior towards the Aztec people afterwards.
• Beauty Equals Goodness: Or goodness equals beauty. Scion: God touches on turning titanspawn to the side of the gods, and mentions that a side effect of the Dodekatheon accepting Gaia's children might cause Fate to transform them to become more suited to the beauty associated with the Greek pantheon.
• BFG: Giantbane, the huge revolver that's the weapon of pregen character Eric Donner (both editions), "with a barrel as long and as thick around as the forearm of the Scion who wields it."
• Black Comedy: In Second Edition, Tyr runs a company called Fenris Arms. Knowing how he lost his hand, he must have a dark sense of humor.
• Boring, but Practical: The Greek pantheon's first edition purview of Arete just grants bonus dice instead of awesome abilities, but damn if those dice don't come in handy.
• Cain and Abel: Ironically, not Kane, but his lieutenant Seth Farrow, who killed his brother Cyrus out of jealousy and made himself the Arch-Enemy of his nephew Horace.
• Cast Full of Gay: Subtle example, but in 2E, the vast majority of romantic relationships, whether in the fictions or in the text itself, is between two men or two women. There are a couple straight couples, but they're few and far between.
• Celestial Bureaucracy: Loaded, especially the Shen, who are called the Celestial Bureaucracy in 1e Companion.
• The Chosen One: An alternative origin in 2e. Instead of being a god's biological offspring, a PC can be someone chosen by a god to act as their envoy. A narrative difference rather than a mechanical one.
• Chunky Salsa Rule: Ultimate Strength or Avatar Boons throw away the dice - if you hit someone, and they don't have an equivalent power to call on, they die.
• Corrupt Church:
  • Monotheism as a religious concept is portrayed this way in first edition, born of a Titan-worshipping servant of Akhetaten's attempts to try and use Deific Fatebinding to destroy the Gods. However, even if this is the true secret origin of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, it's emphatically stated that they don't know that - even the Order of Divine Glory, the true secret cult at the heart of things, is not only regarded by the mainstream churches as just a particularly eccentric group of missionaries, but actually believes its own doctrine, to the point it's noted it would probably execute its own inner circle as heretics for admitting that there really are other Gods besides God Himself.
  • On the other hand, Aten is explicitly stated to be more of a corruption of monothestic belief into arrogance more than anything, and the Order's success would lead to the end of destructive divine rivalries. That, and the Order deliberately selects for people in the Saintly Church mode of things - both characters shown are Actual Pacifists who genuinely want to better the world.
• Covers Always Lie: Well, maybe not always, but the Yazata cover certainly does when it boldly declares that the book contains "new Knacks!" The only new Knack is Easy Rider, which is NPC-only (all it does is negate any Dexterity penalties that the Horsemen would have taken from being half-motorcycle).
• Crossover Cosmology:
  • Inherent in the very premise. First edition's rulebook has the pantheons of six different cultures. 1e Companion adds three more and hints of other pantheons in the distance.
  • As well as one in a PDF supplement and one in a supplement released only in French. Plus the three made up for the game, one of which is in Demigod and the other two in Companion. Not to mention all the fan-produced writeups.
  • Second edition has ten pantheons in Hero, three more in the Companion^note though one is a sub-pantheon, five more in Demigod, and another five more in God, making for a total of twenty-three^note twenty-two if you count the Loa as part of the Orisha pantheons. Plus the fictional 'pantheon' in Masks of the Mythos and the one made up for the game in the Companion, both of which are Loose Canon.
• Cursed with Awesome: Cassandras in 2E, who realize that the curse of "nobody believing them" can be used for Reverse Psychology to actually get people to suddenly realize their doom ("Oh that's Cassandra, she's always on about something, good to see she's entirely happy with that gifted...wooden...horse..."), or protecting the timelines they want to happen via Sarcastic Confession.
• Dark Is Evil: Soku-no-Kumi. However, it more embodies fear and concealment than actual light-absence darkness - even if you have powers that let you see in the dark, you still can't see in Soku-no-Kumi.
• Dark Is Not Evil:
  • A given Player Character may be the child of one or the other death gods if the player so chooses, which will make him/her pretty dark, but not evil.
  • Well not necessarily evil. However since many of the gods are not especially kind (as a rule), and the concept appeals to many players who wish to play an evil character, evil Scions of a Death God are not uncommon. And if both general disposition of the player and general disposition of the character fail to make a Death God evil, it's not totally unlikely that Fate will try to force a god to become evil. It's also worth noting that you can become an actual God of Darkness, who may or may not be evil.
  • It's also worth noting that the majority of evil crap that happens in the official setting is not instigated by Death Gods, but by Trickster Gods (particularly Loki) and the Titans (who are just as likely to be examples of Light Is Not Good).
• Deity of Human Origin: Exaggerated in 2E, where not only can Scions become gods, Demigod states that the vast majority of gods were once mortal; aside from the ones for whom apotheosis itself was part of their legend, Fate simply rewrote history so they were always a god. (Please note the definition of "mortal" is fairly large in 2E; Denizens, sentient supernatural beings, are technically mortal.)
• Depleted Phlebotinum Shells: Certain first edition boons (specifically Fire 4: Flamin' Bullets, Sky 6: Levin Fury, and Sun 4: Flare Missile) allow a player to use the elements themselves as projectiles for ranged weapons. In addition, relic weapons can be supernaturally enhanced (with increased accuracy, responsiveness, and stopping power).
• Deus ex Machina:
  • Weaponized in the Magic purview. Played with in that Fate can intervene in any way it sees fit (whether the drowning Scion is saved by a pod of dolphins or a mortal Boy Scout)
  • And it comes with a price - invoking Fate in this manner results in a Fatebinding, and always a pretty strong one.
• Devil, but No God:
  • In first edition, the various Gods and Titans are all eventually killable making them simply more powerful forms of mortal life. There is a Titan imitating God, but God as a Supreme Being and Creator of All does not appear. The closest you get is Fate itself, but that is controlled by mortals. There are a fair number of beings that appear to be Christian but are actually divine identity hijackers (which is an easy way of gaining legend and power). There is mention that Jehovah actually existed but promptly disappeared and was replaced by Aten who is a frickin Titan. Pan has taken on the role of Lucifer and because of fatebinding actually BECAME demonic. Then again, it's not as if The Devil is present in the setting either.
  • The 1e Companion reveals that the Abrahamic God does not exist - anymore, at least, and if he ever lived he was a normal God. Aten hijacked his image as part of a Xanatos Gambit that spectacularly backfired when the Order of Divine Glory developed an ideology anathema to the Titan. He may someday, though, if the Order has its way...
  • 2E downplays this; it's outright stated that the Judeo-Christian-Islamic God may be a Mantle - and given how Mantles work, vice versa - of 'Ila, the king of the Ilhm, the Phoenician Pantheon, but that is up to the Storyteller. If he is, then it is an outright subversion, as 'Ila is magnanimous, kind, and wise, even allowing other pantheons to be worshiped at his religion's temples and letting the nicer of the two Satanic Archetypes of the Ilhm, Anat, to say her piece at meetings.
• The Dividual: In 2E, some gods are packaged into a duo, such as Chicomecoatl and Centeotl, Nehalennia and Nodens, and the Barons (who are a Trividual). There's very little mechanical differences between one or the other.
• Divine Chessboard
• Divine Conflict: The basic concept - primarily between the pantheons and the Titans, but also within and between the pantheons as well.
• Divine Parentage: Every single player character. It's kinda the point, after all.
• Does Not Like Men: Amazons, available as antagonists or Followers (only for female Scions) are described in the 1e Hero book as "bisexual misandrists." They view men, even male Scions, as at best temporary allies against a great threat, and more typically as just glorified sperm donors to help make more Amazons. This might be a one-night stand or becoming a full-blown Breeding Slave, pumping babies into as many Amazons as possible before the poor guy's virility is worn out. Some don't consider this to be that bad a fate, though.
• Doom Magnet: Fate sees to it that Scions are never bored. Bad things constantly happen around them. Given their power level, they can deal with it, but still, it's got to get annoying/scary/hideously depressing.
• Eldritch Abomination:
  • The Titans. They not only are free of any human shaping, making them hard for the human mind to comprehend, but they also shape reality simply by existing. The one that most stands out, however, is Hundun - Chaos. Unlike other Titans, it can't be defined in any way. Canonically, it is one of two Greater Titans that never got imprisoned nor submitted to the gods. The other was Vritra, Titan of Drought, but while Vritra avoided imprisonment by shrinking until they couldn't find it, Hundun simply can't be imprisoned. Fortunately, it can't define itself, so it's not very proactive and doesn't have Avatars like the other Titans.
  • Unfortunately, that doesn't mean good things for its pantheon adversary, the Chinese Celestial Bureaucracy, who'd easily crush a well-defined enemy with a well-organized force - if there was something definite to organize against.
• Eldritch Location: Terra Incognita (Anea, Horai, etc.) are Earthly locales that are literally impossible to reach if you don't have Legend, since they are fundamentally an Important Place in folklore. Then there are Touchstones, which are the Overworld embodiment of Important Types of Places, like the Great Hall. Most of these are of human origin, but a few are embodiments of "the wild places", and thus focuses for the Titans' chthonic power. If you plan to visit, bring supplies.
• Elemental Plane: All of the Greater Titans seen as of yet. Of those that haven't been, it's safe to assume that the vast majority also are.
• Enchanted Forest: The Dark Woods is an archetypal forest in the Overworld where the only real defining geography is "lost".

• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • The 1e Companion takes pains to note that, though Loki did arrange the rise of Hitler in Germany as part of his plan to avert Ragnarok, he had no knowledge whatsoever of the Holocaust, and (along with the rest of the Aesir) takes great pains to punish those responsible, even in death.
  • This is explicitly the difference between evil gods and the Titans; on some level all the gods care about mortals and the World. Even the most bloodthirsty of the Aztec pantheon does not indulge in mass slaughter just For the Evulz and even Loki, as malevolent as he is, draws the line somewhere. For example while Loki just wants to survive Ragnarok and preferably get ultimate power along the way, Surtur on the other hand wants to burn the World to ash. And Surtur is hardly alone among the Titan avatars in wanting genocide, making the World uninhabitable or both.
• Everybody Hates Hades:
  • Averted - Hades is probably the god with the least amount of issues in his pantheon (though he's not happy about the ex-planet Pluto's demotion). The other death gods largely get a fair shake as well.
  • About the only major exception is Miclantecuhtli of the Atzlanti, who is pretty much a Jerkass - 1e Hero describes him as "suffering a permanent case of schadenfreude". Then again, with the possible exceptions of Quetzalcoátl and Tlazolteotl^note And she's a goddess of shit, none of the Atzlanti are really portrayed in a flattering light. This extends to the Scions; of the four official examples, one is a psychotic self-mutilator, one uses the flayed skin of a woman to change sexes, one is a self-hating Death Seeker, and the other, after ascending to godhood, is pretty much disgusted with his own pantheon.
    • And even that's averted in 2e, which paints Miclantecuhtli—and the Teōtl as a whole—in a much better light.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Greater Titans are so unable to comprehend anything - least of all why their children, the Gods, are so interested in saving the World - that they had to create avatars to even start getting it. And the avatars still don't understand all of it.
• Evil Virtues: Almost literally named. Unlike the other gods and Scions, who have Virtues such as Honor, Expression, Duty, etc., titanspawn and the Titans have Dark Virtues - Ambition, Malice, Rapacity, and Zealotry (in 1e) and Fecundity, Rapacity, Dominance, and Submission (in 2e).

• Fantasy Pantheon: The original's Demigod book had the gods of Atlantis as an example of using a pantheon not drawn from existing mythology. They were brought back in 2E's Companion in a section that gives tips on using the system to create your own gods and setting.
• Finger Poke of Doom: The "Making It Look Easy" and "One-Inch Punch" knacks for Epic Strength are all about this, in different ways. Making It Look Easy lets you perform feats of strength without appearing to break a sweat, while One-Inch Punch lets you deliver full-impact blows regardless of how little you move.
• Gender Bender: The Epic Appearance Knack "Undeniable Resemblance" lets Gods (and Scions, and Titanspawn) pull this off. They are even fertile in their new form, allowing those changed into male form to impregnate women and those changed to female to bear children.
• Ghostapo: In first edition, both the Allied and Axis forces were using Scions and divine power in World War II, which was known as the Axis War by the gods (due to the fact that they were trying to conquer one another's Axes Mundi while mortals fought over the world).
• Glamour: With high enough Appearance and Charisma.
• Glorified Sperm Donor:
  • Scion reactions to learning they have divine parentage are... mixed. Among 1e's sample characters, Kane actively hates his divine mother and Donnie is disgusted with his, while the others tend to be more "I wish they'd respect me more, but eh."
  • Sun Wukong takes this to extremes. Most of his kids are the results of one night stands that he never even intended to make a scion from. So when someone mentions "Hey, this kid's chi really feels like yours...." he ends up hastily slapping together some relics and sends them on their merry way.
• God Is Evil:
  • In first edition, the closest thing to the Abrahamic God to be found in the setting is Akhetaten, the Titan of Light, and it would appear that anything genuinely good to be found in the Judeo-Christian-Islamic religions stems from misinterpretation of his attempts to rule everything.
  • ... assuming that the actual Abrahamic deity was not in fact replaced by Aten millennia ago, as is hinted at. The Hands, for instance, are explicitly stated to not be real angels, but Titanspawn Aten deliberately made in their image.
• A God Is You: Once you reach Legend 9. The character gets automatic upgrades to all Epic physical stats and Epic Appearance, they gain the ability to create avatars, the Boons they have access to jump in power significantly, and that's in addition to all the power they had as a Demigod.
• God's Hands Are Tied: There is a good reason gods no longer openly manifest themselves to humans, and in fact shun worship. It ties them up to Fate, and they don't like it. Except for the Devas, who seem to accept it, possibly in return for the fact that, as the pantheon with the largest extant worshiper base, they have greater power.
• The Gods Must Be Lazy: They do tend to leave their children to sort things out on their own. And justified; it's stated in 1e's God that the Gods have their hands full holding the Titans at bay in the Overworld, and just performing the Visitations for their new Scions is risky both because the Gods have to power down and become weaker to enter the World without incurring Fate's unwanted and undivided attention, making them vulnerable to Titanspawn, and because it takes them away from the main front of the war that is implied not to be going well.
• Good is Not Nice: The Atzlánti are described this way in the introduction to their section in the 1e core book:
  [Even] if the other Gods deplore the Aztec Gods' methods, they cannot deny that at least the calendar proceeds in its usual and expected way.
  • Downplayed in 2e. The Teōtl are reworked to be far more altruistic, and their signature Purview is about repaying their sacrifices. They're still not nice, but compared to 1e, it's more Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
• Good Parents: By comparison to a lot of the other Gods, Baron Samedi. He tends to be a part of his kids' lives growing up and ensures his Scions follow him in the family business.
• Guns Are Worthless: By accident or by design, 1e's official ruleset seems weighted against Scions who wish to use modern weapons. Firearms are the only weapons that don't get stronger with high attributes, making them extremely weak in Demigod and higher. For some reason Bows and even Crossbows DO get a strength-bonus though. There are numerous fan-created Knacks and house-rules that ameliorate this, but there was never an official solution.
• Heel–Face Turn: Titanspawn can officially cross over from the side of the Titans to the side of the Gods. Not only are multiple examples of this given, but actual rules for helping to "convert" a Titanspawn are given in the Ragnarok sourcebook.
• Heroic Lineage: In first edition, Scions are expected to take after their divine parents in personality as well as ability, with the writeup for each god going into specifics. Since those specifics are intended for presumably-heroic player characters, the former trope is more likely to be played up than the latter. For instance, Scions of Set are known for doing Dirty Business, Scions of Tezcatlipoca stir up controversy for a cause, and Scions of Kalfu are likely to be Driven to Villainy troublemakers more than actually malicious. Those fathered by Caligula, who's detailed in the WWII supplement as the reason the Greek Gods are supporting the Axis, on the other hand, are just terrible people.
• Hollywood Voodoo: The line takes great pains to avert it as far as the Loa are presented. Sure, there's a bit on Baron Samedi and zombies - but then, there's also quite a bit on Damballah, Erzulie, Ogoun, Legba...
• Homosexual Reproduction: The sample Scion of Kali, Annie X, is revealed to have been created when Kali took on a male form and impregnated her mortal mother. So far, she remains unique in the sample Scions to have originated that way, but theoretically any God or Goddess with the right focus on Epic Appearance could do so. Loki, for obvious reasons, is an excellent candidate for having done this.
• Humongous Mecha: The Colossi. Also the "true form" of Surtr's fortress in Muspelheim.
• It's All About Me: Effectively weaponized by Aten, whose egotism is such that he is completely invulnerable to damage from anything he hasn't acknowledged the existence of... including all entities separate from himself. That's right: the first phase in the battle with Aten is a philosophical debate.
• Jerkass Gods:
  • Given the base material, it's not surprising Scion has a lot of these - or that a player can become one of these. Special notation must go to Poseidon, who actually gets a new level of Jerkass given to him by the revelation of how the Minotaurs were made in this setting.
  • The Atzlanti are the only pantheon to still require human sacrifices, to the point that their pantheon purview is fuelled best by it. The Aztec Death God is also the biggest jerk of all the canonical death gods, even compared to Hel or The Morrigan.
  • Much less common in 2E, which paints the pantheons in general in a more positive light.
• Lemony Narrator: 2E's Shén overview, to reflect the rather casual nature of most Chinese myths.
• Light Is Not Good: Akhetaten, Egyptian Titan of the Sun, and malignant narcissist who believes himself the one and only true God - and violently willing to correct erroneous reality that claims otherwise. He even hijacked Crystal Dragon Jesus, creating fake angels called the Hands of Aten.
• Lighter and Softer: 2E compared to 1E. Keeping in mind that the World is still a dangerous place, overall 2E leans in a slightly more optimistic direction than its predecessor did.
• Like Father, Like Son: Scions sometimes hew very closely to their divine parent. The signature Scion of Horus, for instance, is driven to seek justice against his fratricidal uncle Seth. In first edition this was mechanically encouraged by making it significantly easier for Scions to gain and raise traits they had in common with their parents. In second edition, a Scion just needs to share one Purview — an area they have power over, such as Fire or Sun — and one Calling — a mythical role such as Warrior or Lover — out of three with their parent, and otherwise have no mechanical incentives to resemble them.
• Lonely at the Top: Can be applicable in this setting, once a PC reaches apotheosis (considering that you'll be very much a junior deity in your pantheon, and your contact with your Band-mates from other pantheons may become very limited). Indeed, the signature characters seem to be suffering from this in the opening fiction from 1e's God: Horace is chafing in the celestial equivalent of a desk job, Donnie and Yukiko are essentially glorified errand boys (well, errand girl in Yukiko's case) for their parents, and Dr. Tigrillo finds himself philosophically isolated from most of the other Atzlanti. Only Eric and Brigitte seem to be fitting into godhood comfortably.
• Lovecraft Lite:
  • Very much so. The closest things to truly unknowable beings (the Greater Titans) aren't truly malevolent (hell, a possible ending to Ragnarok involves convincing Muspelheim that it's in his best interests to only burn away the toxic parts of the Earth), and much of the theme involves taking the "chaotic, dark power" and either kicking it across the room or turning it into something useful.
  • The very point of Masks of the Mythos, a supplement about Cthulhu Mythos in Scion - more specifically, how to play Scions of the Mythos, who do not inherently lose their human moral compass at all. In fact, a heroic Mythos Scion is probably the worst enemy a genuinely malicious Mythos cult has, and one of the factors of Awareness is its capacity to Screw Destiny; part of the appeal of the Old Ones is partial freedom from Fate.
• Mad Scientist: Angrboda, who wants to discover the secrets of ichor and giant blood, then impart it to mortals, and has done countless inhumane experiments, including some with Nazi doctors, in her attempts to do so.
• Masquerade: This was implied to be the case in the 1st edition, with the books mentioning mortals seeing massive fire giants as irregularly large people with severe burns, the fictional adventures always taking place outside the public eye and the world being described as looking, on the surface, just like our own. Unfortunately, the books included no details on how to enforce such secrecy in play, with the amount of power given to the players making it all but impossible, outside of GM's fiat, to stop them from irrevocably changing the world by punching a dragon straight through the Empire State building. Imagine trying to maintain the status quo of The World of Darkness, but instead of vampires, it's Marvel superheroes who are walking around. The 2nd edition decided to make away with the silliness and just go for an explicit Alternate History Urban Fantasy setting.
• Masquerade Enforcer: Deific Fatebinding. Here, Fate is the collective force of humanity's mythologies, narratives and stories about how the gods and other supernatural creatures work. Basically, the memes about the gods. In this setting, these memes can have a binding effect on the Gods, forcing the Gods to act in ways that conform to those memes. This is known as Deific Fatebinding. Whenever they do act in the world, the Gods therefore act in ways that are subtle and hidden from humanity, lest the stories generated from open action Bind them to roles they don't want.
• Mayincatec: The Aztec pantheon is included.
  • As of 2E, all three Mayincatec cultures are represented: the Aztec (Mexihcah) Teōtl, the Incan Apu, and the Mayan K'uh.
• Meaningful Name: Scions tend to have these, as Fate likes to make their origins clear.
• Mission from God (literally)
• Mood Whiplash: The painful puns of the characters' names and backgrounds don't really mix well with the gritty setting and storyline.
• Mother of a Thousand Young: Gaia and Kamimusuhi.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: The Hekatonkheires are Blob Monsters the size of a small town, but they are capable of creating as many arms as needed^note Although Scion: God notes that that if they create more than 100 arms spreads out the Hekatonkheire too thinly to adequately defend itself, and most of the Dodekatheon agree that if all three were to attack Olympus together, Olympus will fall.
• Multiple-Choice Past: What the entire setting basically becomes in 2e, with no attempt made to reconcile the different mythologies and have a central backstory for everything anymore. Which creation myths are true? All of them. None of them. If you ask the gods, they'll just say they're right and everyone else is wrong out of simple pride.
• A Mythology Is True: The campaign of Ragnarok assumes a setting in which only Norse mythology is true.
• Mythology Upgrade: Isn't it amusing how advanced technology can improve already deadly Nemeans? Examples include Centaurs as half-human and half-Harley-Davidson motorcycle, Scylla having machines replace its monster heads and Surtr's main fortress in Muspelheim being able to transform into a Humongous Mecha.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: The main villain is named Kane? His right-hand man is named Seth?! His con man associate is named Sly Guiler?!? His girlfriend is named ORLANDA?!?!?
• Never Was This Universe: The presence of the divine in the history of 2e's World has resulted in a present-day setting that's much like our own in the broad strokes, with certain differences apparent on closer inspection.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • Kill Surtr? Congratulations, now fire is completely uncontrollable! Kill Gaia? Watch the World wither and die! Kill Aten? Hope you like eternal, endless night! Okay, the series never gets specific, but there's a reason the Gods sealed the Titans away rather than just killing them. The one time they did, they killed Ymir and ended the Ice Age... which then spawned The Great Flood.
  • Pan was already feeling ticked off against the Dodekatheon, but it took the deliberate efforts of early Christians to correlate him with Satan to give Fate the extra momentum to push him into becoming a Titanspawn.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Scion: Extras, an April Fools' Day supplement, features Amatsukami Scion 'Sci', inventor of "Scion Style", riffing on PSY and Gangnam Style (with lyrics for "Scion Style" provided). Somewhat closer to home is Tuatha Scion Jack Caricature, a game developer who herds cats - a good-natured spoof of former Scion 2e developer Joe Carriker.
• No Honor Among Thieves: Two Titans have serious internal conflict amongst their Avatars. Every avatar of Muspelheim except Prometheus will turn against Surtr, once he fulfills his role in Ragnarok. In Drowned Road, Ran will attack Mami Wata once their plan to drown the Earth is complete. Nu, meanwhile, is hiding, waiting for its opportunity to strike at other avatars.
• No Such Thing as Wizard Jesus: Avoided for the most part, since the setting's superpowers are divine miracles, but the Trope Namer is a special case. In first edition, while the Abrahamic God may be evil (if he is Aten, if Aten is aping God however then the jury is out) and the Holy Grail exists, Jesus is left alone. In second edition All Myths Are True including the Abrahamic ones, but there's a moratorium on official content for them that ensures questions like whether Jesus was a Saint, Prophet, or Scion remain unanswered.
  • Buddhism in 2e is... complex. To the Devas, Gautama Buddha is an incarnation of Vishnu. The Buddhists disagree, to the point of getting into fights (and Buddhism is not considered part of the Deva religions in the books). There is a separate Buddhist pantheon, the Palas, and there are a number of gods of other pantheons who are Buddhist, or even Buddhas themselves (such as Sun Wukong).
• Noble Demon: The 1e Companion adds two as rather unusual Guide Birthrights.
  • First is Mara Secare, a succubus who was freed from the underworld in the wake of the Titans' escape. She helps Scions because she likes the world of flesh, and wants to be good so that she can stay and enjoy living.
  • Second is Tetsu Debu, an oni who made a Heel–Face Turn after listening to an old monk when he took shelter in a tiny mountain shrine. He's still a Big Eater and brutal in battle, but is loyal to any Scion who takes him on.
• Odd Job Gods: Scion: Extras collects a number of obscure real-world gods (yes, there really are Chinese toilet deities) and their Scions.
• Omnicidal Maniac: Two titan avatars, Nu and Shu, have very simple goals - they want to turn the world into nothing else but their preferred element (water for Nu, air for Shu), where no creature, not even the avatar themselves, exists. They're a contrast to the typical Omnicidal Maniac, though, as Nu is reclusive and patient whle Shu is calm and peaceful. Fortunately, neither of them are the dominant avatar of their Titan. Then 1e Companion introduces Crom Cruach, the Greater Titan of Earth, whose goal is equally simple: crush all things into rot and decay, then die itself.
• Order Versus Chaos:
  • Explicitly defined as part of the core rules in first edition — normal Virtues define a code of behavior, while the Titanic Dark Virtues are raw survivalism, with a side of selfishness.
  • 2E downplays this; Divine Virtues are recognizable as moral behavior (and thus accept human limits), but Titanic ones are defined by the Purviews the Titan has, without concern for moral behavior at all. Plenty of Titans have one Titanic Virtue and one Divine Virtue, however, especially ones known to be fond of humans without actually believing they are more important than their concepts or working with Gods.
• Our Mages Are Different: In 2E, Sorcerers are people who have learned to channel power outside Gods or Titans, while not having any inherent link to it. Gods tend to look down on them, as one of the most common ways for them to gain magic is to steal it through Invocation (pretending to have authority of the gods when they don't possess it — that would be Patronage), but only a fool disrespects the determination and cleverness required to be one.
• Our Minotaurs Are Different: The Minotaurs are a One-Gender Race of humanoid bulls likely to be encountered as opponents (and, possibly, followers) of demigods. It turns out that, in 1e, the Cretan Bull actually raped first Pasiphaë and then any Cretan woman it could find after emerging from the sea, as none of the Cretans would even dare to try and corral it for fear of Poseidon's wrath. Poseidon made no effort to stop it; they were saved from its rampages only when Heracles came and took the Cretan Bull as his Seventh Labour.
• Our Monsters Are Different: Pretty much all of the attached subtropes can be found in Scion to one degree or another, with various monsters showing different levels of alteration from their mythological origins. Different kinds of vampires range from heart-eating, bat-like Camazotz through to bald-headed, pointy-eared Vrykolakas. Therianthropy consists of a three-stage infection which sees a were-beast gain greater control over their transformations in exchange for becoming increasingly enslaved to the Titans. Numerous other examples abound.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Just about every Scion in the game easily has the potential to become one...to say nothing for the gods or the titans.
• Pluto Is Expendable: And Hades is not pleased.
• Pocket Protector: Given as an example of the powers of divine intervention as it applies to The One God.
• Powers That Be: You're their kids! They probably don't like you anyway!
• Precision F-Strike: In 2e's Hero book, it's noted that despite what Rama suspected, Sita's virginity was indisputable, "not that it should fucking matter".
  • Though the waters there are a bit muddy, as Titanomachy unveils Saita, a rakshasi Titan who claims to be the lovechild of Ravana and Sita, with the claim that Sita's capture by Ravana was faked and she actually went with him willingly to escape an unhappy marriage. Of course, with all myths being true, both states could be the case at the same time...^note Or she could just be lying.
• Public Domain Artifact: Part of being enlisted in the divine conflict in this game is your godly parent giving your character gifts with supernatural powers. These can be everyday items with divine qualities, but of course a lot of Scions have famous divine weapons or other treasures as their gifts. For example the sons of Thor and Sun Wukong from the pregen characters have a piece of their divine father's Iconic Item worked into a weapon for them. Another one has the sword Kusanagi (correctly depicted with a straight blade) and the Magatama as gifts from her father.
• Rage Against the Heavens: The Titans have a bad grudge against the gods. Also the Keepers of The World, but they're pretty good at hiding it.
• Reality-Breaking Paradox: Fate decrees that everything in the World has some significance. Awareness (introduced in Masks of the Mythos) is about the discovery of how insignificant humanity is in the grand scheme of the cosmos. Whenever these two things mix, reality suffers the equivalent of a Logic Bomb and Mythos Scions deal with...strange effects.
• Religious Horror: But of the non-Christian kind, unless of course you're dealing with the Church of Divine Glory and Akhetaten.
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: The only 1e sample villain who's an irredeemable monster is Seth Farrow, who ultimately becomes the God of Snakes.
• Required Secondary Powers:
  • In first edition, the first dot in each Purview is usually something completely innocuous on its face, but which you will dearly wish you'd picked up if you try using one of the more advanced powers without it.
    • Example: Ain't No Rule that says you have to take "Fire Immunity" as a boon, but it's a bit embarrassing when you're the only God of Fire that gets burned by his own flame. Similarly, if you don't take "Frost Immunity", you can't use any of the ice-shaping boons of the Frost purview without freezing yourself.
  • Second edition changes things by adding an innate power to each Purview, many of which were the one-dot Required Secondary Powers of first edition. Tradeoff being that now it's twice as expensive to buy a Purview through an item.
• Rule of Cool: Stunting, a literal rule. The more badass you make it, the better it works. White Wolf first used this idea in Exalted.
• Running Gag: "What the heck happened to my -insert item here- ?" Appears at the end of the fiction section that starts each first edition core rulebook.
  • Hero: "... car?"
  • Demigod: "... guns?"
  • God: "... necklace?"
• Sadly Mythtaken:
  • Done deliberately with the Hands of Aten - Thoth classifies the weakest type as Cherubim, despite that being the second-highest rank in tradition, because humanity keeps getting it wrong.
  • Quite a bit of the gods' associated powers have no basis in mythology at all. Ragnarok contains a sidebar that openly admits the game makes stuff up when myth can't justify something, since sticking only to mythological sources would make a number of gods completely unsuitable as parents to Scions.
• Screw Destiny:
  • Played straight and subverted. The Scions, being the spawn of the gods, are no longer bound by fate's script. Subverted in that when you do use your god-given powers you run the risk of fate doing a rewrite and forcing some mortal nearby to become your sidekick, and from now on they will show up where you are for no discernable reason and feel some emotion towards you, again that they can't quite understand. Subverted even harder with the gods themselves as the reason why Zeus doesn't appear in front of mortals or Osiris doesn't show up in Egypt. Get too close to mortals and they get stuck in fate and have to follow the script.
  • Gods are actually bound to "the script", but they are more capable of breaking it. This is implied to be the reason why Zeus is such a manwhore... if enough people believe that a god is like that, he will get the urge to be like that.
  • It is implemented in the rules too. If you are around a person who is Fate Bound to you, you get bonus dice if you act in the way they expect you to act and penalties if you defy their expectations. So if several people watching are convinced that you are a sociopath and are going to murder the mentally disturbed hostage taker rather than talk him down and get him medical treatment, that may soon become your only viable option!
  • And if you are a mortal who happens to have really pissed off Fate in some way, it may retaliate and gift you the power of Doomsaying-not not only are you instinctively aware of everything bad that's Fated to happen, listening to you hypnotizes people into guaranteeing it happens.
  • This is a major plot point in Ragnarok - sparing Hod (Baldur's accidental killer) really derails the prophecy (he trades his life for Baldur's, Loki is never imprisoned, Thokk is revealed to be Baldur's Yandere wife...). And that's only one of the things that can be done; it's quite possible to kill Garm before he gets Tyr (which is actually rather easy for a God, he being a Demigod-level adversary, although there's a sidebar in Ragnarok about how to power him up to fight god-tier characters), or convince Fenris to sit out the battle in return for allowing him to live in the Dark Forest.
  • 2E plays with this; it becomes harder and harder to Screw Destiny the greater in power you are (it's the one thing that keeps a God constrained enough to not be a Titan), but Fate selects against this trope-because it only assigns Fatebound roles to people who are currently amenable to the idea (so it only make someone who already has good chemistry with you a Paramour, and only someone with reason to hate you a Nemesis). Even once that happens, mortals and people lower on the Legend pole still have mostly free will-it doesn't influence their actions, it changes probability so that actions that further their roles become easier and narratively fitting (it induces affectionate scenes around the Paramour, and gives the Nemesis lucky escapes and chances to get strong enough to pose a fair fight). And if you're a mortal, that's all it does-if you go against your role, it results in some bad luck before Fate gets the message and either de-Binds you or changes your role. Fear of stronger Fatebinding is why Gods remain hands-off (they don't want to be Fatebound to their own versions of Ragnarok).
• Sealed Evil in a Can: The Titans used to be. Of course, they still are in first edition if you happen to play during World War II.
• Seers: In addition to any Scion or God with the Fortune purview, multiple kinds of seer exist as a Supernatural Path in Second Edition. Prophets do not actually have the ability to perceive the future, but have an intuitive understanding of fate, allowing them to predict it. Since fate runs on storytelling logic in this setting, this makes them Meta Guys par excellence. Meanwhile, Cassandras know precisely what is happening in the moment, but isn't immediately visible, such as the fact that the Trojan Horse is the setup for an ambush, or that the paramedic that just arrived is a shapeshifter in disguise. Unfortunately like their namesake they are cursed to never be believed. Architects seek to defy fate and establish a different vision for the World instead, but success comes at the cost of their life. Heralds focus on the small scale, on an individual or small group, and work to support their charges' Legend, but that can be by steering them towards appropriate challenges just as much as it can be assisting them. Miracleworkers draw on fate to produce wonders, but pushing things too far risks fate reacting by making things more difficult, dangerous, and deadly for them. Oracles have a much clearer view of fate than other seers, but they still have to interpret what they see, and they are left profoundly and permanently changed by their experiences. Prophets are a potential background for Scions, but Cassandras are not and can't ascend beyond mortal tier. All types are useful allies for player characters, including Cassandras, as beings of Legend are immune to the Cassandra's curse.
• Semi-Divine: The basic premise is that you play one of these.
• Separated at Birth: Orlanda Elliot and Blair Thomas.
• Shout-Out:
  • "When your character is incapable of taking action, because he is unconscious, paralyzed, frozen in carbonite or whatever ..."
  • Title of a sidebar in first edition Hero's included story: "What's in the Egg?" First line of the article: "Gwyneth Paltrow's head! Just kidding."
  • In 1e Hero's included story, one task (assigned by Aphrodite) is to bring a strained couple to love...any sort. The default assumption is that they'll split up, but crafty players can rekindle their love for each other. The paragraph discussing this ends with "In your face, space coyote!"
  • The Mighty Thor
    • "I thought Thor was a blond."
    • And Ragnarok has a sidebar discussing the Aesir's reaction to the comic.
    • Not to mention that the story at the beginning of 1e Hero reveals that Thor has been known to use the alias Don. Donald Blake was the secret identity of the comic book Thor.
  • Freyr bears a striking resemblance to Kevin Sorbo.
  • Athena could easily stand in for a certain Chosen One.
  • One of the relics in the 1e Companion is the Gun Wing mask, which "looks exactly like a flight helmet from any modern-day anime with giant robots and psychic pilots."
  • Amleth's story in Ragnarok combines Shakespeare's Hamlet with the legend it was based on.
  • Header for a sidebar in the 1e Companion on giving all Scions the Scent the Divine Knack: "I can sense you, Highlander".
  • On the Dodekathon's individualism in Extras: "With a heavy-handed approach to individualism, has Atlas yet to shrug? Will a small group of millionaires simply quit and leave the economy in ruins?"
  • Discussing the Loa in Extras: "The more believers they have, the more energon cubes they're fed, and the more powerful they'll grow."
  • One of Br'er Rabbit's aliases is "Rascally Rabbit", heavily implying that you can make a Scion to Bugs Bunny!
• Shown Their Work: Especially in 2E, which uses a lot of obscure deities, myths, and pantheons to fill out its compendium. All fairly accurate to the source material, no less.
• Sliding Scale of Turn Realism: Action by Action.
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: The Aesir get an entire book to themselves.
  • Partially justified - there's not much better you can do for apocalyptic fiction.
  • Even before Ragnarok, the Aesir got a different background color on their pages than the one shared by the other five pantheons, and a god with the most direct involvement in the sample adventures (Loki). No one was that surprised with a supplement pushing the idea of a campaign where no other gods even existed.
• Start My Own: Second edition God will provide rules for a group of Scions to make their own pantheon together, complete with a creation myth that is retroactively just as valid as any other pantheon's. In first edition God-level Horace wants to go off and form a new pantheon with his old band, but the demands of the war keep him too busy.
• Steven Ulysses Perhero: Seems to be a common quality of the Scions. Sometimes it's subtle (Brigitte de la Croix, Scion of Baron Samedi, takes her name from Maman Brigitte, the Baron's wife, and her father's love of the crossroads). Other times... it's not (Horace Farrow, Scion of Horus, pronounced exactly the way you think it is).
• Strolling Through the Chaos: The one-dot Boon of - naturally - the Chaos Purview in 1e (and the innate ability of same in 2e), so long as one does not get involved in whatever chaotic event is occurring.
• Super Cell Reception: One of the Relics in the 1e Companion is the iGjallahar, based on the ancient horn of Nordic myth that summons the glorious dead from Valhalla for Ragnarok. It's a special cell phone that gets a signal anywhere because it transmits to a tower in the Overworld.
• Surprisingly Elite Cannon Fodder: What you become after getting Godhood in the 1e corebook campaign. You and your team are literally at the bottom of your pantheon and yet you get the mission to DEFEAT THE TITANS, the beings that have been crushing the God-realms, from the get-go. To put it in perspective, this is like starting as a demigod and having as your first mission to take down Zeus and Odin to show your mettle. Oh, and you get no respect from the higher ups while doing it. At all.
• Take That!:
  • In Ragnarok, the game discusses alternate ways to cue Fimbulwinter rather than the default meteor strike. The title of the sidebar is "But Armageddon Sucked".
  • Only Demigods with Epic Stamina are capable of surviving by drinking virtually any liquid and treating it as water, "even such distasteful liquids as gasoline, blood, pine-scented disinfectant or diet cola."
• The Thing That Would Not Leave:
  • Raiden is prone to pulling this when adopting the guise of a college student.
  • Cocomama from Extras is the divine equivalent. She wandered into the Atzlanti from the Tawantinsuyu (the Inca pantheon), and all attempts to get her to go into rehab or back to the Tawantinsuyu have so far been unsuccessful.
• Timey-Wimey Ball: As the Greater Titan of Time - but not of causality - Zrvan is this trope. Places under his influence become temporally screwy themselves (an example adventure features the Scions encountering Coyote... as he was in the Wild West, and he quickly realizes he shouldn't be there as if that's nothing strange).
  • In 2e, the entire setting is a mess of this, as becoming a God retroactively changes history so that they were always that way. The Dragons (introduced in a supplement) also have a bit of this — they remember the time before the Gods started screwing around with fate, and they have Memories that can extend into the future. Some dead dragons can actually be viable patrons to their Heirs, directing them with Memories just like any other dragon, because of stuff they set up in advance of their own deaths.
• To Hell and Back
• The Topic of Cancer: The Titan of the Blighted Earth, Crom Cruach, nemesis of the Tuatha De Danaan, is associated with stillbirth, madness, fungi, vermin, rot, mutation and cancer, and has a very strong theme of the "perversion of life". His minions, the giant fomorians, are generally horribly disfigured, and their ugliness is said to often include tumors all over their body.
• Took a Level in Badass: How the journey of the 1e corebooks' pregenerated characters through the included campaign comes off. In the span of a couple of years they came from mere Scions to the lowest-level Gods, who somehow managed to end the entire war and personally defeat all the TITANS one by one. A feat that no pantheon or Head God can ever pretend to have even thought about. And yet by stats and text flavor you are still considered a whelp against the big shot Gods who were losing the war.
• Trickster God:
  • First edition Hero offers Loki, Odin, Baron Samedi, Hermes and Susano-o.
  • As if that weren't enough, God adds Coyote.
  • And the 1e Companion adds Manannan mac Lir, Nezha, Sun Wukong, and Br'er Rabbit to the mix. In fact, it's heavily implied that Br'er Rabbit is Coyote, under an alias.
  • In second edition, it's whatever gods have the Trickster Calling. Scions of any god can also take the Trickster Calling and ascend to become new trickster gods.
• True Companions: A Band can be these. The signature-character "protagonist" Band in first edition's core trilogy seems to be this. By the time of God's opening fiction, when they are settling into godhood in their pantheon's homelands, most of them genuinely miss each other.
• Two-Faced: Hel is stunningly beautiful on one side, and very obviously a corpse on the other (she is described that way in the Prose Edda.
• Unmasqued World: While the first edition had the supernatural hidden from the everyday world, this has been relaxed in second edition. Now, the presence of gods is at best an open secret and at worst just common knowledge, with minor divine and mythic encounters ubiquitous and large scale ones just as notable as any large scale event.
• Values Dissonance:
  • In-universe, it's noted that gods of one pantheon often don't get on with another pantheon because of their very different views of the world (the highly law and discipline-focused Pesedjet or Amatsukami compared to the wilder, more chaotic Aesir or Tuatha, for example). Even individual gods can have values dissonance from their fellows depending on how they prioritize their Virtues.
  • The best example is the Atzlanti; whereas even the many other pantheons who practiced animal sacrifice have given it up, the Aztec gods still practice - indeed, demand - human sacrifice. This makes the other pantheons leery of them at best. The viewpoint Atzlanti character is noted repeatedly to find it hard to balance his modern-day human views with the views of his pantheon.
• We ARE Struggling Together: There are 6-11 different divine pantheons out there, all fighting a war against the Titans, but even against this singular goal, a good chunk of the pantheons can barely get along with themselves, let alone each other. With individual Gods' plots, politics, agendas and rivalries often pitting them and their children against each other (and that's not counting Titan-corrupted Scions), it's no wonder that often a Scion's biggest enemy is another Scion.
• Weaponized Landmark: Some believe the Statue Of Liberty, Christ the Redeemer and other large statues could be a giant war automaton if the right key is found. The statue of Vulcan in Birmingham, Alabama is confirmed to be one, but the key's still missing.
• Weirdness Magnet: Thanks to Fate, a Scion's life is never boring.
• You Are the Translated Foreign Word: In response to many complaints by fans of the 1st edition that the featured Pantheon names were historically, mythologically or linguistically inaccurate (for example, the word "Dodekatheon" specifically refers to the Twelve Olympians of Greek mythology, and as such shouldn't include Hades), Onyx Path Publishing decided to go down this route. Almost as soon as this was revealed, a minority among the fans started complaining that this didn't actually make things any better, since "the word 'Gods' in each people's language" is perfectly applicable, by the speakers of each, to all gods everywhere, rather than just the members of each culture's own Pantheon (e.g. to a Japanese speaker, Poseidon is every bit as much of a "Kami" as Izanagi). A third group argues that, with most ancient peoples having not designed their views of the cosmos with the intention of accommodating the creation of future roleplaying games and thus not having a special title for their own gods, considered to be a natural part of the world, the only intellectually honest way of going about things was to either use the boring but accurate "The [Culture's] Gods" for all the Pantheons, or to embrace the silliness fully and use whatever sounds cooler.
• You Can't Fight Fate:
  • A major aspect of the game world, and suitably represented in the rules. One of the biggest headaches the Gods (and their children) have to suffer through is figuring out how to make a difference in the world without being Fatebound into a metaphorical (or in some unlucky cases, literal) brick wall.
  • Few have suffered so much from the inescapable hands of Fate as the Aesir, the Norse pantheon. The doom of Ragnarok is so prevalent in their prophecies and mythologies, that their leader, Odin, pretty much spends all his thought and time doing two things: Looking for a way to avoid it, or making everything work out fine in spite of it. No success on the former, but potentially promising results on the latter. Key word being "potentially".
  • This is revealed to be the primary motivation behind Loki's convoluted plan in 1e's core books. He succeeds, breaking free from his Fate-given role by hijacking Muspelheim and becoming a Greater Titan himself in Scion: God.

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