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White Wolf persist in being one of the few big companies to get their PDF and web policy right. I know I mention this every time, but it continues to be worth pointing out. While they're still a little overpriced for what you get - in many cases - White Wolf are pretty much bang on and seem to understand the medium and the PDF market better than the other large companies. This is especially poignant in the wake of Wizards of the Coast getting it so utterly wrong quite recently and of Palladium finally catching on to this newfangled technology stuff and moving on from carving editions of RIFTS into stone with a bison shin bone.
Still, given that White Wolf's been consistent in this, I can no longer simply give them kudos and a higher score just for approaching e-publishing better than anyone else.
Wolfsheim is a mini-adventure for Scion, stand alone, suitable for an evening's play or as a pick-up or convention game, though it will need experienced characters to be pre-generated in such an instance. It's fairly straightforward, if a little rail-roady (as most of these adventures from White Wolf have been) and it could easily be shifted in space and time from its modern, Germanic setting to just about anywhere or anywhen.
The basic storyline is that of Yojimbo, the famous Japanese samurai story, a town caught between two predatory groups and the wanderers coming in, upsetting the balance between the people and their antagonists and, hopefully, causing a new peace to come about (through a great deal of bloodshed in the middle).
Overview
Wolfsheim is 44 pages, landscape - so suitable for laptop oriented gaming - of adventure with a short introduction and quite a few pages of organisational material, cuecards and NPC stat cards in the back. The meat of the adventure runs to about 22 pages all told with the rest taken up with the introductory material, background information, NPC motivations and the aforementioned play aids. The adventure is tight and focussed and, as well as falling within the overall Yojimbo scenario, also draws on dark fairy tales such as Hansel and Gretal and the myths and stories that circulate about the Black Forest.
Artwork
The layout in unremarkable but workmanlike, I still can't abide the layout or stylistic choices made in much of the modern White Wolf material but this is personal taste. While is biases my review it may not impact so much on your appreciation of the book. The book is presented in landscape, which many consider better for electronic products as it makes better use of the space on laptop or desktop screens. The artwork itself is a very mixed bag from a fistful of artists and the end result is that the presentation of the piece lacks a sense of cohesion, the different pieces not necessarily meshing with each other or the adventure as written.
Writing
Overall the writing is workmanlike and gets the job done but it isn't particularly inspiring or engaging, it doesn't excite you about the adventure or what is going on. The whole scenario doesn't particularly feel suited to Scion either, it feels more like it should have been written and selected for the nWoD (or even the oWoD) and it would particularly fit Forsaken or Lost. For my money it feels out of place in the Scion world and is disjointed from my expectations and appreciations of that game, which are more heroic and grandiose than this scenario encourages.
The Goblin King, head of one of the two antagonist factions in the adventure (the other being werewolves) also seemed to jarr with the overall scenario to me. Goblins always tend to feel like comic relief, no matter how nastily they're written (the Goblin in the film Catseye being one exception) and the Goblin King was no exception, every interaction with him, every quote, made me read the character like the cartoon Cobra Commander or Starscream, a screaming, egotistical incompetent that felt, as I said, like the comic relief and not something to be taken seriously.
Rules
The NPCs appear to be balanced and, while strong, there are circumstances and alliances that the players can take advantage of in order to even their odds. Taken as a straightforward fight players may find the scenario challenging - and it is combat heavy - but if they have even a modicum of cunning, or are combat oriented, they should survive the scenario fine.
Conclusion
A deeply average and slightly overpriced adventure, not 100% suited to the Scion idiom but good for a pick-up game or convention session.
Upsides
- Well presented, lots of useful help for the Storyteller.
- Extremely versatile scenario that could be used in any time period of geographic location with a little tweaking.
- Slightly too expensive (by $1-2).
- Uninspiring.
Style: 2
Substance: 3
Overall: 2.5
Introduction
Ragnarok is an expansion and adventure book by White Wolf for Scion. The book deals with the apocalypse myth, specifically of the Norse gods and, being apocalyptic, returns to many of the tropes of the oWoD. Unfortunately, in my opinion, it makes almost as bad a hash of it as the end times books of the old World of Darkness did, though it has many redeeming qualities as a publication.
Overview
Ragnarok is a hefty book at some 244 pages, not a bad size for a core book, let alone a supplement, continuing a tradition of 'fat splats' which has overtaken whole swathes of the gaming industry. The book is divided into two key sections and these are further subdivided into their own segments.
Book One - Player
- Courage and Doom - The book opens with a primer on Nordic and Germanic myths and legends which is extremely useful for those who've gotten their education on these pagan traditions from The Mighty Thor. This is really, mostly an expansion on data skimmed over in earlier books, much as the rest of this book is and, while it goes into greater detail one could get this much information - and more - from any accessible book on Norse myths, legends and religion of which there are many.
- Runes of Wisdom - This section is where you'll find all your rules. New knacks, new interpretations and spins on powers, new boons, new magic and a lot of it with idiom appropriate spins such as gaining power by drinking. There two new purviews, Frost and Illusion with Illusion being long, long overdue for inclusion in Scion, perfect for being co-opted into any number of trickster gods. There are also the usual new uses for magic and a good pile of new relics for characters to use.
- The Aesir - This section gives players a good primer on the values, culture and traditions of the Norse pantheon but, given that players have likely already been playing a while this may be a little too late. It also includes a much more in depth section on the major gods of the pantheon and includes a few additions to the original set as well as information on influential heroes and demigods, such as Beowulf.
Book Two - Storyteller
- Strange Ports of Call - This is expanded information from other books in the series again, giving more detailed explanations and descriptions of the various places, real and metaphysical, that are important to the Aesir and their enemies. Both real and otherworldly places are covered and the inclusion of an oil-rig is a stroke of genius given the importance of the sea to Nordic culture and myths. Asgard is also covered in considerable detail with expanded information on the halls and their denizens, allowing you to move a campaign up into Asgard much more effectively and consistently.
- Creatures of the Nine Worlds - Here we find our friends and enemies, the Vanir - the old gods who existed before the Aesir, monstrous serpents and wolves, spirits, undead, giants, demons, dwarves and trolls. Most of the creatures and peoples of Scandinavian myth are found here in one form or another, whether allies or enemies of the scions.
- The Ragnarok Saga/HIghway to Hel/Twilight of the Gods - A significant chunk of the book is given up to an apocalyptic, end of the world scenario that brings on, passes through and concludes the doom of the gods. Despite the flow chart diagrams this is extremely linear and despite best efforts to the contrary the players - while important - are sidelined by all the main events. While this is an improvement in scale, scope and consistency over the old World of Darkness end times it is still disappointing and the set pieces mostly occur out of sight or in the otherworlds. Most Games Master, in my opinion, could come up with a better, more grandiose and more player-involving end of the world than is presented here. Apocalyptic ideas seem to run through many White Wolf products but it seems, still, it's better left as tension and motivation rather than being explicitly spelled out because it always falls short of people's own ideas and demands from the end of the world.
An area of massive improvement in this Scion product the artwork and graphic design are much, much better. I hemmed and hawed about whether to give it a 4 or a 5 in style but with this much improvement I settled on the 5. It just feels like, unlike other Scion books, this book knows what it is and what it's about and more effort seems to have been made in the overall presentation.
Writing
The informational and rules chapters are well written and accessible but the adventure still falls flat, despite being about the end of the world, somehow the writing fails to convey that sense of urgency and excitement that should accompany such an event. The adventure itself is very linear and not particularly well crafted. I recognise the problems with publishing adventures but despite the conceits of flow charts and the helpful little hints in the margin about what to do if the whole thing goes pear shaped the adventure is still just too railroaded for true enjoyment.
Rules
The few rules are largely limited to expansions and additions, standard fare and all perfectly usable. Some of these thematic powers would also suit other pantheons and scions and so I can see the potential for a great deal of re-use, particularly of the purviews.
Conclusion
While a huge improvement on the style side and including a few useful elements Ragnarok is largely wasted on an apocalyptic adventure that fails to deliver and a primer to Nordic myth that one could get from Wikipedia. Even though the primer is a good introduction and quite well written it's largely unnecessary and the adventure feels almost like wasted space where, instead, could have been placed a primer and tools for crafting one's own apocalypse and set piece battles and events. Something that I feel would have been a much better use of the pages.
Upsides
- Massive stylistic improvement.
- Illusion purview was much needed.
- Thematic powers for the Aesir Scions are spot on.
Downsides
- Rubbish adventure.
- First chapter Unnecessary and too late.
- PCs sidelined - not really escapable when talking about gods though.
Style 5
Substance 2
Overall 3.5
Introduction
Part Four of the Scion companion is 'Secrets of the World' which is a rather grandiose name for what amounts to a grab bag of things that didn't really fit into the other sections. This is the fourth in a series of 'peeks' at the Scion Companion which is coming to print to support the main line and is much mroe general - and therefore generally useful - than some of the other previews.
Overview
This is a toolkit of ideas, devices, groups and guidelines and as such represents the real 'meat' of the Scion Companion. If this is what you like from your supplementary material than buying just this companion on PDF could represent a real bargain if the other sections of the book don't appeal so much. Here you'll find information about inter-pantheon politics, expanded rules for god-like strength, more weapons, armour and divine widgets, a new antagonistic faction based around Abrahamic religion, rules for animal and human companions, guidelines for making your own pantheons, titanspawn and relics and a fistful of story ideas. This is a dense and packed little publication and crams all this into around 30 pages.
Artwork
I'm still not a fan of White Wolf's current graphical design direction and Scion still feels rather muddy, image wise, and rather boring in terms of graphical presentation. I can't help feeling that a more OTT, graphically honed, almost cartoonish look, more akin to Exalted, would have favoured Scion more. I love the ideas and nature of the game but it just doesn't speak out of the books to me in the way other games with a more honed and targetted presentation do. The, frankly dull, presentation really gets in the way of inspiration.
Writing
This is mostly rules so the majority of the writing is workmanlike and designed to get the message across. The section on inter-pantheon politics could have done with being longer, much longer, as it stands it felt somewhat skimmed and superficial for something that I feel should be a much greater part of the game.
The Order of Divine Glory, the new antagonists, are derived from the monotheistic, Abrahamic religions. This much is obvious from the text but it felt strangely timid in its approach to this topic especially when considered in light of White Wolf's history. I don't know why this might be but it felt like the topic was being pussyfooted around. Strange for a company that has indulged some 'wiggidy whack' ideas in many of its games and hasn't been shy of condemning science and technology as a recurrent theme in its games.
The Guidelines are extremely useful for any Games Master helping to provide a framework in which you can understand the relative power levels and usefulness of Relics, powers and Titanspawn and to gauge them appropriately to the games. The pantheon creation guidelines were, particularly, a godsend (pun intended).
Rules
The rules content - while mostly guidelines rather than rules per se - is all kosher and above board and all seems perfectly competent and useful.
Conclusion
This is the meat and potatoes of the Scion Companion in one handy download, if you're more the sort of Games Master who likes to kitbash things themselves then this is the one you should buy. It's jumbled and packed and a mixed bag of lots of different things but it's jam-packed with useful content.
Upsides
- Packed with useful content.
- Very little pointless frippery.
- Relatively high value for money.
Downsides
- Expensive for a 30 page download.
- Graphical presentation is deeply average.
- A bit dense in content to read.
Score
Style 3
Substance 5
Overall 4
Introduction
Scion is about the only recent output from White Wolf that I've really cared for other than Exalted. While the game overall seems to have been completed with Scion, Demigod and God it's nice to see that it's getting some ongoing support and even more nice to see that White Wolf seems to be one of the first companies to really start taking PDF publishing seriously. There's still some imperfections, I believe the idea is to sell sections of the Scion companion bit by bit as complete PDF releases, but to omit some final sections which will only be present in the print version, but it's a big step in the right direction and one that I hope will be followed up on by other companies. Incidentally, I was about to write a Celtic pantheon fan-offering up for Scion when this came along, so they just managed it in the nick of time!
Overview
This is a nicely polished piece of work and does what it says on the tin. It provides you with the new pantheon (minus the illustrations of the old and new version gods, which was a bit disappointing) changes to powers and all the purviews, legacies and all the rest of it you could want in reference to the Tuatha Dé Danann, the Celtic pantheon. It's all here and for denizens of the British Isles and much of France that provides us with a much needed burst of more local colour to use in our Scion games.
Artwork
The artwork is very nice, better - in my opinion - than the production values of the Scion main book and more in keeping with the high production values of the Exalted Second Edition books. The one niggle I have - that continues into the critique of the writing - is the rather simplistic equating of of Celtic mythology with Ireland, thus we get a lot of Irish stereotyping, red hair, green notes throughout the artistic presentation, all it's really missing is a leprechaun and a pint of Guiness.
Writing
There's the usual White Wolf conceit of unnecessary fiction which I couldn't bring myself to read completely and I really do wish they'd dispense with when it really isn't needed but I suppose it's a hallmark of White Wolf and we might miss it when it's gone. Otherwise this is all straightforward enough explanation of rules and has nods to popular 'Celtic' culture such as Slaine interjected here and there which is perfectly in keeping with Scion's feel.
But...
As I hinted at in talking about the artwork there is a deeply annoying tendency throughout the text to equate Celtic mythology with Irish mythology, or more accurately 'Oirish', the 'Plastic Paddy'. While this isn't entirely unexpected in a book of American origin about something that does involve Ireland, Irish Americans being 'more Irish than the Irish' it is disappointing, especially since the Celts, and variations on their religion, were found throughout the British Isles, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany and throughout Central and into Eastern Europe. To fixate on the Irish in that context is a bit of a glaring omission and there's a touch of insensitivity towards the Northern Ireland situation as well. That said this is improved leaps and bounds from the horrible treatment in the old Fianna books for oWoD and you'll likely only finding yourself - as a person from Britiain or Irish - grinding your teeth periodically rather than constantly, like in the old days.
Rules
Nothing much to go into here, there's a few variations or replacements - reflecting the different nature of the culture, history and faith as compared to the more normal Scion pantheons, there's a host of items and allies lifted from the mythology and it's all handled well enough. The main rules addition is the notion of the 'Geas', a ban or pledge made by a scion of the pantheon which lends them power and a boost in 'fate' so long as they keep to the rules. Stray outside them and fate has a piss-fit, weakening you, keep to them and you remain strong. This is a great addition and very much in keeping with the Celtic myth.
Upsides
* Great art.
* Relatively clear and concise writing (for White Wolf).
* Much needed injection of Western European folklore.
Downsides
* Oirish.
* Disappointing lack of pantheon illustration.
* The 'plan' to miss out the last part of the companion, thereby making some people buy the companion twice, once in installments, once as a book.
Score
Style: 4
Substance: 4
Overall: 4
Scion is about the only recent output from White Wolf that I've really cared for other than Exalted. While the game overall seems to have been completed with Scion, Demigod and God it's nice to see that it's getting some ongoing support and even more nice to see that White Wolf seems to be one of the first companies to really start taking PDF publishing seriously. There's still some imperfections, I believe the idea is to sell sections of the Scion companion bit by bit as complete PDF releases, but to omit some final sections which will only be present in the print version, but it's a big step in the right direction and one that I hope will be followed up on by other companies. Incidentally, I was about to write a Celtic pantheon fan-offering up for Scion when this came along, so they just managed it in the nick of time!
Overview
This is a nicely polished piece of work and does what it says on the tin. It provides you with the new pantheon (minus the illustrations of the old and new version gods, which was a bit disappointing) changes to powers and all the purviews, legacies and all the rest of it you could want in reference to the Tuatha Dé Danann, the Celtic pantheon. It's all here and for denizens of the British Isles and much of France that provides us with a much needed burst of more local colour to use in our Scion games.
Artwork
The artwork is very nice, better - in my opinion - than the production values of the Scion main book and more in keeping with the high production values of the Exalted Second Edition books. The one niggle I have - that continues into the critique of the writing - is the rather simplistic equating of of Celtic mythology with Ireland, thus we get a lot of Irish stereotyping, red hair, green notes throughout the artistic presentation, all it's really missing is a leprechaun and a pint of Guiness.
Writing
There's the usual White Wolf conceit of unnecessary fiction which I couldn't bring myself to read completely and I really do wish they'd dispense with when it really isn't needed but I suppose it's a hallmark of White Wolf and we might miss it when it's gone. Otherwise this is all straightforward enough explanation of rules and has nods to popular 'Celtic' culture such as Slaine interjected here and there which is perfectly in keeping with Scion's feel.
But...
As I hinted at in talking about the artwork there is a deeply annoying tendency throughout the text to equate Celtic mythology with Irish mythology, or more accurately 'Oirish', the 'Plastic Paddy'. While this isn't entirely unexpected in a book of American origin about something that does involve Ireland, Irish Americans being 'more Irish than the Irish' it is disappointing, especially since the Celts, and variations on their religion, were found throughout the British Isles, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany and throughout Central and into Eastern Europe. To fixate on the Irish in that context is a bit of a glaring omission and there's a touch of insensitivity towards the Northern Ireland situation as well. That said this is improved leaps and bounds from the horrible treatment in the old Fianna books for oWoD and you'll likely only finding yourself - as a person from Britiain or Irish - grinding your teeth periodically rather than constantly, like in the old days.
Rules
Nothing much to go into here, there's a few variations or replacements - reflecting the different nature of the culture, history and faith as compared to the more normal Scion pantheons, there's a host of items and allies lifted from the mythology and it's all handled well enough. The main rules addition is the notion of the 'Geas', a ban or pledge made by a scion of the pantheon which lends them power and a boost in 'fate' so long as they keep to the rules. Stray outside them and fate has a piss-fit, weakening you, keep to them and you remain strong. This is a great addition and very much in keeping with the Celtic myth.
Upsides
* Great art.
* Relatively clear and concise writing (for White Wolf).
* Much needed injection of Western European folklore.
Downsides
* Oirish.
* Disappointing lack of pantheon illustration.
* The 'plan' to miss out the last part of the companion, thereby making some people buy the companion twice, once in installments, once as a book.
Score
Style: 4
Substance: 4
Overall: 4
Lux Veritas
The Enlightenment
Lux Veritas is the light of truth and the march of progress, the expression of the potential that resides in the human mind and spirit. Lux Veritas is not a pantheon of gods but rather a personification of principles arising from the better part of humanity, the part that is compassionate, rational, progressive and that banishes superstition in search of genuine knowledge and understanding.
The Lux Veritas is emergent from the ‘Noosphere’ of human thought, anthropomorphic personifications of these qualities in mankind, they demand no worship and accept no prayers, manifesting instead in the form of inspiration and the elation of understanding. For Lux Veritas there is no room for superstition, for prayer or for blind guesses, everything can – and should – proceed logically, one thought after another towards a logical and reasonable conclusion.
Today Lux Veritas finds itself under assault from resurgent superstition, the crimes of the evangelical lobby in the U.S. with home schoolers and ignorant school boards ensuring the raising of a scientifically illiterate generation, the excesses of extreme faith in the Middle East and the distrust of men of science, cheapened by the adoption of scientific language and appearance by so many adverts and so much New Age junk.
Lux Veritas’ weakness is seeming arrogance, it knows it is right and can prove so, empirically but then cannot understand why people reject this logical and inevitable reality. If the argument is logical and watertight the persistence of the wilfully ignorant is considered proof of the person’s insanity – or stupidity.
The Scions of Lux Veritas are ‘The Inspired’, Demigods are ‘Exemplars’ and their gods are ‘Paragons’, ruthlessly logical they wield rationality like a knife, are masters of evidence and embody the scientific spirit of questioning and scepticism. They tend to maintain their distance from the other pantheons, though there are obvious links with the Dodekatheon, classical civilisation being responsible for so much in the advance of human civilisation. Even so, Lux Veritas’ place amongst the other pantheons is only a marriage of convenience until the threat of the Titans is put to bed.
Virtues: Harmony, Intellect, Order, Valour
Logos
Description: Logos is the incarnation of logic, rhetorical argument using the principles of the universe to justify and explain a course of action or to dismiss that which is obviously fallacious. Logos incarnates in the form of the popular image of Socrates, a bearded scholar with a wickedly cruel sense of humour and laughter – bordering on scorn – in his eyes.
Associated Powers: Epic Perception, Epic Intelligence, Epic Wits, Guardian, Veritas, Arete.
Abilities: Academics, Awareness, Command, Control, Integrity, Politics.
Ratio
Description: Ratio is the incarnation of reason, the puzzling out of mysteries using observations, scepticism and process to arrive at the most probable outcome. Ratio incarnates as a French woman with the fire of revolution in her eyes and a rebellious spirit.
Associated Powers: Epic Perception, Epic Intelligence, Epic Wits, Arete, Veritas, Prophecy.
Abilties: Academics, Awareness, Craft, Integrity, Medicine, Science.
Evidentia
Description: Evidentia is the incarnation of evidence, the process of collecting and collating useful information from which one can proceed to understanding. Evidentia incarnates as in the form of a distinguished but distant British man, often in the form of a detective or scientist.
Associated Powers: Epic Perception, Epic Intelligence, Epic Wits, Arete, Veritas, Mystery.
Abilities: Academics, Awareness, Control, Integrity, Investigation, Science.
New Purview
Veritas
Veritas is the ability of the Lux Veritas to assert truth, to iron out reality and to slap down the supernatural and the nonsensical. In order for the power to take effect the Scion must have the Veritas power at a level equal to or greater than the effect they are preventing and it can be stopped, utterly, with the expenditure of a single Legend point. Other Lux Veritas are immune to this power.
Birthrights
Lux Veritas may not take Creature or Followers as Birthrights.
Relics
Occam’s Razor
Relic: **
Purviews: Guardian, Veritas
Occam’s Razor is an ever-sharp, never blunt, short knife that aids the Lux Veritas with the simplest solutions to the most complex problems – which can, all too often, be violence.
Gordian Knot
Relic ****
Purviews: Veritas, Prophecy
The Gordian Knot is a complex ball of golden thread that forms an almost impossibly complex enigma. As a special and unique power the Gordian Knot can be attuned to a particular problem and then solved, by the expenditure of a Legend point using Dexterity + Awareness instead of what would normally be rolled. Even if that roll fails the knot can still be cut – which will destroy it – but reveal the solution to any problem.
Philosopher’s Stone
Relic *****
Purviews: Veritas, Guardian, Prophecy, Mystery, Sun.
Much sought after by men of both reason and the occult the true philosopher’s stone is but a simple pebble, a reminder that true power lies inside oneself and not, truly, the relic.
The Singularity
Relic *****
Purviews: Veritas, Mystery
The Singularity is a small silver bead in a padded box, a physical representation of the sheer potential the human species can have. Once per session a character can peer into the bead and see the boundless possibilities of the future of a rational humanity, immortality, an interstellar civilisation, the birth of artificial intelligence and wonders we cannot even begin to imagine where all of humanity are ‘gods’. Doing so restores all the character’s Willpower and a single point of Legend.
Terrae Incognitae
The Invisible College
The invisible college is the secret university, the place where many of the truly inspired amongst humanity have learned their secrets – and more importantly the methods of uncovering secrets of their own. The Invisible College is a dreamlike place, truly existing only within the minds of humanity and their interactions. In the halls of The Invisible College one can converse with the memories of the truly great men and women of history and the unconscious minds of the modern geniuses to plumb the depths of quantum theory, cosmology, relativity and other esoteric matters of the mind, modelled in exquisite detail by the imaginations of the multitude.
The Underworld
The Garden of Memory
There is no underworld for the Lux Veritas but so long as someone is remembered or so long as their genes survive then echoes of them exist, not only in The Invisible College but in the Garden of Memory where just about anyone who has ever lived at all can be found in some form of echo, like a recording, less ‘alive’ than those famous minds present in The Invisible College but seen, heard and remembered nonetheless.
Realms of the Gods
The Noosphere
There is no heaven for the Lux Veritas, they have no pretensions about what they are, they come from the human, they are part of the human. The Lux Veritas realm is the Noosphere, the sphere of human consciousness, imagination, thought and dream. An ever shifting landscape made up of memory and dream in which the Lux Veritas and their Paragons can dwell in the never-ending ebb and flow of human imagination and possibility and from here they can inspire and direct.
The Enlightenment
Lux Veritas is the light of truth and the march of progress, the expression of the potential that resides in the human mind and spirit. Lux Veritas is not a pantheon of gods but rather a personification of principles arising from the better part of humanity, the part that is compassionate, rational, progressive and that banishes superstition in search of genuine knowledge and understanding.
The Lux Veritas is emergent from the ‘Noosphere’ of human thought, anthropomorphic personifications of these qualities in mankind, they demand no worship and accept no prayers, manifesting instead in the form of inspiration and the elation of understanding. For Lux Veritas there is no room for superstition, for prayer or for blind guesses, everything can – and should – proceed logically, one thought after another towards a logical and reasonable conclusion.
Today Lux Veritas finds itself under assault from resurgent superstition, the crimes of the evangelical lobby in the U.S. with home schoolers and ignorant school boards ensuring the raising of a scientifically illiterate generation, the excesses of extreme faith in the Middle East and the distrust of men of science, cheapened by the adoption of scientific language and appearance by so many adverts and so much New Age junk.
Lux Veritas’ weakness is seeming arrogance, it knows it is right and can prove so, empirically but then cannot understand why people reject this logical and inevitable reality. If the argument is logical and watertight the persistence of the wilfully ignorant is considered proof of the person’s insanity – or stupidity.
The Scions of Lux Veritas are ‘The Inspired’, Demigods are ‘Exemplars’ and their gods are ‘Paragons’, ruthlessly logical they wield rationality like a knife, are masters of evidence and embody the scientific spirit of questioning and scepticism. They tend to maintain their distance from the other pantheons, though there are obvious links with the Dodekatheon, classical civilisation being responsible for so much in the advance of human civilisation. Even so, Lux Veritas’ place amongst the other pantheons is only a marriage of convenience until the threat of the Titans is put to bed.
Virtues: Harmony, Intellect, Order, Valour
Logos
Description: Logos is the incarnation of logic, rhetorical argument using the principles of the universe to justify and explain a course of action or to dismiss that which is obviously fallacious. Logos incarnates in the form of the popular image of Socrates, a bearded scholar with a wickedly cruel sense of humour and laughter – bordering on scorn – in his eyes.
Associated Powers: Epic Perception, Epic Intelligence, Epic Wits, Guardian, Veritas, Arete.
Abilities: Academics, Awareness, Command, Control, Integrity, Politics.
Ratio
Description: Ratio is the incarnation of reason, the puzzling out of mysteries using observations, scepticism and process to arrive at the most probable outcome. Ratio incarnates as a French woman with the fire of revolution in her eyes and a rebellious spirit.
Associated Powers: Epic Perception, Epic Intelligence, Epic Wits, Arete, Veritas, Prophecy.
Abilties: Academics, Awareness, Craft, Integrity, Medicine, Science.
Evidentia
Description: Evidentia is the incarnation of evidence, the process of collecting and collating useful information from which one can proceed to understanding. Evidentia incarnates as in the form of a distinguished but distant British man, often in the form of a detective or scientist.
Associated Powers: Epic Perception, Epic Intelligence, Epic Wits, Arete, Veritas, Mystery.
Abilities: Academics, Awareness, Control, Integrity, Investigation, Science.
New Purview
Veritas
Veritas is the ability of the Lux Veritas to assert truth, to iron out reality and to slap down the supernatural and the nonsensical. In order for the power to take effect the Scion must have the Veritas power at a level equal to or greater than the effect they are preventing and it can be stopped, utterly, with the expenditure of a single Legend point. Other Lux Veritas are immune to this power.
Birthrights
Lux Veritas may not take Creature or Followers as Birthrights.
Relics
Occam’s Razor
Relic: **
Purviews: Guardian, Veritas
Occam’s Razor is an ever-sharp, never blunt, short knife that aids the Lux Veritas with the simplest solutions to the most complex problems – which can, all too often, be violence.
Gordian Knot
Relic ****
Purviews: Veritas, Prophecy
The Gordian Knot is a complex ball of golden thread that forms an almost impossibly complex enigma. As a special and unique power the Gordian Knot can be attuned to a particular problem and then solved, by the expenditure of a Legend point using Dexterity + Awareness instead of what would normally be rolled. Even if that roll fails the knot can still be cut – which will destroy it – but reveal the solution to any problem.
Philosopher’s Stone
Relic *****
Purviews: Veritas, Guardian, Prophecy, Mystery, Sun.
Much sought after by men of both reason and the occult the true philosopher’s stone is but a simple pebble, a reminder that true power lies inside oneself and not, truly, the relic.
The Singularity
Relic *****
Purviews: Veritas, Mystery
The Singularity is a small silver bead in a padded box, a physical representation of the sheer potential the human species can have. Once per session a character can peer into the bead and see the boundless possibilities of the future of a rational humanity, immortality, an interstellar civilisation, the birth of artificial intelligence and wonders we cannot even begin to imagine where all of humanity are ‘gods’. Doing so restores all the character’s Willpower and a single point of Legend.
Terrae Incognitae
The Invisible College
The invisible college is the secret university, the place where many of the truly inspired amongst humanity have learned their secrets – and more importantly the methods of uncovering secrets of their own. The Invisible College is a dreamlike place, truly existing only within the minds of humanity and their interactions. In the halls of The Invisible College one can converse with the memories of the truly great men and women of history and the unconscious minds of the modern geniuses to plumb the depths of quantum theory, cosmology, relativity and other esoteric matters of the mind, modelled in exquisite detail by the imaginations of the multitude.
The Underworld
The Garden of Memory
There is no underworld for the Lux Veritas but so long as someone is remembered or so long as their genes survive then echoes of them exist, not only in The Invisible College but in the Garden of Memory where just about anyone who has ever lived at all can be found in some form of echo, like a recording, less ‘alive’ than those famous minds present in The Invisible College but seen, heard and remembered nonetheless.
Realms of the Gods
The Noosphere
There is no heaven for the Lux Veritas, they have no pretensions about what they are, they come from the human, they are part of the human. The Lux Veritas realm is the Noosphere, the sphere of human consciousness, imagination, thought and dream. An ever shifting landscape made up of memory and dream in which the Lux Veritas and their Paragons can dwell in the never-ending ebb and flow of human imagination and possibility and from here they can inspire and direct.
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- Postmortem Studios at RPGnow
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