Pic: Mad Brew Labs

One of White Wolf’s recent ventures is a game called Scion, reports Mad Brew Labs.  It utilizes the familiar d10 based Storytelling System rules that has become the foundation of White Wolf games like the World of Darkness and Exalted.  But what does Scion bring to the game table any of the other White Wolf games, or any game for that matter, doesn’t already?

Two words: Epic Mythology.  Scion allows players to take the on role of the modern day children of the gods as they struggle against their mortal enemies, Titanspawn.   While the game could be played in any timeline, it is intended to be set in the modern world; a modern world without the bleak outlook of the World of Darkness… a more heroic world.

Scion is built on a three tier system, with a book for each tier that provides character options targeted at the character’s stage of development.  A Scion ascends to full godhood starting with the Hero tier, progressing through the Demigod tier, and arriving at the God tier.

The original three core books: Hero, Demigod, and God included six pantheons: the Pesedjet of Ancient Egypt, the Dodekatheon of Greece & Rome, the Scandinavian Aesir, the Aztec Atzlanti, the Amatsukami from the land of the rising sun, and the African-Caribbean Loa.  The new Scion Companion introduces a new pantheon, the Tuatha Dé Danann of Irish-Celtic mythology.

The Mythology

The Tuatha Dé Danann (pronounced too-ha day dah-nan) are the last non-human occupiers of what would become known as Ireland.  Their name means People of the Goddess Danu.  Having originated in four mythical cities called Falias, Gorias, Finias and Murias, where they also learned their magic and skills from the druids there.

When they came to Ireland, they found the land in the control of the Fir Bolgs.  They defeated the Fir Bolgs, who had allied themselves with the Fomorians,  in the First Battle of Magh Tuiredh.  The Fomorians are huge, deformed, and vicious with a taste for human flesh.   However, the victory was not without cost, for the king of the Tuatha, Nuada, lost his right hand in battle.  This forced the Tuatha to choose a new king, for their tradition prevented anyone of imperfect body to be king.

They chose Bres to be their new king, which proved unfortunate for the Tuatha.  Bres was cruel and forced the rest of the Tuatha into slave labor for the Formorians.  So the Tuatha turned to magic and replaced Nuada’s hand with a silver one and forced Bres to step down and named Nuada king once again.  But Bres fled to his father, the king of the Fomorians, who sent aid and met the Tuatha in the Second Battle of Magh Tuiredh.

However, the Second Battle of Magh Tuiredh was the first time the Tuatha’s Scions fought beside them and they levied the worse defeat the Fomorians had ever been dealt.  The Morrigan, Lugh, and Nuada slaughters wave after wave of the titanspawn.  The surviving Fomorians went into hiding and have been regaining their strength ever since.

Soon a group of mighty warriors came to Ireland, the Milesians.  Their force was so strong that the Tuatha ceded Ireland to these men who are the descendents of modern day Irish.  The Tuatha retreated to Tir na nÓg, the Land of Eternal Youth, where they guided the people of Ireland.

Read the full review with many more details at Mad Brew Labs.

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