Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Behind the Screen: Divining Divities II - Delightful and Devious Demigods

Demigods. Entities of power far beyond mortals and yet still nothing compared to the gods themselves. In ancient Greek myth they were the sons and daughters of the Olympians, and while undoubtedly other cultures had similar tales none ever became as well known.

Before using demigods in your campaign, the first question to ask is simple: should you?



The answer depends not just on the campaign, but on the setting. While having demigods roaming around works just fine in Forgotten Realms or Golarion, can anyone imagine a true demigod walking the streets of King's Landing in the lands of Westeros? A son of Zeus may seem out of place in a gritty, detective noir style campaign while it can work quite well in a campaign with the fate of the world on the edge of a knife.

If the answer is no, that doesn't mean that the rest of this post is useless. Just focus more on the social considerations of demigods rather than the raw power. More than one conqueror has claimed to have divine blood, prophets and messiahs could claim to be the heirs of a divine lineage.

If the answer is yes, then you need to consider the source of the demigod's spark of divine power. The most well known is of course, the half-mortal child of a god. Yet that need not be the only source of their power. A more modern example is Wonder Woman. In the comics, Hipollyta fashioned the baby Diana out of clay which was granted life by the gods. Which gods and goddesses varies from medium to medium and I am not the most familiar with the comic versions of Wonder Woman.

Essentially, choose a divine patron whether that is a parent or otherwise. Once you know which god gave your demigod their powers, you have an idea of where those powers lean. For example a daughter of Poseidon likely has some talent with water. Alternatively, you can twist the demigod's powers into an opposite of their patrons. Such as a son of Pelor having power over darkness.

This leads us into the demigod's relationship with their patron. If the divine patron blessed them with a spark of divinity due to services well done by one of their followers then the demigod likely still worships that god. If they are the child of their patron and didn't know until adulthood then there opens up the possibility for some serious parental issues. Hey no one ever said that demigods had good parents.

So you've got a demigod, how they got their power, their divine patron, and how they feel about said patron, what's next? How they fit into your campaign world. Just how powerful mortals can become in your setting determines how much of a game-changer they are on a political and societal level. If the best that mortals can hope for is to maybe kill a juvenile dragon then a demigod can change the face of the world. If you have rookie mages popping to the City of Brass on the Plane of Fire for a carton of milk, then they'll be less noticeable.

There is one respect in which demigods will influence nearly every setting: religion. The followers of a god will almost inevitably see a demigod as a religious figure, irregardless of the demigod's own opinion on the matter. It is easy to see a demigod becoming a powerful religious leader, after-all they carry a spark of their god's power.

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