Editing LeviathanTempest:ChapterFive (section)

===== Sidebar: The Sky Gods =====
How to use the Old Men themselves in your stories? It's probably not a good idea to use the Old Men as the villain of the week. Killing even one would represent a major moment in a war that according to the Tribe's admittedly shoddy records has been ongoing since before recorded history. Even if the Marduk Society isn't actually connected to the man (who might not actually exist) that killed Timat (who might not actually exist) we are still talking about the leaders, perhaps founders or perhaps usurpers, of the Tribe's most constant enemy. They're far bigger than just antagonists for a Cohort of Leviathans.

The first question to answer is why are they getting involved personally? They haven’t done so for the last thousand years. Is there a world shaking event at foot? Have the players joined or even started an all out war between the Tribe and mankind? You can't go far wrong with having the Old Men personally show up to challenge the Sheol 10 Leviathans leading the charge. After all if the very long and very profitable war is going to end they could do a lot worse than visibly picking a side. To try another angle perhaps the Marduk Idealists discovered the Conspirators forcing the Old Men to jump ship. Now have to hunt their own Leviathans. Maybe the players have dedicated themselves to hunting down the Old Men and it's time for the climax. The important thing is to make this feel historic. 

If you decide that the Old Men are Marduk's literal disciples with thousands of years of magical experience then you can do a lot worse than biblically themed magic. Not only does portraying the Old Men with the powers and trappings of a deity provide a nice foil to the Tribe's tendency to set themselves up as gods but also taps into a rich mythological vein: The ancient sky gods fought their monster: Zeus fought Typhon, Jahova defeated Leviathan and yes, Marduk slew Tiamat. Time for a rematch. 

For one final twist you could make them Atolls.