LeviathanTempest:ArchivedCharacters

Innate Division Options

Frank Trollman's Pitch - The "Type" Model

• Naga - based on the aqueous serpent people who live in Patala and will destroy the world in Hindu mythology. You get special powers related to poison. You follow Vasuki.
• Deep Ones - based on the stories of racial hatred and world destroying horror of H.P.Lovecraft. You get special powers related to madness. You follow Mother Hydra.
• Sirens - based on the ship destroying Oceanids of the Med. You get compulsion based powers. You follow Dagon.
• Kappa - based on the water goblins of East Asian lore, you get powers to spazz out and kill things with claws and stuff, you follow Akkorokamui.
• Unktehi - based on Creature of the Black Lagoon. You get weather powers. You follow Tlaloc.

This Pitch got further elaborated, with each line being named for a mythic first hybrid and having a primordial progenitor. That set is:

• Kaudinya, Progenitor: Vasuki (Nagas) (Poison)
• Obediah, Progenitor: Mother Hydra (Deep Ones) (Madness)
• Ligeia, Progenitor: Dagon (Sirens) (Compulsion)
• Yaobikuni, Progenitor: Akkorokamui (Ningyo) (Flesh)
• Devonians, Progenitor: Cipactli (Lagooners) (Weather)

Notes: Frank's pitch runs best in a game in which the progenitors have deep impact on their progeny and physical forms are 'like' across splats. This might prove a limiter on character types - i.e. the more your innate division says about what you are and do, the less variety there is.

kojitsuke_swallow's Pitch - The "Role" model (Hah!)

• Scout splat - Rivers. Her tentacles weaving between the oceans and the mountains, drawing living things into her grasp.
• Combat splat - Storms. Her claws upon the land, raging upon the homes of man and beast.
• Social splat - Lakes. Her tears which fell as she died. Nourishing life, and places of peace.
• Mystical splat - Swamps. Poisoned spittle as she fought marduk, these places of solitude and fear are filled with her secrets.
• Ruling splat - Oceans. Her body, deep and full of power, yet slowly emptying of life as her soul passes.

This got elaborated with names:

• Orcinus (Rivers) (Scout)
• Behemoth (Floods) (Combat)
• Weirdling (Lakes) (Social)
• Primordial (Swamps) (Mystic)
• Kraken (Ocean Depths) (Leadership)

Notes: These are function-roles, and could instead be articulated as "chosen" splats.

CasperLions' Pitch - The Other "Role" Model

• Judge (leader)
• Siren (social)
• Speaker with the Deep (mystic/scholar)
• Master of Sacrifices (warrior)
• Envoy (scout/stealth)

Notes: This was accompanied by the "Tiamat" model Chosen Splats.

CasperLions' Pitch 2: Electric Boogaloo - The "City" Model

• Atlanteans
• Lemurians
• The Mu
• The Ultima
• The Rama

Notes: Chose a sunken city of your choice? Obviously clashes with Mage history; it might also be a bad choice for the isolating aspects of Leviathan to have them be, at the core, about cities.

CasperLions' Pitch 3: The Bloodening - The "Lineage" Model

• Oceanids
• Taninim
• Nu
• Dagonites
• Bahamutans

Notes: Paired with the "Devotion" model for chosen splats. Current model under discussion.

Casper's additions: Some concepts and inspirations

• Oceanids: You catch a glimpse of something beautiful and human or glittering and golden and you dive in...only to be ensnared in the loving embrace of something too ancient to be malicious, something of a kind so old man has no instincts to flee it.
• Taninim: Graceful, majestic, enigmatic. You might see it once, in the distance or the rolling fog, in your lifetime and never again, even if you live by it's waters all your life.
• Nu: You'll never know where what you saw ended and where the water began, only a sense that in the wave something streamlined and vastly intelligent was looking back at you before the wave collapsed.
• Dagonites: Scales (squamous), mud from the bottom of the sea...dear god, it was there all those weeks, it WAS that giant mound in the swamp and you never noticed. Then one day, it was gone.
• Bahamutans: You washed up on the shore in chunks torn by gnashing teeth and fins. Someone, or something, had scrawled in the sand..."CHARLIE DON'T SURF!"

FiveEyes' additions: Some Suggested ideas

• Oceanids - Go with the water nymph, siren theme. Good at physical feats (Heroics, Greek-style), good at manipulating the Wake. Graceful, but not merciful. Their Lahmasu are called Sirens - pale and pretty in a very uncanny valley sort of way.
• Bahamutans - Riffing off of the tenuous bahamut-behemoth connection, they're the big, gentle-giant types. Very resilient, capable of growing to great size. They're the runners-up in the competititon for who has the most fecundicity-related power - they're the Cloverfield monster. Stereotypically mellow, but that's unreliable. Their Lahmasu should be parasite-like, maybe? Or your average Gillmen - the citizens of sunken cities.
• Dagonites - Cult-leader types, control the weather and have the most fertile blood. The Cthulhu reference, and Dagon's status as a harvest god, are too much to pass up. Obey and be blessed, disobey and be sacrificed to ensure the crops. Their Lahmasu are the Touched, Innsmouth types.
• Nu - Fluid bodies and a deeper connection to water than their fellows - the self-proclaimed rulers of the primordial waters. Adept at weather control and body manipulation - they can literally flow like water. Thier Lahmasu are frog-like and amphibian.
• Taninim - Leviathan, as the monster that swallows Job or the beast depicted in Hellmouth imagery. The Taninim are judges - the masters of the Leviathan's natural weaponry (gaping shark-jaws and the like) and with links to the power of perception. Their Lahmasu are Lagooners - territorial and dangerous.

The Lesser Lineages:

• Vasuki - Naga-like, masters of perception powers, lesser control of the Wake. Form colossal cults in remote villages. Their Lahmasu are pulp fiction snake people, naturally.
• Akkorokamui - Octopus-types, dangerous predators, aggressive set of natural inclinations/powers. Control small urban cults of influential people, devouring those that falter. Their Lahmasu are subtle - Pentex board member types.

Chosen/Social Division Options

The "Tiamat" model

Called Aspects;

• Lifegiver (Tiamat as the mother of all things)
• Devourer (Tiamat as the predator of all things)
• Origin (Tiamat as the beginning of all things)
• Armageddon (Tiamat as the end of all things)
• One (All things one as Tiamat)
• Many (Tiamat as composed of all individual things)

The "Devotion" model

• Tehom (Devotees of the Deep), "Those of the Abyss", Mystic Outlook
  • Model 1: Seek the Primordial secrets of mastery of this world.
  • Model 2: Intrigued by the Deep and the Primeval Ocean as a cut-off location
  • Llenlleawch: "We don't fit in this world. Nothing's our size, nothing's strong enough, nothing can give us the truth. If you want to figure things out, you've got to shut your eyes and listen to the small traces of wisdom that still linger, out where no-one's trod them over yet."

• Abzu (Devotees of the Celestial), "Those of the Sun", Religious outlook
  • Model 1: Believe that the Primeval realm can be restored from the Tempest back to it's original state as the Celestial Ocean of this world.
  • Model 2: Intrigued by the way things were when the Primeval Ocean wasn't cut off from the world
  • Llenlleawch: "Maybe there are some people who can live without faith. Good for them. But we've always been the representatives of physical gods, incontrovertible proof that there is something greater out there. If you find yourself in doubt, look to your kin. Their faith will lift you up."

• Enki (Devotees of Humanity), "Those of the Clay", Scientific Outlook
  • Model 1: Believe Enki was a pure Primordial descendant able to take humanoid form and think in ways we would understand, who created humanity from Primordial genetic material.
  • Model 2: intrigued by the role of Leviathans in the history of humanity
  • Llenlleawch: "We've always looked down on humans. It's easy, when you see them looking at you with those big moony eyes. But they've built this world, while anything our people did is long buried in silt and rotting algae. If I was you, I'd shut up and listen to them more often."

• Kingu (Devotees of the Primordials), "Those of the Rock", Militant Outlook
  • Model 1: Believe that the Leviathan are the surviving soldiers created for the war with the Annunaki.
  • Model 2: intrigued by the Tempest War and the enemies of the Tribe
  • Llenlleawch: "If you believe we know better because we're bigger and tougher than mortals, then you've got to figure the Primordials knew best of all. Now those were big, f*ck-off critters, and so clever no human can wrap their heads around them. Don't tell me they didn't see this world coming, and don't tell me they left no clues for us."

• Enuma Elish (Devotees of the Creator), "Those of the Ice", Social Outlook
  • Model 1: Are more interested in finding more about their origins and about the Prime Matrix/Tiamat than any other agenda.
  • Model 2: intrigued by the Progenitors and the mythical Prime Matrix from which all primordials supposedly descend
  • Llenlleawch: "There are things more clever and stronger things than us out there, but there's nobody who can take care of business like we can. In a week, I can gather ten people like you, as hard and as dedicated. Now tell me: who can stand against that?"

Notes: Devotions have been discussed as functioning like schools of thought - each Leviathan undergoes a personal relationship with their primordial history; the Devotion is determined by where they go looking for access to the past. They're named primarily for Babylonian gods and concepts, but Tehom is Hebrew; is Abzu meant to be Tiamat's first consort?

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