BIRTHRIGHTS

Avatar: The Godhead

INTRODUCTION

The Gods do limit their involvement in the mortal realm, but they don’t send their children to war unarmed. A Avatar’s visitation by his or her divine parent invariably involves the bestowal of Birthrights—legendary servants, mentors or even creatures and relics of great power.

Possessing no Birthrights is a sure sign that a Avatar has not yet met her divine parent or guide — a status that tends to attract titanspawn for the purposes of recruitment or “preemptive disposal.” But for those Avatars who have already received a visitations, sages, beasts, armies and relics await.

GIFTS FROM THE GODS

Avatars begin the game with five dots of Birthrights, which can be divided among the Creatures, Followers, Guide and Relic traits. A player may purchase the same Birthright multiple times and assign differing amounts of dots to each, possessing several distinct relics or multiple legendary creatures, for example. No single trait usage can have a rating higher than five. By spending bonus points, a character could begin play with two five-dot creatures, for example, but not a single creature with a rating of 10. Regardless of how players choose to distribute their Birthright dots, they must do so judiciously. Additional Birthright traits can be acquired only through roleplaying, not the expenditure of experience points.

The use of a Birthright trait, in and of itself, never requires any dice rolling. Determining the results of, say, a consultation between a Avatar and his guide should be arbitrated by roleplaying instead. Dice rolls for actions involving Birthrights might still be necessary (using a relic weapon to attack an opponent, for example), but such rolls never involve dots of the Birthright trait directly.

CREATURES

The Creature Birthright represents a Avatar’s close tie to a creature of legend, usually provided by a divine parent as a mount or companion. A player has all of mundanity and literature (especially the stories of his character’s chosen pantheon) to draw upon when choosing a creature for his Avatar. This Birthright might represent a coatl, benu bird, crocodile, wolf, snake or other creature. With enough dots invested in this Birthright, a Avatar could have an even more impressive creature at her disposal, such as a kirin or a young dragon.

Although the line between animal and human intelligence is often blurred in the realms of legend, this trait typically represents creatures of roughly animal intelligence. For more intelligent beings (centaurs or tengu, for example), the Followers or Guide Birthrights are more appropriate.

The entities covered by the Creature Birthright are assumed to be quite loyal, though not necessarily to a suicidal degree. If a creature would die to protect its master, that will become clear through roleplaying. It’s not assumed merely by allocating dots to this Birthright. Communication is likewise not taken for granted. At the start of a cycle, Avatars and their pets might share a limited form of communication (a few simple commands), and they can expand on this limited repertoire as the cycle proceeds. The Creature Birthright does not endow an otherwise unintelligent creature with telepathy or the ability to discuss higher level concepts, though Avatars proficient in the Dominion of Beasts might have some advantages in this regard.

Note that the dot descriptions here are merely guidelines. A very powerful nekomata, for example, would certainly rate more than a single dot, while an infant dragon would cost less than five. Use the following descriptions as rules of thumb.

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FOLLOWERS

Many heroes of legend stood at the forefront of mighty armies, and the Followers Birthright reflects that heritage.

This trait represents the number and quality of sentient beings who are extremely loyal to the Avatar — making allowances for the variety of “sentient” beings found in classical legend, of course. Followers might consist of a small cadre of human warriors or servants, though they can also be recruited from the denizens of the realms of legend, including zombies, spartoi and even more exotic folk. As a rule of thumb, a being with intelligence and communication abilities roughly comparable to or surpassing humans are covered by the Followers Birthright, while creatures of animal intelligence (or those with limited communication abilities) fall under the auspices of the Creature Birthright. Given the breadth of human legend, this is a fuzzy line at best—the Storyteller gets the final say.

Though the trait effects listed here all assume five followers, a Avatar isn’t limited to this number. A player can opt for a greater number of weaker followers. In essence, doing so amounts to purchasing the trait multiple times. Using the listed examples, a player might allocate five dots to the Followers trait to represent 25 hoplites, four dots to represent 10 myrmidons, and so forth.

Although a Avatar’s player purchases this trait at character creation, having the dots does not imply that the character will always have access to that number of followers. If a follower dies in battle, note this on the Avatar’s character sheet in the Birthrights section. Barring a trip to the Underworld (not out of the question, considering the milieu), the follower is lost to the Avatar forever, or until other events arbitrated through roleplaying give the Avatar access to new followers.

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GUIDE

In Greek legend, the heroes Achilles, Heracles, Jason, Aeneas, Asclepius and Peleus learned archery and the arts from the centaur Chiron—quite a list of students, considering that Chiron himself was the titanspawn child of Cronus. Military mentors, spiritual guides and other gifted advisors often figure prominently in legends from other parts of the World as well. Perhaps the ancient Gods find power in the form itself, because even in modern times, they are known to bless their children with guides.

Potential guides come in many forms: sagely mortals, fellow Avatars or even legendary beings. A Greek Avatar might visit a particular grove to commune with one of the “rural ghosts.” Japanese Avatars might do the same at remote Shinto shrines. Loa guides have the jarring habit of dispensing wisdom through convenient passersby, often at inopportune or embarrassing moments for their students.

Purchasing this trait is no guarantee that a Avatar’s guide will always be available to answer questions. Indeed, the most powerful and knowledgeable guides usually have the most distractions. Avatars with guides that can be reached through a relic (see “Relics and Other Birthrights,” p. 160) will usually find their mentors easier to communicate with.

In the same vein, no guide is unerringly accurate or completely honest about all subjects. They are characters with limitations and ambitions of their own. In general, however, a guide can be relied on to fulfill his archetypal role: sometimes confusing, sometimes preoccupied, but ultimately delivering a crucial education in the way of the hero.

Because the interaction between a Avatar and his divine parent is so fundamental to the game, the Guide Birthright cannot be used to define this relationship. A few Gods contact their children almost daily, some are complete absentees, but most fall somewhere in between. Regardless, an immortal mother or father is always more than just a guide (though Gods occasionally fulfill the guide role for Avatars who aren’t their children).

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RELICS

Humans are creatures defined largely by their tools, and this relationship shows up time and time again in the legends they pass on. The tools of the Gods play a major role in defining Avatars as well. Relic, items of divine origin are always associated with one divine dominion or another; Avatars without the direct intervention of their divine parent can still learn new dominions through the acquisition of relics.

The Relic trait rating represents how many of the divine Purviews can be accessed through a single Relic. If a character has a particular Dominion, she may activate it as long as she has an appropriate Relic. The Wind’s Freedom Boon (see p. 146), for example, can be used if the Avatar possesses a relic of the Dominion of Sky — assuming, of course, that the character’s player purchased that of course, she has another relic that happens to cover that same Dominion).

Mere possession, however, is insufficient. The Avatar must also be able to use the item, which depends on the nature of the relic. Books must be read, swords must be wielded, bags of gris-gris must be opened and sprinkled. An Avatar who is unconscious, restrained by rope or chain, or has her sacred Relic buried deep inside a backpack and out of easy reach won’t usually be able to access her Relics or their associated Dominions.

An important caveat: A particular relic might allow an Avatar to use Dominions from a certain divine portfolio, but that doesn’t mean the Avatar now has access to every Dominion of that sphere. The character may use only those powers his player purchased at character creation or through the expenditure of experience points.

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