Leliel
2012-09-28, 11:25 PM
Well, over on White Wolf, a project to make the Gods of Chaos of Warhammer fame(/infamy) a possible Pantheon for use in the game has been set in motion.
Seeing as how I love the very concept of the Titans, I made their Greater Titan Nemesis. And in honor of a coming 2E that is actually playable, here he/it is and the bits I already wrote, for your inspirational pleasure!
(Also, I am terribad with crunch, so please, try to make some of these things out yourself)
Greater Titan: Alluminas (Love)
Alternative Names: Blessed Order, the Singularity, Stasis, the Cosmic Egg
Favored Purviews: Guardian, Justice, Stars, Prophecy, Sun, Fire. Alluminas' Aspects must possess one of these, but they may choose any others except its Banned Purviews, as Love is an extremely complex and nuanced concept that contains many things within it. The Banned Purviews are Animal (as beasts are too close to the Id for such a Superego-reliant concept) Chaos (as Love desires to bring disparate forces together in unity and detests change), and Mystery (as Love does not comprehend uncertainty to be solved).
Many Scions of the Ruinous Powers, when confronted with what their Titanic nemesis actually is, usually have to excuse themselves to laugh hysterically or just double over right then and there. Seriously, Love? That's what their parents are so terrified of? What, did they offend the Care Bears somehow? Did Princess Celestia of My Little Pony fame bully them in Divine High School? Do they have bad memories involving Valentine's Day?
These Scions have either never fallen in love or been in the way of someone trying to protect the thing that has made him or her do so. Or at least, are unaware they have or being terribly naive. Love is terrifying, particularly when it is filtered through the amoral lens of the Dark Virtues. If these Scions need further confirmation, here's one-like its equal and opposite sibling, Hundun, Alluminas cannot be bound-Love, in and of itself, is a form of fetter, and so any attempted bind in Tartarus was simply absorbed into the Titanrealm. If you enter the body of the Cosmic Egg, you can even visit the monoliths the Gods attempted to use in order to seal it, though it is not recommended. They have, after all, been turned into its Aspects' palaces.
See, Order is not the opposite of Chaos, Moorcock books aside. Order is ultimately a dynamic thing, hence there is a place, however small, for Chaos within it. The Greeks had it right though, when they said that it was Love that is truly the opposite. Love binds, Love fetters, Love makes everything in the life the person or beast who feels it revolve around another creature, ideal, or place, removing their free will. Loyalty, friendship, faith-all things that bind thought into forms that would never consider a certain action or always performs it are aspects of Love, even the devotion the worshipers of Chaos feel for the Dark Powers. And Alluminas is Love in its purest and more volatile state-not devotion, not romance, not even an emotion, but a force of pure restraint, that which cancels out all possibilities except for those it deems favorable to it. And therein lies the irony of Alluminas-it would strangle the world even as it embraces it, canceling out first the possibility of emotion that is not filtered through the lens of devotion to it, then independent thought, then even movement and time. A world completely in the grip of the Singularity would be, as one of the titles suggest, a static one, without even the possibility of movement until Alluminas' tendency towards unification resulted in a Big Crunch, resetting the universe.
As might be obvious from the fact it does not have all those titles, however, Alluminas, up until very recently, was regarded as a bit of a joke at worst, outright useful at best. While rogue Gods could draw a bit of its cthonic might into themselves and so become Aspects of it, they did not become true Titan Avatars, as the personal nature of Love, in an ironic twist, prevents the full unification with the Greater Titan needed for true Titanic nature. Even accounting that, the Love that the Aspects drew into themselves was filtered through their own perspectives into more nuanced, socially acceptable forms, meaning that they were the peaceful gadflies of divine society, even helping out their cousins a few times to increase the amount of Love in the world. Very recently, the Chaos Gods did not enter this world from wherever they came-with their own Aspect nemeses hot on their tails. Very hostile Aspect nemeses.
Similar enough to each other that many people wonder if they are not a bifurcated entity like Xolotol, Sigmar and the God-Emperor of Mankind both embody two different forms of Love that actively despises or is suspicious of all else not under its domain-Faith and Myopia, respectively. Sigmar's Faith is by far the less hostile, but as many unfortunate Yazata Scions who fought against the Crusaders might know, Faith cannot-must not-accept forms of worship that it does not permit. Thus, while Sigmar barely tolerates Gods not part of the Ruinous Powers, he is always carefully judging them and their followers for the least sign of things he forbids, and those who transgress his long and vast series of commandments are advised-by him-to expect no mercy. The God-Emperor's Myopia, on the other hand, never even makes a pretense of diplomacy-the Aspect hypocritically despises the very concept of Godhood for presuming that those even partially not human can rule over humans, and indeed, anything other than a human raises his genocidal ire. Unfortunately for everyone else, rogue Scions and humans influenced by Alluminas get a pass, as they have dedicated themselves to his vision of a humanity united under the power of Blessed Order-he merely treats them as expendable as the rest of his servants.
While the first thing on the two human paragons-turned-Aspects is the eradication of the Chaos Gods and everyone ever touched by them, neither is at all friendly to the other pantheons. Sigmar seems to believe that they are also daemons until proven otherwise (and even then, evidence to the contrary is suspect at best), and as mentioned, the God-Emperor loathes anything that is not a human or an "enhanced" human. Indeed, the Aspects are the primary reason why the other pantheons even barely tolerate the Dark Gods-after all, the latter may be annoying, amoral, and capricious, but at least they aren't (usually) actively trying to kill them. How long this alliance (if it can be called that) will last beyond the removal of the threat the Bright Two pose is a matter of debate (smart money is on thirty seconds, because that's how long it takes to see if a divine being is actually dead), but the Gods work under the idea that the Enemy of their enemies is their friend-and the Bright Two are certainly enough of an enemy to justify that maxim.
In terms of physical form, Alluminas is...vaguely defined. It seems strange to many Scions that such a Titan so well-known for its capacity to bind others into set forms is so hard to geographically define, but Love is very much a nonphysical concept. Thus, all but the most important locations within it are defined in narrative terms-a chasm as yawning and empty as Sigmar believes an atheist's heart to be, an ocean of tears as deep as the God-Emperor's grief for his dying Imperium, for instance. Trying to get a handle on this can be disorienting, to say the least-it requires a Legend + Perception + Empathy roll with a Difficulty of 20 every scene outside of one of these locations to get a hold on the metaphor of the hour needed to navigate, else the visitors get lost and find themselves in one of the tableaux that pop up everywhere in Alluminas. If it is a group traveling together, only one individual needs to succeed at the roll to lead the others down the correct route. If the roll is failed, roll the character's Virtues or the Virtues of the group added together in a pool against each other. The Virtue with the most successes indicates the type of tableaux the wanderers find.
As a being of emotion made physical, the Cosmic Egg constantly shapes various aspects of its form into various scenes that tweak Virtue, whether the Dark ones or one of the various Divine ones. These tableaux, as befitting such a moralistic Titan, are well, morality plays. Someone with the Virtue of Intellect, for instance, may come across a library which a group of giants fearful of its knowledge are attempting to burn down, while a different character with the Dark Virtue of Zealotry may come across a heretical Titanspawn preaching the superiority of an enemy Titan (not necessarily Alluminas-other Titan minions can enter the Singularity too) to an interested crowd. Alluminas does not care if the Virtue overcomes the opposition or not (Love is sometimes only the moral victor, after all) only that it is done in the proper thematic way. The library arsonists may be turned back by the power of a book of magic found within, while the heretic may be debated into admitting the error of his ways or his selfish motives, but just shooting them violates the rules. Breaking the defined rules of a tableaux (which are always made obvious in some fashion, even if a friendly character within it has to talk very....slowly...) alerts the Titan's immune system to foreign invaders or possibly a rogue element within it. Within 1d10 minutes, a group of 3d10 Angyls show up and attempt to subdue the character(s) and drag them off to the nearest Confessional to be interrogated as to their purpose, then to be followed up by conversion into Beloved or execution.
Entering Alluminas is easy enough, if things have gotten almost too late-as certain locations are coming under its direct control, enthralled mortals are driven to build shrines to it and its' Aspects glory, incorporating twisted religious symbols (particularly Judeo-Christian ones). These shrines serve as Axis Mundi to the Chapels of the Aspects they represent or the Universal Temple...which at this point, are almost always under heavy guard to ensure the enemies of Blessed Order don't ruin the embrace of the populous at the last minute. For less suicidal and desperate options, being within (own Legend) feet of an act of Love (intercourse between two people who genuinely and deeply love each other, a faithful person offering a sacrifice to the Gods without expectation of reward, or even someone deciding to work in a soup kitchen) works in order to bring one to a tableaux similar to the act (assuming one can drag a Slaaneshi Scion away from the first), and those same tableaux are key to leaving; if a tableaux scene is resolved in such a way that it becomes clear that the characters must journey in order to more fully grasp the Virtue it represents (the library is saved but the book promises so much more if the character could test it, or the debater is so flummoxed by the heretic that he himself suffers a crisis of faith and must seek a way to reaffirm it), Alluminas opens a portal to a place thematic to the resolution (a scenic field just begging for SCIENCE! in the former case, a great cathedral in the latter, for instance).
(And before you ask, I stole the name of Angyl from The Shape of the Nightmare to Come, after the reincarnated divine form of the God-Emperor's daemons. Naturally, they're just as bad as normal daemons)
Locations in Alluminas:
The first thing to note about the geography of Alluminas that isn't subject to narrative interpretation is that its'...rather lacking in uniqueness. True, there is only one Universal Temple, but there are about a dozen Chapels, a hundred or so Monoliths, and thousands of Confessionals...and even the Temple is more of a category of terrain within the Cosmic Egg than a proper subrealm. The answer for this is simple-as a Titan without proper Avatars, Alluminas does not possess the clarity of roles needed to form proper subdivisions within itself, only distinctive quirks of the landscape. This does not prevent the Aspects from influencing the terrain, however-the very reason a Chapel exists is as a church dedicated to a particular form of Love an Aspect follows, and they tend to influence the particular symbolism of the landscape around their domains (many would say that influence is the domain). Areas and tableaux around Sigmar take a distinctly religious and medieval cast, while the God-Emperor's realm has the grim darkness of a mechanized battlefield about its lands. This tendency is doubled in places that are directly under Aspect control-one can usually tell that a Monolith has been claimed by an Aspect as palace thanks to the massive amounts of decoration meaningful to them covering and etched into the marble stone, to say nothing of the Chapels.
The Universal Temple: The "brain" of Alluminas if Greater Titans can be said to have one, the Universal Temple is a surreal mishmash of various forms of religious site; the spires of Christian cathedrals top the domes of Islamic mosques covering the halls of Jewish synagogues, inside of which is a statue of the Buddha in front of a doorway to a sacred grove, on the other side of which is another bizarre synthesis of completely different spiritual architecture. Unlike in all other set locations within Alluminas, the same navigational problems apply to the inside and grounds of the Temple as well; as a place not imposed upon Alluminas by separate will, the Titan has free reign to create tableaux here, although they are smaller, and it possesses the same narrative structure as most of the Titan. This is neutral ground for the Aspects-while the fighting may be as brutal as expected given their fanaticism and differing beliefs, the Angyls have decreed that there is to be no fighting among the Beloved in the Temple, as part of Alluminas' decree that the Temples exists only to further Love in all its forms. Beyond that, everything is acceptable, so long it does not impede others' Love-a couple may decide to screw in the middle of a sermon, or an inquisitor may choose to barge into the Temple's archives and look for seditious material; all the Angyls ask is that the horny Titanspawn find a convenient area away from the sermon so as to not distract the preacher or the more prudish flock, and that the inquisitor have a guide to explain what is simply intel on the enemies of the Beloved and what is actually seditious.
Chapels: If the Universal Temple is the sacred ground of Alluminas itself, then the Chapels are much the same to the Aspects, serving as a very physical way of stating "this is the kind of Love I embody and seek to visit upon the world". There is one Chapel for every Aspect, and indeed, creating one is integral to actually becoming an Aspect in the first place, as such a cerebral and metaphor-based Titanrealm decrees that a spiritual undertaking must also be a physical one. While chapels are generally a term for a small shrine in the mortal world, the Chapels of the Cosmic Egg are massive constructions the size of cities, serving as home for the majority of the owning Aspect's servants, and as a base of operations for incursions into other realms, whether Earth, the Underworld, the Overworld, or other Greater Titans. Each one is carefully built to the owning Aspect's concept and specifications; Sigmar's Chapel seems like the one most deserving of that title, being a stone and iron castle surrounding a township where every building has some intended purpose in his Divine Plan with the keep being the home of his high priest, the Grand Theogonist, for instance. By contrast, the other half of the Bright Two has a clanking, grimy arcology for his Chapel, a mechanical sore on the face of the Titanrealm which packs over three hundred million Beloved humans into itself, with quality of life gradually rising from the worst of the third world into obscene decadence as one nears the top, with the spire reserved for the God-Emperor's personal aides, who coordinate the Chapel-Hive's impressive automated defenses. Unsurprisingly, these are the targets of much of intra-Aspect fighting-while destroying a Chapel does not destroy the Aspect, and none of them are nearly stupid enough to actually live in the Chapels themselves, they are, in a sense, Birthrights of Alluminas, and destroying one cripples an Aspects' abilities (to the tune of losing two dots in all Attributes and associated Epic abilities, as well as access to their Alluminas-granted Boon) while it reforms over the course of about a couple weeks, not to mention the logistical nightmare of controlling forces without a headquarters. Naturally, destroying an Aspect destroys his or her Chapel, though "ruins" of it will figure strongly into the tableaux for the next century.
Aspect of Alluminas: Lilith Kadmon
Other Names: Lilitu, Lamashtu, The Shedim Queen, The Serpent of Wisdom, That Fickle Bitch (not actually a proper name mind you, just a common refrain shared by her rebuffed would-be lovers. She does not mind one bit).
Christian-or formerly Christian, in any case-Scions know the tale; When the One God created Adam, the First Man, he desired company. Hearing the request of his creation, God took one of Adam's ribs, and made Eve, the First Woman. The primordial couple was warned not to eat the fruit of a Tree of Wisdom, but a sapient serpent (who may or may not have had limbs) convinced Eve otherwise, and so the two were cast out of the utopia of the Garden of Eden. A smaller subset of these individuals know that snake was, in fact, Adam's first wife (and entirely separate creation of God's) Lilith, who was exiled for not acknowledging Adam's authority and became the snake out of jealousy of Eve and anger at Adam.
Many feminists have adopted the story of Lilith as a symbol of a woman who resisted the patriarchy, an anti-heroine who would not be tamed and suffered for it. These feminists are more right than they know-there probably wasn't a Garden of Eden as we imagine it, but there was a Tree of Wisdom and a primordial couple with a jilted first wife. And yes, Lilith Kadmon refused to bow her head to Adam Kadmon.
What most don't realize (and in the case of certain chauvinists, cannot be made to realize) was that this was not because of Lilith being too headstrong for her own good-it was because she was headstrong enough to realize her destined husband was a bit of a dumbass. Yes, she did love him at first, as she was made to do so, but Lilith was born with the taste of the Fruit of Wisdom in her mouth, and thus, was more self-aware and empathetic than Adam-and as a woman who was quite capable of thinking for herself, she decided she'd rather be single than married to a man who's goals in life were "eat, sleep, breed, repeat". She chose exile herself, and outside of Adam's influence, her anger cooled, and she realized that perhaps the reason she disliked her supposed soulmate was because he did not have the touch of Wisdom that allowed intellectual pursuits and a true conscience. Thus, when she snuck back into the Garden as a snake and saw that Eve was just as hopelessly dim and unambitious as Adam, she decided to give them both the gift of Wisdom and lead a life as fulfilled as hers, accepting the punishment of the loss of much of her access to the Overworld (the curse to crawl on the ground and eat dust) as an acceptable trade.
Eventually, she found her way to Mesopotamia during the heyday of its Pantheon, the Annuaki,where she found (much to her dismay) that as a creature created to serve as a companion and mate to another as he to her, she fell in love over and over again, often with people that hurt her gravely. Eventually, she realized that she could no more avoid her affections than a mortal could avoid food, and so she decided to become their master instead. Coming to be known as Lilitu or Lamashtu, she became the cheerful origin of the "succubus" image, a seducer who would visit any man (and later, woman-as soon as she realized homosexuality was a thing, she made herself bisexual in order to more fully master romantic love in all its forms, though it took her a while to be comfortable with changing sexes on occasion) who caught her fancy. She would enter into their dreams and remake herself into the perfect image of his (or her) romantic fantasy and seduce them, impregnating herself with his child (or, if it was a woman, the seduced of the the child of the man she last slept with-Lilith is capable of many things, but changing one of her egg cells into a functioning sperm is not one of them). She would then carry the child to term over an accelerated pregnancy, soon giving birth to a daughter who inherited both her mother's power over the wind and dreams and carried her tameless nature (incidentally, though she would give women a son not related to her, they still would have her rebellious side and powers). These Lilim (sons of Lilith are called Cambions) would come to assist their mother in both her desire to live a comfortable, independent life, as well as find lovers of their own. Many of them would accidentally choose Scions to visit their seductive affections on, and wound up dead for their deceptive ways-understandable, given how many Lilim actually wanted to dominate their loves rather than simply enjoy their company (in more than one way) like their mother.
However, a less manipulative daughter (who's name has been lost to history) found out that, when she was honest with a Scion named Pazuzu about her real origins when lying to him became too much for her to bare, he did not strike her down. Rather, he was intrigued that the girl he had grown rather fond of was apparently exactly as she presented herself, personality-wise, and decided to keep her as a secret Guide. Over time, what was simply what we would call a crush today blossomed into genuine and mutual romance, to the point where Pazuzu started to deliberately sabotaging operations to stop (and kill) his paramour's kin. When the Annuaki realized this, they confronted their Scion and gave him a choice-end the romance with the Lilim or choose exile with her. Much like a reversed version his future mother-in-law, he choose his lover and exile. Unfortunately for them both, the Annuaki did not take rebuffing of them lightly-even as part of an explicitly offered option-and so they ambushed the newlyweds as they nestled in their bed after the ceremony, killing Pazuzu's wife in front of him. Given how skilled Pazuzu was in Health and Sky Boons, and the patronage of Lilith (who's dislike of the Annuaki hardened into hatred after this), the fall of Babylon not long after should not come a huge surprise. Indeed, the statues of Pazuzu from that point onward were meant as attempts to placate his and Lilith's revenge by showing him that he was welcome to return after the violation of trust and as acknowledgement of his assistance of Mursilis, the conqueror of Babylon.
After the true fall of the Annuaki and the cultures they sponsored, Lilith journeyed to the future site of the Roman Empire, and interacted with the young Dokatheton, who saw in her passion and self-assurance a kindred spirit, and eventually revealed to her the existence of Alluminas, reasoning that even if she became an Aspect, she would be a friend to them. The Dokatheton was not incorrect-while she did spend most of Rome's reign building her Chapel, so as to fully master Love, she has not forgotten the kindness the Greek gods showed her, and they are even regarded as on-again, off-again allies by her (though contrary to Hera's beliefs, she has not had a child with Zeus. Amazing, we know).
Now one of the older Aspects of Alluminas, Lilith embodies the two sides of romantic love-its caring, devoted aspect and its utter inability to be controlled. A patron of both gender equality and open sexuality, she got something of a bad rap (and poor Fatebind) in the repressed and early days of Western Civilization, forcing her to act, well, demonically and forcing her to be an enemy of the Gods. As the more modern, enlightened ideals of gender relations and sex have come into play, the role Fate has for her has similarly eased, though enough of the world is backwards enough in its gender roles to the point where she's still forced to act somewhat malevolently there (though she does everything in her power to make those areas more equal). More recently, she has joined the resistance movement against the Bright Two as morale officer and ethical leader, ensuring that the minions of the Aspects do not lose faith in the fall of the interlopers or that they become just as bad. In form, she is a master shapeshifter (though she lost her access to her snake form when she became a part and lord of Alluminas), so its difficult to lay down a proper shape, but her favored form is of a classical Arabic beauty with hair as dark as the night sky and a starry twinkle in her similarly dark eyes, often found wearing a modified burqua so that it emphasizes her femininity rather than hides it (although her breasts are covered completely-again, gender equality, and that includes looking the lass in the eye). Personality-wise, she has two modes-one is a calm, regal ice queen who greets any attempt to intimidate her or control her with ego-shredding sarcasm (she is a master at attacking insecurities about one's attractiveness), the other a kind, nurturing woman who wears her emotions on her sleeve (technically, she can also be a seductress, but that's a deliberately affected demeanor on her part). She also tends to switch between the two without warning, and in her opinion, if you can't deal with the headstrong alpha female contradicting you and doing her own thing, you probably don't deserve the delicate paramour, either. She is also happy to dispense romantic advice, and in particular likes helping "nice guys" who are actually trying to not infringe on a woman's rights by asking her out, rather than the more common variety who are just trying to manipulate her into sex.
In terms of the Titanomachy, Lilith is probably the part of the Alluminan Resistance that is most open to divine entreaties. Besides the fact she doesn't carry any particular grudge against any Pantheon other than the Annuaki (who may be extinct), she also quite enjoys Scions or Gods who treasure the independence and freedom of their lovers (on both sides-both misogynists and true feminazis find no sympathy from her) and may take who is open to the relationship as one of her many lovers, even offering the benefits of the Beloved condition without actually needing to be loyal to Alluminas. Fittingly, she is also the Aspect with the least amount of ability to actually turn the tide against the Bright Two-her powers are of the bower and the poet, not the battlefield and the warrior. Still, she and her children's power over dreams and espionage abilities would definitely come in handy, and getting her voucher would open up the other Aspects of the Resistance to diplomacy.
Virtues: Ambition 3, Loyalty 3, Harmony 4, Zealotry 4.
[Sidebar: Hold On, What Happened To The Dark Virtues?
Love, while often dangerous and uncompromising, is a concept that requires a certain degree of altruism. Thus, it is not uncommon-at all-to find Alluminan Titanspawn with mixed Virtues, and even the Dark Virtues are a bit tamer. Lilith's Ambition, for instance, does not require her to betray her friends and lovers to gain social position, only that she gather more power for them at any cost. On the other hand, normal Virtues can be taken to unhealthy extremes-Lilith's Harmony causes her to be a bit anal-retentive about making sure any relationship she is aware of, whether hers or someone else's, be truly equal and thus, healthy, to the point of being a slight control freak. Also, all of Alluminas' children and those touched by it possess Zealotry, as Love in all its forms is uncompromising.
Common divine Virtues for both Beloved and Sanctified creatures are Loyalty, Harmony, Piety, and Intellect].
(also, notice how I gave it two templates. I figured that being a convert and being a direct creation are different enough to deserve consideration).
Seeing as how I love the very concept of the Titans, I made their Greater Titan Nemesis. And in honor of a coming 2E that is actually playable, here he/it is and the bits I already wrote, for your inspirational pleasure!
(Also, I am terribad with crunch, so please, try to make some of these things out yourself)
Greater Titan: Alluminas (Love)
Alternative Names: Blessed Order, the Singularity, Stasis, the Cosmic Egg
Favored Purviews: Guardian, Justice, Stars, Prophecy, Sun, Fire. Alluminas' Aspects must possess one of these, but they may choose any others except its Banned Purviews, as Love is an extremely complex and nuanced concept that contains many things within it. The Banned Purviews are Animal (as beasts are too close to the Id for such a Superego-reliant concept) Chaos (as Love desires to bring disparate forces together in unity and detests change), and Mystery (as Love does not comprehend uncertainty to be solved).
Many Scions of the Ruinous Powers, when confronted with what their Titanic nemesis actually is, usually have to excuse themselves to laugh hysterically or just double over right then and there. Seriously, Love? That's what their parents are so terrified of? What, did they offend the Care Bears somehow? Did Princess Celestia of My Little Pony fame bully them in Divine High School? Do they have bad memories involving Valentine's Day?
These Scions have either never fallen in love or been in the way of someone trying to protect the thing that has made him or her do so. Or at least, are unaware they have or being terribly naive. Love is terrifying, particularly when it is filtered through the amoral lens of the Dark Virtues. If these Scions need further confirmation, here's one-like its equal and opposite sibling, Hundun, Alluminas cannot be bound-Love, in and of itself, is a form of fetter, and so any attempted bind in Tartarus was simply absorbed into the Titanrealm. If you enter the body of the Cosmic Egg, you can even visit the monoliths the Gods attempted to use in order to seal it, though it is not recommended. They have, after all, been turned into its Aspects' palaces.
See, Order is not the opposite of Chaos, Moorcock books aside. Order is ultimately a dynamic thing, hence there is a place, however small, for Chaos within it. The Greeks had it right though, when they said that it was Love that is truly the opposite. Love binds, Love fetters, Love makes everything in the life the person or beast who feels it revolve around another creature, ideal, or place, removing their free will. Loyalty, friendship, faith-all things that bind thought into forms that would never consider a certain action or always performs it are aspects of Love, even the devotion the worshipers of Chaos feel for the Dark Powers. And Alluminas is Love in its purest and more volatile state-not devotion, not romance, not even an emotion, but a force of pure restraint, that which cancels out all possibilities except for those it deems favorable to it. And therein lies the irony of Alluminas-it would strangle the world even as it embraces it, canceling out first the possibility of emotion that is not filtered through the lens of devotion to it, then independent thought, then even movement and time. A world completely in the grip of the Singularity would be, as one of the titles suggest, a static one, without even the possibility of movement until Alluminas' tendency towards unification resulted in a Big Crunch, resetting the universe.
As might be obvious from the fact it does not have all those titles, however, Alluminas, up until very recently, was regarded as a bit of a joke at worst, outright useful at best. While rogue Gods could draw a bit of its cthonic might into themselves and so become Aspects of it, they did not become true Titan Avatars, as the personal nature of Love, in an ironic twist, prevents the full unification with the Greater Titan needed for true Titanic nature. Even accounting that, the Love that the Aspects drew into themselves was filtered through their own perspectives into more nuanced, socially acceptable forms, meaning that they were the peaceful gadflies of divine society, even helping out their cousins a few times to increase the amount of Love in the world. Very recently, the Chaos Gods did not enter this world from wherever they came-with their own Aspect nemeses hot on their tails. Very hostile Aspect nemeses.
Similar enough to each other that many people wonder if they are not a bifurcated entity like Xolotol, Sigmar and the God-Emperor of Mankind both embody two different forms of Love that actively despises or is suspicious of all else not under its domain-Faith and Myopia, respectively. Sigmar's Faith is by far the less hostile, but as many unfortunate Yazata Scions who fought against the Crusaders might know, Faith cannot-must not-accept forms of worship that it does not permit. Thus, while Sigmar barely tolerates Gods not part of the Ruinous Powers, he is always carefully judging them and their followers for the least sign of things he forbids, and those who transgress his long and vast series of commandments are advised-by him-to expect no mercy. The God-Emperor's Myopia, on the other hand, never even makes a pretense of diplomacy-the Aspect hypocritically despises the very concept of Godhood for presuming that those even partially not human can rule over humans, and indeed, anything other than a human raises his genocidal ire. Unfortunately for everyone else, rogue Scions and humans influenced by Alluminas get a pass, as they have dedicated themselves to his vision of a humanity united under the power of Blessed Order-he merely treats them as expendable as the rest of his servants.
While the first thing on the two human paragons-turned-Aspects is the eradication of the Chaos Gods and everyone ever touched by them, neither is at all friendly to the other pantheons. Sigmar seems to believe that they are also daemons until proven otherwise (and even then, evidence to the contrary is suspect at best), and as mentioned, the God-Emperor loathes anything that is not a human or an "enhanced" human. Indeed, the Aspects are the primary reason why the other pantheons even barely tolerate the Dark Gods-after all, the latter may be annoying, amoral, and capricious, but at least they aren't (usually) actively trying to kill them. How long this alliance (if it can be called that) will last beyond the removal of the threat the Bright Two pose is a matter of debate (smart money is on thirty seconds, because that's how long it takes to see if a divine being is actually dead), but the Gods work under the idea that the Enemy of their enemies is their friend-and the Bright Two are certainly enough of an enemy to justify that maxim.
In terms of physical form, Alluminas is...vaguely defined. It seems strange to many Scions that such a Titan so well-known for its capacity to bind others into set forms is so hard to geographically define, but Love is very much a nonphysical concept. Thus, all but the most important locations within it are defined in narrative terms-a chasm as yawning and empty as Sigmar believes an atheist's heart to be, an ocean of tears as deep as the God-Emperor's grief for his dying Imperium, for instance. Trying to get a handle on this can be disorienting, to say the least-it requires a Legend + Perception + Empathy roll with a Difficulty of 20 every scene outside of one of these locations to get a hold on the metaphor of the hour needed to navigate, else the visitors get lost and find themselves in one of the tableaux that pop up everywhere in Alluminas. If it is a group traveling together, only one individual needs to succeed at the roll to lead the others down the correct route. If the roll is failed, roll the character's Virtues or the Virtues of the group added together in a pool against each other. The Virtue with the most successes indicates the type of tableaux the wanderers find.
As a being of emotion made physical, the Cosmic Egg constantly shapes various aspects of its form into various scenes that tweak Virtue, whether the Dark ones or one of the various Divine ones. These tableaux, as befitting such a moralistic Titan, are well, morality plays. Someone with the Virtue of Intellect, for instance, may come across a library which a group of giants fearful of its knowledge are attempting to burn down, while a different character with the Dark Virtue of Zealotry may come across a heretical Titanspawn preaching the superiority of an enemy Titan (not necessarily Alluminas-other Titan minions can enter the Singularity too) to an interested crowd. Alluminas does not care if the Virtue overcomes the opposition or not (Love is sometimes only the moral victor, after all) only that it is done in the proper thematic way. The library arsonists may be turned back by the power of a book of magic found within, while the heretic may be debated into admitting the error of his ways or his selfish motives, but just shooting them violates the rules. Breaking the defined rules of a tableaux (which are always made obvious in some fashion, even if a friendly character within it has to talk very....slowly...) alerts the Titan's immune system to foreign invaders or possibly a rogue element within it. Within 1d10 minutes, a group of 3d10 Angyls show up and attempt to subdue the character(s) and drag them off to the nearest Confessional to be interrogated as to their purpose, then to be followed up by conversion into Beloved or execution.
Entering Alluminas is easy enough, if things have gotten almost too late-as certain locations are coming under its direct control, enthralled mortals are driven to build shrines to it and its' Aspects glory, incorporating twisted religious symbols (particularly Judeo-Christian ones). These shrines serve as Axis Mundi to the Chapels of the Aspects they represent or the Universal Temple...which at this point, are almost always under heavy guard to ensure the enemies of Blessed Order don't ruin the embrace of the populous at the last minute. For less suicidal and desperate options, being within (own Legend) feet of an act of Love (intercourse between two people who genuinely and deeply love each other, a faithful person offering a sacrifice to the Gods without expectation of reward, or even someone deciding to work in a soup kitchen) works in order to bring one to a tableaux similar to the act (assuming one can drag a Slaaneshi Scion away from the first), and those same tableaux are key to leaving; if a tableaux scene is resolved in such a way that it becomes clear that the characters must journey in order to more fully grasp the Virtue it represents (the library is saved but the book promises so much more if the character could test it, or the debater is so flummoxed by the heretic that he himself suffers a crisis of faith and must seek a way to reaffirm it), Alluminas opens a portal to a place thematic to the resolution (a scenic field just begging for SCIENCE! in the former case, a great cathedral in the latter, for instance).
(And before you ask, I stole the name of Angyl from The Shape of the Nightmare to Come, after the reincarnated divine form of the God-Emperor's daemons. Naturally, they're just as bad as normal daemons)
Locations in Alluminas:
The first thing to note about the geography of Alluminas that isn't subject to narrative interpretation is that its'...rather lacking in uniqueness. True, there is only one Universal Temple, but there are about a dozen Chapels, a hundred or so Monoliths, and thousands of Confessionals...and even the Temple is more of a category of terrain within the Cosmic Egg than a proper subrealm. The answer for this is simple-as a Titan without proper Avatars, Alluminas does not possess the clarity of roles needed to form proper subdivisions within itself, only distinctive quirks of the landscape. This does not prevent the Aspects from influencing the terrain, however-the very reason a Chapel exists is as a church dedicated to a particular form of Love an Aspect follows, and they tend to influence the particular symbolism of the landscape around their domains (many would say that influence is the domain). Areas and tableaux around Sigmar take a distinctly religious and medieval cast, while the God-Emperor's realm has the grim darkness of a mechanized battlefield about its lands. This tendency is doubled in places that are directly under Aspect control-one can usually tell that a Monolith has been claimed by an Aspect as palace thanks to the massive amounts of decoration meaningful to them covering and etched into the marble stone, to say nothing of the Chapels.
The Universal Temple: The "brain" of Alluminas if Greater Titans can be said to have one, the Universal Temple is a surreal mishmash of various forms of religious site; the spires of Christian cathedrals top the domes of Islamic mosques covering the halls of Jewish synagogues, inside of which is a statue of the Buddha in front of a doorway to a sacred grove, on the other side of which is another bizarre synthesis of completely different spiritual architecture. Unlike in all other set locations within Alluminas, the same navigational problems apply to the inside and grounds of the Temple as well; as a place not imposed upon Alluminas by separate will, the Titan has free reign to create tableaux here, although they are smaller, and it possesses the same narrative structure as most of the Titan. This is neutral ground for the Aspects-while the fighting may be as brutal as expected given their fanaticism and differing beliefs, the Angyls have decreed that there is to be no fighting among the Beloved in the Temple, as part of Alluminas' decree that the Temples exists only to further Love in all its forms. Beyond that, everything is acceptable, so long it does not impede others' Love-a couple may decide to screw in the middle of a sermon, or an inquisitor may choose to barge into the Temple's archives and look for seditious material; all the Angyls ask is that the horny Titanspawn find a convenient area away from the sermon so as to not distract the preacher or the more prudish flock, and that the inquisitor have a guide to explain what is simply intel on the enemies of the Beloved and what is actually seditious.
Chapels: If the Universal Temple is the sacred ground of Alluminas itself, then the Chapels are much the same to the Aspects, serving as a very physical way of stating "this is the kind of Love I embody and seek to visit upon the world". There is one Chapel for every Aspect, and indeed, creating one is integral to actually becoming an Aspect in the first place, as such a cerebral and metaphor-based Titanrealm decrees that a spiritual undertaking must also be a physical one. While chapels are generally a term for a small shrine in the mortal world, the Chapels of the Cosmic Egg are massive constructions the size of cities, serving as home for the majority of the owning Aspect's servants, and as a base of operations for incursions into other realms, whether Earth, the Underworld, the Overworld, or other Greater Titans. Each one is carefully built to the owning Aspect's concept and specifications; Sigmar's Chapel seems like the one most deserving of that title, being a stone and iron castle surrounding a township where every building has some intended purpose in his Divine Plan with the keep being the home of his high priest, the Grand Theogonist, for instance. By contrast, the other half of the Bright Two has a clanking, grimy arcology for his Chapel, a mechanical sore on the face of the Titanrealm which packs over three hundred million Beloved humans into itself, with quality of life gradually rising from the worst of the third world into obscene decadence as one nears the top, with the spire reserved for the God-Emperor's personal aides, who coordinate the Chapel-Hive's impressive automated defenses. Unsurprisingly, these are the targets of much of intra-Aspect fighting-while destroying a Chapel does not destroy the Aspect, and none of them are nearly stupid enough to actually live in the Chapels themselves, they are, in a sense, Birthrights of Alluminas, and destroying one cripples an Aspects' abilities (to the tune of losing two dots in all Attributes and associated Epic abilities, as well as access to their Alluminas-granted Boon) while it reforms over the course of about a couple weeks, not to mention the logistical nightmare of controlling forces without a headquarters. Naturally, destroying an Aspect destroys his or her Chapel, though "ruins" of it will figure strongly into the tableaux for the next century.
Aspect of Alluminas: Lilith Kadmon
Other Names: Lilitu, Lamashtu, The Shedim Queen, The Serpent of Wisdom, That Fickle Bitch (not actually a proper name mind you, just a common refrain shared by her rebuffed would-be lovers. She does not mind one bit).
Christian-or formerly Christian, in any case-Scions know the tale; When the One God created Adam, the First Man, he desired company. Hearing the request of his creation, God took one of Adam's ribs, and made Eve, the First Woman. The primordial couple was warned not to eat the fruit of a Tree of Wisdom, but a sapient serpent (who may or may not have had limbs) convinced Eve otherwise, and so the two were cast out of the utopia of the Garden of Eden. A smaller subset of these individuals know that snake was, in fact, Adam's first wife (and entirely separate creation of God's) Lilith, who was exiled for not acknowledging Adam's authority and became the snake out of jealousy of Eve and anger at Adam.
Many feminists have adopted the story of Lilith as a symbol of a woman who resisted the patriarchy, an anti-heroine who would not be tamed and suffered for it. These feminists are more right than they know-there probably wasn't a Garden of Eden as we imagine it, but there was a Tree of Wisdom and a primordial couple with a jilted first wife. And yes, Lilith Kadmon refused to bow her head to Adam Kadmon.
What most don't realize (and in the case of certain chauvinists, cannot be made to realize) was that this was not because of Lilith being too headstrong for her own good-it was because she was headstrong enough to realize her destined husband was a bit of a dumbass. Yes, she did love him at first, as she was made to do so, but Lilith was born with the taste of the Fruit of Wisdom in her mouth, and thus, was more self-aware and empathetic than Adam-and as a woman who was quite capable of thinking for herself, she decided she'd rather be single than married to a man who's goals in life were "eat, sleep, breed, repeat". She chose exile herself, and outside of Adam's influence, her anger cooled, and she realized that perhaps the reason she disliked her supposed soulmate was because he did not have the touch of Wisdom that allowed intellectual pursuits and a true conscience. Thus, when she snuck back into the Garden as a snake and saw that Eve was just as hopelessly dim and unambitious as Adam, she decided to give them both the gift of Wisdom and lead a life as fulfilled as hers, accepting the punishment of the loss of much of her access to the Overworld (the curse to crawl on the ground and eat dust) as an acceptable trade.
Eventually, she found her way to Mesopotamia during the heyday of its Pantheon, the Annuaki,where she found (much to her dismay) that as a creature created to serve as a companion and mate to another as he to her, she fell in love over and over again, often with people that hurt her gravely. Eventually, she realized that she could no more avoid her affections than a mortal could avoid food, and so she decided to become their master instead. Coming to be known as Lilitu or Lamashtu, she became the cheerful origin of the "succubus" image, a seducer who would visit any man (and later, woman-as soon as she realized homosexuality was a thing, she made herself bisexual in order to more fully master romantic love in all its forms, though it took her a while to be comfortable with changing sexes on occasion) who caught her fancy. She would enter into their dreams and remake herself into the perfect image of his (or her) romantic fantasy and seduce them, impregnating herself with his child (or, if it was a woman, the seduced of the the child of the man she last slept with-Lilith is capable of many things, but changing one of her egg cells into a functioning sperm is not one of them). She would then carry the child to term over an accelerated pregnancy, soon giving birth to a daughter who inherited both her mother's power over the wind and dreams and carried her tameless nature (incidentally, though she would give women a son not related to her, they still would have her rebellious side and powers). These Lilim (sons of Lilith are called Cambions) would come to assist their mother in both her desire to live a comfortable, independent life, as well as find lovers of their own. Many of them would accidentally choose Scions to visit their seductive affections on, and wound up dead for their deceptive ways-understandable, given how many Lilim actually wanted to dominate their loves rather than simply enjoy their company (in more than one way) like their mother.
However, a less manipulative daughter (who's name has been lost to history) found out that, when she was honest with a Scion named Pazuzu about her real origins when lying to him became too much for her to bare, he did not strike her down. Rather, he was intrigued that the girl he had grown rather fond of was apparently exactly as she presented herself, personality-wise, and decided to keep her as a secret Guide. Over time, what was simply what we would call a crush today blossomed into genuine and mutual romance, to the point where Pazuzu started to deliberately sabotaging operations to stop (and kill) his paramour's kin. When the Annuaki realized this, they confronted their Scion and gave him a choice-end the romance with the Lilim or choose exile with her. Much like a reversed version his future mother-in-law, he choose his lover and exile. Unfortunately for them both, the Annuaki did not take rebuffing of them lightly-even as part of an explicitly offered option-and so they ambushed the newlyweds as they nestled in their bed after the ceremony, killing Pazuzu's wife in front of him. Given how skilled Pazuzu was in Health and Sky Boons, and the patronage of Lilith (who's dislike of the Annuaki hardened into hatred after this), the fall of Babylon not long after should not come a huge surprise. Indeed, the statues of Pazuzu from that point onward were meant as attempts to placate his and Lilith's revenge by showing him that he was welcome to return after the violation of trust and as acknowledgement of his assistance of Mursilis, the conqueror of Babylon.
After the true fall of the Annuaki and the cultures they sponsored, Lilith journeyed to the future site of the Roman Empire, and interacted with the young Dokatheton, who saw in her passion and self-assurance a kindred spirit, and eventually revealed to her the existence of Alluminas, reasoning that even if she became an Aspect, she would be a friend to them. The Dokatheton was not incorrect-while she did spend most of Rome's reign building her Chapel, so as to fully master Love, she has not forgotten the kindness the Greek gods showed her, and they are even regarded as on-again, off-again allies by her (though contrary to Hera's beliefs, she has not had a child with Zeus. Amazing, we know).
Now one of the older Aspects of Alluminas, Lilith embodies the two sides of romantic love-its caring, devoted aspect and its utter inability to be controlled. A patron of both gender equality and open sexuality, she got something of a bad rap (and poor Fatebind) in the repressed and early days of Western Civilization, forcing her to act, well, demonically and forcing her to be an enemy of the Gods. As the more modern, enlightened ideals of gender relations and sex have come into play, the role Fate has for her has similarly eased, though enough of the world is backwards enough in its gender roles to the point where she's still forced to act somewhat malevolently there (though she does everything in her power to make those areas more equal). More recently, she has joined the resistance movement against the Bright Two as morale officer and ethical leader, ensuring that the minions of the Aspects do not lose faith in the fall of the interlopers or that they become just as bad. In form, she is a master shapeshifter (though she lost her access to her snake form when she became a part and lord of Alluminas), so its difficult to lay down a proper shape, but her favored form is of a classical Arabic beauty with hair as dark as the night sky and a starry twinkle in her similarly dark eyes, often found wearing a modified burqua so that it emphasizes her femininity rather than hides it (although her breasts are covered completely-again, gender equality, and that includes looking the lass in the eye). Personality-wise, she has two modes-one is a calm, regal ice queen who greets any attempt to intimidate her or control her with ego-shredding sarcasm (she is a master at attacking insecurities about one's attractiveness), the other a kind, nurturing woman who wears her emotions on her sleeve (technically, she can also be a seductress, but that's a deliberately affected demeanor on her part). She also tends to switch between the two without warning, and in her opinion, if you can't deal with the headstrong alpha female contradicting you and doing her own thing, you probably don't deserve the delicate paramour, either. She is also happy to dispense romantic advice, and in particular likes helping "nice guys" who are actually trying to not infringe on a woman's rights by asking her out, rather than the more common variety who are just trying to manipulate her into sex.
In terms of the Titanomachy, Lilith is probably the part of the Alluminan Resistance that is most open to divine entreaties. Besides the fact she doesn't carry any particular grudge against any Pantheon other than the Annuaki (who may be extinct), she also quite enjoys Scions or Gods who treasure the independence and freedom of their lovers (on both sides-both misogynists and true feminazis find no sympathy from her) and may take who is open to the relationship as one of her many lovers, even offering the benefits of the Beloved condition without actually needing to be loyal to Alluminas. Fittingly, she is also the Aspect with the least amount of ability to actually turn the tide against the Bright Two-her powers are of the bower and the poet, not the battlefield and the warrior. Still, she and her children's power over dreams and espionage abilities would definitely come in handy, and getting her voucher would open up the other Aspects of the Resistance to diplomacy.
Virtues: Ambition 3, Loyalty 3, Harmony 4, Zealotry 4.
[Sidebar: Hold On, What Happened To The Dark Virtues?
Love, while often dangerous and uncompromising, is a concept that requires a certain degree of altruism. Thus, it is not uncommon-at all-to find Alluminan Titanspawn with mixed Virtues, and even the Dark Virtues are a bit tamer. Lilith's Ambition, for instance, does not require her to betray her friends and lovers to gain social position, only that she gather more power for them at any cost. On the other hand, normal Virtues can be taken to unhealthy extremes-Lilith's Harmony causes her to be a bit anal-retentive about making sure any relationship she is aware of, whether hers or someone else's, be truly equal and thus, healthy, to the point of being a slight control freak. Also, all of Alluminas' children and those touched by it possess Zealotry, as Love in all its forms is uncompromising.
Common divine Virtues for both Beloved and Sanctified creatures are Loyalty, Harmony, Piety, and Intellect].
(also, notice how I gave it two templates. I figured that being a convert and being a direct creation are different enough to deserve consideration).