Powers for a faerie (Zeus) blooded character

Games Discussion Ars Magica
1

hello there!

I am considering a faerie blooded character that is a descendant of old man Zeus. Given his appetites there must be thousands around Europe by this time. And it fits with the Augustan Brotherhood, that I am exploring.

Besides the obvious lightning strike/storm effects, what other powers would you consider for a lesser power of up to level 50 (in hermetic terms; spare goes to penetration)?

Wikipedia says this about Zeus (in brief format):

King of the gods, ruler of Mount Olympus, and god of the sky, weather, thunder, lightning, law, order, and justice. He is the youngest son of Cronus and Rhea. He overthrew Cronus and gained the sovereignty of heaven for himself. In art he is depicted as a regal, mature man with a sturdy figure and dark beard. His usual attributes are the royal scepter and the lightning bolt. His sacred animals include the eagle and the bull. His Roman counterpart is Jupiter, also known as Jove.

Any specifics? I was thinking of modelling a descendant using Satyr blood (+1 Presence and Communication with the opposite sex). Aura of ennobled presence? Shapeshift? what other concepts would you explore?

2

The Bjornaer swan PCs in my Ars Manxica campaign has Mythic Blood: Zeus and is descended from Leda/Castor/Pollux. She struggled with this too and eventually decided on a version of Wizard’s Sidestep that creates a “twin” of her. The game effect is a 50% miss chance.

3

Well.. Faerie Blood doesn't actually grant such powers, Mythic Blood does. Mythic Blood: Descended of Zeus seems fine though, I just want to make sure we're talking about the same thing. In Realms of Power: Faerie, there's new Faerie Blood options, including 'Faerie God', which grants some nice Sympathy traits.

4

The spell Chariot of Zeus on page 112 of TME? It's a little more interesting/useful than a simple lightning strike, maybe.

5

Maybe start with the kind of thing you want the character to do and then see if you can justify Zeus.

Since Zeus has many associations, it shouldn't be too hard, unless what you want is obviously associated with another major Greek deity's shtick.

6

The Faerie Blood (Faerie God) Virtue gives you Sympathy with one of Thunder & Lightning, Kings, Sky according to RoP:F with TSE.

7

The character is an Augustan I was building to test options, and grew to become a relevant NPC. It ended up having A LOT of weather effectr (lightning, bad air, bring forth rain, fog and wind, control fog and rain...) and thought about this connection with Zeus. I have no definitive idea for a power here.

As per ARM5, Zeus is likely to be faerie, not magic. You can "model mythic faerie blood" with RoP:F using normal faerie blood (satyr in the case of Zeus) plus 1 or 2 points of Lesser Powers. Access to major, lesser and ritual powers for faerie blooded characters is in the box in page 107 of RoP:F, suggesting potential V&F for faerie blooded characters. Mechanically if you remove sympathy there is a lot of rules overlap between the 2 RoP books.

And this is what I was thinking but drew a blank regarding what powers to get for the character.

8

I really like Chariot of Zeus. It si really fun, with plenty of applications. Movement, offensive if you have penetration, showing off.

1 Like
9

I checked Tales of Mythic Europe before seeing that it was Transforming Mythic Europe. It is certainly an impressive spell. A basic tenet of Jupiter for sure.

1 Like
10

Make it Incantation of Lightning, possibly sight range depending on how much PEN you want.

Hephaistos made a lot lot lighting bolts for grandpa...

11

You could also go the less aggressive route: HEY you can turn into a swan! awkward looking around
Or an immunity to lightning and thunder. Or the ability to swallow babies. probably not that last one

1 Like
12

The last one is already taken: it is Zeus' father trademark. But a nice option to have when you run out of pretzels.

13

So far the subtle teleporting option is on the lead, but I am still considering other options. The character is already a shapeshifter but I was looking to the eagle here.

14

If I remember well, Zeus changed his form (more than once) to be able to fuck around with different females.

15

Yup. That and the list of Zeus descendants is ust plain mind numbing.

Zeus has 3 main attributes

  • Ruler of the gods
  • Storm lord. Not by that name but sky lord, but basically it is storm lord. Rain, thunder and lightning
  • Reproductive force. Not necessarily consensual.
16

There's always that Virtue in RoP:F that makes sure of conception

1 Like
17

Wikipedia is all well and good, but for topics related to Classical Mythology, www.theoi.com is my preferred resource. Maybe you'll find some inspiration there?

1 Like