Promethean: The Created: Difference between revisions

* '''Ulgan:''' Associated with the element of Spirit and the Ectoplasmic humour, Ulgan are created when another member of the Lineage imbues a body with ectoplasm, which calls spirits to tear the corpse apart and reassemble it. Ulgan can innately see and interact with spirits, or can sing a song which lulls spirits and ghosts into a magical sleep. Ulgan Torment is an illogical, instinctual drive, much like a spirit’s single-minded existence. Their Wasteland causes a thinning of the barrier between the spirit world and the mortal world. Their Disquiet results in spiritual possession or devolution into mindless routine in mortals.

* '''Zeka:''' A recently developed Lineage associated with tainted, radioactive expressions of the other elements and humours. A Zeka might be able to raise radioactive zombies from the bodies of the dead. Others can become scorched shadows on walls, like the silhouettes of the victims of atomic bombs, or mystically sense and home in on radiation, using it to regain Pyros. A Zeka’s Torment is manifested as an intense burst of hatred and the need to destroy. Their Wasteland turns the surrounding area into a radioactive barren, much like fallout, and their Disquiet causes intense and irrational paranoia.

 

'''The Refinements:''' The chosen [[Splat]]s of the Prometheans. Unlike other species in the World of Darkness, Refinements aren’t social constructs so much as philosophies. There are so few Created in the world that a given Promethean may live out his entire pseudo-life without ever meeting another of his kind, let alone one following the same Refinement.

 

* '''Cuprum:''' The Refinement of Copper (Self). This Refinement involves solitude and meditation alone among nature as a way to understand one's place in the world and to tame one’s own Wasteland.

* '''Ferrum:''' The Refinement of Iron (Corpus). This Refinement teaches that Prometheans should train and strengthen their bodies – a strong soul, they believe, cannot exist without a strong vessel.

* '''Aes:''' The Refinement of Bronze (Aid). This Refinement focuses on assisting others who seek to complete their Pilgrimage. They believe that by aiding others on the path, they may find their own way.

* '''Argentum:''' The Refinement of Silver (Mystery). This unusual Refinement depends on studying and emulating other supernatural creatures in the World of Darkness – these other beings were once human, and so the Argentum-followers believe that by studying the process by which they were transformed into something inhuman, the Promethean might reverse the process.

* '''Plumbum:''' The Refinement of Lead (Source). This Refinement teaches that only by truly understanding what he is now can a Promethean ascend to something new. Followers of Plumbum seek knowledge of Prometheans throughout history and study their own flawed bodies, seeking to know what they are so that they can become more.

 

* '''Centimani:''' The Refinement of Flux. Members of this Refinement turn away from humanity and embrace their inhuman natures, becoming true monsters. For some, this is chosen because the Centimanus has lost faith in the possibility of the New Dawn. Some rare few, though, see this as one more path to humanity. There are monsters among mortality, after all, and perhaps the Promethean can learn to become human by first studying what humans aren’t. This is the easiest path for the Zeka Lineage to follow, and the hardest to leave.

 

Terminology: Prometheans each belong to a ''Lineage'' descended from a ''Progenitor'' created by a human ''Demiurge''. The five in the core claim descent from Frankenstein's Monster, Galatea, Osiris, Tammuz and Ulgan, but more exist; the Zeka are radioactive, the Unfleshed are made out of artificial substances rather than human corpses, and there are other, rarer ones which can be created by freak occurrences. They travel in groups called ''throngs''. They follow one of five (ten, with Centimani and the ''Magnum Opus'' [[Splat]]s) ''Refinements'' to focus their Pilgrimages. Their powers are alchemical ''Transmutations'' fueled by their internal store of ''Pyros'' and empowered by their ''Azoth''. Their [[Karma Meter]] is ''Humanity'', their ability to comprehend and mimic human behavior and morals.

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* [[A God Am I]]: Not very common for reasons that will be explained below, but when an unhinged Zeka with low Humanity embraces the Centamani path they can fall into this trope too easily...

* [[Angel Unaware]]: Qashmallim.

* [[Awesome McCoolname]]: When you've never heard a name before, and don't really know what names ''are'', you can get a little creative. Hell, one of the sample characters is named "The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter."

** Which is, [[Don't Explain the Joke|for anyone who doesn't know]], a [[Shout-Out]] to one of the founding albums of hippie culture.

* [[Become a Real Boy]]: What happens when a Promethean reaches "New Dawn". A more exceptional case for the Unfleshed as they don't have the luxury of starting with an organic human body in the first place.

* [[Becoming the Mask]]: Ideally, the line between "pretending to be a human" and "legitimately reacting to things as a human would" will become blurry as a Promethean grows to understand people and tries to make their own place in the human world.

* [[Blank Slate]]: Prometheans start with nothing. Hopefully.

* [[Blessed with Suck]]: Quite possibly the worst in the [[New World of Darkness|nWoD]].

** But Great Grandfather Crow has it even worse than everyone else. He was a crow who died and was then resurrected by some halfwit of a Promethean. Now he's a dead crow with the mind of a proto-human who just wants to become a regular crow again. The rulebook suggests that the New Dawn is actually impossible for him, because the Divine Fire can only turn one human, but he doesn't want that. That said, one test game run by the designers ended with the crow finding Redemption as a bird.

** Constructs, non-Unfleshed Prometheans made from substances besides human bodies (such as iron, wood, or stone), are even further removed from humanity than a normal Promethean, don't even ''look'' human without a Transmutation, cause Disquiet more easily, and, while they may have minor advantages, they also suffer from the same weaknesses as the materials they're made from.

* [[Crapsack World]]: Even worse than usual; if a Promethean stays within one mile of any place they've stopped for more than one hour, their very presence will make it into a widening area of general unpleasantness called a [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|"Wasteland"]]. While each of the five-plus Lineages will produce different kinds of Wastelands, ''all'' of them are very unpleasant in their own ways. Bonus: different Prometheans' Wastelands do ''not'' cancel each other out unless they're part of the same [[Secret Project Refugee Family|throng.]]

** More so for the [[I Love Nuclear Power|Zeka]]; they're in constant pain, they're [[Walking Wasteland|radioactive,]] and not a single one has reached their [[Become a Real Boy|New Dawn.]] And the [[The Dark Side|Refinement of Flux]] is easier for them to access than any other Promethean - in game terms, if the player says "My Zeka changes to Centimani", it ''happens'' (normally it takes in-game months)... and it takes them twice as long to climb back out.

* [[Critical Existence Failure]]: Prometheans are literally running on magic, so they can keep going until that burns out.

** To explain on the point above, with enough damage, you will start to take penalty on your rolls. If you take Bashing damage, you will need to roll to stay conscious. Take Lethal damage or get Bashed hard enough, and you will start to bleed to death - [[Captain Obvious|and you die.]] Further damage would turn into Aggravated damage, in essence mutilating the body. Prometheans take no roll penalty, do not need to roll to stay conscious, and will not bleed to death. The only way to kill them is to deal enough Aggravated damage - either by mutilating the body beyond recognition, [[Kill It with Fire|or by fire]].

* [[Dark Is Not Evil]]: The books explicitly mention that some Centimani are not evil, just selfish and tired of [[Hate Plague|Disquiet]]. Pandora's Book features a couple-an [[Mummy|Osiran]] who thinks that understanding Flux is key to understanding humans, and a [[Golem|Tammuz]] who simply has it as the first Refinement he learned. It even admits the Osiran has a point; the problem is his detachment from his work.

** To an extent this applies to the Prometheans, being a race of corpses that cause disasters just by being near anything.

* [[The Dark Side]]: Centimani, Refinement of Flux.

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Ulgans are prone to it.

* [[Don't Look At Me]]: Considering that a Promethean's Disquiet is harder to resist when their disfigurements are visible, this phrase might get a bit of a workout when the Pyros starts to fly.

* [[Doom Magnet]]: The whole goddamn species. In so many ways. For one, their coming ''near'' a Pandoran wakes the damn thing up (and is the ''only'' thing that wakes them up, at that!).

** It's really hard to even think of a Promethean doing anything without causing something terrible to happen...

** As this troper's group found, when their Throng were all reborn as humans and remembered the love that forged the bond that had held them together for the decade they wandered together, they were murdered by a long-forgotten rival and reborn a second time as Prometheans with all their memories erased, all their skills, powers and friendship wiped clean, while their former enemy pretended to be their only friend while setting up them to murder each other in a matter of days after their Third Rebirth. Damn [[Killer Game Master]].

* [[Earn Your Happy Ending]]: Yes, you really can in this one; there's even rules for it. But that doesn't mean many will...

* [[Lightning Can Do Anything|Electricity Can Do Anything]]: It heals Prometheans, it can restore Pyros, and it can animate a disparate collection of parts into a Frankenstein (Or a Torch-Born Pandoran).

* [[Emergent Human]]

* [[Supernatural Angst|Existential Angst]]: You're an abomination born out of a ritually defiled corpse, reanimated by magic sourced from ethereal beings of questionable motive, cause horrific damage to the environment, will motivate every human you meet to hate you, pained by the absence of a soul, will motivate every human to destroy you utterly if they see your real form, persecuted by other ethereal beings of violent motive, preyed on by monstrous creatures that are abominations born by abominations like yourself who made a mistake when attempting to birth more abominations like yourself, subject to a cosmic scale karmic punishment system with an ironic streak, tempted to take up a blatantly evil philosophy that will alienate you from others of your kind, and bound to follow a vaguely defined path which demands you to create another abomination in your image to progress, taking years or even centuries to attain your promised reward. All of this to become a feeble, mortal human who potentially retains no memory of your struggle against the cosmos, with nothing but a human soul to prove your worthiness. [[Sarcasm Mode|Enjoy!]]

* [[Expy]]: Qashmallim Ruby and Mr. Gold are expies for [[Sapphire and Steel]].

* [[External Retcon]]: Frankenstein's monster claims the book was his evil "Bride's" idea, that she deliberately told Mary Shelley his story.

** Centralia might have been the result of Frankenstein's monster settling down.

** The Acid Stomach Merit also permits them to eat ''anything'', from loose change to handfuls of rocks as long as they can get it down.

* [[Face Full of Alien Wingwong]]: Pandora's Book mentioned that while Pandorans are unable to breed naturally, they can taint Promethean flesh with Flux. One option is to have a Pandoran burrow itself into a Promethean's innards, thus corrupting the Promethean from the inside and turning him (or pieces of him) into Pandorans.

* [[First-Episode Resurrection]]: Subverted. Even if you're playing a Promethean from the moment it comes to "life", it's not actually resurrection. Prometheans are new individuals created from dead bodies, not revived humans.

* [[Four-Temperament Ensemble]]: Each Promethean type is classed with a humour - Ulgans are odd men out, as their "humour" is ectoplasm.

** Temperament Ensembles make ideal throngs, since being in a branded throng with Prometheans of different Lineages weakens a Promethean's Disquiet, slows down the Wasteland effect he causes, and makes it easier to resist Torment. Being in a throng with those of the same Lineage, though, makes things worse.

** [[It Got Worse|It gets worse]]—you know all those ''other'' monsters in this setting? ''Disquiet affects them as well.'' As a small consolation, vampires and werewolves alone among supernaturals don't actually instinctively hate Prometheans. Instead, they find them so deeply ''unnerving'' that it becomes harder for them to resist their [[Unstoppable Rage]].

* [[Hot-Blooded]]: Frankensteins and Galateids have an inborn tendency to be this way, with Frankensteins more driven and Galateids being more foolhardy.

* [[Humans Are Special]]: The reason the Prometheans want to [[Become a Real Boy]].

* [[I Love Nuclear Power]]: The Zeka, the so-called Nuclear Prometheans, introduced in ''Saturnine Night''. Where other Lineages have an affinity for electricity, the Zeka have an affinity for radiation. Their Wastelands manifest as fallout zones.

* [[Implacable Man]]: Tammuz become this when they get pissed off.

* [[Lie to the Beholder]]: Given that we're dealing with animate corpses here, this is very fortunate.

* [[Light Is Not Good]]: Elpidos qashmallim are not by any means ''nicer'' than lilithim; they just tend to have slightly more positive missions. Ruby and Mr. Gold, for example, are out to stop monsters. If said monster is, say, a body-jumping demon, they have no qualms at all about locking the doors and slaughtering everyone in the room to drive it away due to lack of hosts.

{{quote|'''[[Frankenstein's Monster|Mr. Verney]]''': It seems like a good idea until you grow a second set of genitals.}}

* [[Mad Scientist]]: Technically, demiurges are Mad Alchemists.

* [[Not Using the Z Word]]: The term "Promethean" is not often used by the Created, because many don't know it ''is'' a term.

* [[Nuclear Nasty]]: Many Zeky, in particular Tsar Bomba and Oleg Wormwood, a pair of [[Omnicidal Maniac]]s with a desire to [[Nuke'Em]] all.

* [[Organ Autonomy]]: A regular problem, especially for [[Frankenstein's Monster|the Wretched]]. Given that the Wretched ''must'' be assembled from two or more "donors", but any Promethean can do the same if necessary, it is not unique to the Wretched. The Merit "Residual Memories" can turn this into an advantage for a time.

* [[Our Angels Are Different]]: The ''Qashmallim'' are thoroughly incomprehensible. And on fire.

* [[Prophecy Twist]]: {{spoiler|In the core book, Mr. Verney tells a psychologist a prophecy the Qashmallim gave him: that if he continued to hunt down Pandorans in what is implied to be Centralia, 'one of [his] own would return to [him] with precious knowledge'. During the interview, Verney recognizes the psychologist as one who sided with his Bride so long ago, and decides to force his Bride's whereabouts out of her. Unfortunately, he accidentally kills her instead, thinking she was still a Promethean. For Mr. Verney, who had abandoned his Pilgrimage, his quest to become human, who believed that it was impossible, the doctor's death indeed gives him precious knowledge - that the Pilgrimage is ''possible''.}}

* [[Revenge]]: Not an intended theme of the game, but given their immortality and durability, revenge can develop into an issue for Prometheans. Especially amongst older Prometheans where it can become a bigger priority then becoming human as they execute [[Best Served Cold]] schemes against those who have wronged them, or their descendants.

** The first book has a framing story that demonstrates the differences between mortals and Prometheans on this concept. {{spoiler|A psychologist is interviewing a suspect in several disappearances who claims to be Frankenstein's monster. After much exposition, the subject of Frankenstein's Bride is raised and Mr. Verney talks about how she turned against him, becoming a Centimanus who created Pandorans, and that he dedicated his life to hunting her. The psychologist is troubled when he talks about her nightmares, her amnesia clouding memories of her youth. Eventually, Mr. Verney reveals he's been playing along with her. She's one of his former progeny, who left him for his Bride, becoming a vile Centimanus, and he wants revenge for what she did a century ago. What he doesn't realise is that she's become human - so when he strikes out at her, expecting a true Promethean, he instead kills her. The text ends abruptly but it's implied his final act is to return her to a Promethean existence.}}

* [[Ridiculously Human Robot]]: Unfleshed from ''Saturnine Night'' are machines brought to life by Azoth, and due to the nature of the Divine Fire, they are invariably humanoids - even if what they originally were was, say, a laptop. There's even an example in the book - Tachanka, who was originally a military UMV but is now a mecha-teenager with an [[Arm Cannon]].

* [[Science-Related Memetic Disorder]]: Demiurges invariably suffer from this, as no mortal mind can be exposed to the Divine Fire and come back completely intact.

* [[Secret Project Refugee Family]]: Your typical "throng" of Prometheans. A "branded" throng allows its members to share powers and perform other nifty tricks, but there are drawbacks as well.

[[Category:Tabletop Games]]

[[Category:New World of Darkness]]