Nemetondevos: Nemeton

The Gods of the Sacred Shrines get their name from their nemetons, places that tap into the divine power of The World itself. A nemeton forms an Overworld gate (Scion: Origin, p. 36) to a long-abandoned Gaulish Godsrealm or a Scion’s own Sanctum, if she has one. In either case, the key to open the gate is always a memento the Scion has cultivated from the nemeton’s natural bounty, whether it’s a sprig of mistletoe, a vial of spring water, a jar of honey, or a tree branch. Even if it’s simply an acorn, cultivating it as a memento requires a complex tier 2 crafting project (Scion: Origin, p. 76) that might involve ritual votive offerings and other acts of sanctification.

The most popular method is to fashion weapons or tools from the harvested materials to make them last longer, such as oaken staves or wands, and Scions of the appropriate Legend rating usually make them as relics. If a memento is lost or destroyed, the Scion must either make another one, or accept that the corresponding gate no longer has a key, leaving it open for anyone to walk through if they know it’s there. Nemeton gates are otherwise secure as long as she keeps her mementos safe, but a stolen memento gives the thief full access, so most Nemetondevos Scions keep their mementos on their person at all times.

Heroes are limited to one nemeton, Demigods may have three, and Gods may have as many as they wish. While having multiple nemetons protects a Scion from seeing them all destroyed, it also creates more gates to her Sanctum — and thus, more potential breaches, as each one requires its own memento key. To create a new nemeton or awaken one long dormant, the Nemetondevos must make a major sacrifice (Scion: Hero, p. 188) that replenishes no Legend, instead spending a Legend point to unlock the place’s power. Devout worshipers, such as her Followers or members of her Cult (p. 23), can make the sacrifice for her, but it won’t work without her permission and she must still spend the Legend herself

Whenever you accomplish a long-term Deed or sanctify a new nemeton, you experience a vision that lets you choose one Knack, Boon, or other effect that’s limited to once per session or episode that you’ve already used; it becomes available again. If your Virtue track is closer to Memory, you remember a flash from a past life; Incarnate Scions experience memories of Deeds their Godly selves performed, while others recall lives as mortals or even Denizens, and either may experience a waking nightmare of centuries trapped on an unmoving Wheel. If your Virtue track is closer to Purgation, you instead see a hint of the God you’re becoming or a glimpse of what the future of the restored Nemetondevos could be. At the center, you see a divergence between the two.

Boons

MY WORLD, MY RULES

You open a portal to your nemeton, which spills into the Field around you, blurring the two places. The Field becomes either dangerous (with up to three points of Complications) or difficult terrain for everyone except you and your allies. The specific effects follow the themes of your nemeton: Bees swarm the area, a torrent of thermal water fills the room, or oak roots trip careless trespassers, for instance. Further, you and your allies may travel back and forth through the portal itself. Doing so in action time requires being at close range to the portal and making a successful disengage roll if necessary. Those within the nemeton cannot interact with the Field or vice versa. If you’re already in your nemeton, you may use this Boon to affect its terrain at no cost.

PAST LIFE SKILLS

• Gain total fluency in a language you don’t know, even one long dead or lost.

 
• Gain one new Specialty each for three different Skills, even if you have no dots in those Skills.

 
• Choose a character Fatebound to you. That character or one of their previous lives played a similar role for one of your past lives, and you remember fragments of that history, reaffirming the threads of Fate that tie you to them. You may invoke that Fatebinding in this scene even if it would exceed the number of times you could normally invoke it in a session.