OOC Information > Added Pantheons > Anunnaki

The

Virtues

Contents
1.1 Anu
1.2
1.3
1.4
1.5
1.6
1.7
1.8
1.9
1.10
1.11 Sin

Anu

Description: Anu is the oldest of the Babylonian gods and one of the oldest gods still active. He is king of the overworld and still nominally ruler of the Igigi (the major Mesopotamian gods), but he has been slowly delegating his responsibilities to other gods over the past four thousand years. He remains the last court of appeal for disputes between the Igigi. Anu is pessimistic and cantankerous. He takes a cynical view of most petitions to him from the other gods, which he usually grants anyway. He has less liking or respect for humans, whom he regards as badly behaved children. Occasionally he meets Amun-Ra to drink and complain about the younger deities.

On earth he usually appears as someone who retired early with money. He complains to his neighbours when they have loud parties and chases children away from his lawn. He travels on cruises or stays in expensive hotels. Often he marries much younger women.

His scions often grow up materially wealthy but starved of affection. They are often drawn to abstract intellectual pursuits: artistic, or religious, or scientific, especially astronomical.

Associated Powers: Epic Charisma, Epic Intelligence, Epic Stamina, Animal (Bull), Justice, Me, Sky
Abilities: Academic, Command, Empathy, Fortitude, Occult, Politics

Aruru

Description: Aruru is the creator goddess, who is said to have made humanity in cooperation with her husband Ea. She can still make living creatures when she has the resources to spare. Regardless of the truth of the matter, she still feels affection for her alleged work. Aruru is assertive and independent and competitive, which makes her one of the few active goddesses in a pantheon of patriarchal gods. She fights alongside and against the other gods, using a bow for preference. In peacetime, she is usually cheerful and good-humoured.

She usually appears as a woman in her maturity. On earth, she works as a fitness-instructor or leading hiking and trail activities, as a midwife or nurse, as a vet, as a feminist activist, or a sportswoman.

As a parent, she is motherly and challenging. Her scions often find themselves working outdoors, or in creative or caring roles where they usually combine sensitivity with assertiveness.

Associated Powers: Epic Stamina, Animal (lion), Earth, Fertility, Health, Me
Favored Skills: Animal Ken, Crafts, Fortitude, Marksmanship, Medicine, Survival

Ea

Description: Ea is god of the fresh waters under the earth. He is a creator god, a god of wisdom and a trickster. The other gods of the pantheon turn to him when they have got themselves into trouble and he seldom fails to rescue them. He is equally willing to help out mortals and Scions, though he prefers it if they don’t expect him to do all the work for them. Ea is friendly and benevolent. Unusually for a god, he doesn’t even hold grudges against gods who have tricked him. He is somewhat of a loose cannon and acts independently without letting others in on his schemes. Indeed, he prefers to avoid argument; he is known to claim to agree with a course of action he thinks foolish, which he then sabotages. His distrust of Anu and Enlil’s attitude to humans has meant that he downplays Enlil’s concerns over ecological catastrophe. He gets drunk easily and is easily seduced.

In modern times, he prefers to work near water. Other times, he acts in advisory or positions: accountancy, legal aid, or management consultancy for small firms.

His scions are versatile individuals about whom it is difficult to generalise. They tend to end up as community leaders or working in technological, artistic or social innovation. He is free with advice for his scions but challenges them to think laterally and solve problems themselves.

Associated Powers: Epic Intelligence, Epic Manipulation, Chaos, Fertility, Magic, Me, Water
Abilities: Academics, Crafts, Larceny, Investigation, Presence, Science

Enlil

Description: Enlil is the middle brother of Anu and Ea, and rules the earth and air. He is Anu’s regent in name; in the battles for power between the gods of the pantheon this counts for something if not much. He has always been in favour of limiting human activity. After the ecological collapse of the Mesopotamian civilization, he began to regret not destroying humanity when he had the chance and he regrets it more in the current global climate. At times he speculates that humanity is part of a complicated plot by the Titans to destroy the world. He would like to prune back human civilization to something more ecologically sustainable and limited. Enlil is direct, even brutal, in his personal dealings. He says what he thinks, commands and expects to be obeyed. He does not deal well with being denied what he wants.

In the modern world, Enlil normally appears campaigning for the environment, or as a survivalist. He sometimes appears as a warlord or gang leader in some part of the world without enforceable law and order.

His Scions usually have commanding and impatient personalities: they can become successful in business or politics, or resort to crime. Often when they meet their father there is a clash of personalities.

Associated powers: Epic Stamina, Epic Strength, Animal (eagle), Earth, Fertility, Guardian, Me, Sky
Abilities: Animal Ken, Athletics, Brawl, Fortitude, Stealth, Survival

Eshrigal

Description: Ereshkigal is the oldest daughter of Sin the moon god. She was kidnapped by one of the Titans and taken to the underworld; with the help of Ea she seduced and destroyed her captor. She is now Queen of the land of the dead for the Babylonian pantheon and rules largely in her own right. Having come to dwell in the underworld she is now unable to leave for any length of time; she is bitter and resentful about this.

When she visits the land of mortals, she usually assumes roles that have something to do with death, either studying it or inflicting it. She has posed as a coroner, a forensic scientist and an assassin.

Ereshkigal is unable to leave the land of the dead for long enough to bear a child in the land of mortals. Her children therefore cannot leave unless a living child takes their place. Most of her Scions grow up as changelings, whose parents believe them to be their true children. Ereshkigal likes to pick loving homes. Nevertheless her children always grow up fascinated by and fearful of death.

Associated Powers: Epic Appearance, Epic Wits, Chaos, Darkness, Death, Me
Abilities: Command, Fortitude, Integrity, Investigation, Medicine, Occult

Ishtar

Description: Ishtar is the second daughter of Sin, the moon god. There are rumours that she may have been born a Scion. She became the lover of Anu a long time ago, and he settled some of his local responsibilities upon her when he retired from active rulership. She has seduced all the male gods in the pantheon at one time or another, stealing the secrets of magic and civilization from Ea on one occasion, and many of the male gods in other pantheons as well. She is now one of the most powerful deities in a mostly misogynistic and patriarchal pantheon. Ishtar is ambitious and imperious. She is loyal to those who are loyal to her, but vindictive when given any cause to be angry. When her servants take the field in the wars of the gods, she takes the field beside them. She is notorious for the number of her lovers, and considers subtlety in seduction beneath her, although she is divinely capable of subtlety when she so chooses. Due to her hot temper, it is not always wise to become her lover; it is not wise to decline either without engaging in considerable flattery.

The roles she takes on earth show off her beauty and her sexuality. She has worked as a high-class courtesan, actresses and models; she has been a spoilt rich girl slumming and a trophy wife.

Her scions are urged on by a lust for life, physical pleasure and the need to attract attention. Their mother is indulgent when pleased, and terrifying when angered.

Associated Powers: Epic Appearance, Epic Charisma, Epic Manipulation, Fertility, Magic, Me, War
Abilities: Command, Empathy, Integrity, Melee, Politics, Presence

Marduk

Description: Marduk, son of Ea, a storm god, is the youngest of the major gods of the pantheon. He leads the efforts of the Annunaki against the titans and would like to be able to treat all scions of the Annunaki as resources in the battle. As the other gods resent the newcomer and have no intention of ceding any power without a fight, he is usually irritable and frustrated. When Marduk battles for power over the other gods, it is for the good of the whole pantheon – or so he sees it. Marduk is self-confident to the point of arrogance. Mostly a stranger to self-doubt he tends to undervalue independence in his servants, and often gives overly detailed commands.

In modern times, he usually takes the role of a general or politician, or a local warlord or gangleader, and tries to establish order by force. He’s been involved in a number of military coups. If order imposed by force does not always lead to lasting results, he tends to blame his subjects rather than his methods.

Marduk tends to oversee the childhood of his scions either directly or through proxies, preparing them to become part of the battle against the titans early. They may be directed into any field that Marduk thinks they would be useful in. They are expected to take a lead and organise other scions. They are usually capable of command. Sometimes they take more after Ea, as the diplomatic skills skip a generation.

Associated Powers: Epic Charisma, Epic Dexterity, Animal (Serpent), Fire, Justice, Me, Prophecy, Sky
Abilities: Command, Control, Integrity, Marksmanship, Melee, Thrown

Nergal

Description: Nergal, son of Enlil, is the god of the hot midday sun that burns and destroys. He is a god of death, disease and war, and very good at what he does. He has few other interests. He was conceived in the underworld and he and his brother Sin between them can only spend half their time between them in the living world. When in the underworld, he is the lover of Ereshkigal; however, she restricts his real power over the underworld so as to prevent him from endangering her own. She knows that Nergal desires to rule the underworld as king in his own right. In person, he is arrogant, even cocky, and swaggering. This masks a hungry desire for power, particularly the power to make people fear him. He is impulsive, bullying, and reacts to perceived disrespect with violent beatings.

On earth he works as a warlord or leader of insurgents, a terrorist, mugger, drugs runner or an arms dealer. He is often a carrier of some disease or other.

His Scions often become orphans quickly, losing their mothers to disease, famine or violence, and are left to fend for themselves in circumstances that require them to fight or go under. If they survive, Nergal assumes they have developed the right personality traits to do his work.

Associated Powers: Epic Dexterity, Animal (Lion), Death, Health, Me, Sun, War
Abilities: Brawl, Fortitude, Larceny, Marksmanship, Medicine, Melee

Ninurta

Description: Ninurta is the youngest son of Enlil and his wife, but was fostered by Ea and Aruru. He is god of agriculture and a champion of the gods against the titans. He wields the mace Sharur that talks to him and gives him advice. He is renowned for his good looks. Ninurta is brave and honourable, friendly, brash, gullible and naive. He is sometimes resentful that his heroic deeds do not garner him more respect among the gods.

In modern times, he often works as a farmer, but also in a number of roles that require skilled manual labour, including plumber and electrician. He may also work as a firefighter, policeman, or lifeguard.

As a fertility god with boyish good looks, he has a lot of scions. They generally feel called to serve their community in some way; they like to feel that their work is of general benefit. They are usually popular and well-liked.

Associated Powers: Epic Appearance, Epic Stamina, Fertility, Health, Me, War
Abilities: Animal Ken, Brawl, Crafts, Fortitude, Marksmanship, Melee

Shamash

Description: Shamash is the god of the Sun. His father is Sin, and Ishtar and Ereshkigal are his sisters. Ishtar and he are often allied; his relations with his father and elder sister are more strained. He is the god of justice, who taught legal theory to Hammurabi, and he is the patron of travellers. Shamash is patron of a number of minor deities in the pantheon; he passes his purviews and abilities onto their scions whom he treats as his agents. Shamash is adventurous and restless. He enjoys the mental challenge of reforming legal systems. However, he views laws as a means to the end of building up a functioning society rather than as an end in themselves. He approves individuals who overreach if they do so for what he considers a good purpose.

In the modern world he can act as a scholar or a courier or diplomat or scientist; nevertheless, he prefers to work as a lawyer, policeman or civil servant, either drafting new laws or interpreting old.

His scions are usually iconoclasts and rebels. They find that when they study something they are not happy until they find a way to reform or improve it somehow. However, they often have hot tempers which occasionally lead them to fight first and ask questions too late.

Associated Powers: Epic Appearance, Epic Intelligence, Epic Strength, Justice, Me, Prophecy, Psychopomp, Sun
Abilities: Academics, Brawl, Control, Endurance, Politics, Survival

Sin

Description: Sin, god of the moon, is the eldest of Enlil’s children. He was born in the underworld, but his younger brother Nergal was conceived in the underworld to take his place there. The two share one lifetime in the mortal world and one in the underworld. They may be in the same world at the same time, but must then both return to the underworld later. Sin, more canny than Nergal and the elder, spends more time in the mortal world than his brother. Sin is a god of wisdom and mystery. As with most of Enlil’s descendants he is ambitious and self-confident. Unlike his brothers, he keeps his own counsel and furthers his ambitions through cunning rather than brute force. He has a strong spiritual bent, and disapproves of materialistic societies where he finds them.

In the modern world, he can be found working as a religious leader or guru in organised religion or in newer spiritual or occult movements. He also might be found working as an antiquarian or archaeologist. He might also be a member of a group that fall outside the normal bounds of Western civilized society, such as motorbike gangs or travellers.

His scions are equally restless and inquiring. They usually find themselves torn between religious vocation and a casual attitude towards rules and laws. Sin’s relations with his father are not good, and despite his determination to be unlike his father, he can be cold and distant – which leads to similar resentments by his children.

Associated Powers: Epic Dexteriy, Epic Intelligence, Epic Wits, Me, Moon, Mystery, Psychopomp
Abilities: Awareness, Control, Empathy, Larceny, Occult, Stealth