Shade
Monster Junkie
freyar said:
I found this from a review of Birthright:
The campaign itself is set up around the idea of the "Divine Right of Kings." In Cerilia, some individuals are "Blooded," possessed of innate powers granted by ancestors who were present at a cataclysmic Battle of the Gods centuries ago. The Old Gods didn't survive the battle, but their essences were instilled into their followers and persist today, inherited by their descendants.
It is these Blooded individuals, called scions, who rule the various nations of Cerilia (and there are a lot of them,) called "Domains." Blooded persons also control various religious orders, guilds, and sources of magical power. If you aren't Blooded, the best you can hope for is to be a trusted underling to one of these powerful characters.
This idea may have been taken too literally--there are real, substantial game benefits to being Blooded, even aside from the fact that it makes a character potentially qualified to rule a domain. However, the actual mechanics for this are very interesting and provide for a great deal of variation between Blooded characters. There are nearly 30 different Bloodline powers. How many of them a character has access to is dependent on his Bloodline strength, which is measured in points.
In addition, each Bloodline is derived from one of the seven Old Gods who perished at the Battle of Mount Deismaar. Each of these derivations limits a Blooded character's access to certain powers. Also covered is the manner in which a Bloodline is inherited by one's children. It's also possible to "steal" a scion's Bloodline strength, if one scion kills another in a specific manner. This is similar to the idea developed in _Highlander_, but it's less of an all-or-nothing thing--the victor can usually gain only a point or two unless certain very rare magical weapons are used to commit the deed.
