Editing Promethean: The Created (section)

==Lineages==
Lineages are the "racial" splat; they describe where a Promethean came from: how was it created? What is its view of the world? Mechanically, they serve to determine elemental affinity, primary humour (the body fluids thought to determine personality in the past, and in the case of Prometheans their general personality type), Torment (how the Promethean snaps when aforementioned humours go out of control), Disquiet (how humans freak the fuck out over their existence), Wasteland (how ''the world itself'' freaks the fuck out over their existence), and general outlook as well as giving Bestowments (racial boons).

===Frankensteins, the Wretched===
[[File:Lineage - Frankenstein.png|100px|right]]
::'''Humour''': Choler (Yellow bile)
::'''Element''': Fire
As their name suggests, the Frankensteins are made from pieces that were put together. Most frequently of human bodies, but they can also include nonhuman or even inorganic parts. Because of their fractured nature and bilious humour they can be quite contrarian, questioning everything they see to learn from it. They see their existence as a challenge, always pushing their abilities to their limits. They revel in such challenges, willing to take them on to expand their boundaries and test the world around them. This makes them rather forceful and zealous in nature, albeit as bitter, angry, and vengeful as the first of their kind (who is still around and answers to the name of "Mr. Verney"- in-universe, Mary Shelley originally got the story of Frankenstein and his Monster from the Bride of Frankenstein, who was actually created by the Monster and became a Centimanus after turning against him).

The most important lesson the Frankensteins need to learn on the Pilgrimage is how to pick their battles. As good as they are at testing boundaries and asking questions nobody else thinks of asking, it's equally important to know when to accept defeat, when to let things go, and when to take things at face value. In time, they may choose to fight nevertheless but they will no longer be compelled to do so for its own sake. 

Also like Frankenstein's Monster, a Frankenstein's Torment is simple, violent, rage- they may believe they're seeking justice for some perceived slight, but far more frequently it's just the vengeful desire to make someone else feel the pain they feel, even if that someone is one of their loved ones. This very frequently ends up creating a vicious cycle in which the Frankenstein's Torment drives him to go too far in the name of revenge, only for the consequences to come back and bite him in the ass and push him further into Torment. At the same time, their constituent body parts grow uncooperative as fragments of their original owners' personalities manifest through them- a hand taken from a peaceful man might refuse to pull the trigger of a gun, for example. Their Disquiet makes people irritable and quick to anger, and eventually people come to view the Frankenstein as the source of all their problems. Finally, their Wasteland triggers violent thunderstorms, spontaneous combustion in random objects, and unexplained aggression in both people and animals.

===Galateids, the Muses===
[[File:Lineage - Galatea.png|100px|right]]
::'''Humour''': Sanguine (Blood)
::'''Element''': Air
The social ones, named after the myth of Pygmalion and Galatea (who in-universe is said to have made Galatea not from marble, but from the most beautiful body parts available to him). Galateids are creatures of love for good and ill, from the purest of love to the darkest of obsession. They are prone to obsession in whatever form of love they might feel and crave company of all kinds- should they be unable to find a throng to join, they often attach themselves to humans and other supernaturals with disastrous consequences. They aim to please, even if this means enduring abuse. Because of their intuitive understanding of human passions they gain insight into humans that the other Lineages lack, but they tend to fall apart when they're on their own- as textbook extraverts, they feel an aching void in the absence of companionships and may take up stalking the objects of their affection. 

As a result of their sanguine humour, they tend to be brave to the point of recklessness and prone to being caught up in daydreams. Their passions are rarely if ever limited to physical and sexual attraction- platonic crushes and feelings of strong parental love are common among them and some even experience "aesthetic crushes" where they simply want to bask in the beauty of the person they've fixated upon. To succeed in their Pilgrimages, they must learn how to make their passions work for them and not just be "in love with love".  

The Galateid Torment exaggerates their need for companionship, making them prone to paralyzing insecurity and wild mood swings along with worsening their tendencies toward obsession. Their Disquiet creates obsession in people as well- the Disquieted experience a conflicting blend of fascination and revulsion that leads them to decide that they ''must'' have the Galateid, one way or another. Galateid Wastelands are similarly marked by extremes, especially extreme winds and extreme passions in mortals.

===Osirians, the Nepri===
[[File:Lineage - Osiris.png|100px|right]]
::'''Humour''': Phlegm
::'''Element''': Water
The Osirians are the product of, you guessed it, Osiris. Much like their mythical progenitor, the Osirians are not whole. Though while the original lacked a dick, the Osirians can be missing just about anything on their bodies (usually a toe or an earlobe). The scholars amongst the Prometheans, they have great intelligence and mental fortitude with a knack for gathering information, artifacts and secrets. They are emotionally distant though, which suits them just fine given their cerebral approach on their Pilgrimage. Having a phlegmatic humor, they are calm, quiet, and cautious in a way that makes them likely to be the voice of reason within a throng if not the de facto leader of it. More notably, they have a unique relationship with death- while all Prometheans can come back from the dead once during their Pilgrimages, the Osirians can come back multiple times...if they're willing to leave another piece of themselves behind in the Underworld as a tribute to their ancestor, that is. 

Osirian Torment takes their phlegmatic nature to an extreme; sometimes it causes them to become callous and manipulative to the point where there is nothing they won't sacrifice to reach their goals, and at other times it may compel them to sabotage themselves and others in fits of extreme pessimism. The Nephri Disquiet pushes people away from them at first, but with time they become fascinated with the Osirian, wondering what he might be, and then deciding the only way to know for sure is to dissect him and see what's inside for themselves; other times, it makes people so averse to interacting with the Osirian that his mere existence will be perceived as "bothering them" and make them take steps to ensure that he never bothers them ''ever again''. Wastelands formed by Osirians are wastelands in a literal sense- rain doesn't fall, plants won't grow, and humans grow proud and overconfident.

===Tammuz, the Named===
[[File:Lineage - Tammuz.png|100px|right]]
::'''Humour''': Melancholer (Black bile)
::'''Element''': Earth
AKA [[golem]]s! Tammuz are, much like the Golem of Prague, brought to life by a word (usually written on a piece of paper placed beneath the tongue in their creation rite) accompanied by a symbol of slavery placed upon their bodies. The Tammuz are builders and creators. They start out simple (building walls, digging wells) but as they continue on their Pilgrimage their creations become more and more complex. Do NOT call them servants though, as the best way to turn a Tammuz violent is to disrespect its work, forego paying it for its work, or (above all else) trying to enslave it. 

Not working is an alien concept to the Tammuz and one of the most important and difficult things for them to learn- productivity is all well and good, but humans rest and do things for themselves too. Being creations of words, Tammuz have a knack for language, and they often learn many languages while on their pilgrimage. They are stoic and taciturn by nature (albeit prone to pessimism as a result of their melancholic humour), using only whatever words they need to use rather than wasting time with idle talk. 

Tammuz Torment can manifest in one of two ways- either an anxious restlessness that no amount of work can diminish, or a state of apathy in which they can't be bothered to do much of anything at all; in many cases their capacity for language fails them as well, either speaking (or writing) compulsively, becoming mute, or losing the ability to communicate with words entirely. Disquiet caused by them causes this depression to spread to humans, who inevitably end up blaming the Named for it; it doesn't help that the Tammuz's words are always interpreted in the worst possible ways when this happens. Even nature seems to be depressed in their Wastelands, as dark clouds fill the skies and predators stop feeling the need to hunt.

===Ulgan, the Riven===
[[File:Lineage - Ulgan.png|100px|right]]
::'''Humour''': Ectoplasm
::'''Element''': Spirit
Named after a Siberian shaman said to have been torn to pieces by spirits and reassembled from the remains. Ulgan have ectoplasm, the stuff that spirits are made of, in the place of a soul, attracting ghosts and spirits to them. Because of this, they are shamans by necessity, dealing with the spirits and ghosts all around them whether they want to or not. This forces them into roles of diplomats to be able to handle the constant botherings by the denizens of the Shadow and the restless dead. When not being constantly pestered by ephemeral beings, Ulgan reveal themselves to be quite macabre with a dark sense of humor. The weight of their burden is an extra risk to them, putting them at risk of becoming as irrational, capricious, and ultimately inhuman as the spirits themselves. After all, the spirits neither know nor care about the human condition. 

Ulgan Torment brings with it a sense of detachment and isolation, causing them to eschew the mortal world for that of the spirits they would normally want to be rid of. Disquiet caused by Ulgan leads to a sense of paranoia and the feeling that the Ulgan is a predatory monster; in time, those affected by the Disquiet become convinced the Ulgan is plotting to harm them and attempt to attack preemptively to deal with the imagined threat. Their Wasteland causes the barriers between the mortal world and Twilight to grow unstable, allowing ghosts and spirits alike to enter and wreak havoc (and undoubtedly annoying any werewolves in the area).

===Unfleshed, the Manufactured===
[[File:Lineage - Unfleshed.png|100px|right]]
::'''Humour''': Oil (2e) or Any (1e)
::'''Element''': Metal
AKA motherfucking [[robot]]s. From manikins and statues to clockwork devices and cutting-edge androids, the Unfleshed are the vegetarian option of Promethean: they contain 0% meat. Because they are machines they are, of course, beings of extreme logic and literal of nature. They were built with a purpose in mind, and an Unfleshed that cannot fulfill this purpose will frantically search for a way to do so. However, they do not consider themselves tools despite them being built as such. Treat them as tools anyway and they are hit with a wave of emotion, which they are not used to controlling and will frequently end with the offender getting an arm ripped off. 

The most difficult part of their Pilgrimage is to learn how to stop being machines: how to be imperfect, how to work with their emotions rather than following cold logic alone, how to embrace subjectivity, and how to live without a clearly defined purpose. Eventually they must become truly free-willed and be a tool that they wield themselves.

The Unfleshed's Torment can manifest in two ways, just like the Tammuz's: sometimes it comes in the form of embracing their mechanical nature, becoming unemotional, obedient, and fixated on performing their original functions. Other times it can make them dangerously violent in the same vein as a Frankenstein or compel them to lash out at anyone who tries to divert them from their original purpose. Their Disquiet makes others view them as ''things'' instead of sentient beings- at best, they're useful servants and at worst, they're slaves whose expression of free will is nothing more than a malfunction to be corrected. The Manufactured's Wasteland similarly divides nature between the dominant and the submissive, while pushing people to act as methodically and repetitively as any machine.

====Constructs====
::'''Humour''': As parent Lineage
::'''Element''': As parent Lineage
Introduced in the 1e sourcebook Magnum Opus, Constructs are essentially attempts to take Prometheans to the more "traditional" idea of golems being made out of inanimate matter rather than corpse flesh. If Constructs exist in your game, they essentially say that, yes, the myths of Galatea being living marble or the Golem of Prague being living clay are true. Being made of material has assorted benefits and drawbacks - stone or metal-based Constructs are armored but slower, for example - but the universal drawbacks are that they do '''not''' look human (their Pyros just can't hide their Disfigurements) and they induce Disquiet far faster. Other than this, though, they follow the "normal" rules for their parent lineage - Frankenstein, Galateid, Osiran, Tammuz or Ulgan.

Although a Construct can be made out of any material, each Linage has a particular material that "resonates" with them, imposing the least penalty to attempts to create a Construct offspring:
* Frankenstein - Copper
* Galateid - Marble
* Osiran - Limestone
* Tammuz - Clay
* Ulgan - Birch Wood

In 2e, the writers realized that there wasn't really that much of a difference in terms of concept space between the Constructs and the Unfleshed, and so they were quietly folded together. The term is still used, but it's clarified that it's the general nature of the generative rite that defines the Lineage (e.g. a Promethean made from a marble statue that was intended to be a human companion would be a Galateid, as Unfleshed are merely made to be humanlike at most).

===Extempores, the Matchless===
[[File:Lineage - Extempore.png|100px|right]]
::'''Humour''': Varies
::'''Element''': Varies
Byproducts of freak accidents in which enough Pyros manifested near a corpse to bring it to life as a Promethean; sometimes even the corpse isn't needed. All other Lineages describe them with variants of "What the fuck are you?", making them the Special Snowflake Lineage. They come from many different backgrounds without any rhyme or reason to them. Most of them however are created through fate or sheer luck, others seem to be the embodiment of some location as if they were [[elemental]]s, others still seem to resonate with some kind of disaster. As a result, many Extempores have Humours and Elements that don't match, or may have more than one of each. It's not known for sure if they're even capable of reaching the New Dawn, due to the often inexplicable means in which they were formed and their disconnection from the Azothic memory that gives Prometheans an instinctive knowledge of the Pilgrimage. Extempore Torment, Disquiet, and Wastelands can take as many forms as the Matchless themselves.

They were introduced in 1e, in the Magnum Opus sourcebook, but got updated to the corebook of 2e. Their creation rules in 1e were fairly handwaved, but they received much more detail in 2e.

====Hollows, the Skeletons====
[[File:Lineage - Hollow.png|100px|right]]
::Extempore Sub-Lineage
::'''Progenitor''': The American Dust Bowl (1933-1939)
::'''Humour''': Sanguine + Melancholer
::'''Element''': Air + Earth
When America's poor farming practices combined with the droughts of 1933 into a disaster that saw topsoil blow away in huge dust storms, sparking a famine that devastated the nation, a new lineage of Prometheans arose from the wastelands that consumed the Midwest. The Hollows are desiccated Prometheans torn between their affinity with the dead earth and the killing air, formed from the corpses of those who died of physical or metaphorical deprivation. They are driven by their hunger, making them prone to both Sanguine and Melancholic Torments at random, and in fact they're so desperate to have ''something'' that it actually becomes a power for them: their "Hunger" bestowment lets them try to convert damage from an attack into Pyros or Willpower, though it does not prevent the damage so much as delay it for a time. 

After the Dust Bowl ended, their creation rite stopped working and the Lineage is all but extinct, with the last remaining Hollows doomed to perish by 2039 as their Pyros fades; the survivors have since left the United States for lands as desolate and barren as the old Dust Bowl in the hopes that they might be able to complete their Pilgrimages there before time runs out for them.

====Faceless, the Tortured Ones====
[[File:LineageFaceless.png|100px|right]]
::Extempore Sub-Lineage
::'''Progenitor''': World War I (1914-1918)
::'''Humour''': Chlorine
::'''Element''': Poison Gas
On a nameless battlefield in France during World War I, lightning struck a pile of corpses in the mud, men who had once been soldiers but succumbed to chlorine gas. When word of the vaguely human figures rising from the ground spread to the commanders of the Allies and the Central Powers, they were dismissed as fear-induced hallucinations, but alchemists working for both sides saw potential in these Extempores and wished to use them as soldiers, going so far as to deliberately slow the distribution of gas masks in the hopes of producing more potential Faceless. They were so successful that for a time they were the most common Lineage in the world. 

These Prometheans resemble hulking, mud-caked figures whose faces consist only of two eye-holes that they have to bore out themselves and a barely-mobile mouth slit, which they typically cover with gas masks; contained within their dirt-encrusted bodies is a tangled mass of limbs belonging to their constituent corpses, all immersed in an endless flow of toxic chemicals that leaves them in constant pain. Their calm and stoic demeanor belies the agony they suffer from their humour, which drives them to pursue the Pilgrimage with incredible determination and can spur on great feats of self-sacrifice (which is likely why they ceased to exist after the end of the war). After all, death is certainly the fastest way to stop the pain. It is rare for them to join throngs; they prefer to observe humans from afar and learn from their suffering, in the hopes that it might give them insight into their own agony.

The Faceless's Disquiet reminds people of the things they'd rather forget- perhaps their "face" brings forth memories of a long-dead loved one, or something about them reminds the viewer of a an act they regret. Either way, they come to see the Faceless as being responsible for those painful memories and are convinced that the best way to repress them is to kill the Faceless. Their Wasteland evokes the most hellish aspects of World War I trench warfare, with the sound of unseen artillery shells filling the air and visitors feeling as if their lungs are burning from some noxious chemical.

===Zeka, the Children of the Bomb===
[[File:Lineage - Zeka.png|100px|right]]
::'''Humour''': Radiation
::'''Element''': Radiation/Fallout
The Zeka are freaks even among the Prometheans, with the only real connection between Zeky being the massive amounts of radioactivity involved in their creation and the constant pain they suffer as a result of said radiation. This radioactivity also has a tendency to make them rather unhinged at the best of times and completely insane at the worst. Disquiet? Unreasoning paranoid fear, a la the Red Scare of the 1950s but worse. Torment? The Zeka goes into a mindless killing spree, exhausting all of his/her Pyros in the pursuit of killing anyone and everyone he/she can find. Wasteland? The nuclear variety, of course: the land becomes a veritable Superfund site smothered under cold, sun-blocking clouds that rain down poisoned ash and snow, mutant insects proliferate whilst everything else dies, killed by the spiritual radiation contaminating the land. These guys are screwed even by the standards of Prometheans; for some fucking insane reason, a Zeka takes "radiation damage equal to their Azoth" if they complete the New Dawn. But, see, you need a ''minimum'' fucking Azoth of 4 to achieve the New Dawn. And a 5-dot dose of radiation? Is '''instant fucking death'''. It's no surprise that most of them embrace their monstrous nature and become Centimani for relief, something that is easier for them than any other kind of Promethean - these guys find Centimanus as easy to enter and as hard to leave as other Prometheans find Stannum.

In 2e, Zeky were modified greatly. The radiation in the Zeky's humours corrupts their Alembics with unexpected effects, and may even create entirely new ones. Although they cannot heal from electricity, they can heal from radiation (any kind will do, from lying out in the sunlight for the UV radiation to jury-rigging a bunch of microwaves, although the most intense radiation is much more effective), and while they can boost their stats for longer than other Prometheans they run the risk of spreading radioactive fallout across their general vicinity and puts them at risk of overloading their Pyros; in fact, the radiation they emit grows stronger with their Azoth to the point where merely being close to one can cause fatal radiation sickness. While in Torment, their Azoth spikes and they don't expend Pyros when using it, making their rampages more devastating even before the Wastelands they create by doing so are factored in. Zeka Disquiet is now more contagious than other forms of Disquiet if enough Disquieted people are in contact with each other (think of it as a nuclear reaction reaching critical mass) and also inflicts radiation sickness on its victims, exacerbating the paranoia and indiscriminate fury it creates until the people thus affected drop dead of radiation poisoning. Finally, the Firestorms the Zeky produce are nothing short of Azoth-powered nuclear bombs whose effects can last years after the Zeka that caused it has left.

At least they no longer take a massive dose of rads if one of them can finally drag him or herself over the New Dawn...

===Supernal Prometheans, The Impossibilities===
::'''Humour''': Any (Mystical)
::'''Element''': Any (Magical)
Introduced in 1e's Saturnine Night sourcebook, the Impossibilities are Prometheans created by demiurges who belonged to one of the supernatural races, who somehow found the drive to abandon their normal "creative rites" and tap into Pyros to breathe life into a new Promethean, coloring it with their own supernatural nature. Examples given in the sourcebook include a "vampire Promethean" with the Humour of Vitae, who can refuel Pyros by drinking blood, and a "werewolf promethean" with the Humour of Moonlight, who can fly into a berserk frenzy. In 2nd edition, these Prometheans are mentioned as one of the many possible forms the Extempore lineage can take.

===Dreamspun Prometheans===
Introduced in 1e's Magnum Opus, Dreamspun Prometheans are born when Pyros and the Astral Plane get kind of kinky together. Like the title says, these are Prometheans literally ''dreamed'' into existence. Somebody dreams about making a person somehow, and elsewhere, it comes to life. Because of this, Dreamspun Prometheans can be a bundle of different elemental affinities, like Extempores, or they can seemingly mimic an existing Lineage. The biggest difference is that, being partially Astral beings, Dreamspun Prometheans can't dream on their own. Instead, when they sleep, they unwittingly project themselves into the dreams of other people... and, of course, not only does this tend to twist the dream into a nightmare, it means the Promethean can whammy them with Disquiet without ever meeting them face to face. Under the 1e rules for Wasteland, a side-effect of their wasteland is that peoples' dreams start to merge together even when the Promethean itself doesn't enter their dreams. Naturally, they can eventually figure out how to have some control over the dreams they're entering. In 2e, they're considered to be a form of Extempore.

===Animal Prometheans===
Yeah, that's right: sometimes, Prometheans are such dicks that they will try and perform the generative rite with animal corpses just to see what'll happen. If it works, you get a flesh golem animal with human level intelligence and the ability to talk, but no opposable thumbs (unless, you know, they used a monkey) who suffers from the ''absolute '''bullshit''''' rule that humans who sees the Animal Promethean talking suffers a cumulatively worse Disquiet check each time it talks, until it's inevitable that the humans will go nuts and try to kill it. This is another 1e idea out of Magnum Opus. There's still hope for them, though- with help from a throng, even they can achieve the New Dawn and become an ordinary animal of their species.

===Extinct Lineages===
Although hinted at existing in 1e, 2e makes it explicit that Lineages of Prometheans rise and fall all the time, and many ultimately go extinct. Although Extempores are the most obvious candidates for such a fate, they're not the only ones.

====Amirani, the Prophets====
[[File:LineageAmirani.png|100px|right]]
::'''Humour''': Choler
::'''Element''': Fire
The precursors of the Frankensteins, who died out by the 1800s. They take their name from a hero of Georgian Mythology, who gave humanity the knowledge of metals. The first of their kind was an alchemist who learned how to refine metals from stone, and was killed either by the gods, or a jealous rival, who [[Rip and Tear|tore his entrails from his body]]. His wife, who was also an alchemist, then dug up his body and restored it with alchemy and metal prosthetics, bringing him back as a Promethean. Like their progenitor, Amirami bear clear signs of the horrific injuries that killed them while mortal, as they can only be created from the bodies of people who died in agony such as tortured heretics and executed prisoners; even those who have no visible wounds still stink of brimstone.

They have vivid visions of the Divine Fire upon death, and after awakening, they possess a need to spread the story of their vision, and to call on its power to change the world, leading to their nickname; it also fuelled their Torment, which caused them to become wrathful and violent should they or their world fail to live up to their exacting standards of perfection. Their Disquiet made others painfully aware of their personal shortcomings, producing feelings of inferiority and resentment. 

The last known Amirani, Vates, died in 1816. Legend has it that his heart and bile were used by Mary Shelley, as in the author of ''Frankenstein'', and John William Polidori, the author of ''The Vampyre'', to create Adam, the first Promethean of the Frankenstein lineage.

====Xibalbans, the Denied====
::'''Humour''': Sanguine
::'''Element''': Air
The precursors of the Galateids. They were named after the underworld of Mayan Mythology. They were created from the corpses of sacrificed people that laid on altars running with blood and were thought by normal humans to be death-spirits robbed of the chance to face their trials in the underworld. They always sought out simple pleasures and causes for which they could fight and die for. 

Their Torment filled them with bloodlust such that they would seize upon any excuse to kill people, while their Disquiet compelled those around them to "send them back where they came from" by way of killing them in ignonimous ways.

====Colossoi====
::'''Humour''': Unknown
::'''Element''': Unknown

The Colossoi were all created by the Colossus of Rhodes. Before we explain more, a bit of context is needed. 

See, a long time ago a bargain was struck between the [[Changeling: The Lost|Lost]] (specifically, a proto-Court called the Dream Builders that had an interest in Prometheans) and an entity calling itself "The Lady of Life Beyond Death". This pact, while originally limited to the Great Pyramid, was eventually dispersed across all the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, generating a field called Miasma. Weaved from a mix of Pyros and Glamour, the Miasma stifled Disquiet, kept the Gentry and their Huntsmen out save for five days of the year, and allowed changelings to travel to and from the Hedge more easily. 

The Colossus itself was a massive Promethean; while it was unable to move on its own, it could manipulate its internal alchemy to create new Prometheans that could undertake the Pilgrimage on its behalf, sharing their Vitriol and Athanors with it. In exchange, it offered sanctuary Prometheans and changelings alike. 

Like the other parts of the "Web of Seven", the Colossus was targeted on a semi-regular basis by the Others, as well as an organization led by Alexander IV's aunt that sought to use its life essence to resurrect Alexander the Great. Ultimately, it was destroyed in an earthquake in 226 BC and the power of the Dream Builders' bargain failed soon afterwards; nobody knows if it was ultimately able to reach the New Dawn or if any members of the Lineage it created survived.