Leviathan: The Tempest

In short, Lovecraftian Kaiju.

In the beginning, the world consisted of formless chaos, the Primordial Waters. At the heart of the sea was Tiamat, the mother of all things. Tiamat and her children, the Progenitors, ruled the Primordial Waters and were worshiped as gods by mankind. Then came Marduk to do battle with Tiamat and the Progenitors, in a climatic conflict he slew them and reforged the world drawing land and sky out from the Primordial Waters. Or so we all heard.

While playing as sea monsters and demigods would be fantastic on paper, the setting shows some Catch-22 instances. Leviathan is a game about living in a world the hapless PCs are entirely unsuited, with dual themes of puberty and old age. To be more specific, two problems for Leviathans exist. Freshly transformed and whelp Leviathans must adapt to physical changes, new powers, and responsibilities after they undergo their unlucky transformation. If you think the elders have it easy, think again! They must cope with the fact that as a people, they've been going the way of the dodo, yet accomplished nothing of value.

Rubbing further salt into their wounds, the Cthulhu wannabes have been split into different splats after Marduk mopped the floor with their grandmas and grandpas. Each splat represents one of the seven deadly sins and an associated vestige of what made them mighty eons ago. Their bugbears for the big fish are hunters from the Marduk Society, remnants from the disciples of Tiamat's slayer.

Starting off as a joke proposal for a Creature of the Black Lagoon gameline, the fan project was taken seriously and snowballed into the Lovecraftian splash-fest players see today.

So You're a Leviathan, Now What?

Somehow, the genes lined up just right and magic happened, making you, a normal kid of ordinary human parents, a Leviathan. Now you're an unholy fusion of human, god, and monster, and you can kiss any hope of a normal life goodbye. You literally can't interact with normal humans, because you turn them into raving nutter cultists before long, which is a problem because your Leviathan form is both monstrous and adapted for underwater living, so you're gonna need these people to do legwork for you. You're so connected to vice that objects of virtue are to you what holy symbols are to undead. Also, you get no supernatural toughness. Armored scales, maybe, but it's nothing a mundane airstrike or getting rammed by a boat can't bypass.

Crunch-wise, your power stat is Depth, and your powers are called Vestiges, with the resource used being Ichor. Your morality variant is Tranquility, which measures how you're able to reconcile your beastly, divine, and human natures. Being unbalanced towards the Beast side makes you a Typhon, an unintelligent creature that exists to survive and hoard stuff. Being too divine makes you an Ophion, who barely remember how physical bodies work and that other people exist. Your X splat is Strain, and your Y splat is School.

Strain

Which one of Tiamat's kids you descend from.

Bahamutans

Scions of Bahamut, but sadly not the D&D version, so you don't get to be part metallic dragon. Bahamutans are stereotyped as being the most mellow of Leviathans, but anyone who relies on that too much is in for a very painful second thought. Tend to have the most peaceful and cooperative Families, which can mean anything from a loving and supportive relationship to there is no war in Ba Sing Se-level tyranny. They represent the sin of Sloth, and their favored vestige is Vitality, with Awareness, Fecundity, and Might as secondaries.

Dagonites

Spawn of Dagon- the Lovecraft version, not the real world Syrian god of fertility and prosperity. They are the most fertile Tribe, but they're also the most messed-up, both mentally and physically. They're stuck-up fucks with god complexes (even by Leviathan standards) who like to lead and usually have large cults. Their favored vestige is Fecundity, and their secondaries are Elements, Predation, and Sanctify. They represent Pride.

Lahamins

Descendants of Lahamu. If you have no idea who that is, you're in good company. Lahamu is an Assyrian goddess who is the firstborn daughter of Tiamat and ancestor of Anu. The Lahamins are the rarest strain, because they don't really care about reproducing. They're secretive and like to collect knowledge and act indirectly, which has caused their fellows to accuse them of cowardice. However, they're efficiently dangerous in a straight fight. They represent the vice of Envy, and they favor Awareness, with Predation, Sanctify, and Vitality for secondary vestiges.

Nu

Originating from Nu, the ancient Egyptian personification of primordial waters and chaos. The Nu are the weirdest Leviathans, with the closest direct connection to the elements. Their cultists are even crazier than normal Leviathan cultists; an example is given of one mistaking a shopping list to be a demand for a virgin sacrifice. Nu favor the vestige of Elements, and to a lesser extent Awareness, Fecundity, and Sanctify. They represent the vice of Gluttony.

Oceanads

Children of Oceanus, these are known to be the prettiest Leviathans, being often associated with mermaids. They're good at enthralling mortals. Their favorite Vestige is Sanctify, with Element, Might, and Predation secondary. Their vice is Lust.

Tanninim

Spawned from Tannin, and the 'fighty' tribe. Their favored vestige is Predation, with secondary Awareness, Might, and Vitality. They represent Wrath.

Thalassans

Descendants of the goddess Thalassa. They are the splat best adjusted to human life, to the point where they can actually resist the transformation if they anchor themselves with a power outside of themselves, so a prospective Thalassan can keep themselves human with the power of friendship. Thalassans are stereotyped as businesspeople, satisfying their Leviathan need for power by climbing the corporate latter, in accordance of their sin of Greed. Their favored vestige is Might, with Element, Fecundity, and Sanctify as secondary ones.

Schools

Factions Leviathans join to deal with their condition in the company of the like-minded.

School of the Abyss

Leviathans of this school take one look at what their relationships with humans look like, and decide not to bother. They retreat from the world to explore the depths of the ocean, and are the foremost experts on the Rift.

School of Clay

The school of Humanity, Fuck Yeah!. Leviathans of Clay think that since humans are much better at this whole 'civilization' thing, they should copy how humans do things.

School of Fog

The School of Fog looks inward for answers, studying the nature and history of the Tribes. Because of how familiar they are with the Tribes, they're very good at forming inter-Tribe alliances.

School of the Moon

A school that constantly seeks change and evolution, in hopes of eventually rediscovering the primordial glory of the Tribes.

School of the Reef

Leviathans who seek challenge and self-improvement, believing that the only thing a Leviathan can truly rely on is their own power.

School of Sand

Techno-Cthulhu who like to solve all their problems with modern technology.

School of the Sun

The School of Sun embraces the divine nature of Leviathans, and work on enlarging and improving their cults.

Antagonists

Because anyone as dangerous a Leviathan, and as prone to destroying human lives without intending to, is going to make loads of enemies.

The Marduk Society

The modern students of Marduk, who slew Tiamat. Have a lot of nifty toys like a space station and orbital death ray. They used to be controlled by a secret cabal of Marduk's original disciples who went evil and started eating Leviathan flesh to make themselves immortal, but the modern members discovered they were being used and purged the society of the secret cabal. This has left them one of the most idealistic and actually good factions in the World of Darkness, but they've also lost half their number and now they have to deal with the fact that oh shit, running a worldwide conspiracy is really hard. They're terrifying when they manages to get their asses in gear, but that's a very rare event.

Ahabs

Named after the obsessed ship captain in Moby Dick. Ahabs are people who were affected by the power of Leviathans, but unlike normal people who become obsessively devoted cultists, they become obsessed with hunting down the Leviathan in question at any cost, and as long as they're doing that, they have superpowers called Damnations. Since these Damnations are actually manifestations of the Leviathan's power and self-hatred, they lose the powers when the unwitting donor dies. Which can be a bit of a problem if they were using Damnations to survive in some sort of hostile environment.

External Links

• FATAL & Friends took a whack at it
• They got their own TV Tropes page now
• They have their own wiki too