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Forums > Home› Champions Pen and Paper RPG

VIPER's "Tribal God"

Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
edited December 2011 in Champions Pen and Paper RPG
Can someone give me any info on what this is referring to? In Aftershock, I noticed the Avatars of the Kings of Edom mentioned the Supreme Serpent's tribal god. Who exactly is is? Can I assume that the serpent spirit in Serpent Lantern is who that is?
Post edited by Archived Post on

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  • Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited December 2011
    Quincy-St-Moth wrote:
    Can someone give me any info on what this is referring to? In Aftershock, I noticed the Avatars of the Kings of Edom mentioned the Supreme Serpent's tribal god. Who exactly is is? Can I assume that the serpent spirit in Serpent Lantern is who that is?

    Far as I understand it they are indeed referring to the nama vipers patron god.

    nama and the avatars are opposed to each other.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited December 2011
    Actually, the Spirit Serpent of the Lantern is one of three children of said "god," VIPER's superhuman enforcer Viperia being another.

    The reference is to the godlike founder and patron (but not leader) of VIPER, the serpent Nama. Nama has been and is worshipped by some West Africans, hence the derogatory "tribal god" designation. But he's had a much wider impact on human history over the past 50,000 years.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited December 2011
    aaaah thank you for that info, I was slightly confused. SO, how exactly did the Supreme Serpent come about leading VIPER, then?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited December 2011
    Quincy-St-Moth wrote:
    aaaah thank you for that info, I was slightly confused. SO, how exactly did the Supreme Serpent come about leading VIPER, then?

    The Supreme Serpent is a pulp era British adventurer and industrialist named Edgar Lancelyn Essec, who might best be described as "Cecil Rhodes as (overt) supervillain", who stumbled onto Nama's cave in West Africa. On a whim, Nama put him in suspended animation. In the early 1990s, when VIPER was going through a lot of internal conflict: Nama decided to keep the organization on track by thawing him out and saying "You lead!" Essec took on the role of Supreme Serpent and put VIPER back on the path to effective villainy.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited December 2011
    Aaaah, I see....-scratches head- So wait, Nama's plan is basically controlling the world with VIPER, then?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited December 2011
    Quincy-St-Moth wrote:
    Aaaah, I see....-scratches head- So wait, Nama's plan is basically controlling the world with VIPER, then?

    For Nama, it's more along the lines of:

    (a) Supers are in the world. Entertainment! The world has heroes, that's always fun, let's create some villains for them to play with.
    (b) Supers are in the world. And old powers are stirring. It might be nice to have some sort of force ready to defend me, if needed.

    Nama set up the organization in the 1950s and has intervened directly on only 4-5 occasions. Oddly enough, two of those interventions were arguably benign: ordering VIPER to assist supers in any way possible to prevent Luther Black from raising Sharna-Gorak the Destroyer in 1986, and attempting to prevent the Kings from grabbing new avatars in Aftershock.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited December 2011
    In some ways, Nama resembles the archetype of "trickster-god" that appears in many cultures. He's neither benevolent nor malevolent, although he may act either way at times. In the past he's been a teacher of Men, a patron of heroes, but also patronized conspirators or conquerors who seek power in his name, and hasn't hesitated to kill those who displeased him. Nama's actions are often governed by whatever strikes him as entertaining at the time. His ultimate goal is no more complicated than self-interest.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
    edited December 2011
    These older posts describe more of Nama's history and true nature:

    http://forums.champions-online.com/showthread.php?p=1912785

    http://forums.champions-online.com/showthread.php?p=1912966
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