This article originally appeared in Pyramid #20
Primal Power
New Idols for Shadowrun
by Stephen Kenson
The power of the gods has been associated with magic throughout human history. The forces of the divine touched mortal lives in many ways and chose certain mortals to be their representatives on Earth. Divine beings acted as guides for magicians in their initiation, showing them the secrets of power.
In the Sixth World of Shadowrun, faith is a force with magical power, and many practitioners of the arcane arts weave their faith and their power together in various ways. The Germany Sourcebook introduces the concept of Idols, powers that the European nature magicians follow as an ideal, in much the same way as shamans follow their totems. This article presents some new Idols to fill in some of the missing roles in human mythology and looks at how they fit in to some of the existing pantheons of gods from the ancient world.
The Nature of Idols
What are the Idols? The truth is that nobody really knows. According to some, they are powerful and mysterious beings that dwell on some unknown metaplane in the depths of astral space and provide magical power and knowledge to humans in exchange for veneration and worship. To others they are psychological archetypes, reflections of different aspects of the human psyche from the depths of the collective unconscious, that some magicians use as a means to focus their magical abilities in certain ways.
The argument over whether or not the Idols "really" exist is one that has been going . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: July 1, 1996
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