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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Promethean.jpeg]]
2[[caption-width-right:350:Death did they part. They were reassembled.]]
3->''We know we're not real. It's like playing house, like befriending shadow puppets. It becomes frustrating, then maddening. No one wants the company of monsters, not for long.''\
4''Not even other monsters.''
5
6The fourth game in the TabletopGame/ChroniclesOfDarkness setting, released in 2006, and the first of its 'limited cycle' games, which had a set number of sourcebooks. ''Promethean'' had the core book and four {{Sourcebook}} follow-ups, ''Pandora's Book'', ''Strange Alchemies'', ''Magnum Opus'' and ''Saturnine Night'', with a ''Ready-Made [=PCs=]'' PDF supplement added later. An updated second edition was released in 2016 that shuffled around some of the Lineages and Refinements, clarified rules, and made the game more playable for a wider audience.
7
8The name of ''Promethean'' refers to its central characters, reanimated corpses fueled by "the Divine Fire", "Azoth" in alchemic terms; the Divine Fire is often affiliated with the fire Prometheus stole from the gods, dubbing all who are fueled by it [[TitleDrop Prometheans]]. These creatures are cursed to suffer the unending hatred of the human race, and must struggle for survival against both mankind's rejection and the rejection of the earth itself. What's worse, Prometheans are also hunted - Pandorans, creatures born from Promethean creation rites gone wrong, desire to devour the Created.
9
10Despite the description, this game is actually ''optimistic''. Prometheans follow what they call "the Pilgrimage", a quest to refine themselves into something more closely resembling humans. They learn to master the Azoth within them and the nature of humanity, with the goal of someday completing "the Great Work": redemption, the final transformation into human beings.
11
12Assuming, of course, they can avoid giving up in the face of the world's spite and [[TheDarkSide taking up the Refinement of Flux]].
13
14Notable perhaps because a viable group of characters in the game consists of Frankenstein's Monster, a marble statue imbued with life, a hypertech nanite colony in the shape of a man, a mummy, and a golem complete with the name of God on his forehead, and they can go beat up a radioactive zombie-making (and also radioactive-zombie making) thing brought to life by a nuclear bomb and guarded by living cancers, because you were told to by a blood-drenched angel with a flaming sword and six wings. And despite that description, it's actually a rather deep game of personal horror and on the nature of what makes a man. Possibly the strangest of the Chronicles of Darkness games, ''Promethean'' requires more investment between Storyteller and player than the norm, and is thus recommended for smaller groups.
15
16[[AC:The various {{Splat}}s of Promethean are as follows:]]
17
18'''The Lineages:''' The inborn classification of the Created, representing the way in which the Promethean was… well, created. Each Lineage is also associated with one of the medieval Elements and an associated [[FourTemperamentEnsemble bodily Humour]].
19
20* '''Frankensteins:''' Created by lightning (representing the divine Fire) and overflowing with the Choleric humour, this Lineage can trace its line back to Frankenstein’s original monster itself. The Wretched are freakishly strong, and some can reassemble their bodies with pieces of other corpses. Their Torment manifests as unreasoning vengeful rage, their Wasteland results in constant thunderstorms and endless fires, and their Disquiet results in pity and fear, developing into full-fledged hatred and mania.
21* '''Galateids:''' Gifted with the breath of life and full of the Sanguine humour, Galateids are descended from Galatea, the mythological Greek statue brought to life by the goddess of love. Galateids can channel their gifts to improve their interactions with mortals (temporarily, of course - Disquiet always kicks in eventually), or even turn into statues themselves. Their Torment gives them a clinging, spiteful quality, at the same time hating those around them and ''needing'' them. Their Wasteland kills the air, draining it of oxygen and making it tiring and disorienting. Their Disquiet causes jealousy, possessiveness, and obsession.
22* '''Osirans:''' Brought to life by immersion with water, and drawing upon the tale of the resurrection of Osiris in Egyptian myth, Osirans are tied to the Phlegmatic humour. Whether or not they are truly descended from the god of myth, the Nepri (as they are sometimes called) can draw upon deeper reserves of life than other Created, returning from death in ways other Prometheans can’t manage. Other Osirans maintain a tie to the dead after creation, with the ability to ask a corpse three questions and receive answers. Their Torment removes their emotions, leaving them coldly amoral. Their Wasteland sours the water in the area, leading to droughts and leaving what little moisture remains stagnant and dead. Their Disquiet causes wild emotions and mood swings in surrounding mortals.
23* '''Tammuz:''' The line that changed the most between first and second edition. Both versions rose from death after being buried in the earth and suffused with the Melancholic humour. The first edition Golems were all created for servitude and with a hatred of slavery. In the second edition, they are known as the Named, and became workaholics without rest who also hold a deep fascination with language. All Tammuz possess incredible endurance, either the ability to endure physical pain or to endure mystical assaults no other could endure. Tammuz Torment has two parts – an uncontrollable frenzy, followed by a black depression. Their Wastelands result in sinkholes and land growing infertile. Their Disquiet causes others to depend on the Tammuz, clinging to him and growing resentful.
24* '''Ulgan:''' Also known as Orpheans or Riven, Ulgan are associated with the element of Spirit and the Ectoplasmic humour, and are created when another member of the Lineage imbues a body with ectoplasm, which calls spirits to tear it apart and reassemble it. Ulgan can innately see and interact with spirits, or can sing a song which lulls spirits and ghosts into a magical sleep. Ulgan Torment is an illogical, instinctual drive, much like a spirit’s single-minded existence. Their Wasteland causes a thinning of the barrier between the spirit world and the mortal world. Their Disquiet results in spiritual possession or devolution into mindless routine in mortals.
25* '''Zeka:''' A recently developed Lineage associated with tainted, radioactive expressions of the other elements and humours. A Zeka might be able to raise radioactive zombies from the bodies of the dead. Others can become scorched shadows on walls, like the silhouettes of the victims of atomic bombs, or mystically sense and home in on radiation, using it to regain Pyros. A Zeka’s Torment is manifested as an intense burst of hatred and the need to destroy. Their Wasteland turns the surrounding area into a radioactive barren, much like fallout, and their Disquiet causes intense and irrational paranoia.
26* '''Unfleshed:''' The Unfleshed are Prometheans made of inanimate objects: as simple as a mannequin or collection of prosthetic devices, or as complicated as a factory machine or android. The Unfleshed originally appeared in ''Saturnine Night'', but the second edition promoted them to a full-fledged Lineage, complete with their own humour, oil. They have inherited the slave-like nature of the Tammuz, originally made as tools only to serve a purpose. Unlike a thoughtless device, Unfleshed recognize their own sentience and demand respect accordingly, even if they don't quite understand why. Unused to emotion, they alternate between cold logic and uncontrolled outbursts.
27* '''Extempore''': The Matchless are not so much a Lineage as a collection of unique Lineages that don't match any others, born when sheer random chance causes the spontaneous formation of a Promethean. It may happen in the wake of a natural disaster (1e's sample Extempore, Bin Gereh, was born from a powerful earthquake), out of extreme emotion or need, or even during a regular Linage creation rite that goes just wrong enough to make an aberrant Extempore, but not quite wrong enough to create a Pandoran. They may have the same humours as a regular Promethean or something altogether unique, such as lava or seawater. There may not even be a body involved, their physical form coming from an unknown source of matter. They often feel the most lost among the Created since, unlike the other Lineages, they have no examples to follow and are truly on their own.
28* In addition to those, there are the various optional ways to create a Promethean, such as Constructs[[note]]As of second edition, Constructs are part of the Unfleshed.[[/note]], when a Promethean from a standard Lineage decides to create another using inanimate materials and succeeds; Prometheans created using an animal rather than a human body, with most of the limitations that come with such those forms; the Prometheans created when a demiurge dreams so long and clear the dream becomes real; and the Prometheans created by demiurges from the other supernatural races of the World of Darkness and partaking of their nature. There are also lost Promethean lines that have died out, usually by their method of creation being lost or forgotten, or the circumstances that allowed them to be born no longer existing. For example, another Lineage based on the Fire-element existed before the Frankensteins, the Amirani, but with the last Amirani's death, the knowledge of how to create them has been lost or destroyed, and no subsequent demiurge is known to have replicated the process.
29
30'''The Refinements:''' The chosen {{Splat}}s of the Prometheans. Unlike other species in the World of Darkness, Refinements aren’t [[GroupedForYourConvenience social constructs]] so much as philosophies. There are so few Created in the world that a given Promethean may live out his entire pseudo-life without ever meeting another of his kind, let alone one following the same Refinement. Refinements are divided into simple and complex; a Promethean must always start their journey on a simple Refinement, and cannot have completed more complex Refinements than simple ones.
31
32The five simple Refinements that are common among the Created:
33* '''Aurum:''' The Refinement of Gold (Mortality). Prometheans who follow this Refinement believe that by studying and interacting with mortals, they can learn how best to ''be'' mortal – and thus, to complete their Pilgrimage.
34* '''Cuprum:''' The Refinement of Copper (Self). This Refinement involves solitude and meditation alone among nature as a way to understand one's place in the world and to tame one’s own Wasteland.
35* '''Ferrum:''' The Refinement of Iron (Corpus). This Refinement teaches that Prometheans should train and strengthen their bodies – a strong soul, they believe, cannot exist without a strong vessel.
36* '''Plumbum:'''[[note]]Originally appeared as a rare Refinement in ''Magnum Opus''; second edition upgrades it to a simple Refinement[[/note]] The Refinement of Lead (Source). This Refinement teaches that only by truly understanding what he is now can a Promethean ascend to something new. Followers of Plumbum seek knowledge of Prometheans throughout history and study their own flawed bodies, seeking to know what they are so that they can become more.
37* '''Stannum:''' The Refinement of Tin (Torment). Prometheans who follow Stannum embrace the pain of their Torment and Disquiet, vengefully lashing out at those who have wronged them. This is the easiest path for (non-Zeka) Prometheans to fall into, and the hardest to leave.
38
39The Five Complex Refinements that can be taken later in a Created's journey are:
40* '''Aes:''' The Refinement of Bronze (Aid). This Refinement focuses on assisting others who seek to complete their Pilgrimage. They believe that by aiding others on the path, they may find their own way.
41* '''Argentum:''' The Refinement of Silver (Mystery). This unusual Refinement depends on studying and emulating other supernatural creatures in the World of Darkness – these other beings were once human, and so the Argentum-followers believe that by studying the process by which they were transformed into something inhuman, the Promethean might reverse the process.
42* '''Cobalus:''' The Refinement of Cobalt (Impurity). Cobalus is the study of impurity and imperfection. Those who follow this Refinement study what happens during their failures – times of Torment, massive Wastelands and outbreaks of Disquiet – to learn what may be done to resolve these imperfections.
43* '''Mercurius:'''[[note]]Originally one of the five common Refinements, second edition made it into a complex Refinement.[[/note]] The Refinement of Quicksilver (Pyros). Those who follow Mercurius study the nature of the Divine Fire itself, believing that by analyzing and manipulating it, they may be able to stoke the Fire within themselves into a true soul and transcend to humanity.
44* '''Phosphorum:''' The Refinement of Phosphorus (Light). This Refinement focuses on living life to the fullest by pushing it close enough to the edge to understand mortality. Followers of Phosphorum are driven to burn their brightest in the face of death or flame out spectacularly trying.
45
46There is one final Refinement, one that is seen as a path of denial or failure.
47* '''Centimani:''' The Refinement of Flux. Members of this Refinement turn away from humanity and embrace their inhuman natures, becoming true monsters. For some, this is chosen because the Centimanus has lost faith in the possibility of the New Dawn. In the first edition, some rare few were allowed to see this as one more path to humanity; there are monsters among mortality, after all, and perhaps the Promethean can learn to become human by first studying what humans are not. However, second edition makes it clear that any Promethean who falls on to Centimani has ''failed''; they have arrested their Pilgrimage as long as they remain here, and may not make any progress towards their Magnum Opus until they return to one of the proper Refinements.
48
49Terminology: Prometheans each belong to a ''Lineage'' descended from a ''Progenitor'' created by a human ''Demiurge''. The five in the first edition core claim descent from Frankenstein's Monster, Galatea, Osiris, Tammuz and Ulgan, but more exist; the Zeka are radioactive, the Unfleshed are made from robots and machines rather than human corpses, and there are other, rarer ones which can be created by freak occurrences. They travel in groups called ''throngs''. They follow one of ten ''Refinements'' to focus their Pilgrimages. Their powers are alchemical ''Transmutations'' fueled by their internal store of ''Pyros''; Pyros in turn is empowered by their ''Azoth''. Their KarmaMeter is ''Humanity'', their ability to comprehend and mimic human behavior and morals (though as of 2E, this is replaced by ''Pilgrimage'', which is a measure of progress on the Great Work). All Prometheans follow a ''Pilgrimage'' to find humanity, without clear direction; if they find their way successfully, they may achieve their Great Work, or ''Magnum Opus'', and become fully human.
50----
51!!This game contains examples of:
52* AGodAmI: Not very common for reasons that will be explained below, but when an unhinged Zeka with low Humanity embraces the Centamani path they can fall into this trope too easily...
53* AlchemyIsMagic:
54** Prometheans are alchemical creations powered by the Divine Fire that moves the Universe. Their Lineages are based on [[FourTemperamentEnsemble the classical elements]], they pursue Refinements based on the seven alchemical metals (as well as bronze and cobalt), and they can create [[PrestigeClass Athanors]] to further refine themselves.
55** 2E features actual alchemists...who are generally antagonistic or become so due to Disquiet, since Prometheans are bountiful harvests for the truly jaw-dropping feats of alchemy. They use their extracts to give themselves Dread Powers and Transmutations, which the human body adapts to via LovecraftianSuperpower.
56* AlwaysChaoticEvil: The Pandorans are like this (but, to be fair, don't really have a choice not to be), as are the Centimani (Promethians who chose to forsake becoming human, and mostly serve as the "bad guy" faction.)
57* AngelUnaware: Qashmallim.
58* ArtifactOfDoom: Jovian Athanors in 2E, created when a Promethean abandons their internal angst and doubts without confronting them, [[TheHeartless which causes the poisonously charged Pyros to ground itself]] in a local item that develops fun traits like awakening Pandorans, worsening Disquiet, summoning a Wasteland...the only way to get rid of one is for a Promethean, not always the creator, to absorb it and resolve whatever emotional baggage created it.
59* ArtificialInsolence: If a Promethean fails a [[SanityMeter Humanity]] roll in certain stressful situations, they succumb to "Torment" where their personality is overwhelmed by [[ElementalPersonalities the alchemical humour that animates them]]. Frankensteins become [[RevengeBeforeReason vengeful]], Galateids [[StalkerWithoutACrush fixate on an object of affection]], Osirans become cruelly dispassionate, Golems enter UnstoppableRage, and Ulgans lose their minds to [[OurSpiritsAreDifferent spirits]].
60* AtomicSuperpower: The Zeka, the so-called Nuclear Prometheans, introduced in ''Saturnine Night''. Where other Lineages have an affinity for electricity, the Zeka have an affinity for radiation. Their Wastelands manifest as fallout zones.
61* BackFromTheDead:
62** All Prometheans can do this once. Osirans and a few Prometheans of other lineages can theoretically, given the right circumstances [[spoiler:and enough ExperiencePoints]], do it as many times as they need to.
63** Bin Gereh, an Extempore created spontaneously by a natural disaster in southern Egypt, can do this essentially indefinitely and without cost [[spoiler:[[WeaksauceWeakness unless he dies on a boat]]; as he was created by one of the greatest catastrophes on land, being on water removes that immunity.]]
64* BecomeARealBoy: What happens when a Promethean reaches "New Dawn". A more exceptional case for the Unfleshed as they don't have the luxury of starting with an organic human body in the first place.
65* BecomingTheMask: Ideally, the line between "pretending to be a human" and "legitimately reacting to things as a human would" will become blurry as a Promethean grows to understand people and tries to make their own place in the human world.
66* BeingGoodSucks:
67** Averted; the better a person you are, the better the odds that you will successfully complete the Pilgrimage.
68** Played painfully straight with the Tammuz's Torment; they become compelled to serve people who depend on them, and the longer they spend in Torment the harder it becomes for them to escape. If they're lucky the person assumes that the Tammuz is a GoodSamaritan type and the Tammuz will experience a massive guilt trip if they try to disobey or escape. The unlucky ones get enslaved and endure the most brutal lives.
69* BerserkButton: The Tammuz as a whole loathe [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil slavery]].
70* BewareTheNiceOnes: Any Promethean can change their Refinement, though depending on the presence of a teacher, it could take a week or a month. Not so for the Refinement of [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge Torment]] -- that takes no time at all to join and twice as long as normal to leave. [[ShockAndAwe Enjoy your power failures.]]
71* BishonenLine: Pandorans in 2E; the mindless variety is many-formed and always very short. When they become Sublimati, they always metamorphose into an invariably humanoid form with recognizable facial expressions that is as tall as the average human - and as a result, has as much Health. This also comes part and parcel with not only their [[ItCanThink minds]], but the ability to learn true Transmutations and devour [[ImAHumanitarian human flesh]] as a Pyros substitute, allowing them to remain awake indefinitely if they have enough hapless mortals.
72* BlackAndGrayMorality: A lighter shade of gray than usual. The black is a lot worse.
73* BlankSlate: Prometheans start with nothing. Hopefully.
74* BlessedWithSuck: Quite possibly the worst in the [[TabletopGame/ChroniclesOfDarkness CoD]].
75** Just to be clear on this: You're [[NighInvulnerability nearly indestructible, ]][[ExtremeOmnivore can eat just about anything,]] only have to sleep once every two days, can heal with electricity, and get at least one [[BackFromTheDead free resurrection]] - but ''[[TheChewToy the universe hates you,]]'' [[WalkingWasteland and ]][[EvilDetectingDog not ]][[TorchesAndPitchforks figuratively, ]][[HatePlague either.]]
76** But Great Grandfather Crow has it even worse than everyone else. He was a crow who died and was then resurrected by some halfwit of a Promethean. Now he's a dead crow with the mind of a proto-human who just wants to become a regular crow again. The rulebook suggests that the New Dawn is actually impossible for him, because the Divine Fire can only turn one human, but he doesn't want that. That said, one test game run by the designers ended with the crow finding Redemption as a bird.
77** Constructs, non-Unfleshed Prometheans made from substances besides human bodies (such as iron, wood, or stone), are even further removed from humanity than a normal Promethean, don't even ''look'' human without a Transmutation, cause Disquiet more easily, and, while they may have minor advantages, they also suffer from the same weaknesses as the materials they're made from.
78** Possibly the king of this: Bin Gereh. Even Great-Grandfather Crow can find a chance at redemption, though it might not be a form he likes. Bin Gereh (and the other Extempores) ''may never be able to''. (He was "created" by a natural disaster, and every attempt he's made at creating progeny - a required step for Redemption - has failed.) Though 2E made it so creating progeny is no longer ''required'' for the New Dawn (though it helps), but Extempore still don't have it very easy as unlike the other lineages, they lack anyone who can help them figure out what they ''do'' need to do, even other Extempore.
79*** To add to how much things suck for the Extempore... even if a Promethean is abandoned by their Progenitor, they still have Azothic memory, the collective knowledge of all Prometheans who have ever been animated by the Divine Fire. Extempores don't, and the only way they can access it is to become part of a Branded throng, where it may still feel like reading over someone else's shoulder.
80* BlueAndOrangeMorality: Qashmallim have a purpose given to them by the Principle. They exist to do nothing but fulfill that purpose, no matter how bizarre or nonsensical it may seem. They are generally polite enough to explain themselves, as best as they can, if asked, though you may get tired of hearing "It is the will of the Principle" and "The Principle is the Principle" pretty quickly.
81* BodyHorror: Pandorans come from the bodies of failed attempts at Promethean generation, with a healthy dose of Flux added in. Heads with tentacles, living viscera with legs and gaping maws, etc. Prometheans who use Pandoran transmutations mutate terribly, as well.
82* BornAsAnAdult: One of the prerequisites for a body to be suitable for a Promethean is that it has undergone puberty. It's not ''impossible'' to use a child's body for the Generative Rites, but it's significantly more likely to go wrong, and even if it works, most Prometheans consider the idea horrific.
83* ButICantBePregnant: Generally, it's impossible for Prometheans to reproduce, but once in a blue moon one of them impregnates or gets impregnated by a mortal, or (even more rarely) by another Promethean. For a Promethean of either gender, this can be a distressing or confusing experience, but also quite rewarding, especially since it may be a part of their Pilgrimage. The kids turn out as normal human beings -- mostly. See InTheBlood.
84* CameBackWrong: The first of each Lineage started like this; Prometheans sometimes have this happen to them as well, when the attempts to create new ones create Pandorans.
85* CardCarryingVillain: The Centimani have basically given up on becoming human, and most don't even pretend to be anything but monsters.
86* CityOfAdventure: Detroit.
87* CompanionCube: One Transmutation allows a Promethean to imbue an inanimate object with a consciousness. As long as they funnel one point of Pyros into their creation each day, it can last indefinitely. Some Prometheans use this to set up spies (who's going to notice the old brick leaning against the fence?). Some do it just to have someone to talk to. Prometheans don't pass judgment on either use.
88* TheCorruption: While not an evil or intentionally malevolent force, Flux, as the agent of mutation and dissolution, acts like this. Also qualifies as BodyHorror.
89* CosmicHorror: Certain qashmallim are closer to this than angelic.
90* CrapsackWorld: Even worse than usual; if a Promethean stays within one mile of any place they've stopped for more than one hour, their very presence will make it into a widening area of general unpleasantness called a [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin "Wasteland"]]. While each of the five-plus Lineages will produce different kinds of Wastelands, ''all'' of them are very unpleasant in their own ways. Bonus: different Prometheans' Wastelands do ''not'' cancel each other out unless they're part of the same [[SecretProjectRefugeeFamily throng.]]
91** More so for the Zeka; they're in constant pain, they're [[WalkingWasteland radioactive,]] and not a single one has reached their [[BecomeARealBoy New Dawn.]] And the [[TheDarkSide Refinement of Flux]] is easier for them to access than any other Promethean - in game terms, if the player says "My Zeka changes to Centimani", it ''happens'' (normally it takes in-game months)... and it takes them twice as long to climb back out.
92* CreepyDoll: When a Galateid's disfigurements are revealed, their appearance is ''too'' perfect, seeming artificial and doll-like. One might appear to be made of marble with black glass eyes, another like a store mannequin.
93* CriticalExistenceFailure: Prometheans are literally running on magic, so they can keep going until that burns out. When it comes to other beings, with enough damage, you will start to take penalties on your rolls. If you take Bashing damage, you will need to roll to stay conscious. Take Lethal damage or get Bashed hard enough, and you will start to bleed to death - and you die. Further damage would turn into Aggravated damage, in essence mutilating the body. Prometheans take no roll penalty, do not need to roll to stay conscious, and will not bleed to death. The only way to kill them is to deal enough Aggravated damage - either by mutilating the body beyond recognition (easier said than done, given the body in question is most likely still moving and actively resisting), [[KillItWithFire or by fire]].
94* {{Cult}}/[[ReligionOfEvil Religion Of Knight Templars]]: The Botherud are a group of Prometheans that believe that Azoth is a limited resource that must be conserved and that Promethean reproduction is a Sin against the Divine Fire. Considering that it is a requirement to make another Promethean as a step towards becoming human, this puts them at odds with the rest of their kind and bars them from attaining humanity, unless they reproduced prior to joining, in which case they would have to kill their progeny as per their creed. Bonus points for them also slaughtering any Prometheans they find and using an old Soviet nuclear device close to Boston on the player's Throng in the sample adventure they first appeared in...
95* DarkIsNotEvil:
96** The 1st edition books explicitly mention that some Centimani are not evil, just selfish and tired of [[HatePlague Disquiet]]. Pandora's Book features a couple - an [[{{Mummy}} Osiran]] who thinks that understanding Flux is key to understanding humans, and a [[{{Golem}} Tammuz]] who simply has it as the first Refinement he learned. It even admits the Osiran has a point; the problem is his detachment from his work.
97** 2E averts this for the Centimani - it's been clarified that is explicitly the Refinement that rejects the Pilgrimage and humanity altogether, instead focusing on chasing the nebulous goal of monster-hood for the sake of survival at all costs. It adds Phosphorum and Cobalus, though - the latter is all about learning to exploit human vices in the name of understanding them (so to later overcome them, natch), while the former's intellectual aspects have a distinct {{Necromancer}} bent.
98* TheDarkSide: Centimani, Refinement of Flux. In 2E, it's actually impossible to progress on the Pilgrimage while following it, since it fundamentally is about becoming ''anything but'' human. [[DarkIsNotEvil That doesn't mean Freaks are always evil]] [[SubvertedTrope (in the first edition only)]], but it does mean they are at the very least embittered hermits, and the majority abandon humanity by defying the positive aspects and sanity.
99** Flux as a cosmic force is not necessarily evil, either, even if it does kind of go against the entire purpose of the Pilgrimage. ''Pandora's Book'' features an anecdote of a ''qashmallim'' of Flux showing up at an elite party where depraved magnates did absolutely hideous things to captive youths, and ended up executing some karmic justice by infecting the magnates with something ''very'' nasty and inevitably fatal.
100** To an extent this applies to the Prometheans, being a race of corpses that cause disasters just by being near anything.
101
102%%* DeadpanSnarker: Ulgan are prone to it.
103* DeathByDepower: The Zeka are animated by nuclear radiation instead of a classical element. They have the usual option to complete a Pilgrimage and [[HumanityEnsues become human]], but as soon as they succeed, they suffer radiation poisoning proportional to their former Azoth level, which can kill a once-powerful Promethean [[FastKillingRadiation within hours]] or days. However, survival is still possible.
104* {{Determinator}}: All Prometheans need to be this in order to reach their New Dawn. The Tammuz are a more specific case amongst the Lineages; a Tammuz can and will endure everything to accomplish a goal.
105* DePower: Prometheans can do this to themselves, willingly, in 2E - by internally damping their Azoth, they can also shed the downsides of high Azoth (worse Disquiet and Wastelands, attracting Pandorans). The downside is they have to wait for at least a day before returning to full potential - and they're weaker while it lasts.
106* DontLookAtMe: Considering that a Promethean's Disquiet is harder to resist when their disfigurements are visible, this phrase might get a bit of a workout when the Pyros starts to fly.
107* DoomMagnet: The whole goddamn species. In so many ways. For one, their coming ''near'' a Pandoran wakes the damn thing up (and is the ''only'' thing that wakes them up, at that!). Even ''staying in the same place'' for more than a brief time causes bad things to happen, driving the humans (and other supernaturals) insane with Disquiet and blighting the very land with the Wasteland. Downplayed, but still present, in Second Edition.
108* DownerEnding:
109** First Edition: Not exactly a definite thing, but if a Promethean reaches New Dawn and is reborn as human, they can be killed by a random car accident as soon as they cross the street. A more TearJerker of a case is that once made human, they can still be reborn as Prometheans if they die.
110** This trope was [[DefiedTrope shot in the skull and butchered to make a Frankenstein]] in 2nd Edition - during the New Dawn, a Promethean briefly becomes a full-scale RealityWarper that encodes a full legal identity, life, and history into the world for their new life that resembles Refinements. At ''worst'', the Redeemed is apparently as badly traumatized as a Promethean has every right to be (and no idea why), and most of ''those'' get better after about a month. It may be a somewhat ''off-kilter'' life (the less Refinements you mastered, the more of your Promethean and human memories you're missing), but it is perfectly adapted to wherever the Promethean achieved the New Dawn. A Redeemed has a BittersweetEnding at worst in the vast majority of cases, and in comparison it's usually heavy on the sweet.
111* EarnYourHappyEnding: Yes, you really can in this one; there's even rules for it. But that doesn't mean many will...
112* [[LightningCanDoAnything Electricity Can Do Anything]]: It heals Prometheans, it can restore Pyros, and it can animate a disparate collection of parts into a Frankenstein (Or a Torch-Born Pandoran).
113%%* EmergentHuman
114* EpiphanicPrison: The Pilgrimage has elements of this. The goal is easy to say - become a human - but nearly impossible to do. First you must answer the question, "What ''is'' a human?" - a question that humans themselves don't have a ready answer for.
115* EvilCounterpart: The Pandorans themselves exist as foils to the Promethean condition and Sublimati darkly invert the personalities of the Lineages accordingly: Pandorans that would have been Wretched love to burn prey, Pandorans born of Tammuz failure love to enslave them, Galateids are hounded by beasts who hate beauty, and so on.
116* EvilMakesYouMonstrous: The problem with pursuing the Centimani path. As you travel down it, you are ''encouraged'' to shed every element that makes you even tangentially human-like, both mentally and physically. Lifelong Centimani tend to both look and act horrific.
117* [[SupernaturalAngst Existential Angst]]: You're an abomination born out of a ritually defiled corpse, reanimated by magic sourced from ethereal beings of questionable motive, cause horrific damage to the environment, will motivate every human you meet to hate you, pained by the absence of a soul, will motivate every human to destroy you utterly if they see your real form, persecuted by other ethereal beings of violent motive, preyed on by monstrous creatures that are abominations born by abominations like yourself who made a mistake when attempting to birth more abominations like yourself, subject to a cosmic scale karmic punishment system with an ironic streak, tempted to take up a blatantly evil philosophy that will alienate you from others of your kind, and bound to follow a vaguely defined path which demands you to create another abomination in your image to progress, taking years or even centuries to attain your promised reward. All of this to become a feeble, mortal human who potentially retains no memory of your struggle against the cosmos, with nothing but a human soul to prove your worthiness. [[SarcasmMode Enjoy!]]
118%%* {{Expy}}:
119%%** Qashmallim Ruby and Mr. Gold are expies for Series/SapphireAndSteel.
120%%** The Kaiju of Nagasaki is an obvious expy of [[VideoGame/SilentHill2 Pyramid Head]].
121* ExternalRetcon:
122** Frankenstein's monster claims the book was his evil "Bride's" idea, that she deliberately told Mary Shelley his story.
123** Centralia might have been the result of Frankenstein's monster settling down.
124* ExtremeOmnivore:
125** Prometheans can eat virtually anything organic. Kind of a survival mechanism [[WalkingTheEarth considering their lifestyle]].
126** The Acid Stomach Merit also permits them to eat ''anything'', from loose change to handfuls of rocks as long as they can get it down.
127* FaceFullOfAlienWingWong: Pandora's Book mentioned that while Pandorans are unable to breed naturally, they can try tainting Promethean flesh with Flux (it's left open whether this would work). One option is to have a Pandoran burrow itself into a Promethean's innards, aiming to corrupt the Promethean from the inside and turn him (or pieces of him) into Pandorans.
128* FaceHeelTurn: All of the Prometheans listed as examples of the Centimani Refinement in 2ED's corebook were also listed as examples of other Refinements and of Lineages in that book.
129* FantasticNirvana: Prometheans seek to escape the negative spiritual ailments that set them apart from mortals and attain souls of their own, [[BecomeARealBoy becoming human in the process]]. This spiritual pursuit, known as the Great Work, requires a Promethean to endure great hardships, years of study, lethal hazards, and even face the temptation to abandon their Pilgrimage and [[ThenLetMeBeEvil become Centimani]]. For good measure, no two Pilgrimages are alike, so learning from the example of others is difficult verging on impossible. At the end of this journey is the New Dawn, in which the Promethean becomes one of the Redeemed: now mortal, the Redeemed no longer projects [[HatePlague Disquiet]] or [[WalkingWasteland Wastelands]], possess few if any memories of their time as a Promethean, and likely only have a few remaining supernatural abilities, [[BroughtDownToNormal if at all]]. On the downside, this state leaves the Redeemed vulnerable to the Disquiet of other Prometheans... not to mention all the ''other'' things that prey on ordinary humans [[CrapsackWorld in this setting]].
130* FirstEpisodeResurrection: Subverted. Even if you're playing a Promethean from the moment it comes to "life", it's not actually resurrection. Prometheans are new individuals created from dead bodies, not revived humans.
131* TheFlameOfLife: Prometheans are animated by ''Azoth'', the Divine Fire that fuels their supernatural powers and acts as a general "power stat". Unfortunately for them, it [[PowerIncontinence leaks]], making them {{Walking Wasteland}}s.
132* {{Foil}}: While the Promethean condition is in itself a foil to mortality, among the Created are the Ulgan and the Frankenstein. Frankenstein's Monster was created out of a desire to transcend humanity through science, where the first Ulgan was created with the same intent, but through spiritual means. Frankenstein work to exist and thrive within the world of humans, while the Ulgan tend to embrace lonely, hermetic lives of spiritual reflection, not unlike a monk. The Wretched know they are monsters and try desperately emulate humans; The Riven look for the evil in humanity while trying to ignore the intrusive spirits within their body. The Wretched become emotional vengeance-driven brutes when they're frustrated, whereas the Riven begin to sulk and lose their human nature, adapting a more animal-like mindset.
133* FourTemperamentEnsemble:
134** Each Promethean type is classed with a humour - Ulgan are odd men out, as their "humour" is ectoplasm. Temperament Ensembles make ideal throngs, since being in a branded throng with Prometheans of different Lineages weakens a Promethean's Disquiet, slows down the Wasteland effect he causes, and makes it easier to resist Torment. Being in a throng with those of the same Lineage, though, makes things worse.
135** Worth noting is that, while a full Temperament Ensemble dulls Disquiet and slows the spread of Wastelands, both still spread, and their effects are cumulative. If the group stays in one place for too long, the humans around them will suffer Disquiet and the land will become all of the various types of Wasteland. A throng with all different types is ideal for play, but if the group overstays their welcome, the result is disastrous, significantly more so than if the Prometheans had been alone.
136* FrankensteinsMonster: The whole game is White Wolf's take on the Frankenstein story, and there's that whole Frankenstein Lineage thing...
137* FunctionalMagic: Alchemy/Innate Powers.
138* GeneticMemory: Prometheans with the Residual Memories Merit possess traces of the skills their former bodies had. Unfortunately, these skills come with a chance to express a Derangement their former body had as well. 2e adds "Azothic Memory", a capacity to sift through the memories of every Promethean who ever existed (except the Extempores) for various bits of information. The effect seems limited to those Prometheans who have achieved the New Dawn or died, and operates in a fashion similar to a library in that it cannot be used to probe the minds of still-existing Prometheans.
139* GlamourFailure:
140** Using Transmutations exposes a Promethean's true face, which is ''not'' good.
141** Hints about a Promethean's true appearance can also express themselves under normal circumstances. A Frankenstein might have blotchy skin and be of indeterminate race and age due to being made from a number of people, for example.
142* GodzillaThreshold: Prometheans can call down Firestorms in 2E, and that is about the extent of control they have over the unfettered Pyros. Firestorms also purify Wastelands ''instantly'', so if it looks like things are going into full DeathWorld levels if it isn't fixed ''now'', it's often the best option available. (There were optional rules in 1E for voluntarily summoning Firestorms, but they were rather difficult to do and didn't have any purpose other than "Cause a hell of a mess when nothing else works". Worked nicely for ''sublimatus'', though.)
143* {{Golem}}: The Tammuz, but rather then being made from clay they're corpses that were reborn from the earth. Unless they're a Construct of the Lineage, that is.
144* GoneHorriblyRight: Tura Evenkia from ''Magnum Opus'' was created when an Ulgan decided to see what would happen if he tried to make a Promethean out of a life-sized wooden idol. Good News: It worked! Bad News: Tura went berserk from the pain of awakening and butchered him with her bare hands before snapping out of it.
145* GoneHorriblyWrong: Pandorans are this trope defined. They're usually born when a Promethean attempts to create another of their kind, only to utterly botch the process and unleash a swarm of their kind's worst predators.
146* GoodIsNotNice: Elpis, the part of Pyros that drives and guides Created towards humanity, is ''extremely ''harsh and demanding.
147* HatePlague: Disquiet becomes ''contagious'' at its worst level, and nothing short of [[MurderIsTheBestSolution the death of the Promethean causing it]] can stop it by that point. Made worse by the fact that other supernaturals are affected by Disquiet as well. As a small consolation, vampires and werewolves alone among supernaturals don't actually instinctively hate Prometheans. Instead, they find them so deeply ''unnerving'' that it becomes harder for them to resist their UnstoppableRage. [[TabletopGame/BeastThePrimordial Beasts]], on the other hand, are flat-out [[NoSell immune]] to Disquiet thanks to their Kinship abilities.
148* HereWeGoAgain: A depressing example. The majority of Prometheans wish to complete the Pilgrimage, shedding the horrors of their state and becoming a true human. But in order to do so, they must first pass the Divine Fire along... and the only way to do that is to ''create another Promethean''. Many Prometheans view the fact they must subject ''another'' to the pain of their existence in order to ''escape'' it with a bitter irony.
149* HotBlooded: Frankensteins and Galateids have an inborn tendency to be this way, with Frankensteins more driven and Galateids being more foolhardy.
150* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: The ''Dark Eras'' companion mentioned that the Black Death saw large numbers of Prometheans becoming disillusioned with humanity for this very reason. After witnessing both how fragile humans are, and also how fear and desperation will drive them to commit atrocities, like slaughtering Jewish communities as scapegoats for the plague, some of them found themselves wondering why they ever wanted to be one of them, and embraced becoming Centimani.
151* HumansAreSpecial: The reason the Prometheans want to BecomeARealBoy.
152* [[IHateYouVampireDad I Hate You Divinely Reanimated Soulless Corpse Parent]]: Prometheans feel an instinctive bitterness towards their creators, and quarrels with them can incite Torment.
153* ImplacableMan: Tammuz become this when they get pissed off.
154* InMysteriousWays: Everything the qashmallim do is in service of "the Principle"... somehow.
155* InNameOnly: The Galateids are "descendants" of a living statue, but are made out of regular ol' dead corpses just like the other four factions. In fairness, it's only presented as a rumor here that Galatea was a statue, and the going belief in-universe is that Pygmalion made her out of the corpses of the most beautiful women in the kingdom.
156* InTheBlood: The children of Prometheans (Redeemed or [[ButICantBePregnant otherwise]]) have a tendency to be born as Scions, people immune to Disquiet and able to see Prometheans as they are. Alas, seeing "monsters" no one else can often has unfortunate consequences. On the plus side, once the Created realize that there's a mortal who ''won't'' go crazy by just talking to them, the kid will have ''no end'' of guardian angels.
157* InterspeciesRomance: Sometimes Prometheans fall in love. It never seems to end well.
158* KarmaHoudini: Inverted and Subverted; trying to pull this is just making an already hard game unnecessarily harder. Played Straight if the person in question has a passive-aggressive OmnicidalManiac streak.
159* KarmaMeter:
160** As in ''TabletopGame/VampireTheRequiem'', the traditional "Morality" stat is replaced by "Humanity" but the difference is that the Prometheans begin knowing barely anything about themselves or the human condition, and are actually constructing their knowledge about how "real" humans should act through painful experience. Humanity is also the most important stat when a Promethean tries to achieve the New Dawn and be reborn as a mortal.
161** Second Edition replaces "Humanity" with "Pilgrimage", which marks how well a Promethean understands themself and the world around them.
162* KillItWithFire: Fire is dangerous to Prometheans because it overloads Azoth.
163* LieToTheBeholder: Given that we're dealing with animate corpses here, this is very fortunate.
164* LightIsNotGood: Elpidos qashmallim are not by any means ''nicer'' than lilithim; they just tend to have slightly more positive missions. Ruby and Mr. Gold, for example, are out to stop monsters. If said monster is, say, a body-jumping demon, they have no qualms at all about locking the doors and slaughtering everyone in the room to drive it away due to lack of hosts.
165* LiteraryWorkOfMagic: One sourcebook hints that the poem "Literature/KublaKhan" was inspired by a [[OurAngelsAreDifferent qashmallim]] for purposes unknown. The visitor who interrupted Coleridge and ruined his vision was a Promethean who feared dire results if the poem was finished.
166* LongLived: The first edition was ambiguous about how long Prometheans could exist without attaining humanity. The second edition clarifies that the Azoth in a Promethean lasts, on average, about a century. However, if a Promethean negotiates the River and comes back to life, the Azoth resets back to full. Therefore, the maximum lifespan for Prometheans seems to be about two hundred years before the Azoth burns out and they die for good. There are hints in the book that there are exceptions via abilities and some LoopholeAbuse.
167* LordBritishPostulate: Stats in the conventional sense don't exist for Arch-''Qashmallim''. Put simply, nothing that exists in this plane of reality can actually harm one. However, it ''is'' possible to defeat one - each Arch-''Qashmal'' was created to fulfill a specific purpose, and if that purpose is rendered impossible, it will return to the Principle. Fighting one is thus a matter of uncovering its purpose and countering it instead of a straight-up battle.
168* LovecraftianSuperpower: Pandoran Transmutations follow this theme. Many involve growing new body parts, either externally (limbs) or organs. It doesn't take too many before you start to look like something Lovecraft would have come up with on an opium binge.
169-->'''[[FrankensteinsMonster Mr. Verney]]''': It seems like a good idea until you grow a second set of genitals.
170* LuckBasedMission: The Pilgrimage is partially this: while a lot of it depends on the player making good choices, the final obstacle to becoming human requires at least a few lucky die rolls.
171%%* MadScientist: Technically, demiurges are Mad Alchemists.
172* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: of the "understandable magic or something else" variety. Are the Quashmallim just a strange kind of etheral being, like the spirits and ghosts that are well known in the Chronicles Of Darkness? Or are they actual angels working for an actual God? The books never come down on a clear answer either way (or rather, they do, but they contradict each other repeatedly).
173* {{Mana}}: Prometheans fuel their powers with Pyros, a distillation of the Divine Fire. Unlike some forms of Mana in the Chronicles of Darkness, Pyros does not exist in nature (at least, no one's ever found it), but is instead created by the Promethean's own Azoth.
174* {{Masquerade}}: If you don't follow it, you're screwed. Really. Screwed. Even if a Promethean tries to do normal, human things, like buy a house, get a job, interact with neighbors and other people on a regular basis, Wastelands and Disquiet will eventually lead to TorchesAndPitchforks being assembled against the Promethean in question. Breaking the Masquerade just makes it happen faster.
175* {{Metaplot}}: There's a free introductory scenario on [=DriveThruRPG=], and each of the first edition books have a fully-fleshed out story module in the last appendix. Strung together, these form a narrative that describes the misadventures of a throng and at the end of the chronicle features a firestorm engulfing post-Katrina New Orleans.
176* MixAndMatchMan: Frankensteins require at least two different corpses to create. This is optional (and even occasionally necessary) for other Lineages, like Galateids, for example, who require flawlessly beautiful bodies (no matter how many people the parts come from).
177* MonsterLord: While most Pandorans are mindless monsters, and even the intelligent among them are typically more like cunning animals, ''Sublimati'' are fully sapient and capable of complex thought. Many gather lesser Pandorans to themselves with the Transmutation "Mantle of Lordship", acting as the alpha of a hunting pack. At least one has started a ''cult'' among humans.
178* MonstersAnonymous: What friendly contact between Prometheans basically boils down to.
179* [[ImmortalityBeginsAtTwenty Mortality Begins At Twenty]]: Unless you appear younger as a Promethean.
180* {{Mummy}}: The Osirans are a fairly gauze-free equivalent -- ritualistic creation based on the myth of Osiris (ruler of the Underworld) complete with missing a body part, lordly bearing, and a resurrection process that's just a bit stronger than that of most Prometheans.
181* MurderIsTheBestSolution:
182** Most lineages have no problem obtaining corpses to use in the generative act. Even the Ulgan, who require supernaturally-touched bodies, live in the '''TabletopGame/ChroniclesOfDarkness''', after all. But Galateids, who require relatively young, unmarred corpses? Well, there are only so many ways young people can die without a mark on them, and it's ''so'' easy to just take a lover and smother or poison 'em or something...
183** And then there's Disquiet. The only way - and we do mean ''only'' way - to cure the fourth and final stage of Disquiet is for someone to find and destroy the Promethean that caused it. The next time you pass through a small town where everyone seems to be some degree of crazy, there's probably a Promethean on the far side of the continent weeping about the town she tore apart because she didn't leave sooner.
184* NighInvulnerable: Prometheans are all very tough and difficult to kill... [[TheChewToy and they need to be]]. One of the sample adventures in the sourcebooks punishes the party with a nuclear explosion if they screw up; if the players still have their free resurrection they can just wake up and move on. If a player power-builds a Tammuz to absorb damage, they have a (very slim) chance of being able to survive the explosion.
185* NinjaPirateRobotZombie: It's incredibly rare, even by Promethean standards, but sometimes, unique Lineages are born when a Promethean is created from the bodyparts of supernatural creatures, or a supernatural being becomes obsessed enough to temporarily put aside its mystical powers and, through its madness, tap into the Divine Fire and become a demiurge. ''Saturnine Night'' covers three of these "Impossibilities", Prometheans who mimic the other races of the night: one [[TabletopGame/VampireTheRequiem Vampire]], one [[TabletopGame/WerewolfTheForsaken Werewolf]] and one [[TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening Mage]].
186** Mircea looks the spitting image of a vampire when his disfigurements are showing, has the Humour of "Vitae" (all-consuming hunger, must sleep in soil from the area where he was created), has a unique Bestowment that allows him to regain Pyros by drinking blood, a Wasteland that induces increasing levels of paranoia and manipulation amongst those afflicted, and a Torment which literally makes him {{Wangst}} until he snaps out of it.
187** Piker looks like a savage amalgamation of man and wolf, can fly into a berserk frenzy thanks to his Rage Bestowment, has the Humour of "Moonlight" (capricious and moody, regains Pyros at moonrise, plus more if it's a full moon and/or he sleeps under the moon), a Wasteland that induces oxygen deprivation, Disquiet that induces suspicion, paranoia and violence, and Torment that throws him into violent mood-swings.
188** The Page of Cups has a unique Bestowment, but modified versions of the Osiran Humour, the Galateid Wasteland, and the Frankenstein Disquiet, with Frankensteinian Torment completing the mix.
189* NobodyPoops: The Divine Fire within a Promethean consumes every part of everything he eats.
190* NoPointsForNeutrality: The book points out that almost all Roles contain both good and evil aspects (a Leader could be an inspirational paragon or a tyrant who rules through fear, a Soldier could be a noble protector or a cold-blooded killer, etc), and that the evil aspects of a role are still part of what that role means. Therefore, a Promethean who chooses to embody the evil aspects of a role is still learning about humanity, and still earns milestones. It's less important ''what'' you choose than that you choose ''something''.
191* NotHimself: A Promethean's Humour normally only informs his actions, occasionally coming to the fore when he's under stress or exhausted. When in Torment, however, his Humour totally dominates his personality and he acts in ways he cannot control.
192* NotUsingTheZWord: The term "Promethean" is not often used by the Created, because many don't know it ''is'' a term.
193* NuclearMutant: Many Zeky, in particular [[FisherKing Tsar Bomba]] and [[TheMafiya Oleg Wormwood]], a pair of {{Omnicidal Maniac}}s with a desire to NukeEm all.
194* OffTheGrid: Most Prometheans choose to live this way and limit their contact with humans and civilization, lest they bring more attention to their unnatural existance, or cause their Wasteland to extend to a place that would be hostile to them.
195* OmnicidalManiac: Oleg Wormwood and Tsar Bomba both seek to end the world in nuclear fire. The difference between them is that [[ManipulativeBastard Oleg]] could actually do it, while [[FatBastard Bomba]] is living a pipe dream. That said, Bomba is by far more dangerous in person.
196* OrderVersusChaos: Elpis is the force for order and development, Flux for chaos and entropy. Both have their own versions of qashmallim. There isn't a "conflict" per se, as both are aspects of the Divine Fire, but since Flux is destructive and body-warping, most Prometheans want nothing to do with it or actively attempt to stymie it.
197* OrganAutonomy: A regular problem, especially for [[FrankensteinsMonster the Wretched]]. Given that the Wretched ''must'' be assembled from two or more "donors", but any Promethean can do the same if necessary, it is not unique to the Wretched. The Merit "Residual Memories" can turn this into an advantage for a time.
198* OurAngelsAreDifferent: The ''Qashmallim'' are thoroughly incomprehensible. And on fire.
199* OurHomunculiAreDifferent: The PC characters are actually homunculi, but the term is used to refer to small constructs.
200* OurSoulsAreDifferent: Prometheans don't have one, and they want one.
201* PhlebotinumOverload: Firestorms, pseudo-hurricanes caused by an excess of Azoth. Even mortals can perceive the side-effects of them, usually because they tend to manifest as massive hurricanes that build-up really quickly and are more damaging then they should be.
202* PlayingWithFire: While Vulcanus mostly focuses on controlling Pyros, some of its Transmutations allow the Promethean to control mundane fire. This is extremely dangerous, but used properly it can make a Promethean a nightmare to others of their kind.
203* ThePowerOfFriendship: Prometheans gain advantages for sticking together. Primarily by helping to reduce the effects on the environment around them and to provide some form of companionship in such a bleak existence.
204* PrestigeClass: Athanors in 1E, which also include a watered-down part of their power surviving the change into a human. In 2E they're retconned into items filled with Elpis that do much the same thing, and often contain alchemical lore to help Prometheans develop their power and Pilgrimage.
205* ProphecyTwist: [[spoiler: In the 1e core book, Mr. Verney tells a psychologist a prophecy the Qashmallim gave him: that if he continued to hunt down Pandorans in what is implied to be Centralia, 'one of [his] own would return to [him] with precious knowledge'. During the interview, Verney recognizes the psychologist as one who sided with his Bride so long ago, and decides to force his Bride's whereabouts out of her. Unfortunately, he accidentally kills her instead, thinking she was still a Promethean. For Mr. Verney, who had abandoned his Pilgrimage, his quest to become human, who believed that it was impossible, the doctor's death indeed gives him precious knowledge - that the Pilgrimage is ''possible''.]]
206* RedScare: A [[NuclearMutant Zeka]]'s Disquiet is an allegory for this, as it drives those around him to fear, paranoia and witch hunts towards other groups.
207* {{Revenge}}:
208** Not an intended theme of the game, but given their immortality and durability, revenge can develop into an issue for Prometheans. Especially amongst older Prometheans where it can become a bigger priority than becoming human as they execute BestServedCold schemes against those who have wronged them, or their descendants.
209** Stannum, the Refinement of Tin, is basically ''all about'' revenge. Some Prometheans consider it to be vital to the process of becoming human, as it is a study of the [[HumansAreBastards darker impulses and urges usually present within a human soul]].
210** The first edition corebook has a framing story that demonstrates the differences between mortals and Prometheans on this concept. [[spoiler:A psychologist is interviewing a suspect in several disappearances who claims to be Frankenstein's monster. After much exposition, the subject of Frankenstein's Bride is raised and Mr. Verney talks about how she turned against him, becoming a Centimanus who created Pandorans, and that he dedicated his life to hunting her. The psychologist is troubled when he talks about her nightmares, her amnesia clouding memories of her youth. Eventually, Mr. Verney reveals he's been playing along with her. She's one of his former progeny, who left him for his Bride, becoming a vile Centimanus, and he wants revenge for what she did a century ago. What he doesn't realise is that she's become human - so when he strikes out at her, expecting a true Promethean, he instead kills her. The text ends abruptly but it's implied his final act is to return her to a Promethean existence.]]
211* RidiculouslyHumanRobot:
212** Unfleshed from ''Saturnine Night'' are machines brought to life by Azoth, and due to the nature of the Divine Fire, they are invariably humanoids - even if what they originally were was, say, a laptop. There's even an example in the book - Tachanka, who was originally a military UMV but is now a mecha-teenager with an ArmCannon. And then there's the HiveMind of nanotech that walks like a man and calls itself [[IAmLegion Legion]].
213** In second edition, the Unfleshed's generative rite requires the creation of an artificial humanoid body, or at least the creation of something that can take on that form, like an AI.
214* RobotWizard: The Unfleshed are a kind of Promethian arisen from broken machines rather than dead people. They can still use the magic-like Refinements, using the Divine Fire imbued into their beings, in an effort to cure their BecomeARealBoy issues.
215* RolePlayingEndgame: There are mechanics for Promethean characters to complete their Pilgrimage, gain souls, and [[BecomeARealBoy achieve true humanity]]. The game also observes that the ex-Promethean is now a [[DePower De-Powered]] amnesiac in a CrapsackWorld and suggests how cruelly this trope could be {{Subverted|Trope}}.
216* SacredFlames: Prometheans are powered by ''Azoth'', the Divine Fire that fuels their supernatural powers and acts as a general "power stat" in the PointBuildSystem.
217* ScienceRelatedMemeticDisorder: Demiurges invariably suffer from this, as no mortal mind can be exposed to the Divine Fire and come back completely intact.
218* SecretProjectRefugeeFamily: Your typical "throng" of Prometheans. A "branded" throng allows its members to share powers and perform other nifty tricks, but there are drawbacks as well.
219* SerialKiller: 1e has a ''Promethean'' serial killer (as in a serial killer who is a Promethean). Aeolipilus is one of the few Unfleshed who has successfully created progeny, a second Unfleshed he named Vitruvian. Unfortunately, Vitruvian completely misunderstood how the Pilgrimage works, and believes that he can become human by killing humans and replacing his internal workings with their organs. Aeolipilus woke up one morning to find Vitruvian gone, a DisposableSexWorker in Vitruvian's bed with her heart missing, and some of Vitruvian's parts next to the body, and the body count has only risen since.
220* ShockAndAwe: The Electrification Transmutations. Notably, almost all the Transmutations are noted to generate electricity "charged with Torment," allowing the electrical damage to damage other Prometheans. It takes a special, high-level Electrification Transmutation to generate electricity that heals Prometheans.
221* ShoutOut:
222** The "Re-Animator" Bestowment for Zeka is actually a subtle one to ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968'', and a number of other zombie movies where it is radiation that brings the dead to life. It's also named after [[Literature/HerbertWestReanimator Herbert West]].
223** Also the name of the setting. The full title of Mary Shelley's work was ''Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus''.
224** Likewise, the narrator for the 1e corebook fiction goes by the alias "Mr. Verney," which was the last name of the protagonist of Mary Shelley's apocalyptic novel ''The Last Man''.
225** The sample ''qashmallim'' include two Elpidos who appear as strange agents and show up to deal with the anomaly that's trapped several mortals and is picking it off one by one - though their primary goal is dealing with the anomaly, with human cost as a secondary focus at best. Their names are [[Series/SapphireAndSteel Ruby and Mr. Gold]].
226** A sample ''sublimatus'' (intelligent Pandoran) is a [[VideoGame/SilentHill2 large, muscular, bare-chested man with a steel cube where his head should be, who creates legions of unintelligent monsters to torment his victims]].
227* TheSoulless: All Prometheans lack a soul; more accurately, they have Azoth that fulfills many of a soul's functions (sentience, emotion, creativity, etc.). It doesn't make them evil per force, but it does complicate becoming human.
228* SpeechImpediment: Frankenstein's monster stutters, and his "descendents" sometimes have trouble with speech.
229%%* {{Splat}}: See the introductory text for a breakdown of the splats in this game.
230%%* StagesOfMonsterGrief: The Pilgrimage and transition through the refinements mirrors the stages of monster grief.
231* TheStoic: Osirans often embrace a mechanical, removed view of the world, combined with their Humour (phlegm) encouraging a rational and unemotional view. The end result is that many are very restrained in their emotional expressions. This is warped if they fall into Torment, as that remove drives them to passionlessly take apart (emotionally and/or physically) anyone who wrongs them.
232* TheStormbringer: The [[TheFlameOfLife Divine Fire]] that animates [[ArtificialHuman Prometheans]] begins to [[WalkingWasteland corrupt the environment]] if they stay too long in one area. Frankensteins cause lightning storms, Galateids cause unnatural calm, and Nepri cause drought, to say nothing of their [[HatePlague effect on humans]].
233* TakenForGranite:
234** One of the lineages was descended from Galatea, and some have worked out how to turn back into stone. Other Prometheans can learn the trick as well.
235** Also, Pandorans turn to stone or other inanimate objects without Pyros, and also tend to if seen by an ordinary human. Unusually, they rarely just turn into straight "statues" of themselves -- they generally turn into something that blends in a bit better.
236* ThatManIsDead: One of the few cases where this isn't a metaphor. Prometheans sometimes encounter people who knew the person or people that comprise their physical body, but Prometheans are ''not'' that person - that man is, literally, dead. The Promethean is a completely different consciousness just inhabiting the body.
237* ThenLetMeBeEvil:
238** Hi there, Furies! Subverted, however, in that Stannum is still a Pilgrimage Refinement - it's about the ''dark'' aspects of humanity, but its fundamental goal is learning to ''[[BadPowersGoodPeople control]]'' those feelings and turn them to productive ends.
239** Centimanus, the Refinement of Flux, is all about this, especially in [=2E=]. In [=1E=], it was noted some Prometheans study it in the hopes of conquering their own weaknesses, but it's made clear it's an easy path to be corrupted by even with the best of intentions, and most follow it because they've given up on becoming human and decided to become better monsters. In [=2E=], the latter is the ''only'' option for a Centimanus.
240* ThisIsYourBrainOnEvil: In 2ED, becoming Centimani doesn't just warp a Promethean's body, it also warps their mind.
241* ThreeLawsCompliant: Averted with the Unfleshed. The Divine Fire burns away any personality restrictions.
242* ThroatLight: The Right Hand of the Principle has one, with wheels that are backlit.
243* TinMan: Prometheans have no instinctual grasp of emotion, but can experience them.
244* TheTopicOfCancer: The mysterious Nuclear Prometheans are the "Zeka", Prometheans animated and fueled by radiation that have a lot of disturbing, creepy abilities. Among them are the ability to give other people regular, boring old cancer, but if you want to get freaky, you can give them a tumor with a mouth that can speak to them, or a mind control brain tumor that is implied to cause endless excruciating pain and leave the victim a helpless puppet with full consciousness but no control over their actions. When Zeka use their powers, their "Disfigurement" usually involves huge cancerous masses growing from within them, boiling, bloating, and pulsating as their skin falls off and their eyes melt. Even when not showing their powers, most of them have signs of radiation poisoning or cancer, such as visible tumors on their faces. Then there are the Carcinoma, which is what you get when Zeka try to make more of themselves and [[GoneHorriblyWrong fail horribly]]: hideous monstrosities made completely out of cancer, with an alien, incomprehensible, malignant intelligence.
245* {{Transhumanism}}: Deconstructed with 2E's antagonistic alchemists - many of them want to become "more than human," but it's explicit that they do it at the cost of living beings (ie, Prometheans themselves) and it comes with untested and gruesome side effects. As a result, what they ''actually'' become is frequently deserving of the title "less than human."
246* TheTunguskaEvent: Rumoured to be an attempt to forcibly summon a qashmallim - a bad idea.
247* UndeathAlwaysEnds: Whether or not a Promethean is undead is up for debate, despite them being made of corpses, but either way, completing the Pilgrimage turns them into a mortal, living human - which is something the majority of them want ''very badly''.
248* UnstoppableRage: While this could be said to be ''every'' version of Torment, the most explicit examples are Frankenstein and Tammuz Torments. The Frankensteins seek vengeance on anyone who's wronged them, even for the smallest slights, while the Tammuz blindly destroy anything in their path.
249* VictoryGuidedAmnesia: In most cases, a Redeemed Promethean has no or very little memory of her former life. This can cause problems when it comes to the gaps in her past, to say nothing of [[HatePlague what might happen]] if her old throng tries to interact with her.
250* VideoGameCrueltyPunishment: Lacuna, stealing Vitriol, automatically costs a point of Humanity, and doing it more than once is likely to ''permanently'' cut off any hope of the New Dawn.
251* WalkingTheEarth: The typical Promethean lifestyle, due to Disquiet causing everyone around them to start going crazy and the environment to turn into a Wasteland if they stick around too long.
252* WalkingWasteland:
253** Every Promethean has the potential to become one of these. Should a Promethean stay in one spot for 24 hours, they create a Wasteland, a stretch of land where some aspect of nature begins to break down. This worsens steadily over time, so long as the Promethean stays there, and also continually expands. At its highest level, those who enter its epicenter can be infected with [[HatePlague Disquiet]] towards the Promethean responsible ''without ever seeing them''.
254** As a ContinuityNod and BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy one town, implied to be Centralia, Pennsylvania, became a wasteland due to Frankenstein's monster staying there on orders from the qashmallim.
255** 2nd Edition ramps this up to eleven: Promethean Disquiet, and Wastelands, are effectively ''Azothic radiation poisoning''. They're ''literally'' humanoid health hazards.
256* WeakToFire: The Divine Fire that animates a Promethean overloads and goes out of control when exposed to mundane fire. As such, fire deals aggravated damage to Prometheans.
257* WeakSauceWeakness: In order to refill their pool of [[{{Mana}} Pyros]] Prometheans have to follow strict ''rituals'' when they rest, from sleeping immersed in earth, to falling asleep next to a lit fire, or hearing people's voices (human or Promethean, [=TVs=], radios or recordings don't count) talk as they fall asleep. For some this isn't a problem, but being woken-up requires them to fulfill the requirements again in order to get themselves recharged. The Zeka naturally have more demanding needs, but some of the unique [=NPCs=] in the books have crippling versions such as the [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampire Promethean]] that can only sleep in a specific patch of dirt that is barely large enough for him to fit within.
258* WhoWantsToLiveForever:...when living is like '''this?''' If the rest of the page hasn't made it clear enough, Promethean existence, even the milder version in the second edition, is a never-ending trial that can only be alleviated, not escaped, unless and until the Promethean reaches their New Dawn.
259* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: Most Centimani. Zeka too, thanks to their elemental affinity to nuclear radiation.
260* {{Yandere}}: This is a capsule description of Galateid Torment. When their humour overwhelms them, they immediately and unavoidably act on their desires, regardless of who they have to hurt in the process. The example given in the book is a Galateid breaking into the house of the man she loves, putting a knife to his girlfriend's throat, and demanding he choose between them.
261* ZombieApocalypse: Some Zeka have the inherent ability to create radioactive zombies from corpses. Get an exceptional success, and the zombies are infectious...

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