A Progenitor is the first Promethean of a Lineage. They have the ability to create new Prometheans in their likeness through rites and practices which may be passed down to their progeny. Each Progenitor was created by a mortal human, known as a demiurge.
Promethean legend and Azothic memory suggest the progenitors of the modern Lineages are as follows:
- Amirami: the Prophets believed their Progenitor was raised from the corpse of Prometheus himself. In their tradition, after Prometheus was disemboweled for an act of hubris, his wife restored his corpse with molten metal and raised it with Pyros.[1]
- Faceless: Most of the Faceless appear to be Extempores produced by the frequent conjunction of lightening, corpses and chemical weapons on the Western Front, or deliberate creations of alchemists hoping to swell their side with implacable Created soldiers. If there was a first Faceless, their name is unknown, nor whether they ever created progeny.[2]
- Frankenstein: If Shelley's novel is to be taken as accurate, Frankenstein's Monster was the progenitor of the Lineage, though accounts vary as to whether Shelley was his co-author, his creation, or the demiurge who created him.[3]
- Galateid: the legend of Pygmalion and Galatea suggests that Galatea was the progenitor of her Lineage, although in the myth, she was formed from marble rather than flesh. Various explanations for the discrepancy exist.[4]
- Hollow: This short-lived Lineage arose from Ismael Hawker, an Extempore who arose in the early days of the Dust Bowl and managed to make a few more Created like himself.[5]
- Osirans: Why they trace their Lineage back to the story of Osiris being raised from death by his sister-wife Isis, there is debate within the Lineage as to whether their true Progenitor is Osiris or Horus, the "son" he and Isis begat after his resurrection. Other accounts state that Horus was a Pandoran whose rage consumed both Isis and Set, while still others identify another progeny of Osiris, Nepri, as the first stable member of the Lineage.[6]
- Tammuz: the progenitor of the Lineage is Tammuz, or possibly Dumuzid, a key figure in the myth of Inanna's descent into the Underworld. Different versions of the myth identify Tammuz as Innana's lover, or her rival, either a shepherd or a god; for modern Tammuz, these contradictions reflect Tammuz' resurrection as a Promethean after the initial death of his body.[7]
- Ulgan: The name "Ulgan" or "Tengri" is used for the creator-god in several North Asian cultures. Among Prometheans, Tengri was a shaman, and Ulgan was the Created he sacrificed to the spirit world in order to create a servant for himself. Outraged by this mistreatment, Ulgan killed Tengri, and used his body to raise the first Promethean of the Lineage, Erlik.[8]
- Unfleshed: there is no agreed-upon Progenitor for this Lineage, though several suggestions have been made, including the stories of Galatea, Pinnochio, Talos, or the Golem of Prague. Some suggest the Lineage cannot have one Progenitor, as the constant creation of new technology is intertwined with human nature.[9]
- Zeky: The First Zeka, sometimes referred to as Tsar Bomba, was the result of experimentation on prisoners in Soviet gulags. The Tsar is credited with discovering the Nuclear Alembic, a unique form of Vulcanus centering on combustion.[10]
As the Extempore have no Lineage, they also have no Progenitor, though each one has the potential to become Progenitor to a new Lineage if they can work out a functioning creation rite.
References[]
- ↑ CofD: Dark Eras Companion, p. 96, 98
- ↑ CofD: Dark Eras 2, p. 409, 422
- ↑ PTC: Promethean: The Created Second Edition, p. 21
- ↑ PTC: Promethean: The Created Second Edition, p. 24
- ↑ CofD: Dark Eras, p. 485, 488-489
- ↑ PTC: Promethean: The Created Second Edition, p. 26-27
- ↑ PTC: Promethean: The Created Second Edition, p. 30
- ↑ PTC: Promethean: The Created Second Edition, p. 32-33
- ↑ PTC: Promethean: The Created Second Edition, p. 36
- ↑ PTC: Night Horrors: The Tormented, p. 146