Summoning worlds as distinct skills?

The rules for Summoning used the Kabbalistic Tree of Life as their foundation. Indeed, in the French version the occult science was literally named “Kabbalah” and the Realms were named after the Sefirot. While thinking over revisions to Summoning and non-Western Nephilim, it occurred to me that the occult science could be decoupled from this Kabbalistic foundation. Then I glanced over the French again and noticed something interesting.

Figure 1: Tree of Life diagram. Sefirot in black, Olamot in red. 

In the French version

In the French version, the occult science was called Kabbalah (renamed "Summoning" in the US version). The exact arrangement of the Sefirot differed between editions:

  • First, US & Second Edition
    • Seals: Malkut, Yesod & Hod
    • Pentacles: Netzah, Tiphereth & Geburah
    • Keys: Chesed, Binah, Hokmah & Kether
  • Third Edition aka Nephilim : Révélation
    • Untrained: Malkut (= Assiah)
    • Seals: Yesod, Hod & Netzah (= Yetzirah)
    • Pentacles: Tiphereth, Geburah & Chesed (= Briah)
    • Keys: Binah & Chokmah (= Atziluth)
    • Agartha: Kether

The rearrangement in the third edition meant that each Circle neatly corresponded to a single Olam, which I appreciate. This edition gave all Nephilim access to Malkut/Assiah without training as summoners: all starting characters knew one or two spells for it.

The French also added another set five "Worlds" distinct from the Sefirot and Olamot, each favored by a different Dominant Ka: Sohar for Eolim, Aresh for Pyrim, Meborack for Faerim, Pachad for Onirim, and Zakai for Hydrim. These worlds were perpendicular to the Sefirot: every summoned entity was assigned to a Sefirot and a World.

The entities summoned by Kabbalah were not the same thing as dragon effects (renamed "elemental creatures" in the US version), but a completely different order of elemental being. Developing arcane techniques to summon, control, banish or otherwise manipulate dragon effects were the purview of Arcana like Strength or Devil.

The Selenim's Black Kabbalah (renamed "Black Summoning" in Ian's notes) supposedly drew from Daath, the Sefira forbidden to Nephilim Kabbalists. However, the third edition renamed Black Kabbalah to Conjuration and confirmed that it was unrelated to Kabbalah: the Selenim conjured dragon effects instead.

In the fourth fifth edition, the 10 Sefirot were turned into distinct magical techniques that replaced the 3 techniques from the previous editions. These progressed not linearly but followed the 22 Paths (or Cineroth) along the Tree of Life (the black lines connecting individual Sefira in Figure 1). The 10 Sephirot were still sorted into 3 circles like in third edition. (This wikimedia image names the paths after Major Arcana.)

For example, a Kabbalist could progress through Malkuth → Hod → Geburah → Binah → Kether.

In the US version

In the US version, Kabbalah was renamed "Summoning" and the Sefirot were renamed to "Realms".

  • Malkut became "Realm of Elemental Animals"
  • Yesod became "Realm of Elemental Illusions"
  • Hod became "Realm of Spiritual and Elemental Comprehension"
  • Netzah became "Realm of Emotions"
  • Tiphereth became "Realm of Hidden Knowledge"
  • Geburah became "Realm of Violence"
  • Others were never detailed, although an article in the Chaosium Digest suggested "Realm of Elemental Lordliness"

The names of the realms seem to have been arbitrarily decided, since their accuracy is... not great. The effects of the evocations seemed to be fairly random, as typical of the haphazard and messy nature of the earlier editions of the French version.

The Gamemaster's Companion introduced summoning spells that let Nephilim create and control elemental creatures. This further blurred the already poorly explained distinction between summoned entities and elemental creatures.

How I would handle it

I like how the French version reorganized the Circles of Summoning to match the Olamot on a 1:1 basis. I like treating the Sefirot as their own skills with non-linear progression. I like letting starting Nephilim have free access to Malkut. If I revised Summoning using a Kabbalistic scheme, then that is how I would do it.

The Kabbalist Tradition of the Occult Science of Summoning is divided into 3 Olamot (Circles) with a total of 10 Sefirot (Skills). Advancing to the next Olam requires mastering (90%, 75% in Enlightened Magic) one Sefira of the current Olam and the Kabbalist must follow an adjacent Path to a higher Sefira (see Figure 1 above or this wikimedia image). The Circles and Skills are as follows:

  • 0th Circle: Olam Assiah. Sefira: Malkut.
  • 1st Circle: Olam Yetzirah. Sefirot: Yesod, Hod & Netzah.
  • 2nd Circle: Olam Briah. Sefirot: Tiferet, Geburah & Chesed.
  • 3rd Circle: Olam Atziluth. Sefirot: Binah & Chokmah.
  • Agartha. Sefira: Kether.

In order to better distinguish the elemental creatures from summoned entities, I would posit that the elemental creatures are born from the natural fluctuations of the magic fields whereas the summoned entities are outright created by the summoner's will and imagination and/or drawn from the collective unconscious.

Starting Nephilim characters may take some percentage in Malkut at character creation without being initiated into Summoning. If they do, then they start play with a personal grimoire containing 1–2 invocations for Malkut (see Realm of Elemental Animals for a list). The Malkut skill is used to call and command elemental creatures using the spells given on Gamemaster’s Companion p47.

So far I’m just spitballing. Alternately, I’ll decouple Summoning from the Kabbalist tradition entirely. Hope you enjoyed this post!

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