Black Moon's astrology and sacred places

This post serves as a companion piece to my last post on sacred places, this time exploring the Black Moon! 

Black lunar astrology is a real oddity. In the French version, black lunar magic didn’t have any astrology modifiers until 3e as I've explained before. However, it always had the equivalent of plexi and sacred places (see Nephilim rulebook p132, 202). Below I present and consolidate the rules, notes, and revisions thereof. I leave it up to GMs to decide what schemes to use. 

Black Moon's sacred sites

Trace amounts of Black Moon-Ka were scattered across the world and pooled in certain places, shifting like the rising and falling of tide pools or the steady erosion of rivers. Everywhere could be measured with one of five states of intensity, from weakest to strongest: (0) Absent, (1) Hollow, (2) Crescent, (3) Gibbous, and (4) Plenilunar. [The names in the French were idiosyncratic—naming the latter three Descendant, Ascendant, and Full/Dominant respectively even though the text noted this didn't indicating whether they were currently advancing or receding—so I took some artistic license with these names to convey the intended meaning while minimizing any possible misunderstandings.]

Below is a table of the field states [note that these states only vaguely correspond, if at all, to the "Mystical POT" mentioned in my preceding post]. This table is adapted and altered from a similar table for the 3e presented in the French webzine Vision Ka #6. The suggested POTs come from Ian Young's old notes shared on the mailing list. If GMs want to randomly determine the POT of a given site, then roll 3d6−1.

POT	Intensity	Typical Location	Occult Science	Entropy	Tenebrae
0	Absent	Rare	Not possible	Tripled	Pianissimo
1–7	Hollow	Widespread in the countryside	Penalized	Doubled	Piano
8–14	Crescent	Frequent in towns and cities	—	Normal	Mezzo forte
15–21	Gibbous	In the shadow of Realms	Boosted	Halved	Forte
22+	Plenilunar	Inside Black Moon Realms	Costs halved	None	Fortissimo

Unlike elemental sacred sites, plexi or nexi, Black Moon sites didn't provide the benefits of Ka bonuses, automatic Ka-element rolls or recharging Ka stored in a Stasis item. (Not back in 2e anyhow, but the table above was adapted from 3e. So it does give bonuses and cost breaks, but still not charges.) The sites worked completely differently because the Black Moon field was so weak and stingy. [...or perhaps because writer Tristan Lhomme wasn't aware how the rules worked? The Selenim rules in general worked completely different from Nephilim until 3e tightened it up. But I digress...]

The strength of a Black Moon Plexus is important because it affects the use of the Selenim's occult sciences (Necromancy, Conjuration, Anamorphosis; sometimes Tenebrae too when it was a distinct technique). For example: In 1e/2e Conjuration could only be performed successfully at a Gibbous Plexus or stronger, but this limitation was relaxed in 3e (see the table above). In 3e this table wasn't included in the rulebook: the only limitation of Selenim occult sciences in the Player's Book was that they couldn't be cast in those rare places lacking the Black Moon field (POT 0 "Absent" on the table), and the same restriction (i.e. being in the presence of the appropriate magic field) applied to Nephilim occult sciences too.

The 1e/2e supplement suggested that strength of sacred places fluctuates over time, similarly to Plexi and Nexi. The supplement specifically suggested shifting by one step in either direction every 1d10 years. The more powerful and stable a site is, the longer it takes to recede. For example, Plenilunar Plexi take 1d10 centuries to recede. Some rare sites are so potent that they never recede within the long memories of even the immortals.

Black Moon's astrology modifier

As I explained in past posts, the French 3e introduced true astrology modifiers. Although the Black Moon lacked a true field with its own planet, ethers, and rays, it was affected by astrology through a ricochet effect off the other magic fields that it insidiously parasitized. This gave the trace amounts of Black Moon-Ka scattered across the world their own currents and tides in lieu of ethers and rays. When calculating monthly zodiac modifiers, the black lunar field was effectively opposed to both the lunar field (like air and fire) and the saturnian field (like the elemental fields). On a day to day basis the black lunar field received a bonus when the Moon was waxing or waning but a penalty when the Moon was full or new (syzygy), instead of using the day of the week like Nephilim.

Ian Young’s Selenim proposal would have used astrological modifiers based on the lunar phase, but inversely to Onirim: the Black Moon derived less interference as the Moon waned, eerily similarly to the French 3e despite no apparent cross-pollination. These modifiers would’ve generally scaled with standard astrological modifiers: eclipses with grand enthronements (1d10), full and new moon with neutral enthronements (1d6), crescent and gibbous with opposed enthronements (1d4), half moon (first quarter and last quarter) with no modifier (0). The bonus is applied between the half moon and new moon, the penalty between the half moon and full moon. Serpent Moon p10-1 confirms that the lunar eclipse is essentially a grand enthronement of the Black Moon (i.e. Moon spells don't work and Black Moon becomes visible to Nephilim), so solar eclipses are presumably "white" lunar phenomena. (BTW after learning that a lunar eclipse caused the Moon to turn red, Ian suggested it would provoke Khaiba in Onirim.)

[According to a summoning spell in the French supplement La Kabbale ("Les Fils puissants, moissonneurs des dragons de feu"; translated and shortened from the Good Minister titled "The Mighty Sons, Reapers of the Harvest of Firedrakes"): during a solar eclipse all Solar-Ka scores within one kilometer are halved, the daily Astrological Modifiers are nonexistent, and Orichalc is temporarily ineffective. There is a 40% chance that a Plexus or Nexus may be formed or an existing one dispersed, and nearby Stasis items are emptied by 99%.]

Similar to the sacred places in the Nephilim rulebook p202, it seems natural to posit that the POT applies the current Black Moon astrological modifier to determine the current strength. I leave it up to GMs to decide whether to use the lunar phase, days of the week, or some combination thereof.

In my astrology revisions, I included the black moon along with the other elements in the days of the week: it used the same modifiers as both air and fire. Keeping track of lunar phases on a calendar in addition is too much bookkeeping already imo. (See my prior posts on astrological modifiers for details.)

Solar sacred places and effects on Black Moon

As explained on the old mailing list, Ian would’ve explained black moon sacred places as concentrating around places where large amounts of solar-ka was released into the environment (e.g. battlefields, charnel houses, ritual human sacrifice) or lots of bodies with Solar-Ka residue were interred (e.g. cemeteries, graveyards, catacombs, ossuaries). The site's relative strength would’ve gradually diminished with distance from the center a la radiation field isocontours. The strength of the sacred place and the current astrological modifier would affect the overall visibility of the selenim’s metamorph.

This sort of thing was alluded to in the French version but this precise connection wasn't made: in 3e, the ghosts' Torment attracts the Tenebrae because the Black Moon Field is associated with madness, passion and terror. For example, places of interment were assigned POTs based on their strength (see below) and populated areas attracted stronger fields (see above). Selenim could hear the voices of the dead by entering a trance using their Tenebrae technique and, since the many dead souls were so eager to talk, resisted this POT to focus on a specific spirit. Necromancy spells were developed to bypass this problem entirely. 

Favorable Places POT:

• POT 9: Small cemetery (less than a hundred graves)
• POT 11: Ordinary graveyard (a hundred to a thousand occupants)
• POT 13: Graveyard of a medium city (more than a thousand occupants)
• POT 15: Necropolis (more than five thousand occupants)

At sufficiently high POT then certain black elementals specifically related to dead souls may spontaneous appear (compare with "spontaneous generation of elementals" in Gamemaster's Companion p45). The one presented in 2e Le Livre Noir supplement was Les pernicieux serpents qui prospèrent dans la putrefaction (translates to "The Pernicious Serpents that Prosper within the Putrefaction") that were rare but tended to appear spontaneously at POT 13+: it would drain the Solar-Ka from any dead souls it could find and release it into the Solar field (it couldn't absorb it).

The use of the Tenebrae technique was likewise affected by the local strength of the Black Moon (see the table of field states above). In 3e Tenebrae was removed as a distinct skill and reduced to a fluff element within Necromancy and Conjuration, although fanzine Vision-Ka #6 added it back as a skill used for scrutinizing the magic fields.

BMK is attracted to SK and especially to emotional extremes. So it makes perfect sense to posit that Black Moon sacred places would concentrate around sites like battlefields, cemeteries, and living population centers too, and that the field strength would decrease with distance from the center. I'm definitely using this conceit in my games.

Hope you enjoyed!