Rules for real solar magic... psychic powers?

Back in 1995 Michael Caprio wrote his own solar magic rules for Nephilim. These presented solar magic as psychic powers that could be learned by mortals. Written presumably before the release of Secret Societies, this contradicts the Mithradites writeup for Solar-Ka Techniques. However, I feel these rules could still be incorporated into the setting via my addition of Ar-Kaïms inspired by the French 3e. Ar-Kaïms, in contrast to the other Immortals, are able to develop "solar magic" expressed as stereotypical psychic powers.

Ordinary mortals aren't capable of developing these abilities, even among the Mithradites. Any mortal who doesn't is actually a young and uninitiated Ar-Kaïm who has yet to develop any Ka-elements beyond their innate Solar-Ka. However, the Initiates of the Occult World don't know and may mistake them for mortals with psychic powers. For reasons unknown but probably fated by the stars, Ar-Kaïms have a tendency to find and join secret societies dedicated to peacefully unlocking magical knowledge for mortals and thus become known to allied Arcana in this way.

The Magician, The Hanged Man, the Unnamed Arcanum, The Tower and The Sun will all probably be very interested in the development of solar magic specifically. The Magician and The Sun will want to study and develop it further with the help of receptive "mortal" assistants, actually pre-neophyte Ar-Kaïms yet to discover their true nature. Whereas the Tower will want to keep it secret from mortals, not knowing only Ar-Kaïms can learn it. Those pre-neophyte Ar-Kaïms with exoteric membership in The Hanged Man may develop these powers by accident and develop further interest in the occult world, probably changing his Arcanum later. The Unnamed Arcanum will probably find this development a fascinating new field of study, given their existing powers to manipulate Solar-Ka in ways unknown to the Nephilim.

The pre-neophyte Ar-Kaïms I mention above have yet to develop any Ka-elements (at least not to detectable degrees) other than their innate Solar-Ka, so Nephilim mistake them for Awakened mortals. Since they're so focused on developing solar powers, they're unlikely to develop any other Ka-elements anyway and thus the unintentional ruse may continue for some time. The Ar-Kaïms are still a very young family so the Major Arcana don't yet recognize their existence as fact, though with the rise of the internet that anonymity is steadily fading.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What are the decans?

Image
In astrology, the zodiac signs  are ruled by particular planets  and divided into  three decans per sign  as shown on the figure below:  In the French 3e supplement  Codex des Ar-Kaïm , the concept of Decans is introduced as an additional way to define a character's personality. Each House has its own emotional nature, further modified by the character's Decan. All Houses have three Decans, except for Serpentarius that has none. In other words, the combination of House and Decan serves a similar role to the Nephilim's Metamorphosis. In the US version, this would be represented by BRP's Passions (or Personality Traits as they're labeled in Chronicle of the Awakenings ). I'm still trying to figure out how to integrate Passions into the Ar-Kaïm rules, as Ar-Kaïm lack metamorphoses but the concept overlaps heavily with the Essences mechanic (i.e. their magic points). Ar-Kaïm display environmental manifestations as a result of their Essence values and ...
Read more

What are the Minor Tablets?

In the third edition Gamemaster's Screen , the Quest for the Cycle of Destiny is introduced. (The fanzine  Vision-Ka  #3  specifies on p41 that this Quest is one and the same as the Arcane Quest of The Magician.) The goal of this quest is to acquire and study the Minor Tablets, crafted by Akhenaton as supplements to the 22 Major Arcana Trumps. The purpose of these Minor Tablets is to help mortals reach Agartha. There are four Minor Arcana  in total: The Wand (Fire), The Cup (Water), The Sword (Air) and The Coin (Earth). Keen-eyed readers may notice that the symbolism of the suits correspond loosely to the traditional magical tools (see Liber Ka p52). By pursuing this quest, the Nephilim is better able to understand their Simulacrum's Solar-Ka: they can boost their chances of Critical Success based on their Solar-Ka, retain player control during Shouit seizures rather than handing control to the GM, and develop Solar Resistance through initiation into a Minor Arcanum...
Read more

"Reverie" as a new degeneration for Ar-Kaïm?

In the character creation for Ar-Kaïm, during the Past step the note determines how much of their mortal life the character remembers. Apprentice means they have total amnesia, Journeyman means they remember only dreams and confuse it with reality, and Master means no memory loss. However, this section contradicts the rest of the book(s): Ar-Kaïm don't suffer any Skill loss and amnesia is never mentioned in their lore. I suspect this text was leftover from an earlier draft as an oversight. It obviously creates problems for roleplaying so I can understand why it was revised. However, the Ar-Kaïm Codex has a short story where the narrator briefly mentions she sometimes has difficulty distinguishing dreams from reality. This inspired me to imagine a new degeneration just for Ar-Kaïm, one I tentatively call "Reverie." Ar-Kaïm have a close bond to the Astral and to the dreams of humanity. The idea behind Reverie is that it represents a loss of control and identity as a result ...
Read more