Black Magic skill substitutions?

I’m currently waffling back and forth on whether the obscure sciences (as the Selenim’s occult sciences are called) should be their own skills or not. Maybe these should be Initiate Spells using the existing Nephilim occult science skills plus Arcanum Lore (Unnamed). For comparison, Secret Societies has Saturnian spells use the existing occult sciences rather than inventing new ones. At the very least, I would allow former Nephilim who undergo initiation to start with base chances in the obscure sciences equal to one-fifth or one-fourth of their percentage in applicable occult sciences.

Anamorphosis I'm still working on at this time. Wait for my posts on that...

Conjuration aka Black Summoning is closely comparable to Summoning and thus a higher base chance based on the latter makes sense. I still need to work on revising the Summoning rules before I detail Conjuration…

Necromancy is most analogous to certain applications of Sorcery and Alchemy (to reiterate, I’m using the enlightened magic revisions). A historical synonym, Nigromancy, more or less literally translates to “Black Sorcery.” 

Ian Young’s notes divided Necromancy into two skills of Communion and Command, without any circles (as circles were only added in 3e several years later). These would have involved using the Tenebrae skill, perhaps comparable to how Casual Magic requires entering a Ka-vision trance or how enlightened alchemy rolls under two skills at once. They roughly cover the First Circle Spiritism and Clairvoyance techniques in the French 3e.

Major Arcana says Selenim practice equivalents of the Travel and Command techniques, which roughly cover the Second Circle Astral/Beyond and Possession techniques in the French 3e. The spells not already covered by the arcane techniques could probably be adapted as Initiate Spells with Necromancy in the Threshold.

That leaves First Circle Animation and Second Circle Corruption techniques, which are basically variations on the same thing. The Necromancer contaminates a corpse or living person with a Black Moon/Cursed POT, turning them undead and allowing the Necromancer to do things like communicate telepathically, Assuage remotely, and transform the undead’s body to grant senses, armor, weapons, etc. This is inappropriate for the subtler nature of enlightened magic unless these additions are only visible in Ka-vision.

My working model for Necromancy is to adopt the same structure and limitations as Sorcery. The first circle would be cast as casual spells and the second and third circles would be performed as rituals—or in this case chantries or séances? Although I wonder if I shouldn’t give it a unique structure, similar to how enlightened Sorcery and Alchemy are structured very differently? The 3e science does have a logical structure regarding crossing the bridge between life and death: understanding and raising the dead in the first circle, influencing the living and the universe around the necromancer in the second, and bewitching or resurrecting Immortals in the third.

I really need to start working on the Necromancy rules…

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