Oddities in Anamorphosis and Realms

In order to accommodate differences between the French and US versions, I decided to split off Anamorphosis into an occult science learnable by all Immortals. I have a few reasons for this, and I’m still deciding whether to go through with it or not.

In the French, Anamorphosis replaced the Metamorphosis for Selenim. It had mechanical benefits compared to the Nephilim’s purely cosmetic traits, which were never given mechanical benefits in the French. Indeed, the Imago could collect a whole bunch of Aspects! 3e toned this down and limited the number of Aspects that could be built by "Morphs" (slots). Each circle had 3 Morphs. In the first circle (Visage, Extremities, Skin), only one Aspect could be built per Morph. In the second circle (Limbs, Torso, Appendices), multiple arms, tentacles, claws, etc. could be constructed. 3e assigned separate skill ratings to each Morph, which had to be increased in order to build Aspects and advance to the next circle.

In the US version, Metamorphosis was revamped in Chronicle of the Awakenings to give emotional correspondences and mechanical benefits for transformations. Ian Young's FAQ says that he would have glued the two together so that Selenim linked Emotional Traits with their Imago Aspects, for a total of five like Nephilim. They had to pay upfront construction costs that Nephilim didn’t, but there was an upside. Nephilim metamorphosis manifestations still had mostly cosmetic effects aside from about 2 per metamorph that had more pronounced effects like breathing underwater, growing claws, or prophecy. All Selenim aspects had mechanical effects scaling with cost, giving them 5 major manifestations rather than just 2, and they didn’t have to worry about detection unless actively manifesting the aspect.

The 3rd edition, released after the US version was canceled, introduced “ethereal Selenim” in the Codex des Selenim. The ethereal Selenim—former Kaïm who became Selenim before incarnating, including Lilith and her oldest followers—didn’t have an Imago! This remained the case even after incarnating! Instead, they had L’Ombre Fuligineuse (“The Sooty Shadow”) measured by a single skill rating that let them assume their foes’ worst nightmare. The only Aspect they could construct was the Anchor they needed to start building their Realm. They basically have a single trait Metamorphosis—just like the Basaltic Nephilim, who occupy a comparable niche. BTW this contradicts Ian’s Selenim history that explicitly states Lilith and co made Imagoes, if you’re curious about more trivia.

Tying Emotional Traits to the Aspects is similar to the French 3e having separate skill ratings and construction costs, despite being conceived earlier and independently. The French version did later introduce "psychomorphs" using Emotional Metamorphosis, but only for the Native American Nephilim.

One thing Ian added that wasn’t in the French was linking the Imago Aspects to Assuaging via the Emotional Traits. While the French 3e did give Selenim the option for clear modifiers to assuaging preferred emotions and these emotions were linked to particular elements (compare "Emotional Natures" sidebar, Major Arcana p40), this wasn’t linked to the Imago or the Sooty Shadow even if it would've made thematic sense. 

One fairly interesting rule introduced by the 3e was that the Imago became sentient! It could see the world through Ka-vision, communicate with its creator, and even had a self-preservation instinct. When its creator built a Realm around it, it remained locked at the center. The French fanzine Vision-Ka #6 introduced an alternate third circle technique of “Allomorphosis” that let the Imago gain mobility and visit the astral plane instead. This wasn’t the only time that characters could have their Ka splinter into new elementals with a link to them, though it was the most detailed.

The French version 1e/2e introduced a suite of Grand Secret spells to create an Elemental Domain, a magical Realm that the creator may landscape as desired and populate with elementals. In 3e constructing an Elemental Realm became the entirety of Third Circle of Sorcery and the sorcerer's way to Agartha. This made the Third Circles of Sorcery and Anamorphosis effectively identical aside from elements. 

In the French 3e, Anamorphosis was technically learnable by Ar-Kaïms with BMK and Nephilims with the 666 Blessure (giving them BMK without losing their other Ka-elements). Both had a Metamorphosis (or an equivalent "meta-effect" for Ar-Kaïms), so the Immortal could have both a Metamorphosis and an Anamorphosis! Characters could only ever learn one Third Circle though, so they couldn't have both an Elemental Realm and a Black Moon Realm.

So far I decided that in my campaigns, all Selenim would have the regular Emotional Metamorphosis and don't need to spend extra points to build an Imago just to use their manifestations—at least until I write proper Imago rules incorporating the innovations of the 3rd. My last post on Assuaging rules failed to incorporate directing and fulfilling from Chronicle. I haven’t read these books in years so I’m still relearning.

Realm creation goes far beyond the subtler capabilities of High Magic in Liber Ka, so I feel it’s inappropriate as Sorcery spells and therefore a different approach is necessary. So my idea was to combine Anamorphosis and Elemental Realms into a single occult science learnable by any Immortals. So I just needed to think of how the first two circles would work before the Magistery/Sovereign started building their Realm.

I went through a few different iterations of ideas. The one I was initially planning to post was basically pointless. It just tacked on a technique value to the Metamorphosis and let the PC pay Ka to make a useless Imago familiar/shadow. That doesn't work either.

Something I have trouble with is justifying why Nephilim Metamorphosis and Selenim Anamorphosis work so differently, even with the Emotional Metamorphosis rules. Why do Selenim need to construct an Imago by spending points? Why do they need to spend points to manifest Aspects? Why do all their Aspects have mechanical benefits? Why can’t Nephilim build Imagoes to receive similar benefits?

 I need to do more thinking…