Options for totemic metamorphoses

This is a house rule adapted from the rules for Psychomorphe and Métamorphes totémiques from the French version.

Totems for Western PCs

The indigenous Nephilim of Northern America developed their own metamorphosis archetypes or "totems" independently of the Western Nephilim. I hope to provide detailed rules for them in later posts, but in the interim here is a way for their legacy to influence PCs following the Western Tradition.

Nephilim PCs by default will be Western Nephilim that emigrated to the United States. A player may choose to play a Nephilim who was born from a Nexus in the United States after colonization and taught by the Major Arcana. Rather than a Western Metamorphosis, this Nephilim was born with a Totemic Metamorphosis. The rules for this are provided below.

As with Western Metamorphoses, Totemic Metamorphoses are divided into several archetypes or "totems." Each Totem corresponds to a mundane animal that was/is held sacred or spiritually significant by various indigenous tribes. Rather than a single Dominant Ka, each Totem is available to Nephilim of either two Dominant Ka—for many totems, these are opposed! Some examples are provided below:

Totem Ka-elements
Beaver Water / Earth
Grizzly Fire / Earth
Wolf Fire / Moon
Fox Earth / Fire
Coyote Fire / Moon
Falcon Air / Fire
Owl Moon / Air
Eagle Air / Water
Elk Earth / Water
Doe Earth / Moon
Puma Fire / Air
Lynx Water / Earth
Crow Moon / Air
Gull Water / Fire
Fish Water / Earth
Serpent Fire / Moon

Unlike Western Metamorphosis archetypes, Totems are seemingly not archetypally associated with any particular set of Emotional Traits. Their Manifestations remain consistent with the individual Totem animal, however. The player is free to select five Emotional Traits that suit the general feel of the Totem and its Ka-elements, subject to GM oversight. See the "Emotional Natures" sidebar in Major Arcana p40 for a listing of emotional correspondences.

A Nephilim born with a Totemic Metamorphosis may enter a Nexus to change their Totem using the normal rules, but cannot change their Metamorphosis to a Western archetype. Likewise, a Nephilim born with a Western archetype cannot adopt a Totem even within an American Nexus. If changing between Metamorphosis Traditions is possible, then it requires more effort.

The totemic PC may be curious about his heritage and inspired to consult surviving indigenous Nephilim to learn more about his ancestors and the history of his totem. (Although elementals don't reproduce sexually, after dissolution their Ka-elements can be reincorporated into new elementals and even retain some memories and emotional impressions.) This is a legitimate Quest archetype and may lead the PC to Agartha.

Past Life options

There aren't a lot of existing options for past lives located in North America proximate to the PC's birth. The only official era released was "For the Fear of the Devil" in Chronicle of the Awakenings. In a prior post, I linked past life eras for the Wild West and 1960s San Francisco. Otherwise, the PC's origin would have to be explained by their first incarnation being a colonist who returns to Europe shortly after incarnation.

Groups should feel free to invent new past life eras taking place in North America during and after colonization. Some potential suggestions may be found in this list.

A note on totemic incarnation

Totemic metamorphs shouldn't be confused with totemism aka totemic incarnation. This is an alternative path to Agartha sometimes mistakenly referred to as "shamanism." This is a strategy resembling that of the Moon Arcanum, basically an exoteric equivalent. These "totems" are Nephilim that incarnate as animals but continue to offer their services to mortal supplicants, thus being venerated as totems and inspiring many stories of their exploits (e.g. the tale "Raven Steals the Sun" seems to be an obvious occult allegory for the quest to reach Agartha). A number of these animal Nephilim were part of the indigenous Traditions and have an unclear relationship with totemic metamorphoses. Did their "zoomorphoses" influence the evolution of the totemic archetypes seen in human Nephilim? Hmm...

Non-totemic indigenous metamorphoses

Animal totems aren't the only metamorphosis archetypes available to Nephilim of indigenous origins. There are a variety of indigenous mythological figures that may be appropriate as metamorphoses. These are constructed identically to Western metamorphoses and several of them closely resemble Western archetypes too. For example, the Deer Woman shares the same Emotional Traits as the Baen Shide and the Basket Ogress shares those of the Baba Yaga. Curiously, it is possible for a Western Nephilim to adopt one of these archetypes by shifting their Metamorphosis within an American Nexus.

Geographic studies

If the GM so decides, then most Nephilim born from American Nexi have indigenous archetypes (totemic or not) instead of Western archetypes. After colonization those with Western archetypes started being born from American Nexi, but seem to be a minority thus far. Indeed, many American-born Western Nephilim with non-totemic indigenous archetypes mistake them for variations of Western archetypes.

Likewise, the forms taken by elemental beasts typically resemble the myths and folklore of the local mortals, but it still isn't entirely clear how this relationship works. The majority of American elementals take forms that would be at home in indigenous stories, but more and more with distinctly Western archetypes appeared since colonization. For example, Banshees observed in the United States have appeared attached to families of Irish descent or formed by Onirim with Celtic past lives. However, indigenous elementals that exhibit clear similarities include the La Llorona and Civatateo and it is possible to confuse them without sufficient research and observation.

The Wheel, Hierophant, and High Priestess, and to a lesser degree the Emperor, Empress, Sun, and Chariot, are the most curious about indigenous metamorphoses, elementals and their development. They are studying such phenomenon to learn more about how geography influences Traditions and vice versa. 

Hope you enjoyed!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

“Fixing” the setting

These posts assume that the reader is already familiar with Nephilim , so don't expect an explanation of the game here. In addition to the clunky rules, and probably more important, the Nephilim game had fluff that alienated players in the Anglosphere. The rulebook frontloaded potential players with millennia of lore that they had to keep track of. Perhaps the most criticized aspect was that the titular nephilim were presented as parasites who possessed unwilling human hosts to pursue their agendas. While players were seemingly okay with playing murderous psychopaths in other games of the 90s, apparently body-thieves just weren't kosher. The English mailing list had numerous debates over this during its heyday. Rather than rehash those here, I'll cut straight to the point: in my revision of the setting, the nephilim are fusions of a human being and a soulless mindless elemental spirit . The human soul (Sol, Solar-Ka) provides will, purpose, desire, etc. The elemental spirit...
Read more

Simplifying the rules

One of the problems with the Nephilim game was that its rules, a variant of the venerable  BRP , were overly complicated and probably not all that well suited to it. The French version eventually dropped BRP entirely starting in its third edition, and the current fifth edition uses a dramatically simplified rules system. This has inspired me to devise my own simplified rules system for the English adaptation. I'm not going to convert to Fate like certain others have tried . The task resolution system will still be BRP's roll under d100 with difficulty levels and variable results. But all the character traits will change. The standard attributes/characteristics are Air-Ka, Earth-Ka, Fire-Ka, Lunar-Ka, Solar-Ka, and Water-Ka. These represent the physical, mental, and spiritual aspects of the character. For nephilim characters, these also represent supernatural aspects. Rather than distinct skills, characters are described in freeform terms and given general competence ratings....
Read more

The spiritual pentacle and the elements

Image
In this post I explain the spiritual meaning of the Nephilim’s pentacle and the Ka-elements themselves. Although linked to specific game statistics, like Fire to Strength and Moon to Charisma, all of the elements have physical, mental and spiritual correspondences and manifestations.  It’s not one or the other . You don’t have to posit different cultures all have different elements to explain varying beliefs. Real occultism isn’t supposed to be accurate in the game world anyway, but the result of information leaks and cargo cults by muggles. Liam Routt gave a good explanation in  his old FAQ : (I’m putting it between horizontal rules because blogger has issues with formatting) The Spiritual Pentagram Traditionally, the pentagram represents our spiritual, mental, emotional and physical composition: Fire Doing—Fire is energy, the power to act. But it is pure action, undirected by thought or feeling. Air Thinking—Air is thinking, ideation, mental activity, but it can...
Read more