My Nephilim Occult RPing Blog

Something criticized  on the old mailing list  was that the one-to-one correspondence between Ka-elements and mundane Characteristics was too much like GURPS, when the lore itself specifies that all the elements have physical, mental and spiritual manifestations. In the French 5e, this was written into the rules for task resolution. There are no longer Characteristic rolls: instead, "Experiences" (a consolidation of Skills and Past Lives) are always rolled for all tasks. However, Nephilim may use an "Approach" to apply a bonus to an action based on a relevant Ka-element. These don't map to specific uses like Fire for strength or Water for dexterity. Instead, each Ka-element represents an approach to how the task is resolved (hence the name). Each element represents a different approach. Fire is for blatancy, brute force, recklessness, etc. Air is for analysis, planning, prudence, using knowledge, etc. Water is for adaptation, flexibility, circumventing problems,...

In a prior post I mentioned the "black elements." These were basically evil versions of the conventional elements, briefly mentioned in both Serpent Moon and Major Arcana . I find that idea a bit silly, though. But the third edition French version has an idea that I think salvages this... The Black Moon is most strongly linked to the Moon field, but in truth it insidiously insinuates itself within and parasitizes all the magic fields. There is no Black Fire-Ka, Green Fire-Ka, Bitter Water-Ka, Dead Air-Ka, or whatever else you could think of... these are all manifestations of Black Moon-Ka. In the French version, there's a black summon named "Those whose Touch is a Red Iron." They're creepy green fireballs. The text states that they seem to echo Fire-Ka in their appearance in Ka-Vision. Are these Black or Green Fire-Ka entities? More or less, if you interpret Black Fire-Ka as the Black Moon's parasitizing of the Fire Field. In my planned rules for Black...

Back in the day Ramos-Tavener wrote essays on the history of summoning , unfinished revised summoning rules , and the nature of the subtle planes . I've been consulting these for my own revisions to summoning for a more authentic Enochian system. In this post I'd like to touch on the subtle planes and the summoning worlds. The US version was based on the first edition of the original French game. Subsequent editions of the French dramatically revised the cosmology (a brief recap of the 2e cosmology may be found here , but it doesn't account for 3e revisions). One thing that hasn't changed, however, is that the subtle planes and the summoning worlds remain distinct places. The subtle planes are the realms of human dreams and nightmares, Akashas and Anti-Lands, linked respectively to Solar-Ka and Black Moon-Ka. The summoning worlds are the source of the various creatures summoned by Kabbalah (the original French name for Summoning). Both can be visited by the PCs long bef...

What is a Nephilim? What are the Ego, Super-Ego, and Id? What is the nature of an elemental essence outside a body? What is the relationship between Nephilim and elemental beasts? How do the secret societies view Nephilim? How do Selenim and Ar-KaIm differ? Who were the KaIm and how do they differ? Long story short, I've tweaked Immortals to no longer be body snatchers because I want to make it easier for players to get into the game and sympathize with the PCs. That seems to be much easier when the PCs aren't body snatchers. See Montgomery's blog posts  here , here , here , here and here . Each Immortal is a fusion of a mortal human being, body and soul, with an elemental essence or spirit. Each has a psychic apparatus of three interacting agents: the elemental Id, the human Ego, and the immortal Super-Ego. The elemental's Id provides the Immortal's Personality Traits aka Emotional Traits, which the Immortal must understand and master in order to reach Agartha. Th...

I'm currently translating the French third edition rulebooks from 2001 in order to get a good look at the rules and setting. That edition replaces BRP with a new system. I'll try to describe that below. Task resolution The 3e rules use much smaller numbers than BRP. Characteristics and Potentials have been consolidated into Characteristics and Difficulties. Characteristics and Difficulties are rated from 1-5, while Skills are rated from -2 to +1. However, the rules describe these with adjectives, adverbs, and shifts rather than numbers, like so: For Characteristics and Difficulties: Not (1), Little (2), Enough (3),  “…”  (4), and Very (5). For Skills: Profane (↓↓), Apprentice (↓), Companion (no modifier), Master (↑). Every task is resolved using the Resistance Table, or as it's called in this edition the "Universal Resolution Table", by comparing the Characteristic against a Difficulty level shifted up/down by the relevant Skill. Instead of a d100, a d20 is rolled...

As a companion piece to my  other post on visibility , I present an idea first shown to me by  Palimpseste 4 . In addition to the other parameters of visibility, I present another: Total . An elemental or effect with total visibility is visible to mundanes, but they never recognize its true magical nature. Instead, they rationalize it away. Magical armor appears to be merely odd clothing, flying elementals appear to be drones or distant aircraft, etc. This even applies to recordings, which will only pick up a mundane image or at most a blurry grainy UFO or cryptid photo that isn’t taken seriously by most mundanes. Only Immortals and Awakened mortals will recognize these for what they are, whether in person or by recording. Hope you enjoyed!

Ian Young's " A History of the Selenim " fails to account for the Unnamed Arcanum, as he admits. I present here a companion piece to his history, exploring the Unnamed Arcanum's perspective and exploits. This account is incomplete and will be revised as I continue my work on rules for Selenim. After the fall of Tarshish, the Selenim appeared for the first time within the living memory of the Nephilim. Everything before then is the subject of myth and rumor, such as the mythical Selenim Wars. During these wars, the Selenim led by a figure known only as the Devouring Messiah were supposedly responsible for the Toba catastrophe  (74,000 years ago!) before the Nephilim rescued humanity. However, no surviving Nephilim nor Selenim reliably bore witness to these events and their veracity is questionable. While the Cult of Lilith rose from the shadows to patronize nomadic conquerors and sacrificial cults across the Occident (i.e. Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East, North A...

As of third edition, the strength of the local Black Moon field is irrelevant unless using house rules. The Black Moon is either present or it is not: in the latter case, the Selenim’s occult sciences are impossible.  However, to complement  my post on Black Moon sites , I present spells for dowsing and manifesting Black Moon Fields similarly to Sorcery from Liber Ka . These spells may be cast using either Necromancy or Black Summoning, since there’s not really a Black Sorcery equivalent. Both involve manipulation of the Tenebrae: corruption and domination, respectively. (I’m currently working on proper rules for black magic. Stay tuned…) Dowse Black Moon Field   Circle : Initiate Spell (Unnamed Arcanum) Ka-element: Black Moon  Threshold : First Circle (Necromancy) or First Circle (Black Summoning) Range: Ka-vision  Duration: 10 minutes  Description: This spell allows the caster to know the direction of the nearest Black Moon Field. Once the spell has bee...

The Orichalcans ( Orichalquiens in French) were a fraternity of Selenim in the French version who specialized in studying Orichalc and experimented to combine it with the other Ka-elements. They’re explained in Codex des Selenim for third edition. They were founded by a Selenim named Vul-Cain. Vul-Cain was former Kaïm who was horrified by the Coming of Orichalka and the degeneration it wrought upon the Kaïm. He deliberately underwent the Ritual of Sundering, believing that he could achieve Agartha through the Black Moon-Ka. Later he became fascinated by Orichalc and studied it in a manner resembling alchemy, founding the workshops. The Orichalcans were divided into four “workshops”. Each workshop had an associated occult skill that affected the power of their effects. They all suffered from the Corruption flaw, which reduced their BMK pool. The Workshop of the Somber Alliance: experiment with forging links between Saturnian-Ka and their Black Lunar Core. Their skill reduces...

Saturnian magic is detailed on Secret Societies p67-9. It was written before the revised magic rules in Liber Ka , Slaying the Dragon (unpublished) and Enlightened Magic . Saturnian magic uses the same magic skills as elemental magic, except that at least a decade of training by the Fraternitas Saturni is required to perform it. (I'd probably represent this as Fraternitas Saturni Lore rating or something, similar to Initiate Spells in Major Arcana .) Saturnian magic is exceptionally difficult and expensive to cast. It requires the caster not only to be trained by the Fraternity Saturni for at least a decade, but to cultivate Saturnian-Ka within themselves (which consumes elixirs and causes premature aging), the sacrifice of both Elixirs and Awakened Orichalc (by pouring the former on the latter, see below), and may only be cast on Saturdays in the months of Aquarius and Capricorn (i.e. Grand Enthronements of Saturn). Only the spell  Create Orichalka Ward  may be cast outsid...

Source The following extract was translated from the fourth edition’s  Le Codex de la Lune p30-1. The 666 is a secret organization organized by a Nephilim called the Devourer who resembles the god Seth or Anubis. Its existence was only hypothetical until the Major Conclave of the Apocalypse where the identity of the members of 666 was revealed. Some think that it has existed for more than three millennia. The Nephilim have long believed that the 666 was only a sect of Khaiban or Selenim dissidents, or even a new Minor Arcanum. Everyone now knows that the 666 is an initiative of five Nephilim whose Pentacle has a Black Moon Core instead of the Moon-Ka. Their members are perceived as aberrations by the Nephilim. However, they may sort their modified Pentacle and do not seek pure and simple destruction but renewal by a radical magical tabula rasa . The organization of the 666 is very opaque: around the council of the five gravitates a nebula of occult actors who act on its behalf. Th...

The Loa are Immortals of the Afro-Caribbean Tradition , mentioned in passing by the US rulebook. In the French version they’re barely more detailed and most of their lore focuses on the Haitian Selenim. What we’re told is the following: There are three nations of Loa: the Loa Rada , the Loa Petro , and the Loa Gédé . They rule the island of Haiti, home to a permanent, powerful, and massive Nexus. The Loa of all nations are able to temporarily incarnate in voodooists who invoke them. This is essentially a Summoning ritual, except even mortals cast it! Loa Gédé The Loa Gédé are Selenim and differ only culturally from those in Europe. They came to Haiti by exploiting the European settlers and Assuaged the suffering of the slaves. They encountered the Haitian Nephilim, the Loa living in Ginen, grouped into different nations based on their cultures and arrival dates. The Loa offered their services to mortal supplicants, invoked through invocations to temporarily possess them. The Selenim d...

In the first edition and US version derived from it, Sorcery was named Sorcery. In subsequent editions, French only, this occult science was renamed Magic. In fourth edition, it  was specified  that the Enochian name was “HeKa.” This  comes from  Ancient Egyptian. In the unfinished Ex Oculis fanbook, “HeKa” was the Enochian name for Raw Magic. That is, the Elemental Effects from Liber Ka p88.

As with 3rd edition Necromancy, I decided to recap the Evocations from the Nephilim: Revelation Player's Book  in anticipation of my own adaptation.  What is Black Summoning? Black Summoning is the Selenim counterpart to the Nephilim's elemental Summoning.  The name of this occult science varies by editions. In 1st, 2nd and 5th edition it is named "Black Kabbalah" ( Kabbale Noire  in French), while in 3rd edition it is named "Conjuration" (the French uses the English word). In the US version, only snippets were printed in  Serpent Moon  and here it was named "Black Summoning".  Like Summoning, it is divided into three Circles. The Circles are further divided into occult techniques named “Appeals” ( Appels in French), comparable to the Sefirot of the Nephilim's Kabbalah. (The Sefirot were renamed to "Realms" in the US rulebook.) Black Kabbalists linked these to Da'ath and the Qlippoth. The entities The Players’ Book explains that...

In the French version, all the Onirim metamorphs were variations of the Snake ("Serpent" in French) collectively named “ Ophidians .” These were the Chimera, Lamia, Medusa, and Naga. In 4th and 5th edition, a generic Onirim and Ophidian metamorphosis was introduced. What follows is some my ideas for adapting them to the US version and Chronicle of the Awakenings . In the French Here's an overview of the French version, excerpted and translated from the books: All other Metamorphoses are variations of the Snake , accentuating this or that aspect of the lunatic humor. Beyond the mood itself, the Ophidians all have one or more reptilian aspects in common, a mark of the influence of the Black Moon.  The Chimera is the embodiment of the dream and its infinite variations. For the Chimera, dream and nightmare are the two facets of a marvelous deleterious seduction, and all means are good to yield to it and make others discover it. Transformations : White hair and black eyes, B...