Who are the Bohemians?

In this post I introduce and tackle the topic of... Bohemians!

In Chaosium's books

In the Nephilim rulebook p57, it's stated that:

When the Theban armies and assassins overwhelmed their homes, the Nephilim Arcana tribes avoided destruction by scattering throughout the world. So thorough was their diffusion that many even lost contact with each other. Yet from many secret locations they initiated others into certain Nephilim secrets and bade them to continue the search to locate the other lost Arcana. This was the birth of the great bohemian people called “Egyptians” or “gypsies” in Victorian England. Those nomads created their own culture based upon secret Nephilim rites, Egyptian customs, and elements borrowed from the many countries which they crossed over the centuries.

There are other passages in the books linking Romani groups to the occult world and to the Tarot. Liam Routt suggested some ideas for Romeny Nephilim based on this passage, but never produced any rules. 

This is obviously ahistorical, poorly researched, and downright racist. The Rom originated from India, not Egypt. They only started migration about a thousand years ago, or two thousand years after Akhenaton's death. They consider word "Gypsy" a pejorative slur. The Irish Travelers originate from Ireland. The conflation with Romani and Irish Travelers is incorrect and offensive.

We could always reconcile this by saying the Bohemian Egyptians are actually a separate ethnic group that only thousands of years later mixed and shared their teachings with some Romani, Irish Travelers, and other nomadic groups. Suggesting that these persecuted nomadic ethnic groups are all post-Egyptian occultists with magical powers is obviously racist.

A Frenchman's take

In the French version, the Bohemians were literally Romani who were given hereditary magical powers of deception by Akhenaton. Since that’s obviously racist, somebody over on rpg.net suggested changing them to non-ethnic mortal initiates that gained a single Ka-element through a secret ritual. This lets them perform magic of that element at the cost of becoming allergic to Orichalc.

The Bohemians are organized into 5 “Chimerical” Suits (or Minor Arcana?) supposedly founded legitimately by Akhenaton as mortal paths to Agartha. While not enemies of the Immortals, the Bohemians pursue goals that the directors in the Major Arcana may not agree with. These are:

  • Ruby Wand: defenders of freedom. Fight to end all tyranny, occult and mundane alike. Its elemental affinity is to Fire.
  • Ivory Sword: keepers of traditions. Seek to preserve knowledge of the past. Its elemental affinity is to Air.
  • Sapphire Cup: seekers of despised lore. Seek wisdom in antinomian practices and traditions of the poor. Its elemental affinity is to Water.
  • Emerald Shield: gardeners of the world. Seek to enchant the land anew, healing Orichalka’s wounds. Its elemental affinity is to Earth.
  • Silver Dream: protectors of humanity. Seek to protect the human subconscious from those who would abuse it. Its elemental affinity is to Moon. While the other Minor Arcana are found in the Tarot, this fifth suit was only revealed to the mundane world within the last five centuries.

I’m definitely using this idea in my campaigns. 

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