Who are the Orichalcans?

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 the effects of Entropy, using the Saturnian-Ka as a sheath against it.
  • The Workshop of the Extinguishment: experiment with neutralizing the effects of Orichalc with Black Lunar-Ka. Their skill allows them to sheath Orichalc items, rendering it harmless to Nephilim.
  • The Workshop of the Saturnal Circle: experiment with grafting Saturnian-Ka to the Selenim’s Black Lunar Core. Their skill increases their resistance to elemental magic damage. (The US version doesn’t really have magic damage, but it’s standardized in third edition.)
  • The Workshop of the Somber Creators: experiment with empowering Black Summons using Saturnian-Ka. Their skill lets them create talismans to boost an entity’s resistance, characteristics or damage. Ultimately hope to summon and control Orichalc elementals (“daimons” in the French).

Initiates of the Somber Alliance and Saturnal Circle must perform the ritual Sweet Saturnal Bite, which incorporates Saturnian-Ka into their Core and gives them points to spend for their effects.

The earlier first edition supplement Le Livre Noir appears to have inspired them: it included several Selenim spells to dowse, isolate/insulate, destroy, and even forge Orichalc! Plus, rules for becoming addicted to and corrupted by Orichalc as a result.

The rules for Orichalcans were pretty simple, but they have inspired me with ideas! They’re loosely comparable to the Fraternitas Saturnii from the US version’s Secret Societies supplement. Their fight against Orichalc is also similar to Ian’s concept of the Unnamed Arcanum being dedicated to fighting on behalf of Nephilim. I’ll save my ideas for a later post…

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