My Nephilim Occult RPing Blog

In this post, I’m gonna explain "Approaches" and provide some lists of correspondences. When an Immortal performs an action that resonates with a Ka-element, then he may apply a bonus to that action; these were known as Meta-Characteristics in editions prior to 4e. Each Ka-element is associated with a Characteristic (1-3e), a list of Skills (4e), and an Approach (5e), as I'll explain below. Meta-Characteristics Characteristic associations were introduced in 1e and modified in 3e. For Nephilim and Ar-Kaïm, the associations work like so: Ka Characteristic Air Intelligent Earth Endurant Fire Strong Moon Magnetic Water Agile In 1e/2e these bonuses were constant, whereas in 3e they must be deliberately activated. A Characteristic under the influence of the Pentacle is a "Meta-Characteristic." Fumbling a Meta-Characte

In the French version and the US rulebook, the Nephilim are body snatchers. Whenever the Simulacrum regains control, they enter a state of Shouit ("shadow"). Selenim and Ar-Kaïm don't suffer from Shouit: the Selenim's transformation loses much of their humanity, including the Simulacrum's mind, whereas the Ar-Kaïm aren't body snatchers at all but integrate their Simulacrum's Solar-Ka into their Hearts (that said, their awakening can cause memory loss ranging from only recalling the Simulacrum's dreams to complete amnesia). Under an awakened or symbiotic perspective, like that advanced by the Chaosium writers in the Gamemaster's Companion (or especially in the unfinished Ex Oculis fanbook), Shouit is instead reframed as a psychological retreat from the occult into mundanity (or perhaps a dissociation in the bond between the Pentacle and Solar Core). In this case, it would make sense that it would then be able to apply to Selenim and Ar-Kaïm. But s

I'm not an occultist myself and my knowledge of the occult is practically nil, so I've never really understood concepts like the Olamot nor how to authentically simplify them for a gaming context. However, I've found one explanation someone else already did for a gaming context. In Craig Cochrane's Immortals Handbook: Ascension , he mentions the Four Worlds of Assiah, Yetzirah, Briah and Atziluth by name and describes them in simplified form for a gaming context. He assigns them to different dimensions, axes of a coordinate system, that make up our universe. These dimensions are, respectively, Space (technically three dimensions), Time, Matter and Spirit. (Da'ath, "The Abyss", is the dimension of Thought.) So I thought I'd recap that here and explain it in terms of the emanations. Within the Kabbalistic context, the Four Worlds are successive emanations of the Divine that give form and existence to our universe. The first emanation is Atziluth and it i

When the Liber Ka rules first came out in 1995, they more or less invalidated the rules for artifacts previously published in the Gamemaster's Companion . Nephilim no longer needed to find foci to cast spells, but cast Casual Magic without any and could design their own foci as needed to cast Ritual Magic and High Magic. It wasn't until Enlightened Magic in 2014 that LK-compatible magic item rules were finally added, and these amounted to single-spell inscriptions of Ritual Magic or High Magic that you could carry around and share with anyone who knew Casual Magic (as spell inscription wasn't included in EM except for third circle alchemy meditations). Meanwhile, the 2nd edition of the French and subsequent editions provided “Past Points” at character creation: letting players buy foci, artifacts, and other goodies saved from past lives to start play with. My quick-and-dirty house rule for reconciling these was... to do basically nothing. The GMC-style artifacts allowed

As I've mentioned before, Montgomery's blog provided a response to the "possession problem" that seemingly kept players from getting into Nephilim : On the other hand, the core principle of the game is accurate to the Western Mystery Tradition, which has always held that humanity cannot save itself.  Bound to the animal world of matter, only those who form a partnership with a higher spiritual power can become inhuman and ascend to higher reality;   ...The mutation of one’s deepest structure is the only thing that matters for the purposes of higher knowledge. This knowledge, which is at the same time wisdom and power, is essentially nonhuman; it can be achieved by following a way that presupposes the active and effective overcoming of the human condition...  Julius Evola, Introduzione alla Magia   To this end the Tradition has long embraced the principle of uniting with an alien, spiritual being;   (there) is an auxiliary divine, or semi-divine (daimônic) spirit...ca

While transcribing and translating the French third edition, I came across mention that Atlantis left a horrific scar on the human psyche. Within the Anti-Lands (lower planes of nightmares) is a "chthonic Atlantis," depicting a horrific tableau where countless innocent human beings are tortured and killed by nightmarish creatures resembling Nephilim with elemental metamorphoses (akin to the elementalism Khaiba transformation, basically animated material of that element).  Although the French version doesn't really dwell on it, the Nephilim are actually fairly monstrous even long after Orichalka. Hence why the US version's fandom (even the writers themselves!) didn't like the body snatcher angle. I also found some unsubstantiated mention that one of the freelancers had created house rules where he equated the Kaïm with the Great Old Ones, but I have been unable to confirm that actually happened. Now I cannot get the idea out of my head: were the Kaïm the Old One

Initially the lore assumed only the Unnamed Arcanum accepted Selenim, and vice versa. However, the third edition Gamemaster's Book notes that it is possible for (at least some of) the other Arcana to "adopt" a minority of Selenim. The majority of members remain Nephilim, however. Although some Arcane Quests are reserved for Nephilim, like those of The Magician (see Gamemaster's Screen ) and The High Priestess (see Vision-Ka #3 ), others like those of The Moon (see Vision-Ka #5 ) have paths available to Selenim. The  Al-Mugawir  campaign supplement notes that Selenim adopted by Judgment have integrated their Simulacrum's Solar-Ka and may learn to cast the solar Occult Science of Qiyas. The reverse is not true. The 13th Arcane Quest, the Bronzen Sublimation (see Gamemaster's Book ), is reserved for Selenim. Death is a haven for all magical beings who carry the Black Moon within them: Selenim, Serpentaries, 666's Rejects...  I still need to research how the

A while back I wrote a post on possession under the symbiotic perspective. Since then I've done more reading and thinking, so I thought I'd revisit that. While designing my campaign setting, I have several tasks that I need to accomplish: Revise the Nephilim into more sympathetic characters by removing the body snatcher angle. Represent the Nephilim's developing relationship with their Simulacrum's Solar-Ka as their occult development advances. Introduce the Selenim and Ar-Kaïm as playable characters to the US version. Maintain the distinctions between Nephilim and Ar-Kaïm despite the spiritual changes to the former, reinforcing as necessary. Try to maintain a degree of backwards compatibility with the French to reduce my workload on adapting material. So the way I opted to do this way by making the Nephilim symbiotic beings, inspired by Montgomery's blog , an alchemical marriage of an elemental beast and a human being. The human's Solar-Ka provides the awarene

It's a plot point in the French that Nephilim and Selenim cannot use their simulacrum's Solar-Ka due to being parasites. One of the gaps in the rules and fluff concerns the relationship between the Nephilim and the Simulacrum. Namely, it doesn't change at all as a result of the character's occult development. He doesn't learn to manipulate his Solar-Ka or anything! Here's what a French player said once on sden.org : But this brings me to the great weakness of Nephilim in its first three editions: the importance of making felt the interaction between the ka-sun and the Ka of the immortal is too overlooked. It is a little touched upon in the case of the Selenim (with a rigmarole around the emotions of predilection in the third edition), but a Nephilim progressing towards agartha, reaching high levels of Ka, occult sciences or traditions, does not see never its relationship to the Ka-Soleil of the simulacrum modified. The case of the Ar-Kaïm is undoubtedly still ap

In the French third edition  Players' Book , two summoning spells allow Nephilim to flirt with necromantic effects.  The Veiled Sentinels of the Onyx Causeway  will resurrect any corpse, while  The Bearers of the Flame of Life  will repair and reanimate any corpse as a lifelike zombie with limited memory of its former life. Both spells inflict points of Black Moon contamination on the caster (risking sundering the Pentacle and turning the Nephilim into Selenim), discouraging Nephilim from casting them. The US version invented two spells dealing with death and resurrection. These were created independently of the French rules for Necromancy and thus aren't strictly compatible. The alchemy procedure  Universal Solvent  from  Slaying the Dragon  (unpublished, but reprinted in  Enlightened Magic ) allows the alchemist to contact the spirit of any corpse no matter its age. If cast on a Simulacrum, then it only contacts the Simulacrum unless the Nephilim was also destroyed at the sam

Over in the US version's fandom back in the day, a big deal was made over the Nephilim being body snatchers and how this made them unsympathetic. Furthermore, the role of the Simulacrum and the Nephilim's relationship to his Solar-Ka remained woefully undeveloped beyond "his family becomes concerned and stages an intervention that you have to escape." I agree to a large extent, which is why in my campaigns the Nephilim are hybrid entities akin to Star Trek 's trill, the Avatar from Avatar: The Last Airbender , Leto II from God Emperor of Dune , etc.  But one old recurring proposal I disagree with is the idea that Nephilim need to balance the mundane and magical sides of their life, or else suffer increased Shouit and other risks. The simple fact of the matter is that 1) their advancing metamorphoses make it increasingly difficult to blend in unless they're Hanged Men, and 2) dealing with mundane minutiae is boring when Chaosium tried to advertise play as a mix

In this post I present my suggestions for new metamorphoses. These are loosely inspired by some discussions I saw on the US mailing list and the unfinished Ex Oculis fanbook. Overview The Valkyrie and Fury are a pair of Eolim metamorphosis archetypes, representing the corruption of the Black Moon even within the seemingly distant magic field of Air. The Valkyrie is a spiritual, focused, or yang archetype, whereas the Fury is a material, unfocused, or yin archetype. (Assuming such distinctions are relevant in your campaigns.) Of all the Air metamorphoses, they are the most physically inclined. I find a good/evil dichotomy too simplistic and boring, so I wrote both archetypes with good sides and bad sides. Both Valkyries and Furies commonly find themselves drawn to Strength, Justice, Judgment, The Tower and The Devil. Ironically, Valkyries prefer joining The Devil and Judgement whereas Furies prefer joining Justice and The Tower. Both are equally likely to join Strength: Valkyries enj

Fifth edition replaces the long list of skills from previous editions with past lives used as skills instead. But this isn’t the first edition to do so.  Nephilim: Initiation , fast-play rules simplified from third edition, did this back in 2006. (For more information on Initiation , you can download the whole thing here , overviews here , web bonuses  here , and a bonus scenario here .) The way Initiation handled this was by introducing Vécus or “Life Experiences”, measured as Characteristics rather than Skills; Skills proper didn't exist in the fast-play rules. These were labeled with the adjective  Doué  or “talented, gifted.” The adverb was determined by the “degree of implication”: Pas  Doué  at Apprentice degree, Assez  Doué  at Companion (Journeyman) degree,  Doué  at Master degree. If a relevant Vécu applied, it would substitute for the Simulacrum’s Characteristic on that action; rather than modifying it like Skills did. Obviously this was only useful if the Vécu was h

The voors are an alien race from the Radix Tetrad by A. A. Attanasio. Their name apparently comes from “ voorish ”. Here’s a review I found  here , which quotes mentions of voors, Iz, and kha! These aliens were an inspiration for the French writers, who incorporated them into the background. The Voors were alien “seeds” carried to Earth by the cosmic wind “Iz”, where they mixed with the magic fields and germinated into the Kaïm. They play a key role in The Star’s arcane quest for the Stellar Ones. According to rules given in Codex des Nephilim , some Star Initiates have cultivated “prime essence” within themselves that they speculate emulates the original composition of the Voors. In the French, every Nephilim and ex-Nephilim Selenim was originally a Kaïm who was cast down by Orichalka. Although it’s not clearly spelled out, the Ar-Kaïm and natural Selenim are implied to be native to Earth rather than children of the Voors. Could this be integrated into the US version? Should it?  I

First codified in the third edition of the French version, a Quest is a type of Occult Skill that measures the PC's progress along a Quest that ultimately culminates in Agartha. There are many different Quests, such as the Quest for the Golden Fleece, the Treasure of the Templars, the Golem, etc. The lost Tablets of the Major Arcana each provided their own instructions for a different " Arcane Quest ", but there are more " Esoteric Quests " beyond those 22. Esoteric Quests may be associated with particular Occult Sciences, Artifacts, Past Lives, Secret Societies, Secret Places, Akashic Realms, and so on. The secret revealed by third edition was this: PCs don't need to achieve max level in their Dominant Ka, Metamorphosis, Third Circle or Lore Skills in order to achieve Agartha. They need only complete their chosen Quest. So even a relatively young and inexperienced Immortal may achieve Agartha if they play their cards right. (Otherwise you'd go into the

In an older post I gave some thoughts on past lives for Ar-Kaïms. I wrote that before I started reading Codex des Ar-Kaïm , which provided some rules in this regard already! The third edition rules suffered from space constraints, so some key parts of character creation had to be placed in the Codex for each magical race. This includes "Past Points", which players used to purchase magic items and spells for their PCs that were acquired over the course of their past and retained into the present era. Ar-Kaïms gained a Lineage parameter that determined how many times they'd previously reincarnated, with each level representing one generation or ~3 decades. This only went back to 1900, the start of the Great Awakening. So they didn't have the ancient past lives like Nephilim and Ex-Nephilim Selenim had. However, the fifth edition rulebook briefly recaps their fluff in one chapter and specifies that they've existed for centuries at least but were concealed by the Rom

In part 1 of this series , I recapped the rules and spells of 3rd edition Necromancy. In this part 2 I will recap and compare Necromancy from the 1st, 2nd and—surprisingly—the 5th edition. The 1e Selenim and The Black Book supplements introduced all the original rules and spells, while the 2e and 5e Selenim supplements just copyedited the 1e Selenim supplement and added metaplot developments. Now, something to understand about the non-3e Selenim rules is that they’re extremely vague and wishy washy. They’re not really rules so much as somebody’s overly enthusiastic but ill-defined pitch and notes for a potential supplement. MultiSim management couldn’t decide whether Selenim should be NPCs or PCs so they okayed this mess. 3e massively cleaned things up, which is why I used that edition as the foundation for this series. Anyway, on to the actual rules… Paths of Necromancy Prior to 3e Necromancy was introduced as a single technique with no circles. However, the spells were loosely or

In part 1 of this series I recapped the rules for Conjuration in 3e. In this part 2, I will compare the bits of prior editions that were altered or deprecated. The exact nature of the entities summoned varied by edition. In the first and second edition, the  Selenim  and  Le Livre Noir  supplements couldn't agree if the entities lived in their own world or were created by the summoner. Examples of both were given and even in-universe the summoners debated the truth. Entities were described as traveling through the Black Moon fields even without being summoned and visible in black Ka-vision, spying on summoners, and new invocations being created by the summoner astral projecting and conjuring the desired entity out of the hypothetical "dark dreams" of the Black Moon. Altered and deprecated summons The first edition Selenim supplement included the first round of black summons and other spells. The supplement Le Livre Noir reprinted the spells from the Selenim supplement a