Homunculi from Selenim and Ar-Kaïm, and some other things

As a companion to my previous post on the subject, in this post I'll explore elixirs and homunculi made from other types of Nephilim. These applications are optional, tentative and I may revise them in the future.

In the French version

As a quick recap, sacrifices, elixirs, homunculi and stasis items worked differently in the French version. Sacrifices seemingly didn't exist. Elixirs were referred to as "Ka Reserves", created using Litharge ("rare earths" in the French), and could remotely steal portions of Ka from Nephilim using a magical connection without outright killing them. Homunculi were created in much the same manner, but they were grown in transparent flasks and couldn't leave the flask without dying. Stasis items were linked to the Nephilim and if it was destroyed then the Nephilim would be destroyed immediately regardless of intervening distance or current incarnation, a limitation that was only removed in fifth edition. I won't bore you with further details but instead focus on rules and fluff as it is relevant to my campaign setting derived from the US version.

My campaign setting

In my campaign setting, I've opted to relax the restrictions around Stasis items by taking cues from Ex Oculis and the French version's fifth edition. A Stasis item contains the link to the Nephilim's past life experiences and stores their Paredrus between incarnations, thus is vital to the Nephilim's existence. Stasis items are as durable as stone regardless of their form, and are protected from natural disasters and isolation from civilization by good luck that ensures the item survives a natural disaster and finds its way back to civilization. However, this won't work against an adversary determined to break the item or trap the Paredrus indefinitely. 

Breaking a Stasis item is difficult owing to its magical durability, but it can be done. This doesn't destroy the Stasis magic, but it breaks its Ka capacity and thus the item cannot recharge. If the Paredrus is trapped inside or re-enters upon bodily death, then it is distributed between all the pieces of the Stasis item. It cannot be released except by a special Ritual of Deliverance known to Temperance, or the repair of the Stasis item's charging capacity.

Destroying a Stasis item requires damaging the enchantment with Orichalc. Each point of damage destroys the Stasis item's Capacity on a 1:1 basis. If it is reduced to zero, then the enchantment is destroyed. If the Paredrus is inside at the time, then it is also destroyed. If the Nephilim is incarnated at the time, then he loses his link to his past life experiences predating his current life and must bind to a new Stasis item if he wishes to ensure future reincarnations. He retains the past life experiences he recalled while incarnated, but forgets them upon reincarnation.

Any damage to the Stasis item is felt sympathetically by the Nephilim and may potentially cause sufficient psychosomatic trauma to kill the Simulacrum. For this and the above reasons, Nephilim commonly place elaborate protections around their Stasis items to ensure they don't suffer annihilation or eternal imprisonment.

There are a few other differences, but those are the important ones.

Other applications

These applications are optional, tentative and I may revise them in the future. Use, modify, or ignore them at your leisure.

The Dwarf in the Flask, or, the Bottle Imp

The procedure described in the US version is actually a refined version of the procedure invented by Templars based on golem research stolen from Paracelsus' Liber de homunculus. The earlier version invented by Pope Sylvester II created a Homunculus that was trapped inside of a transparent flask and couldn't move on its own like a true familiar, not unlike a sapient Elixir. Breaking the flask would kill the Homunculus immediately, making freeing them trickier. Some of these earlier Homunculi still exist, but the newer procedure has largely supplanted the older one.

To distinguish it from the mobile homunculus familiar, it is also called the "bottle imp."

[This is inspired by the rules from the French version. In the English version, its purpose was apparently split between Elixirs and Homunculi.]

Amerindian Elixirs

During the wars between the Amerindian Nephilim and the invading secret societies during the colonization of the Old West, Ghost Dances were used to surge the local magic fields and transform untapped Orichalc deposits into Litharge to prevent the secret societies from exploiting it under the cover of the Gold Rushes. However, this had an unintended side-effect. When this "sacred" Litharge was mixed into Elixirs for experimentation, it boosted the effects and allowed the user to manifest the metamorphosis of the Nephilim used to create it. This resulted in conspiracies where the USA government tried to claim sacred land under the cover of mining valuable rare earth minerals.

[This is inspired by similar rules from the French version, which was apparently inspired by the US version's Elixirs that didn't exist in the French. I'm still not satisfied with it because it doesn't follow the logic of the US version, but as I said above it's still just ideas.]

Sacrifices and Elixirs from Selenim and Ar-Kaïm

Selenim and Ar-Kaïm may be sacrificed for Sacrifices and Elixirs, but the process is far more dangerous. Trying to bleed a Selenim for an Elixir will contaminate the mage with BMK, drain their SK or, worse, transmigrate the Core into their own body. Trying to bleed an Ar-Kaïm is potentially deadly: the moment that the victim's Solar-Ka or Saturnian-Ka is reduced to 0, their Heart will violently erupt in a magical explosion that will destroy the Elixir.

A Selenim's BMK cannot be drained into an Elixir drained from Nephilim, as the BMK attempts to sunder the other Ka-elements and eclipse the Moon-Ka, thereby rendering the Elixir useless. Furthermore, it suffers Entropy just like other Black Moon beings unless routinely "fed" with SK sacrifice.

An Ar-Kaïm's Saturnian-Ka cannot be drained into an Elixir if it fails to resist the sublimation. As Elixirs are designed to mimic the Pentacle, not the Heart, upon contact with the Elixir it will react with the Elemental Ka to turn the Elixir's contents into useless Litharge. This effectively means that bleeding Ar-Kaïm is likely to destroy the Elixir rather than refill it.

[I still need to think on this. I've shared my ideas, but my gut instinct is that Sacrifices and Elixirs from them are so rare as to be unheard of or even impossible. Ka Reserves didn't exist for them in the French.]

Homunculi from Selenim and Ar-Kaïm

Selenim and Ar-Kaïm may be turned into Homunculi too, but these procedures are rarer and many still use the older version of the procedure where the Homunculus is trapped inside a transparent flask. Performing the procedure on Selenim and Ar-Kaïm is trickier because they (usually) lack a Stasis item, are insensitive to Orichalc, and cannot reincarnate as easily as Nephilim. 

Binding a Selenim or Ar-Kaïm to a Stasis item proved tricky because the Create Stasis spell is designed for use on Nephilim's Pentacles and most secret societies lack the means to create Stasis items anyway. Clever mages discovered that this limitation could be circumvented by using the Stasis item of a destroyed Nephilim with an improvised bonding ritual. This has the side-effect of linking the Immortal to the past lives of the former owner, allowing them to recall their life experiences. To bind a Selenim requires waiting until it enters Entropy of the Core and using blood sacrifice of human subjects to link the Core and the Stasis item using BMK's attraction to SK. To bind an Ar-Kaïm requires performing the Heart Transmigration Ritual on the Stasis item instead of a descendant, which links the Heart to the Stasis item and transmigrates to descendants who release it from stasis. A Xibalban's obsidian stasis item may or may not be used in a similar fashion to a Nephilim's, as knowledge of it is scarce outside the Xibalbans themselves.

This is followed by the standard practice of placing the Stasis item in the alchemical vessel and ritually sacrificing the Immortal's current Simulacrum or, if the Paredrus entered the Stasis, another human victim (who must be in the bloodline of the prospective Ar-Kaïm homunculus). Through interaction with the alchemical mixture and the influence of the Orichalc runes, the Stasis item is dissolved: its diluted Litharge is absorbed into the Homunculus' gestating body and all its magical properties are unraveled. 

However, attempting this still poses similar dangers to creating an Elixir: if the spell fumbles, then the Selenim's Core potentially transmigrates within the caster via the bloodbond (if it doesn't disperse in the process) while an Ar-Kaïm's Heart suffers a violent magical explosion. 

The resulting Homunculus only has limited recall of its past lives, but retains the occult techniques and lore inscribed on its Ka. As with Nephilim Homunculi, they display a kind of metamorphosis. A Selenim Homunculus merges with its Imago (if any) and displays all its aspects in an atrophied useless form; if it had no Imago constructed, then it displays a crude pseudo-metamorphosis based on its preferred emotions. An Ar-Kaïm displays features resembling the symbolism of its Zodiac House in addition to the environmental effects of its Ka-elements.

These procedures never spread very far. In addition to Selenim and Ar-Kaïm being rare and largely unknown to secret societies, they're also dangerous to control or don't provide enough benefit to justify enslaving. Selenim Homunculi are still subject to entropy and must be fed with strong emotions, and some contaminated their "master" with BMK to take control of the situation and escape. Most Ar-Kaïm don't know the occult sciences and thus couldn't provide much in the way of magical workings, their innate Talents are poorly understood and potentially useless in this form, and their Instability makes them unreliable.

A Nephilim Homunculus may be bonded to a new Stasis and then their tortured mutated body euthanized to release the Paredrus to reincarnate, but releasing a Selenim or Ar-Kaïm Homunculus is trickier because their Paredrus cannot survive disembodiment like a Nephilim Homunculus. Their Core or Heart must be transmigrated while their Homunculus Simulacrum is still alive, which is a tricky proposition. Transmigrating an Ar-Kaïm's Heart simply requires the Homunculus to perform the Ritual on another member of their bloodline, which requires first killing their master as their oaths prevent them from doing this. Transmigrating a Selenim's Core generally requires a Spell from the Third Circle of a Selenim Occult Science.

And those are my ideas. Hope you enjoyed!