Some ideas for Initiate Lore

In the third edition, the lores for arcana and secret societies were divided into two different skills: one for the uninitiated and one for initiates. I like this division and intend to expand on it in my campaign based on the third edition rules. 

The Exoteric or Outer Lore represents knowledge about a particular secret society, including their philosophy: a Major Arcanum, the Templars, etc. The Inner or Initiate Lore represents initiation into the secret society, their secret teachings, and the initiate’s rank within the organization. As usual in third edition, these break down into Profane (Layman), Apprentice, Companion (Journeyman), and Master. (Occultists use trademen ranks irl btw.)

Initiation into secret societies like the Templars grants an awakened Solar-Ka. The Initiate can see in monochromatic Ka-Vision and resist magic with their Solar-Ka. Different secret societies have different benefits for initiates. For example: the Mithradites cultivate their own Solar-Ka techniques, whereas the Fraternitas Saturnii develops Spells of Saturn.

Arcanum membership is divided into the outer membership and the Initiates. The outer membership of the Major Arcana, those are yet to be initiated or chose to forgo initiation (e.g. due to seeing tribal membership as a distraction), have limited access to some Arcane Techniques. Initiation into a Major Arcanum grants access to Arcane Techniques, including Initiate Spells. For example, an Initiate of The High Priestess gains an equal level in the Shemmut Technique for free! As Major Arcana notes, only about 10–25% of membership are Initiates.

Arcanum membership provides an Exaltation Bonus and Arcane Techniques. Arcane Techniques includes bonuses to mundane skills as suits the Arcanum, Initiate Spells, and Arcane Skills providing magical benefits like influencing people with Thes, astral projecting with Shemmut, or exploiting machines with Machine Empathy.

I still need to work out the exact bonuses…

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

“Fixing” the setting

These posts assume that the reader is already familiar with Nephilim , so don't expect an explanation of the game here. In addition to the clunky rules, and probably more important, the Nephilim game had fluff that alienated players in the Anglosphere. The rulebook frontloaded potential players with millennia of lore that they had to keep track of. Perhaps the most criticized aspect was that the titular nephilim were presented as parasites who possessed unwilling human hosts to pursue their agendas. While players were seemingly okay with playing murderous psychopaths in other games of the 90s, apparently body-thieves just weren't kosher. The English mailing list had numerous debates over this during its heyday. Rather than rehash those here, I'll cut straight to the point: in my revision of the setting, the nephilim are fusions of a human being and a soulless mindless elemental spirit . The human soul (Sol, Solar-Ka) provides will, purpose, desire, etc. The elemental spirit...
Read more

Simplifying the rules

One of the problems with the Nephilim game was that its rules, a variant of the venerable  BRP , were overly complicated and probably not all that well suited to it. The French version eventually dropped BRP entirely starting in its third edition, and the current fifth edition uses a dramatically simplified rules system. This has inspired me to devise my own simplified rules system for the English adaptation. I'm not going to convert to Fate like certain others have tried . The task resolution system will still be BRP's roll under d100 with difficulty levels and variable results. But all the character traits will change. The standard attributes/characteristics are Air-Ka, Earth-Ka, Fire-Ka, Lunar-Ka, Solar-Ka, and Water-Ka. These represent the physical, mental, and spiritual aspects of the character. For nephilim characters, these also represent supernatural aspects. Rather than distinct skills, characters are described in freeform terms and given general competence ratings....
Read more

The spiritual pentacle and the elements

Image
In this post I explain the spiritual meaning of the Nephilim’s pentacle and the Ka-elements themselves. Although linked to specific game statistics, like Fire to Strength and Moon to Charisma, all of the elements have physical, mental and spiritual correspondences and manifestations.  It’s not one or the other . You don’t have to posit different cultures all have different elements to explain varying beliefs. Real occultism isn’t supposed to be accurate in the game world anyway, but the result of information leaks and cargo cults by muggles. Liam Routt gave a good explanation in  his old FAQ : (I’m putting it between horizontal rules because blogger has issues with formatting) The Spiritual Pentagram Traditionally, the pentagram represents our spiritual, mental, emotional and physical composition: Fire Doing—Fire is energy, the power to act. But it is pure action, undirected by thought or feeling. Air Thinking—Air is thinking, ideation, mental activity, but it can...
Read more