What is the fourth occult science, Qiyas?

Qiyas is a "fourth" occult science introduced in the third edition supplement Al-Mugawir. I put "fourth" in quotes because that appellation doesn't count the Selenim's occult sciences or other so-called "fourth sciences" practiced by the Exiles. So far it hasn't been officially converted to fifth edition, along with 99% of the content from past editions that aren't the rules for the three Nephilim occult sciences, so I can only refer to third edition for details.

Qiyas relies on the practitioner's or Qiyasim's Solar-Ka, so it may only be practiced by those who have awakened and integrated their Solar-Ka. This includes Ar-KaIm and initiated humans by default, but Nephilim and Selenim need to jump through further hoops before they can learn and practice it. This is done by becoming an Apprentice in any Quest that awakens one's Solar-Ka or being part of a splat that does so at character creation.

Qiyas operates similarly to Sorcery in that it relies on the analogy between Ka and worldly phenomena (the name literally translates to such), but instead of operating on the elemental associations it operates on archetypes from humanity's collective unconscious: dog, orchid, bee, sage, etc. For example, by invoking the Bee the Qiyasim may gain or grant archetypal qualities of the Bee such as more efficient working or coordination. And so on and so forth.

Curiously, the supplement Al-Mugawir notes that The Sun Arcanum considers the Quest for Qiyas to be an abomination and perversion rather than an exploration of the Golden Path. I'm really surprised by this. Although the Quest for the Golden Path was never published in third edition due to being cut short, the errata for Al-Mugawir specifies that the two are intended to be different but would synergize if pursued by the same quester: The Quest for the Golden Path would allow the Nephilim to retain Solar-Ka from past incarnations rather than losing it.

In the US version, the Mithradites were founded by a Sun Initiate for the purpose of cultivating Solar-Ka in mortals (and have invented Solar-Ka Techniques which do interesting things) so it would make sense for both the Mithradites and The Sun to be very interested in Qiyas. I'll have to work on that when I do writeups for the Arcane Quests...

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What are the decans?

Image
In astrology, the zodiac signs  are ruled by particular planets  and divided into  three decans per sign  as shown on the figure below:  In the French 3e supplement  Codex des Ar-Kaïm , the concept of Decans is introduced as an additional way to define a character's personality. Each House has its own emotional nature, further modified by the character's Decan. All Houses have three Decans, except for Serpentarius that has none. In other words, the combination of House and Decan serves a similar role to the Nephilim's Metamorphosis. In the US version, this would be represented by BRP's Passions (or Personality Traits as they're labeled in Chronicle of the Awakenings ). I'm still trying to figure out how to integrate Passions into the Ar-Kaïm rules, as Ar-Kaïm lack metamorphoses but the concept overlaps heavily with the Essences mechanic (i.e. their magic points). Ar-Kaïm display environmental manifestations as a result of their Essence values and ...
Read more

What are the Minor Tablets?

In the third edition Gamemaster's Screen , the Quest for the Cycle of Destiny is introduced. (The fanzine  Vision-Ka  #3  specifies on p41 that this Quest is one and the same as the Arcane Quest of The Magician.) The goal of this quest is to acquire and study the Minor Tablets, crafted by Akhenaton as supplements to the 22 Major Arcana Trumps. The purpose of these Minor Tablets is to help mortals reach Agartha. There are four Minor Arcana  in total: The Wand (Fire), The Cup (Water), The Sword (Air) and The Coin (Earth). Keen-eyed readers may notice that the symbolism of the suits correspond loosely to the traditional magical tools (see Liber Ka p52). By pursuing this quest, the Nephilim is better able to understand their Simulacrum's Solar-Ka: they can boost their chances of Critical Success based on their Solar-Ka, retain player control during Shouit seizures rather than handing control to the GM, and develop Solar Resistance through initiation into a Minor Arcanum...
Read more

"Reverie" as a new degeneration for Ar-Kaïm?

In the character creation for Ar-Kaïm, during the Past step the note determines how much of their mortal life the character remembers. Apprentice means they have total amnesia, Journeyman means they remember only dreams and confuse it with reality, and Master means no memory loss. However, this section contradicts the rest of the book(s): Ar-Kaïm don't suffer any Skill loss and amnesia is never mentioned in their lore. I suspect this text was leftover from an earlier draft as an oversight. It obviously creates problems for roleplaying so I can understand why it was revised. However, the Ar-Kaïm Codex has a short story where the narrator briefly mentions she sometimes has difficulty distinguishing dreams from reality. This inspired me to imagine a new degeneration just for Ar-Kaïm, one I tentatively call "Reverie." Ar-Kaïm have a close bond to the Astral and to the dreams of humanity. The idea behind Reverie is that it represents a loss of control and identity as a result ...
Read more