My Nephilim Occult RPing Blog

This idea was originally shared on the old defunct US mailing list in the 1990s, but I decided to bring it up again. I've transcribing and translating the rules and lore for the French version, which includes a lot of information on The Sword . The Sword is the descendants of the Promethean Glaives and was probably the basis of the Black Star and other secret societies in the US version. Écate, Demoness of Night Statistics (Using third edition statistics) Saturnian Core: Very Initiated. Metamorphosis: Not Hidden by default; psychotic, silvery, amorphous, inexplicable aversion in nearby Immortals. Concealed using the Eye of Ishtar (see below) and mundane cosmetics. Shadow Arcanum: Initiate of The Black Star. Occult Sciences: Master in Third Circles of Saturnian Sorcery and Saturnian Summoning. Knows all published Saturnian Spells and more besides… She may cast Saturnian Spells on any day, not just Grand Enthronements.  Lore at Master: The Magician, Black Star, Saturnian M...

The word paredrus is Latin and refer to the power of a familiar spirit in magic or wizardry. I first learned the word on Montgomery's blog and, as I noted in a prior post, adopted it to refer to the elemental half of my setting's vision of Nephilim as hybrid beings. A Nephilim is created when a Paredrus merges with a mortal and creates a microcosm of the Solar system: on its own the Paredrus has no awareness, identity or will, which is provided by the mortal's Solar-Ka. The Paredrus is what allows a Nephilim to work magic and to access past lives' experiences.  So how does that fit with the backstory involving the KaIm? Well, I'm still using the secret history as recounted in the Gamemaster's Companion . The difference is the introduction of the Paredri and their role in the creation of Nephilim. After the fall of the Orichalka meteor, many KaIm were destroyed outright and most of the survivors were locked into permanent physical bodies. By the birth of Christ, ...

My planned conversion of the Black Star spells from Secret Societies has been delayed multiple times already, so I'm going to explain my rationale behind adapting these spells here. The Black Star invented several spells to destroy or enslave the Nephilim. These include Awaken Orichalc , Sacrifice Nephilim , Create Elixir , and Create Homunculus . These spells are solar techniques that generally don't require elemental Ka to cast. Awaken Orichalc The spell Awaken Orichalc comes in several versions. The oldest is a Casual Magic spell that awakens raw Orichalc by exposing it to Solar-Ka via the caster bleeding on it. When cast using Ritual Magic, the Solar-Ka may be provided by assistants or unwilling sacrifices. The caster uses his Solar-Ka to calculate the spell's POW, but uses the astrological modifier for Saturn. Orichalc may only be awakened on Saturdays, as the doomed field is otherwise too weak. Orichalc is usually too rare to make pure weapons, so the Orichalc is us...

In the books, sometimes the “black star” and “black sun” are mentioned. These are usually epithets for Saturn or aliases for the Order of the Black Star. In Major Arcana , “The Black Star” is noted as a possible Shadow Arcanum by Wheel of Fortune and and “The Black Sun” is mentioned by The Chariot as the mysterious power source behind the Saurian empire. (I get the feeling different writers came up with different ideas independently of each other that contradict when written side by side.) Source One day the following idea was shared with me on Discord, having been generated by ChatGPT. I found it so interesting that I had to share it here. In the context of the Nephilim RPG, the Black Star is a mysterious and powerful cosmic entity. It is said to be a dark star that orbits our solar system and exerts a profound influence on the forces of magic and the occult. The Black Star is also associated with the planet Saturn, which is considered to be its physical manifestation in our solar sys...

The Black Sun was briefly mentioned in the rulebook but no other details were given. I and many others generally assumed it was another name for Orichalka, since this was literally stated in Gamemaster’s Companion and the same name was listed as an alias for the Order of the Black Star in Secret Societies . However, the Major Arcana book said it referred to the mysterious energy source that powered the Saurian Empire. The Star has discovered “black sun shards” over the course of their travels! It's clearly not the same as the Black Moon... is it? Is it related to the black elements generated at Chernobyl? The black fire-ka mentioned in Serpent Moon ? Methinks the writers got carried away... it's a known issue that different writers brought their own ideas to the game and these didn't quite sync up. I don’t know what to think about it at this time, but maybe in a later post? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Mortals cannot perform magic on their own, as they lack the requisite Ka-Elements. At most, they may contribute to a nephilim's rituals—or use certain enchanted items, as these possess their own Ka (see Gamemaster's Companion p36-7, Enlightened Magic p65). However, the secret societies have learned how to harness the nephilim in order to perform magic themselves. There are three ways this is done: sacrifices, elixirs, and homunculi (see Nephilim rulebook p191-2, Secret Societies p37-8). Sacrifices allow the mortal sorcerer to cast one sorcery or summoning ritual by bleeding a nephilim to open a connection to the magic fields. The process is a simple additional component to the ritual: the nephilim's blood is fatally spilled upon the material representation of the spell's element (see "Table of Traditional Magical Tools and Affinities",  Liber Ka p52). Elixirs allow the mortal sorcerer to store Ka-impregnated blood for later use. This requires creating a sp...