My Nephilim Occult RPing Blog

The summon spell  Pharaonic Egregor is presented in Major Arcana p11. The element is that of the Egregor’s Arcanum, listed in the Exaltation table on p9. The table lists elements, planets and zodiac months. These are copied almost verbatim from the astrological correspondences  proposed by the Golden Dawn  ( cheat sheet here ,  color coded here , secondary correspondences here ). I've reproduced and merged both tables below: ARCANUM EXALTATION EGREGOR DYNASTY 0 Fool Air Unknown I Magician Mercury Djoser (Zoser) III II High Priestess Moon Khafre (Chephren) IV III Empress Venus Netaqerti (Nitocris) VI IV Emperor Aries Narmer (Menes) I V Hierophant Taurus Unas V VI Lovers Gemini Yaqub-Har XVI VII Chariot Cancer Sheshi XV ...

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 a prior post I listed the Good Ministers of the Aethyrs from Enochian magic. I'm still researching occultism for game design so I'm no expert, but on another blog I found a correspondence given between the orders of the Good Ministers and the Tree of Life from Kabbalah. You can see the full accounting at that blog, but I summarize these on the table below: Sefira In Atziluth In Beriah In Yetzirah In Assiah Kether Ordo 1 Ordo 11 Ordo 21 Great Kings Chokmah Ordo 2 Ordo 12 Ordo 22 Seniors Binah Ordo 3 Ordo 13 Ordo 2...

For purposes of assisting myself and any other GMs interested, I collated a list of all the Elemental Beasts published officially and semi-officially on the table below: Cʀᴇᴀᴛᴜʀᴇ Eʟᴇᴍᴇɴᴛ Eᴍᴏᴛɪᴏɴ Nephilim rulebook (pg. 220-224) Basilisk  Earth  Cruel  Flame Snake Fire  Unpredictable  Ghost Wyrm Moon  Vengeful  Ghruuul  Earth/Fire Destructive  Gorgon  Moon  Private  Gryphon  Air/F...

The Major Arcana book retroactively altered gameplay by introducing mechanics like Exaltations and Arcane Techniques, available to any PC who self-declared as a member of an Arcanum and increasing in value if they were initiated. The organization of the Arcana is highly variable, but there are basically three ranks: outer members, initiates, and the leadership (although less hierarchical Arcana lack this rank). Initiates had access to even more goodies in the form of Initiate Spells and the like. Anyway, for ease of reference I decided to consolidate the list of Skill bonuses provided by Arcanum membership. These are percentage bonuses equal to one-fifth of Dominant Ka+Arcanum Lore (in that Arcanum). These generally apply to 1-3 relevant mundane Skills (but not Occult Lore or Magic Techniques), whether they're in the rulebook or invented by the GM. See the table below: Major Arcanum Bonus to the Skills… ...

Many of the names for the entities in the Summoning rules are drawn from a list titled “The Good Ministers of the Ayres” that appears in The Magician's Companion by Bill Whitcomb and Mysteria Magica by Melita Denning and Osborne Phillips. The Good Ministers are organized into 91 sub-orders of the Enochian Aethyrs and the titles of which come from the Aurum Solis, an order of magical practitioners contemporary with the Golden Dawn (supposedly). Despite the mention of Olamot and Sefirot in the game fluff, these entities aren't related to Kabbalah but come from Enochian magic. The original names were distorted by being translated from English into French and then back into English by translators unfamiliar with the original source. For example, "The Swift Ones of the Portals of Flame" was garbled into "The Swift Flame Portals." If I was revising the summoning rules, then I would go back to the original names. The descriptions seem to have been made up by the...

In addition the official past lives presented in the Nephilim rulebook and Chronicle of the Awakenings , a complete index of which is provided on Gamemaster's Companion p23, the following new or modified past lives were written by fans and released in zines or to the mailing list. Those eras marked with an † are included the same document. Additionally, an index by Joshua Wright with speculation on potential eras may be  found here . Mediterranean, 10,000BC . "The Drowning of Tarshish" Tara, Ireland, 600BC. "The Fall of the Tuatha de Danann" Anglesey, Britain, 61AD. "The Destruction of the Druids" Albion, Britain, 415AD. "The Dance of the Sun"† (Note: This is an alternate version of Arthurian Britain that isn't consistent with the timeline given in the Gamemaster's Companion ) Camelot, Britain, 542AD. "The Grail Kingdom"  Scandinavia, 800AD. "The Viking Age" Khorasan, Persia, 1300AD. “Kublai Khan and the Wor...

In this post I share all the metamorphs I could find for the English version. I present the name, dominant ka-element, and personality traits. These are sorted by source. Nephilim rulebook & Chronicle of the Awakenings These are all the metamorphoses that were officially published in English. The books are buyable on Drivethrurpg . The rulebook used a scheme of "head, hands, skin, odor, and voice" inherited from the French version, but CotA introduced a new scheme using "personality traits" adapted from similar mechanics used in some other BRP games like Pendragon and RuneQuest . My recaps use the latter scheme. Djinn (material Fire): Destructive, Energetic, Proud, Rebellious, Reckless Phoenix (spiritual Fire): Creative, Honorable, Loyal, Reckless, Stubborn Sylph (material Air): Calm, Pragmatic, Proud, Rebellious, Trusting Angel (spiritual Air): Calm, Creative, Curious, Honorable, Spiritual Triton (material Water): Deceitful, Destructive, Pragmatic, Private, Unp...