My Nephilim Occult RPing Blog

In part 1 of this series I recapped the rules for Conjuration in 3e. In this part 2, I will compare the bits of prior editions that were altered or deprecated. The exact nature of the entities summoned varied by edition. In the first and second edition, the  Selenim  and  Le Livre Noir  supplements couldn't agree if the entities lived in their own world or were created by the summoner. Examples of both were given and even in-universe the summoners debated the truth. Entities were described as traveling through the Black Moon fields even without being summoned and visible in black Ka-vision, spying on summoners, and new invocations being created by the summoner astral projecting and conjuring the desired entity out of the hypothetical "dark dreams" of the Black Moon. Altered and deprecated summons The first edition Selenim supplement included the first round of black summons and other spells. The supplement Le Livre Noir reprinted the spells from the Selenim supplem...

As a companion piece to my  other post on visibility , I present an idea first shown to me by  Palimpseste 4 . In addition to the other parameters of visibility, I present another: Total . An elemental or effect with total visibility is visible to mundanes, but they never recognize its true magical nature. Instead, they rationalize it away. Magical armor appears to be merely odd clothing, flying elementals appear to be drones or distant aircraft, etc. This even applies to recordings, which will only pick up a mundane image or at most a blurry grainy UFO or cryptid photo that isn’t taken seriously by most mundanes. Only Immortals and Awakened mortals will recognize these for what they are, whether in person or by recording. Hope you enjoyed!

In this post I want to talk about two things: metamorphosis transformations’ game effects and subtlety a la Liber Ka . Transformations’ game effects In the rulebook, metamorphosis transformations were purely cosmetic and had no useful mechanical effects. In Chronicle of the Awakenings , each metamorph generally had 2 game effects at 16+ points each. Water breathing, flight, claws, vengeance sense, prophecy, etc. The  unofficial Australian metamorphs  were especially powerful. In the  Ex Oculis fanbook , every transformation would’ve had a useful mechanical effect. (Often costing 1 or more ch’awe.) I would definitely use that instead, especially comparing it with the Selenim’s Anamorphosis. The latter always provided useful game effects. I’m not gonna provide a whole conversion in this post. I encourage groups to customize their metamorphs to suit their styles, using the books as inspiration. Shelby Babb's old page has  some ideas , unfortunately written for the ru...

The Nephilim rulebook p139 and Enlightened Magic  supplement p12-3 differ a bit in how they handle awakening/enlightenment and magic resistance. The Nephilim rules distinguish magic resistance like so: Nephilim resist magic at full Ka value, awakened humans resist with halved Solar-Ka value, and most other humans cannot resist magic at all. Mithradites can resist at full Solar-Ka value (see Secret Societies p73). Nephilim and other elementals resist with the same Ka-element as that of the spell (it's not explained what happens if an elemental doesn't have that Ka-element, but presumably this means resistance is impossible). Humans resist with their Solar-Ka. The  Enlightened Magic  rules distinguish magic resistance like so: the enlightened resist magic at full POW value and the unenlightened resist at halved POW value. Seers have mystic vision and can resist magic at full POW value, but cannot cast magic themselves. There's no distinction between different ele...

Rather than going on a case-by-case basis, here I’m providing general guidelines for the visibility of elemental beasts, summoned beings, black summons, ghosts, disembodied Nephilim, etc. This is partly inspired by the French. These guidelines make reference to passive mystic vision from Enlightened Magic (see that book and my post on passive vision for details). I posit several degrees of Visibility: Passive : The elemental is directly visible to passive Ka-vision of all types. Mundane folks may catch glimpses from the corner of their eye or notice the shadow it casts. Ka-vision : The elemental is directly visible when the viewer activates Ka-vision. Passive Ka-vision detects its presence in the vicinity with a Spot roll but doesn’t see it directly. This includes all types of passive and active Ka-vision. Tenebrae : The elemental is only perceptible to Black Moon Ka-senses; indirectly to passive and directly to active. Other types of Ka-vision may catch glimpses but cannot see it dir...

The rules for Ka-vision in Nephilim  rulebook p128 and the rules for mystic vision in Enlightened Magic  p9 differ a bit. I thought it would be helpful to do a comparison. Ka-vision and Active Mystic Vision are closely comparable. The main differences are that 1) to use mystic vision the character makes Spot rolls instead of Ka rolls and 2) the range is POW×2 in meters rather than Ka×5 in meters. Enlightened Magic  adds a new passive use simply titled Mystic Vision. Without spending power points, the character may make a Spot roll to notice the presence of magic to a limited degree (i.e. whether a spell is being cast or an item is permanently enchanted, the elemental association, and the type of occult science, but nothing else) or to notice whether an invisible entity is somewhere in the vicinity. This passive vision doesn't exist in the Nephilim rules, but I would definitely use it in my own campaigns. In the Ex Oculis fanbook some mortal occultists had an "activated K...

This is my attempt to classify the magic fields. The different types of Ka may be categorized into several overarching categories: evolving Ka, elemental Ka, and residual Ka. Each Ka is linked to a particular planet, zodiac sign, and day of the week. [The nomenclature of evolving, elemental, and residual Ka was written  by Sisensee . More information on Ka-vision and related subjects may be found at the old  mailing list FAQ .] Evolving Ka Solar-Ka—aka Sun-Ka—is linked to the Sun, the sign Leo, and dominates Sunday. In Ka-vision it  appears  as intense glowing spots, more visible than any other field.  It naturally concentrates in humans and other mortal animals, forming the soul in both the living and the dead. It is referred to as Evolving Ka because mortals are able to change and adapt over time, both individually and over generations, whereas elementals generally remain static. Solar-Ka doesn't form elementals like other Ka. The closest analogue are the dead...