My Nephilim Occult RPing Blog

In a prior post , I went over how various editions ruled the "Sundering", the transformation into Selenim. Mostly verily clunkily, as usual for this game. It turns out that I forgot something, not that I'm surprised given how incoherent and scattered the Nephilim rules are in every single edition.  Bizarrely, 5e  La Toison d'Or  p127 introduces the rules for "Lunar Entropy" rather than the 5e  Selenim  book released prior. The latter lazily copyedited the text from the 1e supplement, ignoring every supplement published since, and which wasn't properly adapted to match the 5e rules. By contrast, the new Lunar Entropy is written in line with the other rules for Downfalls of Khaiba, Narcosis and Shouit. The text doesn't explain if this supersedes the older rule or not, but for simplicity's sake I will assume so.  Recap of Lunar Entropy rules Lunar Entropy "degrees" are gained by: Accepting a physical consequence from a Black Moon creature ...

The Loa are Immortals of the Afro-Caribbean Tradition , mentioned in passing by the US rulebook. In the French version they’re barely more detailed and most of their lore focuses on the Haitian Selenim. What we’re told is the following: There are three nations of Loa: the Loa Rada , the Loa Petro , and the Loa Gédé . They rule the island of Haiti, home to a permanent, powerful, and massive Nexus. The Loa of all nations are able to temporarily incarnate in voodooists who invoke them. This is essentially a Summoning ritual, except even mortals cast it! Loa Gédé The Loa Gédé are Selenim and differ only culturally from those in Europe. They came to Haiti by exploiting the European settlers and Assuaged the suffering of the slaves. They encountered the Haitian Nephilim, the Loa living in Ginen, grouped into different nations based on their cultures and arrival dates. The Loa offered their services to mortal supplicants, invoked through invocations to temporarily possess them. The Selenim d...

The Nephilim rulebook p189, Major Arcana p9, and  Ian Young’s notes  mention that there are several Traditions of non-Western Nephilim in “wholly non-Western non-Islamic areas like China, Japan, India or sub-Saharan Africa.” Only three were ever listed by name: the Xian-Ren (Nephilim) and Xixiegui (Selenim) of the Chinese Tradition, the Loa (Nephilim) of the Afro-Caribbean Tradition, and the Xibalbans (Selenim) of the Central American Tradition. Since the line was cancelled in 1998, these Traditions never got supplements. However, there were some discussions on the mailing list about possibilities for East Asian , Maori , and Australian Traditions, among others. In the French version, the Loa got their own Loa scenario supplement in 1998. The supplement Exils (“exiles”) released in 2000 covered various non-Western Traditions: the Shen of East Asia, the Jukurrpa of Oceania, the Wowakan of Northern America and the Yohual-Tecuhtlin of Latin America. Unfortunately, like ...

In this post I discuss rules about Stasis objects for Selenim. I explain how the French version handled Stasis objects for Selenim across its editions, how the US version (did not) handle this, compare the two, then offer my thoughts on the subject. Shared features In all editions of the French version, and continued into the English (as confirmed in Serpent Moon  and Ian Young's notes), the Selenim were ageless or aged so slowly that they might as well be. Since they could take the slow path through the ages, they did not require a Stasis object to maintain their immortality. Although they did not reincarnate, they effectively treated every century that passed as its own past life era. In the French version In the French version, editions I to II (1992–2000), the Selenim did not have access to Stasis objects. While she could retain the Stasis object from her time as a Nephilim and even store her severed Ka-elements within (if she deliberately performed the Ritual of Sundering...