My Nephilim Occult RPing Blog

By default, the sorcerous magic item creation rules given in Gamemaster's Companion and Enlightened Magic just create items that allow the user to recast the spell it contains. I find this rather boring and weaksauce when sorcerers can design their own spells (and I'm not the only one ), so an idea I had was to allow magic items to have more unique effects. Instead of recreating a spell, the item itself is enchanted to provide a specific bonus or effect. There's precedence for this: the magic supplements give permanent enchantments that apply to people and places, not objects. To cite a few permanent enchantments (and costs) from  Enlightened Magic : Awakening the Inner Fire  (p43): permanently enlighten a mortal (1 POW) Eternal Warding  (p53): permanently ward an area against sorcery (2 POW) Call the Land  (p53-4): permanently befriend the animals and plants in a place (2 POW) So if you permanently enchant a gun with Weapon Blessing  by spending POW, you don'...

The  Emerald Tablet  is actual text in real world occultism. There was reputed to be an original Emerald Tablet from which may extracts were copied. But it has special significance in the Nephilim's secret history. As explained on Major Arcana p13, the priests of Thoth preserved imperfect copies of Akhenaton's 22 Golden Tablets in the form of 22 Emerald Tablets. The knowledge contained was transcribed on papyrus and collected as the Book of Thoth , of which many copies were made. The original tablets and most of the transcriptions were later lost or destroyed.  One tablet called the Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus was found beneath the Sphinx by Alexander the Great and became the basis of the Corpus Hermeticum , but later vanished with his corpse in 323 BC. Many Nephilim who know of it believe it was the Emerald Tablet of The Magician. According to the history chapter of the unpublished draft for  Slaying the Dragon  (the planned alchemy supplement before...

When the Liber Ka rules first came out in 1995, they more or less invalidated the rules for artifacts previously published in the Gamemaster's Companion . Nephilim no longer needed to find foci to cast spells, but cast Casual Magic without any and could design their own foci as needed to cast Ritual Magic and High Magic. It wasn't until Enlightened Magic in 2014 that LK-compatible magic item rules were finally added, and these amounted to single-spell inscriptions of Ritual Magic or High Magic that you could carry around and share with anyone who knew Casual Magic (as spell inscription wasn't included in EM except for third circle alchemy meditations). Meanwhile, the 2nd edition of the French and subsequent editions provided “Past Points” at character creation: letting players buy foci, artifacts, and other goodies saved from past lives to start play with. My quick-and-dirty house rule for reconciling these was... to do basically nothing. The GMC-style artifacts allowed ...

In part 1 of this series , I recapped the rules and spells of 3rd edition Necromancy. In this part 2 I will recap and compare Necromancy from the 1st, 2nd and—surprisingly—the 5th edition. The 1e Selenim and The Black Book supplements introduced all the original rules and spells, while the 2e and 5e Selenim supplements just copyedited the 1e Selenim supplement and added metaplot developments. Now, something to understand about the non-3e Selenim rules is that they’re extremely vague and wishy washy. They’re not really rules so much as somebody’s overly enthusiastic but ill-defined pitch and notes for a potential supplement. MultiSim management couldn’t decide whether Selenim should be NPCs or PCs so they okayed this mess. 3e massively cleaned things up, which is why I used that edition as the foundation for this series. Anyway, on to the actual rules… Paths of Necromancy Prior to 3e Necromancy was introduced as a single technique with no circles. However, the spells were l...

The US version of Nephilim was forked from the first edition rulebook of the French, so it didn't incorporate any of the many revisions the French supplements added that were available around the time. One of these was the rules for alchemical artifacts or spagyrics. The US rulebook includes a few alchemy formulae for various golems, but the French version revised and expanded on this into an entire class of alchemical artifacts known as spagyrics. When the third edition was released in 2001, it couldn't include spagyric rules due to space constraints and was canceled before an official supplement could be released. However, a fansite included an unofficial conversion of the spagyric rules to third edition (part of a homebrew revision of  alchemy rules and alchemy formulae ). The third edition alchemy rules made an unpopular change by linking each substance to a specific element, although Vision-Ka #1  included a short house rule to rectify this, Vision-Ka #9 included det...

This post is just me musing about artifacts rules.  As introduced in the second edition French rulebook, artifacts are divided into active and passive types. Active artifacts have their Ka and can be used by anyone who know the keyword, even without elemental Ka. Passive artifacts require elemental Ka to power their effect, whether from a Nephilim or from a Ka Reserve (equivalent to the US version’s Elixir).  This distinction may be applied to the US version and derivatives thereof. The sorcerous artifacts in Gamemaster’s Companion and Enlightened Magic are passive artifacts. The alchemical artifacts in Enlightened Magic are active artifacts, since they produce their effects even for unenlightened users.  By combining both books we get two types of sorcerous artifacts: single spell artifacts that are enchanted with Ritual or High Magic spells (see Enlightened Magic ), and multi-spell artifacts that are crafted through a much more grueling process (see GMC p26-31)....

So I've been doing more and more research on the French version's books, which is a huge mess btw. I discovered the rules for "Ka Reserves", which function basically like Elixirs do in the US version.  I can't find a copy of the first edition French rulebook, so I don't know if Ka Reserves were present in the first edition that the US version was based on or whether these were adapted back to the French from the US version. There's also rules for active versus passive artifacts. Ka Reserves As of the second edition rulebook the rules for Ka Reserves are similar to those of Elixirs, but with a few differences: Creating a Ka Reserve requires a mix of "Rare Earths" (the French name for what the US version names Litharge) and blood, flesh or whatever from the targeted Nephilim placed in the vessel. It must be created during day of the desired Ka-Element. The human mage may puncture and steal the Nephilim's Ka-Element at range, similar to a magic...

While transcribing and translating the alchemy rules from Nephilim: Revelation 's The Players' Book , which condenses a decade of mechanics and fluff innovations, I came across a description of the Athanor as sharing a bond with its creator. By building the lab and investing it with Ka from his Stasis item, the alchemist creates an alchemical being composed of his Pentacle, his Stasis item, and his lab. To destroy any part of the lab is to amputate this being. When a tool is destroyed, all substances produced by it instantly lose effectiveness and the alchemist is shocked into a depression for days. Certain laboratories are even said to develop sentience, seek to possess their creator, and defend themselves with alchemy! In other words, alchemical relics (see  Gamemaster's Companion  p33 for details). The meditations Miracle of Creation (see the unpublished alchemy rules) and Ultimate Purification of Gold (see Enlightened Magic p95-6) may be used to imbue objects with so...

In the unpublished revised Alchemy rules, the three circles were divided into specific purviews: the physical, the mental, and the spiritual, respectively. Black Stone creates alchemical substances that physically alter the target. White Stone creates works of art that inspire the desired feeling in witnesses. Philosopher's Stone creates meditations that produce the desired effect in souls by sight or touch.  While transcribing and translating the French third edition, however, I was inspired to think of a gap in these rules: what about psychotropic substances? Rather than producing a lapel that makes viewers perceive the wearer as more charismatic, what about giving someone a potion that makes them more positively inclined? As of the RAW, there's no way to do this because White Stone doesn't craft consumables. But could it work as a combination spell using both Black Stone and White Stone? I wonder... The Black Stone version of Coagulation of Understanding allows the alch...

What follows are some ideas I had for flavoring artefact creation and use, inspired by 3e. These are designed for potentially mixed parties of Nephilim, Selenim, Ar-Kaïm, and/or Bohemians. Refer to Gamemaster’s Companion and Enlightened Magic for the original rules. These artefacts operate similarly to sorcerous items (see  Basic Roleplaying  p246). These rules may be instead of or in addition to those in the GMC and EM. If introducing these as a new type of magic item, then my suggested name to distinguish these is “wondrous items” (a la  Dungeons & Dragons , referring to their wondrous usefulness). Wondrous items, or wonders, are extremely useful because they allow  anyone  to cast the enchantment. Mortal or immortal, with or without the corresponding Ka. They’re useful for Selenim because these don’t cost points from their own reserves, which they only replenish by draining Solar-Ka. Creating wonders follows steps 1–2 explained in GMC p26–9. The sp...

In a previous post I provided a brief overview of the types of magic items presented in  Gamemaster’s Companion  and  Enlightened Magic . What follows is a more detailed conversion, revision, and unification of these rules.  I divide magic items into several types: Least Artefacts, Minor Artefacts, Major Artefacts, Relics (Living Artefacts), and Masterpieces (Unique Artefacts). All of these objects are invested with some amount of Ka to provide their effects. The Least Artefacts include magical tools and athanors enchanted to provide a bonus to corresponding magical workings. They are wholly passive and useless to non-magicians. The Minor Artefacts include objects enchanted to contain a single sorcery spell and athanors enchanted to produce a single procedure. Sorcerous objects are only useful to those who already know Casual Magic, but enchanted athanors may be used even by non-magicians. The Major Artefacts are objects made of special materials and enchanted with m...

In the French version , athanors were revised over the editions.  First Edition In the first edition, the Athanor was an egg-shaped oven that produced alchemical Powders for all five elements.  US version This was retained by the US version. Although a revised system was planned and drafted, the line was canceled before it could be released. These rules were later genericized and incorporated into the BRP supplement  Enlightened Magic . In those rules, the Circles were reorganized like so: Black Stone involved manipulation of physical substances via the laboratory, athanor and alchemical materials. It affected the physical. White Stone involved the creation of works of art that induced a specific effect in the minds of the audience. It affected the mental. Philosopher's Stone involved meditations that would affect the very souls of the alchemist's targets. It affected the spiritual. In other words, much of the first and second circles of the French were consigned to...

A new rule introduced in the French 2nd edition was the Orichalc POT . Instead of dealing a standard1d20 Ka damage on a successful strike, the Orichalc weapons dealt an amount based on their Virulence POT (see "Potentials", Nephilim rulebook p102). The Nephilim was entitled to resist with a Ka vs Virulence POT roll on the Resistance Table. On a success, the attack only dealt Ka damage equal to half the Virulence POT. On a failure, the attack dealt Ka damage equal to the Virulence POT. (Disembodied Nephilim automatically failed.) In either case, this subtracted an equal amount from the Orichalc's Capacity. Virulence POT was temporarily increased by the Saturnian Astrological Modifier on Saturdays. Orichalc had a number of other effects than just Orichalc weapons dealing Ka damage or Orichalc amulets increasing magic resistance (see Nephilim rulebook p191). The presence of Orichalc sickened Nephilim in proximity, applying a penalty to rolls and potentially causing Shouit. L...

A vital substance in the creation of certain magical items is Litharge, the residue left over from the Ka-Element–Orichalc annihilation reaction. This substance has no elemental association whatsoever and is thus completely invisible to Ka-vision, so only the discrepancy between mundane and mystic vision may be used to discern its presence.  Litharge acts as a sponge and an insulator for Ka, thus it has helpful applications in freely storing and redirecting Ka. Normal enchantments by comparison permanently enchant Ka within objects, Ka that cannot be extracted (at least not without special spells and damaging the enchantment in the process). Litharge’s storage ability is temperamental: Stasis items only charge Ka when bonded to a living Nephilim, otherwise their charges evaporate into the magic fields. So far only the Magician's Wand (see Major Arcana p24) has been able to recharge and expend Ka without Litharge or bonding required for its creation, and the secret of its creation ...

As explained in Gamemaster's Companion p29 and Major Arcana p27, each of the planets (and thus its corresponding element) is associated with a particular metal . The exact correspondences differ between books, so I'm listing the correct ones here. I included the French association for comparison. (I prefer the latter, personally.) Planet Metal Element (US) Element (Fr) Sun Gold Solar Solar Moon Silver Lunar Lunar Mercury Quicksilver/ Mercury Air Water Venus Copper Water Earth Mars Iron Fire Fire Jupiter Tin Earth Air Saturn Lead Orichalka Orichalc This is important when looking for materials to create artefacts. I will be presenting detailed analysis and revisions for the artefact rules in later posts.

This post is a recap of the purpose of Stasis objects, plus some injections of my own ideas and some comparisons to the French version. Stasis objects are the key to the nephilim’s immortality. The stasis object anchors the elemental pentacle spirit to material reality, preventing it from being dissolved into the magic fields when disembodied. However, the secret societies have developed various dark purposes for stasis objects, such as imprisoning nephilim indefinitely or enslaving them as homunculi. Mechanical effects The Stasis object anchors the Nephilim's Ka-elements after bodily death, allowing the Pentacle to reincarnate. While incarnate, it stores Ka that the owner may tap in the "Stasis Ritual" boost the effectiveness of magic (see Nephilim rulebook p46, 140-1). Bonding a stasis object to a Nephilim is a third circle effect: a High Magic ritual or a Philosopher’s Stone meditation (see “Create Stasis”,  Major Arcana p7; “Crafting the Vessel of the Winds”, Unpubli...