My Nephilim Occult RPing Blog

My campaign changes the nature of Nephilim from elemental spirits possessing human bodies to paredri symbiotically bonding with human bodies to awaken the higher self. This has consequences for how my cosmology handles magic like resurrection, exorcisms, and the link to past lives. I'm not giving concrete game rules since I'm still thinking about what system to use. The incarnation and awakening A paredrus is little more than another elemental beast. It operates purely on instinct. However, it is linked to the stars and can find suitable hosts to merge with. In general, a prospective host fulfills two criteria: 1) they currently sit at an emotional crossroads in their life that makes their Solar-Ka permeable to the Ka-elements, on some level desiring the bond and inviting it into themselves; a paredrus cannot bond with just any human in proximity. 2) the host's personality and life experience is preferably analogically linked to the Dominant Ka-element of the paredrus , but...

In part 1 of this series I recapped 3e necromancy. In part 2 I recapped and compared 1e/2e necromancy.  In this post I will mention an addendum to the past two posts, recap Ian’s surviving notes for canceled US version (brief as they are), then offer my commentary and ideas for adapting Necromancy to the US version with the knowledge of the French 3rd edition. Gaps in the French The third edition was a really good revision of Necromancy in my opinion, but I did notice what I believe to be gaps. The Necromancy Quest:  The  Gamemaster’s Screen  says that every occult science has an associated quest, which is mastered when the Immortal masters the associated occult science. The Necromancer is rumored to get nine lives (like a cat!) by mastering this Quest, but no other details are given since that was being saved for later supplements. Since MultiSim went under before the supplement(s) for occult sciences could be published then we’ll never know what that entailed. No...

As mentioned in the Nephilim rulebook p55 and the Gamemaster's Companion  p11 and Major Arcana p11, the Pact with Menes resulted in the Nephilim being allowed to incarnate within royal bloodlines for before being mummified and sealed within tombs. At the funeral Solar-Ka was sacrificed to sanctify the tomb, itself an "inferior" replica of the Selenim's tombs. Within the tomb they would retain consciousness and be allowed to progress towards Agartha in silent contemplation. How was this feat accomplished? We don't receive further info in the US version, but the French version offers some insights that may be applicable despite the extensive changes to the lore in the US version. One thing to keep in mind is that the Tombs didn't exist in the French version, but are an original creation of the US version. Otherwise, the material on mummification seems equally applicable to both versions. I have referred to the third edition GM's screen booklet, the third ed...

The Ar-Kaïm of the House of Serpentarius, also known as Ophiuchus, are an anomaly among the Ar-Kaïm due to their dominant Ka being Black Moon. An Ar-Kaïm's House (and thus dominant Ka) is determined by the zodiac month under which their Heart was "born" within a Nexus formed during a Grand Enthronement. But there are no Enthronements, and thus no Grand Enthronements, of the Black Moon. So how are Serpentaries born in the first place? Thus far I haven't yet found explicit suggestions in the third edition books I've read so far, but I do have some ideas. The House of Serpentarius lacks a zodiac month of its own and is explicitly stated to be parasitic on the other Houses, just as the Black Moon parasitizes the other elements. If a Nexus forms in a place where the Black Moon fields are particularly concentrated, such as a cemetery or necropolis, perhaps the Black Moon then transforms any resulting Ar-Kaïm into a Serpentary? During times of syzygy (full or new moon), ...

In the French third edition  Players' Book , two summoning spells allow Nephilim to flirt with necromantic effects.  The Veiled Sentinels of the Onyx Causeway  will resurrect any corpse, while  The Bearers of the Flame of Life  will repair and reanimate any corpse as a lifelike zombie with limited memory of its former life. Both spells inflict points of Black Moon contamination on the caster (risking sundering the Pentacle and turning the Nephilim into Selenim), discouraging Nephilim from casting them. The US version invented two spells dealing with death and resurrection. These were created independently of the French rules for Necromancy and thus aren't strictly compatible. The alchemy procedure  Universal Solvent  from  Slaying the Dragon  (unpublished, but reprinted in  Enlightened Magic ) allows the alchemist to contact the spirit of any corpse no matter its age. If cast on a Simulacrum, then it only contacts the Simulacrum unless t...

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...

In the French rules, it’s noted that Selenim cannot Assuage the residual Solar-Ka of ghosts. Neither can any black summons: at most, some can disperse it. Why is this? The French rules don’t give any fluff explanation, but I have one of my own. The Rosicrucians, based on the writings of Paracelsus and Freud, divided the human being into three parts. These are the body, the anima and the logos . The logos is the soul, which vanishes into the afterlife upon death. The anima remains within the corpse as it decays, retaining an impression of memories and personality. The Necromancer speak with and manipulate the anima . While composed of Solar-Ka that is mutually drawn to the Black Moon, it lacks some essential quality allowing Selenim to refract it into Black Moon-Ka. Selenim can only sublimate the Solar-Ka of the logos . Some believe that ghosts aren’t the souls of the dead but just echoes thereof. They’re not people , according to this line of logic. All but the most selfish and mali...

In the backstory for the Pact with Menes, it was explained that the agreement stipulated that the Nephilim would be allowed to incarnate within royal bloodlines after which they would be mummified along with their Simulacrum and entombed within prepared tombs that would allow them to retain consciousness after death and continue progression towards Agartha. How did this actually work? As the Simulacrum is dying, the Pentacle enters "Semket" (a misreading of msktt ) and then exits the body. For mummification to work as described, the Pentacle would need to be prevented from exiting the body first before any mummification could begin!  I'm skimming through the third edition French Minor Arcana book, which said the Promethean Mysteries within the priesthood embalmed the Simulacrum to trap the Nephilim inside, but it doesn't seem to explain this either. So I'm going to provide an explanation for my campaigns. The Pact with Menes required the assistance of amenable Se...

As of third edition, the strength of the local Black Moon field is irrelevant unless using house rules. The Black Moon is either present or it is not: in the latter case, the Selenim’s occult sciences are impossible.  However, to complement  my post on Black Moon sites , I present spells for dowsing and manifesting Black Moon Fields similarly to Sorcery from Liber Ka . These spells may be cast using either Necromancy or Black Summoning, since there’s not really a Black Sorcery equivalent. Both involve manipulation of the Tenebrae: corruption and domination, respectively. (I’m currently working on proper rules for black magic. Stay tuned…) Dowse Black Moon Field   Circle : Initiate Spell (Unnamed Arcanum) Ka-element: Black Moon  Threshold : First Circle (Necromancy) or First Circle (Black Summoning) Range: Ka-vision  Duration: 10 minutes  Description: This spell allows the caster to know the direction of the nearest Black Moon Field. Once the spell has bee...

In preparation for my own adaptation of Necromancy, I’m presenting an overview of the Necromancy rules from the third edition of the French version for comparison. I picked the third edition for the first entry in this series because it was designed specifically for use by players and in mixed parties, whereas the prior editions were vague and wishy-washy and couldn't decide whether they were playable or NPC-only. Thus, it provides the strongest foundation. Below I list and briefly describe the effects for the spells or “rites” of the three Circles. These make reference to the French cosmology, which differs from the US version by a lot. The US version was based on the first edition French rulebook, before the French publisher had really defined the cosmology or revised the rules in subsequent editions. So the US version went in its own direction. The rules for ghosts haven't significantly changed from prior editions, so the previews of the afterlife metaphysics in Serpent Moon...

When a Selenim's Assuaging fumbles or overfills, then it contaminates the victim with Black Moon Ch'awe. This has a variety of disturbing effects, the exact rules for which varied across the French editions. In 1st and 2nd edition, the victim could develop a variety of symptoms based on the amount of contamination: morbid thoughts, nightmares, hallucinations, a sensitivity to the lunar field, sensitivity to the doomed field, a telepathic connection to the Selenim who infected him, growing a metamorphosis transformation resembling that of the Selenim who infected him, and reanimating after death. The rules were pretty vague and wishy washy. In 3rd edition, the rules were formalized and standardized. Accidental contamination still occurred as a result of fumbling or overfilling during Assuaging, causing the target to accumulate a Cursed Characteristic based on the number of Black Moon Ch'awe transferred. This sensitizes him to the doomed field, causing him to steadily go mad....

I’m currently waffling back and forth on whether the obscure sciences (as the Selenim’s occult sciences are called) should be their own skills or not. Maybe these should be Initiate Spells using the existing Nephilim occult science skills plus Arcanum Lore (Unnamed). For comparison, Secret Societies has Saturnian spells use the existing occult sciences rather than inventing new ones. At the very least, I would allow former Nephilim who undergo initiation to  start with base chances  in the obscure sciences equal to one-fifth or one-fourth of their percentage in applicable occult sciences. Anamorphosis I'm still working on at this time. Wait for my posts on that... Conjuration aka Black Summoning is closely comparable to Summoning and thus a higher base chance based on the latter makes sense. I still need to work on revising the Summoning rules before I detail Conjuration… Necromancy is most analogous to certain applications of Sorcery and Alchemy (to reiterate, I’m ...

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...

To keep myself straight, I thought I’d keep track of this here. I’m using the US version (for Nephilim) and the French version (for Selenim and Ar-Kaïm) as a basis, but I’m not necessarily beholden to it. Upon the death of a nephilim (see Nephilim rulebook p116), their elemental essence flees their simulacrum and takes spectral form (the nephilim’s metamorphosis, devoid of humanity) only detectable via mystic vision. This elemental is entitled to search for a new bearer. If it cannot, then it will inevitably be drawn back into its stasis regardless of intervening distance. If the stasis is already full, then the elemental becomes stuck in place and enter a narcosis that causes various haunting phenomena (see  Nephilim rulebook p116-7.) In favorable conditions the spirit can precipitate the birth of elemental beasts, such as the banshee (see Gamemaster’s Companion p57). This narcosis can last for centuries, but eventually the spirit will disintegrate and disperse into the magic f...