My Nephilim Occult RPing Blog

In the adventure supplement Serpent Moon , it is shown that the Xibalbans (American Selenim) developed rituals to place themselves in a state of suspended animation resembling mummification. This means that any of the many mummies discovered in the Americas could be Selenim in suspended animation.  An 1879 horror story could serve as good inspiration for this:  The Squaw Hollow Sensation . In that story, a mad scientist posits that the Aztec mummies are actually living beings in suspended animation. Using chemical and electrical means, he is able to revive one! I imagine you could fit this idea into a Nephilim campaign easily by having Chariot initiates develop a similar process.

In every society whose politics were dominated by Selenim influence, the state religion inevitably became focused on public human sacrifice. Why is this? Selenim Assuage emotions, so what do they gain from this? What follows is my answer for my campaigns: Several things. One, torture is an effective way to elicit intense pain. The amount of Solar-Ka siphoned by Assuaging is dependent on the intensity of the emotion, so agony is very satisfying.  Two, bloodletting releases the Solar-Ka contained within. Just as the Orichalka Men discovered how to awaken Orichalc by exposing it to human blood, so too did the Selenim discover that they could do the same. Three, the sacrifice rituals were an occult refinement that allowed the Selenim to Assuage all of a mortal’s Solar-Ka at once. Normally only a subset may be siphoned per session and must then be allowed to recover.  This isn’t to say the Selenim were cartoon villains who acted purely maliciously. They acted out of self-interest a...

I'm currently translating the chapter on the Yohual-Tecuhtlin from the French book Exils  published in January 2000, which provides a wealth of information on the Mesoamerican Selenim. (They're given rules for character creation in the third edition Codex des Selenim a few years later, but it's very light on fluff due to space constraints.) The US version developed its ideas independently a few years earlier , and Ian's notes for the canceled US Selenim book were never publicly shared until 2001, but I wonder if any of the US version influenced the French. For example, the US version posited in the rulebook that the Selenim's tombs were precursors to the Nephilim's Stasis, and Serpent Moon had Selenim in suspended animation, then lo and behold the Yohual-Tecuhtlin in Exils are described as using pyramids and obsidian figurines as Stasis items! Perhaps most damningly, the Amerindian Wowakan are given rules for Chronicle of the Awakening -style Emotional Metamor...

In this post I provide an overview of the various Selenim tribes in my campaign setting. This draws from the US version, the leaked notes for the canceled Selenim book ( source , although I'm making my own adjustments), and the French version 3e to fill the gaps. Though the Nephilim of the Major Arcana are largely ignorant of it, the Selenim do not stand united under the banner of the Unnamed Arcanum. Even in the "Western" world dominated by the Major Arcana, they are divided between multiple secret societies particular to their locales. The United States is the setting of my campaigns, so I speak mainly from that perspective. As a general rule of thumb, stated in the 3e GM book, the population ratio between Nephilim and Selenim is 8:1. Ar-Kaïm are fewer still. Despite this, the book recommends mixed groups consisting of 2-3 Nephilim, 1-2 Selenim and 1-2 Ar-Kaïm. Locales and origins In the Americas, the Selenim are divided between the Unnamed Arcanum of the Bohemian Tradi...

Over the course of my archiving old dead fansites, I found  a grimoire bookshelf  that mentioned a few original ideas in passing. One of these was “blood stone alchemy.” As the page said: Blood Stone is a path of Alchemy involving sacrificial blood and its elemental bases; it is equivocal on levels to Black Stone. Few cultures ever possessed this knowledge, but amoung those that did, were the ancient Celts, Vikings, and, more notably to history, the Aztecs. There are other Circles imagined—involving consuming blood and flesh, the semi-mythic cannibalistic peoples in Africa, Asia, and Pacifica—but no known references exist. Perhaps fortunately… Not much to go by, but it sounds pretty easy to adapt under the enlightened alchemy rules as a flavor of laboratory and athanor for Black Stone using something like Craft (Sanguimancy). I imagine the Xibalbans probably practiced this form of alchemy, but without the Silk Road they probably weren’t able to advance into the higher circles ...

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...