My Nephilim Occult RPing Blog

The rules for playing Selenim were never published in English, although the author posted a preview way back in the 90s. It's not clear how different this would have been from the French version, but there are some facts we can discern. In the American adaptation, the Selenim had invented "sarcophagi" that served as precursors to the stasis and pharaonic tombs used by Nephilim. (This is in contrast to the French version, where the stasis was invented by the secret societies to imprison the Nephilim.) The Selenim were unstable due to the lack of an independent black lunar field to sustain them, so they used their tombs to insulate and replenish their ka by drawing on the ambient magic fields. They could apparently survive indefinitely this way, at least until they started drawing on the more plentiful solar-ka found in mortals. Anyway, the French version was written haphazardly like a lot of 90s games so the Selenim ended up being given their own sub-systems that didn...

Sorry for the change in trajectory. I've got a bunch of posts in progress dealing with basic stuff, but I haven't been able to work on them recently. So here's a fluff piece to distract you. On page 84 of Major Arcana , the author speculates on other "Shadow Arcana" beyond the traditional 22 in the Rider–Waite tarot deck. These include "the Ship, Prudence, Misery, the Drowned Sailor, or the Merchant." Most of the cards named come from unorthodox tarot decks–the Ship from the Lenormand tarot deck , Prudence from the Thoth tarot deck , Misery and the Merchant from the Mantegna tarot deck –except the Drowned Sailor which comes from T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land." The passage speculates on the origins of the these Shadows: are these paths founded by Agarthans that were not revealed to Akhenaten? Tools of the Saurians, the Dragon, or the Black Star? Creations of the other immortal traditions indigenous to China, Africa, the Americas, et al? Crea...

Mortals cannot perform magic on their own, as they lack the requisite Ka-Elements. At most, they may contribute to a nephilim's rituals—or use certain enchanted items, as these possess their own Ka (see Gamemaster's Companion p36-7, Enlightened Magic p65). However, the secret societies have learned how to harness the nephilim in order to perform magic themselves. There are three ways this is done: sacrifices, elixirs, and homunculi (see Nephilim rulebook p191-2, Secret Societies p37-8). Sacrifices allow the mortal sorcerer to cast one sorcery or summoning ritual by bleeding a nephilim to open a connection to the magic fields. The process is a simple additional component to the ritual: the nephilim's blood is fatally spilled upon the material representation of the spell's element (see "Table of Traditional Magical Tools and Affinities",  Liber Ka p52). Elixirs allow the mortal sorcerer to store Ka-impregnated blood for later use. This requires creating a sp...

These rules are optional. The way that the Enlightened Magic rules work, sorcerers don't roll Ka in addition to the magical technique roll anymore and thus the sacrifice ritual to ensure the Ka roll succeeds is no longer necessary (see Nephilim rulebook p138-40). However, if groups wish to keep it in their games, I will provide some suggestions below for integrating it with the new rules. The sacrifice ritual is a method used by nephilim to sacrifice their POW and invest it into enchanted objects or magical workings. Despite the name, it is not a distinct ritual but is performed as part of a ritual or procedure. Whenever the nephilim enchants an item (see Enlightened Magic p20-1, 32, 64-5, 69), they are assumed to perform the sacrifice ritual as part of it (see  Major Arcana  p24). For rituals of sorcery and summoning, the sacrifice ritual consists of spilling the sorcerer's blood upon the representation of the spell's element as given on the Table of Traditional Magical ...

Different types of magical effects have different fluff/rule jargon associated with them. Here is overview for those wanting to keep track consistently. This isn’t vitally important information, but might be fun for roleplaying flavor. A spell is any effect designed and created by sorcery or summoning, typically used in reference to first circle sorcery. A ritual is a method of casting a spell, used for second and third circle sorcery and all circles of summoning. An evocation is specifically any summoning spell/ritual. An entity is an elemental being called into material existence by casting an evocation. A procedure is any effect designed and created thru alchemy, typically used in reference to first circle alchemy. An athanor is an alchemical laboratory, used only in first circle alchemy. An alchemical creation is a substance created by first circle alchemy that is applied outside of the laboratory to produce the desired effect. An alchemical work of art , or just work of art...

There are several different rules for magic items in Gamemaster's Companion and Enlightened Magic . What follows is a summary and comparison of their effects. I will try providing a more detailed revision and unification in future posts. Enchanted items and artefacts (GMC p25, EM p20, 64) Sorcerers and alchemists may enchant their spells by investing power into an appropriate object. Sorcerers may enchant an item with no more than a single spell that is normally cast as a ritual (i.e. Ritual Magic, High Magic, and any summoning spells, but not Casual Magic or alchemy). The enchanted item allows the user to cast that spell as if it were Casual Magic: no need to perform a ritual and no limitation to casting on a specific day. Alchemists may enchant an athanor with a single Black Stone procedure. This allows anyone to produce the procedure with the enchanted athanor, not just the alchemist, but renders it useless for producing any other procedure. Alchemists may enchant an alchemical ...

Taking a page from the French 5th edition, my idea for revising and simplifying the rules would be to use past lives as skills. This would be similar to the concepts of backgrounds, careers, or professions that are used in other games in lieu of a traditional skill list. Though of course you can easily customize this to suit particular past life concepts. Past lives would be rated, in much the same way as the Life Experience skill was. Additionally, the simplification of past lives means that it is easier to recall new past lives during play. So then you'd potentially have an additional rating, which Ex Oculis calls "recall", that determines how much of the past life you recall and in practice acts as a cap on the Life Experience rating. In the original rules it was possible for skills to go beyond 100%. Under this system, I would approximate that by allowing past life experience to stack for appropriate skill usage. Occult skills (e.g. occult sciences, arcanum lore, ar...