My Nephilim Occult RPing Blog

In this post I share all the metamorphs I could find for the English version. I present the name, dominant ka-element, and personality traits. These are sorted by source. Nephilim rulebook & Chronicle of the Awakenings These are all the metamorphoses that were officially published in English. The books are buyable on Drivethrurpg . The rulebook used a scheme of "head, hands, skin, odor, and voice" inherited from the French version, but CotA introduced a new scheme using "personality traits" adapted from similar mechanics used in some other BRP games like Pendragon and RuneQuest . My recaps use the latter scheme. Djinn (material Fire): Destructive, Energetic, Proud, Rebellious, Reckless Phoenix (spiritual Fire): Creative, Honorable, Loyal, Reckless, Stubborn Sylph (material Air): Calm, Pragmatic, Proud, Rebellious, Trusting Angel (spiritual Air): Calm, Creative, Curious, Honorable, Spiritual Triton (material Water): Deceitful, Destructive, Pragmatic, Private, Unp...

The Nephilim game was translated and adapted from French, so the game jargon isn't always the most consistent in style. For example, the rulebook lists Moon-Ka, Solar-Ka, and Black Sun-Ka in the same breath. Notice anything odd? "Moon-Ka" and "Black Sun-Ka" don't follow the same structure as "Solar-Ka". It should be either Black Solar-Ka, Lunar-Ka, and Solar-Ka, or Black Sun-Ka, Moon-Ka, and Sun-Ka, but not a mix thereof! That's just pointlessly inconsistent style! While generally comprehensible in the books, there is one occasion where this created pointless confusion. The Arcanum Exaltation Table (see Major Arcana  p9) mentions that the exaltation of the High Priestess Arcanum is "Moon". It doesn't specify if this means the bonus applies to Dominant Ka on Mondays or to Moon-Ka all the time, both of which are valid interpretations, creating confusion. Which one is the correct one? Does it apply to both? If the table had specifie...

The rules for inscribing spells have different relevance in light of the revisions made by Liber Ka , the unpublished Slaying the Dragon  (a draft of two chapters was shared by John Snead), and Enlightened Magic . This is my attempt to unify and revise it further. Memorizing designs? Enlightened Magic has some somewhat unclear rules for memorizing spells and procedures (see EM p36-7, 50, 61, 67, 80, 89, 100), altho I think I managed to interpret the spirit correctly. If a sorcerer has previously performed a ritual, an alchemist has previously performed a procedure, either has been taught by another occultist, or has deciphered a design from a grimoire, then all are assumed to keep written copies of their designs in a "personal grimoire" (see LK p84, EM p61) and/or maintain an occult library by collecting grimoires written by others. If I'm cross-referencing the rules correctly, then they cannot memorize whole designs on their own despite some lines suggesting such. This ...

As of the Liber Ka , Slaying the Dragon  (partly surviving in Snead's alchemy doc), and Enlightened Magic revisions, foci are no longer necessary for casting spells. Nephilim design their own rituals and procedures through research and preparation. These notes may be considered analogous to foci, so I will treat the two as synonymous (EM only mentions foci twice on p70, 81, but doesn't explain what foci even are). Some house rules for conversion from 1e to LK may be found  at this link  (an account is required to download the file). The benefit of using an existing focus or grimoire is that it saves the caster time on designing their own own ritual or procedure (see EM p36-7, 50, 61, 67, 80, 89, 100, LK p61, 86, Snead's  Alchemy doc p9, 11, 35, 68-9).  If a sorcerer has cast a spell before (see EM p36-7, 61), an alchemist has been taught a procedure by another alchemist (see EM p67) or has performed any procedure of any circle before (see Snead's  Alc...

In order to collect my thoughts I've decided to do a rough character creation overview to explain how characters work in my simplified rules. This is based primarily on the Chaosium/American adaptation with some additions from the various French editions. I cannot read French, the French books are difficult to acquire and the worldbuilding differs significantly between different editions, so the additions will not be accurate to the French version will not be faithful renditions and are not trying to be. All of this information is subject to change. Families Characters are divided into Families. There are two broad supergroups: Immortals and Mortals. Immortals include the three families of Nephilim, Selenim, and Ar-KaIm. Mortals include Awakened Mortal, Bohemian, and Living Dead. Immortals Nephilim are immortals characterized by their “pentacle” of the five elements, practice of elemental magic, and reincarnation across history. They are the most populous family of immortals. Selen...

Sorry I haven't posted to the blog in a while. Real life issues, the Nephilim fandom in the Anglosphere dwindling to nothing... Anyway, I wanted to use this post to explain further an idea I had for revising the setting. In a previous post I mentioned sidestepping the controversial possession angle by changing the Nephilim into multipart fusional entities: mindless elementals that are given sapience by their human hosts and which preserve the egos of past hosts, an idea I got from Andrew Logan Montgomery's blog on the subject . Now, something you may notice is that this doesn't quite jive with the original backstory about the Ka'im. (It's spelled KaIm by Chaosium or Kaïm in the original French, but for simplicity I'm using the spelling "ka'im".) I decided to tweak the backstory further by borrowing an idea from Sisensee's campaign blog : the Ka'im and Nephilim are different "species," as it were.  The Ka'im are the original fi...

In my last post on mortal sorcery I left out a few things, such as how sacrifices and elixirs work with Casual Magic and alchemy. These were never officially updated, so this is just my guess. Naturally, it's more difficult for secret society sorcerers to perform Casual Magic due to the need for a sacrifice or elixir spilt on a physical representation of the spell's element within a magic circle (see Nephilim rulebook p140, 191, Liber Ka p41, 52, 59). This component overrides the otherwise non-ritualistic nature of Casual Magic. The secret societies have not learned alchemy beyond the first circle, according to the history chapter from the surviving draft of Slaying the Dragon . So I don't need to worry about that. To make procedures, the athanor itself must be anointed with the Ka-impregnated blood from a sacrifice or elixir for each procedure or the sacrificial blood is incorporated into the materials of the procedure itself.  Additionally, I have a few ideas for streaml...