My Nephilim Occult RPing Blog

A key distinction in my campaigns is that Nephilim are symbiotic hybrids of human and elemental, not elemental spirits possessing hapless human hosts, nor awakened humans with a connection to the magic fields. The human half provides a physical body and a soul (Sol, Solar-Ka), allowing the Nephilim to interact, travel and to have awareness, identity, and will. The elemental half provides the Ka-elements, allowing the Nephilim to exist in symbiosis with the magic fields and to practice the occult sciences. There is also a third portion, the stasis object, which anchors the soul and the Ka-elements so that the Nephilim can be immortal. Without a stasis object, the Nephilim's Solar-Ka and Ka-elements will dissolve into the magic fields upon death. With a stasis object, his Ka-elements are able to remain on the earthly plane as a spirit known as a daimonian or paredrus . Without Solar-Ka it is bestial and driven entirely by its passions, but as an insubstantial spirit it can do nothing...

As mentioned in the timeline in the  GM's Companion , there was a 10,000 BC Mediterranean civilization named Tarshish. (A full writeup by Ian Young is  archived here .) As was pointed out to me in a discussion, the name Tarshish here is anachronistic. In real life documents, Tarshish was a port that traded with the Israelites, not any kind of ancient civilization. So if the name doesn't make sense, then what could replace it? Atlantis? While Plato's 9000 year estimate does place it in the same general range, the name Atlantis is Greek and Greek wouldn't have existed at that time. I did some research, and ultimately there really aren't many suitable names that I could find. The best candidate I could find is "Kheheb", a name for a prehistoric Egyptian civilization in the roleplaying game Fireborn . It's a fictitious neologism, so I think it could fit okay. The language spoken by them would probably be completely speculative anyway, since this civiliza...

In the US Nephilim rulebook and supplements, "Agartha" is the perfected spiritual state that Nephilim seek to achieve. Although there are stories of Agartha being a physical place, a city located at the center of the Hollow Earth , these are lies concocted by malevolent secret societies to seduce initiates.  In the French version, the mythical city was later introduced as "Aggartha" (with two Gs). This was the headquarters of the World Arcanum, and thus a play on the wording of "center of the world". It was not located in the center of a Hollow Earth, but was located in the astral plane. Anyway, the real life occultist description of Agartha mentions it is a city at the center of the Hollow Earth and lit by an inner sun (in some accounts a "diamond sun"). What does this inner sun remind you of? It reminds me of the "Grail", the game's name for the Earth's core where the planetary Ethers are transmuted into the magic fields. (In ...

A while ago in a chat I read someone ask, “If both the Templars and Nephilim venerated Jesus, then why are they enemies?” This is an interesting question with easy answers. Firstly, there are numerous Christian denominations that have been at each other’s throats for millennia. Catholic versus Protestant, anyone? Secondly, neither group actually venerates the Jesus described in the Bible. The Nephilim rulebook itself outright states Christianity is a lie concocted by secret societies to conceal the truth. Indeed, neither of them are actually Christian in any sense. The only Nephilim who actually venerate Jesus are the Fool Arcanum, and to them he's just one of several Messiahs they venerate. The other Arcana don't venerate any Messiahs, with the possible exception of the Unnamed Arcanum maybe venerating the Devouring Messiah.  The Templars, at least the secret society that persists to the modern day, is actually descended from an Ancient Egyptian cult known as the Temple of Li...

A Nephilim is hypothetically immortal. How do you kill an immortal? Here are my thoughts: Orichalc . If a Nephilim is slain by Orichalc, then he dies. His remaining Ka-elements dissolve into the magic fields. Magic damage . Certain spells and certain attacks by magical creatures inflict damage directly on the Nephilim’s Ka. Sufficient damage results in the soul losing integrity and dissolving into the magic fields. Repeated death . Every time a Nephilim dies, it is a traumatic experience that leaves spiritual wounds. If his subsequent reincarnations are killed in quick succession, then it is possible to inflict so much trauma that his soul finally dissolves into the magic fields rather than reincarnating. Destroy his stasis object . Destroying the enchantment on a stasis object is possible by inflicting sufficient magical or Orichalc damage. This also inflicts sympathetic damage against the Nephilim. Even if he survives the psychic trauma, his soul will have no anchor when his body die...

As I recounted in a previous post, my campaign redefines the nature of Nephilim. Bestial elemental spirits (known variously as daemonians , paredri , or Bene-Elohim ) are born from Nexi under Grand Enthronements, then fall in love with and bond to a mortal's Logos or Atman (immortal divine soul) to create a Nephilim. When a Nephilim dies, their Ka disintegrates into the magic fields. If bonded to a Stasis Object, however, they can persist after death, reincarnate in the future by finding their Logos' new simulacrum, and draw upon the experiences of their Past Lives because of the Stasis Object's link to their Animas or Karmas (mortal sidereal spirit). Are the Nephilim's subsequent incarnations different versions of the same person, or different people linked together by the elemental spirit? I think it depends on your perspective. Some see the Nephilim as a merger of multiple different people, while others see them as different lives of the same person. This is further ...

I read the fanzine  Vision-Ka #7 and it provided some much needed ideas that help me clarify my own ideas for reincarnation in my homebrew setting. As explained in the article on Yoga, the human soul (Sol, Solar-Ka) has two parts: the Atman and the Karma. The Karma is the record of life, while the Atman is the immortal soul that originates from the Brahman (the collective unconscious, the origin of the Subtle Planes). When a person dies, their Atman leaves the body and reincarnates, while the Karma remains within the corpse and decays with it. The Karma is the dead spirit that Selenim speak to with Necromancy. In my campaigns the Nephilim are fusional beings, an alchemical marriage of a human Atman and an elemental Pentacle born when the two meet under the right stars. This process awakens the Atman to knowledge of its true immortal nature, altering the Immortal’s worldview compared to their ignorant Karma alone. When a Nephilim dies, their Ka-elements dissolve into the magic fiel...