Camael, First of the Habbalah

Tags

Camael, Elohite, Habbalite, In Nomine, Seraphim Council

Camael was once the most powerful non-Seraph on the Seraphim Council. More powerful than Eli. More powerful than Raphael. More powerful than even Yves. He was also the first of the Elohim to Fall.

In theory, this is someone who would have had a real chance at contesting Lucifer’s right to the throne of Hell – so why is he a non-entity in the In Nomine cosmology? (He gets a one sentence summary in both the Angelic and Infernal Player’s Guides, and that’s it).

Here are some possibilities:

Cleaning Crews

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Aftermath, Alaemon, Asmodeus, Balseraph, Beleth, Blandine, Cleaning Crew, In Nomine, Jean, Khalid, Kronos, Novalis, White Wolf, Yves

The In Nomine universe is filled with angels and demons running around doing blatantly supernatural things (sometimes even with their Superior’s blessings), but for the most part humanity has not figured it out. So what’s going on?

The White Wolf option is that the Symphony itself provides humanity with a degree of psychic protection. Anyone who is not Symphonically aware literally cannot perceive the supernatural without help. This is great for someone who wants to wander around town with their Numinous Corpus fully active, but not so great for someone who wants to use their supernatural visage to seem more intimidating (the closet scene in Beetlejuice comes to mind).

The Average Human

Tags

Human, In Nomine

I don’t especially like the way in which the typical human is handled inside of In Nomine. I understand why they’re low powered compared to the average Celestial – but while a rigid adherence to the application of Forces might make sense for heaven, it does not seem particularly appropriate to the diversity of humanity I see all around me.

For this reason, I use slightly different rules when creating human characters.

Legion, Second Demon Prince of Corruption

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Beelzebub, Deceased, In Nomine, Legion, Saminga, Shedite

“I am Legion, for we are many”

Legion could be anyone. Legion could be everyone. He was the quintessential Shedite Prince and a perfect villain for a high paranoia/assimilation game.

Centuries ago, the demon who would become Legion and his Superior Saminga performed some truly hellish experiments upon a captured Kyriotate; slowly grafting Legion’s forces, one-by-one onto his heavenly counterpart while forcing it into a multitude of vessels. Eventually one, or perhaps even both of them cracked and Legion gained the ability to possess multiple hosts.

Upgrades: Lightning & Technology in the Modern Era

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Calabite, Cherub, Djinn, Elohite, Haagenti, Impudite, In Nomine, Jean, Ofanite, Seraph, Shedite, Upgrades, Vapula

While Vapula is unlikely to ever become the principle demon of hell, he has been more than happy with the boost that humanity gives his Word. In the past decade alone, mortals have released a number of technologies that he has been able to adapt for his infernal needs.

By contrast, Jean is not happy with the current hyper-accelerated rate of technological advance, but he is not fool enough to insist on old methods when it is clear that he can release new inventions to his servitors without upsetting the balance.

If you want to keep the two chiefs of innovation current, here are some new technologies you may want to consider:

Uriel, Archangel of Purity

Tags

Archangel, In Nomine, Seraph, Tsayadim, Uriel

Mosaic of Saint Uriel by James Powell and Sons

Unlike many of the “missing” Archangels, Uriel already has a well defined place and personality in the cosmology of In Nomine. You can see it in the bios of David, Michael, Lawrence, and Khalid. You can even find a good chunk of his mechanics buried in the Ethereal Players’ Guide (pgs 140 & 141).

Uriel’s Servitors were never designed to be PCs. Their attunements are significantly more powerful than most, but their dissonance condition make them especially hard to integrate into a party.

Competence, Authority, Status and the Point Buy Conundrum

Tags

Burning Wheel, Character Creation, In Nomine, RPG

Fairness tends to be the core principle of any point-buy character creation system. You give every player the same number of points, and so long as the game is well designed each character will be equally capable; or at least appropriately capable for the choices that the player has made.

The scholar-athlete may be a strong, well rounded character, but he cannot out study the pure scholar or out perform the pure athlete. It’s not a perfect model, but it is ultimately fair – especially for characters at the beginning of their career.