in_nomine-digest Saturday, July 6 2002 Volume 01 : Number 2697 In this digest: IN> [Admin] Beth's Email Changing... IN> IN Gawds IN> Fwd: Taking a break... Re: IN> Non-canon Plot seed.... Re: IN> The Angel of Canon Re: IN> Rath, Djinn Prince of Dark Writings Re: IN> Forwarded from my better half... IN> Quarters of The Marches IN> The prison of the Destined Re: IN> IN Gawds Re: IN> Forwarded from my better half... Re: IN> Forwarded from my better half... IN> Celestials outside the Symphony? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 5 Jul 2002 17:08:59 -0400 From: Elizabeth McCoy Subject: IN> [Admin] Beth's Email Changing... Well, rcn's decided not to use Ultranet anymore. Therefore, all stuff sent to me should go to arcangel@io.com. Forwards will be set up appropriately... - --emccoy@nh.ultranet.com // arcangel@io.com In Nomine Line Editor RPG links; Random name list, Art: http://www.io.com/~arcangel/ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 5 Jul 2002 17:40:06 -0400 From: Elizabeth McCoy Subject: IN> IN Gawds The other half.

The Evil Gods

Goddess of Chaos: Have fun, live fast, die young, leave a blazing fireball behind. A real party goddess, with a taste for seducing anything that moves. (It doesn't tend to move so well afterward, but hey.) Great for all races! Alignment: Chaotic Exhausting. God of Death: Every pantheon needs one. The nasty fellow who wants human sacrifice every night, and twice on Sundays. Not too smart, but who needs smarts when your minions can raise zombie armies to do your will? Most of his followers are likely to be human, orcs, or some other short-lived race, and various undead (liches, vampires, etc.). Alignment: Chaotic Rotting. God of Destruction: If the universe has gunpowder, he's got the bombs. Pray to him if you want your enemies trashed, His priests are not appreciated by those who mind the destruction they spread in their wake. Definitely popular with orcs. Alignment: Chaotic Violent. God of Devouring: ...feasts or your enemies, whichever. His priests aren't so bad most of the time -- but they certainly do practice cannibalism... (Or other-species dining, which is probably just as annoying.) Good for all races, particularly orcs, ogres, hobgoblins... Alignment: Chaotic Hungry. God of Entropy: He who drags mortals down to dust -- his worshippers tend to be of the breed who figure, "Give him enough victims, and we die last." They are often dark mages, too. They're not into property damage -- just crushing the hopes and dreams of everyone else. Nice for humans and dark elves, and would probably be popular with anti-social undead. Alignment: Orderly Implacable. God of Fighters: What's this guy doing on the dark side of the spectrum, you ask? Simple -- he's the one who likes to have a little human sacrifice before a battle, doesn't know the meaning of the term "mercy," and his priests aren't interested in anything but the battle and the kill, though he does have a twisted sense of honor, and respect for a vicious warrior. He's prayed to by ninja, assassins, bounty hunters of the less cleanly kind, and mercenaries who fight for the highest bidder regardless of the politics. Good for the "nasty, brutish, and short" races in your campaign. Alignment: Orderly Violent. God of Mad Science: Or mad alchemy, or Dark Magics That Go Boom, or whatever group has the most intellectuals who care nothing for the results of their pursuits of knowledge. Not only will these priests build death-traps of gum and bamboo, they'll set them up without telling anyone so they can see what happens. Good for crazy elves, dwarves, Yrth goblins, humans... Alignment: Chaotic Irresponsible. Goddess of the Night: ...and all the things that go bump in it. Pray to her if you want to visit nightmares upon your enemies, or other terrors in darkness. Not a nice lady; her clergy go robed and veiled, and are rumored to practice scarification. Either a human goddess, or assigned to the culture where she'll have the most shock value. Alignment: Chaotic Scary. God(dess) of Pleasure: ...generally spelled S-E-X. This is the guy/gal to worship if you like orgies and dark tantric rituals by the dark of the moon. Mind, if he wants a virgin sacrifice (and his priests have been known to conduct such), his minions will have to go far afield to find one -- none of them qualify -- and they're not too picky about consent. Definitely a human sort of deity, unless you have a thing for elven orgies. (I don't want to think of dwarven orgies, thanks, and s/he's a little more civilized a deity than most orcs would go for.) Alignment: Chaotic Sybaritic. God of Propaganda: Pray to him when you're revising the history books, or writing a play to please the ruling monarchs. Mostly in the dark side because he doesn't care about truth -- though he does approve of a good story. Just file the serial numbers off an old classic and recast it as you need... Human or Yrth goblin oriented. Alignment: Chaotic Deceptive. God of Ridicule: The trickster. Watch out for what he does to those who harm his priests (who are all infuriating practical jokers and biting pundits)... Another one for the humans and Yrth goblins -- though making him a dwarven god would really go against stereotype! (Give them little jester's caps and maces.) Alignment: Chaotic Sadistic. God of Rules: (Or maybe of Rules Lawyers...) Bitter enemy of the God of Law, he's the patron of corrupt judges, monarchs, and anybody else who turns the letter of the law to their own devices. (Or simply breaks or makes up laws to suit himself.) Human, unless you have a race of bureaucrats. Alignment: Orderly Corrupt. God of Solitude: We're all alone in life, and shouldn't try to pretend otherwise. All must be sundered into single parts, till all beings are alone and the world can return to solitary darkness. Not a fun guy at parties, and his priests have a hard time recruiting, but they'll try to get converts from all races. Alignment: Chaotic Misanthropic. God of Thieves: Another trickster, but more likely to be prayed to by PCs. Big on style, kind of iffy on concepts of charity. He prefers cat burglars, pickpockets, and con men, but he'll deign to smile on muggers, too. Another one of those multi-racial gods. Alignment: Chaotic Exciting.

The In-Joke and Decoder Ring

All of these were drawn from the In Nomine Superiors, dragged kicking and screaming out to get their serial numbers filed off. Some of them kept all their attributes, while others focussed on only one aspect of their In Nomine roles.

So?

Okay, so you've got this background you can use to steal ideas from, if you want. You can do one of a few things: * You can use them as-is. This option is best if you don't want to pick up the main In Nomine book. Have fun. * You can get the main book and mine it for ideas, possibly adding in the Choirs (of angels) and Bands (of demons) as supernatural minions. Let your priestly sorts summon appropriate minions of their god, or send said minions against the party if they tick off one of these gods (such as by looting temples, killing priests, or other player-character hobbies). Also, you can use the rivalries listed in the main In Nomine book -- including the same-side hostilities. (What, you never wanted a "good" pantheon squabbling amongst itself?) * You can pick up the Superiors books and mine them for ideas. (Okay, I admit right now I helped write one of those and edited another. Admire my honesty and buy a book...) Good for lists of supernatural powers for the priests, or even just favored devout worshippers. Bribe your PCs to go to church! * You can figure out a way to explain that this is an alternate universe where the In Nomine background is true, but something happened such that you've got a lot of "divine cults" (and infernal ones) instead of monotheistic religions. This might let you do some "morality" plots -- though that's a long-shot, if you're reading this to add color to a hack&slash world. * You can use them as-is and go over the top whenever the player characters interact with a grand high mucky-muck of any of the religious factions -- or with the deity himself! (Of course you want to play the God of Death as a drooling moron, right?) Best if your players are taking a hack&slay vacation and are in on the joke -- or figured it out without being told! Be sure to get really wild with whichever Superior a player's In Nomine character serves! Have fun! (And may the hack be with you.) - --emccoy@nh.ultranet.com // arcangel@io.com In Nomine Line Editor RPG links; Random name list, Art: http://www.io.com/~arcangel/ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 5 Jul 2002 17:59:44 -0400 From: Elizabeth McCoy Subject: IN> Fwd: Taking a break... >From: owner-in_nomine-l@lists.io.com >Date: Tue, 2 Jul 2002 22:17:00 -0500 >Subject: BOUNCE in_nomine-l@lists.io.com: Admin request of type /\buns\w*b/i at line 1 >From: "Prodigal" >To: >Subject: Taking a break... >Date: Tue, 2 Jul 2002 22:11:20 -0500 > >I'm heading off to Origins, and so I'll be unsubscribing while gone in order >to prevent myself having a huge mail backlog. See everybody when I get >back... > ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 5 Jul 2002 18:10:26 -0400 From: Elizabeth McCoy Subject: Re: IN> Non-canon Plot seed.... At 7:45 PM -0500 7/2/02, Gregg Forge wrote: >>From: Kanako Otaku >>[ KICK THE CANON!!! KICK THE CANON!!! KICK THE >>CANON!!! ] >> >>"Army In The Marches" > > Allow me to point you at the Superior Soap opera...;) I think Kanako's already subscribed there. O:> Mind, the SSO doesn't have Valefor or Janus defecting. (And the only "army" she's got is two Cathedrals full of Servitors and a whole bunch of Lilim. And Garg. I haven't gotten to Garg yet. I likes Garg...) - --Beth's SSO .sig: (Want to hear more about the Superior Soap Opera? http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IN-SoapOpera ) ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 5 Jul 2002 18:11:45 -0400 From: Elizabeth McCoy Subject: Re: IN> The Angel of Canon At 2:11 AM -0500 7/3/02, David Edelstein wrote: >edenesque@juno.com wrote: >> >> Deuteronomy >> Seraph of Judgment In Service To The Sword >> Angel of Canon > >I can't resist the irony in pointing out that canonically, Deuteronomy >is the Seneschal of the Code of Hammurabi (Liber Castellorum, pp. >75-76). So your Angel of Canon violates canon.... Take the laugh point... - --emccoy@nh.ultranet.com // arcangel@io.com In Nomine Line Editor RPG links; Random name list, Art: http://www.io.com/~arcangel/ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 5 Jul 2002 18:14:16 -0400 From: Elizabeth McCoy Subject: Re: IN> Rath, Djinn Prince of Dark Writings At 10:41 PM -0700 7/3/02, Kanako Otaku wrote: >I apologiuze for forgetting that there is a size >limit. So, I have split my two insane Superiors into >two separate files. *cough* That's a size limit PER DAY. You sent them both to the list on the same day, and that's a total of 21K by my estimation. (Yes, you only get one big post a day. Little posts, I do not bother worrying about, since most of them are going to be replies. The first smart@$$ to try to send an ungodly number of little posts that are all part of one big one will be terminated without notice.) PLEASE re-read the listrules. If you have any questions, ask. - --Beth, List Admin http://www.sjgames.com/in-nomine/listrules.html ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 5 Jul 2002 19:11:34 -0400 From: Elizabeth McCoy Subject: Re: IN> Forwarded from my better half... At 8:33 PM -0700 7/3/02, Cameron McCurry wrote: >On Wed, 3 Jul 2002 20:16:34 -0700 (PDT) Maurice Lane >said unto us: > >... as she ever so slowly becomes indoctrinated into the ways of IN. My >master plan is right on schedule. > >And she makes such a phenomenal Elohite as well... Please continue with her >assimilation! Yes! (But, er, could you switch to 7bit? The curlie-quotes and the em-dashes and the accented e all come through as, well, ì and î, ñ, and a blank box.) (That is, well, i with a ` for a dot, i with a ^ for a dot, n with a ~ over it, and a little rectangle... Oh, and singlequotes are í -- i with a `-slanted-the-other-way over it -- and ë -- e with a couple of dots on top.) - --emccoy@nh.ultranet.com // arcangel@io.com In Nomine Line Editor RPG links; Random name list, Art: http://www.io.com/~arcangel/ ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 06 Jul 2002 11:04:41 +1000 From: "james walker" Subject: IN> Quarters of The Marches A piece of throwaway canon in S3 refers to the "Wardens of The Four Quarters" - senior Dreamers responsible for Blandine's March. The line has fascinated me, and I've finally worked out how to Quarter the Vale. Each Quarter of Blandine's March responds to two choirs of angels; they treat the Quarter as a Domain (Perception checks to detect any Disturbance they create from outside the Quarter have a -5 penalty) and the Dreamers they tend here are usually closer in outlook to the angels. Usually, the two choirs will be ones who normally suffer personality clashes - apparently the conflict generated is an important part of the nature of The Quarters. Interestingly, one band of demons will also have a link to the Quarter - every point of dissonance the demon has (from Band dissonance only) grants - -1 penalty to detect the demon's Disturbance - even by beings who are also inside the Quarter. Of course, Beleth's March is also Quartered, with two Bands treating the Quarter as a domain, and one choir benefiting when dissonant. The borders between Quarters are invisible; Celestials know when they have entered or left "their" Quarter, but they are otherwise unremarkable. The Quarter of Words: Home to both Seraphim and Mercurians, the Quarter of Words attracts dreamers who seek to fulfil their Dreams by talking; inspiring speeches, impassioned debates and touching heartfelt phrases bring a dreamer here. A Dreamshaping roll here by either a Seraph of Mercurian allows the angel to replay conversation which has recently influenced the dreamer; the angel can resonate on the speakers (treat as a recording), and gift the dreamer with the information gained from the resonance. The choirs rarely agree on what is appropriate - the Truth of a Seraph may contradict and be contradicted by the social connections of a Mercurian as what people say and what they really care about are often unrelated. The Quarter of Words borders the Near Marches; the ephemeral nature of words links it to the wilder regions of The Marches. Dissonant Djinn often flee here; obsessed with the thoughts of others, they seek to manipulate the dreamers - and either admit their feelings and seek Redemption, or are destroyed. The Quarter of Hopes Watched over by Elohim and Menunim, the dreamers in the Quarter of Hopes are drawn onwards by the potential of the future - or better yet of the present. Here they may be cheered on by Menunim - or have their hopes gently redirected by an Elohite, to a more achievable goal. The Quarter of Hopes adjoins the Border Marches; as the dreamers hopes become reality, their dreamscape slowly, night by night, drifts closer to the Quarter of Deeds. A Balseraph whose lies have unwound will sometimes head here to destroy the human who 'slandered' them, and find the domain aids them - for they too have hopes. The angels here are not so forgiving! The Quarter of Deeds Under the shadow of Gabriel's volcano is the realm of those who strive for victory, and dream strong dreams of success. Only those who have the confidence to succeed dream here; to be shown a swifter route by Ofanim, or to be slowed down, and shown a more ethical path by Blandine's Malakim. Pachadim who have repeatedly failed to break the wills of their human 'victims' sometimes follow the dreamers here, seeking a resolution - whether that be Redemption, the Pachadite's death - or the soul death of the dreamer. The Quarter of Cares Wedged in by the Near and Border Marches, the dreamers here dream tired dreams, seeking a brief nightly respite from their daily burdens. Many legends of 'little helpers' or stories of 'sleepwalking' start here, as Kyriotates in this Quarter may use their resonance to possess a dreamer's body, handling tasks for the human that night while the careworn mortal gets a decent night's sleep. The Cherubim who also guard this Quarter regards this as 'band aid treatment' and guide the dreams of their charges, to find solutions to the many problems which face them. An Impudite who has seen too many needless deaths may find himself here; some seek redemption; others simply seek to sleep; eventually the Quarter forms a small domain around the Impudite, where they can sleep until Judgement Day, and have their dissonance stripped away by the resurrection of the dead. And then there is Beleth's realm: The Quarter of Hearts: Closest to the Border Marches, this domain is filled by those who have been entranced by evil. Here Beleth's Impudites may spend a half hour or more in a Dreamscape, using the Ethereal Song of Projection to completely bend a human's mind to their will, while Balseraphs smother their victims with the Fear of being "left out", of not being good enough for the Balseraph. Dissonant Elohim are sometimes drawn here; the ability to lash out as those they have lost their objectivity over lures them - as a stepping stone to Hell. Soldiers of Hell are often recruited here, and the less openly evil ethereals often work here, helping humans to love - demons. The Quarter of Passions Dreamers here have their most cherished hopes and dreams drawn out to be mocked and belittled by Pachadim, or are torn down by the fury of the Habbalah, little more than marionettes dancing to the Punisher's tune. A dreamer's only hope here is that the demons will argue over him - that a Pachadite will accuse the Habbalite of clumsy heavy handedness, while the Habbalite seeks to punish the lily livered demon who seems to think that he serves Dark Humor. But such a respite will only be a chance to cower before the demons, until the winner once again turns his attention to the luckless mortal - unless the mortal flees to the adjoining Near Marches, and wanders into the domains of the Old gods. The Quarter of Bonds Pained by an unfulfilled Geas; terrified by a Stalker; the dreamers hear the demons demands in their nightmares, seek release from the unbreakable bonds. Any human who feels trapped, enslaved or controlled may end up here, to be a demonic plaything, in a Quarter surrounded on all sides: by the other three Quarters, and by Beleth's Tower. Although normally friendly, Djinn and Lilim find their different approaches do not gel well here. Any time a Djinn enters the dream of his attuned, the dreamscape will drift here (after being brought to Beleth's realm, should that be necessary); while any dreamer can easily leave if a Lilim is in his dreamscape. This clash ignores a simple, dark truth: if a Lilim is in the dreamscape, the dreamer may indeed make a Will roll to wake, or to leave Beleth's march, true; and will succeed whether the roll is made or failed; but if the roll is failed they will owe a Geas to the Lilim equal to the CD of the failed roll..which means that the following night, they will almost certainly return here. If a Lilim is in a human's dreamscape in this Quarter, the only way to avoid the risk of a geas is to refuse to leave; something the human will instinctively know. A dissonant Ofanite will sometimes be found here, bound by something that keeps them from moving on - and sometimes they find destroying that something is the simplest solution. The Quarter of Pains Stalked by Calabim and Shedim, this Quarter is a place of raw brutality. Dreamers here are invariably warped by mental Disadvantages, inflicted by repeated Ethereal "deaths", and frequently insane. While the demons slowly tear apart their victims, enjoying their victims pain, and letting the disturbance gradually fade, Soldiers and Dreamshades of Nightmares methodically butcher their way through the Quarter, seeking to meet their nightly quota of Ethereal 'kills'. Should a Mercurian succumb to temptation and attack a human while they sleep, the dreamscape will move into this Quarter, and the dissonance the Mercurian gains will partially mask the Disturbance. The Quarter of Pains stretches from Beleth's Tower to The Near Marches; before the death of Mariel - or perhaps of Vephar? - the River Lethe ran through this Quarter; those who through themselves in had their memories of torment removed, but woke in Hell: their bodies forgetting how to breathe, their souls forgetting all that was bright and pure. Or perhaps that is just a legend, and the truth is long forgotten - the Seraphim who know will not speak, still overwhelmed by grief. ===================== James. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 06 Jul 2002 13:41:24 +1000 From: "james walker" Subject: IN> The prison of the Destined Attached to Beleth's Tower is a squat, grey, mountainous stone block, with no doors or windows. The only entry is through a bubbling pool of mud at the base of the rock; there is no exit. The prisoners work feverishly to ensure that. This is the prison of the destined, and all here Fear the reward they have earned - all Fear Heaven. Whenever one of Kronos' Doomsters finds a human who has already fulfilled their Destiny, word is passed to Beleth, and the mortal is targeted by Nightmares. Balseraphs teach the human to fear being fearless; surely fearlessness will eventually destroy them? Once this lesson has been learned, the hapless human starts choosing to accept a level of (whatever fear has been inflicted by the Balseraph) Fear whenever ethereally 'killed'; and then work *really* begins. Every victim is inflicted with fears of Heaven; of being Judged; of God...and so on. The precise details vary from victim to victim: one target may fear that once in Heaven they will be judged unworthy, and cast out; another fears that they will lose their self-identity - but all have multiple reasons to be terrified of reaching the Pearly Gates. Once they are completely tormented with terror of their final reward, the demons loan the human a Lucid Dreaming Talisman, show them how to anchors themselves to the prison - and then kill them. The new Dreamshade awakes in the Prison - and begins an eternity of protecting themselves from the Host. The prison is similar in nature to the Summer Country, with countless domains nested inside each other; any Dreamshade ethereally 'killed' in one domain/level is kicked inwards, to the next level. The outermost levels of the prison are deathtraps, blasting those who enter with (in order) fire, cold, lightning, hail, shards of iron, waves of arrows, lava, spears...it goes on. No rescuer has ever made it through all of the layers to where the dreamshades work (new dreamshades, are driven inwards towards the centre by their repeated deaths, arriving even more insane, and determined to avoid Heaven. The self-imprisoned dreamshades have been creating new layers for over a thousand years now; but although they have made visiting impossible, there are demons here. A handful of Impudites dwell here, stripping their prisoners of essence, and sending it to the Tower. They cannot leave; they have no Vessels, and the dreamers they used to know are long dead. They work diligently, knowing that Beleth can visit at will. The only way they can leave is if Heaven finally invades, destroying the layers. Of course, the dreamshades are terrified of this, and train themselves against that day; should angels ever break in, they will face a determined and disciplined army, ready to fight to the death to avoid being sent tot Heaven. Demons of Fate boast that there are humans in the prison who have been there for over a thousand years; senior Demons of Nightmares smile, knowing that the prison is older than Kronos, and that Beleth began this project nearly 15,000 years ago - and that there must be humans in there who are totally beyond heaven's help. They chuckle to themselves, knowing that even if Heaven wins Armageddon, the nightmares they will find in the Prison in beyond their ability to fix - a final victory for Beleth. James. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 06 Jul 2002 00:30:18 -0400 From: "S.D." Subject: Re: IN> IN Gawds >Goddess of Chaos: Have fun, live fast, die young, leave a blazing fireball behind. A real party goddess, with a taste for seducing anything that moves. (It doesn't tend to move so well afterward, but hey.) Great for all races! Alignment: Chaotic Exhausting. I recognize everybody else (though I thought Destruction was Baal for a while), but who's this based on? I'd guess Lilith, if only because she doesn't seem to be represented (yet), but it doesn't seem to fit... ~S.D. Ryukage ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "...roses scent my footsteps in peace...brambles pave my way in war..." Shizumaru, Child of Wood, 'Through a Mirror Darkly' ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 6 Jul 2002 00:28:36 -0400 From: Robb Kidd Subject: Re: IN> Forwarded from my better half... * Elizabeth McCoy (emccoy@nh.ultranet.com) wrote: > Yes! (But, er, could you switch to 7bit? ...) Thank YHWH someone else mentioned this. The =20s alone were driving me batty. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 6 Jul 2002 00:53:55 -0400 From: "Eric Bertish" Subject: Re: IN> Forwarded from my better half... > Thank YHWH someone else mentioned this. > The =20s alone were driving me batty. I hadn't noticed anything odd, m'self. - -- Casca ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 6 Jul 2002 14:12:47 -0700 (PDT) From: W S Subject: IN> Celestials outside the Symphony? Okie. So, EVERYTHING is a part of the Symphony, yes? And yet, Celestials cause Disturbance and can't directly influence their Word strength and can't form Tethers... why? Because they aren't a part of the Symphony. Or something. I must admit, this bit has seemed increasingly unclear to me. What Celestials do on Earth 'creates foreign notes', that can be sometimes be dealt with by tricking the Symphony into thinking a human performed them. Why is this, precisely? The Symphony acknowledges an Absolute Truth (as displayed by the Seraphim). So, it shouldn't be trickable, except by a Balseraph. More importantly, why should celestials generate noise at all? Nicole's explanation in the opening story is that she's bouncing atoms and light every which way in ways they wouldn't have gone- how so? How is it that her being there an making that light bounce is any less or more pre-determined than the direction that light would have gone without her being there? Furthermore- Celestials did, at one time, create Tethers. Mostly by creating everything else- when Gabriel created the Sun, it became a Tether to Fire. When the Earth cooled, it became a Tether to Stone. When the nascant sunlight first struck the ground through the murky proto-atmosphere, it became a Tether to Light. Not merely inspite, but directly because of the actions of Celestials in the Corporeal plane, Tethers came to be. That only changed after humanity's inception, or therebouts. Did Humanity's evolution fundamentally alter something about the Symphony? Was there Disturbance before humanity existed? Has anyone thought of making an alternative setting where Celestials are actualy integerated into the Symphony, rather than standing apart from it (meaning no Disturbance, lessed use of Roles, possible alterations in the understanding of Destiny and Fate, etc). __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Sign up for SBC Yahoo! Dial - First Month Free http://sbc.yahoo.com ------------------------------ End of in_nomine-digest V1 #2697 ********************************