From owner-in_nomine-digest@lists.io.com Sun Mar 4 18:54:13 2001 Return-Path: Received: from lists.io.com (majordom@lists.io.com [199.170.88.15]) by pyramid.sjgames.com (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id SAA11108 for ; Sun, 4 Mar 2001 18:54:12 -0600 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by lists.io.com (8.9.3/8.9.1a) id SAA09191 for in_nomine-digest-outgoing; Sun, 4 Mar 2001 18:58:21 -0600 Date: Sun, 4 Mar 2001 18:58:21 -0600 Message-Id: <200103050058.SAA09191@lists.io.com> From: owner-in_nomine-digest@lists.io.com (in_nomine-digest) To: in_nomine-digest@lists.io.com Subject: in_nomine-digest V1 #2095 Reply-To: in_nomine-l@lists.io.com Sender: owner-in_nomine-digest@lists.io.com Errors-To: owner-in_nomine-digest@lists.io.com Precedence: bulk in_nomine-digest Sunday, March 4 2001 Volume 01 : Number 2095 In this digest: Re: IN> Do animals enter the marches? Re: IN> complete Repertoire of the Corpus of Cacophony on the Web Re: IN> Do animals enter the marches? IN> Ethereals Re: IN> March 2, 2001 (ML) IN> March 4, 2001 (ML) Re: IN> Heaven, Hell and the ENGLISH Civil War Re: IN> Ethereals Re: IN> Ethereals Re: IN> Ethereals Re: IN> Ethereals Re: IN> Ethereals Re: IN> Heaven, Hell and the ENGLISH Civil War IN> Well, it's different, at least. Re: IN> Well, it's different, at least. Re: IN> Heaven, Hell and the ENGLISH Civil War Re: IN> Well, it's different, at least. Re: IN> Well, it's different, at least. Re: IN> Well, it's different, at least. Re: IN> Ethereals Re: IN> Well, it's different, at least. A response, and a Question [Re: IN> Well, it's different, at least.] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 04 Mar 2001 01:18:53 +0000 From: Pak Chan Subject: Re: IN> Do animals enter the marches? At 00:11 04/03/2001 +0000, Perry Lloyd wrote: >yes. Animals dreams, so IMHO, they, too, deserve Dreamscapes. Is this >mentioned in either the core rules or The Marches? IMSM yes, in reference >to dinosaur dreams or something . . . > >Not that it's ever /important/ since the GM and players will most likely >be concerned with the dreams of humans only. Besides, having the dreams >of ALL the animals on the planet, not just the furless, bipedal, and >generally clueless ones, would really make the Marches a crowded >place. Not that it isn't aleady with what, between 1 million and 3 >million dreamscapes at any given time? Shouldn't that be between 0.5 and 1 (US) billion dreamscapes? 6 (US) billion humans, one third asleep at any one time, between a quarter and a half of the sleep time spent dreaming... If we start to include all creatures from insect-sized up, we could increase that to about 10^18 dreamscapes (assuming that they all dream), and if we include creatures like the nematode worm... Speaking of dreaming souls, do souls in heaven or hell dream? >Frankly, after considering it, I'm surprised that there's only one >Superior on either side for managing things . . . that's like having one >Superior to look after one half the the world (the Americas, Africa and >Europe, perhaps) and the other to look after the other (Asia, Australia, >Antartica). >Something like that, forgive if I forgot your continent. > >(hey, penguins dream, too) They dream of making it as the cover-critter of Linux magazines, of course. :) Pak ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 3 Mar 2001 22:55:18 -0500 (EST) From: "Rev. Pee Kitty" Subject: Re: IN> complete Repertoire of the Corpus of Cacophony on the Web On Sat, 3 Mar 2001, Kirt Dankmyer, aka Loki wrote: > I've updated the writeup in line with suggestions given to me (ditched the > Celestial Chameleon attunement, for example) and put whole thing up on a > web page. It's at: Just wanted to comment again that this is a really well-done framework! It's an idea that's been tossed around once in a while from time to time, but this took that idea and ran with it in a very gamable format. The concept of Servitors of the two Superiors as Celestial Black Ops is a lot of fun, too... :) "Why have I been brought here?" "You have potential. We'd like you to become one of us." "One of who?" "First you swear eternal loyalty... then we might tell you." - -- Rev. Pee Kitty, of the order Malkavian-Dobbsian, Q4B4L! Meow! "You there, stop teasing that negroe, you ruffians," I called out in my best dignified and indignant tones. They laughed at me, so naturally I shot the young mountebanks. Shot the negroe as well, they're always causing trouble. -- ICEKNIFE ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 3 Mar 2001 22:34:49 -0500 From: "Daniel Gallagher" Subject: Re: IN> Do animals enter the marches? A simple Yes or No would of sufficed. Just kidding, thanks everyone. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 3 Mar 2001 22:10:26 -0600 From: Santiago Subject: IN> Ethereals Glam is short for Glamour. Faeries have Glamour. Faeries are Ethereals. So, I felt inspired to polish up for release the rules I'd been using in my Ethereal campaign a while back. They've been playtested, but not very much. (Yes, I know it's long, but shows up as under 10k on my machine...) - ---- Ethereal player characters start out at seven forces, and have 150 essence to spend on vessels, at the costs given in The Marches (which can buy two levels of human vessels, or more levels of simpler vessels). Ethereals don't use character points. Instead, they use essence directly to improve themselves. Ten essence equals one character point. An Ethereal can only hold essence equal to its forces, but additional essence can be stored in a cache, which may hold up to a hundred times the Ethereal's forces in essence. Essence in the cache can only be used as character points--for improving skills, songs, and stats, and for buying vessels. Forces may not be bought directly, only gained via raising stats. Ethereals get one rite per force. These rites should define some sort of concept analogous to a Word. They need not be things the ethereal itself must do--being worshipped is a fairly common rite. (As a guideline, an ethereal may have "Have 1 person do a difficult task", "Have 10 people do a moderate task", "Have 100 people do an easy task", or a "Have 1000 people do a trivial task" as rites. Such rites may be taken multiple times, but increase the number of people involved by a factor of ten each time. Thus, some ethereal may receive 3 essence daily from having 1000 people do a moderate task; the ten and the hundred people count towards that thousand.) Every Sunday at noon, they lose cached essence equal to their total number of forces, as their very existence requires constant fueling. If this is more than they have, it comes out of their forces (they "cash in" attribute points for 30 essence until they can pay the cost). (Thus, if an ethereal has rites that are never used and never spends any essence, it will eventually stabilize at seven forces.) Additionally, Ethereals get one innate ability analogous to a resonance. Sample ones are: Shapeshifter: Changing vessels does not cost a Shapeshifter any essence. Vessels cost half as much in essence to create. All the Shapeshifter's vessels heal naturally, not just the one currently in use. Having a transformation observed by a mortal human causes the Shapeshifter to lose essence equal to its forces. Doppelganger: With a successful precision check, a Doppelganger may take on the exact appearance of any human (or human vessel) in sight, with the standard bonuses and penalties for touch and recorded images, etc. The check digit determines how perfect the copy is. Failing on a six means the Doppelganger may never again attempt to impersonate that individual. With a successful intelligence check, a Doppelganger may fool others into thinking it is the individual it is currently imitating; penalties apply if the person being fooled knows the individual in question well. If such a check fails with a check digit of six, the subject sees the Doppelganger for what it is, and reacts accordingly. Doppelganger vessels have no inherent appearance; they must always be imitating someone. They may buy vessels that imitate species other than humans; each vessel is good for one species, determined at creation time. Being discovered to be a Doppelganger causes one to lose essence equal to its forces. Manipulator: With a successful intelligence check, a Manipulator may read the current emotional state of a person, similar to an Elohite, though not quite as thoroughly. Once is has read this state, it may attempt to subtly manipulate the subject's emotions with a successful precision check. Existing emotions may be amplified, or new emotions may be created at a mild level; this is much less intrusive than the ability of Habbalah. Whether successful or not, the subject gets an intelligence check; success indicates that he realizes the emotion is not quite his own (though he still feels it), or that he is being manipulated. Using either ability requires interacting with the subject (i.e. speaking to him, hanging around him a while, etc.). Angering someone a Manipulator attempted to manipulate, or having one of its schemes backfire, causes it to lose essence equal to its forces. Trickster: With a successful intelligence check, a Trickster may determine what an individual would find believable in the current situation. With a successful precision check, resisted by the intelligence of each of the subjects, a Trickster may cause them to perceive any illusion they would find believable; this may affect no more people than the Trickster's ethereal forces. Resorting to violence when there was a way to use wits to get out of a situation causes a Trickster to lose essence equal to its forces. Warrior: Before any strength or strength-based check, a Warrior may make an intelligence check and add the check digit of a successful roll to its strength. Before any agility or agility-based check, a Warrior may make a precision check and add the check digit of a successful roll to its agility. Failing a modified roll with a check digit of [7 minus the check digit of the boosting roll, or higher|6], or being defeated in combat causes a Warrior to lose essence equal to its forces. Smith: Smiths may bond to any item as if it were a corporeal artifact by spending one essence and making a successful precision check; the level of the artifact is the roll's check digit. Decrease its level by one every day until it is no longer an artifact. Such artifacts function only for the Smith. By spending another essence and making a successful intelligence check, a Smith may turn any such artifact into a talisman for any skill he or another individual who helps him knows; the level of the talisman is equal to the lesser of the check digit and the level at which the skill is known. Again, the level drops by one per day. The talisman may be used by anyone. By spending one essence and making an intelligence check, a Smith my turn one of his artifacts into a one-shot reliquary. This reliquary has a level equal to the check digit, and it drops by one per day. Anyone may freely put essence into and take it out of the reliquary. If the reliquary is full when its level drops, the extra point of essence is lost, generating a disturbance. By spending one essence, making an intelligence check, and performing a song, or having an assistant perform a song, a Smith may imbue one of his artifacts with a single use of that song to be used later, at the level at which it was performed. It generates a disturbance both when created and when used. Using it requires one round and a successful intelligence check. If not used, it fades after a number of days equal to the original check digit, making a disturbance when it does so. At no point may the Smith have more temporary artifacts than his ethereal forces. When creating normal artifacts of any sort, halve the costs in essence for a Smith. Allowing any of his artifacts to be destroyed, or losing an actual artifact, causes a Smith to lose essence equal to his forces. Phantom: With a successful intelligence check, the Phantom becomes incorporeal for check digit minutes. Treat this like a celestial form for all purposes, including creating disturbance. With a successful precision check, the Phantom may avoid detection. Anyone actively searching for the Phantom may make a perception check at a penalty equal to the phantom's check digit. Being forced to reveal information or secrets causes a Phantom to lose essence equal to his forces. Favored: The Favored may spend essence retroactively after making a d666 roll. A number of times per day equal to his ethereal forces, he may make a precision check after making a d666 roll. If successful, he may reroll one die in the original roll, either normal or check digit; he must accept the new result. The Favored may state some desired immediate goal and make an intelligence check; if successful, the GM will give a suggestion as to how this could be accomplished in the current situation, setting up coincidences as necessary. Check digits of one provide only simple opportunities, while check digits of six can reveal complex Rube Goldbergesque machinations. Failing ANY roll with a check digit of six causes a Favored to lose one essence. Investigator: Before any perception-based check, the Investigator may make an intelligence check and add the check digit of a successful roll to his perception. He may attempt a precision check to obtain a gut feeling about what might be a good idea to try next; failure means he cannot try again for check digit hours. Failing a modified roll with a check digit of [7 minus the check digit of the boosting roll, or higher|6], failing to uncover useful evidence that the Investigator could have obtained, or failing to come to an obvious conclusion causes it to lose essence equal to its forces. Charmer: The Charmer adds his Ethereal forces to all his social rolls. Having someone take a severe dislike to the Charmer causes him to lose essence equal to his forces. Legion: The Legion may have multiple vessels manifested at once, so long as the total forces of his vessels does not exceed his total forces. Being forced down a single path of action, or being unable to make any choices causes the Legion to lose essence equal to his forces. - -- Santiago ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 3 Mar 2001 22:07:00 -0800 (PST) From: Maurice Lane Subject: Re: IN> March 2, 2001 (ML) Date: Sat, 3 Mar 2001 11:27:46 -0500 (EST) From: "Rev. Pee Kitty" Subject: Re: IN> March 2, 2001 (ML) On Fri, 2 Mar 2001, Maurice Lane wrote: >>Corporeal >I like it, but it makes Khalid's similar attunement >Fast (for mortals only) much less unique and special. (facetious) (shrug) Then Khalid should be more careful about doing the necessary Symphonic research before he crafts his Attunements. (/facetious) Seriously, I don't particularly see it as a problem: Khalid's attitude of cooperation with the Host is (by celestial standards) a very recent thing, Hellsworn could use this ability, too, and... well, so _what_ if it duplicates a Attunement of Faith? I'd agree that too much overlap is bad, but so is too little.* YMMV, of course: these Songs are hardly canon, after all. :) >> Ethereal >A *very useful* song, to be sure... but I agree with >John - what's it got to do with mimicry? It mimics the celestial ability to better shrug off demonic resonances: after all, your average 6 Force Soldier won't have the same number of Corporeal AND Celestial Forces as your average celestial. Doubling up obscures that fact. >Also, it's a bit TOO useful... doubling Will/Strength >is a LOT for a Soldier. I'd suggest that you get to >add your appropriate Forces to resistance rolls, much >like Celestials often can. Upon reflection, I'd agree about the too useful bit: I think, though, that I'll either make the upper limit 10, or cut the duration down to CD minutes, or both. >> Celestial >Yes. Brilliant and FUN. I like. :)- -- I was pleased with this one, too. Guaranteed to ruin the day of any incautious Mercurian or Impudite. Thanks to you and John for the comments. Moe *Neener. ;) ===== Liber Licentiae Moeticae: http://www.stormloader.com/users/moelane/innomine.html Last updated 02/19/00 (this is usually way out of date) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get email at your own domain with Yahoo! Mail. http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 3 Mar 2001 22:14:52 -0800 (PST) From: Maurice Lane Subject: IN> March 4, 2001 (ML) Wow. Doing this first thing, instead of at the last second. I make no apologies for just taking the name and running with it: I've already done something involving Dionysius this year. :) Moe Wendy Joyce AKA "The Great Dionysia" Sorcerer Corporeal Forces: 1 Strength: 1 Agility: 3 Ethereal Forces: 2 Intelligence: 5 Precision: 3 Celestial Forces: 3 Will: 8 Perception: 4 Charisma +2 Skills: Alchemy/1, Emote/3, Enchantment/2, Hypnotism/2, Lying/2, Knowledge (Sorcery/1, Research/1), Language/1 (Latin), Ranged Weapon/1 (pistol), Seduction/2 Banish/2 (Banish), Command/2 (Suggest), Exorcise/1 (Exorcise Ghost), Focus/2 (Protective Ward, Sacrifice for Essence) Attunements: Sorcery Power. Forbidden knowledge. Gratification of every whim. My, my, _that_ sorcerer talked a good game. Wendy used to be just another faceless anthropology student. This annoyed her greatly: after all, was she not one of the prettiest and smartest kids in high school? Alas, nobody cared when she hit college. She buckled down to work, and did adequately well (she is very bright, for a human), but it still bothered her that she couldn't get what she wanted, just because she wanted it. When one of her professors noticed her combination of egotism, resentment and ability, her recruitment into the dark arts was inevitable. Wendy didn't enjoy being an apprentice sorcerer much. Her 'mentor' wasn't a particular nice man, even by the loose standards of his fellow hobbyists, and made it clear that tutoring Wendy would come with a price. The sex wasn't a problem: tantric rituals have their points. However, doing the ironing, cleaning, cooking and generally acting as an unpaid servant to her mentor was downright insulting. Plus, well, the sorcerer was an old man, and there's a limit to what disadvantages tantric rituals can hope to overcome. Still, Wendy persevered, gritting her teeth every step of the way and stealing peeks at her mentor's books whenever possible. Things came to a head after about a year or so. It would seem that her mentor, having slowly but surely gotten more egotistical from having such an attractive concubine catering to his whims, finally went too far in one of his Summoning rituals. Wendy learned the First Rule of sorcery that night: "Do not call up what you cannot put down". Burning house, burning sorcerer, disgusting smells, fire trucks, police sirens - and there was Wendy, stuck in the middle of it all with a severed goat head and a wardrobe that would make a Servitor of Lust shiver from the cold. Has it been mentioned yet that she was attending a Catholic college? Well, after that night, she wasn't - and she got a (accurate) feeling that one or two of the faculty had put two and two together and come up with "trafficker in black magic". It seemed prudent to run - fast - which was probably wise of her, all things considered. These days, Wendy ekes out a living as 'The Great Dionysia', mentalist and hypnotist in a fifth rate traveling carnival. Her act consists mostly of getting people acting moderately uninhibitedly: she knows the basics of hypnotism, actually, but mostly it all comes down to suggestion and the low-cut costume she routinely wears. It's a living, but not much of one. She'd drop it in a second if she was sure that she wasn't still on some Vatican hit list (Wendy is fairly paranoid about the Catholic Church). She'd also like to find another source of sorcerous lore, but she hasn't found one yet. Wendy isn't a very nice person, herself. She's vain, amoral, absolutely self-centered and quietly arrogant (one thing that Wendy has learned to do is to keep her mouth shut and fume in private). She'll make a great sorcerer some day, if she can only find someone to teach her sufficient rituals to become more than an annoyance. Any sorcerer worth his or her salt (or any demon on good terms with Fate) will find her to be a willing pupil: she'd make a decent enough servant for anyone else who can use someone of her limited skills. Angels trying to straighten her out will find the task incredibly frustrating: so much so, in fact, that they’ll probably start musing about the fact that the Purifiers have an unlisted 1-800 number... ===== Liber Licentiae Moeticae: http://www.stormloader.com/users/moelane/innomine.html Last updated 02/19/00 (this is usually way out of date) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get email at your own domain with Yahoo! Mail. http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 03 Mar 2001 22:17:55 -0800 From: Daiv Subject: Re: IN> Heaven, Hell and the ENGLISH Civil War >David Edelstein wrote: > > Jo Hart wrote: > > Anyway. This is prolly way off-topic. In the US, do they usually teach that> Cromwell was evil, then? > > Usually. We have a pretty large Irish-American populution, remember.... > > -David I would add, as a graduate of the California Public School system (50th in the nation), my first and primary exposure to Oliver Cromwell was by way of Monty Python. Which is a shame, that song would be a lot funnier if it were in the proper context. Nybas would be pleased. (OB IN) - -Daiv ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 3 Mar 2001 23:59:19 -0800 From: "Bevan Thomas" Subject: Re: IN> Ethereals Very well done. General enough to be applied to most kinds of Ethereals and different enough from the normal rules to make Ethereals a different ball-game then Celestials. Definetly going in my archives of In Nomine Stuff To Use - ----- Original Message ----- From: Santiago To: Sent: Saturday, March 03, 2001 8:10 PM Subject: IN> Ethereals > Glam is short for Glamour. Faeries have Glamour. Faeries > are Ethereals. So, I felt inspired to polish up for release the > rules I'd been using in my Ethereal campaign a while back. They've > been playtested, but not very much. (Yes, I know it's long, but > shows up as under 10k on my machine...) > > ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 04 Mar 2001 10:16:13 +0000 From: Pak Chan Subject: Re: IN> Ethereals At 22:10 03/03/2001 -0600, Santiago wrote: > Ethereal player characters start out at seven forces, and have > 150 essence to spend on vessels, at the costs given in The Marches (which > can buy two levels of human vessels, or more levels of simpler vessels). > Ethereals don't use character points. Instead, they use essence > directly to improve themselves. Ten essence equals one character > point. An Ethereal can only hold essence equal to its forces, but > additional essence can be stored in a cache, which may hold up to a > hundred times the Ethereal's forces in essence. Essence in the cache can > only be used as character points--for improving skills, songs, and stats, > and for buying vessels. Forces may not be bought directly, only gained > via raising stats. > Ethereals get one rite per force. These rites should define some > sort of concept analogous to a Word. They need not be things the > ethereal itself must do--being worshipped is a fairly common rite. (As a > guideline, an ethereal may have "Have 1 person do a difficult task", > "Have 10 people do a moderate task", "Have 100 people do an easy task", > or a "Have 1000 people do a trivial task" as rites. Such rites may be > taken multiple times, but increase the number of people involved by a > factor of ten each time. Thus, some ethereal may receive 3 essence daily > from having 1000 people do a moderate task; the ten and the hundred > people count towards that thousand.) > Every Sunday at noon, they lose cached essence equal to their > total number of forces, as their very existence requires constant > fueling. If this is more than they have, it comes out of their forces > (they "cash in" attribute points for 30 essence until they can pay the > cost). (Thus, if an ethereal has rites that are never used and never > spends any essence, it will eventually stabilize at seven forces.) How would that happen? When they get to 7 forces, they'll just keep fading, unless you're suggesting they get 7 essence a day for free. Apart from that, totally cool writeup. Consider it pinched for future campaigns (with the explanation for the question above). Pak ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Mar 2001 02:33:06 -0800 From: "Kish" Subject: Re: IN> Ethereals From: "Pak Chan" > Every Sunday at noon, they lose cached essence equal to their > total number of forces, as their very existence requires constant > fueling. If this is more than they have, it comes out of their forces > (they "cash in" attribute points for 30 essence until they can pay the > cost). (Thus, if an ethereal has rites that are never used and never > spends any essence, it will eventually stabilize at seven forces.) <> A week, not a day--they only lose Essence every Sunday--and presumably they do get seven Essence a week for free, like every other creature. --Kish ICQ# 28085879 AIM Kish K M ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 04 Mar 2001 11:48:51 +0000 From: Pak Chan Subject: Re: IN> Ethereals At 02:33 04/03/2001 -0800, Kish wrote: >From: "Pak Chan" > > > Every Sunday at noon, they lose cached essence equal to their > > total number of forces, as their very existence requires constant > > fueling. If this is more than they have, it comes out of their forces > > (they "cash in" attribute points for 30 essence until they can pay the > > cost). (Thus, if an ethereal has rites that are never used and never > > spends any essence, it will eventually stabilize at seven forces.) > ><fading, >unless you're suggesting they get 7 essence a day for free.>> > >A week, not a day--they only lose Essence every Sunday--and presumably they >do get seven Essence a week for free, like every other creature. Duh! Sorry about wasting your bandwidth. We now return you to your regularly-scheduled programme. Pak ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Mar 2001 04:43:44 -0800 From: "Kish" Subject: Re: IN> Ethereals From: "Santiago" <> Hello, save file...I /like/ these. I'm not sure whether I'll actually find a use for them, but I'm definitely keeping them. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 04 Mar 2001 10:45:43 -0600 From: David Edelstein Subject: Re: IN> Heaven, Hell and the ENGLISH Civil War Daiv wrote: > I would add, as a graduate of the California Public School > system (50th in the nation) Hmm. I went to CA public schools. Since when are they #50? I thought that distinction went to Arkansas. - -David ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Mar 2001 13:40:33 -0800 (PST) From: Maurice Lane Subject: IN> Well, it's different, at least. I trust that we're all going to be mature about this one, right? Apparently, there's even some justification behind this one: the relevant entry in Gustav Davidson's A Dictionary of Angels (just picked it up, and it's easily as nifty as advertised) is most illuminating*... Moe *Pardon the pun. :) Satan Malakite Inquisitor of Judgement Angel of Temptation Corporeal Forces: 5 Strength: 10 Agility: 10 Ethereal Forces: 6 Intelligence:12 Precision: 12 Celestial Forces: 6 Will: 12 Perception: 12 Word-Forces: 16 Vessel: human male/4 Skills: Detect Lies/6, Dodge/5, Emote/6, Fighting/5, Large Weapon/6 (sword), Knowledge (Ethics/6, Theology/6), Ranged Weapon/6 (shotgun) Songs: Light (Corporeal/3, Ethereal/3, Celestial/6), Motion (All/3), Nimbus (Corporeal/3), Retribution (All/2), Shields (All/3), Tongues (Corporeal/3, Ethereal/3) Attunements: Malakite of Judgement, Inquisitor, Angel of Temptation Angel of Temptation: As Angel of Temptation, Satan automatically knows what would best tempt another to renounce the cause of Good. He doesn't know how tempting it is, or whether the person would be able to resist it, unfortunately. He also may isolate an individual to tempt them, via an elaborate illusion (this is what he did with Job. Jesus stared him down and told him to go through it in real time). The cost for the latter ability is 8 Essence: Satan gets half of the Essence back if the target successfully resists the temptation). Special Rites (Satan doesn't give these out): Tempt someone without lying to them. Have someone resist one of your temptations (not cumulative with above) Oaths "Suffer not an evil to live, if it is my choice." "Never surrender or be captured by the forces of Lucifer (Satan is even less willing to let this happen than most Malakim. He does not ever want to meet up with his former boss, for reasons that should be obvious). "Never go too far while performing my tasks." "Always make sure that those I successfully test are not harmed by the experience." No, no, NO. Put _down_ the Milton and step away slowly. The author got it confused. Well, it wasn't really his fault: the theologians were the first ones to get things all muddled up. And that's mostly because of St. John: an examination of the books of Job and Zechariah will reveal the picture of a Dominican just trying to do his job, not the Great Beast. Unfortunately, when you walk around with a name derived from the Hebrew word for 'accuser', mistakes like these can happen - especially when a primary source is more interested in getting the prophecy written down than in providing footnotes. Anyway, Satan has his share of issues. His job is probably the least appreciated in Heaven: after all, who can like somebody who's trying to actively subvert your virtue? Unfortunately, there's a very good reason why an Angel of Temptation is so necessary: complacency. The last thing that the Host needs is humans and celestials that are good out of habit. Virtue like that can shatter like a tea cup on a stone floor the first time that it gets seriously tested. People should be good because they've faced up to the alternatives, weighed the options, and decided to reject evil anyway - but to do that, they need to be tested. That's where Satan comes in. He worked for Light, sure: he even once shared the same Choir as his Superior. But he made his own choice during the First War, and never regretted it. After the dust had settled, the new Malakite ended up working for Dominic, specializing in humanity. He was very good at his job, which eventually led him into serious trouble. You see, when Dominic caught wind of a certain prophet in the Near East, he naturally sent his best Inquisitor to check out the situation. The results were later deemed ... unfortunate. Jesus came through His tests with flying colors, but was apparently not too pleased with the fact that Heaven felt the need to have a Malakite Inquisitor to rake Him over the coals for over a month. Worse, Satan walked away from the whole thing with absolutely no clue whether or not Jesus was the Son of God. This did nothing for his career prospects, especially since the person that he was supposed to test ended up founding a world religion. The Malakite has wanted to change his name more than once in the past two thousand years: thanks to his unfortunate interaction with Jesus, the latter did not remember him fondly - and later Christian theologians took His irritation and ran with it. Pretty soon, the garbled story was that Jesus had had it out with the devil himself - and, hey, what's one more name for the Prince of Lies? The name shows up in the Old Testament, after all... Personally, the Malakite is fairly lonely (having blessed souls run screaming the first time that they hear your name will do that to you). Really, he's only doing his job, for the love of God. There are a lot of angels with distasteful jobs. But, even in Heaven you get those who like to rationalize a dislike, so Satan spends as much time as he can on the Corporeal plane, trying to make sure that people aren't getting spiritually lazy. Well, when he isn't bursting into Black Masses and eviscerating everyone there that calls on Satan to protect them. That isn't really part of his job, but it does relieve his frustrations a bit. ===== Liber Licentiae Moeticae: http://www.stormloader.com/users/moelane/innomine.html Last updated 02/19/00 (this is usually way out of date) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get email at your own domain with Yahoo! Mail. http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 04 Mar 2001 17:07:12 -0500 From: "Kirt Dankmyer, aka Loki" Subject: Re: IN> Well, it's different, at least. > Well, when he isn't bursting into Black Masses and > eviscerating everyone there that calls on Satan to > protect them. That isn't really part of his job, but > it does relieve his frustrations a bit. This idea was one I've had in the past, and the implementation of it was about what I expected, until this bit. Keep it coming, Moe, if only for stuff like this. ;-) -Loki ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 04 Mar 2001 14:06:59 -0800 From: Daiv Subject: Re: IN> Heaven, Hell and the ENGLISH Civil War it depends on which measurements you look at; it also varies a great deal. I graduated (high school) in 88. At the time, CA was 50th in per student spending, among other things. We appear to have gone up a little since then. Not, in any case, a great education. - -Daiv David Edelstein wrote: > > Daiv wrote: > > I would add, as a graduate of the California Public School > > system (50th in the nation) > > Hmm. I went to CA public schools. Since when are they #50? I thought > that distinction went to Arkansas. > > -David ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 04 Mar 2001 17:07:53 -0500 From: Daniel Sauve Subject: Re: IN> Well, it's different, at least. On Sun, 4 Mar 2001 13:40:33 -0800 (PST), Maurice Lane wrote: >I trust that we're all going to be mature about this >one, right? Apparently, there's even some >justification behind this one: the relevant entry in >Gustav Davidson's A Dictionary of Angels (just picked >it up, and it's easily as nifty as advertised) is most >illuminating*... (Applause) Well done. - -- Your GM Daniel Sauve (in nomine, shadowrun, earthdawn, hero unlimited) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Mar 2001 14:49:13 -0800 From: "Bevan Thomas" Subject: Re: IN> Well, it's different, at least. Very well done. Though I find it a little odd, to say the least, to think of the Jewish and the Christian Satans existing at the same time. And to think of the name "Satan" not actually applying to the Lord of the Devils. But then, in Judaism, the lord of Devils is usually Asmodeus, whereas Satan is a loyal angel. > On Sun, 4 Mar 2001 13:40:33 -0800 (PST), Maurice Lane > wrote: > > >I trust that we're all going to be mature about this > >one, right? Apparently, there's even some > >justification behind this one: the relevant entry in > >Gustav Davidson's A Dictionary of Angels (just picked > >it up, and it's easily as nifty as advertised) is most > >illuminating*... ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 04 Mar 2001 18:01:36 -0500 From: Mike Bruner Subject: Re: IN> Well, it's different, at least. >> Well, when he isn't bursting into Black Masses and >> eviscerating everyone there that calls on Satan to >> protect them. That isn't really part of his job, but >> it does relieve his frustrations a bit. > >This idea was one I've had in the past, and the implementation of it was >about what I expected, until this bit. Keep it coming, Moe, if only for >stuff like this. ;-) One wonders what Lucifer's response to his former Servitor is; the name issue has to appeal to his infamous sense of humor (he might have even helped it along himself; the Devil must have a few side projects to while away the time if he doesn't run Hell with an iron fist 24/7). The relationship between these two must be interesting, to say the least. - -- Mike Bruner-- bruner@delaware.infi.net "But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? It is the East, and Juliet is AHHH THE SUN!!!" *FOOM* --Vampire theatre ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Mar 2001 20:03:12 -0500 (EST) From: "Rev. Pee Kitty" Subject: Re: IN> Ethereals On Sat, 3 Mar 2001, Santiago wrote: I'm not sure what to say except... I saved this. This is getting printed out and stuffed in the back of my GMG, along with Casca's Djinn mindset post. That makes two things so far... - -- Rev. Pee Kitty, of the order Malkavian-Dobbsian, Q4B4L! Meow! When you're having a bad day, remember: It takes 42 muscles to frown, but only 4 to pull the trigger of a decent sniper rifle. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 04 Mar 2001 17:45:48 -0600 From: "Bradley Paranial" Subject: Re: IN> Well, it's different, at least. >*Pardon the pun. :) > >Satan >Malakite Inquisitor of Judgement >Angel of Temptation Poor Guy, Proof that even in the Heavanly Host there are sh*t jobs ie, Jobs that nobody wants to do and makes other shun the ones who do them. I see Domonic praticularly fond of Satan. They understand eachother better than most. Well done, Brad _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Mar 2001 19:46:26 -0500 From: "Rolland Therrien" Subject: A response, and a Question [Re: IN> Well, it's different, at least.] - -----Original Message----- From: Bradley Paranial To: in_nomine-l@lists.io.com Date: Sunday, March 04, 2001 6:53 PM Subject: Re: IN> Well, it's different, at least. > >>*Pardon the pun. :) >> >>Satan >>Malakite Inquisitor of Judgement >>Angel of Temptation > >Poor Guy, Proof that even in the Heavanly Host there are sh*t jobs ie, Jobs >that nobody wants to do and makes other shun the ones who do them. I don't think it's the job he really minds, but the fact that for the past 2000 years, a Public Relations Screw-Up associated his name with the guy he and his bosses are trying to -Stop-. Lord knows I'd be pretty messed up if that happened to me. >I see Domonic praticularly fond of Satan. They understand each other better >than most. Oh, most definetly. I can most definetly see Dominic being quite fond of Satan, and often uses him on delicate "fact-finding" assignments, to check out on important Angels with "questionnable" track records, so as to test their mettle. The ones who pass get left alone. The ones who fail... find themselve visited by a Triad of Judgement, with Satan as a third member. Fact is, reading through the Satan write-up reminds me of the Babylon 5 Episode where the Vorlons sent an Inquisitor to interrogate and test Ambassador Delenn, to see if she had what it took to be a leader in the Army of Light. She passed, but we later learned that the Inquisitor, in the past, had been on Earth, and lived as Jack the Ripper... Which brings me to an interesting question: Considering the guy killed only prostitutes, do you think Jack, in In Nomine, might have been a renegade Malakite, trying to hunt down Servitors of Lust? ------------------------------ End of in_nomine-digest V1 #2095 ******************************** The material here is (C) 2001 Steve Jackson Games, Incorporated. All rights reserved.