From owner-in_nomine-digest@lists.io.com Thu May 31 19:04:31 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 TAA01526 for ; Thu, 31 May 2001 19:04:30 -0500 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by lists.io.com (8.9.3/8.9.1a) id TAA28253 for in_nomine-digest-outgoing; Thu, 31 May 2001 19:03:00 -0500 Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 19:03:00 -0500 Message-Id: <200106010003.TAA28253@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 #2249 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 Thursday, May 31 2001 Volume 01 : Number 2249 In this digest: Re: IN> Re: Call for Papers Re: IN> Re: Call for Papers IN> Weird Science Re: IN> Weird Science IN> Unity Re: IN> Unity Re: IN> Unity Re: IN> Consider Believers Re: IN> Unity IN> Interesting Link Re: IN> Interesting Link Re: IN> IN CCG - Discords IN> A Testimony on the Purity Crusade IN> The Keys of Solomon: A Corporeal Supplement for In Nomine Re: IN> The Keys of Solomon: A Corporeal Supplement for In Nomine IN> The Angel of Just Rewards ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 02:44:07 From: "Janet Anderson" Subject: Re: IN> Re: Call for Papers YEAH!!!!! Take several "made Janet make unseemly amounts of enthusiastic noise in the library" points. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 May 2001 19:50:24 -0700 (PDT) From: Maurice Lane Subject: Re: IN> Re: Call for Papers - --- james walker wrote: > > > Hi. (Delighted laughter) This is turning out to be one of the more ... eclectic ... Triplanar Conferences ... in its long and illustrious history. :) Moe "You _do_ realize that now Mike's scheming to get to the Ladder FIRST, the better to make a last-second job offer, right?" Lane ===== Liber Licentiae Moeticae: http://www.stormloader.com/users/moelane/innomine.html Last updated 04/29/01(this is usually way out of date) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail - only $35 a year! http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 00:23:22 -0400 From: "Charles Phipps" Subject: IN> Weird Science The Mad Scientist Cor-1 Cor-2 Agil-2 Eth-4 Int-10 Pre-10 Cel-3 Will-8 Per-4 Vessel: Human 3/ Servants: Hunchback 3/, Status 1/ Skills: Alchemy 6/, Astronomy 2/*, Chemistry 3/, Computer 3/, Electronics 3/*, Engineering 5/, Excorcism 6/, Focus 4/, Mathmatics 5/, Medicine 4/, Metaphysics 4/, Physics 2/*, Summoning 6/, Jury-Rigging 6/ Songs: Song of Form (Ethereal 5/), Light (Ethereal 6/), Song of Healing (Corporeal 6/), Song of Animation (Corporeal 3/, Celestial 6/)*, Song of Thunder 6/ * These would actually be much higher if not for the fact the man's knowledge is so wildly INACCURATE ** Yes life can be bestowed with this one on inanimate objects whether dead tissue or not and intelligence on nonsentient beings Attunment: The Mad Scientist can with the expenditure of a 1-7 points of essence per day create something which will violate a law of physics and keep it solid and functional on the material world for a full 24 hour period whether this is mutating pods that replace people or fluid that makes women fifty feet tall.....this attunement is amazingly versatile but after it expires the subjects of it and it's effects will all cease to remember it and it will cloud over in a delerium....much to the Mad Scientists' anger in his eternal quest for fame, Sorcery The Mad Scientist is an ethereal with a very bad reputation. First of all no he is not Doctor Frankenstein, Doctor Moreau, or The Scientist from the Invisible Man who have their own personal region of space despite being very similar to the mad scientist....they also have much more dignity despite what the scientist has achieved over many centuries. No the Mad scientist is the summation of the Doctor Frankenstein, H.P. Lovecraft Re-Animator, and Plan Nine from Outer Space Rip offs that have been shoved through television on late night cable for so many centuries. Doctor Jekyll's who have never had enough class to make it into the big leagues or creations on paper of scientists who acomplish great deeds but never make it indeed....the mad scientist is the summation of them all. The Mad Scientist is the driving goal to understand the universe and to some extent make Mother Nature bend on one knee and kiss his feet. Over the last few centuries (he's older than you think as long before he was in his basement cobbling up things to do to your cat Fluffy he was saying the universe was revolving around the Sun not the Earth and saying humanity evolved from Monkies) he's developed something of a personality in the fact he's not actually mad per-say but really the Doctor is usually right in his theories but derided by society around him. The "Mad" scientist has become more than a monstrous fool messing with forces that he neither comprehends or should be experimenting with trying to mix human brains and sheep brains or create this bizzare "flubber" thingamabob but sort of an educated Cassandra type who REALLY is surounded by people with lack of vision. Oddly enough the Mad Scientist is not an ally of Beleth or Vapula but considers himself the dire enemy of the former and her dreams of horrofic science. Beleth personally considers the creature an annoying pest at most and is continually surprised by his dangerous ideas spreading (that monstrous ethereals can make it on their own-he's responsible for the Giant Ants and Godzilla walking...I swear). The Mad scientist is also responsible for a recent uptrend in scientiffic sorcecy which by no means good is neither Hellish nor Heavengly but just....whacky. The later Vapula has actually considered the Mad Scientist a sort of "respectable rival" and it's more resentment he has way more funding and power than he has which drives the Mad Scientist against him and his demons. Servitors of Jean have occasionally been surprised when a labratory in a polluted swamp or on a mysterious island is suddenly swarmed by radioactive moss creatures and Jean is still weighing the analysis of what to do with the man... Especially since some wonder if he's an ethereal at all.....has anyone seen Doctor John Dee lately? - -Charlemagne ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 May 2001 22:12:04 -0700 (PDT) From: Maurice Lane Subject: Re: IN> Weird Science - --- Charles Phipps wrote: > Servitors of Jean have > occasionally been surprised when a labratory in a > polluted swamp or on a > mysterious island is suddenly swarmed by radioactive > moss creatures I apologize in advance, but I couldn't let him die. He _looked_ at me with those big, soulful, mossy eyes... :) Moe Radioactive Moss Creature /Who?/ Corporeal Forces: 3 Strength: 8 Agility: 4 Ethereal Forces: 2 Intelligence: 4 Precision: 4 Celestial Forces: 1 Will: 3 Perception: 1 Vessel: Radioactive Moss Creature/1 Skills: Dodge/1, Emote/3, Fighting/4, Fast-Talk/3, Move Silently/1 Songs: Dreams (Corporeal/1, Ethereal/3, Celestial/3), Motion (Celestial/3), Shields (Corporeal/1) Well, he's not *very* radioactive. Just enough to let a Geiger counter know that he's there. He doesn't have the oomph to be anything more. That's his problem, really: the R.C.M. is way above his station as it stands. The ethereal plane's a funny place: normally, the idle weird concepts that get sparked there stay small. Very, very small: there isn't enough belief in any given idle fancy to sustain them for more than a minute or two. Usually. The R.C.M. is, however, a somewhat unique case: he was in the right place at the right time to get drenched in Essence that wasn't, strictly speaking, his to take. A low probability, sure, but it's a big universe out there: low probabilities happen, sometimes. He's not going to complain. The problem is, how to sustain it? Nobody believes in Radioactive Moss Monsters, and Hollywood is no help, this time around: hard as it may be to believe, even American International Pictures somehow inexplicably neglected to feature one in one of their movies. The R.C.M. would like to keep on existing, thank you very much, but if he doesn't want to implode in the next few days, he'll have to take care of it himself. The ethereal is barely aware of the War, but what he's heard isn't promising. Maybe this Beleth or Nybbas would give him a job, but the R.C.M. doesn't actually want to hurt anyone: if he could just shamble across a dreamscape or two, that'd be enough to keep him existing in some form. If only there was a way to get the idea of a Radioactive Moss Monster into the popular culture, even in a limited way... Is anyone else's head hurting from the way this has suddenly gone meta-game? ===== Liber Licentiae Moeticae: http://www.stormloader.com/users/moelane/innomine.html Last updated 04/29/01(this is usually way out of date) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail - only $35 a year! http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 01:19:59 -0400 From: "William J. Keith" Subject: IN> Unity Eeek -- I've done it again. First it was Fire and Judgment, then it was Lightning and Dreams, and now it's Trade and Stone. I just seem to like setting up missions that throw together angels on opposite sides of longstanding feuds, with the hope of resolving them along the way. I dunno, maybe I should petition for a Word or something. ;^) - ------------- It just appeared on Marc's desk while he was out, of course. Made of stone -- real stone, mined from Earth and each chess piece individually made into a celestial relic with great care. Marc studied it for a long time -- a long time for Marc, at least. David was obviously sending him a message, and the style was important. The Archangel of Stone had something to say to Marc, and he felt that requiring Marc to figure out the message would have some additional salutory effect. It might help convince him of something, or it might provide some information that David knew Marc needed to know about himself, but could only try to get Marc to provide personally. Or maybe there was another reason entirely -- Marc knew perfectly well that David was slow and of few words, not stupid. If he felt he had something to say, it was worth Marc's time to figure out what it was. It was White's move. Black had a threat in development, coming down the center. White's King had not moved, though Black's had castled, giving Black room to mount just such an assault. The best response was probably... Marc looked again. There were some real inefficiencies in White's position that needed to be remedied, although occasionally matched by some in Black's. The White King was strangely still; its Queen was locked in a holding pattern by one of Black's Knights; the Black Queen was supporting a number of Black's pieces and only marginally threatened by the White King's Knight. The two dark-square bishops had each other pinned, at least for the moment. One white pawn, close to the Queen in the center, seemed to be doing little of use. One of White's Rooks might have been setting up for a later checkmate run, but there was a lot of work to be done yet -- that was perhaps a little cocksure at the moment. Most bothersome, though, was that White was split. Left of center was almost wholly divorced from right of center, leaving the King in danger, and supported mostly by the other Rook, which was itself relatively undefended. Black was far more badly fractured, but there was a kind of chaotic, fluid strength in its broad reach. The best response for White was assuredly the King's Knight. But there were two ways to go. One, the more aggressive, would take the Knight into contention for the center, right into the path of the oncoming attack. It might deflect Black's thrust, but it led into a complex series of... "...trades..." Marc's expression turned into one of pleased enlightenment. David had done it again. White's other choice for the Knight was back to the second rank. It could be interpreted as a retreat, a loss of advancement, but what it gained in trade was twofold. Firstly, it defended the Rook, making Black's attack a pointless sacrifice if it kept up with the same line of assault. Second, the Knight got out of the way of the Queen and a bishop, allowing both to protect and be protected by pieces on the other side of the board. With a single move, White could unify its structure and set the board for a number of strong checkmate threats. Marc glanced at the Rook he would be protecting. Naturally, it was made of rough-hewn stone of all sorts. He wryly looked at the Black Queen that the Knight was momentarily abandoning its meager hold on. "Thanks for the vote of confidence, David," he chuckled. He summoned a Reliever, which fluttered into the office. "Yes, Sir?" "Go to the Catacombs and say that you have a personal message from Marc to David. Tell him, 'Knight to King's Bishop 2. Let us meet at the site of Sutter's Mill, next local dawn.' Then return here with any reply." "Yes, Sir." He waited a bare few minutes, working in the meantime, before the Reliever returned. "He nodded and bade me return, Sir." "Thank you, Helper." He dismissed the Reliever. Before it had left, though, he called out. "Wait. Tell me, what did you think of the Archangel of Stone?" "I thought he seemed very strong, Sir. I was a little afraid of him. Until he smiled." Marc nodded thoughtfully. "Understandable, -?" "Just 'Me' right now, Sir. I haven't picked a name yet." "Well, you have a while yet to consider it. However, I'll soon be in need of some extra presences in a mining country. Spend a week in the Catacombs familiarizing yourself with various sorts of mineral wealth without disturbing the environment, and I'll consider assigning you to help an angel on Earth duty." "Thank you, Sir!" The Reliever zoomed out of the office to begin his task. Marc smiled. It was a small tie for unity, but it was as real as you could wish. - ------------- Marc corporealized some way off from the monument proper and walked in wearing comfortable hiking clothes -- just another tourist in California, out for an early-morning walk, taking in the sights. He breathed in the pre-dawn air, felt the history hanging over this place. As the sun peeked over the hills, he felt a moment's amusement -- Archangels received a measure of Essence at dawn, too, although it was difficult to notice in the wash of Essence and Forces flowing about your Word. "An interesting site you choose, Marc." "A place where the wealth of the Earth was found, where a nation's history and myth were changed forever by the gleam of a distant dream of gold. Something for either of us, so neither could claim advantage." He turned around to face David, and just managed to keep from wincing -- David was naked, as usual. He hoped no real tourists showed up soon. "Or perhaps it should not have been a concern. If I interpreted your message aright, you were making an overture to the Peace faction?" "Yes. We should not be so concerned with advantage over each other. I could wish as well that we were not split into the War and Peace factions, but those are differences that I think will not be resolved until Armageddon, if then." Marc pitched his voice softer, so as not to seem to be rebuking David. "Some would say, my friend, that in those differences we could find strengths, ones we could not find in sameness." David treated Marc to a piercing glance. "Sedimentaries are generally the weakest of stones, and there are strengths in sameness as well. However, I am not unmindful of your point. Organized division of labor is one of the first signs of community -- indeed, of civilization." Marc nodded in agreement. "And one of the first signs of morality -- indeed, of sentience -- is a realization that rules and laws apply to oneself. "I have watched Heaven since the Fall for some short time now..." Marc smiled. Twenty thousand years, a geological pittance. "...and seen it splinter and grow farther apart. The Seraphim Council squabbles and divides its efforts. Laurence ignores Novalis, something I am guilty of as well, and yet something like half of the wisest beings in existence see her as useful and noble. You and I are at odds, as much as you are with anyone; Michael in his pride is rejecting Yves, a dangerous course to my mind. Gabriel and Eli, two of our oldest and brightest, wander Earth, and those who care for them seem helpless to do anything about the tensions their actions are causing. Some of us, names needing not be mentioned, will give a Servitor a slap on the wrist, and that for form's sake only, if one Archangel's Servitors or another are maliciously hindered, or at most hindered for the sake of one of Heaven's Words gaining ground at the expense of another. "We are forgetting our own lessons. Alliances, friendships, loyalties, the strength of unity -- these are things a Mercurian should surely understand, or a Cherub, or the Archangel of Stone, and yet we do not apply them to ourselves. We lose ourselves in our Words and forget that we are thinking beings as well as concepts. When this happens, tension develops as naturally as such tensions arise in the world about us." David gestured expansively, taking in the land about. "Of course men must tear and scar the rock with their tools to extract its wealth. It lessens the crust of the Earth minutely, and demeans not the ore used so. Of course a dream can be shattered by strife, for even righteous struggle is not without pain and sacrifice. A dream can stop a war, too... or lure people into unproductive idleness without struggle. Of course the roots of a tiny plant can break stone, must feed from the minerals within, and the sands of the desert must sweep over crops and bring a village to the edge of starvation. "We fall into these patterns of thought and thus contend with each other, to the detriment of the very concepts we seek to advance as we lose each other's support. It is the selfish error of Hell, where all seek to make themselves supreme and none but grudgingly helps another. Let us avoid this trap. Let us make efforts to reconnect with one another. Let us make Heaven once again a community." Marc waited after the speech was over. "You came to me first because we are known to be at odds, so that if we agree it will carry weight. Because I know something of getting two sides to see something in each other. Because I can speak persuasively even to the neutrals." "Yes." Marc looked away. "I suspected this was your cause when I figured out your message. Great board setup, by the way." He quirked a corner of his mouth. "We should bring something more persuasive than words. A shared mission, I'd think." "You have one planned?" "I have just the thing." Marc flourished a paper. "Indonesia. Sulawesi's a mess. Chaos." "Newmont's problems." "That's right. The island needs a real trade structure, enforced by a central government with a clear mandate and the will to use it. The mining companies and the squatters need to either get together, or find a way to resolve their differences. The companies would get their mining done, the squatters would hopefully have jobs, the levels of mercury and other nasty stuff getting into the environment (and the workers) would decrease drastically, and the government gets its tax flow. It's an all-around win, and we can set both Trade and Stone angels to work on getting the place whipped into shape -- make a community there, one with laws governing trade and the work of the mining that provides the island with its lifeblood. We work from the government and the corporations, you work with the native miners and the ones who support them." "I will consider." David decorporealized, just in time for the first group of tourists to appear around the bend in the trail. Marc spent a few minutes chatting them up and describing the history of the place as engagingly as any tour guide could have, before taking his leave to applause from the delighted tourists. One week later -- by Methuselah's beard, David must have felt strongly about the problem -- David sent his agreement to Marc, and nearly a hundred Servitors to the region, awaiting orders from a ranking angel of Trade. Marc acknowledged on the spot, privately observing that when Stone said it was going to do something, it did it wholeheartedly. One hostility down... well, no, hopefully on the way down. Just a Council full of them to go. *Man*, Marc was looking forward to this. William ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 May 2001 22:28:58 -0700 (PDT) From: Maurice Lane Subject: Re: IN> Unity - --- "William J. Keith" wrote: > Eeek -- I've done it again. Yup. Cleverly done, BTW. :) Moe ===== Liber Licentiae Moeticae: http://www.stormloader.com/users/moelane/innomine.html Last updated 04/29/01(this is usually way out of date) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail - only $35 a year! http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 May 2001 22:29:18 -0700 From: "Phillip Des Jardins" Subject: Re: IN> Unity Nice piece. It's good to see the unifying aspects of David being given serious thought. Phillip, Mercurian of Novalis The Shiny Happy Mercurian ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 07:41:15 From: "Jo Hart" Subject: Re: IN> Consider Believers >You claim to also desire my enlightenment? Then prove it; punish >those false ethereal beings, who pretend to the mantle of omnipotence. >Even the ever-merciful Krishna eventually, after a hundred >forebearances and hundred mercies, struck down the false Vasudeva. >Emulate him, and strike down the spirits that pretend to bear the >chakram and ride Garuda. > That's wonderful, Neel. jo _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 06:06:14 -0700 (PDT) From: Michael Walton Subject: Re: IN> Unity Niiiiiiice. ===== Michael Walton, #9805-068 The Aztecs had chocolate and human sacrifice. That's got to balance out on the karmic scale. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail - only $35 a year! http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 13:08:58 From: "Jo Hart" Subject: IN> Interesting Link http://faculty.ncwc.edu/toconnor/392/spy/deception.htm This could practically be a training manual for balseraphs (or impudites) ... jo _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 09:33:29 -0700 (PDT) From: Maurice Lane Subject: Re: IN> Interesting Link - --- Jo Hart wrote: > http://faculty.ncwc.edu/toconnor/392/spy/deception.htm > > This could practically be a training manual for > balseraphs (or impudites) > ... Yah. Must remember this one. Thanks. :) Moe ===== Liber Licentiae Moeticae: http://www.stormloader.com/users/moelane/innomine.html Last updated 04/29/01(this is usually way out of date) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail - only $35 a year! http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 12:40:48 -0400 From: Whistling in the Dark Subject: Re: IN> IN CCG - Discords At 1:24 PM -0500 5/30/01, David Edelstein wrote: >Too complicated. I think dissonance or Discord should just be something >you can slap on a rival's Servitor (ala the "clan hoser" Master cards in >VTES). Get enough "dissonance counters" and you risk Falling. Or >something like that. Hm -- with Falling perhaps meaning the card switches from the player's side to the side of the last character to "dissonant" him? - -- Eric Alfred Burns - Habbalite of Belaboring the Point ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 10:32:40 -0700 (PDT) From: Michael Walton Subject: IN> A Testimony on the Purity Crusade [The following is a transcript of a speech presented at the Tri-Planar Conference. The Archangel of Dreams personally shielded the speaker from the light of Heaven throughout the proceedings. This testimony is not meant to represent the views of Heaven or of any Ethereal pantheon; the opinions expressed herein are entirely the author's own.] Friends, colleagues and fellow scholars, I stand before you today to offer a personal testimony on the Purity Crusade. I, an Ethereal, was there when Uriel's forces swept through the Marches. I fled from the flaming swords of his Malakim and hid from the piercing eyes of his Seraphim. I choked on the smoke from the burning of Olympus and stopped my ears in a vain attempt to keep out the screams of the dying. All these horrors and more I witnessed firsthand. I am uniquely qualified to render judgement on this infamous chapter of history, and my judgement is this -- the Purity Crusade was a good thing. Many of you seem agitated by this. I understand your confusion. "How," you ask, "Can this foolish spirit believe that about the slaughter of his people?" Others among you know my reputation and dismiss this assertion as just one more betrayal by one who has long been a traitor to his kind. I do not deny that I acted against the interests of my Pantheon. In my defense I can only say that I acted in the best interests of humanity. My reasons for doing so are at the heart of my current argument. Because of the prophetic gift -- you would say precognitive Attunement -- that I possess, I am partly aware of humanity's Destiny. I choose to serve humans because I have seen that humans are greater than gods. Of course, I would never rest such an outrageous claim on rhetoric alone. Allow me to offer proof. First, there is the matter of reproduction. Among Ethereals, only the most powerful of us have the ability to create other spirits. Even then, there are fewer of us who have that power with each passing year. I understand that only the most powerful Celestials are able to create other Celestials, as well. Yet most humans, once they reach physical maturity, can create other humans. Indeed, the feat is so easy for them that they often do it without meaning to! Say what you will about my kind, one of the things that we have in common with you is an utter lack of accidental births. Next there is the matter of creation. Only by means of special Songs -- Songs which are forbidden for Celestials to know and which spirits are destroyed for using -- can a Celestial or Ethereal create a human, and the results are by no means guaranteed. I know of no instances of humans creating Celestials, but human dreamers create Ethereal spirits every night. All humans possess this power from childhood, and a few have dreams of such power that the resulting spirits sometimes survive beyond a single night's dreaming. I might also add that creating Ethereals is beyond the ability of even the most powerful Celestials. How would you judge the power of a race whose children can do something that Archangels cannot? Third, let us consider Tethers. Only human beliefs and emotions can create bridges between Heaven and Earth, Earth and Hell or Earth and the realm of dreams. Not only are Ethereals and Celestials unable to duplicate this feat, our endeavors are more likely to disrupt an incipient Tether than facilitate its formation. Now, what does any of this have to do with the Purity Crusade? That is easily answered. My assertion is that humans have tremendous potential both as individuals and as a species, but most individuals never realize that potential and the species isn't even close to doing so. That squandering of potential is partly the fault of Ethereals. Far too many spirits are content to receive worship from humans without encouraging them to grow in any way. We forget that we are but dreams, and that the purpose of a dream is to be a lodestar that guides the dreamer in a voyage of self-discovery. Oh, great civilizations rose by following our tutelage. The more charitable among you may even recall my own contribution in that regard. The problem is that most Ethereals encouraged humans to grow only to the point of being useful to the spirits. Our relationship with humanity was meant to be symbiotic, but we had largely become parasites in the days before the Crusade. Civilizations stagnated as we stabilized our power bases. Progress halted for fear that new ideas would stem the flow of Essence. The Crusade changed that. With their Ethereal patrons gone, humans were free to develop in ways that would've been anathema to spirits who were dependent on entrenched traditions. Uriel cleared out the deadwood that caused humans to cling to outmoded ways and freed them to take a step closer to their collective Destiny. The suffering that this caused was certainly tragic, and some of it was probably avoidable. But the fulfillment of the human race’s Destiny required that Man’s Ethereal masters step aside, and few gods would've yielded their thrones willingly. The Purity Crusade may have been unnecessarily brutal, but it needed to happen. I look forward to that bright day when all humans cast aside the crutch of worshipping their own dreams and walk in the strength of their birthright. We spirits need humanity, but humans have outgrown the need for us -- and one day, when they finally achieve their full potential, they will outgrow the need for Celestials as well. The Age of Gods is past. The Age of Angels and Demons will pass. The Age of Man is coming, and it will be a glorious time indeed. Prometheus Expatriate Titan Spirit of Enlightenment ===== Michael Walton, #9805-068 The Aztecs had chocolate and human sacrifice. That's got to balance out on the karmic scale. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail - only $35 a year! http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 13:38:30 +0100 From: Eric Hallstrom Subject: IN> The Keys of Solomon: A Corporeal Supplement for In Nomine Stolen partly from the game *Witchcraft*, by Eden Studios. The Keys are not physical artifacts, but rather a set of patterns of gematriac knowledge, having the effect of attunements, for corporeal characters. Only human or once human beings may master the Keys of Solomon. Whether that includes Lilith or not is an open question. A key may only be acquired from someone who likewise holds the same key. Most of the (very) few remaining groups which hold knowledge of the keys hold only two to four of them, while a few more favored groups may hold as many as six. Only the Dozen, and perhaps the remaining hidden branches of the Knights Templar are suspected of still holding all nine of the lesser keys. If anyone still holds knowledge of the four greater keys, which require prior knowledge of all nine of the lesser, the fact has yet to be rumored. Each lesser key costs five character points to acquire, and is activated by rolling less than the holder's Will plus their Celestial Forces, and paying the activation cost in essence listed for each Key. Each key lasts a number of minutes per activation equal to three plus the CD of the roll. Activating a Key causes _NO_ disturbance. Most of the keys are primarily usefull for Sorcerers, but it is not necessary to know any Sorcery skills or to have the Sorcery attunement to hold a Key. Several Keys invoke penalties against vertain opponents or Require Will rolls for such an opponent to attack or influence the Keyweilder. Any such key's functioning is immediately apparent to anyone with Symphonic Awareness who passess a Perception roll upon meeting or viewing the Keyweilder. Anyone who is warded against by such a Key need not roll. There are nine lesser keys, which correspond to the nine supporting Sephiroth of the Tree of Life: The Key of Malkut, Granting Kingship Over the Spirit. 3 Essence This Key grants a bonus of +3 to all Sorcerous rolls to Summon or Control "Simple" (which is to say unaspected) Ethereals. It also grants a bonus of +2 to all rolls to resist their powers, songs or attunements, and forces any such Ethereals to pass a Will roll to be able to attack, influence or forcefully withstand the Keyweilder. All rolls to attack or influence the Keyweilder by such Ethereals are penalized by -2. The Key of Yesod, Building a Foundation on the Bones of the Dead. 3 Essence This Key grants a bonus of +3 to all Sorcerous rolls to Summon or Control the Undead, Ghosts or once-human Spirits, including Dream- shades. It has no effect on Saints or Bohdisatvas. It also grants a bonus of +2 to all rolls to resist their powers, songs or attunements, and forces any such Undead to pass a Will roll to be able to attack, influence or forcefully withstand the Keyweilder. All rolls to attack or influence the Keyweilder by such Undead are penalized by -2. The Key of Hod, Bringing Spendour In Peace. 4 Essence. Adds +2 to the weilder's Intelligence and Perception, and 3 to the weilder's Will. Renders the weilder immune to mental or Celestial shock or pain, and pacifies all Ethereal or Celestial disadvantages for the duration of its activation. The Key of Netzach, Bringing Victory In War. 4 Essence. Adds +1 to the weilder's Dexterity and Precision, and 3 to the weilder's Strength. Renders the weilder immune to Corporeal shock or pain, and pacifiess all Corporeal disadvantages for the duration of its activation. The Key of Tiferet, Bearing Witness to the Beauty of Life. 3 Essence. The weilder will heal at a rate of 3 points of any damage per turn. The weilder may heal 1 point of any damamge in another per turn, by touch and Concentration. The weilder gains 2 points of toughness in each Realm, for the purposes of determining Hit Points in that Realm. The Key of Gevurah, Strength Over the Stable Elements of Earth and Fire. 4 Essence. This Key grants a bonus of +3 to all Sorcerous rolls to Summon or Control Ethereals bearing an Aspect of Stability, or an Elemental Aspect of Earth or Fire. It has no effect on Celestials. It also grants a bonus of +2 to all rolls to resist their powers, songs or attunements, and forces any such Ethereals to pass a Will roll to be able to attack, influence or forcefully withstand the Keyweilder. All rolls to attack or influence the Keyweilder by such Ethereals are penalized by -2. Also, the effects taken by the weilder of this key from hostile Elemental sources of Earth and Fire, whether natural or supernatural, is halved (this does include bullets). This Key may only be taken if the holder also has at least one of the Keys of Malkut, Yesod, Hod, Netzach or Tiferet. The Key of Chesod, Love For the Mutable Elements of Air and Water. 4 Essence. This Key grants a bonus of +3 to all Sorcerous rolls to Summon or Control Ethereals bearing an Aspect of Mutability, or an Elemental Aspect of Water or Air. It has no effect on Celestials. It also grants a bonus of +2 to all rolls to resist their powers, songs or attunements, and forces any such Ethereals to pass a Will roll to be able to attack, influence or forcefully withstand the Keyweilder. All rolls to attack or influence the Keyweilder by such Ethereals are penalized by -2. Also, the effects taken by the weilder of this key from hostile Elemental sources of Air and Water, whether natural or supernatural, is halved (this does include drowning and suffocation). This Key may only be taken if the holder also has at least one of the Keys of Malkut, Yesod, Hod, Netzach or Tiferet. The Key of Binah, Granting the Understanding of the Truth. 5 Essence. This Key grants a bonus of +3 to all Sorcerous rolls to Summon or Control Celestials. It also forces any such Celestials to pass a Will roll to be able to attack, influence or forcefully withstand the Keyweilder. All rolls to attack or influence the Keyweilder by such Celestials are penalized by -2. This Key may only be taken if the holder also has at least three of the Keys of Malkut, Yesod, Hod, Netzach, Tiferet, Gevurah or Chesod. The Key of Chockmah, Granting the Wisdom to Achieve Mastery. 5 Essence. The weilder of this Key gains a bonus of +2 to all rolls made to resist Powers, Songs or Attunements originating from Celestials. Also, the effects taken by the weilder of this key from hostile Celestial sources is halved. Finally, the weilder of this key may Summon and Control Angelic Celestials with the same difficulty as Demonic ones, although this ability is a very perilous one, and the proper rituals must still be found or created, as Demonic rituals will not work. This Key may only be taken if the holder also has at least three of the Keys of Malkut, Yesod, Hod, Netzach, Tiferet, Gevurah or Chesod. The Powers and restrictions surrounding the Four Greater Keys, the Keys of Keter, Marking the Head of the Body of Holiness, are not reliably known. But anyone capable of weilding them certainly has more mojo, and much bigger friends, than you do, so you should be very respectful anyway. Eric, - -- http://www.kawaiikunee.com/slp/in_nomine/ "We who are as good as you, swear to you who are no better than we, to accept you as our sovereign king and lord, provided you observe all our liberties and laws, but if not, not." -Aragonese Oath of Allegiance ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 15:34:05 -0700 From: "Phillip Des Jardins" Subject: Re: IN> The Keys of Solomon: A Corporeal Supplement for In Nomine Interesting thought. I always figured the Kaballah should have some meaning in IN terms. Hell wouldn't be the only place offering that knowledge, after all. Phillip, Mercurian of Novalis The Shiny Happy Mercurian ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 16:57:40 -0700 From: "Phillip Des Jardins" Subject: IN> The Angel of Just Rewards That bit on the Kabbalah go me to thinking about this. I mean really, it seems as though Hell offers a better payment plan and Heaven expects people to do it because 'It's the right thing to do'. Mind you it is, but hey. I know there's someone like this guy poking around on Earth. Hariah, Seraph of Yves The Angel of Just Rewards Corporeal 4 Strength 8 Agility 8 Ethereal 5 Intelligence 10 Precision 10 Celestial 6 Will 12 Perception 12 Vessel: Older human male/4, Charisma +2 (Reassuring) Attuenements: Seraph of Yves, Mercurian of Yves, Divine Destiny, Divine Logic, Library Card, Angel of Just Rewards. Distinctions: Master of Destiny (Away from book, can't remember the exact name) (Mercurian Resonance) Songs: Healing (All/4), Shields (Corporeal/3, Ethereal/5, Celestial/6), Attraction (Celestial/4), Harmony (All/4), probably more would be appropriate, but I don't have access to the Liber Canticorum. Skills: Singing./6, Emote/4, Driving/5, many others. Rites: * Give an appropriate reward to a human who did a good deed for its' own sake. Angel of Just Rewards: Hariah can tell at a glance whether or not a particular deed was done out of desire for reward or not. In addition, his Mercurian resonance will always tell him whether or not the subject has done a good deed within the last week for unselfish reasons. It is up to him to decide -what- is an appropriate reward, of course. Hariah is a Seraph of median age. He only recieved his Word recently, after a discussion with Yves. He felt that while Heaven in and of itself is a wonderous place, humanity by and large did not know it Truly existed, and thus many didn't necessarily see any point in abstension from sin for the sake of a reward that might not even exist. Yves merely smiled and nodded, and brought him to the Council, where he was bewildered to find that he was being considered for the Word of Just Rewards. Can't put anything past the old guy. Now that he has recieved his Word, he has been put into Earthly duty as a wanderer, seeking those who do good works, not knowing in the end whether it actually counts for anything or not. The Mercurian resonance comes in handy, as knowledge of someone's background can lead to understanding what they need at that point anyway. His works naturally mean that he spends a lot of time in the company of Soldiers, though not as many of them as you might think; they often do their jobs out of hope for Heaven. They allready have their reward picked out. He could easily become involved with a group of Angels who have recently made some human's life Hell (pardon the expression) for whatever mission they've been on, bringing them in on whatever plan he has to help out the poor sod. All in all, a nice fellow. Phillip, Mercurian of Novalis The Shiny Happy Mercurian ------------------------------ End of in_nomine-digest V1 #2249 ******************************** The material here is (C) 2001 Steve Jackson Games, Incorporated. All rights reserved.