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The Knights Templar are the guys with the Plan.  

They are the guys, to put a fine point on it, with the Grand Plan.  The Grand Plan has a large number of wiggly bits to it but in essence it looks like:

- Steal all the occult knowledge in the world;

- Kill all the Nephilim;

- ?????

- Profit!

In the Official Templar Publications and Documentation the Grand Plan is more formal on gold leaf with gold ink. When boiled down to its essence that’s what they’re about.  Come with us!  We kill Nephilim and we have a Grand Plan for the Magical Domination of the Earth!  Also, pie!  We have PIE.

In 1014BC, about the time when the great King of Kings were memories and the Pyramids slowly overtaken by the sands and Egypt herself was torn to shreds by another round of internal civil war and strife, twelve military commanders laid hands on the secrets of the Priests at Heliopolis and learned the truth of the Nephilim, Akhenaton and the 22 Major Arcana.  They conceived a plan to steal the Emerald Tablets which held the greatest of Nephilim secrets and learn them for themselves.  They were thwarted at the last moment and they, and their followers, disappeared into the sands to lurk and wait.  They become excellent lurkers. A thousand years later, the Templars felt they had an opening to unleash their Grand Plan with the Birth of the Fool but they were thwarted again by Nephilim in the guise of Romans in Judea.  Then again in the 12th Century they emerged, the Poor Knights of the Temple, to guard pilgrims to the Holy City and to search for the artifacts buried by the followers of the Fool at the Temple Mount. It stuck. 

Armed with the knowledge found in scrolls found under the remains of Solomon’s Temple, the Templars enacted their current version of their Grand Plan.  By the 13th century they spread through all of Europe as bankers and financiers for the Great and Mighty.  They owned the land.  They owned the world! And it would have worked too if it wasn’t for those meddling Nephilim who used their positions in the Church and the French Court to make the Templar Treasure Horde a tasty snack to desperate despots.  As being burned at the stake as a witch was the trend in the 13th century, the Templars partook.  They burned well.  Their forces dispersed with their occult knowledge and their money as far away from the French Court as they could go which, at the time, was Scotland.

The Templars reconvened underground and nursed their wounds and their hatred of the Nephilim.  This was well known territory: they had skulked underground for thousands of years, stalking Nephilim, and turning them into Elixers while slowly worming their way into power.  They could do it again.  So they did.  The Templars prepared to ride out another ten centuries until they could rise again. 

Never having given up banking, the modern Templars are the great brokers of occult services in the underground world.  Need someone capped?  They have assassins.  Need a spell cast using an Elixir?  They can get sorcerers and bottles of Ka-elements.  Have a Nephilim infestation and need an Orichulka sword?  They are the go-to guys to find that weapon.  The Templars long learned debts were worth more than hard cash (although cash is nothing to sniff at), and everyone owes the Templars with an extra 10% interest off the top.  They call in their debts when they need something done.  And one better do it, because someone else owes the Templars, too, and they’ll call in that favor to wipe you out for lack of payment, the bastards.  They sit like a giant, plump spider among all the other secret societies helping some and hindering others to work the levers of the Grand Plan.

The Head of the Templars is the Grand Master.  He rules the society with an iron fist.  Second to him are Eleven Bailiffs who rule eleven parts of the world.  Beneath the Bailiffs are the Commanderies, smaller units of geographical area ruled from secret Templar lairs.  Each Commandry is ruled by a White Coat and his Six Knight Companions.  Below the White Coat and his Six Companions are Knights, Squires and Pages.  A page is the lowest unit of Templar.

And one cannot have a paranoid secret society with Internal Affairs.  The IA wing of the Templars are called the Obediences.  The Obedience Heads are the Crosses.  What’s super fun is when the Obediences get into fights with their Commanderies and an entire Templar power node implodes.

The Templars keep two kinds of outside influences going: their Companions and their Farm.  Their Companions are groups and organizations who know of the Templar existence and work with them for monetary bribes or mild power gains.  They are not terribly well informed but they do give material help.  The Farm is a network if in the dark dupes who do the Templar’s dirty work without ever knowing the truth.  The Templars exercise the Farm liberally to keep from expending their own resources.

The modern Templar goals are simple: 1. Kill All Nephilim.  2. Enact Grand Plan.   Whenever Nephilim put their heads up and look around, Templars are there ready to lop their heads off with Orichulka swords.  All the plans, the plots, the conspiracies, they all ultimately come back… to the Templars.

This an example of a full Nephilim campaign.

Out on the edge of town a small band of strange people run an eclectic bookstore.  They show up to all the estate sales and pick over the booksellers searching for choice and rare books, the more occult-like the better.  One or two of them are auction hounds known for sniping sales.  And they are a bit creepy.

They’re Nephilim.  And they’re Bookhounds.  They have been Bookhounds for thousands of years.  Now they’re awake and they crave knowledge.

1930s London is soaked in the Occult

It is the time of the Emperor Arcanum.  Great powers grind together across Europe to slow inexorable destruction.  A country falls to the forces of the occult.  The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn is on the wane and their secrets published for the world to see.  Aleister Crowley still lives — bloated, fat and drunk, but alive.  Would-be occultists lounge in coffee shops and exclusive clubs to swap politics and gossip.  Dark things stalk the alleyways of London and most of them inhabit human forms.

No one likes Occult books like Nephilim

Floating around among the detritus of the swiftly changing world of the 1930s is the hastily copied and poorly printed accumulated knowledge of the Occult Nephilim since the Dawn of Time, badly copied and handwritten and misprinted.  One man’s Kabbalah scratchings in the frontspiece of a book is another man’s Greater Summoning.  Occult tomes are like Pokemon to Nephilim — no matter how worthless one must catch them all.  The Nephilim collect books with purpose.  Those half-hearted confused rituals work for them, after all.   

And Sometimes the Books Come With Bonuses

That book full of Theosophy and Dream-Magick has, buried in it, the ritual summoning of a horror from beyond time and space, ripped from some plane unexplored by Nephilim-kind.  It’s a little unexpected but hey!  It’s a new Summoning!  We want to keep that one in case the Templars show up…

Everyone wants — and are dying for — occult books

In the meantime, something new and horrible grows.  The rise of the Thule Society in Germany in the 1930s is deep and fertile ground for Nephilim Adventures stationed in London.  The world’s first truly magickal human government is bent on world domination, and eliminating all Nephilim.  Not those who stand in their way — all Nephilim.

- The High Priestess Arcana will do anything to collect the now-scattered secret Occult knowledge before the now highly trained occult societies of humans do and they will kill to defend their libraries;

- The Emperor wishes to preserver his power from the rise of the Thule in Europe and expects those who dwell in his Domain to do his bidding and collect the Occult knowledge and shoot Nazis for him;

- The Tower scours the Auction halls and bookseller tables to pull forbidden knowledge from the hands of humans, knowledge leaked out by the rise of Occult Societies in Victorian London;

- The Magician wants to put magic into the hands of mankind to help them combat the rising tide of Occult Evil and sponsors more than a few post-Golden Dawn Occult Circles and is getting into all kinds of trouble;

- The Templars, via Secret Governmental Organizations, consider working — maybe, in an enemy of my enemy is my frenemy — with the Nephilim Arcanum JUST THIS ONCE to combat the rising horror of the Thule but they still will pull Occult books out of the grasping hands of Nephilim Bookhounds at estate sales;

- Meanwhile, the Thule Society may already have their hands on the Spear of Destiny and, worse, are establishing Occult bases from Berlin to Alexandria to Tibet and they are hunting Nephilim;

- The race is on for the Thule, the Nephilim, the Templars, and any opportunistic secret societies — ancient Nephilim-worshipping groups and Black Moon Selenim and horrible cults — to collect all the Occult tomes floating around on the streets of London and use the magic contained within to win the upcoming World War.  That 15th century grimoire is more than a book full of dark evils; it may be the key to winning the World.

Bookhounds of Nephilim is a heady stew of Occultists who can actually practice the occult, London, Nephilim Major Arcana jocking for position in the morning hours of WWII, Templars making backroom deals, Nazis, trips through the snows of Tibet, chases through the desert for ancient artifacts of power, guns, car chases, book auctions, and more Nazis.  And maybe the Ark of the Covenant.  Or Cthulhu.  It all starts with a couple of Nephilim, friends throughout their Incarnations through time, putting up shop in a bookstore.  Who would ever suspect eccentric book collectors in a book store in London?

Start with the Nazis and Occultism resource and work from there.  It’s a fertile ground for great stuff.  Also some high quality crazy.  Simply read through the Internet and assume every rumor about the Nazis and the Occult are true.  Now, stir.

You can get Bookhounds of London from Pelgrane Press. But I assume you already own a copy. Setting is “Extreme pulp.”  It’s not the right system but it’s full of the right flavor.

The 1930s Nephilim Bookhounds vs the Thule vs the Templars game is high on my list of games to run.  

After the lengthy buildup of system, the end chapters of the original Nephilim sourcebook doesn’t provide hints on what to do with the system.  It offers a hodge-podge of secret societies, a bunch of colorless Nephilim NPCs and an unconnected bestiary.  It’s a headscratcher.  A cool magic system and a neat incarnation system dripping with history and the book shows no way forward.  No wonder the game collapsed and the line was canceled; no one could play it because no one knew what to do with it.  The sourcebook glossed over little things like setting and examples.

I’m not a huge fan of the canned adventures at the end of sourcebooks but, somewhere along the way, and I’m not certain when or where, we figured out a game needs all the game bits to be a complete product.  It needs skill/combat resolution systems and character sheets and an example of what to do and where to go.  I don’t run canned adventures (although that may change soon) but I read them.  I like to know what the designers were thinking when they put the system together and use them as an example of how to apply the system. 

Now that I’m at the end of converting the core rules in the core Nephilim sourcebook + a big chunk of Chronicles of the Awakening + scraping some stuff out of Major Arcana, it’s time to do something cool.  So the next big chunk of posts will be everything I can think up, no matter how wacky or bizarre, of things to do with a pack of immortal, occult-obsessed, mystical beings who ride around in fleshy meatbags and chase some philosophical ideal they may never reach because they believe somewhere, out there, if they just are pretty enough, they will get delicious cake.  And such delicious cake it is!

Also, Templars.  

The ideas trotted out are just that — ideas.  And they may be exceptionally lame.  But I’ll try to show off what one can do with Nephilim if one thinks about it super duper hard.  If any of these are GOOD or USEFUL or should be EXPANDED, leave a comment and I’ll work them up past the original 500 words.

Meanwhile, I am slowly shoving webpages into my CMS.  It’s taking me forever, though, but I’m hoping that activity picks up soon.  

Note: I am slowly converting Nephilim, an old Chaosium game, over to Dresden Files FATE. I am just flopping all the posts on my blog because I can tag and collect them all later. This stuff is in no particular order. You can buy Nephilim in PDF from DriveThruRPG for ~$17. You should also buy Dresden Files RPG.

Every Arcanum has a guiding Philosophy, a Core Aspect, a set of Enemies and Allies, Nephilim and Human, and a Stunt offered to members of the Arcana for membership hath its privileges.

Philosophy: “Humans are within the Gate; only when they are Destroyed will the gate be secure enough to open.” Core Aspect: Vengence Overview: The Arcanum of War, both Offensive and Defensive.  All humans with knowledge of magic must be destroyed so Nephilim can once again rule in a Nephilim Golden Age.  The Tower must destroy all Orichulka so Nephilim are immune to human weapons.  We must build high walls to hide magic away from humans, hide our natures from humans, and build a fortress of Nephilim for Nephilim.  Tainted humans must be destroyed. Allies:  The High Priestess, the Emperor, the Chariot.  Enemies: The Magician, the Devil, Death, the Fool. The Black Star, the Templars, the Rosicrucians, the Assassins, the Teutonics. The Tower’s Initiate Stunt (-1): Tcheb.  Retribution.  The Nephilim detects any spell cast by a human using an Elixer, Sacrifice or a stolen Athanor and causes it to rebound back on that human.

Philosophy: “The Gate is the top of the Great Well, and the Key is on the rim.  Let us rise to get it so that it must not be lowered down to us.” Core Aspect: The Astronomers Overview: The watchers of the skies.  Once, long ago, the Stellar Ones* came from the skies and created the Nephilim.  When the Stellar Ones return, all Nephilim will rise up to join them in Agartha.  Thus, we must locate the Stellar Ones on distant star systems and summon them back to show off our progress.  If we are judged worthy, they will bring us through the Gate.  And there will be cookies. Allies: The Wheel, the High Priestess. Sarmoung Brotherhood, Rosicrucians. Enemies: The Magician, the Sun, the Chariot, Hierophant. The Black Star, the Templars. The Star’s Initiate Stunt (-1): Adamic Language.  The Star knows a primal version of Enochian.  As a simplified version of the ancestor of all human languages, it registers in the human mind.  When speaking Adamic, the Star can be understood in any human language.

Philosophy: “Humanity walks down the wrong Path; the Gate is in another direction.”  Core Aspect: Animism Overview: Why be a human when one can incarnate into an animal?  Everyone has tried to get to Agartha in a human form, and everyone fails, so the Moon tries a different tactic by incarnating into an animal Simulacrum.  Only by experiencing the Five Fields in a pure, unfiltered form through animal senses can one master the Sun and reach Agartha. Allies: The High Priestess, the Hermit, the Devil. Neo-Pagan groups. Enemies: The Emperor, the Empress, the Chariot, the Sun. The Moon’s Initiate Stunt (-1): Animal Communication.  The Moon Nephilim can communicate with any animal in its “native tongue.”

Philosophy: “We built the Key once, could we but find it, the Gate would be in our sight.” Core Aspect: The True Believer Overview: Nephilim must capture and use Solar-Ka to progress.  The Golden Path is unquestioned and humans are mobile Solar-Ka collectors.  If Nephilim can figure out the relationship between the Four True Fields and Solar-Ka, Solar-Ka and humanity, humanity and Nephilim, and Nephilim and the Four True Fields, Nephilim would master the Elements and ascend to Agartha.  After two thousand years, this is going “slowly.” Allies: All Nephilim the Sun does not hate.  Mithradites, Rosicrucians, Gypsies. Enemies: The Magician.  The Moon, the Devil, Death, the Fool, the Star, Lovers. Templars, Carbonari, Prieure de Sion, the HIOTES, Fraturnitas Saturnarii. The Sun’s Initiate Stunt (-1):  Khetchut.  Radiance.  The Sun Nephilim goes into a state similar to Shouit to allow Solar-Ka to pour through their bodies.  While in this state, a single spell receives one extra shift of success per Scene.  Meanwhile, the Simulacrum is in control of the body during the spell although the body retains all Nephilim Metamorphosis, Inscribed Spells and Stunts.

* Outer Gods?

Note: I am slowly converting Nephilim, an old Chaosium game, over to Dresden Files FATE. I am just flopping all the posts on my blog because I can tag and collect them all later. This stuff is in no particular order. You can buy Nephilim in PDF from DriveThruRPG for ~$17. You should also buy Dresden Files RPG.

Every Arcanum has a guiding Philosophy, a Core Aspect, a set of Enemies and Allies, Nephilim and Human, and a Stunt offered to members of the Arcana for membership hath its privileges.

Philosophy:“It is the red mist before your own eyes that obscures the Gates from your vision.” Core Aspect: Discipline Over Everything Overview: Khaiba must be destroyed.  It is a perversion.  Once the Nephilim tame their powers, the urge to lose themselves in bestiality will cease and the Path will become clear.  Once all Nephilim learn the proper discipline, the Gate will open and all will Ascend to Agartha. Allies: Temperance, Justice, the Wheel of Fortune.  The Holy Vehm. Enemies: The Devil, the Moon, Death.  Cultes de Goules, Thule. Strength’s Initiate Stunt (-1): A Strength Nephilim has 1 more Khaiba track boxes than normal Nephilim with the same number of Metamorphosis.  For example,  if a Nephilim has 2 stress boxes, a full Strength has 3.  If a Nephilim has 6 stress boxes, a Strength Initiate has 7.

Philosophy: “The Gate is Narrow, Admitting One.” Core Aspect: Solitude Overview: The Hermit is the Arcana of isolation.  The Simulacrum is a prison and a penance, as is the larger material world.  The only way to see the path to truth is to ascend the mountain of isolation.  Once one is in perfect silence, one can study the Five Fields and find the Way to Agartha. Allies: No Nephilim Allies.  Mithradites. and Sarmoung Brotherhood. Enemies: The Emperor.  Templars, Black Star. The Hermit’s Initiate Stunt (-1): Uhi.  Deprivation  A Nephilim can ignore its Simulacrum’s base needs for the duration of a scene, allowing a +1 shift in Discipline for the duration. However, the Simulacrum still has those needs and ignoring them for too long with Uhi can cause harm (physical stress track) to the body.

Philosophy: “We stand inside the Lock; if we can emerge, the Gate stands before us.”* Core Aspect: The Conspirator’s Conspirator Overview: The cosmos is a great Pattern, a Web in which all things connect in a magical labyrinth.  Everything is a sign of something greater, and all these things must be watched, and tracked, and recorded, and discussed.  When the signs are right, we must take action.  When signs are wrong, we must take action!  When seen from above, when the Pattern is mapped, when all connections are understood, the Gate will open and the Nephilim can return home. Allies: Temperance, the Star, the High Priestess, the Sun, Strength, Justice.  Kabalistic Order of the Rosicross, Sarmoung Brotherhood. Enemies: The Hanged Man, Death, the Devil. Order of the Golden Fleece, Templars. The Wheel of Fortune’s Initiate Stunt (-1): Divination.  Allows a free shift when replacing Mystic Perception (Lore) with Alertness when attempting to divine a truth out of a random pattern.  May be used to tag an Aspect on a Scene or location on a successful roll.

Philosophy: “The way to the Gate is the straight and level way.” Core Aspect: The Cosmic Lawyer Overview: Justice is the Arcanum of Balance.  The Path can only be seen when all is in balance.  Those who disrupt the balance obscure the Path.  They must be removed and the Balance restored.  For every action, there must be an opposite and equal reaction. Allies: The High Priestess, the Hierophant, Strength, the Wheel of Fortune, Temperance.  Holy Vehm. Enemies: The Moon, the Hanged Man, the Devil, Death, the Fool, the Magician.  Templars, the Black Star, the Rosicrucians. Justice’s Initiate Stunt (-1): The Nephilim receives a free shift on any skill involved in the law or attaining Balance in the universe.

* Or, “This MEANS something!”

Note: I am slowly converting Nephilim, an old Chaosium game, over to Dresden Files FATE. I am just flopping all the posts on my blog because I can tag and collect them all later. This stuff is in no particular order. You can buy Nephilim in PDF from DriveThruRPG for ~$17. You should also buy Dresden Files RPG.

Every Arcanum has a guiding Philosophy, a Core Aspect, a set of Enemies and Allies, Nephilim and Human, and a Stunt offered to members of the Arcana for membership hath its privileges.

Philosophy: The Arcanum of the Messiah. “Even now He is knocking at the Gate; when we open it the Way will open.”* Core Aspect: He is Coming. Overview: The Fool is the Arcana of a Nephilim Incarnated into a human foetus and be born to lead all, humanity and Nephilim, into a New Age.  All Nephilim must prepare themselves for the Coming of the Fool.  Almost all Nephilim accept Jesus was an Incarnation of the Fool as the Water Messiah, but Nephilim argue over other historical Names as other possible Fools.  They hope for a new Fool and pray it is not the Incarnation of the Orichalkha Fool — because that?  The End Times. The few members of this Arcanum live to Prepare the Way for the Next Messiah. Allies: Moon, Star and Sun.  Weakly Magician. The Prieure de Sion. Enemies: Emperor, High Priestess, Justice, Hierophant.  Templars, the Assassins. Fool’s Initiate Stunt: (-1) The Fool detects any Incarnation of a Nephilim into a new Simulacrum for 100 miles around him instantly.

Philosophy: “You Cannot Ascend Without Leading Others” Core Aspect: The Modern Prometheans. Overview: The Arcanum of Prometheus trains humans in the mysteries of Magic.  The Path to Agartha is through harnessing the Elemental Fields and Solar-Ka as one. Both Nephilim and humans, researching together, can find absolute Truth. Allies: Sun, Chariot.  Rosicrucians. Enemies: Tower, Justice.  Templars, Black Star. Magician’s Initiate Stunt: (-1) Correspondences.  By understanding Correspondences between objects and magic, the Magician receives an automatic +1 shift to overcome Complexity for all spells.

Philosophy: “You Must Find the Key to be Shown the Gate” Core Aspect: The Librarians. Overview: The High Priestess believes the way to Agartha is purposefully hidden and one must amass enough (read: all of) magickal knowledge to unlock the Path.  Those looking for Enlightenment must accumulate enough knowledge to know the right questions to ask the Guardians to be allowed to pass. Allies: Wheel of Fortune, Chariot, Empress, Emperor, Sun.  Prieure de Sion. Enemies: Magician, Devil. Black Star, Order of the Golden Fleece, Templars. High Priestess’s Initiate Stunt: (-1) Shemmut.  The High Priestess can astrally project and enter the Uat, or astral plane.  The Nephilim can then fly to any location without their body for the duration of 1 Scene.  Note: Shemmut may be taught to Wheel, Sun, Moon, and some worthy humans.

Philosophy: “Tools are Built to be Used; and a Craftsman Who Uses Them Well Enough Can Build Any Key She Wishes.” Core Aspect: We Mold Humanity to Our Whims. Overview:  The Empress believes in manipulating humanity into preparing the way for the Empress to ascend the Golden Path.  After all, Nephilim ride around in fleshy meatbag suits, why not encourage them and manipulate them into open the way to Agartha?  She wants humanity to evolve so she can evolve along with it and then one day rule. Allies: Emperor. Prieure de Sion, Ordre de Neuf Soeurs, Carbonari. Enemies: The Fool, the Hanged Man.  Templars, Sisterhood of Isis. Empress’s Initiate Stunt: (-1) Sihu.  The Empress gets a free shift to all Empathy rolls when dealing with humanity, for she loves them best of all.  Sihu does not apply to Summonings.

*The Fool is a special Arcanum and will have his own full article later.