From: [nv 91 asa] at [hitam.nada.kth.se] (Anders Sandberg) Newsgroups: alt.games.whitewolf Subject: Nephandi Beings (Part 1) Date: 25 May 94 16:16:53 Here are some weird and frightening beings allied with the Nephandi. The Eater of Dimensions ------------------------- This is a very strange and threatening being allied with some Nephandi. It isn't exactly a being, more a whole realm, filled with one single being. When it manifests in the Umbra or on Earth, it will use Correspondence 4 to open openings between its target and its own realm. At first they will look like areas of blackish, rotten air, and then holes open up into a space filled with endless writhing tentacles. The tentacles are very thin, grey threads which whip around and seems to dissolve and reform into air all the time. The Eater seems to want space. It literally eats places, by enlarging the holes and dragging the place into itself, where it is dissolved. The place just disappears from reality. It isn't really interested in matter or humans, so it just crushes them and discard the refuse. Often it opens up a hole beside its victim, grips it with its tentacles and squeezes him through the small opening, and then spit out the gore (often into another realm). The Eater seems to lack any personality and greater intelligence. Its just a realm which wants to expand forever by devouring all other realms. However, it is quite useful for the Nephandi to do their dirty work. They just make sure it is summoned to a place they want destroyed, and then they can lean back and watch. The most common way of making the Eater become interested in a place is to place objects (like stones, bottles, cars or people) around it in a certain angular pattern, something most Nephandi intuitively understands. People with Correspondence will notice that the pattern looks strange in some way. The Eater of Dimensions Str: ***** Dex: ***** Sta: ***** Brawl: ***** (all other traits are zero) The tentacles of each opening has wound levels like a ordinary human, and if the tentacles are damaged enough, they will withdraw and the opening will close. However, damage to the opening itself will make it larger, making new tentacles emerge. Each wound to the opening itself will heal a wound level to the tentacles. To close an opening with magick, Correspondence must overcome the Eaters countermagick Arete:5 Correspondence 4 Roleplaying tips: You want more Space! The Teacher ------------ The being known as the Teacher has been with mankind as long as history. It has been called Lucifer, Nyarlathotep, The Black Man and many other things. Its purpose seems to seduce mages into becoming barabbi, and leading Nephandi deeper into alien damnation. It seems to appear as a guide to Nephandi who have undergone an Epiphany, and helps (?) them in becoming even more alien and inhuman. Normally the Teacher will appear in a human form. It is recognised by its intense aura of might and subtle wrongness. From the corner of the eye people might imagine it is surrounded by a grey mist, or feel that there is some kind of disharmonious sounds in the air, just below the threshold of hearing or perhaps as ultrasound. The Teacher normally behaves politely, with and air of subtle irony and well hidden arrogance. It seldom speaks unless asked, and answers in a low, well modulated voice. However, the Teacher will change completely if attacked. It never attacks first, but as it is hurt, its body changes. Its almost like its human form was a projection on a screen, which now is tilted. The Teachers body seems to turn in some unknown direction, loosing its perspective and becoming a distorted, frightening parody of human. Its perspective is all wrong, limbs change shape and angle depending on movement and its voice become somehow "angled", it becomes utterly disconcerting and induces headaches. In this state, the Teacher will become a horrible enemy, ignoring any laws of space or distance, striking people from across the room while bullets miss by miles. The Teacher seems never to get angered, it just seems that its humanity is a facade, its body a three dimensional projection from something far away. While it still behaves and talks like a perfect gentleman, it will distort the shape of people and objects, bending space into knots and causing enormous paradox backlashes. Then it disappears, leaving the survivors to sort things out. The Teacher seems to never get permanently hurt (since its body is probably just an three dimensional extension of a higher dimensional being), and will reappear whenever it feels for it. However, it doesn't have any human motivations, and won't seek revenge or reprisal against attackers. However, it might become interested if somebody seemed to be recruitable. The Teacher teaches secrets beyond mans ken. It knows profound truths about the universe and how reality works, but these are extremely alien. In order to learn them, the student has to become more and more alien to understand them. At first its just mind- bending riddles and weird ideas, but later they become more and more drastic and the exercises practical. The student has to see reality from more and more alien points of view, becoming less and less human. The Teacher is especially good at teaching the spheres, especially Correspondence and Spirit, and also Cosmology, Enigmas and Occult. The Teacher ----------- Essence: unknown Nature: Jester Demeanour: Conformist (traits below are for human form) Str: ** Cha: **** Per: ** Dex: ** Man: **** Int: **** Sta: ** App: ** Wit: *** Arete:5 Correspondence 5 Time 3 Roleplaying Tips: Humans are amusing, even if they don't understand it themselves. Play along with their little games, and see how much foolish things they will do for you just to learn a few, simple facts about the universe. If they become irritating, you scare them a bit and walk away. Some rotes (using Nephandi-Correspondence): Bend Space (Correspondence 5) The Teacher can bend the shape of an object (like a human arm) into a new shape, and it will remain in that condition for a while (or permanently). It is not the object itself that is bent, but the space it takes up. A gun with a bent barrel will still function perfectly, but the bullets will fly quite unpredictably. A bent arm can still be used, but it becomes extremely hard to use it since it doesn't move in any reasonable way. [ To use an object (like a gun or a sword), the user must succeed with intelligence + enigmas against a difficulty of 8 (more or less depending on circumstances). To use a limb, the user must succeed with dexterity + enigmas. ] Angle (Correspondence 5) The Teacher hits somebody, and makes him rotate a bit out of synch with ordinary space. The effect is direct and frightening; everything is still there, but somehow angled into new and unexpected shapes. A ball will look like an ellipsoid, humans appear as distorted shadows of themselves and just walking through a room is a hard task. It is quite simple to get lost, and many victims wander off completely from normal reality. From the perspective of others, the victim appears as warped and angled strangely. The Teacher sometimes use this against its students, forcing them to see the universe in a completely new way. Four Dimensional Kill (Correspondence 5) The Teacher simply makes the space around the victim four dimensional. Blood, organs and skeleton start to leak out through the fourth dimension, causing a slow and grisly death. Four Dimensional Grip (Correspondence 3) The Teacher can reach into enclosed spaces and remove items. It is for example quite simple for it to reach into the stomach of somebody and knot their guts or rip out their heart without damaging anything else. But by using the bend space effect, it can even remove inner organs while they still are doing their work; a removed heart will still pump the blood of the victim, a removed brain will still think while lying in the hands of the Teacher. This is sometimes used by it for some truly weird teachings, where the student is more or less disassembled and sent on strange journeys in many directions at once. Material Entities ("Gremlins") ------------------------------ These beings lack own bodies, and when they manifest in a physical form, they animate dead matter. Using their powers, they can make otherwise rigid objects bend and move, and they can control machines. For example, a being can animate a marble statue, giving it the power to move and act. It is still hard marble, but the marble changes shape when it moves. A being possessing a car can make it move as it wish, override what the driver does, lock the doors and possibly make it crunch together. A being possessing a knife can make it jump through the air at a target, and burrow into its flesh. An Entity doesn't see the world very well (except using the senses of the possessed object, if it has such). They see it from an Umbral level, noticing mostly life and magickal things but having great trouble distinguishing material things. They are attracted to strong negative feelings like fear, pain and death, and seek out sources of them directly. On the other hand, they feel Paradox as pain, so they try to avoid sources of paradox. Nephandi sometimes use these beings to attack their enemies, defend their labyrinths or just set them loose in the world to cause suffering. Often they appear in large schools, hunting together. They are not very bright, and don't understand much. They follow orders to the letter, often without any imagination at all. Subtlety is above them, and they prefer blunt, direct approaches. As soon as their victim begins to feel negative emotions (like fear when glass shards start to creep around), they will zoom in on the source, often causing even more negative emotions (like combined fear and pain when the shards pierce the flesh). This makes them even more active, and they will continue trying to cause more negativity as long as possible. When they cannot extract any more, they go dormant if there is no other sources in the vicinity. Dormant entities can remain so for a long time, but often succumb to the paradox they have garnered during the wait. Arete: 3 Matter 3 Animate matter. the being can animate a material object and make it change shape to move, or control its actions. Most beings can't use the more subtle functions (like reprogramming a computer), and prefer simple physical actions (like strangling a victim with the power cord). [ The number of successes will equal the beings physical traits, modified by the nature of the animated object. For example, a statue will increase strength and stamina with 2, a car strength, dexterity and stamina with 4 and a pane of glass decrease the stamina with 2. ] Mind 2 The being can feel sources of negative emotions in the vicinity. Mind 1 The being will always understand the capabilities of any object it possesses. If it becomes a car, it will know all functions of the car (but no traffic rules). The Nameless God ---------------- | | | | | | /\ \ | | \/ \ | | -------- | | \ /\ | | \ \/ | | | | | | This being is one of the least known and understood beings from the Deep Umbra. The few mages who have dealt with it have left contradictory reports about it. It seems to have no difficulty manifesting on Earth, despite its paradoxical manifestations. It lacks any name except a strange symbol, which is its insignia. It seems to be both mindless and coldly planning. When the Nameless God manifests, it manifests as impenetrable darkness filled with the flutter of wings and far of cries of birds. When manifesting inside buildings, in darkness or confined spaces it doesn't have any shape, it fills the shadows and absorbs the light. When manifesting outside, in sunlight, it will manifest as a broad pillar of darkness, stretching into the sky. It doesn't have any limbs or pseudopodia, just darkness. It doesn't have any physical presence, and thrown objects pass right through it. Or disappear. The being has some worshippers, people who try to appease or serve it. Most of these were quite ordinary people who one day was approached by the being and were converted. They seem to be slightly deranged, but its hard to notice their strangeness. They seem also to have an intuitive knowledge of what their god want and what to do. According to its worshippers, the Nameless God (Or the Bird-Darkness) is the God of Endings. It rules over everything that ends, from the sudden death of a loved one to the end of a movie. Its Atropos, the power that cuts off the thread of life and existence. The worshippers build crude temples wherever they can find a good place, erect something to work as an altar and inscribe it with the symbol of their god. Many such temples are decorated with strange things that the worshipers feel fit, like discarded trash, random newspaper clips about endings, clothes from victims or paintings of the god. They end (i.e. sacrifice) things, plants, animals and humans for the god, which will appear, and when it disappears the sacrifices will have disappeared too. Some worshipers are more specialised, like one old man who acquired artworks from artists, and then make sure he is killed so the work is the last ever of the artist. It is then placed in his temple. Another group used a crude altar of crates in a warehouse to sacrifice food and magazines. The god accepted the sacrifices of both groups. One odd property of the god is that it dislikes circles. It cannot cross a circle, either drawn or implied (like drawn in the air with a finger). Maybe its because a circle has no end, and thus is resistant to the god. Badly drawn circles or just implied circles will not hold it for long, and soon it will leak over them. Another very strange thing about the nameless god is how it selects its high priests. The High Priest will not normally die, although he will age normally. The god protects the priest from serious accidents and physical dangers. But if somebody tries to kill the High Priest the god will not interfere, and choose the killer as a new Priest. Unlike the other worshipers, who voluntarily serve it, the new High Priest is very seldom inclined to serve it, and will most often try to escape. But this is impossible, since the god can appear everywhere. It will protect him from any large physical danger (non lethal dangers are ignored), and wait. From time to time it appears before the High Priest, in his dreams or in the real world. The worshippers often appear, and try to make him join them. Every time he a accepts being High Priest, the darkness of the Nameless God will absorb more of his mind. The process is finished when the High Priest performs his first completely voluntary sacrifice to the god. The only way of escaping priesthood is by being killed, and then the killer become new High Priest. Suicide is not an option, because the god will heal it. It will never give up, and the victim will never die. Escaping the Nameless God requires extreme cleverness, and even then its improbable. Manifestation of the Nameless God: Nature: Silent Demeanour: Silent Physical traits: None. The being never seems to interact with the physical world in any normal manner. It will move rather slowly most of the time (about walking speed), but can flow forward with a considerable speed if it wants. Mental Traits: Probably none. The God does not communicate to anybody than the worshippers, and they just intuitively know what is expected of them. Skills: Probably none. Arete 6 Willpower: No apparent mind. Paradox: It doesn't seem to mind paradox, but never appears in public, preferring to meet its worshippers alone. Correspondence 5 Entropy 5 Mind 5 Usually the god flows into a place from nowhere, probably a Correspondence/Spirit effect. It can also transport things which enter it (like a thrown knife or a car) to other places, or just let them disappear forever. It seems to be always aware of the whereabouts of its followers, and can give them intuitive knowledge of its wishes. It doesn't normally hurt people who wander into it, but they can wander forever inside the darkness and birdcries. Its not known if its just one being or several, since several pillars of darkness have been seen at the same time, but may be due to colocation of the being. | | | | | | /\ \ | | \/ \ | | -------- | | \ /\ | | \ \/ | | | | | | -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! [nv 91 asa] at [hemul.nada.kth.se] GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y