Godbound/Scion: The Titans, Part 2

A continuation of last month's expansion/rework of the Titans. These include Titans from not one but three different pantheon and Titanic Realm/origin, united by the common thread of their role within the setting.

The Progenitor Of Monsters

The most simplistic and obvious role for a Titan is to act as a direct or indirect source for monstrous antagonist. There is nothing inherently wrong with such a 'simple' feature and role, however. Mythologically speaking, monsters play an important role. They also happen to be quite iconic, always interesting, weird and most importantly very cool for people to use in their games. Monsters inspire both awe and terror in equal measure. Even in the 20th and 21st century we remain obsessed with monsters, our popular culture replete with supernatural monstrosities, alien terrors, demented slasher and the byproduct of science gone wrong. The monster is both an 'other' and a force of nature, primeval and terrible.

Some Titans are particularly tied to the birthing of monsters. It simply is in their very nature to be these dreaded forces of primordial fertility, giving birth to uncountable terrors. As some of the Titans have stirred, they have started to cast a shadow on the world. Their offspring have begun to slip through the 'cracks in the world' to terrorize a new generation of mortal and heroes alike.

Tiamat

Associated Realms: Beast, Water

Godbound Word: Beast, Fertility and Sea

Art by Victor Adame

The ever-fecund and primordial Tiamat is among the most archetypal of the Titans-as-progenitor. She is called the 'Mother of all Monsters' and is hideous to behold, an impossible amalgam of all traits which both exist and do not exist in nature. Tiamat's form is that of all beasts and monsters who ever threatened mankind and the Gods. With the Titans stirring, Tiamat's influence has crept back and her brood has begun to encroach upon the world and domain of the gods alike. In time she may seek to resurrect her husband, Apsu, but for now the direct threat she pose to any Scion is through the proliferation of her broods.

Limitless in their forms and permutation (but with a slight preference for predatory animals and sea monsters, naturally), the myriad offsprings of Tiamat run the gamut of small (relatively speaking) predatory monsters with limited intellect to much more dangerous beasts with shocking mental capacity, albeit ever predatory and primal. The greatest of her spawns are more akin to being likened to great dragons but this nomenclature is purely a side effect of modern popular culture associating great, vaguely reptilian beasts as 'dragons'. Her brood is truly limitless.

Spawns of Tiamat

As previously mentioned, Tiamat has an endless variety of Titanspawns of all shape and size obeying the will of their great mother. Her offspring are creature of primal aspects of beasts and ancient chaos, with maws filled with row of teeth, great wingspan or coiling tails which encircle entire buildings. Many of them display poisonous traits in some capacity.

• The least of Tiamat's Spawn are analogous to not only Thralls, but also the Chimera and Nemean, even if some argue that Tiamat's equivalent to such creature are a breed apart from the 'baseline' Nemean, if such a thing is even possible. Tiamat does not create human-derived Thralls (her essence is too distinct and opposite to humanity) and instead her 'primordial mud' or 'ichor' infuse animals of all kind.
• The ranks of Tiamat's Titanspawns lacks Giants in the traditional sense. While many of her spawns are indeed gigantic creatures, very few if any are of a humanoid body plan.
• Tiamat does not and cannot create Scion. Her nature is fundamentally opposite to humanity.

Echidna

Associated Realms: Beast, Earth

Godbound Word: Beast, Fertility and Might or Alacrity

Art by Genzoman

On the surface, Echidna is very much like Tiamat. Both are primordial creatures and bear a title of 'Mother of Monsters'. The devil is in the details, of course: for one thing Echidna is the child of Gaia and an ever so slightly less primordial monstrosity than Tiamat. Her form include human elements and she is a much more seductive entity: beautiful, fecund and rapacious. She is the monstrous mother of the greatest and most iconic of mythological beasts, such as the infamous Chimera. Each of her children became such a myth that they became a byword for all later monsters.

Tiamat's brood is endless but Echidna is a crafter and nurturer. Her monstrous children are quality over quantity. She doesn't really love her children in a traditional sense and can be a harsh parent but her spawns which survive their short childhood and her dangerous tutelage are dangerous beasts. She nurse a powerful grudge against the Gods, especially the Greek ones, who have treated her offspring as almost of a diversion to challenge and amuse their Scion.

Spawns of Echidna

Echidna's children tend to be less chaotic and nightmarish than Tiamat's mishmashes monsters. They tend to combine features of two or more animals into an amalgamated whole, with the Chimera being the most famous example of these. Like a cross between a mad scientist and an obsessives parent with expectations too high for their children, the modern Echidna is obsessively breeding 'the next big thing'. A new monster for the new era, the modern Chimera.

• Like Tiamat, Echidna mainly produce Chimeras (fittingly!) and Nemean. Its only fair, given these two terms come from two of her infamous children. Unlike Tiamat, who prefer predatory animals, Echidna has no particular preferences and anything non-human will do. Her most mundane creations compensate any lack of power with sheer ferocity and vigor.
• The Titanspawns of Echidna are all animalistic amalgamation. She has never directly recreated her 'classics' (such as the original Chimera) but some of the lesser descendants of these original spawns may still exist.
• The rare Scions of Echidna are all born Scions. Echidna is quite capable of taking the form of a beautiful woman with rapacious sexual appetite and she often mate with mortal men, only to devour them. She doesn't control completely what is born as a Scion and what is born as a Titanspawn and in some cases she has birthed twins, one which is human-like and one which is a monster completely removed from humanity.

Shuten-Doji

Associated Realms: Destruction(?), Chaos(?)

Godbound Word: Might, Endurance and Sorcery

Art by Christian Villacis

Some Titans and their Avatars are well defined things. Others are somewhat more complicated to ascertain, as their identities and mantles have been passed down through the ages. Both Shuten-Doji and Ibaraki-Doji have been associated with the status of being 'Leaders of the Demons in Japan' but where exactly they come from and what Titan they are associated with is a bit unclear. Having once faded into myth following its defeat by the potential Scion Minamoto Raikou, a new Shuten Doji has emerged with the stirring of the Titans in the modern day. As with all beings labelled as 'Oni', they are a dangerous creature of immense physical power. This new Shuten-Doji is just as much an agent of chaos and destruction as the original.

Unlike Tiamat and Echidna, Shuten-Doji doesn't directly birth its minions. Instead, styling itself as a power hungry warlord, it recruit most of its minion to its cause. Power, pleasure and more drive the various agenda of Shuten-Doji rather than true political or ideological cause. They are hedonist in the purest, simplest and most barbaric form: they enjoy good food, good wine (well, any alcohol really) and women. Or, men, too as the Oni hordes of the modern Shuten Douji include folks of all sex and tastes. In his own twisted way, Shuten-Douji is an egalitarian. Only might, cruelty and dedication to mayhem really matters to his minions. Anyone who disagree is free to disagree and let their fists decide.

Spawns of Shuten-Doji

A sizeable portion of Shuten-Doji's minions are miscellaneous Oni, as well as semi independent Giants from different mythologies which have flocked to his banner. Those minions which Shuten-Doji creates aren't born directly from him but, rather, he empower hordes of Thralls and mold men and beast into monsters more akin to himself: larger, powerful and rapacious. While Tiamat and Echidna represent monsters and beasts born of nature itself, it could be said Shuten-Doji's hordes are monsters born of mankind. Humanity reduced to its most petty self.

• Titanspawns of Shuten-Doji are rare, but generally created through indirect means rather than directly from Shuten-Doji itself. Their form is, invariably, that of Oni. Which is to say they are large and monstrous, ogre-like creatures. Horns, brightly colored skins and tusks are the norm. In addition to those he create, Shuten-Doji also 'adopt' rogue Giants and Titanspawns into himself.
• There are Scions of Shuten-Doji and most are Chosen, from those mortals who would be best suited to be Shuten Doji's generals rather than mere thralls. Given the sexual appetite of Oni, there are also born Scion of Shuten-Doji but his chaotic nature mean they are just as likely to rebel against him as they are to obey him.

Godbound/Scion: The Titans, Part 1

Recently I've finally gotten the chance to give a decently thorough reading of Scion's Second Edition and its lore. As is typical and expected of White Wolf Onyx Path, just about everything in there is seriously quite the mixed bag. For every idea expanded and reworked into something better suited to developing a campaign and characters there are ten more terrible ideas. In particular, the Titans have seen a fairly massive chance: their nature and roster, in particular, have been both expanded and yet also contracted. Titans have gained in variety and what is defined as a 'Titan' as well as gained new and interesting ways to interact with the world. Yet, at the same time, they have become smaller (pun intended). Gone are the massive Titan Realms and the idea that Titans are these vaster, more primordial beings, at least in comparison to 1st edition lore.

This is my own rework of the Titans, combining what I personally consider to be the best part of either version of the lore, as well as notes and scraps which survived from John's Scion Resources. There will be quite a bit of incoherence where the old lore meet the new lore. This is perfectly intentional, as this gray area of where the lore changed between version of the games add further gray areas to what Titans are as well as what they could be.

A lot of these ideas also overlap with my Urban Fantasy concepts. This is because I've taken quite a bit of cues over the years from games such as Scion. Unsurprisingly a lot of material could end up reused in some capacity for either games and, as such, these posts are also tagged as 'Urban Fantasy'.

The Nature of Titans

Marduk vs Tiamat by Christian Johnson

Defining what a Titan is will be a complicated matter, as previously mentioned, due to the fusion of 1st and 2nd edition lore. Some of them are truly massive, primordial beings, less of an individual and more of an aspect of a greater concept, as these often were in the game's first edition. Others are more classified as such due to their action and nature in opposing the gods of a pantheon. Then there are beings which would be Titan by nature, but aren't because they aren't directly opposed to the gods of a pantheon. The Titans are beings which can/must include on or more the following traits in order to be classified as a Titan:

• Some Titans are Titans by Nature. All Titans share a connection with one or more concept of the natural world. This doesn't always make a being a Titan, as there are obviously Gods tied to such concepts, but the Titanic beings whose nature is Titan-like tend to embody these concepts on a less 'human' level and more of a 'conceptual' level which makes them appear more alien to the Gods and mortals alike.
• Some Titans are by Calling, which make them beings whose archetypal nature make them enemies of the Gods. They are adversarial, destructive and/or tyrannical beings which the Pantheon have held at bay, defeated and/or locked away.
• Some Titans are simply Titans because they are Monstrous. There may be gods with monstrous traits, yes, but some Titans are monsters on an archetypal level. This is the natural state of beings such as Jormungandr, Apep or Typhon. These also include beings which are Titans-like or Titan-derived through their own nature, even if they seemingly defy taxonomy.

This slightly contradictory nature does mean that the Titan roster include both the vast, cosmic beings of 1st Edition (which were called Titan Avatars) as well as the more oddball beings of 2nd edition which are always tied to a specific element or concept. Some Titans are tied to the Titanrealms (which are both a location and part of their body/essence) while others are more akin to rogue agents.

• Titans can create Titanspawns, which is the somewhat catch-all term for their minions. How exactly they are created varies, ranging from actual physical birth to more abstract creation as well as the infusion of a Titan's power into another being, such as creating massive Nemean beasts or deliberate twisting of a mortal into a semi-divine monstrosity.
• A rare few Titans can create Scions. This is not a common ability, especially not for the more primordial of the Titans but the 'lesser' of the Titans, those singular beings of great power and destruction often posses the ability to create Scions. Generally most posses only a single mean/type of Scion they create, such as creating them the 'old fashioned way' (such as the rogue being and enemy of the Shen, 'White Eyebrows' impregnating a woman) or through slightly more arcane creation means. A rare few Titans have taken up the concept of Chosen or Incarnation, but this is a somewhat slow and abstract process where a mortal is slowly remolded, through their actions (accidental or deliberate) into a Scion/incarnation of a Titan.

Urban Fantasy: The Astral Border

There is more to the world than our universe as we know it. Some believe Earth and its universe could be the center of the universe, part of (or even a minor fragment) of some great Axis Mundi. Indeed countless beliefs and myths speak of such places and the worlds which exist beyond our own, from the terra incognita to the abodes of the gods. Such places are indeed real. Getting there, however, well that's going to be much harder and one need a starting place to reach the greater Supernatural Realms. As one can guess, the term 'Supernatural Realm' is the generic term for what Silent Legions calls a 'Kelipah'.

The Astral Border

Liminal space(?)

The Astral Border, as the name implies, is (in part) what exist between the material and immaterial world. The reason why the description says 'in part' is because there's a bit more going on there. There are two ways to access it: projection or physical travel, with each version having its own downside. Projection is the classic 'astral projection' where one's consciousness leave the body. It carries the obvious downside of one not bringing their full body to another world and instead walking into another realm with a thought form body, turning oneself into a temporary form of Spirit. The alternative is to enter physically, where one has their full body and capabilities but this carries the downside of making escape infinitely harder since one is fully within another realm.

Defining reality within the Astral Border is a complicated matter, as it is a series of locations (or perhaps just one location?) which exist between solid reality and the higher realms and conceptual locations. It also greatly overlap and connect to thought-realms such as Dreams and even possibly the cancerous pit from which all Demons emerge, a dark reflection of every evil thought of mankind. As a result, the Border is an ever-changing dreamscape-like location which makes mapping it completely and utterly pointless. How fluid the realm is and one's direct surroundings are can vary immensely of course, based on a variety of rather arbitrary factors. Generally speaking, the initial phase of the Border's appearance will be influenced by one's material surrounding and become an extension of it. A wall my suddenly split open, sprouting a new corridor with a door at the end which can either take one to a new location or simply lead to more bizarre reflections of the location, depending on a variety of factors such as: one's mastery of accessing the Border, one's mental state, one's time of day and/or any other number of completely arbitrary points. The Border is not a three dimensional space, it is a thought space and it contain both one's own thoughts and perception but also that of nearby individuals, the general mindset of an entire region and/or even the will of often eldritch Border Entities.

Certain locations which are steeped in history, both real and supernatural, have a habit of having their own 'style' of Border, recurring thoughts, ideas and landscapes which may stretch for miles on end and beyond. For example, London has a habit of its Border stretching into increasingly old fashioned landscaped haunted by fog and lit by lanterns, with abandoned carriages giving off a strange impression of an empty and almost post-apocalyptic London at the age of Jack the Ripper while Cairo will stretch into a mish mash of building, drawing inspiration from a fusion of Pharaonic Egypt, Ptolemic Egypt and of course modern architecture where ancient antediluvian cursed tombs fuse near seamlessly with the Cairo Metro system. Urban center have a habit of forming dense, multi-dimensional expanses of empty buildings inside more empty buildings, a reflection of how these cities are perceived and what they embody.

Travelling The Border

The main use for this strange extra-dimensional space is to use it as a temporary stop from our world to another reality. Because distances have no true meaning within the Border, it can connect to any and all realities and domains, given enough time and effort to travel down its ever-changing paths. The Border can be an interesting GM tools (and is very much how I use it), as it enable travel to far-flung locations without needing too much of securing a specific path or spell. The obvious downside of the Border, however, is time. While time within it can be a tad relative (what with not having any real sun or moon to keep track of), it nonetheless flows 1:1 with one's own reality. As a result, a trip through the Border to a different Realm can take days or weeks, assuming one doesn't get into serious trouble. Even with a stable landscape, it can take days of travel on foot or even on boat across imaginary oceans. As a result, it can be as close as one can get to wilderness travel and exploration in an urban fantasy game, which can be a nice (or annoying, it depend) change of pace.

Travelling the Border is very much rife with 'random encounters' too, some of which indeed are very random even in-universe. The Border is positively crawling with Spirits, or rather Astral Lifeforms. These simplistic entities are given form and shape by their environment, but their function is fairly similar all around. As Astral Predators gather around fresh human mind and souls to consume, they create a temporary shell of existence based around whatever form the Border has taken there. Some may animate from concrete and wires as shambling urban golem while others may take the form of fantastical beasts when inside the Border's wilderness yet they remain the same simplistic life forms.

Urban Fantasy: The Demon Lords (and do they even exist?)

Ahriman by Pouya Zarif.

Spirits exist and the greatest among them are considered to be 'Gods', be they cosmic entities tied into greater concepts of the universe and/or archetypal beings drawn from human myths both real and remembered or imaginary and forgotten. But then Demons also exist so, logically, there must exist out there demonic beings of immense power: these would be the big name demons people hear pop up in popular culture, right? Belzebuub, Satan, Moloch and other things. The scary names people use in Heavy Metal music to frighten moral guardians in the '70 and '80.

Except there's a few problems.

For one thing, there is a lot which remain unknown about Demons because Demons constantly lie. Should someone gather the personal journal of a thousand people who have extensively delved into fighting monsters and sorcerers they would find multiple references to names drawn from Judeo Christian apocrypha as well as 'Pagan' religions. Demons who have used names like Zagan, Valefor, Mephisto and Azrael. Demons who have claimed to have been there at the dawn of time, when Lucifer turned nearly half of God's host of Angels against Heaven. Except none of that shit lines up at all. Most demons encountered in the past few centuries were dangerous creatures but not so dangerous and powerful as to be some god-like entity from the dawn of time. There are also massive inconsistencies in their powers, appearance, personalities and more. Basically, Demons appear to be passing around identities and mantles all the time to the point whatever name and face they show is always at least a partial lie. None of these bastards are who they claim to be.

The 'Demon Lords' of 'Hell'

So, do the Demon Lords exist? Are there 'evil Gods' out there, beings which have the pure malevolence and embodiment of suffering and imperfections of the world of common Demons, but possess the archetypal scope of a God? Probably. One issue here is that many Demons of pseudo canonical sources are Pagan Gods redressed and re-contextualized into 'Demons'. If someone out there use ancient Greek magic to draw power and favors from Pan the Greek God, is Pan a Demon because of his later associations? Obviously not. So what the hell is going on here, anyway?

Demon Lords are powerful, archetypal mantle. They are beings which are too vast to fully manifest into our world. Very few individuals ever truly meet them: at best they encounter some aspect or proxy of them, itself a lesser Demon lacking a true will of its own. Each of them is less of an individual and more of an archetypal embodiment of a certain vice or corruption which is reflected across the multiverse in the form of lesser Demons. None of them truly birth those demons or 'sins' but instead they exist as a manifestation of our own evils and can be drawn to the service of these arch-demons. Demon Lords exist in alternate dimension of pure suffering and horror. That place can be called Hell but it is not the Judeo-Christian Hell. Indeed, it is not a specific Hell or even an afterlife but rather a three (or more) dimensional place in which the spiritual essence of these Demon Lords exist in the form of vast domains where the soul(?) of those which have sold themselves to their power are tormented and extracted of whatever it is which sustain Demons.

The ranks of the Demon Lords are speculated to include, but aren't limited to:

• Mammon, Lord of Greed: In many ways Mammon is the least directly dangerous of the Demon Lords. As Lord of Greed and corruption he has very little to gain in destroying worlds across the multiverse and is merely interested in collecting the soul of those who are driven by greed and the power of money. From his point of view he already own the world so why break it? On the flipside this makes him a possible ally as Mammon is lazy. It is worth noting that contrary to popular belief, Mammon is not simply a byproduct of the modern world. Greed is universal.
• Moloch, Lord of Sacrifice: Second to Mammon when it come being the Demon Lord to which powerful individuals answer to, yet Moloch has a twist to him. As those with all the power, wealth and fame get more they paradoxically have less to offer to Moloch. As a creature of evil and suffering he only care for the act of sacrifice and unlike Mammon has little to gain in keeping on the top those he helped placed there. As such Moloch plays all sides at the same time and is just as likely to help the boot as he is to help the face. All that matters to him is what people suffer when sacrifice things to him. When the 'resistance' wins the day and declare the tyrant dead and ignore the mountain of corpses they create and will create, Moloch laughs and prepare to offer his help to the counter side which now has nothing to lose...
• Baphomet, The Occult Lie: Legends say Baphomet was born of misunderstanding as the Muslims cried the name of their prophet which was misheard as 'Baphomet'. It might be that the archetype which would become Baphomet took its name from the story and given how much Demons lie, such a misunderstanding seems perfect breeding ground for a demonic name. Baphomet is a Demon Lord of taboo, the occult and the perverse and a powerful patron of sorcerers who give deliberately perverted/altered knowledge of spells and rituals. He is utterly unrelated to any actual religious figures but rather represent deliberate perversion of them.
• Beelzebub, Lord of Lies: If there is any connection with Beelzebub and the Philistine God, then it is likely the demonic archetype stole the name and, obviously, lied about it. He and his minions rarely go by that name, meaning they lie even more than other Demons which is no easy feat by itself. Their goals, if any, are unknown and it is likely that as demons they simply scheme, lie and manipulate for the sake of it.
• Leviathan, the Beast of the Depths: Leviathan is an odd one and difficult to define, sometimes going by the name of Rahab. He is less of a Demon Lord and more akin to some primordial, almost Lovecraftian being and may not have begun its existence as a Demon. Leviathan draws power from the depth, madness, antediluvian powers and the like and spread suffering through its eldritch influence. As he is associated with Envy, some believe Leviathan spread its unholy influence to try to make the mortal world more like his antediluvian depths so he may emerge in this world.

Much of what is understood (which isn't much) of Demon Lords is heavily tinged with Western folklore and occult and it might be what could cause the misunderstanding, as these beings are more accurate to be compared with the the Dev of Zoroastrianism than the Fallen Angel demons of Judeo Christian or Islamic folklore. Demon Lords are more akin to an embodiment of a concept which makes the world a place where suffering, lies and imperfections exist.

Urban Fantasy: Astral Life forms

We generally assume that 'life' is of the material: cells formed of proteins forming a larger organism. Yet life exist beyond the material, composed of the paradoxical 'immaterial matter': stray thoughts, concepts and ideas. As always, these discussions return to the concept of Spirits yet they are not the only form of immaterial life. There exist a parallel 'order' of immaterial beings which are Spirits but not quite Spirits with a capital S. Thoughts, ideas and mental energy form their ephemeral bodies but they are not driven by their embodiment of concepts. These creatures are of a lower, more primal order. They are crude, often almost mindless creatures. They are often animal, predators or parasites.

Astral Entities

Art by Jurasbatas.

Astral Entities are a form of Spirit in so much that they are made of spiritual matter and can be repelled or controlled by the same means a more defined, or 'proper' Spirit can. The difference is that Astral Entities are the 'animals' of the Spirit World. This term can be a bit confusing, as there exist spirits of animals which embody animalistic  traits but Astral Entities exist aside from them. Their 'spiritual bodies' and composition is crude, with little more than a limited intellect, sensory abilities and some mean to attack and kill living beings (or, in some cases, parasite them). They are of a lower order of complexity, much in the way we'd consider bacteria or virus to be 'less' than a human given how complex we are. Yet these things can and do kill us and the same is true for an Astral Entity. Phantovores are an example of creatures which straddle this line.

By themselves these creatures drift across countless astral spaces, immaterial and mostly unthinking, feeding off stray mental energies mostly harmlessly. In our daily lives we encounter an uncountable number of these entities as they brush off our reality for a split second, to the even spiritually aware people don't even notice them. The danger emerges when one enters another dimension, another world or plane of existence where the spiritual and material are one and the same. By themselves most Astral Entities are too weak and stupid to ever enter our world but when someone impede upon their domain and hunting ground they will pounce. Since Astral Entities have no true form, they will shape themselves to become part whatever psychic environment one is visiting, assuming fake forms which are thematically appropriate.

Astral Entities, by themselves, are at best an environmental hazard or a one off random encounter to explain to players that sticking too long in some spiritually active areas might be a bad idea, as it might attract hungry metaphysical predators. They aren't particularly interesting monsters by themselves. However, these creatures can be used as part of a greater adventure:

• Any antagonist to the PC with access to spirit-related abilities or spells could use such a knowledge to harass the PC, summoning predators to hunt them down and keep them away from astral planes. These creatures would take the form of hunting beasts and attack them whenever they are either isolated or close to a spiritually potent area. Thus, they can be used as 'mooks' by an antagonist. Weak but eternally replenishing minions.
• Most Astral Entities are fairly weak but a singular, high HD one could have become stable enough and established a lair in an area of some other plane, where it thereafter functions much in the same way as any monster with a lair, making the area difficult to approach. Given their form reflect the themes of an area, this can potentially be used to change the pace and use some monster from another genre or game.
• Astral Parasites can be the focus of an adventure. They are similar in function but they don't eat those they attack, instead implanting a spiritual 'egg', much like how some wasps (or the Xenomorph) do. Once it is done sucking on the mental energies of the host it pops out, temporarily with Manifestation at Rank A and attack, implanting its own eggs in the process. Left unchecked this can create an epidemic.
• Astral Entities can also be used by players as temporary minions or even messengers, should they need to acquire and send information but suspect their phones or other methods to be spyed upon.

Urban Fantasy: To Not Shy Away From Vice

This is a more unusual post, as it pertain to society and politics but also how it relates to my ongoing work on my Urban Fantasy setting. This isn't exactly a pleasant post and I'm sure that, of all ten people who actually read this blog most will find offense in my rambles. So be it, then. Much of this is going to come as a bit of ramble and incoherent but generally I'm poor at structuring my own words and ideas anyway.

To Not Shy Away From Vice

Let's not beat around the bush here: we are currently living through a mass hysteria, where everything can and must be 'cancelled', erased, destroyed and/or repurposed. In the name of supposedly good ideals we are destroying ourselves and our past. This is what is deemed to be 'Virtue' and to oppose such mindless self-destruction is considered to be 'Vice'. Therefore, this post is me Vice Signalling where others would signal their Virtue. It is what it is, but nonetheless I will explain my position.

There are many times, when writing about or GMing my Urban Fantasy game that I have to address the darker parts of human nature because it is what it is. So why do I call this to 'To Not Shy Away', then? Simple: because self censorship in the name of a certain good is not good, but evil. The cosmos of my Urban Fantasy setting is very human-centric, with the very nature, existence and expression of what makes us human at its very core unlike other worlds where humanity is insignificant. As such a  fundamental value expressed within that world is that the potential for Good and Evil exist in us all. It is a view where pessimism and optimism exist in equal amount. 'Evil' within that world is limited to a type of person or to a certain group, civilization, culture or religion. 'Evil' is what is born from the absence of good and, most importantly, the void created when our very humanity is something we reject and let me tell you: this is no greater embrace of inhumanity than self-destruction. This can take many form, including deliberately shying away from the darker side of humanity to coddle oneself and wrap oneself into an echo chamber.

There are no guidelines at my table (be it a real tabletop or online). There are no rules and no oath anyone will ever force me to take. Do note I wrote force, as obviously trying to be a responsible adult (haha as if!) and adapting to avoid what would truly, seriously disgust my players and friends is fine however that would be something done willingly out of respect for an individual, not to some faceless collective. Unless something is of an issue which someone I trust and respect goes "Well, I don't really like that topic" then I will never shy away from the darker sides of humanity. We are not children. Lastly, to deny the existence of human vices and warts is fundamentally wrong, as is coddling ourselves in believing that only certain individuals are capable of good or evil.

Or, to be crass: Fuck your puritan mindset, I do what I want when I want and you won't stop me from going into horror and disturbing topics. If I am a demon, so are you.

Urban Fantasy: The Unnamed and Unknown Gods

Consider this post a bit of an expansion on my previous thoughts on H.P. Lovecraft and his mythos and how it related to my Urban Fantasy setting. However, the long story short is this: Lovecraft's work is amazing and full of great ideas for me to rip off get inspired by but directly using his Mythos undermines many of its key points. In this particular case, its the cliché of evil cults worshiping some weird forgotten God. This draw inspiration from Lovecraft as much as it does from more recent subject matters, such as the bizarre cases of Pepe the Frog becoming equated with an ancient Egyptian God of Primordial Darkness, of all damn things.

Unnamed and Forgotten, Yet Alive

Art by Jon Torres

One could argue humanity fundamentally craves a higher power. After all, in this day and age so many ideas about society and politics are basically elevated to religion, which is about all I will say on the matter before people give me crap. However, this concept is important to understand the rest: the very human desire for a higher purpose, a higher power and possibly even using said higher calling for the purpose of gaining power. These are very human concepts which many individuals crave for a variety of reasons. Our thoughts, ideas and myths shape the world or are shaped by it, as it is a chicken and egg scenario. The point being, this craving and need is a very real, tangible psychic force when it come to the supernatural. This is the first part of the equation.

The second part is a forgotten god. There are countless deities, monsters and demons scattered across all of humanity's history all across the multiverse and different timelines. After all, who remembers whatever proto-deities where worshiped at the tail end of the stone age? Who remember the Gods and Heroes of forgotten tribes destroyed in ancient wars or plagues centuries before the history-defining civilization of an area came to be? Who really remembers or even knows of the pre-Pharaonic gods of Egypt? These Gods are gone, with only small traces of their existence left: a random symbol, an odd reference in a retold myth, mention in historical documents, an archaeological site of some long lost temple. The Unnamed and Unknown Gods are a psychic and spiritual phenomena which occurs when the human mind connect and latches on to some symbol or idea of something mostly lost to the sands of time. Wild theories, occult connections and improper reconstructions of the myths fuel this phenomena. Should it reach critical mass, it will create a Formed Spirit. This entity is an amalgamation of the identity of the past God(s), a twisted chimera multi-headed abomination made of scattered ideas and concepts slowly fusing together to birth a new God.

Sutekh the Destroyer, from the classic Doctor Who
serials 'The Pyramids of Mars'.

But this is not the God of the ancient civilization, even if it retain the trappings. It is a new entity, one fueled by demented human desires. Reality and causality can warp around it. This entity, this malformed God is now retroactively existing, absorbing and reshaping memories and artifacts across time and space. Most importantly, however, the entity now craves worship as it is these misplaced human desires which birth it and fuels it. While the entity itself may be quite alien in mindset or appearance, it draws it energy from the very human desires and needs. Some are drawn from the distant descendants of the people who inhabited the original God's land, their history slightly twisted retroactively to encourage decadent and degenerate cults which seem more at home in lurid pulps of a bygone age and mentality. In truth these people are victims of the time-displacing psychic lure of this newborn God. Other fragments of the proto cult may form around academia, as mentally unstable scholars begin to obsess over symbols and their strange pet theories about the tentacle-faced God of some forgotten Polynesian culture. In more modern times, the social malcontent or those seeking to be deliberately transgressive might 'ironically' begin to worship the entity through some memetic means.

However, all have in common that they are now caught in the retroactive web of the God: for all intents and purposes, the God now exist and has always existed, a monstrous being lurking inside myths and legends, the lurid and demented journals of globe trotting explorers gone mad and the jest of those joking around to mock society.

Urban Fantasy: Baleful Magic

Magic is difficult and require commitment. Magic is also quite a bitch and the shortcuts can more often than not lead to damnation and a monstrous transformation. There is a near infinite choice when it come to 'flavor' of magic. Unfortunately for humanity, many of these flavors are blood, life and souls among other things. There are dark secrets out there in the world, wicked and foul tricks which people can fall prey to. There are also new ways, new techniques which humans can stumble upon, sometimes by accident, whose consequences can be unforeseen. These are the Baleful Magics, the spells, techniques, methods and traditions which are not spoken of even in the company of other dabblers of the arcane.

Human Consumption

Art by Sean Donaldson.

One near-universal taboo across cultures can be boiled down to cannibalism is bad, man. Partaking into the consumption of human flesh is considered one of the most disgusting and depraved things someone can do, about on par with the level of a child rapist. It's considered quite foul and also carries a medical risk. Even the most primitive of cultures, going back far into our history, figured out that eating another man or woman is not only disgusting but unsafe. Of course, when one look at it divorced from morality and culture, with knowledge of the arcane arts in mind, a different picture emerge: why not consume another human?

Human Consumption Magic refer to any spell, ritual or even entire traditions which make use of the practice of consuming something from a still-living or freshly deceased human. It can be flesh, blood, memories, youth or something else. The metaphysical energies and life force is violently ripped from its body and incorporated into the spellcaster to empower them in some shape or form. It is a form of artificial vampirism and maybe True Vampires have recruited a future minion or even 'child' from particularly depraved individuals who regularly consumed the life force of other humans. The problems with such magic are readily apparent for all to see: for one thing, it's disgusting and very much criminal, obviously. The other problem is that such 'power source', once cut from its original body, has a bad habit of decaying quite fast. Think the classic of a Vampire bathing in the blood of virgins to retain her youth. It ain't sticking for long. The other problem is that it's also quite addictive. As a result, such magic fueled by the consumption of human lives requires a constant supply which is difficult to easily acquire in the modern age.

• The form which this magic can take is extremely varied, as it is only tied together by the fuel source more than anything else. Blood magic, for example, can heal and regenerate wounds. Stealing memories can enhance one's knowledge and skills while face-stealing can enable limited shapeshifting.
• The downsides are fairly obvious, beyond the risks posed by the clearly criminal acts being performed. Such magic has a habit of warping its user physically and mentally, making them less and less human. Even those who do not degenerate physically will start to become mentally warped. For one thing, the addictive nature of these acts and the violence they entail implies the one doing it was already a violent and deranged individual. Generally speaking, these tendencies will only grow through the supernatural addiction while also leaving a 'hole' in the individual when not partaking in it. Food taste like ash. Colors lose vibrancy. Emotions are dulled. The only spark of life they experience is during consumption.
• A human which become fully imbued with the magic it wield is no longer human. In the case of those who practice such cannibalistic magic, the end result is never pleasant as the concepts they have internalized and embodied are those of 'consumption', 'cannibalism' or 'parasitism'. Just what exactly turn into can vary in appearance and function. For some, transformation into one of the undead might be their eventual fate, as the leftovers of the stolen lives sparks back to function their bodies upon death. One cool example I would gladly steal are Ghasts as written by Arnold K at Goblin Punch.

Demonic Magic

Art by Sean Donaldson.

If Consumption Magic is foul by its actions, then Demonic Magic is foul by its nature and origin: Demons are creatures of suffering and imperfection. The world has the potential for evil and wrongness, from extremely petty and minor offenses to the most horrible of acts. The Demons are born of this, or maybe they birth it. No one is really, entirely sure. It's a chicken-and-egg thing. The point is, Demons are as close as one can get to evil. They are utterly without any kind of humanity, mercy, kindness, love or anything good. The best they can do is fake it as part of some long term goal. Demons cannot bring about good. They can only cause suffering, death, madness and worse. It is their nature. It's what they are.

It's not surprising that Demons can become patron of mortal spellcasters, then. Such an occurrence is quite rare, of course. Your average wannabe satanist punk isn't likely to attract the attention of such creatures and even then, only a small portion of demons possess the requisite knowledge to ensure the creation of a true mage. It does happen, however. There are generally two main scenarios:

• The Demon lie about its origin and/or purpose, pretending to be something else as it impart twisted knowledge on the human. The side effects and the cost of the magic wielded are always obfuscated.
• The Demon is fully willing to reveal itself as a demon and does not hide what it will cost.

The latter is much more rare. Very, very few people are truly evil enough to become a mustache-twirling villain who openly consort with demons. They do exist, but they are rare. Most who do often start in the first category and spend years under tutelage of a demon, their magic always backfiring enough to harm them and others but never enough to kill them. In turn the demon demand more and more sacrifices. Eventually, these people just snap. So suffused with the powers of demons they completely and utterly abandon morality and sanity, becoming so tainted as to be demons in spirit rather than in the flesh. After all, does anything truly matter? When you've seen the endless, timeless suffering humanity has inflicted upon itself, the very idea of 'good' become laughable. 'Good' is just evil in denial to them.

The spells born of demonic knowledge are always abominations which taint the world. Just how much of a taint it carries can vary, from absolutely minimal to abomination-spawning. Any offensive spell fueled by demonic powers has a habit of leaving behind ugly and disfiguring scars, be it on people or objects. Wounds caused by such magic have a tendency to leave discolored scars which still ache decades later, while objects blasted by its power become discolored and ashen or even warped. Of course, such cosmetic damage is the best case scenario, compared to being cursed and haunted by the demon's malice. For less destructive spells, the cost is generally paid by the spellcaster. Many of these warlocks become physically warped and tainted, growing frail and sickly as the demonic corruption ravage their bodies - only for their demonic master to be all too happy to provide some means of restoring it (see the section above).

Time Magic

Artist unknown.

One of the hardest and most dangerous force to tamper with is time itself. While lesser sorcery may be able to slightly bend the rules of the universe in some limited capacity (such as temporarily restoring youth or stopping the decay of an item or corpse), true temporal manipulation is generally held to be the sole province of beings of cosmic power. That obviously has never stopped people from trying. Of the other example presented so far, Time Magic is less seen as 'evil' and more as 'foolish': attempting to master its power is seen as the mark of a reckless fool who will doom himself.

Time Magic can take many forms and most of them are a terrible thing to meddle with. Casting on oneself a spell akin to the 'haste' spell of tabletop RPG and videogames has a fairly obvious downside: accelerated aging. Repeated and constant use of spells which alter one's passage of time in relation to the world is dangerous as the physical strain will accumulate over time. The human body is not meant to operate inside a 'bubble' of altered time and so repeated use will slowly add up and age the user (which may lead to the user attempting to use foul secrets to undo or temporarily reverse the damage). Of course the ultimate goal of any dabbler in the powers of time is to time travel. Of course, true time travel (at least backward) is considered to be impossible. If such a power was truly usable by mortal mages, it would be well known and actively sought and then promptly abused. The best one can hope to achieve is to leap forward in time, blinking away from existence and reappearing in the same place at a further point in time. It might be possible to extract power from temporal and/or dimensional anomalies but such attempts would always place a massive strain on the user. One theory on why there is so little recorded on the matter of time travel is that it can be done but will always backfire on the user, warping time and space to the point they might undo their very existence and never have been born. A terrifying thought.

Devourers

Art by Marc Delano.

Magic, spirit, gods and all that stuff: to some people it's kind of bullshit and a nightmare to keep track of. The world is awash in all manners of supernatural entities. If not for some unspoken 'rule' of reality (perhaps this is simply the Age of Humanity and that's how it is) we'd be at the mercy of malicious entities. At least, this is what some people believe. The 'Devourers' are a relatively new phenomena which has emerged from the normally-decently-heroic circles of monster hunters and supernatural investigator (aka people who would normally be good Player Character material): these individuals have realized they can do more than hunt supernatural beings, they can also consume them to fuel their own powers.

Perhaps these so-called Devourers had good intentions. All they wanted was to be rid of dangerous spirits and ensure they'd still have the power to fight against the forces of darkness, to keep supernatural dangers away from humanity. While the intentions are noble, it is the methods which are dangerous and corrupt. Those who wield supernatural powers tend to eventually embody the concepts and ideas their powers derive from. To destroy and to eat a supernatural being repeatedly is to trap inside one's metaphysical patterns and nature the idea of 'consumption', 'devouring' and 'hunger'. This power grows like a cancer and metastasize, changing the individual permanently. From them a new concept, a new idea and a new monster is born and once the concept exist, it will always exist.

• Devourers derive their powers from the slaying of supernatural beings. Their consumption is more metaphysical than corporeal and they don't eat flesh or anything like that. Like the Phantovores have an anti-spirit nature.
• The exact abilities of a Devourer can vary, as some were some other type of supernaturally-infused human before their powers 'mutated'. Some can weave enchantment and spells like a mage, others are expert at sensing spirits and trapping them while others are physical powerhouses. Their powers are increasingly changed and tainted, growing stronger but also over specialized. They also excel at cancelling and negating spells and enchantments placed on them.
• Wounds inflicted by a Devourer on a supernatural being have a hard time healing.

Physically, Devourers don't look any different than their previous human selves. Their corruption is mental and spiritual rather than physical. They act and talk normally. The difference is that, inside their minds, is a burning desire to trap and kill spirits and other beings to siphon their energy. The worst thing is that young Devourers don't really see it at that way. Most see themselves as and often still act as if they were the hero they likely used to be. The devil is in the details: Devourers are cruel and obsessive and filled with a nagging desire to consume. Many slowly turn on their allies and soon anything else with supernatural powers is deemed a threat only they can handle. It's all for the 'greater good'. The end state of their transformation is currently unknown but, should it exist, it would be a true monster.

Astral Beasts

More Marc Delano.

Finally, a concept which ties into/can overlap with much of the above is the concept of 'Astral Beast' or 'Astral Vampire', such as certain takes on the Berbalang. Combining astral projection, vampirism/parasitism, consumption of power and possibly demonic influence, these cases are a form of spellcaster whose magic enable them to project a monstrous form. Their consciousness is separate from their body and become incarnated as a Spirit: a horrible monster which could feed off human (and other beings), be it their mind, bodies or even total lifespan!

The core concept of this form of magic is that the sorcerer project their mind/spirit as an astral form which has been reshaped into some sort of predatory monster. They allow the foul and predatory side of humanity, the 'beast within' to become loose. While technically they are still in control of themselves (and such process is always willing), the transformation nonetheless changes the human nature. Much is 'excised' away when the mind is projected as such an astral entity: just as they are unshackled from their body, their minds/soul is unshackled from humanity and morality and free to fully indulge in its dark desires.

Silent Legions or 'How To Do Lovecraft Right'

It's a known fact I hold a very positive opinion of Kevin Crawford's work in so much as his tabletop games are concerned. There's not a whole lot I truly know of the guy overall (and to be honest maybe it's better that way) but he's generally never failed to produce excellent games, especially in the area of his sandboxing tools. KC's work is generally defined, in my opinion, by a strong support and encouragement of GM to build things their own way and providing the right tools for it and nowhere is this more apparent than Silent Legions.

I've bitched about Lovecraft and his mythos before or, rather, why it's a bad idea to use it. Lovecraft's own work is something I do enjoy and find quite good but my issues with it exist beyond the man's original writing. By themselves, these stories are fine. The problem emerge from Lovecraft's mythos being held as some coherent fictional universe by his friends and future writers. To do so completely miss the point. Even worse: to use his mythos for tabletop is generally a terrible idea overall. When looking at the Lovecraftian universe in a vacuum (as in just HPL's story) there is a very clear understanding that we the readers are supposed to not know what horrible monsters and dreadful gods exist just as much as the protagonist is initially in the dark. Knowledge of things such as Great Old Ones and sorcery are limited to older text and personal journals, the kind of things which academic papers or (in the modern time) Wikipedia would not deem reliable. The mythos exist below the surface of accepted historical and cultural details.

The problem emerge when one decide to run Call of Cthulhu or any other RPG using Lovecraft's mythos. People who run and play these games miss the point entirely. They play with a group who knows what to expect. Even if we separate the player/character knowledge there's an implicit knowledge of the expected genre conventions and the overall, overarching mythos or, worse, a desire from the GM to actively reference it. This is a mistake and completely flies in the face of the original texts. There's a reason the better 'Lovecraftian' works of the past few decades have been divorced from H.P. Lovecraft's universe. If the entire genre is built on things man was not meant to know, then why is it that modern Lovecraftian works plays it safe and rely entirely on things the audience know and expect to see? Silent Legions offer a simple solution of offering sandbox tools and GM aide to build their own nightmarish reality.

Otherwise you end up with a group thinking the point of it all was 'tentacles and weird unpronounceable names'. Which I think does a major disservice to the work of Lovecraft.

Urban Fantasy: The Black and Iron Woods

The material world which we humans inhabit is but a fraction of the true scope of reality. Beyond the confines of 'mere' matter exist realms beyond our own time and space, Supernatural Realms which are the places beyond our world where the wonderful and terrible still dwell. Some of them are places recorded in myths and folklore while others are entirely unknown or only explored by a few brave or foolhardy souls. Most exist somewhere in between, recorded but only barely, full of half truth and lies.

The Black and Iron Woods are somewhere halfway between a Stable and a Dream Kelipah. The more mundane areas of the wood, especially around its edges (if such a thing exist, as the whole shape is unknown, if not impossible to grasp) tend to be fairly normal beyond being an expanse of terrifying wilderness. Deeper into the woods, however, it become more and more of a thematic Dream Kelipah, obeying its twisted mythology-and-fairy-tale-logic.

History and Nature

Art by Magdalena Świderska

Recorded in the Prose Edda as Járnviðr, the 'Iron Woods', the Black-and-Iron Woods is a supernatural location of unknown size and scope which manifest primarily in Europe and takes the form of an impossibly vast and foreboding forest. It is the dark forest which children and travelers become lost in, where witches and trolls of grim and horrific fairy tales dwell. It's exact origin, nature or purpose are unknown, if not lost to history. No one knows what exactly it is and maybe there's just no real answer: it just is. And what it is can be summed up as a massive expanse of wilderness full of fantastical and fearsome sights. The creatures which dwell in it may not be native inhabitants but rather have moved there over time as they withdrew from the world of humans, choosing to hide in the ever-shifting landscape of the magical forest which appears and disappear, as being able to navigate a place whose landscape is mutable is a very useful advantage when one is a predator or kidnapper. Mere humans become easily lost in Jarnvid but hags, trolls and other monsters can learn to properly attune themselves and know when the forest will grow close to the material world. This become the perfect moment to lure and snatch some victims who will then never be heard from again.

In the modern age, despite the loss of many great forests, Jarnvid still thrives. In fact, over time the forest's pull has grown in terms of scope, possibly due to the immigration of Europeans to other lands. This is pure theory, of course and no one is certain if the passing down of folklore, myths and general fear of troll-haunted woods has allowed the Black and Iron Woods to extend its influence. Some speculate that its power first manifested on North American soil when the woodsmen spread across the area of the Great Lakes from the French and English colonies. The tales of the so-called Fearsome Critters could be nothing but tall tales, misunderstanding and mislabeling of local life forms...or it could very well be Jarnvid's power literally taking root on new soil and even growing and diversifying as it found itself infused with newfound life.

The pull of the Dark Forest is a useful tool to create a change of pace in 'urban fantasy'. Generally the term implies fantasy set in modern times in a big city, but most of the world even today remain covered in pockets of wilderness. The Black Forest in Germany remains an area where it has strong connection but over the years it has found itself creeping all over the wilderness of North America. When the right cosmic conditions align, the % chance of any spot of dark forest becoming linked to the Black and Iron Woods might increase dramatically, creating dream-like and hazy landscapes of tall trees where sunlight barely reach, filled with giant mushrooms and the bones of long-extinct animals. Travelers in those areas can often become pulled in by a mixture of their own curiosity and the psychic pull of the location. During those times, disappearances in any area with a few kilometres of forests can increase dramatically, with bodies found days later, 'regurgitated' by the forest, leaving behind the rotting carcass and bones of travelers. For others, the forest is a good place to gather rare and unique plants and animals which are not of this world, or to seek the counsel and service of ancient troll-witches.

Urban Fantasy: On Celestial Spirits, Part 3

Cherubim by David Romero

Final part of the three-part series of shitty rambles various information on the mighty and alien Celestial Spirits. More, specifically this is what happen on when they 'fall'. Of course, this isn't quite as clear cut as it may appear.

Fallen Celestials

A 'Fallen' Celestial is one which has fundamentally changed and has become separated from its kindred in some shape or form. Now on one hand, it would be fairly easy to simply reduce this to the obvious, that it mean the Celestial has become some sort of demon but it isn't that clear cut. There are two primary ways which a Celestial can fall and they can fall as one or the other or even maybe both. Possibly at different times:

• Corporeal Incarnation is what happen when a Celestial choose (or is forced to) abandon its spiritual nature permanently. Much of the creature's power is lost and/or altered in the process. The end result is the Celestial transforming into a corporeal, semi-mortal being of form and function outwardly similar to a human. While the creature lose much of its power it gain a permanent foothold in the material world and become able to experience it. Some Celestials choose this life out of curiosity for mortality and the unique properties of flesh, such as in  Ezekiel 32:27. While flesh and blood, the Celestial remain gifted with many supernatural powers and said powers and blessings have been known to carry to their offspring. Some Celestials willingly choose mortal existence to enact long-term agenda on Earth, acting as a liaison between the mortal world and their more aloof siblings. While Celestial Spirits lack strong opinions, many of them feel something akin to revulsion or displeasure toward their kindred who willingly debased themselves but few can complain about the utility of an 'inside man'. How exactly a Celestial can restore itself to its true Spirit nature is unclear.
• Corruption is exactly what it sound, however. The Celestial Spirit become twisted in mentality and increasingly disconnected from its original purpose. They become driven by hate, envy, madness or worse. Most demons are not fallen angels but some fallen angels definitely become demons. It is fortunate that such beings are stunningly rare. Because they are functionally demons their abilities are now affected by Mantles, however.

Corrupted Celestial Spirits retain much of their original nature and powers, as well as their mind-bending incandescent forms. However, those which undergo Corporeal Incarnation become fundamentally different beings as they cease to be Spirits.

A  Corporeal Celestial

If the fallen Celestial is now a corporeal creature, it ceases to be a Spirit. It may retain spirit-like traits and powers but it is metaphysically no longer a Spirit and thus no longer bound by effects which target them. It is a fundamentally different creature with different stats:

• The Corporeal Celestial is now a humanoid being of HD equal to half its original HD as a Celestial. It is, by default, a Nemesis and a Worthy Foe.
• It has a natural AC of 18 as its hardened, fast-healing supernaturally infused flesh is surprisingly tough. It can be wounded by mundane weapons as anybody else but not permanently killed. If reduced to 0 HP by mundane means, a Corporeal Celestial with return to life with full HP in a number of days equal to its HD.
• It can deal 1d12 damage with its bare hands, as its body remain imbued with herculean strength.
• It can speak, understand and read all mortal languages.

What abilities a Corporeal Celestial has beyond this varies on an individual basis. Some of them may retain the abilities tied to their original function and goal while others may retain the psychic-like abilities of their original state, especially Telepathy and Metapsionics.

Playing A Fallen Celestial?

Can a Fallen and now Corporeal Celestial be played as a character? Yes and no. Their fully powered state isn't exactly suitable to player characters, however it is possible to play a Celestial whose powers and connection to the celestial realms have utterly faded. In some cases, certain Corporeal Celestial choose to 'lay low' and 'cheat death' by reverting to a pre-existence state. They revert to the state of a child, wipe their own memories and basically completely reshuffle the mock DNA of their body, usually matching the genetics and phenotype of the area of the world they currently inhabit. In some cases, particularly unscrupulous Celestials even go as far as to brainwash people to raise them as their own child. These celestial changelings are quite blasphemous in concepts, as one might guess by the implication of their existence. In fact, quite a few liars who have undergone this process through the ages have gone as far as to claim Jesus (and other Messianic figures) were such changelings or, in some cases, they claim to even be Jesus. So far, these have been proven to be liars, often of a demonic persuasion. In recent years, the rise of New Age nonsense related to UFO has left many of these lying changelings to claim to be reincarnated aliens. Which isn't technically wrong but still...

A playable Fallen Celestial is one who would have lost most, if not all of its memories over the eons. They are Heroic Adventurers of any combination that is not any hypothetical supernatural class (beside Psychic, as its been established Celestials are a form of Psychic). In the future I might write a 'proper' class for the Fallen Celestials who are attempting to recover a portion of their true power. Since these beings who undergo this reversion process attempt to mimic human, it make sense their celestial powers would be often channeled in ways similar to supernaturally gifted human.

Urban Fantasy: On Celestial Spirits, Part 2

We continue our look into the higher ranks of the Celestial Spirits, the not-quite-Angels of my Urban Fantasy setting, this time with more stats to invariably end up killing one over some misunderstanding. Not that these things really die anyway.

Spirit Anatomy of a Celestial

Ophanim by David Romero

A Celestial is a Spirit, obviously. It retain most if not all traits which common Spirits have, at least on a fundamental level. However the core, the 'energy' or nature of a Celestial Spirit is notably much more powerful and, if not more powerful, then more dangerous. This is not some corrupting influence like a Demon but rather simply that they are not beings of this world. More than any other Spirits, their Formed selves are much more alien to our lowly three dimensional material world. The will, intent and power of a Celestial Spirit incarnated can be potentially dangerous. Even divine spirits, in the absurd chance they would manifest in our world, would not be as alien because gods are both individuals and archetypes whereas a Celestial Spirit isn't really a person. Not by default anyway. By themselves they have no personality, no story, no myth and no tethers. They are both more and less than commonplace Spirits.

The true form of a Celestial is likewise quite the nightmare to behold. Not necessarily horrid or disgusting, they aren't twisted with open wounds, lovecraftian tentacles or the like. In its truest sense, a Celestial's True Form is a fiery blob of raw conceptual energy and celestial will. It curls on itself and twist in endless arrays of limbs, eyes, wings and archetypal imagery. Even most, if not all Gods, fully understand what a human shape is and will project this shape and these archetypes. A Celestial on the other hand might take some time to 'get' that and, given most of them alternate between Formed and Unformed Spirits over the eons mean that even those who spent time among humanity will eventually forget as such information is deemed irrelevant. There is also the issue of personal preference and even the most 'person'-like of Celestials tend to prefer more abstract forms.

Incandescent Form and Manifestation

The True Form of a Celestial is a painful thing to behold, with forms and shapes not mean for our mortal eyes. At its core, a Celestial is a Spirit and such such appear as some glowing or ethereal being. Where it gets crazy is that Celestials are multi-dimensional beings, whereas other Spirits are still recognizable as something which mostly make sense. Assuming one doesn't have their eyes and/or soul burnt off by the initial contact, gazing upon one will reveal an implausibly complex structure of glowing orbs, flaming eyes and of course fractals: lots and lots of fractals. Fractal eyes, fractal wings, fractal arms and so on and so forth.

• Incandescent Form (Constant): The True Form of a Celestial Spirit has power. Any NPC which gaze upon it is immediately 'struck' with its effect (more on that in a bit) while Player Characters and notable NPC are allowed a Saving Throw, at which point they can gaze upon the Celestial until the end of the Scene. This power is negated if the Celestial has shapeshifted or taken some mortal form or vessel but the veil can be temporarily torn asunder. The Celestial Spirit Commit Effort for the scene to send forth a projection of its true form which has the same effect as the Constant version.
• Effect of Gazing: There are different effects depending on the Spirit and its potency. At lower levels of power, the gaze inflict temporary or permanent blindness, madness or demented devotion to minor NPC and inflicts temporary damage upon the attributes of those allowed a Saving Throw (ranging from 1d4 to 2d10). Those reduced to 0 are either dead or permanently struck by the same effect it has on weaker minds.
• A Celestial can Commit Effort for the day to restore the mind/senses of an individual who has been scarred by gazing upon the Celestial so long as it has happened within 24 hours. Many of them sadly leave the poor bastards as they are.

Fortunately for those around them, Celestials are usually able to shapeshift at will into another form, ranging from another Spirit form (including the classic, if inaccurate, blonde-androgynous-individual-with-wings-and-halo, a fireball, a golden bird or a simple glowing white shape) to looking almost completely human at the highest ranks of Manifestation.

Celestial Senses

The Celestial Spirits have many senses, most far beyond our understanding. All Spirits have many unique senses, including the abstract ability to sense their related concept but Celestials are 'plugged' in the thoughts and minds of billion of individuals across many timelines. They sense the movement of planets, the shifts of the cosmos and the various countless time and space anomalies that may occur. Most importantly, unlike most Spirits the Celestials are True Psychics and have many abilities which are similar to or emulate the mechanics and effects of the Stars Without Numbers Psychics.

• Psychic Abilities: A Celestial Spirit has ranks in the Metapsionics, Precognition and Telepathy Disciplines and is able to use any power of equal or lower rank to its skill.
• Temporal Sense (Constant): A Celestial is able to 'see' time, both past and hypothetical future at least to some extent. A Celestial is aware of the passage of time its three dimensional forms experience down to the nanosecond and is instantly aware if it is being subjected to any temporal anomaly. Finally, it is always allowed a Saving Throw against any effect which is related to temporal control or magic.

Celestial Powers

The abilities of the Celestials are simply too vast to be described in complete details. In addition to all the aforementioned abilities, they could have any variety of monster powers previously described but given a more specific, 'angelic' bent given their purpose. A Celestial whose mission involve tracking down a specific individual could showcase the same implacable qualities as a Revenant. In addition, when they need to assume human form they often have abilities quite similar to Demons, especially the ability to temporarily create a physical 'shell'.

Generally speaking the most powerful abilities which all Celestials have isn't something that is truly able to be represented with simple stats. These beings know  a lot and can be disturbingly smart purely on the level of information they have processed. A Celestial, if it was somehow inclined to answer, could be asked about the atomic composition of a specific object and unless that object had somehow been altered by magic or some higher power it would be able to tell everything. It could instantly tell how many times on average, per day, the person in front of them blink. This can allow some 'cheating' on the GM part as these creatures know a lot about mundane things and if given enough motivation to use said knowledge they could get really scary.

Weaknesses

For all their powers, the Celestials are not omnipotent or invincible. As they are classified as Spirits, they can become vulnerable to any kind of power, weapon, spell or ritual which target Spirits.  Powerful and difficult to enact rituals can bind, trap or use Celestials (or even part of their power). Most would rather 'self-destruct' than suffer such a fate and a Celestial gets an instant extra Saving Throw should it ever become trapped or bound. If it pass, the Celestial unravel its energy form and spiritual container, reverting to being an Unbound Spirit, unable to act directly for decades or centuries.

A less-known weakness of Celestial Spirits is they risk 'burning out' the longer they remain as formed spirits and expend their power. Each time a Celestial reduce its Effort to 0 for a day (by Committing Essence) it starts to 'burn out', losing 1 HD. Likewise, every time it is reduced to 0 HP it will also suffer such a fate. Finally for every month it spend on the material world, be it as a Spirit or inside a body/shell it will also lose 1 HD. A Celestial Spirit reduced to 0 HD unravels, become an Unformed Spirit and will not manifest again for decades or centuries, just like when it self destruct.

Urban Fantasy: On Celestial Spirits, Part 1

Seraphim by David Romero.

Obviously, as with everything else I steal from the World of Darkness because I'm a hack.

Most Spirits encountered are creatures of the direct and material world, even if it is reflected in the spirit world. They embody places, objects or some weaker abstraction of things such as 'hunger' or 'water'. They are the spiritual echoes of physical concepts. Much greater (and yet, arguably, different) are the so-called Celestial Spirits. These beings are greater, higher than earthly Spirits. Their minds are more divorced from our earthly understanding compared to the much more grounded and understandable Spirits most people encounter.

These are the beings sometimes called Angels but such a term is a misnomer. While it is true many of these beings appear to be aligned to (or, perhaps strangely or not, converted) a faith, especially an Abrahamic one these beings are not limited to it. There are Celestial Spirits which consort with the earthly demi-gods just as there are who  walk the courts of the thought-realms of the Bodhisattva. These beings have a presence all over the world across all cultures. Yet they are rarely seen, rarely interacted with. It is not their way to interact with (most) mortals. Their minds are alien not because they are eldritch abominations (granted, they might be from a certain point of view) but because they are 'plugged in' greater ideas and concepts: they see the world(s) in high concepts and at the macro scale, the churning of the minds of entire nations, entire people and entire faiths. They sense the ebb and flow of things we'd call time and fate and primordial powers. They are the agent not of direct, named deities but of incorporeal forces and abstracts beings.

On Celestial Spirits (Or Living Plot Devices)

Let's not beat around the bush here: Celestial Spirits are mostly 'plot devices' in the sense they have weird, inscrutable agenda focused on the big picture of reality that mortal minds cannot fully grasp. They make for poor allies or enemies with clear goals, unless that goal is so utterly simple and single minded such as the destruction of a specific thing, even if the 'why' might escape the Players. Plugged into reality in a way other beings can't grasp, these beings are the perfect mysterious patron and manipulators. However an important thing to understand is these beings not infallible. Alien in mind, rigid and orderly they sometimes approach a problem in a way that has little care for individual lives. In the grand scheme of things they are correct, as sometimes they will destroy lives related to certain projects which could end up harming more people. On a personal level it isn't so easy to be callous. Order and stability often does not care for the micro scale. Few people would find it a just price to pay for a bunch of people to die brutally all because the celestial intelligence have calculate there is a good chance their research and project could produce a weapon worse than the nuclear bomb. There is not certain fate, no absolute but the celestial spirits often see many possibilities: if certain 'endings' are more common than others then they will act purely based on % chance.

Macro-Scale Entities

Celestial Spirits are firm and just, but that 'justice' is rarely if ever kind. They are not evil, nor are they trying to spread suffering like Demons. The best way to understand Celestial Spirits is to play simulation games. Go ahead and boot Sim City, Europa Universalis, Civilization or Stellaris. You see everything in a macro scale, as raw large numbers of specific resources, people reduce to population units. Does your interface show you every detail of every untold billion your actions can impact? When you play a galaxy-spanning simulation do you even have the option to see the life of a humble shop keeper on some colony world, his struggles to make ends meet? You don't. You can't. These beings are, from your point of view, non-existent or non-entities. It's not that they don't matter, if these worlds were allowed to be more granular, realistic and detailed each and every single one of these souls would matter. However, to the Celestial Spirits life and reality is more akin to a simulation game's interface where such granular details are beneath their notice.

Celestial Spirits are not enemies of mankind. Indeed, they may very well be our allies but it is not an easy alliance nor is it always a welcomed one. One could argue they, at least partially, embodies 'high concepts' of the world's complexity and human society. All of this, of course, on a massive scale. They are not even Eudaemon, as they are too impersonal for that. Guardian spirits are more of the lower, more terrestrial type, even if some often take forms we would recognize as the pop culture definition 'angelic'. Any spirit can appear to be a glowing humanoid figure with wings and halo. Some might even be truly dedicated to helping people but they are not of the hosts of the Celestials. The Celestials are guardians of people, of nations, of ideas and structures who spend most of their time unformed, processing raw information. They do not appear commonly. One would think Protectors of Nations would actively intercede but this would be a misunderstanding: wars, revolutions, political corruption these are all by product of human nature and are not what attract the attention of Celestials. Despite what some may think, they are not our jailers. But they are, also, not exactly our saviors nor are they there to 'fix our problems'. Human free will (as complicated an issue as it may be) is strangely something these creature believe in. However it is clear that they seem content or driven by purpose to let humanity unfold, warts and all, only to subtly intervene should enough possible futures show a great calamity could lay ahead.

Incarnations Of Purpose

When something goes wrong (or is deemed to have gone wrong), a Celestial Spirit will incarnate. They will go from Unformed to Formed, becoming an entity which can be interacted with. They become linear and three dimensional (if still connected to their 'cosmic interface'). Celestial Spirits are Common to Mighty Spirits in terms of HD, but have many different traits compared to a regular Spirit.

• They are always a Nemesis, for one thing, with a Morale of 12.
• Celestial Spirits are completely immune to non-magical weapons, even if the character somehow has an ability to hit incorporeal beings. Unless the weapon's strike has been augmented by some Effort-using power or is itself magical in some way it will either not damage the spirit or cause insignificant damage that is instantly regenerated.
• Their Manifestation Rank is C or higher, but usually A.
• The true form of a Celestial Spirit is abstract and powerful. Unless the Spirit changes shape to accommodate mortal minds it will be overwhelming for mortals to gaze upon them. Any mortal NPC is no particular importance is immediately struck if they gaze upon the Spirit's true, with an effect ranging from temporary or permanent madness or blindness to being instantly slain. This effect will be covered in details in a future post.