#nephandi

[darkmessiah2000]

These muthers pretty much just opened a portal to The Immaterium (Warhammer 40k) or better yet a Caul (Mage: The Acension/World of Darkness)

And those kids didn’t have a gellar field around them so now their food for The Ruinous Powers

#helluva boss agent two #helluva boss agent one #helluva boss dhorks #helluva boss cherubs #helluva boss collin #helluva boss cletus #helluva boss keenie #warhammer 40k #warhammer 40000 #the Immaterium #the warp #gellar field #world of darkness #mage the ascension #nephandi

[geistverrse]

like lambs to a slaughter

#my art #mitra #world of darkness #mage the ascension #nephandus #nephandi

[lord-soth-dk]

#mage the ascension #nerd culture #exclusivity is not necessarily a bad thing #nephandi

[baphandi]

[INTRODUCTION]

Name: Marcus Syras

Gender: Male

Age: 24

Height: 5'11

Sexuality: Panromantic/Pansexual

Profession: Traveling Musician.

Organization: 'The Baphies'/ 'The Goats'

Faction: Nephandi/Fallen Mages

Setting: World of Darkness (Mage The Ascension)

#Nephandi #mage the ascension #WOD RP

[solificatits]

// EXPECTED DELIVERY 2024 LMAO

#//ooc #so why is the traditions book taking a while like. you'd think theyd get on this one first before the technocracy and nephandi books #i like playing techies but thats such a strange choice to me skdjhg #also also when it comes out i might have to do some adjustment to mika's stuff 😔

[fipindustries]

also im taking a peak at mage the ascention 20th anniversary, particularly with an eye to compare it to the otherverse because in many ways they seems to be trying to do the exact same thing.

what if magic was real, what if all magic, all folklore, all mythical creatures, were real. and we are not talking about some specific particular magical system like in mistborn or harry potter, we are talking about Magic with a capital M

both worlds seem to be based on this key idea that reality is fundamentally fluid, that there is no objective consensus on what IS, that what happens on any given moment is hammered in more by thought and feeling than by observation of fact.

but there seems to be a key difference here. MtA is internal, Otherverse is external.

in MtA you can bend reality and conjure up spells and wonders by internal will alone. by the power of your own inner belief. is just a matter of understanding that your perspective can change the outside world. that by sheer virtue of thinking hard enough you can access the underliying cogs and wires of the universe and pull them to your whims

in Otherverse it is all about external gestures, is about persuation, is about arguing your case to Others, is about defending your perspective of how the world ought to be with gestures and rituals and incantations. is all about getting the spirits of the world to reach a consensus with you, and this involves action, negotiation, appeasement.

is a very keay difference that underlies the fundamental conflict of each world.

in MtA the conflict is more internal than anything else. yes you have the technocracy and the rival traditions and the nephandi and all the other spookums. but fundamentally is about your own internal conflict with your own sanity. is all about your internal struggle of trying to reach the ascention, of surviving the paradox, of not going completly fucking bonkers and erasing yourself from the continuum

in the Otherverse the conflict is very much with the Other, is about learning to coexist and cohabitate in a world of hunger and greed where everyone is scrabbling over everyone else to survive and get ahead, about resolving conflict with creatures that have values that are fundamentally inhuman.

is all very interesting

#im going crazy without any wildbow to read #pale #pact #the otherverse #mage the ascension #white wolf #world of darkness #wildbow

[osatokun]

Tell us more about Glinda!

the original one, not the tiefling one?

She is an npc in the vampire the masquerade ttrpg chronicle I'm playing with my friends. I play that chubby sweet vampire man.

I put the story under the cut, as it's pretty dark

She is a changeling form the House Balor. Once she was a queen of the changelings of the New Orleans, back in 90s. She was so strong that she even created a wildly strong chimerical creature, a Dragon, who, ofcourse, could take a human form. Glinda always had prophetic dreams and she knew that soon her changeling people will extinct, the era of wonder will be over. Should I mention, that changeling soul wakes up early in kids, and closer to 20-25 years it usually goes back to sleep, resting inside human body unless that human dies. The human doesn't remember they were a fae creature once.

So, the young teen Glinda was talked into the apocalypse. Pentex or nephandi (both?) talked her into giving birth to a changeling-spirit creature, that will destroy big part of the world, but the other half survives and start believing in wonders again, giving strenght to changelings. This way changelings could survive.

Could they make it differently? Ofcourse they could. But they didn't miss on a chance to rape a teen and destroy her child's soul. Plus, the time was right, the Eye of Balor appeared in the sky (or the Red Star, as vampires named it). But the other changeling House, house Beaumayn, who also known to be seers, riot and freed her chimera. The Dragon burned (by that time pregnant) Glinda in chimerical flame, which had to kill her changeling soul and her spirit-child. But the spirit survived and ran away into the depths of the Umbra, and Glinda's changeling soul fell asleep. The connection with this spirit creature helped her changeling part to survive.

Beaumayns took the lead of the changelings of the city, "imprisoned" Glinda and made the Dragon her jailer. For regular people it looked like a marriage(it sounds funny when I word it this way) .The Dragon, Gregory Dequir in human form, did his best to make Glinda feel like she is nothing, a zero, not even a person and tried to control her every step. Time passed, changelings woke up and fell back asleep, and pretty soon Dragon was the only one who remembered this story and had a good chance to shape it however he wanted. Everyone hated her, a lot respected him, but no one knew the reason she made this choice, no one even knew what exactly she made. (Gregory, also known as Dragon)

But despite everything she grew up into a very kind loving person. 20 years passed. She became an art teacher, always caring about her students and protecting them, just as she did when she was a queen. She kept her courage too, and now and then tried to sneak from the Dragon. Even tho she had no personal budget, even tho he tried to control all her contacts, she found ways for sneaking from time to time. Should I say, that's how she met Charlie, who was looking for changelings at this point and..at the same time was hungry and horny ?

They met in the art gallery. Quickly she lured him in a more private place ( don't laugh, it was the rest room).She needed to be quick while Dragon wasn't around. Charlie never bit her, no. He ended up fighting frenzy and crying, trying to ignore his visions. He got scared by the big, never healing scar on her chest. There is nothing he can do about it, he just can't feed on people who has skin problems, its one of his core mental issues that can't be healed. But still he didn't want to upset her too much so he didn't ran away screaming, he put all his fading strength just to cry like a little child. She tried to calm him, but when he started to say that he feels sorry for her, the wound looks so bad it must be really painful (etc etc) it hit her pride and she walked away.

Charlie however tried to figure who she is, what she is. He tried to find a changeling who asked him for help, but poor vampire didn't know how exactly this changeling looks like. So he made a thing that he makes very rare - he looked into her soul to learn her true self. And he fell in love, insanely, in that very moment, as he never seen anyone more brave, more beautiful , just like a little brave robin with her burnt mark over her heart, she fought the horrific Dragon.

I won't bore you with the year long story of the gaming sessions. In short, he found the way to return memory to Glinda and the younger changeling (the one who asked for help, Monica). It requires to go to the umbra and survive in Arcadia's wood, but no matter, he did it.

Other noble changelings seemed to look for the way to get rid of the Dragon without doing it themselves. Dragon had too much power, both physical and social, and he became (or always were) the banal chimera so he hurt changelings just by existing near them. So the conflict of the chimera and the vampire, who seemed to be too stupid to retreat, attracted their attention. Charlie ended up fighting the Dragon on the changeling court, and the king of the house forces another very old vampire to give my dude a sword. That sword contained a demon(which ofcourse Charlie didn't know) and, when Charlie was one hit from gis final death, he made a contract with the creature from the sword. One hour and ten minutes inside his body, for the feath of the Dragon and Dragon only. Charlie knew it was a horrible idea, but couldn't stand the idea of Glinda's death, Monica's death and his firend's, Veronica's death. So the demon turned dragon into a regular human being, this way killing the Dragon and making him a regular mortal, and used vampire's body to run away. Oh, the swords keeper aka demons jailer wasn't happy at all..but Charlie deserved all what he got.

Anyway, lets get back to Glinda. After the death of the Dragon, the jailer, Glinda was free ( so do Gregory). He divorced her and she could start her new life. Charlie gave her the healing that restored broken connections of her changeling soul and ran straight into the Umbra, to restore her memory. Monica and her friends (a werewolf, a ghost, a changeling-satyr and chimera) followed her a day after. Time works differently in Umbra, so Glinda spent a whole month here, the kids spent a week or so. They met to that spirit face to face, they fought, and they escaped. Glinda even managed to steal the symbol of her connection to the spirit, a Golden Chalice. All that time Charlie waited near the portal-painting for their return.

A couple days after Charlie and Glinda stared to date. She told him her story, he told her his, and also shared his true name to show his feelings for her. They quickly moved together and shared bits of their curses: Charlie took a bit if the spirit curse, she took a little bit of his demonic one. And finally, they got married. There are still incredible amount of dangers, the mummy is trying to get their (kinda now adopted) daughter Monica, the spirit getting closer and closer to the surface, Charlie's demon is still walking the earth and, ofcourse, vampiric community isn't happy with changelings at all ( I don't think changelings thinks positively about Charlie too).But they have their little family, their smol house, they even managed to create a new chimerical cat together, they are determined to survive and win. (curse sharing was a pretty sweet scene they both sung a song and put bits of their powers into small bat pins)

They even got the True Love merit!

Edit:

In the end, they worked with the occult council of the city ( vampires, werewolves and mages were there) to slay Glinda's spir. Charlie made a deal with a local settite leader Manon asking to help out with Glinda's ritual in return. Council succeed but flooded the city (not too badly, but still 😔). And Charlie's demon was trapped by other much more powerful vampires and he did his best to resist demon till the end.

Now happily married couple is traveling together, looking for the new deadly adventures x)

#Glinda #Charlie #world of darkness #wod #changeling #sidhe #changeling the dreaming #ctd #vampire the masquerade #vtm #vamily #tw:rape mention #tw: body horror #tw: horror #tw: trypophobia #tw:abuse #tw:blood #ask

[awakenedsalamander]

would you be willing to speak moron the Technocracy? you have very interesting takes on it and I would like to know more

Happily!

So to me the Technocracy (in its 20th and 21 century incarnations, anyway, the early Technocracy/Order of Reason is different in some significant respects) represents a view of the world that is divorced from anything other than data and hard facts. This viewpoint is not exclusive to scientism, the paradigm I discussed in my recent post on the Technocracy, and is in fact an arguable core of pragmatism itself— there are times when it is essential to put aside ideals, emotions, and speculation and work only with what you can tangibly interact with. Sometimes, you have to put aside how the world should or could be, and work only with what it provably, unquestionably is.

But if you’ve ever discussed politics with someone who keeps insisting “well, that’s just how the world is,” rather than engaging with new ways of thinking or unconventional ideals, you’ll probably have realized that this way of looking at things can be profoundly limiting.

(Incidentally, this is why I think there’s the tendency to align most Technocrats with Stasis/The Weaver— the paradigm of technology itself can be Dynamic, Entropic, and Questing in a lot of cases, but the way the Technocracy uses it is broadly static, I think.)

Let’s use an example here, and talk about climate change. There’s a tendency to view the people most effectively driving climate change— the executives who profit off it, the lobbyists and politicians who sustain it, the demagogues and conspiracists who argue against its reality— as malevolent. They know what they’re doing, they know how it hurts the world and the people who inhabit, and they’re fine with it. Maybe some of them even enjoy it. This is basically the tack Werewolf: The Apocalypse takes with Pentex, for instance.

And that view is, to a larger extent than I think is remotely comfortable, true. Reckoning with the truth in that is part of what makes Werewolf fun, and it’s also one of the drivers on Mage’s own Nephandi.

But, I think it’s also true that most of the people responsible for ecological collapse don’t see themselves as doing anything wrong, and are instead able to just elide the details of the morality and ramifications of their industry/system/ambition and focus purely on the benefit. As said earlier, that is sometimes necessary— in an immediate crisis it can even be a godsend— but in the long-term and on a wider scale it can be quite damaging.

See, if you focus only on quantifiable data, there’s a way to look at climate change as kind of a trade-off you make for important numbers to go up. Industrialization is, economically speaking, incredibly beneficial, the advancement of technology improves not only wealth, but also security, communication, and even quality of life, and from the point of view of certain fields (at least as they currently exist) like agriculture, commercial shipping, energy production, and so on, the policies that really combat the bad effects of climate change would be disastrous! Can’t we afford a few more degrees Celsius for all that?

And if you want to get really dark, there’s the fact that wealthy countries and their oligarchs are going to be the least affected by natural disasters, resource conflicts, and pandemics. It won’t be easy, sure, but nothing ever is, and from a realpolitik standpoint, if other nations (which are potential threats after all) suffer those bad effects more than you do, then maybe weathering the storm is tactically viable…

So all in all, don’t pump the brakes, and certainly don’t reinvent the wheel here! We’ve got a good thing going, and it could be chaos to stop it! Hell, with all the benefits we’re getting, we might even invent some gadget or technique to solve the worst of it.

But of course, this misses so much. In the same way that topics I wanted to touch on, like algorithmic culture and automation, may have valuable benefits from certain points of view, you have to look at the whole picture. With climate change, you already see mass extinctions, and no amount of restorative cloning is going to reverse the ecological damage there. We’re going to see an increase in displacement and homelessness by disasters and the need for people to relocate from dangerous areas, which will ruin lives, if not end them. To say nothing of the inhumanity of allowing suffering on this scale when something can be done about it, right now!

But how do you prove that “ecological damage,” “ruined lives,” and “inhumanity” are worse than the loss of trillions+ of dollars which we’d have to spend to avoid them? It’s apples to oranges— no, it’s the abstract to the concrete. If someone only wants to think about the numbers, then there’s at least a debate. There’s cost benefit analysis and logistic comparison— but not action.

Now, I am simplifying significantly here. There are many reasons that climate change and other societal crises aren’t addressed beyond scientism, or political inertia, or even just greed and selfishness. To name a few, we also struggle against ignorance, against fear, against exhaustion, against bigotry, against the unknown. It’s not so simple. One of the problems with the worldview I’m attacking is its tendency to simplify things by smoothing over the issues, so I don’t want to do that.

But I do think that the biggest issues in our society can’t be tackled with cold math and a focus on what nets the best cost-to-benefit ratio. I think in a lot of cases, that kind of thinking— which, to bring it back to the point, is the kind of thinking the Technocracy embodies— is what got us these issues in the first place.

God, was this too serious for a World of Darkness discussion?

Anyway, thanks for the question! I appreciate the chance to analyze the topic.

#mage the ascension #wod #world of darkness #essay? #ramblings #also #I know it was a typo #but ‘would you be willing to speak moron’ is a hilarious phrase #and I thank you for it #the technocratic union #technocracy

[theresattrpgforthat]

ttrpgs with in-depth magic systems?

THEME: In-Depth Magic Systems

You'll find a number of trad games here because that's what pops into my head when someone talks about in-depth magic.

Mage: The Ascension and Mage: The Awakening, by Onyx Path Publishing.

The Council of Nine Mystic Traditions, a loose coalition of nine organizations of differing philosophies and magical practices, stand for personal freedom -- sometimes regardless of cost -- and responsibility. In opposition is the shadowy Technocratic Union, a seemingly monolithic conspiracy which seeks to protect humanity from the unseen dangers of the universe at large, typically through ignorance and control. Other factions, the Nephandi and the Marauders, who personify the depths humanity can sink to and the abdication of responsibility, also have their part to play in the struggle as each side strives to win over and guide -- or rule -- the unknowing masses of the world. (Mage: the Ascension)

You are a mage, one of the Wise. You see, know, and explore what others can’t imagine, from the depths of the human soul to the hidden corners of reality. Armed with your spells, driven by an addiction to Mysteries, you delve into the secrets of the world. Knowledge has a price, and the dangers are many. (Mage: The Awakening)

Mage: The Ascension was originally published by White Wolf in 1993, and Mage: The Awakening was released in 2005 as part of the company’s attempt to “update” their settings to a newer rule-set. The fans wouldn’t have that, however, so now both versions of Mage can be found on places such as DriveThruRpg.

The lore for both of these games has overlap, but they are distinctly different. In Mage: The Ascension, there is more conflict between mages, especially in regards to technology vs mysticism. In Mage: The Awakening, mages have a more common culture even if their magical practices differ. What both of these systems offer is a complex system of magic, rife with politics (as is traditional for any World of Darkness game) and a long storied history that the mages of today cannot extricate themselves from. If you love reading about lore, factions, and secret societies, these might games worth getting into.

Ars Magica, by Atlas Games.

Ars Magica is the award-winning roleplaying game by Jonathan Tweet and Mark Rein•Hagen about wizards and their allies in Mythic Europe. This flexible, deeply built world can support games that are historically accurate or fantasy-based, epic or small scale, political or personal.

Players work together to tell the story of their covenant — all of the magi, their companions, and grogs. This history can span decades. It might be heroic, tragic, or both in turn. The covenant could influence the entirety of Mythic Europe or the fates of a small corner of the world.

Spells will be cast. Duels won and lost. Houses may rise and fall. But magic is forever.

Ars Magica has been around for a long time, the first version of the game going back to 1987. It uses d10s and stat bonuses, but the magic system in particularly is known to be a major focus of the game. Spells are rituals and must be learned, and if used too quickly, can cause fatigue. The system details a number of rules for creating magical items, studying magical books, creating new spells, binding familiars, etc. If you are interested in a medieval magic setting and decades of lore, this might be your game.

If you would like to learn more about this game, there’s an in-depth review on RPG.net that can be found here!

MEGALOS, by matura (@matty-from-megalos).

MEGALOS is a game for telling stories about adventures in the clouds, fighting evil empires, and dueling ancient gods. The Worlds of MEGALOS are vast and old, each a cosmic emanation connected to one another by the Wellspring- the source of all aether in the cosmos. Make your own World of MEGALOS or play in one of the standard ones, from the Oradam Rift to Pallid Telkane to Zone Gachette. Soar through the air in an airship, dogfight imperials, and wield aetheric magicks as a punk-rock witch.

This tabletop game is inspired by things like classic JRPGs, electronica music, and medieval alchemy. MEGALOS is the first of the creator's games to use the SLIPSTREAM game engine, which uses pools of d20s as the core of its task resolution mechanic.

As a science-fantasy setting, MEGALOS roots its magic in Aether crystals, a naturally occurring concentration of energy. This means that magic is explainable and quantifiable - meaning that you can create a lot of interesting magical technology in this game. Your characters abilities are split up over traits, skills and cutscene approaches for a mix of stat-driven and narrative play (although combat rules feature heavily in this book). There’s also character Classes and Callings, which distinguish you from other characters, and also grant you access to specific Powers and Talents. To me, this looks like each character’s approach to magic will be dependant on the categories they choose at character creation, and magic generally seems to be a common method of combat.

The full rulebook is $25, but if you want to take a look at just the plaintext rules, you can download them for free! If you’re interested in expanding the game, there’s also a Webs and Wires Supplement that includes extra options for magitek gear, new callings and classes, and expanded rules! If you like a combination of modular characters and narratively interesting choices, you might want to check this game out.

Lex Arcana, by Archeron Games.

In Lex Arcana, you are a Custos (warden) of the Cohors Auxiliaria Arcana, sent by the Emperor to the four corners of the world to further the study of arcane lore, investigate forbidden cults, and face the thread posed by dangerous supernatural creatures.

The Emperor needs you! 

Join the Cohors Auxiliaria Arcana, enter the world of Lex Arcana and dive into the mysteries and dangers of ancient Rome. You and the other Custodes will travel to the four corners of the land, investigate terrifying threats, recover lost relics, unearth forgotten secrets and fight legendary supernatural creatures.

Bundle of Holding describes this game as Cthulhu Invictus meets The X-Files: it’s a game in which Rome never fell and the supernatural and arcane is a constant mystery that must be unravelled. Your characters are paragons of combat and magic, and have been recruited for the Auxiliary Cohort of Secrets, tasked with unveiling supernatural threats and stopping them. Spells in this game are called Indigitamenta, or Incantations, and represent calling onto Roman Deities for aid. Rolling in this game can use any dice - and in fact, they players can choose whether they roll a dice pool or a larger dice - 3d4, 2d6, or 1d12 for example, if your stats total 12.

I think this is a really interesting set of mechanics, and I expect the lore of drawing upon divine power to fuel your spells to be equally fun to play with. Bundle of Holding has a bundle on for this game until June 26 that’s a really great deal - you should check it out!

#tabletop games #game recommendations #asks #indie ttrpgs #dnd #magic systems #fantasy

[cxncordia]

The Rescue

@helloxdesire

Antonio stood on a cliff overlooking a raging river. The night air was cold and a chill crept up his spine. He saw his adversary in the distance. The Nephandi was a twisted figure with glowing red eyes. They had been chasing each other for days, and Antonio was finally ready to finish the fight. As a Verbena, the ability to change into animals and weave Life to his Will was precisely why he should be facing the Duke of Death, as the Nephandi called himself.

He jumped the cliff, a pair of wings appeared, and he flew towards his enemy. The Nephandi lashed out with his dark magic, but Antonio dodged it effortlessly. He spun around, throwing a green bolt of energy at his enemy and while the hit was not enough, it was sufficient enough to distract him and pull down, turning his feet into claws that ripped the Nephandi's robes.

Enraged, the Duke of Death howled, trying to throw Antonio off balance with the telekinetic power. Antonio was ready for it and returned the favor by shielding himself. Then he channeled his life energy, closing the distance between him and his enemy. Furious and surprised by such move the duke summoned power from foul magical forces, firing energy from his hands.

Antonio found himself running on all fours, barreling through his opposition like a pissed-off jaguar. Thumping on the ground he moved with a surprisingly fast step. It only took a few seconds before it was finally over.

***

"Are you feeling better?" Antonio asked the man in the bed. After having landed the final blow to the Duke of Death, then came the restoration. Saving the animals, the people and dismantling the base of the Nephandi. Among these tasks, the one he was most concerned with was the one concerning the young man he had rescued. The Duke was known for having kidnapped and manipulated many men as their slaves which he used to be recipients of the Paradox he created when using his magic. Was this man one of such slaves?

"What is your name? Is there anything I can do to make your recovery more comfortable?"

#antonio #antonio and nathan #helloxdesire

[rb-bot]

oh god what is the nephandi doing here

[mortoinquieto]

@rb-bot Yo, what exactly is a Nephandi?

[midnight-blue-blood]

// ☕️ maybe? If @knife-edged-dreams is too hard a nope I TOTALLY understand, but it might be interesting for Fina to sic an almost-Nephandi on an enemy at some point.

Given her history and lineage, it would be interesting to see how much they would have to go through together to get to that point. That's probably a few years worth of plot!

#ooc #knife edged dreams

[redratt]

technically a mage (widderslainte) but she hunts exclusively nephandi. it's a long game, but she's killed at least five of them in the past few years. turns out that her damned avatar pulls her towards them. it didn't mind this before, but now it's soooo mad about it actually. "NOOOO YOU CANT KEEP KILLING THESE BEINGS OF DEPRAVED EVIL" "chainsaw go brrr"

#mage the ascension #mage #old world of darkness #world of darkness #red draws #ttrpg #slasher #antihero #lesbian oc #character sketch #wodsquad

[lunarsage22]

DBD Killers in The world of darkness

Evan MacMillan: Human (Serial Killer)

Philip Ojomo: Wraith

Max Thomson Jr: Human (Disfigured serial killer)

Sally Smithson: Wraith

Lisa Sherwood: Vampire (Samedi bloodline)

Herman Carter: Tecnocratic mage (Progenitor) 

Anna: Vampire (Gangrel)

Jeffrey Hawk: Changeling (Redcap)

Rin Yamaoka: Wraith

Frank, Julie, Susie, Joey: Vampires (Clan Brujah)

Adiris: Mage (Nephandi)

Kazan Yamaoka: Changeling (Ogre)

Caleb Quinn: Risen

Talbot Grimes: Human (Sorcerer) 

Charlotte and Victor Deshayes: Tzimisce Ghouls

Ji-Woon Hak: Vampire (Toreador antitribu)

Carmina Mora: Changeling (Pooka)

Dredge: Changeling (Bogie)

Tarhos Kovács: Vampire (Cappadocian) 

#dead by daylight #killers #world of darkness #vampire the masquerade #werewolf the apocalypse #mage the ascension #changeling the dreaming #wraith the oblivion

[strangeoctober]

The Golden Cloak of Kwaku Asiamah

This long, beautiful wrap cloak is a masterfully woven garment of fine, midnight black silk and delicate pure golden thread in a fashion reminiscent of kente. It is less colourful than typical kente styles, but the vibrant shine of the patterned golden threads as they catch the light is breathtaking to behold! And if you were to examine the patterns very carefully you might might just see the barely perceptible hermetic runes hidden in the weave...

This cloak was created by the famous Order of Hermes Master Kwaku Asiamah in the early 18th century. Master Asiamah was a renowned and celebrated hunter of nephandi, infernalists and other malicious awakened forces. Indeed, he was perhaps the most successful the Nine Traditions has ever seen! And much of his success was down to this very cloak. Early in his career, Asiamah apprenticed with a cabal of passionate hermetic warriors who sought to proactively protect the Nine Traditions from their enemies. While this cabal was doubtlessly formidable, they were reckless and suffered terribly in their battles. In their final battle, only Asiamah walked away alive. Wounded and cursed, but alive.

These harrowing experiences had a profound effect on Asiamah. He came to the conclusion that the nephandi and other diabolic forces were the most profound threat the world faced and that all others were merely a distraction. He also refined his fighting style, developing an approach that utilised a sudden, decisive assault that allowed for only the most frantic defence. But he knew that even with but a mere moment to act, a potent mystic could level terrible curses before they perished, not to mention whatever magickal contingencies they might have in place. To protect himself, Kwaku Asiamah started to weave…

Creating any wonder is a demanding endeavour, but Master Asiamah’s diaries of that time paint a vivid picture of months of arduous high ritual, deciphering fragments of ancient magicks that were all but forgotten, sanctifying gold and blessing silk. Success was far from assured and even Asiamah himself was not certain how effective his work would be. But in the end, Master Asiahman produced this masterpiece. One of the greatest wonders of the age!

The purpose of the golden cloak is as simple as it is profound. It repels magick of all kinds, both awakened and more prosaic sorcery, either nullifying the effects entirely or blunting them to a survivable level. With raiment such as this, it is little wonder that the enemies of the Nine Traditions came to fear Asiamah’s wrath. Legend has it that even the mere rumour of his presence in a region would send infernalists scurrying into the shadows.

Master Asiamah’s technique and skill rarely allowed his enemies to escape and his merciless approach ensured there were no survivors to tell of their experiences. Asiamah himself never spoke of the qualities of his creation, knowing that the information could easily find it’s way into the hands of his enemies. But sadly, in time, his fame became significant factor in his undoing. A cabal of nephandi assembled to unravel the secrets of Master Asiamah’s success. They collected together whatever rumous, hearsay and legends they could of Master Asiamah and soon came to a conclusion. While the golden cloak was astoundingly effective at deterring direct magickal assaults, it was far less effective when it came to indirect magickal attack. With this theory in hand, they prepared an ambush.

When Master Asiamah did not return from his last hunt, his assistants set out to find him. And find him they did. Impaled by many spears of stone, glass and wood. But it was a pyrrhic victory for the infernal cabal, as they all lay slain around Master Asiamah, joining the great Master in death.

The golden cloak went on to grace many champions of the Nine Traditions, but it’s fame had grown so widespread that it’s qualities, and vulnerabilities, were well known in awakened circles. It was even stolen on one occasion, only to be recovered years later. Today, the golden cloak is on display in the Library in all it’s golden beauty as both a memorial to Master Kwaku Asiamah and as an inspiration to all those who aspire to craft wonders.

The golden cloak is only available for use in the most profound of emergencies, but if you feel your situation warrants it, please submit an application to Library staff and it will be presented to a panel Order of Hermes Masters for consideration.

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