Nobilis

NOBILIS

Between Men and Gods.
Reality and Myth. Perfection
and the End of Everything:
There stand the Nobilis



Unwilling gods. Impossible powers. Unearthly dangers. Beyond the sky, the World Ash stretches from Hell to Heaven, supporting coutless worlds besides our own. Between these strange realms, divine powers and the Wild fight a war to control and define the whole of existence, one idea at a time -- or to unmake it altogether. The Nobilis stand in the front lines of this celestial struggle. Once they were human. Now they are something more. Each infused with a piece of creation's power and given mastery over one part of reality. Love, war, music, steel, thunder, agony, or any of infinity's components: a Noble is its incarnation, master, and protector. Nobilis lets you be one of these guardians of reality.

NOBILIS 101
Written by Ry Herman

I've trying to make this an easy-to-understand boiling down of Nobilis concepts and rules, so that people can get a handle on the world and a start on making their characters. I'll start with the world and its concepts, and then do a section on rules, at least those which are significant to making a character, which is most of them, quite frankly. The section on the world duplicates a lot of the information that was in Nathaniel's post explaning the game, but I'd recommend at least skimming it anyway, as I tried to make it less confusing.

So, to begin:

THE WORLD

1) Player Characters

The PCs in this game are Nobles, beings which are responsible for / represent / embody / are one aspect of the nature of existence. This might be an object and class of objects, quality, idea, philosophy, theoretical construct, social movement . . . pretty much anything that could be used as the subject clause of a sentence. So, this aspect can be juist about anything in the conceptual lexicon : Fire, Salinity, Calendar Days, Weirdness, Punk, Missing Socks, BDSM, Phlogiston, Straight Lines, Objects Moving At High Speeds, or Telecommunications would all be valid ideas for Nobles : and of course there are thousands and thousands of others. Opening a dictionary to a random page usually results in a few good ideas.

Nobles who represent concepts which do not actually exist in the real world, or which are more abstract, are by no means less powerful than those who represent more "present" concepts. (Nobles who represent *extremely* narrow and specific concepts - like, say, Lipton Instant Noodles - are less intrinsically powerful, although they receive some minor benefits as a result in practical game terms. More on that later, when we get to character handicaps in character creation.) Nobles have many powers directly relating to their Domain, and also numerous others which are largely unrelated to it.

Nobles are themselves servants / aspects / avatars / pieces of even more powerful, complex, fairly incomprehensible beings called Imperators (again, more on them later.) Every Noble is bound to a single Imperator. A group of Nobles bound to the same Imperator are a "family" of Nobles. The PCs will play one such family. Although they are "bound" to their Imperator, and in some senses are to greater or lesser degree no more than aspects of the Imperator's personality, they are not automatons - they retain free will for all practical purposes, and are treated as such. A Noble can decide to betray its Imperator if it wants to - although this is usually a seriously Bad Idea, since they will be severely punished, and quite possibly instantly annihilated.

Nobles are made, not born. They are created when an Imperator imbues someone or something else with a piece of Its own soul. Most Nobles were at one time human. A few were originally animals or mythological beings in their own right, and a very few were originally something even weirder, like a computer program or an anime character. Nobles retain some of their original soul and personality after the transformation, which is one of the reasons they are so valuable to the Imperators. But they are far more powerful than any human could ever be. People get made into Nobles in any of a variety of ways. Some happen to be in the neighborhood when an Imperator pinches off a part of the world to make a its magical kingdom ("Chancel") and are chosen from among the inhabitants for unknown reasons.

Some accidentally wander into such a chancel later. Some simply attract the notice of the higher beings somehow (by being particularly smart, or beautiful, or skillful, or evil, or whatever), and are deemed worthy of being Ennobled. Some happened to be near where a Noble died, and got stuck with their aspect because the dying Noble gave it to them. Some (exceedingly rarely) killed a Noble and took their power, and for whatever reason the Imperator decided this was fine. A few simply got caught in some kind of bizarre magical accident which resulted in a piece of an Imperator's soul getting thrust into theirs with neither of them particularly wanting it, and the Imperator just decided to live with it. There are many ways.

Many Nobles look human. Many look like creatures of legend or mythology. Some are superintelligent shades of the color blue or whatever. In general, they'll be in human form when on earth, but it's player's choice what they really look like. Often, but not always, rather than walk directly on Earth, Nobles inhabit the bodies of Anchors (usually) human servants who have been made aware of the true nature of things. (More on Anchors later.)

Nobles are charged with three main duties : defend the aspects of reality related to yourself and your Imperator (which includes those aspects related to your fellow PCs), guard and govern the Imperator's chancel and its inhabitants, and (when it does not interfere with those two duties) help in the general defense of earth. Nobles also generally have specific goals related to their Domains and their allegiances, which often conflict with the goals of other Nobles . . . but (need I say it?) more on that later.

Nobles cannot use their magic to *directly* affect other Nobles : if you are the Lord of Hair, you cannot cause another Noble's hair to grow, although you could do so with your own. This is because Nobles : and the things of which they are composed : are not part of any Domains (one name for the aspects of existence controlled by Nobles.) Nobles who are artists' are not part of the Domain of Artists. Nobles' bladders are not part of the Domain of Bladders. Etc. Nobles can be affected indirectly by the magic of other Nobles : you could strangle another Noble with living ropes of hair you cause to materialize out of the air. Nobles do have natural resistance even to this, however, and you would need to break through this natural magic resistance first. Both of these statements are also true of Noble magic used on Imperators, and Noble magic used on Excrucians (the primary enemies of the Imperators and Nobles : but . . . more on them later.) With rare exceptions, *any* other beings *anywhere* can be affected both directly and indirectly by Noble magic, with no need to break through any resistance.

2) Imperators

There are seven major types of Imperators : Angels (allied to heaven), Fallen Angels (allied to hell), Light Lords (dedicated to the preservation of humanity : not the same as heaven), Dark Lords (dedicated to encouraging humanity to self-destruct : not the same as hell), Wild Lords (dedicated to freedom), True Gods (who generally have an individual code of some kind), and Aaron's Serpents (the children and allies of the World Ash).

An individual Imperator is, on average, about as powerful as an entire family of Nobles : in other words : if the player characters needed for some reason to take on an Imperator in direct combat (which can happen, albeit rarely), if they all attacked at once it would probably be a toss-up which one would win, unless the Imperator was a particularly weak or a particularly powerful one.

Most Imperator magic works just like Noble magic : and therefore can only affect Nobles indirectly. There are a couple of exceptions to this : 1) With great expenditure of energy, Imperators can use magic which affects Nobles directly. Nobles can simply never do that. 2) Your *own* Imperator can simply withdraw the piece of its soul from you at any time if it gets pissed off at you, which would effectively kill you. Both of these events are extremely rare, since the first is hard to do and there are generally easier ways, and the second is sort of like cutting off your own hand. And Nobles very seldom attack their own Imperator since, well, it's almost certainly a death sentence, if nothing else. But it has happened.

3) The Excrucians

Imperators and their Nobles are fighting a war against beings called Excrucians, whose goal is to erase the Universe. Already, they have removed many aspects of the Universe, but no one remembers what they were, because once they're gone, they never were at all. Excrucians are incredibly powerful beings, but it's only very seldom that an entire Excrucian gets into the world : the Imperators spend much of their time preventing that, and fighting the war on that level. More often, a "shard" or fragment of an Excrucian gets through to Earth. Generally, it's up to the Nobles to deal with that.

Excrucians fight in a variety of ways : often, they foment discord among the Nobles and Imperators, for they are subtle creatures. Also, they use a kind of sympathetic magic to erase aspects of the universe : they take a situation on earth, degrade it in certain ways, and finally when it is destroyed in Microcosm it is also destroyed in the Macrocosm. Wars and disasters on earth are not infrequently the results of Excrucians degrading such a situation, although they are just as often the work of Nobles or humans themselves.

Fighting Excrucians directly is often extremely difficult : even their shards are extremely powerful, their magics can affect Nobles *directly*, and they are often armed with Abhorrent Weapons of great power. (Furthermore, if they are fought on Earth, the expenditure of magic often drives many innocent humans insane, which is against Imperator law. And . . . more on that later.) However, Excrucians like to avoid fighting Nobles directly for much the same reasons : Nobles are pretty damn tough in their own right. So, more often, the war consists of the two sides trying to counter each other's moves : Nobles figuring out what the Excrucian's plan is and attempting to halt the plan rather than attack the Excrucian outright, and Excrucians trying to stop, misdirect, or deter them. Of course, sometimes direct assault is just necessary : but when most of your foes are immortal, that may have repercussions later on . . .

There is another important way that Excrucians and Nobles can hurt each other, but since Nobles can do it to other Nobles as well, I'll reserve that for the discussion on the Nobilis Society.

4) The Nobilis World

The world of Nobilis can is divided into several different places :

A) The Spirit World : this is where the Imperators keep the bulk of their
personalities, fighting the Excrucians in their own way and in general
doing whatever it is that Imperators do. Nobles seldom go there, so it's
not that important to the game, really.

B) The Chancels : These are the private kingdoms of the Imperators. The
Nobles' Chancel is their home, and they are charged with its governance and
defense, since the Imperator is generally busy with other matters.
Chancels are connected to the Earth, but often by strange pathways. A
Chancel can be anything : a fairy-tale kingdom, and undersea grotto, a
bizarre world of living computer programs, Detroit, whatever. The players
will design their own Chancel (they will also, incidentally, design their
own Imperator) in the process of character creation. The Chancel plays an
important part of the game, as the characters will spend a good deal of
their time there and *must* deal with any problems that arise in it. A
Chancel is made the same way as a Noble : an Imperator imbues it with a
piece of Its soul : so it is critically important to defend it against
attacks both subtle and direct.

C) Earth : Earth is two worlds simultaneously; Prosaic reality, which is
pretty much the world outside your window, and Mythic Reality, where
*everything* is alive and can be argued with, elementals roam and mythical
beasts abound, time works in fairy-tale manner rather than clock manner,
and roads are as likely to lead to the Sun's Palace or to Heaven as to
Cleveland. These two worlds are actually the same and do not contradict
each other : affecting one will affect the other. Killing a hamadryad in
mythic reality will cut down a tree in prosaic reality, and vice versa.
Humans, with their little minds, can only see prosaic reality, and
generally go mad if they see mythic reality. Nobles, with their dual
minds, can see either one but not both at once. Imperators presumably see
reality as it truly is.

In mythic reality, the earth is a flat disc which hangs in the branches of
the world ash, with heaven at the top of the tree and hell at the bottom,
and other worlds hanging in other branches.

D) The Realms Beyond : The lands beyond the Weirding Wall which surrounds
the World Ash. This is where the Excrucians come from, and where some of
the Wild Lord Imperators are also said to originate (although no one knows
for sure, perhaps not even them.) Very little is known about these lands,
since few have come back alive from them and no one has returned sane.

5) Nobilis Laws

The War against the Excrucians is run by the Imperator Lord Entropy, which
makes him the de facto ruler of Nobilis society. Beyond the Nobles' basic
duties : and the general injunction to serve your Imperator before the War,
and the War before yourself - he has laid down five laws : here they are,
with some notes:

I. Thou Shalt Not Love Another.

This law is broken by pretty much everyone and is largely impossible to
enforce, since the thoughts and feelings of Nobles are generally unreadable
to all but the most incredibly powerful and seldom-used of magics. Nobles
retain many human feelings, and fall in love as uncontrollably as humans do
: with humans, with other Nobles, with Imperators (angels, even fallen
ones, are incredibly beautiful . . . ), and even with other, stranger
beings. (In fact, in the game mechanics, loving a human or two is
certainly convenient and very nearly necessary for certain important
things.) Most Nobles have quietly decided that the best way to follow this
one is to try to keep things quiet and claim it was just for the sex if it
ever comes to court, which it almost never does.

II. Thou Shalt Harm None Who Has Done No Harm

This one, on the other hand, is taken incredibly seriously by the powers
that be. It applies not only to Nobles and Imperators, but to humans AND
TO EXCRUCIANS. Driving human bystanders insane with miraculous magic
counts as harming them, according to all court precedent. Arguments that
no one anywhere has actually done no harm, etc., have been thrown out as
sophistry : if you have no proof, or at least reason, to believe they've
done harm, you are violating the law. Punishments can be severe, so take
care you know what's up before attacking, be subtle with your magics on
earth, at least if anyone is watching, and if things get out of hand, try
to fix things.

III. Treat No Beast As Your Lord

Beast includes humans. This one is also taken seriously, but in a
different way. Nobles are expected to mete out severe justice when they
are insulted, ordered about, or dissed by "lesser beings" (and yes,
apparently insults qualify as "harm" under the second law.) While
punishment for the crime of not punishing such hubris is rare, enough
unanswered insults from lessers can make you a pariah in Noble society.
Certainly it gets in the way of making allies. This rule can be hard on
Nobles who are basically nice people. Bastards usually don't have a
problem with it.

IV. Protect No Power From the Justice of the Code

I.e., don't harbor any criminals. This one is taken fairly seriously, but
if you can get away with at least convincingly claiming you didn't know you
were harboring a criminal, you can generally get off without punishment.

V. Aiding the Cammora is No Crime

The Cammora are the human agents of the Nobles and Imperators on earth
(they are different from Anchors, who are magically bound servants. The
Cammora are hired help.) Taking an action to benefit the Cammora is usually not
considered a crime, even if it pushes the boundary on some of the other
laws.

6) Nobilis Society

All of the Nobilis band together to fight the Excrucians and defend
reality, in general. Beyond that, different Nobles and Imperators are
devoted to different causes and fight, intrigue, and squabble amongst each
other as much as in any society. Nobles and Imperators often have their
own goals and enemies related to their powers and their pasts, and there
are also large groups with differing : often opposing - goals. Every
player character Noble must be allied to some code, although it can be unique. It
does *not* have to be the same group as your Imperator. Imperators are
subtle and complex beings, and it is entirely possible : in fact, likely :
that an Angel would have as a trusted and rewarded servant / aspect of
their personality a being that was utterly devoted to serving the cause of
Hell. But while this may not cause problems between Nobles and their own
Imperators, it can certainly cause problems between Nobles and *other*
Imperators who might not agree with your own Imperator that a servant of
Hell is just the thing Heaven needs . . . or with other Nobles, *including*
the other Nobles serving your own Imperator (although you might want to
stay on at least somewhat decent terms with them, ideally, since you're
going to be defending each others' backs). . . or with other beings or
various types . . .

The five major groups are :

i) Angelic Code :
1. Beauty is the highest principle.
2. Justice is a form of beauty.
3. Lesser beings should respect their betters.

ii) Demonic Code :
1. Corruption is the highest principle.
2.Suffering is a form of corruption.
3.Power justifies itself.

iii) The Light :
1. Humanity must live, and live forever.
2. What must be done ought to be done cleanly.
3. Humans must be protected (particularly from themselves.)

iv) The Dark :
1. Humans should destroy themselves (individually.)
2. Humanity should destroy itself (except for a few toys).
3. Ugliness to human eyes shows that one is worthy. (Note that the Darks' goal is quite different from the Excrucians' goal : if humanity is destroyed by outside forces, the Dark loses.)

v) The Wild :
1. Freedom is the highest principle.
2. Sanity and mundanity are prisons.
3. Give in kind with a gift received.

As with Excrucians, it is often difficult and unrewarding for Nobles to
attack each other directly. However, there are ways to indirectly attack
them which both weaken your opponent and grant you benefits. Every time
you destroy, debase, or turn against them something which they love and
want to protect, they lose some power and you gain some. (This can be done
against Excrucians as well, and can be done by Excrucians against Nobles.)
This means that information about others is often a key part of the game,
and subtlety. (There are game mechanics which deal with this.)

Nobles often sometimes duel using illusions ("Ghost Miracles") to resolve a
dispute. Generally, they're over when one side is hideously embarrassed
somehow, or acknowledges that had the magic been real, they would have been
defeated.

7) Mortal Allies

As has been mentioned several times, working magic in the real world is
problematic if anyone sees you do it (you can do anything you like in
Chancels.) Since much of the War is fought on Earth, that can make things
difficult. Fortunately, there are a couple of ways around that, involving
mortal allies.

Anchors, as has been mentioned before, are (usually) humans bound to you.
They must be humans you either loved or hated before they became Anchors.
They retain their free will, but you can kill them instantly simply be
making them cease to be Anchors.

Anchors are incredibly valuable. Nobles can inhabit their bodies and work
magics through them. They therefore allow Nobles to be several places at
once. And perhaps more important, magics worked Anchors are very difficult
to trace back to the Nobles who did it : in other words, it still drives
other humans nuts, but it probably can't be pinned on you.

Anchors you loved are more likely to serve you willingly, but are
vulnerable to attack for this very reason (see above) if your enemies
figure out who your Anchors are. Anchors you hated are not vulnerable to
this attack, but are likely to try to think of subtle ways to betray you
when you're not directly controlling them : although they will still share
your allegiances to your Imperator, Chancel, Affiliation (i.e., Light,
Dark, Hell, etc.), and Domain, since they contain a piece of your soul.
But they'll hate *you*.

Anchors, like Nobles, are intrinsically resistant to magic : because, like
their Nobles, they are not part of any Domain and therefore cannot be
directly affected by Domain magics. (Quite frankly, anchors are to Nobles
as Nobles are to Imperators, in many ways.) Anchors also attract the
attention of Fate : the concentration of magic in them tends to cause
strange things to happen in their vicinity.

Another way to get things done on Earth is the Camorra. This is a society,
hundreds of years old, which serves the Nobilis in the war : for a price.
After centuries of bargaining with powerful beings, they are powerful
themselves and extremely corrupt. And they've learned how to drive a hard
bargain. They can act as more conventional human agents for intrepid
Nobles, and they often have minor magics of their own.

That was the teaser....

So far, I have one player who has pleged to sign up if I ever do run Nobilis.

This group is composed of high caliber players with tons of RP experiance. I figure you guys can handle this setting.

Send an email if you are curious and want more info.

Update

I have 4 people (and potentially five) who are very curious about Nobilis.

This is just about right for a One-Shot scenario.

So I'll be running a demonstration game as soon as everything is set up just right (seting up a game date, confirming the list of players, etc....)

We'll be playing a Scenario which is entitled 'Briar & Honeysuckle'. Don't be put off by the title, this is a very nice adventure for introducting parts of the Nobilis setting.

More info in future updates soon, I hope.