Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post

patchwork · 10-16-2017, 02:41 AM

Incoherent is a fair descriptor of Nephandi as portrayed in Mage, and yes, Spirit is at least as useful a Sphere for them. The Nephandi's version of Primordial is pre-rational, even pre-human,Cthulhu's great old ones, and that sort of nonsense. I suspect that whatever would seem accessible yet evil was tossed at the wall to see what stuck, since an extensive but consistent treatment of the inhuman or horrific perversion of each Paradigm wouldn't have been that useful, really, to most GMs or players. Part of the problem is that their Masters were supposedly all thrown off world around 1918-20, either to Horizon Realms or the Deep Beyond; reality no longer tolerates something THAT hostile within it. So Disciples and Adept level Nephandi use Spirit simply to give reports and receive orders/suggestions from their more powerful elder siblings.

I like me Horizon Realms full of ancient, horrifically amoral masters as much as the next person, but honestly I see no need to make a faction out of them or give them a unifying thread. They're part of Bill Bridges' Rainbow Coalition of Evil and I'm not. Any powerful mage whose personal belief and morality system is WAY outside the current consensus could be labeled Nephandi and I'd be satisfied.

10-16-2017, 02:41 AM	#72
patchwork Join Date: Oct 2011	Re: my new campaign ideas Incoherent is a fair descriptor of Nephandi as portrayed in Mage, and yes, Spirit is at least as useful a Sphere for them. The Nephandi's version of Primordial is pre-rational, even pre-human,Cthulhu's great old ones, and that sort of nonsense. I suspect that whatever would seem accessible yet evil was tossed at the wall to see what stuck, since an extensive but consistent treatment of the inhuman or horrific perversion of each Paradigm wouldn't have been that useful, really, to most GMs or players. Part of the problem is that their Masters were supposedly all thrown off world around 1918-20, either to Horizon Realms or the Deep Beyond; reality no longer tolerates something THAT hostile within it. So Disciples and Adept level Nephandi use Spirit simply to give reports and receive orders/suggestions from their more powerful elder siblings. I like me Horizon Realms full of ancient, horrifically amoral masters as much as the next person, but honestly I see no need to make a faction out of them or give them a unifying thread. They're part of Bill Bridges' Rainbow Coalition of Evil and I'm not. Any powerful mage whose personal belief and morality system is WAY outside the current consensus could be labeled Nephandi and I'd be satisfied.