Medieval In Nomine

[thalcos]

I've been thinking about starting a new In Nomine campaign set sometime in the medieval (say, 1350's) or early-Renaissance period to mix things up a bit. The players would be angels, likely centered around one of the major European cities of the day.

Are there any good resources for figuring out which Superiors would be around and the most active? Obviously, most of the major ones from the core book would still be big presences, though it seems like there's more Demon Princes to deal with at the time.

I seem to remember this being discussed at one time, but my Google Fu is failing me this evening...

[Rocket Man]

The Game Master's Guide has a timeline showing high points of In Nomine history, including which Superiors have come and gone. You'll probably find it invaluable.

The first question to ask is when in the Middle Ages? If it's before the 8th century AD, Uriel is still commander of Heaven's Host and will begin the Purity Crusade around 715. If it's earlier than the death of Mohammed (632), then Gabriel is still sane and not yet isolated, though about to get in trouble real fast. After 745, of course, Uriel is ascended and Laurence is in charge.

Other things to note are Valefor's appearance and crowning in the 8th century, Kronos's arrival at the very end of the 9th, and Haagenti's rise to Princedom, devouring Sloth and Oblivion, in the early 11th. This is also the time for two of the War's major crises -- the Legion incident in 1008 (killing Legion and Raphael) and the madness of Makatiel bringing the Black Death in the 14th century.

EDIT: One other consequence if your campaign is in the very early Middle Ages -- Ethereals and the various "monsters" of the dream world are more active on Earth. They've been weakened by the steady expansion of monotheism, but it'll take the Crusade to truly break their power.

EDIT2: Finally read your OP closely and saw the 1350s suggestion. If that's the case, here's the scorecard:

HELL:

The ranks of the Princes do not yet include Vapula, Alaemon, Fleurity, Nubbas, or Furfur. Magog is still bound in his hidden tomb. Kobal hasn't yet gotten bored with all the jokes yet and is still spending a lot of time on Earth ... one of his classic knee-slappers, the Children's Crusade, was pulled off a little more than a century ago. Makatiel has just been put down in the first open collaboration between Judgment and The Game.

HEAVEN:
Christopher is the fairly new Angel of Children (promoted around 1212) but won't be an Archangel yet for centuries. Eli is still an active player in Heaven. Khalid has been Archangel of Faith for about 600 years, but is still in his self-imposed exile. Raphael's death 300 years before is still fresh enough to be painful for many, especially Yves.

[thalcos]

Thanks a lot for that info -- very helpful!

It seems like moving my timeline back a couple hundred years or so to just short of the the Raphael/Legion crisis would make a really interesting backstory to the campaign. Is there any more official/unofficial information the events that led to this epic throwdown? The best I can seem to find is that Legion acquired some Symphony-wide ability to corrupt lots of folks at the same time, so Raphael -- maybe with some demonic help -- launched an all-out celestial assault that ended up with them both destroyed. (There was an interesting supernova in the sky reported all over the world then, which is nice color as well.)

Focusing on this plot and all the corrupt tendrils that stretch into the fiefdoms, nobles, and Church of the time would be really interesting.

That time period would probably also have Laurence, Michael, and Baal quite busy with the Christian reconquest of Spain going on (not to mention Basil II's pre-Crusade drive into North Africa), and the Great Schism getting ready to give them both headaches.

I'm also guessing Jean, Litheroy, and Raphael's servitors would both be very active in the Middle East at this time with the scientific breakthroughs happening over there.

If the Mariel/Meserach devouring happened around the same time, then their servitors can make good thugs and bad guys for players to interact with. I wonder if any of the angelic servitors of the era saw Haagenti coming, and shrugged thinking having one NEW Demon Prince was better than two old ones (even if it's tough to figure out what, exactly, Sloth would be doing at any given point).

Did I miss anything?

[Rocket Man]

Originally Posted by thalcos

Thanks a lot for that info -- very helpful!

It seems like moving my timeline back a couple hundred years or so to just short of the the Raphael/Legion crisis would make a really interesting backstory to the campaign. Is there any more official/unofficial information the events that led to this epic throwdown? The best I can seem to find is that Legion acquired some Symphony-wide ability to corrupt lots of folks at the same time, so Raphael -- maybe with some demonic help -- launched an all-out celestial assault that ended up with them both destroyed. (There was an interesting supernova in the sky reported all over the world then, which is nice color as well.)

Focusing on this plot and all the corrupt tendrils that stretch into the fiefdoms, nobles, and Church of the time would be really interesting.

That time period would probably also have Laurence, Michael, and Baal quite busy with the Christian reconquest of Spain going on (not to mention Basil II's pre-Crusade drive into North Africa), and the Great Schism getting ready to give them both headaches.

I'm also guessing Jean, Litheroy, and Raphael's servitors would both be very active in the Middle East at this time with the scientific breakthroughs happening over there.

If the Mariel/Meserach devouring happened around the same time, then their servitors can make good thugs and bad guys for players to interact with. I wonder if any of the angelic servitors of the era saw Haagenti coming, and shrugged thinking having one NEW Demon Prince was better than two old ones (even if it's tough to figure out what, exactly, Sloth would be doing at any given point).

Did I miss anything?

Both the Infernal and Angelic Players Guides have brief accounts of the Legion crisis. Raphael wasn't the only one who fell that day, but she was the most irreplaceable ... and yes, she basically died in a kamikaze that wiped out Legion with her. (As Archangel of Knowledge, she likely knew exactly where to hit.) Legion had regained the Kyriotate ability to possess multiple beings at once and was attacked by both Heaven and Hell after it became clear he aimed to stop at nothing less than possessing the entire world.

The young demon Haagenti distinguished himself during the fighting, and under Kobal's tutleage, gathered an army, went after Meserach the very next year and devoured him, earning his title of Prince of Gluttony. Immediately after his ascension, he eats Mariel as well. (Personally, that sequence of events always seemed to happen awfully fast to me, so if you want to draw it out in the interest of a longer campaign, I'd say go for it.) I can see some Archangels definitely making the calculation you suggest, especially Michael and Jean.

As for activity in the Middle East -- I like the idea. Remember, too, that that's during the centuries of Khalid's self-imposed exile to the Muslim lands and that he always felt abandoned by the rest of Heaven. And if Jean is active with the various discoveries, then Mariel will be too before her death. As Princess of Oblivion, part of her job is to make sure that the discoveries Jean patiently guides mankind to are lost. His later opponent Vapula, by contrast, took the opposite tack: speed up the schedule, so that humanity acquires technology at a faster pace than it's ready for.

(Other good resources might be Superiors 2 for the rise of Haagenti, and the PDF Litheroy for its account of the old Jean-Raphael-Litheroy partnership.)

[Archangel Beth]

If I recall correctly, the Jean-Rafe-Litheroy stuff was material that made me smile a great deal. Possibly for non-obvious reasons.

[robkelk]

Originally Posted by Archangel Beth

If I recall correctly, the Jean-Rafe-Litheroy stuff was material that made me smile a great deal. Possibly for non-obvious reasons.

Now I'm wondering... Were you smiling upon that material, or smiling at it?

(Not that it matters much, since it's canonical. I'm just curious...)

[Archangel Beth]

Both. There were some additions that, as I recall, made me and the author happy. In, y'know, that evil GM kinda way.