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Old 05-06-2009, 05:44 AM   #1
LoneWolf23k
 
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Default In Nomine Infinite Worlds

Been wondering about using In Nomine's Celestials with an Infinite Worlds campaign, and looking up old notes, worked up the following concept based in part on the Cabal's cosmology.

-The Corporeal Realm, aka Assiah, actually consists of not one, but many Earths and their constituant physical matter Universes.

-The Astral Realm and part of the Iconic Realm make up what Celestials call "The Ethereal Realm", and is the domain of Faeries, Ethereal Gods, as well as more exotic Ultraterrestrial beings and spiritual parachronozoids.

-Hell is the Abyss, something of a pandimensional "dumping ground", where the Demons and the Damned dwell, forced to share space with the even darker Qlippoth.

-Heaven as we know it, is right at the edge between the Iconic Realm and the Realm of Pure Spirit, and serves as something of a "Gateway" to the Godhead, via Jacob's Ladder.

-Tethers are basically Nexus portals used by the different factions to travel to and from different alternate earths.

-Celestials work as "Caretakers of Creation" (Defining "Creation" as the entirety of the Multiverse), intervening mostly on "Crisis Points" in the timeline of various worlds where Planetary Destiny has been derailed, while Infernals are generally trying to "sabotage" worlds, leading them into a spiral of destruction... "Hell Worlds" are Earths where the Demons succeeded.

-There aren't multiple versions of Celestials/Infernals running around; there's no world where Michael fell and Baal didn't, for exemple.

Granted, this adaptation doesn't cover everything, and definetly needs work, but I think that as a basis for a multiversal In Nomine setting, it's a good start.
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Old 05-06-2009, 06:59 PM   #2
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Default Re: In Nomine Infinite Worlds

I should point out that the authors of the IW setting made allusions to In Nomine's world as being a particular timeline with a local Yahweh, which I do not like. (In later comments, it was explained that this was a deliberate and conscious reference, though the world was not named.)

I too, would like In Nomine to be "dominant" when mixing it with the Infinite Worlds meta-setting, with the angels finding themselves serving the Godhead in Atziluth, somehow, and Lucifer likewise a unique, worlds-spanning entity (despite once being an angel himself; it's certainly possible that every celestial is a unique entity, given their access to their own True Names). It's possible to reconcile this with canon, I think, with a few points:

I would let In Nomine's world be its own timeline, in a skerry with the Marches, a local Heaven, and a local Hell, the latter aligned, as you suggest, with the other layers of reality. Jean and Yves know full well about other worlds, and where they can be accessed in Assiah and at the borders of the Marches. This information is kept secret simply because, in Jean's view, widespread interdimensional travel makes planning the War that much more complicated, and from Yves' point of view, almost all Destinies are intertwined with the world of one's creation.

Michael knows about other worlds, too. So does Gabriel. Raphael lost only a local instantiation and the ability to ever instantiate in In Nomine's universe again. Uriel gave his up to attend to other duties; the Purity Crusade could not be explained because it had to do with his functions beyond the IN timeline.

Though a timeline like many others, In Nomine's world is special because it is an anchor timeline, and because its Heaven has one of the only known means other than the Sword Bridge of reaching Atziluth, which is of course the Higher Heavens. It's doubtful the Cabal's Grand Masters have really experienced anything of the sort.

One of the key things to remember is that Destinies are still important, even for humans with doubles. They're all real, individual beings, but they're connected, and any one Destiny or Fate influences the possibilities for others not yet consummated. I agree that some parallels may have already answered the question of a given timeline's Destiny or Fate; such timelines might be metaphysically "off limits" to celestials of the Other Side! Like people, each timeline has something to offer to an eventual Destiny or Fate of the entire Symphony.
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Old 05-09-2009, 08:52 PM   #3
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Default Re: In Nomine Infinite Worlds

A better fit might be (particularly considering your constant references to it) In Nomine Cabal, which opens up many new character types and situations.

Forcing IN into the IW framework is fraught with difficulties, IMO. What does one do dealing with the very high tech worlds? The worlds where Judaism is a niche faith which never morphed into Christianity? How do you deal with Yrth?

Much easier to keep it in the single world model of the Cabal. Humans become more important, but not in an uncontrollable technical manner that IW would allow.

Last edited by JCD; 05-09-2009 at 08:56 PM.
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Old 05-09-2009, 09:00 PM   #4
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Default Re: In Nomine Infinite Worlds

I have to admit, one of my concerns was how to fit In Nomine with Yrth...
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Old 05-09-2009, 11:02 PM   #5
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Default Re: In Nomine Infinite Worlds

Quote:
Originally Posted by JCD
A better fit might be (particularly considering your constant references to it) In Nomine Cabal, which opens up many new character types and situations.
To make In Nomine's default setting dominant, the Cabal practices a particularly adept form of Sorcery and their cosmology is a useful but seriously flawed description of the layers of reality.

If you wish to use Infinite Worlds with In Nomine dominant, presumably having advanced the technology to where van Zandt has achieved his breakthrough, what the Infinity Corps has done is find a way to visit the Marches, though only the most stable, Earth-like infinite Domains. They can even translate material goods to ethereal form and back. The doubles they find there are either dreamers, or figments the I-Cops themselves create; Centrum is a hidden Domain with a race of Ethereals that has been coalescing from the energy expenditures of Infinity's travels. Some of the Ethereals there know what they are, and are vested in continuing the charade; many think that they are themselves real, alternate humans, with their own histories and existence. Their travel methods limit them to other Domains, mostly ones that the I-Cops can also travel to.
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Old 05-09-2009, 11:05 PM   #6
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Default Re: In Nomine Infinite Worlds

Quote:
Originally Posted by William
To make In Nomine's default setting dominant, the Cabal practices a particularly adept form of Sorcery and their cosmology is a useful but seriously flawed description of the layers of reality.

If you wish to use Infinite Worlds with In Nomine dominant, presumably having advanced the technology to where van Zandt has achieved his breakthrough, what the Infinity Corps has done is find a way to visit the Marches, though only the most stable, Earth-like infinite Domains. They can even translate material goods to ethereal form and back. The doubles they find there are either dreamers, or figments the I-Cops themselves create; Centrum is a hidden Domain with a race of Ethereals that has been coalescing from the energy expenditures of Infinity's travels. Some of the Ethereals there know what they are, and are vested in continuing the charade; many think that they are themselves real, alternate humans, with their own histories and existence. Their travel methods limit them to other Domains, mostly ones that the I-Cops can also travel to.
I like it -- especially since it explains why the "myth worlds" started to become more common as more and more people became involved with/interested in dimensional travel.
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“It's not railroading if you offer the PCs tickets and they stampede to the box office, waving their money. Metaphorically speaking”
--Elizabeth McCoy, In Nomine Line Editor

Author: "What Doesn't Kill Me Makes Me Stronger"
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Old 05-10-2009, 07:49 AM   #7
JCD
 
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Default Re: In Nomine Infinite Worlds

Quote:
Originally Posted by William
To make In Nomine's default setting dominant, the Cabal practices a particularly adept form of Sorcery and their cosmology is a useful but seriously flawed description of the layers of reality.

If you wish to use Infinite Worlds with In Nomine dominant, presumably having advanced the technology to where van Zandt has achieved his breakthrough, what the Infinity Corps has done is find a way to visit the Marches, though only the most stable, Earth-like infinite Domains. They can even translate material goods to ethereal form and back. The doubles they find there are either dreamers, or figments the I-Cops themselves create; Centrum is a hidden Domain with a race of Ethereals that has been coalescing from the energy expenditures of Infinity's travels. Some of the Ethereals there know what they are, and are vested in continuing the charade; many think that they are themselves real, alternate humans, with their own histories and existence. Their travel methods limit them to other Domains, mostly ones that the I-Cops can also travel to.

This doesn't quite satisfy since a major crux of the economic aspects of IW is the virtually unlimited amounts of raw materials one gets from what you are now characterizing as these Ethereal skerries. Six million tons of iron a day is a heck of a dream fragment.

Now, if you adjusted the economics, perhaps.
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Old 05-10-2009, 07:54 AM   #8
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Default Re: In Nomine Infinite Worlds

I DID have a similar idea, where all this interdimensional transport was occuring through Fairy, causing no end of disruption to their worlds, starting a little war, but it wasn't suffiently developed and did not encompass IN.

The idea of God making practice realities brings to mind an artist scribbling in a sketchbook. Most of those attempts will wind up balled up on the floor of Abyss, not dangling like treasures.

IIRC, Noblis made a fair attempt at this type of game, albeit at a level which makes angels look like Red Shirts, however did not include human dimensional travel and the other realities weren't mirror Earths, but worlds in their own rights.
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