111 "Intervention" Explanations
 

One of the main hangups some of my players seem to have with the d666 Interventions system is the idea of a 111 roll representing the Holy Trinity, especially given the "canon doubt and uncertainty" status of Jesus' divinity. It's also tricky to understand 111 as a favorable Intervention for characters who consider themselves supporters or members of Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, or Buddhist theologies, or to many or most ethereals in general.

I'm wondering how this has been handled in various people's campaigns out there. I remember reading a post in which the ethereal gods represented a real "third faction" that saw interventions on a 333 roll, which I do kind of like, but I'm wondering if there might be a valid argument to simply keep 111 as a "favorable result for non-diabolicals" in other cases as well.

I started writing this post, then took a break to check Google and Wikipedia, and ended up compiling an absurdly long response to my own question. Well, I welcome you to post your own thoughts on this, but here it is for posterity, in case you are interested:

For Jews, 111 in the Kabbalah could represent the number 3, representing material and spiritual growth. This could also represent the 3 parts of the soul: the Nefesh (animal), Ruach (spirit/middle, for morality), and Neshamah (higher soul, or intellect). Also, the 3rd sephirah, Yeod, relates to connecting earth with the higher spheres, and the self with God. (Though In Nomine purists may not appreciate that it's also specifically traditionally associated with Cherubim and the angel Gabriel.)

For Muslims, references to the number 3 are few, but 111 could refer to the verses on Jihad (which seem to number 111), or perhaps something related to verse 111 itself. I suppose you could make something up, like the "trinity" of Allah, Gabriel, and the Prophet Mohammed (p.b.u.h.), but this seems like a stretch.

For Buddhists, 111 could represent The Triple Gem (or 3 Jewels) for Buddha, the enlightened one; Dhamma, the teachings; and Sangha, the community of followers.

For Taoists, 111 could represent the Great Triad of Heaven, Earth, and humanity, or the Three Pure Ones, the highest deities of The Jade Purity, The Supreme Pure One, and The Grand Pure One.

In Shinto, 111 could represent the three primary virtues, echoed in the Three Sacred Treasures of Japan, honorary objects in Shinto: valor (the sword), wisdom (the mirror), and benevolence (the jewel).

For Hindu gods and their followers, 111 represents the Trimurti of Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver, and Shiva the destroyer. 666 could represent the six enemies or impurities: lust, anger, greed, pride, delusion, and envy.

For Wiccans, 111 might represent the Triple Goddesses of Mother, Maiden, and Crone.

Along similar lines, for ancient pantheons, 111 might represent the three beings who define everyone's destiny/fate. For the Norse pantheon, this would be the Norns: Uthr, Verthandi, and Skuld. For the Greeks, this would be the Fates: Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos.

For atheists (!), 111 could potentially represent the psychological division of id, ego, and superego; the roll would be interpreted by the character not as an "intervention" by outside forces, but a perfect realization of human balance and potential. (Not that Freud is any kind of "god," but this seems oddly in line with the first Kabbalah explanation above, while still entirely secular.)

For ethereal denizens of the Marches more generally, 111 could simply represent the repeated significance of the number 3 in many fables, myths, and fairy tales: 3 wishes, 3 tries to get something right, etc. 666 may still represent the influence of Hell. After all, anyone who's been in the Marches long enough knows that the Faerie Court has long paid a tithe to Hell.

In general, a number of religions and spiritual traditions (ranging from Asian Christian philosophers) have suggested the importance of understanding the human self as a division of Body, Mind, and Soul, which is actually already represented by the 3 kinds of Forces in In Nomine (corporeal, ethereal, and celestial). And, of course, under standard In Nomine rules, a 111 roll may be what makes an atheist (or any other person unaligned with a Judeo-Christian view of Heaven) realize that they are wrong in this game world.

Along these lines, for any of these, 666 could represent recognition of the great corrupting evils of Hell outside their own beliefs/pantheon. I think the 111 result is more important to explain, as the influence of the Holy Trinity may be harder to swallow (considering its CDAU nature and God's general subtlety) than the comparatively obvious presence and influence of Hell.

Whew, and now I should get back to work. Thoughts/additions welcome, especially if you've got anything good for significance of Muslim 111 rolls or other interpretations of 666 rolls.

Re: 111 "Intervention" Explanations
 

Well done, sir!

Another less satisfying response is simply that 666 is traditionally associated with Hell, and 111 is in terms of the dice mechanic the completely inverted but still randomly obtained response. This has the disadvantage of operating outside the conceit of the game as opposed to within it, which doesn't please me (one of my favorite thing about IN is that for virtually every stat that describes your PC, your PC and you would describe it the same, "I am a 9-Force angel," or "I have three ranks in the Celestial Song of Charm" or "I possess the Smite Servitor Attunement").

Yet another response is that since rolling a 111 represents the intervention of God, and God is defined in IN as the consciousness of Creation itself, the Symphony, the three 1s stand for the three separate-but-not-separate realms that make up the Symphony (the Celestial, Ethereal, and Corporeal realms), which form a Trinity from the Symphony. You could even go so far as to say the Triune Godhead of Catholicism (and many other Christian sects) is the same as the tripartite division of the Symphony, with Christ being the ideal human, the Holy Spirit the ideal ethereal, and God the Father being the ideal celestial.

Of course, that could just be a popular heresy held by devout Catholics exposed to the War, like the Purificators. *wink*

Re: 111 "Intervention" Explanations
 

This is the real reason, AFAICT. The 666 thing is very populaly associated w/ Hell/the Devil, regardless of the theology, and 111 is the other extreme roll on 3d6. (Also, I don't think that characters describe their skills (or Songs) w/ ranks/levels any more than they do in any other settings).

Re: 111 "Intervention" Explanations
 

Good "game theology" arguments, although I personally believe that if 111 = intervention by the One God and 666 = intervention by Satan, then a game that allows Ethereal Interventions should use a distinct number to represent those. The Marches are neither Heaven nor Hell, the spirits living there are neither Divine nor Infernal; so the "in-between" number 333 seems to make the most game sense.

For what it's worth, most of the Ethereal Interventions I've rolled have been just plain strange warpings of reality which didn't favor either side in the War: some were encounters with ghosts or pagan spirits, some were lucky shots by NPCs who were committed to another religion, and some were Songs that ended up with strange side effects. (A mundane who rolled an Ethereal Intervention on a skill might have a superstition or strong cultural belief come true: on a Driving roll, he might crash after swerving to avoid a black cat, or narrowly avoid crashing because of the rabbit's foot he carried.)

Re: 111 "Intervention" Explanations
 

My two cents:

When I rolled a 666 in the middle of a chat game (much to my chagrin!) it wasn't Satan who showed up to Intervene, it was a Demon Prince. I've had to do logical backflips to explain why he was there and it ultimately came to almost nothing, but that's how I interpreted it. So the question of the Ultimate Divine remains a question, at least in my game.

Damned philosophy degree...

Re: 111 "Intervention" Explanations
 

I think it's funny that the Corporeal/Ethereal/Celestial division didn't occur to me until fairly late in the process of googling stuff, but that is indeed a much more neutral and sensible way of explaining the 111 result to newcomers. Still, I feel like it loses a bit of the "ineffability of the divine" that you get in trying to explain the meaningfulness of a 111 through religiously-themed "numerology."

Given that, part of the reason I was looking to think up explanations for "favorable interventions" on a 111 is that I'd like to run an ethereals one-shot at some point, with pre-gen PCs we'll never use again, and without much (or perhaps any) direct reference to angels. Why would God intervene upon the quest of some Marches backwater domain? If you want to look at it canonically, you could say that we know "out of character" that every 111 intervention DOES represent the intervention of the Lord/perfection of the Symphony for some ineffable reason, but I was hoping to come up with some "in character" way that my ethereal PCs would understand the results of their own 111 rolls.

That said, I really like the idea of a 333 result representing superstitions coming true, with no direct "intervention" in the War either way. Makes super great sense in a mixed ethereals/celestials game.

Re: 111 "Intervention" Explanations
 

See, the way I'd run it, Interventions aren't obvious things. They're now always subtle, but they are the sort of thing that might just be a bit of good or bad luck. Sometimes help really is just around the corner. Sometimes you walk down the wrong street. There's not even a real assumption that God or Lucifer are responsible on an OOC basis. A divine or infernal intervention simply means that something has happened that has attracted the attention of one side or another in the war, in a particularly intense manner. And if you don't want your own side to know what you're doing, sometimes you don't want the 'best result'. I also use 333 as a sign of an Ethereal intervention, something that attracts other forces to the area.

Example cases:

Mortals game. A Soldier rolls 666, and bumps into a Balseraph of Fate, who starts talking to her and trying to sell her on the other side. She rolls another 666 while trying to resist his resonance, and is instantly possessed by the Shedim of Fate that is acting as this Balseraph's minion.

Angels game. An NPC Malakite of Novalis, who has become disillusioned by the pacifism preached by her Superior, finally makes the decision to apply for a transfer to serve Michael. Another player rolls a 111 on an insignificant roll - and Michael himself shows up to accept her oath.

Angels game. Far in the past, a demon is sniffing around a pub somewhere near Babylon. We roll a 333, and Enkidu (see wikipedia) shows up and stabs it, before asking us what we are and what we're doing here.

Other interventions might lead to sudden insights into the nature of what's happening, accurate or inaccurate, helpful or not, depending on the nature of the intervention rolled. They might simply act as a critical success or failure, depending on how one wants to play it.

To me, the question in IN isn't about whether or not God exists. The question is what that existence means. Is God a trinity? Does God endorse one religion over another? Does God even notice us any more? Is God actually good in any meaningful sense of the word?