Weblog Licentiae Moeticae

[Jimmy Buffett reference that will make sense later]

Eric Burns knows why. If you haven't figured it out by the end, click there. N.J. may be found here.

(Some time in the future...)

A fist - a female fist; a well-scrubbed, perfectly suitable fist; but not in any way, shape, or form a fist that dripped sex appeal from every pore - slammed on the countertop. "What the Hell is going on here, Michael?" The voice was likewise serviceable, but precisely calibrated as to avoid a mellifluous state.

Michael's left eyebrow raised, in perfect Lightning-approved fashion. "N.J., I am the Archangel of War, called Saint, Taxiarch, and Who Is Like God. I am the patron saint of Germany, police officers, paratroopers, soldiers, and the champion of Israel. I was the teacher of Moses, the destroyer of the army of Sennacherib; I was once Commander of the Hosts of Heaven, still am one of the Archangels of the Four Corners of the Earth, and will be the Archangel of The Last Thing That Baal Will Ever See. Lucifer still has the imprint of my boot on his anal scales, mostly because if he ever lets it fade I will personally go down there and reapply it.
"The least that you can do is not swear."

N.J. frowned, twisted her head a bit in obvious confusion, visibly thought better of it and continued. "...Fine. What the heck is going on here, Michael?"

The Archangel of War smiled. "Why, we're giving you a partner. Isn't that nice of us?" He extended one hand to indicate the young girl sitting beside him. "N.J., you can call her, ah, Tiffany. The name she was born with will set off alarm bells with too many of the Enemy. Tiffany, this is N.J. You should recognize the name behind the initials. You'll be working with each other for the foreseeable future."

Panthalassa

Panthalassa

It startles people when they notice: Heaven has no oceans.

There's a space for one... sort of. To one side of Jordi's Savannah is an area best described as "not defined." It isn't empty, because "empty" is a definition, as is "blank," "vacant," and "formless." There should be something there, and there isn't, but nothing else can take up the space. And it's definitely supposed to be an ocean. It's obvious by looking, although "looking" is the worst word - except for all possible others - to use to describe the action. More to the point, a sufficiently old enough denizen of Heaven will remember the days when there was an ocean there. It was called Panthalassa, and it supposedly stretched forever. In a very odd way, it certainly stretched from Heaven to Hell - at least, old records show of fights between Oannes' Servitors and Vephar's that took place upon it, and Hell once had an ocean of its own. There is a section of Hades that still looks unmistakably like a seaport, complete with long-dry canals.

Gotha-20

Maybe I need a new category for these.

Gotha-20

 
This recently discovered Quantum 7 timeline is particularly worrisome to Homeline. Like the other Gotha worlds, it was subject to a hideous plague that turned its victims into psychopathic cannibals; however, on Gotha-20 the disease ended up mutating itself out of full potency. The survivors are expanding back into an almost-emptied world.

The 'almost' is the problem.

 

Gotha-20, 1904

 

Current Affairs

A few surviving nations explore a world gone mostly to the charnel pit.

 

Divergence Point

1871: Stanley meets Livingstone at Ujiji, and is promptly infected by the Gotha virus. Most nations collapse in the resulting spread of the plague before it burns itself out.

 

Major Civilizations
Chinese (diffuse), Islamic (diffuse), Western (diffuse)

Great Powers
Chinese Republic (ogliarchy, CR2), the Emirate of Afghanistan (feudal dictatorship, CR3), Mongolian Empire (feudal dictatorship, CR3), Republic of California (representative democracy, CR2), Republic of Deseret (theocracy, CR3), Republic of Tasmania (representative democracy, CR1), Republic of Yucatan (ogliarchy, CR3): note that the lingering effects of the Gotha plague have affected most nations' Control Ratings.

 

Worldline Data

TL: 4/5, (5 in California)

Quantum: 7

Mana Level: low

Centrum Zone: Red (due to Gotha plague)

Infinity Level: Z8

 

From Hades' Halls of Loyalty to the Stores of Shal-Mari...

I got the idea from a comment on the SJG forums.  It amused.

Marine Forces Celestial (MARFORCES)

(Motto: "Semper. Fidelis.")

 

To begin with, these are not the "Heavenly Marines." This is a field command of the United States Marine Corps. They are merely... very much outside of regular communication with the National Command Authority. Yes, there is some communication; the situation is very complicated, and most of the details are classified anyway. Suffice it to say that accommodations have been made.

[Asmodeus Month] The Game - Vice Division

The Game: Vice Division

 

The official name is actually the Unnatural Vice Division, which sounds surreal until you actually understand what the Game means by it. As all sufficiently-aware entities know, celestials can suffer from two sorts of dissonance: Word-dissonance, which comes from a betrayal of their Superior's overall vision; and Band-dissonance, which comes from a betrayal of the celestial's own inherent nature. The Game's theoretical purpose is to stamp out examples of either as being a hindrance to the War. A dissonant demon is close to being a Discordant demon is close to being a Renegade, and so forth, so the Game acts proactively.

 

All very straightforward, except that certain Princes provide Band Attunements that will mitigate or eliminate a demon's Band-dissonance restrictions. This is their privilege, of course. The entire point of being a Demon Prince is to enjoy the right of imposing one's Will upon lesser beings, which emphatically includes one's Servitors. The organization of the Game is neither able nor willing to contest this.

 

However, the demons that have been so... favored... by their Princes are potential, unique risks. They can quite easily set a bad example for Band-mates of other Words. For example an inexperienced Impudite of Gluttony working with an Impudite of Dark Humor might learn bad habits - particularly if the latter thought that the former doing so would be funny! This leads to problems for the Game down the line: problems, headaches, complications and paperwork.

 

The Ultrawave Oven

The Ultrawave Oven

 

This is not Vaputech, surprisingly. The item comes from the depths of Haagenti's organization, even more surprisingly. And its mere existence is of official interest to the Game, which should not be surprising at all.

 

The relic incorporates a variant of the Corporeal Song of Entropy that will age or make younger a target a certain number of minutes instead of years (Song level x Essence spent x 10 minutes); also, only organic substances (which, in this context, include vessels) are affected. The size of the item to be affected is strictly limited by the internal capacity of the relic itself: generally, Ultrawave Ovens range from the size of a television set to a refrigerator. Essence use remains 1, and degree of Disturbance is (CD).

 

Gluttons use the Ultrawave Oven as a handy kitchen tool for gourmet cooks: it can tenderize meat, keep food really fresh until serving time, defrost frozen foods quickly, reverse kitchen disasters, test recipes... quite a lot, really. Agents of the Game find these relics to be much more useful in the field of manipulating corporeal evidence, which is why they confiscate Ultrawave Ovens on the flimsiest excuse. The Game would also like to know precisely who is making these items for Gluttony, but is having surprising difficulty in tracking that demon or demons down...

 

Relic/6 (Corporeal Song of Entropy Variant, 2pt/level) 12pt

Self-Powered  0pt

Convenience (Bulky or Heavy ) -1 to -2pt

Tracking (Cannot be tracked) 3 pt

Visible (Automatic) -3pt

Vulnerable (Celestial Artifact destroyed) -4pt

Total Cost: 6/7 pt

Fun little game / thought experiment

Originally posted on the In Nomine List.

You're at a convention.  Somebody says, "Hey!  Let's have a pickup In Nomine game."  Your books are upstairs, but you need to get a PC to the GM /now/ so that he can put together a scenario that fits.  Angel, demon, human, ethereal: doesn't matter, as long as you get it to him right away before he changes his mind.  But it's got to be street-legal, canonical, and a starting character.

IOW, you have ten minutes to hack together something strictly from memory.

Here's mine.

Henry
Malakite of the Sword

The Chair Leg of Truth

This one simultaneously for Asmodeus Month on the IN-List and for Erin Palette.

The Chair Leg of Truth (11 points)

Living Artifact/3 (Originally a Balseraph of Fate)

 

Corporeal Forces: 1 Strength: 3 Agility: 1

Ethereal Forces: 3 Intelligence: 11 Precision: 1

Celestial Forces:  3 Will: 1 Perception: 11

Relic/6

 

Skills: Detect Lies/3

 

Songs: Tongues (Ethereal/1)

 

Attunements: Balseraph of Fate (Seraphim), Balseraph of the Game

 

I was wondering what happened to this guy...

Jonathan Walton.  Did some really interesting fan work on In Nomine, including a steampunk variant that people wouldn't mind getting their hands on.  Good guy.  Now has a game design blog called One Thousand One.

The Epimetheus Group

The Epimetheus Group

 

No, actually, being forgotten is precisely how Epimetheus likes it. His organization does not want to be known, which is why they're camped out in the Far Marches behind multiple layers of obscurity. There will be plenty of time for fame and renown once the celestial invaders are sent back to where they belong.

 

Purpose and Goals

 

To find some way to break the stranglehold that the inhabitants of the celestial plane have upon the ethereal.