Nephilim 

Unholy Birth
Unintended pregnancies are a fact of life. Passion overwhelms common sense when two
people are in love, even if one of those people is a demon. When two people come together in a
moment of passion, accidents can happen. This is nowhere expressed more plainly than in
these, the first true hybrids of the divine, empyrean and the fragile, malleable nature of
humanity.
As the first generation of this new subspecies of humanity grew and discovered their
powers, they earned the name ​nephilim. ​A nephilim’s prenatal period and birth are normal. The
only way to tell if a pregnancy may result in a nephilim is by inspecting their parentage. Most
nephilim are born from unions between demons and humans, though children from these unions
are not necessarily guaranteed to inherit their demonic parent’s power.
Occasionally, a pregnancy between two nephilim or a human and a nephilim will result in
another nephilim, but that’s entirely unpredictable. Children who have two demonic parents are
nearly always nephilim, but these are still the rarest of them all; demons almost never have the
time to raise a child.
As early as an hour after its first breath or as late as its first birthday, the newborn begins
to uncontrollably absorb Aether from any demons or Infrastructure it’s exposed to. The child
randomly expresses demonic form abilities, eventually settling on the traits it will have
throughout its life. Once the demon parts are decided on, they vanish; the child is normal for all
intents and purposes until late childhood.
Sometime shortly before puberty, the child’s nephilim traits activate, including access to
their Embeds, Evocations, and their demon form. This isn’t without risks, though. Metaphysically
speaking, the human body was not built to withstand the stress manipulating Aether and
replacing body parts with occult mutations places on it.
A nephilim doesn’t have a Vessel. All he has is his own identity, which is under constant
strain from his unnatural joining of soul and and the divine, Inheritance of the Elohim. Too much
damage, and the soul won’t be able to maintain the body and mind, causing anything from
serious injury to the outright destruction of the nephilim: mind, body, and soul. Calling forth their
demon-form mutations causes agonizing physical pain, from the flood of tainted Essence that
warps and shifts his body.

Nephilim Character Creation

Follow Steps One through Four of standard character creation.

Step Five: Apply Nephilim Traits

● Nephilim do not have Incarnations, Interlocks, Keys, or a Malpraxis They can be
members of Factions and as such take the appropriate Condition. Nephilim with no
Faction do not take the Uncalled condition.
 ● Nephilim cannot purchase any Merit that has “demon” as a requirement, but can
purchase Supernatural Merits, and Sorcery. See the Unlocked Potential trait.
● Every nephilim begins play with one permanent Taint, two Embeds, one Evocation, and
three demonic form mutations.
● When nephilim activate demonic form, they do not gain Aether and must roll Stamina +
Occult + Inheritance and spend 1 Aether to take their demon form for a scene.
● Nephilim collect Aether by absorbing it from demons or Defiling holy sites through the
Absorb Aether action.
● Nephilim use the Integrity rules in tandem with the Unstable Soul rules.
● When her player purchases a new Embed or Evocation, a nephilim suffers a breaking
point due to her soul painfully readjusting to its changing nature.

Step Six: Merits

Nephilim characters have access to Supernatural Merits and Sorcery. In addition, all nephilim
receive the following Merits for free:
Eidetic Memory (••): Per the merit.
Voice of Hell (••): Nephilim do not have the same
reflexive command of language that their demonic parents
do, but some strange quirk of their Inheritance allows them to
mimic it. By spending a point of Aether, the nephilim gains the ability to speak the Dragon’s
Tongue for the rest of the scene.
Unseen Sense (Nephilim) (••): This Merit carries all the effects of Unseen Sense (Elohim). In
addition, nephilim can sense sources of Aether, identifying angels and demons with a
successful Wits + Occult roll. They cannot see through their Vessels, but can tell when they’re
looking at one and what sort of entity is behind it.

Steps Eight through Nine

Complete steps Eight and Nine of character creation as normal. Experience costs are the same
as for demons.

Special Nephilim Systems

Absorb Aether
Dice Pool​: Stamina + Occult + Inheritance
Action:​ Instant and contested (if used on an unwilling donor)
A nephilim must put in a conscious effort to absorb Aether into her body. By focusing on
sources revealed by her Unseen Sense (Nephilim) merit, she can pull Aether from
the source into her body. A friendly demon might allow her to drain Aether from him, or she can
obtain it directly from Temples. Nephilim cannot give one another Aether, willingly or otherwise.
If the nephilim attempts to drain Aether from an unwilling demon, the demon’s player rolls Wits +
Inheritance to resist.

Roll Results
Dramatic Failure​: The character opens her Aether reservoir, but rather than drawing more
Aether in, she mistakenly lets out what she already has. Her Aether drops by half, rounded up. If
the roll was contested, the demon gains the lost Aether automatically. If the nephilim has no
Aether, she suffers a breaking point.
Failure:​ Nothing happens. If the target was an unwilling donor, he is aware of the nephilim’s
attempt to steal his Aether.
Success: ​When used on a demon, the nephilim takes one point of Aether from the demon for
each success. When used against Temples the character regains two points of Aether for each
success rolled, but immediately suffers a breaking point with a penalty equal to the amount of
Aether regained in this manner, as his soul is battered by the unfiltered influx of chaotic energy.
Any Aether gained in excess of the nephilim’s maximum is lost and does not contribute to this
penalty.
Exceptional Success​: The character draws in an incredible amount of Aether. If contested, the
target is unaware he has lost it. It’s impossible to steal more Aether than a target has. If used
against Temples, the character’s dice pool for her suffered breaking point cannot be reduced to
a chance die, regardless of any imposed penalties.

Unlocked Potential
The nephilim has greater occult powers than that of baseline humanity. When they
develop the psychic powers inherent in the human condition it is augmented by their divine
power. The nephilim can spend Aether in place of Willpower to power their Supernatural merits,
and, also add their Inheritance score to the dice pools rolled. Supernatural merits activated with
Aether expenditure do not trigger their drawback.

Unstable Soul
Nephilim use Integrity to track their mental well being like mortal characters do, with an
important caveat. Using Aether and demonic powers puts immense stress on a nephilim’s soul.
The only thing keeping it from ripping itself apart under the strain is a careful balancing act, the
human soul held in superposition with its nugget of divine power and Aether stores. As the
nephilim unleashes the occult power within their soul, the power damages the soul. Eventually,
unable to maintain this delicate structure, the nephilim’s body, mind, and soul warp and glitch
until the entire arrangement collapses. The ensuing fallout is universally unpleasant for
everybody involved.
When an effect such as an Embed, Exploit, or assuming demonic form would call for a
demon to check for compromise, the nephilim instead suffers a breaking point with the same
penalties or bonuses. These powers require great force of will to use. As the Nephilim increases
their Inheritance, they roll a Breaking Point at a penalty determined by their new Inheritance.

Inheritance Table
 Aether/ Extra
Inheritance per turn Modifier Taints

1 10/1 +1 0

2 11/2 +0 0

3 12/3 -1 1

4 13/4 -2 1

5 15/5 -3 2