In Nomine Statuea Anima
Seeing as several people I know are a little unhappy with the –official- golems and gargoyles for In Nomine, I have decided to write them up for myself.
This way there are rules that I can enjoy and know and be able to exploit as much as possible.
It is all set out in a straightforward manner, with snippets of stories interjected through out.
The following document details (as much as I can) the rituals involved in creating golems, many rituals have high expectations of the sorcerers involved in the rituals.
Types of golem
Stone
-Basic
Mud
-Basic
-Terracotta soldier
Flesh
-Basic
Metal
-Colossus
-Armour
-Dreadnought
The stone golem has already been covered; it is the basic looks like a statue kind of golem.
The Mud golem is the thing of Jewish lore, it is formed from virgin clay and soaked with fresh spring water, the ritual is rather simple, at the culmination of it the ritualist must walk around the mud seven times chanting a sacred phrase.
The second type of mud golem is the terracotta soldier, these are however very brittle and break easily, it was created from an imperfect copy of the basic mud golem ritual which was taken to the Far East.
The flesh golem is something that saminga detests.
They are the spirits of wrongfully killed people who return to kill those who killed them, once they have killed all of those people they return to their graves and then ascend up the ladder.
Think the crow and there you have it, also this was a common myth in Jewish circles as well as American Indian circles, perhaps the ritual had spread to those parts of the world and gave rise to the myths.
The Colossus of Rhodes was also a golem, but it never had enough essence to fuel it so in time it degraded and fell to pieces and allowed the spirit in it to be released.
The Armour golem is a thing born from nightmares and fears, it is a suit of Armour that literally comes alive to fight those that trespass on the ground it is set to guard.
The Dreadnaught is perhaps a myth, a golem of legion like qualities, mightier than the colossus and capable of being used by several spirits at once; it is the titan of golems and was very essence hungry.
Golems are for some arcane reason immune to any possession attempts, be it via kyriotate, shedite or songs of possession.
Type Cost (Ess) Disturbance Notes
Stone
-Basic 2x CD VR per week only habitable by saints.
Mud
-Basic ritual level 1 per week
-Terracotta ritual level none
Flesh
-Basic 3x CD VR per day
Metal
-Colossus 100 10 per week
-Armour 10 1 per week
-Dreadnaught ??? ??? ???
Ritual of the Golem
(Basic, Stone)
Cost: 2x CD
Disturbance: Vessel rating per week
Effect:
The Ritual of golem is a corporeal only song.
Each level of the song creates a level of vessel; the vessel cannot be -topped up- with further uses of the song
When the song is first used, additional essence can be spent to raise the initial vessel rating to a max of 6
Notes
1: The song needs a minimum of three people casting it at the same time.
2: 1 is the leader of the ritual and must be the one reading from the book; this person also pays any excess essence.
(Any essence that cannot be split between the three evenly, so any ones or twos of essence)
3: This vessel cannot be used by angels or demons, only ethereal spirits or saints.
4: The golem has an essence capacity of its vessel rating.
5: Due to the magics involved in the creation of the golem, it has a capped intelligence equal to its vessel rating.
6: The lead ritualist must be the person who crafted the vessel, or spent the most amount of time creating it.
Also this person must have the artistry skills needed to create the golem, IE masonry, woodwork/carving, metalwork.
7: The vessel rating can be no higher the artistry skill to a max of six.
8: In melee they gain an additional +2 power to the CD for damage.
Ritual of the Mud Golem
(Basic)
Cost: Ritual level
Disturbance: 1 per week
Effect:
The level of the ritual is the vessel rating of the mud golem.
It has an effective charisma of -3.
The vessel is inhabited by an ethereal spirit who's intelligence and willpower are capped by the vessel rating divided by 2 (1-3 int and willpower max).
It can only -remember- and perform a set number of tasks per day, this is equal to its vessel rating.
Notes
The Mud golem is the thing of Jewish lore, it is formed from virgin clay and soaked with fresh spring water, the ritual is rather simple, at the culmination of it the ritualist must walk around the mud seven times chanting a sacred phrase.
Ritual of the Mud Golem
(Terracotta soldier)
Cost: ???
Disturbance: ???
Effect:
Since the original copy of the terracotta ritual, many poorer copies of the ritual were made, and none of them were ever infused with the spirits of the soldiers they based on.
The Tomb of Qin Shih huang-ti was home to over 6000 of the golems who were to be used in a war against the western world.
With a timely interruption from a bunch Soldiers of Stone the war was averted.
Since that time all copies of the ritual were lost and are presumed destroyed.
Notes
The second type of mud golem is the terracotta soldier, these are however very brittle and break easily, it was created from an imperfect copy of the basic mud golem ritual which was taken to the Far East.
http://www.furman.edu/engaged/inted/StudyAbroad/China/zhongguo/terracotta.html
Ritual of the Flesh Golem
(Basic -Revenant)
Cost: 3x CD
Disturbance: Vessel rating per day
Effect:
The Level of the ritual dictates the level of the vessel.
The check digit dictates additional body hits as well as an increase in several skills: Pistol and Brawling.
(For each point of CD the character gains additional levels in the afore mentioned skills)
The flesh golem has a number of weeks equal to the check digit to seek vengeance on those that killed it, if it fails to kill all of those who killed it, it will lose a force a day until it is totally gone and wasted away.
Should it kill one of its killers it will get all of its forces back once more, only to start the process all over again.
If the caster of the ritual is either fully Native American or Jewish, they gain a bonus of +2 to the CD.
Notes
The flesh golem is something that saminga detests and whenever any are about he will send soldiers to deal with the spirit so that it doesn’t jar his word.
They are the spirits of wrongfully killed people who return to kill those who killed them, once they have killed all of those people they return to their graves and then ascend up the ladder.
Think the crow and there you have it, also this was a common myth in Jewish circles as well as American Indian circles, perhaps the ritual had spread to those parts of the world and gave rise to the myths.
The flesh golem is a natural occurring thing.
The symphony some how brings it back from the limbo its spirit was in.
If the flesh golem was a soldier then they gain back all of their songs, attunements and other similar things.
They recall the point where they died, then nothing, then they recall living once more with the task in mind given to them in snatches of dreams and recollections.
Ritual of the Metal Golem
(Armour)
Cost: 10 + 2X CD
Disturbance: 1 per week
Effect:
The Level of the ritual + the check digit equal the rating of the vessel.
(Yes this can be as high as 12)
The Golem has Armour rating equal to its vessel.
Notes
The golem can either be a set of plate mail Armour or a solid metal statue (a rare thing these days).
This type of golem is usually set in an area as a guard, it lays dormant until some one trespasses, and then it will either attack them or report back to heaven via a variant song of tongues for further commands.
This type of golem is entirely dependant on the spirit that inhabits it...
There are rumors of jean having a variant of this ritual that allows the Armour to be more like an exoskeletal suit and thus give crippled soldiers another way to fight in the war with a partner in the exoskeletal golem.
Excerpt from the private journal of centurion Kallimus
Juno, fifteenth day of this month, fifty second day of this campaign.
~We have stayed in the garrison of Rhodes, I have known better places, but it is pleasant enough and the wine is good.
~Whilst drinking I heard two young centurions talking, they are part of our detachment but I don’t recall where they came from, I only know they are part of the group. There is something about them that strikes me as odd, but I cannot place it just as yet.
~I have struck a friendship up with them, they are good enough, but they talk of higher things than the emperor, and they talk of pagans and of sorceries.
~The youngest of them, malakus, said he wanted to see the great colossus once more, he saw it briefly when he came in by boat, but he thinks it will not be standing for long.
Juno, twenty eighth day of this month.
~Young malakus has come down with a fever, an apothecary has been sent for him, his friend, elohus has remained calm, but also beggars an ache of the head.
~I dared not say of this before, but I have seen cracks in the great colossi’s feet and ankles, and at night I hear a strange calling, it echoes in my heart.
~When i slept last night I dreamt of the cracks in the colossus, I saw the great monument fall in a great sundering of the land, as if the gods were angry.
July, nineteenth day of this month.
~Malakus and elohus have talked to me in great length, and i have agreed to go with them, they say they also have dreams of the earth sundering apart and the great city burning down.
~We leave in the morning, I only prey to the higher forces that malakus and elohus prey to, that the city will be spared long enough for us to leave.
Septembus, fifth day of this month.
~Long I have talked with them and they have told unto me things i would never have dreamt, but i have seen them in their truest forms and I have found I worship false gods, as did the whole of Rhodes, malakus said he will petition David to strike the earth and destroy the heathens.
~Elohus has declared me as a soldier of his lord and god, I shall do my duties as best I can under the guidance of the lord of stone, David, and I shall prey to the true god and I shall walk this earth until my time has come, I shall seek out the creatures known as golems and gargoyles and I shall report on their making as best I am able.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Kallimus~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ritual of the Metal Golem
(Colossus)
Cost: 100 + VR
Disturbance: 10 per week
Effect:
The Colossi has only been successfully built once, all other attempts failed miserably.
It has a Base Vessel Rating of 6+ the CD of the ritual.
Additional levels can be bought for 5 Essence per level, to a maximum of 12
Notes
The Colossus of Rhodes was also a golem, but it never had enough essence to fuel it so in time it degraded and fell to pieces and allowed the spirit in it to be released.
The colossi’s minimum height is 30ft tall, for every level of vessel; an additional 5ft can be added on to that.
Since the days of the Rhodes colossus, the ritual has been lost to the corporeal world.
Ritual of the Metal Golem
(Dreadnaught)
Cost: ???
Disturbance: ???
Effect: ???
Notes
The Dreadnaught is perhaps a myth, a golem of Legion like qualities, mightier than the colossus and capable of being used by several spirits at once; it is the titan of golems and was very essence hungry.
There have been many attempts to craft a golem of dreadnaught standards, but they are all rumored to have failed.
Angels do not talk of the times when dreadnaughts have wandered the lands, they do not talk of how David and janus work side by side cleansing the land of those who have seen a dreadnaught, no one speaks of how the archangels send out all of their sparable troops to wipe the memory of the dreadnaught from peoples minds.
The demons do not talk of the defeats they have suffered at the hands of dreadnaughts; the princes do not talk of the wasted potential.
Beleth in particular does not talk of them, nor does she engender the dreams of dreadnaughts in people nightmares, just incase one come back and hounds her.
Dreadnaughts are almost as strong as AA's.
They are far stronger than a great number of the younger DP's and AA's.
It was rumored that because they were created on the corporeal realm, they did not cause disturbance in the symphony except when an ethereal or celestial song was used.
It is rumored that a dreadnaught could be used by no less than 5 or 6 individual spirits.
In recent times, mechas are what closely resemble dreadnaughts, the monstrous creations of technology and demons in the manga cartoons.
Rumors of the ritual being lost to David and jean are perhaps going round the darker sides of hell and the not to holy parts of heaven.
No one knows what has happened to the original versions of the ritual, but it is rumored that one or two of the purity tsyadim have been seen in heaven...
Continue on to the types of spirits that inhabit the bodies of Golem vessels.
You can go HOME but you don't want to do that.....
