Nobilis
Encyclopedia
Nobilis is a contemporary fantasy
role-playing game
created by Jenna K. Moran, writing under the name R. Sean Borgstrom. The player characters are "Sovereign Powers" called the Nobilis; each Noble is the personification of an abstract concept or class of things such as Time, Death, cars, or communication. Unlike most role-playing games, Nobilis does not use dice
or other random elements to determine the outcome of characters' actions, but instead uses a Karma-based system for task resolution.
and Norse
mythologies, but adds numerous unique details to its setting. Though the everyday world in the game appears much like our own, it is actually only the Prosaic Earth, a lie that the world told to itself in a desperate attempt to explain suffering
, and a rationalized delusion which conceals the true reality that would plunge most mortals into madness: the Mythic Earth, an animistic world where everything has its own sentient spirit. In the Mythic, the earth is really flat
, and hangs somewhere among the vast boughs of the "world-tree", Yggdrasil
. Countless worlds dot the branches of this world-tree, but at the top is Heaven
, which is inaccessible to all but the angels (only one human soul in a billion is not turned away) and is the source of all beauty. Beneath the earth, in the roots of Yggdrasil, is Hell
, the source of all corruption. Around Yggdrasil, except above heaven (where it is open to the stars), is a mystical impenetrable curtain of blue flames known as the Weirding Wall.
Every class
of objects and every concept
is represented by a being of god-like power known as an Imperator. Each Imperator may govern from one to several of these Estates, and has effectively limitless control over them. The Imperators are engaged in a deadly struggle with the Excrucians, terrible beings from outside the Weirding Wall who wish to destroy reality; this struggle is known as the Valde Bellum. This war keeps Imperators busy in the Spirit World, so in order to maintain their affairs on Earth and in the other worlds they invest a shard of their soul in a human (or occasionally another animal or object), creating a Nobilis. Each Nobilis represents one of the Imperator's Estates; the group of Nobilis this forms, known as a Familia Caelestis, is typically loyal, both to each other and their Imperator.
The Imperator Lord Entropy oversees the actions of the Nobilis and enforces the Code Fidelitatis, the five laws he has established for them, in his Locust Court. The most notable and notorious of these, and the one most often broken, is the Windflower Law which states that no Noble is allowed to love
another being. (Ironically, in the first two editions, Nobilis can turn other humans into Anchors, whose every action they can control, but in order to do this they must first love or hate the person.)
To protect their physical forms from the ravages of the Valde Bellum, Imperators take a part of reality and partition it off into a self-contained, unique world which can take any form. This world, called a Chancel, both houses their physical bodies and is a spiritual reflection of it. Much like in the myth of the Fisher King
, if the Imperator suffers, so does their Chancel.
Flower
s have great significance to the Nobilis and their Imperators; earthly flowers are reflections of their heavenly counterparts and each has a meaning. For example, the gamemaster
is known as the Hollyhock
God
because, in the world of Nobilis, hollyhocks represent vanity
and ambition
. This is because, according to the in-game story, the angels used flowers as a tool to control and direct the brunt of their powers when they created Reality. Each Nobilis and Imperator has a flower that represents them, and flowers are often used in their magical rites.
s, Nobilis does not use random elements in determining success in characters' actions. Instead, Nobilis uses a resource management system; players may spend Miracle Points
to succeed at certain actions, but otherwise they rarely fail at what they set out to do. Instead of the action centering on whether or not the characters succeed, the emphasis is instead on the consequences of those actions. Since combat between Nobilis uses up Miracle Points very quickly and a Nobilis can easily defeat even great numbers of humans, social roleplaying is encouraged over combat. Though the characters may seem to have limitless power, in reality they must take into consideration both the outcome of every act and what other Powers or Imperators they may offend in the process.
: Aspect, which governs their ability to perform superhuman physical and mental acts; Domain, which covers their power over their estate; Realm, which determines how much power they have in their Chancel; and Spirit, which describes how much magical power the Nobilis has. Spirit creates the Auctoritas, a shield that protects them from the Miracles of other Powers. A character's Spirit also determines how many Anchors they may have. Each attribute has a number of Miracle Points associated with it.
The character creation
system also makes Nobilis notable by giving players an unusual amount of control over the setting. In addition to creating their own characters – a process which already allows for considerable customization – the players create their Imperator and Chancel. Players receive a number of points to invest in their Chancel equal to the total amount they spent on their characters' Realm; they may use these to buy special attributes for their Chancel such as special technology or magical inhabitants. They do not receive any points for their Imperator, so they must take a corresponding drawback for every special attribute they wish their Imperator to have. Each Nobilis also has an Affiliation, which is a moral code they follow in order to regain Miracle Points, as well as character flaws called Limits and Restrictions. Much like their Affiliation, these allow the character to regain Miracle Points when they become an inconvenience.
Each character also has a set of Bonds and Afflictions, the rules of their nature. Bonds are those rules which need effort to maintain; Afflictions are those rules which simply happen, without effort. When Bonds and Afflictions become an inconvenience, they allow the character to regain Miracle Points. When a Noble confronts and overcomes significant obstacles and antagonists, or honors the properties of their estate, they also regain Miracle Points.
As in earlier editions, the Imperator and Chancel are created by the players, but the point-buy system has been dropped. Instead, the players work together on deciding the properties of both.
by Pharos Press in 1999 with cover art by Alphonse Mucha.
to publish the second edition.
The second edition is a coffee table-style book
, the cover designed by Universal Head, with a ribbon bookmark; it is called the "Great White Book" by Nobilis fans. Full-page black and white art was commissioned for this book, in particular from Charles Vess
and Michael William Kaluta
; Borgstrom's flash fiction
, set in the game world, fills its large margins. This edition won the Origins Award
for Best Graphic Presentation Book Format Product 2002 and the 2003 Diana Jones Award
for Excellence in Gaming. Guardians of Order ceased operations in 2006, with an announcement that they would attempt to find other publishers for their games.
in 2011, as the first volume in the Nobilis: the Essentials range. It was initially released on PDF, to be followed by a print version. The cover art is by Ciaoffen 师晓蒙.
In the years following the release of the second edition, Borgstrom had changed her name to Jenna Katerin Moran, and the third edition was released under that name.
or for a small fee from drivethrurpg.com, under the name Unlikely Flowerings. This document was the first of an announced series of "peculiar books" that would make available the whole "work version" of Society of Flowers. Then those peculiar books, completed and cleaned, would be released later in 2008 in hardcopy version. However, the second peculiar book and Society of Flowers were delayed following personal problems of the author., with the second peculiar book, Creatures, Clothed in Strangeness, eventually seeing release in September 2009 as a free pdf download from imago.hitherby.com.
into French
in 2002 by the Swiss company 2 dés sans faces, société coopérative
(2 dice without faces, cooperative society). Curiously, this translation was available for sale before the original, English
edition. The French edition, for reason of available space, replaced the scenario from the English language book by an original one, whose action is in a media-obsessed Chancel.
A gamemaster
screen, titled Perfidie, has been released in late 2002, with a small booklet including errata and the scenario from the English language book.
Contemporary fantasy
Contemporary fantasy, also known as modern fantasy or indigenous fantasy, is a sub-genre of fantasy, set in the present day. It is perhaps most popular for its sub-genre, urban fantasy.-Definition and overview:...
role-playing game
Role-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
created by Jenna K. Moran, writing under the name R. Sean Borgstrom. The player characters are "Sovereign Powers" called the Nobilis; each Noble is the personification of an abstract concept or class of things such as Time, Death, cars, or communication. Unlike most role-playing games, Nobilis does not use dice
Diceless role-playing game
A diceless role-playing game is a role-playing game which is not based on chance: it does not use randomisers to determine the outcome of events in its role-playing game system...
or other random elements to determine the outcome of characters' actions, but instead uses a Karma-based system for task resolution.
Setting
Nobilis draws on many sources, including ChristianChristian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
and Norse
Norse mythology
Norse mythology, a subset of Germanic mythology, is the overall term for the myths, legends and beliefs about supernatural beings of Norse pagans. It flourished prior to the Christianization of Scandinavia, during the Early Middle Ages, and passed into Nordic folklore, with some aspects surviving...
mythologies, but adds numerous unique details to its setting. Though the everyday world in the game appears much like our own, it is actually only the Prosaic Earth, a lie that the world told to itself in a desperate attempt to explain suffering
Suffering
Suffering, or pain in a broad sense, is an individual's basic affective experience of unpleasantness and aversion associated with harm or threat of harm. Suffering may be qualified as physical or mental. It may come in all degrees of intensity, from mild to intolerable. Factors of duration and...
, and a rationalized delusion which conceals the true reality that would plunge most mortals into madness: the Mythic Earth, an animistic world where everything has its own sentient spirit. In the Mythic, the earth is really flat
Flat Earth
The Flat Earth model is a belief that the Earth's shape is a plane or disk. Most ancient cultures have had conceptions of a flat Earth, including Greece until the classical period, the Bronze Age and Iron Age civilizations of the Near East until the Hellenistic period, India until the Gupta period ...
, and hangs somewhere among the vast boughs of the "world-tree", Yggdrasil
Yggdrasil
In Norse mythology, Yggdrasil is an immense tree that is central in Norse cosmology. It was said to be the world tree around which the nine worlds existed...
. Countless worlds dot the branches of this world-tree, but at the top is Heaven
Heaven
Heaven, the Heavens or Seven Heavens, is a common religious cosmological or metaphysical term for the physical or transcendent place from which heavenly beings originate, are enthroned or inhabit...
, which is inaccessible to all but the angels (only one human soul in a billion is not turned away) and is the source of all beauty. Beneath the earth, in the roots of Yggdrasil, is Hell
Hell
In many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...
, the source of all corruption. Around Yggdrasil, except above heaven (where it is open to the stars), is a mystical impenetrable curtain of blue flames known as the Weirding Wall.
Every class
Class (philosophy)
Philosophers sometimes distinguish classes from types and kinds. We can talk about the class of human beings, just as we can talk about the type , human being, or humanity...
of objects and every concept
Concept
The word concept is used in ordinary language as well as in almost all academic disciplines. Particularly in philosophy, psychology and cognitive sciences the term is much used and much discussed. WordNet defines concept: "conception, construct ". However, the meaning of the term concept is much...
is represented by a being of god-like power known as an Imperator. Each Imperator may govern from one to several of these Estates, and has effectively limitless control over them. The Imperators are engaged in a deadly struggle with the Excrucians, terrible beings from outside the Weirding Wall who wish to destroy reality; this struggle is known as the Valde Bellum. This war keeps Imperators busy in the Spirit World, so in order to maintain their affairs on Earth and in the other worlds they invest a shard of their soul in a human (or occasionally another animal or object), creating a Nobilis. Each Nobilis represents one of the Imperator's Estates; the group of Nobilis this forms, known as a Familia Caelestis, is typically loyal, both to each other and their Imperator.
The Imperator Lord Entropy oversees the actions of the Nobilis and enforces the Code Fidelitatis, the five laws he has established for them, in his Locust Court. The most notable and notorious of these, and the one most often broken, is the Windflower Law which states that no Noble is allowed to love
Love
Love is an emotion of strong affection and personal attachment. In philosophical context, love is a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion, and affection. Love is central to many religions, as in the Christian phrase, "God is love" or Agape in the Canonical gospels...
another being. (Ironically, in the first two editions, Nobilis can turn other humans into Anchors, whose every action they can control, but in order to do this they must first love or hate the person.)
To protect their physical forms from the ravages of the Valde Bellum, Imperators take a part of reality and partition it off into a self-contained, unique world which can take any form. This world, called a Chancel, both houses their physical bodies and is a spiritual reflection of it. Much like in the myth of the Fisher King
Fisher King
The Fisher King, or the Wounded King, figures in Arthurian legend as the latest in a line charged with keeping the Holy Grail. Versions of his story vary widely, but he is always wounded in the legs or groin, and incapable of moving on his own...
, if the Imperator suffers, so does their Chancel.
Flower
Flower
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...
s have great significance to the Nobilis and their Imperators; earthly flowers are reflections of their heavenly counterparts and each has a meaning. For example, the gamemaster
Gamemaster
A gamemaster is a person who acts as an organizer, officiant for questions regarding rules, arbitrator, and moderator for a multiplayer game...
is known as the Hollyhock
Hollyhock
Alcea , commonly known as hollyhocks, is a genus of about 60 species of flowering plants in the mallow family Malvaceae. Most species are native to southwest and central Asia, although a few are native to southeast Europe or Egypt...
God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
because, in the world of Nobilis, hollyhocks represent vanity
Vanity
In conventional parlance, vanity is the excessive belief in one's own abilities or attractiveness to others. Prior to the 14th century it did not have such narcissistic undertones, and merely meant futility. The related term vainglory is now often seen as an archaic synonym for vanity, but...
and ambition
Ambition
Ambition is the desire for personal achievement. It provides the motivation and determination necessary to achieve a particular end or condition. Ambitious people are characterised by their strong desire for attainment, power, or superiority...
. This is because, according to the in-game story, the angels used flowers as a tool to control and direct the brunt of their powers when they created Reality. Each Nobilis and Imperator has a flower that represents them, and flowers are often used in their magical rites.
System
Unlike most role-playing game systemRole-playing game system
A role-playing game system is a set of game mechanics used in a role-playing game to determine the outcome of a character's in-game actions...
s, Nobilis does not use random elements in determining success in characters' actions. Instead, Nobilis uses a resource management system; players may spend Miracle Points
Plot point (role-playing games)
Plot point is a term used in role-playing games . It refers to any point given to a player character which can be spent to alter the plot of the game...
to succeed at certain actions, but otherwise they rarely fail at what they set out to do. Instead of the action centering on whether or not the characters succeed, the emphasis is instead on the consequences of those actions. Since combat between Nobilis uses up Miracle Points very quickly and a Nobilis can easily defeat even great numbers of humans, social roleplaying is encouraged over combat. Though the characters may seem to have limitless power, in reality they must take into consideration both the outcome of every act and what other Powers or Imperators they may offend in the process.
First and second editions
In the first two editions, each character has 4 attributesAttribute (role-playing games)
An attribute is a piece of data that describes to what extent a fictional character in a role-playing game possesses a specific natural, in-born characteristic common to all characters in the game. That piece of data is usually an abstract number or, in some cases, a set of dice...
: Aspect, which governs their ability to perform superhuman physical and mental acts; Domain, which covers their power over their estate; Realm, which determines how much power they have in their Chancel; and Spirit, which describes how much magical power the Nobilis has. Spirit creates the Auctoritas, a shield that protects them from the Miracles of other Powers. A character's Spirit also determines how many Anchors they may have. Each attribute has a number of Miracle Points associated with it.
The character creation
Character creation
Character creation is the process of defining a game character or other character. Typically, a character's individual strengths and weaknesses are represented by a set of statistics. Games with a largely fictional setting may include traits such as race and class...
system also makes Nobilis notable by giving players an unusual amount of control over the setting. In addition to creating their own characters – a process which already allows for considerable customization – the players create their Imperator and Chancel. Players receive a number of points to invest in their Chancel equal to the total amount they spent on their characters' Realm; they may use these to buy special attributes for their Chancel such as special technology or magical inhabitants. They do not receive any points for their Imperator, so they must take a corresponding drawback for every special attribute they wish their Imperator to have. Each Nobilis also has an Affiliation, which is a moral code they follow in order to regain Miracle Points, as well as character flaws called Limits and Restrictions. Much like their Affiliation, these allow the character to regain Miracle Points when they become an inconvenience.
Third edition
In third edition, each character again has 4 attributes, but this time they are: Aspect, which governs their ability to perform superhuman physical and mental acts; Domain, which covers their power over the substance of their estate; Persona, which covers their power over the properties of their estate (as defined by the player); and Treasure, which governs their power over their panoply, the objects, animals and people that represent who they are. Domain governs the Divine Mantle, an aura that makes it harder for hostile Miracles to overpower their own Miracles. Persona governs the Auctoritas Magister, a shield that protects them from the Miracles of other Powers. Each attribute has a number of Miracle Points associated with it.Each character also has a set of Bonds and Afflictions, the rules of their nature. Bonds are those rules which need effort to maintain; Afflictions are those rules which simply happen, without effort. When Bonds and Afflictions become an inconvenience, they allow the character to regain Miracle Points. When a Noble confronts and overcomes significant obstacles and antagonists, or honors the properties of their estate, they also regain Miracle Points.
As in earlier editions, the Imperator and Chancel are created by the players, but the point-buy system has been dropped. Instead, the players work together on deciding the properties of both.
First edition
The first edition was printed on demandPrint on demand
Print on demand , sometimes called, in error, publish on demand, is a printing technology and business process in which new copies of a book are not printed until an order has been received...
by Pharos Press in 1999 with cover art by Alphonse Mucha.
Second edition
In 2002 Hogshead Publishing printed the second edition. When Hogshead Publishing shut down in 2003, the rights to the book returned to Borgstrom, but arrangements were made with Guardians of OrderGuardians of Order
Guardians of Order was a Canadian company founded in 1996 by Mark C. MacKinnon in Guelph, Ontario. The company's business output consisted of role-playing games . Their first game is the anime inspired Big Eyes, Small Mouth. In 2006 Guardians of Order ceased operations due to overwhelming...
to publish the second edition.
The second edition is a coffee table-style book
Coffee table book
A coffee table book is a hardcover book that is intended to sit on a coffee table or similar surface in an area where guests sit and are entertained, thus inspiring conversation or alleviating boredom. They tend to be oversized and of heavy construction, since there is no pressing need for...
, the cover designed by Universal Head, with a ribbon bookmark; it is called the "Great White Book" by Nobilis fans. Full-page black and white art was commissioned for this book, in particular from Charles Vess
Charles Vess
Charles Vess is an American fantasy artist and comic-book illustrator who has specialized in the illustration of myths and fairy tales. His illustrations are strongly influenced by the work of artists and illustrators such as Arthur Rackham and Alphonse Mucha...
and Michael William Kaluta
Michael William Kaluta
Michael William Kaluta, sometimes credited as Mike Kaluta or Michael Wm. Kaluta , is an American comic book artist and writer.-Early life:Born in Guatemala to U.S...
; Borgstrom's flash fiction
Flash fiction
Flash fiction is a style of fictional literature or fiction of extreme brevity. There is no widely accepted definition of the length of the category...
, set in the game world, fills its large margins. This edition won the Origins Award
Origins Award
The Origins Awards are American awards for outstanding work in the game industry. They are presented by the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design at the Origins Game Fair on an annual basis for the previous year, so the 1979 awards were given at the 1980 Origins.The Origins Award is commonly...
for Best Graphic Presentation Book Format Product 2002 and the 2003 Diana Jones Award
Diana Jones Award
The Diana Jones Award is an annual award for "excellence in gaming". The award is unusual in two ways: first, it is not an award for a specific class of thing, but can be awarded to a person, product, publication, company, organization, event or trend – anything related to gaming; second, it does...
for Excellence in Gaming. Guardians of Order ceased operations in 2006, with an announcement that they would attempt to find other publishers for their games.
Third edition
The third edition rulebook, titled Field Guide to the Powers, was published by Eos PressEos Press
Eos Press was an American game publisher, originally established in 2001 in Seattle, Washington, as Hawthorn Hobgoblynn Press. Eos has expanded and now has operations in Taiwan, Singapore, and Suzhou, China...
in 2011, as the first volume in the Nobilis: the Essentials range. It was initially released on PDF, to be followed by a print version. The cover art is by Ciaoffen 师晓蒙.
In the years following the release of the second edition, Borgstrom had changed her name to Jenna Katerin Moran, and the third edition was released under that name.
Supplements
A single sourcebook was published for second edition, The Game of Powers, which provides rules for live action role-playing. Attempts to publish a second sourcebook, to be entitled A Society of Flowers, were unsuccessful until March 2008: part of the supplement was finally made available as a free pdf download from Eos PressEos Press
Eos Press was an American game publisher, originally established in 2001 in Seattle, Washington, as Hawthorn Hobgoblynn Press. Eos has expanded and now has operations in Taiwan, Singapore, and Suzhou, China...
or for a small fee from drivethrurpg.com, under the name Unlikely Flowerings. This document was the first of an announced series of "peculiar books" that would make available the whole "work version" of Society of Flowers. Then those peculiar books, completed and cleaned, would be released later in 2008 in hardcopy version. However, the second peculiar book and Society of Flowers were delayed following personal problems of the author., with the second peculiar book, Creatures, Clothed in Strangeness, eventually seeing release in September 2009 as a free pdf download from imago.hitherby.com.
Translation
The second edition of Nobilis was translatedTranslation
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...
into French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
in 2002 by the Swiss company 2 dés sans faces, société coopérative
2 Dés Sans Faces
2d Sans Faces is a game publishing house based in Romande Switzerland. Its goals are to create and publish aspects of games, including works of fiction, role playing games, and reference documents for the leisure industry.-History:2d Sans Faces was founded in January 2001, to produce the first...
(2 dice without faces, cooperative society). Curiously, this translation was available for sale before the original, English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
edition. The French edition, for reason of available space, replaced the scenario from the English language book by an original one, whose action is in a media-obsessed Chancel.
A gamemaster
Gamemaster
A gamemaster is a person who acts as an organizer, officiant for questions regarding rules, arbitrator, and moderator for a multiplayer game...
screen, titled Perfidie, has been released in late 2002, with a small booklet including errata and the scenario from the English language book.
External links
- Official 3rd Edition website at Eos PressEos PressEos Press was an American game publisher, originally established in 2001 in Seattle, Washington, as Hawthorn Hobgoblynn Press. Eos has expanded and now has operations in Taiwan, Singapore, and Suzhou, China...
- The Nobilist, a mailing list for Nobilis players
- Wind in the Flowers author R. Sean Borgstrom discusses the development of the second edition and The Game of Powers supplement
- Official French Nobilis home page Hosted by the Swiss editor, 2 dés sans faces, société coopérative (in French).
- Nobilis Wiki, hosted by WikiaWikiaWikia is a free web hosting service for wikis . It is normally free of charge for readers and editors, deriving most of its income from advertising, and publishes all user-provided text under copyleft licenses. Wikia hosts several hundred thousand wikis using the open-source wiki software MediaWiki...