Nobilis Character Creation

or

How to build a god

Nobilis is heavily character based. A character's background, as well as their outlook on their Estate contributes heavily into the game. As such, players should put some thought into their characters.

Choosing an Estate

This is probably the starting point for any character concept since it is central in defining almost all other aspects of the characters. A Noble's Estate is so much more than simply a set of powers - it defines their outlook on the world and represents a fundamental part of their being. It will shape their thoughts and appearance, not to mention the way in which others interact with them.

Nobles generally do not represent an entire aspect as much as a certain connotation of that aspect. For example, one might be the Power of Night, but that doesn't mean much. The character could be more attuned:

Dreams, sleep, and tranquility
Things that are hidden ("under cover of darkness")
Loathsome creatures of the night
The night sky

It isn't that the other items would be beyond the governance of the Noble, but they would not be the primary focus of the Noble and the Noble's ability would be weaker outside the primary focus. Players may wish to read through my discussion of Estates for more discussion on the distinctions.

It is also possible for a Noble to have secondary Estates that mesh well with their primary Estates. For example, A character might have a primary Estate of The Sea and a secondary Estate of Storms. The Noble will not be as powerful in the secondary Estate: some types of miracles will be beyond their abilities. It can, however, be useful. Secondary estates cost the same as primary estates in terms of character points.

All Nobles create a Design or Sigil that signifies their Estates and their personages (if there is a distinction between the two). The primary part of the design will almost always be made of two flowers. (Not necessarily Earthly flowers, but flowers chosen from the innumerably species that exist in Heaven. When the Angels were going about creating the worlds of the universe they found their own powers too great. By channeling their energies through flowers, they were able to gain the fine control needed. Even the Fallen Angels still use flowers in their Designs.) There exists in Heaven a flower for every meaning that can possibly expressed. The first flower in a Noble's design is the flower signifying their estate. The second flower signifies the Noble's view/specific aspect of this Estate. For example, the periwinkle is the flower of memory while barberry represents anger. So the Noble of Memory might use this if their view on their aspect was that old slights should never be forgotten. The book actually contains pages of flowers and their meanings. Moreover, it lists meanings behind petal shape, petal position, whether the flower is open or closed, the number of petals, the leaf shape, the leaf positions, the number of leaves, the positions of flowers relative to each other, the path of the stems, and a half dozen other things. To this end, the Design can reflect a large amount about the Noble and their Estate. Personally, it is probably easier for players to simply state that their Design contains the flower of A and the flower of B with the petals indicating C, the leaves D, and the stems E. Then whatever design the player wants these meanings to look like will be fine.

Building a Background

Characters are (almost) never born enNobled. It is a position that is thrust upon them. The Nobles time before their Commencement is extremely important in determining what kind of Noble they are. First, it indicates what the Noble was doing during their formative years. Second, something must have happened during these years that caught the attention of their Imperator and made it decide to turn them into Nobles. Third, a Noble can only create Anchors (beings, usually human, that the Noble can possess and act through on Earth) from people that they either love or hate - there must be a strong emotional bond and, while Nobles can grow to love or hate humans after Commencement, a Noble's Anchors are usually the result of their feelings before being enNobled. Finally, Nobles must choose Bonds. Bonds are things that the Noble cares deeply about and that attach them to the world. They can be people, places, trends, ideas, attitudes or anything else. But whatever they are the Noble will need to protect them (especially from other Nobles - attacking an opponent through their Bonds is a age old tradition).

Player should develop a back-story that includes all these things. Remember, the character would not have been enNobled if they didn't represent their Estate at some level. The character may not know exactly why they were chosen from among Creation, but it does need to be plausible that they were chosen.

Keep in mind that the character will certainly have family, friends, enemies, business associates, etc., who will wonder where the character disappeared to. Of course, the character can always come back and explain: "Hi dear. Sorry I wasn't home for our anniversary but I was grabbed by a host of demi-gods and turned into the Incarnation of Silverware." These persons provide possible Bonds and Anchors for the character, as well as interesting role playing opportunities. As such, a rough sketch of major people in the characters life should be imagined.

At the same time, the character's back-story will provide an indication of what skills the character has and what situations and cultures they are familiar with. Nobilis characters have no "skills" per-se; this is all subsumed by the back story. Again, a great deal of leeway is given here. Some humans are aware of the coexistence of the mythical earth - human sorcerors exist who can command spirits and elementals. Magic exists in the world of Nobils, although most people wouldn't believe in it. Creatures from Faery occasionally visit the earth for their own amusements and humans have learned the secrets of Glamorie from them. And some few humans have learned of the Impirators and Nobles and serve them (although the latter are generally viewed as ammo to be spent at opportune moments by their masters). The vast majority of humanity lives what we would call a normal life, however. And can provide interesting opportunities as well; one can imagine the opportunities of playing a truck driver who woke up one morning to discover that he had become a living incarnation of the concept of Distance.

Also remember that, while humans are the most common candidates for enNoblement, they are by no means the only choices. An Imperator can create a Noble out of just about anything: animals, plants, fictional characters, mythical animals,... anything. It is not even necessary that the character be alive at their point of enNoblement - Imperators are well capable of bringing someone back from the dead to serve them.

Choosing an Appearance and Manner for the Noble

A great deal of a character's personality is created before being enNobled. However, being snatched from one's life and turned into a living representation of some aspect of reality will be a life shaking process for all but the most resilient souls. (For some, the mental trauma is accompanied by physical trauma as well and they spend days writhing in pain as their body fights with the shard of divinity that has been placed within them.) A character's personality will almost certainly be shaped by this experience. Maybe they will start seeing the world from the perspective of their Estate. Maybe their Estate will force its views onto them. In either case, there is likely to be some part, large or small, of the character's personality that is a result of their Estate.

Likewise, all Nobles have a true form. For most enNobled humans, this is a human (maybe with a couple cosmetic differences). Occasionally, however, an Estate will impose itself on a Noble (or vice versa) and the Noble's appearance will change dramatically. They can still Guise themselves to appear human at need (the Guise also changes their size - this way a dragon could enter buildings) but this is what they really look like. Again, players should decide what they want their true form to be.

Assigning the Points

At this point, players can start building their character's statistics. All characters start with 25 character points, a level of 0 in each attribute (Aspect, Domain, Realm, and Spirit), and 5 possible miracle points in each attribute. An attribute's level indicates what sorts of miracles a Noble can perform without expending any extra effort. Miracle points may be spent to go beyond this level. Characters can hold up to their possible number of miracle points (although, as they spend them, the number of available points goes down). Beyond these items, characters may purchase additional abilities called Gifts. Gifts may allow the character to perform some feat, create doors between any two points, make the character harder to hurt, give them an item that bestows some ability, or virtually anything else. Generally, the more powerful the Gift, the more points it will cost. Each Gift is unique and it's exact cost will have to be given by the HG (Hollyhock God, Nobilis's word for the game master).

Things to spend character points on:

Attributes at 3 points per level up to a maximum level of 5. (Note, secondary Domains cost 1 point per level. You may have a secondary Domain at a level that is less than or equal to the level of your primary Domain.)
Additional possible miracle points can be purchased at 1 point each. This increases the number of miracle points the Noble can hold before they are "full".
Gifts at variable costs.

Special things to note:

Guising (the ability to change one's form to appear a certain way (such as human if you are not) is a level 2 Aspect miracle. If you want to do this without effort, you must have an Aspect of at least 2.
One must have a Realm of 2 or more to be able to communicate with the Realm's Heart of their Chancel. The Heart is the mystic "center" of the Chancel. The Heart will contain some "thing" (statue, tree, painting, etc.) that represents the Noble and will reflect their mood and situation. It is also possible for Nobles who both have a presence in the Heart to communicate with each other in a limited sort of way, no matter their physical distance. Basically, some part of the Noble's being is always in that place.
Simple divinations, the easiest type of Domain miracles (other than simple illusions and the ability to sense danger to the Estate) are level 2. Characters must have a Domain of at least this level to perform them without effort.
The total of all the Domain attribute levels of the party is the total number of points characters have to build their Chancel. (It is also possible to get Chancel points by accepting disadvantages in the Chancel.) In order to be fair, characters with more Domain points should get more say in designing the Chancel (although it doesn't pay to leave anyone out).

Spirit is a multifaceted attribute and deserves some extra comment. It controls:

How many Anchors the Noble may have (up to Spirit level + 1)
How well they can perform miracles through their Anchor (each miracle cast through an Anchor has an added cost of 5 - Spirit Level)
The Noble's resistance to malicious miracles cast by other Nobles (the miracle must be at a level equal to the normal miracle level plus the target's Spirit attribute in order to affect the target)
How well the Noble can hide traces of their miracles
How well the Noble can perform the simple Rites. (Such as stealing power from an enemy, transferring miracle points from one attribute to another, tracking other Nobles through their miracles, and other such things.)

In other words, don't ignore Spirit. Better descriptions of what various attribute levels allow you to do can be found in Ry's summary of the game.

This is also the time to pick restrictions and/or limits. Restrictions and limits handicap the character in some way or another. In return, the character gets miracle points whenever these get in their way.

Restrictions are specific weaknesses that may come up during the game. Examples include, the inability to lie, being unable to kill, must feed on human blood, cannot cross running water, can be summoned, cannot leave an unbroken mystic circle if placed inside, etc. The Noble will gain one or more miracles points each time they are seriously inconvenienced by these restrictions. All characters must take the restriction Affiliation and specify a certain code of conduct. Usually, characters are allied with Heaven (beauty is the highest ideal), Hell (corruption is the highest ideal), The Light (humanity must be preserved at all cost), The Dark (humanity should be encouraged to destroy itself), The Wild (freedom is the highest ideal), or some other code of the character's choosing (although note that taking an Affiliation with one of the above factions guarantees you some allies).

Limits are similar, but are more general. Examples include a small Estate (your Estate is very specific and you have few powers outside it), Hatred (the citizens of your Chancel hate you), uninspiring, Focus (part of your Domain or Realm abilities are invested in objects and you are weakened when these are not in your possession), blind, lame, addictions, limits on conditions where the character can use their powers, etc. These will result in additional miracle points at the beginning of each story. (Usually every session or two.)

Character Design Summary

To be brief, to build a Nobilis character you need to:

Select an Estate. If the Estate is large, determine the "attitude" of the Estate. Create an appropriate Design.
Create the character's background. Include who the character knew, where they were, and what they did. (Potential Anchors and Bonds.) Be sure to include reasons why their Imperator might have noticed them and decide to turn them into a Noble.
Decide on the character's personality and appearance after becoming a Noble.
Spend the points and build the character. Be sure to include an Affiliation restriction. Specify Gifts that might be appropriate. Etc.

After this, there is still the Chancel and Imperator to design, but these are done by the group. More on this when I have time.