By Jonathan Lang (traveler@io.com)

Introduction

This is an expansion on the background introduced in the Book of Madness; it covers those rare Nephandi who have managed to resist the corruption. Their souls are tainted with darkness, yet they constantly fight against the corruption of their soul; they are the Repentant.

Dark Avatar

Every Nephandus has a Dark Avatar against which the Repentant struggles; the True Nephandi have already lost this struggle, and are dominated by their dark sides.

Dark Nature

Every Nephandus has three Archtypes, instead of the usual two: Nature, Demeanor, and Dark Nature. The Dark Nature defines how the Nephandi's Avatar attempts to control her. Following is a list of the possible Dark Natures:
• The Abuser
• The Director
• The Freak
• The Leech
• The Martyr
• The Monster
• The Parent
• The Perfectionist
• The Pusher
• The Rationalist

For details about each Dark Nature, look up the equivelent Shadow Archtype from Wraith: the Oblivion.

Corruption

This trait represents the taint on the Nephandi's Avatar; as the Repentant loses ground in her struggle, her Corruption increases. When the mage's Permanent Corruption reaches 10, she becomes a Fallen One, and loses her chance at Redemption. A Repentant Nephandi starts with six points of Corruption; he can modify this with Freebie Points, as below; permanent Corruption cannot start below 1 or above 10, and temporary Corruption cannot start below 0 or above 9.
• +1 Permanent Corruption -- 5 point Flaw
• +1 Temporary Corruption -- 2 point Flaw
• -1 Permanent Corruption -- 5 point Merit
• -1 Temporary Corruption -- 2 point Merit

Gaining Corruption

There are several ways the Nephandus can gain Corruption:
1. Qlippothic Dice: At any time, the Avatar can offer the Nephandus extra dice on any roll he makes; each Botch on these Qlippothic Dice earns the mage a point of Corruption. The Avatar can offer up to five extra dice for a given roll.
2. the Hierarchy of Sins: Whenever the Nephandi does something evil or corrupt, she must make a Corruption roll against a difficulty found on the Hierarchy of Sins listed below (remember the rule of Automatic Successes; if her Corruption equals or exceeds the Difficulty of the Sin, she automatically succeeds). On a failure, she gains a point of Corruption; on a botch, she gains two points.

   The Hierarchy of Sins

   Difficulty	Sin
   1	Accidental Wrongdoing
   2	Purposeful Wrongdoing
   3	Purposeful Infliction of Injury
   4	Theft and Robbery
   5	Unpremeditated Murder
   6	Wanton Destruction
   7	Deliberate Cause of Injury
   8	Sadism and Perversion
   9	Premeditated Murder
   10	Only the most depraved and immoral acts

3. Qlippothic Magick: Qlippothic Magick is the dark side of the Spheres, and is used exclusively by the Nephandi; whenever Qlippothic Magick botches, the Mage gains a point of Corruption.

Losing Corruption

The Repentant can fight off Corruption by displays of heroism, uncommon compassion, or remorse for past evil deeds. The more corrupt the mage is, the greater the deed must be to recover a point of Corruption.

Removing a point of Corruption is comparable in difficulty and technique to gaining a point of Arete; the Mage must go through an Epiphany, in that he must confront his Avatar. However, he is confronting the taint in the Avatar and purifying it, rather than being tested by the Avatar.

Taints

A Repentant has some additional choices for Merits and Flaws:
• Tainted Trait: cost varies -- the mage gets an extra point for use in one trait, decided at character creation; however, any use of the extra point earns the mage a point of Corruption. The cost depends on the trait being tainted:
  • Attributes -- 3 points per dot
  • Abilities -- 1 point per dot
  • Spheres -- 5 points per dot

• Bad Karma: 3 point Flaw -- the Avatar can spend a point of Corruption to decrease the number of successes gained by the mage, just as the mage can expend a point of Willpower to increase the number of successes.
• Freudian Slip: 5 point Flaw -- By spending a point of temporary Corruption, the Avatar can force the mage to perform one action. This can be resisted by spending a point of Willpower and making a Willpower roll (difficulty = Corruption, minimum of 3).
• Devil's Dare: 7 point Flaw -- The Avatar may invest a number of points of temporary Corruption into a single action; before the end of the session, the mage must perform that action. If she doesn't, she loses a number of Willpower points equal to the number of Corruption points that the Avatar expended.

Redemption

If a Nephandi ever reduces her Corruption to zero, she has achieved Redemption; she loses her Dark Nature and Taints completely, and is no longer a Nephandi.