Chaosium Digest Volume 9, Number 7 Date: Sunday, January 22, 1995 Number: 1 of 1 Contents: Secret Societies: The Holy Vehm (Peter J. Whitelaw) NEPHILIM Editor's Note: It's been just over a month since I sent out the last issue of the Chaosium Digest. Now that RQ-Con 2 is over, however, things should return to a slightly more normal schedule. All I need is contributions from you folks. If you've been thinking about writing something for the digest, I'd love to hear from you. With the next issue, the Chaosium Digest will be entering its third year of existence, and I'd like it to be the best year yet. RQ-CON BOOKS: RuneQuest Con 2 went well. Besides the many Gloranthan games, there were also Call of Cthulhu, Pendragon and Nephilim events. I wish I could have talked more with Chaosium Digest subscribers who were at the Con, but I was busy working to get the Broken Council LARP ready. I have copies left of two Gloranthan books that were printed for the Con: The University of Sog City Conference Guide and the Broken Council Guidebook. If you're interested in purchasing either or both, drop me a line. In a couple of months time, I'll be printing up The RuneQuest-Con 2 Compendium, which will include transcripts of the Call of Cthulhu and Arthurian seminars which occurred at the Con. I'll include a notice in the Digest when that happens. ENCYCLOPEDIA CTHULHIANA: Chaosium got Encyclopedia Cthulhiana (Chaosium, 274 pg., $10.95) ready just in time for the convention. It's an interesting tome that gives encylopedic entries on the horrors of the Mythos, from ABBITH to ZUCHEQUON. This is the fifth volume in the Cthulhu Cycle series of books. ARTHUR: Also available at the Convention was Arthur (Wizard's Attic, $20), the second disk in a series of GM CDs. This one is a really nice set of instrumentals, starting with "Lady of the Lake" and "the coming of Arthur" and continuing until "Arthur's Death" and "Avalon". I'm pretty happy with this CD, but I like instrumentals in general. You can call Wizard's Attic at 1-800-213-1493 to order it. THE UNSPEAKABLE OATH: Also out this week is The Unspeakable Oath #11 (Pagan Publishing, 64 pg., $4.00), which contains the usual mix of scenerios and regular features. THE STARRY WISDOM: Moving on to fiction unrelated to gaming, Creation Books, which recently put out a new collection of Lovecraft's work called Crawling Chaos, just released their newest piece of Lovecraftia, The Starry Wisdom (Creation Books, 174pg, $15.95, ISBN 1-871592-32-1). It's billed as a Tribute to Lovecraft, and includes a beautifully illustrated version of Call of Cthulhu, as well as stories by William S. Burroughs, Ramsey Campbell, Alan Moore and many others. Some of the stories are reprints, but many are not. WHITE WOLF FICTION: Elric! players will be interested in Tales of the White Wolf (White Wolf, 381 pg., $19.99, ISBN 1-56504-175-5), which is a collection of original fiction about Elric! Authors include Neil Gaiman, Tad Williams and Gary Gygax. There's also a 22 page story by Michael Moorcock himself. In V8.12, I mentioned White Wolf's new omnibus volumes of Moorcock's Eternal Champion fiction. According to TotWW, the next two volumes, titled Von Bek and Hawkmoon, will be out in January and February. NEW PICTURES AVAILABLE FOR FTP: There are a whole bunch of new pictures now available for ftp from ftp.csua.berkeley.edu in the directory /pub/chaosium/cthulhu/pics. These are jpegs of pictures of Lovecraftian locales in New England that were taken by Donovan Loucks. There's a README file in the directory that explains what's what. FINALLY, A PENDRAGON QUESTION: Dale Meier is starting to GM Pendragon, and he says: "Having started my Pendragon campaign, I am facing an unusual problem -- how many adventures do I use for a scenario -- my own judgment tells me at least two and three at the most, just to keep things simple, but I'm looking for input from other Pendragon GMs." Responses should be sent to csa16@bvc.edu. Recent American Sightings: * Call of Cthulhu - "The Crate & The Coffin", a 14 page adventure expanding upon The Crawling One, a creature described in Ye Booke of Monsters, Adventures Unlimited #1. [As a side note, I highly suggest supporting Adventures Unlimited, because it is a new gaming magazine covering the entire RPG spectrum. Issue #2 (I believe) promises to have a Nephilim adventure, and as long as the magazine survives, I'm sure there will be additional Chaosium adventures in the future.] Recent French Sightings: * Elric! - "Travailler c'est trop dur", a four page article about beggars, Tatou #21. * Elric!/Hawkmoon - "Y a t'il quelgu'un pour sauver la Cite .. ?", a nine page investigation scenerio for Elric!/Hawkmoon, Tatou #21. -------------------- From: "Peter J. Whitelaw" <100102.3001@compuserve.com> Subject: Secret Societies: The Holy Vehm System: Nephilim Recently, I had the good fortune to discover, in the library of a friend's father, "Famous Secret Societies" by John Heron Lepper, author of "Problems of the Fama" and "The Testaments of Master Francois Villon" amongst others. The book was published by Sampson Low, Marston & Co. Ltd. of London and regrettably gives no clue as to when it was published although it appears that it may have been sometime in the fifties. The book devotes 339 pages to the coverage of 39 "Famous Secret Societies", several of which are detailed briefly in the Nephilim gamebook. As time allows, I shall present summary details and assertions about these and others of the societies covered in this fascinating source. GMs may choose to use, adapt or reject these ideas in their own Nephilim campaigns. I would add that it is quite conceivable that the planned Secret Societies sourcebook for Nephilim may well clash with my own findings on several issues. That's life, but at least GMs will have the luxury of choice. Either that, or some of this may find its way into that supplement. My own observations are [bracketed]. I start with one of my favourites, the Holy Vehm: THE VEHMGERICHT History In the middle of the thirteenth century, the Emperor lacked the ability to effectively control Westphalia. The area was at the mercy of robber barons, thieves and bandits. The Vehmgericht was the name given to the organisation that came into being amongst the harried masses in order to protect themselves against the lawless. Some of its supporters claim that the organisation was originally founded by Charlemagne in the eight century. [Perhaps the tribunals were a reincarnation of a more ancient body and named after such] Name Fehm or Vehm probably derives from Fama as the law founded on common fame. However, Fehm also meant something set apart [Ideal link to the Nephilim: The Court of the Outsiders?]. The first written account of the Vehm is in a Latin document from 1251 which, in dealing with the town of Brilon mentions the 'secret court vulgarly called Vehm or Freiding.' Organisation Tribunals were normally held in the morning in the open at well known locations [hence cross-roads]. In Nordkirchen, they were held in the churchyard, whilst in Dortmund, they took place in the Marktplatz. The courts had many names: Fehmding, Assembly of the Vehm; Freistuhl, Free Chair; Heimliches Gericht, Secret Court; Heimliches Acht, Secret Tribunal; Heimliches Beschlossenes Acht, Secret Closed Court and Verbotene Acht, Forbidden Tribunal. All free men might serve in the court and took an oath upon joining. These adherents, known as Die Wissenden, or Knowing, Ones were said to have numbered at least 100,000 and were organised into several ranks. At the bottom of the heap were the Frohnboten, the officers of the tribunal. Above the were placed the deputy judges, or Freischoeffen. These two groups were said to act as jurors, constables, inquisitors, detectives and executioners. The top men were the judges, Die Stuhlherren, of whom there were very few. The oath taken by Die Wissenden has been translated as follows: "I swear by my sacred honour that I will hold and conceal the secrets of the Holy Vehm, From sun and from moon, From man and from woman, From wife and from child, From village and from field, From grass and from beast, From great and from small, Except from the man Who the Holy Vehm serve can, And that I'll leave nothing undone For love of for fear, For garment or gift, For silver or gold, Nor for any wife's scold." The Vehmgericht purportedly had its own secret written code, the preserved writings of which often refer to the initials SSSGG. The initials are thought to refer to Stock, Stein, Strick, Gras, Grein (Stick, Stone, Halter, Grass, Quarrel) [The tools of the HV?]. A secret means of recognition was that, when sitting at a meal table, members of the HV would turn their knives through 180 degrees so that the point was directed towards themselves. Some tribunals were open to the public, those at Nordkirchen and Dortmund presumably being obvious examples and such were know as Offenbare Dinge. Heimliches Acht, however, were for Die Wissenden only and intruders, if caught, were hanged on the spot. Hanging, in fact, was the only sentence that the Vehmgericht passed, this being from the nearest tree. [This explains the rulebook stating that killings took place at cross-roads and the bodies hung from a tree]. Probably the powers and focus of the Vehmgericht changed and shifted over many years and there is no clear idea as to quite what crimes they sought to punish, although the fact that they only administered hangings gives us some clue as to the severity of the crimes they sought the perpetrators of. It has variously been claimed that they sought out those who had broken one of the biblical Ten Commandments and that children, women, Jews, heathens and the higher nobility were exempted. There is no definitive answer [interpretation of the Vehmic law is at the discretion of the Stuhlherr?]. Procedure A Freischoeffe would make an accusation in one of the courts and a summons would be issued. Three such summonses would be issued, each 45 days apart, giving the accused ample opportunity to make a defence. If the accused was not one of Die Wissenden then they would be summoned to appear before an Offenbare Dinge, otherwise it would be a secret court. Quite simply, an oath breaker was by definition a traitor and evidence of such could only rightly be present before those who were also initiates. If the accuser could present seven witnesses to swear to his own good reputation and the accused did not appear before the court then he would be condemned in absentia. The upshot of this is that the accused became an outlaw and any three supporters of the Vehm were within their rights to hang him. The accusing Freischoeffe was given a sealed document that they could show when claiming assistance from other members of the Vehmgericht. Anyone who aided or abetted the condemned in evading the Vehm was liable to an instant hanging. Should the accused decide to answer a summons, they were to produce thirty witnesses to attest to their good character whilst the accuser had the right to do likewise. Each was able to have his lawyer represent him. If convicted, the condemned had the right of appeal from a Heimliches Acht held in Dortmund. During a trial, a sword and a halter lay on a table in front of the judge symbolising the judge's powers of administering justice and the penalty entailed by transgression. When a convicted man had been hung, a knife was stuck into the tree from which he hung to demonstrate by whose authority he had been convicted [Hence the cruciform dagger]. Points of interest In 1371, Emperor Karl IV recognised the legitimacy of the Vehm in Westphalia and the punishment of evil persons was handed over to them. In 1470, three Stuhlherren summoned the Emperor Frederick III and his Chancellor. Funnily enough they didn't show. The last free court in Munster was abolished in 1811 by order of the French invaders [we can assume for game purposes that the organisation went underground at this time]. My Interpretation It seems very possible that the manifestation of the Vehmgericht in the thirteenth century as a means to punish the many malefactors of the time was an adaptation of something much older and more arcane that had lain dormant for centuries, since the time of Charlemagne and was waiting for the opportunity to reassert itself. During the dark years, perhaps there were but a few, independent Heimliches Acht that travelled around seeking to further their own arcane ends in rooting out the last vestiges of Merovingian influence. The events in Westphalia gave the Vehmgericht a prime opportunity to sway popular feeling to its cause by seeking to punish outsiders and wrongdoers. It could only have been a short step to having the masses believe that these criminals were members of an arcane and inhuman conspiracy, i.e. the Nephilim. Such matters of course might have been left to rumour whilst the true secrets were only revealed to Die Wissenden, whose numbers swelled greatly in the following centuries. This was surely a bad time for Nephilim. Imagine being summoned before a Tribunal. What Nephilim could produce thirty witnesses to his character? Surely few could, or would want to, for fear of endangering other Nephilim. Consequently the Vehm could go about executing Nephilim (and the odd criminal) on the pretext of their not being able to make a defence against the charges made against them. Since the accuser was always a Freischoeffe, he would always be able to produce thirty witnesses, even if they had to bring them in by cart from the next town. "Oh Jah, Otto ist ein gut Mann, er ist ein Wissenden. Ok?" Simply get thirty people to say that and you've got your conviction. Obviously it would have been padded out a bit for the benefit of Offenbare Dinge. Most Nephilim, of course, never showed and were branded outlaws for their troubles. Anyone outlawed by a secretive society almost as powerful as the Emperor, and often more feared, could count on little assistance from the general populace, who were afraid of being hanged for having anything to do with such an outlaw. The turn of the nineteenth century saw the final waning of the Vehm's legitimate powers and they were forced, once more, to go underground. Still, they plotted their resurgence whilst seeking out Nephilim and having to conduct their Heimliches Acht in hidden places (caverns, cellars etc.). One can imagine still a loose network of tribunals whose knowledge and skills were drawn upon by the Nazis guided by the unscrupulous Nephilim Sharg (whose simulacrum, Adolf Hitler is well known) and which after the demise of the Third Reich was well placed to infiltrate and co-operate with BND (Bundesnachrichtendienst, Federal Intelligence Service). I find it extremely likely that a ceremonial Heimliches Acht is held in Dortmund on appropriate religious festivals (is there a patron saint of justice?). The database of Nephilim information alluded to in the rulebook exists as a server, part of the German federal computer network, accessible from the Internet, which Die Wissenden may communicate with in order to pass information and download required data. Anonymity is therefore guaranteed, and the flow of data can be controlled by the top Stuhlherren who control the server itself (which is perhaps in Dortmund). Any further comments are welcomed. -------------------- The Chaosium Digest is an unofficial discussion forum for Chaosium's Games. To submit an article, subscribe or unsubscribe, mail to: appel@erzo.berkeley.edu. The old digests are archived on ftp.csua.berkeley.edu in the directory /pub/chaosium, and may be retrieved via FTP.