[Mage: The Ascension] The Gentleman's Guide to the Nephandi

[@TheGentlemanGamer]

If you're a fan of my work, please pick up a copy of The World Below right here: the-world-below.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders 🩸🩸🩸 Thank you for your support!

[@jordanetherington1922]

Already backed

[@TheGentlemanGamer]

@@jordanetherington1922 Much appreciated!

[@Erdnase23]

More Mage the Ascension please.

[@TheGentlemanGamer]

If people keep buying copies of The World Below or supporting me via Patreon, I'd be happy to do so.

[@alistarmcguffin2919]

I read Rage the Ascension :)

[@GodLikeDevil]

​@@alistarmcguffin2919 great potential for a Werewolf x Mage crossover

[@Drinel]

Boy that rant felt... timely.

[@TheGentlemanGamer]

I can be topical at times!

[@willbrashear]

This is a way better video on nephandi than I have seen played as the usual over the top evil. i always wanted to play them like the same vein as Baali or the ministry or the Tremere. They aren't overt or the great evil person you see as the sterotypical villains. They are the deep dark that is a silent infection that grows and grows through the blood system.

[@TheGentlemanGamer]

Thank you, that's very kind. And yes, I don't see them as obvious monsters. Far better when there's some uncertainty.

[@archonofcommorragh1221]

Ok. The pop idol example was horriffying with how possible and real of a scenario it was. It felt like I heard something of that sort in the news.

[@TheGentlemanGamer]

I take that as high praise, thank you.

[@archonofcommorragh1221]

@TheGentlemanGamer Oh it was meant as such. Your Storytelling is always magnificent.

[@TheGentlemanGamer]

@@archonofcommorragh1221 Thank you!

[@smuggrog9821]

And this is why I have always held the opinion that the Nephandi are above the Black Spiral Dancers and the Baali on the hierarchy of evil bastards in WoD. The Nephandi being mages, who are essential just human beings, makes them way more terrifying imo. Because they can embody a far more human type of evil, that hits a lot closer to home. They don't need bane spirits or demons to accomplish thier goals, all they need to do is just amplify the darker and destructive sides of human nature, which they know well because they are ultimately human beings.

[@TheGentlemanGamer]

Ain't they great?

[@CEZA-123]

Another good video, thanks again for your time. I envy the way you narrate, you have a facility to caught attention of listeners

[@TheGentlemanGamer]

I can bullshit with a lot of confidence, that's my thing.

[@reddragoon7981]

Great to see more of this style of content from you again! Love Mage but i would love to see you cover changeling the dreaming as well. Cheers!

[@TheGentlemanGamer]

If people want more Changeling and Mage content, they're welcome to support my Patreon or pick up games like The World Below and message me via MatthewDawkins.com

[@jordanetherington1922]

Oooh spicy time

[@TheGentlemanGamer]

Yep, people have been asking for Mage videos for over a decade now, so it's about time.

[@ScottBoydathome]

>>gentleman >>Nephandi PICK ONE, HOMIE.

[@TheGentlemanGamer]

I never said *I'm* a Nephandus.

[@ElGoro]

"I was born to murder the world." - Nix, Lord of Illusions

[@TheGentlemanGamer]

What a fine aspiration.

[@JohnSmith-xm4dk]

I'm seriously looking forward to him covering the rest of the traditions. In particular, the virtual adepts since we're basically already living in the early stages of a cyberpunk dystopia.

[@TheGentlemanGamer]

If someone freshly supports my Patreon or picks up The World Below and drops me a message via MatthewDawkins.com to confirm, I'll happily do so.

[@johnwalsh4857]

there is also a big division between the infernalists and the nephandi, the infernalists really hate the nephandi and would probably destroy them on sight. because at the end of the day the infernalist want to power for themselves and they dont want to have the world destroyed they want to enjoy the fruits of their money and power. and the infernalists havent walked the spiral or experienced the caul. among trads and technos , they have often put the infernalists and nephandi lumped in as one, and the Nephandi like that and actively promote it to cover their activities. The infernalists know this and hate the nephandi for it.

[@TheGentlemanGamer]

Very good point! Thank you for raising it.

[@porazindel]

Be careful, she might send her Nephandies after you

[@TheGentlemanGamer]

God forbid!

[@vedrengrabelox3231]

Thanks!

[@TheGentlemanGamer]

My pleasure!

[@ScottBoydathome]

And you still wear the Kaisyd pin. This makes me giggle.

[@TheGentlemanGamer]

I'm very fond of the bloodline!

[@northvashista]

Hilarious rant for the first half to portray Nephandi!

[@TheGentlemanGamer]

I'm always happy to entertain!

[@willbrashear]

Love has cuased as many wars as Hate has.

[@TheGentlemanGamer]

Both are hysterias of passion.

[@willbrashear]

@@TheGentlemanGamer Passion makes us human and is our greatest downfalls unless we have constructive outlets. It is about the only thing they got right with Brujah.

[@konst80hum]

Very good analysis of the problem sir.... Now how about a solution?

[@TheGentlemanGamer]

@@konst80hum Well that would require me to make videos about the Traditions.

[@beckhamgibson]

This has unironically been the best thing to come home from work to lol

[@TheGentlemanGamer]

You love the Nephandi then, do you? Bastard.

[@beckhamgibson]

@TheGentlemanGamer More the Mage content I have be waiting years for a Gentleman's guide to Mage, but I do have to admit they are probably my favorite antagonists to use as a ST.

[@johnwalsh4857]

I remember Phil Brucato alluded in a facebook post that Elon Musk is a nephandi , yah I can see that.

[@ScottBoydathome]

No he's not. Stop putting IRL into your happy (or not so happy) mage game. Musk is a technocrat. Get it right!

[@johnwalsh4857]

@@ScottBoydathome well I did not say it , Brucato alluded to it haha, hey he is a nephandic technocrat. Then trump turns into a marauder hahah

[@TheGentlemanGamer]

@@ScottBoydathome No, Musk is a Nephandus backing a Technocratic organisation. He doesn't have the intellect or vision to be a Technocrat.

[@johnwalsh4857]

@@TheGentlemanGamer yes a nephandus that likes jumping up and down in front of rallies and saying Im dark maga hahahaha

[@PlanktonWhisperer]

Wait did you actually cover the Cult of Ecstasy? 🤔🤔🤔

[@TheGentlemanGamer]

Not yet, no.

[@Twilord_]

... I know its a cliche of urban fantasy and horror media to say the most distressing snd dangerous monsters are the ones among us in real life but... ...

[@TheGentlemanGamer]

We're entering a very distressing time.

[@johnwalsh4857]

be interesting the relationship between the Baali and the nephandi. I think its not clear cut as a faction of the Baali will probably destroy the Nepahndi while others will coddle it. However the Nephandi and the black spirals get along just fine. as both have undergone changes through the caul and the spiral. However still the Black spirals are insane and hard to control. and the Black spirals can easilly kill the nephandi for crazy reasons as they kill each other.

[@TheGentlemanGamer]

They have different agendas and methods, in truth.

[@johnwalsh4857]

well there is only one good thing to teach the nephandi something, its called superior firepower, gilgul and ....the Marauders and nephandi plague your area, good, just tell the local Marauders who the nephandi are and just sit back . that is of course, if the marauders dont kill your first or worse.

[@yaroslavivanov9787]

I am really happy to see our local kiacyd mixologist put his arcane discipline of mythercirea to proper exploration of demonic influences on X. I can already see the potential in the next kiacyd convention in a couple decades. I can only hope the arduos task of evaluating vampiric bloodlines wasn't too stressful for your gentleman like demenour.

[@TheGentlemanGamer]

@@yaroslavivanov9787 I'm still bloody ranking them! This week's episode isn't the last!

[@soarel325]

I’m not a huge fan of M20’s approach to the Nephandi. They’re fine in the core book, but Book of the Fallen takes an approach that to me reads as antithetical to what (classic) World of Darkness should be about. The focus is completely on “mundane evil”, with the introduction even pitching it as some kind of self-help manual for dealing with jerks in your everyday life. The Nephandi have always had their subtle influences and front groups, but if I’m picking up a book about otherworldly sorcerers trying to destroy the universe, I’d like a bit more of that and a bit less rambling about sleepers unknowingly doing the bidding of some Nephandus behind the mask of a regular old shitty corporation or homophobic church. If anything, that kind of “mundane evil” is the evil of Stasis, not Entropy. It’s especially bad because the book just cannot stop preaching to you every other page. The perfect Nephandus for me is the title character in Blue Öyster Cult's Imaginos rock opera. That's what your Nephandic antagonists should be like.

[@Jamhael1]

Book of the Fallen shows that the Nephandi, while "modernized", fell victim of the same evil they tried to seed in humanity - the "big 3" are now oposed by a bunch of minor cults that got "ok boomer" against them, and now, they are engaged in the new wave of "evil": chemical terrorism, selling weapons to both sides of the war, exploiting the "coachfication" of culture, using the new fame of billionaires by measuring their gains in billions of crypto and suffering, preaching the most derranged and extreme alt-right propaganda in podcasts, and so much more... No need for churches and corporations - evil is now "incorporated" by a new series of "independent entrepreneurs". And their objective? TO DEVOUR GOD!

[@TheGentlemanGamer]

I respect your view, though I very much enjoyed Book of the Fallen (as much as you can enjoy a book like that).

[@soarel325]

@@TheGentlemanGamer IMO, the entire premise of Book of the Fallen (that it has to be a lecture about real-life abusive people, and that it’d be wrong for it to emphasize fun or fantastical horror elements) is directly at odds with the entire ethos of WoD stuff. It’s like if V5 made most of the game focused on being a (mortal) slumlord or an asshole boss that theoretically is working for an actual vampire five steps up the chain of command, just because “vampires work well as a metaphor for real-life exploitation and abuse, so we don’t want to make this a game about imaginary bloodsuckers”. It’s really telling how the book has polemics about Nephandi front groups “stimulating conspiracy theories” as some kind of commentary on QAnon and the like…as if most conspiracy theories aren’t literally true in this world?

[@Growls]

Spooge? Anyways, excellent overvuew of the Nephandi. Worst creatures in the WoD.

[@TheGentlemanGamer]

Or spume. Either one works.

[@thedayman]

Yeah Boi!

[@TheGentlemanGamer]

Here's hoping you like what you find!

[@cleothehermetichermeticist8391]

I do not use the nephandi for my games, so I will not benefit from the knowledge in the video, but accept my comment, like, and view for the dark algorithmic gods.

[@TheGentlemanGamer]

I appreciate it either way!

[@johnwalsh4857]

well the Nephandi were probably loving the dark ages. , true, humans have advanced much since then , gotten a much better standard of living, however Nephandi have always come along and did the corruption thing. all I can say, Nephandi say the same thing every era yada yada yada.

[@TheGentlemanGamer]

I don't think there's been an era where they haven't enjoyed tormenting humanity.

[@johnwalsh4857]

@@TheGentlemanGamer yah the nephandi keep on predicting the fall of all reality every hundred or so years and they keep on saying but now the stars are right and it will happen. but never does.

[@Cointelpronoun]

I hope we get a mage the Ascension 5th edition and they don't do a bad job with it like they did with werewolf 5th edition where they changed everything and made one faction just Nazis for no reason. I do like the 5th edition games mechanically I just don't like some of the lore changes

[@TheGentlemanGamer]

There will be a M5, but I can't comment as to its content. I have nothing to do with it.

[@Cointelpronoun]

​@@TheGentlemanGamerthat's fair. I didn't think you knew anything anyway. That's just what I think about the new old world of darkness. I just know there's people out there who got like tattoos related to their favorite old world splats and it's obnoxious of the modern company who isn't even the original company to bastardize it. There was no good reason for to make the Get of Fenris Nazis or the main bad guy. There's just too many contradictions. But that's my soapbox. I do like that the mechanics are more polished. I like hunger dice. I just don't like some of these other choices. I don't like how the Bali are gone and how by default the sabbat are not playable. People liked the Sabbat

[@TheGentlemanGamer]

@Cointelpronoun Oh I agree on the Fenrir. I made a video on that subject.

[@johnwalsh4857]

personally I hate nephandic taylor swift songs. hahaha, I still listen to disco. still going strong with the village people hahah

[@TheGentlemanGamer]

All sources of Malfean energy!

[@johnwalsh4857]

@@TheGentlemanGamer hey the village people song YMCA makes even the avatar of death dance(Married with children village people season 8 episode 7)

[@jaruwan.cchuenjit6147]

Hope it not demon. 😊

[@TheGentlemanGamer]

Some Nephandi serve demons.

[@jaruwan.cchuenjit6147]

@TheGentlemanGamer Weren't most infernalist die during the Sorcererous Crusade era?

[@TheGentlemanGamer]

@@jaruwan.cchuenjit6147 Absolutely, but just because you've wiped out one patch doesn't mean more won't pop up.

[@ScottBoydathome]

@@jaruwan.cchuenjit6147 Not only that, by any mage can go Nephandi. And at any time.

[@johnwalsh4857]

are you a kiasyd commenting on the nephandi? like your pin...

[@TheGentlemanGamer]

No, not in this case.

[@johnwalsh4857]

@@TheGentlemanGamer OK you must be...STONEMAN hahah please talk about him.

[@genehetzel2036]

Is that MAGA the Ascention? /s

[@ScottBoydathome]

Of course, it is. Until they fuck it up. Again.

[@TheGentlemanGamer]

They did so damn well last time, it can only be a descent.

[@jackmalin2528]

thats a very left leaning nephandi if i heard one :D

[@TheGentlemanGamer]

@@jackmalin2528 Which parts of the video were explicitly leftist?

[@jackmalin2528]

@@TheGentlemanGamer Mentioning brexit and election 2016 as a bad thing (the last one i understand as it was objectively divisive so correct in the context), critiqual tone for anti-imigration policies mostly.

[@TheGentlemanGamer]

@@jackmalin2528 I don't see Brexit as an explicitly right or left wing problem. A lot of people on each side made that decision. As for the 2016 election, yep, I cited that as causing division. In terms of people afraid of migrants, again, I don't feel that's explicitly anti-right or pro-left; it's a tool of division, us vs. them. I also cite a very popular musician who *could* be based on Taylor Swift, who is a liberal, and in this context uses her popularity and clean image to sow discord. None of this is to say I'm on the right or the left, or that the character I'm playing is. What I am doing is demonstrating how the Nephandi operate within multiple spheres that cause inflammations of anger and division. What I've found interesting is how a few people in the comments have responded to it as an attack on *their* political viewpoint, which perhaps demonstrates how sensitive people are these days. And with it, very prone to Nephandi manipulation.

[@jackmalin2528]

@@TheGentlemanGamer Resonable i retract my coment

[@CEZA-123]

I think the nephandi won 😂The irony with false inclusive world, is that they claim to like diversity, but they can't tolerate (in my opinion) the most important of the diversities... The diversity of ideas/opinions/believes... And instead of trying to find a middle ground with people they disagree, they segregate them as the people that use to do the same by color of the skin, sexuality and religion decades ago.... It's like the old saying... Things changed so much they stay the same

[@TheGentlemanGamer]

I feel differently. I feel people can tolerate a diversity of opinions, but tolerance is applied differently to the so-called "right" and "left." It tends to be, from my observation, that the conservative objects to another's opinion over the self, i.e., "I don't want you to have the right to have an abortion," whereas the liberal or socialist objects to another's opinion imposed outward, i.e., "I don't want you to tell me I can't have an abortion." That's where I feel the central disagreement is, and I don't think this is any different than how it's been since time immemorial. There are outliers of course, typically when looking at the extremes on either side, but to me it seems reasonable to not tolerate someone imposing their views on you.

[@CEZA-123]

​@@TheGentlemanGamerI agree with most of what you said, no one should impose an opinion or take away the right on somebody else. What I disagree is in the proportion. Years ago the conservatives were a nightmare on how they judge and wanted to control or dictate on the lives of others (specially sexually). But nowadays I feel that the game is more evenly distributed.. liberals judged on your opinions, if you disagree with them the slightliest thing automatically you are call labels like conservatives used to do... Like misogynistic, homophobic, racist, etc... in one occation a gay friend was call homophobic 😂 for arguing that pride month parades shouldn't be so sexual... Both extremes are separating so much that they are starting to look alike hahah😂