NEPHILIMS
When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. Then the LORD said, "My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years." The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. (Genesis 6:1-4, English Standard Version)Nephilim
Nephilim, also known as Shadowhunters, are the a race of beings who are half-human and half-angel. They can be the children of human women and the angels, who initially appear to be perfectly normal humans. Or, they can be created by drinking an angel's blood from a magical chalice.
They rarely contract any childhood diseases, however, and sometime between the ages of twelve and eighteen they experience amazing abilities. They are strong, fearless and intelligent, charismatic, attractive, and confident to the point of being arrogant. The majority of Nephilim live peacefully among full humans while hiding their dual heritage from the mundane world.
Many Nephilim, referred to as Shadowhunters, use their abilities to hunt demons. These Nephilim also serve as a kind of police force to enforce the Law and keep the peace between vampires, werewolves, faeries, warlocks, and witches, whom they refer to as Downworlders.
Nephilim, also known as Shadowhunters, are the a race of beings who are half-human and half-angel. They can be the children of human women and the angels, who initially appear to be perfectly normal humans. Or, they can be created by drinking an angel's blood from a magical chalice.
They rarely contract any childhood diseases, however, and sometime between the ages of twelve and eighteen they experience amazing abilities. They are strong, fearless and intelligent, charismatic, attractive, and confident to the point of being arrogant. The majority of Nephilim live peacefully among full humans while hiding their dual heritage from the mundane world.
Many Nephilim, referred to as Shadowhunters, use their abilities to hunt demons. These Nephilim also serve as a kind of police force to enforce the Law and keep the peace between vampires, werewolves, faeries, warlocks, and witches, whom they refer to as Downworlders.
History
The sons of God looked down upon the daughters of menand they found them fair. But it was forbidden for the sons of god to leave Heaven and walk the Earth. They were overcome with lust for the daughters of men and they greatly desired them. And so a group among them conspired to leave Heaven and go down to Earth.
They left their place from on high. They left the gates of Heaven behind them, and they descended to the Earth. Those who left the hosts of Heaven to walk upon Earth among men became known as the Nephilim. Such children, and their descendants, are called Nephilim. The nephilim however were far too powerful for their human mothers. As a result the mother of a nephilim died during birth.
To show their acceptance of the nephilim they gifted them with angel life spans and human souls. They also allowed the fallen angels powers to be passed down to the nephilim, however, were not able to be accessed until their 18th year.
These children of the Nephilim were proud. They became great leaders among men. They undertook to teach their mortal brethren the secrets reserved for the gods. They taught men the art of warfare and how to make weapons in fire. They taught men how to adorn themselves. The art of cosmetics and the wearing of jewelry they taught them. They taught men the secrets of healing herbs and how to call spirits by name. They taught men how to read signs in the heaves. Various omens and divinings they taught them. They taught men how to bring forth water in the desert and how to make plants yield bountiful fruit. All the arts and the sciences which the gods had forbidden they taught to men. They taught them the secrets of living things, that the spirit of a living body resides in its blood, and by partaking of blood, the partaker of the blood gains the power of the creature whose life is in the blood.
The Nephilim took to wife the daughters of men and they begat children upon them. And the children were part divine and partly mortal. The children grew rapidly and to great stature. Their bodies were fair and smooth of limb like their fathers, and their minds were keen. Their eyes looked upon the worlds of both Heaven and Earth. The mysteries hidden from men were revealed to their divine sight.
When God looked down upon the Earth, he saw men living like gods. And the Lord grew angry. He saw that men no longer poured the blood sacrifices upon the altar but kept the life of the blood to increase their own strength. He saw the men with the tools of the gods, making the Earth bountiful as only the gods should do. He saw them piercing the mysteries of the heavens so that their knowledge of themselves and their world rivaled that of the gods. And he saw them with great weapons of war, weapons which only the gods kept for themselves, and he grew afraid.
God saw the Nephilim amongst the children of men, teaching them. And he saw that the Nephilim had become great leaders of men. And he feared that Nephilim would lead the children of men to the very gates of Heaven to reclaim the realm forsaken by their fathers.
And so God undertook to punish the Nephilim and wipe their seed from all the Earth. Yet they had so intertwined themselves with the children of men that nearly all men bore the Nephilim's taint. So God hardened his heart against all mankind and therefore determined to kill every last one.
Physical Description
The physical characteristics of nephilim tend to vary, however, they are generally revered as unearthly beautiful people. Most of these nephilim simply appear human in form with minor angelic traits, unique natural eye or hair colors.
Biology
Like their parent races, Nephilim are biological lifeforms not unlike many other creatures in the universe. However, their divine parentage does afford the nephilim powers beyond anything a normal being is capable of, and the irony of carrying both holy and unholy energy within themselves is an intrinsic part of their existence. Though their powers can make them extremely dangerous if provoked, most have intelligence equal to that of a human.Nephilim are identical to humans in most ways. They eat and drink the same things, and perform all the same biological functions. They have the same lifespans as ordinary humans. If a Nephil mates with an ordinary human the child will be a human. The children of two Nephilim, however, will also be Nephilim. Thus, there are many Nephilim who are many generations removed from contact with Celestial beings.
Nephilim sometimes have glowing eyes like an angel, although her glow is somewhat dim and grayish in color as opposed to the bright white or bluish-white glow of regular angels.
They give off a very distinctive smell to angels and demons that is considered repulsive to the most stringent of both classes, which makes them easy to track.
Also nephilim have a higher body temperature then humans.
Psychology & Behavior
Nephilim grow up with a sense of entitlement, and a strong impatience when they don’t get their way. Adult Nephilim are frequently viewed as egotistical, even megalomaniacal.
Nephilim do everything on a large scale. They are prone both to acts of great heroism, and massive evil. When Nephilim build structures they always endeavor to make them as large and imposing as possible. Nephilim love to build palaces with myriad rooms dedicated to single activities. They prefer to take many lovers at the same time rather than settle down with a single mate.
Nephilim generally don’t like having limits on their own behavior, although they frequently have no problem with imposing them on others. They are drawn to positions of command and power, or else they become wandering heroes who swear allegiance to nothing but their own glory. Many Nephilim will create cults around themselves, and gleefully accept the adulation and even worship of ordinary humans
Nephilim tend to be Good. They look for the good in everyone around them. Many become paladins. Some nephilim have no tolerance for evil at all, and will happily join up if the local church calls a Crusade. There are a few evil nephilim, but they are rarely seen. More than one nephilim was in them forefront of the Inquisition that occurred following the end of the Demon Wars.
Nephilim often love to hunt, and are renowned for their bravery and ability to bring down large and dangerous prey. Many Nephilim make their living hunting monsters, and may decide to adventure simply for the opportunity to kill dangerous beasts (and be seen doing it).
Despite their ancestry, Nephilim are never of Lawful Good Alignment.
Powers
Angel Physiology: Although outwardly they appear to be ordinary humans, the nephilim are bestowed with celestial powers that they inherent from the father angel. All nephilim have a powerful charisma, but are otherwise indistinguishable from a human. They are often fast and strong beyond the limits of human ability. Some nephilim might show this strength in intelligence or leadership ability instead. Whatever their strengths, nephilim are very aware of their surroundings, and are generally excellent at reading people. Although they are mortal, nephilim will not sicken, and tend to live longer lives than normal humans. Aside from this, though, they are essentially humans, with all the weaknesses that entails.
Weakness
The sons of God looked down upon the daughters of menand they found them fair. But it was forbidden for the sons of god to leave Heaven and walk the Earth. They were overcome with lust for the daughters of men and they greatly desired them. And so a group among them conspired to leave Heaven and go down to Earth.
They left their place from on high. They left the gates of Heaven behind them, and they descended to the Earth. Those who left the hosts of Heaven to walk upon Earth among men became known as the Nephilim. Such children, and their descendants, are called Nephilim. The nephilim however were far too powerful for their human mothers. As a result the mother of a nephilim died during birth.
To show their acceptance of the nephilim they gifted them with angel life spans and human souls. They also allowed the fallen angels powers to be passed down to the nephilim, however, were not able to be accessed until their 18th year.
These children of the Nephilim were proud. They became great leaders among men. They undertook to teach their mortal brethren the secrets reserved for the gods. They taught men the art of warfare and how to make weapons in fire. They taught men how to adorn themselves. The art of cosmetics and the wearing of jewelry they taught them. They taught men the secrets of healing herbs and how to call spirits by name. They taught men how to read signs in the heaves. Various omens and divinings they taught them. They taught men how to bring forth water in the desert and how to make plants yield bountiful fruit. All the arts and the sciences which the gods had forbidden they taught to men. They taught them the secrets of living things, that the spirit of a living body resides in its blood, and by partaking of blood, the partaker of the blood gains the power of the creature whose life is in the blood.
The Nephilim took to wife the daughters of men and they begat children upon them. And the children were part divine and partly mortal. The children grew rapidly and to great stature. Their bodies were fair and smooth of limb like their fathers, and their minds were keen. Their eyes looked upon the worlds of both Heaven and Earth. The mysteries hidden from men were revealed to their divine sight.
When God looked down upon the Earth, he saw men living like gods. And the Lord grew angry. He saw that men no longer poured the blood sacrifices upon the altar but kept the life of the blood to increase their own strength. He saw the men with the tools of the gods, making the Earth bountiful as only the gods should do. He saw them piercing the mysteries of the heavens so that their knowledge of themselves and their world rivaled that of the gods. And he saw them with great weapons of war, weapons which only the gods kept for themselves, and he grew afraid.
God saw the Nephilim amongst the children of men, teaching them. And he saw that the Nephilim had become great leaders of men. And he feared that Nephilim would lead the children of men to the very gates of Heaven to reclaim the realm forsaken by their fathers.
And so God undertook to punish the Nephilim and wipe their seed from all the Earth. Yet they had so intertwined themselves with the children of men that nearly all men bore the Nephilim's taint. So God hardened his heart against all mankind and therefore determined to kill every last one.
Physical Description
The physical characteristics of nephilim tend to vary, however, they are generally revered as unearthly beautiful people. Most of these nephilim simply appear human in form with minor angelic traits, unique natural eye or hair colors.
Biology
Like their parent races, Nephilim are biological lifeforms not unlike many other creatures in the universe. However, their divine parentage does afford the nephilim powers beyond anything a normal being is capable of, and the irony of carrying both holy and unholy energy within themselves is an intrinsic part of their existence. Though their powers can make them extremely dangerous if provoked, most have intelligence equal to that of a human.Nephilim are identical to humans in most ways. They eat and drink the same things, and perform all the same biological functions. They have the same lifespans as ordinary humans. If a Nephil mates with an ordinary human the child will be a human. The children of two Nephilim, however, will also be Nephilim. Thus, there are many Nephilim who are many generations removed from contact with Celestial beings.
Nephilim sometimes have glowing eyes like an angel, although her glow is somewhat dim and grayish in color as opposed to the bright white or bluish-white glow of regular angels.
They give off a very distinctive smell to angels and demons that is considered repulsive to the most stringent of both classes, which makes them easy to track.
Also nephilim have a higher body temperature then humans.
Psychology & Behavior
Nephilim grow up with a sense of entitlement, and a strong impatience when they don’t get their way. Adult Nephilim are frequently viewed as egotistical, even megalomaniacal.
Nephilim do everything on a large scale. They are prone both to acts of great heroism, and massive evil. When Nephilim build structures they always endeavor to make them as large and imposing as possible. Nephilim love to build palaces with myriad rooms dedicated to single activities. They prefer to take many lovers at the same time rather than settle down with a single mate.
Nephilim generally don’t like having limits on their own behavior, although they frequently have no problem with imposing them on others. They are drawn to positions of command and power, or else they become wandering heroes who swear allegiance to nothing but their own glory. Many Nephilim will create cults around themselves, and gleefully accept the adulation and even worship of ordinary humans
Nephilim tend to be Good. They look for the good in everyone around them. Many become paladins. Some nephilim have no tolerance for evil at all, and will happily join up if the local church calls a Crusade. There are a few evil nephilim, but they are rarely seen. More than one nephilim was in them forefront of the Inquisition that occurred following the end of the Demon Wars.
Nephilim often love to hunt, and are renowned for their bravery and ability to bring down large and dangerous prey. Many Nephilim make their living hunting monsters, and may decide to adventure simply for the opportunity to kill dangerous beasts (and be seen doing it).
Despite their ancestry, Nephilim are never of Lawful Good Alignment.
Powers
Angel Physiology: Although outwardly they appear to be ordinary humans, the nephilim are bestowed with celestial powers that they inherent from the father angel. All nephilim have a powerful charisma, but are otherwise indistinguishable from a human. They are often fast and strong beyond the limits of human ability. Some nephilim might show this strength in intelligence or leadership ability instead. Whatever their strengths, nephilim are very aware of their surroundings, and are generally excellent at reading people. Although they are mortal, nephilim will not sicken, and tend to live longer lives than normal humans. Aside from this, though, they are essentially humans, with all the weaknesses that entails.
- Superhuman Intelligence & Perception: Nephilim possess enhanced intuition, pattern solving, information storage and retrieval, and logical and philosophical structuring. As a result of the angelic process they have undergone they are capable of knowledge, wisdom and comprehension beyond the human ability to understand. Their intuition is heightened to the degree that their hunches are almost always correct and also allows them to detect the use of magic and supernatural beings. Nephilim have a perfect memory with the ability to recall recall of everything they've ever seen, read or heard. They even possess the ability to innately speak, write, understand and communicate any language they've never heard before, sign language, illegible words, and backwards speech and writing. They could even communicate with animals or read body language. They can even acheive natural proficiencies with all kinds of weaponry and combatant styles without the need of special or long-term education.
- Precognition: Nephilim have the supernatural ability to experience simple or prophetic visions of the future. At first, they are merely capable of experiencing vague dreams of the future while asleep. While in their waking state; they experience vivid premonitions, either through physical contact with a person. They also gain an acute intuitive insight; meaning their able to sense the immediate actions of people and things in their current location. They can also use this ability to to fight and sense their opponents attacks and movements, making them deadly fighters.
- Empathy: Nephilim are able to sense and feel the emotions or feelings of other sentient life forms in their presence. They are able to instantly know when someone is lying by hearing the frequency of their voices. This leaves the nephilim establish a psychic links with others; even with individuals who can understand each other and become friends or allies almost instantly. This can even go as far as using the link as a tracer to locate those the nephilim connect with through their feelings. They will normally hear the cries of the wronged but they can learn to harness the power as they grow, using it to communicate with others.
- Clairvoyance: Nephilim possess supernatural senses that allow them to percieve things that humans connot. They can see invisible beings, they can see demons in their true forms even while said demons are in a human disguise or possessing a vessel, and they can see through dimensional barriers.
- Perspicuity: Psychic abilities cannot penetrate the Nephilim. Not even illusions, mind control, and the energy-draining abilities of supernatural beings work against the Nephilim.
- Longevity: Nephilim have a slower aging process and while they will die eventually, a Nephilim can live up to five hundred years, although most of them never make it that far, considering how often they're hunted.
- Superhuman Strength: Nephilim are much stronger than any being. Their superhuman strength also allows them to kill animals with ease. They have also have the strength to lift objects hundreds of times their own weight, smash through stone walls, overpowering any individual they engage in combat and take far more trauma than humans can without much discomfort or injury. They are also more powerful than other supernatural creatures, except angels and deities. Their strength seems to be tied to their anger, becoming stronger the more they give into their rage. Their strength also extends into the muscles of their legs, allowing them to jump or leap incredible distances and heights.
- Superhuman Speed: Nephilim are to be faster than any non-supernatural creature and run at an extremely high speed. This allows them to easily outrun any human, and are capable of blurring, which makes it nearly impossible for a human to perceive their movements when they are sprinting or moving at full speed. The reflexes of a nephilim are similarly enhanced and are far greater than normal. In combination with their speed, their reflexes allow them to dodge almost any attack, or even gunfire.
- Superhuman Agility: Nephilim's agility, balance, and bodily coordination are all enhanced to levels that are equal to, or in most cases beyond, the natural physical limits of even a Olympic athlete. They can also easily perform any complicated sequence of gymnastics stunts such as flips, rolls, and springs at speeds and angles that would be highly difficult or impossible for a ordinary human.
- Superhuman Endurance: Nephilim's body is physically tougher and more resistant to injury than the body of a normal human. Although they can still be damaged and killed by knives, stabbing weapons, bullets, shrapnel, and physical impact, their bodies hold together much better than normal. They can withstand great impacts, such as powerful blows that would severely injure or kill a human, falling from a height of several stories or being struck by a opponent of similar or greater physical strength, that would severely injure or kill a normal human with little to no discomfort.
- Healing Factor: Nephilim are enable to fully heal and recover from injuries such as gunshots, broken bones, burns, bite wounds, damaged or missing eyes, and torso impalement. The speed of regeneration is usually dependant on how severe their injury is. Standard cuts and wounds tend to heal very fast, while larger wounds can take longer. Nephilim are immune to most poisons and drugs, and their accelerated metabolism allows them to stay in near perfect shape with only light exercise. Their increased metabolism has the side-effect of dramatically increasing their appetite. This also makes it extremely difficult for them to become intoxicated from alcohol. Nephilim are also immune to most standard diseases and it is nearly impossible for them to catch a cold or common flu.
- Sacred Blood: As beings of angelic descent the blood that courses through their veins are blessed with the essence of the divine. Their blood is sacred, and is delectable and intoxicating to vampires, or other blood thirsty creatures. As such any that would feed off the Nephilim or worse, commit the basest sin of Amaranth, find that they are punished for their transgression, as the blood burns through their vile damned bodies. Nephilim can also be use their blood to heal others by transfusing them with their own blood, it could also be used to restore a deceased human back to life. They also use their blood to mix it in weapons to use against supernatural beings; such as filling bullets with their blood. The angelic blood both adds to their beauty and caused the gentle golden glow that appears when they are in the best of moods
- Pyrokinesis: All nephilim no matter what type of angel there parent is can manipulate holy fire. They can summon it within there hands or create flaming swords that can even wound an angel and even in some rare cases kill them.
Weakness
- Half-Human - Nephilim are still half-human, possess human-like souls, and still experience human weaknesses. They're stronger than any other being, expect the angels can mostly overpower them with their might unless the Nephilim is the offspring of a significant angel, such as an angel of the first sphere (thrones, cherubim and seraphim).
- Heaven’s Enmity - Angels and God regard the Nephilim as the worst kind of abominations, more detestable than even demon. An angel will always react negatively to a Nephilim, and will always interpret the angel’s words and actions in the worst possible light. Only a direct order from the deity they serve will ever cause a angel to aid a Nephilim in any way. Nephilim can never benefit from healing or other miracles from angels.
- Angelic Wrath - When a Nephilim is furious, their angelic half overcomes them and they tend to blackout for a short period of time, as well as more powerful and much more overwhelming can have an advantage over a deity.
- Hunted - Nephilim are viewed as a disgrace and a complete mistake to every normal angel, making them a prime subject for hunting. There are entire choirs of angels dedicated to the extermination of nephilim.
- Magic - Nephilim are still a mortal and are, as such, still vulnerable to the workings of magic in all its forms. Witches are able to give supernatural aneurysms that cause the blood vessels of nephilim to explode. Black magic has an adverse effect on them, and they're able to be trapped inside of an pentagram which weakens their powers to where they're no stronger.