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Chaosium Digest Volume 09 Number 07
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.
--------------------
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