Some of Eliel's secrets

So Eliel, Heel, and Low-Key were all Nephillim who banded together for mutual protection and support. Years before the start of the game, Eliel learned to use Inner Silence to hide that he was a Nephillim and appear as Fallen largely as a way of protecting Low-Key and Heel (if he was on his own he would just hide).



He original goals were two-fold. The first was simple survival but since that is actually a pretty lousy character goal in a LARP (because the key to success is to do nothing), I decided he was attempting to create a “2nd codex” and create a peace between Neph and Fallen similar to the one between Infernal and Divine, united against their common threats. Early on while Eliel was actively working towards this goal, he viewed himself as already part of the codex and really did actively try to fight the host and horde and make the city and the fallen of the city better off.



That all changed during a conversation with Rebecca. Eliel was trying to figure out why Divine Fallen wouldn’t make peace with Nephillim when they would violate their principles to have an alliance with Infernal (and vice versa). She pointed out that the Infernal were too powerful to be wiped out completely and so peace was the only option. Nephillim simply weren’t enough of a threat for peace to be necessary.



That was when Eliel changed strategies and worked on making Nephillim more dangerous. A major part of that was learning the crucifixion rite. After several months of research, he had all the requisite knowledge, he just had to be crucified himself to complete the process. He was going to get Rebecca to crucify him but before that could go through, he was approached by the cult of ash (he obviously didn’t know who they were at the time) who offered to crucify him. He took them up on their offer and they crucified him but for some reason (I’m still not completely sure why) attempted to kill him rather than take him down after. He survived by permanently burning a cinematic point and being rescued by his affections. After that he was willing to teach the Crucifixion rite to any Nephillim capable of learning it. (Un)fortunately Neph with all 3 core techniques are exceedingly rare so it hadn’t spread beyond Eliel when the game ended. Eliel was also working on researching a way of altering the ritual so the person performing it didn’t actually need all 3 core techniques so even more Neph could learn it.



Eventually the plan was to crucify a few characters but I couldn’t decide whether to let it be known that it was a Nephillim doing it and then once the fear level reached a high enough point, offer to broker a truce or if I should try to frame certain fallen (I had an Inner Silence transgression that made me not appear when an event was looked at from the past or future with techniques) for the deed and just leave flimsy enough evidence that it couldn’t actually stick. Both were too delicate to rush into so over-cautiousness prevented me from completing that part of the plan.



The other big downtime thing he was working on was a preternatural disease that Eliel was going to create that was basically harmless to the human carrier but would make their flesh toxic to a celestial being that tried to eat it. I have no idea how Jill would have run the mechanics of it (I’m sure it would have backfired in some fantastic way) but I figured at the very least, it would have been a major inconvenience (for certain characters).



One thing to note is that Eliel never actually lied about being fallen. He disguised himself in the symphony but I tried very hard to make sure he never actually called himself fallen. A couple times I caught myself almost saying “we” or “us” but I would always try to stop myself and instead of saying “we depend on the codex for our survival”, I would say, “all fallen depend on the codex for their survival”. When coming to the city originally, my letter to the kings included the line, “Although any Fallen thoughtful enough to listen to the symphony would know me as Grigori, in times of war it is always wise to let allies know of your presence as early as possible to ensure no misunderstandings.”



Had any investigations of Eliel turned up enough information to make anyone suspicious, I had decided very early on that he would not lie to the direct question, “are you fallen/nephillim?”



His nephillim rejection was no reflection. Each game I tried to show up neatly dressed (as dressed by affections) and would get more and more dishevled as the game wore on. Any time life in the mansion was described I always tried to mention that Eliel had people dress him.



Another “secret” was that Eliel was responsible for several of the cry havocs, intimidates, etc. that caused people trauma over the last year. Certainly not all of them but quite a few. I would always machinate to look like someone from an opposing conviction as I was more interested in sowing conflict between the convictions that the actual causing of trauma.



Eliel was also actively supporting Alphaes. Since both of them were “evolved” Nephillim, Alphaes could instantly recognize Eliel for what he was in spite of the Inner Silence. That was part of why Eliel always thought it was a smokescreen when investigations turned up evidence that it was Alphaes screwing him over. (I found out after the game ended that it truly was Alphaes. In spite of Eliel their alliance, Alphaes didn’t like Eliel’s empire building and wanted to make sure it never became a relationship of equals).

Wow, awesome.

That's why you didn't need any help in figuring out who had attacked you...