History TabletopGame / InNomine

** ''Ethereal Player's Guide''. In the Marches, the Domain known as Deceitful will reveal its true nature if any part of it is called by its true name.

** A Seraphim (type of angel) of Yves knows the true name (if any) of any being that it touches.

** A sorcerer can use a Banishment ritual to banish an ethereal spirit or demon if the sorcerer knows the spirit/demon's true name.
** A sorcerer can use a Summon Named Demon ritual to summon a specific demon if the sorcerer knows the demon's true name.

* OurGorgonsAreDifferent: Gorgons are children of humans and ethereal spirits -- which can include anything from animate dreams to efreet and valkyries to the surviving pagan gods -- who chanced to be born as warped, terrifying monsters. In essence, they're the ethereal equivalent of the celestial-born [[OurNephilimAreDifferent Nephallim]]. Like the Nephallim, most live in isolation, hunted by angels, demons, and humans, but they're not more inherently evil than any other mortal.

* OurMummiesAreDifferent:
** Mummies are the most perfected kind of undead that Hell can create. They're essentially immortal humans with more supernatural clout, and are functionally straight-up upgrades on the human condition with one major downside -- like all undead, their souls [[CessationOfExistence cannot survive their bodies' destruction]].
** Actual, Egyptian mummies were created specifically to ''avoid'' being turned into undead -- the necromancy developed by Hell relies on using lingering motor memory in the physical brain to animate the body, and Egyptian funerary specialists took up the practice of extracting the brain from bodies specifically to avoid having their honored dead turned into puppets of the demons.
* OurNephilimAreDifferent: When a celestial, whether angel or demon, uses the Songs of Fruition to have children with a mortal, the issue is usually just a human with some extra supernatural power. Sometimes, however, the child is born or becomes a monster, warped in body and mind; these are referred to as Nephallim, and are shunned and hunted by both humanity and celestials. Most were born to the ancient Grigori, giant angels meant to guide humanity directly, and were hunted down when the Grigori were cast out, but some still emerge in the modern day. Despite their reputation, however, Nephallim are free-willed mortals, though it's a point of Canonical Doubt and Uncertainty whether they're capable of actually obtaining salvation. Ethereal spirits of the Marches are capable of breeding with humans under the same conditions as celestials, and also have a chance of producing warped offspring of their own; these Ethereal counterparts to Nephallim are known as Gorgons, but are otherwise largely the same sort of beings.

* SemiDivine: By using the Songs of Fruition, it's possible for celestial beings -- i.e., angels and demons -- and for ethereal spirits -- typically the more powerful ones, such as fey, embodied archetypes, or the pagan gods -- to have children with mortals. The fruit of these unions have greater inherent spiritual power and affinity for the supernatural than regular humans do. However, they also have a chance of being born as monsters, warped in body and mind, and shunned and feared by celestials, ethereals and humans alike. These unfortunates are known as [[OurNephilimAreDifferent Nephallim]] when sired by celestials and [[OurGorgonsAreDifferent Gorgons]] when born of ethereals.

** However, it's emphasized that Dissonant behaviors aren't arbitrary tripwires, it's self-destructive behavior fundementally antithetical to their natures, similar to human self-harm, and manifests in such an obvious form due to the nature of spiritual beings. Seraphim don't lie not because they aren't supposed to, but because their deep connection to the truth of the universe makes lies deeply offensive to them, Cherubim and Mercurians protect humans because they love them and are devastated if they come to harm, Baelseraphs whose lies are called out will start to question ''all'' their lies (and given what they are, that's a ''lot'' of lies making up most of their worldview), Impudites can't stand to hurt humans because that devalues a precious resource the Impudite would rather take for themselves, etc.

* RestrainingBolt: All Celestials have certain behaviors (Seraphim can't lie because they're so closely attuned to the truth, Impudites can't kill humans because that's a waste of food) that cause them to gain dissonance. For Angels, dissonance potentially leads them to Fall. For both Angels and Demons, it causes physical, mental, or spiritual handicaps called Discord and unwanted attention from the internal security of Heaven or Hell (neither of which is known for going easy on dissonant Celestials). Notable are Malakim, who choose their own restraining bolts, and Lilim, who impose restraining bolts on others.

%%* CrisisOfFaith: Ironically, it's the Archangel of Faith himself who goes through this in ''The Final Trumpet''.

** The [[CannotTellALie Seraphim]] (serpents with six eyes and six feathered wings), [[DrivesLikeCrazy Ofanim]] (constantly spinning wheels of flame), and [[HiveMind Kyriotates]] (a whirling cloud of limbs and body parts) all fit the bill.

* AMythologyIsTrue: Downplayed. A vaugely Abrahamic account of the world is definitively true, with any supernatural forces beyond angels and demons being just manifestations of our dreams and beliefs. However, ''which'' Abrahamic faith is true remains a topic of great debate -- the Heaven and Hell represented in the game don't 1 to 1 map with any religious account, and questions like "was Jesus God Incarnate?" and "was the Quran dictated by God?" are just as heavily debated among angels as humans.

* BlackAndGreyMorality: Heaven is very far from perfect. The issue is that angels fall for going agains their nature, not simply for malice, so it's very possible for an angel to be dangerous, ignorant, obbsessive or even outright evil if they go about it in the right way. On the other hand, Hell is fighting for the cause of "reduce all three realms to a blasted, agony-filled wasteland before destroying them", so it's hard to argue that Heaven isn't ultimately in the right even before bringing up its more positve qualities.

** More [[BenevolentAbomination positively]], the Angels of the Higher Heavens are barely comprehensible even to lesser angels -- they're [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation (probably)]] on the side of Good, but beyond that, even heaven's not entirely sure what exactly they are or can do.

* BeautifulSingingVoice: Israfel, the Angel of Music, has the most beautiful singing voice of any being alive, and her performances regularly move other angels to tears.
-->''Utterly dedicated to her calling, Israfel has probably the most extraordinary vocal talent of any celestial. She was described by Poe as "the angel Israfel, whose heart-strings are a lute, and who has the sweetest voice of all of God's creatures." (Contrary to Poe's laudatory verse, she is not mentioned in the Quran.) She can make angels cry with joy at the beauty of her songs.''

* HeavenVersusHell: The setting of the game is the cold war between Heaven and Hell, as they work to push humanity towards its best/worst state without triggering Armageddon. By default Heaven is Good but neither perfect nor united, while Hell is Evil but without every individual demon necessarily being so. However, there are alternate frameworks presented too, including " Both sides are monstrous forces working to destroy humanity in different ways", "All angels are shining noble heroes and all demons are cackling monsters", " The demons are the good guys and working to free the world from heaven's tyranny" and "Both sides are basically decent and the "war" is more a friendly rivalry"

The American version of ''In Nomine'' has tended to vary over how satryical or serious it wants to be; as a general trend, its earliest material hewed more towards its original inspiration, while later stuff has tended to play its themes straighter. Either way, while Demons tend to be genuinely evil at the upper ranks, [[PunchClockVillain individual rank and file]] are considerably more sympathetic. Likewise, Angels tend to be good but can become [[KnightTemplar bitterly misguided in their causes]].

The American version of ''In Nomine'' is somewhat more serious than the French version but still a largely satirical look at the war between Heaven and Hell. While Demons tend to be genuinely evil at the upper ranks, [[PunchClockVillain individual rank and file]] are considerably more sympathetic. Likewise, Angels tend to be good but can become [[KnightTemplar bitterly misguided in their causes]].

''In Nomine'' has always had modest success at best; as the 2000s went on, supplements for the game became few and far between, and eventually shifted to being released solely in electronic form through Steve Jackson Games's online store, [[http://warehouse23.com/ "Warehouse 23"]], before stopping altogether. Some fans have attributed the game's lack of broad appeal to its quirky D666 system and the over-the-top nature of the setting.

* FireAndBrimstoneHell: Sheol, the realm of Belial the Prince of Fire, is the fiery, smoking vision of Hell that mortals often fear. A massive volcano sits in its center, constantly streaming with lava and wracked by eruptions that send fiery debris falling on the landscapes; rivers of fire and molten rock crawl away from it and across the landscape, while clouds of smoke and ash choke the skies. Scattered across Sheol are more familiar landscapes -- cities, forests, valleys and the like -- but all burning, constantly rebuilt just to be set on fire. Belial's destructive, pyromaniac demons love it there; the souls of the damned are left to cling to shelves of barren rock, choking on smoke and ash, wincing from the flying cinders, dodging volcanic debris, and trying not to be captured by gangs of demons eager to extract essence from them by methods involving the creative use of live coals, heated pokers and napalm.

* FantasticReligiousWeirdness: Most angels haven't met God, and they can follow any mortal religion or not as they choose (though Dominic forbids angels worshipping ethereal religions). Some angels believe in the truth of a particular religion (though they're not supposed to pick fights over it), others accept religions as ''valid'' while not necessarily considering any ''true''. Meanwhile, Eli doesn't care about religious truth at all; he just loves to see what humans ''do'' with religion, and particularly enjoys the beauty of religious art and ritual.