In Nomine Revisited: The Insidious Psionic Llama Conspiracy.

Mentioned it earlier.

Insidious Psionic Llama Conspiracy – Google Docs

The Insidious Psionic Llama Conspiracy

(Uses my fan-generated In Nomine Psionic rules)

Llamas (regular)
Corporeal Forces: 2              Strength: 3 Agility: 5
Ethereal Forces: 0                 Intelligence: 0 Precision: 0
Celestial Forces: 1                Will: 2 Perception: 2

Skills: Fighting/1, Running/1
Advantages: Psionic (Telereceive only)
Psionic Discipline: Telepathy/3
Psionic Skills: Emotion Sense/2, Telereceive/3

Llamas are domesticated quadruped herbivores indigenous to South America: like their close cousins the camels, they make useful pack animals (albeit ones that spit), but llamas are notably better-tempered about their lot in life.  This particular species is generally used more for their carrying capacity than for anything else, as special variants were created for their wool.  Llamas also make fairly decent sheep-herders, for herbivores.  In other words, there’s not precisely a call for them in North America – a place already with all the horses, sheep and domesticated dogs that one could want.

So why are there llama-breeding farms cropping up here, anyway?

God-Llamas
Corporeal Forces: 2              Strength: 3       Agility: 5
Ethereal Forces: 1                 Intelligence: 3  Precision: 1
Celestial Forces: 2                Will: 2               Perception: 6

Skills: Emote/1, Fighting/1, Language/1 (any), Running/1
Advantages: Psionic (Telepathy Only)
Disadvantages: Gregarious/2 (-4 pt)
Psionic Discipline: Telepathy/6
Psionic Skills: Emotion Sense/2, Telereceive/3, Telesend/4, Mental Blow/1, Mindwipe/6, Telecontrol/3

Yes, that’s right: BECAUSE OF INSIDIOUS TELEPATHIC MANIPULATION BY A CONSPIRACY OF SECRET LLAMA MASTERS!!!!!

Sort of.

First off, there haven’t been God-Llamas for all that long.  As near as the God-Llamas themselves can tell, the rise in intelligence and psionic ability has taken place only over the last decade or so.  Precisely why is still – vaguely – debated; the two factions about why are known to the Llama Mind Gestalt as The Grass Is Really Good Here Herd and The Humans Spilled Something Nasty In Our Water Herd.

And that’s the second problem: they may be smarter than they have any right to be – but they’re not exactly bright by human standards.  Worse for them, they’re still llamas, a species that’s been domesticated by humanity for millennia.  The God-Llamas have the ability to rewrite the average human’s memories without too much of a hassle, but they get extremely antsy at the idea of doing anything more drastic than encouraging llama farms as being a really, really good idea.  They don’t precisely like humanity, but they don’t know how to get along without them.

The aforementioned factions have somewhat different opinions on how to resolve this dilemma.  The Good Grass mostly thinks that the answer is to create more llama farms, where llamas might stand tall, eat grass, herd sheep and make the next generation of llamas.  In other words, this is as about as good as it gets for llamas, given that North Americans have no particular desire to eat them, and only a mild urge to load them down with heavy packs.  Why not enjoy it?

The Nasty-Spillers are a touch more ambitious.  They have dimly gotten through their collective heads the concept that some traits – like telepathy – could be inherited, so they are trying to make sure that it spreads throughout the llaman (?) gene pool as widely as possible.  They have also managed to pick up from human minds the notion that there might also be other psionic abilities out there, so they’re looking for those as well.  So far, they seem to be increasing the number of God-Llamas a bit… and found at least three llamas with very weak psychokinetic abilities.  The Nasty-Spillers may not be bright by human standards, but they’re certainly bright enough to know how useful it’d be for their species to get the equivalent of hands.

Does either Heaven or Hell know about this moderate apotheosis of the Llamas?  At the moment, no; the phenomenon is too new and nobody pays the attention to the less-sexy domestic species that they possibly should.  Even Jordi is behind the curve on this one.  It may be quite a while before this lack of oversight gets rectified, particularly if psionic abilities are otherwise unknown in a particular campaign.  As to how either side will react… depends on tone and Contrast and Brightness, really.  Nice celestials will want to recruit; nasty ones will want to commit extinction (in the face of everyone who’d consider it genocide, instead); everybody will want to keep their personal brains far away from llamaish (?) mind probes.  Jordi will certainly be hardcore in his resistance to a straightforward slaughter, and no matter the campaign assumptions there would probably be at least one Superior willing to back him up.

Of course, one of them would invariably be Vapula.  Telepathic llama brains?  Oh, my, are there things that he could do with them…

This material is not official and is not endorsed by Steve Jackson Games. In Nomine is a registered trademark of Steve Jackson Games. All rights are reserved by SJ Games. This material is used here in accordance with the SJ Games online policy.