Three Faces of Elvis Ethereal – Google Docs
The Three Faces of Elvis
(Ethereal)
Or, Gracelander
(With deep apologies to Eric A. Burns)
It all started on the streets of Vegas. Based on the targets the cops thought at first that it was some especially weird kind of local serial killer, but the killings were over as quickly as they had begun. The FBI found some obvious corollaries between what the tabloids were quick to call the Great Vegas Elvis Massacre and what looked like a spree of copycat killings in the rest of the USA; they missed the East Asian outbreaks, not to mention certain curious and somewhat obscure incidents in coastal Argentina, but domestically the FBI was actually tracking just about all of the relevant attacks, for what it was worth.
Within two months, though, new murders had stopped being unearthed, and the cases went cold. The Bureau never quite noticed that they weren’t being prodded by grieving family members to close those cases, essentially because there weren’t any grieving family members. The files are still open, but not particularly pursued.
Those groups more clued into the War are a bit more aware of the actual situation. It seems that the Symphony has decided that no new Images of Elvis — in any form — may be generated. The ones that exist now are all the ones that there will ever be, now and forevermore. More alarmingly, the power that can be tapped by the ethereal concept of Elvis is going through the roof; by now the average Elvis is 8 Forces, and every time one gets killed the rest simply get a little stronger.
The following list summarizes the cumulative abilities that come with each new Force:
7 Forces: Detect Elvis/4 (see below)
8 Forces: Large Weapon/3 (Katana), Tactics/1
9 Forces: Luck (slight affinity)
10 Forces: Might (Ethereal/3, Corporeal/1)
11 Forces: Increase Luck affinity to Moderate
12 Forces: Tactics +1, Move Silently/3
13 Forces: ICorporeal Might +2, Charm (Corporeal/2)
14 Forces: Increase Luck affinity to Strong
15 Forces: Motion (Celestial/4)
Detect Elvis (Perception) (no default)
The GM is to use this skill in place of a regular Perception roll to determine whether one ethereal Elvis has detected another ethereal Elvis.
The combat on the corporeal plane was merely a reflection of the carnage that occurred in the Marches: there are probably no more than a few hundred or so ethereal spirits of Elvis left on either the corporeal or ethereal planes, and they are more or less all stalking each other. Aside from that, they’re a varied bunch of entities: as each one is destroyed the remaining ones become more and more iconic. The ones that were easy pickings are dead, and the survivors are becoming increasingly tough and skilled.
Everyone in the know has an opinion about who’s eventually going to win; for some reason the various ethereal spirits are mostly inordinately cheerful about the entire affair. There’s even an odd sort of quasi-religious sect that has started up whose adherents believe that this winnowing is to determine who will lead the ethereals to a glorious victory against the forces of Heaven (or Hell, depending on which adherent you ask). Servitors of both Dreams and Nightmares are a good deal more concerned, but both Superiors have made it clear that no direct interference is permitted. Beleth snarled and killed the extremely unfortunate demon that dared asked why; Blandine was a good deal gentler in answering questions, but not notably more coherent. The other Superiors don’t even pretend to understand what’s going on, although in Destiny and Fate’s cases it’s hard to tell when they know something, when they don’t know something — and when they know that they don’t know something.
The end result of all of this will be, ah, unclear — but the location of the end will be in a room in a palace in a Domain ruled by the Voudon loa. The Elvis that joined that pantheon now sits on the Black Velvet Throne and broods over the coming struggle. There will come a day when his right to his throne and his Image will be challenged by an upstart, and it will be decided on the lives of one or the other.
Should he win, he will become something. What that Something is, he does not know, but he knows somehow that it will be powerful. Should he lose, of course, it is irrelevant. But he has no intent of losing.
There can be only One King, baby.
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.