Table of Contents

Chapter One: Introduction

Summary of Chapters

Chapter Two: Rules

New Character Concepts
New Character Type
New Associations
New Qualities and Drawbacks
New Skills
New Character Rules
New Combat Rules

Chapter Three: Himsati Immortals

Chapter Four: Perpetual Society

Chapter Five: Metaphysics

Natures
Serenades

Chapter Six: Supernatural

Mantles
Bright Bloods
Makers
Sanguinary
The Progeny
Droves
Abzulim
“Immortal: Millenium” in “Armageddon”

Appendix One

“Company of Wolves”
“Eternal City”

Appendix Two
Curses
Glossary
Index

Chapter One: Introduction

Los Angeles Suburbs

5 p.m., Local Time

The pain. So hot, searing through me, running like fire through my veins. I scream, this time hearing it, and realizing that I am now awake. His grinning face is still there, floating in front of my pupils, as if I had just been staring at the sun. I feel that familiar tremor jerk my stomach. I hate to vomit, I hate it almost as much as I hate him. Then again, the two are inextricably linked.

I shiver in the frigid air of my hiding place as I feel the pain uncoil like a snake and move from my stomach towards my throat. Spasms follow it as the gorge rises into my throat, burning with a white heat. I gag. I retch. I fall on hands and knees, and open my mouth, disgorging a hot yellow stream that hisses as it hits the stone. I start crying, only to be choked off by the next spasm and another gush out of my mouth. I see it glow dimly in the dark, then fade, as the cold breaths on it. As the third tremor comes, I scream in agony, adding more of the hot matter to the cobbled floor. I close my eyes, and focus on the aftershocks in my stomach, calming the aching muscles, taking deep cold breaths. When I am certain that the episode has passed (and this takes me long minutes) I open my eyes and stare at the soiled floor, then wipe my mouth with the back of my hand, spitting frozen droplets onto the floor, and watch the sunlight’s fascination with the stain on the floor, and, as the light creeps over it, the matter gleams with raw metallic beauty.

He’s here, I realize. My enemy is here, his presence calling the tremors out of my body. And he’s close, too. Very close.

I reach for a bowie knife from my jacket and start prying the cooled gold off of the floor, rolling the precious metal into a single tube as it casts handfuls of refracted sunlight into my eyes. How close is he? Does he sense me or has he forgotten after all these years the horrible curse he put on me, to spew gold, to bleed gold, to perspire tiny drops of incorruptible metal, to shed fragile strands of gold wire from my scalp?

Bastard. You were dead! You are not one of us. You were mortal. Mortal.

Standing up at last, I warm my arms with a quick rubbing of my hands. Gold dust sprays from my skin and dances in the morning light like sparks off a fire.

Fire. It’s everywhere. It’s as if someone stole the sun and hurled it into the middle of the courtyard. The screams of terrified horses is mutely heard from their stalls, as the fire jumps like a living thing and starts eating the wood. A Knight in red armour urges his men forward. Swords seem to catch fire as they reflect the conflagration, and shadows jump about in a wild frenzy as the invaders boil through the front gates.

“Kill all the French,” they yell madly.

I look down at the key in my hand. It shines like gold in the firelight.

Gold.

The shower feels so good. The closest thing to a lover I have known in centuries. A lover who caresses my body without violating it. A lover who withdraws gracefully, laughing down the drain, leaving me clean instead of feeling soiled. Gold dust sparkles in the black mildew that has taken over the rotted shower curtain. I shove tattered fabric aside, walk across the freezing floor and stand in front of the mirror. Between my breasts, a single gold coin, suspended on a gold chain. I pick up the chain and swing the coin out of its nesting place. The face of Caligula stares indifferently, stamped into the soft metal thousands of years ago. Time has worn the predatory features of the mad fool, but is unable to corrupt the metal.

Gold is immortal, even as we are. It endures forever, like pieces of the sun.

My lips, glossed in a generous dusting of gold, tremble. All of it is so subtle that humans never even notice. All they know is that I am beautiful. That’s all they care about. But they would be frightened if they really could see what I am. An ancient creature who looks like the daughter of King Midas, trapped somewhere between transformation from little girl to a statue of cold, unyielding—

Gold. I watch it being carried out of the treasury room, past heaps of dead bodies. The French rebels who were unable to die in combat are trussed up like game, hanging from poles. They suffer and stare at me as they lead me, a terrible realization dawning on their faces. One in particular gapes at me, devastated. His hazel eyes are wet from the smoke, or something else. He calls out to me. I stop in front of him. The soldiers leading me sense some sport and release my arms.

“Sir.” I say, haughtily.

“I know you.” He whispers, seeing through the shadows painted on me, the illusion of a plain peasant woman created in strokes of a dark brush. I am delighted that he knows who I really am, and that I have had my revenge against him for throwing me away.

“I am no longer your whore, Sir.” I say.

“They don’t know what you are!” He shouts. He looks over to the soldiers. “She’s a witch! An Immortal witch! She’ll lead you to ruin… as she did lead us. ”

The soldiers laugh and take my arms again. One of them strikes him across the face with a fist. Another turns to his comrade.

“This is the best Knight in the world?” he asks, mockingly.

My former lover’s mouth tightens, as he ignores the jibe, then draws up a smile.

“You are always, eternally, a whore.” He laughs. “A whore of shadows.”

Rage! Churning like melted metal in a cauldron. I slap him. The soldiers laugh at the both of us, and then restrain me. They were strong, these King’s Men. I struggle and am carried away from a man whose laughter is climbing the stairs of madness. Madness has always been his companion--madness and tormenting lust for a woman he can never have.

“Make way for the King.” a man yells. I cease struggling and feel a chill.

He had arrived at last. I see his armour gleam dully in the bonfires where the dead were being burned. His spirit is so bright it blazes before my Immortal eyes, leaping about like sparks off a forge. He pulls up short and regards me. I smile and bow in respect. It’s a false respect, but I want my money. Money pays mercenaries, and I will need many of them to challenge my half-brother and his mystic mentor. I want my gold!

Introduction

Welcome to the world of WitchCraft. This world is a place filled with dark mysteries and frightening secrets, which most people ignore, although fearsome battles and deadly dramas unfold right under their very noses. Many fight the horrors that lurk in the shadows in an attempt to save mankind from a terrible fate – even though some of those saviours are no longer human themselves. However, even most of them are unaware that the Enemy hides in the subconscious of those they are trying to protect.

As the Time of Reckoning draws near, so does the awakening of an ancient evil that sleeps in the nightmares of men. And since there were very few who know of it or how to stop it, there was no other chance for the gods of old but to awaken from their sleep of millennia and walk the battlefields of Earth once again to wage war on their most hated enemy, the Mad God known as the Sanguinary. The Lords and Ladies of myth and legend have reawakened again, in bodies of flesh and blood to fight for mankind, who holds the key to ultimate power: human faith. For that, the Immortal Gods will stop at nothing – not even at their mortal bodies’ death – to defeat the Sanguinary once and for all, and regain absolute freedom from their unwilling progenitor. However, the bodiless Mad God lurks in the minds and thoughts of the very ones who the Immortals desire – and nothing short of genocide would be enough to drive It out into the open. However, to do so, would also mean death for the Immortals, for they still depend in mankind’s belief – even if nowadays they are worshiped not as Gods, but as movie stars, business men, or geniuses.

This Codex is based on the “Immortal: Millennium RPG”, and details everything concerning the Himsati Immortals: from their society and organization to their powers and weaknesses, including their history, their enemies and allies, as well as their very own features, such as their unique martial arts, new Character Concepts, new Qualities and Drawbacks.

The information contained here will allow Chroniclers not only to include Himsati Immortals in their campaigns both as PCs and NPCs, but also to play “Immortal: Millennium RPG” with the Unisystem™ as a stand-alone game, independent from the world of Witchcraft.

Summary of Chapters

Chapter One: Introduction contains these introductory remarks.

Chapter Two: Rules refers the features of the new Character Type – the Himsati Immortal, and a new Association – the Perpetual Society, as well as new Skills, Character Concepts Qualities and Drawbacks.

Chapter Three: Himsati Immortals provides all the necessary information to create and play a Himsati Immortal.

Chapter Four: Perpetual Society describes the largest of Immortal organizations – the Perpetual Society – as well as its history, secrets and goals.

Chapter Five: Metaphysics presents the earth-shattering powers of the Immortals – the Serenades – and the price an Immortal might pay for altering reality with – literally – a song. It details as well the powers inherent to each Himsati – the Natures.

Chapter Six: Supernatural brings new dangers to the unsuspecting world, in the form of the Sanguinary and Its minions, as well as unexpected allies such as the Makers, humans able of warping reality with but a thought, and the Bright Bloods, wielders of true Faith, whose only lifepath stretches over many reincarnations. Plus the Sanguinary's firstborn, the Abzulim, the mighty dragons of old and, whose loyalties no-one but themselves know where will lie.

Appendix 1 contains the introductory adventure “Company of Wolves”, indicated to bring players to the world of “Immortal: Millennium”, as well as the large “Eternal City” adventure, originally drawn from the “Immortal: Millennium Book 2 – the War Book”, but fully adapted to the Unisystem™.

Appendix 2 contains a glossary concerning the jargon of the Himsati immortals, several useful reference charts, an example list of curses, a complete index, as well as the Himsati Immortal character sheet.

Conventions

Text Conventions

Like in other WitchCraft supplements, there are several types of text to designated different functions.

This type of text is the standard text, and it comprises most of the supplement.

This is the type used for fiction, usually showing up between chapters. Opposed to other WitchCraft supplements, instead of small tales, the fiction will be a full fledged tale, called “Gold”, that will last for the entire book and freely adapted from the Immortal: Millennium Book Two.