Nobilis Quotes

It is not by our own will that grace comes into our world. It is unasked for. It is unbidden. It is not in response to anything. It’s too wild, pure, and mad for that.
Grace invades.

Nobilis, the Essentials

“Congratulations,” said Nilaia. “You have corrupted your first soul; you have won a victory for the Fallen. How does it feel?”
“… It hurts,” said Forchas, after a pause.
“Of course it hurts,” Nilaia answered. “It always hurts. It hurts terribly. This is Hell.”

Nobilis
(marginalia)

The work of Hell is holy in this life.
I will say this even though I fear the Devils and even though I fear the flames. I will say this even though I idolize Heaven and its given grace; even though there are times when I am angry, and more than angry, at what Hell has been and done.
But the first work of Hell is to honor and bear witness to the things that would otherwise be entirely unloved.

Nobilis, the Essentials

We didn’t ask for it. We didn’t even understand that it could happen. It was like a Zen master suddenly hitting us with a stick while we were just in line to pay the telly bill.

Nobilis, the Essentials

It is a problematic feature of magic, as with life, that its mastery is self-extinguishing. No sooner does one really grasp a truth than one begins the process of learning the magic beyond that truth—the first rule of which is, oh, by the way, that thing which you just learned is not just incomplete but false.

Nobilis
(marginalia)

Oscar opened the Mystery, found at once he did not understand it, and spent the rest of the day in deep contemplation of whether he had accidentally participated in a koan.

Nobilis
(marginalia)

The first humans emerged from the Garden into a world of savagery and grime. Beasts and birds and fish hunted, and killed, and ate, and the ones most often eaten were the ones who harmed no others at all. The sky poured water and stony ice and jagged lightning down upon them and the thunder shouted its rage.
The first humans built themselves a shelter from sticks and leaves; and a fire from stones and wood; and they learned to kill what they wished to kill and protect what they wished to protect; and as Eve brought forth a child in suffering and pain, she said:
“Truly, this is an age of miracles.”

Nobilis
(marginalia)

Miracles are cruel and cold
and they are bright and beautiful.

The Game of Powers:
”Ninety-Nine Days, and One”

Once, a man was so well loved that he set the fields ablaze and the peasants didn’t mind. Then he killed all the animals, gave his folk dust to eat, and they didn’t mind. Then he dirtied the water with blood from his wars, and they didn’t mind. Then they tortured him slowly to death on the Stone Wheel, and when his heirs asked the peasants why, they said, “We thought he liked that sort of thing.”

Nobilis
(marginalia)

As the sky catches fire, Octavia will reach out and stop the world. For the first time since the bombs began to fall, there will be silence.
“It’s no good,” the djinn will say. “The missiles are launched. The world is dead. It just doesn’t know it yet. It doesn’t matter what you do—once you start time going again, everybody dies.”
“I don’t plan to start time going again,” Octavia will answer.
And that is how the universe will end.

Nobilis
(marginalia)

The wind told me once that everybody gets to play a game of Nobilis before they die. Maybe it’s in their secret dreams. Maybe it’s in real life. But everybody gets to experience the world of the Nobilis once—to leave behind the dead world where things don’t talk to you and nobody knows the purpose of the world, for at least one night, and see the truth.

Nobilis, the Essentials

You are a holy creature. You are the divine word of the void. You manifest the face of the Lands Beyond Creation that is the Empyreal Nothing—a thing that is not a great and solemn holiness in the same way that most of the Lands Beyond Creation are not land, air, or sea. When you walk past, nihilists and those possessed by bleakest depression prostrate themselves before you, crying, “Holy, holy, holy!”

Nobilis, Antithesis:
A Diary of Deceivers

the diceless game of gods

The wind told me once that
everybody gets to play
a game of Nobilis before they die.

May your game go well.

The cover of the first edition of Nobilis, a Mucha print on a salmon-colored edge

The original 1999 edition. Written under the name R. Sean Borgstrom (it was a different millennium, people used different letters then.) Published by Pharos Press. Later,
publication was amicably suspended to make way for the second edition of the game.

First Edition

Nobilis, by Jenna Moran. The Sphinx Mysterieuse (statue of a woman in mail) faces the viewer, one hand lifted to cover her mouth, palm facing left.

The legendary 2002 edition: killed by the malfeasance of multiple third parties, revived through the graciousness of the one-time publisher and several fans. Its 11”x11” design remains gorgeous but is an unfortunately awkward fit for PDF and as yet unavailable in print-on-demand.

Second Edition

The golden statue of a woman with a floral headdress, eyes closed

The Game of Powers expanded the worlds and rules of Nobilis, moving from the tabletop into the realm of live action.

It seems unlikely that you’re going to get into a game of live-action second edition Nobilis at this point, but … it’s a pretty book and a fun read, so there’s that, and it’s honestly one of the better tricks the wind could pull on you if you’ve been trying to abuse that obvious “never play a game of Nobilis” loophole above (like those capitalist vampire types do) to seize the unholy fires of an unending life.

Enjoy!

The Game of
Powers

a woman knitting on the moon. Her needles gleam with starlight.

The 2011 Edition. Originally published through Eos Press, with an improved game engine, a lighter-hearted tone, and a less comprehensive presentation. While complete in itself, it was also book one of a long intended series; sadly, shepherding the first book through publication while in China took up the time and energy originally allocated for writing them.

Eos Press retains rights to some portion of the book’s original art, so I was unable to directly take over publication. The Internet had not been kind to the art or artists, and I was wary of inviting comparisons, so I replaced the art myself. If you were wondering why the cover here looks like it was painted by a writer and not an artist … now you know.

Third Edition

artist's interpretation of Iolithae Septimian becoming an Excrucian

I did eventually manage to release the second book in the intended series—more or less; it wasn’t the one originally intended to be second—

But again Eos has the license for some of the art, so it’ll be a while before I put together a version I can release, if I ever do.

A Diary of
Deceivers

Nobilis, by Jenna Moran. The Sphinx Mysterieuse (statue of a woman in mail) faces the viewer, one hand lifted to cover her mouth, palm facing left.

The fourth edition is in active development, with the first complete draft finished in July 2023. It should come out of editing and layout sometime in late 2024.

Fourth Edition