Nephilim Concepts (Patreon)

One of the ideas for the world of Angelarium that has existed in the background, but never saw daylight was the Nephilim. In the books, the idea of the Watchers taking human wives is brought up, but their offspring are never named or depicted directly. While working on those books, I always imagined the maligned demi-angels as a race of brutish giants.

Despite the Watchers being extremely diverse in their appearances, their children all share the same bizarre anatomy. The Watcher's identity is not passed down genetically. Instead, the traits they pass on are their inhumanity. The Nephelim are much taller than people, usually around 8-9 feet with long limbs. Their pallid grey skin is dull, like the color of clay. Their hair, if it grows in at all, is similarly pale and colorless.

Despite appearing physically cursed, the Nephilim are not inherently evil. While their personalities tend toward both selfishness and violence, their long lives grant them the capacity to grow into whatever sort of conscious being they choose. By the time our story is being told, it's been hundreds of years since a new Nephilim has been born, so those remaining have found productive means of cohabitating with humans.

Many of the long lives Nephilim have carved out extraordinary reputations for themselves as rulers, explorers, or warriors. For this reason, I've chosen to grant them names of ancient heroes to suggest that these legends were potentially referencing the deeds of noble Nephilim.

One of the NPCs I want to include in both the RPG and the third book is a Nephilim named Gilgamesh. He's a child of Samyaza who grew dissatisfied with his father's failures and aspired to surpass him as a benevolent ruler.

Visually, I'm still experimenting with the Nephilim. I want them to be visually distinct enough to justify their inclusion in the lore. Right now the clothing I've created for them feels too generically fantasy. I think they need something beyond their weird faces that identify them.

Right now I'm leaning more toward making them oddly lanky, than overly muscular and stocky. I want them to feel a bit alien and it's easier to convey that by showing their whole body as being oddly shaped rather than just their faces.