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What does Alsiz Want? & Who is Stephen
Alsiz?Nyarlathotep/Cthulhu
ConnectionWho the hell is Stephen Alzis? - a kabbalistic
approachMore on Nyarlathotep On Line
More data about the Crawling Chaos can be found in a separate document
Introducing Alsiz
Alsiz as European Urbane
CharacterThe waiting
gameThe Alsiz/Drug Dealer
parallelThe Need for
AlsizAlsiz as
SatanAlzis atmosphere
An appendix on certain features of the Club Apocalypse is also available
An article featuring more speculation on Mr Alsiz is also available.
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1998 07:17:51 -0500
From: Steven Kaye
OK, here's try number 2:
Two questions you have to answer about Mr. Alzis first, the second considerably less important than the first:
1) What does Alzis want? Is he the ultimate investigator, sacrificing "pawns" to gain a complete knowledge of the Mythos and its activities, and ultimately bring it crashing down? Is he an ally (or construct) of the Mi-Go, seeking to gather as much knowledge as possible before the End Times? Is he a follower of the Mythos, playing some complicated double- (triple-, quadruple-, etc.) game? Is he just a very well-informed crime lord?
You need to know this (although the players shouldn't, until much later in the campaign), in order to figure out his approach - does he play for sympathy to his fellow investigators, dropping hints about artifacts and myths which might help them? (and which pan out?) Perhaps Belial betrays Alzis, and he comes to the players for assistance against an even greater menace (whether Belial is a genuine menace or was put up to this is your call). Will he simply cause the characters' usual sources to dry up (Shriveling's handy for that), which forces the characters to go to him but doesn't inspire trust? Will he pull a "Usual Suspects" and force the characters to make up to him for ostensibly ruining his operation?
Also, keep in mind that many fortunate coincidences in Alzis' career could be just that. Maybe the Doolittle Sinkhole was caused by cthonians, or too much digging by ghouls, or was just an extreme version of your basic New York pothole. Maybe Alzis is protecting humanity by building on top of it. Those deaths since the 1930's? Amazing what you can do with some stand-ins and plastic surgery. Or blood bags.
Finally, keep in mind that Delta Green has to be cautious about equipment, use of government resources, etc. MAJESTIC doesn't suffer nearly as much from these limitations. Simply offering a safehouse, not turning in the characters when he has a chance, etc. can make characters grateful (if suspicious). You can have fun with DG friendlies - Alzis has been around since before DG was founded, as supposedly knows about Delta Green. So here's your friendly, involved in a conspiracy against the U.S. government, treating like a mushroom by these hardass guys with guns and shades, feeling left out at best. Good thing there's a sympathetic Alzis on hand... This doesn't even get into the twisted emotional manipulation Alzis can pull with the character's non-DG lives.
2) Is he Nyarlathotep? Keep in mind, plotting to destroy Earth isn't necessarily the same as being a loyal servant of the Great Old Ones, so if the answer is yes it doesn't preclude one or more of the motivations above holding true. Maybe Nyarlathotep wants to see the Great Old Ones AND humanity destroyed, so he can go wandering about the cosmos to his heart's content. This is the same figure who strikes his master's head in contempt, after all. And Victor Milan's "Mr. Skin" actually portrays a Nyarlathotep who sympathizes with humanity to some extent - because he's closer to them than to the Great Old Ones, and likes a good conversation.
Even if he IS Nyarlathotep, don't feel obliged to drop remarks about fellahin and panthers coming up to him to lick his hands and so on. Play up the uncertainty - have a story come from Kenya about a wind-born plague when they KNOW Alzis is in New York. Do you have any idea how many Arabs or Arab-Americans there are in the greater New York area? Trust me, you can run the players ragged chasing after "suspicious" Semitic types.
Hope this helps some,
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1998 07:43:59 EST
<< And Victor Milan's "Mr. Skin" actually portrays a Nyarlathotep who sympathizes with humanity to some extent - because he's closer to them than to the Great Old Ones, and likes a good conversation. >>
Blech. Was the rest of the story any good? Giving N. even this much vulnerability seems to go WAY down the wrong path, IMO. "Hi, I'm the immortal Nyarlathotep, with my hand in every cookie jar in the cosmos. Will you please be my friend?"
I figure Nyarlathotep takes such an active interest in humanity mainly because (1) he has a sense of humor, and (2) he's a god and he can screw with us without cutting into his messengering duties everywhere else in the universe.
(I still kind of like the notion that Nyarlathotep screwed with Cthulhu & his kids just as much, before they got fed up and into slumber for a few million years.)
***
The doors of ancient R'lyeh swing wide, loosing noxious wind and tangible darkness upon the waking world. From the black stirs a mighty shape, glistening and corpulent; a mountain walked or stumbled and all that . . . Suddenly another shape appears, a massive monotentacled shape wearing a big black priest's robe and a shit-eating grin, with a bunch of Mi-Go flying around him buzzing worshipfully and a bunch of deluded humans capering around his feet calling him Stephen Alzis.
CTHULHU: "Damn, you're still here?" (Walks or stumbles back inside in disgust, muttering "I'm too old for this shit. . .")
From: The Saint of Killers
Who the hell is Stephen Alzis?
Because my ego demanded it, I'm gonna repost the idiotic little thingy I wrote about Mr Alzis back when I was more active on the list.
> 2) Is he Nyarlathotep? Keep in mind, plotting to destroy Earth isn't
Last night, in a fit of delirium, I came up with a theory regarding just who Stephen Alzis is. Y'see, Nyarlathotep is already Hitler. While I wouldn't put it past Nyarly to be running around as five dozen different monstie types as once, I really wouldn't want Nyarlathotep to be the bad guy of two major organizations in a chronicle. My choice as Keeper. Some folks may like the idea of Nyarlathotep running around and just controlling everything. Me not. (Though the idea of Nyarlathotep being behind multiple things, many of which crash into one another and conflict, is interesting. Is he doing it for fun or is he doing it because one avatar doesn't always know what another avatar is up to?)
Stephen Alzis (samech yod zayin lamed alpha nun vev teth samech) equals 233.
233 is the same number as Etz ha-Chayim, Hebrew for the Tree of Life.
The Tree of Life is still but a tree. (Etz : ayin tzaddi. 160.)
160 is the number that the letters samech yod mem and nun add up to.
These just happen to be pronounced Simon.
That's all of that, I promise.
We'll start out here by assuming that I didn't previously prove (beyond a shadow of a Stone Cold Steven Austin) that Jesus Christ cannot be Nyarlathotep. <Note: I did this a damn long time ago. I mean, this post was originally made four or five months ago, so the- er... hey, does anyone actually have that? I didn't save it. If anyone has my 'Why Jesus isn't Nyarlathotep' post, could they e-mail it to me? Check with me first. I'm gonna poke around the Ice Cave first.> Or maybe I'm just a cultist of Nyarlathotep and I'm trying to screw with you guys.
Simon (who would later be known as Simon Magus, and perhaps even Steven Alzis) was born to the Samaritan peoples of Cyprus and was among those who was baptized to Judaeism. Like Aleister Crowley some millenium and three quarters later, he was forced into a religion he felt no part of. Though his parents never called him a little chioa (*ahem* 'beast') as did Crowley's, he still did get up to mischeif. It was mischeif against the old begger man, Dositheus, that drew him to the attention of the mad priest. Dositheus, once a companion and priest of Nyarlathotep in his Mask of Jesus Christ, had gone too far into the depths of madness and depravity for even the Messenger of the Outer Gods to have any use for him, and he was cast out from the cult of apostles. Dositheus raised Simon with a mind full of the truth regarding Christ, and a lot of lies regarding other things. He taught Simon all the sorcery he had ever learned, then died miserably. By this time, Christ had died for the sins of humanity. Ahem. Simon assumed that since most of the people around at the time didn't care one way or another, someone else had managed to fail Nyarlathotep in whatever bizarre plot he had worked out. (He was wrong, in that Christianity would soon take ahold of the world. He was also right, in that what Nyarlathotep was trying to do, destroy organized religion, would actually backfire on him as Christianity would become a rediculously overstructured religion.) So Simon went about gaining personal power, declaring that he was also the Son of God (hey Bob, you have three kids, right?)
Upon his first meeting with the Cult of Christ, he saw that they'd been given inherent abilities by Nyarlathotep in exchange for a life's service and things Simon couldn't quite as easily make out. In jest, and in an attempt to ken the exact price paid, Simon offered coin if they would teach him their gifts. The cultist called Peter forced Simon to his knees and demanded, nay compelled, Simon to repent. The crowd,having recognized Simon even though the disciples didn't seem to, fell to their knees before the power of Peter's faith.
Simon, thereafter, avoided the Cult whenever he could. Leaving Israel behind, he went to Rome and began once more to preach his own divinity.
For his crimes of blasphemy, Emperor Nero brought Simon to his court and had the magician's head removed. Even then, the head rolled around and taunted the Emperor. Simon's body stooped, picked up his head and set it back down on his head, then he turned and left the court.
Nero, embarassed and angered, had his courtiers go to learn the secrets of Simon's magic. None were discovered, though reports that Simon had once been defeated reached Nero's ears. Once more, the emperor summoned Simon to his court, and once more, Simon appeared. Simon compelled Nero to have a private talk with him, and when that conversation was over,
Peter arrived, for Nero had also sent word to Peter that Simon's cult had spread far and wide in Rome. Upon seeing Peter, Simon was terrified. Nero laughed and gestured from one man to the other, demanding that they battle once more.
Peter turned to the frightened magician and with but a few words in prayer, sent Simon flying. Through the window, out into the courtyard and into the ground where his bones were smashed and his brains dashed across the ground. Nero was delighted. For the murder, Nero had Peter arrested and taken to a cell. Later that day, before he could replenish his will to escape, Peter was crucified. No one knew that among Simon's many tricks was the ability to trade faces with another. Simon ruled Rome with a hateful iron fist, though not many noticed since your average Roman emperor was a llama-buggering twit, and eventually saw the city's destruction.
So. What's he done since? I donno. I don't have to sit here and write up two thousand years of history for you people. I mean, this is just a stupid idea. S'not like this is gonna appear in any books anytime soon. Still...
Sometime around the 15th century, Simon came upon the young sorcerer who would become Stephen Alzis. After Simon devoured his brain and stole his body, anyway.
In the 1930s, Simon was finally convinced that the New World was worth visiting. Two thousand years in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and even Africa had really started to bore him. He'd found evidence of Nyarlathotep cults all over, but they were all quite established, quite old, and nothing that he wanted to chance two thousand years of immortality on.
In New York, Simon, now Stephen Alzis (a private joke all his own), came across a small cult to Nyarlathotep in its infancy. As a matter of fact, Nyarlathotep had apparently not even noticed it yet. Simon, with all the dash as any M of N, came in, took the place over and made it his own.
These days, the Fate uses Simon's new name in their rituals, often replacing Nyarlathotep's own.
With his mastery of the greatest city on Earth, Simon seeks to destroy Nyarlathotep's influence on humanity any way possible. This hardly makes him a hero, though. Long ago he discovered that it was easier and just as effective to control a city through its underbelly than to control it through its bright and shiny top. If you control a politician, you control a politician. If you control a mobster, you control the mobster, the politician, the businessman, everyone who works for him, the butcher, the baker and the goddam candlestick maker. Simon has long been ruthless and as evil as a man can get. It's actually quite likely that his hatred of Nyarlathotep is more professional jealousy than any concern for mankind. If anyone's gonna rule the insects, it's going to be him.
His magic has developed to a point where he can see the near future in New York with absolute certitude. He uses this to set it up so the Adepts witness any and all important events that take place in the city, as his magic tells him what will happen, not why and how. Simon hopes to someday develop this advanced soothsaying so he can ken all events in the world, though he knows he's running out of time.
Just what relationship Simon has to the New York ghouls is uncertain, but connections between him and Mordiggian (beyond the band Charnel Dreams) have been made by occult conspiracy nuts. They are rarely savory.
A stupid theory by an occult conspiracy nut.
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1998 11:32:47 -0600
X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2232.9)
For the truly curious or in-need-of-giggles, SoK's Jesus/Nyarlathotep dissertation can be found in "Section 8" on the website.
Shane Ivey
From: The Saint of Killers
> For the truly curious or in-need-of-giggles, SoK's
Jesus/Nyarlathotep
> dissertation can be found in "Section 8" on the
website.
Woohoo!
Y'know, I had the makings of another Man in Black, but then I decided I could read four lists at once and woahman I simply can't handle that much. :P
From: Ozymandias
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1998 17:43:17 +0000 (GMT)
That is not dead which can eternal lurk
And with strange aeons even
Olly may write:
In my current campaign I'm just about to introduce the players to the Amazing Mr Alzis. I was mainly interested to know how other GMs had handled this particular encounter.
I'd better set the scene...
...To set up the meeting, I've hinted at his existence previously. In Operation CONVERGENCE [qv "DG"] the agents saw him in the briefing room with Derringer just before they were told about Billy Ray Spivey; and in their ongoing investigation Operation SABBATH MOON one of the agents had a vision of him after repeating an incantation scrawled in blood and faeces found at the scene of a ritual sacrifice [you'd think the players would learn not to do that sort of thing, wouldn't you? <EG> ]. Anyway, in the next session an Adept will hand them a flyer for Charnel Dreams with a message from Belial on the back...and from there they'll (hopefully) find their way to Club Apocalypse and meet Alzis.
Now here's a problem...How do you get the agents (let alone your players) to trust this guy? [With the players it's mighty hard to get around the whole "What, me Nyarlathotep?" thing. I mean, how many scheming Arabic magick-users do YOUR players know? <G> ] Alright, so Steve's always ready to cut a deal...in the above scenario he can provide them with the ritual the serial killer has been using to track down his victims. But why should the agents trust this fellah who evidently has occult and crime connections all over the shop...especially if he wants them to provide distinctly dodgy favours for him in return?
Anyway, I'd be interested to hear how others on the list have portrayed Everybody's Favourite Evil Patron.
And that's all he wrote
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1998 15:15:06 -0500
From: Graeme Price
>Anyway, I'd be interested to hear how others on the
>list have
portrayed Everybody's Favourite Evil Patron.
Depends. Personally, I would try to introduce him _inside_ a secure government facility (like in a corridor, or elevator of the Hoover building, or the Pentagon). Make the players think he is supposed to be there, and has the relevant contacts. Perhaps introducing him to one player as a kind of "Deep Throat"? Good for instilling party paranoia when the other players start to wonder just how Bob gets all his good leads... when they find out who Bob's source really is of course, they may just shoot Bob for being a double agent.
On a practical note, I would portray Alzis as having a very cultivated English accent (it's the one I do best... I was born with it!), with a "classic" dress sytle (Saville row suits that cost more that your salary etc.). Besides, everyone knows that all Englishmen are really villains (I mean take Hollywood). I made one of my previous players freak with the introduction (in a lift, in the Pentagon, during a DEFCON 3 alert: the investigator thought he was alone in the lift until it stopped between floors and the lights flickered: he then heard said voice behind him saying "Please allow me to introduce myself...". Luckily he wasn't armed at the time: Corny, but effective). As a character trait, I make Alzis look at his pocket watch every couple of minutes (it doesn't have any hands, but the investigators don't know that) as if he is expecting something to happen.
Keeps them on edge, which is good.
From: Daniel M Harms
First of all, don't start calling in the distinctly dodgy favors just yet. As you can tell, gentlemen, having a serial killer on the lose puts more cops on the streets, leads to a great outcry from the media and public, and generally makes for bad business for individuals involved in alternative industries. Make this one a freebie - no strings attached, no nasty consequences.
Another neat little trick is the little kid. Have five-year-old Arnie run in to see his uncle Stephen while the investigators are talking. Hey, some big bad sorcerer dedicated to the destruction of life on earth wouldn't be an uncle, too, would he? Maybe Arnie is related to him in some fashion, or maybe he's just part of a play being put on for the investigators. This may ruin some of the mood, but putting a human side to Alzis (golf trophies on the walls?) might allay investigator's suspicions - until they start checking (those golf tournaments were never held).
From: The Man in Black
> In my current campaign I'm just about to introduce the
> players
to the Amazing Mr Alzis. I was mainly interested to
> know how other
GMs had handled this particular encounter.
Remember, as with drug dealers and other purveyors of questionable goods, the first one is always free. Once dependancy (psychological or physical) sets in, then you start to charge a steep fee for the now required services. Grifting and GameMastering are like fishing, first you hook 'em then you reel 'em in.
It's all in the salesmanship.
From: "John P. Yuda"
> Now here's a problem...How do you get the agents
>(let alone
your players) to trust this guy?
Well, I don't know if it's a matter of trust. What I did in both games that Alzis has made his way into is make it such that the characters _need_ him to do whatever they're doing. then, when he doesn't screw them over the first time, they start to trust him, and then he continues to hold up his end of the deal...until such a point as the PCs trust him enough to maybe just do a favor, or something...at which point they get screwed over, if you so incline...
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1998 21:27:43 -0500 (EST)
From: John Petherick
>>Anyway, I'd be interested to hear how others on
the
>>list have portrayed Everybody's Favourite Evil Patron.
>Depends. Personally, I would try to introduce him _inside_ a
secure
>government facility (like in a corridor, or elevator of the
Hoover
>building, or the Pentagon).
>"Please allow me to introduce myself...". Luckily he wasn't armed
at the
>time: Corny, but effective).
My question is, "Didn't you get some groans from the Rolling Stones fan(s) in the group?"
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1998 09:43:54 -0500
From: Graeme Price
>My question is, "Didn't you get some groans from the Rolling Stones
fan(s)
>in the group?"
No. The Player in question was too freaked about having (what he thought was) Lucifer standing behind him in an enclosed space and no way to defend himself whatsoever.... and if it suit's Mr. Alzis' purposes to be thought of as the Devil (it did... stops the Players twigging he might [or might not] be Nyarlathotep) then all's well and good.
From: William Timmins
When my party met him in an office within Club Apocalypse (or at least connected to it), one PC noticed a shadowy fish tank inset in the back wall. Most PCs (expecting the worst) made a point of not looking into it, but one did. She (Kiki, I believe) saw what appeared to be trilobytes scurrying around at the bottom of the tank.
Kiki pulled Wallaby Jones (Cryptozoologist) to look at it, and he, amidst a discussion about what Alzis was prepared to tell them about an attempt that was going to be made on one of the PC agent's life, indicated 'Oh yes, I had them made... quite lifelike, don't you think?'
Kiki nodded, satisfied with this mundane, if odd, explanation. The Cryptozoologist had the sneaking suspicion that Alzis was lying... but even if he was telling the truth, what sort of man keeps robotic replicas of trilobytes in a fishtank in his office?
This, plus a knack for showing up when the PCs were about to get nuked, and the PCs were hooked.
Actually, I ran Alzis as pretty 'nice'. He was using the PCs as resources and tools, which led him to structure palatable deals. You could run Alzis as a fair, equitable, and quite sympathetic character. For a while. Until the usefulness of doing something horrid to the PCs outweighs their future usefulness in 'nice' ways.
