[OBJECTION] [PACKET] [BYLAW REVISION] Baali Packet 2026

I, Todd Rix, in my Duties as Demon Coordinator of One World by Night propose the following Packet for the Demon Genre.

3.C.iii.Genre Coordinators must pass before Council any plot, R&U bylaw revision, R&U named characters, Coordinator-NPC Character Resurrections, territory requests, in character enforced policy, or in character binding edict they wish to use which they can reasonably expect to affect multiple chronicles and these proposals need not be seconded, but go immediately into discussion.

This Packet  is  a complete overhaul of the Baali packet that was last updated more than ten years ago. In that time, two of the better books for presenting Baali in the Modern Nights were released: Lore of the Bloodlines, and the v20 TMR book. We never really implemented any of the genre shifts for the Bloodline, and as a result have left Baali in the dust since the Year of Fire. The V20 suggestions for Modern Baali offer ways to play the Bloodline that are more cohesive with OWBN as a whole; especially now that infernalism is banned. We don't need to keep trying to play Baali like they were played in the Dark Ages.

I started this project in the beginning of my term as a simple update to the existing packet, but I soon realized that wasn't going to cut it... so I just made a new one from scratch. There are a handful of things carried over from the old packet, but a lot of it is newly written and taken from the following books: Baali Clanbook; Devil's Due; Lore of the Bloodlines, Guide to the Tal'Mahe'Ra; and Beckett's Jyhad Diary.
 

This document represents a comprehensive and unified update of all Baali materials used across One World by Night. This includes updating the following:

- Baali Factions and Subcults
- Baali Broods and Lineages
- Apostate/Reembrace process

- Lore, History, and genre for modern Baali
- Updated backgrounds, abilities, and merits

- Removal of custom contemt|

Additionally, I've made an effort to present options for Baali to be played as non-infernalists. I have encountered a lot of questions about how and why the Baali are still playable with the removal of investments from the org, and I have offered several solutions in this packet.  A big suggestion I am making here is the tweak to their lore and metaphysics regarding their creation and the source of their Daimonion. While some versions of the game line suggest that Baali all serve Demons and that Daimonion explicitly comes from Hell and requires infernal Pacts to function, newer V20 versions (as well as some much older versions) suggest that the Baali's power comes from strange Eldritch creatures known as Sleepers of the Outer Dark. In the packet I passed earlier this year, I went into some detail about the nature of these creatures and compared them to more traditional demonic entities. V20 TMR especially suggests that the Baali's potency originally comes from the relationship with the Children, and I have chosen to present the Baali according to this suggestion. It makes Baali a lot more palatable for play in the Org without really watering them down or trying to make them "good".

Nergalli Baali and Azaneali still pretty openly and wantonly practice Demon worship traditionally associated with Baali, so there aren't any options being taken away from the genre. Any existing Baali NPCs and PCs are still totally in compliance and don't have to change anything. However, this presents options for new Baali PC and options for Storytellers to do something with the game other than moustache-twirling evil demon satanists.

One of the more prominent archetypes suggested for Modern Nights Baali is that of some sort of evil Indiana Jones, where the Baali goes around and tries unearthing forbidden cursed artefacts and seeing what they do. As such, there's some suggestions in the packet to give your Baali things to track down; from magic items, to cursed items, to fragments of Fallen True Names.

There are a few more Merits and custom combos that I imported from Lore of the Bloodlines and TMR, 

There are a few Bylaw Changes that accompany this:
 

Change 1:

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Bylaws Before

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Bylaws After

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Demonic Rites Background for Mortals, Hedge Mages, Awakened Mages, Imbued, Revenants, Ghouls, and Kinfolk - PC: Coordinator Approval NPC: none

Demonic Rites Background for Vampires, Werewolves, Mummies, Changelings, Fallen - PC: Disallowed NPC: Disallowed

a. Demonic Rites is defined as the Rites Background from Devils Due designed for mortals.

 

 

Change 2:

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Add to Bylaws

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2. Membership in select Baali Cults:

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c. Order of Moloch - PC: Coordinator Approval NPC: Coordinator Approval

Change 3:

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Add to Bylaws

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vi. Backgrounds

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15. Infernal Retainer Background - PC: Coordinator Approval NPC: None

 

Change 4:

vi. Backgrounds

9. Infernal Relic 4-5: PC: Disallowed – NPC: Coordinator Approval – Coordinator: Demon

 

vi. Backgrounds

9. Infernal Relics:

a. Infernal Relics of any level simulating investments - PC: Coordinator Approval - NPC: Unregulated

b. Infernal Relic 4-5 - PC: Coordinator Approval - NPC: Unregulated

 

Change 6:

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Add to Bylaws

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vii. Other Things

2. Enchanted Relics Created by Earthbound - PC: Coordinator Approval NPC: Unregulated

Legacy: Either YES or N/A for all items other than Change 1 to Rites. If you somehow had Rites before, you were probably abusing a bylaw loophole anyway.

Rationale: Theres a lot of changes here. Most of it is either re-integrating things that were removed as options for Baali with the Investment ban, or regulating things that weren't previously regulated which should be. Here are specifics for each change, in order;

Change 1 - Rites, which is a Background in Devils Due, is not a Demon-only background as implied in the existing bylaw. In fact, its explicitly NOT a Demon background, as it can only be taken by Mortals. So, not only is the current bylaw incorrect, it also can be easily circumvented. I am regulating the Background, and renaming it as Demonic Rites so that there's no overlap with any of the other backgrounds named Rites for other creature types. 

Change 2 - The other two major Baali cults require approval to join. Not sure why this one doesn't. The existence of the Order of Moloch and the plot surrounding them was already passed and ran back with Dave, so this is just making sure we have a way to keep track of membership of the faction.

Change 3 - Okay so. Technically, with the current way Investments, Dark Thaum, and Infernalism is unregulated, there is nothing stopping a PC from having a retainer or ally or some other NPC buddy that happens to be an infernalist. Said entirely unregulated NPC can pocket buff PCs with basically no oversight. I've only seen this be a problem once so far, but considering that we banned investments for how much power they gave for how little XP, it seems a little silly to give PCs the option to just have infernal buddies.

I don't want to remove the options for Storytellers to make whatever infernalist bad guys they want, so this is only Approval. I'm going to trust STs to be responsible and if they have a player that has these kind of allies, to contact the office appropriately. 

Change 4 - Well of Sacrifice was removed as an option for Baali when we did the Investment ban. We have since tweaked the background to be less of a thing for infernalists and more of a thing for Baali, so I'm adding it back in as an option for PCs.

Change 5 - Similar to how there's nothing stopping people from having infernal NPC buddies, the way Infernal Relic is currently regulated allows some opportunity for abuse. STs can just say that a Relic simulates Investments, and as long as its a low enough level its fine. We cannot mechanically enforce Relics without a bylaw, so I'm adding the limitation that if you're going to have a Relic hold an investment, it HAS to be logged and approved. Otherwise, High Level Infernal Relics aren't honestly that powerful compared to the rest of the item bullshit floating around in the org - and Infernal Relics will get you killed on sight if people find out you have them. 

Change 6 - Earthbound Lores can be a little silly sometimes, and they could make some Fallen items that are more powerful than regular Fallen items. I'd like these to be regulated if STs decide to hand these out.