A small number of the Awakened are doomed and damned from the moment of their birth. Although most Nephandi are Awakened mages who go through the Cauls of their own volition, some Fallen are simply born that way, inheriting a twisted Avatar that had belonged to another Nephandus in a previous incarnation.

Even before the Awakening, a widderslainte’s mind is tainted. Some of these deviants are cunning (and often violent) sociopaths who con and bully their way to power. The most dangerous ones, however, are quiet women and men who lose themselves in dark reveries, living unassuming lives until they start to realize their full, horrific potential.

Once a Nephandic soul Awakens, a widderslainte mage soon makes contact with the inhuman entities he might have dreamed about since his strange and nasty childhood. Some natural-born Fallen find others of their kind, but many of them encounter foolishly hopeful mages who seek to redeem them. Attempts to “Save the Fallen One” almost always fail… and, in the process, take other mages down to death, despair, or the Cauls.