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Cabalists are mysterious, mystical, dreadful and dreaded conjurers of the black arts. They can raise minions, control demons, and cast devastating magical spells beyond the ken of any other faction in Hellgate: London. The cabalist classes are Evokers and Summoners.

"The Cabalist is a mixture of a wizard, sorcerer, summoner, necromancer, and psychic."
--Ivan Sulic, April 2006

Contents 1 Cabalist Description 2 Cabalist Classes 3 Cabalist Skills 4 Focus Items 5 Cabalist History and Mythology 6 Cabalist Design 7 Cabalist or Kabbalist? 8 Further Resources

Cabalist Description

Delvers of arcane knowledge, students of the dark arts, and explorers on the fringes of science, Cabalists use the powers of the demons against them. Cabalists are spell-casters, and more specifically, summoners and controllers of demons and the primal forces of the netherworld. They seek to study and dissect the essence of the demons to achieve the next evolution of mankind.

Cabalists wield sinister spells and arcane artifacts, turning the weapons and powers of the demons back against them. They use “black” magic and arcane weaponry as their primary means of battling the demonic hordes, fighting fire with fire and blood with blood. Some have been so touched by the dark forces they wield that they display the traits of their enemies from whom they steal their power, riding the razor’s edge between good and evil, control and corruption.

The Cabal
The Cabal has brought together disciplines of fringe science and ancient, arcane practices to unleash the inner potential of Mankind’s spirit and bring about the next step in their evolution, known as The Awakening.

There have always been those who would be prime candidates to become “Awakened”. Sir Isaac Newton was the first modern scientist and the last of the ancient magicians and alchemists. The works of Tesla clearly show that his research went well beyond the common understanding of man. There are some references to Cabalists in turn of the century "majickal" texts by Aleister Crowley and in cult pulp fiction such as Lovecraft’s Necronomicon.

According to ancient Babylonian texts, "The final step in The Awakening is for the Leader, the Great Eye of the Cabal, to pierce the veil and wrestle with the Lord of Hell. If he is victorious, he will gain possession of the Infernal Key of Nine Gates, giving him full command of all the energies from the dark planes."

Whether or not the Cabalists themselves succeeded in piercing the veil, the forces of Hell have flooded their world. Those that touched the darkness and lived to speak of it were changed. They see the other side of things, often looking at the fate of the world as the metaphor, "The brighter the light, the deeper the shadow." Although distrusted and misunderstood by most, these seekers of knowledge have shown their final allegiance to mankind on more than one occasion.

Cabalist Classes

• Evoker
• Summoner

The two classes of the Cabalist faction are Evokers and Summoners. The Evokers focus their energy on using the powers of the dark arts to create voracious fires, poisonous spirits, or send her opponents running with magically induced fear. Summoners can use some of the same skills, but are more focused on summoning and controlling demons and elementals. Their damage skills comes as an addition to what their little pets does to the enemy.

Cabalist Skills

• Evoker Skills
• Summoner Skills

The skills of the Cabalist are naturally centred around the acts of summoning or evoking the dark powers, even if they use them for a greater good. Most of their skills are grouped in one of the five Cabalist Skill Groups: Minion (Summoner only), Minion Commands (Summoner only), Elemental (Summoner & Evoker), Mind Power and Evocation (Evoker only). There is also skills that are ungrouped. Even the Cabalist Skills that has the same name between the classes usually have some minor differences.

Focus Items

A key aspect to playing a Cabalist is the class-specific focus items, also known as "focal items" or "focus devices". Focus Items are essentially fancy gloves that Cabalists wear on one (or both) wrists, in the space occupied by a one-handed weapon. They work similarly to pistols, and are capable of firing a steady stream of damaging magical projectiles of different types, depending on the Focus Item itself. Focal devices are also mandatory for a Cabalist who wishes to cast many of their spells, as wearing some focus item is required to do so. What this means in practice is that Cabalists can use some two-handed rifles or dual wield some pistols, but they can not cast most of their spells while doing so.

This isn't a major handicap; after all there are three weapon switch slots in Hellgate: London, and with the click of the F1, F2, or F3 button you can instantly change between various weapon options. In fact, it's quite likely that you will end up equipping focus items devices in at least two windows; you use one type of focus item, like a Cabalistic Lens for extra Relic mod slots, or a Cabalistic Prism for increased Critical chance. One could be good for taking out big scores of enemies with crits and a fast spell/attack, while the other is used for the relics, and improving things you have chosen specifically.

Cabalist History and Mythology

Cabalists study the magic and ferocity of the demons, in order to learn from their enemies. This is a perilous path, and some Cabalists have been known to delve too deeply into the madness of the beast.

"The Cabalist is a type of character that teeters on the brink of damnation. By dabbling in the dark arts, the Cabalist has tapped into a well of inexplicable supernatural power, but has also exposed him or herself to the whims of the nether. That is, it is not unheard of for a Cabalist to cross the line, however unwillingly, and find him or herself a servant of the dark, mad, or consumed entirely by demonic energies. This is not to say they are all inherently evil, however. Rather, like people in general, Cabalists come in all forms. Only their occupation does imply a certain level of hazard."
--Ivan Sulic, April 2006

The Cabalists and the Templars are at odds, though not to such an extent that they'll actually come to outright combat in the game. They are not outright hostile towards each other, but considering how they view the world different (the brighter the light, the deeper the shadow) they are by no means close friends. A "truce" between them until humanity can conquer the demons (if they ever will) seems to be the current standing.

Q: Are any of the Factions fighting?
A: "Absolutely. I believe the Templars practically hate one of our other factions at this point.

Cabalists are the ones most at odds with the Templars.

Cabalists war with the demons just like the Templars, only they choose to fight with different weapons. While Templars believe themselves to be the righteous fist of the divine -- a sword to cut through the waves of darkness and a hammer to smash hell back into the oblivion from which it came -- Cabalists believe greater understanding and an intimate knowledge of the netherworldly aggressors is the key to success."
--Ivan Sulic

Cabalist Design

The Cabalist was seen in early concept art, and if you compare her to the finished product, the consistency is impressive.

See all the male and female Cabalist concept art here.

"We're still looking at how far we want to push the look of the characters, but we have some absolutely wicked designs on the table. We envision the extreme, high-level Cabalist actually tattooing or ritually scarring their bodies – perhaps even implanting or grafting parts of demons to themselves to tap as directly as possible into the dark powers. The fine line that the Cabalist walks between good and evil should become more and more apparent as the character progresses. Just how far we think players are willing to go in representing that is what we're keeping an eye on."
--Bill Roper, June 2006 interview.

Newer images of Cabalists have shown them without scarification, but with unique clothing and extensive tattoos.

Cabalist or Kabbalist?

An amusing bit of confusion came about from the name "cabalist," which is actually a variation of "Kabbalist," one who studies and believes in the Kabbalah, a newly-popular offshoot of Judaism that is best known for getting various celebrities (Madonna, for one) to wear red string bracelets as a sign of their devotion. That anyone would make that connection seems to have come as a surprise to Flagship, but hey, it's in the dictionary, so I guess questions about it are fair game.

"A Hellgate Cabalist is one person in a cabal (a conspiratorial group of plotters or intriguers). Though, please note that our use of the word Cabalist is not technically correct, for a Cabalist in English does indeed refer to someone who devotes him or herself to rabbinical teachings -- the Kabbalah or Cabala... Unless I'm totally wrong and our Cabalist does indeed study rabbinical teachings...while infusing him or herself with demon parts and summoning monsters."
--Ivan Sulic, April 2006

"Cabalist comes from cabal: From Cabal, which is a "conspiratorial group of plotters or intriguers." It has little and less to do with rabbinical teachings.
--Ivan Sulic, April 2006

Further Resources

General Class Information
Factions
Character Overview

• Cabalist Faction (pics)
  • Evoker (Skills) (pics)
  • Summoner (Skills) (pics)
• Hunter Faction (pics)
  • Engineer (Skills) (pics)
  • Marksman (Skills) (pics)
• Templar Faction (pics)
  • Blademaster (Skills) (pics)
  • Guardian (Skills) (pics)

• Cabalist: Evoker Forum
• Cabalist: Summoner Forum
• Cabalist Gallery