Blood Sorcery: Difference between revisions

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(Added "Koldunic Sorcery" from Blood Sigils)
(Added Craftmaster, Depths of Nightmare, Elemental Grasp, Le Sang de l’Amour, Silent Mortis, Tiamat Glistens, and Viscera Garden from "Blood Sigils")
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''<sub>Core Book, pg. 277</sub>''
''<sub>Core Book, pg. 277</sub>''
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== CRAFTMASTER ==
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'''Blood Sorcery''' ••
''Some Blood sorcerers seek to gain skill through their sorcerous art, rather than pursuing mastery with the slow, difficult path of practice. The sorcerer drinks a skill specialty possessed by a gifted subject.''
'''Ingredients:''' Blood of a gifted subject, representative craft object such as a needle, page of a book, playing card, chisel, etc., vulture bones.
'''Process:''' The caster chars the vulture bones in a fire and places the representative object in a bowl over the flames. They pour the blood of the subject into the bowl, completely covering the object. As the last of the bones crack and burn, the vampire drinks the blood from the bowl, letting the object touch their lips as they drink.
'''System:''' On a win, the caster gains the subject’s dots and specialty in Academics, Craft, Performance, or Science until sunrise. The dots replace, not add to, any already possessed by the caster. If the caster already has that specialty, they gain one extra die on top of the specialty die. On a critical win, the Ritual lasts for a week. On a total failure, the caster accidentally swallows the craft object and takes 2 Aggravated Health damage from it traveling through their body, the object spiritually furious at its skill being stolen.
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''<sub>Blood Sigils, pg. 62</sub>''
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== DEPTHS OF NIGHTMARE ==
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'''Blood Sorcery''' ••
''This ritual gives targets the worst nightmares they’ve ever experienced. Developed by the cult of Set to punish recalcitrant followers with nightmares of Duat, the ritual has caught on outside since it’s very good at wearing down a target's will.''
'''Ingredients:''' Target’s hair; melted wax; natron (soda ash)
'''Process:''' The caster mixes a Rouse Check’s worth of blood into the melted wax, then rolls their target’s hair in the mixture. The vampire shapes the bloody wax into a humanoid shape, as close to their target’s body shape as possible. After writing glyphs or curses in their native language, the sorcerer soaks the figurine in a bowl of water mixed with natron.
'''System:''' On a win, the target receives a number of nightmare-filled days (or nights, for mortal targets) equal to the number of successes rolled. When they first awaken after each sleep, the target receives 1 Superficial Willpower damage. On a critical win, the damage is Aggravated instead. This damage cannot be healed normally until the spell has run its course: only magic or the like can remove the shock and horror of these dreams. On a total failure, the target not only has pleasant dreams, but dreams of an ibis-headed man who points the target in the caster’s direction. This occurs even if the caster used no Kemetic imagery on the figurine.
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''<sub>Blood Sigils, pg. 62</sub>''
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''<sub>Forbidden Religions, pg. 7</sub>''
''<sub>Forbidden Religions, pg. 7</sub>''
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== ELEMENTAL GRASP ==
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'''Blood Sorcery''' ••
'''Prerequisite:''' Koldunic Sorcery
''This koldunic ritual commands the sorcerer’s chosen element to slow or otherwise interfere with a target: sticky mud or sudden rockslide, flash flood or stinging hail, icy wind or choking fog, a wave of enervating heat or a brush fire across the path. So far, it remains exclusive to the kolduny, although rituals have a way of twisting themselves into another tradition’s grasp eventually.''
'''Ingredients:''' A handful of the koldun’s element or a ritual representation of it, such as a wooden staff for earth, a knife or bunch of feathers for air, etc.
'''Process:''' The koldun scratches open their initiation scar and makes a Rouse Check while commanding the element to hinder a target the koldun perceives. Magical perception counts for this purpose.
'''System:''' On a win, the element rises against the target. If the element is already awake during the casting (commanding air during a thunderstorm, for instance), the koldun adds one die to their Ritual pool. The target takes one point of Superficial Health damage per success, and must make an appropriate skill roll (e.g., Toughness + Athletics, or Composure + Drive) to continue against the element against a Difficulty equal to 1 + the total successes on the Ritual roll. On a critical win, the element rises against every suitable target within sight of the main target. The effect continues until the koldun does anything else besides command the elements: fight, move, make any other skill roll, etc.
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''<sub>Blood Sigils, pg. 62</sub>''
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''<sub>Core Book, pg. 277</sub>''
''<sub>Core Book, pg. 277</sub>''
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== LE SANG DE L'AMOUR ==
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'''Blood Sorcery''' ••
''This ritual allows the caster to create a connection between themselves and a lover that’s more than just their mutual attraction.''
'''Ingredients:''' Blood of the caster and their lover, two glass vials on chains (or leather thongs).
'''Process:''' The caster collects their own blood and their lover’s at the same time, careful to keep the two separate. They don’t need much blood—only a teaspoonful. The only requirement: both must desire the other at the time of the casting. The caster seals the two blood samples inside the vials, hanging each from a chain. As the lovers exchange vials and hang them around their necks, the caster sings a song in praise of their lover to Aphrodite, Ishtar or another love or lust deity.
'''System:''' With a win on the Ritual test, le Sang de l’Amour allows both participants to concentrate (Resolve + Awareness) and know approximately where the other is on a success. They don’t get an exact location, but have a rough sense of distance — in the same city, the same state, across the ocean from each other. With more successes, they get more information, small details of the sensation of being in the other’s location: they feel a deck pitching up and down, the strain of climbing harsh terrain, or the vibration of loud noise. With a critical win, the ritual provides one automatic success on the lover’s perception roll. Any other successes let them actually see brief glimpses of their lover and their surroundings, and even hear snatches of conversation. On a total failure, the blood accidentally mixes in the vials and both participants get disoriented and confused if they try to concentrate on the other. Their Composure suffers, reducing by 1 until the end of the next scene even if they break both vials and end the ritual. The ritual only remains effective as long as both wear their partner’s vial and as long as the vials remain unbroken. If one of the participants does not actually desire the other during the ritual (if a player, they should state as much privately to the Storyteller), their vial dries and clots the first time they use it, becoming useless muck. This has no adverse effect on the two participants beyond the personal fallout.
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''<sub>Blood Sigils, pg. 63</sub>''
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''<sub>Forbidden Religions, pg. 23</sub>''
''<sub>Forbidden Religions, pg. 23</sub>''
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== SILENTIA MORTIS ==
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'''Blood Sorcery''' ••
''Replicating Discipline powers didn’t begin with Thin-Blood Alchemy. The Banu Haqim initially developed this ritual for those of their assassins who didn’t possess the Silence of Death (Obfuscate 1) power. It has since spread into general use.''
''The ritual enchants a talisman (usually the paw of a cat, weasel, or other silent desert animal) to generate a sort of white noise or counter-resonance by roiling the holder’s Blood. The effect: a magical silence emanating from the holder, muting all sounds within its radius of effect. Sounds originating outside that radius can be heard inside, dimly.''
'''Ingredients:''' Paw of a cat or other silent desert predator, blood from caster (and from holder, if different), corpse-wax candle (p. 139), a white rose.
'''Process:''' The caster whispers the words of this ritual, cuts their palm, and clenches the paw in their fist, soaking it in a Rouse Check worth of their blood. If intended for a holder besides the caster, the holder also cuts their palm and holds the paw, making their own Rouse Check and mingling their blood. The holder remains completely silent during this ritual. After burning the rose in the candle, the caster quenches the candle flame with the bloody paw.
'''System:''' A win on the Ritual roll creates a 6-meter radius of magical silence around the holder once they activate the talisman by making a second Rouse Check. The talisman must touch the holder’s flesh, but they need not keep it in their hand. The silence ends when the holder loses the talisman or after one hour, and the talisman shrivels into nothingness. A critical win increases the radius to 12 meters.
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''<sub>Blood Sigils, pg. 64</sub>''
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''<sub>The Black Hand, pg. 89</sub>''
''<sub>The Black Hand, pg. 89</sub>''
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== TIAMAT GLISTENS ==
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'''Blood Sorcery''' ••
''Blood sorcerers know that places of power, like mortals, just need to be tapped. This ritual prepares the place of power, increases its true potential, and perhaps most importantly attunes it personally to the vampire. This Ritual is a common element in many Chained Rituals (p. 71). Sorcerers seek means of permanently attuning a site to themselves, possibly through a Blood Bond similar to the koldunic initiation ritual, or through the sacrifice of a rival sorcerer on the site, but so far nobody has found one. Nobody who’s talking, anyway.''
'''Ingredients:''' A place of power such as a furcus, dust of a precious metal (which one depends on the magical valence of the site).
'''Process:''' The caster mixes a Rouse Check’s worth of blood with the precious metal dust. At the site of a place of power, they shout praises to Tiamat, scattering the bloody metal dust mixture into the air and on the ground for at least fifteen minutes.
'''System:''' On a win, the sorcerer primes the place of power for any ritual taking place there for a number of nights equal to the number of successes on the Ritual test. During this time, any ritual performed by the caster on this place of power gains the bonuses or other advantages associated with it — usually a dice bonus to Ritual pools (see Furcus, p. 35). On a critical win, the sorcerer also automatically succeeds on one die of their Ritual roll. Only one caster receives the benefits of Tiamat Glistens per place of power. If another caster successfully performs the Ritual during the time of another caster’s successful casting, the first caster immediately loses the dice bonus.
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''<sub>Blood Sigils, pg. 64</sub>''
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''<sub>Fall of London, pg. 128</sub>''
''<sub>Fall of London, pg. 128</sub>''
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== VISCERA GARDEN ==
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'''Blood Sorcery''' ••
''Blood sorcerers can grow Blood-addicted plants in special fields, using the crops as magical components or for enjoyment. It’s also a great way to get rid of a body, if the Blood sorcerer has the space.''
'''Ingredients:''' A plot of land, a day-old human or animal corpse, the caster’s Blood (for upkeep).
'''Process:''' The caster clears out a plot of land and digs a hole. They tear open their wrist and pour a Rouse Check’s worth of Blood into the human or animal corpse. The corpse being a day old is essential in the human corpse’s case; accidental Embraces have occurred when a human corpse is too fresh. The corpse is eviscerated, and its mass thrown into the hole. The caster plants or transfers their preferred plants to the plot, then covers them in the corpse's viscera.
'''System:''' A win instantly disintegrates the buried body and viscera into blood-scented smoke. In addition, plants grown in the plot are unusually hardy and vampires can ingest them (consuming these plants as food slakes no Hunger, but it stays down). Vampiric influence Discipline tests against a mortal who ingested a viscerated plant take −1 to Difficulty (or the target loses two dice from their resistance pool, for contests). The plants must receive a Rouse Check’s worth of Blood every month, or else they wither and die within a week. A critical win extends the length of time between waterings to two months. An animal corpse can fertilize a Viscera Garden of about 1 x 1 meters, or about 3 x 3 feet. A human corpse doubles these dimensions.
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''<sub>Blood Sigils, pg. 65</sub>''
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Revision as of 11:00, 7 October 2023

BLOOD SORCERY

Thaumaturgy | Quietus | Koldunism | Akhu | Nahuallotl | Sadhana


The Tremere maintain that Blood Sorcery, or “Thaumaturgy” as they call it, was their invention. To hear the Banu Haqim give their version, “Quietus” was their blood right long before the Tremere became vampires. Other clans make the same statements. While its origins are murky, the dreaded nature of Blood Sorcery is not. Few Kindred trust the wielders of a power that can manipulate the vitae in their veins and turn Blood into poison.


Unlike other Disciplines, which could be described as advancing organically through the victims chosen by the vampire, practitioners of Blood Sorcery require teachers. The Tremere once relied on their pyramidic clan hierarchy to arrange tutelage for neonate apprentices, while the Banu Haqim stress the sire-childe relationship as being the best form of mentorship. These nights, many a Child of Haqim washes up in Europe or America far from their sire, and with the Pyramid broken Tremere neonates frantically search through moldy tomes and palimpsests for scraps of true lore. Genuine masters of this Discipline develop their own Rituals, though many guard them from others, revelling in the mystery surrounding their unknown cache of abilities. To practice Blood Sorcery is to twist one’s own Blood into submission. Any form of this power reminds a vampire that they’re far from human, as no mortal could wield magic in this way.



CHARACTERISTICS


Discipline blood-sorcery.png
  • Type: Sorcery
  • Masquerade Threat: Low - High.
    The individual appearance of the powers and Rituals in Blood Sorcery varies as widely as their effects.
  • Blood Resonance: Sanguine.
    Although not inherent in the Blood itself, Blood Sorcery responds eagerly to blood from human occultists, sorcerers, and cult leaders, as well as hemophiles and bibliophiles.


Blood Sorcery is a special Discipline in that it both confers powers, like other Disciplines, and also unlocks the ability to perform Rituals up to and including the level the user holds in the Discipline. Ghouls of Blood Sorcerers or thin-bloods drinking from Sanguine temperaments gain temporary access to the Discipline powers, but not to Rituals. Its regular powers seem comparatively weak, but the versatility of the Rituals more than compensates, assuming the user can learn them. At character creation, a player can choose one Level 1 ritual if they have at least one dot in Blood Sorcery. Characters can buy new rituals at the cost of the ritual’s level x 3 experience points. Learning new Rituals during play requires both experience and time — requiring the square of its level in weeks, though a good teacher or excellent grimoire may shorten this period.