La Magra - The Blood God's page

Some clans and bloodlines practice dark sorceries fueled by
the blood. These Blood Sorceries are functionally similar to
Disciplines, but work in slightly more complicated ways. Each
style of sorcery has its own rules; Abyss Mysticism, Koldunic
Sorcery, Necromancy, Thaumaturgy, and other types each
have their own systems. However, they do share certain traits.

Paths and Rituals

Blood Sorcery comes in two styles: Paths and Rituals.
Some forms of Blood Sorcery have one or the other, but
most possess both. Path magic never climbs above five
dots, while there is no upper limit to ritual magic. With
Necromancy and Thaumaturgy, the character has a Discipline
rating like any other Discipline. With each dot in
that Discipline, she gains both a path dot and a ritual of
equal or lesser level. The sorcerer may learn other paths,
but may not exceed her Discipline rating. She may learn
any number of rituals as well, with similar limits in level.

The Cainite Beast is a primal, animalistic force. While
most Cainites will never know their Beasts on a fundamental,
such a creature speaks to his own. The vampire
with Animalism pushes that to extremes, commanding
legions of beasts to do his bidding.
Without the Animal Ken Skill or the Animalism
Discipline, animals become uncomfortable in a vampire’s
presence. Some attack, some run, some cause commotion.
Vampires with Animalism present a dominant air, attracting
such creatures and cowing them.

* Whispers to the Wild

Whispers to the Wild establishes a foundation upon
which all other Animalism powers build. The vampire’s
Beast reaches out and touches an animal’s mind, facilitating
communication between the Cainite and the lesser
creature. The vampire speaks or imitates the animal’s
native sounds, and the animal understands. The vampire
understands ideas the animal expresses. Additionally, the
animal may follow the vampire’s wishes, if the vampire
makes a compelling command.

System: No roll is necessary to talk with an animal.
However, the vampire must make eye contact to initiate
Whispers to the Wild. Once she’s established the power, she
does not need to maintain eye contact for the current scene.
Commanding an animal requires a Manipulation +
Animal Ken roll. The difficulty depends on the creature;
more complex creatures, particularly predators, are more
prone to the vampire’s whims. Taking the animal’s shape
with Protean or Animalism or speaking to the animal using
familiar sounds makes such commands easier. Highly
dangerous commands are much more difficult. Use the
following chart to determine the difficulty.

Situation Difficulty

Predatory mammal (wolves, cats, bats) 5
Other mammals and predatory birds (rats, owls) 6
Other birds and reptiles (doves, snakes) 7
No current eye contact +1
Using animal sounds -1
Currently taking the animal’s shape -2
Dangerous command +1
Deadly command +2

While animals may do dangerous or even potentially
deadly tasks for the Cainite, they will not commit directly
suicidal tasks, nor will they violate their base biological
natures. Cowardly animals tasked with guard duty will
not engage and combat an invader, for example. They
might run to their master and report the threat, however.
Successes determine the animal’s dedication to the
cause. A single success will ensure the animal’s compliance
for the current scene. Three successes will guarantee a
regular task for a week or more. Five successes will command
indefinite loyalty.

** Call the Wild

With this power, the Beast instills the vampire’s voice
with a deep affinity for a given animal. She howls, shrieks,
caws, or otherwise imitates an animal noise. Any animal of the
chosen species within earshot are summoned to the vampire,
and some will come, depending on the vampire’s raw ability.
Call the Wild only calls animals and makes them favorably
disposed to the Cainite who performs it. They will
not attack, but will not inherently obey without application
of Whispers to the Wild. If the vampire was particularly
successful in calling the beasts, Whispers to the Wild may
benefit from a decreased difficulty, at Storyteller discretion.

System: Name a type of animal. This can be highly
specific or general; the Cainite can call a species, a specific group
(male wolves, for example), or a single, named
animal (the rat with which I spoke two nights ago). Roll
Charisma + Survival (difficulty 6). Consult the chart
below for results.

Successes Result
1 success A single animal responds
2 successes One quarter of the animals respond
3 successes Half the animals respond
4 successes Most of the animals respond
5 successes All of the animals respond

••• Song of Serenity

As Animalism uses the Beast to communicate with
animals, this extension of Animalism allows the Beast
to express influence over another Cainite’s Beast, or a
mortal’s very will to fight.
Song of Serenity washes away all strong emotions,
turning a victim apathetic and listless.

System: Roll Manipulation + Intimidation if asserting
dominance through fear, or Manipulation + Empathy to
sooth the victim into complacency. Both rolls are difficulty
7. This is an extended action, requiring successes
equal to the victim’s Willpower dots. Failure negates all
previously accumulated successes, and the vampire must
start from scratch. A botch renders the victim immune
to the vampire’s Animalism for the scene.
When a mortal is cowed, he cannot gain or use Willpower.
He will not act proactively. He won’t even defend
himself, unless his life is clearly threatened. In a life and
death situation, he can spend a point of Willpower in order
to take actions in self-defense. To recover, the player rolls
Willpower (difficulty 6) daily until he’s rolled successes
equal to the vampire’s Willpower.

On vampires, the roll to shake the effects occurs every
scene. Additionally, effective use of this power allows a
frenzying Cainite an additional roll to resist frenzy, identical
to their initial resistance roll. Vampires under Song
of Serenity cannot be provoked to frenzy.

•••• Subsume the Spirit
By making eye contact, the vampire may force an animal’s
higher functions aside and possess the beast. The vampire’s
body falls to a motionless state not unlike torpor, while her
consciousness becomes one with the animal’s husk.

System: The vampire must make eye contact with
the animal. Roll Manipulation + Animal Ken (difficulty
8). The successes allow the vampire access to some of her
mental Disciplines in the animal’s form.

Successes Result
1 success Cannot use Disciplines
2 successes Can use Auspex and sensory powers
3 successes Can use Presence and other emotional
manipulation
4 successes Can use Dementation, Dominate, and mental
manipulation
5 successes Can use Chimerstry, Necromancy, Thaumaturgy,
and other mystical powers.

After the effect ends, the vampire will display nervous
ticks and other behaviors like the animal for a number of
nights equal to her activation successes. She may shake
this early with a point of Willpower.
At any time, the vampire can snap back to her own
body from any distance, ending the power. The power does
not end on its own. This allows the vampire limited ability
to act during the day. However, the vampire must still roll
to remain awake (see p. 360). If the vampire falls to slumber,
the power ends. If the animal dies before the vampire can
end the power, she snaps back to her body and enters torpor.

••••• Unleash the Beast

With this mastery of Animalism, the vampire’s Beast
forces outward, forcing a violent rampage in a mortal
or Cainite victim. The vampire’s Beast rages within the
victim, thrusting him into a potent frenzy.

System: The vampire must establish eye contact to
eject her Beast. Roll Manipulation + Self-Control/Instinct
(difficulty 8). Refer to the table for results:

Successes Result
Failure The vampire enters frenzy herself.
1 success The Beast flees the vampire, instead infecting
a random bystander.
2 successes The vampire is stunned by the effort, and
cannot act for the next turn unless she
spends a point of Willpower. She transfers
her Beast successfully.
3+ successes The character transfers her Beast successfully.

If successful, the vampire’s Beast leaves her body and
enters the victim. This is an actual transference of the
vampire’s Beast; if the victim leaves the vampire’s presence
before this unnatural frenzy ends, the vampire loses her Beast.
While detached from her Beast, she cannot use or regain
Willpower. She cannot frenzy. If the victim is a Cainite, his
difficulty to resist frenzy increases by two. If the victim is
If the Cainite finds the victim, she may be able to
coax the Beast back by behaving in ways that show her
the superior host. This doesn’t inherently require a roll,
but may at Storyteller discretion. Favor roleplaying here,
over rules. The character must convince the Beast she’s a
suitable host. Alternatively, she can kill the current host.

The most discerning vampires see in the dark, hear
whispers on the wind and the crash of rats’ feet
stomping a hundred yards away. They feel the tendrils of
fog and know how close warm bodies are. Supernatural
levels of sensitivity and awareness blossom further as the
vampire develops his gifts. Eventually, he can see the
colors of the souls around him, read minds, and pierce
the illusions made by other monsters.
For more on using Auspex to pierce Obfuscate and other
mental illusions, see the sidebar See the Unseen (p. 195).
Sensory details are of the utmost importance when
using Auspex. Storytellers should always add additional
and useful sensory details with increasingly successful rolls.

Sudden Revelations
Characters with even one level of Auspex may occasionally
get a sense of an impending threat against them. While they
are otherwise using any level of Auspex, the Storyteller may
choose to roll for a sudden revelation. In secret, she rolls the
character’s Auspex score. The difficulty varies by Storyteller
discretion, as a robber behind an inn door would probably
be difficulty 4, while a plot by the Prince’s childe to destroy
the character that would take decades to unravel would be
difficulty 9. Difficulty can also reflect how important it is to
the story that the character has a glimpse of what’s coming.
Keep in mind though, it is only a brief precognitive
glimpse that may or may not make sense before the event
unfurls. Divination is not a science; express the revelation
in small sensory details or simple gut feelings. “You smell
fire with no source coming from the farm house” or “he
can’t be trusted alone” are excellent examples.

Overstimulation
The pleasure of the experience and the extensive
sensory input is sometimes all-consuming. At Storyteller
discretion, a character using Auspex nearby or directed
toward evocative images may need to resist being consumed
by desire to experience the stimulus more. Images
of great beauty as well as macabre tableau might pull the
character in. A visceral crime scene or reading the mind
of a content and creative child can call to the Auspex user
with equal appeal. Likewise, sudden or extreme stimuli
may shock the vampire’s senses. In either of these cases,
the player rolls the character’s Willpower to keep him
focused. The difficulty starts as 4, but should increase
by the intensity of the stimulus. Should the roll fail, the
character becomes overstimulated, and loses two dice on all
actions outside of experiencing the stimulus for 10 minus
the character’s Willpower in turns (minimum 1). This
quirk of the Discipline is rarely perceived as a hindrance
by its practitioners, and often grants them special insight
through the stimulus that has drawn them in.

* Heightened Senses

The vampire’s senses are now exceptional by mortal
standards. The range and clarity at which she can see, hear
and smell are doubled. Likewise, her sense of touch and
taste become superhuman, allowing her to detect the life
her victim leads in the way a connoisseur could tell what
kind of grass a cow is fed and what direction its pen faces
by the taste of the beef. The vampire can feel a draft that
no one else notices, leading her to a door that wasn’t closed
all the way and putting her back on the trail of her quarry.
She may utilize the power whenever and for however long
as she likes. Of course, having Auspex active leaves her
vulnerable to overstimulation, as described above.
Rarely, a vampire utilizing Heightened Senses will get
precognitive glimpses of what could be or what might come
to pass. There is no real way to control these intuitions,
but in time, a vampire can learn to interpret them after
they have happened.

System: This power costs nothing, is reflexive, and
requires no rolls to use. When activated, any roll related to
the sense’s use is decreased in difficulty by the character’s
Auspex dots. A character may utilize one sense at a time,
or all of them in any combination she likes.
This power does not allow the character to see in
perfect darkness as with Eyes of the Beast (see p. 240).

•• Read the Soul

The true color of the soul is laid bare to the vampire
with this level of sight. What she sees is outside of language.
She sees strong emotions, lost thoughts, or dark memories
that have tinted a person’s nature. The practitioner’s mind
translates the impressions she gets from another’s soul as
colors, temperatures, or even scents. The impressions and
feelings from other souls can be interpreted, but never
translated in a repeatable, universal fashion.
Reading another’s soul can provide great insight to
their emotional state. A well-timed question and a sense
that the person is being deceptive can be incredibly useful.

A spark of arousal at the sight of an enemy may indicate
a conflict is not what it appears.
The seer can also observe from the soul if the person
in question is other than human. A Cainite’s soul will
register as pale or waning compared to that of a human.
A lupine’s soul might be vibrant and sharp, jagged at the
edges and feeling like moonlight.

System: The soul-gazer must actively and attentively
observe her subject, allowing the sense of the soul to wash
over her. At the moment she chooses to interpret the
state of the soul, the character’s player rolls Perception
+ Empathy (difficulty 8), with each success granting the
character more pieces of information about their subject.
Consider the chart below for ideas as to what information
the Storyteller might communicate.
A failure indicates that the character was unable to
interpret the current state of the soul. A botch indicates
misinformation or a wrong interpretation. Soul-gazing is
not a science.

The chart (not presented here) consists of colors and their suggested
interpretations. Interpretations through other senses are also
possible. Players and Storytellers should be encouraged to create
charts for their characters, unique in its sensory details.

Successes Results
1 success Can distinguish only the shade (pale or
bright).
2 successes Can distinguish the main color.
3 successes Can recognize the color patterns.
4 successes Can detect subtle shifts.
5 successes Can identify mixtures of color and pattern.

The ability to Read the Soul does not act as a lie-detector,
and absolute truths cannot be determined. It just
reveals moments of dishonesty, or flooded feelings of guilt.
An exceptional liar may be free of guilt, and a penitent
but innocent person may always appear on the edge of
suspicion. A talented Auspex user knows this, and will
keep it in mind when interpreting what she perceives.
An Auspex user may use Read the Soul to search a
crowd or scan an area. She starts out by declaring what
she is looking for, such as “a soul stained with Amaranth”
or “the most nervous person in the room.” Her player
then rolls as normal. The information is general, and any
more intimate study of a target’s soul requires a new roll.

••• The Spirit’s Touch

Any man or beast that has a soul leaves a trace behind
where they have gone and what they have touched. The
longer a soul has contact with an object, the stronger the
trace that remains. Strong swells of emotional energy or
certain pivotal moments in a life (or in the lives of many)
can make this trace even stronger.
At this level of proficiency with Auspex, a vampire
can read or otherwise experience the traces attached to
a given object when she puts her hands on said object.
Anything inert may carry these traces; a dead body would
invariably have such traces on it, while a living cat’s own
soul would make such a reading impossible.
The traces leave only impressions, brief sketches of
moments in time rather than fully woven tapestries. These
sketches should be memorable, but brief and as unclear
as the soul that left the trace behind would be.

System: A player rolls Perception + Empathy. Difficulty
varies by age and strength of impression. A stake found in a
pile of ash just an hour old may be difficulty 4, a stake that
had been in a vampire killed five days ago might be a difficulty
6, and a stake that only carried intent but was never used
may yield useful impressions only at a difficulty 9.
Difficulty should only be considered when a challenge
and possible failure would add to the story. Sometimes,
a Storyteller might choose to forgo a roll entirely when a
character attempts to touch an object that is vital to the
continuing story or a piece of strong setting importance.
If the Storyteller needs characters to know they have a
fang pulled from a Methuselah’s mouth, or the sword that
decapitated the Sheriff, she should forgo the roll and bring
on the terrifying visions.

Successes Information
Failure No information of value.
1 success Very basic information: the last owner’s
gender and hair color, for instance.
2 successes A second piece of basic information.
3 successes More useful information about the last
owner, such as age and state of mind the
last time he used the item.
4 successes The person’s name.
5+ successes A wealth of information is available; nearly
anything you want to know about the
person’s relationship with that object.

•••• Invade the Mind

The seer now bridges from simple observation to
manipulation of the thoughts and minds of those around
them. She may glean secrets buried deep in the minds of
others and even implant notions that her victim perceives
as alien and often unknowable.

System: The player rolls Intelligence + Subterfuge,
difficulty equal to the victim’s current Willpower points.
With only one success, she may implant thoughts into
her victim’s mind. Characters with four or less Willpower
points will believe the thoughts to be her own. Characters
above four Willpower points will know without a doubt the
thought is not her own. It takes an Intelligence + Awareness
roll (difficulty equal to the Auspex user’s Manipulation +
Auspex) to get an idea of where the source of the thought
came from, but even then, she may not know how the
Auspex user got those thoughts in her head. She may form
mundane explanations or jump straight to accusations of
witchcraft, depending on the circumstances.
If the Auspex user probes the mind she’s invaded, she
may pluck out one piece of surface detail per success her
player rolled. Deep thoughts or lost memories can only
be accessed through five successes or more.
A vampire’s mind is particularly hard to probe, and
even attempting it requires the Auspex user’s player to
spend a Willpower point.
The mind is a strange and liquid place. Storytellers
should avoid dry recounting of information and instead,
present that information as glimpses of thought and memory.
Give enough information for players to discern what’s
going on, but it is better to show than to tell.

••••• Soul’s Flight

For witches to fly, they must use magic and toxicology.
A master of Auspex requires nothing so vulgar. She may
shed her skin and walk about in the twilight of the world
at will. Like the stories of witches, the vampire can fly at
incredible speeds, and no distance is outside her ability so
long as it is above bedrock and below the moon.
She leaves her body behind, in torpor, and is unable to
see or sense what happens to it. She remains tethered to
it, no matter how far she travels, by a spiritual silver cord.
Should that cord be severed, she becomes like a ghost,
and may remain as such if she cannot return to her flesh.

System: The player spends a Willpower point and
rolls Intelligence + Awareness. Difficulty should reflect
the character’s ability to bring the place up clearly in her
imagination. Thus, a place in sight is difficulty 4, a place
distant but deeply familiar would be a difficulty 6, and
to fly to an unfamiliar place known about only academically
would require an 8 or 9. The successes she receives
should reflect her ability to manifest herself in this distant
location expediently.

Failure means the character cannot pull herself from
her body. A botch could be catastrophic, sending her soul
flying in a random direction and distance, perhaps even
into some spiritual realm, the nightmares of a sleeping
child, or a place on earth where the sun is shining. (The
sun would not burn her soul, but would without a doubt
require she roll to resist Rötschreck.)

This power requires a Willpower point to activate.
Any new scene the character wishes to remain in Flight
requires a fresh Willpower expenditure and a new roll.

The character cannot interact physically with the
physical world when her soul is freed from her body. At
best, she can spend a Willpower point to appear to others
as a ghostly apparition and can speak to those present. She
can use any mental Discipline at her disposal, including
other levels of Auspex.

Additionally, they may reflexively spend one point of
blood to ignore difficulty penalties for multiple actions
up to their Celerity dots for the turn. For example, a
character with Celerity 3 makes three actions before
suffering +1 difficulty for multiple actions. This does
not mitigate the dice pool reduction, however. A number
of these additional actions equal to half their Celerity
(round up) may be attack actions.

Lastly, by spending one blood point, she may multiply
her movement speed by 1 plus her Celerity dots. In
combat, this lasts one turn. Otherwise, it lasts the scene.

A vampire may use her
Fortitude dice as a soak pool against aggravated wounds,
which vampires typically have no recourse against.

Once per turn, she may spend a blood point to automatically
soak her Fortitude in damage, instead of adding it to her
Stamina. This can be used to soak aggravated damage as
well, but not damage from fire or sunlight.

Chimerstry gives the Ravnos control over illusions.
Where the power comes from is anyone’s guess. Many
Ravnos attribute it to the self-enlightened state of seeing
past the maya of the world. Yet, even those that do not
believe in the illusions of reality can easily manipulate
illusions. Some European Ravnos believe that the power
comes from their founder drinking the blood of fairies, but
the veracity of that claim is as ephemeral as the illusions
the power controls. Regardless of the truth, the Charlatans
use Chimerstry as a potent tool in dealing with the
world around them.

The Discipline allows the Ravnos to shape reality to his
own vision and will, creating realistic illusions and phantasms
to confuse the senses or trick the minds of his victims.
Mortals and vampires alike fall prey to these illusions unless
the vampire has learned in sufficient levels of Auspex (see
p. 195). Victims of Chimerstry can see through the illusions
if they can “prove” the illusion’s falsehood (e.g. a person
who attempts to lean against an illusionary wall and passes
through will no longer see the wall at all), and incredible
illusions (e.g. monsters rising from the sea, or flying horses)
give a chance for the victim to realize their falsehood with
a roll of Perception + Alertness (difficulty 6).

• Ignis Fatuus

The vampire can create simple static illusions that can
confound a single sense. For instance he can create the
sound of horse’s hooves, the smell of hay, the appearance
of a shining jewel, or even the feel of a hand pushing inside
a pocket. While tactile illusions can be felt, they cannot
harm anyone nor do any real damage.

System: The player spends one Willpower point,
and creating the illusions takes the vampire’s action. The
vampire can create illusions in an area of roughly 7 cubic
meters per dot the vampire has in Chimerstry, and the
vampire must be able to sense the area in which he creates
the illusion. For example, he cannot create the illusion of a
coin inside a box unless he can see or feel the inside of the
box, but he can create the sound of coins rattling around
if the box is shaken. The illusion remains until the vampire
chooses to end the illusion or leaves the area.

•• Chimaera

Chimaera allows the vampire to create static illusions
that affect any or all of the senses. The vampire could create
the illusion of a bladed weapon that feels hard to the touch,
or a soft flower that gives off a sweet perfume. These are
just illusions, and a sword will pass right through someone
if thrust. An image created in this way can be completely
stationary, as with Ignis Fatuus, or it can move naturally
as an item can be carried by a person or a sword will look
to be hitched to the sword belt.

System: The player spends one Willpower and one
blood point to create the illusion. She must choose at the
time of creation if the illusion is completely stationary or if
it is tied to a person, place, or animal and will remain that
way for its duration. These illusions follow the same rules
for area creation and duration as Ignis Fatuus illusions.

••• Phantasm

Phantasm allows the vampire to give motion to an
illusion created with Ignis Fatuus or Chimaera. Thus the
user can create images of a roaring fire, a living moving
being, or even a flag fluttering in the wind.

System: After creating an illusion with Ignis Fatuus
or Chimaera, spend one blood point to make the illusion
move. As long as the vampire concentrates on the illusion,
he can make it move in any way he wishes, within
reason. He can make an illusion of a person appear to
move and talk as though she was real, or he can make
the illusion of a sparkling ballroom with billowing drapes
and flickering candelabras. If the vampire wishes to take
any complicated action besides maintaining the illusion,
he must first succeed on a Willpower roll. If the roll fails,
the illusion will dissipate completely.
Once the creator stops concentrating on the illusion,
it can continue in simple repetitive motions that could be
described in a simple sentence, such as a horse nervously
pawing at the ground. After that, the illusion cannot be
controlled by the creator. He can allow it to move as he
last directed, or dispel it as with Ignis Fatuus.

•••• Permanency

Like Phantasm, this power is also used in conjunction
with either Ignis Fatuus or Chimaera. It extends the duration
of the illusion indefinitely, even when the vampire is
not around to maintain it. In this way, the Ravnos could
create elaborate illusions of stately affairs with guests and
dancing in a small run down building, without even having
to be there to witness his victim’s impressions.

System: The player spends one blood point to make
the illusion permanent until dismissed (this includes
illusions “programmed” with Phantasm).

••••• Horrid Reality

The vampire now has the ability to refine her tricks into
very realistic pervasive illusions that affect only one person.
The illusion is so real that the victim believes completely
in its reality, even to the point of taking damage from it. As
such, an illusionary wall would prevent a victim’s escape
and an illusionary fire would burn a victim. This power
only affects one person, but everyone can see the illusion
he suffers from. Other people may attempt to convince
the victim that the illusion is not real, though he has a
hard time believing them. A victim with Auspex can still
attempt to see through the illusion (p. 195).

System: A Horrid Reality illusion costs two Willpower
points to create and lasts for an entire scene. The player
must declare a victim when the illusion is created. If the
user is attempting to injure her victim, her player rolls Manipulation
+ Subterfuge (difficulty the victim’s Perception
+ Self-Control/Instinct). Each success inflicts one health
level of lethal damage on the victim that cannot be soaked.

If the user wishes to do less damage or bashing damage,
she can declare a maximum amount of damage or the type
of damage before rolling dice. Secondary effects (such as
frenzy rolls for illusory fire) may also occur.
The victim can escape the terror of the Horrid Reality
if he can be convinced the illusion is not real. This requires
at least two successes on a Charisma + Empathy roll
(difficulty equal to the Maniuplation + Subterfuge of the
vampire using Horrid Reality). If the target is convinced
the illusion is not real, the terror of the illusion no longer
affects him. Illusory walls no longer stop him, and all damage
is healed. If the target took damage from an attack due to
Horrid Reality, he must be convinced of its illusory nature
within 24 hours of the attack. Otherwise, it becomes too
well established in his mind and he must heal it with blood
(if a vampire), or over time (if mortal).
This power cannot actually kill its victim. A victim “killed”
by an illusory attack loses consciousness or enters torpor.

Dementation
If madness shatters the soul, Dementation is the hammer
to the fracture point. If madness frees the mind,
Dementation is the key to the cage. The Discipline allows
a vampire to focus insanity and channel it to those around
them. Malkavian clan elders claim the conscious mind is a
pleasing and soothing mask, and that the Discipline never
creates a madness that wasn’t already there. Instead, it
crumbles the barriers of self-control and consciousness to
unleash the deep, dark insanity that dwells beneath. Viewed
in this light, Dementation does not corrupt the mind of
the victim—it unmasks their mind’s truth for all to see.

Each level of Dementation may only be used once
per night on a victim. While Malkavians are the natural
masters of this Discipline, it’s usable by any vampire who
possesses a Derangement. Vampires learning Dementation
will gradually develop a Derangement; if this Derangement
is cured by means magical or mundane, their knowledge
of Dementation becomes unusable academia. Dwelling on
this knowledge presages a relapse into madness.

• Incubus Humor

The vampire can inflame the humors of a victim
within line of sight, eroding the victim’s self-control and
amplifying his temperament to a fevered pitch. The vampire
may select one of the four humors that govern the
body and induce the emotion associated with it. Thus, the
flames of mild irritation may be fanned into a rage with
an inflammation of yellow bile, or brief melancholia into
crippling depression with an inflammation of black bile.
Inflaming phlegm, on the other hand, completely deadens
the victim’s emotions. These inflammations can last for
days or even weeks.

System: Roll Manipulation + Empathy against a
difficulty of the target’s Road score (for vampires) or
Willpower (for mortals). Each success extends the duration
of the inflamed humor. Effects might include one- or
two-point changes to difficulties of frenzy or Virtue rolls,
rolls to resist Presence powers, etc. Respite comes only if
the humor imbalance is properly diagnosed and treated
(Intelligence + Medicine, difficulty 8) — every success
on the treatment roll cancels one of the Malkavian’s
duration successes.

Humors
Sanguine Courage, Hope, Lust
Yellow bile Anger, Hate
Black bile Melancholia
Phlegm Unemotional

Successes Result
1 success One turn
2 successes One hour
3 successes One night
4 successes One week
5 successes One month
6+ successes Three months

•• Soul Haunting

A brief speech to a target allows the vampire to touch
the sacred or profane within her victim, destroying the banal
concerns that keep those urges from making themselves
known. These urges manifest as visions, scents, and sounds of
divinity revealing themselves in the most mundane of places.
Victims report that these images tend to follow a general
theme: angels or demons (or a culturally appropriate religious
figure, including ancestors) dramatically recounting and
reenacting the victim’s greatest fears and repressed secrets.
Even if the victim ignores these visions, more insidious
is the subtle altering of their senses — a prince’s genuine
sympathy can become mocking pity, while the false lust of
an Alamut houri ghoul becomes all-consuming passion.
Even if visions are ignored, the victim’s trust in their
senses is utterly compromised.

System: The vampire spends three turns speaking to
the victim, after which the player spends a blood point
and rolls Manipulation + Empathy (difficulty of his victim’s
Perception + Self-Control/Instinct). The number of
successes determines the length of the visions.

Successes Result
1 success One night
2 successes Two nights
3 successes One week
4 successes One month
5 successe Three months
6+ successes One year

Precisely when they manifest or what form the visions
take is up to the Storyteller, but they inflict a -2 penalty
to all dice pools for two turns after manifestation.

••• Eyes of Chaos

Fleeting clarity hides within insanity; a shattered
mirror reflects more than one unbroken one. This level
of Dementation is responsible for the Malkavians’ reputation
of gleaning hidden truths, and their tendency
to speak those truths to power. She may scrutinize the
“patterns” of personal interaction or even random events
in nature itself in order to reveal a hidden truth about the
situation she’s in. The character need not ask a question
— the patterns are obvious at even a moment’s glance.

System: This power may only be used when
scrutinizing a complex pattern or event, such as the
interactions of a vampiric court or the clash of an army.
Analyzing the blood spatter flicked from one’s fingers
or the spill of entrails works just as well, however. Roll
Perception + Enigmas; the difficulty varies based on
available information and the vampire’s familiarity with
the situation. A court in the vampire’s home culture
and domain might be difficulty 5, while a foreign court
(or the clash of two foreign armies) is difficulty 7. A
completely alien encounter (encountering one of the
mysterious Cathayan vampires, or even just meeting an
Anda) would be difficulty 9.

The player asks the Storyteller a direct question about
the situation at hand. This can be virtually anything
related to hidden truths. The answers are related to the
player directly and to the character via metaphors and
imagery, with more successes providing a clearer and more
complete answer. Failure produces imagery unrelated to
the matter at hand, while a botch on the roll relates a
completely untrue but nevertheless believable answer,
which may explain some of the more radical Malkavian
behavior. Viable questions include, but are not limited to:
• What’s this person’s Nature and Derangements?
• What’s the worst choice I could make?
• What’s the safest choice?
• Is this person being controlled by another?
• What’s the underlying or hidden message here?
• How relevant to our overarching goals is this scene?

•••• Fire Voice

Fire is coming. Deep in their dead hearts, every Malkavian
knows this. One must be adept at fleeing when it does.
By merely addressing a crowd, the vampire can put the fear
of fire into them, forcing the listeners to abandon reason
and higher thought. The demons of their mind take on a
terrifying fiery mien, and they cannot help but run.

System: This power is a focused, more potent Soul
Haunting. The vampire still rolls Manipulation + Empathy
(difficulty 7); success on the roll now allows the
vampire to affect one target per success, although all
potential victims must still be listening to the vampire’s
voice for three turns. Affected victims immediately fly
into a Rötschreck–like blind fear. Vampires (or other
creatures capable of frenzy, such as lupines) may make a
Rötschreck test (Storyteller’s choice as to how others are
affected) at +2 difficulty to resist the power. Mortals are
automatically affected and don’t remember their actions
while frightened. The frenzy or fear lasts for a scene, with
the Soul Haunting effect lasting for an additional night
thereafter (and with especially fiery imagery). Vampires
and others may test as usual to break their frenzy.

The vampire using Fire Voice must also test for
Rötschreck upon invoking this power, though his difficulty
to resist is one lower than normal. If the initial roll
to invoke this power is a failure, however, the difficulty
of the roll to resist the frenzy increases by one instead. If
the roll to invoke this power is a botch, the Rötschreck
response is automatic.

••••• Shedding the Mask

Malkavians learn to hide their insanity, lest it make
them a target. Others don’t have that practice. At the apex
of Dementation mastery, the vampire may overwhelm their
victim with insanity, shattering their conscious mind and
warping their personality to serve the whims of madness.

System: The vampire must gain her target’s undivided
attention for at least one full turn to enact this power.
The player spends a blood point and rolls Manipulation +
Intimidation (difficulty of her victim’s current Willpower
points). If the roll is successful, the victim is afflicted
with five Derangements — a Lunacy Derangement and
the Four Humor imbalances. The number of successes
determines the duration.

Successes Result
1 success One turn
2 successes One night
3 successes One week
4 successes One month
5+ successes One year

On a botch, the vampire suffers all of the Derangements
intended for the victim. A minimum of six Derangements
may well reduce the vampire to catatonic torpor.
The victim (or the target of a botch) can spend a
number of Willpower points equal to the successes rolled
to end the duration prematurely.

Cainites with Dominate embody every legend about
vampire hypnotism. With a simple glance, a master
of Dominate breaks wills, enslaves minds, and robs both
identity and memory from her victims.

While Dominate is among the fiercest weapons in a
vampire’s arsenal, it possesses three inherent weaknesses.
First, one cannot Dominate another Cainite of thicker
blood, which is to say, characters cannot use Dominate on
characters of lower Generations. Second, Dominate requires
eye contact, with a brief moment where the vampire’s
gaze can catch a glimpse of her victim’s soul. Characters
avoiding the vampire’s gaze can roll Willpower, difficulty
equal to the vampire’s Manipulation + Intimidation. Levy
a -1 to the difficulty if he tries to hide his eyes, -2 if they’re
obscured, or -3 if his eyes are fully covered or not at all
present (ripped out, for example). Finally, the vampire must
be able to communicate her wishes in a way her victim
understands. If they do not share a language, she may use
gestures or imagery for simple commands. Dominate difficulties
are equal to the victim’s current Willpower points
unless otherwise noted.

• Command

Seizing the gaze of her target with a powerful look,
the vampire speaks a single, simple word which her target
must obey. This command cannot be directly harmful,
so a vampire cannot command her target to kill himself
or anything else similar. Her chosen command word
may be concealed within the context of a sentence.
For example, take the command, “Stop”. A blatant
usage within a sentence is, “Stop doing that!” A subtler
usage is, “I told him to stop crying, but he sobbed like
a wee bairn.”

System: Roll Manipulation + Intimidation, with a
difficulty equal to the victim’s current Willpower points.
The more successes achieved on this roll, the better
the effect takes hold. A single success may result in the
target having only a hazy impression of the command,
or the command may activate infrequently, while three
or more successes indicate that the command’s roots
probe deeper and more frequently into the subject’s
mind. Attempting to force a victim to perform an
action that would be contrary to his Nature results in
an immediate failure. Giving conflicting or indirectly
harmful orders to a victim (such as commanding a
target to sleep while in the middle of a duel) adds +1
to +3 to the difficulty, depending on the severity of
the order. A command with a difficulty of 10 or more
is impossible.

•• Subjugation

With this ability, the vampire may give a more
complex command to her target by encoding it into
the victim’s subconscious. To do this, the vampire must
spend a period of time with her subject, during which
she must maintain concentration and eye contact. If
this mesmerizing session is interrupted, the vampire
must find another time to try again. This period of
time lasts as long as it takes to implant the suggestion.
The wording of this suggestion must be specific (“place
poison in the duke’s cup” or “dispose of the bodies”).
The vampire may also choose whether or not her victim
acts upon the suggestion immediately or if it will
trigger at a later point in time. Subjugating alters the
target’s subconscious processing and does not create
false memories or illusions. A subject may only follow
one set of Dominated instructions at a time.

System: Roll Manipulation + Leadership. The
number of successes achieved indicates how well the
instructions will hold. One success indicates a weak
impression, while five or more successes indicate that
your very words have been carved into the target’s
thoughts. This ability still cannot be used to force a
target to directly harm himself or to defy his Nature.
Adding a new command using Subjugation before the
old one expires requires a comparison of successes between
new and old. The command with the higher number of
successes wins. In the event of a tie, the new command
overrides the old.

••• The Forgetful Mind

When the vampire learns this ability, she gains the
power to reshape her victim’s memories. She may erase
or recreate a memory entirely, but does so through subtle
manipulation as opposed to direct, telepathic alteration
of the brain itself. The more thorough the vampire is with
the manipulation of her target’s mind, the more effective
the changed memory will be. For example, “you returned
home from Mass in the company of your wife, did your
chores and retired to bed early” is more effective than
“you went to bed early and saw nothing strange.” As an
additional benefit, the vampire may also use this ability
to discern whether a target’s memories have been altered.

System: Roll Wits + Subterfuge. Consult the table
below to determine the result.

Successes Result
1 success Remove a single memory; lasts as long as
one day.
2 successes Permanently remove, but not alter, one
memory.
3 successes Make slight alterations to the subject’s
memory.
4 successes Alter or remove entire scene from the
subject’s memory.
5 successes Wholly reconstruct a period of the subject’s
life.

•••• Conditioning

Through application of subtle (or perhaps, very
direct) mental pressure, a vampire wholly controls
the mind of her target. This also strips the subject of
his personality, rendering him into little more than a
puppet. Fortunately, this indelibly ties the puppet to
the vampire and makes it nigh-impossible for others to
poach her mindless servant.

System: As an extended action, roll Charisma +
Leadership. The total number of successes needed is
equal to 5 times the target’s Self-Control or Instinct.
A subject can shake off Conditioning if he is separated
entirely from his master for weeks equal to the subject’s
permanent Willpower. Any contact in the mean time
reasserts her dominance instantly. Provided he avoids
the vampire for the given period of time, the subject
retains his former individuality. A Conditioned character
can be Dominated without eye contact. The vampire
can use other Dominate powers on him at -2 difficulty.
Other characters attempting to Dominate him use his
Willpower or his master’s, whichever is higher. He can
spend a point of Willpower to reinterpret another’s
Dominate command to be contrary to his Nature.

••••• Possession

At this level of mastery, a vampire may supplant her
consciousness into the body of another and assume direct
control over her host. While she does this, her own body
becomes an empty shell, left immobile and vulnerable
where she stood. After the possession, the victim is dimly
aware that his body is moving and functioning on its own,
but has no power to stop it. This ability may not be used
on another supernatural creature, nor on another vampire
unless the two share a Blood Oath; it is always easiest to
hurt those you hold close.

System: The vampire and the target have a clash
of wills. The vampire rolls Charisma + Intimidation
and the subject rolls Willpower, each at difficulty 7. The
net successes reduce the target’s Willpower. When the
target’s Willpower is reduced to 0, the vampire invades
her target’s mind. Roll Manipulation + Intimidation and
consult the chart below to determine the strength of her
grip on the target’s body. If the Cainite’s original body
is destroyed, she may stay in her host body indefinitely,
though she remains trapped in the weak prison of flesh.
At each sunrise, she must roll Courage at difficulty 8 or
be forcefully ejected from the host. If she fails this roll,
her soul falls into the astral plane and is permanently
lost. While walking about in a mortal’s shell, the vampire
cannot be “re-Embraced.” Any attempt to do so sends her
directly to the Final Death.

Successes Result
1 success Cannot use Disciplines
2 successes Can use Auspex and other sensory
powers
3 successes Can also use Presence and other powers
of emotional manipulation
4 successes Can also use Dementation, Dominate,
and other powers of mental manipulation
5 successes Can also use Chimerstry, Necromancy,
Thaumaturgy, and other mystical
powers