Unlike the rigid Tremere or the variable but still autocratic ritualists of the Sabbat, the Anarch Movement would seem to be too chaotic an environment for the seeds of blood magic to take root. But magic adapts and evolves and, in the end, finds a way to thrive. For Anarch thaumaturges, the way lies neither in conformity nor passionate obsession. Instead, it comes from eclecticism — from the innate Anarch willingness to try anything so long as there’s a chance it will work.
There is no organized body of Anarch occult knowledge. There are no academies or chantries. There is no central repository of knowledge. Like many systems of esoteric thought, Anarch blood magic involves searching out reclusive tutors who are often not eager to share what they know, or finding obscure tomes that are as likely to cause damnation as to bring about enlightenment. Accordingly, there is very little in the way of a coherent philosophy that underpins the practice of blood magic among the Anarchs. That said, an informal parlance has evolved that allows Anarch occultists to at least understand each other, if only to make it easier for arguments to break out. Anarch sorcerers and thaumaturges generally group themselves into one of four somewhat irreverently named schools of occult thought: “Old Skool,” “New Age,” “Punk,” and “Hacktivist.”
Blood magic of any sort has been incredibly rare among the Anarchs for most of the Movement’s existence. In the early nights of the Revolt, a scant few Tzimisce and Assamite Anarchs taught some elements of their hereditary arts to fellow revolutionaries. Both Koldunic Sorcery and Assamite Sorcery had religious components that made their practitioners reluctant to share their lore with non-believers (and made pre-Enlightenment Christian vampires reluctant to study them in the first place). A few very rare Anarchs from other clans had learned some blood magic from their own sires, hoary elder occultists who studied those arts before the birth of Clan Tremere, who then unwisely passed their lore on to rebellious childer who then used it against them.
After Thorns, the surviving Kolduns took their knowledge to the Sabbat (if they didn’t flee from Kindred society entirely), many Assamite sorcerers returned to their own independent clan, and Clan Tremere initiated a quiet pogrom of every Anarch who displayed knowledge of anything even resembling Thaumaturgy. Despite all that, a handful of occult scholars among the Anarchs avoided destruction, hiding from the Tremere and concealing their occult knowledge against the night when the fires of the Anarch Revolution would burn anew.
Over time, the Anarch Movement largely relocated to the New World to escape the control of their Camarilla elders. There, Anarch mystics who still practiced “the Old Ways” had more freedom to use and pass on their arts. More importantly, Anarchs who were interested in the acquisition of occult knowledge found new possibilities among the Native Americans, among Africans forcibly relocated to the Americas as part of the slave trade, and among indigenous peoples from every corner of the world. After decades of research gleaned from such sources, these Anarch occultists were able to piece together workable equivalents to several Thaumaturgy and Necromancy paths. The modern name of their school, “Old Skool,” was originally an insult levied by Punk Tremere in the 1970s, but the venerable occultists adopted it as an ironic marker of their multicultural pedigree. And that pedigree was real — there are a number of Old Skool sorcerers who possess a body of knowledge of spirit magic in many ways superior to that of Clan Tremere, which remains largely ignorant of the potential to be found in the practices it would likely define as “primitive.”
What distinguishes the Old Skool from its peers is a sense of reverence lacking in mainstream Kindred occultism (both among the Anarchs and the larger Kindred community). The Anarchs grouped under this umbrella practice a multitude of techniques, ranging from paganism to Vodoun to Native American shamanism, but in every case, the Anarch treats their magic not as a path to power (or at least, not just as a path to power), but as a lifestyle choice to treat some higher power — gods, loa, Orishas, totems, whatever — as worthy of respect. Accordingly, the Old Skooler performs zir magical rituals with an intensity similar to that of a Sabbat priest conducting a ritus. Because, like that priest, the Anarch is not just an occultist but a religionist, and for all religionists, fervor is the ultimate source of power.
Nearly any clan can belong to the Old Skool movement, from a Malkavian elder who was once priest of Apollo to a vodouisant Embraced off of an antebellum Louisiana plantation by an abolitionist Toreador, from a Lakota medicine man brought into the night by a roaming Brujah to a Ravnos who found Asatru while headbanging to Scandinavian black metal. Unfortunately, diversity is not always strength, and there is frequently tension within this school between traditional pagans of all stripes and their neopagan inheritors, particularly when the traditional pagan is a vampire old enough to have actually been a priest or shaman in a pre-Christian culture and they take offense at modern “best guess” reenactments of nearly extinct practices.
The Paths pursued by Old Skoolers are typically those Paths which can be interpreted within the framework of non-Christian religions and Christian offshoots (such as Vodoun). In many cases, the Anarch was already a practitioner of the relevant religious group or folk magic tradition prior to the Embrace and simply adapted their beliefs to their unlife along with the new power of their vitae. Just as often, however, the Anarch finds religion post-mortem in the form of an Anarch cult.
Common Paths: Elemental Mastery, the Green Path, the Path of Mars, Weather Control, the Path of the Evil Eye, the Path of Spirit Manipulation, and Vodoun Necromancy (Wanga).
Mortals often associate the term “New Age” with trendy California pseudo-religions and images of hippies from the musical “Hair,” but the term is both broader and more sophisticated when applied to Anarch blood magic theories. Broadly speaking, New Age practices can include nearly any system of self-development and actualization. Historically, though, New Age is best described as a synthesis of Eastern and Western spirituality, infused with elements of parapsychology and pop science. Mortal scholars among the New Age movement claim to trace its history back to early Hermeticists like Paracelsus (a claim which provokes derision among the Tremere, especially those old enough to have actually met him). More recently they have linked themselves to Victorian Era occultists such as Helena Blavatasky (the founder of the Theosophy movement), George Gurdjieff (founder of the Fourth Way philosophy of self-actualization), and Swami Vivekananda (who introduced the Vedanta school of Hinduism to Western occultists).
Regardless of its antecedents, the New Age movement did not truly take off until the 1970s when the United States experienced a sudden fad for a number of seemingly unconnected alternative forms of spirituality ranging from meditation to holistic health to belief in psychic phenomena, reincarnation and UFOs, all of which the media tended to label as “New Age beliefs.” By happy coincidence, the epicenter for this explosion of New Age thought, the American West Coast, was also home to one of the largest concentrations of Anarchs. Naturally, occult-minded Anarchs investigated and infiltrated the New Age movement. The result was a curious mixture of ancillae who entered New Age groups, often just looking for potential blood dolls, and neonates and fledglings who were members of such groups at the time of their own Embrace. Many of them soon realized that, whatever spiritual value New Age philosophy had in general practice, the addition of vitae actually seemed to make many of those practices work.
From those early beginnings, New Age blood magic spread to every Anarch enclave on the globe. Undeniably quirky (even as vampiric occult philosophies go), the New Age movement naturally draws Malkavians like flies, as well as a significant number of Toreador poseurs who think that being a New Age guru will lend them gravitas. However, the school also attracts a surprising number of Brujah and Gangrel, as its emphasis on meditation and relaxation techniques is beneficial to Kindred who are at heightened risk of frenzy.
The Paths pursued by New Agers are usually those Paths which can be most easily analogized to psychic phenomena or to the movement’s (usually garbled) take on neopaganism. Among serious practitioners, there is a rough parity between those Anarchs who sought out New Age blood magic in a quest for occult knowledge and those who were already members of New Age groups when the Embrace was forced upon them.
Common Paths: the Green Path, the Lure of Flames, Movement of the Mind, the Path of Blood, the Path of Corruption, the Path of the Focused Mind, and the Path of Teleportation (Praapti or Mercury)
Of all schools of Anarch blood magic, Punk magic is the least organized, the least understood, the least repeatable, and the least liked — and its adherents prefer it that way. Among mortals, Punk (first as a musical genre and later as an entire subculture) originated as a means of extreme self-expression and anti-establishment extremism in Europe and the U.S. in the 1970s and 80s. While the socio-political factors that led to the birth of Punk are complex, the driving force was a general sense of nihilism among many young people of the time, arguably a reasonable response to an era when nuclear Armageddon seemed to lay in wait just over the horizon. More specifically, Punk culture was a reaction to the advent of the Reagan and Thatcher administrations, both of which were perceived by punks as bellicose, corporatist, jingoistic, and destructive.
At the same time that Punk was attempting to tear down society and replace it with carefully scripted anarchy, a new way of looking at magical theory would do the same thing to the occult community: chaos magic. In chaos magic, the magician (or “chaote”) seeks to change reality not through the repetition of some dusty ritual or through appeals to some impersonal deity, but rather by altering their own state of consciousness. Chaos magic is a syncretic system which pragmatically applies whatever belief systems the chaote considers relevant to the moment, thus leading to the creation of new and highly unorthodox techniques. The central premise of chaos magic is that belief is an active magical force and that what the chaote actually believes in is less important than the intensity of that belief. In other words, the chaote should essentially have “flexible beliefs,” as well as a willingness to consciously choose their beliefs in order to find the most thematically appropriate ones for the situation and then discard them when they are no longer necessary.
Chaotes also place great emphasis on achieving an altered state of consciousness as a prerequisite to working magic. Some magicians achieve this through “inhibitory gnosis” via meditation, self-hypnosis, fasting, sleep deprivation, sensory deprivation, and the use of certain hypnagogic drugs. Other mortal chaotes pursue “excitatory gnosis,” a state of transcendent mindlessness achieved through sexual climax, flagellation, dance, sensory overload, or hallucinogens. Another element of magic common to most chaotes is the use of sigils, personalized abstract designs meant to function as a focus for the will of their creator. Some magicians create sigils to function as representations of the spells they seek to create. Others use them as representations for thoughtforms — ideas held by the magician which can be manifested in the world through an act of will.
Both punk and chaos magic were born in Britain during the 70s, and while not intrinsically connected, in the minds of violent young Anarchs looking for any edge in the fight against the brutal repression of the British Camarilla, they were made for each other. Punk Anarchs threw themselves into chaos magic with the same abandon as everything else. Granted, relatively few of them had the occult acumen to master a radically new approach to blood magic (and even fewer of them survived the reprisals of Tremere Thaumaturgists who were as offended by their approach to magic as by their political leanings), but those who endured gained both power and the fame that resulted from beating the Tremere at their own game. Now, Punk Sorcery can be found anywhere there is an Anarch with just enough occult lore to be dangerous and with far more daring than sense.
The basic premise of Punk Sorcery is that the caster must first reject the idea that magical premises themselves are important. What matters are the intensity of the sorcerer’s belief and the actions and rituals they use to actualize that belief. Where a chaote might engage in sleep deprivation to achieve an altered state of consciousness, the Punk Sorcerer might force zirself to awaken during the day so that the ritual can be performed at noon (even though the normal risks associated with blood magic are heightened by the penalties associated with acting during daylight hours). Where a mortal chaote might ingest psychotropic drugs or engage in Tantric masturbation in order to seek gnosis, a vampiric Punk Sorcerer might design a ritual in which ze and a partner feed on a vessel who has taken hallucinogens before feeding sexually on one another at the climax of the ritual. Indeed, many Punk Sorcerers find that the Kiss is an excellent substitute for the sexual aspects of Chaos Magic, with the more reckless (or ruthless) Anarchs deliberately starving themselves of blood so that the risk of hunger frenzy heightens the sexual rush of feeding even more. Some Punk Sorcerers have recently been practicing a curious version of the Straight Edge movement, and focus on ecstasies like this one that are tied to a “purer” expression of the Kindred condition.
Similarly, Punk Sorcerers also make use of sigils in their workings. One common means of designing a symbol involves the chaote simply writing out what they want to accomplish, eliminating every letter used more than once, and then arranging the remaining letters into a decorative pattern which the chaote then meditates upon. The principle is the same for the Punk Thaumaturgist, except that the sigil itself is drawn in the Anarch’s own vitae or perhaps even carved into zir flesh to be healed only after the ritual’s completion.
Punk Rituals
The exuberant and iconoclastic nature of Punk Sorcery is most obvious in the school’s approach to ritual magic. Generally, rituals work for Punk Sorcerers exactly as they do for everyone else, at least from a mechanical standpoint. However, the actual description of each Punk ritual’s working is flavored with the style of the Punk movement and, indeed, with each individual Punk Sorcerer. Adherents of this school mock the Tremere (and most other traditionalist schools) for treating rituals like spell lists from a fantasy role-playing game.
When a Punk Sorcerer learns a new ritual, ze learns only the general parameters of the ritual’s requirements and effect. Beyond that, ze is expected to personalize it to zir own aesthetic style but also to be free enough and innovative enough to amend it as needed. Rarely does a successful Punk Sorcerer perform a given ritual exactly the same way twice, and it is a poor one who always performs a given ritual the same every time. Those who do often feel themselves slipping into a rut and suffer increasing Difficulties in performing such boring, repetitive rituals, at least until the sorcerer comes up with some new and inventive spin to put on it.
Easily the rowdiest of all blood magic schools, Punk Sorcery is adored by Brujah headbangers who wish to explore the occult as an alternative means of revolution. Malkavians are drawn to the school’s iconoclastic practices, although they and the Toreador must compete to see who can be the most “artistic” in crafting new and shocking rituals. A surprising number of Tremere Anarchs abandon their clan’s Hermetic traditions in favor of this school as well. Having rejected every other aspect their parent clan’s culture and heritage, such rebels consider Punk Sorcery to be the ultimate “fuck you.”
The Paths pursued by Punk practitioners are often the most unusual and frequently the most violent. The punk ethos is as much a part of the school’s heritage as its magical theories, while its utility during fights is why it is in such demand in Anarch domains across the globe.
Common Paths: Hands of Destruction, the Lure of Flames, the Path of Blood, the Path of Mars, the Path of the Evil Eye, the Path of the Levinbolt, and Vodoun Necromancy (Wanga).
The latest and perhaps most important development in Anarch blood magic came at the dawn of the new millennium. In the earliest nights of the 21st century, a coterie of Tremere based out of Washington, D.C. collectively pioneered the then-recent development of the Path of Technomancy, having long chafed under the disdain of superiors who preferred more “reputable” forms of Thaumaturgy. They stunned the Camarilla by defecting en masse to the L.A. Free States. Even more exasperating to the Tremere, these malcontents actually managed to steal most of the existing database of Technomancy research before leaving. While the clan was able to reconstruct their knowledge of Technomancy, it was deeply embarrassing for the Inner Council to acknowledge that, for the first time since the clan’s founding, an outside faction had a superior understanding of any facet of the clan’s signature Discipline.
For several years, the Anarchs did indeed have superior access to Technomancy relative to the Tremere, although in recent nights, the two have achieved a rough parity. As astonishing as the defection and accompanying theft was, Camarilla insiders were even more surprised when Clan Tremere declined to seek the defectors’ inclusion on the Red List even after the defectors made low level Technomancy rituals readily available to other Kindred through occult “shareware” programs. The apparent leniency with which the parent clan has treated these defectors is a continuing source of mystery.
Freed from the constraints of Tremere hierarchy and backed financially by a mysterious cabal of Anarch venture capitalists known as “The Red Question,” the defectors (who took the cheeky name “Digital Draculas” as a collective nom de guerre) set up shop in Northern California and started a campaign to disseminate information about Technomancy (and other Thaumaturgy Paths) to affiliated Anarchs around the globe. Their mode of instruction was twofold: for broad consumption, the Digital Draculas provided a series of shareware computer programs which incorporated powerful Thaumaturgic rituals which had been magically inscribed into the very fabric of the Internet itself. By activating these programs, the user could access the Internet in special ways. For example, the Fangbook ritual allows any vampire to hide secret messages and even videos within mortal social media apps, messages that appear mundane to humans but which are obvious to other Kindred.
The second avenue was more direct. By monitoring the internet habits of Fangbook users, the Digital Draculas can identify Cainites who are both supporters of the Anarch cause and devotees of the occult. The group carefully weeds out the posers, the incompetents, and the Camarilla infiltrators before indirectly contacting those who are serious about learning blood magic that can be used to advance the Anarch cause. Once the target has satisfied the Digital Draculas as to their worthiness, one or more of the coterie will provide instruction into Technomancy and even other facets of “true” (i.e. Tremere-style) Thaumaturgy in exchange for services rendered to the Movement. Invariably, one service required is that the student voluntarily submits to Dominate effects incorporated into the internet transmissions that make the student incapable of revealing what they have learned under interrogation. Those who complete their training are inducted into an elite world — the world of Hacktivist Thaumaturgy.
Or at least, most Hacktivists will happily claim that they represent an elite culture. Of the four main schools of Anarch occultism, the Hacktivists are the only ones who claim an institutional connection to Tremere Thaumaturgy, and most of them aren’t shy about letting members of the other schools know it. There have, of course, been Tremere who self-identify as “Anarchs” almost since Thorns, but very few of them have ever willingly shared their knowledge of Thaumaturgy to those outside their clan, certainly never to the extent that the Digital Draculas have with their arts. Indeed, Anarch conspiracy theorists often claim that for every genuine Tremere Anarch, there are probably three who have infiltrated the Movement to fulfill some clan goal, and any Tremere who freely teaches their art to others is probably doing so as part of some baleful scheme that a wise Anarch should avoid. Even tonight, as the Digital Draculas happily offer their lore (or selected bits of it, at least) across the Movement, they find that less than a tenth of the Anarchs they observe are worthy of even being offered the chance to learn, and half of those turn down the offer out of sheer anti-Tremere paranoia.
The Digital Draculas proudly state that they do not discriminate on the basis of clan or sect. They’re lying. In practice, they are extremely reluctant to train Malkavians and Gangrel in Technomancy, the former because they’re either too incoherent or too unpredictable even for Hacktivists, and the latter because they are perceived as being too rustic to properly master a technology-based occult style. Tremere Anarchs rarely receive contact from other hackers prior to an exhaustive examination of their loyalty to the Cause. Ventrue, Toreador, and Nosferatu, however, are all prized as potential students of the art, especially Nosferatu, who are admired by the founding coterie for their clan’s great work in the creation of the original SchreckNET.
While the Paths available to the Hacktivists represent a decent cross section of the Tremere library, not all Paths are readily available. In fact, selections are largely limited to those which had been mastered by the various members of the Digital Draculas at the time of their defection. The coterie has an almost obsessive interest in Technomancy and usually (but not always) requires new initiates to study that as a primary path in lieu of the Path of Blood. The coterie is also inordinately proud of its development of new computer-based rituals, many of which are modernist revamps of traditional Tremere rituals which the coterie aggressively “markets” in place of the original versions.
Common Paths: the Path of Technomancy, the Path of Blood, Movement of the Mind, the Path of Conjuring, Thaumaturgical Countermagic, and the Path of the Levinbolt.
Whither Masinka St. John?
One of the most intriguing unanswered questions raised by the Technomancer defection is that of the status of Masinka St. John, the precocious Tremere credited with the original development of Technomancy. In truth, it was a group effort, but Masinka was unquestionably the first of her clan to consider the possibility of viewing a computer as an extension of its user’s will and thus a viable tool for magical workings. Assigned in 2000 to the New York chantry, Masinka went completely off the grid after the defection of the Washington Technomancer coterie.
To the extent that her superiors in New York have commented at all on Masinka’s current status, it has been to imply (without stating definitively) that she has been recalled to Vienna to advise the Inner Circle personally on how to respond to the Hacktivist Thaumaturgy movement. On the other hand, “recalled to Vienna” has been a Tremere euphemism for “Final Death” for a very long time, and more cynical observers mutter that the Tremere elders’ fears about technology must have outweighed common sense. Other rumors whisper just the opposite — that Masinka herself has defected to the Anarchs and that the various “Vienna” rumors are disinformation spread by a clan humiliated by the loss of one of its rising stars. If Masinka St. John has joined the Anarchs, she has been scrupulous in concealing the fact, even from her fellow Hacktivists.
The Tremere know that Anarchs have duplicated their Encrypt Missive ritual, but they are thus far unaware of the unique modifications the Punk Sorcerers have made to it. The basic application of this ritual allows the Sorcerer to leave a message in the form of graffiti which can only be understood by readers who meet certain criteria. The Sorcerer’s message may be visible to any Kindred, to any Anarch, or to specific individuals. That much is known. What the Tremere do not realize is that the placement matters as much as the message, for if a Punk Sorcerer uses this ritual to tag a particular location — specifically a place which the Sorcerer has vandalized in some way and which belongs either someone ze perceives as an authority figure (whether the Prince or the mortal government) or someone ze personally perceives to be an enemy — the ritual has a secondary effect that makes it easier to perform other Punk magic at the scene.
System: The graffiti message will last until it is removed and its true meaning will be visible to any intended target for that time. To trigger the secondary effect, the Sorcerer (and any allies ze brings) must actually vandalize the area and then leave a message taunting some figure of authority. This message may or may not have a hidden meaning in it, but it must somehow identify the Sorcerer, either by zir commonly used identity or by a regularly used alias which is known to whichever local authority figures might be expected to visit the scene. For 1 hour per success, the Difficulty of all rituals and Path effects executed by the Sorcerer within sight of the graffiti is reduced by 1 if the graffiti incorporates an alias or by 2 if it reveals a name by which the Sorcerer is personally known by the authorities.
Some Punk Sorcerers leave hidden messages visible only to specific vampires like the Sheriff or Prince, and then use the benefits provided by Calling Card to cast delayed action rituals as traps triggered whenever they read the hidden message. The BFU ritual, for example, is designed explicitly for this purpose.
Normally, Thaumaturgy requires either direct line of sight or a sympathetic effect. The Hacktivists pride themselves on eschewing normality. This ritual allows the Thaumaturge to use a CCTV camera or even a web camera as a “third eye.” The Thaumaturge must disassemble the camera, inscribe every inch of it with a mixture of occult sigils and mathematical formulae, and then put it back together (Intelligence + Technology, Difficulty 8). Then, ze must cut zir thumb and hold it against the camera lens until a full blood point has been absorbed by the camera.
System: The ritual lasts for 1 night per success, and it can be renewed for the same interval indefinitely so long as the vampire can feed additional points of blood to the lens. While the ritual lasts, the Thaumaturge can treat the video feed from the camera as if ze was experiencing it directly for purposes of targeting people or places with either paths or rituals. If the camera takes the form of a spy camera that is smuggled into an enemy’s haven, this can allow for devastating effects. However, the ritual is not without risk. So long as the ritual is active, any other blood magician who obtains the enchanted camera can use it as a sympathetic link back to the Thaumaturge as if it were a sample of zir own vitae. Even after the ritual ends, a lesser sympathetic link persists (equivalent to a personal possession of the Thaumaturge) until the camera is destroyed.
This ritual targets a mortal and causes xem to appear to be dead in every way except for the fact that xe still walks and talks. Xe has no pulse and xyr breath will not fog a mirror. If xe is unconscious, xe is indistinguishable from a corpse. Not even the most sensitive medical instruments will indicate that xe is alive, even as xe desperately tells the paramedic that xe is. The sorcerer must place a small, dead animal somewhere in the target’s home.
System: The effect lasts until the next morning and can only be used on 1 target per month. The dead animal must be placed in the target’s real home. The ritual won’t work if it is left in a hotel room or somewhere they are house-sitting or squatting. The power will not affect any supernatural being. This ritual is most often used by Punk Sorcerers who either want to terrorize a mortal or embarrass some Camarilla Lick by causing one of their blood dolls to think they’ve become a vampire and cause a scene.
The Old Skool Anarchs are usually the most religious of all Anarch blood magicians, although the gods they worship are more obscure than those of most contemporary religions. Regardless, like all religionists, the Old Skoolrs prefer to have a place of worship sanctified to their beliefs. The precise form of this ritual varies according to whichever god, spirit, or loa the Anarch serves, but if it’s inside a building, the entire space must be decorated to reflect the iconography of the entities worshiped as well as the ritual sacrifice of some kind of animal. Outside spaces such as those used by Kindred Vodoun cults require less in the way of decoration but have a greater risk of discovery and desecration by outsiders. Regardless of who or what is worshiped, the results from this ritual are the same — a safe space in which magic can be performed more easily.
System: The ritual lasts for 1 lunar month but it can be renewed indefinitely. While the ritual is active, the Difficulty of all rolls to activate Old Skool Paths or rituals performed within the temple space is reduced by 1. The number of successes determines the maximum size of the space which can be sanctified. 1 success represents a 5-by-5 foot/2-by-2 meter area, such as a large walk-in closet, a secret room, or a tiny grove. 3 successes represent a 20-by-20 foot/6-by-6 meter area, such as the sanctuary of a small church or a large grove. 5 successes represents an area of 100 square feet/30 square meters or so, such as a medium-sized church or a small wood.
It is said that masters of Pranayama Yoga have the power to walk across waters without sinking. Whether mortal yogi have that power or not, New Age Anarchs have certainly claimed it for themselves. The magician must close zir eyes and quietly recite a personal mantra relevant to the elevation of the spirit over base matter. If zir will properly manifests through the ritual, ze may walk across water or any other material not normally capable of supporting zir weight (such as across treetops) so long as ze remains in constant motion.
System: In combat, the successes determine how many turns the New Ager can continue to move without sinking or falling. Out of combat, the effects of the ritual last for as long as the ritualist remains in motion or until the end of the scene.
This ritual allows an Anarch to copy aspects of the appearance of a particular mortal — hair color or style, eye color, tattoos, piercings, even clothing choices — by essentially beating them out of the target. The Sorcerer may perform this ritual zirself or they may perform it through another Anarch by rubbing xyr shoulders from behind and whispering what to say. The Sorcerer must spend 1 point of blood and make the activation roll whether ze is performing the ritual for zirself or another. Regardless, the one to be altered must then walk up to a particular mortal with the desired physical characteristics and say “I like your look. I’m taking it.” Then, the vampire must punch the mortal in the face.
To complete the ritual, the vampire must render the mortal unconscious through brute force unaided by vampiric powers. In fact, merely speaking the incantation causes the vampire to lose access to all of their Disciplines and prevents them from spending blood for the duration of the fight (or for the rest of the scene if the mortal wins) — Punk Sorcerer philosophy says that a vampire who can’t take a mortal in a fair fight deserves to get their ass kicked anyway.
Once the mortal is rendered unconscious, the vampire claims zir prize. If ze wants to copy the mortal’s hair style, ze must remove a large handful of the mortal’s hair. If ze wants eye color, ze gives the mortal a black eye. If ze wants a piercing, ze rips the mortal’s piercing straight out of the skin and swallows it. If ze wants a tattoo, ze damages the mortal’s tattoo in some permanent way. If ze likes the mortal’s clothes, ze slices them to bits, keeping a few rags for zirself.
System: Each success causes the vampire to gain 1 Appearance-related characteristic of the mortal victim, chosen from hair color, hair style, facial hair, tattoos, piercings, or clothing. When the vampire awakens the next night, ze will have those traits (and if appropriate, will awaken wearing a copy of the mortal’s clothes sized perfectly to fit zir). The ritual will not change overall appearance — the vampire still looks basically the way ze did before, and only superficial traits are changed. Piercings and tattoos appear on the vampire’s body in roughly the same location as they were on the mortal’s body but adjusted where necessary due to differences in size and build. Clothing will last until destroyed, but all other acquired characteristics become part of the vampire’s default appearance.
For centuries, crystals have played a part in the practices of the New Age movement. Even today, many mortal New Age adherents believe that meditating on crystals can facilitate healing or provide other beneficial effects; when provided by a New Age Sorcerer, they can. The Sorcerer must place a piece of clear quartz into an earthen bowl full of purified water. Then, ze must add zir own vitae to the waters and begin meditating over the bowl. Over the next hour, the water will slowly clear again as the vitae is absorbed into the crystal, which will turn a soft pink. Crystals infused in this way have several effects. First, at any time, the Sorcerer may hold a crystal, meditate for a few seconds, and withdraw the stored vitae back into zir own body. More importantly, however, the Sorcerer may provide a crystal to another for meditation purposes, and if the recipient spends at least 1 scene meditating on the crystal (for whatever purpose xe chooses), the vitae will flow into them with the exact same results as if xe had drunk directly from the sorcerer. Many New Age cult leaders use this technique to blood bond potential cultists long before meeting their new servants face-to-face.
System: The number of successes determines the maximum number of blood points that can be stored in a single crystal. The Sorcerer can withdraw any or all of zir own vitae from a crystal at will. Any other character who handles the crystal and meditates upon it will magically withdraw 1 point of vitae from it into xyr own body if xe obtains even 1 success on a Willpower roll (Difficulty 7). This includes mortals or even supernatural beings such as Lupines or mages. If the meditating character has suffered any injuries, the blood heals them as if xe was a ghoul who had consciously spent blood for healing. A character who meditates on a crystal successfully on 3 occasions will become blood bound to the crystal’s creator (assuming it contained enough vitae). However, while the crystal still contains vitae, it carries a sympathetic link to its creator equivalent to a point of zir vitae when in the hands of a rival blood magician.
Haruspicy was the name given by Romans to the practice of reading omens and portents from the entrails of sacrificed animals, usually sheep or poultry. However, the practice predates Rome by millennia and has been practiced by countless other occult societies since. The ritualist (or “haruspex”) must perform the sacrifice in a space purified by the Sanctify the Temple ritual. After slaying the animal and slicing open its belly to let the entrails fall out, the haruspex must douse them with a quantity of zir own vitae, cut from zir wrists with a ritual dagger. Poultry sacrifices require 1 point of blood. Sheep or larger animals require 2 points of blood. If the haruspex is sufficiently ruthless, ze can even sacrifice a mortal (almost certainly requiring a Degeneration roll). A haruspex may never perform a reading for zirself. ze can only do so on behalf of another who must provide some personal item to be incorporated into the ritual sacrifice. Naturally, this also means that the ritual may also be performed on an unwilling and unknowing target through sympathetic magic. The Haruspicy ritual may only be performed for a single target, and only once every 7 nights.
System: Each success allows the haruspex to ask 1 question about the subject’s past or present, while 2 successes may be spent to ask 1 question about the subject’s future. Using a larger sacrifice reduces the Difficulty by 1. Using a human sacrifice reduces it by 3. These benefits stack with the -1 Difficulty reduction from using a sanctified temple.
This common ritual augments the resilience of the subject (which can be the sorcerer or anyone ze chooses). The ritual requires a spent shell casing which has been soaked in a point of blood from the person who will benefit. While that person carries the shell casing on zir person, ze may soak damage from fire and sunlight with zir normal Stamina. The effects of this do not stack with Fortitude; only the higher of the two apply.
System: The ritual lasts for 1 hour per success and does not allow the recipient any additional soak; it just extends zir normal soak to include fire and sunlight.
The Hacktivist coterie known as the Digital Draculas invented this ritual, and it is the backbone of their agenda for the Anarch community. For centuries, the Tremere have had a ritual called “Inscription” which allows a Thaumaturge to reduce a simple ritual to a written format which can then be unlocked and activated by a non-Thaumaturge at a later date. The Self-Executing File ritual functions according to the same principles, but instead of allowing someone outside the clan to cast a “borrowed” ritual at a time of their choosing, this ritual allows them to install a Technomancy-based ritual directly into a computer. To date, the Digital Draculas have carefully limited the number of techno-rituals which they have widely disseminated to two: “Fangbook” and “Bloodspot.” A third techno-ritual — FangChat — is currently being beta-tested and is exclusively available to the coterie’s closest allies.
System: To use Self-Executing File, the Thaumaturge must first prepare the Technomancy ritual ze wishes to disseminate into a computer file format. The Hacktivists and the Tremere Technomancers alike use a special programming code that integrates a mixture of defunct computer languages and dead written languages. Using this language, the Thaumaturge codes a complete description of the ritual to be transmitted and then reduces it to a .zip file. Ze then emails the file to the intended recipient. When the recipient clicks on the file to open it, a text box appears that informs the recipient that xe has 60 seconds to activate the program by smearing some of xyr blood onto xyr right thumb and then placing it over the white box below the text. If the recipient does so before time runs out, the blood dissipates harmlessly, and the program automatically opens and downloads itself into the computer’s hard drive. An icon for the associated program appears on the desktop that is visible only to the recipient, and the program itself is an invisible file that cannot be detected on the hard drive by any means other than Technomancy. Every success after the first allows for 1 additional recipient, should the Thaumaturge wish to send out more than 1 copy of the file.
Sample Programs
Fangbook modifies the user’s computer, smartphone, or tablet so that any messages, pictures, or videos she uploads to Facebook, Twitter, or any other equivalent social networking site appear to be innocuous posts such as birthday greetings to random strangers or widely-shared photos or video memes of the day when viewed by non-vampires. With Fangbook, Anarchs may participate freely on social media sites and upload commentary and media that might shatter the Masquerade if mortals were actually capable of perceiving it.
Bloodspot, similarly, is a shareware blogging platform that can only be perceived as such by Kindred. When a Bloodspot page is viewed by one of the kine, they see only a “Server Not Found” message or some comparable error message indicating that there is no such webpage.
FangChat, on the other hand, is a chat messenger program that is capable of finding any Kindred who is online and opening a chat window on their computer which, according to the program’s creators, is completely untraceable. Further, the message deletes itself after a couple of minutes, leaving no trace. FangChat has not been widely disseminated, however, and there are a number of outrageous rumors about it (mostly spread by loyalist Tremere Technomancers). Some say the program can automatically detect lies by a responding party. Others say that it has a built-in GPS function that can find the haven of anyone foolish enough to respond. Still others say that the program is a vector for delivering Dominate commands.
The Anarch drafts a message for a specific individual, a message interspersed with a mix of occult symbols and vulgar personal insults. This message can be left behind at the scene of the Anarch’s use of the Calling Card ritual in letters 10-feet high, or it can be written with a quill pen on expensive stationary and delivered via courier. Regardless, if the ritual is performed properly, the message fades and is invisible except to the intended recipient. When the recipient reads the message, xe becomes so incensed that xe has a chance to fall into a rage frenzy. Obviously, this effect primarily applies to vampires, werewolves, and other beings capable of being provoked into a rage state, but even mortals targeted by the message find themselves prone to irrational fury. An innovative Sorcerer might well use this ritual for a revenge ploy, such as slandering a mortal recipient’s wife as an adulteress and thereby driving them into a homicidal fury. The most common use, however, is simply to embarrass prominent Cainites by provoking them to frenzy at public gatherings.
System: Once the target reads that message, xe must immediately roll for rage frenzy at a +2 Difficulty. Furthermore, the effects persist, and for the next several nights, xe will find that all Difficulties to resist rage frenzy are increased by 1. The message itself lasts for 1 night per success, and if it is not observed by the intended recipient, the ritual is wasted. If the recipient does see it, the increased frenzy Difficulties persist for an additional 1 night per success, even if xe sees the message on the last night that it could possibly affect them.
A dream catcher (well-known to Native American vendors in U.S. tourist traps) is a minor artifact which protects a sleeping person. The ritualist must craft the dream catcher by hand and incorporate tiny bits of hair, blood (less than 1 point), and spittle from the individual for whom the item is crafted.
System: Once created, the dream catcher lasts for 1 week per success. As long as the owner has the dream catcher on xyr person or within 5 feet/3 meters, xe gains the following benefits: First, the Difficulty for all attacks made against xyr by spirits increases by 2. Second, the Difficulty for all attempts to influence xyr mind or xyr dreams while xe sleeps increases by 2. Finally, if the owner is a vampire, the Difficulty for xem to awaken during the day in response to potential danger decreases by 2.
Kindred with multiple ghouls often find that jealousy over the regnant’s affections can lead to rivalry and conflict, and New Age vampire cult leaders find such discord counter-productive to the enlightenment they seek, hence this ritual. The Sorcerer first prepares a quantity of some kind of liquid to which they add 1 point of vitae per gallon of liquid. Red Flavor Aid or fruit punch works perfectly well for purposes of this ritual, although “drinking the Flavor Aid” has a sinister connotation in the context of New Age cults that some Kindred choose to avoid. The Sorcerer must have zir followers drink a quantity of the prepared liquid before leading them in an extended meditation exercise lasting at least 1 hour. If the ritual is effective, all of the followers acquire what is essentially a secondary blood bond to one another and to the group as an abstract unit.
System: The effects last for 1 week per success. Each follower still retains their normal blood bound loyalty to the regnant, but they will also experience strong feelings of love and affection to every mortal who participates in the ritual with them, no matter how many that may be. Each participant will also feel a strong sense of loyalty and devotion to the ideals and dogmas of the cult. It is still possible for conflict to erupt if two or more followers express genuine disagreement about the cult’s beliefs or the regnant’s desires, but if the regnant zirself is on hand, such squabbles can be easily resolved. In addition to any other benefits of group loyalty, this ritual can also indirectly benefit the Sorcerer zirself. For every 5 people who are under the effect of this ritual and who are present to assist the Sorcerer in zir other occult activities, the Sorcerer gains a +1 die bonus on all rolls pertaining to paths or rituals. This ritual has no effect on Kindred.
This insidious power requires some personal possession of the subject’s to be burned when the ritual is enacted. As the object burns, the subject is immediately overcome with a feeling of Rötschreck, regardless of where xe is, what xe’s doing or even whether or not any flame is present. Clever Anarchs have used this power to spite rivals, break the spirits of enemies and even humiliate Princes by forcing them to act irrationally before the Kindred of their domains.
System: Upon this ritual’s completion, the subject is immediately gripped by Rötschreck, and they must check to see if they enter the fear frenzy (Difficulty 6). This fear may be overcome by spending a Willpower point, as well. If the character fails the Courage roll, they immediately flee the vicinity in terror, although terror of what eludes the character. For this reason, the Rötschreck doesn’t last as long as the red fear normally does. When the character thinks to ask xemself what xe’s afraid of, the effect ends. Usually, however, this is too late to prevent the shock and incredulity of any company the Kindred was keeping at the time.
It takes 30 minutes to perform this ritual.
Telecommunication is one of the earliest rituals associated with Technomancy. In fact, the insights gained from the creation of this ritual were the very signposts that proved that Technomancy was possible. The Thaumaturge must trace a sigil on the screen of a television or a computer monitor. While the ritual lasts, the Thaumaturge can see and hear what is near the screen as if ze was looking out of it. More importantly, with a thought, ze can change what appears on the screen, whether to create a fake news story to deceive others or simply to make zir own face appear so that ze can converse with watchers.
System: The successes rolled create a dice pool which the Thaumaturge can use to either observe through or control the screen at any point over the next 7 nights. The player must roll this dice pool either to see and hear through the screen (Difficulty 4) or to control what the screen plays for others (Difficulty 7). A botch on either of those rolls ends the ritual’s effect immediately.
A curious syncretic ritual that combines Haitian Vodoun with imagery and ideas drawn from a comic book, Baron Zaraguin’s Sting is a powerful defensive ritual. The ritualist must imbibe blood laced with LSD just before sunrise and spend the day in a wooden coffin containing at least 10 live scorpions. The visions the vampire suffers during zir long day of confinement combined with the stings of the angry scorpions open their mind to communion with Baron Zaraquin, the patron loa of scorpions and spiders.
System: For every 2 successes (rounded up) rolled on the ritual, the vampire takes 1 level of Lethal damage from scorpion stings. This damage is unsoakable but can be healed normally. In exchange for submitting to the scorpions’ stings, however, the vampire also gains Baron Zaraquin’s blessing for 1 night per success. During that time the Difficulty on all rolls to supernaturally influence the Sorcerer (such as Dominate or Majesty) or to read zir aura or zir mind increases to 9. Furthermore, any character who attempts to use such powers against the Sorcerer suffers 1 unsoakable point of psychic Bashing damage for every 1 rolled on the attempt. If such a roll actually botches, the damage is Lethal and the character also has a brief vision of a giant spiritual scorpion, a manifestation of Baron Zaraguin, as its tail strikes xem in the forehead for the affront.
There is a well-known Necromancy ritual for creating an effigy doll (Baleful Doll, Necromancy 4), but that is not the only type of effigy that can be created. This ritual is performed just like the Baleful Doll ritual, but while Baleful Doll allows the vampire to inflict actual physical damage to the associated target, it is useless for more subtle effects. For that, the Houngan’s Doll is needed. This effigy cannot be used to directly inflict damage on the target, but it will allow the sorcerer to see and hear through the target’s eyes, to whisper things to the target that only xe can hear, and to inflict physical sensations on xem that are not harmful but certainly feel real. Sticking the doll with a pin still hurts the target even if it inflicts no damage. Holding a lit candle near the doll’s head may cause the target to suffer Rötschreck. One impudent (and reckless) Anarch famously humiliated a prominent Tremere in front of his Prince and Primogen simply by tickling the doll with a feather during a council meeting. The thought of a powerful elder rolling on the floor and laughing hysterically was one the Anarch treasured... until her brutal murder a few weeks later.
System: The requirements for constructing a Houngan’s Doll are identical to those for the Baleful Doll. However, the Baleful Doll is an instant-use item — the creator fashions the doll, enacts the ritual, and inflicts what damage ze can. The Houngan’s Doll, on the other hand, lasts until it is destroyed (which has no effect on the target). Once per week, the Anarch may cast the ritual, which begins when they light a votive candle and set it afloat in a cup containing 1 point of zir vitae. If the ritual succeeds, then until the fire blows out (usually 30 minutes unless the ritual is disrupted somehow), any physical sensation imposed on the doll is sympathetically experienced by the target. For that duration, the Sorcerer sees and hears only what the target does, so ze must be careful to leave any tools or implements where they can be found by touch. The Sorcerer is blind and deaf to zir own surroundings while the ritual lasts.
Since their defection to the Anarchs, the Hacktivists have committed themselves to furthering the Movement in the manner that best fits their skills, principally in the spreading of information. In particular, the Hacktivist members of the mysterious Red Question faction have spent considerable effort on spreading the philosophy of the Anarch Movement, to say nothing of specific tactical information that aids Anarchs struggling in Camarilla territories. This ritual allows them to do so without fear of exposure or betrayal.
The ritual enchants a text file, which is then encrypted and emailed to another person. When the recipient opens the emails, xe receives an offer of secret information that may be of assistance in the spread of Anarch ideals. However, to acquire the information, the recipient must agree to the Non-Disclosure Clause by spreading some of xyr blood onto xyr thumb and placing it on a square that appears on their screen (similar to the Self-Executing File ritual). If xe complies, the blood is absorbed into the computer, and the entire contents of the text file (which might be hundreds of pages of text) instantly download into xyr mind.
Only raw data can be conveyed in this way. The ritual cannot be used to help a Kindred learn a Discipline or a ritual, nor improve an Ability. However, the recipient does gain an eidetic recollection of the information that xe downloaded. The “non-disclosure” aspect of the ritual comes into play if xe is captured or interrogated by someone hostile to the Anarch Movement. The moment that xe believes xe is in danger of revealing Anarch secrets (regardless of xyr personal desire to betray the Movement or stay loyal), all of the downloaded information vanishes from xyr mind. Depending on the wishes of the sender, xe may remember nothing of the information at all, xe may remember a few details, or xe may even remember copious amounts of disinformation that xe honestly believes to be true.
System: 1 success is sufficient to prepare the information to be downloaded by the recipient. 3 successes are needed to prepare backup misinformation that the recipient will believe to be true once xe is captured and the failsafe is triggered.
Having transformed common mortals into loyal cultists with their magic, the New Age Sorcerer can feed on their devotion and their blood alike from afar. If the ritual is successful, the Sorcerer can recover vitae and even Willpower from 1 or more of zir followers who are currently under the effects of Enfolding the Believers. The ritual requires 30 minutes of meditation on the names and faces of the targeted followers.
System: For each success rolled, the Sorcerer may cause one of zir followers who is a valid target for this ritual to lose 2 points of blood, with the Sorcerer regaining 1 point of blood for every 2 points lost. Alternatively, for every 3 successes rolled, the Sorcerer may cause a valid target to lose 2 points of Willpower, with the Sorcerer recovering 1 Willpower for every 2 lost. There is a downside to this latter application, as it immediately causes anyone who loses Willpower in this manner to be freed of the effects of Enfolding the Believers and, worse, free of the effects of the blood bond itself. The ritual can target multiple cultists, but cannot target a single cultist more than once per use. Once a Sorcerer has used this ritual, ze may not use it again until ze has successfully cast Enfolding the Believers on zir cult again or until 1 week has passed, whichever is longer.
This peculiar ward is inferior to most wards used by the Tremere, but it is often sufficient for the needs of Anarchs. The sorcerer must make a sigil out of zir own vitae on some object or surface. If a vampire of lower Generation touches the object or surface, xe is affected. Kindred of equal or higher Generation are not affected.
System: Kindred below the caster’s Generation who touch the ward suffer 2 dice of Lethal damage each time they do so. After the first touch, however, a Kindred who wishes to proceed again must roll Willpower (Difficulty 7) or spend a Willpower point. Each use of this ritual costs 1 point of blood and can only ward 1 discrete object: a single window, a door, a book, or 1 door of an automobile. Larger objects can be warded but only if the ritual is cast multiple times.
One of the darkest rituals in the annals of Punk Sorcery, Bloody Mary summons that malefic urban spirit and allows her to possess a mortal vessel in exchange for a period of service to the summoner. The ritual must be performed in a public bathroom, and the mortal vessel must be persuaded of xyr own free will to participate in the ritual. Xe need not know what the ritual’s ultimate effect will be, and few mortals would participate if they did, but they cannot be Dominated or otherwise compelled to take part. Trickery is perfectly fine, however, and many of those who use this ritual will manipulate mortals through means as simple as telling them about the urban legend and then daring them to risk summoning the legendary figure.
Once persuaded, the mortal must look into the mirror and say “Bloody Mary” 3 times, while the Sorcerer flips the lights on and off in a particular pattern and quietly mouths an incantation that offers the mortal’s soul to the spirit in exchange for service. The Sorcerer will know the ritual has succeeded when, at one point when the lights are on, the mirror will show the mortal’s reflection as well as that of the hideous crone looming behind them ready to pounce. Then, the vampire must turn the lights off again and leave them off until the screaming has stopped.
System: If the ritual succeeds, then Bloody Mary will possess the mortal’s body and be bound to serve the summoner for 1 lunar month. The successes on the roll determine how loyal Bloody Mary is during the length of possession, for she is a spirit of violence and murder and will seize nearly any opportunity to kill while wearing a human host. With 1 success, she will grudgingly obey any direct commands and will refrain from attempting to harm the summoner in any way, but she will have no real loyalty. With 5 successes, her instinct is to obey every command without question and to refrain from any activities which might cause problems for the summoner later. If there is any conflict between Bloody Mary’s instinct to maim and kill and the needs of the summoner, roll a number of dice equal to the vampire’s successes on the summoning roll. If there are any successes, the player decides what Mary will do.
While Bloody Mary is riding the mortal vessel, she gains the equivalent of Potence 2 and Fortitude 2. She knows everything they knew, and she can impersonate them effortlessly. However, animals are instinctively afraid of any mortal ridden by Bloody Mary, and characters who succeed on a Perception + Empathy roll (Difficulty 7) find them frightening and off-putting. For children, the Difficulty is only 5. Statements from anyone close to the mortal indicating love or affection to them require the player to roll a number of dice equal to the summoning successes (Difficulty 7). Failure means that Bloody Mary will frenzy and attack the loved one. When the month of servitude ends, Blood Mary departs, leaving behind a mortal who is irretrievably insane. As noted, this is a dark ritual, and any Sorcerer who performs it must make a Conscience roll if zir Humanity is 2 or higher.
In these modern times, when the Internet remembers all and government-backed identification is needed for nearly every transaction, it is no longer enough for a newly arrived Kindred to simply dominate the local city clerk into providing zir with papers. This exhaustive ritual can take a week or more to perform (when used to create false identities for Kindred or other supernatural beings), though simple uses directed against mortals may take only a single night. At the conclusion, though, the results can be most impressive. For Kindred, the ritual creates not just a fake ID but an entire paper trail for the target all the way back to xyr “date of birth.”
The false records, to the extent they exist on the Internet, are perfect, and show whatever history the Thaumaturge desires. Only personal examination of the actual hard copies contained in dusty filing cabinets will reveal the truth of the target’s life. When this ritual is turned against mortals, it can achieve such effects as giving an innocent man a criminal record or cleaning the slate for a wanted criminal, stealing away the ownership of someone’s home, or even sabotaging someone’s medical records so that a well-meaning nurse actually gives them an unnecessary and lethal injection.
System: The ritual requires an extended Intelligence + Occult roll, with each roll representing 1 full night spent reshaping the Internet and doing nothing else except devoting an hour or 2 to feeding. The Storyteller determines how many successes are needed based on the number of “Internet facts” that must be changed in order to achieve the desired results. Changing a single mortal’s medical diagnosis or reporting all xyr credit cards as stolen might require only 1 or 2 successes, while creating an entirely new identity for a vampire on the run might require 5 to 10, depending on how complicated and important the new identity is. Particularly successful uses of this ritual may lead to dots in the Alternate Identity Background.
Few New Age Anarchs know this ritual. Fewer still would ever be so ruthless as to try it. Nevertheless, its existence is a temptation to all who have heard tales of its power — tales that the New Age Anarchs conceal from the other schools and from the greater Anarch community, lest the Movement turn on the New Agers en masse. The ritual begins just like Enfolding the Believers. Indeed, there is only one material difference between that ritual and this one — to the liquid-vitae mixture that must be consumed by the cultists, the Sorcerer adds a quantity of poison, most commonly cyanide. To even attempt this ritual automatically costs the Sorcerer 1 point of Humanity. Such is the price for sacrificing one’s own followers in the question for knowledge... or power.
System: The ritual either works or it does not — additional successes on the activation roll do not provide any further reward. For every mortal worshiper who dies as part of the ritual, the player must roll 1 die against a Difficulty of 7. Every success gives the player 1 experience point that can be used to purchase new or improved traits as per normal experience costs. From the character’s perspective, these new Attributes, Abilities, and Disciplines are the result of a momentary glimpse of godhood paid for by the deaths of loyal followers. According to some rumors, a sufficient number of successful sacrifices can also be expended to permanently reduce a vampire’s Generation. The truth of those rumors and the number of successes needed to achieve such a feat are left to the Storyteller’s discretion. Regardless, however, any New Ager who uses this ritual finds that zir aura becomes streaked with black marks that are indistinguishable from those resulting from diablerie.
Derived from the Navajo tales of the yee naaldlooshii, this ritual allows the Sorcerer to craft an item of clothing from the pelt of a ritually sacrificed animal no smaller than a mouse and no larger than a bear. While the pelt endures, the Sorcerer may don it and transform zirself into a perfect copy of the animal which was sacrificed. Lupines may still detect the animal as “unclean,” and Kindred with Aura Perception may realize that it is somehow “undead,” though Kindred are more likely to think that the animal is merely possessed via Subsume the Spirit (Animalism 4) rather than shapechanged. The animal must be killed and skinned at a place purified by the Sanctify the Temple ritual. After the pelt is removed, it must be cured for 3 nights in a mixture of brine and the ritualist’s own blood. The ritual requires 1 point of blood for animals significantly smaller than human-sized, 3 points for animals which are roughly human-sized, and 5 points for animals significantly larger than human-sized. A black bear is the largest animal known to have been used for this ritual.
System: Each success means that the artifact will last for 1 week before degrading. It can be maintained for another equivalent duration by smearing it with a quantity of the ritualist’s blood equal to that used in the ritual that created it.
After the ritual is complete, the player of the ritualist must roll Intelligence + Crafts to fashion the pelt into a wearable item of clothing. A failure can be rerolled, but a botch destroys the pelt. However, only 1 success is needed to complete the process. More successes simply mean that the artifact is more aesthetically pleasing. To use the Skinwalker’s Belt, the ritualist must remove all other clothing (including jewelry) before donning the artifact and mutter a brief incantation, whereupon ze instantly transforms into a perfect copy of the animal used in the ritual. Ze cannot use Disciplines in this form (not even physical Disciplines such as Potence or Fortitude), and ze cannot speak except to those who have the supernatural ability to speak to animals. Ze retains zir human intelligence and is still subject to frenzy.
The effects of the magic last until ze wills it to end or until daybreak. In either case, ze instantly reverts to zir true form, which can be very bad if ze was in a small space wearing the size of a mouse or ze is out in the open when ze reverts back to a nude person who takes Aggravated damage from sunlight. The artifact counts as the equivalent of a lock of hair or a fingernail if it falls into the hands of another blood magician.