Serpentis is believed to be the legacy of Set himself, a gift to his children. The Followers of Set are very careful to guard this Discipline’s secrets, only teaching the art to those who they deem worthy. Most vampires fear the Setites because of the powers of Serpentis and its connection to snakes and reptiles; this Discipline can evoke a primordial fear in others, particularly those who recall the tale of Eden.
This power grants the vampire the legendary hypnotic gaze of the serpent. The Kindred’s eyes become gold with large black irises, and mortals in the character’s vicinity find themselves strangely attracted to zir. A mortal who meets the vampire’s beguiling gaze is immobilized. Until the character takes zir eyes off zir victim, the person is frozen in place.
System: No roll is required, but this power can be avoided if the mortal takes care not to look into the vampire’s eyes. Vampires and other supernatural creatures can also be affected by this power if the Cainite’s player succeeds on a Willpower roll (Difficulty 9). If attacked or otherwise harmed, supernatural creatures can spend a point of Willpower to break the spell.
Note: This is different than normal eye contact detailed under Eye Contact. The target must be able to see the vampire’s eyes for Eyes of the Serpent to work.
The vampire may lengthen zir tongue at will, splitting it into a fork like that of a serpent. The tongue may reach 18 inches or half a meter, and makes a terrifyingly effective weapon in close combat.
System: The lash of the tongue’s razor fork causes Aggravated wounds (Difficulty 6, damage equal to the vampire’s Strength). If the Kindred wounds zir enemy, ze may drink blood from the target on the next turn as though ze had sunk zir fangs into the victim’s neck. Horrifying though it is, the tongue’s caress is very like the Kiss, and strikes mortal victims helpless with fear and ecstasy. Additionally, the tongue is highly sensitive to vibrations, enabling the vampire to function effectively in the darkness the clan prefers. By flicking zir tongue in and out of zir mouth, the vampire can halve any penalties relating to darkness.
By calling upon zir Blood, the vampire may transform zir skin into a mottled, scaly hide. A vampire in this form becomes more supple and flexible.
System: The vampire spends 1 blood point and 1 Willpower point. Their skin becomes scaly and mottled; this, combined with the character’s increased flexibility, reduces soak Difficulties to 2. The vampire may use zir Stamina to soak Aggravated damage from claws and fangs, but not from fire, sunlight, or other supernatural energies. The vampire’s mouth widens and fangs lengthen, enabling zir bite to inflict an extra die of damage. Finally, the vampire may slip through any opening wide enough to fit zir head through.
The vampire’s Appearance drops to 1, and ze is obviously inhuman if observed with any degree of care, though casual passersby might not notice, if the vampire is in darkness or wearing heavy clothing.
The Cainite may change zir form into that of a huge black cobra. The serpent weighs as much as the vampire’s human form, stretches over 10 feet or 3 meters long, and is about 20 inches (50 cm) around. The Form of the Cobra grants several advantages, including a venomous bite, the ability to slither through small spaces, and a greatly enhanced sense of smell. The character may use any Disciplines while in this form save those that require hands (such as Feral Claws).
System: The vampire spends 1 blood point; the change is automatic, but takes 3 turns. Clothing and small personal possessions transform with the vampire. The vampire remains in serpent form until the next dawn, unless ze desires to change back sooner. The Storyteller may allow the Setite bonus dice on all Perception rolls related to smell, but the Difficulties for all hearing rolls are increased by 2. The cobra’s bite inflicts damage equal to the vampire’s, but the vampire does not need to grapple zir victim; furthermore, the poison delivered is fatal to mortals.
A Kindred with mastery of Serpentis may pull zir heart from zir body. Ze can even use this ability on other Cainites, although this requires several hours of gruesome surgery. This power can only be invoked during a new moon. If performed under any other moon, the rite fails. Upon removing zir heart, the vampire places it in a small clay urn, and then carefully hides or buries the urn. While zir heart is hidden, ze cannot be staked by any wood that pierces zir breast. Moreover, because the heart is the seat of emotion, the Difficulties of all their rolls to resist frenzy are 2 lower while this power is in effect.
Cainites are careful to keep their hearts safe from danger. If someone seizes zir heart, the vampire is completely at that person’s mercy. The heart can be destroyed only by casting it into a fire or exposing it to sunlight. If this happens, the Kindred dies where ze stands, boiling away into a blistering heap of ash and blackened bone. Plunging a wooden stake into an exposed heart drives the vampire into instant torpor.
A vampire may carry zir heart with zir, or have several false hearts buried in different places. A smart Kindred often avoids zir heart’s hiding place, to deter discovery. Those wise in Setite lore whisper that the corrupt elders of the clan often hold their underlings’ hearts as yet another method of control.
System: This power requires no roll. Those who witness a vampire pull zir heart from zir breast (or cut the heart from another vampire) must make Courage rolls. Failure indicates anything from strong uneasiness to complete revulsion, possibly even Rötschreck.
A character using Form of the Cobra gains a venomous bite along with zir serpentine form. Unfortunately, huge black cobras tend to make people run away as fast as they can. This Serpentis power enables a vampire to gain the deadly bite without the full-body transformation, making it more useful for taking victims by surprise. The police do ask questions when someone dies from a cobra bite under unlikely circumstances, so Cobra Fangs still requires some discretion in its use.
System: The Kindred expends 1 blood point, and in 1 turn zir fangs become hollow, more slender and venomous. The vampire injects venom when ze bites. Ze must still grapple with the victim to deliver a bite attack, and the bite does the usual amount of damage; the venom, however, kills mortals within 1 minute. Bitten vampires or other supernaturally resilient creatures suffer [10 – victim’s Stamina and Fortitude] levels of Aggravated damage over the course of 5 minutes.
The signature Discipline of the Cipactli, the aftermath of this power horrified the few Archons or Templars who were sent to investigate it. While once an open secret to Mesoamerican Kindred, to the European vampires, Glutton’s Feast still remains a terrifying mystery. The power of their progenitor’s appetites allows the Cipactli with this power to feed far in excess of their normal Generational limit, although they suffer great sluggishness for their greed. Most Cipactli who used this power would do so when facing drought or famine to preserve their own unlives through the scarcity, usually at the cost of an entire population. With the danger to the Masquerade this ability poses, few elders engage in these epic blood feasts any more. When they do, it is usually in preparation for an extended torpor, or for a lengthy move to a more hospitable domain.
System: The elder in question gathers zir herd and as many captives as ze wishes together. The power requires the elder to spend an hour preparing zirself for the feast ahead, as well as the expenditure of a point of Willpower. The elder then begins to feed, and can take in more blood points than zir maximum pool. Each turn zir blood pool exceeds the maximum, ze must roll Willpower (Difficulty 8), and can only consume 1 additional blood point per success (to the normal maximum of 3 per round). If ze fails to drink any blood points in a round, ze must spend an additional point of Willpower to continue, or end the feast immediately. During zir slumber the following day, the user will always sink into an involuntary torpor, from which ze cannot be roused early by any means. After rising, the Cipactli cannot feed again until zir blood pool drops below their Generational maximum. In addition, every turn in which ze spends blood while glutted in this fashion, ze loses an additional point of blood. Finally, using this power is always grounds for a Degeneration check, regardless of Path or rating.
The use of this power imparts the target with a higher purpose of the Setite’s choosing. The recipient will strive for this goal, almost to the exclusion of all else.
System: The user must roll Intelligence + Empathy (Difficulty [3 + target’s Humanity/Path rating]). If the user is successful, the target will gain 2 extra dice on all rolls that have anything to do with this higher purpose. The target will pursue this goal with great drive, only stopping to maintain xyr own needs just enough to be able to operate as efficiently as possible in order to accomplish xyr new mission in life.
The target may spend 1 Willpower point to temporarily halt the effects of this power. In doing so xe gains 1 hour of freedom from the drive to accomplish the goal xe has been set. For the next week following that hour, xe will not recover any Willpower unless it is earned by furthering xyr assigned goal.
This power only works on mortals.
Many of the low-Generation Setite elders no longer need the illusions of Obfuscate to appear as a god. Through this Serpentis power, a vampire can physically metamorphose into the form of a god. Male Kindred generally take the form of Set himself: a muscular man with the head of the “Typhonic Beast,” an animal with a long, narrow snout and upstanding, square-topped ears. Less often, they take the form of the crocodile-headed god Sobek, whom the Egyptians often linked to Set, or the wolf-headed war-god Wepwawet, often identified with Set’s son Anubis. Female vampires generally assume the form of the cobra-headed goddess Renenet, wife of Sobek, or the hippopotamus-goddess Taweret, sometimes considered a consort of Set. Both were goddesses of pregnancy and childbirth. Setite doctrine labels all four deities as Set’s eldest childer.
While assuming the Divine Image, the vampire becomes stronger, tougher, and more impressive. More importantly, perhaps, the vampire’s will becomes more powerful as ze identifies with a divine forebear.
System: The character expends 3 blood points and transforms into the Divine Image in 1 turn. In the Divine Image, the vampire gains 2 dots each of Strength and Stamina and a dot each of Charisma and Manipulation, but zir Appearance drops to 1. These enhancements can push the vampire over zir Generational limit. The character also gains 2 full dots of Willpower (to a maximum of 10). The Cainite can stay in the Divine Image for a full scene.
A vampire has only 1 Divine Image form (unless the player buys this power twice). The character does not know what Divine Image ze will manifest until ze invokes the power the first time, although the player can freely choose the preferred form.
The Serpentis power Heart of Darkness normally takes hours to perform upon other vampires, and only works at the dark of the moon. Some elders, however, can pull the heart from another vampire’s chest with a quick snatch. This does not destroy the victim, unless the attacker then destroys the stolen heart. Heart Thief is not an easy power to use despite its speed, but few Discipline effects can place one vampire in another’s power so suddenly and completely.
System: The character must expend 1 Willpower point. Removing the heart of a reluctant vampire is a difficult feat, comparable to staking: the attacker must garner at least 5 successes on a Dexterity + Brawl attack (Difficulty 9). The victim may use Fortitude to “soak” the attacker’s successes, but mundane Stamina has no effect against this magical attack.
A vampire who loses xyr heart this way takes 1 unsoakable level of Aggravated damage, and receives all the benefits and drawbacks of the Heart of Darkness power. Resisting frenzy becomes easier (-2 Difficulty) and they cannot be staked by wood that impales xyr breast. On the other hand, thrusting a stake through the removed heart will instantly force the vampire into torpor and exposing the heart to fire or sunlight will bum the vampire to ash; even biting into the heart will cause Aggravated wounds to the vampire in question.
Only Set and Set’s own childer can perform this terrifying power. These ancient monsters can take the form of Set’s defeated enemy, Apep. The vampire becomes a giant serpent of fluid, glittering Darkness — not mere shadow, but anti-light, like the black force commanded by Obtenebration. In this form, physical force cannot harm the vampire: not claws or fangs, not bullets, not explosions, nothing but fire, sunlight, or mystical powers. Physical barriers cannot easily stop the vampire, whose shadowy form can seep through even the tiniest crack. The vampire, however, can still exert physical and supernatural force quite freely.
System: Taking the form of Apep costs a Willpower point. The transformation takes 3 turns to complete; once the vampire has transformed, zir body remains changed for 1 scene. In this form, the vampire takes no damage from any physical attack: fists, weapons, or falling buildings pass through the vampire as if ze was a shadow. Fire and sunlight inflict the normal Aggravated damage, however, and mystical powers (such as Thaumaturgy) still affect the transformed vampire. The vampire’s new body gains 3 dots in each Physical Attribute. Ignore Generational limits for this purpose. The transformed vampire can use zir Strength to make normal close combat attacks and can bite for [Strength + 2] dice of damage. The vampire can also employ any Discipline that does not require hands.