Custom Blood Magic: Path

Just as the primordial Obatala separated the sea from the land and the earth from the sky, so too did he separate the light from the darkness and everything from nothing. The void, the emptiness left behind by these acts of creation, reflects its own primordial Orisha, Oranayra. His favored number is 9 (and its multiples), his favored colors are pure black and pure white, and his festivals are on December 21st. Few enough practitioners still worship him, and those who do are most commonly bokor rather than houngans. By offering up a sacrifice of oneself to Oranayra, in this case through the gift of blood, the practitioner is able to make use of that divine channel in order to act as a sort of doorway into the void. In this way, a Cainite can in essence empower themselves to consume much more than they normally could, both in quantity and in scope.

Whenever a level of this path is used, their surroundings warp in the presence of the opened doorway that they represent. This manifests as a sort of environmental attraction. Air currents stream towards and end at the Cainite and disappear, flames lean in their direction, and even shadows will bend from their normal course to point towards the practitioner.

• Draught of Memory

Life is the accumulation of experiences, stored in memories. As the source of that life, blood contains the sum of a living being’s experiences. Though these stored memories are usually inaccessible even to Cainites who claim mastery over the substance, a small quantity of blood is all that is required for one with Draught of Memory to sift through the wreckage of blood-memory for useful information.

System: The Kindred spends one round drinking at least one trait of Blood from a target. The caster may inform the Storyteller of a piece of information they are attempting to search for, and make a Static Mental Challenge against the victim's Mental Traits. The wangateur is considered to have one additional trait for the purpose of ties in this challenge for each trait of blood beyond the first they consume. If the challenge is successful and the victim possesses the knowledge, the vampire gains the information sought, which is stored in the consumed vitae. This information lasts only until the Kindred spends the Blood Trait(s) that holds the memory, at which point it fades from their mind. At Storyteller's discretion, this information might be represented by the temporary gain of Ability traits. Temporary traits gained in this manner can never be raised to a higher level than the target possessed. If the practitioner diablerizes their victim in the process, the information they gain is retained permanently (the Storyteller may opt to allow the wangateur to spend Experience to permanently purchase any Ability Traits gained, if the character has the experience on hand at the time of the diablerie).

•• The Bottomless Well

A practitioner with this power is capable of gorging themselves on blood in much the same way Oranayra ceaselessly devours all that is fed to him. Their open channel with the Orisha even leads to his ravenous appetite spilling out into the Cainite slightly.

System: The Kindred spends one full round in concentration, then makes a Static Physical Challenge against a difficulty equal to the number of Blood Traits currently in his pool. If successful, for the following scene they become capable of drinking twice as much blood per round as they would otherwise be able to. Ordinarily, this means a Kindred becomes capable of consuming six Blood a round from their victim, though some truly monstrous practitioners have been rumored to drink more. As with normal feeding, the Cainite's fangs must successfully pierce their victim's flesh to obtain their sanguine prize and thus enough Fortitude may well stave off the would-be predator temporarily. This does not affect the size of the Cainite’s Blood Pool, however. While The Bottomless Well is active, the caster suffers a one-Trait penalty to resist frenzy resulting from exposure to blood.

••• Drawing the Soul

There have been tales of Cainites capable of consuming the souls of others merely by drinking their blood. This power may have contributed its fair share to those rumors, for with exacting concentration, a practitioner becomes capable of imbibing their target’s strength of will as simply as if it were vitae.

System: Over the course of three full rounds of concentration, the caster opens themselves up to the near-complete pull of Oranayra’s emptiness. For the next scene the caster gains 1 Trait of Willpower, drained from their victim, for every three traits of Blood consumed. This can only be done when imbibing blood directly from a sentient creature (one which possesses Willpower), which prevents binge-drinking blood bags for a motivational pick-me-up. These Willpower Traits cannot exceed the caster’s generational maximum; any they gain which exceed their limit simply disappear.

•••• Call of the Void

The penultimate expression of Oranayra’s monstrous urges, the practitioner enhances their diablerie of other Cainites, and even becomes capable of consuming the very souls of other sentient beings just as if they were a Cainite themselves. Most practitioners believe that while they do gain some benefits from the consumption of the soul of another, its final destination is Oranayra.

System: When diablerizing a Cainite, the caster spends a single Willpower Trait. The diablerist may treat their victim as a teacher for a single level of one non-blood sorcery, Discipline the victim was capable of teaching. To diablerize a non-kindred victim, the caster must first fully drain their victim of blood, usually through assistance by earlier powers in this path. Immediately after the victim’s last Blood Trait leaves their pool, the caster spends a Willpower Trait and begins the process of diablerie exactly as though their victim were a Kindred. If successful, the caster consumes the victim’s soul for themselves, making it a part of them. The process of diablerizing supernatural creatures other than Cainites grants no mechanical benefits aside from those normally associated with diablerie.

••••• Defiance of Oranayra

In an unprecedented act of defiance against Oranayra, the most accomplished practitioners are able to strengthen the divine channel between them and the Orisha with additional sacrifices of blood and sheer force of will, keeping it open long enough to reclaim some of what oblivion has consumed.

System: The Cainite spends 3 Blood Traits and a Willpower Trait in order to regurgitate a soul they have diablerized. The loss of this soul is accompanied by the loss of any benefits or drawbacks that particular diablerie instilled, with the exception of any Morality loss for committing the act. The caster must defeat the spirit in a Contested Willpower Challenge in order to compel them into service, and the spirit receives a free retest on this challenge as a result of its sheer hatred over having been consumed. The disembodied soul manifests as a black and purple, shadowy spirit for the remainder of the scene, and it can interact with those nearby for the remainder of the scene before the pull of Oranayra reclaims what was taken from it and the spirit returns to Oblivion. During this time, the soul can be affected by Necromancy as if it were a wraith. The soul can interact with its environment in any way that its original could have, using the same traits as its original, and maintains a rudimentary memory of its previous existence. However, souls in such a state bear no sense of motivation or initiative. It acts purely and solely according to the wangateur’s will.

Sample Soul-Shadow

Physical: Brawny 3, Dexterous 3, Resilient 4

Mental: Disciplined 3, Clever 3, Observant 3

Social: Charismatic 2, Beguiling 3, Intimidating 3

Abilities: Athletics 5, Brawl 5, Dodge 4, Intimidation 4, Survival 3

Health Levels: 8

Blood Pool: 10 (consisting of entropic energy, which any blood consumed is converted into)

Disciplines: Celerity 5, Fortitude 5, Potence 5, Offerings to Oranayra 4

Soak: 2 Health levels of Armor

Attacks: Bite (1 Lethal), Punch (1 Lethal)

Notes: The Storyteller should modify these traits as necessary to more accurately represent the individual spirits the Wangateur calls back from Oblivion