Custom Blood Magic: Path

Practitioners of Yamaloka Sadhana do not dominate the dead, nor do they summon them as tools—they walk the space between, where karma stagnates and Oblivion festers. Their role is that of psychopomp, karmic purifier, and warrior ascetic who resists the pull of Oblivion, not with brute force, but with spiritual order.

Unlike Necromancers, Yamaloka Sadhus do not manipulate ghosts like currency. They guide, banish, or confront them when corrupted, often through self-purifying suffering or symbolic reenactments of karmic debt.

•Echo Recognition
By entering a brief trance and reciting a mantra of remembrance, the Sadhu can detect spiritual residue left by the dead. This does not pierce the Shroud or expose ghosts directly—instead, it reveals memories of trauma or karmic stains left behind by spirits or Specters.

System:  The character makes a Static Mental Challenge retested with Occult against a difficulty of 8.  If they succeed, the character can sense that a location or person was recently touched by death or corrupted, revealing itself in the form of flashes of insight pertaining to the moments that caused the corruption or death. A murder weapon, last words gurgled out by a victim are all common. Supernatural events perpetrated by a corrupted werewolf might be symbolized with the sounds of yipping and a green moon. What is seen is ultimately up to the storyteller.

••Flesh-to-Ash
Through rigorous fasting, ascetic postures, and mantras, the Sadhu transforms themselves into a symbol of death incarnate. For the duration of this power, they radiate a repellent aura to the dead, not through fear—but through non-attachment.

System:  Once activated and for the next scene or an hour, any Specter or Oblivion tainted creature must spend 1 temporary Willpower trait and make a Willpower challenge with difficulty equal to their own Being to approach the Sadhu in any way for the scene. Even if they succeed, any Specter who enters loses one point of Angst each turn.

•••Burden of the Black Thread
The Sadhu may bind a Specter or corrupted soul to its unresolved karmic burden, forcing it to relive symbolic moments of its past misdeeds. This stuns the entity into a metaphysical confrontation with its own actions.

System:  The character makes a contested Mental Challenge retested with Occult against a Specter or Oblivion related creature.  If they succeed the target suffers 1 level of unsoakable bashing damage per turn for 3 turns as it symbolically burns in the fire of unresolved karma.  Additionally the target must make a Static Willpower Challenge at difficulty 8 during this time, should they fail, their Psyche rises to the surface. Should the creature not possess a Psyche, it is unable to act for that turn.

••••Lotus of Inversion
The Sadhu performs a complex mudra-meditation and creates a ritual field in which all death-aspected energies are inverted—hate becomes sorrow, despair becomes longing, violence becomes mourning. This field distorts the metaphysical link Specters have to Oblivion.

System: The character makes a contested Mental Challenge retested with Occult against any specter or oblivion tainted creature that comes within ten feet of them for the next scene or an hour.  If the target fails the challenge, they lose one Shadow Based power they may possess named by the caster for the next scene or an hour and may not spend Angst for one turn.

••••• Cycle Severance Invocation
This ultimate act cuts a soul’s tie to the cycle—either severing its karmic anchor and sending it onward (to Lethe or beyond), or flinging a Specter into the void of non-rebirth. The Sadhu essentially forcibly reincarnates or casts out the entity.

System:  The character engaged the target Specter or Oblivion related creature in a contested Mental Challenge retested with occult.  If they succeed The entity is banished from the area for one night. If the character spends a second willpower when casting this power and succeed the creature is discarnated—unable to manifest for 3 nights.  Finally, if the caster spends a third willpower at the time of using this power, they may make a second challenge. If successful, the entity is drawn into dissolution: a place beyond the Tempest (or Lethe for non-corrupted souls). For Specters, this is a spiritual unmaking unless saved by some external force. All that remains in their place is a statue of white jade.