Custom Path of Enlightenment
Some chronicles allow for their players to develop customized powers for their characters. The following is a compilation of player created custom content in OWBN. At this time, custom content that is created and/or used by vampire PC's is required to be listed.
Unlife in the Sword is dark. It's monstrous. The Beast takes hold, pushing the thinking mind down with instinct and hunger and hatred... and it's often celebrated. Mortals are to be drunk dry and thrown away, or they are to be sacrificed to dark gods or to the ritae of the day. Balance is often the real sacrifice.
The adherents of the Path of Harmony felt this, but given a declaration of Heresy, most simply left rather than play the political game it would involve to fight.
One Cainite, hearing only years later of the Path, thought that it should be an acceptable way to live, but not wishing to be declared a heretic, sought wisdom from a priest on how to find the correct path. This priest was a druid following the Path of Eightfold Wheel. A new path was forged, a balance between Eightfold Wheel and Harmony, between physical and spirit, god and man, mortal and Beast, and between nature and self.
Virtues
The virtues of this path are very personal. The sources of the basis of this path are Eightfold Wheel and Harmony, which potentially hold different views and paths to fulfilling its tenets.
Travelers of this path may choose [Conviction or Conscience] and [Instinct or Self Control] as appropriate. Each holds advantages and disadvantages for maintaining a sound morality in the Path of Balance.
Hierarchy of sins
10) Failing to spend time alone in the silence of nature
Without nature, there is no balance. Be thankful and respect it.
9) Failing to hunt when hungry [or hunting to excess]
Hunger and gluttony are both distractions.
8) Failing to honor the spirits of nature.
Beings ofnature, both spiritual and physical, are necessary. Give them their due.
7) Allowing gross disruption of the natural world.
You are part of nature. Do not let that balance be destroyed.
6) Acting too human or too bestial.
This is the epitome of balance.
5) Acting to upset the balance of nature.
Worse than allowing it is to upset it oneself.
4) Failing to honor the gods
Remember what brought you into being and be thankful.
3) Refusing to kill if necessary [or killing for no reason]
Death and killing are a part of nature, but neither man nor animal should seek to upset the balance of life too strongly.
2) Grossly upsetting the natural world (vandalism, arson, etc).
The circle of life comes back. Nature will be here long after man is gone. Do what is necessary for survival, but do not seek destruction of nature for its own sake.
1) Failure to seek self-knowledge.
Do not delude yourself. Without this key understanding, the rest is meaningless.