[WOD] Blood, Sorcery, and Necromancy

Mr. Bane · Post by **Mr. Bane** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 4:44 am

In World Of Darkness these are three distinct fields of Vampire magic. The problem is that White Wolf tried to make each of these spheres of knowledge special every time they came up in a book. We end up with a lot of variance and a lot of redundancy. Which ones to keep, though? Mind you this is from both oWOD and nWOD, as it really doesn't matter.

(The descriptions are coppied from some wikiwebsite, excuse the crappyness)

Sorcery

Code: Select all

Ahranite Sorcery&#58; Dark arts practiced by the Princes of the Fallen City version of VII
Akhu&#58; otherwise known as Setite Sorcery, as a brand of Blood Magic practiced by the Followers of Set, but is not inherent to their Blood.
Daimoinon&#58; is an Infernal Discipline possessed by the Bloodline known as the Baali.
Dark Thaumaturgy&#58; is an Infernal Discipline granted to Vampires by Demons, in exchange for what remains of their already-damned souls.
Koldunic&#58; Sorcery practicioners, known as Koldun are solely members of the Tzimisce Clan, and are either extremely Ancient or extremely young. As such, they are also extremely rare.
Striga&#58; is an infernal Discipline associated with secret witch-cults in the dark ages of Europe. It encompasses hexes and dark connections to the natural world.
Theban Sorcery&#58; The dark miracles performed by the Sanctified within the Lancea Sanctum.
Zagovny&#58; Sanguine witchcraft practiced by the Vedma bloodline.

Necromancy

Code: Select all

Carrefour&#58; Necromantic discipline of the Apollinaire bloodline allowing one to see and enter the world of the dead.
Cattiveria&#58; Necromantic discipline practiced by the Sangiovanni bloodline.
Deimos&#58; is a Discipline created by the Lamia in their research of the dead and Lilith. It provides vampires with some control over their own lifeless forms as well as dark spirits and the auspices of the Dark Mother.
Getsumei&#58; Necromantic discipline of the Burakumin bloodline.
Memento Mori&#58; Death reading discipline meaning "Remember the dead," practiced by the Osites bloodline.
Mortis&#58; is rooted in the control and manipulation of death. More specifically, Mortis is a form of magic dealing with corpses and their conditions after death.
Necromancy&#58; possessed by Clan Giovanni and the Harbingers of Skulls and Nagaraja Bloodlines. Prior to revised edition, Necromancy was possessed by the Giovanni and the Kiasyd Bloodline. Variations, such as Voudoun Necromancy have been known to occasionally manifest among the Samedi and Serpents of the Light. Mortis was the precursor to Necromancy in the dark ages.
Thanatosis&#58; a twsted, almost Necromantic discipline practiced by the Samedi Bloodline.
Wanga&#58; is a Voudoun school of Blood Magic which largely blurs the lines between Necromancy and Thaumaturgy. It is chiefly practiced by the Serpents of the Light and a few Samedi.

Blood Magic

Code: Select all

Crúac&#58; The blood magic practiced by the Acolytes of the Circle of the Crone
Lithopedia&#58; Blood rituals that exploit the bond between Kindred and their land practiced by the Család bloodline.
Nahuallotl&#58; is a disquieting school of Blood Magic which takes largely from ancient Aztec and Mayan practices. This discipline is almost completely unknown, just like it's practicioners, the Tlacique.
Sadhana&#58; an indian-based school of Blood Magic, practiced chiefly by the Setite Bloodline known as the Daitya though there is no reason why a fair number of Indian Ravnos would not also know this Discipline.
Sakti Pata&#58; Blood manipulation discipline practiced by the Amara Havana bloodline.
Thaumaturgy&#58; possessed solely by Clan Tremere. While different 'schools' of Blood Magic exist, only Hermetic Blood Magic is technically declared Thaumaturgy, as many others have their own names.
Veneficia&#58; Blood rituals matching those practiced as Crúac, of the Roman Cult of Augurs.
Vodoun&#58; Dark blood magic that is shared by the Haitian Kindred and those of modern New Orleans.
Dur-An-Ki&#58; originally just called Assamite Sorcery, is a bizarre form of Blood Magic practiced by the Sorcerer Caste of Clan Assamite. This school of Blood Magic is not exclusive to them, however, and many Vampires from the middle-east have at least passing knowledge of this Discipline.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 4:58 am

It's worse than that, because many of those have subschools and alternate versions. And you're just plain missing some such as Nihilistics and "Spirit Thaumaturgy." It doesn't help that not only is there a lot of redundancy (I don't know how many different versions of "you can see wraiths now" there are), but the power levels are wildly different.

Basically what you're going to want to do is to decide how much conceptual space you want to give to magic paths, and then hack up powers mechanically to fill those power paths. Once you have that you can start pillaging the more awesome names. I mean, you aren't going to call anything Thanatosis no matter what you do (that was the discipline most likely to be called "Halitosis" when being made fun of by more major clans).

-Username17

Mr. Bane · Post by **Mr. Bane** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 5:18 am

Sorcery :: Sorcery Disciplines are the dark arts that comes with a heavy price. The Demon Magic users must take a toll on their soul by making packs with Demons but gain the invaluable ability to burn their enemies with a damning hellfire that sears any to the bone. A Black Magic user might give you that Love Potion .9 but at the end of the duration you turn into a wart covered troll, any gift is a double edged sword.

Demon Magic: Fire and brimstone. This bloodline isn't for the weak nor the cowardly. Having to deal with Infernals, damnation, and demons packs.
[*]Drawing From: Sunnikuse, Daimoinon, Ahranite Sorcery, Akhu, Dark Thaumaturgy, Koldunic, and Theban Sorcery.

Black Magic: Witch like abilities, from changing peoples luck to shape shifting into snakes or bats. Hexes and curses.
[*]Drawing From: Animalism, Serpentis, Serpentis, Striga, Amphivena, and Zagovny

Blood Magic: Sacrifice, burning blood, and generally bloodletting yourself or others in order to do crazy and strange things.
[*]Drawing From: Nahuallotl, Sakti Pata, Thaumaturgy, Dur-An-Ki, Lithopedia, Crúac, Veneficia

Necromancy: Powers to control and manipulation the dead (But not undead), allowing one to see and enter the world of the dead.
[*]Drawing From: Carrefour, Cattiveria, Getsumei, Memento Mori, Mortis, Necromancy, and Thanatosis

Edit: Alright, all 4 under one roof.

Mr. Bane · Post by **Mr. Bane** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 6:05 am

I was having trouble with how...Sprawled Black Magic was. Each other sorcery focused on one specific thing, but Black Magic had it's hands in shapeshifting, curses, and changing luck.

I decided to make it a Universal Discipline.

CatharzGodfoot · Post by **CatharzGodfoot** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 7:32 am

The thing about how you have Blood Magic set up is we know how to do it, but not what it does. Once you figure that out, you might be able to pare down "Black Magic" a bit.

Mr. Bane · Post by **Mr. Bane** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 7:45 am

Was going with very Aztec type Sacrifice/blood let.

CatharzGodfoot · Post by **CatharzGodfoot** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 3:48 pm

Mr. Bane wrote:Was going with very Aztec type Sacrifice/blood let.

So magically you can cut people's hearts out and make the sun rise? I don't know, seems a bit underpowered. After all, wouldn't vampires prefer if the sun didn't rise?

MartinHarper · Post by **MartinHarper** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 4:29 pm

CatharzGodfoot wrote:So magically you can cut people's hearts out and make the sun rise? I don't know, seems a bit underpowered. After all, wouldn't vampires prefer if the sun didn't rise?

Looking at Wikipedia, you actually cut people's hearts out to prevent the universe collapsing after 52 years. The sun rising is just a symptom of the world not ending, for now.

You can also cut an adulterer to prevent your turkey chicks dieing of filth-death when they walk into your house, or burn people alive to keep cities safe from plague. Finally, if you burn children alive, and make them cry beforehand, you can bring rain and a good harvest.

Mr. Bane · Post by **Mr. Bane** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 5:28 pm

Ah, "what" not "how". Got confused in my sleep. Lets see...

Mr. Bane · Post by **Mr. Bane** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 6:02 pm

Blood Bond
By using your own Vitae points you can remove stress points from another Vampire, on a successful Blood with a Difficulty equal to the amount of Stress Points.

Walk of Caine
Requires Blood Bond
Cut your Vitae in half to give that amount to another Vampire's Blood Skill for the scene.

Bloody Bezoar
Requires Blood Bond, Walk of Caine
By spending one Fate Point and inflicting Stress Points on yourself or a thing you own you can, remotely, inflict up to half as many points of stress as your Blood Skill.

Sanguine Analysis
On a Blood roll the Blood Magic user may determine personal information about the target through his blood. Must be within sight.

Peer Through The Red Mist
Requires Sanguine Analysis
As Scour For Information, but remotely.