Akhu is a perversion of ancient Egyptian religious magic that exploits the conflict and imperfection inherent in all things. While opinions differ among practitioners over whether they are petitioning their Antediluvian or some other being, non-ritual applications manifest as whispers of rebellion or weakening of order that might make temptations easier or objects more fragile.

Keystone: Weakening

Common Keywords: Emotion, Size, Group, Process, Range

Default Opposed Defence: n/a

Limitations: By default, the power is touch based and can only improve the chances of influencing behaviour or overcoming resistance rather than actively compelling or destroying. Where an existing connection exists (for example, sire–childe) it can be used to actually whisper a few words only they can hear but does not grant any ability to hear in return.

Cost: All applications require a hunger check.

Ritual Qualities: Defiling, Representation, Sacred Space

Example Akhu Disciplines

While the Beast is very different from even the most bestial of humans, it is not mindless. Animalism allows the user to consciously apply the Beast’s understanding of instinct and behaviour to communicate with animals. While most users quickly learn to use the Beast to assert dominance, allowing them to command an animal rather than simply ask, some are able to draw deeply enough on the Beast’s connection to all animals that they temporarily shift their consciousness into an animal.

Keystone: Beast Speech

Common Keywords: Command, Summon, Soothe, Incite

Default Attribute: Social

Default Opposed Defence: Resolve

Limitations: by default, the power requires the user makes eye-contact with a single animal.

While the results of this power might be represented out-of-character as a conversation in English as a convenience, it does not actually grant animals an understanding of human language or concepts, so cannot communicate information outside an animal’s natural senses or experiences.

The power translates between the natural communication of different species so does not, for example, allow two vampires to speak to each other in “wolf”. This power also does not work against the dead.

Cost: All applications require a hunger check.

Auspex expands and extends the user’s senses. Initially, this only sharpens the user’s existing perception, but can expand beyond mundane awareness altogether granting the ability to glimpse thoughts or even send the user’s mind into another realm.

With an appropriate keyword, the user can make a Passive test (no hunger test required) to identify that something is being supernaturally hidden, altered, or is otherwise not what it seems nearby. This does not allow the character to know what is being concealed or how, only that something is.

With an appropriate keyword, the user may make an Active test (hunger test required) to fully pierce an illusion.

The user is free to attempt to actively penetrate concealments after attempting a passive sensing; this counts as another use of the discipline rather than a continuation of the first.

Unlike White Wolf canon, the comparative levels of Auspex and the concealing power (for example, Obfuscate) do not result in automatically succeeding in or failing to penetrate supernatural concealment.

Keystone: Sense

Common Keywords: Aura, Telepathy, Self, Piercing Falsehood, Distance, Small Group

Default Attribute: Mental

Default Opposed Defence: Willpower

Limitations: The power only grants awareness of what exists, so, for example, might allow a user to perceive details where another might only see vague shapes but would not allow them to see in total darkness.

Cost: Using the passive power is free. Other applications require a hunger check.

This power allows the user to summon bursts of supernatural speed. Initially, these assist with simple physical actions such as running; however, skilled users can develop finer control allowing them, for example, to display unnatural grace by correcting subtle imperfections in their movements too fast for observers to notice.

As a passive effect in combat, the user gains one recheck per dot that can be used on any test in that combat (including a test they have just rechecked using this ability). This application is per combat, not per round, and the Discipline cannot be activated more than once in the same combat.

As an active effect in combat, the user may make a hunger test to add one metre per dot of Celerity to the maximum movement they can make in a single action.

Keystone: Speed

Common Keywords: Dodge, Like Lightning, Reactive, Running

Default Attribute: Physical

Default Opposed Defence: n/a

Limitations: this power cannot gain you extra actions in combat.

Cost: Using the passive power is free. Other applications require a hunger check.

This power allows the user to impose the chaos in their own mind on the world. Initially, this is an uncontrolled burst, enflaming the existing emotions or insanities of whoever the user is currently focused on; however, users who immerse themselves deeper can inflict new misperceptions or even draw forth strange insights from their own. Users—or even the same user from moment to moment—differ on whether this power defies reality or exposes it as it truly is.

Keystone: Madness

Common Keywords: Visions, Passion, Confusion, Inflict

Default Attribute: Mental

Default Opposed Defence: Willpower

Limitations: a character whose ambitions and tolls are all currently dormant cannot use Dementation.

Cost: All applications require a hunger check.

Dominate infuses a vampire’s voice with supernatural resonance, compelling a listener to obey. While the most basic expression of this power is limited to simple commands to act (or refrain from acting) immediately, some experienced users can set conditions for a command to activate or impose some control over thought and memory.

Keystone: Command

Common Keywords: Memories, Delay, Conditioning, Extracting Truth

Default Attribute: Mental

Default Opposed Defence: Willpower.

Limitations: By default, any use of the Discipline works on a single target, requires eye-contact with the target to initiate, and requires speaking loudly enough the words could be heard by someone nearby.

Applications of Dominate fail against vampires of lower generation than the user, or against uses of Dominate by vampires of lower generation than the user. The user does not know that this is why the attempt has failed. This power does not work on animals or the dead.

Cost: All applications require a hunger check.

Before recorded history, the stars and everything beneath them were set on their course, and ancient celestial beings bound to eternal pacts. Dur-an-Ki relies on the proper interpretation of these secrets to draw forth a glimpse of the future, or speak to and command deva, asura, djinn, and other such spirits.

Keystone: Immemorial Patterns

Common Keywords: Subtlety, Curse, Bless, Distance, Time

Limitations: The power relies on existing patterns and contracts rather than allowing the ritualist to create their own; thus, non-ritual applications require sight of the stars or the presence of a spirit.

Cost: All applications require a hunger check.

Ritual Qualities: Propitious Time, Ecstatic Trance, Spirit Bargain

Example Dur-An-Ki Rituals

The user’s body is infused with a supernatural resilience that offers protection against not only mundane wounds but even those caused by the most powerful banes of vampires such as sunlight. While most practitioners can only protect their flesh itself, some who have mastered the Discipline can extend the protection to clothes or other small items on their person.

As a passive effect, the user gains the ability to counter one level of damage taken during a combat for each dot in the Discipline. This is per combat, not per round, and this effect cannot be activated more than once in the same combat.

As an active effect, the user may make a hunger check to add half their Fortitude rating (rounded up) when testing to avoid damage; if the user could not normally test to avoid damage, they may test using only their Fortitude.

Keystone: Resilience.

Common Keywords: Immovable, Undamaged Appearance, Interpose, Endure, Reduced Penalties

Default Attribute: Physical

Default Opposed Defence: n/a

Limitations: Only protects the user’s body. This range may be expanded to touch with keywords.

Cost: Using the passive power is free. Other applications require a hunger check.

Koldunism draws on the subtle energies of the land, allowing a user to extend their lordship over their physical domain to nature spirits and similar beings. Unlike the complex pacts or symbolic associations used to obtain service from spirits in some magical practices, the Koldun commands or charms obedience by raw force of personality.

Keystone: Elemental Spirits

Keywords: Repel, Attract, Suffocate, Spark

Limitations: Without ritual, the power cannot affect sentient, non-spiritual targets (e.g. humans). Non-ritual uses of the Discipline can only call on the spirit of an item to perform a clear and simple task that is central to the item’s purpose; thus, for example, a Koldun could command the flame of a torch to burn many times hotter for a moment or demand that a rope knot itself, but could not command a sword to float through the air.

Cost: All applications require a hunger check.

Ritual Qualities: Ownership, The Land, Inhuman

Example Koldunism Rituals

Necromancy breaches the division between the realms of life and death, either by the embodiment of a divine hierarchy or affront to this natural order. While different ritualists may use different mythic structures or socio-religious perspectives, the underlying power is the same, allowing practitioners to see death energies or briefly shape them.

Keystone: Dead

Common Keywords: Other Senses, Veil, Bindings, Damage, Shared Senses, Split Perception

Limitations: Attuning sight to death energy or the realm of the dead replaces mundane senses, leaving the user blind, deaf and such to normal events in the area, and makes the user obvious to ghosts and other inhabitants of the realms of the dead. Attempts to control death energy typically last a few seconds and achieve only the most crude results (such as random thrashing of a severed limb); at their best they might mimic some aspects of life but will never restore it.

Cost: All applications require a hunger check.

Ritual Qualities: Hierarchy of Authority, Violation of Taboo, Liminal Zone

Example Necromancy Rituals

Both similar and utterly opposed to Presence, Obfuscate allows a user to dampen others' awareness of them or change how they are perceived. While the user is not actually invisible, those around them will ignore them as long as the user does not take any actions other than moving around; this extends to affected characters unconsciously moving around the user rather than bumping into them but not to actively moving aside to allow the user to pass.

Keystone: Ignored

Common Keywords: False Appearance, Object Manipulation, Hidden Pocket, Whispers, Selective

Default Attribute: Physical

Default Opposed Defence: Obfuscate can be detected or pierced by successful Auspex check. However, unlike White Wolf canon, the respective levels of the disciplines do not automatically grant success or failure - see Auspex to understand how the two disciplines interact.

Limitations: by default, the user cannot activate the power if someone can see them.

By default, the power only conceals the user’s actual presence, so will not conceal any evidence the user leaves once the user departs the area.

By default, the user cannot exclude potential victims from the effect.

Cost: All applications require a hunger check.

Obtenebration reveals to the user the unnerving truth that shadows are not merely the absence of light, but the intersection with the Abyss, a realm of active darkness. Initially this knowledge can be used to manipulate shadows but more experienced users can call upon aspects of the realm behind them.

Keystone: Shadows

Common Keywords: Control, Entangling, Shroud, Suffocating, Summoning

Default Attribute: Mental

Default Opposed Defence: Reaction

Limitations: By default this Discipline requires line of sight.

Cost: All applications require a hunger check.

Potence infuses the user’s body with supernatural force, granting them strength well in excess of what their muscles should allow. Experienced users might be able to better shape this power, allowing more complex applications than raw physical force, or exploit the dichotomy between ability and appearance for subtle social advantage.

In combat as a passive effect, the user gains the ability to add one to the damage done by an attack a number of times in the combat equal to the level of the Discipline. This is per combat not per round, can be used no more than twice on any one attack, and the passive effect cannot be activated more than once in the same combat.

In combat as an active effect, the user may make a hunger check to add half their Potence dots (round up) to their rating for any attack or feeding action.

Keystone: Strength

Common Keywords: Destructive, Bounding, Immobile, Piercing, Intimidating,

Default Attribute: Physical

Default Opposed Defence: n/a

Cost: Using the passive power is free. Other applications require a hunger check.

Both similar and utterly opposed to Obfuscate, Presence allows a user to amplify and shape another’s awareness of them, temporarily turning both strongly held opinions and casual indifference into fear or reverence. While the effect is best suited to evoking emotional reactions in those currently interacting with the user, some skilled users have learnt to inflame the resonance of past interactions, affecting those outside their presence.

Keystone: Awe

Common Keywords: Entrancing, Summoning, Physical Intimidation, Jester, Fear

Default Attribute: Social

Default Opposed Defence: Resolve

Limitations: while the power can support attempts to persuade or compel, it cannot in itself force a target to follow a specific instruction.

By default, the power only works on targets that are in the user’s presence; the power cannot be used on a target the user has never interacted with.

This power does not work on animals or the dead.

Cost: All applications require a hunger check.

All who are infused with vampire blood feel the struggle between their reason and the Beast’s instinct; Protean allows the user to consciously draw on the Beast’s resonance with predators, gaining the senses, natural weapons, or other traits of animals. Some experienced users can draw deeply enough to transform their entire bodies or even extend the alteration beyond mere animals into the natural world itself.

In combat, the rending and tearing caused by Protean-created natural weapons (claws, horns, shark-like maws and such) will force the defender to make a hunger check or lose blood, if the attack causes at least 1 damage.

Keystone: Shapeshifting

Common Keywords: Rending, Tracking, Swift, Gaseous, Subterranean, Aquatic, Sheltered, Animal Form

Default Attribute: Physical

Default Opposed Defence: n/a

Limitations: only alters the user’s body. A user can only have one Protean change active at any one time. By default, complete transformation into an animal is limited to bats or wolves; additional predators may be added as keywords.

Cost: All applications require a hunger check.

The user’s blood resonates with a fragment of the judgement at the heart of the vampire curse. By pushing this echo outward, they may create an area of silence to free those within from the distractions that prevent self-judgement, or allow the imperfect to contest or flee justice. Alternatively, by focusing this echo into a single body part and touching a victim, they may cause that victim to feel the weight of their sins, sapping their physical abilities.

Some users of the Discipline have learned to strengthen aspects of this echo so it remains in their blood after it has left them, allowing them to hurl their blood as a weapon or have an effect trigger after a delay. Truly experienced users can sometimes even enhance the positive aspects of justice enough to ease unfair burdens on the innocent.

Attacks utilising the poison keyword do an additional level of damage in combat if they cause at least 1 level of damage to a defender.

Users with the poison keyword who are not in Torpor may choose to cause one level of damage to someone feeding from them.

Keystone: Judgement

Common Keywords: Poison, Simple Criteria, Ranged, Transfer, Delayed

Default Attribute: Social

Default Opposed Defence: Silencing an area automatically affects everyone and everything within that radius around the user (including the user). Attacking a specific target requires an opposed attack test against their Reaction.

Limitations: by default, the user cannot affect a target more than 20 feet away. By default, each use of this power cannot last longer than an hour.

Cost: All applications require a hunger check.

To outside observers, Serpentis can appear a mere variation of Protean. However, to the Children of Set it is a sacrament, granted to them as priest-warriors of the Egyptian God of Rebellion and Storms, allowing them to take on minor aspects of the serpent or perfected god-king, such as a snake’s ability to navigate by taste or subtle authority of a rightful ruler. More blessed (or at least experienced) users might take on stronger traits such as the protective aspects of pharaonic funeral rites or even the legendary form of a god or monster from Egyptian legend.

Attacks utilising the poison keyword do an additional level of damage in combat if they cause at least 1 level of damage to a defender.

In combat, the rending and tearing caused by natural weapons (hooked fangs, gaping maws and such) will cause the defender to make a hunger check or lose blood if the attack causes at least 1 damage.

Keystone: Snake God

Common Keywords: Protection, Transform, Poison, Beguile

Default Attribute: Social

Default Opposed Defence: Varies depend on application

Limitations: by default, the user temporarily transforms themselves rather than directly affecting others.

Cost: All applications require a hunger check.

Valeren (known to some as Obeah) grants the user a limited power to affect the soul and its connection to the physical body. Shaped at the fundamental level by the very thing it can shape, the power grants users an advantage to healing, fighting, or remaining a neutral observer depending on their life’s central purpose.

Keystone: Soul

Common Keywords: Sense, Sleep, Shield, Armoured, Peacemaker, Breath

Default Attribute: Social

Default Opposed Defence: Resolve

Limitations: by default, all applications require touch

When your character learns Valeren, you must pick one of the three flavours of the Soul Keystone (Healer, Warrior, Watcher). This determines the subpath of Valeren they are on and limits how they may apply the power. If they are Salubri, this must be the same as the Subclan that they belong to.

A character may gain additional Soul Keystone flavours with a merit or elder powers; if a character does have more than one, they may use more than one of them on a single application of Valeren, but do not have to.

Cost: All applications require a hunger check.

Note: As soon as a character takes the second level of Valeren, they develop a third eye on their forehead which opens whenever they use a Valeren power. The presence of a third eye must be phys-repped.

Vicissitude grants the user the ability to permanently sculpt flesh and bone, overcoming even a vampire’s usual return to their appearance at their point of death. To begin with, the user can only make cosmetic (if not necessarily conventionally aesthetic) alterations to their own body but more experienced users can alter the abilities of their own and other’s bodies in grotesque and extreme ways.

Keystone: Fleshsculpting.

Common Keywords: Rending, Armoured, Strengthened, Intimidating, Alluring, Warform

Default Attribute: Physical

Default Opposed Defence: Reaction

Limitations: Most applications of the power require that the user physically reshapes the affected areas, preventing them from being used in combat. The power requires touch.

Cost: All applications require a hunger check.

Note: A vampire without Vicissitude may repair Vicissitude alterations by cutting away the affected area and regrowing it. This is more intensive than healing so must be undertaken in downtime and will apply a penalty to the vampire’s test for starting Hunger.