Produktbeschreibung
Nicht nur die westliche Magie verändert die Welt... auch andere Kulturen praktizieren magische Rituale und dieser Quellenband beleuchtet daher alternative Formen der Blutmagie von erschreckenden Ausmaßen!
For God's Sake, Why?
Why write another book about Thaumaturgy? Haven't we done enough damage already? Let's face it, Thaumaturgy has a reputation as a way for powergamers to get away with anything. Once you look at Thaumaturgy in detail, though, it becomes rather less of a bargain. Thaumaturgy is perhaps the most difficult of all Disciplines to learn but the reasons make great hooks for stories!
The Student's Quest
How do you learn Thaumaturgy? You cannot take night classes in blood magic at the local college. If you come from a vampire lineage that systematically teaches blood magic to its members, such as the Tremere or the Assamite sorcerers, your sire can teach you or arrange for a tutor. Vampires from other lineages must find a teacher on their own, and blood magicians do not advertise in the Yellow Pages.
What does the teacher demand in return for lessons? Instruction takes time - and every new blood magician becomes a potential rival for the teacher. At the very least, a thaumaturge might demand payment in cash, boons or immediate services. Surely, a sincere disciple would not mind hunting for her master and performing domestic chores for the duration of her apprenticeship? Oh, and perhaps fetching a few oddments, such as the skull of Cardinal Richelieu and a sample of the prince's vitae? As a hedge against betrayal, a teacher may also insist that the student accept a blood bond or some other supernatural compulsion.
Sooner or later, a student moves beyond her first teacher's resources. Suppose you want to learn the Pavis of Foul Presence and your teacher-mentor does not know it: You have to find someone else who does. Your mentor might not like you consulting other thaumaturges and perhaps passing on her trade secrets. The other thaumaturge might not like you passing on his path, ritual or other fruits of his mystical labors to your regular teacher. Studying under more than one master demands either great discretion or great diplomacy.
A thaumaturge can also seek the rare and hidden texts that reveal secrets of blood magic. Perhaps you can find the tomb of an ancient blood-sorcerer and raid his stash of grimoires and hope that he really is still in torpor and did not leave too many occult guardians. Perhaps a blood-cult carved the instructions for a potent spell on the walls of its hidden temple. Once in a while, a book of blood magic even appears at elite auctions of art and antiquities, such as Sotheby's of London, provoking whirlwinds of intrigue among Cainite sorcerers.
A character can even try to research her own paths and rituals based on the legends and theories of her occult tradition. The Tremere excel beyond all other clans at the creation of new Thaumaturgy, but other blood magicians may innovate as well. Research takes years or even decades of experimentation. Magical experiments are frustrating when they fail and can be dangerous when they almost fail, as illustrated by the famous story of The Sorcerer's Apprentice.
Both research and ritual often call for special ingredients that may present further challenges. Mere financial costs are typically the least of a thaumaturge's problems, though if a ritual consumes a flawless diamond every time you cast it, you might have to work on your cash flow. Ingredients may be intrinsically rare, such as wood from a 1000-year-old tree; dangerous or illegal to collect, such as a human child's heart; or come with mystical conditions, such as St. John's Wort gathered at the dark of the moon. Even the closest substitutions reduce a ritual's effectiveness.
The social barriers between lineages of vampires and schools of Thaumaturgy magnify other difficulties. The Tremere seldom teach their Hermetic style of Thaumaturgy to vampires outside their clan. Some Tremere hunt such outsiders, to preserve their secrets and supremacy.
The Thaumaturgical styles in Blood Sacrifice lack such close associations with a single lineage, but clan, ethnic and religious barriers remain. The proud Assamites, for instance, often view other vampires as unworthy of their magic. The Native American vampires who practice Nahuallotl tend to mistrust vampires who do not share their mortal ancestry. Students of Wanga generally must devote themselves to one of the Afro-Caribbean religions. Sadhana masters reputedly teach their art only to fellow undead brahmins. The Followers of Set care less for ancestry than members of many clans, but many will insist that would-be students of their sorcery also devote themselves to the Dark God. An "outsider" may have to pass grueling tests of loyalty and devotion from a prospective mentor or else perpetrate an exceedingly dangerous fraud.
We urge players and Storytellers to view these restrictions as opportunities. The search for magic tuition, lore and ingredients can justify all sorts of stories. Does swashbuckling adventure - "Indiana Jones By Night" - appeal to you? Search for that lost temple or tomb. Do you prefer creepy, Lovecraftian horror full of hideous secrets and Slimy Unspeakables? What luck, a reclusive vampire savant in a decaying backwoods village is said to know the ritual you seek and what an odd statuette he keeps on his mantelpiece. If you enjoy razor-edged intrigue, the challenge of opposed mentors should provide plenty of opportunities. Players can certainly take their fill of personal horror as their characters learn just how far they will go for the sake of magical power.
Reasons to Research
Like the vampires of the World of Darkness, the styles of magic in Blood Sacrifice are based on a blend of folklore and fantasy - the legends and fiction of the source cultures, as well as their actual occult beliefs. This reinforces the illusion that the World of Darkness could be a hidden side to our real world.
More importantly, this gives you more game material than we could ever publish. Libraries and bookstores hold treasuries of lore - everything from collections of folktales to scholarly anthropological studies - that can inspire more Paths, rituals, characters and stories.
Remember, though, that blood magic never precisely imitates the forms of mortal occult or religious beliefs. Don't feel too bound by "realism" (a dodgy concept for a game about vampires). Filter the myths and legends through the vampiric condition and the rules for Thaumaturgy to make something new that works within your game.
The Challenge from Beyond
The styles of Thaumaturgy described in Blood Sorcery come from regions outside the "developed world" that most players and characters know. As Western vampires meet their counterparts in (and from) other lands, they encounter unfamiliar blood magic as well. Even in the Western world, the Tremere now face a minor (but growing) challenge to their long-assumed monopoly on Thaumaturgy. For centuries in the Camarilla, a vampire who sought sorcerous aid had to pay whatever price the local Tremere charged, and smile. The Tremere antitribu had the Sabbat over a barrel in much the same way.
Upheavals in both sects and among independent clans have broken that monopoly. The destruction of the Tremere antitribu forces the Sabbat to shop for alternative magical resources. The civil war among the Assamites has launched a diaspora of their blood magicians who petition both the Sabbat and Camarilla for protection. The Followers of Set vend their ancient occult prowess for their own obscure reasons. Foreign princes court the blood-brahmins just as mortal corporations recruit computer programmers from India.
In both fear and fascination, the Tremere seek to master the secret arts of these other thaumaturges. Long restricted to Europe and its colonies, Clan Tremere now seeks to expand its base. Globalization is the new buzzword around the chantries. Everyone else is doing it, and the ever-competitive Tremere vow not to be left behind.
In Africa and India, the Middle East and Central America, Tremere savants ponder obscure clues within ancient myths and excavate long-lost temples and tombs. Students kneel before undead sages, begging to learn their mystic lore, and cunning elders weave vicious schemes to capture those same sages and extract secrets through torture.
Other Tremere expand their clan beyond its European roots more directly, by Embracing childer from among these foreign populations, from Mexican curanderos to Indian holy men. Such childer bring an insider's view of their culture's magical traditions. The Tremere hope they can adapt native spells and conjurations just as the clan's founders adapted the Hermetic magic of medieval Europe. Thus will Clan Tremere assemble and synthesize all the magic in the world - or so they hope.
Some among the Tremere doubt this world-spanning program. The foreign Thaumaturgy may be too, well, foreign. To learn another culture's magic, Tremere students find they must learn and accept that culture's beliefs. Then, however are they still Tremere? Can the clan's elders trust them? In seeking to encompass all blood sorcery within itself, will Clan Tremere shatter itself beyond hope of reunion?
Blood Sacrifice
Many impediments to learning non-Western Thaumaturgy boil down to religion. The Tremere clan culture is not very religious. Since ancient times, the West has denigrated and demonized magic. The Romans, so promiscuously tolerant of foreign religions, frequently launched waves of suppression against astrologers, fortune-tellers and all sorts of magicians. The Jewish Law likewise condemned all sorcery except the mystical Kabbalah. Christianity inherited a suspicion of magic from both sources. St. Augustine of Hippo declared that an appeal to any supernatural power other than God Almighty forged an implicit pact with Satan.
When European scholars rediscovered Greek and Roman learning in the later Middle Ages, they recovered the ancients' astrology, mysticism and magic - chiefly the Corpus Hermeticum - along with Greco-Roman law, medicine, math and rhetoric. Scholars pursued this occult lore at their peril. Pioneering Hermetics adopted a variety of dodges to forestall the inquisitor. Some wrapped their spells in prayer, and proclaimed that all magic worked by the sufferance of God. Others denied the mystical aspect of their spells, describing them as "natural magic" that exploited subtle forces of the planets, the elements and the human spirit. The founders of Clan Tremere came from this culture. Both as mortals and vampires, they saw their magic as a practical craft with no religious implications.
Not every culture separates and opposes magic and religion. Egyptian priests, Hindu brahmins and voudoun houngans combine the roles of priest and magician. Some anthropologists say that, "A priest has a congregation; a magician has a clientele." Many occult practitioners have both. A practical, diligent Tremere must make a significant conceptual leap to learn the forms of sorcery described in Blood Sacrifice. Each magical tradition intertwines with a religious tradition. A student who says, "Never mind the sermon, just teach me how to cast the spell" does not learn much. A bokkor or brahmin believes his magic works because of his connection to the divine. He could no more divorce his magic from his faith than he could divorce the right side of his body from his left.
Some Tremere do make that leap. They learn to believe in the divine power behind the blood sorcery. Not all of them return to their clan to explain what they have learned. |
