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The Wendigo is a malevolent flesh-eating spirit believed to possess humans that violate the taboo against cannibalism. Once tethered to a human form, the spirit is believed to corrupt the soul until its victim is little more than a beast.

This forbidden ritual was developed by an apprentice Tremere that survived an assault on her chantry shortly before the American Revolution. Badly wounded and depleted to the point of exhaustion, she slipped away to the Great Lakes where she drank from the people that fished and lived there until she began to ritually consume the flesh of her victims. The unknown apprentice noticed that the practice healed her wounds and soothed her will.

The Way of the Wendigo encourages the thaumaturge to sacrifice not only her own blood, but living flesh to recharge herself from the life essence of her victim. Dark magic such as this always comes at a price to the soul. The Beast grows stronger when fed, and those that follow the Way of the Wendigo are no exception. It is said that the original Tremere that created this ritual fell to her Beast.

System

The thaumaturge seeks out a victim that she believes is an example of a virtue that she admires, such as intelligence, purity, or reverence. She must anoint the sacrifice with oil, sage, and ash during an hour long ritual. At the climax of the ritual, the caster murders the victim with the thigh bone of a hanged man and then consumes his flesh.

Consumption of the flesh allows the thaumaturge to absorb the victim’s essence to replenish the needs of her undead body and will. She will feel a rush of drowsiness and will be at -1 to all dice pools for the next hour. However, every ten minutes that the thaumaturge rests, she will regain a point of Willpower and one health level. At the end of the night, if the thaumaturge does not possess the merit Eat Food (V20, p. 480), she is forced to vomit up the excess flesh.

This is a horrific ritual where the sacrifice must knowingly endure the knowledge that he is going to die and then be consumed. Such a heinous action takes a toll on the humanity of the thaumaturge, as

her mind is flooded with flashes of the victim’s life and experiences the agony of her death. The use of this ritual automatically strips a minimum of one Humanity dot from the character’s Humanity rating (to a minimum of 2). Additionally, the Storyteller might require a Conscience roll (difficulty 8). Failure means the loss of an additional Humanity point (which can fall below 2), while a botch could well mean the loss of even more.

The use of this ritual requires a Self-Control roll (difficulty 8). Failure means that the thaumaturge has gained the permanent Flaw Addiction: Human Flesh (V20, p. 482).