Rites & Rituals

Although they have a great mastery of lore and Kindred physiology, most Inconnu are not modernists. This ritual was designed to protect themselves from recently-Embraced neonates and hunters using technological weapons. This ritual creates a circle of magic centered on the caster, into which technology (i.e. any machine more complex or advanced than a crossbow) cannot pass without shattering or becoming defunct. This circle can be made as large and as permanent as the caster desires, as long as she is willing to pay the necessary price.

System

The ritual requires three points of mortal blood from individuals with at least an intelligence of 3. The caster determines the size of the warding circle when it is cast; the default radius is 10 feet/3 meters, and every 10-foot/3-meter increase raises the difficulty by one (one additional success is required for every increase past the number necessary to raise the difficulty to 9). The player spends one blood point for every 10 feet/3 meters of radius, and rolls. The ritual takes the normal casting time if it is to be short-term (lasting for the rest of the night) or one night if it is to be long-term (lasting a year and a day).

Once the warding circle is established, it glows a faint coppery-orange, too faint to be seen in normal light, but notable in dim lighting conditions or natural darkness. A successful Intelligence + Occult roll (difficulty 8) identifies this as a warding circle. If technology crosses into the circle, the possessor of that technology must roll more successes on a Willpower roll (difficulty equal to the caster’s Thaumaturgy rating + 3) than the caster rolled when establishing the ward. Failure indicates that the ward causes all such technology on the individual to be irrevocably destroyed; data cannot be retrieved at a later date, and all parts of the item shatter. If the technology leaves the circle and later enters it again, the possessor must repeat this roll.

and part Illuminati. They are a dangerous and unstable admixture of monstrosities, hoarding the secrets of the past while they design a future that suits their dark goals.

The Tal’Mahe’Ra pursue a position of vampiric supremacy. They protect and shepherd mortals by promoting worldwide ignorance of the supernatural. From their stronghold of Enoch in the Shadowlands, the Tal’Mahe’Ra gather secrets too dangerous to be left in the physical plane and hide them in the deep vaults of a city lost outside of time.

Members of this cult see the curse of Caine as an exalted, almost reverent state. They fight a war against an undefinable, ethereal consciousness which manipulates the mind and chains the soul, potentially rendering anyone into a slave. To combat this unknowable enemy, the Tal’Mahe’Ra have been forced to perform dangerous experiments, creating aberrant and often unstable results.

Some thaumaturges mix magic carefully, using a piece of this tradition and a sliver of that to form a patchwork whole. The practitioners of the Tal’Mahe’Ra, on the other hand, have access not only to the various forms of vampiric blood sorcery, but also to more unusual sources of magic, such as those utilized by mortal mages. Their experiments are far more complex and intricate. They break down sorcerous theory, working with multiple disparate particles on a level that is almost impossible to conceive. Instead of adding salt to water, they break apart the hydrogen, oxygen, and sodium chloride and put those elements back together to create something unnatural and grotesque.

The sorcerous liches of the Tal’Mahe’Ra take incredible risks in their research. Being exposed to intense mutations of reality has altered them, changing their senses, physical composition, and even spiritual connections. If vampires have souls, the liches of the Tal’Mahe’Ra have surely perverted theirs into something aberrant. They have made eldritch pacts with other supernatural creatures, explored the dimensional boundaries of the Shadowlands, the Astral, and the Umbra, and used vampiric blood in experiments both physical and spiritual. The study has cost thousands of lives (mortal, vampiric, and otherwise), but has also provided unique and valuable information.

The existence of the mysterious Aralu comprises the darkest and most hidden secret of the Tal’Mahe’Ra. Sleeping eternally beneath the shadow city, these creatures are known only by the words carved into their tombs: Nergal, Ninmug, Loz, and Al-Marhi. Even the Rawi of the Tal’Mahe’Ra, their historians, do not know who truly

sleeps within those tombs. Perhaps these creatures are mummies; they may be Antediluvians, or even the sires of Antediluvians; or they may be ancient mages who have unlocked the secrets of immortality. Whatever they are, their presence radiates power.

The power of the Aralu permeates Enoch, affecting every creature that resides there. This is a source of vast and unexplained energy, resisting all attempts to quantify or control it. A small faction of liches have spent countless centuries attempting to understand this aura and utilize it for the Tal’Mahe’Ra, with little success. The auras of the Aralu twist magic unpredictably, empowering it with strange side-effects and exaggerated results. However, ritual magic is not as unstable, and both ritual casting and alchemical concoctions have their potency significantly increased when created within the aura of the Aralu.

Still, vampires who haunt the tombs for too long find themselves hungry, their blood sapped from them without their knowledge. Magic, too, is drained, even when not being used, and more than one vampire studying the tombs became afflicted with a permanently unhinged mind. To keep vampires from being affected, the Rafastio revenant family was long ago given the task of tending to the cleanliness and protection of those areas beneath the city. The tombs have not proven dangerous to them, and the Rafastio’s traditional knowledge of magic makes them effective caretakers.

Long ago, a group of death mages experimented with mixing and administering vampiric blood within the aura of the Aralu in an attempt to make themselves truly immortal. Although the experiment worked — in a way — the result was a horrific abomination: the Nagaraja. Nagaraja vampires consume human flesh as well as blood in order to sustain themselves. Inured to the suffering of others, these vile creatures engage in necromantic research and depraved experiments. The Nagaraja are blessedly few, as it is extraordinarily difficult to avoid wassail when one must engage in acts of cannibalism simply to survive.

Members of the Nagaraja Clan are the primary necromancers of the Tal’Mahe’Ra. Most of these rituals are bloody, vicious things which protect the city of Enoch, but some few are useful even away from their stronghold in the Shadowlands. Their necromantic rituals are a hodgepodge lot, created by this eccentric and devious bloodline. Some are researched and carefully engineered with centuries of dedicated practice and cautious detail, while others are off-the-cuff interpretations of ghostly

Arcanoi, filtered through a vampiric understanding of magic. All require particularly depraved sacrifice and gristly components in order to succeed.