Bride of Hades
Description: The ritual is a reenactment of Hades’ kidnapping of Persephone from her mother Demeter, the goddess of the Earth. By stealing Persephone, courting her with fine gifts and holding her captive in his home, the necromancer becomes in effect, the god Hades. For a number of hours thereafter, the caster gains a reasonable bonus in his path manipulations or ritual work. At the dawn of the next day, Persephone returns to her mother, the earth and the corpse turns to dust.
Origin: This ritual was created by Benesj Cherno as an authoritarian version of the taboo based Rape of Persephone - created by the Giovanni Clan of Vampires.
Ingredients: A specific domicile, a woman's corpse, fine clothing, perfume, jewelry, etc.
Casting: The caster must personally, steal a woman’s body from a graveyard or tomb and bring it back to his haven. The necromancer must thoroughly wash the body, then massaged it with fragrant oils, dressed it in fine clothing and finally, adorned it with expensive jewelry (the jewelry and clothes are not lost at the end of the ritual).
System: Intelligence + Rituals = difficulty five (5) for out of clan casters or four (4) for in-clan casters or prodigies. If the caster botches this ritual, then he or she is rendered unable to use necromancy paths or rituals for a number of nights equal to the number of botches rolled during the casting. If the casting of this ritual is failed, then the caster has wasted time, but may re-cast this ritual with the mandatory increase in difficulty. If this ritual succeeds, then the necromancer gains two additional dice for the casting of necromantic paths or rituals for a number of hours equal to the number of successes rolled on the casting of this ritual. Note, the necromancer must chose whether he is modifying his ability with paths or rituals, but not both. Should the body of Persephone be removed from the domicile in which the ritual was cast, or at the next dawn, the effects of this ritual end. This ritual takes two hours to cast and can only be cast at night.
Reference: This ritual is an adaptation of the Giovanni’s ‘Rape of Persephone’ ritual found on pg.105 of Blood Magic – Secrets of Thaumaturgy. Frankly, the Giovanni ritual is far too powerful to be a level one because it lowers the necromancer’s difficulties to cast by two and allows the sharing of will power between up to seven individuals and allows them to sense each others tactile sensations at any distance.
Notes: This ritual has recently been amended to grant the caster two additional dice for the remainder of the night on rolls to cast necromancy rituals and paths. Previously, it granted the necromancer a minus one (-1) modifier instead of the plus two dice (+2). This was done for two reasons, the first was that the minus one difficulty modifier violated the three plus (3+) the path or ritual difficulty threshold which acts to moderate the miraculous nature of magic. The second reason, was to emulate the system supported by Blood Magic - The Thaumaturgy Companion in lower level rituals by adding two dice instead of lower difficulty. The specific example was: Impressive Visage a level one thaumaturgy ritual on page 89 of Blood Magic.
