Path of Requiem
- Necromancy -x- Giovanni
Introduction
Memories are the lifeblood of the dead; the psychic remnants of their breathing days leave an indelible legacy upon their afterlives that flows through their plasmic veins. Ghosts draw strength from the memories of people and places significant to them in life, and those who remember the departed continue to feed the spirits in the hereafter.
A necromancer with the Requiem Path may delve into these fading threads of memory and manipulate them in order to force spirits to act at his behest. A few less mercenary individuals might use the Requiem Path to give final rest to lingering spirits, and it is speculated that perhaps such was the original purpose of the path. Unfortunately, final rest for the spirits does not play into the Giovanni’s grand scheme.
- · Memoriam
Spirits are fueled by passion, and the primary source of their emotional strength is the memories that bind them to the world of the living. Knowing the passions that a spirit clings to can give the necromancer a great deal of sway over the ghost. For example: knowing that a spirit lingers on so that he can protect his living daughter gives the necromancer a valuable bargaining chip. More noble vampires might offer to help protect the ghost’s child, while more ruthless individuals might threaten the child’s life unless the ghost cooperates...
System: The vampire must have either summoned the ghost, or be able to see the ghost in question (either through Aura Perception or other Necromancy powers), and must roll Perception + Empathy, difficulty of the spirit’s Wits + Subterfuge. For each success, the necromancer learns one of the following details about the spirit’s psyche:
- One emotional link to the land of the living, such as love or hate for a living person, or the desire to finish some important task.
- The relative strength of a given emotional link (weak, moderate, or intense). *Whether the passion is attuned to the wraith’s normal personality (the psyche) or the darker- half of his soul (the shadow).
- One detail concerning an emotional link: the person, object or task that the ghost is linked to.
Storytellers who are implementing elements of Wraith might give more detailed information concerning the ghost’s Passions: for instance, 3 successes might reveal the Passion "Destroy the relationship of my wife and best friend" (Envy 4). If the storyteller does not wish to use Wraith terms, he might simply say that the ghost has a strong emotional need to break up the relationship between his wife and his former best friend, and that the driving emotion is Envy.
- ·· Eulogy of the Dead
By speaking to a ghost and reminding her of her past deeds and memorable events in her life, the necromancer may either bolster or weaken the spirit. Reminding the ghost of her finer qualities and exploits will grant the spirit sustenance, while expounding upon the ghost’s vices or mistakes will send the creature into a blind, frenzy-like rage.
System: The Necromancer must know a spirit’s name, and at least one event in the ghost’s life that he can relate (such memories may be gained through the Memoriam power). Barring this, the necromancer can instead speak of the ghost’s personality, reminding the spirit of emotions and feelings it held in life. This can take the form of a short, informal eulogy, such as "Richard was a charitable, kind hearted man..." or the necromancer may be straight foreword and to the point, such as reminding a spirit directly of the time during its living youth that it accidentally set fire to the old barn down the road. It is not necessary for the necromancer to actually see the ghost, he must only know that the ghost is present and can hear his words.
In all, such reminders generally take a full turn or two to relate. The necromancer spends a Willpower Point and must roll Manipulation + Empathy. If speaking a positive eulogy with the intent of bolstering the ghost’s passion for existence, then the difficulty of the roll is 8, and every success restores one point of Pathos to the spirit’s pool. This aspect is most often used to empower a ghost that is in service to the necromancer.
Alternately, the necromancer may turn his eulogy into a fire and brimstone sermon focusing on the past indiscretions of the spirit in question. In this case, the difficulty of the roll is the ghost’s Willpower rating, and every success scored by the necromancer forces the spirit into a frenzy-like state for one turn, during which time its darkest thoughts, urges and desires come to the fore and motivate the ghost toward performing terrible deeds. If the storyteller is employing elements of Wraith in his chronicle, than each success instead grants the wraith’s shadow a point of temporary Angst. This may cause the ghost to enter Catharsis...
Eulogy of the Dead may only be attempted on a given spirit once per scene, regardless of the success of the attempt. A botch means that the necromancer cannot use this power on that particular spirit for the remainder of the story.
- ··· Slumber in Death
Ghosts no longer possess bodies, but their spiritual forms still require rest to replenish. When a wraith’s corpus is disrupted it is sometimes necessary to reconstitute his ectoplasmic form, and to do so he enters into a Torpor-like state called Slumber. A necromancer who has progressed this far along the Requiem Path learns to lull a spirit into this healing sleep. While affected by Slumber in Death, a wraith dreams of his Passions: positive emotions tied to her passions will instill peaceful rest, while negative feelings will induce terrible nightmares.
System: The necromancer must see the desired target in order to invoke Slumber in Death, and he must use Memoriam in order to learn of one of the wraith’s passions. Once this is done, the necromancer must roll Wits + Subterfuge, difficulty of the wraith’s Stamina + Empathy. If the necromancer succeeds, then the spirit enters into the Slumber in Death for one hour per success.
If the necromancer is focusing on a passion attuned to the ghost’s psyche, then the slumber is pleasant and refreshing. A spirit undergoing a beneficial slumber is less likely to succumb to a personality shift or harrowing: the spirit regains a Health Level for every success gained on a roll of it’s own Willpower (Difficulty 8). (If implementing Wraith elements, roll the Wraith’s rating in the Passion uncovered through Memoriam at difficulty 6: every success restores 1 Corpus level).
A nightmarish slumber instead leaves the spirit drained, agitated and prone to fits of frenzy. For each success that the necromancer scores the spirit loses one Willpower point. The spirit must also roll permanent Willpower (difficulty 7) or suffer a personality shift to his dark nature upon awakening from the slumber. (In Wraith terms, the wraith’s Shadow automatically gains a chance to check for Catharsis, even if it’s Angst has not exceeded the Psyche’s Willpower).
- ···· Lamentation
A spirit’s Passions are mutable, rising and falling in much the same way that a vampire’s humanitas ebbs and swells in response to his moral conduct. A necromancer skilled in the Requiem Path may quell or enflame those emotions that drive a spirit to remain in the land of the dead.
The necromancer may also alter the parameters of a ghost’s passions. The focus of a passion could be changed, and in addition to manipulating a ghost’s existing emotional bonds, the vampire may forge new Passions. In this way, the necromancer is able to mold dead souls into willing servants who actually become stronger by fulfilling the vampire’s agenda.
System: If attempting to alter an existing Passion, the necromancer must first employ Memoriam in order to codify one of the ghost’s Passions, and he must score enough successes to know the general emotion of the Passion and it’s strength (and hence, 2 successes are required on the Memoriam roll). Once the vampire has this information, he can decide to either quash or bolster the spirit’s Passion. In either case, a Willpower point is required to infuse the ghost with a specific emotion — either an emotion concurrent with the spirit’s Passion, or counter to it. If a temporary Willpower point is expended, any manipulation of the spirit's Passions will remain in effect for 1 week per success that the necromancer rolls (see below). If a permanent Willpower point is expended, however, the alteration is permanent. He must also either be in the presence of the ghost (which may require that the spirit be Summoned), or must be touching one of its Fetters.
The necromancer rolls Manipulation + Empathy, difficulty 8. If the necromancer is attempting to bolster the Passion, then a successful roll raises the Passion one level (from weak to moderate, and from moderate to intense, and from intense to overwhelming). If implementing elements of Wraith, then the Passion is raised by 1 dot. The ghost may choose to resist this effect with a Willpower roll (difficulty of the necromancer’s Willpower), and each success scored cancels one of the necromancer’s casting successes. Few wraiths choose to do this—only those who wish to resolve their Passions would desire to keep such ties from strengthening.
If the necromancer is instead attempting to quell the Passion, then the wraith may resist as above: if the wraith fails to score more successes than the necromancer, then the Passion lowers by one level (or 1 dot), while a successful roll keeps the Passion at it’s current level. If all of the spirit’s Passions are negated through Lamentation, then the ghost dissipates into nothingness, permanently destroyed.
Creating a new Passion requires that the necromancer detail a suitable emotional tie for the wraith. This involves deciding on the behavior that the necromancer wants the ghost to act out (such as haunting the necromancer’s haven and scaring any trespassers away), and the necromancer must also tie an emotion to that behavior, such as "Scare away trespassers (Scorn)." Once the player and storyteller have decided on a suitable Passion, the necromancer rolls Manipulation + Empathy at difficulty 5 if the Passion is concurrent with the ghost’s normal desires and behavior, difficulty 7 if the new Passion is counter to or directly opposing the wraith’s normal behavior, and difficulty 9 if the wraith has no vested interest at all in the behavior. The ghost can resist by rolling Willpower (difficulty 6). If the necromancer scores more successes, then the ghost gains the new Passion at a weak level (1 dot).
Newly forged Passions are generally weak, and so some necromancers prefer to revise existing Passions to suit their needs. Altering the parameters of an existing Passion is accomplished with the same Manipulation + Empathy roll as the necromancer makes to alter the intensity of a Passion (and allows the same resistance roll), but each success on the Necromancer’s part allows the necromancer to change one aspect of the Passion in question. Examples of the extent to which the necromancer may change a ghost’s Passions are as follows:
- Switch the emotion tied to a Passion to another, appropriate emotion. Example: changing "Protect my daughter from her abusive husband (Devotion 3)" to "Protect my daughter from her abusive husband (Wrath 3)." *Alter one aspect of the Passion’s "focus". The new focus can diverge somewhat from the original focus of the Passion, but it should remain consistent with the general theme of the Passion in question. Example: changing "Protect my daughter from her abusive husband (Wrath 3)" to "Protect my daughter from abusive vampires (Wrath 3)". A second success might further alter the Passion to "Protect my daughter from vampires of the Brujah clan (Wrath 3)." A third success on this could modify the Passion to read "Protect the necromancer from vampires of the Brujah clan (Wrath 3)." *_Change the emotional "polarity" of the Passion. Rather than changing the emotion itself, the necromancer may devote a success to attune the Passion itself to the opposite half of the wraith’s soul. A normal Passion can be converted into a Dark Passion that feeds the wraith’s Shadow (and most likely perverts the Passion in some way, turning Love to Lust, Pride to Hubris, etc.). Likewise, a Dark Passion may be "purified" so that it feeds Pathos to the Psyche, rather than channeling Angst to the Shadow.
In any event, Lamentation may only be utilized once per scene on any particular wraith.
- ····· Inhume the Departed
The most potent expression of the Requiem Path, the necromancer gains the ultimate power over the emotional ties of ghosts. The necromancer may literally destroy all that holds a spirit to this world and the next.
Inhume the Departed is either a ritual of last rites or the utter destruction of a soul, depending on the necromancer you ask. Some claim that this power offers a spirit an early reprieve from the sorrows of the afterlife, while others claim that it is nothing more than consignment to oblivion. What is certain is that only the most tenacious spirits return from an application of this spell.
System: The necromancer must stand over the remains of the deceased individual— ashes will suffice, as will the true burial site of the ghost’s body, but at least a majority of the matter that once composed the target ghost’s body must be gathered in a single place for this power to be effective. The necromancer then speaks a blessing, a curse, a hymn or simply a "goodbye"; all that is needed is that the necromancer bring a sense of closure to the ritual. She expends 2 Willpower points and makes an extended, contested roll of Permanent Willpower (difficulty 7) against the ghost’s Willpower (same difficulty). The first character to accumulate 10 successes wins the contested roll.
If the ghost overcomes the necromancer in the contest of wills, then it cannot be affected by any Necromancy powers or Rituals invoked by that particular necromancer for a year and a day. If the necromancer prevails, then the spirit fades from this world and the next. Some believe that the spirit Transcends to a heavenly realm, while others are convinced that the spirit is actually nullified and consumed by Oblivion. Use of this power always calls for a Conscience roll to resist Humanity loss, although practitioners of certain Paths may not need to check for degeneration.
Occasionally, a particularly strong-willed spirit may actually reform somewhere in the underworld and find his or her way back to the Shadowlands, often seeking revenge upon the necromancer who banished him or her. More frightening, it seems as if the primal force of Oblivion sees fit to "cough" some of the spirits dispersed through Inhume the Departed back up into the underworld as twisted parodies of their former souls: such ghosts return as malevolent Spectres who may possess strange powers previously unseen by the necromancer.
In Wraith terms, success on the necromancer’s part sends the wraith directly into a Destruction Harrowing. The vampire who invoked Inhume the Departed (or rather, a Spectre who takes on the guise of this vampire) often plays a key roll in the events of the Harrowing.
