Path of the Dry Nile

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Thaumaturgy X Akhu

Like the god from which they take inspiration, practitioners of this path swear to destroy everything that makes a society work. Some accept this task as the price of the power Set grants them. Others revel in it, as they seek their own revenge against an uncaring universe. The Path of the Dry Nile serves as their greatest weapon in this crusade.

  • Beauty Fades: The Settite causes a work of art to, such as a painting, sculpture, novel, film, or live performance, to be perceived by its audience as repellent,ugly,badly executed and cruelly nihilistic. Using this power on a work of art that already displays one or more of these qualities is redundant.
    System: The Settite rolls Wits + Manipulation (difficulty is 3-9, at a storytellers discretion.  A sitcom episode rates a 3, the Mona Lisa 
    rates a 9) The Settite must be in the presence of the work for it to succeed.  If there are more than one copy of the work of art it only effects those viewing the copy 
    that the Settite is near.
    • Trust Withers: The victim begins to think that a specified, trusted ally or associate intends to betray him or her. The victims delusion escalates from mild unease to wild eyed paranoia.
    System: The Settite rolls Wits + Manipulation with the difficulty as the targets willpower and spends a blood point.  The whole process takes nine weeks minus
    one week per success scored. The subject may resist on a Willpower roll if he or she suspects something outside may be influencing them by accumulating more successes than 
    there are weeks that have passed in the characters  decline.
      • Love Dies: The Settite suppresses all feelings of love felt by the victim toward a specified secondary target. The first victim feels nothing but emptiness and confusion when he sees or thinks about the second. Love Dies counters romantic, platonic, and familial love.
    System: The Settite must be in the presence of her subject to initiate this power.  The player rolls Wits + Manipulation 
    against the target's Willpower and spends two blood points.  Thereafter, the subject's emotional attachment -- which must have been love 
    in origin -- withers over the course of the next few nights.  This power does not affect blood bonds.  Love Dies ends after a number of months equal
    to the Settites Willpower at the time it is used. 
        • Hope Dissolves: The Settite's victim subject can't shake the absolute conviction that a specified goal he meant to accomplish can under no circumstances be achieved. He rapidly grows disheartened and indolent.
    System: The Settite must be in the presence of the subject at the time he invokes this power. The Settite rolls Wits + Manipulation against the target's Willpower 
    and spends three    blood points.  if the roll is successful, the subject sinks into a deep depression over the course of one day or night, and becomes distinctly morose.  While in this 
    state, a character may only have a number of dice equal to her Self-Control Virtue available for dice pools.  If she wishes to use her full dice pool, she must spend a Willpower point to
    undertake that action.  Although this power is unlikely to drive a character to suicidal depression, a character already predisposed toward that end may find the urge more compelling. 
          • Thrones Crumble: The Settite selects an individual and causes him to reexamine his loyalty to an authority figure. No matter why the target followed his leader -- admiration, ideological fervor, fear, greed, or simple ambivalence -- he now bitterly rejects his allegiance. Whether the victim actively works against the former object of his loyalty, or simply drops out of the picture, remains his choice.
    System: The Settite must see his subject to initiate this power.  The player rolls Wits + Manipulation (difficulty of the target's Willpower) and spends three blood points.
    If the roll is successful, the character acquires an active antipathy for some leadership figure who affects his life -- a manager, a vicar, a king, a president, his father -- and reacts in
    order with his Nature against that figure.  thiswill not always result in physical conflict; a Conformist may well "play along" grudgingly with the authority figure, but he might seek the
    company of others who oppose the leader, whereas a Rogue may make a grand show of rebellion against the leader.