Severance
This ritual is one of the most important to the Tlacique blood sorcerers, as it connects to fundamental aspects of their religion. It is also their greatest secret. The ritual greatly resembles the Serpentis power Heart of Darkness, but works on other body parts as well as the heart. Using this ritual, a Nahualli can remove any part of a vampire's body without killing the vampire - heart, head, whatever - and keep the body part undead and potentially animate. Most often, however, the Nahualli will remove his or another vampire's heart.
A vampire with a removed heart becomes immune to staking and more easily resists frenzy. On the other hand, the vampire loses some human emotion, becoming more cold and ruthless. What is more, the heart itself becomes a terrible vulnerability. Any attack upon it "echoes" to the body from whence it came. A stake through a severed heart forces a vampire into torpor, or kills a mortal. Holding a vampire's heart in a flame causes the vampire to burn to ash in seconds.
Nahualli who know this ritual routinely extract the hearts of captured enemies, preferring to force service from them instead of simply killing them. A Nahualli who holds a vampire's heart may use Disciplines on that vampire as if he were actually present, no matter how far away the other vampire might be. More cruel Nahualli use the ritual to sever an enemy's head and send it, still animate and speaking, to the victim's allies as a warning while keeping the vampire's body.
The magician can cast this ritual only at the dark of the moon, when Tezcatlipoca is most powerful The ritual itself demands an obsidian-bladed knife, a previously consecrated urn, a variety of amulets, and a human sacrifice to appease Mictlantechutli, god of the dead, for cheating him out of a death. The magician must inflict one health level of aggravated damage while cutting out the body part, even if she uses this ritual on herself. The severed part must immediately be placed in the consecrated clay urn with a blood point of the magician's own vitae. Cutting out one's own heart or severing one's own head or hand (unlikely, but it could happen) demands the expenditure of two Willpower points.
