Dynastic Power

Dominate 7

Every wise vampire fears the power their ancient, monstrous ancestors may wield over them. A more tenuous transmission of blood occurs among mortals, but a few vampires can send their wills along this line of descent. A vampire with Dynastic Power can supernaturally influence her mortal descendants. whole families may work at the direction of an ancestor they believe long dead, or have completely forgotten.

System: Dynastic Power affects only one descent at a time, and the user must have some way to identify that descendant, such as a name or a picture. She cannot simply will a command blindly, hoping that some great-grandchild will obey.

The vampire's player rolls Manipulation + Leadership, with a difficulty of 3 + the number of mortal generations between the vampire and the descendant. Thus, a mortal child would be difficulty 4; a grandchild, difficulty 5; and son, to a maximum of 10. If the roll succeeds, the vampire can implant a hypnotic suggestion as per the Mesmerize power.

Eventually, the blood connection becomes too remote for Dynastic Power to work. A vampire can extend the power's usefulness by arranging unions between descendants. Inbreeding the family this way keeps the blood connection strong: The progeny of first or second cousins (or even closer relations) do not increase the difficulty of Dynastic Power. to maintain a herd of exploitable descendants for several centuries requires careful supervision of the stock.