Theft of the Living Heart (Dur-An-Ki ritual)
Level 6 / Kaitlin's Spell Book
Description: Down through the ages Egyptian sorcerers and priests have worked many wonders for the mighty and erudite, yet according to the tales of Greek and Roman travelers none of these wonders could compare to the chthonic rites of the dark temple of Seth and its eldritch priests.
Among, the darkest and most powerful of the Setite miracles was the power of drawing an enemy's heart from his chest at a distance, slaying or enslaving the victim by stabbing or threatening the still beating heart.
In the middle of the third century before the birth of the Christian god, Egypt was invaded by the Persian Empire and with the Persians came the Children of Haqim, who like the mortal Persians, sought to establish their influence and justice over the whole of the known world. Like the Greeks and Romans who would one day follow them on the road to conquest, the Children of Haqim heard the tales of the Setite mysteries and the legendary spell for the theft of the heart. Each of the Children of Haqim sought to make these secrets their own; though they fought many secret wars with the priests of the Temple of Seth and were mighty in both the arts of sorcery and war, none of them would ever succeed in learning the Setite mysteries or the spell for the theft of the living heart; at least , none lived to tell the tale of it.
Twenty-five centuries worth of change have wrought a new Egypt, a new battle in the ancient war with the now modern Followers of Set and a clever Banu Haqim Ashapu who has finally unveiled the mysteries of the legendary spell for the theft of the heart; if rumors are to be believed. Once again the Children of Haqim are marching to war in Egypt, the difference this time is that they come wielding the Setite's greatest mystery as a weapon to slay and enslave the serpents; perhaps the age of Gehenna is upon us all.
Theft of the Living Heart is a fusion of the classical Egyptian Akhu sorcery and the Babylonian art of Dur-An-Ki; the fusion of these two religio-magical traditions of blood-magic has produced one of the most amazing and dreaded rituals in the dark history of sorcery. In short, the ritual mystically steal the heart of an enemy from his own chest, giving the blood-magician who cast ritual, the absolute power of life or death over the unfortunate individual.
Ingredients: Before the blood-magician can use this fell ritual he must first obtain the equivalent of the target's true-name, a symbol of target's ultimate identity. Next the magician must acquire a sacrificial victim of the same species as the target of the ritual (According to the principle of sympathy: like produces like. So the sacrificial victim should be of the same kind of supernatural; if the target of the ritual is a Setite vampire, then the magician needs a Setite vampire as his sacrificial victim. Should the target be Silent Strider werewolf, then the sacrificial victim must be a werewolf of the same tribe.) Other variables, such as age, rank , generation , sex, etc are conveniently unnecessary and unimportant.
Of great importance to the ritual is a personal sacrifice on part of the magician, as a token of tribute to the gods Set and Marduk for aiding the magician in his or her endeavor . Without, this act of sacrifice on the part of the magician, the ritual simply wouldn't be powerful enough to achieve its desired effect.
The last ingredient of importance is of course the rare and sacred (to Assamite Sorcerers at least) Kalif plant, without which the casting of Dur-An-Ki rituals would be impossible. The magician needs enough Kalif to intoxicate himself for the variable duration of this ritual.
The magician must cast the ritual : 'Theft of the Living Heart' on one of the three nights of the new moon. The ritual must be cast in an a pre-prepared site, open to the night sky and the magician must be able to see the dark-moon at any time. The victim must be ritual cleansed, anointed and adorned as a true sacrifice. The magician must have his ritual paraphernalia at hand for ready usage. It is advised that the magician have his most trusted guards at hand, for once he partakes of the sacred Kalif, he will beyond awareness of the events occurring in this world.
Casting : Once all preparations have been seen to, the magician must invoke Set and Marduk to aid him in vanquishing his enemy and delivering the target's heart into his hands. The caster is then offered blood laced with sacred Kalif, which the magician offers to the gods Set and Marduk as a libation, ritually spilling some for each of the gods and then drinking the rest of the blood himself. Next the magician offers the two gods one of his most prized possessions, a mystical relic that the he then promises to the god who will aid him the most in his endeavor. Shortly thereafter, the magician will enter the mystic world of Kalif and begin his sojourn, when he has overcome the Stair of Travails and the Station of Ecstasy he will step through a doorway into the Hall of Apotheosis and be with the gods as he casts the remainder of the ritual which plays itself out in his mind as a symbolic dream struggle with his target. With each success in the dream struggle, the magician severs one of the sacrificial victim's limbs, disembowels the victim and finally cuts open the victim's chest and rips out his heart.
Should the magician be successful, only one of the two gods remains in the Hall of Apotheosis to congratulate the victor, the god who helped the magician most. That god will describe his counterpart's weakness and shame in failing to aid the magician and his subsequent flight from the Hall of Apotheosis; then the remaining god demands his due sacrifice , which the magician must give to the god in the dream. The remaining god then asks the magician what he will do with the vanquished for though the magician has been successful in defeating his opponent, he can only retain the heart while yet remains in the Hall of Apotheosis. The god remains to see the fate of the vanquished and then departs the hall and magician, hailing the victor. Once the Kalif wears off, the magician will realize that whatever he gave the god as a sacrifice is gone.
System : Extended and contested ritual roll at a difficulty of 9-10 depending on whether the magician is gifted (belongs to a bloodline that rolls at 3+ ritual difficulty) or not (non-clan magician: not a Tremere, Assamite Sorcerer, etc). The target can roll Willpower to resist at a difficulty (6). Each contested roll is a hour of real time. Seven successes over that of the opposition are required for either the caster or the target to succeed. Willpower can be spent by the caster to add to his successes, but this is not required. The target cannot expend Willpower to gain additional successes because he is already rolling his Permanent Willpower score to resists the rituals effects. Should the caster run out of Willpower before reaching the necessary seven successes the ritual ends because the caster is no longer focused and is at the mercy of his Kalif induced hallucinations. Regardless of the position of the battle, if dawn arrives, the ritual automatically ends with the target's escape.
The Sacrifice: The sacrifice should reflect the willingness of the magician to pay the gods their due in return for their aid; should the sacrifice not be in keeping with the station of the gods or appealing to their natures, then the sacrifice is unaccepted and the ritual fails. If the magician offers the gods something he the caster doesn't value, the ritual will also fail. Should the magician renege on his offered sacrifice then the magician has an angry god on his hands and the Storyteller is encouraged to use his or her fiendish imagination to quite literally destroy the character's unlife. (Don't fuck with the gods!)
Should the caster be successful, he remains in possession of the heart only as long as he can maintain his Kalif induced dream or until the coming dawn. While the Kalif induced dream remains, the caster can do anything to the target though the heart: this includes diablerie, killing the target, entorporing the target, stealing his blood, etc. The only limitation that the caster faces is that he the caster is the only one who can do anything to the heart, no associate or ally gains the benefit of having cast this ritual, only the caster – to the victor go the spoils. The advantages of diablerie are obvious and permanent as this is as much a Dur-An-Ki ritual as an Ahku Sorcery ritual.
