Nekiya
Description: This rite is the ancient and classic Greek summoning of the dead; references to it appear in Homer’s Odyssey (ca. 800 BC). In the eleventh chapter, Odysseus is tutored by the ancient and powerful witch Circe in obscure rites by which he can consult the dead and find his way home.
Origin: This ritual is based on ancient Greek cultic practices.
Ingredients: necromanteion/ sacrificial animal / willow wood
Casting: The necromancer must first find an underground tomb, ossuary or one of the long lost Necromanteion (an ancient Greek temple of necromancy devoted to Hades and Persephone).
In such a place, by night, he must dig a waist deep pit and in it build a fire from dried willow wood. He sanctifies the pit by standing in it himself (symbolizing his own certain and unavoidable death) and calling out to the chthonic gods (Hades, Persephone, Hekate and Hermes as the psychopomp or escort of the dead to the Underworld) in the four cardinal directions for their aid and blessings in his undertaking.
Once the pit is sanctified, the necromancer lights the willow wood on fire and offers up the sacrificial animal (traditionally a black ram, though any large herbivore would do) and slaughters it by dismemberment; throwing its remains into the burning pit as a sacrifice to Hades. The animal’s blood was traditionally offered to the dead when they arrived (see: the level 2 ritual – Libations of Asphodel), but instead the vampire drinks the blood himself and offers the dead a more potent drink, his own blood.
After the sacrifice, the necromancer evokes the spirit of his choice and if successful, he may converse with that spirit on any topic provided he has first made an offering of his blood and his offer was accepted.
System: The player rolls Intelligence + Rituals = difficulty five (5); this ritual requires one (1) hour to cast. A botch of this roll summons a Specter in the form of the sought-after spirit, each botch inflicts the evil spirit on the caster for an additional scene. If successful, the spirit appears out of the darkness surrounding the firelight and must remain visible to the summoner for a number of scenes or questions equal to his successes.
Unfortunately, the summoned spirit is under no obligation to answer questions, converse or be civil at all, unless it has accepted the necromancer’s sacrificial blood; though as long as the summoner remains within the firelight, the spirit cannot attack.
Should the summoned spirit accept the sacrificial blood, then it is obligated to answer the necromancer’s questions to the best of its ability; if the caster has acquired one of the deceased’s possessions or piece of its corpse, then the difficulty of this ritual is one (1) less.
Reference: The ‘Nigrimancy Path’, path power level two, ‘Summon Soul’ or the same power found in the modern ‘Sepulchre Path’.
