Lamian Oracle
Description: The story of Lamia is as horrifying as it is tragic and there are many versions of the grisly tale. In some of the stories she is a queen of Libya and others a daughter of Poseidon, in all the versions of the myth, she is a beautiful woman seduced by Zeus. When the queen of the gods, Hera, discovers the tryst she punishes Lamia by turning her into a human-serpent hybrid with an unrelenting hunger for the blood and flesh of children. Predictably, Lamia's first victims were her own offspring. While versions of the legend vary, in some she is made immortal by Hera as reminder to other beautiful women of the cost of bedding Zeus. Given the horror heaped up Lamia by Hera in her vengeance, it was said she could never sleep, but that Zeus in his pity for his former lover granted her the ability to remove her own eyes so that she could sleep. Small blessings...yes?
The rote of the Lamian Oracle builds upon this legend, focusing upon Lamia's relentless thirst for blood and the ophidian half of her nature. It is assumed that as serpent-like creature that hungers for blood and occasionally flesh, that Lamia possessed a unique tool for hunting, a kind of vampiric vision that allowed her to actually see blood within her potential victims. Within the framework of this legend, the sorcerer who casts this spell gains the ability to see life-force itself, in the form of blood, as it courses through all living things.
When this spell is cast upon someone, that individual sees the world fade to a hazy gray fog, while all things with blood flowing through them shine with a ruby florescence. One who sees the world through the Lamian Oracle sees animals and humans as pale insubstantial and translucent forms within which florescent crimson blood flows through veins and to a lesser extent their skeleton. On a physical level, the eyes of the enchanted subject change form from human to ophidian, the eyes of a serpent.
In actuality, the Lamian Oracle need not manifest as sight, as any of the five senses could be enhanced by this rote, but only one at a time. Thus, a blind sorcerer could hear the blood coursing through another creature's veins, or smell the blood wafting off of someone else, or even feel the blood coursing through someone's body when they are in physical contact. Most importantly, the sense of taste reveals the most information, but there are always risks in drinking something else's blood: disease for one, or mystically transmitted curses like the vampiric blood-bond, or just the unwholesome mentality that comes with drinking blood can become a psychological issue. And each sense manifests differently, sight obviously manifests when the eyes change from human to ophidian, the sense of hear alters the ears to become scaly, manifesting an ophidian sense of smell produces scales as well and flattens the nose to a noticeable degree, when touching someone with the oracle active one's flesh feels clammy and when one tastes through the oracle, one's tongue become longer and split down the middle.
Origin: Ostanes
Instruments: Serpent Blood
Casting:
System: Modus + Anima = difficulty is 5 normally / or with a unique instrument difficulty is (4 + 1) -2 = 3. The Lamian Oracle allows the wizard, or anyone he casts this upon, to sense the presence of living beings, at least those that have a circulatory system. While the spell does detect other life-forms, they are often very faint compared to most animal life. Technically even trees and grass have blood in the form of sap, but they would barely register and are only faintly seen in the gray background collage of lifeless things. Of special note, vampires (both the eastern and western) have blood within them, but because the blood is less rich in life, they tend to fade into the background and are harder to detect; the more recently a vampire has fed, the brighter they show up to a magician using this rote. Through inference, the mage can look at a certain kind of life-form and discover its nature - animal, human or vegetable. Unless they are magically concealed, he gains a bonus of plus one (+ 1) dice per two successes on the activation roll to detect any hidden animals or people. This power does not allow the mage to see through physical objects like buildings or vehicles, for that he would need the Sphere of Matter.
Sphere: (Anima •)
Paradox: Physical manifestations of the Lamian Oracle are not the result of paradox, but rather the outward sign of a successful spell, but they could become so upon a backlash or branding.
Inspiration: Sense Life-force
Source Material: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamia
