Sanguineous Duplication
For consideration and approval.
- Sangineous Duplication
3rd level of Hermetic Thaumaturgy, using principles of Alchemy and to a lesser extent, Geomancy.
This ritual takes transforms a duplicate of one point of vitae into a duplicate of another. Thus, the blood of a 6th generation Tremere can be transformed into that of an 8th generation Ventrue, or a 14th generation Catiff. The point of vitae to be transformed must be of at least as potent a generation as that to be duplicated - thus, the 14th generation Catiff vitae could not be transformed into that of the 8th generation Ventrue.
Materials: A point of vitae of equal or greater potency than that to be duplicated, extensive alchemical apparati, and reagents and incense to be combined with the vitae. In addition, The caster must possess a full point of the vitae to be duplicated.
Casting: This arduous ritual requires attention on five successive nights (though it requires only the standard 15 minutes work for a level 3 ritual on each). The caster alchemically purifies the vitae, drawing out the essence of the original donor, her identity, clan and generation, finally leaving a sanguineous tabula rasa to work with at the end of five night's work. Simultaneously, he creates an imprint of the vitae to be duplicated by bubbling the smoke from various incenses through it, and introducing it to various reagents which are then precipitated out and used to infuse the blank vitae with a new identity.
While it may seem logical that this "stored identity" could be kept for later use, such experimentation has failed. Indeed, the two processess must be carried out simultaneously, in a precise geomantically significant arrangement. Indeed, it may be that the subject vitae is not being so much "cleansed" as attuned to its new identity.
System: The caster must make an intelligence + rituals roll each night: Only one success is required, but failure on any single roll ruins the entire attempt.
Once completed, the new vitae has all the properties of vitae taken from the donor of the original: It is blood from a 8th generation Ventrue or 14th generation Caitiff. It even occupies the proper volume. It does not, however, bear any personal identity: not that of the its true donor nor that of the the vitae it duplicated. While more powerful auguries will be able to discover that the blood is counterfeit, determining its original source will be beyond most Thaumaturges.
Taste of Vitae discovers that the vitae came from a vampire of the false donor's clan and generation and blood pool (when the duplicated blood was taken), with whatever impurities that exist in the real blood point. Information about when the donor last fed come from the real donor of the blood being tested, which may or may not seem odd, depending on how the vitae was obtained.
Biothaumaturgic Forensics yields information consistent with the donor of the duplicated blood: It cannot "name" the vampire, but it can determine powers that the vampire had.
Blood Walk yields nothing. The caster is left to his or her own devices as to determining why.
Commentary: Brian believes that identity cannot be so easily counterfeited, so the duplication is not entirely complete. I think it is possible, given an existing sample to work from, but I bow to the Storyteller in this case.
