Big Knobi Klub, est. 1995
Blood Magic

Raphael Luta (luta@inf.enst.fr or luta@cal.enst.fr)
Blood has been used for magical purposes for hundreds of years. The most famous adepts of blood sacrifice, especially human sacrifices, were the Aztec and Mayan priests and Celtics druids. Blood is also frequently found in primitive Greek or Roman rituals. Blood is important in magic because it represents life force at its most basic nature. By capturing the evaporating essence of a dying body, a skilled magician can dramatically improve the energy of his spell by linking it to the mana of the body. This augmented energy allows the spell to be more powerful but it is also more demanding on the caster because he must control the fabrics of the spell and tie it simultaneously to the mana of the dying spirit.

However, for such a feat to be possible, the magician most have an inner comprehension of the fabrics of the astral space, thus making this kind of ritual only available to initiates. Another important component of Blood Magic is faith in the results it can produce. The sacrifice can't carry more power that the caster thinks it will carry. In Astral Space, the will and the emotions makes the magic happen, if you think sacrifices are just abject things you can't get any effects to help your magic.

Anyway, for those who can use it, blood can help in several ways in the magical process :

USE IN STANDARD SPELL CASTING

Blood can be used plainly to enhance nearly any spell cast during a ritual. Simply assume that the blood correctly sacrificed during the casting of the spell allows the caster to add as many dice in its magic pool as the numbers indicated in the chart below (for those who play Vampire The Masquerade, simply use the blood pool value of the sacrificed creature). 
Victim                          Dice
Human                           10
Cow, Pig, ...                   5
Fox, Dog, ...                   3
Chicken, Rabbits...             2
Birds...                        1
This doesn't require a test if the caster knows how to make a correct sacrifice and has enough faith in the results but if you really want to you can make a Willpower 4 Unresisted Test to see if the caster really believes in magic and manages to capture the mana. These dice can be used for any of the tests except drain resistance, in fact drain goes up a +2 TN because of the stress due to the channeling of a foreign life force.

However the advantages granted to the magician cannot exceed twice the grade of this initiate. For the purpose of determining this limit, the grades of the magicians within a group add up.

USE IN CONJURING

Blood can also be very helpful and potent in conjuring spirits, because it is the life force of a sentient being it has the unique ability to enable the caster to summon a free spirit.

The blood, instead of adding up to the pool of the magician can be used as karma in order to deal with free spirits. The magician can promise to give the spirit the karma released by the sacrifice in exchange for the performance of a service. Allow as many karma as dice normally gained from the sacrifice, though some individuals may give more karma points (gamemaster appreciation).

Be careful, YOU CAN'T FORCE A FREE SPIRIT TO CARRY OUT AN ORDER !!

However, a spirit will usually execute orders because sacrifices are for him an easy way to get a lot of karma. It should be noted that the spirits attracted tend to be a little toxic or playing the role of a god/devil. They also tend to be very powerful, having gained lots of karma through sacrifices.

RITUAL MAGIC

Instead of the usual benefits granted for all the spells, blood can be used in some specific ways, dealing with the fields traditionally associated with it : purification and power over life or death. These "special effects" are always obtained through lengthy rituals requiring lots of preparation and usually carried out during some holy season or day. They are very strongly tied with religion. They work a little differently from the traditional spells in that they have no force. Thus a magician wishing to use these can only draw dice from its magic pool (that's why it's usually a team magic...).

The drain is always : 4D and target number for the spell depends of its nature but it's generally bloody hard :) (between 6 and 10).

Note : the rituals provided here are just examples, lots of effects can be thought of. The results obtained can be very easily toxic, depending on the magician performing the ritual.

Rituel de la Vraie Renaissance

(Ritual of Pure Rebirth)
Target Number : 10

This ritual is designed to help metahumans get back their "purity" of human form (the only acceptable form for a druid of Broceliande). In order for this ritual to be effective, it must be performed at midsummer eve. It requires the "subject" of the purification to be bathed during the all night ritual in the blood freshly of sacrificed individuals of each major sentient species (human, elf, dwarf, ork, troll, sasquash, ogre, minotaur, etc.)

Rituel de la Nouvelle Terre

(Ritual of the Purer Land)
Target Number : 8

This ritual is used to purify a small parcel of land from pollution. It takes three days to perform and requires blood to be spilled on the border of the territory to be purified, during which time the magician must be building up the energy of the spell, then he must invoke spirits to clear the land, thus this is a conjuring ritual mainly. The dice are drawn from Conjuring and Totem modifiers also apply (i.e. if a druid/shaman wish to cleanse his forest from pollution and his totem gives him advantages for conjuring Forest Spirits, he can have them)

Rituel de la Langue Brisee de Thanatos

(Ritual of the Grinding Tongue of Thanatos)
Target Number : 10

This ritual allows the caster to contact a dying spirit and ask him a few questions. This requires a body freshly dead (the essence of the body must still be present, use the essence loss of astral traveling magicians). During the course of the ritual, the caster must use a knife to cut open the heart of the corpse, then remove it, and invoke the spirit of the recently dead and to it a few questions. It was traditionally used by the Grand Druide de Broceliande on the death of his master to ask the spirit to help him guide the tribe and also to prove his worth as a magician. It's a conjuring ritual that can very easily turn toxic if the caster wants to abuse the spirit (GM's call for rebellion or such).

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