Post by Hematite on Jul 16, 2014 14:00:05 GMT
Abyss Mysticism
Abyss Mysticism is the bizarre dark magic practiced by the Lasombra. Obtenebration, for most of the Lasombra clan is one part important tool and one part religious experience. However there are those for whom command of the darkness will never be enough. These reckless souls are the Abyss Mystics, referred to by much of their own clan as “The Shadowed”. Those who say more whisper that the name came from a fear that the Shadows had taken their minds and souls.
What is Abyss Mysticism?
Good question. If you ever find a complete answer, do let me know. However a few things have become clear.
The first thing to understand about Abyss Mysticism is that it is often woefully miscategorized. Abyss Mysticism is not truly a blood magic as the other magical clans understand it. In fact it has a closer relationship to something like Temporis than it does to Thaumaturgy. Abyss Mysticism, much like Temporis, began with a basic discipline and was twisted and expanded by those studying it to create effects far beyond safety (or many would say, sanity).
Any use of Obtenebration involves poking a hole in the fabric of reality manipulating the energies of the Abyss outside. Normally this is rather tightly controlled and predictable, unless the Lasombra botches the effect. With Abyss Mysticism, however, all bets are off. A reasonable analogy would be to look at the Abyss as a beer keg. Ordinary use of Obtenebration is carefully opening the tap and filling a glass just enough. Abyss Mysticism is ripping the spigot right off and trying to catch all the spill in glasses at once. Now picture the same analogy, only the liquid in the keg isn’t beer, it’s an incredibly lethal nerve agent where spilling one drop could kill everyone in a mile radius. Now you are starting to get the picture of just how dangerous the forces of Abyss Mysticism truly are.
Abyss Mysticism is not divided into Paths and Rituals. Rather it involves a series of techniques, each painstakingly researched and made “safe” (if you trust the Lasombra doing the research that is). They call these techniques rituals, and in many ways they appear the same as blood magic rituals. However the forces they are channeling could not be more different. Blood Magic taps into many power sources in many realms. Abyss Mysticism taps the substance of anti-reality itself.
A Brief History of Abyss Mysticism
Abyss Mysticism was first practiced in Roman times. Some say it was the influence of Lasombra himself, active within the great city, others that it was the influence of the Roman attitude of innovation. Whatever the cause, a small cabal of young Lasombra (the forerunners of those who would eventually become the Abyss’ Children) began their own experiments to attempt to expand the power they were tapping with Obtenebration. The Lasombra had long been aware that they were tapping a vast power source with their black art, a source that could potentially be used for far greater effects than they were currently capable of. It just took a few reckless Roman neonates looking to gain the awesome power of their elders to attempt to widen the bores they made in the walls of reality.
The forces those early experimenters found on the other side changed them forever. Before then, no one (with the possible exception of Lasombra himself and perhaps his protege Montano) had ever communed directly with the Abyss. The experience came very close (and some say succeeded) in breaking their minds, overwhelming everything they were. They unleashed powerful entities, creatures of absolute oblivion that wreaked havoc in the streets of Rome before the elders of the Lasombra along with some help from the Ravnos sorcerer Durga Syn, the Salubri Warrior Samiel, and the Malkavian magician Necross finally managed to banish them back to their realm. The uproar this caused nearly broke the power of the Lasombra in Rome as Prince Camilla called the Lasombra to account for the destruction they had caused. Only the direct intervention of Lasombra himself, appearing before the Prince prevented full on clan war. The Amici Noctis promised that no further experiments of this nature would be conducted and those who initiated it would be dealt with.
Needless to say, they lied. The Amici Noctis spirited away the initial experimenters to their secret vaults and set up a series of controlled experiments to determine everything they had done. The Amici were far more careful than the young Mystics when they started, leaving many safeguards in place and having experts standing by before anything was attempted. They officially formed a cabal of the first Mystics around the first experimenters and called them Abyssus Filios, or the Children of the Abyss. Their mandate was to delve deeper into the mysteries of Obtenebration and the Abyss than had ever been attempted before to determine just what it was Obtenebration was tapping. For a time, Lasombra himself oversaw their progress, mostly through his protege Montano.
Over the centuries the Abyssus Filios made many great and terrible discoveries, all kept well hidden from the world. For nearly a thousand years, no one else in the Cainite world had any idea that this new and terrible power even existed, even among Clan Lasombra. Very few, even among the Amici were permitted to know the secrets of the Abyssus Filios. The Lasombra realized from the very beginning that they were tampering with the primordial forces of the universe and one tiny misstep could end reality as they knew it.
The first anyone outside the Lasombra knew of Abyss Mysticism came during the Umayyad Conquest of Castille, when the Assamites along with their Moorish armies invaded and sacked the Lasombra strongholds in Spain. In desperation, during the Siege of Narbonne in 719, the Lasombra Prince made use of the Abyssus Filios to summon Hungry Shades to cause mayhem among his enemies in the city he had already lost. The Assamites eventually destroyed these nightmares, but not without suffering great casualties. They executed the Prince for an Oathbreaker, but now the cat was out of the bag. There was some uproar, but the world was a very different place than it was in Roman times. The courts of Europe were far more concerned by the Assamite invasion of Iberia and subsequently of France than of some secret super weapon the Lasombra had attempted to use in their own defence, and to no great effect. The reappearance of Abyss Mysticism was noted, but quickly forgotten in light of more important events.
Within the Lasombra, the uproar was far greater. Knowledge that the Children had kept such achievements secret from the rest of the clan for so long was a great insult to their pride. It took a great deal of convincing and many heated arguments among the Amici before a new resolution was reached. The Abyssos Filios would remain the arbiters of Mysticism within the Lasombra. However, their power and influence would be checked, and no Mystic would ever be allowed to rise high in the clan. The elders of the Amici who remembered the devastation in Rome and who had seen the terrible changes the practice of Mysticism caused in its users were afraid that the entire clan would lose sight of their purpose in favour of this new dark and incredibly seductive power. By this point very religious in a way they hadn’t been before, the practice of Mysticism was equated with the temptations of the devil, and the Lasombra were determined to be Devils, not their thralls.
With the Anarch Revolt, many of the restrictions on Mysticism were loosened or removed entirely. Finding themselves in all out war, and before the Amici could settle things within the clan enough to establish their universal laws that applied to both sides, the powers of Abyss Mysticism were wielded openly on the battlefield. The Abyss Mystics were never as flashy or obvious as the Kolduns of the Tzimisce or the Tremere, but nonetheless, they made their mark and were noted on the battlefield. In particular, the terrible forces summoned by the dreaded Monçada became legendary terrors, driving more than one enemy combatant hopelessly mad simply by what they saw.
Throughout the history of the Sabbat the Mystics have lurked on its shadows. The Sabbat has always been hesitant to trust them entirely, because they don’t really understand them. The arts they practice don’t make sense to anyone else and don’t seem to fit with any other paradigm. The Inquisition has officially declared Mysticism to not be heretical, but it took a lot of influence on the part of the Amici to get that ruling, and many within the Inquisition still aren’t sure. The forces the Mystics summon clearly aren’t demonic, but no one seems to be able to give a clear answer as to what they are either. Most modern Mystics therefore prefer to keep their heads down in the modern nights, not exactly keeping their arts secret, but not advertising them either. The opinion of the Amici Noctis and the Abyssos Filios is that the less attention the Mystics draw to themselves, the better.
The Abyss
What exactly is the Abyss? Well we aren’t going to give all the answers here. Mostly because no one entirely knows. However in brief, the Abyss is the primordial nothingness that existed before God said “Let there be light.” Banished back from the borders of reality at the creation of the Universe, the Abyss forever hates creation and desires to bring about maximum entropy.
The Abyss has an intelligence, but no one is entirely certain as to what that is. It certainly is not a human intelligence, or an Umbral one, or any other form of life that the material world can safely comprehend. For a long time this mind was dormant, its will only loosely expressed through its Abyssal entities that are sometimes summoned to the material world. However in 1999, some effect linked to the 6th Great Maelstrom woke it up. Since then, Lasombra have noted with great concern that the Abyss appears to be acting on its own, and with far more organization and order than ever before.
The Abyss extrudes into all known realms, leaking into the Underworld, Umbra, and even the artificial Yellow Springs through imperceptible gaps in the walls of reality. Because of this, Obtenebration is always usable, no matter what realm the Lasombra is in.
Abyssal Spirits
Much of Abyss Mysticism deals with summoning “Abyssal Spirits”. This is really a misnomer. They aren’t spirits at all, nor are they demons, fae, ghosts or any other kind of immaterial being. The entities summoned by Abyss Mysticism are semi-intelligent protrusions of the Abyss into the material world. They aren’t entirely separate entities, more like an artificial intelligence subroutine of a mind-bogglingly powerful supercomputer.
Abyssal creatures are utterly alien. They don’t share even basic concepts in common with any creature of any other plane. Even Umbral spirits which are already greatly divorced from human concepts seem normal and sane when compared with these creatures.
Abyssal Entities of any power level only want to destroy. They have no other concepts. The more powerful and intelligent ones can understand the idea of creating in order to cause greater destruction, but the end goal of any action they take will always be moving the world towards maximum entropy. They hate the light of creation and will not stop until it is utterly extinguished forever, the universe returned to the way it was before the blight of material was inflicted on it.
Anything about these entities that appears remotely human (speech, movements, etc.) is a bizarre mockery of humanity that they pick up from observation. They can never truly understand how humanity thinks anymore than humanity can understand them.
Mystics and the Lasombra
Within the Lasombra clan, Mystics are looked on with caution and suspicion. The vast majority of the Friends of the Night are not Mystics and believe that those who do practice the art are reckless fools who will destroy the universe one day. Whenever anything goes seriously wrong, the Mystics are always the first blamed (usually correctly), and if brought up before a Court of Blood, usually find they have few friends.
Luckily for the Mystics, along with being the proximate cause whenever something goes seriously wrong, they are usually the solution as well, including to many problems that they didn’t have anything to do with causing (at least provably). As such, however mistrusted they often are, the Friends of the Night have been forced time and time again to admit how useful and even necessary they can be.
All official Mystics are registered with the Friends of the Night. They are watched over and regulated by the Abyss’ Children. Any Mystics found by the Abyss’ Children who have not registered are usually brought in, educated, and formally registered. Any Mystics found by the Friends of the Night who have not registered are usually kidnapped, tortured, dominated, and eventually killed in any number of unpleasant ways after the extent of the possible damage they have caused has been determined. There is notably however no exception for Mystics, even obviously rogue Mystics from the laws of accord that bar one Lasombra from killing another without sanction. However Courts of Blood are more often than not predisposed against an unregistered Mystic on the grounds that if he had nothing to hide, he should have registered himself.
Other than the registration, most of the Friends of the Night follow an unofficial policy of ignoring the Mystics as much as possible until they absolutely have to deal with them. All Mystics are very strange and disturbing in ways that make even other Lasombra cringe. They have looked into the Abyss for far too long and most of them have been warped by it. Most Lasombra look at a Mystic, see his shadow flitting unnaturally behind him and taunting passersby and think, “There but for the grace of God go I”.
These regulations apply equally to Lasombra in all three sects, though of course those of the Sabbat usually dominate as that is the loyalty held by the vast majority of Lasombra. The Lasombra have taken great care to not let it get out how mistrusted Mysticism is within their clan, in fear that their quite reasonable paranoia might be misunderstood by those who cannot truly comprehend the Abyss and start a witch hunt, particularly from the Inquisition who really are just waiting for an excuse. No non-Lasombra should be aware of the state of regulations and registration requirements around Mysticism. Indeed, no one outside the Friends of the Night or the Abyss’ Children should know very much about Mysticism at all. Any details on the politics surrounding Mysticism is considered level 4 lore requiring the Lasombra specialty of Politics.
Mysticism is never taught to neonates, and only in very exceptional cases taught to those who are not yet members of the Friends of the Night.
As a result of this severe mistrust of the Mystics by most of the Lasombra clan, no Mystic may ever rise above Lasombra Prestige 3. In addition, no Court of Blood may ever have more than one half of its judges composed of Mystics.
Mystics and the Sabbat
Within the Sabbat it is a slightly different state. Most of the Sabbat don’t know anything specific about Abyss Mystics. Many have heard vague tales of Lasombra doing impossible things with Obtenebration that those who have learned it out of clan have never been able to duplicate. However, Mystics by their nature are very reluctant to overly showy with their dark arts out of fear of inciting more paranoia. Most of the Sabbat has never directly seen any use of Abyss Mysticism.
Abyss Mysticism is an officially condoned Blood Magic as determined by the Inquisition and does grant the Gifted status. However, a great many Abyss Mystics do not take advantage of this, because they know that the Inquisition is really only waiting for an excuse to declare this unnatural practice heretical and call a night of the long knives on all Mystics. Even now there have been more than a few tales of Mystics meeting nasty ends that have thrown suspicion on over-zealous Inquisitors. The Abyss’ Children are pretty sure that the only reason Mysticism was not declared heretical at the onset was that the Lasombra were very careful to seed the Inquisition ranks with their own members before the issue was really discussed.
Those who do know about Abyss Mysticism within the Sabbat are usually as quiet about it as its practitioners. Abyss Mysticism is unnatural to every sense possessed by material beings and just seeing a ritual performed can shake even the most stalwart soul. This magic is just WRONG. Also, those who have seen the arts of Abyss Mysticism and talked about them too openly have been known to disappear mysteriously in the past.
Non-Lasombra Mystics
Abyss Mysticism practitioners outside of clan Lasombra are extremely rare. They have occasionally happened, usually among Lasombra-embraced Caitiff or the Kiasyd. With the Kiasyd, the Lasombra already try as hard as they can to pretend they don’t exist, and their Mystics are even more of an embarrassment. They don’t usually deign to register themselves with the Friends of the Night, but the general attitude towards them in this seems to be the same as the attitude towards them in other things: pretend they don’t exist and be very grateful they usually keep themselves very much to themselves and don’t make waves. Any known Kiasyd Mystics have an eye kept on them by the Friends of the Night, but unless the Kiasyd is being uncharacteristically blatant with the art, drawing attention to himself, or embarking on some particularly dangerous experiment, he is usually left alone.
Any non-Lasombra (with the notable exception of the Kiasyd) who wish to learn Abyss Mysticism must pass vetting by the Friends of the Night and the Abyss’ Children. It is notable that since no one outside the Lasombra are supposed to know that either organization exists, this vetting is usually done in secret via cutouts and espionage. If the prospective student passes, their names are secretly added to the register and the one who wishes to teach them is given permission to begin instruction. However, it is always made very clear to all Mystics that if they teach anyone outside the clan, that student is forever after their responsibility. Their crimes are your crimes, and more than one teacher has been brought before Courts of Blood for incredibly stupid actions by over-eager students. This understandably puts quite a damper on the desire to pass Abyss Mysticism around, and the Lasombra like it just fine that way.
Mechanics
Abyss Mysticism rituals are not so much rituals in the sense of blood magic, and more alternate techniques of Obtenebration. As such, Abyss Mysticism is notable in that it possesses none of the common rituals of Blood Magic, even including Wards. Abyss Mysticism is entirely separate and insular.
Abyss Mysticism rituals nearly all have some kind of nasty side effect that can cause many problems for the Mystic. This is mostly due to the utter alien malevolence of the forces the Mystic is channeling to his will. The Abyss has no love for the Mystics any more than any other material being. These side effects are always in addition to any other effects of botching a Mysticism ritual, not the only effects. Botching a Mysticism ritual is always far far worse than a normal botch, often sucking something into the void, or letting something out. Storytellers should make any botch of Abyss Mysticism extremely harsh, likely leading to a situation which can quite definitely result in the final death of the Mystic, and possibly those around him as well.
Due to their drawbacks and increased experience cost, Abyss Mysticism rituals are often more powerful than Blood Magic rituals point for point. This is expected and appropriate and should be taken into account when allowing research of new Abyss Mysticism rituals.
Learning Abyss Mysticism
Learning Abyss Mysticism is more than just researching rituals once one has Obtenebration. There is a specific technique that must be learned to allow the potential Mystic to widen rips in reality made by Obtenebration to allow greater energy and manipulation to them. In order to practice any kind of Abyss Mysticism, the student must have the Abyss Mysticism specialty of Occult. Note that this is not the ordinary Abyss specialty possessed by many Lasombra, but a specific technique that must be learned. This specialty is too complex to be researched on one’s own or gained as a free specialty for raising one’s Occult score (at least within the time scale of this game). It must be taught. Characters who wish to enter play already knowing this specialty should have a good justification for it and know what they are getting into.
Those who have learned the Abyss Mysticism specialty are capable of learning any ritual of Abyss Mysticism up to a level of their Obtenebration rating. This is usually only a factor for elders, as very few Mystics are willing to begin to teach the secrets of Mysticism to those who have not even mastered Obtenebration. Rituals can be learned normally from other practitioners, or may be recorded in texts (though few Mystics trust their secrets to a medium that requires light to read).
Researching Abyss Mysticism
Abyss Mysticism, though not truly a blood magic, is a similarly expandable paradigm. Additional rituals may be researched using the usual system. However, there is a caveat. Researching a new effect is even more dangerous and reckless than the rest of Abyss Mysticism. Probing unknown areas of the Abyss puts the Mystic’s mind and soul in peril in addition to any practical problems.
Each week that the Mystic spends researching a ritual of Abyss Mysticism, he must make a Wits + Courage roll at a difficulty of 5+ the level of ritual being researched. This is a reflexive roll and Willpower may not be spent for an automatic success. Failure on this roll gives the Mystic a new permanent derangement or Abyss related flaw (such as Animate Shadow) at the Storyteller’s discretion, but does not affect the research process. Botching this roll means the Mystic has looked into something that has shaken him deeply, causing him to gain a flaw as if failing the roll as well as ruining all accumulated successes on that project. In addition, the Mystic must immediately make an unmodified Wits + Occult roll at a difficulty of 5+ the level of the ritual (no bonuses from library or other power effects not already active at the time) to prevent the research process from doing great damage. Failing or botching this roll counts as a severe Abyss Mysticism botch and the Storyteller should apply liberal and horrible consequences.