Bardo

[Hematite]

Bardo

This power may only be learned by vampires on the Path of Humanity. For the purposes of this discipline, the alternate Paths of Humanity presented in the Road of Humanity book count as Humanity.

When one goes through the ritual to become a Child of Osiris, he automatically gains Bardo as an In-Clan discipline. No Child of Osiris will ever willingly teach this discipline to an outsider, and indeed it is not actually possible to teach to those who have not undergone the ritual to become a Child of Osiris. Furthermore, no Caitiff has ever been able to learn this discipline without undergoing the ritual either.

This discipline may never be gained via diablerie.

Emerald Coven Chronicles does not use the canon from Mummy: The Resurrection Revised in which the True Spell of Life was recovered and used to turn all of the Children of Osiris back human. The Children of Osiris still exist in their vampiric form, though in hiding and underground as always.

A Child of Osiris must maintain a Humanity rating equal to or greater than the highest level of Bardo he possesses. If his Humanity ever drops below his Bardo rating, he loses access to the levels of Bardo above his current Humanity rating until his Humanity increases again. He does not actually lose the powers he has purchased, only the ability to access them.

As soon as one undergoes the ritual to become a Child of Osiris, he may never attain the state of Golconda.


Bardo 1: Restore Humanitas [V20 443]

This power can only help recover the last path rating lost. If there are multiple losses before this power can be successfully used, only the most recent can be restored.

This power requires that your blood pool hit 0. This can be done by spending the blood or by bleeding out, but the result is that the character's Self Control / Instinct rating goes to 0 as well, and while this does not cause automatic frenzy, anything, including the sight or smell of blood (such as would be desired very soon after) will cause irresistible Frenzy (since there are no dice to resist with) and may cause further Path loss, although the Conscience roll to complete the power activation happens immediately once the blood is spent, so would precede such Path loss.

This power is not pleasant to perform. It has the effect of forcing the vampire to confront his past sins and witness firsthand the evil he has caused. Performing this power removes all currently acquired tenet points. The Children of Osiris live by the creed that sometimes it is necessary for a vampire to do evil, but that he must remember and confront the fact that it is evil and genuinely repent of his sins.

This power requires an already built Pillar of Osiris to use.

Any character with this power may also perform the ritual that can adopt a vampire into the Children of Osiris. This may only be done once for a given vampire, but has the effect of using this power on another, even though the power may normally only be used to benefit oneself. For the convert receiving this ritual, this has the effect of showing him again and again all the evil he has wrought in his life and forcing him to confront it. In addition to the usual effects of this power, a vampire undergoing the ritual must make a Willpower roll as if undergoing Catharsis to jump paths at difficulty 10. If he scores 3 or more successes, he recovers from the ritual normally with no loss. If he scores 2 successes, he loses one Humanity. If he scores 1 success, he loses 2 Humanity. If he fails the roll, he loses 3 Humanity and a Conscience point. If he botches the roll, he immediately falls to Wassail, regardless of current Humanity score. Should the convert fall to zero Humanity as a result of this ritual, he becomes a wight as normal. This ritual may only be performed on vampires following the Path of Humanity (or any of its variants).


Bardo 2: Banishing Sign of Thoth [V20 443]

This power adds a defensive action option that can be declared as an action in the same round as a mystical attack happens. Like a normal defensive action, it can happen during an action faster than your initiative, and thus, in situations where powers are being used outside of regulated initiative combat rounds, such as a Dominate effect happening in the course of a conversation, Banishing Sign of Thoth may be used to "pre-empt" that effect to attempt to negate successes.

Any use of Banishing Sign of Thoth still requires that the user be aware of the action. For obvious effects like Theft of Vitae, this is assumed unless in Surprise, but for subtle effects like Dominate or Presence, a Perception + Awareness roll achieving at least one success (the amount of success required to know *something* is amiss) must be achieved first to attempt it.

In order to use this power, like a block or dodge, the user must be physically able to move, so this power cannot be used while staked or otherwise totally immobilized.

The user need not "see" the effect of this power in order to attempt to stop it, just be aware of the effect as described above. This power may be used to stop effects that happen at range, such as rituals.

If the power normally has a difficulty to resist or some other means of contested resistance based on the successes scored, and the Banishing Sign of Thoth cannot totally negate the effect as it begins to affect the user, they test for resistance against the new, partially deflated value when doing their normal resistance roll.

This power may only be used to negate effects that specifically target the Child of Osiris. It has no effect on area effects or anything that does not specifically target him. If used on an effect that targets multiple people, this power reduces the effects only on the Child of Osiris himself, not for anyone else.


Bardo 3: Gift of Apis [V20 443]

This power gives animals a blood total equal to their Health levels instead of the amount listed.

If this power is possessed, the vampire may feed on animals for 5 blood per action instead of 1.


Bardo 4: Pillar of Osiris [V20 443]

The Storyteller will determine the difficulty of this ritual based on the violence level of the area.

While this does not require a physical pillar, it does require some specific piece of artifice or structure to be the focus of the power. This can be nearly anything, but it cannot be mobile. If it is attempted to be moved, the power fades immediately.

The lowered difficulty on disciplines at the pillar applies only to those who have used the Pillar for Restore Humanitas at some point in the past.

The pillar ceases to function if the creator does not visit it at least once each lunar month. This is not a simple visit, it requires the creator to spend a downtime action in meditation at the pillar. A use of Restore Humanitas at the pillar counts as this necessary meditation. A pillar must be maintained by its creator. Though others may use the pillar, only the creator may keep the power in it vital.

The "addiction" to the Pillar of Osiris occurs after benefitting from the Pillar once, regardless of whether the user has the fourth level of Bardo or created the pillar. This can be a somewhat problematic situation for those users of Bardo who have not yet achieved this level of the power, as they must stay close to the temple and rarely leave.


Bardo 5: Paradox [V20 444]

This power affects all listeners who can hear the target's true voice speaking at normal volume (not screaming across the hills with Potence). It does not work on any reproduction of the voice, such as a recording or a loudspeaker.

Any user affected by this power permanently has the difficulty to act against the user of the power increased by +1. This includes discipline activations, physical attacks, and even things like lies or intimidation. Any contested roll or roll where the user is the direct target of an aggressive effect has this penalty.

People who have been affected by the Paradox power have great difficulty explaining what happened to them or why they were affected so, or what they feel for the user of the power (in regards to the permanent +1 difficulty to act against them) It takes 5 successes on a Intelligence + Expression roll, dif 8 to explain to another.


Bardo 6: Boon of Anubis [V20 444]

This power may be used on any living supernatural creature as well as ordinary mortals. It may affect any type of creature that can be embraced.

This power only protects against the embrace, not any other type of supernatural conversion.

This power protects against all forms of the embrace, including the Koldunic ritual Ritual of Death’s Embrace and the Hermetic ritual The Curse Belated.

This power normally lasts for a number of months equal to the successes scored. The Child of Osiris may make it permanent by spending a Permanent Willpower.

If a mortal is embraced while under this power, he does not awaken and gives every sign of having simply died until he rises from the dead with the dawn of the day after the next.