13 KiB
13 KiB
Description
Blood Sorcery is the art of offering your life’s essence to call, bind, and bargain with Spirits. It is dangerous, powerful, and deeply cultural: the Circle, the Setting/World/People/Tlaxcal, and the Temeria each walk the Scarlet Path differently.
This tree represents a blood sorcerer’s growing mastery, from crude invocations to pacts with Greater Spirits. Every choice carries a cost, most visibly the Spirit Marks left upon their soul—a currency of power and Corruption that must be managed or embraced.
Overview of Tiers and Progression
- Tier 1 (Rituals 1+): Basic summoning and communal rites.
- Tier 2 (Rituals 2+): Cultural refinements, bargaining mastery, and the first Spirit Mark mitigation tools.
- Tier 3 (Rituals 3+): Named Spirits, blood efficiency, and expanded influence.
- Tier 4 (Rituals 4+): Apex powers, greater pacts, and full control—or weaponization—of Spirit Marks.
Cost: Each tier costs Tier × 3 Marks, spent from Rituals or Spirit.
Advancement: Must unlock Tier 1 before accessing later tiers.
Tier 1 – Initiate of the Scarlet Path (Rituals 1+, 3 Marks)
| Name | Type | Action/Duration | Roll (if active) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Circle – Targeted Call | Active | Attaches to a summoning roll | Wit+Occult | Name a specific spirit archetype (e.g., ancestral guide, carrion spirit). Gain +1 die if your blood offering matches its Dominion. |
| Tlaxcal – Communal Rites | Active | Attaches to a group summoning | Presence+Theology | When performing Blood Sorcery with a group, gain +1 die and reduce Fatigue for all participants by 1 step. |
| Temeria – Battlefield Extraction | Active | Attaches to a summoning roll | Wit + Medicine | You may harvest blood from fresh Injuries or corpses, adding +1 die to your next summoning. |
| Generic – Hemophage | Passive | 1 Action (scene) | — | You may heal 1 Injury during a ritual when sacrificing the blood of another intelligent being. |
Tier 2 – Keeper of the Vein (Rituals 2+, 6 Marks)
| Name | Type | Action/Duration | Roll (if active) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Circle – Precise Glyphwork | Passive | — | You learn to inscribe glyphs keyed to one specific Dominion. Gain +2 dice when bargaining with spirits of that Dominion. | |
| Tlaxcal – Patron’s Blessing | Passive | — | — | Name a city-spirit or ancestral patron. When sacrificing at their altar, gain +1 die and can rereoll the risky die of the summoning. You can craft an altar for your patreon with 1 week of work and a successfull Focus+Theology roll. |
| Temeria – Controlled Deterrence | Active | 1 Action | — | You may intimidate spirits by brandishing captured blood. On a failed bargain, roll 1d6: on a 4–6, the spirit flees instead of backlash. |
| Generic – Bargain-Hardened | Effect | — | — | You may mark one die as lucky during bargaining or coercion with a spirit. |
| Spirit Mark Mitigation: | Active | differs | Spirit+Meditation | (Choose one per culture) Circle – Vein Purification: Once per session, cleanse 1 Spirit Mark (costs 2 Injures) in a four hour bloodletting procedure. Tlaxcal – Bloodline Transfer: Transfer 1 Spirit Mark to a willing community member during a 8 hour communal rite. Temeria – Mark Detonation: Burn a Spirit Mark for 1 Injury to yourself for 2 Actions to add +3 dice to a summoning or deal 2 Injuries to a spirit. The Mark is cleansed by this action. |
Tier 3 – Master of the Red Path (Rituals 3+, 9 Marks)
| Name | Type | Action/Duration | Roll (if active) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Circle – Named Spirit | Active | Downtime (1 day) | Spirit + Rituals | Establish a true-name link with a spirit you’ve summoned before. Summon that spirit at +2 dice and no blood modifier. Work with your GM to give the Spirit personality. |
| Tlaxcal – City’s Miracle | Active | Once per session | Spirit + Rituals | Invoke your patron to act at double normal scale (GM discretion) without increased Spirit Mark risk. |
| Temeria – Blood Efficiency | Active | Always on | Focus+Rituals | Reduce blood requirements for summoning by one step (e.g., willing self-sacrifice counts as a willing human sacrifice) when determining the power of the summoned spirit. Automatically gain 1 Fatigue when using this. |
| Generic – Spirit Mark Masking | Active | 1 scene | Spirit + Rituals | Cloak your Spirit Marks from mortals and lesser spirits for one scene. Costs 1 Fatigue; may be used only once per day. |
Tier 4 – Lord of Crimson Power (Rituals 4+, 12 Marks)
| Name | Type | Action/Duration | Roll (if active) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Circle – Chosen Spirit | Meta | Once per session | — | Forge a pact with a named, greater Spirit. Call it directly once per session with no summoning roll. Demands major offerings. |
| Tlaxcal – Ancestral Avatar | Active | 1 scene | Spirit + Rituals | Channel your patron’s presence, gaining +2 dice to Blood Sorcery rolls and dominion-aligned actions. Backlash escalates by one severity step on failure. |
| Temeria – Red Legion Ascendant | Active | Downtime (1 day) | Spirit + Rituals | Pre-bind spirits into troops, vessels, or objects before battle. Each binding reduces Spirit Mark risk by 1 step but permanently stains the host giving the victim or bearer of the vessel 1 Corruption. |
| Generic – Ritual Immunity | Meta | Once per session | — | Ignore all Spirit Marks gained from a single summoning or bargaining attempt. |
| Spirit Mark Mastery: | — | — | — | (Choose one per culture)Circle – Total Purge: Cleanse all Spirit Marks via a 1-day rite. Requires sacrificing a bonded Greater Spirit.Tlaxcal – Bloodline Dispersal: Redistribute all Spirit Marks across your community, diffusing their impact.Temeria – Mark Arsenal: Burn any number of Spirit Marks at once to either add +3 dice each to a summoning or unleash a destructive ritual (GM discretion). |
[!hint] Design Notes
Cultural differences: Circle = cleansing, Setting/World/People/Tlaxcal = communal dispersal, Temeria = weaponization.
Mitigation vs mastery: Spirit Mark management appears at Tier 2 (small) and Tier 4 (definitive), giving players tough choices.
Magi control: Circle’s Targeted Call + Named Spirit = predictable summons, while Setting/World/People/Tlaxcal focus on miracles and Temeria on blood power.
Spirit Mark consequences remain dangerous; mitigation is costly and rare, ensuring tension is preserved.