71 lines
13 KiB
Markdown
71 lines
13 KiB
Markdown
### **Description**
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[[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|Tlaxcal]]**, and the **Temeria** each walk the Scarlet Path differently.
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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.
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### **Overview of Tiers and Progression**
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- **Tier 1 (Rituals 1+)**: Basic summoning and communal rites.
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- **Tier 2 (Rituals 2+)**: Cultural refinements, bargaining mastery, and the first Spirit Mark mitigation tools.
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- **Tier 3 (Rituals 3+)**: Named [[Spirits]], blood efficiency, and expanded influence.
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- **Tier 4 (Rituals 4+)**: Apex powers, greater pacts, and full control—or weaponization—of Spirit Marks.
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**Cost:** Each tier costs **Tier × 3 Marks**, spent from **Rituals or Spirit.
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Advancement:** Must unlock **Tier 1** before accessing later tiers.
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### **Tier 1 – Initiate of the Scarlet Path** _(Rituals 1+, 3 Marks)_
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| **Name** | **Type** | **Action/Duration** | **Roll (if active)** | **Description** |
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| ------------------------------------ | ----------- | ----------------------------- | -------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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| **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. |
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| **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. |
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| **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. |
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| **Generic – Hemophage** | **Passive** | 1 Action (scene) | — | You may **heal 1 Injury** during a ritual when sacrificing the blood of another intelligent being. |
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---
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### **Tier 2 – Keeper of the Vein** _(Rituals 2+, 6 Marks)_
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| **Name** | **Type** | **Action/Duration** | **Roll (if active)** | **Description** |
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| ----------------------------------- | ----------- | ------------------- | -------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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| **Circle – Precise Glyphwork** | **Passive** | — | | You learn to inscribe glyphs keyed to one specific Dominion. Gain **+2 dice** when bargaining with spirits of that Dominion. |
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| **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. |
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| **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. |
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| **Generic – Bargain-Hardened** | **Effect** | — | — | You may mark one die as lucky during bargaining or coercion with a spirit. |
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| **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. |
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### **Tier 3 – Master of the Red Path** _(Rituals 3+, 9 Marks)_
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| **Name** | **Type** | **Action/Duration** | **Roll (if active)** | **Description** |
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| --------------------------------- | ---------- | ------------------- | -------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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| **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. |
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| **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. |
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| **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. |
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| **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. |
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### **Tier 4 – Lord of Crimson Power** _(Rituals 4+, 12 Marks)_
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| **Name** | **Type** | **Action/Duration** | **Roll (if active)** | **Description** |
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| ---------------------------------- | ---------- | ------------------- | -------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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| **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. |
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| **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. |
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| **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. |
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| **Generic – Ritual Immunity** | **Meta** | Once per session | — | Ignore **all Spirit Marks** gained from a single summoning or bargaining attempt. |
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| **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). |
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---
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> [!hint] **Design [[Notes]]**
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> - **Cultural differences:** Circle = cleansing, [[Setting/World/People/Tlaxcal|Tlaxcal]] = communal dispersal, Temeria = weaponization.
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> - **Mitigation vs mastery:** Spirit Mark management appears at **Tier 2** (small) and **Tier 4** (definitive), giving players tough choices.
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> - **Magi control:** Circle’s Targeted Call + Named Spirit = predictable summons, while [[Setting/World/People/Tlaxcal|Tlaxcal]] focus on miracles and Temeria on blood power.
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> - Spirit Mark consequences remain dangerous; mitigation is **costly and rare**, ensuring tension is preserved.
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