Blood Magic

Raphael Luta (luta@inf.enst.fr or luta@cal.enst.fr)
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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 :

   * First, it can enhance the power of any spell that can be cast in a
     ritual manner
   * Second, it can help in summoning some spirits and even free spirits
   * Lastly, it allows the caster to use some specific ritual magic, which
     requires blood as a component

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).