Day 1: Blood Magic: A Look at Rites of the Blood

Sales, Vampire: The Masquerade

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One of the things I loved about working on Rites of the Blood was how flexible the idea of a “blood ritual” was. It allowed my team to explore a wide variety of concepts all across the spectrum of Vampire: The Masquerade beyond pure Thaumaturgy and Necromancy. For example, here’s one of the new Sabbat ritae that was created for the book.

Purity of Babel The Book of Genesis details the story of a mighty city of peace and prosperity, whose heights would reach into heaven and rival even the glory of God. The Almighty struck down that city, even as Enoch was destroyed by the Deluge. So, too, do the Loyalists see absolute unity as another type of slavery, and reject conformity. The Purity of Babel was created by a Kiasyd known only as “Balthazar” to strengthen the pack, allowing secure communication even within a larger gathering. The fact that public conversations using the ritus tend to frustrate those who do not understand them is just a bonus. Only members of the Loyalist Faction may participate in this ritus. System: For the rest of the night, those who participated in a specific Purity of Babel ritus (up to ten Loyalists) may choose to communicate with one another in a manner that is indecipherable to all those around them. These vampires have the capacity to literally speak another language, one that cannot be deciphered by any means. Further, this communication does not have to be verbal. The participants in this ritual may signal to one another clearly so long as they can see, hear, touch, or otherwise clearly sense one another, even over video cameras, cellphone or other electronic means, and those who were not part of the individual’s ritus cannot gain meaning from these gestures. Vampires who participate in one Purity of Babel ritus may not decipher the communication of those using a different form of the ritus. This communication is as obvious as any other conversation; only the meaning is obscured.

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