Vampires, or rather, wannabe vampires

This is my first shot at a new adept school. Being the world of Unknown Armies, the idea behind the school of magick is that the ingestion of blood — a symbol of life — as a means of gaining the benefits of being “undead”: not getting sick, extended life, super strength, looking sexy to teenage goths, etc. Shame that you’ll probably go crazy and get sick from drinking other people’s blood, though.

Hemomancy

You’re obssessed with the image of the vampire. Eternal youth; the legendary strength of ten men; the animal, erotic magnetism that radiates around you. You’ve read every Anne Rice novel, you’ve watched every vampire movie and television show, and heck, you’ve even played that weird role-playing game about vampires until you got kicked out for obssessing over your character.

By the act of ingesting human blood — admittedly, an act a little unsavory to you — you turn yourself turn into the kind of pretty, immortal dead thing you wish you to be. By maintaining the pretense that you are above the base needs of human beings, deriving your only sustenance for blood, you maintain the unreality that you can, in fact, transcend the human limitations of having to breathe, grow old, get sick, and die.

Most hemomancers enter this school, either naturally or through training, through the desire to overcome the fears and insecurities of their physicality. A number of hemomancers have a deep-seated fear of death, and use their charges to give themselves immortality. Others are enamored at the idea of transcending the petty needs to breathe air, feel pain, and have acne. Some enjoy the benefits of appearing to others as a mysterious, sexy being, and yet others just began with wondering what it would be like to drink human blood.

The myth of the vampire and vampires in popular culture have existed substantially longer than the school itself. Hemomancy began in the mid- to late-90’s, when popular culture seemed to have reached the full extent to which it could accomodate vampires — there were vampire movies, vampire television shows, vampire subcultures, and, yes, vampire role-playing games. By that point, it was a small step from portraying vampires to having people seriously want to be like vampires.

Generate a minor charge: drink about a pint of human blood over the course of 24 hours. The blood can be from any person or persons, so you long as you’re drinking someone else’s blood. (A human weighing 150 pounds would have about nine pints of blood in their system.)

Generate a significant charge: drink about five pints of human blood in a over the course of 24 hours. The player must declare that he is making a bid for a significant charge, meaning that he gains no minor charges in the process of drinking blood.

Generate a major charge: suck dry all the blood of an individual whose blood contains unique, although not necessarily magickal, properties. Someone with the only blood type of his kind in the world would do it, as might several godwalkers. You don’t gain any minor or significant charges along with this act. You must do this over the course of 24 hours, and the player must declare that he is making a bid for a major charge, meaning that he gains to minor or significant charges in the process.

Taboo: Know that he is being seen eating, drinking, vomiting, urinating, or defecating. A hemomancer must maintain the pretense that he does not perform the bodily functions related to sustenance. Because breaking the taboo rests upon the hemomancer knowing he is being watched perform a bodily function, he will not lose any charges if he performs those bodily functions while unknowingly being watched. However, a hemomancer’s magick works at a -30% shift against anyone who has seen the hemomancer perform such bodily functions in the last 24 hours. Hemomancers break taboo in public restrooms, eating at restaurants, and so on, even if the people present aren’t actively observing him.

Symbolic Tension: Hemomancers take a representation of life in order to surpass its limitations, while at the same time pretending they do not perform the normal functions of sustenance and excretion.

Random Magick: Augmentation of one’s own body, extension of one’s own lifespan, curing and healing oneself, appearing beautiful and glamorous to others (including animals). Hemomancers essentially can perform the fabled vampire powers that fall in these categories, meaning that he can’t turn into a wolf or climb sheer surfaces.

Blast Style: Hemomancy does not have a blast, but it can be used to augment one’s own body in a fight.

Charging Tips: Work at a blood bank, or find people who derive a ghoulish pleasure from having their blood drunk. Killing people for blood gets attention you don’t want, although this may be necessary for a significant charge, and is almost certainly necessary for a major charge. Keep a haven away from pryings, where you conduct in private all your filthy little secrets of eating, drinking, and pooping.

Starting Charges: Four minor

Note: any hemomancy effect is ended prematurely if the adept breaks taboo.

Minor Formulas:

Endurance of the damned
1 minor charge
You experience no pain at all for the next 30 seconds, which can work against you if you overestimate how physically injured you really are. (As a note, many Hemomancy formulas have pretensiously silly, dark names.)

Life beyond breath
1 minor charge
You do not need to breathe for 10 minutes, but may still speak, eat, and drink normally.

Ah, the children of the night
2 minor charges
Gain a +10% shift to all rolls involving directly dealing with animals for the next hour. The shift is +20% for canines, bats, and rodents.

Strong dead thing
2 minor charges
Your hand-to-hand attacks inflict +3 damage for 10 minutes.

Sexy dead thing
4 minor charges
You appear unnaturally seductive, beautiful, mysterious, and predatory to a single person sexually interested in your gender. You gain a +20% shift towards him on relevant rolls toward him, e.g. seducing him, lying to him. The effect lasts for 1 hour or until dawn, whichever comes first.

Significant Formulas:

Gift of everlasting youth
1 significant charge
Stop the aging process for 6 months, or reverse it by 3 months. Like Thanatomancy, this school of magick provides potential immortality.

Goth getup
1 significant charge
Dress up in a black costume that will look impressive to a particular subculture. (For most hemomancers this is the goth subculture, of course.) Anything from a black trenchcoat with a katana, to a provocative pseudo-Victorian lace getup, to leather and studs, will work. While in this costume, spill some blood on your face, and maybe drink it for show, before an audience of the appropriate subculture. You are now perceived as rock-star cool for the next 3 hours, and gain a +20% shift to all Soul-based rolls affecting the audience as a whole.

You can’t kill the dead with bullets
1 significant charge
You take the sum of the percentile roll when suffering firearms damage. The effect lasts for 10 minutes.

Too dead to die
2 significant charges
Remove any and all diseases afflicting you.

Resplendent lord of the dark night
3 significant charges
You become a mysterious vampire lord of the night, just as you’ve always wanted to be. You grow a few inches taller if you’re a little short, and become remarkably physically fit. You gain something of a pallor, and exude that vampire mystery and sexiness. For the duration of the spell, you gain a +10% to all Body- and Speed-based checks, and gain the benefits of Sexy dead thing, except it applies to all individuals you encounter. Moreover, you become something like a sociopath — all stress rolls do not need to be made until the end of the spell, and you are treated as if all your failed notches in your Madness Meters were erased. However, you are unable to make use of your passions through the flip-flop rule. The effect lasts for 12 hours, or until dawn, whichever comes first.