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Vampire: the Masquerade
Blood Sacrifice: The Thaumaturgy Companion
Hidden Sorcery
While the Tremere have potent magic at their command, Hermetic tradition isnt the only source of mystic power. The ancient ways of Egyptian magic, the Sufic trances of the Middle East, sacrificial Hindu rites and the natural magic of Caribbean craft can all be used to affect the Final Nights. But what are these thaumaturgies capable of?
Or Abandoned Witchcraft?
Expanded information on non-traditional Thaumaturgy comprises Blood Sacrifice. This book includes four new styles of the Discipline, as well as paths and rituals for each. It also looks into the rare but unforgettable magical 'anomalies' that populate Vampires World of Darkness, those strange mystic artifacts that just seem to happen.
While the Tremere have potent magic at their command, Hermetic tradition isnt the only source of mystic power. The ancient ways of Egyptian magic, the Sufic trances of the Middle East, sacrificial Hindu rites and the natural magic of Caribbean craft can all be used to affect the Final Nights. But what are these thaumaturgies capable of?
Or Abandoned Witchcraft?
Expanded information on non-traditional Thaumaturgy comprises Blood Sacrifice. This book includes four new styles of the Discipline, as well as paths and rituals for each. It also looks into the rare but unforgettable magical 'anomalies' that populate Vampires World of Darkness, those strange mystic artifacts that just seem to happen.
96 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
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White Wolf Publishing
84 books20 followersWhite Wolf Entertainment AB, formerly White Wolf Publishing, was an American roleplaying game and book publisher. The company was founded in 1991 as a merger between Lion Rampant and White Wolf Magazine (est. 1986 in Rocky Face, GA; it later became "White Wolf Inphobia"), and was initially led by Mark Rein-Hagen of the former and Steve Wieck and Stewart Wieck of the latter. White Wolf Publishing, Inc. merged with CCP Games in 2006. White Wolf Publishing operated as an imprint of CCP hf, but ceased in-house production of any material, instead licensing their properties to other publishers. It was announced in October 2015 that White Wolf had been acquired from CCP by Paradox Interactive. In November 2018, after most of its staff were dismissed for making controversial statements, it was announced that White Wolf would no longer function as an entity separate from Paradox Interactive.
source: Wikipedia
source: Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 10, 2017
This book is what I wanted out of Blood Magic: Secrets of Thaumaturgy. Whereas that book was mostly about the Tremere, their Clan structure, and the mystical principles of Thaumaturgy, things that should have been--or were--in Clanbook: Tremere, Blood Sacrifice is about alternate systems of blood sorcery. The Tremere have the most extensive and most codified version of blood sorcery, because the Clan's existence is based around it, but the Clan only dates back from the 11th century. Vampires are far older, and have been studying magic for longer than the Tremere, or even the Order of Hermes, have existed.
One thing about historical magic that roleplaying games don't often replicate is that the distinction between prayer and magic is blurry. Holy men have magical powers, priests perform rituals to intercede with the gods. Prayer is magic with social sanction--do the rites and the gods will bring prosperity, and if there is no prosperity, it's because the rites weren't done correct, or maybe because someone in the community isn't holding up their end of the bargain. Blood Sacrifice remembers that, brings up several types of blood magic that are heavily tied into religious practices as well: Setite sorcery, the magic of the Followers of Set along with their holy text, the Book of Going Forth by Night (as opposed to The Book of Coming Forth by Day ); Dur-An-Ki, a syncretism of various Middle Eastern religions going back to Sumeria; Sadhana, the vampiric blood magic of India; and Wanga, the worship of the orishas and the proper way to channel their favor into power.
Each of these has their own quirks that make them interesting. Setite sorcery doesn't require blood, because the power comes from a blasphemy-shrine made out of a defiled mummy and therefore stolen from Osiris. Dur-An-Ki makes heavy use of talismans, like the blood of a sayyid, dust from a saint's tomb, or medallions like the hamsa, and may change their tools depending on circumstances even when performing the same ritual. Sadhana believe themselves to be demons, set in opposition to the gods, but knowing that demons are capable of wisdom and right action. They attain power by following ascetic practices such as meditation, fasting, mortification of the (undead) flesh, as well as by ritual defilement such as by meditating on corpses--as demons, they are not bound by mortal rules of what is pure. Wanga is a religion, and becomes increasingly difficult if the practitioner merely mouths empty words in the hopes of attaining magical power. Each school adapts some mainstream Thaumaturgy paths to its practice and has a few unique paths of its own.
This is fantastic. It's Koldunic Sorcery expanded outward to other forms of blood sorcery, which solves some of the problems of Thaumaturgy--that it can do anything and that only the Tremere have reliable access to it. If there are other kinds of blood magician, with their own powers and own traditions of study, then the Tremere don't have a monopoly and the Tremere know it. It's the Assamite schism and sorcerer caste Assamites showing up in Camarilla cities writ large across vampire society.
The writing is a little othering in places, in the way that White Wolf products often Orientalize anything from Asia. In the section about Sadhana, the book says that use of magic in India isn't so strange because the population expects holy men to have weird powers. Maybe so, but it continues the "scientific West" vs. "mystical East" view that so many old White Wolf books had and it grated on me when I was reading it. It's possible the Wanga section would too for someone who was more familiar with African diaspora religions than I am.
Those are flaws, but this is probably my favorite Vampire supplement because it acknowledges that in other places, vampires do things differently and that difference matters. Plus it works to break the Tremere monopoly, and anything that undermines the Usurpers is fine by me.
One thing about historical magic that roleplaying games don't often replicate is that the distinction between prayer and magic is blurry. Holy men have magical powers, priests perform rituals to intercede with the gods. Prayer is magic with social sanction--do the rites and the gods will bring prosperity, and if there is no prosperity, it's because the rites weren't done correct, or maybe because someone in the community isn't holding up their end of the bargain. Blood Sacrifice remembers that, brings up several types of blood magic that are heavily tied into religious practices as well: Setite sorcery, the magic of the Followers of Set along with their holy text, the Book of Going Forth by Night (as opposed to The Book of Coming Forth by Day ); Dur-An-Ki, a syncretism of various Middle Eastern religions going back to Sumeria; Sadhana, the vampiric blood magic of India; and Wanga, the worship of the orishas and the proper way to channel their favor into power.
Each of these has their own quirks that make them interesting. Setite sorcery doesn't require blood, because the power comes from a blasphemy-shrine made out of a defiled mummy and therefore stolen from Osiris. Dur-An-Ki makes heavy use of talismans, like the blood of a sayyid, dust from a saint's tomb, or medallions like the hamsa, and may change their tools depending on circumstances even when performing the same ritual. Sadhana believe themselves to be demons, set in opposition to the gods, but knowing that demons are capable of wisdom and right action. They attain power by following ascetic practices such as meditation, fasting, mortification of the (undead) flesh, as well as by ritual defilement such as by meditating on corpses--as demons, they are not bound by mortal rules of what is pure. Wanga is a religion, and becomes increasingly difficult if the practitioner merely mouths empty words in the hopes of attaining magical power. Each school adapts some mainstream Thaumaturgy paths to its practice and has a few unique paths of its own.
This is fantastic. It's Koldunic Sorcery expanded outward to other forms of blood sorcery, which solves some of the problems of Thaumaturgy--that it can do anything and that only the Tremere have reliable access to it. If there are other kinds of blood magician, with their own powers and own traditions of study, then the Tremere don't have a monopoly and the Tremere know it. It's the Assamite schism and sorcerer caste Assamites showing up in Camarilla cities writ large across vampire society.
The writing is a little othering in places, in the way that White Wolf products often Orientalize anything from Asia. In the section about Sadhana, the book says that use of magic in India isn't so strange because the population expects holy men to have weird powers. Maybe so, but it continues the "scientific West" vs. "mystical East" view that so many old White Wolf books had and it grated on me when I was reading it. It's possible the Wanga section would too for someone who was more familiar with African diaspora religions than I am.
Those are flaws, but this is probably my favorite Vampire supplement because it acknowledges that in other places, vampires do things differently and that difference matters. Plus it works to break the Tremere monopoly, and anything that undermines the Usurpers is fine by me.
July 13, 2020
Breaks down Thaumaturgy further into subsystems generally tied to certain belief systems that tend to be prevalent mostly in certain bloodlines. Way too much micromanaging for too little pay-off for most campaigns. Has a number of "newnique"Paths and powers.
About the only thing I actually found useful/interesting is the introduction ("reemergence") of the Tlacique bloodline.
The book closes off by presenting a few "spontaneous talismans", magical artifacts of differing power and effects, that apparently have come into being without any clear-cut imbuing or origin. Some very cool items, but a weird choice to include in a Vampire book.
About the only thing I actually found useful/interesting is the introduction ("reemergence") of the Tlacique bloodline.
The book closes off by presenting a few "spontaneous talismans", magical artifacts of differing power and effects, that apparently have come into being without any clear-cut imbuing or origin. Some very cool items, but a weird choice to include in a Vampire book.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews