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Vampire: the Masquerade
Blood Magic: Secrets of Thaumaturgy
Eldritch Texts and Kindred Blood
Blood magic, the jealously guarded secret of Clan Tremere, has long been observed with a wary eye. Is it the power of summoned demons? An application of the Blood's mystic properties? The will of spirits? Or is it something else altogether? Only those who master its dark secrets can know.
Hidden Lore Revealed
Blood Magic: Secrets of Thaumaturgy provides the answers to long-asked questions about this most powerful of Kindred Disciplines and explores a gamut of new possibilities. Included in the book are new paths and rituals as well as details on the lesser known but similar arcane practices. What is it about Thaumaturgy that has allowed the Tremere to ascend to prominence in the modern nights? This book examines the answer.
Blood Magic: Secrets of Thaumaturgy includes:
A complete look at Thaumaturgy, from its dark origins to its modern practice;
A wealth of new paths and rituals;
Other path and ritual systems like Necromancy and Koldunic Sorcery
Blood magic, the jealously guarded secret of Clan Tremere, has long been observed with a wary eye. Is it the power of summoned demons? An application of the Blood's mystic properties? The will of spirits? Or is it something else altogether? Only those who master its dark secrets can know.
Hidden Lore Revealed
Blood Magic: Secrets of Thaumaturgy provides the answers to long-asked questions about this most powerful of Kindred Disciplines and explores a gamut of new possibilities. Included in the book are new paths and rituals as well as details on the lesser known but similar arcane practices. What is it about Thaumaturgy that has allowed the Tremere to ascend to prominence in the modern nights? This book examines the answer.
Blood Magic: Secrets of Thaumaturgy includes:
A complete look at Thaumaturgy, from its dark origins to its modern practice;
A wealth of new paths and rituals;
Other path and ritual systems like Necromancy and Koldunic Sorcery
144 pages, Paperback
First published January 20, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 6, 2017
When I first started with Vampire, my favorite Clan was the Tremere. I usually play wizards in games if the option is available, and the Brujah stereotype of the Tremere-"It's like someone Embraced a bunch of D&D geeks and told them their spells were real"--sounded like exactly what I was looking for if I were going to play an unnatural abomination forced to drink the blood of the innocent.
Blood Magic is the book that broke my attachment to the Tremere by showing me that there were other options for vampire wizards. I never really liked the Tremere as Tremere, I only liked them because they had Thaumaturgy and thus were blood sorcerers. This book offers multiple other groups of blood sorcerers: Setite sorcerers with their blasphemy-shrines formed from desecrated mummies; Assamite viziers (before the tripartite warrior/sorcerer/vizier structure was established), who drink the blood of kalif-addled vessels and use the visions to ascend the stairway to heaven; Tzimisce kolduns who draw on the spirits of the Carpathians and Transylvania to channel the power of the elements; or Voudoun necromancers who allow the loa to ride their bodies in exchange for power over the dead. When I read about the Assamite sorcerers, I thought they sounded like everything I was interested in the Tremere for without the parts of the Tremere I didn't like, such as the rigid hierarchical power structure, the antipathy from most other elements of Kindred society, the obsessive secrecy, and the monopolistic control of blood sorcery.
The first part of the book is about Clan Tremere's rigid hierarchical power structure, antipathy from most other elements of Kindred society, obsessive secrecy, and monopolistic control of blood sorcery. There's a history of blood sorcery, from its beginnings in the Second City to the blood mages' war in Central Asia that left the Taklamakan Desert as its legacy to the rise of the Tremere from a group of hermetic mortal mages and their codification of Thaumaturgy from the remnants of their mortal knowledge, which leads to this amusing quote:
That's part of the reason I didn't like Blood Magic as much as I might have. It does say "secrets of Thaumaturgy" so I knew it was going to be about the Tremere, but surely writing Clan structure is the point of having a Clanbook: Tremere Revised? The discussion on the underlying principles of Thaumaturgy was interesting, but I'm not sure the space describing how most Tremere spend their time as Sixth or Seventh-Circle apprentices for decades is well used.
The rest of the book describes a variety of Thaumaturgical paths and rituals, and here's where I can see why people think that Thaumaturgy is a munchkin's most deeply-held dream. The book explicitly says that it can probably duplicate any other Discipline, given enough research and timing. That makes sense based on its derivation from mortal wizardry, but I think a more limited set of powers, like Vampire: The Requiem's Theban Sorcery, might have been better for the game overall. Here, we have the Path of Alchemy for turning one substance into another; the Hearth Path, to talk to items in one's haven or defending oneself while in one's lair; the Path of Oneiromancy, for seeing dream visions or controlling people's dreams; and the Vine of Dionysus, for making targets drunk or euphoric, among other paths. You may notice there's no real unifying theme here or relation to any kind of vampire powers at all. It's just a random collection of D&D spells. I mean, Serpentis and Thanatosis and Chimerstry are kind of silly too, but at least they're separate powers instead of one power whose range of possible effects is "literally anything."
Hearth Path and the Path of Oneiromancy aren't bad for blood sorcery, but the Vine of Dionysus? The Path of Transmutation? Does that have anything to do with being creepy vampire sorcerers? I don't think so. The story of the Tremere is the story of mortal wizards who experiment on vampires trying to find the secrets to immortality and lost their magic in the process. Giving them the ability to do anything with Thaumaturgy means they can basically replicate mortal magic and risks turning the House Tremere -> Clan Tremere transition into a Cursed with Awesome situation, and Vampire: the Masquerade already has more than enough of that to go around.
The end of Blood Magic is why I really like it, and it's the part I already talked about above. The expansion of blood sorcerer beyond the Tremere while explaining that the Tremere brought a systemization and codification to Thaumaturgy that no one else had previously applied, even if other blood magic traditions had been practicing for longer and often considered the Tremere to be over-ambitious upstarts. I could take or leave the rest of the book, but I think it's worth it for Assamite Sorcery and Koldunic Sorcery (translated from Russian: "Sorcerous sorcery"), though not as good for that as the later Blood Sacrifice: the Thaumaturgy Companion, which is what I really wanted this book to be.
Blood Magic is the book that broke my attachment to the Tremere by showing me that there were other options for vampire wizards. I never really liked the Tremere as Tremere, I only liked them because they had Thaumaturgy and thus were blood sorcerers. This book offers multiple other groups of blood sorcerers: Setite sorcerers with their blasphemy-shrines formed from desecrated mummies; Assamite viziers (before the tripartite warrior/sorcerer/vizier structure was established), who drink the blood of kalif-addled vessels and use the visions to ascend the stairway to heaven; Tzimisce kolduns who draw on the spirits of the Carpathians and Transylvania to channel the power of the elements; or Voudoun necromancers who allow the loa to ride their bodies in exchange for power over the dead. When I read about the Assamite sorcerers, I thought they sounded like everything I was interested in the Tremere for without the parts of the Tremere I didn't like, such as the rigid hierarchical power structure, the antipathy from most other elements of Kindred society, the obsessive secrecy, and the monopolistic control of blood sorcery.
The first part of the book is about Clan Tremere's rigid hierarchical power structure, antipathy from most other elements of Kindred society, obsessive secrecy, and monopolistic control of blood sorcery. There's a history of blood sorcery, from its beginnings in the Second City to the blood mages' war in Central Asia that left the Taklamakan Desert as its legacy to the rise of the Tremere from a group of hermetic mortal mages and their codification of Thaumaturgy from the remnants of their mortal knowledge, which leads to this amusing quote:
This sort of 'consensual acceptance' smacks of artificiality to me, however--legend made fact by mere belief would imply that innumerable 'other' creatures and magics are out there, and that one could literally cross the street into another world. Such metaphysics are best left unpondered.Then there's a discussion of the structure of Clan Tremere written by a Tremere anarch and annotated by a loyal regent.
That's part of the reason I didn't like Blood Magic as much as I might have. It does say "secrets of Thaumaturgy" so I knew it was going to be about the Tremere, but surely writing Clan structure is the point of having a Clanbook: Tremere Revised? The discussion on the underlying principles of Thaumaturgy was interesting, but I'm not sure the space describing how most Tremere spend their time as Sixth or Seventh-Circle apprentices for decades is well used.
The rest of the book describes a variety of Thaumaturgical paths and rituals, and here's where I can see why people think that Thaumaturgy is a munchkin's most deeply-held dream. The book explicitly says that it can probably duplicate any other Discipline, given enough research and timing. That makes sense based on its derivation from mortal wizardry, but I think a more limited set of powers, like Vampire: The Requiem's Theban Sorcery, might have been better for the game overall. Here, we have the Path of Alchemy for turning one substance into another; the Hearth Path, to talk to items in one's haven or defending oneself while in one's lair; the Path of Oneiromancy, for seeing dream visions or controlling people's dreams; and the Vine of Dionysus, for making targets drunk or euphoric, among other paths. You may notice there's no real unifying theme here or relation to any kind of vampire powers at all. It's just a random collection of D&D spells. I mean, Serpentis and Thanatosis and Chimerstry are kind of silly too, but at least they're separate powers instead of one power whose range of possible effects is "literally anything."
Hearth Path and the Path of Oneiromancy aren't bad for blood sorcery, but the Vine of Dionysus? The Path of Transmutation? Does that have anything to do with being creepy vampire sorcerers? I don't think so. The story of the Tremere is the story of mortal wizards who experiment on vampires trying to find the secrets to immortality and lost their magic in the process. Giving them the ability to do anything with Thaumaturgy means they can basically replicate mortal magic and risks turning the House Tremere -> Clan Tremere transition into a Cursed with Awesome situation, and Vampire: the Masquerade already has more than enough of that to go around.
The end of Blood Magic is why I really like it, and it's the part I already talked about above. The expansion of blood sorcerer beyond the Tremere while explaining that the Tremere brought a systemization and codification to Thaumaturgy that no one else had previously applied, even if other blood magic traditions had been practicing for longer and often considered the Tremere to be over-ambitious upstarts. I could take or leave the rest of the book, but I think it's worth it for Assamite Sorcery and Koldunic Sorcery (translated from Russian: "Sorcerous sorcery"), though not as good for that as the later Blood Sacrifice: the Thaumaturgy Companion, which is what I really wanted this book to be.
May 27, 2014
Pump your characters straight into broken; however, this can also make more interesting characters if used well.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews