Within the Ordo Dracul circulate tales of the Order’s founder, who
escaped his cursed state by transforming it. Legends describe Dracula walking
beneath the sun, enduring ages without blood, and never succumbing to the
Beast. No one knows if they’re true, but the stories ignite hope. Hope that the
Kindred condition could be changed, and in time, risen above.
Building on knowledge passed down through Dracula’s brides, the Ordo Dracul began to search for and refine ways to achieve transcendence. The Dragons scour the world seeking occult secrets to further their understanding of the Curse. They call the results, refined through rigorous self-control and clear-minded study, the Mysteries of the Dragon.
Unlike Disciplines, which augment the body or bend the predatory
aura, Coils manipulate and seek to change the very essence of the vampire. Each
ties into a universal aspect of the Kindred condition, twisting the Curse and
the Beast to the vampire’s benefit. Coils also don’t drain a vampire’s precious
Vitae, although they may change the effects of some uses of Vitae.
The Order argues quite a bit about where this pilgrimage is supposed to be going. There are those who say that the pinnacle of their research is the total dominion over all deathly banes. Others claim that true evolution lies in manipulating the Beast, not denying it. Some stick to the traditional stories, that transcendence is defiance of God or nature. Others see those beliefs as metaphors for the triumph of the vampire over the otherwise unknowable forces that created him.
Coils of the Dragon
The Coils of the Dragon stand as proof that the Order’s methods
bring results. Coils, like Disciplines, are on a ladder from one to five dots.
With each dot comes a potent and everlasting change to a vampire’s accursed
state. Through these changes the Dragons can circumvent banes, empower their
blood, and form unions with the Curse far deeper than the average vampire. Some
of the Defiant even think that the best way to counter a divine curse is to
find a bigger curse and let the two clash.
Upon joining the Ordo Dracul a vampire chooses a single Mystery. Each
Mystery contains a Coil, which Mystery members commit themselves to researching
and refining. At the pinnacle of every Coil, there is enlightenment, different
for each Mystery. Achieving this will raise the vampire to an entirely new
state of being. To date this pinnacle has never been confirmed to exist, but
the Dragons consider what they have achieved
evidence that they can achieve much more.
System: A Dragon learns new tiers in his Mystery Coil for three
Experiences per dot, and during character creation a player may spend one of
his starting Discipline dots to take a dot in his Mystery Coil. Learning Coils
outside a Dragon’s chosen Mystery is possible, but the ideological and personal
differences between the adherents of different mysteries mean that a Dragon
from a different path may have to prove himself. A Dragon can have no more dots
in each non-Mystery Coil than he possesses dots in the Status (Ordo Dracul)
Merit. Non-Mystery Coils cost four Experiences per new dot, and cannot be
learned during character creation.
Scales of the Dragon
Dragons have performed countless ghastly experiments in the name
of improvement, frequently on themselves, but mostly on others. The majority of
these endeavors end in failure, with the death or maiming of the subject. But
occasionally a Dragon’s research will bear unexpected fruit, and uncover a
procedure that furthers the Mystery’s objectives. These are called Scales.
Through Scales a Dragon can share with others aspects of his enlightened
state. Kindred can be forced to sleep at night and wake during the day, mortals
given a taste for blood, and ghouls made to last well beyond their natural
span. But these procedures can be brutal, tantamount to torture, and carry side
effects both physical and psychological. As such, Dragons who pursue them maintain
private laboratories, secured against interlopers, in which they can carry out
their experiments in peace. Such laboratories may represent uses of the Safe
Place and Haven Merits.
System: All Scales have a prerequisite Coil, a particular tier with which
the Scale resonates. For Dragons who do not meet this prerequisite Scales cost
two Experiences, if the prerequisite is met the Experience cost drops to one.
Developing New Scales
Coils evolve through study and experimentation, and new Scales are
discovered in the process. Every Dragon strives to add to this body of
knowledge, but developing a Scale is difficult. There exists no way to
guarantee a procedure’s success, no hard and fast system for subverting the
Curse. Experimentation is the only option.
System: A Dragon who wants to develop a new Scale has a lot of ground work
ahead of him. The process takes months and will tax both his resources and
Humanity.
• First, select a Coil to act as a prerequisite for the Scale,
one that has effects similar to those the Scale will accomplish. This needn’t
be a Coil the Dragon knows himself (or even one that currently exists), but the
process will be easier if it is.
• Next the Dragon must gather the proper components. This means
acquiring test subjects, collecting occult texts and ingredients, and procuring
a safe location in which to perform his experiment. A character with dots in
the Haven, Herd or Resources merits (p. 112 and p.123) may
temporarily commit some or all of those dots to the experiment, with each dot adding
an additional die to the subsequent extended roll. If he does, those dots
remain inaccessible until the experiment is finished or abandoned.
• Make an extended roll of Intelligence + Medicine, Occult, or
Science (the Storyteller decides the Skill), with each roll representing one
week of experimentation. For every committed merit dot add one additional die
to this roll. A character who went to a special effort to acquire unique components
should be awarded an additional bonus for his efforts of one to five extra
dice. The target number for this roll is the dot rating of the Scale’s
prerequisite Coil times three if the Dragon meets the prerequisite, and the dot
rating of the Scale’s prerequisite Coil times five if he doesn’t.
Succeed or fail, the Dragon suffers a breaking point at Humanity 5 minus the dot rating of the prerequisite Coil. Assuming he is successful, he must still spend the normal experience to internalize the new Scale. Presenting a new Scale to his Mystery Kogaions is grounds for an immediate increase in Order status.
Elder Mysteries of the Dragon
The elders of the Ordo Dracul are often distant and terrifying role
models who inspire awe and jealousy in their lessers. To the eyes of the other
Defiant, and usually to their own as well, they start to look a lot like
Dracula himself the older they become. Records indicate that a few old ones
throughout history claim to have actually achieved transcendence, become glorious
monsters without a Curse. If they did, though, nobody knows how, and they
didn’t bother writing that down. Most say they assume it’s not true but believe
it behind closed doors; it gives them hope. In the meantime, the elders who are
still around searching for the way present tangible achievements to which
others can aspire.
Elder Dragons tend to develop the most widely disparate practices of the covenants. Though their Mysteries all aim for the same unified goal, the Coils and Scales they invent branch into countless variations and offshoots of what has come before. Each elder latches onto a few facets of a Mystery and spends centuries exploring their ins and outs, their possibilities, their limitations. Then he breaks all that apart, shattering limitations and exceeding possibilities to pursue avenues of study all his own. He paves the way for younger Kindred to follow him, although more often than not he gives them no obvious footholds with which to do so, preferring to let them work for it as he did.
The Ordo’s ancients rarely hold the post of Kogaion. They’ve already been through all the politics and intrigues, and they’ve got better things to do. To one of these venerable Dragons, so absorbed in the budding transfiguration of his immortality, mortals are nothing but test subjects and convenient sources of human blood for experimentation. Younger vampires are little more — food, good fodder for analysis, lab assistants and cult minders, hands for fetching and carrying. They’re useful and can make pleasing companions, but ultimately, they exist to further the elder’s path to transcendence. As he observes the changes he works within himself and sees how strange he’s become, he can no longer imagine having been something so bounded and small. Elder Defiant are some of the most solipsistic creatures in the world.
Despite that tendency, they need others.
Their Scales don’t work without subjects to torment and blood to doctor. The Voivode
is nothing without someone to rule. The initiate of the Wyrm can’t experiment
with his Beast if he has no one to stimulate it. So, he takes apprentices, he
shares his work with a select few. He engages, even if only because he must. He
keeps communications open with old colleagues and competitors, in case he needs
something from them to complete his magnum opus. In
fact, most elders find that the further along they are on the road to
apotheosis, the more others matter. Their Coils become broader in scope or need
interaction to function. Their Scales eat up more resources and they need help
to keep their work sufficiently under the radar. As a result, some ancient Dragons
gather dedicated followers and support to create organizations or leech off
existing ones to ensure they’ll always have what they need. History books name
one or two elder masters of the Mystery of the Voivode as literal monarchs of small
nations, though these don’t last long.
Nonetheless, an elder Dragon tends to view the Coils and Scales he develops over the course of his long career as the culmination of his Requiem’s work and is reticent to share them with anyone. Such accomplishments only come after centuries of pursuing a Mystery to its most radical extremes or uncovering a new Mystery by virtue of experiences of which no mere ancilla could possibly conceive. Sharing them with peers is arguably an even worse idea. Why empower a rival to stand on the shoulders of his work to reap the benefits and credit?
That said, nothing stops younger or less powerful Kindred from learning such secrets if they manage to steal the elder’s notes and replicate his experiments. More than a few deadly enmities have cropped up within the covenant because an elder claimed to have evidence of another vampire benefiting from his work without his permission.