The sudden blast of heat from the gasoline-steeped Cardinal Renate made Talley step back, shielding his eyes. A very mortal gesture. Talley corrected himself to watch the body burn. Tracking Renate, seizing her, and staking her ultimately came down to which of them was better skilled in the Lasombra arts. It had been a grueling task, but not an unpleasant one.
As his ghoul started typing “It is done” into Talley’s phone, the few lights in the alley blinked off one by one. The shadows drew in, plunging the entire area into blackness. Talley cast about, looking for their source, but found nothing. A sound made him turn toward the fire. The Cardinal’s body was gone, nothing left but the flames dying down. A stump of the stake was resting in the ash. “Maybe we’ll meet again sooner than planned, my dear.”
Talley dusted ash from his jacket as his accomplice at the other end of the alley spoke up. “By order of the Friends of the Night, you’re next to go, Sir Talley.” Shadows throughout the alley rapidly converged on the Templar, snaking along the walls and across the ground while his assailant maintained their distance. Talley watched as the lengthening shadows approached, and considered for a second before nodding respectfully at his murderous childe, and vaulted into the dark.
- Nicknames: Obtenebration, Necromancy, Shadowboxing, Abyssal Mastery, Tenebrae Imperiosae, Mortis, the Dark Arts, Black Magic, Entropy
Few Kindred outside Clan Lasombra and the Hecata know the Discipline of Oblivion, and as far as the Camarilla is concerned, this is a good thing.
While the Lasombra favor the Discipline’s raw power, the more necromantically inclined Hecata explore its ritual uses. With this power, vampires wield the very stuff of shadows and unlife as weapons. Some call the power’s source the Abyss, while other practitioners refer to it as the Labyrinth. The one certainty is Oblivion channels the darkest arts, from where the dead go to die.
The masters of Oblivion call upon it to wreathe themselves in night, enslave spectres, or throttle victims with their own shadow. Each time they use it, wielders run the risk of losing their soul and Humanity to something darker than death and twice as hungry.
Characteristics
The powers of Oblivion allow for the control of forces or spirits of an extra-dimensional element, originating from a place of death and nothingness.
When manifested it appears as two-dimensional shadows on the surface of ordinary objects, either by themselves or as distortions of shadows already present, snaking along the ground, walls, objects, or people. This makes them impossible to attack with most physical means as any blow only hits the surface on which they appear, rather than the shadows themselves.
Oblivion projections and spirits sustain damage from fire and sunlight, counting as vampires with Blood Potency 1 in this regard. They also take one level of Aggravated damage per round from bright, direct lights, and may also suffer damage (Superficial or Aggravated) from blessed weapons and artifacts, depending on the strength of the blessing and any True Faith of the wielder.
Oblivion’s powers are ineffective in brightly lit areas. Daylight and rooms without shadows are particularly prohibitive, preventing the Discipline’s successful function, though ultraviolet light and infrared light place no restriction on the Discipline’s use. Moderately lit rooms apply a one-die penalty to the Discipline roll involved.
The use of these powers takes a heavy toll on the psyche of the user, and many powers cause Stains as the numbing emptiness of Oblivion seeps into the wielder.
- Type: Mental
- Masquerade threat: Medium-High. The abyssal shadows rarely show up well on cameras but are obviously unnatural if witnessed in person.
- Blood Resonance: Psychopaths and the emotionally detached. Blood empty of Resonance.
- Note: When making a Rouse check for an Oblivion power, a result of “1” or “10” results in a Stain, in addition to any Hunger gained. If the user’s Blood Potency allows for a re-roll on the Rouse check, they can pick either of the two results.