New Necromancy

New Paths (13 Paths)

The Salt Path (Forbiddance of the Art)
The Murk Path (Path of Morbid Denial)
The Ghost Path (Riding the Spirit)
The Devouring Path (The Path of the Vulture)
The Corpus Path (Dance of True Death)
The Usury Path (The Coins of Charon)
The Obsidian Path (The Way of the Nahualli)
The Corpse Path (Puppetry of the Corpse)
The Rust Path (Genesis of Destruction)
The Wasting Path (Touch of the Grave)
The Gaunt Path (Call the Wrathful Dead)
The Reliquary Path (Treasures of the Grave)
The Skull Path (Path of the Fallen Knight)
Revised Paths (8 Paths)
The Cheval Path (Abambo Dance)
The Vigil Path (The Spark of Life)
The Smoke Path (The Stilled Grave)
The Scourge Path (Shopona’s Touch)
The Clay Path (The Mortal Coil)
The Chthonic Path (Steps of Persephone)
The Requiem Path (Memento Mori)
The Pyre Path (Way of the Goblin Flame)
Rejected Paths (8 Paths)
The Withering Path (The Ravages of Time)
The Brain Path (Ascendancy of the Psyche)
The Fate Path (Tools of the Parcae)
The Funeral Path (Silence of the Grave)
The Plague Path (Yetzer Machaleh)
The Midnight Path (Shards of the Soul)
The Crumbled Path (The Crumbling Avatar)
The A’aru Path (Steps of Anubis)
Old Paths (canon)
The Sepulcher Path (Nigrimancy)
The Ash Path (Crossing the Shroud)
The Bone Path (Binding of Bones)
The Vitreous Path (The Hand of Kali)
The Cenotaph Path (The Path of Abombo)
The Grave Path (The Grave’s Decay)
The Cerement Path (Corpse in the Monster)
The Cadaver Path (Cadaverous Animation)
The Bile Path (The Path of Four Humors)
The Haunting Path (The Path of Haunting)
Old Paths (fanon)
The Blight Path (Gift of Thanatos)
The Harrowing Path (Torment of Duat)
The Iron Path (Binding the Hungry Ghost)
The Ebony Path (Ebon Mantle of Authority)
The Shadow Path (Walking the Shadow World)
The Mourning Path (Echoes of Passing)
Schools of Necromancy
Major Schools
Western (Giovani)
Voudoun (Samedi, Serpents of the Light, Lasombra)
African (Mla Watu, Ghiberti)
Indian (Nagaraja)
Minor Schools
Classical (Cappadocian, Lamia)
 Egyptian (Lazarene Cappadocians, Setites)
Aztec
New (Pisanob, Tlacique)
Necromancy
Chinese (Della Passaliga)

New Paths (13 Paths)

The Salt Path (Forbiddance of the Art)
Death magic is a delicate and treacherous art, as many necromancers have learned to their dismay when
a ritual or summoning goes awry. It is possible for skilled magicians to tangle the forces used by other
necromancers, preventing their powers from working at all. In some cases, if the practitioner of the Salt
Path is far more skilled than his opponent, the countered power or ritual may backfire in a grisly fashion.

System: The character may attempt to counter any Necromancy Ritual, Path power, wraithly Arcanoi or
even the death-related powers of mortal sorcerers and mages. The only requirements are that the power
to be countered must be used in the necromancer’s line of sight and not yet be complete when the Salt
Path is invoked.
To counter a spell, the necromancer spends a Willpower point and rolls his Intelligence + Salt Path rating
with a difficulty equal to (3+ level of target power). Each success on his roll negates one success on the
opposing caster’s activation roll. If the Salt Path user gains twice as many successes on his countering
attempt as the target did on their activation, the countered power is considered to have botched.

The Murk Path (Path of Morbid Denial)

Even the most blatantly supernatural actions of ghosts are often explained away by mortals who witness
them. This is not simply the result of some sort of wraithly Masquerade, but rather a natural function of the
barrier between life and death. The mortal mind is ill-equipped to deal with direct proof of the existence of
wraiths, and so it hides that proof from itself. This effect is referred to as ‘the Fog’ by wraiths. A skilled
necromancer can manipulate the Shroud, tapping into its powers to project such disbelief into the minds of
mortals around him. Those affected will repress or rationalize away any memories of supernatural
phenomena they might witness. Naturally, this Path is much in demand for covering up breaches of the
Masquerade.

System: Any activation of the Murk Path requires the character to expend one Willpower and one blood
point, followed by a Manipulation + Occult roll, difficulty (activated Murk Path level + 3). The player may
choose what level of the Murk Path he wishes to activate, allowing him to affect an area smaller than his
maximum potential. Mortals within the area who witness a supernatural event must roll their Willpower
(difficulty 8) and gain more successes than the necromancer or they will be affected by the Fog.
For full rules on the Fog, consult Wraith: the Oblivion, page 241. For Storytellers without access to Wraith:
the Oblivion, simply assume that mortals with a Willpower less than 8 will ignore or entirely forget the
witnessed events. Mortals with extremely high Willpower will still attempt to rationalize the events, but will
not be completely fooled by the Fog.

● - A tiny area, no more than 3 yards across

●● - A small area, such as a single room
●●● - A small to medium building, such as a house or business
●●●● - A very large building, such as a skyscraper or conference center
●●●●● - Roughly a single city block

The Ghost Path (Riding the Spirit)

Some necromancers are not content simply to issue orders to their ghostly slaves, they demand total
obedience and control. It was the Nagaraja who first developed this Path, inspired by the ability of the
wraiths to control the living. Using this Path requires the necromancer to remove his own spirit from his
body and merge into the plasmic substance of the wraith he wishes to control. To do so, the necromancer
and his victim must be on the same level of existence; either both in the Shadowlands or both in the living
world.

● Ghostride
This ability forms the foundation of all other powers in the Ghost Path. It allows a necromancer to detach
his spirit from his body and merge it into the form, or corpus, of a wraith. While merged in this way, the
vampire experiences everything the wraith does, including pain. Without exercising some additional ability,
however, the vampire has no control or influence over the wraith; he is simply a passenger. Only under the
most extraordinary circumstances can this power be used without the wraith being aware of it, as the
spectacle of the vampire’s soul leaving his body and merging into the wraith’s corpus is quite visible and
pronounced.
New Necromancy
System: In order to force his soul into a wraith’s corpus, the necromancer rolls his Willpower with a
difficulty equal to the wraith’s Willpower. Each success is one day that he can remain attached to the
wraith. While riding inside the ghost, the necromancer’s own body is comatose and inert, especially
vulnerable to attack. Physical harm to his body will allow the necromancer to make a Perception +
Alertness roll (difficulty 6) to notice the disturbance and return himself to his body. The vampire can be
driven out of his host if the wraith suffers damage, forcing its passenger to roll Courage (difficulty based on
the severity of the damage) to stay attached in the face of the pain. Certain wraithly powers may also be
able to remove a vampire from his host.

●● Direction
While riding a ghost, the necromancer can now exert his will and cause the wraith to take a single, physical
action. He cannot force the ghost to use any of its powers, but he can make it move, grasp an object or
halt whatever it was doing. The ghost can only be forced to take ‘single’ actions, ones that are quickly
accomplished and simple in execution.

System: To issue his command, the player spends a point of Willpower and rolls Charisma + Leadership,
difficulty equal to the wraith’s Willpower. So long as the command is within the limitations of Direction, the
cannot help itself as its corpus acts under the direction of the vampire’s mind. A wraith may be forced to
fire a weapon or destroy a valued possession, or attack a target, but it could not be forced to track
someone down who is fleeing. The ability to overwhelm a wraith’s control of its own form only lasts a few
seconds and thus is restricted to instructions that can be accomplished in a single action. Wraiths cannot
be forced to take any action that will directly result in their own destruction.

●●● Stolen Tongue

The next step to mastery over a wraith allows the necromancer to steal the spirit’s voice. With a simple
effort of will, the vampire can take control of the corpus he is riding and force it to speak whatever words
he wishes.

System: The player spends a point of Willpower and engages in a contested Willpower roll with the wraith,
difficulty 7. If the vampire wins, he can speak through the ghost whenever he wishes for the rest of the
scene. If the ghost wins, the power fails. In the event of the necromancer botching, he is ejected entirely
from the wraith’s form.

●●●● Domination
A necromancer with this level of mastery can now fully suppress the mind of the wraith he has attached
himself to, becoming the dominant driving force within the creature’s form. For all intents and purposes,
while this power is active the vampire has taken complete control of the wraith’s corpus and may act as if it
was his own. After control ends, the wraith’s resurgence will eject the vampire from its form, but while it
lasts it affords many opportunities.

System: To gain control of the wraith he is riding, the vampire spends a point of Willpower and rolls his
Willpower against a difficulty equal to the wraith’s own Willpower. He must achieve as many successes as
the wraith has points of temporary Willpower in order to succeed. If his first roll does not accumulate
enough successes, the player can spend another point of Willpower and make another roll. As many rolls
can be made as necessary, each one costing another point of Willpower. If any of the rolls fails entirely, the
power fails. If any of the rolls botch, the necromancer is ejected from the wraith’s corpus and cannot use
any power of this Path on that wraith for the rest of the story. Assuming the necromancer manages to take
control of the wraith’s form, he has full access to the wraith’s physical traits and innate powers. The use of
wraithly arcanoi, however, requires training that vampiric necromancers lack. Further, the vampire has no
access to his own Disciplines aside from Necromancy while outside of his body. Only his connection to
death, provided by his contact with the wraith, allows him to continue practicing his dark art. This power
lasts until dawn, at which point the user is ejected from his host and returned to his own body.

●●●●● Soul Breaking

Complete control over a wraith is not enough for the masters of the Ghost Path. They desire ultimate,
unending servitude. Through this most foul art, a necromancer can utterly destroy the consciousness of a
wraith, leaving it nothing but a mindless Drone that will do whatever its master commands and act as an
empty vessel for the vampire to possess whenever he wishes. It is not simple to destroy the mind of a
creature that has persisted past its own death, and sometimes a necromancer wins against the wraith only
to free the wraith’s Shadow and be attacked by a new-born Specter.

System: Because wraiths are creatures with a split soul, this power must overcome both the wraith’s mind
and its Shadow in order to destroy the ghost’s identity. To begin, the necromancer spends 2 points of
Willpower and engages in an extended, contested Willpower roll against the wraith, both rolling against a
difficultyNew
of 7. The vampire must gain a total number of successes equal to the wraith’s Willpower to defeat
Necromancy
the wraith’s normal mind. Once he has done so, he must continue rolling and achieve the same number of
successes to subdue the Shadow. If at any point during the rolls, the wraith has more successes than the
vampire, this power fails. After a wraith’s mind has been destroyed, the necromancer can use any
Necromantic ability on it with an effective 5 successes without a roll.

The Devouring Path (The Path of the Vulture)

After their transition to undeath, the Nagaraja realized that their reliance upon devouring human flesh to
sustain their existence need not be only a curse. It might be turned to their advantage. They delved into
research even darker than that which lead them into vampirism, creating this Path based on the foul art of
anthropophagy. By ritually preparing and consuming the flesh of humans, the Nagaraja learned to devour
not only the meat of their meals, but also bits of their souls. Rumors say that those who practice this Path
too often and too eagerly may stain their aura in the same way as a Diablerist.
The cannibalistic Dunsirn family of Clan Giovani developed an almost identical incarnation of this Path,
independently of the Nagaraja. While there are significant differences in the specific details of the
preparation of flesh (the Dunsirn find hardly any ritual required at all and sometimes eat the flesh directly
from living victims), the two versions of the Path are functionally the same. A vampire practicing either
version is able to eat and digest the flesh of his victims.

● Bloody Feast
The first ability gained in the study of ritual cannibalism is the power to digest the meat of human bodies
and use it in place of blood. Only fresh corpses can provide such sustenance. Old corpses, where the
meat has begun to rot or is completely absent, are not suitable for this power. After the meal is complete,
only gnawed bones remain of the body.

System: The player rolls Intelligence + Medicine, difficulty 8. Each success represents one blood point
gained by eating the dead flesh. A body used in this manner cannot be the target of any further powers of
the Devouring Path, though it can be used for other necromantic purposes, provided those purposes do
not require flesh on the bones.

●● Invigoration
All souls are strongly tethered to their fleshy bodies; death does not immediately remove all such traces of
life. By consuming the flesh of a recently dead body, the necromancer ingests these remnants of the soul
and strengthens his own spirit.

System: This power functions in the same manner as Bloody Feast, except that each success allows the
character to gain one Willpower. This Willpower cannot exceed the character’s normal maximum limit.
Invigoration shares the requirement for a fresh corpse, and also the inability to use bodies for any further
Devouring Path power. This power can only be used once per night.

●●● Secrets of the Flesh

As his palate grows more refined, a necromancer learns to draw more than nebulous spiritual strength
from his meals. He can taste the life of the person whose meat he ingests, absorbing their knowledge and
memories into him as he digests the substance of their body. Unlike the first two abilities of the Devouring
Path, this ability can be used on old bodies. So long as the corpse retains flesh, no matter how rotten, it
can serve as a meal.

System: The player spends 1 point of Willpower and rolls Stamina + Occult, difficulty 8. Each success
indicates one piece of information that he has gained from his meal. Normally the Storyteller determines
what information is passed on, with a preference for information that was either of extreme importance to
the deceased or was in the person’s mind just before they died. If the player is seeking specific knowledge,
he must make a Willpower roll with a difficulty of the corpse’s former Willpower. This roll is required for
each individual piece of information sought. As with Bloody Feast and Invigoration, bodies used for this
power are useless for further Devouring Path abilities.

●●●● Hunger for Knowledge

Drawing in ever-increasing amounts of the residue of life from his meals, the necromancer can now gain
the skills and talents of those upon whom he feasts. Enough memories and bits of residual soul are
extracted from the digested meat to allow the vampire temporary use of anything from acrobatic skill to
technical expertise.

System: The player first chooses what Ability he wishes to gain a bonus to. Having chosen, he spends 3
blood points and 2 points of Willpower, then rolls Stamina + Occult, difficulty 8. If successful, he gains a
number of bonus dice to the chosen Ability equal to the body’s former Ability rating -3. The number of
successes dictates how long the bonus lasts. A character cannot benefit from more than one use of this
power atNew
a time.Necromancy
Bodies used for this ability cannot be used for any further Devouring Path power.

1 Success: The bonus lasts for an hour.

2 Successes: The bonus lasts for six hours.
3 Successes: The bonus lasts for a full night.
4 Successes: The bonus lasts for three days.
5+ Successes: The bonus lasts for an entire week.

●●●●● Glutton’s Boon

The ultimate goal of the Devouring Path is embodied in this power; making the strength of the dead a part
of yourself. By eating a specific portion of the body symbolically tied to the attribute desired, a
necromancer can enhance his own body or mind. To gain intelligence, a necromancer might eat the brains,
to gain vitality he might devour the heart.

System: This power functions exactly like Hunger for Knowledge, except that it allows the character to
gain bonuses to Attributes instead of Abilities. A character can have a bonus from both Hunger from
Knowledge and Glutton’s Boon at the same time, but only one from each.

The Corpus Path (Dance of True Death)

Developed as an outgrowth of the Chakravanti magics that lead the Nagaraja into vampirism, the Corpus
Path uses the state of undeath as a bridge between the living and the dead. While alive, the Nagaraja
used dark magic to infuse their bodies with the strength of the undead. As vampires, they use Necromancy
to push their bodies into, even across, the Shroud, taking on traits and powers of the Restless Dead.

● Apparition
The Shroud is ever-present, a barrier woven into the very fabric of the world. This power teaches a
vampire how to edge closer to the line between life and death, fading away from the sight of the living. His
body becomes hazy and translucent, making it particularly easy to dismiss his presence as a trick of the
light or an oddly placed shadow. The magical nature of his existence pushes him far enough away from
sight that modern means of surveillance will refuse to acknowledge him. This can be both good and bad;
it’s hard to explain why you don’t show up on video records, after all.

System: To activate this power, the character spends a point of Willpower to nudge his body up against
the edge of the Shroud. For the rest of the scene, his Stealth rolls are at -2 difficulty against visual
perceptions and he will not show up on digital or analog recording devices unless those devices use silver-
based film.

●● Phantom Limb
Experienced necromancers can reach through the Shroud, manipulating objects on the other side of the
veil or even pulling things through. This Path does not extend so far across the Shroud, but it does allow a
kind of halfway state. A single limb, arm, head or leg, can be infused with the power of the Shroud and
rendered immaterial. Very useful if you need to reach through a wall or look through a door before stepping
inside.

System: The player spends a point of Willpower and rolls Stamina + Occult (difficulty 8) to render one of
his limbs immaterial. The effect lasts for one turn per success and cannot be ended early. Clothing or other
items attached to the chosen limb become immaterial as well, but objects merely held in an immaterial
hand will simply fall through ghostly fingers.

●●● Ghost’s Sight

By peering at the world through a portion of the Shroud itself pulled across his eyes, a necromancer can
borrow the perceptions of the Restless Dead. Among the wraiths these powers are called Lifesight and
Deathsight.

System: To use this power, the player spends a point of Willpower and rolls Perception + Occult, difficulty
8. A single success allows the character to use either Lifesight or Deathsight, with any extra successes
allowing a single swap between types of vision. While using Lifesight, the character can attempt to read
another’s aura with another Perception + Occult roll at the same difficulty. This ability functions similarly to
the Auspex power Aura Perception.
Deathsight, meanwhile, allows the necromancer to determine how healthy an individual is, or possibly how
and when they will die. It can also be used to detect dark magic affecting a target. As with Lifesight, it
requires its own Perception + Occult roll, difficulty 8. Only a single success is required to determine how
healthy the target is, or if they are affected by malevolent magical effects. If the vampire attempts instead
to read any Death Marks on his subject, the roll determines how accurately and with how much detail he
can divine the nature and time of the target’s impending death. Further details on Death Sight can be
found under
NewtheNecromancy
Vitreous Path power Eyes of the Dead.

●●●● Shroud Walker

Merging his body into the Shroud, the necromancer exists halfway between the Shadowlands and the
Skinlands. He is not fully of either world, and therefore is difficult for beings that dwell on either side of the
Shroud to affect. While in this state, the vampire can see ghosts clearly and finds it far easier to wield
Necromantic energies.

System: Activating this power costs 3 blood points and takes two turns, during which the vampire’s body
becomes patched with dark mist as it fades partially into the Shadowlands. The difficulty of all attacks
made against him are increased by 1 and his soak rolls against all sources of damage but for fire, sunlight
and Faith have their difficulty reduced by 1. For as long as this power remains active, the character can
perceive wraiths and has the difficulty of all his Necromancy rolls related to ghosts or the Underworld
reduced by 1.

●●●●● Discorporation
The ultimate expression of this Path transforms the vampire into a bodiless creature of plasm, much like a
wraith for a short time, rendering him fully immaterial. However, his ties to the physical world allow him to
remain in the Skinlands instead of fading into the Underworld as a normal ghost would. He becomes
invisible and intangible, though if he wishes he can still make himself heard by other inhabitants of the
living world and his Disciplines may still affect them, even if his body cannot.

System: Becoming immaterial is a difficult process, and using this ability automatically inflicts one
unsoakable level of Bashing damage on the character. It also requires three blood points, but the
transformation is instantaneous. While immaterial, the character can walk through solid objects, is immune
to all normal methods of attack and cannot be seen, smelled or touched. He can be heard, but only if he
wishes to speak, as his movements will cause no noise since he cannot disturb the surrounding world.
Only the character’s clothing becomes immaterial with him, not any objects he happens to be merely
holding. This ability lasts for a scene, or until the character chooses to end it. Disciplines may be used
normally, but those that require physical contact will end this power, as will any attempt to touch with the
material world.

The Usury Path (The Coins of Charon)

Pioneered by the Giovani shortly after the destruction of their forebears, this Path was inspired both by the
family’s own mercantile practices and the rumors that there are ghosts who trade not only in enslaved
souls, but also in the raw emotion that fuels the dead. Why then, it was asked, could the Giovani not learn
to trade in power and strength with the dead? So long as the necromancer always came out on top, of
course. True masters of this Path have so much control over the exchange of power that they can rip the
strength from wraiths to feed themselves, no return investment required.
This Path requires some method of interacting physically with the restless dead. Either the necromancer
must be able to summon them physically into the living world, or he must be able to travel to the
Shadowlands himself.

● Blood Price
The vitae of Cainites is charged with power. It was taken from the living, and concentrates not only the
power of life, but also the curse of the undead. Necromancers who follow the Usury Path can concentrate
this stolen power in a form that the dead can feed from. To ghosts, such blood is a delicious and rare taste
of the life now forbidden to them, but aside from its rush of power and extraordinary taste it has no
particular benefits and does not confer the strength of a ghoul or the Blood Bond.

System: Extraordinarily simple in its execution, this power simply enables the transfer of power from
vampire to wraith. Each point of blood fed to the wraith restores one point of temporary Pathos. This ability
will not allow a wraith to exceed its normal maximum Pathos.

●● Schadenfreude
The few wraiths who are aware this power exists will often trade almost anything to benefit from it. It allows
a necromancer to draw strength from the dark Shadow that whispers in the mind of all the restless dead.
The Shadow is deprived of its strength, the wraith indebted to the necromancer and the necromancer
empowered by the emotional energy stolen from the Shadow. An extremely attractive situation for almost
any vampire.

System: The player rolls Strength + Empathy, difficulty equal to the wraith’s permanent Angst. Each
success siphons off one point of temporary Angst. Every two such points removed from the wraith restore
one point of temporary Willpower to the necromancer. Willpower gained this way cannot exceed the
character’s normal maximum. This power can only be used on any given wraith once a month and once a
night, noNew
matterNecromancy
the target.

●●● Spiritual Healing

Wraiths are composed of a material they refer to as corpus. Far softer and more malleable than human
flesh, corpus can be put to any number of uses. Necromancers have heard tales that unfortunate or
criminal wraiths are sometimes forged into material goods by those with the skills required. The corpus of a
wraith, even removed from the creature, is filled with energy. Not the strength of life the vampires feed on,
but still power that can be used. Necromancers who master this power can strip away the corpus of a
wraith and use it to force their bodies to regenerate damage. Some wraiths offer their corpus in payment
for the services of a necromancer, but others are forced to give up their flesh unwillingly.

System: If the wraith is willing or somehow compelled to submit to this ability, no roll is required. It simply
allows the vampire to feed upon it as he would a mortal. Each level of Corpus drained will heal one level of
Bashing or Lethal damage. Three levels of Corpus can be used to heal one level of Aggravated damage. If
the wraith does resist, then the vampire must grapple with it as he would any character he was attempting
to feed from without consent. There is no Kiss involved in this power; it is literally eating the wraith and no
pleasure is created. wraiths who are not willing to submit will violently resist with all their power.

●●●● Feast of Rage

The rage of the Beast is a terrible burden to vampires, but wraiths feed upon emotion. The great and
terrible passions of the Beast are a banquet to the restless dead. Through this art, a vampire can divert the
anger of his inner Beast into a ghostly servant or ally. Only a ghost has tasted the vampire’s blood at least
once, usually through an application of the first power of this Path, and is within sight of the necromancer
can be the subject of this ability. There is of course a dark side to such an arrangement: the rage of the
Beast feeds not only the hungers of the wraith, but also their Shadow.

System: When faced with a Frenzy or Rotschreck roll, the player spends a Willpower and rolls Self-
Control + Occult, difficulty 6. Each success subtracts one from the difficulty of the roll to resist losing
control of himself. Further, those same successes are given to the nearest eligible wraith to the
necromancer as points of Pathos. The ‘gift’ of a Frenzy or Rotschreck is not free, of course. The wraith
also gains 1 point of temporary Angst for every two points of Pathos gained. Wraiths cannot gain enough
points of either Pathos or Angst to push them past their normal maximum amount.

●●●●● Soul Eater

Often the mere threat of being the victim of this power is enough to cow a wraith into service. Actually
using it will quickly garner a fearsome reputation amongst the restless dead. Empowered with this most
terrible art, a necromancer sinks his fangs into the corpus of a wraith and drains away the last remnants of
life it clings to. Some say the vampire feeds upon the very soul of the ghost, not just its plasmic form.
Whatever the truth, no wraith destroyed with this ability has ever been seen again.

System: The character grapples with his target, as he would if feeding from an unwilling victim. Each level
of damage inflicted to the wraith can be used to allow the necromancer to gain one point of temporary
Willpower or blood. As with Spiritual Healing, this ability never causes the Kiss and wraiths will
always resist its effects. Wraiths killed with this power are consigned forever to Oblivion.

The Obsidian Path (The Way of the Nahualli)

In a dark mockery of the religious practices of the living Aztecs, a necromancer who practices the Obsidian
Path can bind the soul of a beast to his own and use it as his agent in the Underworld and among the
living. Before any powers of this Path can be activated, the necromancer must first murder an animal that
matches his own day-sign totem via a ritual called Reclaiming the Beast Soul[a]. This captured spirit is
referred to as a nagual. Once a nagual is claimed, the necromancer is able to use the powers of the
Obsidian Path on it until it is destroyed. A necromancer can never have more than one nagual at a time.

● Vision of Tezcatlipoca
The simplest technique of this Path allows a necromancer to borrow the senses of his nagual. Often used
to spy upon the ghost world, this ability can be used in conjunction with the more advanced powers in the
Obsidian Path. Eventually the nagual can serve as a powerful agent in either the living world, or the
Shadowlands.

System: The player spends a point of Willpower to borrow the senses of his nagual. While using the
spirit’s senses, the necromancer’s awareness of his body is dulled. Any actions taken while rising the
senses of his nagual are at +4 difficulty. Breaking the connection to the nagual is a reflexive action. Unless
ended early, the connection lasts for a full scene.
●● Voice of Tezcatlipoca
While riding
New theNecromancy
senses of his nagual, a nahualli can now project his authority through his companion
beast. The nagual becomes his literal mouthpiece, speaking with his voice. In the ancient days of the
Aztec Empire, this ability allowed the priests and sorcerers among the undead to send messages long
distances easily, or to impress the mortal herds with talking beasts. It can serve similar functions in modern
times, and allow the necromancer to speak to his ghostly servants without calling them first to the material
world or travelling to the Underworld himself.

System: The player spends a point of Willpower and rolls his Charisma + Occult (difficulty 7). For the rest
of the scene, as long as the necromancer is borrowing the senses of his nagual, he can speak normally
through it. It is not, however, possible to use Disciplines through the Nagual without at least 5 successes
on the activation roll. Even assuming the necessary successes are gathered, only verbally-based
Disciplines can be used and they require a point of Willpower to be spent in addition to any normal costs
they would require.

●●● Solidity of Tepeyollotl

Granting his nagual a gift of blood and sorcery, the necromancer allows it to assume a corporeal form for a
short time. The beast will appear as a midnight black example of its species, in perfect health. Though
embodied, the nagual is not truly alive. The limited nature of such animation confers no powers beyond a
normal animal. Even those necromancers that have tried feeding their embodied nagual additional blood
have found no extra powers conferred. Nagual cannot become ghouls.

System: To create a body for his nagual, the player spends three blood points and one temporary
Willpower. It takes three turns for the nagual’s body to completely solidify. For the rest of the scene, the
necromancer’s nagual takes on physical form. While in this shape, it has all the normal traits of a living
beast, except that it halves Bashing damage as if it were a vampire and has the ability to soak Lethal
damage. If the nagual’s physical body is slain, the spirit simply reforms in the Shadowlands on the next
new moon.

●●●● Ascendant Beast

Enhanced by the dark will of its master, a nagual’s spirit is far more powerful than that of any normal beast.
By focusing his power into his nagual, the necromancer can grant it the ability to take over the body of a
mundane animal. While his nagual controls another beast’s physical form, the necromancer can use either
the Voice or Vision of Tezcatlipoca upon the possessed creature.

System: The player spends two points of Willpower and rolls his Manipulation + Occult (difficulty equal to
the target’s Willpower). Each success allows the necromancer’s nagual to control the target beast for one
hour. For as long as the nagual is in control of the beast, the animal is under the necromancer’s complete
control, following his commands just as his nagual normally would. The necromancer also retains the
ability to convey orders and understand anything the nagual attempts to communicate to him. If the
possessed animal is slain, the nagual is released and returns to the Shadowlands unharmed.

●●●●● Return to the Liver

The Aztecs believed that the nagual soul dwelt within the liver of the nahualli. This most powerful
technique of the Obsidian Path allows the necromancer to draw his nagual into his body and while it dwells
within him, gain some of its beastial powers. This ability may be the source of tales wherein
nahualli transform into their totem beast, but truly taking on the shape of a beast remains beyond the
powers of the Obsidian Path. The exact abilities gained by the necromancer depend, of course, upon what
species his nagual belongs to.

System: Absorbing the nagual into his body requires a great expenditure of power and will on the part of
the necromancer. Activating this ability costs 2 blood points and 1 Willpower. The assimilation takes two
turns to complete. Once the nagual has settled into his body, the necromancer undergoes physical
changes, becoming a hybrid creature mixing traits of human and animal forms to reflect the merged nature
of his spirit. The exact nature of these changes is determined by the species of the nagual. Some
examples are presented below, but Storytellers should tailor the exact effects of this power to whatever the
character’s nagual is.
● Jaguar: A powerful predator, the jaguar nagual enhances its master’s combat abilities. A jaguar
nahualli grows deadly talons, dealing Strength +1 Aggravated damage. His fangs enlarge, dealing
an extra die of damage on any bite attacks. The spotted pelt that his skin transforms into blends
seamlessly into dark shadows, giving a +2 bonus to Stealth.
● Owl: An owl nahualli undergoes a more radical transformation than many; his arms becoming
vast, feathered wings that allow him to fly at his normal running pace. He also gains perfect night
vision, ignoring all darkness-related visual penalties and increasing his visual Perception pools by 2
 dice. The owl form is also smaller than the normal vampire, only half his regular size, allowing him
access to some places he would not normally fit.
New Necromancy
● Dog: Considered a psychopomp by the Aztecs, a dog nahualli is closely tied to the boundary
between life and death. His canine eyes allow him to see both the living world and the
Shadowlands with perfect clarity and ease. The dog shape also increases the necromancer’s
Perception score by 4, conferring superhuman olfactory and auditory acuity. Aztecs considered
dogs to be unclean creatures, and the bite of a dog nahualli often carries disease with it.

The Corpse Path (Puppetry of the Corpse)

There have long been rumors that powerful necromancers can control the undead as well as the dead.
The rumors are true and true masters of this Path are feared by any who have seen demonstrations of
their powers. Unlike Dominate or Presence, this Path does not influence the mind and it cannot be resisted
with mental fortitude or defeated by thick blood. Only pure will can save a target of this Path from
becoming nothing but a puppet for the necromancer, his body no longer under his own control. Few other
powers hammer home so clearly that vampires are dead and their bodies nothing but corpses. Any walking
dead can become the victim of the Corpse Path: the mysterious vampires of the Far East, the rare corpses
animated by Risen wraiths and even the constructs created by other powers of Necromancy.

● Spasm
A simple, uncontrolled surge of necromantic power directed into a corporeal undead momentarily disrupts
the animating forces of the victim. Suddenly unable to control their own body, the undead is sent into
convulsions as their dead limbs twitch and writhe.

System: The player spends a point of Willpower and rolls his Strength + Occult (difficulty equal to the
target’s Willpower). Each success applies a -1 penalty to the target’s next action as they are wracked by
uncontrollable tremors and seizures.

●● Marionette
A more focused application of necromantic control over the dead allows for specific actions to be forced
upon an undead body. Asserting his own will over that of the body’s owner, the necromancer can
manipulate his victim’s body into taking a single physical action such as throwing a punch, swinging a
sword, pushing a button, or even leaping from a high balcony. Only actions that are certain to end in death
will provoke a strong enough surge of will to wrench control of the body back from the necromancer.

System: The player spends a point of Willpower and engages in a contested Willpower roll (difficulty 6 for
both) against his target, who must be within his line of sight. If the necromancer wins, his degree of
success determines how effectively the action is carried out by the victim’s body. One success may simply
result in a jerky, uncontrolled attempt to fulfill the command, whereas three or more successes will garner a
smooth, natural action performed as elegantly as if the body’s owner was doing it himself of his own free
will. Should the action result in direct, significant harm to the victim, it will automatically fail as self-
preservation instincts interfere with the magical control. The victim’s Nature does not play into this, as they
are not performing the action themselves. Their body is being physically hijacked by supernatural means.

●●● Stir Hunger

Until this level of mastery is reached a necromancer can only manipulate simple flesh and bone, controlling
the bodies of other undead like puppets. With this ability the very reserves of power that animate the
undead body can be tapped and expended, leaving the necromancer’s enemies weak and quite possibly
powerless at the most inopportune of times.

System: The player spends two Willpower and rolls his Willpower (difficulty equal to the target’s Stamina
+3). Each success removes one point of Chi, Blood or Pathos from the target’s pools. This power has no
effect on zombies or other forms of corporeal undead that have no resource corresponding to those listed
above. The points burned through this power must be used to power some effect such as increasing
Physical Attributes, healing damage or other innate powers. They cannot be used to fuel Disciplines or
Arcanoi. The points spent can ignore normal per-turn spending limits.

●●●● Tug the Strings

Entire gatherings of the undead can now be forced to dance to the tune of the necromancer. The simple
actions caused by Marionette can now be forced upon a multitude of victims at once. Entire Sabbat packs
can be frozen in their bloody tracks, or a whole Elysium gathering humiliated as their bodies are ripped
from their own control. While any use of the Corpse Path can gain the necromancer a deadly enemy, this
power can gain many such enemies in a single stroke. It is best used with extreme caution.

System: To activate this ability, the player spends two points of Willpower and rolls his Willpower (difficulty
8). Each success allows the necromancer to control a single target within his sight. This power functions
with the same limits as Marionette.
New Necromancy
●●●●● Puppet Mastery
The most dreaded power of this Path, and for many vampires one of the most dreaded powers known, this
ability allows a necromancer to take complete control of another undead for a full night. For as long as the
necromancer maintains his concentration, the victim is a prisoner in his own mind, screaming helplessly as
his body walks and speaks under the command of another’s will. The fact that the victim is fully aware
during the entire ordeal and will remember perfectly what he did can lead to complications for the
necromancer.

System: To gain full control of another undead’s body, the necromancer must first deplete the target’s
reserves of Willpower to ensure that control cannot be wrestled back at an inopportune moment. The
player spends a point of Willpower and then engages in a contested Willpower roll with his target (difficulty
6 for both). Each success the necromancer gains over his victim removes one of the victim’s Willpower
points. Only if the necromancer fails, botches or the victim manages to break line of sight will the contested
roll end. Once all the victim’s Willpower is drained, he can no longer keep control of his body. The
necromancer can then dictate each and every action the body takes for the rest of the night, even forcing
his target to speak if he wishes. While maintaining such control, the necromancer’s entire attention is
absorbed and he cannot take any actions aside from directing his victim. If at any time he wishes to take
an action himself, he breaks his connection with the target, setting them free. None of the victim’s
Disciplines are available to the necromancer controlling him except for passive effects such as Potence
and Fortitude.

The Rust Path (Genesis of Destruction)

Oblivion, the most terrifying power in the Underworld, is the primordial force of entropy. All things suffer the
passage of time, a gradual accumulation of Oblivion in their structure that causes them to break down and
decay. The decay of living matter is well known to necromancers, but the study of inanimate decay is less
well explored by Cainite magicians. Certain wraithly powers are rumored to have influenced the
development of the Rust Path, but considering its origins lay prior to the development of Giovani
nigrimancy, it may simply be a study of the forces of entropy and Oblivion.

● Weather
An infusion of entropic energies will cause rust, mold and lichens to grow rapidly on an object, making it
harder to use. More delicate objects, such as fabric or paper, may begin to disintegrate or dry rot rapidly.
Only the most extremely fragile items can be destroyed by Weather, though unless restored by careful and
possibly professional care, they may well be ruined.

System: The player spends a blood point and touches the object to be infused with decay. No roll is
required and there is no resistance. This power is too primitive to release enough energy to affect animate
beings, large objects or buildings. The biggest targets that can be Weathered are approximately the size of
a grown man. Any task attempted using a tool affected by Weather is at +2 difficulty and extremely delicate
or sophisticated items like computers or books are rendered unusable until repaired.

●● Polish
Learning to accelerate decay is only one facet of the knowledge required to master the energy of entropy.
It can not only be infused into objects to hurry the return to nothingness, but also siphoned off. Removing
the entropy that suffuses objects naturally over time will peel back the years. Rust falls away, cracks heal
themselves, faded markings become vibrant and dust vanishes into nothingness. Items that have been
damaged by force or violence cannot be repaired with this ability, nor can those that have been so
decayed by age and nature that they are no longer intact.

System: After touching an unliving object no longer than a grown man, the player spends a blood point to
strip away its entropy. He rolls his Stamina + Occult to safely dispel the entropic power. Failure inflicts one
automatic level of Bashing Damage to the necromancer, but a botch inflicts converts the damage to
Aggravated as the power of Oblivion is drawn into his body and ravages it. Objects affected by this power
have any penalties to their use from their age or condition removed and function as if newly made. Their
Resources value may also increase if applicable.

●●● Obliterate
A massive surge of entropic power, focused into an item will accelerate decay to such a rate that the
affected object simply appears to sift into dust. Even metals like steel and gold will corrode away
unnaturally as the power directed against them shatters the rules of the normal world. Entropy itself will not
be denied. Unlike Weather, this ability is not limited by the size of its target. Instead, the necromancer can
continue to draw and focus entropic power for as long as he wishes... or until he loses control.
System: Once the player has selected his target, the Storyteller should decide how many health levels’ the
object has.
New A small, delicate item like a smart phone may only have a single health level, where a car
Necromancy
might have fifteen and a tank might have fifty or more. The player touches his target, spends a blood point
and rolls his Willpower. Each success destroys one of the target’s health levels, reducing the affected
material to dust or rust. If the item is not destroyed with one application, the player can spend more blood
to make further rolls. Each roll costs one blood point. If at any point the roll fails, the power ends. If the roll
botches, each 1 rolled inflicts an automatic level of Aggravated damage to the necromancer.

●●●● Restoration
Even the barest scrap of an item reduced to ruin by the passage of time and accumulation of age can be
restored if the proper energies are channeled into and out of it. The current theory explaining this power
suggests that items retain a ‘memory’ or ‘pattern’ of their whole and proper form, even after age has turned
them to scraps and dust. By removing the entropy that has disrupted the pattern and providing energy in
the form of vitae to fuel regeneration, the necromancer can return almost anything to wholeness.

System: The player spends a blood point and then rolls his Willpower (difficulty 6). The number of
successes required is determined by the Storyteller, based on the size, complexity and condition of the
object. A small object that retains most of its parts and general shape might be only need 3, but an
extraordinarily complex and degraded object like a Mayan codex aged into nothing but a lump of organic
paste may require 20 successes or more. If the item is not regenerated with one application, the player can
spend more blood to make further rolls. Each roll costs one blood point. If at any point the roll fails, the
power ends. If the roll botches, each 1 rolled inflicts an automatic level of Aggravated damage to the
necromancer.

●●●●● Consignment
Ultimate mastery of destruction is not simply scouring an object from the world, but casting it into the next.
By expending a prodigious amount of power, a master necromancer can use lesser skills to destroy an
item so thoroughly it creates a ‘ghost’ of the object. These items are of immense value to the restless dead
as they are the only variety of material goods available in the Underworld that are not forged from souls.
The ability to create Relics can come in extremely handy as a negotiation tool, or for necromancers that
often visit the Shadowlands themselves.

System: When an item is destroyed through the use of Weather or Obliterate, the necromancer can opt to
spend two additional blood points and all his remaining Willpower, which must be at least four points, to
cast the object into the Shadowlands. As it crosses the Shroud, the sheer amount of magical force imbued
into it transforms it into a Relic.

The Wasting Path (Touch of the Grave)

Exposure to the powers of the Underworld is not healthy for the living, or even the embodied dead. The
physical substances of the living world are not meant to cope with the ambient energies of the
Shadowlands, much less the raw entropy of Oblivion. Harnessing these powers and focusing them into the
bodies of their enemies, necromancers can invoke a wide variety of horrific effects. Some Paths focus on
the physical applications of death energy, creating rot and plagues. Others prefer more subtle effects,
draining strength and power from their foes. The masters of the Wasting Path are said to be able to make
even Methuselahs fall to their knees.

● Darkened Vision
The most basic application of death power against animate bodies causes the body to undergo a physical
near-death experience. The victim’s blood becomes sluggish and their vision darkens, tunneling down
before going entirely black. Even the gifts of the supernatural cannot completely defeat the power of the
Shadowlands. Abilities that enhance senses or grant night vision can merely mitigate the curse levied by a
necromancer.

System: Selecting a target in his line of sight, the player spends a blood point and rolls his Willpower
(difficulty equal to the target’s Stamina +3). If the roll is successful, the target is afflicted with the curse of
blindness, increasing the difficulty of all vision-based Perception rolls by 4. If the target activates a power
like Heightened Senses or Eyes of the Beast, the two powers cancel each other out. No benefit is gained
from their improved senses, but no penalty is applied to their normal rolls. The curse lasts for the rest of
the scene.

●● Sap Strength
More vulgar necromancers can achieve similar results by withering limbs or causing age to accelerate in
an unnatural race to the grave. The followers of the Wasting Path inflict weakness and confusion by filling
the mind and body of their victims with the chill power of death.
System: After touching his target and spending a blood point, the necromancer rolls his
Willpower
New(difficulty equal to the target’s Stamina +3). If the roll is successful, the target’s Stamina and Wits
Necromancy
are both reduced by 3 for the rest of the scene. Supernatural beings have some innate resistance to this
power: their Attributes cannot be reduced past 1. Mortals are not so fortunate. If the target’s Stamina is
reduced to 0 in this way, he collapses, unable to take any physical action. Should the victim’s Wits be
reduced to 0 the effect is similar: a catatonic state where only the most instinctive reactions (running from
danger, etc) are possible.

●●● Weakened Flesh

Raw entropic power infused into flesh will cause the muscle, bone and skin to rot away. Such massive,
direct attacks are often favored by cruel or flashy necromancers, but they are not the only path to defeating
an enemy. A more refined attack, delivered with a mere touch, fills the target with hidden weakness. Only
when the victim’s body is assaulted by outside forces or placed under stress will it fail.

System: The necromancer must touch his target to inflict his curse. He then spends at least one blood
point and rolls his Willpower (difficulty equal to the target’s Stamina +3). Every two successes increases
the difficulty of all the target’s Stamina rolls, including soak rolls, by 1 for one night per blood point spent. If
the difficulty of a roll would exceed 10, it instead requires one additional success per extra difficulty past
10.
Vampires affected by this power have difficulty animating their undead bodies while the energy of death
itself courses through them. It requires an additional blood point to awaken on any evening they are
cursed.

●●●● Crippling Daze

The Wasting Path focuses on subtle applications of necromantic power and this ability is no different. It
attacks the mind instead of the body, filling the consciousness of its victims with dread and a morbid fog of
depression that clouds all thought. The fog is not merely figurative; the power of the Shadowlands truly has
invaded the brain of target and is draining away their emotional stability and preventing access to their
mental reserves.

System: The player chooses a target in his line of sight, spends two blood points and rolls his Willpower
(difficulty equal to the target’s Wits +3). One success prevents the target from spending any Willpower for
the rest of the scene. Three successes blocks the victim’s access to his Willpower for three days, while five
successes prevents spending Willpower for a full week. The target cannot gain Willpower while this ability
affects their minds, but they can still lose it if they are affected by abilities that drain Willpower.

●●●●● Gnawing Void

The most feared power of the Wasting Path is the ability to draw forth a fragment of Oblivion itself and
force it into a victim. Once inside them, it ravenously devours their strength of will and their very life force.
In the case of supernatural beings, it consumes the energies that allow them to wield their unique powers,
burning through them rapidly before Oblivion starts to eat their bodies.

System: Calling forth Oblivion requires a full turn of concentration, after which the necromancer spends
two points of Willpower and rolls his Stamina + Occult (difficulty 8) to control the power he has summoned.
If he fails, the power vanishes and his attempt is wasted. If he botches, he automatically suffers the effects
of this power himself, with each 1 rolled counting as a success. Should the power be successfully
summoned and controlled, it is released into the intended victim with a touch. Once inside them, it begins
sapping their reserves of Willpower and supernatural power. Each turn the target suffers this effect, they
lose 1 point of Willpower and 1 point of vitae, Chi, Pathos or other similar resource. The effect lasts for one
turn per success. If all the target’s Willpower and power reserves are drained before the effect ends,
Oblivion begins to devour the target’s flesh. Each extra turn inflicts a level of unsoakable Lethal damage on
the target.

The Gaunt Path (Call the Wrathful Dead)

Just as Cainites must contend with their Beasts, the restless dead are plagued by a dark force they call the
Shadow. A twisted amalgam of the worst aspects of their personalities, the Shadow sometimes
overwhelms ghosts and turns them into malevolent specters. Specters are possessed of raw, animal
cunning and driven by sadism. While wildly chaotic, they can be directed through the arts of powerful
necromancers, but never fully controlled. The Gaunt Path is a dangerous tool; there is always a chance the
specters will slip their bonds and attack their summoner just as readily as his enemies.
Any time a Gaunt Path power is botched, the specters summoned will turn on the necromancer and attack
him. In the case of particularly severe botches, the necromancer might accidentally unleash truly horrific
beasts from the Labyrinth without any ability to control them.

● Haunting Cry
The simplest power of the Gaunt Path is simply a klaxon, a silent reverberation sent through the fabric of
the Veil New
that attracts any nearby specters. There are rumors that specters are attracted to the energy given
Necromancy
off by necromancers, or the horrific rituals performed by undead sorcerers. True or not, the Haunting Cry
almost always gains the attention of at least one specter.

System: Issuing the Cry requires a Charisma + Occult roll (difficulty 8) and the expenditure of a Willpower
point. Each success attracts the attention of a single specter. The difficulty may be lowered if the
necromancer is in a particularly haunted location such as a graveyard or battlefield. Areas that would not
normally be home to specters, such as consecrated church grounds and peaceful rustic meadows may
actually raise the difficulty.

●● Narrow Window
A great weakness in ghostly servants is that only the most powerful and talented among wraiths can reach
across the Shroud to harm or hinder the physical world. With a surge of power, a necromancer can rip a
small tear in the Shroud, allowing a single specter to enter the material world. The opening is brief, and
when it closes the specter allowed through is pulled back to the Shadowlands.

System: The player spends 2 blood points and rolls Strength + Occult (difficulty 8) to open the portal into
the Shadowlands. As long as there is a specter on the other side, possibly lured there by a Haunting Cry, it
will be pulled through. While in the living world, the specter remains immaterial and unable to interact
directly with solid matter, but its powers are fully effective against material targets and even mere the
appearance of a horrific, ghostly figure can be used to the advantage of a cunning necromancer. The rift
remains open for 1 turn per success, after which it closes and the specter is sucked back through.

●●● Bystander
Possibly the most vital power of the Gaunt Path, this ability wards a single person against spectral
attention by shrouding them in a confusing miasma of dark power. The shroud is uncomfortable and
disorienting, but it is one of the only ways to avoid attack by specters who have crossed into the living
world or are using their powers to reach beyond the Shroud. No power is foolproof, however, and some
whisper that when necromancers most need their wards, they have found themselves defenseless as the
wards suddenly evaporate under spectral attack.

System: The necromancer cuts himself and paints 1 blood point worth of vitae onto the forehead of his
target. He can choose to use this power on himself, but he cannot use it on more than one person at a
time. After painting on the blood, he rolls Wits + Occult (difficulty 7). If successful, the target becomes
invisible to specters and largely immune to their powers. Any attempt by a specter to perceive or affect the
warded target is at +4 difficulty. This effect lasts for a scene, or until the blood is wiped away. For as long
as it is in effect, the target cannot gain Willpower via any means as the dark energy around their bodies
unnerves them.

●●●● Open Gate

A refinement of Narrow Window, this ability opens a larger, more stable portal through the Shroud. For as
long as the necromancer holds open the way, specters can pour through to wreak havoc. This power is
used rarely because of the potentially catastrophic collateral damage caused by the rampaging ghosts.
Unlike Narrow Window, the mad spirits allowed entrance to the living world through this power are not
banished back to the Underworld when the necromancer closes the rift. They remain until their own
reserves of strength are depleted.

System: This power functions the same way Narrow Window does, except that at the end of the portal’s
duration the specters that have passed through are not returned to the Underworld. Instead they remain in
the material world until they run out of resources. Each day in the living world strips 1 point of Corpus and
1 point of Angst from the specters. They cannot regain either as long as the are in the living world. After
losing either all their Angst or Corpus (whichever comes first) the specters will be cast back into the
Labyrinth, possibly to be consumed by the Void.

●●●●● Ghost Beast

In the depths of the Underworld there are horrific beasts that were never human and may have never lived
at all. These monstrous creatures, called Plasmics by the few wraiths that have survived encounters with
them, are normally barred from entering the living world. Only an extraordinarily powerful necromancer and
an outpouring of power can rend the Shroud badly enough to allow such an alien being to manifest.
Summoning these creatures is fraught with danger, since their rampages are almost impossible to conceal
and may be equally impossible to survive if the beast turns upon its supposed master.

System: Summoning a Plasmic costs at least 3 blood points and requires a Strength + Occult roll (difficulty
10). Only a single success is required to call forth one of the alien things. These horrific beasts manifest in
the living world with a partially physical body, allowing them to interact with solid matter. Any supernatural
powers they have are fully functional as well. Plasmics are immune to Bystander and often attack
indiscriminately once summoned. They can remain in the physical world for one minute per point of blood
New Necromancy
spend to summon them, after which they collapse into a puddle of ooze. No one knows if summoned
Plasmics ‘die’ or if they simply return to the Underworld, shedding their temporary bodies to do so.
The Storyteller should assign whatever statistics he believes required, but may wish to reference the
Plasmic examples of Wraith: the Oblivion, demons from Dark Ages: Vampire or the Vozhd and other flesh-
beasts of the Tzimisce.

The Reliquary Path (Treasures of the Grave)

Egyptian necromancy focused on providing for the departed, ensuring that the needs of the dead would be
taken care of in the Underworld. Grave goods were buried with the bodies to make sure the dead had
food, clothing, equipment, wealth and servants. The Dark Kingdom of Sand was rich in Relics, items
carried from the world of the living to that of the dead. Time has worn away these practices and claimed
many of the Relics it created, but the undead still remember the arts required to craft goods that will cross
the Shroud.
Focusing the unnatural, stolen power of vitae into physical form and bending it to their dark will, an
Egyptian necromancer can bring into being material goods that exist in the Shadowlands. These items can
be used as gifts, bribes or tools for wraiths the necromancer encounters, or as supplies for his own travels
into the Underworld. Items created with the Reliquary Path never exist in the Living World. It is extremely
hard to use this Path without some ability to see or touch things on the other side of the Shroud, since its
products manifest solely in the Underworld. In Wraith terms, such items are considered Artifacts.
Objects made with this Path survive for one month per success on their creation roll. By default, these
objects are bland, generic items without distinguishing characteristics. In order to craft more elaborate
items or replicate the appearance of unique, pre-existing items the necromancer must spend a point of
Willpower and make a separate Dexterity + Craft roll (difficulty 7), with the successes determining how
elaborate their creation is. The creation of sophisticated items can only be accomplished if the
necromancer can see and touch his creations by means of other Necromantic powers or by way of being
in the Shadowlands himself when he fashions them.

● Chattel
The necromancer can form his blood and power into simple material objects. Only items with no moving
parts and small enough that they could be lifted by a grown man can be created at this stage of mastery.

System: To create an item, the player spends 2 blood points and rolls Willpower (difficulty 7).

●● Material
Having advanced further towards mastery, the necromancer is now able to fashion complex items with
moving pieces such as firearms, vehicles and even computers.

System: This power has the same system as Chattel.

●●● Eternity
Items crafted from memory and emotion alone do not last forever in the Underworld. Entropy wears away
at them, eventually grinding them down to nothing. Only those items forged out of souls or crafted by
sorcery truly last forever. The stolen life that powers the unnatural magic of Necromancy can fill both
requirements. By expending additional blood when invoking his creations, a necromancer can ensure they
will last until claimed by the Void itself.

System: Simply spend 2 additional blood points when activating any of the first four levels of this Path to
make the Artifact created permanent.

●●●● Animation
Creating living beings for use by ghosts would be impossible, but trained adepts of this Path can create
animated simulacra that fill the functions of living servants, guards and pets. Such creations cannot
possibly be mistaken for true organisms: they always appear as moving statues or other forms of artificial
representation such as flying clay pigeons, moving marble statues, or walking suits of armor.

System: The player spends 5 blood points and rolls Willpower (difficulty 7) to create the simulacrum. It
must be between the size of a toad and a bull and cannot have any magical powers. Crafting Artifact
griffons or dragons requires far more potent magic. Such creations are able to understand commands, but
have no free will and cannot act without instructions. The Storyteller should determine their traits based on
the closest animal or human template appropriate. Equipment for the simulacra such as weapons and
armor must be fashioned separately.

●●●●● Treasure
Not only can a necromancer create ‘ordinary’ items for his wraithly servants or allies, a talented master of
the Reliquary
NewPath can fashion truly magical items. He has learned to imbue his own dark abilities into the
Necromancy
items he creates, or even emulate the powers of wraith-crafted Artifacts. This power must be used
carefully, lest the necromancer invest too much power in his creations and find his own soul being merged
into the items he fashions.

System: After creating an Artifact with the first or second power of this Path, the necromancer can spend 2
points of Willpower and rolls Stamina + Occult (difficulty 8) to imbue it with a magical power. He can grant it
any level 1 or 2 Discipline power he knows, or any level 1 or 2 Arcanoi power known to a wraith willing to
demonstrate the power during the creation of the Artifact. Once a Discipline or Arcanoi has been imbued
into the Artifact, any wraith that holds the Artifact can activate that power as if they had knowledge of it.
Disciplines that normally require vitae are instead fueled by Pathos. At the Storyteller’s discretion, this
power can also fashion any Artifact that would be ranked 1-3, but has effects outside those of Disciplines
or Arcanoi.
Botching the roll for this power siphons off a Permanent point of Willpower.

The Skull Path (Path of the Fallen Knight)

Developed by Cappadocian Knights during the early Crusades, this Path has spawned nightmares and
legends of horror. Walking skeletons wielding terrible blades, men fighting on as their flesh falls from their
bones and slicing apart their enemies with the tips of their bloodied fingers. The Skull Path advocates
abandoning the weaknesses of flesh in favor of the strength of bones and dark magic.

● Bone Talons
The necromancer expends a small amount of power to rot away the flesh on his fingertips, revealing razor-
sharp bones that he can use to slice deep into anyone that stands against him.

System: The player spends 1 blood point and the bones of his fingers extend into talons that deal Strength
+ 1 Lethal damage with a simple Dexterity + Brawl attack. Such attacks have a difficulty of 6, but do not
have an Accuracy bonus.

●● Rictus Grin
Peeling back the skin of his lips and gums, the necromancer bares his fangs in a terrible flash. Under the
influence of this power, a vampire’s fangs extend into vicious weapons that can tear away gobbets of flesh
with a mere swipe of the undead warrior’s head and a snap of his jaws.

System: To activate this power, the player spends 1 blood point. When making a bite attack with his
enhanced fangs, the character does not have to have first tackled, held or clinched his target. He can
simply make a Dexterity + Brawl roll (difficulty 6) with an Accuracy bonus of +1. The enhanced fangs deal
Strength +2 Aggravated damage.

●●● Slough the Coil

When a warrior devoted to this Path finds his flesh too damaged to continue serving him, he simply
discards it. Battered flesh falls from his bones, dissolving into bloody ooze and leaving the necromancer
unencumbered by the damage done to it. His bones alone are sufficient to keep him moving and able. The
sight of a vampire warrior using this power can be incredibly disturbing.

System: When the character takes damage to his flesh, that is damage that doesn’t remove a limb or
otherwise destroy his bone structure, he can opt to spend a Willpower point to “shed’ up to three Health
Levels of Bashing or Lethal damage. The affected flesh melts off the vampire’s body. Health Levels “shed”
in this way are considered healed, but the vampire’s Appearance is reduced to 0 and the sight of him
causes mortals to flee in terror unless they succeed on a Courage roll (difficulty 8). In order to restore his
flesh, 3 blood points must be spent to regrow the lost flesh. The cost of regrowing flesh does not change
based on how many Health Levels have been “shed”, but a vampire can only “shed” 7 Health Levels worth
of flesh before he runs out and becomes a walking skeleton, unable to use this power again.

●●●● Osseous Armor

To protect himself, the necromancer dissolves some of the non-essential bones of his undead body,
transforming them into mystically-charged dust. He then exhales the dust in a dry cloud, which settles on
his body and quickly grows into a macabre suit of armor, apparently fashioned from blackened bones. The
bone armor is flexible and supernaturally strong.

System: The player spends at least 1 blood point to create the bone armor. The armor’s soak rating is
equal to the total number of blood points spent. No matter how much blood is used to create the armor, its
innate resilience allows the necromancer to soak all forms of damage with his complete Stamina +
Fortitude pool.
●●●●● Fleshless Warrior
Having utterly
New mastered
Necromancythe powers of bone and battle, the necromancer sheds all his flesh and becomes
a skeletal Knight. Animated by magic and blood, his bony form needs no tendons, sinews or muscles to
move, no eyes to see and no tongue to speak. He moves across the battlefield as a ghastly reaper as
blows glance off his hardened bones and strike through his empty cavities.

System: The transformation takes two turns and requires 3 blood points. Once transformed, the
character’s Bone Talons (if present) deal Aggravated damage. All melee attacks against the vampire are at
+1 difficulty and all ranged attacks are at +2 difficulty as his attackers must struggle to hit bone rather than
have their blows pass through empty space. He also becomes resistant to Lethal attacks, halving all such
damage after soak. In exchange, his brittle bones are more vulnerable to blunt attacks; he loses the
normal vampiric ability to halve Bashing damage. Bullets fired at the Fleshless Warrior are considered to
inflict Lethal damage, which is halved. Lastly, without his flesh, sinew and blood, many Discipline powers
are no longer effective against the transformed necromancer.

Revised[b] Paths (8 Paths)

The Cheval[c] Path (Abambo Dance)
Some among the practitioners of voodoo necromancy have taken to forging pacts with Les Invisibles, the
wraiths of the Caribbean. While pacts between necromancers and wraiths are not unheard of, the degree
of trust required for the unique bonds made between a practitioner of the Cheval Path and his restless
allies is extreme. Through the arts of this Path, a necromancer bargains with one of the dead, allowing it to
inhabit his body. Wraiths can normally possess humans with their own arts, but the magic of Cheval allows
the bonding to be much more in-depth and beneficial to both parties. Users of this Path often find
themselves gaining considerable fame among the dead, and their willingness to bargain physical bodies
for secrets and services is held as a great boon to nearly any of Les Invisibles.

● Accord
This ability allows the necromancer to form a compact with a wraith, holding both of them to a set of rules
for as long as the wraith is sharing the necromancer’s body. Each party must agree to all the terms, but
once the pact is established, it cannot be violated or altered for as long as the wraith remains in the
vampire’s body.

System: No roll is required to form the pact, but both the vampire and the wraith must spend a point of
Willpower to seal their bargain. This power must be activated prior to using any other Cheval Path power. If
the wraith and the vampire do not want to re-negotiate, they can simply resume an earlier set of terms by
mutual agreement. Any action that would break the terms of the agreement by either party requires a
Willpower roll (difficulty 8) and automatically ends any active Cheval Path powers instantly.
Accord is binding on all segments of both the vampire and the ghost: the rules apply even if the vampire
Frenzies or if the wraith’s Shadow takes control.

●● Partager
Having formed an understanding with one of the Restless Dead, the necromancer is now ready for the
next step: becoming a vessel. This power allows the vampire to extend a free invitation to any wraith
willing to agree to make an Accord. If it accepts, the wraith can enter the necromancer and use his body as
its own, granting it physical agency in the lands of the living. Many wraiths would literally kill for such a
chance.

System: No roll is required and there is no cost beyond the required activation of Accord. While the wraith
is riding him, the vampire retains full awareness of what happens and may eject the wraith at any time with
a simple Willpower roll (difficulty of the Wraith’s Wits). The wraith uses his host’s Physical Attributes and
Appearance, but its own traits for everything else. Without further Cheval powers, the wraith has no access
to his own or his host’s supernatural powers while riding the necromancer. The wraith may remain inside
his host until the sun rises, or the effect is ended by the vampire.

●●● Lait Fantôme

The bonding between wraith and necromancer can be enhanced and in some ways distilled into a thick,
glowing white fluid. Infusing his blood with the power of his wraith ally, the necromancer creates ‘ghost
milk’ that exists in both the living world and Shadowlands. If a wraith who has an Accord with the
necromancer drinks the milk, he becomes temporarily more connected to the living world and to his
undead ally.

System: The vampire rolls Stamina + Occult, then spends a blood point, while his wraithly ally must
donate a point of Passion. Each success creates a single dose of ghost milk. Any wraith who drinks the
fluid will gain 1 point of Passion per dose ingested. The wraith also treats the Shroud as 1 level lower for
the nextNewday after drinking ghost milk. For a similar time, the necromancer and the drinker can see each
Necromancy
other even across the Shroud and communicate via line-of-sight telepathy. To benefit from these boons,
the wraith must have formed an Accord with the vampire. Otherwise, the ghost milk is simply a tasty treat.

●●●● Unité
A far more powerful bond than initiates of the Cheval Path are capable of, this power allows the
necromancer and the ghostly passenger to easily swap control back and forth, each taking control when
most advantageous. With this more potent binding, the powers of the ghost are able to reach into the living
world through the necromancer’s body.

System: The necromancer spends a blood point, then he and his wraithly ally both roll Wits + Empathy
(difficulty 6). The lower number of successes is taken. For that many turns, control of the vampire’s body
can freely pass from its owner to the ghost and back as a reflexive action. While the wraith is in control, it
can now access its own Arcanoi and other powers. No matter how many times control shifts, only a single
activation of Accord is required.

●●●●● Mélange
The sharing between ghost and necromancer becomes more than simply allowing the spirit control of a
physical body. The two entities merge together, blending into an almost-seamless whole for a short time.
Drawing on the strengths of both the restless dead and the blood-drinking vampire, such a creature is
fearsome to behold.

System: In addition to activating Accord, the necromancer must spend 1 blood point and the wraith must
spend 1 point of Passion. They both roll Wits + Empathy (difficulty 6). The lower number of successes is
taken. For that many turns, the two act as one entity. Whenever they must make a roll, they choose from
the highest of their scores in relevant traits, no matter which partner those traits belong to. Further, the pair
has full use of both individual’s supernatural powers. Some trace of the wraith’s intangible nature remains,
even in the living world. By taking an automatic Health Level of lethal damage, the bound pair may become
immaterial for a single turn, avoiding attacks or walking through walls.

The Vigil[d] Path (The Spark of Life)

A radical deviation from most paths of necromantic study, the Vigil Path seeks to purge stresses,
weakness and injury from living (or unliving) bodies. The same necrotic energies used by other Paths to
cause rot and decay can be focused carefully to destroy disease-causing organisms, wipe away the toxins
of fatigue and break down damaged tissues, allowing fresh, clean growth. Nothing can ever be fully turned
against its own nature, though, and those who have been the recipient of care from the hands of
necromancers often whisper of terrible chills, horrific nightmares, lingering numbness and other unpleasant
side effects of having their ills cursed by the power of death itself.

● Diagnosis
By studying the build-up of entropic energies in their patients, even initiates of the Vigil Path can determine
how close to death they are.

System: The player scrutinizes his target for a full turn, then rolls Perception + Medicine (difficulty 6). As
long as even a single success is obtained, the necromancer learns how many Health Levels of damage
the target has taken. If at least three successes were rolled, the type of damage taken is also revealed.
With five or more successes, the necromancer learns of any diseases afflicting the target.

●● Deaden Pain
By impeding the function of nerves in the body with an infusion of chill power, the necromancer shields his
patients from pain. Some have even reported being able to walk on shattered bones and fight with terrible
wounds. There may be more than simple anesthetic to this power. Those who have felt the chill energy
course through their bodies report that it is an extremely unpleasant sensation, leaving them
uncomfortable in their own skins.

System: After laying hands on his subject and spending a point of Willpower, the character rolls
Intelligence + Medicine (difficulty equal to the target’s Stamina). Each success negates one point of wound
penalties for the rest of the scene. For the same duration the subject of this power is completely unable to
regain Willpower, their mind unbalanced by the alien sensations in their flesh.

●●● Purge Infection

This technique quite literally murders diseases, fungi or infestations afflicting an otherwise healthy body.
Necrotic power, narrowly focused and finely controlled, surges from the necromancer’s hands into the
patient and exterminates any alien presences that may be causing them to sicken. The experience of
having illness expunged violently from your body is agony, but it can be the difference between life or
death. New Necromancy

System: The character touches his target and rolls Intelligence + Medicine (difficulty 7) to direct the dark
power. Each success on the roll wipes out one fungal, parasitic, viral or bacterial condition affecting the
subject. Magical diseases or infestations can also be purged, but they require three successes each. For
the rest of the scene, the subject has a -1 penalty applied to all their rolls for each condition removed with
this power. If the necromancer botches his roll, he inflicts one Health Level of Lethal damage to his subject
for each 1 rolled.

●●●● Unfeeling Flesh

A powerful surge of necromantic power fills the patient with the resilience of the corpse. Their wounds will
not bleed, blunt trauma barely registers and even mortal wounds are borne easily, for a time. Even
diseases do not easily find hold in flesh touched by death.

System: The necromancer touches his target, spends 1 blood point and rolls Intelligence + Medicine
(difficulty 7). This power lasts for one turn per success. While the effect is active, the target’s soak rolls are
at -2 difficulty and their Bashing soak is doubled. Mortal targets gain the ability to soak Lethal damage.
Further, for as long as the dark power surges through the subject’s body, they are utterly immune to
infection by disease.

●●●●● Expel Harm

True mastery of the Vigil Path is an almost perfect inversion of the normal function of entropic energy. By
pulling underworld powers away from a physical body, the necromancer encourages regrowth and healing.
Even the most terrible wounds can be overcome by a healthy body, unencumbered by the forces that
underlay death and destruction.

System: After touching his target, the necromancer spends 2 blood points and rolls Intelligence +
Medicine (difficulty 8). Each success cures one level of Bashing or Lethal damage. Damage healed in this
way continues to inflict its associated wound penalties until the next sunrise.

The Smoke[e] Path (The Stilled Grave)

Necromancers are often called upon by the living, or undead, to halt harassment from across the Shroud.
Masters of the Smoke Path are some of the most skilled at such tasks; they are exorcists of the highest
caliber, able to curtain the activities of wraiths, banish them from areas they are haunting or people they’ve
possessed, even render the walking dead into nothing but ordinary corpses.

● Ephemeral Awareness
The most basic skill of the Smoke Path is simply being aware of the Restless Dead. Unlike the ghostly
vision offered by other varieties of Necromancy, this sensitivity is more general and intuitive. While his
awareness is sharpened, the necromancer can sense the presence of wraiths around him, instantly home
in on any use of wraithly powers and even tell if wraiths frequent the location where he stands.

System: There is no cost or roll required to activate this power. The player simply notes that he is
activating it, and for the rest of the scene he gains an uncanny awareness of the dead. While he cannot
see them directly, he is able to sense their presence in his immediate vicinity with a reflexive Perception +
Awareness roll (difficulty 5), and automatically knows if any wraiths use their powers around him. He can
also sense if wraiths have passed through his location in the recent past with a simple Perception +
Awareness roll (difficulty 7).

●● Salt Line
By marking an opening with his blood, the necromancer creates an almost impenetrable barrier to the
dead. Even wraiths riding in living or dead bodies, or temporarily immaterial, cannot pass through such
wards. These wards work both ways, preventing entrance... or escape.

System: The necromancer spends a single blood point to mark the passage he wishes to bar, and rolls his
Charisma + Occult (difficulty 6). Any wraith attempting to pass through the marked opening must get
double the necromancer’s successes on a Willpower roll (difficulty 6). Any wraith that succeeds shatters
the line, sending a mental alert to the necromancer. Salt Lines last until the first dawn after their creation.

●●● Lay to Rest

The use of dead bodies by wraiths or necromancers relies upon a trace of energy that remains in any
corpse, the very faintest echo of the life that once animated its form. Adepts of the Smoke Path can
obliterate this tiny spark, driving ghosts out of Risen bodies and reducing the zombie servants of other
necromancers to inert husks. A body that has been Lain to Rest cannot be possessed by wraiths or re-
animated by sorcery
New in the future; it is truly at peace.
Necromancy
System: The necromancer touches the target corpse and spends a point of Willpower. He then rolls his
Charisma + Occult (difficulty of the target’s Stamina). If he succeeds, the animating spirit of the corpse is
expelled. The wraiths inhabiting Risen bodies are forced back to the Shadowlands, while corpses
animated through sorcerous means are rendered inert.

●●●● Exorcism
Occasionally used to free a wraith from compulsions or bindings holding them, the far more common
application of this ability is to drive unwanted ghosts out of a location or even a possessed body.

System: To release a ghost from bindings, the necromancer simply speaks aloud to the ghost for a single
turn, then rolls his Charisma + Occult (difficulty 8). Each success shatters one effect currently afflicting the
ghost, such as Command Soul (Sepulcher 3) or Haunting (Sepulcher 4).
If used as a true exorcism, the roll is instead made against the Wraith’s willpower. Any success at all casts
the wraith out of the current location, or banishes them from a living body they have possessed. Exorcised
wraiths cannot return to the place or person they were removed from for at least one month.

●●●●● Hallowed Hall

The barrier between the land of the dead and the living world normally stymies most forms of influence the
dead might have over the living. It makes the living hard to see and even harder to harm. Through the arts
of the Smoke Path, the Shroud can be strengthened to such a degree that even the most powerful and
ancient ghosts can only whisper to the living, no matter how hard they scream and howl.

System: The player spends two points of Willpower and rolls his Charisma + Occult (difficulty 8). If
successful, the strength of the local Shroud increases to 13 for one day per success. If your Storyteller is
not using rules for the Shroud, instead this should be treated as a +6 difficulty to any attempt by the
Restless Dead to view, interact with or affect the living world in any way at all.

The Scourge[f] Path (Shopona’s Touch)

Following the path of Shopona, the Yoruba deity of sickness and disease, a necromancer gains the ability
to both cause and cure plagues. Viruses and bacteria wither or thrive at his command. There are whispers
that masters of this Path may have been responsible for some of the most deadly outbreaks in history.
Those who seek mastery over infection are often avoided, well, like the plague.

● Plague Casting
The first step in manipulating plagues required extensive familiarity with the agents of sickness. A
necromancer quickly develops a heightened sensitivity to the presence of disease in those around him.
Often it only takes a single glance to see who is infected and who is healthy.

System: The player simply rolls Perception + Medicine (difficulty 6). Each success allows him to determine
if one person in his line of sight is infected by disease or healthy. Additional successes can be dedicated to
any person that registers infected, each one granting further information about their condition such as what
infection they carry and how far it has progressed.

●● Mercy of Shopona
The Orisha responsible for inflicting disease is also the Orisha responsible for curing them. Drawing on his
power to send a surge of necromantic power through his subject, a practitioner of this Path can slay the
diseases within his own body or in anyone he touches.

System: After touching his subject, the necromancer spends a blood point and rolls Intelligence +
Medicine (difficulty 7). Each success purges the target of one disease. Additional successes can be used
to render the subject immune to a single cured disease for one month per success.

●●● Shopona Stumbles

Yoruba legend tells that when Shopona joined in the elaborate dances of the Orisha, he stumbled during
the steps. Humiliated by the laughter of the onlookers, Shopona lashed out and cursed any who saw his
misstep with Smallpox. A venomous gaze at his target is all the necromancer needs to strike down his foes
with any number of horrific plagues.

System: After choosing his target and fixing them with a dire stare for a full turn, the necromancer spends
a point of Willpower and two blood points. His player then rolls Intelligence + Medicine (difficulty of the
target’s Stamina +4). If he succeeds, his target is infected with one disease of the necromancer’s choice,
so long as the necromancer has either been infected by that disease, or cured a case of it using Mercy of
Shopona.New Necromancy
●●●● Breath of Sickness
This level of near-mastery of Shopona’s Touch confers the ability to spread and cure diseases far more
effectively than before. No longer does the necromancer have to deal with single subjects, he can exhale a
cloud of dark power that either scours away plagues or plants the seeds of epidemics.

System: By spending an additional Willpower point for each extra target he wishes to affect, the
necromancer can use either Mercy of Shopona or Shopona Stumbles upon multiple targets at once. The
difficulty of Shopona Stumbles used on a group is determined by the highest Stamina among the chosen
victims.

●●●●● Wrath of Olodumare

When necessary, Shopona acts as the avenger of the Orisha. True mastery of his Path allows the creation
of horrific plague infused with the power of undead vitae. In order to unleash the Wrath of Olodumare, the
necromancer must first ingest at least one point of disease-ridden vitae to act as a basis for the terrible
sickness he will craft.

System: The necromancer can have ingested the tainted blood at any point, so long as it remains in his
body when he activates this power. After spending the tainted blood point, he rolls Stamina + Medicine
(difficulty 7). If successful, he can transmit the enhanced plague through the use of Shopona Stumbles, or
through contact with his bodily fluids. Anyone exposed to contaminated vitae can roll their Stamina
(difficulty 8) to avoid infection, but they must gain more successes than the necromancer did. The infected
can also spread the disease via their own fluids for as long as they are affected, though the difficulty to
avoid secondary infection is only 6 and secondary infections last half as long.
Those infected suffer catastrophic versions of the base diseases’ regular symptoms, as determined by the
Storyteller, for a number of days equal to the necromancer’s successes. The true effect of the plague,
however, is the loss of 1 dot of Stamina per day. Vampires can heal such Stamina loss as if it was an
Aggravated wound, but mortals have no such defense. A mortal that drops to Stamina 0 dies, while a
vampire is thrown into Torpor.

The Clay[g] Path (The Mortal Coil)

Corpses are vitally important to the practice of Necromancy, but most Paths pay little attention to the
condition and location of bodies. Though concerned primarily with the physical state of remains, true
masters of the Clay Path are rumored to be able to draw memories and even skills from the bodies of the
dead. Generally the powers of this Path are restricted to human corpses, but there are rumors of some
Gangrel necromancers that have learned to use it to on the bodies of animals.

● Grim’s Trail
One of the most important abilities for any necromancer is finding useful corpses. Like the dreaded Black
Dogs of myth, the vampire can track down the dead near him. A single sniff of the air will lead the
necromancer to the nearest corpse, or simply allow him to identify how many bodies are nearby and what
condition they are in.

System: Whether using this power to locate a corpse or perform a census of bodies, the player rolls
Perception + Occult (difficulty 6). If attempting to locate the nearest useful body, the degree of success
correlates to how clear a path he is given to follow to the corpse. In the event the player simply wants to
know how many bodies are nearby, each success reveals one corpse and its current physical condition
(fresh, rotten, skeletal, etc) within one mile per success.

●● Forensic Touch
With a simple touch, the necromancer surveys a corpse. He can sense how far it has decayed, find any
foreign bodies within, catalogue its wounds and even determine where it has been. Some necromancers
use their skills to turn a profit on cold cases, others simply prefer to know more about the dead people
they’ll be enslaving.

System: After touching the body he wishes to study, the character rolls Perception + Medicine (difficulty 6).
Each success reveals one fact about the physical condition of the body. If the player chooses to make his
activation roll at difficulty 7 instead, he can also learn facts related to the environments the body was in
prior to and following its death.

●●● Bodily Perfection

Sometimes a body has been too battered by time, scavengers or human hands to be useful to a
necromancer. In such cases, there is no other option but to force the body to recall its own self-image and
return to that perfect state. Once the body reforms, the necromancer wards it against entropy, allowing him
to preserve
New it forever if he wishes. Even bodies rendered to ash or a smear of bone and flesh can be
Necromancy
restored to apparent perfection using this technique.

System: To restore a corpse to wholeness, the necromancer must have at least 50% of the body’s original
mass. He then touches the corpse and spends 2 blood points. There is no roll required, but the body takes
1 turn for every 10% of its original mass missing to reform. Once reformed, the body will not decay
naturally and will show no marks or wounds. It appears perfectly healthy, though completely dead.

●●●● Final Words

The final gasp of a dying man can unravel the mysteries of his life. Death magic ensures it is never too last
to extract these last words. Even if a body has rotted away to bones, a well-trained necromancer can call
forth the knowledge locked inside a corpse.

System: To activate this ability the player rolls his Perception + Occult (difficulty 7) and touches the corpse
from which he wants to gather information. Each success allows him ask the Storyteller one question
about topics the deceased could reasonably have had knowledge related to in life. Particularly vital or
complex questions may require additional successes.

●●●●● Bequeathal
A true master of the Clay Path can salvage more than flesh, bone and memories from the dead. He has
learned how to unlock the aptitudes and prowess once available to a living person by stealing it from their
corpse. The strength of the dead adds to the necromancer’s own, temporarily granting him inhuman
abilities.

System: Stealing the traits of a corpse requires physical contact for a full turn, after which the player
spends a blood point and rolls Stamina + Occult (difficulty 8). For one turn per success, the highest rated
Attribute and Ability that the deceased possessed is halved (rounded down), then added the the
necromancer’s own scores in that Attribute and Ability. If the deceased had multiple traits at the same
level, the Storyteller decides which traits are passed to the necromancer.

The Chthonic[h] Path (Steps of Persephone)

The Underworld is far deeper and more complicated than even most necromancers know. Beyond the
Shadowlands there is a great, sunless ocean tossed by a terrific storm. In this Tempest, wraiths dwell in
nations of their own. Beyond even that, there are whispers of a dark realm called the Labyrinth, where
specters and other malefic creatures dwell and plot against both the living and the dead. The Chthonic
Path was created by necromancers who explored even the furthest, deepest reaches of the Underworld. It
allows for navigation and survival in these distant places.

• Shroudsense
The first step of mastery in the Chthonic Path is to gain an understanding of the Shroud. All the other
powers of this Path rely on being able to detect weak points in the barrier between the living and the dead.
Shroudsense also allows the necromancer to feel the layers of the Underworld while travelling through the
lands of the dead.

System: There are two functions of this power. This first requires no roll and simply allows the character to
sense the strength of the Shroud in his immediate vicinity by spending a point of Willpower to attune
himself to the power of death.
The second power requires a Perception + Occult roll (difficulty 7) to reach out and feel the Shroud in an
extended area, searching for the weakest point within one mile per success. Once located, the
necromancer knows how far and in what direction the weak point lays. This ability can also be used to
locate holes, called Nihils by Wraiths, in the Shadowlands that reach into a deeper, darker layer of the
Underworld called the Tempest.

•• Stygian Compass
In the depths of the Underworld, a great storm-tossed sea called the Tempest dominates the landscape.
Without proper guidance, it is easy to become lost forever in the sunless waves and howling winds. This
power grants the necromancer a limited ability to navigate through the Tempest to safe paths known as
“byways”. By itself, this power grants no knowledge of where the byways lead or the geography of the
Tempest. That must be learned via other means.

System: Whenever your character is in the Tempest, he can find his way to the nearest byway or safe
haven by rolling Wits + Survival, difficulty 7 (or difficulty 8 in particularly harsh or confusing conditions). 1
success gives a vague sense of "that-a-way," where as five successes gives the necromancer exact
directions.
••• Worn Gateway
New
There are weakNecromancy
points in the Shroud, places and times where the worlds of the living and the dead are
very, very close. At these times and places, it is easy to pass from one to the other. This ability allows a
necromancer to step across the Shroud when it is naturally thin. The stroke of midnight, Friday the 13th,
Halloween, Dia de los Muertos are all times when the Shroud becomes thin. It also thins in graveyards,
slaughterhouses, battlefields and other sites of death.

System: To step across the Shroud, the necromancer must expend a point of Willpower and roll Stamina +
Occult, difficulty of (the Shroud -1). 3 successes are required to fully transmigrate to the Shadowlands
reflection of his current location; fewer successes dump the necromancer into the Tempest. A botch may
send the necromancer into the Labyrinth itself.

•••• Tears of Acheron

Tears of Acheron grants the necromancer the ability to sustain himself with the emotional energies that
compose the roiling Tempest… for a short time at least. By spending hours floating in the Tempest, he may
absorb some of the dark energies of the storm into himself. The harsh, violent power is sufficient to
animate a vampire, but it is not healthy even for the undead. Too much reliance on Tears of Acheron may
threaten the user’s sanity.

System: To gain sustenance from the Tempest, the character rolls his Willpower, difficulty 8. Each success
counts as one "Tempest Point" gained. These points can only be used to rise from sleep each night and for
no other purpose.
While any Tempest Points remain in a vampire’s body, all his Virtue rolls are at +1 difficulty from the roiling
emotional energies inside him. Additionally, each night that the vampire has Tempest Points he must roll
Willpower (difficulty 7) to avoid a temporary Derangement that lasts until the Tempest energy is purged
from his body. Botches on the Willpower roll may cause the Derangement to become permanent.

••••• Death’s Doorways

Only the most experienced necromancers travel deep enough into the Underworld to learn that there are
layers beyond the Shadowlands. These other layers are hidden beneath the Shadowlands and to travel
them, a portal must be opened to allow entrance. Wraiths refer to these portals as Nihils and to the deeper
layers of their realm as the Tempest. Certain ghosts have learned to use the Tempest as a shortcut to long
distance travel, though one fraught with risks. Through this ability, a master necromancer can do the same.
Once they locate a Nihil in the Shadowlands, they can use this ability to travel through it and, after a short
time in the Tempest, emerge through another Nihil far across the Shadowlands. This power should be
used sparingly; almost as many necromancers vanish forever as emerge from the Tempest after stepping
in.

System: This power must be activated while in the Shadowlands and standing near a Nihil. Just before
stepping into the Nihil itself, the necromancer spends 1 Willpower and 3 blood points. He is then plunged
into the Tempest and must begin the process of navigating to his destination. The navigation process is a
series of Perception + Occult rolls (difficulty 8). The Storyteller determines how many total successes are
required to reach the chosen destination. Somewhere only a few dozen miles away may just require 5
successes, but a few hundred miles may require 20 successes. To use the Tempest to cross oceans could
require 100 or more successes. Each navigation roll represents one hour of effort. If a roll botches, it
indicates that the necromancer has attracted the attention of specters or other unpleasant denizens of the
Tempest. At any time, the necromancer can opt to stop his travel and try to escape the Tempest on his
own, but doing so has its own risks. If all goes as planned and the necromancer gains the successes
required, he finds another Nihil waiting for him, one that will return him to the Shadowlands reflection of his
intended destination.

The Requiem[i] Path (Memento Mori)

Memories are the lifeblood of the dead; the psychic remnants of their breathing days leave an indelible
legacy upon their afterlives that flows through their plasmic veins. Ghosts draw strength from the memories
of people and places significant to them in life, and those who remember the departed continue to feed the
spirits in the hereafter. A necromancer with the Requiem Path may delve into these fading threads of
memory and manipulate them in order to force spirits to act at his behest.

• Memoriam
Spirits are fueled by emotion, and the primary source of their strength are the memories that bind them to
the world of the living. Knowing the Passions that a spirit clings to can give the necromancer a great deal
of sway over the ghost. This power allows a necromancer to divine the Passions of a wraith by gazing
intently into its spectral eyes.
System: To use this power, the character must be able to see the ghost in question. The player rolls
Perception
New + Empathy, difficulty equal to the spirit’s Wits + Subterfuge. Each success allows the
Necromancy
necromancer to learn one emotional tie that the wraith has to the living world. The information is general by
default (“love for my son”), but extra successes can be used to gain more detail if desired.

•• Eulogy
By speaking to a ghost and reminding her of her past deeds and memorable events in her life, the
necromancer may either bolster or weaken the spirit. Reminding the ghost of her finer qualities and
exploits will grant the spirit sustenance, while expounding upon the ghost’s vices or mistakes can fuel the
dark side that all wraiths have: the Shadow.

System: The Necromancer must know the spirit’s name, and at least one event in the ghost’s life that he
can base his speech upon (such memories may be gained through the Memoriam power). It requires only
a single turn of speaking to invoke this power, after which the player rolls Manipulation + Empathy
(difficulty 7). Each success allows the necromancer to infuse the wriath with positive or negative emotional
energy, harvested from the power of his own vitae.
Eulogy may only be attempted on a given spirit once per scene, regardless of the success of the attempt.
A botch means that the necromancer cannot use this power on that particular spirit for the remainder of the
story.

••• Death’s Slumber

Ghosts no longer possess bodies, but their spiritual forms still require rest to replenish. When a wraith’s
corpus is disrupted it is sometimes necessary to reconstitute his ectoplasmic form, and to do so he enters
into a Torpor-like state called Slumber. A necromancer who has progressed this far along the Requiem
Path learns to lull a spirit into this healing sleep. This can be used to heal a wounded wraith, or to
incapacitate one that is not acting as the necromancer wishes.

System: This power can only be used on wraiths that the character can see. Once he has chosen his
target, the player spends 1 point of Willpower and rolls Manipulation + Subterfuge with a difficulty equal to
the wraith’s (Stamina + Empathy). This roll is only required if the wraith is unwilling to enter Slumber. As
long as the necromancer succeeds, his target falls into a deep sleep that lasts 1 hour per success. During
the sleep, the wraith rolls its own Willpower and regains as many health levels as it gained successes.

•••• Lamentation
Passions form the basis of a wraith’s existence, defining their reasons for clinging to existence in the face
of their own death. They are the most ‘alive’ part of a wraith and, therefore, change over time as the wraith
evolves and death moves on. A necromancer who has reached this degree of mastery may reshape the
emotions and obsessions of a wraith, manipulating its Passions for his own ends. He cannot destroy or
create new Passions, but he can twist the wraith’s existing Passions that his has learned through the
earlier powers of this Path.

System: Once a Passion has been identified, the necromancer must spend at least three turns speaking
with the wraith, manipulating it into seeing the Passion in a different light or understanding why that
Passion leads to the new one. After the vampire finishes speaking, his player rolls Manipulation + Empathy
with a difficulty equal to the wraith’s Willpower. Slight modifications of Passions may only require 2 or 3
successes, but completely re-writing a Passion would require at least 5. These changes in Passions wear
off after a number of days equal to the necromancer’s Manipulation. Botches on this power make the
wraith immune to all future uses of compulsion or manipulation effects from the necromancer for the rest of
the story.

••••• Last Rites

Some wraiths believe that there lies a state beyond their restless existence, something they refer to as
‘Transcendence.’ They also believe that in order to reach this hallowed state, they must shed their
connections to the mortal world, their Passions and Fetters. Some necromancers take advantage of this
belief by using this power. In truth, they are lying to their ghostly supplicants. Last Rites does not
peacefully resolve the Passions of a ghost, it destroys them. The very power of Oblivion is used to eat
away at the emotional connections holding the spirit to the living, rendering them forever lost. If used with
sufficient frequency and power, this ability may eventually lead to a wraith’s utter destruction.

System: Activating this power requires the expenditure of 1 blood point and 2 Willpower, and for the
necromancer to lay hands on his target. If by some means the necromancer convinces a wraith to willingly
be the subject of this ability, there is no roll required. The player simply selects one of the wraith’s Passions
and that Passion is destroyed, forever. Should the wraith resist, however, it engages the necromancer in a
contested Willpower roll, difficulty 6. If the wraith wins, it retains its passion. If the necromancer wins, the
Passion is destroyed. Further, a wraith that unwillingly loses one of its Passions also loses all of its
temporary
New Willpower.
Necromancy
The Pyre[j] Path (Way of the Goblin Flame)
The Pyre Path allows the necromancer to call forth the soulfire of the underworld, burning his foes, be they
physical or spectral in form. There have been reports that the Asian vampires possess blood magic similar
to this path, allowing them to summon forth strange, blue fire. The efforts of the della Passaglia Giovani
culminated in distilling this Path from scraps of knowledge and rumors, after studying the Cathayan arts
and observing the constantly-active soulforges of the Dark Kingdom of Jade for decades.

• Corpse Candle
The necromancer infuses entropic energy into an object in the Underworld, causing it to catch flame. The
ghostly flames burn in both worlds, providing a brief source of illumination. The fire burns normally,
centered on whatever object was set alight by the power.

System: Spend a blood point. If the necromancer already has some means of seeing objects in the
Shadowlands, then no roll is necessary. Otherwise, activating this power requires 3 successes on a
Perception + Alertness roll, difficulty 6. For one minute per point of Perception the vampire possesses, the
targeted objects burns with ghost-fire. It illuminates an area equivalent to a small room on both sides of the
Shroud.
The torch-fire is very real to ghosts and other beings in the Underworld. Such creatures suffer 1 health
level of aggravated damage each time they pass through the ghostly fire. The flames do not burn
individuals in the living world.

•• Nether Light
This spell allows the necromancer to view nearby ectoplasm by faintly kindling a small bit of emotional
energy into a soft radiance from beyond the shroud of death. The light appears as a small ball of blue-
white flame that hovers near its master. When the necromancer evokes the Nether Light, any entity in the
underworld that is composed of plasm will begin to glow visibly, even across the Shroud in the living world.

System: To invoke Nether Light, the vampire must expend a blood point and roll Perception + Occult
(difficulty 7). All ectoplasm becomes visible within a radius of 3 yards for one turn per success. Ghosts with
stealth-related powers may confound the Nether Light. The wraith receives a Wits + Stealth roll, opposed
by the Necromancer’s Perception + Occult roll. If the ghost succeeds, it remains invisible.

••• Spirit Burn

Spirit Burn allows the necromancer to invoke the bluish white flames of the underworld. Using the
emotional charge of his vitae, he focuses that power into the plasm of a nearby creature in the
Shadowlands and sets them on fire. Wraiths, specters and even travelers using magic to visit the
Underworld without a corporeal body are vulnerable to the attack.

System: Spend a blood point and roll Wits + Occult, difficulty 7. Every two successes on the roll inflicts
one level of Aggravated damage to any spirit in the necromancer’s sight. To properly aim the Spirit Burn
attack, the necromancer must be able to see the target either using a power to see across the Shroud, or
by existing in the Shadowlands himself.

•••• Soulfire
Through this power, fires of the Underworld can be called into the living world. This attack can be directed
against wraiths, but most sorcerers find it far more effective against the living as the ghost fire is invisible in
the living world. The victims of such fires suffer agonizing, but mysterious attacks. Their blood boils and
internal organs crisp, but no flames are seen and no smoke emerges from their bodies. Only those able to
see into the Shadowlands, or possibly those very skilled in sensory talents like Auspex, can perceive the
ghostly fire surrounding a screaming mortal victim.

System: Summoning these flames costs a blood point, and requires a roll of Wits + Occult (difficulty of the
local Shroud). The fires appear anywhere in the necromancer’s line of sight. On the first turn, the target
takes one dice of aggravated damage per turn. On subsequent turns, the target suffers half of the damage
that he suffered the previous turn (round down). The victim does have a chance to save themselves: a
successful Willpower roll (difficulty 8) can reduce the post-soak damage of the fires by 1. The victim can
make a Willpower roll for each turn that the fires burn him.

••••• Forge the Soul

Based on the horrific practice of ‘Soulforging’ that wraiths whisper of in fear, this power allows a
necromancer to melt a wraith’s corpus into raw material. The horrible blue-white fire of the Underworld
blazes so hot that it dissolves the bonds holding a wraith together and reduces them to nothing but raw
plasm. The resulting mass can then be shaped either by other wraiths or by the necromancer himself,
transformed
NewintoNecromancy
‘soulsteel’. From soulsteel, any hard object the necromancer desires can be
manufactured. No apparent trace of the wraith’s personality remains, but objects made of soulsteel are
constantly moaning and sobbing.
Without other powers soulsteel may not be removed from the Underworld meaning this power is only
useful if used through the Shroud or from inside the Underworld.

System: To forge a wraith, the necromancer must grasp its corpus in his hands, which burst into flame.
However the contact is achieved, the player then spends 2 points of Willpower and one blood point. The
wraith and the necromancer engage in a struggle: the wraith’s Stamina + Brawl against the necromancer’s
Strength + Occult, both at difficulty 6. If at any point the wraith has more total successes than the
necromancer, it breaks free. If the wraith fails to free itself, it starts to melt. Each net success gained by the
necromancer is one permanent Willpower point that the wraith loses. When the wraith loses all its
permanent Willpower, it is reduced to nothing but raw plasm. The resulting mass is roughly one cubic foot
per point of Willpower the wraith originally possessed. The remains can then be shaped normally with a
Dexterity + Craft roll, difficulty determined by the availability of proper tools and the complexity of the object
desired.

Rejected Paths (8 Paths)

The Withering[k] Path (The Ravages of Time)
● - Appraisal - Ascertain the true age of an item or person.
●● - Ancient Visage - Cosmetically age your victim, making them appear old.
●●● - Decrepitude - Reduces the target’s Physical Attributes.
●●●● - Dementia - Reduces the target’s Mental Attributes, Charisma and Manipulation.
●●●●● - Eternal Burden - Increase the duration of ranks 2-4.

The Brain[l] Path (Ascendancy of the Psyche)

● - Discern the Anima - Gauge the willpower of targets and possibly spiritual anomalies.
●● - Erode the Will - Strip willpower points from a target.
●●● - Bolster the Ego - Increases capacity of willpower pool or donate willpower to your target.
●●●● - Conflagration of Quintessence - Burn the target’s mind from the inside.
●●●●● - Rapacity of Vitality - Steal Willpower from a target and add it to your own.

The Fate[m] Path (Tools of the Parcae)

● Rod of Decima - Learn how long a target has to live
●● Shears of Morta - End the life of a target already close to death, peacefully and without pain
●●● Morta's Choice - Learn the method of the target's death and possibly change it
●●●● Nona's Spindle - Alter the time when the target's fate will come to pass
●●●●● Nona's Distaff - Temporarily revive the recently deceased or awaken a Torpid vampire.

The Funeral[n] Path (Silence of the Grave)

● - Silent Witness - Listen to past conversations that have occurred in your vicinity.
●● - Back to Whispers - Communicate with a target via untraceable mental whispers.
●●● - Funereal Silence - Steal the breath of your target, suffocating and silencing them.
●●●● - Malicious Roads - Stuff
●●●●● - Funerary Dream - Enter a state of Torpor where your mind and powers remain active.

The Plague[o] Path (Yetzer Machaleh)

● - Discerning the Path - Determine if a target is infected with disease, and if they are terminal.
●● - Path’s End - Peacefully end the life of someone who will die from disease within 24 hours.
●●● - Guiding the Path - Aggravate a disease or force it into remission.
●●●● - Walking the Path - Cure a target of a disease by taking it into yourself, or infect a target with a
disease you carry.
●●●●● - Path’s Exposure - Purge yourself of all disease, creating a toxic slime that infects anyone who
gets too close.

The Midnight[p] Path (Shards of the Soul)

● - Myopia - Temporarily blind your target.
●● - Sap - Reduce the target’s strength, lowering their Physical Attributes.
●●● - Frighten - Summon horrific visions that terrify the victim.
●●●● - Instigate - Fan the flames of the Beast, provoking Frenzy.
●●●●● -New
Reciprocate - Cause the victim to harm themselves whenever they hurt another.
Necromancy
The Crumbled[q] Path (The Crumbling Avatar)
● - Survey - Learn about the circumstances of a body’s death.
●● - Taint - Cause a decaying body to generate a toxic miasma.
●●● - Stop Decay - Prevent a corpse from rotting any further.
●●●● - Corpse Eruption - Turn a body into a bomb, causing a massive explosion.
●●●●● - Resurrection - Bring back to life someone that has died in the last week.

The A’aru[r] Path (Steps of Anubis)

● - Sense Death - Gain the ability to tell when people near you die.
●● - Soul’s Passing - Sense if anyone has died in your location recently.
●●● - Locate Fetter - Track down a wraith’s Fetters.
●●●● - Banish Soul Servant - Shatter the bindings that hold ghosts.
●●●●● - Form of Anubis - Transform yourself into a lesser image of the god Anubis

Old Paths (canon)

The Sepulcher Path (Nigrimancy)
● - Witness of Death - See ghosts
●● - Summon - Summon ghosts
●●● - Compel Soul - Command ghosts
●●●● - Haunting - Bind ghosts to objects or places
●●●●● - Torment - Attack ghosts from across the Shroud

The Ash Path (Crossing the Shroud)

● - Shroudsight - View the Shadowlands
●● - Lifeless Tongues - Speak the language of the dead
●●● - Dead Hand - Affect the Shadowlands physically without going there
●●●● - Ex Nihilo - Step into the Shadowlands
●●●●● - Shroud Mastery - Weaken or strengthen the Shroud

The Bone Path (Binding of Bones)

● - Mindless Repetition - Bind a drone into a corpse, causing it to repeat a single action forever
●● - Apprentice’s Brooms - Bind drones into bodies to perform labor
●●● - Shambling Hordes - Bind drones into bodies that can fight
●●●● - Soul Stealing - Remove a soul from its body
●●●●● - Daemonic Possession - Put a soul in an empty body

The Vitreous Path (The Hand of Kali)

● - Eyes of the Dead - Gain the power of Deathsight
●● - Aura of Decay - Cause objects to decay
●●● - Soul Feast - Feed on Oblivion energy from locations or wraiths directly
●●●● - Breath of Thanatos - Exhale a cloud of pure Oblivion
●●●●● - Night Cry - Let out a scream tainted with Oblivion to help or harm

The Cenotaph Path (The Path of Abombo)

● - A Touch of Death - Sense the presence of wraiths
●● - Reveal the Catene - Identify if an object is a Fetter
●●● - Tread Upon the Grave - Determine the strength of the Shroud
●●●● - Death Knell - Sense when wraiths come into being
●●●●● - Ephemeral Binding - Create an artificial Fetter

The Grave Path (The Grave’s Decay)

● - Destroy the Husk - Turn an ordinary corpse into dust
●● - Rigor Mortis - Cause muscles to lock up
●●● - Wither - Shrivel an opponent’s limb
●●●● - Corrupt the Undead Flesh - Inflict a horrible plague on a vampire
●●●●● - Dissolve Flesh - Turn a body, living or undead, into dust
The Cerement Path (Corpse in the Monster)
● - MaskNew Necromancy
of Death - Appear cosmetically as if dead
●● - Cold of the Grave - Ignore physical and emotional pain
●●● - Curse of Life - Inflict the downsides of life on a vampire
●●●● - Gift of the Corpse - Become a true-dead corpse
●●●●● - Gift of Life - Shed many of the downsides of vampirism temporarily

The Cadaver Path (Cadaverous Animation)

● - Lifesigns - Cause a corpse to move or twitch
●● - Call Homunculus - Animate a small, mobile piece of corpse
●●● - Corpse Servant - Create menial laborers from bodies
●●●● - Deathless Knight - Create a zombie warrior
●●●●● - Corpse Army - Create a horde of zombie warriors

The Bile Path (The Path of Four Humors)

● - Black Breath - Exhale a poison that creates nightmares or hallucinations
●● - Lilith’s Kiss - Turn your saliva into a potent venom
●●● - Dark Humors - Transform your blood into one of four useful substances
●●●● - Phlegmatic Trance - Turn your blood into a fluid that saps emotion and willpower
●●●●● - Melancholy Miasma - Exhale a gas that causes suicidal depression

The Haunting Path (The Path of Haunting)

● - Morbid Fascination - Hypnotise a listener, causing obsession with death
●● - Summon Wisp - Calls up a minor spirit with hypnotic abilities
●●● - Harrowing - Create horrific nightmares
●●●● - Phantasms - Create ghostly illusions to terrify
●●●●● - Dire Haunting - Specters haunt and torment the target

Old Paths (fanon)

The Blight Path (Gift of Thanatos)
● - Reaper’s Purse - Store a small object inside your body
●● - March of Ages - Control your own physical age
●●● - Awaken - Raise yourself or another from Torpor
●●●● - Ashes to Ashes - Turn into a pile of ashes
●●●●● - Touch of Death - Kill with a touch

The Harrowing Path (Torment of Duat)

● - Grave Paranoia - Your target becomes convinced they will soon die
●● - Darkness - Strike your target blind
●●● - Suffocation - Render your target unable to breathe
●●●● - Entombment - Create a phantom coffin around your victim, trapping them
●●●●● - Banishment - Send your victim’s soul to the Underworld

The Iron Path (Binding the Hungry Ghost)

● - Soul Judgement - Determine if a wraith’s Shadow or Psyche is in control
●● - Dark Whispers - Talk with a wraith’s Shadow to learn secrets
●●● - Provocation - Cause a wraith’s Shadow to take control
●●●● - Severing - Split a wraith into two entities: Shadow and Psyche
●●●●● - Shadow Taming - Silence the Shadow for a short time

The Ebony Path (Ebon Mantle of Authority)

● - Soulgaze - Read a wraith’s mind
●● - Mind to Mind - Create a telepathic bond with a wraith
●●● - Authority - Overawe ghosts with your presence
●●●● - Oblivion’s Eye - Drive wraiths to madness with a glare
●●●●● - Soul Shackles - Impose an emotional binding on a wraith, similar to a blood bond

The Shadow Path (Walking the Shadow World)

● - See the Dead - Perceive nearby ghosts
●● - Banish the Dead - Ward locations against ghosts
●●● - Command the Dead - Issue commands to wraiths
●●●● - Dead Horde - Summon mindless Drones to serve you
●●●●● -New
Shadow Walk - Step into the Shadowlands and take others with you
Necromancy
The Mourning Path (Echoes of Passing)
● - Death Bell - Sense nearby deaths
●● - Grave Sense - Determine if anything has died nearby
●●● - Mortal Echo - Learn about past deaths nearby
●●●● - Ashen Feast - Draw power from sites of death
●●●●● - Future Passing - Divine if death will visit a location in the future

Schools of Necromancy
Major Schools
These four schools are thriving practices in the Modern Nights

Western (Giovani)
The most common and expansive school in the Modern Nights, Western Necromancy focuses on the
spiritual and draws heavily from Roman traditions. Despite many of its trappings, the practitioners are
primarily secular, using religious traditions in a pragmatic manner. Authority is the keystone of the
paradigm: Wraiths are considered tools and manipulated ruthlessly. Intimidation, force and punishment are
used to keep souls in line with the necromancer's demands. Some of the more exotic Paths studied by
Giovani branch families such as the Ghiberti and the della Passaglia have been modified by the Venetians
in order to comply with the Western paradigm.
Knowledge of the Classical school of Necromancy formed the foundation of the Giovani practices, but
much of that lore has been discarded since the destruction of the Cappadocians. It was considered unwise
to wield too openly the powers and abilities of their expunged forebears during the early nights of the Clan.
Such practices were put on hold to avoid drawing the ire of the former allies of the Cappadocians, many
were simply never picked up again. Some of the elders of the Giovani still remember these older Paths,
but tradition has set in and they are rarely taught to neonates.

Unique Paths
● The Usury Path
● The Smoke Path
● The Requiem Path
Shared Paths
● Western Necromancy has access to all non-unique Paths

Voudoun (Samedi, Serpents of the Light, Lasombra)

The youngest school of Necromancy was originally an outgrowth of the African school. For four centuries,
the followers of Voudoun have flourished in the New World and established themselves as an independent
tradition. The practices of Voudoun Necromancy often overlap with Wanga blood-sorcery, both practiced
by religious leaders of the various Afro-Caribbean faiths among the undead. There are rumors that true
masters of either art can cross the borders between blood sorcery and necromancy. In terms of focus,
Voudoun crosses the borders of spiritual and physical. Wraiths are treated as allies and often appeased or
negotiated with in order to achieve a result satisfactory to both parties. The influence of the Samedi means
that many powers related to rot, decay and putrescence are available to Voudoun necromancers, but the
Lasombra and Serpents of the Light who practice the Discipline tend to stick more strongly to the spiritual
side of the art.

Unique Paths
● The Cheval Path (Abambo Dance)
Shared Paths
● The Sepulcher Path
● The Ash Path
● The Bone Path
● The Grave Path
● The Blight Path
● The Salt Path
● The Gaunt Path
● The Wasting path

African (Mla Watu, Ghiberti)

While the people of Africa may have respect for the spirits of the dead, the same cannot be said for the
necromancers
New of the Ebony Kingdoms. The most powerful and ancient are the Ghost Eaters, the Mla
Necromancy
Watu, and they care nothing for the feelings of the dead. The Mla Watu enslave the dead and use them
ruthlessly to terrify and attack the living. Their power over the dead is simply another tool in the arsenal
that the Ghost Eaters wield in order to secure their own comfort and power. A family of slave-traders, the
Ghiberti Giovani are hardly any more friendly. Because of the distrust the Laibon have for all
Necromancers and especially for intruding Cainites like the Ghiberti, African Necromancy tends to be
practiced carefully and subtly, but the poor souls trapped by a Ghost Eater or a Slaver are not comforted
that their suffering goes unnoticed by bloodsuckers other than their tormentor.
In general, the practices of the Mla Watu and the Ghiberti are strongly focused on the spiritual side of
Necromancy, with only the rudiments of physical Paths available to them. The Ghiberti, of course, benefit
from their ties with Venice, able to trade their knowledge of African Necromancy to the main Clan for
instruction in other Paths if they so desire.

Unique Paths
● The Shadow Path (Walking the Shadow World)
● The Scourge Path (Shopona’s Touch)
Shared Paths
● The Ash Path
● The Bone Path
● The Cenotaph Path (Path of Abombo)
● The Haunting Path
● The Salt Path
● The Corpse Path
● The Gaunt Path
● The Wasting Path

Indian (Nagaraja)
Based on the practices of an ancient sect of Mages called the Chakravanti, this school of Necromancy is
practiced exclusively by the flesh-eating vampires of the Nagaraja bloodline. As mortal mages they
experimented with a type of magic known as necrosynthesis, oriented towards blurring the lines between
the living and dead. When their research ended in the entire group transformed into aberrant vampires, the
Nagaraja were not deterred at all. The Indian school of Necromancy continues to focus on the Shroud and
how to manipulate the Shadowlands. The arts concerned with the physical body are neglected, aside from
a few rare examples of power based on manipulating the balance of life and death within the vampiric body
itself. Hindu practices still have a significant influence on the trappings and rituals of the Nagaraja, but they
have left behind almost all traces of religion. Their thousands of years of undeath and their insatiable
hunger for human meat have left the Nagaraja with a vicious attitude towards both the living and dead.

Unique Paths
● The Iron Path (Binding the Hungry Ghost)
● The Ebony Path (Ebon Mantle of Authority)
● The Vitreous Path (The Hand of Kali)
Shared Paths
● The Ash Path
● The Cerement Path
● The Salt Path
● The Ghost Path
● The Gaunt Path
● The Murk Path
● The Corpus Path
● The Chthonic Path

Minor Schools
Time has not been kind to these schools of Necromancy. Their practitioners have either been driven extinct
or their numbers are so few that they teeter on the edge. The Chinese and Aztec schools have a decent
population of existing practitioners, but they are so closely intertwined with the Giovani that the Western
Paradigm of the main Clan threatens to overwhelm the native traditions of the smaller families.

Classical (Cappadocian, Lamia)
The progenitor of the Western School, but entirely focused on the physical aspects of death instead of the
spiritual. The school draws heavily from Greco-Roman philosophy, medieval medicine and the Abrahamic
religions. It displays a slightly more religious bent than Western Necromancy, but only slightly. It is still at its
core a pragmatic study of forces instead of a religious experience.
New Necromancy
Unique Paths
● The Bile Path (Path of the Four Humors)
● The Cadaver Path (Cadaverous Animation)
Shared Paths
● The Grave Path
● The Cerement Path
● The Blight Path
● The Mourning Path
● The Salt Path
● The Corpse Path
● The Vigil Path
● The Clay Path
● The Withering Path
● The Rust Path

Egyptian (Lazarene Cappadocians, Setites)

Distinct from African Necromancy, the Egyptian tradition was pioneered by the Shezmu. It embraces the
religion of ancient Egypt and has close ties with Akhu, though it does not venerate Set in particular and
was originally intended to operate as an extension of the Egyptian religion, instead of operating on the
principles of corruption and blasphemy. After the destruction of most of the Shezmu, the Setite lector-
priests absorbed much of its knowledge and have twisted it into accordance with their own paradigm. It is
primarily concerned with the welfare of the spirits of the dead in the Afterlife. The heavily ritualized culture
of Egypt lends itself far more strongly to Rituals than Paths.

Unique Paths
● The Harrowing Path (Torment of Duat)
● The Reliquary Path (Treasures of the Tomb)
Shared Paths
● The Ash Path
● The Cenotaph Path
● The Salt Path
● The Bone Path
● The Chthonic Path

Aztec (Pisanob, Tlacique)
The death magic of the Aztecs was robust and powerful, practiced under the auspices of the skeletal God
Mictlantecutli by his dedicated priests. The vampires of Central America enjoyed vast power, fueled by the
blood sacrifices of the mortal herds, and their magicians held places of great honor and power. When the
Spanish came, their vampiric instigators overwhelmed the natives just as happened among the living. The
last scraps of Aztec Necromancy belong to the Pisanob Giovani, but their ties to the Venetians have
eroded away most of the uniqueness and flavor of the ancient traditions. Only a handful of Rituals survive,
but there are rumors of a single Path known only to the very oldest and most reclusive of the Pisanob
elders. Even softer rumors suggest that the Pisanob have allies from their ancient culture, the last
surviving Tlacique. These few dozen blood mages, once the leaders among the vampires of the Flayed
Lands, may also remember some of the Necromancy of the Obsidian Kingdom.
Aztec Necromancy focuses on journeys to the Underworld and ensuring that the dead are keep satisfied
and placated so they will not visit harm upon the living. Very few of the powers of Aztec Necromancy
concern the flesh of the dead, and those that do are often meant to give temporary homes to restless
souls. Generally, Aztec Necromancy focuses far more on Rituals than Paths, but many of those Rituals
were lost forever with the Spanish conquest.

Unique Paths
● The Obsidian Path (The Way of the Nahualli)
Shared Paths
● The Sepulcher Path
● The Ash Path
● The Bone Path
● The Salt Path
Chinese (Della
New Passaliga)
Necromancy
The youngest and least developed of all the Schools of Necromancy, Chinese Necromancy is known only
to a handful of the della Passaglia Giovani. Though the Portugese trader family has been in Beijing for
many decades, the intransience of the native undead and the xenophobic hostility of the ghosts that inhabit
Yellow Springs have limited the development of new Paths and Rituals. The practices and techniques of
the Kuei-Jin and other East Asian supernaturals remain largely unknown to the Giovani.
Clan Giovani itself is another barrier to the development of a true school of Chinese Necromancy, since the
Italians demand that the young family of traders and scholars must send all their knowledge back to
Venice. At the same time, the della Passaliga are pressured to learn the Western techniques and powers,
leaving very little in the way of a culturally distinct tradition among the Cainite necromancers of China. Only
one Path has been developed by studying Yellow Springs and its inhabitants: the Pyre Path. Even this
unique development was immediately reported to Venice and quickly converted to the more standardized
format of Western Necromancy.

Unique Paths
● There are no Unique Paths known to Chinese Necromancers
Shared Paths
● The Pyre Path

[a]Reclaiming the Beast Soul (level 3 Ritual)

Unique to practitioners of Aztec Necromancy, this Ritual is a twisted version of the art of the living
nahualli. These Aztec sorcerers are spiritually linked to totem beasts; a portion of their soul manifests
itself as a member of the totem species. A vampire's soul cannot support a true nagual, so undead
necromancers have other ways to mimic the power of the living. The Ritual begins by trapping an
unblemished specimen of the desired totem beast on the night of the new moon. Common nagual beasts
include turkeys, dogs, jaguars, bats and owls. The beast must be kept for a full lunar month, maintained
only on a diet of vitae and flesh killed by the necromancer's own hands. At the next new moon, the
necromancer restrains the animal and cuts open its chest, removing the heart and draining the blood
from the still-beating vessel. As the creature dies, the necromancer binds its spirit to his own tainted soul.
System: After the steps described above, the necromancer rolls his Charisma + Occult, difficulty 10. Only
a single success is required to complete the Ritual and bind the nagual to the caster. The result is a
ghostly spirit in the form of the sacrificed animal that is completely in thrall to the necromancer. It acts as
if under a Blood Bond towards the caster, performing any action demanded of it within its capabilities.
The nagual has all the normal traits of a ghost, though it more closely resembles the phantasmic
creatures known as 'plasmics' to wraiths. It is no more intelligent than an ordinary animal, though it can
understand its masters commands and make itself understood to him in turn. Unless given specific
orders otherwise, a nagual will accompany its master closely, dogging his footsteps from the
Shadowlands.
[b]Original ideas or versions by other authors. These are my takes on their outlines, or my revisions of
their finished products.
[c]Idea by IHAL
[d]Idea by Kale
[e]Idea by Kale
[f]Idea by IHAL
[g]Idea by Kale
[h]Idea by Mike Vides
[i]Idea by Mike Vides
[j]Idea by Mike Vides
[k]By ctuncks
I'm not sure if I want to keep this Path or not. It's an interesting idea, but the basic theme of "age people"
is pretty narrow and seems to be fairly well covered in a bunch of other Paths. Still, narrow themes
haven't stopped me before. Maybe if I can come up with a really awesome level 5? I don't really dig this
one.
[l]by ctuncks
I'm not a fan of this idea. It's quite admittedly just a copy-n-paste of the Path of Blood, except it targets
Willpower instead of Blood. I don't agree with ctuncks that Willpower represents your "soul", and I don't
think that Willpower manipulation is should exactly reflect Blood manipulation either. Some of these
powers might make decent Rituals or part of a debuffing Path based on Void energy, but overall I'm not
onboard.
[m]by Fili Noctis
This is a really, really cool idea. I will almost certainly not make my own version, because messing with
New
the future is a Necromancy
horrible idea in RPGs. Players change the future all the time, but how does that work when
the future is pre-determined by a power? I like the idea, but it works better in a solo-written narrative than
in a collaborative environment.
[n]by MarioJPC
The original Path is in Spanish, but Mario posted an outline and I used Google to translate more of the
original text. It's actually a signature Discipline for a bloodline devoted to Silence. I can see that, but I
don't know that Necromancy is really the place for it. Heh. This is the REAL "Quietus". If Quietus meant
"being quiet".
[o]by Theodrim
I don't really see this as an improvement over Covenant of Nergal or Shopona's Touch. The original Path
also mandates that just for learning it, you become a permanent Disease Carrier, which seems harsh.
Level 2 is either terribly useless, or horrifically overpowered depending on the circumstances.
The Path also requires a very great deal of Storyteller arbitration, since there isn't much of a system for
how diseases work in the World of Darkness.
[p]by Reno Camilani
The Midnight Path's fluff is based around summoning "ghostlings" which don't exist in the standard
cosmology and I don't see how there can be tiny little ghosts. Are they animal ghosts? Naw.
Many of the powers, however, were incorporated into my Wasting Path.
[q]by Reno Camilani
Wow, the level 5 is just crazy. The first level is just Insight over again, basically. Stop Decay is another
ritual. In fact, all of the powers seem very Ritualistic. Just, overall, I wasn't a huge fan.
[r]by Calabim
There isn't much to recommend this Path over Cenotaph or Echoes of Passing. I'm also not a big fan of
the random power at the end where you turn into a giant jackal-monster. It fits Egypt... but nothing else in
the Path is Egyptian or related to Anubis.