Because Death is not the End
In my last article, I did a deep dive on Thaumaturgy from a Storytellers perspective. As I tried to detail the depth of content and possibilities contained in that Discipline and all of its myriad variations, I am going to try to do again in this article.
But this time we’re exploring the Discipline of Necromancy, its practitioners, and the wealth of game play possibilities that it contains.
Necromancy: The Practitioners
Moreso than with Thaumaturgy, a number of different Clans and Bloodlines utilize the Discipline of Necromancy.
First, foremost, and most obviously, the Kindred of Clan Giovanni are the most well known practitioners of Necromancy. While they did not create and codify the Discipline as a form of static blood sorcery, they have arguably been the most prominent force driving its development and expansion, as well as boasting the largest number of Cainites practicing it in the modern nights.
But they were not the first Necromancers among the damned. That ignoble title belongs to the vampires of the Nagaraja Bloodline.
The Samedi, the remnants of the Cappadocians (which many of the necromantic Bloodlines descend from), and the Harbingers of Skulls also make use of Nocromancy as their most notable Clan discipline.
In many ways, while Thaumaturgy is the most well known of the blood sorcery Disciplines, Necromancy is far more widespread among the denizens of the Eternal Night.
So, with that claim made, let’s dig into Necromancy, and look at creative and narrative ways to look at Necromancy from a Storytelling perspective, and maybe find some uses for the various Paths and Rituals that Players and ST’s might not have considered!
Systems and Rules
While Necromancy and Thaumaturgy are very similar in aesthetic with their Path and Ritual format, they vary quite a bit in the mechanics and rules.
In Thaumaturgy, one Blood Point must be spent along with an associated roll in order to activate a Path power. The only time this changes is if a specific Path power requires different or additional rolls or expenditures
With Necromancy there is no such standardization of mechanics. Each Path and each individual power requires their own definitive expenditures and rolls, and they can vary widely from Path to Path, and even among the differing powers in each Path.
However; the two Disciplines are very similar with how their Rituals are run, if not in the effects that they produce. Both Disciplines’ Rituals have activation costs and die rolls that are specific to each individual Ritual.
All of that said, due to the wildly fluctuations costs and activations of Necromancy Path powers, the argument can be made that Necromancy requires its practitioners to be far more well-rounded in their Knowledges, Skills, and Talents than a practitioner of Thaumaturgy since there’s far more variation to take into account, and far more Abilities to advance in order to be able to practice a wider array of Necromantic abilities.
So with that out of the way, let’s start digging into the Paths themselves, their most common practitioners, and some creative ways to utilize Necromancy into your Chronicles, and for Players to utilize in your games.
The Sepulcher Path
The Sepulcher Path is the most practiced Path in Necromancy, and is the Path that nearly all practitioners are taught as their first Path.
Even the more rare Bloodlines like the Samedi and the Harbingers of Skulls teach this Path to their childer first. And if not first, then as a second Path once they advance far enough in their primary Path.
While no more potent on its own than any other Path, the importance of this Path is highlighted by the fact that other Paths refer back to uses of this Path’s powers in order to either; 1) make uses of their own powers easier, or 2) as a prerequisite for using a power in another Path.
Very simply, the Sepulcher Path deals with Wraiths. Everything from sensing them, to seeing them, conversing with them, to finding out their real names and compelling Wraiths into performing actions falls within the purvue of this Path.
While its a pretty straightforward and basic Path, it does indeed lay the groundwork for using other Paths and Rituals on an unsuspecting (or collaborative?) Wraith. Detection of, and communication with, Wraiths is the core of all of Necromancy, so its no wonder that this Path is near-exclusively taught as a necromancer’s first Path.
Keep in mind though, the Restless Dead do not usually enjoy being spied upon or compelled to action by the Kindred, and unless the Necromancer takes certain precautions, he could find himself plagued by angry Wraiths once his control over them ends.
As far as creative uses of this Path are considered, my experience has taught me that most Players lile the use of force to compel Wraiths into submission. While that is definitely a time-tested, successful strategy, there can be other options. When we get away from this myopic view, what if a Necromancer with elevated Social skills convinces a Wraith that its in their best interest to spy on the Necroma cer’s enemies for him?
While most every other Discipline will not work across the Shroud, higher levels of this Path allow the free interactions between Kindred and Wraith. And Presence is a very potent Discipline when used correctly… as well as Dominate, and thats if the Necromancer isn’t already using other Necromancy Paths to force the particular Wraith into their servitude.
Or, if a Wraith were to be somehow befriended using this Path, imagine the tactical combat uses of an early warning Wraith. A Wraith that the opponent cannot see or stop, giving the Necromancer detailed locations of enemy locations, armaments, and number?
Or, who can give the Necromancer the exact location of, and lay out, of a rival whose position that the Necromancer desires…
As far as “payment” for these services, well… the goals and desires of the Restless Dead are as unique and individual as with any Kindred, so im sure that the creative Leech will figure something out.
The Ash Path
Similar to the Sepulcher Path, the Ash Path allows a Necromancer to not only see into the Shadowlands, but to also affect things that exist there. While extremely useful, this is a dangerous Path to practice, as it often makes the Necromancer vulnerable to the Restless Dead.
Rather than just seeing Wraiths as they move about in our world, the Ash Path (at its lower levels) allows the Necromancer to peer through the Shroud itself, and into the Shadowlands. He can speak with them through the Shroud, reach through the Shroud to manipulate ghostly objects as if they were in the living world, and even fully enter the Shadowlands physically.
The uses for this Path are multitude. The Necromancer can not only affect items in the Shadowlands, but imagine how frightening it would be for an observer to see a Necromancer climbing invisible steps to reach say… the top of a building. While the Necromancer might be ascending a staircase in the Shadowlands, to an observer in the Skinlands, it would appear he was climbing on thin air!
Most other Paths and powers of Necromancy that need or utilize physical contact with Wraiths can be used once an associated power in the Ash Path is used, as the Necrancer is effectively in both worlds at the same time.
Possibly one of the most useful spells/abilities of this Path, is the ability to make oneself incorporeal and pass through solid objects (such as walls or cars), just as a Wraith can do. As with Wraiths in the Skinlands, an incorporeal Necromancer can pass through solid object at the sacrifice of one health level, which can be healed normally via the expenditure if Blood once the Necromancer regains his physical form.
One of the more creative uses for this Path involved a player in one of my Chronicles in years past. The Coterie his Giovanni was a part of was facing down one of the villains of the Chronicle. As the fierce battle raged, the Giovanni was thrown off the top of a 30-story building. Upon success of his Wits + Alertness roll, he used a power in this Path to go incorporeal, and pass through the street into the sewer rather than become a stain on the sidewalk.
He then used an old, derelict elevator in the Shadowlands to quickly scale back up the building, then surprise attacked the villain from below him. It was a beautiful expression of the creativity inherent in this Path, and that sneak attack provided the Coterie with the advantage necessary to win that battle.
But even aside from combat uses, the utility this Path can provide for espionage, travel, a quick escape, etc., are multitudinous. The Ash Path really is one of my favorite Paths in the whole Discipline.
As a side note; while there are no Clans/Bloodlines that specialize in the Ash Path, all of the Clans who utilize Necromancy like to make sure that it is in their repertoire of abilities due to its extreme usefulness.
The Bone Path
The Bone Path is… an interesting Path. Of there is a cliché in Necromancy, it is the Bone Path.
The Bone Path focuses its powers around the reanimation of corpses, and yes, even raising zombies.
The uses and design of this Path are pretty straightforward. At the lowest levels, the control over corpses is so feeble that the Necromancer can only make a corpse “teitch” in some manner. A hand moves, and arm or leg shifts position, etc. While not initially very useful, the lower powers can be used to cause a distraction, or to spook would-be vampire hunters or some other enemy.
The higher levels of this path is where the Path gets its reputation. At the mid-levels, the Necromancer can fully reanimate a corpse as a zombie, which will obey any command given to it, and will carry it out to the best of its limited ability. They could be used as shock troops attacking an enemy, though they’re not particularly capable (or quick) in doing so.
Most Necromancers use this Path to raise multiple zombies, then command them to guard an area against intruders. While they aren’t particularly capable or dangerous guardians on their own, if you pack ten to twenty of them into a room, even with their limited abilities they can give a Coterie a real challenge. Strength in numbers and all that. And with little limit to how long the zombies are animated, they can serve as a good initial defense force for a Haven or Necromantic laboratory. Even use as a delay tactic and/or early warning system that allows the Necromancer to escape while they delay intruders is a valuable use of their abilities.
The highest levels of this Path allow for a very much improved animation of a freshly dead body, and allows a Wraith or Vampire using Auspex to inhabit the body, but with the caveat of a very limited time of animation. The creative uses for this highest level are many fold. If a Necromancer is of a mind to befriend Wraiths, rather than force dominion over them, then this level of the Path could be used to give a Wraith a bit of a respite from the horrors of the Shadowlands, allowing him or her to taste the wonders of the Skinlands again, albeit for a short time.
Or, if a Necromancer were wanting to trap another Kindred into owing them a favor… if a user of Auspex happened to have their silver cord cut, or their body made otherwise inaccessible while Astral traveling, this level of the Path can be used to give them a temporary body to inhabit while they figure out how to rectify the situation.
So, while there are definitely a few creative, “outside the box” uses for this Path, more often than not it is used in a pretty straightforward manner. And indeed, the very design of the Path limits how wild you can get with its powers. But, as in all things, that’s not so bad in itself, and quite a few Necromancers find the Path to be a handy addition to their repertoire.
The Cenotaph Path
I love this Path. Just wanted to get that out there. In my opinion, it’s one of my favorite, and one of the most useful Paths in the Discipline of Necromancy.
One of the more philosophical Paths of Necromancy, the Cenotaph Path operates on the fundamental understanding that a Vampire (an undead being) is a natural link between the Shadowlands and the lands of the living, walking as they do, “trapped” between both worlds, but not fully apart of either one.
Necromancer who study this Path focus on those aspects as the Vampire is a natural conduit through which to pierce or break through the Shroud that separates the two worlds.
Practitioners of this Path use that natural link to the Shadowlands to not only find other such links throughout the world, but to utilize, affect, and abuse them.
This can be as wild as thickening the Shroud in a large cemetery, making it more difficult for Wraiths to crossover to and from the Shadowlands and more difficult for other Necromancers to use their own abilities; to weakening or ‘thinning’ the Shroud in an area to the point that the barrier is almost nonexistent.
This Path of Necromancy also allows a Kindred to sense the passing of Ghosts/Wraiths in an area, sense the relative thickness of the Shroid in an area, and even look at a mortal to tell “how much death/entropy” surrounds them, which will help a Necromancer see how close someone is to their death. The Necromancer can even get a feeling for places that are regularly frequented by Wraiths, as the entropic energies tend to stay in a place that Wraiths frequent often.
The sensitivity and how much information the Necromancer gets from using those powers depends on the number of successes on the activation roll, but the sheer usefulness of this Path, right along with the previously mentioned Paths; often leaves a Necromancy player wishing that the WoD gave out experience points like D&D awards them.
The creative and Storytelling use of this Path floods the imagination with possibilities! A Necromancer can spy someone who is close to death, then be there at just the right time to enslave a new Wraith, sometimes before they even shrug off the Caul of death. The Path can even allow the Necromancer to make an artificial Fetter in order to better trap or tempt a Wraith!
Also very useful in combination with the Sepulcher Path, finding a place where Wraiths frequent can be useful as an ambush point to “acquire” new servants.
The Corpse in the Monster
In previous editions of Vampire: the Dark Ages, the members of Clan Cappadocian had access to a Discipline called Mortis. As of Vampire: the Dark Ages 20th Anniversary Edition (DA20) and V20, Mortis no longer exists, and its three distinct Paths have been folded into Necromancy for ease of use.
Some opinions may be against this change; but my Coterie and myself, it’s a good change, and one that more accurately reflects the Cappadocians and their Bloodlines, who indeed studied the dark art if Necromancy for thousands of years before the Embrace of Augustus Giovanni.
With that said, The Corpse in the Monster is a Path favored in study and practice by the Cappadocians more than any other Necromancer Clan or Bloodline, and it is favored by them for very good reasons.
The precepts of the Path philosophically and metaphysical enhance the understanding of the nature and condition of all aspects of the undead form. Which is a central focus to the academic studies that the entirety of Clan Cappadocian pursued through each immortal night.
The powers in this Path have a wide range of effects, but most of them revolving around combat and stealth applications.
The control over the very nature of a Kindred’s undeath are not limited to the caster though, and as we go through them, the wide range of applications should become apparent to the creative Necromancer.
At the base levels of this path, the blood sorcerer can imbue himself or another Kindred with the withered, gaunt appearance of a desiccated corpse. Taught, dry skin, stiff joints, etc. For stealth, the Kindred can simply lay motionless and will appear as just another lond-dead body in the crypt. As I said, this can also be applied to another vampire “gifting” him or her with the same appearance. Use of this power applies some negatives to the Appearance attribute, and also small negatives to Dexterity Attributes as well. They are, after all, made more “corpse-like” by the use of the power.
Dots 2 and 3 of this power add or subtract some of the effects of vampirism for the Necromancer or his subject. The second level gifts the vampire with a few of the benefits of actual mortal life.
After all, what Hunter wouldn’t assume that they had the wrong target after watching a suspected vampire sit down in a restaurant and enjoy a full Italian dinner and a couple of bottles of wine over the course of a few hours?
The third level of this power is just the opposite, and is one the Cappadocian’s used nearly exclusively to punish those they felt had wronged them. This level of the power bestows all of the negative aspects of mortal life back upon the subject.
They suffer sweat, mortal hunger, the muscles produce lactic acid (meaning that they get tired when running, etc.), and they can also suffer from illness, as well as the need to urinate and defecate.
The applications of this on another vampire can be as horrifying as they are humorous. But what Necromancer who might have been slighted by the local Harpy in Elysium, wouldn’t get a perverse joy and satisfaction out of watching that very same Harpy have to excuse herself from Elysium because they needed to take a healthy shit? Or because they get nauseous due to illness? Or because they start sweating normal human sweat in a warm room?
The highest levels of this power simulate a return to mortal life, but with none of the debilitating effects! The vampire, for a full twelve hours, returns as close to life as he’ll ever get. He can eat and drink, make love, he has a heartbeat, and can even walk in the sun without taking any damage! Truly a necromancer using this ability could either escape or accomplish tasks during the day that a ghoul simply could not be trusted with, or to, you know… drag a rival out of their haven for some much needed sunbathing.
Literally, anything that would need to be done during daylight, or to prove for somereason that the vampire isn’t actually a vampire (*coughhunterscough*) could be achieved through use of this power. The downside is that it almost assuredly causes the death if a mortal in order to be used, which could be a problem for the high-Humanity necromancer. The power itself requires the expenditure of twelve Blood Points in order to work (which may be spent over successive turns as an extended action), and then comes the activation roll. If the roll fails, nothing really bad happens to the vampire, but the Blood Points are still lost.
This is another one of my favorite Paths in Necromancy, and I use it quite often when my Cappadocian might be feeling a bit cheeky and prankster-ish, or when another Vampire needs to be punished for some reason. It’s a super effective Path, and leaves quite a lot of room open for creative use, as well as for creating brand new Rituals that would compliment its various powers.
The Path of Grave’s Decay
This Path is another that was pioneered by the vampires of Clan Cappadocian. As has been mentioned before, the main focus of their study was in why everything around them in the world would eventually succumb to the forces of entropy (stones crumble to dust, plants, and even corpses all eventually decay away to nothing), except for the Kindred.
This seeming impunity from entropy was of prime curiosity to the Cappadocians, and they spent many millennia studying this very thing; so much so, that they developed an entire Path of Necromancy around it.
(Authors Note: I do love the Cappadocians. Which is why in my homebrews of the VtM meta, I have them returning to power as a full Clan. They’re too interesting of a Clan to be absent from this game!)
The first level of this Path is pretty straightforward, with only a limited range of uses, but holy shit is it useful. Every Vampire must feed. Like fire burns and tax auditors take an interest in Ventrue financial holdings, feeding is one of undeath’s guarantees. So eventually, every Kindred will have a need to hide a body (or three…).
Thus, Kindred always run the risk of getting caught while disposing of a body. This power is fool proof and completely removes any evidence that they Vampire ever fed. With but a little blood and a successful roll, the necromancer turns an entire body, bones and all, into roughly 30 pounds (13kg) of completely normal dust in a shape that only vaguely resembles the shape of a body. There is nothing to raise, no body parts that could be used to summon a vengeful Wraith. Just perfectly insert, normal dust that can be flushed down down toilet, scattered on the wind, or removed with a mundane shop-vac.
Like I said, not much in the way of versatility, but so, so useful to a necromancer that needs to get rid of a bunch of bodies with a quickness.
The second and third levels of this power borrow more heavily on those forces of entropy and their ties to death. The second level allows the Necromancer to inflict a forced state of rigor mortis on other Kindred or mortals. The target becomes rigid and unable to even move or twitch without expending a great force of will as their very muscles betray them.
The third level works much the same as the second, but is more targeted to affect a single limb. Wither forces a single limb to atrophy and wither the same as one would find on a mummified corpse. This power is especially virulent in that the withered limb resists even the Blood-fueled healing of the Kindred, the power causing two aggravated wounds and rendering the targeted limb useless until both of the wounds are healed. Aggravated damage heals slowly, even for the Kindred, so this power could hobble a Kindred for quite some time. For Mortals, even Ghouls, the withered limb simply never heals, and they remain crippled for the rest of their lives.
The fourth level of this power is insidious, revesing the target Kindred’s undead nature just enough to return them close enough to life that they can be affected by, and carry and transmit, the slow wasting disease that this power generates. The disease lasts roughly a week, but infecting a target Vampire or Ghoul and then releasing them into a crowded Elysium can cause havoc among a city’s Kindred population and their servants.
This disease causes Vampires to have to make a Self-Crontrol/Instinct roll each time they feed, or they vomit up all of the Blood they’ve just ingested, their Strength and Wits are halved for the duration, Dexterity goes down temporarily, and they have to spend an additional Blood just to rise every evening.
For Mortals, these are severe Flu-like symptoms that can possibly be fatal, and with a series of really unlucky rolls, a Kindred can potentially vomit themselves into Torpor. So I would think that any Player or Storyteller can find a multitude of situations where the 2-4 levels of this Path can be used to drastic and decisive effectiveness.
The fifth level of this Path brings the Path around full-circle. As the first level of understanding of the forces of entropy and decay allow the vampire to turn an ordinary corpse into mundane dust, the fifth level allows them to affect that same effect on other Kindred.
By soending two Blood Points and a Willpower point, the Necromancer can drip their entropically-charged blood on the victim and attempt to turn entire chunks of the targets body to ash/dust. The Necromancer makes a Willpower roll against the victim’s Stamina score +3. For every success, the victim take a level of aggravated damage as whole chunks of flesh fall off their body and turn to dust. If the victim survives the attack, the levels of damage and missing flesh can be healed/regenerated the same as any other aggravated damage can be healed or regenerated.
So, just by the descriptions listed above, the sheer volume of uses this Path has, to cause havoc and dismay throughout a city, are wonderfully diverse. As a Storytelker and Player, I always live to have my Vampires know at least a few levels of this Path if possible.
The Path of the Four Humors
The Path of the Four Humors hails from the Dark Ages, and was primarily practiced by a Bloodline known as the Lamia (who were a Bloodline of the Cappadocians).
(Which, by the way, in my games and WoD changes, the Lamia have returned as a playable Bloodline just the same as the Cappadocians have returned.)
This Path is based on the Dark Ages medical theories that, when a person became ill, it was because their humors were out of sorts. The philosophy theorized that by getting these humors back in balance, the illness could be cured. Thus the powers of this Path are focused on the medieval humors and their two axes: hot and cold, dry and wet.
Blood is hot and wet, phlegm is cold and wet, yellow bile is hot and dry, black bile is cold and dry.
The first level of this power allows the Kindred to let slip a little bit of their undead bile into their speech, and this noxious humor seeps into the ear of the target and inflicts upon them nightmares both day and night. These nightmares make it harder for the victim to sleep, and distract them and make them irritable while awake. This causes the victim to lose dice from all of their dice pools for the duration of the power, and makes it easier for them to succb to the Rötschreck at the same time.
The second level allows the Necromancer to mix a bit of their Blood with a bit of their black bile to create a noxious poison. This poison coates the inside of the Necromancers mouth, and allows them to inflict even more damage with their bite. Very combat useful.
The third level allows the Necromancer to create a bilous coating on their skin, and those who touch the Kindred suffer a variety of intense reactions related to the humor used to create the coating. The Necromancer obviously gets to choose which of the four humors to use, and this versatility makes hand to hand combat with a Lamia or knowledgeable Necromancer especially risky. Especially if the Necromancer knows of any particular weaknesses that their opponent might have. Even the feared and respected Assamites were extremely wary of combat with the Lamia due to this power.
The fourth level of this power allows the Vampire to change her Blood, and thus himself, into a being not entirely vampiric, and instead closer to an animated corpse in both fact and name temporarily. While the Necromancer using this power grows cder and more distant, and has a more difficult time focusing on matters of the physical realm, they gain a number of benefits through its use.
First, the user gains two additional soak dice which can be used to soak any sort of damage, even if the Necromancer doesn’t know Fortitude. Second, they gain a mystical sense of how far removed from death other beings in the area are. Finally, with a good enough Manipulation + Occult roll, they can speak with Wraiths and other spirits freely.
The Vitreous Path
Where the other Paths deal with the dead themselves, the mystical links to the realms of the dead, and study into the nature of undeath and the Vampires; the Vitreous Path deals with the study of the energies pertaining to death itself.
This is an extremely rare Path of Necromancy, and is pioneered and practiced nearly exclusively by my third favorite Clan/Bloodline, the Nagaraja. In the older versions of Vampire: the Dark Ages, this Path was its own Discipline called Nihilistics, but with the release of V20 and VDA20, it has been folded into Necromancy.
Given the unique origin of the Nagaraja bloodline (the first Mages to steal the secrets and immortality of vampirism without being Embraced by a Kindred), it’s no wonder that they are its primary practioners and it’s creators.
*Author’s Note: I’ll detail much more on the origins of the Nagaraja in my next article, a deep dive into this amazing Bloodline of Kindred. *
While most Nagaraja learn the Sepulcher Path as their first Path lile most every other Necromancer, most Nagaraja Sires/Tutors teach the Vitreous Path as soon as the Fledgling is able to learn it.
The first power in this Path allows the Kindred to see with the eyes of the dead, allowing for the same types of inherent death sight that Wraiths get naturally. With but a glance, the Necromancer can see the energies of death surrounding an individual, and read the tell-tale hints regarding their health and ultimate fate. By looking at the entropic marks covering a person’s body; the Necromancer can roughly tell how far from death that person is, how soon they are likely to die, and even what the method of their death may be. This isn’t exact information, but the Necromancer gets a good, general idea.
The second level of this Path allows the vampire to strengthen the entropic energies that surround him, concentrating them to the point that it breaks down non-living objects and machines. Wood gnarly and decays, metal rusts, silicon chips fail and cracks, and it erodes plastic, glass, and dead organic materials.
These first two Path levels are really good when used creatively by themselves, or in conjunction with other Paths. For example; if a Necromancer wants a specific person’s soul as a servant or for some task, they could use the first power to see what and how far away from death they are, and the potential method, then use the second power to weaken objects in the area around their desired target, thus setting a trap to bring about their demise a bit early.
The third power in this Path is one of the most important for the Nagaraja, especially considering the significant amount of time the Bloodline spends in the Shadowlands, and even deeper in the Underworld. The Soul Feast power allows them to take the understanding if entropic energies gained by the second level power, but instead of releasing those energies outward, now they can draw them into themselves.
Soul Feast allows the vampire to either draw on the ambient energies of death aroumd himself to feed, or attack and feed off the Corpus of a Wraith in the same manner that Kindred draw blood from mortals. The entropic energies fed upon in this manner act in every single way as blood does for a vampire. It can be used to heal, power Disciplines, boost Attributes, everything, except for in one manner. This soul energy cannot replace the need for Blood to rise every night. The Necromancer thus still needs some supply of blood to replenish eventually, so that they can continue to fuel their immortality, but other than that, a Player can make a special demarcation on their sheet for Blood Pool from entropic energy vs. Blood Pool with actual Blood. I shouldn’t have to tell you exactly how important and extraordinarily useful this specific level of the Path can be.
Whenever I run a Nagaraja character, they always, without exception, have this Path at least up to level three.
The fourth level of the Vitreous Path is hideously effective both in and out of combat. With this level, the Necromancer again draws entropic energies into himself by inhaling as if taking a deep breath, focusing those energies in his lungs, the exhaling them like a dragon would breathe fire, focusing those energies on one area or individual. Completely invisible to anyone who cannot see entropic energies (pray that there aren’t any Euthanatos Mages in the viscinity…), the energy of this cloud is like a bright and shining beacon for Specters, and they are drawn to it like moths to a flame, even from great distances away.
If breathed over an area, the entropic mist draws Specters to the area, and it is almost a certainty that they will make life a living hell for anyone, living or undead, who enters the area. If the mist is focused on a person, the mist causes a virulent wasting illness that does indeed affect vampires as well. The entropy surrounding the individual cause one (and only one) level of aggravated damage, and infects the person with an aura of decay. While not specifically debilitating on its own, this aura of decay can be sensed by others the target may interact with, its creepy as hell, and the target suffers +2 difficulty to any and all Social rolls until the very next evening.
The fifth and final power of this Path turns the breath of the fourth power into a scream of pure entropic chaos. The scream is completely unearthly and inhuman, and is heard in both the living world as well as the Shadowlands.
The screaming howl either pours icy oblivion into a target or area by the bucket full, or chases out the inherent entropy completely.
If the Necromancer chooses to aid a target or group, the using the scream to chase the entropy away gives the target(s) a -2 to difficulty for all of their actions for 1 turn per success on the activation roll.
If the Necromancer chooses to harm a target or group by flooding them with entropy, then the target(s) suffer one aggravated wound per success on the activation roll. This can be a massively brutal attack on even the most stout of vampires, and there are no reports yet of even a single mortal surviving its use.
And that wraps up our exploration of the Paths of Necromancy. After all of these descriptions and creative uses for its various Paths and powers, I really hope I’ve created a few more fans of this amazingly useful and potent Discipline. And even if you like Necromancy no more than before you’ve read this section, I hope I’ve at least increased your understanding of it to allow for more deep, tactical, and flavorful use in your Chronicles and for any characters you might have using the Discipline.
Now; on to some permutations of the game that I use in my Chronicles, and I think allow Necromancy to work in a more cohesive and fun manner in the WoD.
Wraiths, Summoning, and Crossovers with Wr20
Much of the Discipline of Necromancy revolves around the summoning (and forced enslavement/servitude) of Wraiths. For many of the spells/powers of Necromancy, the Wraiths in question get a pittance of a resistance roll to fight against these abilities, if they are allowed one at all.
But with the depth of Lore, background, and crossover potential involved between V20 and Wraith: the Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition (Wr20), I personally feel that this doesn’t do Wraiths proper justice in V20, especially with no less than three Paths distinctly involving them.
In Wr20, there is a distinct sub-group of Wraiths, known amongst the Restless Dead, as Drones. When a mortal dies and has enough emotional … baggage to become a Wraith, they enter into the Shadowlands as a fully formed and active Wraith. These are the Restless Dead that are Player Characters and the numerous NPC’s that majority populate the Shadowlands and the Underworld.
The Drones, on the other hand, are those mortals that crossed over with just enough baggage to not pass on to whatever reward/punishment awaits them after death, but not enough to retain most of their higher thoughts and personalities. They shuffle (sometimes literally) through the afterlife as a shade of what they once were in life. Not entirely mindless, but still retaining some fragments of memory of their former life, they are almost literally, half-Wraiths. They have no Fetters or other attachments to their former life that would allow them to be full Wraiths. They are simply pathetic shadows of the people they once were.
When using Necromancy powers that summon a Wraith, unless the power requires (or the Necromancer takes the extra steps to gather the necessary components and items needed) the summoning of a specific Wraith; or the power gives the summoned Wraith no resistance roll or the aforementioned pittance resistance, I like to use one of these Drones in place of a full and proper Wraith as the result of the summoning.
If a Necromancer takes the time to gather the necessary items like body parts of the corpse of a Wraith, Fetter(s) of a specific Wraith, or researching the name and history of a specific Wraith, then I allow the Player to summon an actual full Wraith using the powers of this Discipline.
However; for full Wraiths I also give the Wraith a resistance roll against the controlling/summoning effects of the Necromancy power in question. Wraiths are simply too willful to fall so easily into the controlling clutches of a hubris-ridden Necromancer. If the Necromancer must roll say… Manipulation + Occult as the activation roll, I’ll give the Wraith either a Willpower roll to resist, or some other “like” combination of Attribute + Ability to resist the compulsion from the Necromancer as a contested roll. The Wraith can expend a temporary Willpower point for an automatic success just the same as the Necromancer can.
On a simple or exceptional success by the Necromancer in this contested roll, the Wraith is bound and the Necromancy power works as intended. If the Necromancer simply fails and the Wraith succeeds, then the Necromancy power fails. The Wraith though, becomes fully aware of what the audacious Necromancer was trying to do, and can use their own abilities to try to locate the upstart blood sorcerer or use their potent Arcanoi to find the Necromancer and attempt to enact whatever vengeance they feel is necessary.
If either side botches… well, that’s when the game becomes quite fun, and horrifying.
On a botch from the Necromancer, I like to make the Necromancy power still succeed. He thinks he gets control of the Wraith, but not all of it. In reality, I usually make the power fail technically. But what the Necromancer actually accomplished was to separate the Wraith from their Shadow, draw said Shadow to his exact location, and then I let the Shadow wreak havoc on the Necromancer for the time duration of the power in question. After that, the Shafow rejoins its host Wraith, and if they harass the Necromancer after that… well, that’s just a risk of Necromancy.
Another option for a botch on the part of the Necromancer, is that the summoning goes awry. Not only do they fail to summon the desired specific Wraith, but instead the blood magick “misses”, and instead summons an uncontrolled Spectre to the Necromancer’s location. A Spectre that, as it happens, also know exactly what the Necromancer was trying to do to it.
Woe to this unfortunate Necromancer! How long does this Spectre hang around to strike out at the Necromancer? Well, that entirely depends on how evil you want to be as a Storyteller…
If the Wraith botches the resistance roll, I have the same separation of Wraith and Shadow happen as I detailed above, but the Necromancer gets the higher-finctioning side of the Wraith to do with as he pleases, and the Shadow “takes over” the Wraith’s form in the Shadowlands, and gets free reign to wreak havoc and ruin the Wraith’s afterlife while the two side of the Soul are separated for the duration of the power.
While this is something I do in my games, from a Storytellet perspective, I feel that this adds another level of personal horror and risk to Necromancy that the write-ups in V20 and Wr20, didn’t do quite enough justice to. It adds multiple layers of ganeplay and depth to using the Discipline, and I find that it vastly deepens the crossover potential between these two great games.
But, as is detailed in V20, once the effect of the power used for summoning a Wraith ends, the Necromancer still runs the risk of having pissed off Wraiths finding and harassing him for his audacity. Since both beings are technically immortal, this harassment can also add multiple layers of crossover possibilities, as well as add in a few extra plot devices to a Chronicle, and ones that can be used in your game for a long, long time.
The Drones? The Necromancer doesn’t really have to worry about retaliation from the Drones. Once the power ends or the Necromancer releases the unfortunate soul, they simply go back to whatever pathetic existence they had in the Underworld before they were summoned. They don’t even have the Willpower to fight against the summoning, much less generate the willpower to enact revenge.
Now, by no means does any ST need to implement the changes I’ve made above. But I’ve found that making these changes, especially in a game with more than one character using Necromancy (and most definitely when running a V20/Wr20 crossover Chronicle), that these changes add wonderful levels of depth, and just enough complexity, to really enrich the Story and make it much more expansive for the Players.
Author’s Note on Including Mummies into a Necromancy Game
Mummy: the Resurrection is another game created by White Wolf Publishing that, like Demon: the Fallen, takes place in the WoD, yet begins after the Week of Nightmates detailed in the Revised Edition books Time of Thin Blood and Gehenna.
Mummy itself is a game that can work wildly well with Vampire, especially in a Necromancy-heavy game, and especially if you keep the timeliness of the Week of Nightmares, but choose not to include the Gehenna supplement.
I would have loved to have been able to include a detailed section in this article, describing how to crossover Vampire and Mummy, as I feel that the two games share multiple themes that would work well together.
Alas; I can’t even say that much for sure, because I know nearly nothing about Mummy other than its existence and very general themes. I know it is heavily tied into Wraith and the advent of the Sixth Great Maelstrom, and thus would have deep and definitive ties to Necromancers of all stripes.
If any of my readers know Mummy well, they would definitely be the ones whose brains’ you should pick if you want to mix Mummies into your Vampire or Necromancer Chronicle, but I know that they’re important enough to at least get a mention in my Necromancy-focused article.
Final Thoughts
As I said above, I truly do love the Discipline of Necromancy. It I such a rich, versatile, deeply engaging Discipline that also opens so many plot hooks and Story options just through simple use of its powers. It is one of the many major reasons that the Nagaraja are a personal favorite Bloodline of mine, following only the Lasombra and Baali as one of my most beloved Clans to play.
I do sincerely hope I’ve changed or enlightened a few minds in regard to Necromancy. It is an often overlooked, mocked Discipline; and in my humble opinion, that is a grave injustice to such a wonderfully diverse, malleable, unique Discipline.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this article (all 500 pages of it… lol), and while I apologize for the time it took me to finish it off, I took my time with it to make damn sure I got this article as “right” as I could, because it simply deserves all the care it could receive from me.
Again; thank you for reading, and ill see you next time in my next article, another deep-dive, this time into the Nagaraja Bloodline.
~ Nox
Lasombra, 5th Gen
Morte Ascendo.
Nocturnal Gods 