Once, the temple harlots used the act of embrocation to salve the suffering of the wounded. The process involved concocting a balm or petroleum of various oils, herbs and animal milks, and applying it to injuries and abrasions. Other acts fell to the priestess-whores, as well. The harlots ritually washed the men and women of the temple, bathing them in sacred waters (feet, in particular, were the focus of such consecration). The women also sang lamentations for the fallen, offering whorls of burning incense to both Yahweh and the Queen of Heaven. All of these deeds were meant to call the attention of the divine pair, and focus it on the supplicants. Hebrew priests were the link between God and mankind, and the Hierodules were the link between humanity and Shekhina, the female half of Heaven. When cast into the damnation of the Embrace, Qedeshah faith and practice manifested in the Blood as a Discipline. Most of the powers involve calling up some of a Hierodule’s own blood (though it doesn’t always look like blood, depending on the nature of the capability) and applying it to another being. Some of what Embrocation entails can be masked as nothing more than odd behavior on the part of the performer; most vampires shrug it off as the strange behavior of another of their kind. Yet, a Hierodule using this Discipline in front of others runs the constant risk of being noted as something other than what she claims to be. Many Hierodules consider the risk worthwhile, but should be wary of the consequences.
The Qedeshah, as mortals, were known for their succor. Such aid granted strength (even if it was more metaphori-cal than physical). This Discipline grants something similar. The Hierodule expends a small portion of her own blood, which oozes from pores on her palms and fingertips (no cutting is necessary, this seeping of Vitae is automatic). The woman then daubs the blood across the forehead of another creature, granting him temporary strength of spirit and will in the coming night.
Cost: 1 Vitae
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Medicine + Embrocation
Action: Instant
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The subject of the Discipline (human, Kindred or otherwise) suffers a point of bashing damage automatically.
Failure: The Vitae is spent, but the Hierodule is unable to affect the subject. A successive attempt may be possible.
Success: Any Resolve + Composure rolls made for the subject before the nest sunrise receive a bonus equal to the Hierodule’s own Resolve dots. (For vampires, this benefit is particularly useful in resisting hunger and fear frenzies.)
Exceptional Success: The Hierodule’s Resolve + Composure is added to the dice pool rolled for the subject.
The number of subjects who can enjoy the benefits of this power at one time equal the mother’s Resolve dots. Only one application of the power can be used on a subject at a time. All those attempted after the first fail, regardless of successes rolled. A Hierodule cannot bestow this gift upon herself. She can rescind it at will from a subject, though, even before the full duration elapses. If the Hierodule is sent into torpor or destroyed, her gift persists until the next sunset.
If a subject resists being touched for any reason, the systems of p. 157 of the World of Darkness Rulebook apply to make contact.
Incense figured prominently in some rituals performed by the whores of the temple. This power perpetuates the tradition through the Blood, in this case smoldering from the user’s very blood. She vomits up a mouthful of Vitae, which burns and boils (doing no damage to the Qedeshah). White, bitter-smelling smoke curls from her mouth and nose as a result.
All who smell the smoke are subject to a feeling similar to drunkenness, coupled with a dizzy languor. Those close by suffer vertigo and lose focus. Hierodules typically use this ability to steal the tension from a room, preventing or interrupting violence. Vampires do not breathe, but are still capable of inhaling and are thus subject to the effects of this power.
Cost: 1 Vitae
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Subterfuge + Embrocation versus subject’s Composure + Blood Potency
Action: Contested; resistance is reflexive Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The blood does not turn to smoke. The Hierodule simply vomits up blood, perhaps publicly. A dramatic failure rolled for a subject is treated as an exceptional success for the Hierodule (see below).
Failure: A point of Vitae is spent to activate the power, but no effect occurs. A successive attempt might be possible. In the contested roll, an equal number or the most successes are rolled for a subject and he is immune to the effect for the remainder of the scene.
Success: The most successes are rolled for the Qedeshah. A human, vampire or other being finds it difficult to take actions or think clearly. All dice pools for that victim suffer a penalty equal to the Hierodule’s Embrocation dots for the remainder of the scene.
Exceptional Success: The most successes — five or more — are rolled for the Qedeshah. In addition to the results of a success, all mortals affected fall into a deep sleep for eight hours. They awaken if touched or harmed in any way.
When this power is used, an activation roll is made for the Hierodule and the number of successes achieved is recorded. The range of the power is a number of yards radius equal to the Hierodule’s Wits + Subterfuge dots. A contested roll is made for anyone in that vicinity, and for anyone who enters the area after it’s established. The user herself is not affected by the power, but any allies may be.
The area of effect must focus on the creator. It persists for the remainder of the scene unless dispelled early, and moves with her as if a wind blows it. Maintaining the cloud requires no concentration. The mist is not thick enough to hide anyone or to obscure observation.
A Hierodule can help soothe the physical wounds of another, but only through the vampire’s bite. The Qedeshah must literally sink her fangs into the flesh of the subject, and she “drinks in” his suffering as if it were Vitae.
Cost: 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: No roll is required to activate this power. The Hierodule must bite the subject. If he resists, a grappling attempt is necessary — see, Vampire, p. 165). Once the Qedeshah successfully bites her target, she may “drink” up to one Health point per turn. Each point of damage is removed from the subject and transfers as Vitae to the Hierodule.
Action: Instant to activate
A subject’s injuries are healed from right to left on his Health chart, starting with bashing, then lethal and then aggravated.
If a Hierodule consumes the bashing damage from a target, each point becomes one Vitae in her system. If the Hierodule consumes lethal damage, she gains a Vitae per Health point restored, but also suffers a point of bashing damage herself as she feels sympathy pain from the subject’s injuries. Draining aggravated damage from a target is difficult, but not impossible. The same application of points as for lethal damage applies, but use of the power now costs a Willpower dot rather than a Willpower point. If damage healed moves progressively from bashing to lethal to aggravated without interruption, any Willpower point spent early on may be exchanged for a dot. A Willpower dot is spent for the act of healing aggravated damage for a whole scene, for any number of subjects in that scene. It’s not spent per wound or per subject healed.
This ability can be used only once per 24-hour period. It cannot be used on one’s self. A subject can be healed, but not brought back from the dead.
Note that even while this power does a subject good, the Qedeshah bloodline weakness still applies. The rapture of the Kiss does not lull a subject into acquiescence. Rather, the experience is painful and he struggles against it. For a subject to willingly undergo the Qedeshah’s ministrations costs the “patient” a Willpower point to endure the pain.
The Qedeshah use this power to create a different sort of bond between Kindred, something altogether separate from the traditional Vinculum. By simply touching a subject, a Hierodule may pass her blood to the individual. The blood literally flows from the pores of the Qedeshah’s flesh and into the flesh of the target. It doesn’t need to come from her hands, either — any part of exposed flesh does (some Hierodules seal this so-called covenant with a kiss). The power works only one-way; a Qedeshah may not take blood, only give it. The power does not require the target’s consent.
The forcing of blood into another is actually not the primary reason for using this power. Many Hierodules seek the connection that results. Recipients of blood gain a sense of the Hierodule’s location at any given time. The Hierodule is also granted a vague sense of where the target is. The power is not precise; no true vision is granted as to exactly what the other does. Berith does provide a direction sense, however, regardless of how far apart vampire and subject are, and confers a general sense of how distant they are from each other. This sense doesn’t take into account obstacles, streets or other obstructions, it only causes the two to have an intuitive feel for where the other is.
Cost: 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: No roll is necessary to activate this power
Action: Instant
The Hierodule must make skin-to-skin contact with the target. (If the subject resists, the touching rules apply — World of Darkness Rulebook, p. 157.) In addition to the Willpower spent, the Qedeshah sacrifices a number of Vitae up to her Blood Potency, which is automatically conferred to the subject. If a recipient vampire can contain no more Vitae based on his Blood Potency, extra Vitae are wasted.
A recipient is one step closer to a Vinculum with the user and may be subject to blood addiction. If the recipient is a ghoul, he can make use of the Vitae as normal, to the usual limits that he can contain. Blood donor and recipient both gain the Direction Sense Merit in regard to one another. They have no idea of the other’s relative health or mentality, but generally know in what direction and how far away the other is.
A Qedeshah can maintain the bond of distance and direction with as many subjects at one time as she has Blood Potency dots. Once that limit has been reached, no more can be added unless a previous one is disconnected. (An abandoned subject literally loses the Direction Sense Merit in regard to his benefactor.) Breaking an old relationship does not undermine the power of the Vitae shared. A subject doesn’t suddenly lose Vitae or cease to be blood bound or ghouled. Even if a Hierodule can maintain no more bonds of distance and direction with a new subject, she can still share blood with him.
If another Discipline is used on a subject with whom a Qedeshah currently shares a directional bond, a +2 bonus is gained on that power’s activation roll.
If the Qedeshah is ever sent into torpor or meets Final Death, connections to her are severed seemingly inexplicably.
“Cleanliness is next to godliness.” While the old saying is often used lightly, the Hierodules consider the precept vital. Cleanliness ultimately equals purity in their minds. Purity was often achieved through various washing rituals and consecrations. Some rituals affected the soul through the body. Others were broader, capable of sanctifying things rather than people. Objects could be consecrated, as could entire rooms.
Many Qedeshah operate out of what could be considered “second” havens or sanctums (though some unwise Hierodules use their own havens as places for counseling). Here, Qedeshah meditate on what it means to be one of the Damned, and how best to answer the calling of the Shekhina. Indeed, many Qedeshah bring others into their sanctums in an effort to counsel them and alleviate some of the anguish that assails the Kindred.
For the most part, a Hierodule’s sanctum is nothing special — some place away from public view and other vampires, and peaceful enough to offer solace. Qedeshah with this level of mastery are capable of turning a sanctum into a very special and protected place.
This power involves a ritual in which a Hierodule’s own blood is painted on the walls. What she paints matters little; only that she decorates the area with her own Vitae. Some apply handprints, others writing. The blood disappears into the walls, invisible without supernatural perception (such as possession of even the one-dot Auspex power).
The rite “purifies” the room, bolstering the Hierodule’s self and protecting the domain from without. Several benefits are gained.
Cost: 1 Vitae
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Expression + Embrocation
Action: Extended (20 successes required; each roll represents an hour’s preparation of the site). Vitae is spent at the beginning of the performance and is lost even if the activation fails.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: All accumulated successes are lost and the locale is permanently ruined as a possible site for a sanctum. It may remain a personal haven, but cannot be consecrated as anything more.
Failure: No successes are gathered in the current period. If 20 successes cannot be accumulated, the attempt as a whole fails. A successive effort may be made no sooner than a week later.
Success: Successes are accumulated for the period. If all 20 are gained, the sanctum is established.
Exceptional Success: Five or more successes are added to the running total for the current period. Or a total of 25+ successes are gathered. A point of spent Willpower is restored to the creator in the latter case.
A Hierodule may perform this ritual only on an enclosed space (a room, house, apartment, chamber or small building). A sanctum persists indefinitely, or until its structure is destroyed, the creator dispels the effect, or the Qedeshah is subject to torpor of Final Death. The rite is often performed by old Dea Nutrix to create and enforce the peace in a sanctuary. No more than one application of this power can affect a place at one time.
A sanctum can be a vampire’s own haven (acquired through the Haven Merit), or it can simply be a locale on which the Discipline’s rituals are performed. In the latter case, the setting gains none of the benefits that an “official” haven bestows, beyond the rewards that the power itself confers. The Storyteller might also decide that a character can possess multiple havens, each paid for with different Haven traits maintained for each setting.
A Hierodule can maintain the Taharah rite on only one locale at a time. If a new locale must be established, the old one reverts to its normal self.