The rumored power of the burgeoning, untested Nepheshim bloodline is unheard of by many Kindred, Sanctified or not. It is a Discipline of intuition and survival, a power that defies the destructive efforts of the world at large. Nahdad makes it easier for a vampire to survive in the hostile, heathen wilderness between domains. If the Nepheshim bloodline is proven, and the numbers of vampires using this power were to grow, Nahdad could redefine the notions of Sanctified territory.
Cost:—
Dice Pool: Nahdad, unlike most Disciplines, has several powers but is not actively rolled. Rather, it grants a degree of supernatural intuition and self-control that empowers characters struggling to survive a wanderer’s Requiem. Nahdad is considered “always on,” and cannot be deactivated.
Each dot in Nahdad further enriches the Nepheshim’s ability to use the following three powers. All Nepheshim have access to all three of these powers as soon as they gain their first dot in Nahdad. Over time, each aspect of the Discipline is further refined and empowered.
Action: N/A
Wanderer’s Sense
First, each dot of Nahdad adds to the character’s Survival dice pools. A wandering vampire uses Survival to find shelter from the sun, locate animal or human Vitae in the wilderness, predict the weather and navigate to new or familiar places. Wanderer’s Sense enables the vampire to smell Vitae on the wind, intuit direction and sense the coming rain in his blood. Nepheshim do not forage for food as humans do, but do use the Survival Skill in dice pools to hunt for Vitae in the wild (which many Nepheshim call “foraging” anyway).
The Nepheshim know this sense is a supernatural power of the Blood, but it doesn’t feel that way to them.
One Thousand Havens
Each dot of Nahdad also grants the character the equivalent of one dot in Haven Location or Haven Security, to represent the quality temporary havens the character can find for his short stays. (See the Haven Merit on p. 100 of Vampire: The Requiem.) To find a haven, the character makes a Wits + Survival + Nahdad roll as an extended action, with each roll representing one hour of searching. When the character has accrued five successes, he has found a suitable nest that makes use One Thousand Havens.
The Nepheshim’s dots in Nahdad can be divided between Haven Location and Haven Security however the player likes, and the dots may be divided differently at each new haven. One night, a Nepheshim with Nahdad 5 might put four dots into Haven Security, to represent a nest with excellent site lines and entrances that are easy to miss, and just one into Haven Location, to describe a spot removed from the living but not utterly remote. A week later, he might put all five dots into Haven Location when he sleeps in a unprotected hole in the wall of a busy subway station.
The havens a Nepheshim finds are impermanent — the sort settled vampires would overlook. If a character leaves an area and then returns later, it is assumed that his temporary haven is either gone or no longer suitable, and a new one must be found.
Stomach of the Starved
The Nepheshim can continue to feed on animals, to a limited extent, so long as his Blood Potency is equal to or less than his dots in Nahdad. A vampire with Blood Potency 3 or higher can gains one less Vitae from an animal than he should be able to based on its Size, to a minimum of one Vitae, but can at least survive on it. A Nepheshim with Blood Potency 3 and Nahdad 4, for example, can manage to extract one viable Vitae from a Size 1 rat, but will have to spend much of his time hunting if he is to survive on such creatures.
If the character has Blood Potency 3 or higher, and he is surviving on animal Vitae because of this power, only human Vitae in his system is counted to determine if he is hungry or starving for the purposes of resisting Wassail (see p. 179 of Vampire: The Requiem). Animal blood can keep his Cursed body going, but it does not satisfy his holy hunger.