The act of diablerie, sometimes known by the poetic name of Amaranth after a flower that never fades, is the process of drinking not only a Kindred’s Vitae, but her very soul. Needless to say, diablerie is a heinous crime, much feared and punished by elders, and much misunderstood and mystifying to young Kindred. If drinking Kindred Vitae is looked down upon by other Kindred, the act of diablerie is held as an ultimate sin against both the Damned as a whole and their society proper.
To call it a crime doesn’t do it justice, as diablerie provides a host of benefits along with its detriments and social stigmas. This is why the elders fear it — it is potentially an equalizer for young Kindred looking to cheat their way toward power, instead of letting time and experience hone the power of the Blood.
Diablerie itself is a fairly straightforward act. Most importantly, the potential victim must be in torpor, when the soul is sluggish enough to be caught off guard, and the body is placid. Most would-be diablerists attempt their crimes on Kindred who are already staked or already in torpor, and little ignites the passions of power-hungry neonates like the rumor of a torpid elder. It is not unknown, however, for particularly violent Kindred to beat their victims into torpor themselves.
The diablerist must drink all of the Vitae the subject has in his system. Thereafter, the diablerist must keep drinking, sucking at the blasphemous essence that animates the Damned. Diablerie can benefit only one vampire; it is not possible for a coterie of diablerists to consume the soul of a single Kindred and spread it among themselves.
Consuming the soul requires a Resolve + Stamina roll on the part of the diablerist’s player. This is an extended action. A number of successes must be accumulated equal to the Willpower dots of the Kindred being diablerized. Each roll represents one turn of effort. It is advised that the Storyteller does the record keeping, so the player doesn’t know exactly what happens to his character, at least immediately. Circumstance penalties (such as those associated with wounds and supernatural curses) apply to Resolve + Stamina rolls. Furthermore, if the attacking character is in frenzy or “rides the wave” (see p. 181) when attempting diablerie, rolls suffer an additional -3 penalty. Attempting diablerie has a limit of rolls equal to the diablerist’s Willpower dots. If the required successes haven’t been accumulated in that many rolls, the victim’s soul is just too potent or resistant and cannot be consumed. The victim is consigned to Final Death, instead.
A player may not spend a Willpower point on a diablerie roll, nor do any augmentations of his character’s Attributes (through blood expenditure, Disciplines or mystic artifacts) apply. Only the character’s natural Resolve and Stamina are relevant.
Dramatic Failure: The victim’s soul wrenches free at the moment of its consumption, inflicting horrific trauma on the mind of the diablerist. The diablerist suffers the normal Humanity loss (see below) and gains an appropriate derangement of the Storyteller’s choice. The victim succumbs to Final Death and cannot be diablerized.
Failure: The character makes no further progress in consuming the soul of the victim, as the soul fights to elude consumption.
Success: The character continues to draw the soul of the fallen Kindred into his own.
Exceptional Success: The Kindred makes significant headway in consuming the soul of his victim.
After all of a victim’s Vitae have been taken, but before all successes are achieved in consuming the subject’s soul, a diablerist can cease to feed and allow the victim to reach Final Death in (relative) peace.
Upon diablerie’s completion, the Humanity of the diablerist drops by one automatically. He also gains the benefits and drawbacks described below. A diablerized Kindred crumbles to ash immediately, regardless of how old her body actually was upon the Amaranth.
If the diablerized vampire had a higher Blood Potency than the Kindred committing the Amaranth, the diablerist’s Blood Potency immediately increases by one. Blood Potency increases by only one, regardless of the difference between the vampires’ Blood Potencies. This increase need not be paid for with experience points.
In consuming the fallen Kindred’s soul, the diablerist actually consumes some of her knowledge as well. The diablerist acquires a single dot of either a Skill or a Discipline that the diablerized vampire possessed at a higher level than the diablerist does. This adds to the diablerist’s dots in that Skill or Discipline, even if he didn’t have any dots at all in the Skill or Discipline before. For example, if a neonate with Obfuscate 3 diablerizes an elder who has Obfuscate 2, the neonate may not take an additional dot of Obfuscate; he already knows more than the elder with regard to that Discipline. The diablerist may not take a dot in a bloodline’s unique Discipline unless he is a member of the bloodline that practices that Discipline (see p. 260). Also, a diablerist may not exceed the trait maximum imposed by his Blood Potency (although if that Blood Potency now increases to a level that allows a higher level of those traits, he enjoys the benefit of that newly raised Blood Potency when deciding which dot of what to acquire). This increase need not be paid for with experience points.
It should be noted that the only benefit to diablerizing a vampire of lower Blood Potency is acquiring an extra dot in a Discipline or Skill. All of the detriments still apply, however.
As noted prior, when a vampire commits diablerie, his Humanity decreases by one automatically. The Humanity roll that follows this loss to check for a derangement occurs normally; see p. 182.
A vampire committing the Amaranth risks blood addiction as normal when he consumes his fallen foe’s Vitae and soul. See p. 158 for more information on blood addiction. This risk isn’t redundant — the vampire need not check for addiction right as he tastes his victim’s Vitae and then again as it turns into diablerie.
Finally, the act of Amaranth stains the diablerist’s own soul upon its commission. The character’s aura acquires black veins that reveal her crime to those who can scrutinize such things (see p. 120). These black veins remain in the diablerist’s aura for one year per dot of Blood Potency the victim possessed. This time is cumulative; a vampire who diablerizes two Kindred of Blood Potency 6 has veins in his aura for 12 years. If a character diablerizes his victims years apart, the additional years add on to the end of last. For example, if a Kindred diablerizes a vampire of Blood Potency 4 and two year later diablerizes a vampire of Blood Potency 5, the black veins appear in her aura for seven years following the second diablerie — or longer, if she keeps to her wicked ways and diablerizes again.
Only vampires can commit diablerie. Ghouls, werewolves, mortals and the like aren’t Kindred, so they lack the ability to consume the souls of the Damned. Furthermore, only vampires can be diablerized. Those selfsame ghouls, werewolves or mortals do not have the same spark of undeath animating them, so their souls cannot be consumed in this manner.
A vampire in Golconda cannot be diablerized. A would-be diablerist can certainly try, but the Kindred’s soul eludes the consumption. In a situation like this, make the rolls as normal (in this case, it is certainly better for the Storyteller to roll for the player), but tell the player that the character feels that something isn’t quite right as she commits the baneful act.
A diablerized vampire never leaves behind a ghost, as the diablerist consumes the soul that might become one of the lingering dead.
Vanian the Gangrel is supposed to deliver a message to his sire’s Mekhet confidant. When he arrives at the meeting place, he finds nothing but a trail of blood and a torpid Nosferatu in bad shape. Vanian figures that he has a golden opportunity before him — he’ll diablerize the Nosferatu and if anyone raises a fuss, he can implicate the missing Mekhet.
The torpid Nosferatu has only one Vitae remaining, which Vanian quickly devours. Thereafter, the process of diablerie begins, and Vanian has seven turns in which to succeed, as his Willpower is 7. The Storyteller rolls six dice (for Vanian’s Resolve + Stamina), gaining two successes. The Nosferatu also has a Willpower of 7, so Vanian needs five more successes to complete the deed, but he doesn’t know this. Vanian chooses to continue, so the Storyteller rolls again, this time acquiring three more successes. Vanian presses on, determined to complete the deed in spite of this tough old Haunt’s tenacity. The Storyteller yields two more successes in the third turn, signifying that the diablerie is complete.
Vanian’s Humanity automatically drops from 5 to 4 to pay for his base treachery, so his player rolls four dice to determine whether or not Vanian gains a derangement. Sure enough, he fails, and the Storyteller decides that Vanian acquires the derangement of sanguinary animism. That Nosferatu’s voice shrieks acrimony inside his head every now and again. On the other hand, the Gangrel feels a rush of power. The Nosferatu had a Blood Potency of 4 and Vanian’s was only 2, so it now rises to 3. In addition, he chooses to acquire a dot of Obfuscate, which he didn’t know at all before.
Now all Vanian has to do is hope that no one studies his aura for the next four years, as the black veins therein will remain for that long. With any luck and his new knowledge of Obfuscate, he’ll be able to lay low long enough to allay any undue attention. Helping him in that aim will be Kindred suspicion of the Mekhet contact, who has fled the domain for some reason.