The Strain of Profanity

What is this? No...I just wanted you to see... stop that...

A strain developed through the addiction and desperate needs shared by all practitioners of Arcana Sanguis, those who use it never use their own blood or the blood of allies. They take their blood by force. They strip the dead and the living and transform the blood. They taint the blood with dreadful contagions and infest it with their desires as they turn it on their enemies.

A Profane Art

Most blood mages are not sadists. They do all get pleasure from inflicting pain. While it may seem like it, the reality is that they want to show you the world they see. They want to help others understand them. The scarlet art has always lived in infamy. Others look at these men and women in contempt and disgust. It isn't fair to these precious few, but its all they have come to know. They have a desperate need to share their passions...but not everyone wants to see.

Sadism in Disguise

While these practitioners do not consider themselves sadistic, finding they are masochists in almost every way, it is easy to look at this strain and see it differently. There is no power in this strain that doesn't cause immense pain and gruesome death. The pains experienced by these spells have driven survivors mad, and some of these spells have chilling effects that stick with you for the rest of your life.

Infection and Transformation

This strain possesses horrific abilities. While The Strain of Passion Is violent and brutal, death is often quick and the abilities rarely have lasting effects given time to heal.

The mixture of tainted blood, the pain and fear of the victim, and the desires and added traits of the caster, create effects that are horrible to behold and even more so to experience. The mage taints the blood they harvest and that corruption takes many forms.
One mage adds diseases to the blood and forces it into the victims veins, another casts out bloody spores that infect and transform their hosts, and some inject parasites into their victims that invade and spread with reckless abandon.

Again this is rarely done out of malice. It is an accident and the effect is often just as horrific to the caster as it is to their victim. The passion blinds them to it though. Its only in the aftermath that they become aware of the horrors they created. It gets easier for most, and some do come to enjoy it. Others never get over the fact that those they kill never got to understand them.

The First Mutation

Learning this strain doesn't happen with experience or training. It happens by accident. When a blood mage uses an offensive spell and crits they roll a d10. If they roll an 8, 9, or 10, they learn the strain and the ability is changed to one of the abilities in this strain at the GM's discretion. To use it they must have Arcana Sanguis III, however.

The Scarlet Bloom

The Scarlet Bloom is an effect that tainted blood can have on spells. The blood coagulates and begin to behave like fungal spores. Any biological material touched by the spores begins to mutate in a violent burst of pink and red mist. Stalks grow, using the biological material for nourishment to fuel the growth. If a person or animal is afflicted, the spores work against the immune system and strive to control the host.

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Unless the caster can use this strain, the fungal creatures created are hostile to anything living. If they can use the strain, they gain control of the creatures. The target must fail a resistance roll 3 times before the spores take control and each failed roll will result in loss of mobility, fungal growths, and death respectively.

Pathogens

Tainted blood can also be diseased. It can carry many horrible afflictions that corrupt the host. These maladies result in hindrances that cannot be cured. The blood wont allow it. The victim will suffer for the rest of their days if they survive.

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The caster uses this table when casting Pathogen to determine effects. If the caster does not have the ability to use the genre it must be randomly rolled.

Monsters Within

Tainted blood can carry parasitic life forms within that can kill a foe quickly. These parasites often grow as they fester within the host and some burst forth after so many turns as the magic accelerates the growth. These parasites come from The Wetworks and represent the longing of the caster.

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The following table lists parasites and their effects. This is a wip currently.