••••• Blessed Detachment
Vampires who have fully mastered this Discipline wield a dire influence over those who trust them. No emotion, no matter how deeply rooted, is so strong that a Xiao cannot destroy it, eventually. The subject’s psyche becomes as malleable as soft clay to the Xiao, allowing her to completely sever his emotional attachment to a subject of her choice. Unlike Dominate, this power doesn’t allow a Kindred to exert full control over a subject. Since the subject retains part of his free will, he’s able to pursue his goals creatively, and even to take initiative over and above what he’s been ordered to do.
Effect
To activate this power, the Kindred needs to engage the subject in conversation for at least a full scene, possibly many times over the course of several consecutive nights. Every roll represents a night’s progress, and only one roll per night is allowed. The Willpower point is spent when first activating this power — no additional Willpower is required when further rolls are made toward accumulating successes unless an individual attempt fails outright.
The vampire needs to accumulate as many successes as the target has in Willpower dots to successfully activate the power. When this happens, the target stops feeling any emotion at all toward a given item (object, person, group or action) of the user’s choice. This power doesn’t force the subject to take any specific action against the chosen item, but the power completely changes his attitude toward it. With regard to the chosen item, the subject acts as if it no longer matters to him at all, but he remains otherwise free willed. Thus, a victim with a high Morality rating who suffers Blessed Detachment with regards to his wife suddenly finds that he no longer cares about her at all, but won’t necessarily go out of his way to make her suffer.
Victims of this power retain all memory of their former emotions — they just no longer feel them. Attempts to encourage the victim to harm or forsake the chosen subject do not suffer the normal penalties. In addition, the chosen subject does not gain any bonus when attempting to influence the victim.
It is possible to target a victim’s feelings about himself with this power, resulting in a temporary loss of ambition and sense of self-worth.
The effect lasts for as many nights as the user rolled successes, and the user can keep influencing the subject to prolong the effect. When the subject snaps out of the power’s effect, he is suddenly overcome by a maddening feeling of guilt over any misdeed he might have done. As long as he’s under the effect of Blessed Detachment, the subject needs not make derangement rolls for lost Morality, but when the effect ends he needs to make one derangement roll with a –2 dice penalty for every point of Morality lost while under the influence of the power.
Xiao who subject a target to Blessed Detachment are engaging in a deeply immoral act themselves and may be subject to degeneration themselves. If a target is detached from anyone he normally loves or feels benevolence toward (or from himself), use of this power is tantamount to willful injury, and will require a degeneration roll if the Xiao activating it has a Humanity rating of 8 or higher. It may well be worse — especially if the victim of the disconnect returns the subject’s love, and use of the power leads to a fundamental betrayal.
The vampire needs to accumulate as many successes as the target has in Willpower dots to successfully activate the power. When this happens, the target stops feeling any emotion at all toward a given item (object, person, group or action) of the user’s choice. This power doesn’t force the subject to take any specific action against the chosen item, but the power completely changes his attitude toward it. With regard to the chosen item, the subject acts as if it no longer matters to him at all, but he remains otherwise free willed. Thus, a victim with a high Morality rating who suffers Blessed Detachment with regards to his wife suddenly finds that he no longer cares about her at all, but won’t necessarily go out of his way to make her suffer.
Victims of this power retain all memory of their former emotions — they just no longer feel them. Attempts to encourage the victim to harm or forsake the chosen subject do not suffer the normal penalties. In addition, the chosen subject does not gain any bonus when attempting to influence the victim.
It is possible to target a victim’s feelings about himself with this power, resulting in a temporary loss of ambition and sense of self-worth.
The effect lasts for as many nights as the user rolled successes, and the user can keep influencing the subject to prolong the effect. When the subject snaps out of the power’s effect, he is suddenly overcome by a maddening feeling of guilt over any misdeed he might have done. As long as he’s under the effect of Blessed Detachment, the subject needs not make derangement rolls for lost Morality, but when the effect ends he needs to make one derangement roll with a –2 dice penalty for every point of Morality lost while under the influence of the power.
Xiao who subject a target to Blessed Detachment are engaging in a deeply immoral act themselves and may be subject to degeneration themselves. If a target is detached from anyone he normally loves or feels benevolence toward (or from himself), use of this power is tantamount to willful injury, and will require a degeneration roll if the Xiao activating it has a Humanity rating of 8 or higher. It may well be worse — especially if the victim of the disconnect returns the subject’s love, and use of the power leads to a fundamental betrayal.
Side/Secondary Effects
Dramatic Failure: The subject’s spirit rises in sudden, powerful rebellion, ruining the vampire’s attempt. All accumulated successes are discarded, and the would-be victim is immune to further uses of Blessed Detachment for the remainder of the chapter.
Failure: The vampire loses or ties the contested roll. All accumulated successes are lost, and the vampire must begin again. If he chooses to do so, the reactivation of the power will cost an additional Willpower point.
Success: The character wins the contested roll by getting the most successes and makes some progress in his attempt to violate the subject’s mind.
Exceptional Success: The character wins a contested roll with five or more successes and makes substantial progress in his attempt to violate the subject’s mind.
Failure: The vampire loses or ties the contested roll. All accumulated successes are lost, and the vampire must begin again. If he chooses to do so, the reactivation of the power will cost an additional Willpower point.
Success: The character wins the contested roll by getting the most successes and makes some progress in his attempt to violate the subject’s mind.
Exceptional Success: The character wins a contested roll with five or more successes and makes substantial progress in his attempt to violate the subject’s mind.