Creating Crúac Rituals
New Crúac rituals can be created by ritualists within The Circle of the Crone. Many regard this as the ultimate expression of the maxim Creation Is Power. However, a vampire cannot simply decide to create a new ritual as if it were a poem or a dance. Nor can she be sure what power the ritual will have.
An external impulse, the spiritual gift, is needed to start the process; without that seed, nothing can be developed. The vampire must then suffer tribulation to set the mark of the ritual firmly on her soul. Only then can she sit down and write the ritual itself.
No Kindred knows for sure how many Crúac rituals there are, or how many new ones are discovered in modern nights. Some Kindred believe that all rituals were known to the earliest Kindred, and that modern inventions are rediscoveries. Others believe that all possible rituals are known now, somewhere in the world, and that the inventions merely introduce them to new areas. Still others believe that the number of Crúac rituals is constantly increasing, and that one night, if not already, there will be too many rituals for a single Kindred to master them all before passing into Torpor.
The Daymare: While sleeping during the day, the Kindred dreams that horrible monsters enter her Haven and torture her immobile body. Sometimes the gift comes in the agony of the dream, sometimes it comes when the Kindred sees wounds left on her body the following evening.
Scars on the Body: The Kindred takes aggravated damage, and the tatters of her broken flesh form patterns of mystic significance. The meaning is immediately obvious to the wounded Kindred, although others cannot see it.
Slaughtered Kin: The vampire attacks a friend or ally while in frenzy, but as he comes out of it he sees profound meaning — words, images, pictograms — in blood-soaked carpets, smeared bloodstains and scattered body parts.
Staked Wisdom: While the Kindred is staked, a figure appears in her field of vision, speaking in a low voice that she can barely make out. The whispers carry hints and clues toward the ritual. No one else present is aware of the figure, who can be seen even if the place is completely dark. The figure vanishes when the stake is removed, but the wisdom remains.
Starvation Dreams: Although the Kindred is hungry and on the verge of frenzy, something prevents him from feeding. If he exerts his will to force himself (by spending a point of Willpower), the blood burns like fire as he drinks it, inflicting one lethal wound for every Vitae taken. But with the fire, he drinks in inspiration.
Torpor Visions: The Kindred sees visions in Torpor that provide the foundation for a new ritual. Some are initiated into a bloody cult and taught its secrets, others dream of being blasted to ash, but retaining consciousness and awareness of the pattern that their remains form. Some dream of going on quests, and wake in a place other than where they fell into Torpor.
The gift often has bad side effects, such as inflicting wounds or leaving a vampire’s lover dead. The insight it grants, however, burns in the vampire’s soul, understood in a deep way that can’t be articulated in words. The recipient of the gift knows exactly what the ritual will do, and how difficult it will be, but is still missing some of the pieces needed to put the understanding into practice.
Most gifts are of rituals the vampire could learn immediately. That is, the number of dots of the ritual is equal to or less than the number of dots the Acolyte has in Crúac. However, vampires are occasionally struck with inspiration for rituals that are slightly too difficult for them to learn; the number of dots in the ritual exceeds the vampire’s current Crúac dots by one. In this case, the vampire must learn more secrets of Crúac before he can complete the quest. Occasionally, Kindred with no dots in Crúac are struck with inspiration for a one-dot ritual. Those who are members of the Circle know the inspiration for what it is, and generally seek instruction, but Kindred outside the Circle may search in vain for years before finding (or being found by) the right Acolytes.
Legends say that, sometimes, the inspiration for a ritual comes with the inspiration for the necessary dots of Crúac, enabling the vampire to learn the Discipline without a teacher. There are no solidly attested instances of this happening outside the realms of legend, however, and most Acolytes believe that the stories were created by Kindred seeking to avoid punishment for teaching the Discipline to outsiders.
The gift not only provides the core understanding of the ritual, it also reveals the first steps of the quest. The ritualist knows what she has to do, although she does not know how she knows. Occasionally, this knowledge is of the ultimate goal of the quest. One Kindred, struck with inspiration for a ••••• ritual, knew that she had to become Hierarch in her city. It took her years of struggle, but the ritual she was granted in her success made her position extremely secure,and her reign of terror lasted for centuries.
More often, the Kindred knows what she must do first. That action has consequences, and as she deals with the consequences, she completes the quest. There are no customary restrictions on taking others along on these quests. Even non-Acolytes are not unwelcome — the gods often speak through the fates and actions of nonbelievers.
In most cases, the Kindred receives a single inspiration. For example, a ritualist might divine that she has to be at the junction of 4th and Main at 9:15 the following Tuesday night. Just by being there, she witnesses a battle between two packs of werewolves, and comes to their attention. The quest involves dealing with the monsters, though whether she is to fight them, befriend them or merely endure the tribulation they bring may be unclear.
Inspirations may be immoral. There are many known examples in which ritualists have been driven to kill. In some cases, murder itself is the quest. In most, however, the consequences of the killing bring the struggle that, in turn, brings enlightenment. In its wake comes the Discipline’s moral erosion.
Some ritualists have been driven to travel to distant cities, kidnap mortals and take them to a lake deep in the wilderness or perform a particular ritual in a public place. Sometimes, the inspiration is very sophisticated, nothing like the primal image normally associated with Crúac. One Kindred was inspired to start a rumor that one of the Harpies had sired more than a dozen secret childer, another to study for a master’s degree in forensic anthropology. In the former case, the political turmoil caused by the rumor led to the ritualist’s exile from the city, and the details of the ritual became clear as she reached her new home. In the latter case, the vampire became caught up in strange but enlightening rites being performed by the faculty, but never did complete her degree.
In most cases, then, the vampire is placed in a situation, to which she reacts. This has only two meaningful outcomes: the vampire is destroyed or she comes to understand the ritual. There are no known cases in which a vampire has followed the urgings of the gift, endured the correct path, but failed to learn the ritual. The belief is that the quest is not a matter of success or failure, but merely of tribulation.
Some Kindred choose to ignore the urgings of a quest. This is a bad idea. Such vampires tend to get swept up in their quests anyway, but in a position of considerable weakness. Ignoring a quest makes suffering, rather than enlightenment, a more likely outcome of tribulation. A vampire who chooses not to go to the intersection shown to her by the gift might find that the werewolf battle takes place within her Haven, instead. One who avoids committing a murder finds herself framed for it, and thus facing the same problems but without the useful information she could have gotten from the victim.
An occasional problem is Kindred who try to manipulate Acolytes by faking the gift and the inspiration for a quest. This is actually very difficult to do; it requires powerful Disciplines at the very least, and often a great deal of planning. Nevertheless, it happens. Kindred who have previously experienced a genuine gift can tell the difference; even a vampire who has experienced divine inspiration cannot counterfeit the experience in others who have felt it too.
Those who have not yet been inspired with a new ritual — that is, the vast majority of Kindred — are more vulnerable. There is no way for anyone other than the Kindred himself to judge the quality of the experience, although other means of investigation might uncover a faker.
Persistent rumors claim that, sometimes, even a Kindred targeted by faked inspiration comes to create a genuine ritual. Whether this is wishful thinking, or a sign that the world is beyond the abilities of Kindred to understand, is an open question. Why can’t liars be instruments of destiny, too?
The quest should be rare, for two reasons. The first is that these inspirations are rare within the Circle. Characters who are gifted with inspiration often gain Status within the covenant; characters who have had two or more are very strong candidates for Hierarch, and may be known throughout the domain. Thus the chapters that eventually lead to new rituals should also be dramatic enough to warrant experience awards or free dots suitable for the traits to be won.
When the quest is complete, the inspired Acolyte learns a ritual without needing to spend experience points. In addition, she may gain a number of dots in Covenant Status equal to the dots of the ritual, if anyone else in the Circle knows about it. This privileges the Acolyte, and is another good reason not to run such stories too often.
Second, a quest railroads players to a significant extent. They are given little choice but to get involved with a particular plot, and if they try to run, powerful and mysterious supernatural forces arrange events so that they flee only towards their fates. This is good for occasional dramatic momentum, but not for the whole structure of the chronicle. Used to often, it can be downright un-fun.
This requires an extended Intelligence + Expression action. Each roll takes one night, and the Acolyte needs a total number of successes equal to twice the ritual’s level in dots. Once the successes have been accumulated, the Acolyte has a ritual, and can perform it.
Many Acolytes create very short rituals, which can be performed in a few seconds and repeated as necessary. This is clearly the more practical approach. It is, however, no easier than creating a longer ritual. In some ways, it is harder, as the proper balance of all elements must be maintained in a small compass.
Some Acolytes deliberately create longer rituals, so that its power cannot be used in less than half an hour. This may be a way of limiting others to whom the Acolyte teaches the ritual.
While the Acolyte must create at least one ritual form, she may create as many as she likes. Each requires a separate extended task, and the number of successes required is the same in each case. Some Acolytes create a very short ritual form for their own use, and another longer form for teaching to others.
Note that an Acolyte can only create ritual forms this easily for a ritual she has learned through the gift and quest. An Acolyte may create new ritual forms for a ritual learned from other sorcerers, but doing that is much more difficult.
An external impulse, the spiritual gift, is needed to start the process; without that seed, nothing can be developed. The vampire must then suffer tribulation to set the mark of the ritual firmly on her soul. Only then can she sit down and write the ritual itself.
No Kindred knows for sure how many Crúac rituals there are, or how many new ones are discovered in modern nights. Some Kindred believe that all rituals were known to the earliest Kindred, and that modern inventions are rediscoveries. Others believe that all possible rituals are known now, somewhere in the world, and that the inventions merely introduce them to new areas. Still others believe that the number of Crúac rituals is constantly increasing, and that one night, if not already, there will be too many rituals for a single Kindred to master them all before passing into Torpor.
The Gift
The gift comes when it will (or when it is sent by the gods), sometimes uninvited, and always in a moment of struggle. A gift can be prayed for but it cannot be demanded. The form the gift takes is unique, although surviving reports and modern accounts suggest that there are some broad types that are relatively common.The Daymare: While sleeping during the day, the Kindred dreams that horrible monsters enter her Haven and torture her immobile body. Sometimes the gift comes in the agony of the dream, sometimes it comes when the Kindred sees wounds left on her body the following evening.
Scars on the Body: The Kindred takes aggravated damage, and the tatters of her broken flesh form patterns of mystic significance. The meaning is immediately obvious to the wounded Kindred, although others cannot see it.
Slaughtered Kin: The vampire attacks a friend or ally while in frenzy, but as he comes out of it he sees profound meaning — words, images, pictograms — in blood-soaked carpets, smeared bloodstains and scattered body parts.
Staked Wisdom: While the Kindred is staked, a figure appears in her field of vision, speaking in a low voice that she can barely make out. The whispers carry hints and clues toward the ritual. No one else present is aware of the figure, who can be seen even if the place is completely dark. The figure vanishes when the stake is removed, but the wisdom remains.
Starvation Dreams: Although the Kindred is hungry and on the verge of frenzy, something prevents him from feeding. If he exerts his will to force himself (by spending a point of Willpower), the blood burns like fire as he drinks it, inflicting one lethal wound for every Vitae taken. But with the fire, he drinks in inspiration.
Torpor Visions: The Kindred sees visions in Torpor that provide the foundation for a new ritual. Some are initiated into a bloody cult and taught its secrets, others dream of being blasted to ash, but retaining consciousness and awareness of the pattern that their remains form. Some dream of going on quests, and wake in a place other than where they fell into Torpor.
The gift often has bad side effects, such as inflicting wounds or leaving a vampire’s lover dead. The insight it grants, however, burns in the vampire’s soul, understood in a deep way that can’t be articulated in words. The recipient of the gift knows exactly what the ritual will do, and how difficult it will be, but is still missing some of the pieces needed to put the understanding into practice.
The Gift In Play
In game terms, the vampire’s player should be told the game mechanics of the ritual at this point. However, she cannot use it or teach it. The vampire also intuits what she should do next to continue on the quest, so the player should be told this, as well.Most gifts are of rituals the vampire could learn immediately. That is, the number of dots of the ritual is equal to or less than the number of dots the Acolyte has in Crúac. However, vampires are occasionally struck with inspiration for rituals that are slightly too difficult for them to learn; the number of dots in the ritual exceeds the vampire’s current Crúac dots by one. In this case, the vampire must learn more secrets of Crúac before he can complete the quest. Occasionally, Kindred with no dots in Crúac are struck with inspiration for a one-dot ritual. Those who are members of the Circle know the inspiration for what it is, and generally seek instruction, but Kindred outside the Circle may search in vain for years before finding (or being found by) the right Acolytes.
Legends say that, sometimes, the inspiration for a ritual comes with the inspiration for the necessary dots of Crúac, enabling the vampire to learn the Discipline without a teacher. There are no solidly attested instances of this happening outside the realms of legend, however, and most Acolytes believe that the stories were created by Kindred seeking to avoid punishment for teaching the Discipline to outsiders.
The Quest
The second stage of creating a new ritual is generally referred to as the quest. This is slightly inappropriate, as the thing sought is already within the Kindred. On the other hand, the vampire must overcome difficulties to reach a goal, so the name is also appropriate.The gift not only provides the core understanding of the ritual, it also reveals the first steps of the quest. The ritualist knows what she has to do, although she does not know how she knows. Occasionally, this knowledge is of the ultimate goal of the quest. One Kindred, struck with inspiration for a ••••• ritual, knew that she had to become Hierarch in her city. It took her years of struggle, but the ritual she was granted in her success made her position extremely secure,and her reign of terror lasted for centuries.
More often, the Kindred knows what she must do first. That action has consequences, and as she deals with the consequences, she completes the quest. There are no customary restrictions on taking others along on these quests. Even non-Acolytes are not unwelcome — the gods often speak through the fates and actions of nonbelievers.
In most cases, the Kindred receives a single inspiration. For example, a ritualist might divine that she has to be at the junction of 4th and Main at 9:15 the following Tuesday night. Just by being there, she witnesses a battle between two packs of werewolves, and comes to their attention. The quest involves dealing with the monsters, though whether she is to fight them, befriend them or merely endure the tribulation they bring may be unclear.
Inspirations may be immoral. There are many known examples in which ritualists have been driven to kill. In some cases, murder itself is the quest. In most, however, the consequences of the killing bring the struggle that, in turn, brings enlightenment. In its wake comes the Discipline’s moral erosion.
Some ritualists have been driven to travel to distant cities, kidnap mortals and take them to a lake deep in the wilderness or perform a particular ritual in a public place. Sometimes, the inspiration is very sophisticated, nothing like the primal image normally associated with Crúac. One Kindred was inspired to start a rumor that one of the Harpies had sired more than a dozen secret childer, another to study for a master’s degree in forensic anthropology. In the former case, the political turmoil caused by the rumor led to the ritualist’s exile from the city, and the details of the ritual became clear as she reached her new home. In the latter case, the vampire became caught up in strange but enlightening rites being performed by the faculty, but never did complete her degree.
In most cases, then, the vampire is placed in a situation, to which she reacts. This has only two meaningful outcomes: the vampire is destroyed or she comes to understand the ritual. There are no known cases in which a vampire has followed the urgings of the gift, endured the correct path, but failed to learn the ritual. The belief is that the quest is not a matter of success or failure, but merely of tribulation.
Some Kindred choose to ignore the urgings of a quest. This is a bad idea. Such vampires tend to get swept up in their quests anyway, but in a position of considerable weakness. Ignoring a quest makes suffering, rather than enlightenment, a more likely outcome of tribulation. A vampire who chooses not to go to the intersection shown to her by the gift might find that the werewolf battle takes place within her Haven, instead. One who avoids committing a murder finds herself framed for it, and thus facing the same problems but without the useful information she could have gotten from the victim.
An occasional problem is Kindred who try to manipulate Acolytes by faking the gift and the inspiration for a quest. This is actually very difficult to do; it requires powerful Disciplines at the very least, and often a great deal of planning. Nevertheless, it happens. Kindred who have previously experienced a genuine gift can tell the difference; even a vampire who has experienced divine inspiration cannot counterfeit the experience in others who have felt it too.
Those who have not yet been inspired with a new ritual — that is, the vast majority of Kindred — are more vulnerable. There is no way for anyone other than the Kindred himself to judge the quality of the experience, although other means of investigation might uncover a faker.
Persistent rumors claim that, sometimes, even a Kindred targeted by faked inspiration comes to create a genuine ritual. Whether this is wishful thinking, or a sign that the world is beyond the abilities of Kindred to understand, is an open question. Why can’t liars be instruments of destiny, too?
The Quest in Play
The quest is a story, and should be played in full. There is nothing stopping an Acolyte from bringing the rest of her coterie along, and nothing stopping them from suffering along with her. However, only the character who received the gift learns the Crúac ritual.The quest should be rare, for two reasons. The first is that these inspirations are rare within the Circle. Characters who are gifted with inspiration often gain Status within the covenant; characters who have had two or more are very strong candidates for Hierarch, and may be known throughout the domain. Thus the chapters that eventually lead to new rituals should also be dramatic enough to warrant experience awards or free dots suitable for the traits to be won.
When the quest is complete, the inspired Acolyte learns a ritual without needing to spend experience points. In addition, she may gain a number of dots in Covenant Status equal to the dots of the ritual, if anyone else in the Circle knows about it. This privileges the Acolyte, and is another good reason not to run such stories too often.
Second, a quest railroads players to a significant extent. They are given little choice but to get involved with a particular plot, and if they try to run, powerful and mysterious supernatural forces arrange events so that they flee only towards their fates. This is good for occasional dramatic momentum, but not for the whole structure of the chronicle. Used to often, it can be downright un-fun.
Creation
The actual creation of the ritual is the final stage. Although the Acolyte knows the ritual’s effects at the end of the quest, she cannot perform it until she has devised or deciphered a ritual to perform.This requires an extended Intelligence + Expression action. Each roll takes one night, and the Acolyte needs a total number of successes equal to twice the ritual’s level in dots. Once the successes have been accumulated, the Acolyte has a ritual, and can perform it.
Many Acolytes create very short rituals, which can be performed in a few seconds and repeated as necessary. This is clearly the more practical approach. It is, however, no easier than creating a longer ritual. In some ways, it is harder, as the proper balance of all elements must be maintained in a small compass.
Some Acolytes deliberately create longer rituals, so that its power cannot be used in less than half an hour. This may be a way of limiting others to whom the Acolyte teaches the ritual.
While the Acolyte must create at least one ritual form, she may create as many as she likes. Each requires a separate extended task, and the number of successes required is the same in each case. Some Acolytes create a very short ritual form for their own use, and another longer form for teaching to others.
Note that an Acolyte can only create ritual forms this easily for a ritual she has learned through the gift and quest. An Acolyte may create new ritual forms for a ritual learned from other sorcerers, but doing that is much more difficult.
Related Ritual
Crúac
So who, exactly, is doing the actual work of creating these new rituals? The frank answer is: You are. Whether you’re a player or the Storyteller, you can potentially come up with an idea for a new Crúac ritual and find a way to inject it into the game. Players must clear any new rituals with the Storyteller, of course, but even the Storyteller won’t get much use out of a new ritual if some player isn’t interested in paying the experiencepoint cost for it.
What this creation process allows you to do is Disguise the true origin of new rituals in whatever mystical wardrobe best suits your chronicle. A player’s character might strive to create or discover a new ritual for months before finally receiving a clear sense of the ritual in a vision. Alternately, an imaginative player might create a new ritual for a character that isn’t at all likely to think of such a thing, in which case the ritual gift can simply arrive mysteriously (from a god, from a spirit, from the character’s Beast) to satisfy the player and drive her character into a new storyline.
Don’t assume that the process described here is set in stone. This isn’t science, it’s a game about stories of the supernatural — there’s a lot of gray area here for your to play with. Make the process more mysterious, more gruesome, more Zen or more precise if you’d like. As long as the ritual-creation story is as mysterious, spiritual and entertaining as you’d like it to be, you’re doing it right.
Crúac
Who Does the Creating?
So who, exactly, is doing the actual work of creating these new rituals? The frank answer is: You are. Whether you’re a player or the Storyteller, you can potentially come up with an idea for a new Crúac ritual and find a way to inject it into the game. Players must clear any new rituals with the Storyteller, of course, but even the Storyteller won’t get much use out of a new ritual if some player isn’t interested in paying the experiencepoint cost for it.What this creation process allows you to do is Disguise the true origin of new rituals in whatever mystical wardrobe best suits your chronicle. A player’s character might strive to create or discover a new ritual for months before finally receiving a clear sense of the ritual in a vision. Alternately, an imaginative player might create a new ritual for a character that isn’t at all likely to think of such a thing, in which case the ritual gift can simply arrive mysteriously (from a god, from a spirit, from the character’s Beast) to satisfy the player and drive her character into a new storyline.
Don’t assume that the process described here is set in stone. This isn’t science, it’s a game about stories of the supernatural — there’s a lot of gray area here for your to play with. Make the process more mysterious, more gruesome, more Zen or more precise if you’d like. As long as the ritual-creation story is as mysterious, spiritual and entertaining as you’d like it to be, you’re doing it right.