Requiem Diary: Initiations of Dream and Flame

Vampire the Requiem - Ancient Bloodlines

The study of ancient Egypt — “Egyptology” — has been a popular field for thousands of years. The Egyptians themselves spent time and Resources restoring historic tombs, temples and other buildings, and the Greeks and Romans had their own accounts of Egyptian history. But it was Napoleon’s “Egyptian Campaign” that placed ancient Egypt firmly in the minds of European citizens, and even now, modern people have a distinct set of images concerning the lands of the Nile.
The undead were not immune to Egyptomania. The Kindred of Europe in the 19th century saw artifacts and historical discoveries being shipped from Egypt back to France and England, and wondered what secrets of their kind might be buried in ancient tombs. Their curiosity, of course, was well justified — in those dusty crypts lay the story of the Great Covenant, and the slumbering Bak-Ra and Usiri, among other bloodlines.
But just as mortals are wont to misinterpret their findings at first, the Kindred have an incomplete picture of their roots. Unlike mortals, vampires are decidedly ill-suited to revising their beliefs as further facts come to light, in part because they can’t really trust their own memories. That is why the Bak-Ra now believe that they were glorious rulers of the Great Covenant, Kindred who defeated the curse that locks them from daylight, rather than the charlatans they truly were (and remain). That is why the Usiri scour their own memories and the memories of any vampire foolish enough to let them. These vampires are searching for a past, but not the one their people really had.
In 1998, a book entitled Initiations of Dream and Flame was discovered in a crypt in Abusir. Although the pyramid had been excavated years before, the researcher from Waseda University in Tokyo (a ghoul) claimed that it dated back at least 3000 years. Recognizing some of the symbols as vampiric (specifically Mekhet), the researcher, one Jirou Sato, kept the discovery from the living and passed it on to his regnant. This vampire, a Shadow named Kotone, left Japan, first for England and then to travel to the United States. She was looking for help in translating the book, and in verifying her ghoul’s claims.
Within a year, both Kotone and Sato were dead and the book had disappeared. Kindred, it seems, could be as obsessive and starry-eyed about ancient Egypt as mortals, and the promise of magic so long removed from The Lancea Sanctum was tantalizing. The book eventually fell into the hands of a vampire named Renfro Delaney, who, an Egyptologist in life, was able to translate it. It was his work that led to stories of the Usiri and the Bak-Ra being spread throughout Kindred society. The rumors spread slowly, but the one that captured the attention of vampires across the world was, of course, that of the Bak-Ra and their ability to withstand the sun.
Delaney survived long enough to translate the book and carbon date some of the material in it to approximately 1000 BCE. Most vampires who followed the rumors assumed that The Lancea Sanctum had found and destroyed him — he himself was certainly terrified that the Kindred Inquisition was coming for him. But others wondered if that was really the case. Delaney put forth the notion that Theban Sorcery predated Christianity by many years, but anyone with a good grip on history knew that theory was probably the case (it came from Thebes, after all). Other undead scientists and philosophers had been saying exactly that for years, and the Lance hadn’t buried them. So what, then, did Delaney really discover?
While fragments of his notes, recordings that he made to himself while working and letters from correspondents exist, the full truth may never come out. What is known, though, is that the book itself doesn’t date back to ancient Egypt. A simple glance at the book proves that — it includes papyrus, vellum and several other types of “paper.” Some of it, yes, does date from the time that Delaney specified, but much of it is considerably more recent. This fact tends to get glossed over when vampires discuss the Initiations. Likewise, Delaney added pages for his translations, and carefully bound it all together in a huge, unwieldy tome. The result is a mélange of ancient Egyptian philosophy and history, 19th century European attempts to make sense of this philosophy, and modern ramblings on how a vampire might walk beneath the sun without being burnt to a crisp. A reader would need more than a firm background in the requisite languages to read it. He would need the patience of Job and a good imagination.
But for a vampire with that patience and imagination, the Initiations of Dream and Flame does hold some value. He might find magic embedded in those pages, magic that casts doubt on the divide between Crúac and Theban Sorcery. Thus far, no vampire, not even Delaney, has discovered it, but it’s there, waiting to be found. Of course, it might not be entirely safe to have the book in one’s possession for any length of time, for a variety of reasons.

Purpose

The Initiations

The book details how vampires are to be admitted into the “Warriors of the Dead” and the “Children of the Sun.” Of course, both of these august groups are bloodlines, and so being “admitted” to them is less a matter of joining a club and more a matter of altering one’s blood accordingly. However, like many bloodlines, the cultural aspect of the groups was given a great deal of weight.

Warriors of the Dead

According to the Initiations, a vampire meaning to join the Usiri would be brought to the High Priest after having been tested and observed by others of the bloodline for months. Once the High Priest judged him favorably, he was either Embraced or indoctrinated into the bloodline (the book is unclear on how this was accomplished directly after an Embrace) and forced into Torpor for a period of one month, without blood to sustain him. He had to survive the nightmares of Torpor unscathed, and then also find a way to awaken himself and escape his tomb. Should this happen, he was then provided enough sustenance to keep the Beast at bay. Finally, he was forced to consume the blood from a living, human heart — a member of his own mortal family — in order to complete the initiation.
Since the exposure of the Initiations, modern Usiri have attempted to perform this ritual, and the book bears testimony from those who have endured it. One of the problems that they encounter, of course, is that for a vampire to enter Torpor and then arise after a month, he must be relatively close to the Man (that is, have high Humanity) and weak of Blood (low Blood Potency). Prospects aren’t always vetted that way, though, and so the bloodline sometimes winds up with potential recruits who can’t wake themselves up. The book doesn’t offer any hints about what to do with vampires who fail the test this way, and so it is very much down to the proclivities of the Usiri presiding over the initiate.

Children of the Sun

The Bak-Ra cling to their idealized belief in the past and the glory of what they are certain is to come. The account of their initiation ritual is more complicated (and poorly translated) than that of the Usiri, and consists of three trials: mind, body and soul. Unlike the Usiri initiation, which involves only one supplicant, the Initiations seem to indicate that the Bak-Ra were indoctrinated as a group. Such a group was composed either of mortals (or ghouls) who wished to obtain the Embrace, or Mekhet who wished to join the bloodline. However many vampires there were in ancient Egypt, it’s rare in modern nights for several vampires of the same clan to come together wishing to join the same bloodline, and so when this ritual is performed at all, it usually involves mortals.

Mind

The test of mind allows a prospect the opportunity to manipulate his way out of a deadly situation. If he is able to convince his fellows that he is the one who must survive (or that the others do not deserve to live), then he moves to the next level of the initiation process. If not, the Bak-Ra search for a new prospect.

Body

The test of body is a way for the prospect to prove to the Bak-Ra that he is capable of surviving as a vampire. He is placed into another situation similar to the test of mind, except that, in this case, he must not only survive physical obstacles, but must also ensure that the others in his group do not survive the test. If the prospect succeeds, he moves to the final test.

Soul

Once a prospect has survived the testing of mind and body, he must endure the test of soul. Unfortunately, this part of the Initiations is unclear, and Delaney’s translation didn’t shed any light on the subject. The Test of Soul refers to “dark and venomous things” being allowed to attack the one surviving subject, “poisoning his soul and tainting his body.” Delaney interpreted this symbolically, reasoning that since the test of body had already concluded, the ancient Bak-Ra wouldn’t have wasted time with a further physical ordeal. He was unhelpful, though, in providing a solution as to what the passage really did mean, and so the Bak-Ra of tonight had to come up with their own ideas.
They place the subject in a situation where his faith will be tested, usually telling him that for all his moral sacrifice and cleverness, he has been denied membership and is going to face destruction the next morning. He is then given the opportunity to make his peace in any way he sees fit. It is here, the Bak-Ra feel, that the true measure of the man is revealed. Is power his god? Is it wealth? Knowledge? It only really matters that he believe in something, because the Bak-Ra are so convinced of their own superiority that there is no doubt that any prospect who survives the initiation process will eventually come to believe in Ra’s eternal magnificence.

Historical Details

Legacy

Magic in the Book

The Storyteller needs to decide what rituals might be discovered in Initiations of Dream and Flame, of course, but the precepts of Crúac, Theban Sorcery and even, if the Storyteller so desires, Mérges Sorcery (see p. 147) are likely candidates. That means that a character who spends time studying the book (subject to the systems below) can receive bonuses to learning rituals from those sorceries. The Initiations lays out the underlying philosophies of vampiric blood magic in such a way as to remove contemporary or even ancient theology from the matter, and a vampire who can understand these philosophies stands to become a powerful magician indeed. Of course, few Kindred are capable of this kind of lateral thinking, even without the Language barrier.
In order to study the book, the character must either read Delaney’s translations or learn Late Egyptian. In either case, the player rolls Intelligence + Academics as an extended action. Each roll requires four hours of Research, and 20 successes are required.
Dramatic Failure: All previous successes are lost — the character has been basing his Research on a flawed interpretation of the text or a mistranslation.
Failure: No successes are accumulated toward the total.
Success: Successes are added to the total. If the player achieves the requisite number of successes, he immediately makes an Intelligence + Occult roll for the character. For every success on this roll, the player subtracts one experience point from the cost of buying: Theban Sorcery, Crúac, Mérges Sorcery and any other blood magic that the Storyteller would like to include (the Coils of the Dragon are not blood magic, and do not apply), and associated rituals. The successes can be spread out over multiple expenditures, but cannot reduce the cost of a given trait below one.
Exceptional Success: Considerable successes are added to the total. If the player finishes the Research action with at least 25 successes, he adds three dice to the ensuing Intelligence + Occult roll.
Modifier | Situation
+1 | Character already has dots in a form of blood sorcery (Crúac, Theban or Mérges Sorcery, Kindred Vodoun, etc.). These modifiers are cumulative — a character who knows both Crúac and Theban Sorcery would receive a +2 modifier.
+1 | Character has a Specialty in Ancient Egypt.
-3 | Character has no dots in Occult.
-4 | Character is working from Delaney’s translations.

Dangers of the Book

The most obvious danger associated with the Initiations is that several factions of vampires are after it. Neither The Lancea Sanctum nor the Circle of the Crone want the tome in the hands of another covenant, and obviously The Ordo Dracul would love to have such an important occult resource. The Invictus and The Carthian Movement aren’t as interested in the book for its own sake, but recognize its potential as a bargaining chip (and, should word get out that it can be used to learn blood sorcery, its value to those covenants increases dramatically).
Likewise, a number of bloodlines see the Initiations as their property. The Usiri and the Bak-Ra are, obviously, chief among them, but the Iltani (see p. 145) would also be highly interested in the book. Any bloodline with an attraction to blood sorcery, or The Lancea Sanctum in particular (such as the Septemi, p. 89) might also like a look.
But quite beyond factional disputes, the book itself is dangerous. As mentioned, while parts of the tome do date to the New Kingdom, others are much more recent. In fact, one of the most disturbing passages in the book, one that Delaney never translated, was written in the late 19th century.
A Bak-Ra vampire named Asaremhet awoke from Torpor in 1894. Trapped in his tomb, he employed his mastery of Auspex to flit about the land in Twilight. He entered the resting place of the Initiations, searching for the torporous remains of one of his comrades from the Great Covenant. He found the vampire — seconds before French explorers excavated the tomb. Sunlight entered the chamber for the first time in centuries, and the ancient vampire, Asaremhet’s friend, was burnt to ash in seconds.
Unable to take direct revenge, Asaremhet cursed the men, using his Devotions to appear before them, haunting them, leading them into the tomb’s many traps. Within a month they were dead, and Asaremhet used his blood magic to possess the corpse of the lead Egyptologist. He unearthed his friend’s Requiem diary and, using the blood of the grave robbers, entered a curse upon all who would use the treasures of the past for their own ends.
The curse took a great deal of Asaremhet’s power, and murdering the Egyptologists had taken a toll on his Humanity. By the time the curse was laid, Asaremhet could only return to his body, wasted and half-mad, to sleep for another century (he appears in his current form in Ancient Mysteries). He has no memory of writing in Initiations of Dream and Flame or of placing the curse, though he does sometimes dream of his friend’s death in the sun.
The curse does not affect anyone who attempts to read or translate the book. It becomes active only when a vampire tries to use the knowledge that the book bestows, whether to perform one of the initiations or to gain the benefit of blood magic. The curse is the loss of one’s own memory, a hastening of the Fog of Eternity. The vampire begins to lose memories every time he goes to sleep, rather than during long periods of Torpor.
Mechanically, a vampire who takes advantage of the benefits described above or presides over or partakes in either of the initiations described earlier in the chapter gains the Flaw: Memory Erosion. Other vampires can take this Flaw as well and reap the normal benefits, but a vampire suffering under Asaremhet’s Curse does not gain experience points when the Flaw hinders him.
Memory Erosion: Whenever the vampire sleeps, his memories begin to fade. Upon awakening in the evening, the vampire can either lose three points of Willpower (this Willpower is spent over the course of the day in a struggle to retain the memories) or the player can roll Resolve + Composure – Blood Potency.
Dramatic Failure: The character loses his mind entirely, becoming a complete amnesiac. Traits are unaffected, but the character has no memory of his unlife as a vampire, or his mortal existence. Discovering the truth will doubtless be a great shock.
Failure: The vampire suffers a -2 penalty on rolls based on recall (normally Mental rolls, but other types of rolls might qualify at the Storyteller’s discretion) for the remainder of the night. If the player fails a number of these rolls in a row equal to the vampire’s Resolve, the vampire loses a dot of a Skill (player’s choice).
Success: The character suffers no ill effects for the evening.
Exceptional Success: The character suffers no ill effects for the evening, and realizes that his mind is slipping away. This might allow him to pursue a cure.
The curse might be cured by further study of the book, by traveling to Egypt to seek out other such works, by helping Asaremhet to regain his memory (though he’s unlikely to want to undo the curse once he does, since he would then remember why he placed it), or by soliciting the help of the Usiri bloodline.

Type

Journal, Personal