The Coils of the Dragon
Central to the Ordo Dracul is the philosophy of transcendence, the desire to rise above the limitations of the cursed vampiric form. Learning The Coils of the Dragon allows a Kindred to “cheat” certain aspects of the Requiem. For instance, a vampire might be able to slow his mystical metabolism, consuming less blood than normal when he rises each night. Another aspect of transcendence might allow a Kindred to slake his thirst on animal blood, no matter how potent his own blood is. By defeating these incarnations of vampirism, the Order believes it is on the right path toward eliminating or escaping vampirism entirely — with the goal of attaining the next level, whatever form that takes.
The Requiem presents Kindred with a number of advantages that no mortal can attain, but the curse of vampirism far overshadows these petty powers. The vampires of The Ordo Dracul, however, believe that such doesn’t have to be the case. Through the Coils of the Dragon, this covenant strives to cheat the curse levied upon its founder, stripping away the limitations and requirements of undeath until members achieve purity.
The Coils of the Dragon include three distinct philosophies, each of which has three tiers. The Coils of the Dragon, like Crúac and Theban Sorcery, truly belong to no one clan. Members of the covenant can study any or all of the coils, but they recognize that no vampire has ever truly achieved mastery— at least, not to the order’s knowledge. A character must have at least one dot of Covenant Status (Ordo Dracul) in order to learn any Coils of the Dragon. A player who takes at least one dot worth of that Merit at character creation may spend one of his character’s three Discipline dots on the Coils of the Dragon if he wishes. Any time a player wants to increase his character’s Coils of the Dragon score, the character must still have at least one dot of Covenant Status (Ordo Dracul) to do so.
Activating a tier of the coils requires no roll or asset expenditure in and of itself (though some tiers augment rolls or permit certain abilities when they might not otherwise be allowed). A character always has the option of using a tier available to him, and the benefits of the tier may be “turned off” at the Kindred’s discretion.
New dots of the Coils of the Dragon are purchased like a Discipline, with the number of tiers the character already commands serving as the current level and the “new level” being the next to be achieved. For example, a character knows five tiers of the Coils of the Dragon. For him to learn a sixth, his player has to spend 42 experience points (6 [the new level in the coil] times 7 [the experience-point multiplier for out-of-clan Disciplines]). Tiers must be learned in order in each coil, though a character need not advance one coil to completion before he can advance another. That is, a character with two tiers of Coil of Blood could learn the first tier of Coil of the Beast without learning the third tier of Coil of Blood. Because the Coils of the Dragon do not constitute a true Discipline, they are not limited by Blood Potency trait maximums. A character need not have a Blood Potency of 6 to learn six different tiers of coils, for example. Yet, increasingly more dots in a coil are always bought as if they’re out-of-clan Disciplines.
The Coils of the Dragon are the most impressive advantage of The Ordo Dracul, the system of powers that the founder and his brides spent their unlives unlocking, the method by which the Dragons can, perhaps, transcend their condition.
Learning the Coils is a formative moment in the career of a Dragon. It demonstrates to the Kindred that vampires can change and can even mitigate their curse somewhat. Up until a Dragon experiences her first chrysalis, she might well have doubted the truth of the Coils, viewing them as wishful thinking. But the Coils of the Dragon are not prayers, but scientific precepts in action. A vampire does not have to be devout or reverent to use the Coils, merely diligent and persistent. The belief in God and in the vampiric curse is taken as read. Studying the Coils requires the vampire to know and understand her condition, not simply believe it.
Each of the Coils requires different techniques and practices from the Kindred, but once a Dragon has passed a chrysalis and achieved a given tier, she never has to “relearn” that tier and will never forget it. A vampire who progresses in a Discipline or in blood sorcery like Crúac might, over time, forget what she has learned, because these powers are based on knowledge. The Coils of the Dragon are permanent changes to a vampire’s body, mind and soul (and in that regard, are more similar to the physical Disciplines of Resilience, Vigor and Celerity than to the others).
The Coils of the Dragon extend beyond the nine, varied tiers presented in Vampire: The Requiem. Many Dragons believe that each Coil can be followed unto transcendence, and that other, heretofore-unimagined Coils may yet exist to be cultivated from, or unlocked within, the Blood. The number of Dragons who actually succeed in uncovering new Coils is small — especially compared with the number who seem to be trying to do so. More often than not, Dragon mystics merely succeed in finding new ways to learn or embody Coils that the Order is already familiar with.
Although the effects of the Coils, and the purpose assigned to them by the covenant, are clear, it’s important to remember that no Kindred can authoritatively say just what the Coils actually are. The changes in the vampiric state that manifest through the Coils are unlike the Disciplines mixed in with Kindred blood. They are unlike the mystic rituals practiced by other covenants. The spiritualists, philosophers and warlocks of the Ordo Dracul can see what the Coils do, know how it feels to manifest them and, to some extent, explain how to create them within the Blood, but no vampire truly understands, for certain, what makes them possible. Are they the rungs of a long ladder leading out of Hell, given to the Kindred by God? Are they a demonstrable result of a soul’s capacity to brew new power in the Blood? Are they even something that is gained at all — or is each Coil a scale torn from the Beast’s hide, or an ounce of damnation washed away?
The more power a Dragon achieves, the less that power is understood.
And yet, a few diligent Dragons have discovered new ways to change the Blood and manifest Coils previously unknown to Kindred of the covenant. Such breakthroughs are rare, but so cherished and celebrated by the Order that a surprising number of dedicated or stubborn Kindred continue the search for new Coils despite decades — or even centuries — of fruitless effort.
Not all Dragons who fail to discover new Coils fail to discover other powers of the Blood, however. Centuries’ worth of occult, scientific and mystical efforts have led the Ordo Dracul to other new supernatural powers, beyond the Coils of the Dragon. Such powers might be studied, marveled at and even practiced by Kindred of the covenant, but they are not what the Ordo Dracul is truly searching for, so eventually most of these tangential or eccentric powers lose the attention of the Ordo Dracul’s best minds and enter a strange category of their own. Some of these oddities of the Blood are presented later on in this chapter.
Changing one’s self is difficult for mortals, especially adults. Once a mortal becomes set in his ways, changing even everyday routines becomes difficult. It isn’t impossible by any means, but it does require constant concentration, at least at first, until whichever new patterns he wants become habitual (and even then, he must often watch to make sure he doesn’t slip back into previous behaviors). This kind of change applies to “simple” things like giving up addictions or improving work habits, neither of which are endemic to the condition of being human.
Vampires attempting to learn the Coils of the Dragon are trying to change some of the physical realities of their existence. Put another way, a vampire learning, for instance, the first tier of The Coil of Blood (Blood Seeps Slowly) is comparable to a human being learning to go a week at a time without food. It’s not impossible, but it flies in the face of the way the human (or vampiric) body is designed.
So how does a Dragon go about this? Where can she start?
Sampling different kinds of blood is another way to loosen the tight grip that the curse of vampirism exerts upon the Dragon. Mortal blood laced with various kinds of drugs or even the blood of mortals of different heritages provide subtle differences in “flavor” (the former can provide considerably more than that). Truly daring Kindred seek out more exotic sources of Vitae, sampling the blood of mages or even werewolves in an attempt to shake their undead bodies from stasis.
Learning certain Disciplines can also help. If a Dragon is having trouble with the notion of changing herself on a physical level, a Mentor can instruct her in Vigor, Celerity, Resilience or rotean. These Disciplines can act as “gateways” to the Coils.
Changing the mind isn’t normally difficult, especially for neonates. The vampire begins by learning a new skill, such as a musical instrument or proficiency in a new weapon. This puts the Kindred in the right frame of mind to learn the Coils, and usually has some practical applicability as well — The Ordo Dracul hates to waste time.
Spiritual change is much harder. The Ordo Dracul spends a great deal of energy teaching young Dragons to learn to perceive spiritual changes, rather than enact them. This is because a spiritual change alters one’s entire outlook on unlife, which is often so jarring that the vampire loses progress toward the chrysalis rather than gaining it. Learning to sense ghosts, honing control of the Predator’s Taint, and developing Disciplines such as Dominate, Majesty and Nightmare are all accepted methods of preparing one’s self spiritually for the Coils.
A third method of inducing change, normally used only for students having an extraordinarily difficult time with the concepts involved, is deliberately causing a drop in Humanity. Killing a mortal is enough for most neonates, but then, neonates don’t normally require this kind of “assistance” because their proximity to their mortal lives mean that they remember the comparative mutability of that state. Kindred who come to The Ordo Dracul later in their unlives are more likely to require this kind of shock to their systems, but by that time, Humanity has usually dropped to a level that requires a truly horrific act.
The exact nature of the rituals varies depending on which of the Coils the vampire is attempting to learn, and on the age and bent of that vampire’s Mentor. Mentors Embraced prior to the 1960s or so favor harsher methods of preparing the student to experience chrysalis, while more recent Dragons (what few there are) favor “softer” methods such as psychoanalysis and Hypnosis. A few suggestions and examples of these rituals follow, listed by Coil:
Coil of Banes: Trials by fire or sunlight, day-long vigils, hours spent staring into bright lights, beatings with metal clubs (to facilitate development of Resilience Discipline), consuming chemical mixtures containing gasoline, Meditation in chambers filled with flammable gas, psychoanalysis involving free association and desensitization therapy, ritual branding or scarification (the pupil is advised to never heal these scars), walking on coals.
Coil of the Beast: Ritual combat (more recently, martial arts has come into vogue as a training method), sensory deprivation, fasting followed by “tempting the Beast” with fresh blood, primal scream, hunting mortal prey through a forest, rigid mathematical formulae or precise balancing of dangerous chemicals (fosters attention to detail and the ability to shut out distraction), lobotomy (three nails are driven into the vampire’s skull, dislodging the brain; this damage can be healed normally, but is meant to knock the Beast loose from the conscious mind).
Coil of Blood: Periods of fasting, entire weeks spent in the blush of health, training in any Discipline that requires Vitae expenditure, feeding to capacity and beyond for several nights at a time, learning to bleed on command (first from a cut, then from an orifice, finally from any point on the body), learning to differentiate between blood sources (animal and mortal, male and female, mortals of differing races or habits, etc.), study of hematology and virology as well as the mystical and religious properties of blood, religious service involving blood (including Communion), sex with mortals.
Coil of the Soul: Shunning contact with Kindred for a certain amount of time, feeding only on animals, deliberate acts to lower Humanity (only for young or especially devout Kindred), crucifixion, psychoanalysis (Freudian or Jungian, often coupled with dream interpretation), periods of Torpor induced by staking, sensory deprivation, deliberate manipulation of memory via the Dominate Discipline or emotions through Majesty (assumes an extraordinary relationship between Mentor and student, or an extremely gullible pupil), immersion in a closed mortal circle (sometimes a Dragon takes up residence in a large house where she can avoid notice, just to watch the inhabitants).
The chrysalis, according to the Dragons, feels initially like returning to the womb. Everything is dark and warm, and, for a short time, the vampire feels comforted. It is in this brief moment of control and safety that the Kindred must exert her will and change herself, for to wait too long in this state is to invite disaster.
In the chrysalis, the vampire’s consciousness is separate from her soul and body. This state of affairs is what allows her to make changes to her condition, rather like making adjustments to the workings of a machine. If she successfully makes these changes, she can restart the machine (returning her mind to its proper “place”), and return to consciousness with the changes, the Coil, in place. If the vampire waits, however, she feels the darkness close in around her. She is not alone. Her Beast lurks here as well, waiting for the opportunity it needs. During every second the Dragon waits, her Beast attempts to escape from the cage of her mind. If the character waits too long, she might return to consciousness to find that her Beast has corrupted one or more of her Disciplines, even her other Coils.
This doesn’t happen often, however, because Dragons are warned of the possibility every step of the way, taught how to avoid it and given the best possible conditions for avoiding such unpleasant mishaps. A vampire’s coterie, Mentor or both look after her when she enters the chrysalis, though some Kindred insist on being alone during this vulnerable time. This caution stems in part from loyalty (or at least professional courtesy) toward the Kindred, but mostly from the knowledge that if a vampire’s Beast infects her, the damage is normally irrevocable. The Dragon must then be destroyed, but because the fall to the Beast was the result of one failed attempt at change rather than a long series of inhuman acts, the vampire is much cannier than a vampire lost to Wassail would normally be. While a vampire that has been given over to the Beast is normally a ravening monster with no urges other than sleeping and killing, a vampire who loses her mind through a botched chrysalis is somewhat more intelligent. Though she degenerates quickly, she is capable of wreaking a great deal of damage on the mortals and possibly the Kindred of the area if not caught and destroyed.
The difference that even a single Coil makes in a Dragon’s psychological makeup, however, is immense. She has proven to herself that she can change her vampiric condition. A mortal might feel the same kind of elation after a religious epiphany, after losing 100 pounds, after the birth of a child or some other undeniably life-changing event. Learning more Coils reinforces this feeling, but nothing matches the intensity of a Kindred emerging from the chrysalis knowing that she is different. Even a vampire who has become disillusioned with The Ordo Dracul by this point, tired of bowing and scraping to those of greater Status and following the arcane rule of propriety cannot deny the simple truth: the Coils of the Dragon are real, and provide a path out of the curse of vampirism.
Learning a Coil is one of several rites of passage for young Dragons, and mentors normally make a point to honor, or at least acknowledge, their student’s achievement. Announcing to the covenant as a whole that a given Kindred has achieved her first Coil isn’t always wise (manipulation of The Ordo Dracul’s system of propriety is more difficult when one doesn’t know where other Kindred stand, after all), but a Mentor who oversees a student coterie usually performs a brief ceremony to mark the occasion. That ceremony can resemble a religious rite, a scholar’s dissertation or a simple meeting of the Kindred involved, but it serves to foster academic and mystical competition in the coterie. That’s the idea, anyway. Just as often, it fosters murderous jealousy and underhanded dealings, but those methods work quite well to enact change, and that’s how Kindred society works, anyway. A “Supplicant ceremony” is just as much a warning to the new Supplicant as a celebration of her achievements.
If you would like to add the chance of failure to the process, see the Storyteller's Option: Chrysalis Mechanics.
A vampire who becomes lost to the Dragon immediately loses any previously known Coils of the Dragon. The vampire’s Beast “resets” its body, rejecting the changes the character has made. As the Beast slowly worms its way through the vampire’s consciousness, the character’s behavior changes to reflect this rapid decline. Beginning at the behavioral and appearance descriptions listed for Humanity 4 (see p. 186 of Vampire: The Requiem), the character’s Humanity drops by one after every interval of nights equal to her dots in Resolve. For example, a Dragon with Resolve 3 who becomes lost to the Dragon spends three nights as though she had Humanity 4. She can still function around humans, but cares only for the practical consequences of her actions and looks corpselike and pale. After three more nights, her effective Humanity falls to 3. She becomes more predatory and sadistic, driven by her Vice. This continues until, after 12 nights, her Beast has destroyed any residual thought and self-awareness. Note that during this time, her Humanity trait is actually 0, with all of the concordant penalties that levies. The character’s body and mind simply Haven’t caught up with her soul yet.
Interestingly, Ordo Dracul diplomats have come across evidence that The Lancea Sanctum possesses rituals that can cure Kindred “in a special state of Wassail, wherein the Beast is not a ravening monster but a plotting fiend.” The Sanctified don’t seem to know what state these rites refer to, however, but if the rumors are true, they date to the 16th century — about the time that Dracula allegedly had dealings with the covenant.
Which of these powers, if any, are obtainable in your chronicles is, of course, up to the Storyteller.
The Requiem presents Kindred with a number of advantages that no mortal can attain, but the curse of vampirism far overshadows these petty powers. The vampires of The Ordo Dracul, however, believe that such doesn’t have to be the case. Through the Coils of the Dragon, this covenant strives to cheat the curse levied upon its founder, stripping away the limitations and requirements of undeath until members achieve purity.
The Coils of the Dragon include three distinct philosophies, each of which has three tiers. The Coils of the Dragon, like Crúac and Theban Sorcery, truly belong to no one clan. Members of the covenant can study any or all of the coils, but they recognize that no vampire has ever truly achieved mastery— at least, not to the order’s knowledge. A character must have at least one dot of Covenant Status (Ordo Dracul) in order to learn any Coils of the Dragon. A player who takes at least one dot worth of that Merit at character creation may spend one of his character’s three Discipline dots on the Coils of the Dragon if he wishes. Any time a player wants to increase his character’s Coils of the Dragon score, the character must still have at least one dot of Covenant Status (Ordo Dracul) to do so.
Activating a tier of the coils requires no roll or asset expenditure in and of itself (though some tiers augment rolls or permit certain abilities when they might not otherwise be allowed). A character always has the option of using a tier available to him, and the benefits of the tier may be “turned off” at the Kindred’s discretion.
New dots of the Coils of the Dragon are purchased like a Discipline, with the number of tiers the character already commands serving as the current level and the “new level” being the next to be achieved. For example, a character knows five tiers of the Coils of the Dragon. For him to learn a sixth, his player has to spend 42 experience points (6 [the new level in the coil] times 7 [the experience-point multiplier for out-of-clan Disciplines]). Tiers must be learned in order in each coil, though a character need not advance one coil to completion before he can advance another. That is, a character with two tiers of Coil of Blood could learn the first tier of Coil of the Beast without learning the third tier of Coil of Blood. Because the Coils of the Dragon do not constitute a true Discipline, they are not limited by Blood Potency trait maximums. A character need not have a Blood Potency of 6 to learn six different tiers of coils, for example. Yet, increasingly more dots in a coil are always bought as if they’re out-of-clan Disciplines.
The Coils of the Dragon are the most impressive advantage of The Ordo Dracul, the system of powers that the founder and his brides spent their unlives unlocking, the method by which the Dragons can, perhaps, transcend their condition.
Learning the Coils is a formative moment in the career of a Dragon. It demonstrates to the Kindred that vampires can change and can even mitigate their curse somewhat. Up until a Dragon experiences her first chrysalis, she might well have doubted the truth of the Coils, viewing them as wishful thinking. But the Coils of the Dragon are not prayers, but scientific precepts in action. A vampire does not have to be devout or reverent to use the Coils, merely diligent and persistent. The belief in God and in the vampiric curse is taken as read. Studying the Coils requires the vampire to know and understand her condition, not simply believe it.
Each of the Coils requires different techniques and practices from the Kindred, but once a Dragon has passed a chrysalis and achieved a given tier, she never has to “relearn” that tier and will never forget it. A vampire who progresses in a Discipline or in blood sorcery like Crúac might, over time, forget what she has learned, because these powers are based on knowledge. The Coils of the Dragon are permanent changes to a vampire’s body, mind and soul (and in that regard, are more similar to the physical Disciplines of Resilience, Vigor and Celerity than to the others).
The Coils of the Dragon extend beyond the nine, varied tiers presented in Vampire: The Requiem. Many Dragons believe that each Coil can be followed unto transcendence, and that other, heretofore-unimagined Coils may yet exist to be cultivated from, or unlocked within, the Blood. The number of Dragons who actually succeed in uncovering new Coils is small — especially compared with the number who seem to be trying to do so. More often than not, Dragon mystics merely succeed in finding new ways to learn or embody Coils that the Order is already familiar with.
Although the effects of the Coils, and the purpose assigned to them by the covenant, are clear, it’s important to remember that no Kindred can authoritatively say just what the Coils actually are. The changes in the vampiric state that manifest through the Coils are unlike the Disciplines mixed in with Kindred blood. They are unlike the mystic rituals practiced by other covenants. The spiritualists, philosophers and warlocks of the Ordo Dracul can see what the Coils do, know how it feels to manifest them and, to some extent, explain how to create them within the Blood, but no vampire truly understands, for certain, what makes them possible. Are they the rungs of a long ladder leading out of Hell, given to the Kindred by God? Are they a demonstrable result of a soul’s capacity to brew new power in the Blood? Are they even something that is gained at all — or is each Coil a scale torn from the Beast’s hide, or an ounce of damnation washed away?
The more power a Dragon achieves, the less that power is understood.
And yet, a few diligent Dragons have discovered new ways to change the Blood and manifest Coils previously unknown to Kindred of the covenant. Such breakthroughs are rare, but so cherished and celebrated by the Order that a surprising number of dedicated or stubborn Kindred continue the search for new Coils despite decades — or even centuries — of fruitless effort.
Not all Dragons who fail to discover new Coils fail to discover other powers of the Blood, however. Centuries’ worth of occult, scientific and mystical efforts have led the Ordo Dracul to other new supernatural powers, beyond the Coils of the Dragon. Such powers might be studied, marveled at and even practiced by Kindred of the covenant, but they are not what the Ordo Dracul is truly searching for, so eventually most of these tangential or eccentric powers lose the attention of the Ordo Dracul’s best minds and enter a strange category of their own. Some of these oddities of the Blood are presented later on in this chapter.
Seeking the Chrysalis
What does a vampire do in order to prepare herself for the Coils? Over the centuries, Dragons from across the world have developed techniques for changing themselves based on various mortal religious and secular practices, but a few points remain constant. The first step is to understand and enact change upon the world, and these topics have already been discussed in this chapter. With enacting change, however, comes internalizing that change, altering one’s self. This, to the physically inert Kindred, is the first and hardest hurdle to overcome.Changing one’s self is difficult for mortals, especially adults. Once a mortal becomes set in his ways, changing even everyday routines becomes difficult. It isn’t impossible by any means, but it does require constant concentration, at least at first, until whichever new patterns he wants become habitual (and even then, he must often watch to make sure he doesn’t slip back into previous behaviors). This kind of change applies to “simple” things like giving up addictions or improving work habits, neither of which are endemic to the condition of being human.
Vampires attempting to learn the Coils of the Dragon are trying to change some of the physical realities of their existence. Put another way, a vampire learning, for instance, the first tier of The Coil of Blood (Blood Seeps Slowly) is comparable to a human being learning to go a week at a time without food. It’s not impossible, but it flies in the face of the way the human (or vampiric) body is designed.
So how does a Dragon go about this? Where can she start?
Changing the Body
Ordinarily, the Kindred body does not retain change after the Embrace. A haircut, tattoo, piercing or scar fades during the day as the vampire’s body “resets” itself to the moment of death. With effort, though, a Kindred can keep such changes. A Dragon preparing for a chrysalis is encouraged to make and keep small changes to her body, and high-ranking members of the covenant (especially the Sworn) often have many tattoos and scars on their bodies, marking their control over their own forms.Sampling different kinds of blood is another way to loosen the tight grip that the curse of vampirism exerts upon the Dragon. Mortal blood laced with various kinds of drugs or even the blood of mortals of different heritages provide subtle differences in “flavor” (the former can provide considerably more than that). Truly daring Kindred seek out more exotic sources of Vitae, sampling the blood of mages or even werewolves in an attempt to shake their undead bodies from stasis.
Learning certain Disciplines can also help. If a Dragon is having trouble with the notion of changing herself on a physical level, a Mentor can instruct her in Vigor, Celerity, Resilience or rotean. These Disciplines can act as “gateways” to the Coils.
Changing the Soul
Changing the body isn’t enough, however. The Coils of the Dragon are alterations in the Kindred’s metaphysical as well as physical makeup. To wit, the vampire must be ready to change herself on a mental and spiritual level as well.Changing the mind isn’t normally difficult, especially for neonates. The vampire begins by learning a new skill, such as a musical instrument or proficiency in a new weapon. This puts the Kindred in the right frame of mind to learn the Coils, and usually has some practical applicability as well — The Ordo Dracul hates to waste time.
Spiritual change is much harder. The Ordo Dracul spends a great deal of energy teaching young Dragons to learn to perceive spiritual changes, rather than enact them. This is because a spiritual change alters one’s entire outlook on unlife, which is often so jarring that the vampire loses progress toward the chrysalis rather than gaining it. Learning to sense ghosts, honing control of the Predator’s Taint, and developing Disciplines such as Dominate, Majesty and Nightmare are all accepted methods of preparing one’s self spiritually for the Coils.
A third method of inducing change, normally used only for students having an extraordinarily difficult time with the concepts involved, is deliberately causing a drop in Humanity. Killing a mortal is enough for most neonates, but then, neonates don’t normally require this kind of “assistance” because their proximity to their mortal lives mean that they remember the comparative mutability of that state. Kindred who come to The Ordo Dracul later in their unlives are more likely to require this kind of shock to their systems, but by that time, Humanity has usually dropped to a level that requires a truly horrific act.
Instruction
As has been stated, all Dragons are considered students for their entire careers in the covenant. While outsiders theorize (not altogether incorrectly) that the focus on the Mentor’s role in a vampire’s life is a control tactic as much as anything, the risk and difficulty of learning the Coils of the Dragon makes it a necessity. When a Dragon is nearing a chrysalis, the Mentor records her progress, makes suggestions and generally ups the ante on any lessons the learner is currently undergoing. This can involve a more stringent series of questions, demands of fasting or combat or increased attention to the state of the vampire’s soul (and, therefore, Humanity).Rituals
Dracula based his initial delving into the Coils (if the Rites are accurate) on mortal alchemy and theosophical teaching. Other Dragons, over the centuries, have developed other methods that work equally well. A student might receive pages of Latin text to memorize and recite, books full of chemical formulae that she must learn to prepare or a series of movements resembling martial arts kata. Whatever the exact nature of these rituals, they are designed to unlock the undead body’s potential, to loosen the vampire’s soul from its earthly moorings for a few seconds. A formula might be ingested along with a dose of Vitae or the Latin phrases repeated to a fever pitch, but whatever the form of the ritual, it must become second nature to the Kindred. No mistakes are possible if the vampire is to successfully advance her understanding of the Coils.The exact nature of the rituals varies depending on which of the Coils the vampire is attempting to learn, and on the age and bent of that vampire’s Mentor. Mentors Embraced prior to the 1960s or so favor harsher methods of preparing the student to experience chrysalis, while more recent Dragons (what few there are) favor “softer” methods such as psychoanalysis and Hypnosis. A few suggestions and examples of these rituals follow, listed by Coil:
Coil of Banes: Trials by fire or sunlight, day-long vigils, hours spent staring into bright lights, beatings with metal clubs (to facilitate development of Resilience Discipline), consuming chemical mixtures containing gasoline, Meditation in chambers filled with flammable gas, psychoanalysis involving free association and desensitization therapy, ritual branding or scarification (the pupil is advised to never heal these scars), walking on coals.
Coil of the Beast: Ritual combat (more recently, martial arts has come into vogue as a training method), sensory deprivation, fasting followed by “tempting the Beast” with fresh blood, primal scream, hunting mortal prey through a forest, rigid mathematical formulae or precise balancing of dangerous chemicals (fosters attention to detail and the ability to shut out distraction), lobotomy (three nails are driven into the vampire’s skull, dislodging the brain; this damage can be healed normally, but is meant to knock the Beast loose from the conscious mind).
Coil of Blood: Periods of fasting, entire weeks spent in the blush of health, training in any Discipline that requires Vitae expenditure, feeding to capacity and beyond for several nights at a time, learning to bleed on command (first from a cut, then from an orifice, finally from any point on the body), learning to differentiate between blood sources (animal and mortal, male and female, mortals of differing races or habits, etc.), study of hematology and virology as well as the mystical and religious properties of blood, religious service involving blood (including Communion), sex with mortals.
Coil of the Soul: Shunning contact with Kindred for a certain amount of time, feeding only on animals, deliberate acts to lower Humanity (only for young or especially devout Kindred), crucifixion, psychoanalysis (Freudian or Jungian, often coupled with dream interpretation), periods of Torpor induced by staking, sensory deprivation, deliberate manipulation of memory via the Dominate Discipline or emotions through Majesty (assumes an extraordinary relationship between Mentor and student, or an extremely gullible pupil), immersion in a closed mortal circle (sometimes a Dragon takes up residence in a large house where she can avoid notice, just to watch the inhabitants).
Meditation
Dragons preparing for a chrysalis spend as much as half of every night in deep Meditation, bringing themselves as close to Torpor as possible without actually falling into the deathsleep. Some Kindred even pierce their chests with sharp chunks of wood to simulate staking (and usually have a ghoul or a coterie-mate nearby to rescue them if something goes wrong), fighting through the pain and fear to achieve a state modern Dragons call “corporeal malleability” (older Dragons refer to someone in this state as having a “soul of clay”). A Dragon who can reach this state is prepared to enter a chrysalis and learn a Coil.Achieving the Chrysalis
When the Kindred is ready, she performs her rituals and simultaneously meditates to achieve the soul of clay. If she is successful, she enters the chrysalis and may change her undead condition just slightly, learning a tier of the Coils of the Dragon.The chrysalis, according to the Dragons, feels initially like returning to the womb. Everything is dark and warm, and, for a short time, the vampire feels comforted. It is in this brief moment of control and safety that the Kindred must exert her will and change herself, for to wait too long in this state is to invite disaster.
In the chrysalis, the vampire’s consciousness is separate from her soul and body. This state of affairs is what allows her to make changes to her condition, rather like making adjustments to the workings of a machine. If she successfully makes these changes, she can restart the machine (returning her mind to its proper “place”), and return to consciousness with the changes, the Coil, in place. If the vampire waits, however, she feels the darkness close in around her. She is not alone. Her Beast lurks here as well, waiting for the opportunity it needs. During every second the Dragon waits, her Beast attempts to escape from the cage of her mind. If the character waits too long, she might return to consciousness to find that her Beast has corrupted one or more of her Disciplines, even her other Coils.
This doesn’t happen often, however, because Dragons are warned of the possibility every step of the way, taught how to avoid it and given the best possible conditions for avoiding such unpleasant mishaps. A vampire’s coterie, Mentor or both look after her when she enters the chrysalis, though some Kindred insist on being alone during this vulnerable time. This caution stems in part from loyalty (or at least professional courtesy) toward the Kindred, but mostly from the knowledge that if a vampire’s Beast infects her, the damage is normally irrevocable. The Dragon must then be destroyed, but because the fall to the Beast was the result of one failed attempt at change rather than a long series of inhuman acts, the vampire is much cannier than a vampire lost to Wassail would normally be. While a vampire that has been given over to the Beast is normally a ravening monster with no urges other than sleeping and killing, a vampire who loses her mind through a botched chrysalis is somewhat more intelligent. Though she degenerates quickly, she is capable of wreaking a great deal of damage on the mortals and possibly the Kindred of the area if not caught and destroyed.
The First Coil
The first time a Dragon learns one of the tiers, her relationship with The Ordo Dracul changes. Before this, she was a Slave, an ignorant in a society based on knowledge. Now, she has a margin of Status, but the margin between Slave and Supplicant is extremely wide. The first member of the student coterie to enter the chrysalis and gain a Coil can look forward to special treatment from her tutor thereafter — unless, of course, her learning sputters and stalls, which is occasionally a problem.The difference that even a single Coil makes in a Dragon’s psychological makeup, however, is immense. She has proven to herself that she can change her vampiric condition. A mortal might feel the same kind of elation after a religious epiphany, after losing 100 pounds, after the birth of a child or some other undeniably life-changing event. Learning more Coils reinforces this feeling, but nothing matches the intensity of a Kindred emerging from the chrysalis knowing that she is different. Even a vampire who has become disillusioned with The Ordo Dracul by this point, tired of bowing and scraping to those of greater Status and following the arcane rule of propriety cannot deny the simple truth: the Coils of the Dragon are real, and provide a path out of the curse of vampirism.
Learning a Coil is one of several rites of passage for young Dragons, and mentors normally make a point to honor, or at least acknowledge, their student’s achievement. Announcing to the covenant as a whole that a given Kindred has achieved her first Coil isn’t always wise (manipulation of The Ordo Dracul’s system of propriety is more difficult when one doesn’t know where other Kindred stand, after all), but a Mentor who oversees a student coterie usually performs a brief ceremony to mark the occasion. That ceremony can resemble a religious rite, a scholar’s dissertation or a simple meeting of the Kindred involved, but it serves to foster academic and mystical competition in the coterie. That’s the idea, anyway. Just as often, it fosters murderous jealousy and underhanded dealings, but those methods work quite well to enact change, and that’s how Kindred society works, anyway. A “Supplicant ceremony” is just as much a warning to the new Supplicant as a celebration of her achievements.
Mechanics
Learning the Coils of the Dragon can be as simple as the player spending the appropriate number of experience points and marking the new trait on her character sheet. But the process can be considerably more interesting and rewarding than that, from a story perspective. The preceding sections mention the dangers inherent in learning the Coils of the Dragon. If your Storyteller doesn’t wish to make that danger a real consideration for your character (fair enough), she may feel free to assume that your character has been taught well enough that she avoids that possible fate, and can simply use the notion of failed chrysalises as a plot device rather than a potential doom for your character. In particular, we recommend that the possibility of becoming completely lost to the Beast shouldn’t be considered for a player’s character, unless that player is interested in retiring her character and beginning with a new one.If you would like to add the chance of failure to the process, see the Storyteller's Option: Chrysalis Mechanics.
Lost to the Dragon
A vampire who loses herself to the Beast during a chrysalis is sometimes said to be “lost to the Dragon.” This condition is incurable, and unfortunately requires the Kindred in question to be hunted down and destroyed. Such Kindred are more intelligent and capable than most vampires who reach Humanity 0, however, at least initially.A vampire who becomes lost to the Dragon immediately loses any previously known Coils of the Dragon. The vampire’s Beast “resets” its body, rejecting the changes the character has made. As the Beast slowly worms its way through the vampire’s consciousness, the character’s behavior changes to reflect this rapid decline. Beginning at the behavioral and appearance descriptions listed for Humanity 4 (see p. 186 of Vampire: The Requiem), the character’s Humanity drops by one after every interval of nights equal to her dots in Resolve. For example, a Dragon with Resolve 3 who becomes lost to the Dragon spends three nights as though she had Humanity 4. She can still function around humans, but cares only for the practical consequences of her actions and looks corpselike and pale. After three more nights, her effective Humanity falls to 3. She becomes more predatory and sadistic, driven by her Vice. This continues until, after 12 nights, her Beast has destroyed any residual thought and self-awareness. Note that during this time, her Humanity trait is actually 0, with all of the concordant penalties that levies. The character’s body and mind simply Haven’t caught up with her soul yet.
Redemption
Is it possible to save a vampire who has become lost to the Dragon? Scholars of The Ordo Dracul aren’t certain. It doesn’t happen often, after all, and when it does, the priority is normally placed on destroying the Kindred rather than trying to save her. That said, Dragons who have made the attempt (or at least toyed with the theory) agree that if it is possible, the rescue must be performed within the first few nights (in game terms, before the character’s effective Humanity drops past 4). How exactly a rescuer would go about it is a murky topic, but mental communication, perhaps aided by the Auspex Discipline, might be useful.Interestingly, Ordo Dracul diplomats have come across evidence that The Lancea Sanctum possesses rituals that can cure Kindred “in a special state of Wassail, wherein the Beast is not a ravening monster but a plotting fiend.” The Sanctified don’t seem to know what state these rites refer to, however, but if the rumors are true, they date to the 16th century — about the time that Dracula allegedly had dealings with the covenant.
New Coils and New Tiers
As long as the Kindred of the Ordo Dracul continue to experiment with their own bodies and souls, as long as they continue to explore new philosophies and seek change, new Coils of the Dragon may potentially be discovered. Here, then, are a two new philosophies for students of the Coils of the Dragon to learn. In addition, this section contains a fourth tier for each of the established Coils. These Coils and tiers are learned (and paid for) like all other Coils, as described on p. 149 of Vampire: The Requiem.Fourth Tiers
The following tiers only exist in theory. The Ordo Dracul has not uncovered concrete proof that they exist (or at least, such proof hasn’t been disseminated to the covenant at large). In some cases, a Kindred might be able to demonstrate her mastery of a new tier without being able to teach others how to manifest it. If the effect of a tier cannot be duplicated in other Kindred to the satisfaction of local Dragon authorities, it might not yet be recognized as a Coil at all.Which of these powers, if any, are obtainable in your chronicles is, of course, up to the Storyteller.
Related Organizations
Storyteller's Option: Chrysalis Mechanics
Storyteller's Option: Coils of the Dragon
Diablerie and the Coils
A diablerist cannot learn any of the Coils of the Dragon by Diablerie. The Coils are based on forcing change to one’s self, not on gaining knowledge. A diablerist might absorb enough knowledge to attempt a chrysalis (by taking a dot of Occult if the victim had a Specialty in the Coils of the Dragon, for instance), but attempting a chrysalis without proper instruction has dangers of its own.
Experiments
The Ordo Dracul has long years of studying the Coils behind it. Even discounting much of the unreliable writings that predate the covenant’s “renaissance” in the 19th century, the Coils of the Dragon have been the Ordo’s primary focus the world over, and some truly brilliant Kindred have studied the process. Therefore, mentors know what to do — and more importantly, what not to do — when instructing their students.Sometimes, though, mentors deliberately mislead neonates with the intent of causing them to lose control during a chrysalis. A Dragon might commit this heinous act for a number of reasons. The Ordo Dracul does not relish the notion of the Coils being circulated outside the covenant, and sometimes uses this method as a particularly harsh means of control. Sometimes a Mentor takes on a student with the express purpose of destroying her soul, usually to illustrate to other, more promising students what will happen if they aren’t careful (and, though it’s rarely stated outright, what can happen if they betray the Ordo Dracul). Finally, sometimes an especially cruel Dragon does this out of sheer, callous curiosity.
In any case, willfully tricking a vampire into becoming lost to the Beast requires a degeneration check. It is considered a planned, callous crime.
Teaching the Coils to Outsiders
Of all the crimes one might commit against The Ordo Dracul, giving away to the unworthy its greatest secret of all — the Coils of the Dragon — is the most heinous. Any Dragon who dares to do this, whether successful or not, is subject to terrible retribution by the Sworn of the Axe. If only a single Coil is revealed to someone outside the covenant or even another Dragon not yet deemed worthy of the treasure, the guilty is condemned to drink two heady draughts of Vitae from her own Mentor. If she herself learned the Coil without permission, then it is the Mentor’s own teacher that the vile student must drink from, binding herself to that superior with the power of the blood. For each additional Coil illegally taught, the guilty Dragon must take another two drinks from a different Dragon. Unless the convicted has previously drunk from one of these individuals, no full Vinculum can actually be established. However, two drinks is usually enough to create a powerful pull, and a Dragon who experiences this simultaneously from multiple Dragons is going to discover just how hellish the Requiem can be. Of course, once a true Vinculum is formed, these other bonds dissipate entirely.If a Dragon is found guilty of this crime, she may forgo the traditional punishment. Instead, she may ask to be impaled in the manner of one of Dracula’s own mortal victims and left to the searing justice of the sun. Strangely perhaps, this choice is not an uncommon one. In the eyes of many Dragons, nothing is worse than bondage, and it is just possible that with their burning destruction they may discover the kind of secret that they have spent their unlife seeking.