Purified in the Second Editionof the World of Darkness

A Short Work Describing Modifications to the Core

Immortals Text,

with New Integrity, Siddhi, Merit,

and Other Suggestions Based On a Host of Conversations

in Which the Authors Draw Care and Attention to the

Unique Spirit-Like Status of Purified

and Its Mechanical Effects

and Divert the Reader with Marginalia

by

Kaye and callishka

C O N T E N T S

i background 4

ii mechanics 6

1 basic hacks to the immortals text 7

1.1 Projecting 7

1.2 Intrinsic Abilities 7

1.3 Relational Abilities 8

1.4 Purified Character Creation in GMC 9

2 spirits in flesh 11

2.1 Essence Is the Driver of All 11

2.1.1 Modifications to Essence Harvesting 11

2.1.2 How Purified Use Essence 12

2.2 Bans, Banes, and Restrictions 12

2.3 Influences 13

2.4 Chi: Becoming Spiritlike 14

2.4.1 Chi Bleeds 14

2.4.2 Chart of Chi 15

2.4.3 Other Effects of Chi 16

3 morality : simulacrum 17

3.1 Simulacrum Scaled 17

3.2 Breaking Points 19

3.2.1 Toward Flesh 19

3.2.2 Toward Spirit 19

4 purified and other supernaturals 20

5 general purified conditions 22

5.1 Essence Hunger 22

5.2 Influenced 22

5.3 Interested 23

5.4 Rapture Dependency 23

5.5 Spiritlike (Persistent) 23

5.6 Showing 24

5.7 Threatened 24

6 hacks for numina and siddhi 26

6.1 General Numina 26

6.2 Additional Numina 27

6.2.1 Previously Published Numina 28

6.2.2 Mage Spells Converted to Numina 28

6.3 Siddhi 33

6.3.1 Siddhi of Flesh 33

6.3.2 Siddhi of Mind 34

6.3.3 Siddhi of Will 35

2

Contents

7 merits 36

7.1 Archival Content 36

7.2 Claimed Companion 37

7.3 Deathless 39

7.4 Fog the Mirror 39

7.5 Hotelier 39

7.6 Malleable Money 40

7.7 Otherworldly Gaze 40

7.8 Porcelain Doll 41

7.9 Refined Taste 41

7.10 Social Memory 41

7.11 Spirit-Named 42

7.12 Traditional Mystery Cults 42

7.12.1 Society of Spades 42

7.12.2 The Machinists 43

7.12.3 Der Rat der Nebelmeer 43

7.13 Lineage Mystery Cults 45

7.13.1 Mechanical Constraints 45

7.13.2 Example Lineage Cults 47

7.14 Unnatural Appetite 49

iii thematics 50

8 the process of purification 51

9 purified psychology 54

10 purified slang 56

10.1 Life Stages 56

10.2 Essence and Related Aspects 56

10.3 The Artifice 56

10.4 Social World 57

10.5 Specific Types of Purification 57

10.6 Other Supernaturals 57

iv one more hack : the human artifice 59

10.7 What is the Artifice? 60

10.8 Lineage Mechanics 61

10.9 Causing Artifice Break 61

10.9.1 The Artifice Break Condition 62

10.9.2 The Artifice Bleed Condition 63

v works consulted 65

3

Part I

B A C K G R O U N D

Contents

This short PDF proposes modifications to the Purified as detailedin the Immortals book, part of the World of Darkness mechanical sys-tem. The mechanical modifications are based on mechanics from theGod-Machine Chronicle Purified port discussion on the Onyx PathForums, along with some of the changes implemented for Purifiedin an IRC-based World of Darkness campaign called Original Sin. Inboth cases, modifications to Purified have made them more consis-tent mechanically with other spirit-based templates, such as Uratha,Claimed, and spirits themselves. Purified are hands-down my fa- Fun fact! About

70% of thesemodifications werewritten whilelistening to Florenceand the Machine’s

”Bedroom Hymns,””What the WaterGave me,” ”NoLight, No Light,””Swimming,” and”Dog Days AreOver” on repeat.

vorite supe type in the World of Darkness, with Mage and Changelingvying for second place.

While this mechanical adaptation draws from those two sources, italso includes Conditions, a new Morality scale, and a lot of flavor textbased on philosophical discussions and ruminations on what the Pu-rified are with Onyx Path user callishka. callishka made substantiveintellectual contributions — he suggested excellent additions to thePurified Slang section, wrote some of the Merits, advocated for therights of Outer Path Purified, ported relevant Mage Rotes as Numina,wrote a few of the Mystery Cults, and grounded a lot of the flowstate-induced mechanical insanity in reality.

This document does not replace the core text for Immortals. Thistext frequently refers to mechanics available in that book, in the Bookof Spirits, and in the core books for the World of Darkness.

– Kaye (AKA quantumelody)Fun fact! About70% of mycontributions werewritten whilelistening to blackmetal and the OSTsto Bubblegum Crisisand Streets of Fireon repeat. Thatprobably explainssome things...

Hi, folks. Purified are one of my favorite playable creatures fromany game system, right up there with Kindred and Wraiths, so whenKaye showed me the first fifty or so pages of this document, I jumpedat the chance to consult and add some touches here and there. Wehave a blast playing Purified in 2nd Edition World of Darkness, andI hope you do, too. If you want my advice, I say, get some friendstogether, roll up nothing but Purified (with maybe one of those lesserImmortals such as David Hill’s Psychic Vampires or Kindred to roundthings out), create a lineage mystery cult for your characters, and gonuts roleplaying spirit-person drama. And make sure your campaignincludes talking trash about Uratha at every available opportunity.

– callishka

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Part II

M E C H A N I C S

1B A S I C H A C K S T O T H E I M M O RTA L S T E X T

1.1 projecting

Instead of the Spirit Projection Siddhi (p. 105-107), all Purified mayproject their consciousness into Twilight and Shadow. Projecting re-quires a successful Resolve + Occult + Chi roll. The roll may be waivedwith the expenditure of 1 Essence. The Projection front text rules (p.105-106) apply as usual for projecting other objects/persons alongwith the Purified. * Originally, I wrote

"take the highestAttribute," but thatdoesn’t mesh wellwith the SpiritAttribute table on p.218 of GMC. It isassumed that anycharacter will bepurchasing amixture ofAttributes, Skills,Merits, Numina,Siddhi, Chi, &c., sothe likelihood ofmin-maxing this islow.

While projected, the Purified has Power, Finesse, and Resistance.Sum all of their Power Attributes, Finesse Attributes, and ResistanceAttributes, but cap them at the Trait Max* for a spirt of their Rank (seep. 218 of GMC). This provides the projected Purified with Attributevalues closer to spirits. For example, if Amy has Int 4, Str 2, and Pres2, her Power is 8 as long as she is at Chi 3 or higher; it’s only 7 if sheis at Chi 1 or 2.

Purified who are projected do not possess Skills. In line with theGMC text (p. 220), they are not penalized for any actions that arein line with their concept/nature, Virtue, or Vice. All other actionsare penalized.** (Bodily shifting into Twilight or Shadow means that

** A Purified privateinvestigator with anInfluence in Love,for example, findsherself less capable(while projecting) ofinvestigating thingsthat are not relatedto love.

a Purified keeps their in-body Attributes and Skills, though.)

1.2 intrinsic abilities

Purified heal one point of Bashing damage per turn and one Lethalevery 15 minutes. Each point of Aggravated damage heals in a num-ber of days equal to their Size divided by their Chi. (So, older Purifiedheal Aggravated damage more quickly.) They can, however, spendEssence to heal aggravated damage more quickly as per the Purifiedtext.

Purified can sense things that are carrying Essence through touchwith a successful Intelligence + Occult roll. This is the only way thattwo embodied Purified may identify each other. While Projected inShadow or Twilight, Purified recognize each other and their relative

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basic hacks to the immortals text

power levels instantaenously, as with other spirits (see GMC, p. 218,Rank. Sensing the rank of an embodied spirit or other Purified is anIntelligence + Occult roll.

If a Purified is >2 Spirit Ranks above another Purified, when usingunarmed attacks or biting, the attacking Purified may spend 1 WPduring the turn to make the damage Aggravated (a modification ofthe Bane rule on p. 185 of Werewolf: the Forsaken 2nd Edition).

Purified roll Wits + Composure while in the area of a Locus to deter-mine its center unless they have a Numen that provides them withthe ability to do this more easily.

Purified have Bans and Banes that vary in severity according to theirSpirit Rank.

A Purified has Influences. The roll is Intelligence + Manipulation + Chi,and the effects follow those on p. 222 of the God-Machine Chronicle.Influences may be resisted by humans and supernatural creatures.

Purified can automatically see through the God-Machine’s machina-tions when their Dual Senses is active if they have an Occult specialtyin the God-Machine.

1.3 relational abilities

Purified of known higher Rank are treated as having one fewer Doorto those of known lower Rank during Social Maneuvering.

When negotiating services with Purified, if chiminage (or gathra) isnot made, add 2 Doors unless the service promotes a Resonant Con-dition with their Influences. Note that in daily life, if the Purifiedhas a job, their salary and benefits are considered recompense. EvenPurified with Influence (Charitable) can barely abide doing a favorwithout compensation. Real Spirits cannot agree to deals unless paidwith gathra, but the unique, formerly human status of Purified makesthem more susceptible to Social Maneuvering (see p. 182, Werewolf:the Forsaken 2nd Edition).

Purified, as per the core text in Immortals, always see ghosts and spir-its in Twilight unless they have a Merit that can dampen their abil-ity. The catastrophic, soul-shattering process that creates a Purifiedthrough their mortal death is what makes them able to see ghosts,or even to see and interact with them if both are in Twilight. ManyPurified see this as a benefit, but some criticize it as a curse that sepa-

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1.4 purified character creation in gmc

rates them from naturally-born spirits, as ghosts and spirits are ”outof phase” with one another in Twilight and cannot normally see oneanother (see p. 183 of Werewolf: the Forsaken 2nd Edition).

Purified have a Morphic Aura:

Purified exhibit an aura that many other supernatural beings canpick up on, but while in their physical bodies, their spirit na-ture attempts to conceal itself from other supernatural types. At-tempts to discern their nature via supernatural means suffer apenalty to the roll equal to their Simulacrum while the Purified isembodied. In Twilight or Shadow, they are obviously supernatu-ral, even when embodied.

With Purified and embodied Spirits, the situation is different: Asmentioned above, any Purified can sense a connection to Shadowand relative Chi/Rank with an unpenalized Intelligence + Occultroll, performed reflexively with skin-to-skin contact.

Buttressing: Purified spirit natures will recoil in response to LashingOut, Hunter’s Aspect, the one-dot Discipline powers Awe and DreadPresence, and other powers that allow for a Supernatural Aura-basedresistance automatically. Not doing so requires the expenditure of1 Willpower point. The resistance is based on Composure + Chi. Ifresisting Lashing Out, a Mage’s Immediate Nimbus, Hunter’s Aspect,&c., Purified cannot impose Conditions, but they may receive theConditions Showing or Threatened (as appropriate) if they fail theirdefensive roll. Buttressing automatically exposes them as anothertype of supernatural to whatever they are resisting.

1.4 purified character creation in gmc

Basic Character Creation

Purified have a Virtue and a Vice6 Extra Skills (one of which must be spent on Occult)10 MeritsStarting Chi = 1

Starting Simulacrum (or Integrity) = 7

Starting Health = Stamina + Size + Chi4 dots to be spent among Siddhi and NuminaConsult the Chart of Chi for Influences (see section on Influences)Determine the physical effect of Purified Unseen Sense – AllPower ActivationsSelect a Ban and Bane

Starting Conditions

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basic hacks to the immortals text

• Give the Addicted (Essence) Condition to the Purified if theirChi is 6 or greater.

• If a Lineage Mystery Cult is purchased at 3 or greater, give thePurified a Condition related to their cult.

Additional Character Creation Questions

• Does your character have any additional tics or compulsions(commonly called ”bleeds”) not represented on the sheet? Why?When did they manifest, and how does your character rational-ize them?

• How did your character become Purified?

• How does your character relate to mortals and hold onto Simu-lacrum (or Integrity)?

Experience Costs (adapted from http://bit.ly/1kHCrYl):

Merit: 1 Experience per dotSkill Specialty: 1 ExperienceSkill: 2 Experiences per dotAttribute: 4 Experiences per dotSimulacrum: 2 Experiences per dotWillpower: 1 Experience per dotChi: 5 Experiences per dotNumina and Siddhi: 3 Experiences per dotInfluences: Increase naturally with Spirit Rank

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2S P I R I T S I N F L E S H

2.1 essence is the driver of all

2.1.1 Modifications to Essence Harvesting

Purified do not need to be in Shadow or Twilight to harvest Essence.It can be taken while in their physical body.

Harvesting Essence through any means is always an intenselypleasurable experience; this tends to vary qualitatively. This is actually

terrible when youreally think about it.Once you hit Chi 6,it means that youwill probably becomemore and morespiritlike if onlybecause you areconstantly floodingyourself withEssence at theexpense of friends,families, and pets.

When a Purified takes Essence while still in their body, they ex-perience a severe endorphin rush in Spirit and in Flesh. The effectsare manageable unless the amount of Essence gained is equal to orgreater than the character’s Composure. In this case, the effect isunadulterated, joyous bliss, and it lasts for a number of minutes equalto the Essence gained. They might literally be rolling around on theground like a cat in a field of catnip, or they could be frozen in placeas the high overwhelms their senses. During these minutes, their De-fense is effectively 0, and they automatically fail all Wits + Composurechecks. Purified with Chi greater than 6 are Addicted to Essence har-vesting, and if they go for longer than 1 week without experiencingan Essence rush, they will be Depraved.

While in Twilight or Shadow, Purified may harvest Essence inShadow from Resonances that are in alignment with their Influences,Virtue, or Vice. They may also harvest Essence from any Locus.

A successful harvest requires a Presence + Wits + Chi roll, andthey must be in the presence of the Resonance for at least 10 minutesfollowing the roll so that the Essence can be fully absorbed.

Purified with Spirit Rank 6 or higher can receive Essence fromappropriate chiminage (or gathra).

Purified with fewer than 3 Essence receive a penalty to all mun-dane Mental Attribute rolls equal to their Chi, with the exception ofrolls directly related to pursuing Essence.

Purified at 0 Essence have a penalty to all mundane rolls equalto their Chi unless the task involves acquiring Essence. They be-come sluggish, irritable, and incapable of thinking about anythingelse without difficulty. For most Purified, the experience of degen-erating into a hollow husk that hungers only for Essence requires aSimulacrum roll.

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spirits in flesh

2.1.2 How Purified Use Essence

See the Purified rules in the Immortals book for spending Essence. Inaddition:

• Use Essence exactly like a spirit for their Influences.

• Spend 1 point of Essence to project into Shadow or Twilightwithout a roll.

• Spend 1 point of Essence to boost an Attribute for a single sceneon a point-per-dot basis. A single Attribute cannot be boostedby more than +2.

2.2 bans , banes , and restrictions

Banes are active in the real world, Twilight, and in Shadow. Voluntarycontact with a bane requires a Resolve + Composure roll. Touching thebane while in their body gives them one point of Lethal damage perturn. If touching the bane in Shadow, the bane damages their Corpuswith lethal damage. However, if used as a combat weapon in anyrealm, embodied or spirit, the damage is Aggravated.

Bans follow the rules in Book of Spirits and on p. 221 of the God-Machine Chronicle book. Consult the Chart of Chi for informationon the strength of the ban (i.e., look at their Spirit Rank). Bans canchange under the same conditions as Virtue and Vice shifts, but mayalso shift when a character gains a dot of Chi.

Purified may be Exorcised, Abjured, and Warded or Bound, butnot Summoned. They may also be the victim of Blessed Items andSalt, but only while in their ephemeral form.

Exorcism doesn’t work the same way it does for spirits. Because aPurified is so tightly bound to their flesh, each net success at Exorcismin excess of a reflexive Stamina + Chi roll gives the Purified a point ofaggravated damage unless they can physically shift into Twilight orShadow (with the appropriate Numina). If they can shift bodily, theymust roll to shift as soon as the Exorcism starts. Shifting will trapthem in Shadow or Twilight for 24 hours.

Abjurations only work if the Purified is the target, as Purified canalso perform their own abjurations against other spirits. If abjured, aPurified cannot use Numina or Siddhi for 24 hours, with the excep-tion of powers that allow them to shift into Twilight or Shadow. Ifthey use one of these powers, though, they are trapped there untilthe Abjuration expires.

Warding and Binding require the Purified’s Bane. While Bound, aPurified cannot leave their body. They can still use powers on targetswithin the area.

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2.3 influences

2.3 influences

As they are spirits, Purified have Influences, just like any other spirit.While embodied, Purified behavior is reminiscent of the behavior ofUrged humans. The difference is that, while spirits inflict the FetteredCondition on living beings and use the Urged Condition to manipu-late their host’s behavior, a Purified’s spiritlike instincts to create Res-onant Conditions for their Influences is only reined in by the part oftheir mind that desires to pass as human. Resonant Conditions meanthe ability to use Influences, and for a spiritlike immortal, the drivefor that comfort and happiness is more powerful than their Virtueand Vice (remember, spirits do not innately have these). The drive tobe in an environment Resonant with one’s Influences is stronger thanany drive for sex or food, although the behavioral effects vary basedon the Purified’s Chi and Simulacrum.

Essence may only be harvested from Influences while divorcedfrom their bodies in Twilight or Shadow. The protective shell of aPurified’s body prevents them from fully leveraging their ability toharvest from Influences while in the physical world. Using the Influ-ences, however, may be done in any realm.

Rituals taught or discovered generally carry their own innate In-fluence with them. A Mentor may teach a Candidate a ritual thathe or she learned from a particular type of spirit, and the Resonanceof the ritual will tie the Candidate to the same Influence area as theMentor.

New Purified start out at Spirit Rank 2 and have two Influencedots. The first must be spent on the same ritual-related Influencepossessed by the spirit or Purified mentor.

For Inner Path Purified, the second dot corresponds to the res-onance of the locus where the Purified committed suicide. Purifiedwithout a mentor take both dots of Influence in the locus’s resonance. "This is a bad idea,

Noah.""But you have myback, right, Amy?""Yeah.""What’s wrong withyou?""I’m really mad atyou.""I’m not lettingrivers push mearound.""But I like—""You’re kind of inmy sun."

Examples

• Jane learned the Purification Ritual from a mountain spirit, butperformed the ritual on a locus resonant with conifers. Her firstdot of Influence is in mountains, and her second is in conifers.

• Amy’s mentor learned the Purification Ritual from a river spirit.Her first dot of Influence is in running water, just like her Men-tor.

• Noah dies on a locus using the complicated, nitty-gritty meditation-and-relic method, and his body is undisturbed. The Locus hasa Resonance which is Thirst (a dried river-bed). His first Influ-ence dots are in Thirstiness.

Influences increase automatically as Chi increases. Purified maytake Influence dots in the Influences they inherited from the Locus

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spirits in flesh

and from their Mentor. The only other way to broaden one’s Influ-ences is to consume other spirits or to consume a substantial amountof Essence with that Resonance around the time that a Purified’sSpirit Rank increases or the Purified takes the Numen Greater In-fluence (ie., within a few weeks).

For Outer Path Purified, things are a bit more complicated: TheirPurification ritual involves ingesting a powerful poison that trans-forms their body into a locus. If they have a mentor, one of theirInfluence dots will be shared with them. The other dot (or, in thecase of a Purified with no mentor, both dots) will be thematically re-lated to the components of the ritual poison (either the ingredientsthemselves or something interesting about their origins) or the poi-son’s preparation process. As such, Outer Path Purified can havevery bizarre Influences from the perspective of the Inner Path Puri-fied.

2.4 chi : becoming spiritlike

Chi represents how powerful a Purified is, but it also represents howmuch a Purified’s personality has weathered due to their intense con-nections with Shadow.

2.4.1 Chi Bleeds

The higher one’s Chi, the more the Purified’s spirit self pushes through.This is represented through (optional) Bleeds. Bleeds may be relatedto Influences, Virtue, Vice, or personality.

As Chi increases, Purified bodies subtly echo their spirit selvesmore and more strongly. A Purified with Chi 5 and Influence (Winter)might feel cool to the touch; a Purified with Chi 8 and Influence (Win-ter) might also smell like evergreen. Purified behaviors become in-creasingly ritualistic and compulsive, motivated by a logic that mostwould consider rationalizations for obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Outside of Chi increases, Purified may also develop optional bleedsafter obtaining 15 points of Essence from a specific locus (i.e., a locusstatted on their sheet). These bleeds will exist as long as they harvestfrom the locus and will gradually fade away if a Purified transitionsto a new harvesting ground."I need pine tea."

"What do youmean?"

"I had a stressfulday. I can’t — Ican’t relax —"

"Could you calmdown without it?"

"No.""Jane ... what if you

mopped the floorswith lysol?"

"How is thatrelaxing, Noah?"

Many Purified accumulate additional Bleeds at a rate of 1-3 Bleedsper level of Chi, but they can also be accumulated with dramatic fail-ures or exceptional successes on Simulacrum rolls. Bleeds may bebehavioral or ritualistic tics. They can also be minor physical quirks,but could usually be explained away — a Purified whose skin smellsfaintly of rivers could easily have gone for a swim earlier that day.Bleeds present little, if any, mechanical advantage or disadvantage inregular game play.

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2.4 chi : becoming spiritlike

If a Bleed does impact a character, a Beat may be awarded.

2.4.2 Chart of Chi

Chart of Chi. Purified begin at Rank 2. (Normal spirits do not; theybegin at Rank 0.) Purified are therefore at a slight advantage at Chi1. Note that there is an automatic (rolless) drop in Simulacrum at thethresholds for the auto-Simulacrum drop.

Chi MaxEss /Turn

Rank Influences Out-of-Body Auto-SimulacrumDrop

Side Effects

1 10/1 2 2 2 weeks The Purified state of being.

2 11/2 2 2 3 months

3 12/3 3 3 6 months -1 penalty to harvesting froma locus that is the antithesisof one’s Influences, Virtue, orVice.

4 13/4 4 4 1 year

5 15/5 5 5 5 years -2 penalty to harvesting froma locus that is the antithesisof one’s Influences, Virtue, orVice.

6 20/6 6 6 1 decade

7 25/7 7 7 100 years Must spend 1 Essence/day toremain in one’s body if notin an area of resonance withone’s Influences, Virtue, orVice.

8 30/8 8 8 500 years

9 50/10 9 9 1 millennium Must spend 5 Essence/day toremain in one’s body if notin an area of resonance withone’s Influences, Virtue, orVice.

10 75/15 10 10 1 millennium

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spirits in flesh

2.4.3 Other Effects of Chi

Chi and Spirit Rank have the following effects:

• Add Chi to a Purified’s Health and Corpus. Their Chi weavestheir spirit-soul into their bodes, permeating them with increasedresilience to attacks.

• A Purified’s Spirit Rank is added to all of their contested Socialrolls with spirits.

• For every 2 dots of Chi, give your Purified a minor physicalBleed.

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3

M O R A L I T Y: S I M U L A C R U M

Simulacrum is the Purified representation of Integrity. Spirits do nothave Integrity, Virtue, or Vice, and the Simulacrum represents a Puri-fied’s ability to completely mimic the Integrity of human beings. Thereplacement can never be as good as the original, but it is a decentapproximation — and it is ultimately what allows a Purified to moveso easily in the physical world.

High Simulacrum is almost exactly like having original Integrity:These Purified have an easy, almost effortless time behaving in a man-ner roughly equal to that of a decent human being. Their spiritlikemental states have easily configured their compulsions and eccentricbehaviors to be more or less normal. (Even if they come from a placeof spiritlike behavior, it’s the result that counts — right?) The higherone’s Simulacrum, the more difficult it is to be completely acceptingof one’s spirit-soul nature. Depriving themselves of their Purifiedneeds is equally damaging as behaving in a manner that is too inhu-man. Essence, the driver of everything in Shadow, also factors into "Pine cones. Pine

cones all the waydown."

Simulacrum: A Purified at low Essence must cope with intensifiedspirit drives, which can wear down the Simulacrum. These spiritdrives exist because a Purified at low or no Essence is in danger ofcomplete destruction if they go into Shadow.

The Breaking Points for Purified follow the Werewolf: The Forsaken2nd Edition push and pull between spirit and flesh, and these are”mashed up” with a Simulacrum penalty scale and behavioral guidereminiscent of Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition. Purified are morespiritlike than the most spiritlike Uratha, however, and the penaltiesimposed on certain kinds of social rolls with non-spiritlike supernat-urals and mortals reflect that.

In addition to Shaken, Spooked, and Guilty, Purified may takethe Condition Showing. The Persistent Condition Spiritlike may beapplied for a Dramatic Failure.

3.1 simulacrum scaled

Simulacrum 10-9: A Purified at this level likely has Influences inareas that make them extremely humanlike. They are almost better

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morality : simulacrum

at being people than real people. These Purified have a +2 to any rollinvolving relating to humans.

Simulacrum 8-7: Purified here do, for the most part, resemblehuman beings — although they do start to show spiritlike qualities.If surprised, it’s entirely possible that they might scream profanity ortalk in their sleep in Babel over their native human language. Someof their compulsions begin to make nosy onlookers cautious: Is theofficemate who has no appetite at full Essence anorexic?

Simulacrum 6-5: Many Purified fall into this category after theirfirst 100 years. Their relationship to humanity has begun to weather,and coping with non-spiritlike supernaturals or mortals occasionallycauses an uneasy disconnect. They may even find themselves search-ing for words to describe something and suddenly face extreme frus-tration at the limitations of human language in face of Spirit Tongue.Take a -1 roll to relate to humans and non-spiritlike supernaturals.

Simulacrum 4: There is an increasing disconnect between the Pu-rified’s outlook and behavior with the way society works. All of thefrustrations at Simulacrum 6 or 5 are compounded and intensified.Take a -2 roll to relate to humans and non-spiritlike supernaturals. Inaddition, they have an almost inperceptible accent when speaking hu-man languages, and their native human language is no longer treatedas their first language.

Simulacrum 3: As above. At this point, most interacting with thisPurified understand that something is just not right about this individ-ual — regardless of how attractive, intelligent, or well-connected theymay be. There is something missing in their eyes. Take a -3 roll torelate to humans and non-spiritlike supernaturals, but a +1 to relateto spirits.

Simulacrum 2: As above, but intensified — they might even takeon smells and qualities of their Influences. Take a -4 roll to relate tohumans and non-spiritlike supernaturals, but a +2 to relate to spirits.They also lose the ability to leverage their Virtue and Vice for anyreason and must obtain Willpower exactly like a spirit.

Simulacrum 1: Everything is about satisfying their basic spirit-like urges. In addition to rolling a chance die to understand humansand non-spiritlike supernaturals, any rolls relying on languages otherthan Babel take a -2 penalty. They have a +3 to relate to spirits. Theycannot leverage their Virtue and Vice and must obtain Willpower ex-actly like a spirit.

Simulacrum 0: When a Purified loses the final dot of Simulacrum,they instantly lose connection with their body and become a fullspirit. Their body immediately disintegrates, and they cannot evenconceptualize that they were once human. They cannot leverage theirVirtue and Vice and must obtain Essence and Willpower exactly likea spirit. All of their mechanics become spirit mechanics, includingthe extreme difficulties spirits have with using human communica-

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3.2 breaking points

tion. Gaining a dot of Simulacrum after this break will re-forge theconnection with their body (adapted from http://bit.ly/1kHCrYl).Regaining Simulacrum is often caused by forging a chiminage (orgathra) relationship with a human.

3.2 breaking points

3.2.1 Toward Flesh

Not harvesting Essence for one week.Not harvesting Essence for more than one month. (-3)Staying out of Shadow for a week.Staying out of Shadow for a month. (-3)Allowing a spirit safe passage into the physical world.Falling to Simulacrum 2.Behaving in a manner that runs counter to one’s Influences.Failing to request gathra during Social Maneuvering. (-1)Being subject to an Exceptional Success at a mortal’s Social Maneu-vering.Ignoring/not interacting with spirits in one’s Umia for a week.Ignoring/not interacting with spirits in one’s Umia for a month. (-3)

3.2.2 Toward Spirit

Killing a human or other supernatural.Having fewer than 4 motes of Essence left.Having 0 Essence left. (-3)Staying in Shadow for a week.Living through an epidemic, pandemic, or natural disaster duringwhich a significant portion of the local population dies.Suffering an injury that would kill a human. (-1)Reaching Simulacrum 8.Consuming spirits for Essence. (-2)Staying in Shadow for a month. (-3)Dying and resurrecting a body. (-3)Swearing semi-permanent (i.e., termless) allegiance to a powerfulspirit.

In addition, there are other things, such as remaining outside ofone’s body, that may cause a loss of Simulacrum. See the Table of Chifor details.

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4

P U R I F I E D A N D O T H E R S U P E R N AT U R A L S

Purified blood: This tastes inhuman, alien, and somewhat disturbingto Kindred. It tends to carry flavor notes related to the locus wherethe Purified died. (For example, Amy’s blood carries a strong fla-vor reminiscent of mud.) Because Purified blood does not provideany nourishment, it will not trigger frenzy in hungry Kindred whohave tasted the Purified’s blood before unless the Kindred possesses aMerit that allows them to receive Vitae from Purified blood. Purifiedblood will also fail immediately in blood transfusions.In 2003, Noah was

in a remote part ofthe Gobi Desert.

One night, a manstole into his tentand attempted to

drink his blood. Heimmediately startedgagging and shoved

Noah away.

Purified auras: Their auras flicker much like ghosts’ auras. In-stead of flickering in and out with nothingness, though, Purifiedauras are more like strobe lights. They look mortal at times and com-pletely spiritual (gold) at others, flipping back and forth at sometimesdizzying pace. The rate of aura flicker is dependent on Simulacrumand on Chi. Purified with Simulacrum 4- or with Chi 6+ have goldenauras with small outbursts of human emotion on the surface.

Purified minds: Contact with Purified minds through any pow-ers, such as Telepathy or mental scanning, higher levels of Dominate,and dream-related powers is a profoundly unsettling experience foranyone who is not accustomed to spirit minds (i.e., other Purified,spirits, Uratha). Purified minds seem as if their human-ness mightshatter at any moment, and the spirit part of them shifts hungrilyand visibly beneath their surface thoughts. They register as inhumanimmediately upon making contact.

The unaccustomed-to-spirits member of this exchange suffers a -1 penalty to any Simulacrum roll for the next 24 hours. God-MachineDemons are not immune to the -1 penalty effect; contact with a Puri-fied mind can make their Cover more fragile.

Optional rules if using Artifice: If any other supernatural creaturealters a Purified’s memory, the Purified will suffer a -1 to any ArtificeBreak for the next 24 hours, as accessing a Purified’s memory disturbsthe part of the Artifice that is fully integrated into the Purified’s spirit-soul (i.e., where the memories are).

Purified age: Purified always feel the same age. Amy will alwaysregister as 24 years, 45 days, and 2 hours old via supernatural powers,no matter how old she actually is — Purification has frozen her bodyat that age. Other powers — for example, a Mage using Time magic

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purified and other supernaturals

— can get around this by looking at how much time the Purified haspassed through. That will provide their accurate age. "No one knows who

you are or recognizesyou. I can give youyour identity back ifonly you make a dealwith me, Noah.""Really now.""Yes.""What the fuck areyou?""A demon. I was anagent of theGod-Machine.""Dammit. Thatfucking—""That’s irrelevant.Don’t you want thatgirl, Amy, to knowwho you are again?""Yeah, yeah, yeah.So, you are sayingthat I can doanything that I wantand no one willknow that I am, infact, me?""Yes?""Well, then. I’ve gotsome people to fuckup.""... what?""Supernaturals inLas Vegas arefucking bastards,and I am going toshit on every lastone of them.""But you’resupposed to hate—""I like to think of itas fixing someunresolvedemotionalcomplaints."

Purified and Mage Sight: Purified are bright in Life, Spirit, andTime — and in Spirit, they are almost blinding. Beyond this, theArcanum in which a Purified shows brightly will depend on the In-fluences of the Purified and personal flavor. Older Purified showstrongly in Death because almost everyone they know has died. Pu-rified who have a Family Mystery Cult are bright in Fate due to theoaths they have made. Unless a Purified has Influence areas relatingto other Mage Sights, they show nothing out of the ordinary. Whenscrutinized for Type, Purified just feel wrong, like they should notexist, no matter which Arcanum one is using. Purification is taboo inevery major human code of ethics or philosophy, and that transgres-sive act colors their Type resonance.

Purified and Changelings: Glamour is much easier to harvestfrom Purified when the emotion is in resonance with the Purified’sInfluences or Virtue/Vice. In these cases, Glamour harvests carry a +1

modifier. Reading a Purified’s Virtue/Vice carries the same modifier.Instead of suffering from Simulacrum drops in the Hedge, Purifiedmust spend 1 Essence/hour. Having a physical body no longer pro-tects them: When all of their Essence is gone, they will go dormantjust like any spirit (and they look comatose), and they can only beresuscitated by being placed on a locus or given Essence.

Purified and GMC Demons: Any Demonic powers that can de-tect Aspirations work differently with Purified — they detect Influ-ences instead. If a Purified makes a deal to become a Demon’s Cover,the Purified will not be completely destroyed by the Demon unlessthe deal is for a Shadow Cover. Instead, the Purified will immedi-ately drop to Simulacrum 0 and forget that they were ever human— but their body does not disintegrate, as it is in use by the Demon,and the body becomes mortal. Once the Demon has exhausted usingtheir body as a Cover, the Purified automatically gains a single dot ofSimulacrum, remembers the existence of their body, and must use thestandard corporeal resurrection process. They lose all Alternate Iden-tity merits that were in use when their body was taken as a Cover.Taking Cover from a Purified operates in this manner because noteven the God-Machine makes an effort to completely rewrite Shadowevery time it does something big — and so Demons, being prod-ucts of the God-Machine, will almost never realize that the Purified’sShadow-based spirit-soul is its own problem that must be dealt with.

Purified and the Resurrection Numen: A Purified can never be-come mortal. They are souls and minds that have been converted intospirits.

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5

G E N E R A L P U R I F I E D C O N D I T I O N S

5.1 essence hunger

Low Essence feels like a hollowness that can easily be confused withhunger. The desire for Essence has given your character a compulsionrelated to one of their Influences. In a situation where your charactercan indulge in their compulsion, roll Resolve + Composure to see if theyindulge. The compulsive tic is the same one each time this Conditionmanifests.

Dramatic Failure: The character must automatically indulge intheir compulsion without rolling for the rest of the scene.Failure: The character indulges in their compulsion.Success: The character successfully resists the compulsion.Exceptional Success: No more Resolve + Composure rolls need tobe made in the scene; the character may act normally.

Possible Sources: Your character has 3 or fewer Essence left.Resolution: Your character harvests enough Essence to increasetheir pool above 3 Essence.Beat: n/a

5.2 influenced

A Purified has used an Influence (typically emotion- or sensation-based for these mechanics), and the Exceptional Success has made itdifficult to feel anything else. Your character takes a -2 to any Wits- orManipulation-based pools for the remainder of the scene because theyhave difficulties expressing, experiencing, or relating to any emotions,ideas, or behaviors that are not related to the Influence. (A humanInfluenced with joy, for example, finds that they cannot become upsetwithout great difficulty.) This Condition automatically fades after anumber of hours equal to the Purified’s Chi.

Possible Sources: Your character has been the victim (or benefi-ciary) of an Exceptional Success on a Purified’s Influence roll.Resolution: Your character risks a Simulacrum drop or receives

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5.3 interested

Bashing or Lethal damage as a result of their reduced inhibitions.Beat: n/a

5.3 interested

Your character has received 10 Essence from a specific entity or in-dividual over a short period. While your character might think thegiver of Essence is charming, lackluster, boring, or even horrible, be-ing Interested doesn’t say anything about your character’s feelings.Instead, Interested denotes a deep-seated expectation that your char-acter might receive more Essence from the giver if you comply withwhat they want from you. (”He’s an asshole, but ...”) This individualhas a +2 on any rolls to influence or persuade your character.

Possible Sources: Your character is given 10 Essence or more byanother entity or individual within a two-week period.Resolution: Your character receives Bashing or Lethal damagewhile in the process of completing a request from the Essencegiver or your character rolls a Breaking Point related to the re-quest. (”Fuck this. It isn’t worth it, not even for Essence.”)Beat: n/a

5.4 rapture dependency

Your character has not only fallen victim to Rapture, but the one us-ing the Numen has done so flawlessly. After the Insensate Tilt isover, your character experiences a substantial dip in serotonin anddopamine, but a comparably high surge in oxytocin. When the entitythat used Rapture issues a command or seems to want something,you cannot resist without spending a Willpower — doing somethingfor the entity is the only way that you can get a kick of the depletedneurotransmitters without drug use. This Condition fades naturallyafter a number of days equal to the entity’s Spirit Rank, which doesnot count as resolving the condition.

Possible Sources: A Purified or spirit achieves an ExceptionalSuccess on the Rapture Numen.Resolution: Your character takes Bashing or Lethal damage inorder to comply with the entity’s request. Your character experi-ences a Breaking Point in pursuit of the entity’s wants.Beat: n/a

5.5 spiritlike (persistent)

You receive a +2 to any social interaction with spirits and a +1 to anySurvival rolls related to Shadow for the duration of this Condition.

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general purified conditions

However, until this condition is resolved, you may not 10-again onEmpathy, Expression, Persuasion, or Socialize with mortals or non-Essence-based supernaturals. If a Merit exists that grants an 8- or9-again roll on one of these Social skills, downgrade it to a 9-againor 10-again. (Example: The Well-Traveled Merit will grant a 10-againinstead of a 9-again.)

Possible Sources: Your character has rolled an Exceptional Suc-cess on either the Purification Ritual or in a contested social rollwith a spirit. Your character may also have failed a SimulacrumBreaking Point related to their true spiritlike nature or may havebeen subject to Exceptional Successes on Demonic Embeds thatscramble human cognitive ability (i.e., The Map Is Not the Terri-tory, Meaningless).Resolution: Your character dramatically fails or exceptionallysucceeds at a social interaction with a mortal or non-Essence-based supernaturals. Your character rolls for a Breaking Pointwhen assisting a mortal.Beat: The character fails on a contested Empathy, Expression, Per-suasion, or Socialize roll to further an Aspiration.

5.6 showing

As with Spiritlike, this Condition represents a hiccup in the Purified’sability to relate to non-Essence-based beings, but it is much milder.Something has disrupted your character’s connection to humanityin favor of the social expectations and interactions used with spir-its. Any time your character is engaging in a Social action with non-Essence-based, you may opt to fail the roll and resolve this Condition.

Possible Sources: Your character rolls a Breaking Point and suc-ceeds, but not Exceptionally, and the cause of the Breaking Pointis related to being Purified (i.e., resurrecting a body, being subjectto an Exceptional Success on a Demonic Embed that scrambleshuman cognitive ability).Resolution: Your character fails a roll as described above.Beat: n/a

5.7 threatened

Essence and territorial safety are important. This Condition givesyour character a +2 to Intimidation rolls for its duration, but a -2 toall Composure-based mundane pools due to being wired from fight-or-flight.

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5.7 threatened

Possible Sources: Your character has succeeded on a roll to no-tice uninvited incursions on their property by someone, be itunauthorized locus use, entry into one’s home, or a violation ofone’s ritual crypt. Alternatively, your character simply witnessesthe incursion. If using the Lineage Mystery Cult modifications, amember of the Mystery Cult may have been temporarily or per-manently destroyed.Resolution: Your character succeeds at an Intimidation roll againstthe encroaching party. This requires figuring out who the inter-loper actually is, which will require some work unless the incur-sion was witnessed.Beat: n/a

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6H A C K S F O R N U M I N A A N D S I D D H I

6.1 general numina

Purified may take a number of Numina equal to their Chi*3. Numinaacquired via Ban of Power together count as a single Numen; thecompromise required for Ban of Power allows them to hold more. IfChi decreases, a number of Numina may be temporarily lost until Chiincreases enough to allow the Purified to regain knowledge of them.Ban of Power can never be lost, and it will displace other Numinaacquired earlier if that becomes an issue.

Common Numina are defined as those Numina listed on p. 110

of Immortals. The mechanics of all of these Numina default to thoselisted in the GMC Numina section, with the Purified rolling theirbasic Attribute + Skill + Chi pool.

Numina pools that have not been converted on p. 110 of Immor-tals may be converted in consultation with one’s Storyteller (and arethus marked as Restricted). All Purified may learn any Astral Nu-mina, in addition to Greater Influence and Ban of Power, throughtheir own efforts.

A number of Numina are listed on http://wodindex.wikispaces.com/Numina, and all are available to Purified with some exceptions.The mechanics for Numina modified for the God-Machine Chronicletake precedence, and any named Numina on the WOD Index Nu-mina page that duplicate the effects of the Numina in GMC havebeen superseded. If two Numina by different names have the samegeneral effect and have not yet been ported into GMC, the mechanicswill follow those outlined in Book of Spirits preferentially.

An aside: Numina on the WOD Index mentioning Disquiet can-not be learned at all. Any Numina mentioning Pyros in their effectshave Essence effects instead. The Numen ”Essence Conversion” maybe taken multiple times to convert Essence to different types of super-natural fuel, such as Vitae, Aether, and Glamour.

All non-Common Numina are restricted to one or more of thefollowing prerequisites:

• The Purified must have an Influence related to the function ofthe Numen. For instance, Purified with Influences related to

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6.2 additional numina

water can learn Elemental Numina relating to water. Broad Nu-mina (i.e., Chorus, Harrow, Swarm Form) must have aspectsrelated to the Purified’s area of Influence.

• Underworld abilities and powers over the dead may only belearned by Purified who have Influences relating to death orthe dead. This includes raising zombies. Note that this doesnot include Ghostly Numina that do not explicitly deal withdead things.

• The Purified accepts a Leveraged Condition to represent thatthey learned it from (and owe) a spirit or Mystery Cult fellow.Purified who come into play with Numina that required a Lever-aged Condition must describe how the condition was resolved.

• While in Shadow, the Purified may roll Power + Finesse vs. Power+ Resistance as an extended action (requiring 15 successes) tosteal a Numen from a spirit or persuade the spirit to teach theNumen. The first party to accumulate the necessary number ofsuccesses wins the contest.

• A Purified may kill and eat a spirit to assimilate their Numina.

• Binding Vow may be learned as a Common Numen by anyonein a Mystery Cult at Level 4+. Otherwise, it follows the aboverules.

6.2 additional numina

Many Purified who followed the Outer Path fit the description of al-chemists. They spent perhaps decades fanatically searching the worldfor the proper ingredients of their ritual poison, subjecting them topestle, flame, and acid. They worked through candlelit hours attempt-ing to create scorpions from scratch or dissolve rare metals. Their ap-proach to Purification might therefore be reflected in Numina of analchemical bent; that is, powers of healing, poison, the manipulationof base lifeforms, and the transmutation of matter.

This section gathers some previously published Numina that maybe especially useful for Outer Path Purified. In addition, it presentssome Numina adapted from Mage spells of the Life and Matter Ar-cana. Nothing constrains Outer Path Purified from selecting onlyfrom the following lists, and Inner Path Purified are welcome to themas well, Storyteller willing. These Numina are simply options that re-flect the diligent attention to the natural world necessitated by theOuter Path.

A Purified’s Influences still inform his or her access to Numina.Just as a Purified who lacks Influences related to death should nothave the Corpse Ride Numen, an Outer Path Purified with Influ-ences related to joy should probably not spray acidic blood when

27

hacks for numina and siddhi

injured. Verminous Metamorphosis is probably appropriate for a Pu-rified with Influences tied to nature, however. Narrow applicationsof some Numina might make them suitable. For instance, a Purifiedwith Influence (Flowing Water) might use Transmute Water to turnany liquid into water at her whim, though she would be loathe toturn water into anything else.

6.2.1 Previously Published Numina

The following Numina are listed on http://wodindex.wikispaces.com/Numina.

• Animal Control

• Desiccation

• End Disease

• Heal

• Spirit Venom

6.2.2 Mage Spells Converted to Numina

Acidic Splatter(Adamantine Arrow, p. 182)Action: InstantCost: None or 1 Essence

Effect: Whenever the skin of the Purified is pierced, the spray ofblood is transmuted mid-flight into a mild acid that deals Con-tinuous Damage to anyone the acid touches. The acid createdby this Numen isn’t powerful enough to threaten a well-armoredopponent, but it can turn the tables in a fight with an unarmoredfoe. The Purified activates this Numen on himself in preparationfor combat. Normal Duration for the Numen is one scene, butby spending one Essence during activation, the Duration may beextended to last one day. Damage caused by the spatter is bash-ing Health damage that deals continuous damage for two turnsbefore the blood reverts to its natural form. The Continuous Dam-age is equal to the amount of lethal Health damage (suffered bythe Purified) minus 1 to anyone in a 180-degree arc from point ofimpact. Successive turns of spatter may stack or overlap. Damagefrom the spatter is dangerous only to flesh, and may be mitigatedby armor, but not Defense. Blood spatter transmuted by this Nu-men causes no damage to the Purified.

Dice Pool: Stamina + Medicine + Chi

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6.2 additional numina

Annihilate Matter(Mage: The Awakening – Page 201)Action: InstantCost: None

"Jane, have you seenmy headphones?""Yes.""I want to listen torivers on thesubway. Where arethey?""Gone.""Where did you seethem?""Here.""What did you dowith them?""I put them away.""Where? I needthem.""I put them awayfrom the universe.""Jane!""They weren’t pinecones."

Effect: The Purified can destroy inert matter, reducing it to noth-ingness and utterly dissolving its atomic lattice. In effect, shemakes it cease to be. A material’s hardness or density does notappreciably factor into this destruction; only sheer quantity (interms of cubic volume) really has much bearing on the process.Each success inflicts one point of damage on an object, withoutthe need to overcome the object’s Durability. The exception is formagical items, such as enhanced or imbued items or Artifacts, orsupernatural compounds and alloys. They cannot be destroyedwith this Numen.

Dice Pool: Resolve + Occult or Science + Chi

Enhance Toxin(Seers Of The Throne – Page 192)Action: InstantDuration: One sceneCost: 1 Essence

Effect: The poisoner’s craft is a distasteful one, but one thathas, nevertheless, been practiced through centuries and millen-nia. This Numen amplifies the deleterious qualities of a toxic sub-stance, rendering it even more lethal to its victim than it normallywould be. Each success assigned increases a poison’s Toxicity by1. Note that biological poisons and venoms may be enhanced byway of this Numen, though not while still within the creaturethat produces them.

Dice Pool: Intelligence + Science + Chi

Purify Bodies(Mage: The Awakening – Page 183)Action: InstantCost: 1 Essence

Effect: The Purified may cleanse others of drugs, toxins, or poi-sons with a touch.

Dice Pool: Intelligence + Medicine + Chi

Sense Poisons And Drugs

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hacks for numina and siddhi

(Banishers – Page 58)Action: InstantDuration: One sceneCost: None

Effect: The Purified can sense the presence of poisons and drugsin liquid, solid, or gaseous matter. He might not know the nameof a specific substance but immediately understands what effectsit would have in the human body. His senses extend to substancesthat have been adulterated by a poison or drug, so he can detecta drugged drink or poisoned food. Even if a substance is not apoison or drug per se, he understands at a glance what effectsthe substance would have if inhaled, ingested, or introduced intothe bloodstream.

Dice Pool: Resolve + Science + Chi

Transform Base Life(Mage: The Awakening – Page 184)Action: Instant and contested; target reflexively rolls StaminaDuration: One sceneCost: 1 Essence

Effect: The Purified can transform one base form of life (such asinsects, fungi, or plants) into another base life form. By trans-muting the living energy of a plant, such as a growing floweror unripe acorn, a Purified can transform such life into anotherform of life entirely, such as an insect swarm. Alternately, thePurified can change one kind of insect (or other simple inverte-brate life) into another (such as a cockroach into a wasp or anearthworm into a millipede). The Purified must touch the targetand is limited to targets of Size 20 or less. To increase the sizeof a target, dice penalties and added Essence costs are levied onthe activation roll, but no penalties or added costs are given fordecreases in Size. Transforming anything into a swarm will notlevy penalties unless the swarm is smaller or larger than the origi-nal. The lifeforms created cannot be directed without appropriateNumina, such as Animal Control.Jane, with Influence

(Conifers), lovesnothing more than

to make her ownconifers in

unnatural plantingzones using a

variety of suburbanlandscaping.

Table 1: Increased Size and Added CostIncreased Size Dice Penalty Added Essence Cost+3 -1 +1

+6 -2 +2

+9 -3 +3

+12 -4 +4

+15 -5 +5

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6.2 additional numina

Table 2: Swarm Size

Target Life Form’s Size Insect Swarm Size

1-3 1 yd radius4-6 2 yd radius7-10 4 yd radius11-15 8 yd radius16-20 16 yd radius

* = Add x2 radius per five additional points of Size.

Dice Pool: Intelligence + Animal Ken or Survival + Chi vs. Stamina

Transmute Gold(Mage: The Awakening – Page 202)Action: InstantDuration: 1 day per ChiCost: 1 Essence

Effect: The Purified can transmute a common substance, suchas wood or mud, into a precious or rare substance, such as goldor diamond, or vica versa. Transmuting gold into diamond orwood into mud would also work. The caster cannot alter the sub-stance’s state (liquid or solid). The transmutation lasts one dayper Chi level.

Dice Pool: Wits + Occult or Science + Chi

Transmute Water(Mage: The Awakening – Page 197)Action: InstantDuration: One sceneCost: 1 Essence

Effect: The Purified can transmute one common liquid substance During theAmerican 1920s,Purified knowingthis Numen were inhigh demand insupernatural circles,and some of themgot rich off ofspeakeasies.

into another common liquid substance. The Purified could turnwater into milk or orange juice into gasoline. (Even though milkand orange juice are organic derivatives, they are not alive, so canbe manipulated with this Numen.) The Purified must touch thetargeted liquid (or vapor) to be able to affect its adjacent volume.The Purified can affect liquid vapor, like fog or mist, but not anysubstance whose single natural state is gaseous (like mustard gasor helium). She affects a volume of liquid or vapor based on hersuccesses.Dice Pool: Intelligence + Occult or Science + Chi

Verminous Metamorphosis

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hacks for numina and siddhi

Table 3: Volume per Successes

Successes Liquid Volume Vapor Volume

1 Milk jug 5 square-yard area2 Gas tank 10 square-yard area3 Bathtub 20 square-yard area4 Swimming pool 40 square-yard area5 Olympic swimming pool 80 square-yard area

(Mage: The Awakening – Page 200)Action: InstantDuration: One turnCost: 1 Essence

Effect: This Numen enables a Purified to alter a piece (or pieces)of lifeless material into simple vermin, such as spiders, scorpions,or biting flies. She may fling a fistful of small change or pebbles,transforming the objects in mid-flight to harry (or even seriouslyharm) enemies. Successes determine the number of objects (coins,staves) that are transformed, and the size of the swarm created.The creatures can be various types of vermin. In the case of aswarm of stinging insects, it usually attacks any person or per-sons within its radius. (The Purified can direct the swarm withother Numina.) The damage the swarm inflicts depends on itsdensity. All sizes listed deliver one die of bashing damage toanyone within the radius. A swarm can inflict more damage bycondensing. Using the success chart below, add one die per stepsmaller on the chart. For example, a 16-yard-radius swarm (fivesuccesses) that condenses to a two-yard radius (two successes)inflicts four dice of bashing damage. Armor is effective only ifit covers the full body, and then it provides only half its rating(rounded down). In addition, the vermin can be given venomif the caster imposes a -2 dice penalty on the activation roll andspends an additional Essence. If a victim suffers at least oneHealth wound, he must contend with the venom with a reflexiveStamina + Survival roll. If it succeeds, he suffers no effect; if itfails, his physical-action dice pools suffer a -2 penalty for the restof the scene or until he receives an antivenin (based on whatevercreature the Purified conjures). This penalty is cumulative. Ifa victim suffers successive bites and the Stamina + Survival rollfails, his penalties are added together. The vermin created aremindless and act solely on instinct (and thus this Numen is bestused to create naturally aggressive insectile vermin). To extendthe duration of this Numen beyond the first turn, the Purifiedmay spend one Essence per turn.

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6.3 siddhi

Table 4: Number of Targets and Size of Swarm per Success

Successes Targets

1 One (becomes a 1-yard radius swarm)2 Two (becomes a 2-yard radius swarm)3 Four (becomes a 4-yard radius swarm)4 Eight (becomes a 8-yard radius swarm)5 16 (becomes a 16-yard radius swarm)

Dice Pool: Wits + Animal Ken + Chi

6.3 siddhi

Many Siddhi duplicate Numina. The other Siddhi have been ex-panded into a five-point system and condensed below.

6.3.1 Siddhi of Flesh

This accomplishment leverages the Purified’s nature as a spirit-soulto grant them the ability to do exciting feats reminiscent of CrouchingTiger, Hidden Dragon, widespread rumors about advanced monks inthe Himalayas, &c. Any Purified with dots in this Siddhi can practiceembodied shifting into Twilight or Shadow using the same rules forephemeral projection in the Basic Hacks.

• Lightness of BeingSee ”Tread Lightly,” Immortals, p. 107.

•• Lifelike GhostIn combat, expend 1 Essence and roll Stamina + Athletics + Chi.The next thing that touches your character, be it a bullet, hand,sword, stone, &c., will have its damage reduced by the number ofthe roll’s successes; the Purified’s body is slightly insubstantial atpoint of contact. If anyone touches the Purified before the powercan be applied to damage reduction (i.e., a friendly shove out ofthe line of fire), the power is dissipated with no effect. "So this newcomer,

Lei, can fly?""I don’t know whythat sounds weird,Jane.""But he can fly. Yousaw him fly?""He says he didsome meditation onmountaintops. Ithought that meantyou two might knoweach other ...""That is absolutelyridiculous."

••• Breaching BarriersSee Immortals, p. 107. This can also be used to pass throughshackles and other bindings.

•••• Weightless MovementExpend 2 Essence and roll Wits + Athletics + Chi. Instead of walk-ing lightly on objects that can only support a fraction of your

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hacks for numina and siddhi

weight, you can hover an inch or two above the ground. Anyonewatching can roll Wits + Composure to see that you have becomeslightly transparent.

••••• Corporeal FlightExpend 2 Essence. Roll Dexterity + Athletics + Chi. The Puri-fied can fly a number of meters above the ground equal to thesuccesses. The drawback is that they become completely trans-parent. Touching them is like touching something that is hardlythere, like smoke or tissue paper.

6.3.2 Siddhi of Mind

This accomplishment mashes up the original Summoning Siddhi withother levels that make it more applicable to play with mortals andother supernaturals.

• Summoning SpiritsSee ”Summoning Spirits,” Immortals, p. 109.

•• Summoning the BodyCosts 1 Essence. Roll Presence + Socialize + Chi vs. Resolve (+ SA).If successful, the Purified can compel anyone in the same roomto approach them. The person might believe that the Purifiedseems friendly or attractive, they may remember a question theywanted to ask an onlooker (or acquaintance, in some cases), &c.

••• Call SpiritSee ”Call Spirit,” Immortals, p. 109.

•••• Summon the SoulCosts 2 Essence. As with Call Spirit, roll Wits + Persuasion + Chi- Magical Connection vs. Resolve (+ SA). If successful, the Purifiedcan feel the soul/mind of someone whom they know and compelthem to come to the current location. This only works when onthe same plane as the individual. See the Magical Connectionchart on p. 102 of Immortals to determine the dice penalty.

••••• PandemoniumCosts 2 Essence. Roll Wits + Intimidation + Chi - Magical Connectionvs. Resolve + SA. If Successful, the Purified can force another su-pernatural creature to reveal itself for what it is. Purified Artificesbreak (if that mechanic is used), vampires frenzy, Changelingsmust drop their Mein, Demons lose Cover, &c.If the Purified sacrifices 5 Essence and 2 WP, they can force every

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6.3 siddhi

supernatural in a radius equal to their Chi in meters to make thisroll, including themselves (if the Artifice mechanic is used).

6.3.3 Siddhi of Will

This is a mash-up of Spiritual Defense and Warding in the originalImmortals book.

• See ”Ward Against Supernatural Beings,” Immortals, p. 109.

•• See ”Exorcism,” Immortals, p. 107.

••• See ”Ward Against Magic,” Immortals, p. 109.

•••• See ”Mass Banishing,” Immortals, p. 108.

••••• See ”Ward Against the Living,” Immortals, p. 109.

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7

M E R I T S

Purified have access to Merits from multiple locations, including thecore Immortals text, the God-Machine Chronicle text, and other productsin the World of Darkness. While the 2nd-edition Werewolf book hasnot yet been released, in addition to Totem, Purified can reasonablyjustify acquiring Merits that focus on Essence and Shadow aspects— so, for instance, a Purified might find themselves fully capable ofsculpting Resonance, but not anything related to pack instincts.

Many merits in the core rulebooks are easily adapted to Purifiedwith a little creativity. Hobbyist Clique (WoD GMC, p. 167) or Con-tacts could be used to describe old Immortal friends who share gossipat tea parties once every few weeks. Interdisciplinary Specialty couldbe used to apply knowledge of Shadow to various fields based onunderstanding how the spirits in Shadow interact with one another(i.e., do the tides happen because of lunar and solar gravity, or dothey happen because the spirits of gravity and seawater are engagedin a graceful dance?).

There are also some merits that Purified are more likely to havethan others. Meditative Mind is an excellent justification for stayingconscious and ritual-capable while performing the Purification Ritual(i.e., dying). As a Purified moves through time, Language, Multilin-gual, and Patient may easily be applied.

7.1 archival content

• to •••••Over the years, your character has amassed an archive of infor-

mation in diaries, notebooks, letters, and occult research. This is nota library — all of these documents were created by your Purified andtheir associates. Choose three topics related to Mental skills in whichyour character has at least 2 dots. Each dot in Archival Content pro-vides your character with a +1 to do research in these areas, up to a+5 (the cap of the Merit).

By spending a Willpower, your character may also roll Wits + Aca-demics to see if another Mental Skill topic is covered in a section oftheir Archival Content. This roll must be phrased as a research ques-

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7.2 claimed companion

tion, and the results only apply to this question.

Dramatic Failure: Your character discovers (and takes at facevalue) one true and one false piece of information about the topic(i.e., through several small anecdotes in their notes), but cannotdifferentiate between the two.Failure: Your character cannot find any mention of the subject intheir notes.Success: Your character finds something of value and may applya generic +1 to their attempts to tease meaning out of their re-search question.Exceptional Success: Your character finds extensive notes on thetopic, and they can use their dots in Archival Content as a modi-fier to any roll related to their current research question.

7.2 claimed companion

•••, ••••, or •••••

Prerequisites: Retainer •+"Noah, pleasecontrol your friend.""He’s fine.""He’s not fine. He’sslowly eating mykitchen countertops.He chips away atthem and eatsthem.""Heh! He lovesgranite.""This isn’t funny.People notice thesethings.""Leave off, Amy.You’re going to hurthis feelings."

Your Purified has a Spirit-Claimed retainer of compatible type.Their relationship may be based on oaths, convenience, or some otherbond, but the companion is no slave. He will act in the Purified’s in-terest as long as doing so does not conflict too much with his Spiritnature nor unduly endanger his foothold in the physical realm. Toconvince a Claimed Companion to act against his urges, Roll Ma-nipulation + Persuasion or Intimidation. Success means he grudginglyassents. Storytellers may impose penalties or an Essence cost if thetask is particularly odious to the Claimed.

The Retainer prerequisite represents the mortal half of the Spirit-Claimed. This rating can be purchased up to five dots, like any Re-tainer. Establish who this mortal was before being Claimed. Nextadd spirit traits, as follows.

Choose:

• Spirit Type and Rank. Three- and four-dot Claimed Compan-ions are Rank 2. Five-dot versions are Rank 3 and typically onlyact as retainers for Purified of Chi 3 or higher.

• Two dots of Influence. For five-dot Companions, choose three.

• Five dots in Numina, Aspects, Dread Powers, or Merits. Five-dot Companions get seven dots.

• A ban and a bane.

• One noticeably unusual physical feature appropriate for its spiritnature. Five-dot Companions get two.

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Claimed Companions have a day-to-day Essence pool of 10. Theyare loath to use their last few Essence points, preferring to flee anyconfrontation with at least 5 points remaining unless persuaded oth-erwise. At 5 Essence or less, a companion’s primary concern becomesEssence harvesting.

Claimed Companions roll their Retainer rating plus their Claimedrating for any actions not within their field. For actions involvingtheir field, Influences, or powers, they double their Retainer rating,add their Claimed rating, and roll the result.

Drawbacks: The Purified’s Essence pool is always down by 2 toreflect sharing available Essence sources with the companion. Dur-ing play, if the Purified ever gains full Essence, she must give hercompanion 2 points of Essence as soon as possible or risk losing thecompanion. The Claimed may attract attention from humans whonotice his unusual features and urges, or worse, from Uratha or othercreatures who frown on Claimed walking the streets.

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7.3 deathless

7.3 deathless

••Your character’s suicide and resurrection had a peculiar lasting

effect: death seems repelled by him. As a result, the dice pools ofany ability or power composed of death energy, and of any abilityor power activated by a non-living creature, suffer a -1 penalty whentargeting the Purified. Deathly powers or ones used by non-livingbeings which target an area are not subject to the penalty. Powersinvolving death energy include Mage spells of the Death Arcanum,Sin-Eater Keys and Manifestations, and some Numina. Non-livingbeings include vampires, Sin-Eaters, and ghosts. Spirits are not sub-ject to this Merit, but their deathly Numina may be.

Drawback: Your Purified feels off-putting to non-living beingssuch as ghosts and vampires. Social rolls against them (excludingIntimidation) incur a -1 penalty, as do attempts to summon themusing powers.

7.4 fog the mirror

•Most Purified have no choice but to notice and be noticed by spir-

its and ghosts in Twilight, who hound them with requests. Your Pu-rified, however, may "turn off" her Twilight sense, with the followingtwo effects: one, she becomes blind and deaf to any creatures whoexist in it, and two, she no longer broadcasts that she can perceivethem. (Any creatures who are already aware of her ability to per-ceive them do not forget it, of course.) Alternatively, she can spend1 Willpower to make her Twilight perception one-way, such that shecan see spirits and ghosts in Twilight, but they are not automaticallyaware of her attention. She is not rendered invisible to them, but aslong as she doesn’t call attention to herself, she appears as obliviousto their existence as any mortal.

7.5 hotelier

••• or •••••Purified will occasionally make deals with older Kindred and

watch over their bodies, but they seldom make a business from it.Purified with the Merit Hotelier have gone one step further: Theyare known to Kindred in their area as being a neutral party in thetorpor business, and the local Kindred appreciate — and often forcethe Purified to continue — the service.

Hotelier ••• provides the Purified with a single dot of City Statusin the local Kindred bureaucracy, and their status is preserved evenif the Kindred leadership changes. Hoteliers at this stage are likely

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managing 1-2 torpid Kindred at a time. They regain a Beat for eachdot of Safe Place purchased, and they have a free Occult Specialty inKindred. Violating the Safe Place of a Hotelier is considered an act ofaggression against the city.

Hotelier ••••• provides the Purified with two dots of City Statusinstead of one dot. Again, this is guarded even if Kindred leadershipchanges. Hoteliers at this level are managing 3-5 Kindred at a time,and they likely live in much larger population centers. They regain aBeat for each dot of Safe Place purchased, and they have a free Aca-demic Specialty in Accounting or Finance in addition to their OccultSpecialty in Kindred. Violating their Safe Place is an act of aggressionagainst the city.

7.6 malleable money

••Prerequisites: Resources •+, A Skill Specialty related to financeYour character has Resources that are not tied to their current

mortal identity. However, these assets are difficult to access. Onceper month, make a roll with your financial skill specialty. (The rollrequires Wits and the Skill for which you have taken the Specialty.)These assets may also be liquidated and represent about US$100M.

Dramatic Failure: Your character loses the ability to access theirMalleable Money resources during the following month for anyreason, and the funds may have been noticed by mortal authori-ties.Failure: Your character cannot safely transfer funds without no-tice.Success: For each success, your character receives a temporaryDot of resources that is unencumbered, and they may make anumber of undocumented purchases that month equal to the tem-porary Resource dots. It goes without saying that your charactercannot purchase anything that would require identification.Exceptional Success: Resources is incresed by 2 dots for the re-mainder of the month, and the process of transferring these fundsto your character’s identity accounts is sufficient to make themavailable for regular use.

7.7 otherworldly gaze

•Your character knows how to let some of the eeriness of her Puri-

fied nature shine through, unnerving her opponents. When makingan Intimidation roll, the player can use this Merit reflexively, effec-tively doubling the character’s Intimidation dice pool for one scene.

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7.8 porcelain doll

Targets get a subconscious impression that they are facing off withsomething alien and powerful.

7.8 porcelain doll

•• "Someone has tooperate the backhoe.""I’ll do it.""Anyone else?""I said I’ll do it.""Yeah, sorry,partner, but we needsomeone a bitrougher around theedges.""I’ve excavated acursed relic usingheavy equipmentbefore.""It’s just that weneed someone who’sbeen in some tightspots. You’ll getyour chance, kid.""I’m 300 years old.""Anyone up forthis?"

Your Purified has a particularly ethereal appearance. While otherPurified may also be eternally young and free of scars and blemishes,yours wears this perfection on his skin in a way that others findsdifficult to ignore. First, his delicate, pretty, and innocent appearanceimposes a -1 penalty on anyone else’s aggressive Social dice pools—namely, Intimidation and some forms of high-pressure Persuasion.Secondly, characters who intend to physically harm the Purified haveto spend 1 Willpower to initiate the violent act, afterwhich they canignore the Merit for the rest of the scene.

Drawback: Looking too delicate for this world makes it difficultto be taken seriously by some people, especially those who are olderor hard-boiled. The Purified’s Social pools that rely on him seemingtough, strong, intimidating, or perhaps even merely capable suffer a-1 penalty.

7.9 refined taste

••Your Purified has a refined taste for Essence, allowing them to

learn more about the original source. When receiving Essence fromanother supernatural creature, roll Wits + Occult.

Dramatic Failure: Your character learns one false piece of infor-mation and one true piece of information about the source of theEssence.Failure: Your character receives no information from the Essenceother than the Resonance of its original source (i.e., the Locuswhere it was harvested from).Success: Your character learns one piece of intrinsic informationabout the Essence’s source, such as their Virtue, Vice, an Influ-ence, or their emotional state when they gave you the Essence.Exceptional Success: Your character’s taste is so refined that youcan sense the Essence source’s Aspirations or goals that are mostrelevant to the current scene.

7.10 social memory

• or ••Purified are much older than they appear. While they may not

have any dots in a specific Skill, many reasonably social Purified —

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or one who keeps up with the news — have a vast repository of factsat their disposal. With the •-version of this Merit, the Purified takesa -1 to unskilled Instant Actions with Mental skills. With the ••-dotversion, they have no penalty.

When a Purified uses this Merit, they can only recall the mostbasic facts about the topic. An Exceptional Success will not fill inthe gaps, but inform them of the context of the factoids: somethinga friend said at a party 20 years ago, a newspaper from five yearsago on the morning the Purified nearly burnt down their kitchen,or a bestseller book from 1970, for example. They will need to doresearch to gain any further information. Extended Actions are notcovered by this Merit.

7.11 spirit-named

•Your Purified’s True Name has been replaced with a Spirit Name.

No one can derive any sympathetic bonus from using your originalmortal name, Alternate Identities, or other mortal alias.

7.12 traditional mystery cults

There are not many Purified around the world. The oldest type ofMystery Cult is the family tradition, or a line of Purified linked bythe same ritual preparations. They have been in existence since timeimmemorial. However, over the past few hundred years, some Pu-rified have self-organized into small collections of affinity groups.These have been made possible through improvements in commu-nication and human technology, which makes the geographic disper-sion much less problematic.

7.12.1 Society of Spades

"We have the worstPurified brood."

"I know. Do we evenhave any Influencesin common, Amy?"

"... no. I think wejust hang out with

Noah because theSociety thinks we’relosers and wouldn’t

let us in."

This is the largest Purified Mystery Cult. Created during the timeof the Crusades, the Society of Spades is a precursor to the anti-warmovement — and some say that the anti-war movements of the 20thcentury in various countries are all echoes of it. Membership is byinvitation only, with an arduous acceptance process. The inventionof the telegraph, followed by the phone and modern communicationactivities, has helped the Society of Spades blossom from a loose al-liance into a coordinated movement.

Members agree to never ally with spirits that warmonger withone another and to intervene when any Shadow conflicts threaten todisrupt the balance in the physical world. They also agree to cometo one another’s aid if needed. This often takes the form of crash-

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7.12 traditional mystery cults

ing with someone while passing through, but it could be acceptingmembership on a coalition to address spirit-related concerns.

Once admitted as a member, the first dot in Mystery Cult is themerit Patient. The second dot grants the member access to Contacts(Purified) — since the Society is so large in comparison to other Mys-tery Cults, everyone knows someone who has information. The thirddot gives the Purified access to a two-dot Locus with a resonancecongruent with peace — the clout of the Society serves as a low formof protection against losing it to spirits, as they don’t want to pissthis group of Purified off. The fourth dot gives the Purified the three-dot version of Fast-Talking Style. The Council of Three, the onlymembers who are allowed to have the fifth dot of status, share a four-dot Shadow Sanctum to which they summon members. The ShadowSanctum is also ranked as a four-dot Safe Place.

7.12.2 The Machinists

The Machinists are a group of Purified who convened in 1911 in Vi-enna, but the movement had been building since the dawn of theEnlightenment. They learned about one another through mutual ac-quaintances, notes left in places by chance, and through general hap-penstance.

A Machinist is dedicated to learning more about the God-Machineand ways to sabotage and manipulate it. The Machinist studies An-gels, God-Machine Cults, and laws of probability. Many of them be-come exemplary probability mathematicians and cultivate large net-works of allies and contacts in technology industries and in civic in-frastructure.

Machinists do not volunteer. They are selected and groomed byother Machinists from afar until the moment when the Machinist en-counters the God-Machine in an irrevocably damaging way. Then,the Machinist groomer steps in and guides them into the cult. Atthe first rank, a Machinist gets a free Occult specialty in the God-Machine (or, if they already have that, any God-Machine-related Skillspecialty); at the second rank, an Academic specialty dot in Probabil-ity; at the third, 3 Merit dots of Allies or Contacts representing theirgrowing reach as they study Infrastructure; at the fourth, the NumenLeft-Handed Spanner; and at the fifth, the Purified gains four dots inthe Purified Dream merit.

7.12.3 Der Rat der Nebelmeer

This cult, whose name means "The Council of the Sea of Fog" (of-ten shortened to Nebelmeer), tasks itself with forecasting technolog-ical and cultural trends in order to secretly shepherd humanity. Itsfounders, equally horrified and fascinated by the tumultuous changes

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of the Industrial Revolution, refused to withdraw in confusion froma rapidly evolving world. Instead, they adopted the methods of fu-turists, sociologists, historians, economists, and environmentalists toplot a safe course through the misty future using the long view oftime that only immortals possess.

Membership is by invitation only, and only forward-thinking Pu-rified are ever contacted. Members promise to closely study unfold-ing global events and to keep up-to-date with science, technology,and social trends. Collectively, they employ dozens of mortal consul-tants to keep abreast of developments. As with other Purified, they’renot immune to falling behind the pace of technology or even beingnostalgic for technologies of decades (or centuries) past. At theirmeetings, transhumanist Purified may sit next to ones who have justcome to understand artificial intelligence as an emerging trend. Eachmember specializes in one or two topics (urban centers, medicine, cli-mate change, commercial flight, robots) and is expected to present areport at a formal meeting. In the 19th century, the council wouldmeet every twelve years to pool their findings. Throughout most ofthe 20th Century, they met every six years. Now, in response to theincreasing pace of technological developments, the Nebelmeer con-venes every three years.

Nebelmeer and the Society of Spades have a complicated relation-ship. After the Great War, the Society saw Nebelmeer as a sister cluband there was a good deal of cooperation between the two. However,it soon became apparent that the Purified of Nebelmeer were moreinterested in how wars were fought and how they would be foughtin the future than in how to prevent them. One joint meeting of thetwo groups — perhaps the largest gathering of Purified in history— degraded into shouting matches, with Society members accusingNebelmeer of being "friends of machine guns", and Nebelmeer charg-ing the Society with foolishly pitting themselves against primal hu-man instinct. The fact that Nebelmeer did not foresee the use of atombombs against civilians did not help relations between the groups.Since then, tensions have lessened somewhat, and Nebelmeer are con-sidered to be Purified authorities on emerging trends, if not staunchanti-war allies.

At rank one, members get a Skill Speciality or an Area of Exper-tise. At rank two, they get either one dot in Contacts or one in Library.Rank three provides them introduction to a Hobbyist Clique. At rankfour, they develop Omen Sensitivity. Rank five is reserved for theFounder, Rötger Falk, who has a staggeringly extensive network ofAllies related to European science and industry: three for anythinggenerally related to these sectors, including universities, and five formanufacturing.

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7.13 lineage mystery cults

7.13 lineage mystery cults

Lineage traditions are the only type of Mystery Cult that accepts dualmembership in other Purified mystery cults. One Purified learningthe secret of immortality is a chance gambit. Teaching another Candi-date the secret is a happy coincidence. When the Candidate succeedsat teaching another, it becomes a tradition. For a lineage tradition toexist, there must be a lineage line at least 3 deep.

The Patriarch or Matriarch buys all 5 dots in the Merit at once andsacrifices a dot of Willpower to found the lineage tradition. The Patri-arch or Matriarch must then take a permanent Condition that servesto tie the tradition together, such as an Obsession with members ofhis or her lineage or a permanent form of the Swooning condition forall members.

For extant lineage members, taking the first dot is expected. NewCandidates must explicitly agree to the rules and conditions duringthe Purification Ritual or the ritual fails automatically. Everyone whoshares the same ritual — even if they do not take dots in MysteryCult status — is suddenly plugged into a low-grade psychic fieldthat permeates the entire lineage. "So, Lei’s in a

Kool-Aid Cult.""What?""He’s in a lineagetradition. That’swhy he is never herefor the holidays —he always goes tovisit them.""That’s sweet. Mymentor sometimessends me cards fromIndia, but wehaven’t seen eachother in about threedecades.""Amy. It’s fuckingcreepy the way hetalks about them.It’s like they can dono wrong.""So?""Supernaturalcreatures areassholes. Rememberthat demon?""Noah, I think youhave attachmentissues."

7.13.1 Mechanical Constraints

Family traditions, as a form of mystery cult, carry their own benefitsand rewards.

• One has access to all of the usual benefits of the Mystery Cultmerit.

• All members of family traditions are considered Intimately con-nected even if they have never met.

• There is a low-grade psychic field among members of a familytradition. As such, Empathy among lineage members does notrely on body language, tone of voice, or any physical signaling.Tuning into the psychic field is almost effortless. All Empathyrolls carry an 8-again quality. 1 WP can be spent to make eachroll remotely at a normal 10-again.

• Lineage members may spend 1 Essence to roll Wits + Composure.Each success at this roll tells them the exact location of one otherlineage member. An exceptional success will let them know thelocation of all lineage members. This does not tell them howto get to where the family member is, though; they would haveto convert their knowledge of exact location to a map-basedsystem.

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• When a new lineage member awakens to their body followingthe Shadow journey, they are immediately plugged into the low-grade psychic field. All lineage members feel the addition ofanother mind.

• If Chorus (Ritual Lineage members) is purchased, there is nodistance restriction.

• Members with Mystery Cult 0-2 are treated as having one fewerDoor by other family members. For Mystery Cult 3-5, the num-ber of Doors is reduced by 2.

Downsides:

• Everyone in the family shares an Intimate connection with oneanother, even if they haven’t met.

• A Purified old enough to become a Patriarch or Matriarch isinhuman enough to condition family members into voluntaryobedience using Numina and psychological manipulation. Givea Condition to everyone at Level 3 or higher — except for thefounder.

• Whenever a family member takes the Threatened Condition, allother family members must roll Resolve + Composure. Everyonewho fails must also take the Threatened Condition.

• If a lineage member is temporarily or permanently destroyedin Shadow, everyone feels it instantly and immediately receivesthe Threatened Condition.

• If a single family member is Blood Bound at any level, everyonein the family is effectively Blood Bound at Stage 1. Only thedirect recipient of the bond, however, must cope with bloodaddiction and higher levels of the bond.

• Lineage members who do not buy dots in Mystery Cult willface unceasing pressure from the Patriarch or Matriarch untiltheir volition breaks and the first dot is purchased. This mayinvolve Numina use; judicious use of bans, banes, and warding;and even old-fashioned Social rolls to intimidate, gaslight, andsweet-talk the noncompliant member into submission. Oncethey are broken down, these lineage members will receive a per-manent Condition at Level 1 instead of at Level 3 like everyoneelse.

• There is a high chance that your family members always knowwhere you are and how you feel.

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7.13 lineage mystery cults

7.13.2 Example Lineage Cults

Falling Leaves

Falling Leaves is a lineage mystery cult of assassins formed in late11th century Syria. It takes its name from outsiders, who say its mem-bers can kill anyone before a falling leaf reaches the ground and morequietly than its landing. Members are normally youths selected fortheir discipline and unobtrusiveness and raised as candidates. Whena former member has been permanently destroyed or lost in Shadow,the cult seeks out a new youth to train. Suitable Purified from out-side the family can also become members, but with limitations. Thesenon-family candidates take part in a joining ceremony in which theyswear oaths of loyalty to the master of the cult and to their sponsor,allow themselves to be stabbed to death, and return to life as hon-orary members of the lineage. They are subject to the normal benefitsand rewards of lineage mystery cults, but can only rise to Rank three.

Members are sworn to maintain order in the Shadow and mate-rial realms through judicious, tidy slayings. The nature of this "or-der" is not always clear, but Falling Leaves are generally conservative,killing to maintain the status quo. In some cases, however, the pur-pose of an assassination may be to restore the status quo as it wasdecades or centuries ago, which to others may look like revolutionarybehavior. Members are forbidden from taking Essence that resonateswith murder, anger, hate, or similarly negative themes, because doingso leads to uncontrollable killing sprees and messy work. AcceptableEssence includes silence, night, knives, justice, discipline, patience,and elegance. One high-status member traffics only in the Essence ofhonor and revenge, the one tempering the other.

In the past, members were expected to travel far and be out oftouch with fellow members for years as they worked; consequently,they were given considerable freedom to select their own targets. To-day, members are encouraged to seek approval for their targets if atall possible. Any missions handed down by the patriarch take prior-ity. Falling Leaves also hire themselves out to mortals and supernatu-rals alike, charging fees in hard cash, bullion, silk bolts, pomegranateseeds soaked in tears, or stranger fare. Their targets are primarilymortal and occasionally other supernaturals. Destroying spirits orother Purified is forbidden, but reducing them to motes is not.

Initiates gain a free Stealth speciality for moving in darkness(or, if already possessed, another Stealth speciality); the second rankgrants the one-dot version of Trained Observer; the third rank givesmembers the two-dot version of Shiv; the fourth rank, attainable onlyby family members raised from youth, grants the three-dot Occulta-tion Merit; the fifth rank is reserved for the master of the cult, knownas Silence of Knives, who lurks in a five-dot Safe Place containing atwo-dot Locus of silence.

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House of Wind

The House of Wind is a lineage mystery cult formed in Heian Japan(c. 845 CE) following the introduction of Buddhism into Japan. Itsfounder, Ayako, was an ancillary member of the Fujiwara clan.

Ayako is famous for a nikki that is held in the Metropolitan Mu-seum of Art. As with most Heian period diaries, the nikki is liter-ary and truth-shaped, and it was written in full consciousness thatit might be circulated. Ayako follows the traditional Heian practiceof not naming herself specifically in the work, and she is commonlyreferred to as the Restless Wife due to the sentiments communicatedin the nikki. Ayako describes deep unhappiness in her home life dueto a series of miscarriages that left her alive, but in poor health. Themelancholy and unhappiness is broken occasionally by lightheartedretellings of Shinto legends and descriptions of the seasons. TheAyako of the novel took great solace in stories about the wind godFuten, a blustery and dark divinity. As the nikki continues, it deteri-orates more and more into stories about kami, fantastical interpreta-tions of real-world events, and an increasing feeling of alienation withher extended family. Modern scholars study the work as a possibleearly example of schizophrenia. Ayako truthfully fell in love with ablustery wind spirit that had Claimed a young man in her village,and he taught her the secret to Purification over two decades. Ayakospends most of her time in a Shadow Sanctum with this spirit, andshe can barely hold on to Simulacrum 2.

Members of this lineage are girls recruited on their twelfth birth-days without consent, like clockwork, every 150 years. They are cho-sen for their intellect, moral strength, and vulnerability to depression.The mentor will entice a wind spirit to Claim the preteen for a fixedten years, after which the spirit is obliged to leave (or threatened withexorcism and destruction, which the lineage members have only doneonce). As with all mortals, the soul-fusion changes the girls demon-strably, and for ten years after their possession concludes, they aretrained by their lineage Mentor. At the age of thirty-two, they are pre-sented to Ayako, given a feast, and taken to Ayako’s four-dot Locus oftempestuousness. During the ritual, Ayako kills the Candidate withlightning (one of her signature Numina, which are almost entirely El-emental). The mentor and Ayako perform the ritual preparations forthe body together.

Level 1 makes the Candidate Spirit-Named; they lose sympa-thetic ties with their mortal name and aliases upon becoming Purified.Level 2 provides the Candidate with Fast Reflexes 1. At Level 3, theycan create a 2-dot occult library. At Level 4, the character receives 3

dots of Allies in spirits related to winds and weather. Ayako has a5-dot Claimed Companion, who is also a Retainer at 5 dots, who ismerged with the spirit she fell in love with millennia ago. Membersat 3 dots or higher have an Obsession Condition with the lineage,

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7.14 unnatural appetite

weather, and wind — they have a hard time thinking about anythingelse, and most will structure their lives and professions around it.

7.14 unnatural appetite

•••A Purified with this Merit can convert Essence into life-sustaining

fuel at will. By spending a point of Willpower and a number ofEssence equal to the Purified’s Size, a Purified does not need to eatfor 1 week, instead sustaining themself on the Essence they have setaside. They are still vulnerable to dehydration. While this is active,any attempts to eat or drink (aside from Purified pica compulsions,such as the desire to taste mud or sand, and the aforementioned waterneeded to combat dehydration) require a Resolve + Stamina roll. If theroll fails, the Purified cannot eat — any attempts to do so will causegagging, and any food swallowed is immediately regurgitated.

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Part III

T H E M AT I C S

8T H E P R O C E S S O F P U R I F I C AT I O N

Purified become what they are through ritual, with the exception ofthose who just died on a locus and fought their way back to theirbodies. For the Candidate, Purification requires no Simulacrum roll.For Purified Mentors, the successful Purification Ritual requires nodegeneration roll, as they are not witnessing a murder; however, ifthe mentee fails, the Mentor must roll a Breaking Point.

Purified are human beings who have been converted into spiritsthrough a violent and catastrophic interaction between Shadow andthe Candidate’s mind and soul. They have then reclaimed their ownbodies through the sympathetic connection.

Spirits themselves form through Resonance creating small motesof Essence. They begin at Rank 0 and slowly build themselves intomore powerful spirits (or are consumed by other spirits) over time.

The Purification Ritual, regardless of the form it takes (poison,ritual, or the fast-and-dirty version), is different. It is a super-motethat rapidly fills with Essence from the Locus. Imbibing the poison,performing the ritual, or dying under the appropriate conditions willinfuse the mote with still more Essence from the ritual. Technically, the

Purified Outer Pathcandidate becomesthe locus in thisritual — they’re stillcreating a super-cell,but the cell needs tospin up moreviolently.

As the mote quickly develops into the super-cell, it has not coa-lesced into a spirit yet. As the Essence collects in the depression, itbegins to spin very rapidly. Anyone with Dual Senses active can see aviolent, destructive funnel of Essence with Resonance correspondingto the Locus and to the Resonance invoked during the ritual. Anyspirits approaching it will be ripped apart if they fail a Resistanceroll; the Essence that they carry will be added to the super-cell if theyare destroyed. The Shadow location of the super-cell is immediatelyon top of the Candidate.

When the Candidate performs the suicide blow, their mind andsoul appear in Shadow as their body starts to die. The sympatheticritual connection between the Candidate and the super-cell is intenseand inescapable. The last thing any Candidate experiences while theyare still human is an excruciating amount of pain. Their Mind andSoul are ripped apart while they are still conscious. The body diesinstantly when this happens. The soul is absorbed into the Essence,which shifts the appearance of the super-cell in Shadow to that ofa rapidly-spinning golden sphere. It is now a spirit with Rank 2,

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the process of purification

and it has all character stats that are not dependent on memory (i.e.,no Skills, few Merits). It does not yet look human. The first thingthe spirit does is notice the fragments of mind inside of it. It is stillspinning rapidly, but as it does, it reconstructs the Mind and absorbsit. An adequate conceptual model for this process is this video fromNASA: http://bit.ly/1CrJOJV.

While the Mind is fragmented during the Purification process, itessentially does not exist. Once it is reconstructed, the spirit has aform, and the Purified is suddenly conscious — to a certain degree.The Mind’s resurrection happens in a dreamlike state, with the Can-didate’s entire life flashing in front of their eyes in vivid sensory andemotional detail. The Candidate’s sense of time is dilated; secondsare years. While this happens, the spirit is suddenly pushed into theform of the Candidate’s body as it would look if they were in theirmid-twenties and free of all scars and marks. In the physical world,the link between the body and mind is re-forged; the body enters adeep, coma-like state. Back in Shadow, the newborn Purified stopsspinning instantly and gains access to all of the memories, Skills, andMerits that were inaccessible while their spirit-soul was constructed.The Purified’s personality and sense of self have been completely in-tegrated.

The sudden halt throws the new Purified a random distance fromthe locus. It will likely take some longer amount of time to actuallyreturn to their body, as Shadow looks different from the real worldand is a lot harder to navigate. The Mind comes to full conscious-ness. It does not remember being ripped apart yet. The last thing itremembers is the suicide blow.

The Purified is filled with an insatiably powerful Obsession Con-dition to return to their body, and the Condition will be resolvedonce they do. They know exactly what direction it is in and willstop at nothing to return. Purified instinctively know their Ban andThey also begin at

Full Essence, but theEssence may be

partially depletedbefore they reach

their bodies, and it’sextremely likely thata newborn Purified

will not understandwhat their Essence

pool is.

Bane. Their Influences generate strong compulsions that the Purifieddoes not quite understand, but the compulsions are still not as pow-erful as the drive to return to the body. The Purified does not yetunderstand that they are actually a spirit now, even if they use SpiritTongue — their mind feels completely human. Most spirits Level 2+encountered, rather than attacking the Purified, will attempt to givethe Purified a Leveraged condition — Purified can work far moreeasily in the mortal world than they can, and debts of chiminage (orgathra) or favors are highly valued.

Once the Purified reaches their body, they are pulled into it. Itis essentially their only free Resurrection: the body, which was inertand free from decay, is suddenly infused. They awaken and rapidlyheal to their early 20s spirit-person self — and while it doesn’t hurt,it feels like it should, so it is very unsettling..

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the process of purification

As per the original Purified text in Immortals, a new Purified willhave +1 Occult, but probably no Numina or Siddhi (as the intrinsicNumen has been replaced). The mechanics for becoming Purified in-volve an Intelligence + Occult roll with the following outcomes:

Dramatic Failure: The Candidate’s failure creates a massive ex-plosion in Shadow. The strength of the locus is reduced by onedot (which will destroy a one-dot locus), and the explosion canbe felt within a five-mile radius by any Purified and all entitieseither in Shadow or Twilight or using powers to see into Shadowor Twilight.Failure: The Candidate’s mind and soul are ripped apart by thesupercell of Essence whirlpooling around the locus. Their bodydies and starts to decompose.Success: The Candidate becomes Purified. Their body is in adeep, coma-like stasis until they return to their body after theShadow Journey.Exceptional Success: The Candidate has broken through theirmortality with incredible finesse. They gain the Spiritlike Condi-tion and one free Numen or dot of Siddhi.

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9

P U R I F I E D P S Y C H O L O G Y

Purified bodies revert to appearing as they did in their early 20s,which includes their physical brains. One of the more disorientingpieces of becoming one of the Purified is that, if a Purified was sub-stantially older, they have lost a lot of the brain hardware maturitythat they had in their later years. In one’s early 20s, centers of theDid you know that

facial recognitionpeaks in one’s 30s?

brain related to higher-order thinking and behavioral inhibitions (i.e.,the frontal cortex), in addition to centers related to attention, havenot yet fully developed. This results in an intellect that is far moredeveloped than their newly-youthened brain. On the other hand, psy-chological disorders that developed in the mid- to late 20s are com-pletely eliminated. Many extremely young Purified believe that theyhave reached a static, unchanging state of youth. Outwardly, theyhave.

There is an insidious secondary purpose behind the brain’s rever-sion: The Purified is now a spiritlike immortal, and being in one’s"Amy, do up you

care more aboutrivers or about

making love to me?""Rivers. Do youwant an honest

answer?""... you justanswered."

"When? Oh.""Yeah."

"Sorry. This isawkward."

"Eh. It’s better thanwhat I’m used to —blood thirst and allthat. Let’s do this."

early 20s means that the new spirit has room to rewrite and recon-figure its higher-order processes. The Purified’s brain does redevelopconnections. Difficulties with behavioral inhibitions drive the Puri-fied to seek out experiences and engage in repetitive behaviors thatenhance Resonant Conditions with their Influences and/or reinforcethe reward drives of harvesting Essence. Higher-order processes aredeveloped that resemble more and more the way that spirits think,and the Purified’s brain learns how to privilege events in Twilightagainst the presence of Influences in the environment and traditionalphysical world stimuli.

During the first few months, a Purified is likely to experiencea rush of uninhibited behavior, and they are at their most psycho-logically human. Under the surface, the Purified’s spiritlike drivesare slowly pruning old and creating new neural connections. After3-4 months, the increasingly spiritlike programming begins to show.Even if the outward result is a set of behaviors that can pass for hu-man, a Purified can recognize that their reasoning and idea of causeand effect are shifting in a more spiritlike direction. They find them-selves increasingly capable of moderating their behavior — as longas it is supported by spiritlike rationale or an instinct for maintaining

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purified psychology

Safety. Attempting to think like a human being is not difficult, butunnatural.

Over the next 4-5 years, a Purified shows an increasingly sophisti-cated spiritlike psychology, and their mind is no longer the mind of ahuman being in their early 20s. After this change is complete, the re-programming spreads. The spirit-soul reprograms the entire brainover centuries and millennia until the Purified is more Influence-driven than humanity-driven — from their most basic drives to theirmost sophisticated thoughts. A human sense of cause, effect, and con-sequence is increasingly alien, and their desires increasingly resemblethose of a spirit with their specific Influences. Drives unrelated toEssence will also gradually deteriorate.

A Purified at 10 years out would have a serious internal dialogueif given a choice between harvesting Essence and seeing someonethey love; a Purified at 100 ranks the sensation of Essence harvest- Jane prefers having

sex beneath conifers,which is alwaysweird for herpartners given thatconifer undergrowthis horror film barren.

ing higher than sex unless their Influences or Virtue/Vice make themprone to sexual indulgence; a Purified at 1000 feels claustrophobicif they are away from a location resonant with their Influences orVirtue/Vice for more than a day; and a Purified at 5000 often strug-gles to understand even the most basic human reasoning and needs.It isn’t impossible for older Purified to have a high Simulacrum, butthey must invest a substantial amount of effort into understandingbeings without spirit-based templates.

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10P U R I F I E D S L A N G

10.1 life stages

• Mote, Wisp, Distillation: A new Purified. This refers to theirweak state (6 Ess pool, low Spirit Rank) and ”newness” to beingan inhuman spirit thing. (Less than 50 years as a Purified)

• Eddy, Depression: A Purified of moderate age (51-199 years asPurified)

• Gust, Giant, Current: An established Purified (200-500 years asPurified)

• Gale, Ascendant: A somewhat older Purified (501-999 years asPurified)

• Storm, Star, Mover: A very old and powerful Purified (1000+)

10.2 essence and related aspects

• Soft Hunger, Ravenous(ness), Hollow: Being hungry for Essencerather than food

• Chain(s), Manacle(s), Limit(s): Ban(s)

• Spear(s), Barbed Wire, Curse(s): Bane(s)

• Rush: The feeling of harvesting Essence

• Locks, Areas of Influence, Expertise, Influences, Fields: Influ-ences

• ”Drinking from the well”: Harvesting Essence at a locus

• Rarefying, Distilling, Purifying: Using various methods (exten-sive use of Numina, gorging on Essence, visiting Shadow) toincrease Chi

• Bled/Bleeding Clean: Having Chi >= 5

10.3 the artifice

If the Artifice mechanic is being used, here are some words:

• Cracking, Collapsing: Artifice Break

• My/Your Face, Relatability: The Artifice

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10.4 social world

10.4 social world

• The Only Language That Matters, The Only Language, TheTongue, The Mother Tongue, Proto-Sumerian: Spirit Tongue

• Bleeding, Showing: Manifesting spiritlike qualities to the detri-ment of humanness

• Conflict of Interest: When a course of action goes against Influ-ences or allegiances

• ”Putting down roots”, Assimilating, Going Native, Passing: Main-taining current identity/Masquerade-proof identity to engagewith mortal society

• The Gauntlet Visible, Greenscreen, Safety, the Curtain: The Mas-querade

• Brood: A group of Purified who interact with one another andprobably share an Influence (or several)

• Letter of Mark: An alliance with a powerful spirit

• Constable, Neighborhood Watch: Purified who take it uponthemselves to police the local Shadow and Twilight

• Territory, Sanctum, Perimeter: Territory (i.e., owned loci, prop-erty, &c.)

10.5 specific types of purification

• Introspector, Beggar: Inner Path Purified, not taught by a spirit

• Infusion: Inner Path Purified, taught by a spirit (or other Puri-fied)

• Hemlock, Alchemy, Knight, Quest: Outer Path Purified

• Lineage, Family, Tradition, Crested, Drinking the Kool-Aid:Wordsused for different types of mentorship traditions, i.e., an infusedlineage.

10.6 other supernaturals

• Diamondworks, China Dolls, Rarefied, Purified, Infinities: Puri-fiedDisparaging terms that make 99.9% of Purified Angry: The SuicideSociety, Rock-lickers, Opt-Outs, Spirit Zombies

• Border patrol, Immigration, Police: Uratha

• Bloodsuckers, Puppeteers, Ensnared, Bloody Bureaucrats, theRestless Dead, High Society, Possessives, Painters: Vampires

• Autolycus, Hermit Crabs, Nomads: Body Thieves

• Taurobolio/tauroboliis: Blood-bathers (from taurobolium)

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purified slang

• Usurers, Incubi/Succubi, Glass Dolls: Psychic Vampires

• The Nobility, the Refined: Immortal-ish Supernaturals Otherthan Vampires

• The Rabbit Hole, the Graceful Dance, the Uncaged Menagerie:Meta-supe society

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Part IV

O N E M O R E H A C K : T H E H U M A N A RT I F I C E

purified slang

This is a hack that can be used to give Purified something thatis more like the Beast that Vampires cope with or like the Uratha’sdeeply-rooted instincts. Its genesis rests in one simple fact: Purifiedare not human any longer. The Purification Ritual rips apart the Can-didate’s human soul, infuses the pieces with Essence from the locuswhere Purification occurs, and uses them as raw materials to createa spirit tied to the human shell. Spirit Tongue and the thought pro-cesses behind it are more natural to them than any human thoughtor communication.

Even if the Artifice isn’t used in Purified gameplay, these ideascan be used to play Purified psychology more authentically: Theywere once human, yes, but they have transformed themselves intosomething that isn’t.

10.7 what is the artifice?

Purified minds have a human ”interface.” The interface, known as theArtifice, is the human image that they throw in front of themselvesto stay connected to humanity and to avoid looking too deeply attheir own human-turned-spirit selves. Purified want to believe thatthe soul passed through the Ritual unscathed; they don’t even knowthat the Artifice is there until it breaks for the first time, and their firstattempts to reconstruct it teach them that whatever shell they thinkthey are is not real. The human shell is the part of a Purified’s mindthat has Aspirations; when an Artifice is broken, Influences becometheir primary motivator and supersede everything.

Unlike a vampire frenzying, they are in complete control of theirminds when the Artifice breaks. The impulses and traits that appearare who they are when they cannot hide — the spirit is them. Page86-87 of Book of Spirits describes what spirit sentience is like. Theyare powerfully driven by their Virtue, Vice, and Influences with aninsatiable, selfish hunger. They create elaborate schemes to createmore Essence or build up their environments to reflect their Influ-ences. They will not hesitate to use Numina to get their way, andthey treat human beings as pawns.

An Artifice Break is a Resolve + Composure roll. If the roll fails,the Artifice breaks, and the character loses some valuable piece of theself that is necessary to pass as human. The effect lasts for a scene,but may be mitigated by spending 2 WP in most everyday cases. Thisrepresents a Herculean attempt to manually reconstruct the Artificeas quickly as possible. Most Purified will not spend the Willpowerunless they are in a situation where they have to act human. Theirspirit self doesn’t care that it can’t understand human language orthat doors are suddenly too complicated to use. These are things thatthe Artifice cares about. The spirit cares about Essence and stayinghidden (and thus relatively safe) in its fleshy shell.

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10.8 lineage mechanics

10.8 lineage mechanics

If a lineage member’s Artifice is broken, the conditions and agree-ments of initiation into the family are treated as sacrosanct, unbreak-able laws with no loopholes, even if the lineage member doesn’t al-ways treat them as such when their Artifice is active.

10.9 causing artifice break

An Artifice Break roll is required in the following basic situations:

• A Purified encounters their innate Ban or their Bane. Bans ofPower do not count, as these are chosen with conscious intentand are thus more easily integrated into and rationalized by theArtifice.

• A Purified Dramatically Fails a Simulacrum roll.

• Exorcisms, Abjurations, and Wardings/Bindings that target Pu-rified as the defender require an Artifice Break roll. If failed, thePurified cannot spend Willpower to mitigate this. Bindings typ-ically involve a Bane; Artifice Break does not need to be rolledtwice.

• If a Purified is a member of a Family Tradition-based MysteryCult, being in the line of sight of another family member whofails Artifice Break requires an Artifice Break roll at a penaltyequal to the Chi of the family member who failed the initial roll.(This means that, in the presence of powerful Purified familymembers, a dramatic failure is a strong possibility.)

• If a Purified suffers from the Insensate Tilt, they must roll Arti-fice Break.

• If more than half of the Purified’s Health boxes (rounded up;so for a health of 9, this is more than 5 boxes) are filled withLethal or Aggravated damage, Artifice Break must be rolledunless they have just resurrected their body.

As mentioned in Book of Spirits, spirits are filled with insatiablehunger for Essence. Purified have the same perpetually present, deepdesire for Essence — they think about it constantly. Their spirit coresare just like other spirits in that they have a constant desire to glut onEssence to rise higher and higher in rank (and continue existing). Ar-tifice Break must be rolled in some cases to represent friction betweenthis desire and their humanity.

• A Purified takes Essence greater than or equal to their Chi froma locus that is generally compatible with their Virtue, Vice, or

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purified slang

Influences while still in their body. With a dramatic failure, theArtifice Break cannot be mitigated with Willpower.

• If a Purified has 3 or fewer Essence left, Artifice Break must berolled before spending Essence on anything except healing orresurrecting a body.

• If a Purified is at 0 Essence, the Artifice breaks automaticallywith no roll and cannot be mitigated with Willpower. Theirinstinct to harvest Essence is so strong that the self-preservationdrive completely takes over.

• If someone steals Essence from a Purified, they must roll Ar-tifice Break. This includes using a locus without asking if thePurified has the locus as a Merit. Even if the Artifice holds, thecharacter will often become confrontational and hostile towardsthe culprit, which may be reflected mechanically via Doors.

In addition, for 2 weeks after an increase in Chi, the Artifice Breakroll carries a -2 modifier.

The Artifice cannot be broken outside of the scenarios mentionedabove. When the Artifice is active, Purified will always resist ArtificeBreak. Even if they are so far gone into spirit mentality that thinkinglike a non-spirit is unnatural, their spirit selves recognize that hidingdeeply within the human shell is safe and that the Break makes themmore vulnerable.

Some Simulacrum Elements: If the Artifice is used, having itbroken for the first time requires a Simulacrum roll at the level ofSimulacrum 5. For Purified at Simulacrum 10-9, any Artifice Breakroll requires a Simulacrum roll with 3 Dice.

10.9.1 The Artifice Break Condition

A character’s Artifice Break effects must be noted on their sheet,along with any flavor effects that explain why the specific ArtificeBreak was chosen. While this is permanently noted on the sheet, theCondition is only active when the Resolve + Composure roll for theBreak fails.

Condition: Artifice BreakYour character’s Artifice has broken, and you have lost your abilityto interact smoothly with the mortal world. Example effects of anArtifice Break Condition are listed below, but the Break usually hitsthe human traits and/or skills that a Purified most treasures.

Resolution: Your character spends 2 WP (see exceptions in Caus-ing Artifice Break) or the scene ends.

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10.9 causing artifice break

Beat: Your character’s Artifice Break inconveniences your char-acter in a way that heightens their immediate danger or worksagainst their Aspirations.

Examples of Artifice Break Condition Effects

• Noah loses a 10-again on all Social Skills except for Intimidation.His eyes harden. He smells like baking, drying mud, and histhoughts become rigid and hard to form into words.

• Amy stands staring at the strange, glossy rectangular box inher hand that keeps beeping; she has forgotten what the soundmeans or what can make it stop due to her human device-related Amnesia. She cannot remember how to operate humandevices or even what the human devices are — cars, doors, zip-pers, pens, screw-top bottles, computers, matches, guns, andthe multitude of tools we take for granted are suddenly mean-ingless.

• Jane becomes rigid and unable to move without effort becauseshe feels like she is turning to stone; her defense is 0, and shehas no 10-again on Dexterity.

• Lei loses the ability to understand any form of human com-munication. It sounds like meaningless chatter. Signs are dull,lifeless objects; beeps from devices are nothing more than staticnoise. He can only understand Spirit Tongue, although he canuse the Telepathy Numen to communicate without languagerestrictions.

• Malvika becomes Obsessed with cultivating emotions and con-ditions resonant with her Influences. She gains the ConditionObsession for the rest of the scene.

• Sung-jae has a -2 penalty to Empathy and Socialize pools. Healso loses a 10-again on these rolls. Unless he is interacting withspirits, he cannot remember how human emotions or culturalnorms work.

10.9.2 The Artifice Bleed Condition

When a Purified’s Essence pool is at less than half, they often develop”tics,” many of which resemble the psychological condition pica andare related to their Influences. Amy is always thirsty at less than halfEssence and drinks a prodigious amount of water. Jane has cravingsfor raw pine needles. Noah just wants to lie out under hot sun on thesand so he can feel his skin bake.

Tics and compulsions are also called ”Bleeds” by Purified; it’stheir spirit self bleeding through the Artifice. The hunger-related

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purified slang

Bleed occurs because Purified bodies are alive: they have neurotrans-mitters, hormones (although a female Purified’s hormones do notproduce a monthly cycle), and all of the other things that make abody go. The body will interpret a low Essence pool as a hollow,insatiable hunger, and this hunger can only be satisfied by Essence.Note that the Conditions section has one called ”Essence Hunger”;that is a generalized, non-Artifice version of this one, although theEssence-based cap is different.

Condition: Artifice BleedYour character has 5 or fewer Essence left. Their hunger for Essencehas given them a compulsion. The specific compulsion they gainmust be written on their sheet, but the effects are the same: In a sit-uation where your character can indulge in his or her compulsion,roll Resolve + Composure to see if they indulge. Compulsions oftentake the form of pica. They can also be things that would create Res-onance that would generate harvestable Essence if the Purified werein Shadow.

Dramatic Failure: The character must automatically indulge intheir compulsion without rolling for the rest of the scene.Failure: The character indulges in their compulsion.Success: The character successfully resists the compulsion.Exceptional Success: No more Resolve + Composure rolls need tobe made in the scene; the character may act normally.

Resolution: Your character harvests enough Essence to increasetheir pool above half.Beat: n/a

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Part V

W O R K S C O N S U LT E D

purified slang

Please note that we consulted a lot of World of Darkness texts. Theones cited below are the core ones consulted, but we encourage thecurious to look on the Onyx Path and White Wolf Drive Thru RPGsites for more information about their books.

amaterasu. (2014). Purified House Rules. Original Sin Worldof Darkness Game. Retrieved from http://original-sin.net/rules/purified.php

Bridges, B., Chillot, R., Cliffe, K., & Lee, Mike. (2004). Worldof Darkness Rulebook. White Wolf Publishing: Stone Mountain, GA.Available at http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/1124/World-of-Darkness-Rulebook

Blackwelder, K., Bridges, B., Campbell, B., DiPesa, S.M., Inabi-net, S., Kenson, S., & Sheppard, M. (2007). Mage: the Awakening.White Wolf Publishing: Stone Mountain, GA. Available at http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/2743/Mage-The-Awakening

Brookshaw, D., Hill, D.A. Jr., Lauzon, D., McFarland, M., New-man, J., Snead, J., Wilson, S., Young, F., & Zawadzki, E. (2013). Worldof Darkness: The God-Machine Chronicle. Onyx Path Publishing: Go GoDigital Publishing World! Available at http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/113340/World-of-Darkness-The-GodMachine-Chronicle

Allen, C., Brookshaw, D., Conte, N., Fisher, J., Hill, D.A. Jr., Mc-Farland, M., Newman, J., Sheales, L., Stout, T., Wilson, S., & Young, F.(2015). Werewolf: The Forsaken 2nd Edition. Onyx Path Publishing: GoGo Digital Publishing World! Available at http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/145541/Werewolf-the-Forsaken-2nd-Edition

Elliott, D., McFarland, M. Snead, J., & Young, F. (2009). Worldof Darkness: Immortals. White Wolf Publishing: Stone Mountain, GA.Available at

Miscellaneous. (n.d.). WODIndex Wiki. Retrieved from http://wodindex.wikispaces.com

Octavo, Leetsepeak, Satchel, Aiden, quantumelody, callishka, amechra,Seraph Kitty, Penta, wyrdhamster, Maskah, Acrozatarim, & Moga-Sofer. (2013/14). Purified and the God-Machine Spirit Rules [on-line forum topic]. Onyx Path Forums. Retrieved from http://forum.theonyxpath.com/forum/main-category/main-forum/the-new-world-of-darkness/40130-purified-and-the-god-machine-spirit-rules

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