Updated: 02 June 1999


Appendice X: Uræus

                    Uræus is the lost Discipline of the Childer of Set. Few knew it, and these are believed to have been destroyed, among them, Wadjet, Founder of the Ouro-Sen, herself. Despite its symbol and the first appearances, Uræus has only partial ties with Serpent. Uræus is a weapon Discipline, usable only by the most vertuous Vampires, and used with great efficiency against the followers of Apep.

Note that this Discipline needs Humanity (or another equal or more ''Good'' philosophical Path) to work. The 1st and 2nd Levels are usable only by Vampires with 6+ Humanity. The 3rd and 4th need 7+ Humanity, 5-6 needs 8+ Humanity, 7-8 need 9+ Humanity and the 9th and 10th Levels powers need 10 in Humanity. This can seem strange, as some powers of the Uræus are very martial-like, but even Wadjet was seen crying when killing her enemies...

Note, too, that a vampire who masters this Discipline is unaffected by faith of lesser power. That means that if a vampire has an Uræus level of 4, Faith with a rating of 3 or less won't do him damage, but can still affect the faith wielder (enabling him to heal damager, detect vampires, etc.).

* : Sense Corruption

                    This power is similar to the Sense Wyrm power of the Garou. It enables the Vampire to sense the corruption, or any other influence of Apep (or the Wyrm).

                    System: Perception+Occult.
The difficulty of this power depends of the situation, but the mean value is 6. Vampires with other Paths of Illumination than Humanity, as well as Vampires with 6 or less in Humanity will be detected. Note that Diablerie's difficulty to be detected ranges from 2 to 5.

** : Presence of Justice

                    This is the power which enabled Egypt to remain so long unaffected by the corruption (at least in a great scale): In the presence of a Vampire with this power, everyone is remembered the Virtues of Maat in a subconscious way. Someone affected by this power will be more inclined to tell the truth, and accept the demands of Justice.
Some believe as this power was somewhat artificial, in the end, it helped the people to become complascent, and decreased their morals when not affected by this power.
Those with other Paths of Illumination are either affected (Path of Chivalry, Path of Harmony, Path of Virtue, etc.) or unaffected (Path of Blood, etc.) but the last category feel a great unease in their soul when this power is used in their presence.

                    System: Automatic
This power is automatic, and was sometimes used permanently. Unless using Auspex or any other Auspex-like power, the source of the power is not obvious. Those affected are those within the presence of the Vampire (who can remain invisible: She doesn't have to be seen, only to be there), that is every one in the room, or within 10 meters.
For 1 day, those affected must roll Willpower to do anything that would breach the principles of their Path (Difficulty 9 should the violation mean a Degeneration roll, or 6 if it wouldn't). The power is still active for 1 week, but its effects decreased: The victim will be able to do everything without a roll unless it would need a Degeneration Roll.(Difficulty 6 should the violation mean a Degeneration roll, or automatic if it wouldn't).
The use of a Willpower Point will cause an automatic success (the victim wants to commit the evil act, so he will), but the price to such conscious evil is that the victim will have to make Degeneration Roll if the breach wouldn't have caused one, and a Degeneration Roll with increased difficulty by 2 if the breach would have caused a normal one.

*** : Summon Allies

                    This power will call for the Ka of deceased warrior who still in death continue to follow Maat and support the Uræus. The Ka materialize themselves around the Vampire, armed with their prefered weapons and armors, and appear as a phantom-like pure incarnation of the warrior. Sometimes deceased friends of the Vampire will answer to the call, if their heart was pure enough.

                    System: Willpower Roll, Difficulty 7. Possible use of Willpower Points to summon a deceased ally
for each success, one phantom ally will materialize. The ''phantom'' has at least 6 Dices to every dice roll. The Vampire can summon deceased allies, 1 per two success, if she used 1 Willpower point in addition. Should a deceased ally be summoned (which means the Ally is usually dead, possibly even Diablerized!), the ''phantom'' would use his normal Dice Pools (or 6 dices Dice Pools, whichever is higher!), as well as his normal powers (assume the phantom has half his blood pool, etc.).
Note that at least one known exception saw the materialization of a still-alive ally, who remembered the fight as a dream. The explanation is that the power is as much a call for the help for another soul as an act of pure spirituality: The phantom would be created by the soul of the Vampire using Uræus...

**** : Weapon of the Uræus

                    This power enable the Vampire to create an object of solid matter apparently from the purity of her mind. This object is always a weapon of beautiful and majestuous appearance (silver-like metal, Celestial Metal, golden symbols of Maat, etc.). This weapon is under her control, and cause terrible damage to anyone hurt by it. Note that anyone else taking the weapon without the Vampire's aggreement will only hurt themselves as the weapon will burn the flesh and weaken the bone.

                    System: 1 Willpower Point and 1+ Blood Point(s) for 1 Night
The weapon(s) must be chosen once for all. They won't change (The Vampire can create a Level 6 power mimicking this one, with another weapon).

Note that if you're using the Vampire: The Masquerade, Revised Rules, the Bonus to strengh in the Damage Roll for one weapon is equal to the Blood Points used to make it appear. In the case of twin weapons, the whole Blood must be used to make the two appear. One won't appear after the other.
The weapon is considered magickal, and makes Aggravated Damage. A weapon defending itself (burning the flesh, etc.) makes as much as automatic Aggravated Damage as it has bonus to strengh for normal Melee damage. The weapon disappear when the Vampire wills it. There is no known way to destroy the weapon (but destroying or corrupting the Vampire).

***** : Aura of Purity

                    This power is very powerful, as it gives the Vampire a pure, tangible aura, strenghtening her allies while weakening her enemies' powers around her. Faith used against the Vampire see its effects decreased, or even dissipated, as would be most powers used against her with the aim of affecting her mind. The Vampire appears to have an aura of pure white light which only Wyrm creatures (those who would be detected by Sense Corruption) find it painful enough to blind.

                    System: 1 Willpower Point, Humanity Roll, Diff:8
This power is active within a sphere whose diameter is equal to 3 meters per success in the Humanity Roll.
In this zone of effect, every ally of the Vampire (including the Vampire herself) will have a bonus to any roll equal to the number of successes of the Humanity Roll for one dice roll per turn only. In a similar way, every mental power used against any ally of the Vampire (including the Vampire) will have its difficulty raised by the same number (if no difficulty is available, like Presence ***** decrease difficulty to resist, etc.). In a similar way, too, every Virtue/Willpower/Humanity etc. roll made by the Vampire or a Vampire's ally will have its deifficulty decreased by the same number.
For example a Werewolf using a Dread Gaze-like power (a Gift similar to Presence **: Charisma+Intimidation=7) against the wielder of the Uræus (who did 3 successes in the Humanity Roll, and who has Wits 4) would see his Dice Roll difficulty raised from 7 (Wits+3) to 10 (Wits+3+3). If an ally of the Vampire was so afraid by the use of Obtenebration by the enemies he had to roll Courage, the difficulty to resist the fear of Darkness would be decreased by 3.
This effect applies to almost anything, including Faith, thaumaturgy and other Disciplines as long as the mind of the Vampire is tampered with.

***** * : Power

                   

                    System: ???

***** ** :

                   

                    System: 3 Turns, 3 Blood Points

***** *** : Power

                   

                    System: ???

***** **** : Power

                   

                    System: ???

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