Misterio del Voivoda

In blood there is power; this is the creed of the King. While other Dragons concern themselves with banes and the Beast, those who follow the Mystery of the Voivode focus on the blood bond. They aim to rise above the petty politics and slaveries of the Damned, becoming beings of pure and transcendent will. In life, Dracula was called Voivode, and was not questioned. In death, his disciples will reclaim his authority.

The Scales of this Mystery focus on blood and servitude. Initiates of the Mystery commit psychological torture; inflict Vitae addiction; and experiment in the creation of blood bonds, ghouls, and other Kindred. Given the nature of the Mystery’s objectives, most Dragons practice these arts in absolute secrecy, lest the local ruler…misunderstand.

Coil of the Voivode

Taste of Fealty •

In her first step to becoming king, a Dragon forms chains of blood, binding others into service. Her Vitae becomes dramatically more addictive, with each point counting as two for the purposes of Vitae addiction (p. 99). What’s more, those who are addicted to her find all other blood shallow and tasteless. Addicts can only resolve the Deprived Condition (p. 302) resulting from blood addiction by drinking the Vitae of someone with this Coil.

Into the Fold ••

The bond between a subject and his master should be akin to that of family. The Dragon develops blood sympathy (p. 98) towards those she has blood bound, and they her. A stage-one blood bond is treated as four times removed, stage-two three times, and stage-three only twice removed. If the Dragon is already related to a subject, use the closer connection when determining bonuses.

Call to Serve •••

As a future king, the Dragon does not have time to spend cajoling others and slowly binding them with her blood. They must want to follow, and they must want to follow immediately. When building a blood bond (p. 99) the Dragon may bleed additional Vitae to expedite the process. Three Vitae will take her subject straight into a stage-two blood bond, while five pushes him all the way to stage three with a single sip. This Vitae must be shared over no more than a few minutes, but is not subject to limits on Vitae per turn.

Voivode Undisputed ••••

The voivode is above all others; none may command her or hold her in thrall. Those connected via blood sympathy gain no bonus to discipline usage against her. Additionally, she adds her blood sympathy bonus to rolls to resist blood bonds and contest the predatory aura (p. 91) of anyone she has bound.

The Vast Dynasty •••••

To a normal vampire, the Embrace is a dangerous act that erodes the perpetrator’s Humanity. But a king requires kin to watch her kingdom while she sleeps. This Coil removes the automatic Humanity loss associated with Embracing a mortal. The act of Embracing is instead a breaking point at Humanity 3; the Dragon adds one die in addition to any other modifiers on the roll to avoid detachment.

Sample Scales of the Voivode

Blood Cleansing Ritual

Prerequisite Coils: Taste of Fealty
Procedure: The Dragon prepares a wash of animal blood and viscera, mixed with several draughts of her own Vitae. She uses this to perform a “washing” procedure: The Dragon repeatedly dumps this solution into the subject’s nose and mouth. As the implementation of this Scale is tantamount to torture, subjects are typically restrained.

Outcome: This process is repeated once for every point of Vitae the Dragon invested into the solution. Each time, if the victim is blood bound to another vampire, roll a number of dice equal to the Dragon’s Blood Potency minus the blood bond creator’s Blood Potency. Success on any roll permanently removes the blood bond. Despite the inclusion of the Dragon’s Vitae, it does not create a bond towards the Dragon.

Fealty’s Reward

Prerequisite Coils: Call to Serve
Procedure: This Scale may only be performed on a mortal subject who is in a stage-three blood bond towards the Dragon. The Dragon feeds on the subject till all but his last Health box is filled with lethal damage, then slits her wrists and spills her gains into a basin. The subject must then drink that Vitae, and be allowed to rest for 48 hours.

Outcome: When the subject awakes he shall find that he has become a ghoul (p. 100), filled to his natural capacity with Vitae. This state will last for a full year, instead of just a month, and may be renewed only by the Dragon through the standard expenditure of Vitae. Should this condition ever expire the ghoul dies immediately, and rises as a draugr at the next new moon.

Mass Embrace

Prerequisite Coils: The Vast Dynasty
Procedure: First things first, the Dragon must locate and gather a group of mortals she seeks to embrace. Given the risks of this Scale, and weakness of the Dragon upon its completion, she would be well-advised to bring several allies as well. Subjects are brought together in a low, concave space capable of containing large quantities of liquid (in this case, blood).

The Dragon then completes the following steps. First, she hemorrhages all of her Vitae, bleeding it onto the ground. Then she moves from subject to subject, sucking them dry of blood and bleeding her gains into the collective pool. Finally the Dragon must sip from the pool at her feet, and inject the blood into the now-dead subjects’ veins. After this, though it is not a formal step of the Scale, she should run for cover.

Outcome: Subjects are Embraced, and rise with Blood Potency 1 and a single point of Vitae. Roll a chance die for each subject. Those for whom it comes up a success awake in full control of their actions, while those who fail fly instantly into Frenzy. Those unfortunates for whom the roll comes up a dramatic failure rise as draugr. Like an unmodified single Embrace, this costs a Humanity dot.

Sanguinary Invigoration

Prerequisite Coil: Into the Fold
Procedure: Using a large syringe, the Dragon extracts Vitae, and mixes it with a combination of arcane ingredients. Within ten minutes of preparation this cocktail must be injected into a living vessel, human or animal, or it loses its value. One point of Vitae is required.

Outcome: Despite being injected with a noxious poison the subject is at no risk of being killed, being blood bound, or suffering Vitae addiction. Instead he is invigorated, jittering like a man on a stimulant binge. It’s a mixed feeling…he’s a little shaky, but he also gets a touch of the vigorously alive feeling a ghoul experiences. For him this is where the effects end, but to the vampire this Scale offers much more. The vampire treats her Blood Potency as four dots lower when determining whether or not she can feed from the subject, and four dots higher when determining the distance at which she can smell his blood. The invigoration lasts one week, though the side effects may or may not wear off sooner.

This means that even elder Kindred, with high Blood Potency, can feed from the subject of Sanguine Invigoration. But because they would be consuming the Dragon’s blood along with the subject’s, other vampires run the risk of becoming addicted or blood bound to the Dragon. On the other hand, those already addicted to the Dragon’s blood will find the subject’s blood as satisfying as that of the Dragon herself.