Faith
From ThreadsOfTime
Contents |
The Blessed
Dark Ages: Vampire pg 287-90
Even more than the mortal herd of the Dark Medieval world, the Damned have no doubt of the power of God. After all, do they not bear His curse? Vampires have seen evidence of holy power in the hands of God's priests and faithful, but also among pagans and heretics. Those who believe in God's supreme power say that such things are the work of the Devil and his minions. Others believe that there are lesser gods and spirits abroad in the world as well. Whatever the case, it is clear that faith has power, as do those blessed by it.
The Power of Faith
True Faith is like the various Attributes and Abilities, though high levels of Faith are quite rare. Most people in the Dark Medieval world attend church services, but a Faith rating represents a more potent, pure, and enduring faith. It is a profound belief in a higher power and obedience to its will.
For most Europeans, this is faith in Christ, but other faiths are equally powerful (if not as common). Muslims, Jews, pagans and heretics can have as much or more Faith than devout Catholics do. The absolute truth of the belief is not as important as the strength of the believer's conviction.
Faith is rated from 1 to 5 like most other traits. Only sincere and devout believers have even one dot, and higher levels of Faith are correspondingly rarer. In theory, a mortal can have a Faith rating greater than 5, but such individuals are one in a generation or more, the sort who become venerated as saints. Their powers are limited only by God (and the Storyteller).
Faith is not a skill or an ability that may be raised through experience points. Certainly, it may be raised as a result of a person's experience, but it is more vital than that, more a measure of conviction, and strength of mind. Faith should rise of fall, at the Staff's discretion, to reflect a person's religious zeal. Nor is it something that comes from outside a person, from God, an Angel, the Devil or a Demon.
Note that only mortals can possess True Faith. The Embrace strips a vampire of the purity needed for it. A vampire can believe, of course.
The Gifts of Faith
- Faith strengthens the will and conscience. Add a character's Faith rating to the difficulty of any attempt to influence his mind, heart or sour with supernatural powers, including Vampiric Disciplines such as Dominate and Presence. A difficulty higher than 10 means the attempt against the character fails outright. The character also adds his True Faith rating to his Conscience when making Conscience rolls.
- The blood of the faithful is unpalatable, even deadly, to the Damned. A vampire must drink a number of additional blood points equal to the character's True Faith in order to gain one blood point from that victim. So drinking the blood of someone with True Faith 2 means the vampire must drink three blood points to add a single point to hid blood pool. The blood of the truly blessed (Faith 3+) is poisonous to vampires. The vampire takes a level of aggravated damage per blood point drained from the victim (not gained by the drinker). If the vampire has Fortitude, the player can attempt to soak the damage with Stamina + Fortitude with a difficulty equal to the victim's True Faith + 3.
The blessed can also gain other abilities related to their faith. The Storyteller decides when a blessed character gains these abilities, but one per dot of True Faith is a good rule of thumb. Storytellers should feel free to come up with other appropriate abilities for the faithful.
- Blessing: The character can purify objects and make them holy, filled with the power of faith. A blessing generally requires and appropriate ritual conducted by the character, and results in an item with a True Faith of 1 (see "Relics and Holy Objects"). At the Storyteller's discretion, especially blessed people or especially long rituals may create objects with a higher True Faith rating. Most faithful and honest priests have a slightly less potent version of this power, which allows them (among other things) to bless holy water and the sacramental bread and wine used during Mass.
- Exorcism: The faithful can cast out harmful or malign influences. He rolls dice equal to Charisma + Faith, with a difficulty based on the desired effect, given on the following table. These difficulty ratings assume that the character has access to the appropriate trappings of faith (a bible, a crucifix, candles, bells, salt, water, or other items appropriate to the character's faith). If these props are not available, increase the listed difficulty by one or two.
| Task | Difficulty |
| Force a vampire to flee in terror. | Vampire's Willpower+4 |
| Force a ghost to flee in terror. | Ghost's Willpower |
| Permanently expel a ghost from a place. | 8 |
| Force a minor demon to flee in terror. | 6 |
| Force a major demon to flee in terror. | 9 |
| Ward against Dominate and Presence (adds character's True Faith to all difficulties | 6 |
| Banish the effects of Dominate or Presence | Vampire's Willpower |
| Sever a blood oath. | 10 |
| Inflict (True Faith) dice of aggravated damage to an unholy creature by touch. | Target's Stamina+4 |
- Healing Touch: Gifted with the power to heal, the blessed one's touch can cure injuries and maladies. This blessing effectively betters the mortal's current health level for healing purposes only (healing time and difficulty) by a number of levels equal to the healer's True Faith (see "Mortal Healing, DAV, p 255). If the effective level rises above Bruised, the patient heals in a matter of a few hours. A step above that and the patient heals instantly. These effects last only until the patient recovers (or attempts to recover) a health level, and they do not affect dice pool or movement penalties. Healing Touch cannot raise the dead, but it automatically saves the dying. It speeds recovery from illness and poison the same as any other sort of injury.
Example: After a battle with the get of Satan, Gauthier has been reduced to the Mauled health level by lethal damage. Normally, he could only attempt to heal to Wounded after three months of rest and would roll Stamina against a difficulty of 7 (2+5 health levels). Fortunately, Sister Isabelle, a renowned faith-healer is nearby, and she performs a laying on of hands on Gauthier. Isabelle has True Faith 3, so Gauthier need only rest three days (as if he were but Hurt) and roll against a difficulty of 4. Assuming he succeeds, he recovers a health level and is Wounded.
- The Sight: Some of the faithful are sensitive to the presence of holy as well as unholy things. The character can sense the presence of a vampire, ghost, demon or lycanthrope with a Perception+True Faith roll (difficulty 6). This difficulty is not affected by Obfuscate, Stealth, or any means of concealment. The character need not even try to sense the unholy. The roll is automatic as long as he is at peace - quietly reading, praying, meditating, even sleeping. The blessed cannot sense a presence while occupied (e.g., engaged in a debate or duel) or distracted (in a noisy marketplace of feast hall). The character does not automatically know what he senses, only that something unclean and evil is nearby, although a Perception+Occult roll (difficulty 7) may provide some insight at the Storyteller's discretion.
- Warding: The character's True Faith is a shield against evil. By brandishing a holy symbol or uttering prayers, she can keep a vampire or other unholy beast at bay (from whence the legend of such things comes; it is the faith, not the symbol, that wards off vampires). The person rolls Faith against a difficulty of the vampire's Willpower. The number of successes indicates how many steps back the vampire must take. If no successes are scored, the vampire need not step back, but he cannot advance towards the wielder of the symbol, either. A botch means the vampire can advance unhindered. Furthermore, if the character touches the vampire with the holy symbol, each success on the True Faith roll inflicts a level of aggravated damage as the symbol burns the vampire's flesh.
Holy Ground
Some places become the focus of considerable faith, witness to miracles, rituals and blessings. Many of these places are the sites of churches and temples, or the resting places of saints (or their relics). These places have True Faith ratings of their own, reflecting their holy power. For some, their True Faith only affects a particular area (near an altar or reliquary, for example) while others radiate True Faith over a given area (miles in the case of some sites int he Holy Land).
Holy ground has several effects:
- The player must make a Willpower roll (against a difficulty of the area's True Faith rating) in order for a vampire to enter holy ground. Success means the vampire can enter the place, but feels uncomfortable (one success means serious discomfort, three mild discomfort, and five or more no ill effects). Each dawn, the vampire's number of successes decreases by one, leading to increasing discomfort and an eventual need to leave the site. Mortals notice this discomfort with a Perception + Empathy roll (with a difficulty equal to the vampire's Willpower).
Failure on the Willpower roll results in physical pain for vampires if they enter the holy site: They suffer one level of bashing damage per scene. A botch results in one level of lethal damage and requires the vampire to spend a willpower point each turn to remain in the area. The pain increases as long as he remains, requiring a Willpower roll (difficulty 7) on the third and subsequent turns. Failure means the vampire frenzies. A botch means he bursts into flames, suffering three levels of aggravated damage per turn and requiring an immediate Courage roll (difficulty 8) against Rotschreck. The flames can be extinguished normally, but the other effects remain.
- Holy ground limits Vampire powers. All blood point expenditures double, and the difficulties for Auspex or other perception-affecting Disciplines increase by two.
- The True Faith rating of the blessed increases by one while they stand on their own holy ground, and the difficulty of any True Faith roll (including True Faith-based abilities) decreases by two when on holy ground.
Most vampires shun holy sites or look on the discomfort they feel as part of their penance for damnation.
Relics and Holy Objects
Relics are items filled with holy power, usually associated with a saint or other important person from Christian history. The greatest relics in Christendom are the Holy Grail that Christ drank from at the last supper (and that caught his blood at the crucifixion), and the Holy Shroud he was buried in. The Spear of Longinus, which pierced Christ's side at the crucifixion, is also a mighty relic, along with pieces and splinters of the True Cross and the nails from it.
Many relics are bones, locks of hair, or blood from the bodies of saints, and they carry a portion of those saints' holiness within them. These relics are often collected by the Church, placed in gilded and jeweled caskets (called reliquaries), and revered by the faithful. Almost every medieval church has at least one relic, although some are of dubious origin. Their reverence helps maintain and even increase a relic's potency over time. Other relics are minor things such as a pilgrim's badge or staff or a holy bishop's ring. Charlatans peddle numerous fake relics, which common folk buy to ward off evil. Thousands of shards of the True Cross are offered for sale along with bones collected from criminals or even animals and passed off as those of saints. Ironically, these false relics can sometimes acquire a measure of their own True Faith, if enough worshippers consider them genuine. Their faith empowers the relic over time.
There are also plenty of holy objects that are not, technically speaking, relics. The water, wine and sacramental bread blessed by a priest in a church often takes on some degree of holiness without being directly associated with a saint. Pilgrimage badges, although tied to a shrine, are not relics per se. Finally, priests and prelates have also been known to bless weapons of the faithful - especially of crusaders - which can grant these arms special powers against the spawn of Satan.
A relic usually has a True Faith rating of its own, which adds to the True Faith of the person who carries it, even granting a temporary True Faith rating to those who have none (although not necessarily granting any special powers to go with it). Multiple relics do not add their True Faith ratings together - only the highest rated one applies. Relics kept in a particular place (tomb, church, etc.) over a long period of time may hallow the ground (creating holy ground). This makes places holding many relics uncomfortable for vampires. Some holy items do not even have True Faith ratings in and of themselves, but grant special bonuses and abilities (see accompanying table).
Some relics also have special powers. The Storyteller may assign a relic any of the powers of the blessed described previously, or any other suitable power, using the wielder's True Faith (plus the bonus granted by the relic) to determine its effects. Some relics may have powers similar to vampiric Disciplines, particularly Animalism, Auspex and Presence. The most powerful relics may be capable of performing miracles, particularly in the hands of someone with substantial True Faith.
Muslims, Jews, and pagans have their own holy relics as well. Possession of a holy relic is determined by the Relic background, but not all items gained from the background are holy relics per se.
| Relic | Faith Rating |
| The Holy Grail or Shroud. | 5 |
| Spear of Longinus. | 4 |
| Skull or blood from a major saint. | 4 |
| Nail from the True Cross. | 4 |
| Bone of a major saint. | 3 |
| Shard of the True Cross. | 3 |
| Skull or blood from a minor saint. | 3 |
| Bone of a minor saint | 2 |
| Major pilgrimage badge. | 1 |
| Blessed crusader's weapon. | 0-1 (inflicts aggravated damage on the unholy in combat) |
| Holy water. | 0 (causes one level of aggravated damage to the unholy on contact) |
| Sacramental Host. | 0 (causes one level of aggravated damage to the unholy on contact, two if injested) |
