Blood Gift of Mesmer

Mesmer is an ancient psychic ability commonly wielded by the vampiric undead. It allows them to supplant the wills of other beings with their own, forcing them to obey commands or even allowing memories to be rewritten. Beings of strong will or strong magic are more difficult to mesmerize, though sufficient mastery of Mesmer can allow a vampire to exert their will on other vampires, werebeasts, mages, and most other supernatural entities. Novices to this power require both eye contact and physical contact to enforce commands, whilst the average practitioners merely require eye contact. Skilled users can impart commands with a brief touch or merely via the sound of their voice, whilst the truly powerful can give them psychically, and Mesmerize multiple subjects at a time.

## Mechanics

Mesmer functions by psychically projecting a vampire's will into the mind of another being, then altering psyche in accordance to the will of the vampire. Typically, eye contact is required for Mesmer powers to function, and the victim of Mesmerization must understand whatever orders they are given. Advanced uses of Mesmer powers can enable eye contact to be foregone.

When Mesmer commands take hold, the victim acts on however they interpret the intent of the directions given to them. Much as they might wish to exploit verbal loopholes within the commands, their own minds betray them.

Beings with strong wills are more resistant to being Mesmerized, as are magical beings. Magical, strong willed beings are the most resistant of all. Mesmer commands are harder and harder to enforce the more the victim wishes not to fill them out. Any individual who wishes to resist Mesmer uses against them is free to do so, and such things involve a contest of the victim's will and magical potency against the vampire's.

Due to protections implemented by Cain, no vampire may employ Mesmer powers upon a vampire of more potent Generation. Beings immune to mind alteration also cannot be affected by any Mesmer powers.

## Powers

### New Blood Gifts (Levels 1-2)

* **Compel (Level 1):** The most basic of Mesmer powers, this easy gift allows vampires to issue a one word order to anyone they make eye contact with. This Compulsion cannot be anything directly harmful to the victim. Compulsions can be used directly, such as "*Stop* yelling." But they can also be more subtle, perhaps woven into a story, such as "She couldn't get her son to go to *sleep.*"
* **Command (Level 2):** A more advanced form of Compulsion, Commands allow vampires to give slightly more detailed orders to victims, usually entailing entire phrases. Usually, such Commands are still relatively simple, such as "Throw the gun away", Or "Sit down and stop talking". Commands cannot be issued that cause the victim to directly harm themselves, nor something they are utterly averse to doing (for example, a father cannot be Commanded to torture his daughter) and must be something that they can begin carrying out immediately.
* **Fog Memory (Level 2):** This power is a form of Compulsion, employing the command word "Forget". When carried out, it causes a victim to lose the memory of the last few minutes, which is usually sufficient to scrub their minds of being fed on. While the ability only removes the last few minutes, it can be applied multiple times to erase longer periods of memory, though its lack of precise control means that only vampires without any other options are likely to do such a thing.

### Common Blood Gifts (Levels 3-4)

* **Alter Memory (Level 3):** An advancement of the ability to Fog Memories, this power enables vampires to be more specific in their twisting of minds. They can now remove and override specific memories, enabling vampires to alter a victim's recollection of events to suit their needs. Whatever they tell their victim will be what the victim remembers, although the more detail the vampire provides, the more effective the reconstruction will be. Memories Altered in this fashion can typically only be reverted to their proper state by the one who Altered them, elsewise, more advanced use of Mesmer is required to ferret them out. Lastly, this power is limited in that it can only Alter memories that are fairly recent, usually within a few days, and that memories can only be Altered or removed, not fabricated.
* **Directive (Level 4):** An advancement of Commands, Directives are Mesmer orders that are long, complex, and take more time to carry out. All manner of specific instructions can be given, to be carried out over a long period of time, though like Commands, Directives must begin to be carried out soon after being issued. If a victim is interrupted in carrying out their Directives, they will be forced to navigate around the obstacles in whatever manner they see fit to fulfill it. Such methods does not include self harm or anything extremely contradictory to their wills.
* **Stupor (Level 4):** For a vampire who wishes to be able to hold a victim's attention for an extended period of time, this is a necessary power. They must make and maintain eye contact with their victim. So long as they do, they can continue to bombard the victim with the force of their will, making them open to Mesmer based orders. When waiting for an order, the mortal will be able to take any actions beyond things like breathing or blinking. If given any sort of query, they will instantly answer any questions asked truthfully.

### Elder Blood Gifts (Levels 5-7)

* **Overwrite Memory (Level 5):** A more advanced version of Alter Memory, this power simply extends a vampire's field of manipulation from recent memories to even relatively old and deep seated ones.
* **Possession (Level 5):** An ability that is just as its name implies, this allows a vampire to completely crush the will of a victim, and force their own consciousness into the victim's body. While possessing someone, the vampire's own body lies inert, and any damage to it instantly pulls them back. As basic Mesmer Possession only works on mortals, a vampire is limited by the physical capabilities of their victim's body, but they are able to utilize mental Blood Gifts. However, if the victim is extremely strong willed and the vampire's mastery of Mesmer insufficient, they may need to expend so much energy controlling their victim's mind that they cannot use even these powers.
* **Touch of Tyranny (Level 5):** Upon mastering this power, a Cainite may choose to substitute eye contact with skin to skin touch in order to employ Mesmer commands. They must still directly speak to their victim, who must comprehend their orders, howerver.
* **Tyrant's Will (Level 5):** A power coveted by many vampires, this enables them to imbue Compulsions, Commands, and Directives with the potency needed to force victims to take actions that are utterly against their nature, or harm themselves. Many despotic elders have been known to force disobedient vampires to walk out into the sun using this power.
* **Identity Blank (Level 6):** This unpleasant power has been employed by elders to severely punish those who transgress against them, but who they wish to show mercy to. Identity Blank enables an elder to completely wipe away all a victim's memories of their life, with a command such as "Forget who you are". The victim retains their informational knowledge, such as their language abilities or knowledge in certain subjects, but the memories of their life experiences are wiped away.
* **Rationalize (Level 6):** While any memory altering ability can be used to make a victim forget that they were Mesmerized, this particular power is a potent tool in an elder's arsenal to ensure that their victims remain unaware of their manipulations. Any victim Mesmerized by a vampire with this power will become convinced that they acted of their own volition, and will perform whatever mental gymnastics are necessary to come up with an explanation for what they did. This power is always active, unless an elder deliberately wills it not to function.
* **Recover Memory (Level 6):** This ability enables elder vampires to restore suppressed or altered memories to their original state, even when they themselves were not the one to alter them. This process is carried out by Mesmerizing the afflicted victim to remember what was taken from them. The power is limited in that it cannot overcome any alterations implemented by a vampire whose mastery of Mesmer is superior to the user.
* **Voice of Tyranny (Level 6):** A more potent advancement on Touch of Tyranny, any vampire with this ability only needs to use their voice to issue Mesmer commands. Their Mesmerizing power of their voice does not function through technology such as a telephone or magical means, such as a scrying mirror. The power only works when someone is in the immediate presence of the elder.
* **Command Through Thrall (Level 7):** Using this power, a vampire elder is able to issue a Mesmer command to a subject using any of the methods available to them. The carrier may then pass whatever orders have been issued to a predetermined set of recipients, as if the thrall themselves were the commanding vampire. Once the orders have been issued to their recipients, the chosen carrier loses whatever Mesmer power they wielded to issue them.
* **Mass Mesmerism (Level 7):** Powerful vampire elders are able to extend their powers of Mesmerism to multiple victims at once, pulling entire crowds into their sway. This power functions by a vampire making the normal eye contact (or other substitute) on a single mortal, and calling upon the power of Mesmer. Whatever commands they give to their target then spreads to those around them that the vampire chooses to include, the number of which is limited by their own mastery of Mesmer.

### Ancient Blood Gifts (Levels 8-9)

* **Distant Mastery (Level 8):** With this frightful ability, a vampire may utilize Mesmer powers on anyone that they are familiar with, regardless of distance. The greater familiarity they have, the easier this power is to use.
* **Sway the Brood (Level 9):** This ability allows ancient vampires to command their descendants from afar. They may issue general orders to all vampires descended from them, even if they have never met, such as "Preserve all knowledge you find" or "Work for the glory of the bloodline". These orders take root very, very slowly, over the course of years and decades, and are incredibly subtle, so much so that most vampires cannot even tell when they are being used. The further down the Generations this power is made to extend, the more effort is required on the ancient's part. The power also can be used by vampires slumbering in torpor.