Aristeia

## Overview

This Discipline was created by Theseus to better make use of his bloodline’s divine patronage.

Aristeia is a gift from the gods, used to channel their might in a show of power and physical dominance. At the early levels the Hero can improve her personal abilities based on the element specifically overseen by her deity. Later in the Discipline she will become able to physically manipulate that same element and even summon the servants of her deity.

The Calling thrust upon the Limonae is directly tied to this Discipline. Though members of the bloodline are automatically approached by a deity upon his Embrace, any non-Limonae vampire that manages to learn this Discipline will be immediately approached by a deity and given a Calling just as all Heroes are, accepting this Call will mean pledging himself to eternal service of that deity.

If such a vampire ignores his Calling, his use of the Discipline will be revoked by his deity. The effect of each level of Aristeia depends entirely on a deity’s domain. Ghouls cannot learn Aristeia.

All Limonae have at least one rank in the Divinity Background, any nonHero Kindred learning this Discipline will also gain an immediate level of the Background at no additional cost. The Storyteller may have the ghoul of a Limonae be contacted by a god (and gain the Divinity Background), but they can not learn it from their domitor.

## Abilities

###  Archae

Initially, the vampire is still unworthy to express a gods’ full potential, so he is given a taste of the power yet to come. One specific aspect of the vampire becomes infused with the spirit of his deity.
System: The vampire must spend a turn in quiet contemplation of his deity’s power and omniscience while spending one blood point, allowing the deity to bestow a small blessing upon him. The blessing the deity gives will be a sympathetic reflection of his or her domain, as detailed below:

###  Anguished Cry

The gods are capable of kindness and love, despite their single-minded and often impulsive personae. Any Limonae that prove their own worth by progressing through the ranks of Aristeia are given additional insight into the world around them. Certain gods care about certain events more than others, as is evident in the Calling. This power allows the vampire to sense imminent threats in their city and alerts them to specific dangers

System: The power is always active and requires no blood expenditure. It is similar to the function of Vigilance, though it does not require an emotional cause. The Limonae’s deity will alert him to specific dangers and opportunities for heroism within his city. The Storyteller will have the player roll Wits and Vigilance (difficulty 11 minus the rank of the vampire’s Divinity Background) to detect and accurately pinpoint the location of relevant dangers and disasters relevant to their deity’s domain that manifest within his city. The successes gained during his roll will indicate how much pre warning his deity gives him.

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>  Botch - The vampire is overcome by distressing and fragmentary psychic visions of the event in question, but has no knowledge of where or when it takes place.
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>  Failure - The vampire fails to receive the message.
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>  1 Success - The event is happening right now.
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>  2 Successes - The event will happen in the next ten minutes.
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>  3 Successes - The event will happen in just over thirty minutes.
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>  4 Successes - The event will happen in around an hour.
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>  5 Successes - The event will happen tonight
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###  Blessing

Gods do not hand over their power lightly, so when a vampire lives long enough to learn this level of Aristeia he will have necessarily benefitted many human lives. The vampire physically takes on aspects of his deity’s domain, his flesh becoming one with that element.

System: The vampire must spend two blood points. They will then be given control over that element for the remainder of the scene. When manipulating an element they must make a roll specific to that element.

###  Dominion

Many Kindred who come to master Aristeia seek to attain godhood, towards which this power is a small but vital step. With this level of the power, the vampire gains an all-knowing dominance over a region of his city. It becomes his divinelyappointed responsibility to watch over and defend the area in the name of his gods.

System: By spending one Willpower point, the vampire can spiritually connect with his deity’s domain. If anyone expresses extreme emotional states of anger or fear within the domain while he is connected to it, the vampire will sense it. They must then make a Perception + Vigilance roll (difficulty 6 if they are near the incident, 8 if they are far from it, and 10 if they are outside of the city) to determine the exact location.

###  Trapping

The vampire has connected to the divine more than any human could dream of, so much so that his deity is willing to lend a piece of his or her own armoury to the Kindred. With this power, the vampire can summon a spectral weapon from the deity’s arsenal to help him overcome his enemies.

System: By spending a Willpower point and two blood points, the vampire can summon the weapon famed of his deity for one scene, such as Poseidon’s trident, the bow of Artemis, and the thyrsus of Dionysus. The weapon appears in his as he uses the Discipline, and remains for one scene. The weapon functions as normal but with the additional effect of the deity’s domain. Weapons in need of ammunition will not require it, since arrows for bows and stones for slings appear spontaneously as they are needed; the vampire need only mime drawing an arrow from a quiver or a shot from a bag, at which point it will manifest. Firearms may not be produced through this power.