Seguridad de la inmunoterapia

Demons and mages share a strange and often uncomfortable symbiosis which players and Story- tellers using Dark Ages: Mage can exploit. On the one hand, many demons owe their freedom from the Abyss to a summoning ritual performed by a curious or ambitious sorcerer. On the other hand, mages often have the will, power and knowledge to bind summoned demons into slavery, a fate the fallen host bitterly resent. In turn, mages frustrated with the patience and effort demanded by their magic can always barter with demons for the easier power afforded by Arcana, but at the hefty price of thralldom and its associated Torment, Taints and Pacts.

From the perspective of Devil’s Due, demons take credit for the existence of mages. After all, the fallen awakened humanity to full self-awareness. At Lucifer’s request, they taught mortals the fundamen- tal principles of the universe they built in the age before time. Some mortals listened and learned, and found that will and word could reshape the universe even as the Divine Word made it. Such pride rivaled the hubris of the fallen, but the seed of godhood now lay in the soul of every mortal. Modern mages do not remember; they do not suspect their powers have a demonic origin or even wonder why demons can imbue them with power so easily.

From the perspective of Dark Ages: Mage, demons are spirits. They are powerful spirits to be sure, locked away in an inaccessible realm of the Umbra by some unknown force or design. Perhaps kindlier spirits or gods placed them there, or perhaps early mages drove the demons from the face of the Earth so humanity could prosper. Demons have their uses as slaves or tutors, but they remain extremely dangerous; and pacts are never worth the price.

Systems

Possession: A demon can possess a mage, but

the mage adds her Foundation to her Willpower to resist the attempt. Furthermore, a demon who as-

Blessed and the damned in a high-stakes war for the souls of the innocent. Demons can perform showy miracles in a rival’s territory to attract the scrutiny of the Church, or perhaps a low-Torment demon could serve as an inquisitor’s mysterious patron from afar, hoping to find salvation in aiding God’s chosen servant.

Systems

Possession: Although the Blessed do not under-

stand why God allows His chosen instruments to suffer possession, they realize that they must be ever vigilant against the wiles of the Adversary. Fortu- nately, grace provides a measure of protection. A Blessed character adds his highest Superior Virtue to his Willpower to resist possession, and cannot be possessed at all by demons with a lower Resolve than his highest Superior Virtue.

Thralls: Should one of the Blessed forsake the

grace of God for the accursed power of the enemy, then God forsakes her in turn. She loses all positive traits of her former grace (Blessings, Conviction, Superior Virtues, etc.) but retains all Curses.

Other: The Blessed may exorcise a demon from

a reliquary or mortal host using the Holy Rite of Exorcism (Dark Ages: Inquisitor, p. 195). If suc- cessful, the ritus has the same effect as any other exorcism (p. 106). Some Inquisitors also know a level-three ritus to cleanse penitent thralls of their infernal taint (see sidebar).

Demons in

Dark Ages: Werewolf

Dark Ages: WerewolfDark Ages: Werewolf

Dark Ages: WerewolfDark Ages: Werewolf

From the perspective of the Garou, almost every- thing in this book is a lie. Werewolves do not believe in sumes control of a mage’s body has only the memory

of power. Nothing remains of the host’s Founda- tions, Pillars or any other traits specific to being a mage. If the demon ever leaves and the host survives the separation, her suppressed powers reassert them- selves immediately.

Thralls: A mage who agrees to become a thrall

loses one dot of Willpower and gains a dot of perma- nent Torment. She receives one dot each of Conscience, Self-Control and Courage, plus an ad- ditional 7 dots of Virtues divided however the player decides (in accordance with the mage’s personality). The mage starts with permanent Resolve equal to her Foundation, though the traits remain separate thereafter. Unlike other mortals, enthralled mages regain a number of Resolve points at sunrise equal to the successes obtained on a Foundation roll (diffi- culty 7). Mages receive Torment, Taints, Pacts and Arcana like other thralls; the vast spiritual potential they wield still requires the stain of swelling Tor- ment or Taints/Pacts to permit much investiture of Arcana at first. An enthralled mages does not project the aura of her Foundation, but instead projects the aura of her Vice. Finally, whenever a mage thrall botches a casting, each dot of permanent Torment counts as an extra die that came up “1” for the purpose of determining Backlash severity. Enthralled mages can purchase dots of Pillars and Foundation as Arcana for cost of 8 and 12 points each respectively.

Demons in

Dark Ages: Inquisitor

Dark Ages: InquisitorDark Ages: Inquisitor

Dark Ages: Inquisitor

Dark Ages: Inquisitor

Devil’s Due provides a marvelous companion to Dark Ages: Inquisitor. Demons assuredly lie in

their assertions that angels made the world at God’s behest, for Scripture teaches that God personally created the world. Demons speak more truthfully in the account of Lucifer’s rebellion and the damnation of his host. The shadow Inquisition knows that diabolists summon demons to Earth, and that the fallen take mortal hosts or inhabit blasphemous icons to escape their righteous banishment from the world. Indeed, the Inquisition largely exists to root these devils out and cast them back into the Pit. Storytellers may use Devil’s Due to create fitting and terrible enemies for games involving inquisitor protagonists, or reverse the roles for games featuring demons as the central characters. The Inquisition’s ruthless hunt does not distinguish gradations of Torment or care that a demon seeks repentance, though the Blessed might well mistake a low-Tor- ment demon for an angel. An entire demon chronicle could involve unending flight from a merciless in- quisitor in the vein of Les Miserables, or pit the

A

D

Level Three Holy Art ritus

This ritus requires the thrall to confess her sins and earnestly beg the mercy of God. The inquisitor lays on hands and his player rolls Intelligence + Holy Art against a difficulty of the thrall’s permanent Torment + 3 (maxi- mum difficulty 10). If successful, the thrall loses all Resolve, Torment, Arcana and Curses, becoming a normal mortal once more. The price of this absolution is high, inflicting one die of lethal damage for every five points of Arcana the former thrall had. This damage can and very often does kill the thrall, but at least her soul dies cleansed of sin.

an omnipotent deity attended by a host of angels. They find the very idea offensive and even laughable. After all, werewolves behold and live in an animistic world surrounded by spirits of every type and purpose. The spirit world defines them as surely as the material plane. And yet the fables of the Church deny that reality, proclaiming all spirits as demons save those who fit the impossibly narrow and rigid definition of angels. Such lies anger the warriors of Gaia, for they know that demons exist. Werewolves call their demons Banes, and refer to the hapless monstrous hosts of evil as fomori. Banes tempt mortals into perversity and worse, and the Garou war against them wherever they smell the stench of the Wyrm. The cunning Banes described in this book have found a way to manipulate the encroaching Church as a weapon against Gaia by masquerading as the very demons the Church fears. It is all too easy to play the part; with every depraved act they wreak, Banes sate themselves and draw the indis- criminate wrath of the Church and its Inquisition upon communities still loyal to Gaia. With every miracle performed in the name and form of the Christian Hell, Banes turn mortal believers away from the old gods to the Church, cultivating the convenient doctrine that

all spirits serve the forces of evil. The world dies a little

more with every blasphemy.

With all this is mind, the demons of Devil’s Due make excellent adversaries for stories rooted in the cosmology of Dark Ages: Werewolf. Most of the rules stay as they are, even if they mean slightly different things. Demons unclothed in flesh are Banes, and those with hosts are fomori. Resolve translates easily to polluted Gnosis, much as Tor- ment represents the obscene Rage of the Wyrm. Thralls serve Banes in exchange for power and raise cults to feed the Wyrm. Everything fits cleanly, reinterpreted to accommodate the way werewolves understand their universe.

Of course, what if the werewolves are wrong? Storytellers running games rooted in the Judeo- Christian cosmology of Dark Ages: Vampire, Dark

Ages: Inquisitor and Devil’s Due may wish to

incorporate werewolves on their own terms. Where do Lupines fit in this model? Like mages, werewolves may owe their existence to demons. Perhaps they claim descent from the half-breed children of de- mons and mortals, nephilim degenerated into bestiality. A werewolf’s Rage suggests the stain of Torment and the Vice of wrath, and what is Gnosis if not misplaced Resolve? Or perhaps demons cre- ated werewolves independently of themselves, as hybrid weapons of beast and man or as a failed experiment to breed self-perpetuating thralls. What- ever their respective origins, werewolves and demons rarely mix without violence.

Systems

Possession: The souls of werewolves blaze with

spiritual power, leaving no room for demons to enter and seize control. Kinfolk lack this immunity, though any inherited spiritual powers are suppressed for the duration of possession.

Thralls: Most werewolves know the dangers of

dealing with Banes and no honorable Garou would ever consider making a pact with the Wyrm. None- theless, some werewolves fall to temptation on account of envy for packmates, Pride in their incor- ruptibility or any of the other Vices demons know so well. Black Spiral Dancers have no such qualms and many embrace the power of Torment with unholy zeal. In any case, a Garou who becomes a thrall loses one dot of permanent Willpower as normal. Instead of granting Resolve, the pact taints the werewolf’s Gnosis. Thereafter, his Gnosis is considered Resolve for the purposes of rolls and points spent, though spent Gnosis returns as normal. Unlike mortals, werewolves may have Gnosis/Resolve above their Willpower. Enthralled werewolves also gain dots of permanent Torment equal to their Gnosis rating, though the two traits remain separate thereafter; and werewolves test for degeneration exactly as demons. The thrall’s new master can invest Arcana and Curses up to the usual limits, though the higher levels of Resolve and Torment provide substantially increased potential for the demon to work with. Werewolf thralls can purchase Gifts as Arcana for a cost of two points per level of the Gift. Werewolves can have any Vice, though wrath is most common. Kinfolk become thralls as other mortals do, gaining infernal power at the cost of all their birthrights save immunity to the Delirium.

Other: The Gift Sense Wyrm (Dark Ages: Werewolf, p. 113) detects the presence of demons

and thralls with a difficulty equal to (10 – the target’s permanent Torment). This stench radiates a num- ber of yards equal to the infernal being’s Torment rating. Outside of the Black Spiral Dancers, regular use of this Gift ensures that enthralled werewolves must flee from their packmates or risk destruction as the disgraceful abominations they are. Thralls are not immune to the Delirium by nature, though their demonic masters may grant them this immunity as a one-point Arcana. Demons are immune to the De- lirium, regardless of what form of host they inhabit.