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Blood Rituals are Wyrm rites of the Camazotz.

Overview[]

When the first War of Rage ended and the victorious werewolves had driven the Camazotz from Europe and North America, Bat observed its worthy children hiding deep in their caves. Realizing that its children lacked the ability to confront the Garou directly, it taught the wisest Camazotz shamans rituals learned from the Wyrm before the Weaver chained the Great Serpent in its webs. Although the rituals were not inherently tainted, they carried a risk of tainting any Camazotz who practiced the rituals in private. By openly practicing these rituals, the werebats assumed that they could identify any of their members who fell to the Wyrm's taint.

Known as "blood rituals" due to the use of blood as a key catalyst, the Camazotz work these rituals to curse their opponents, craft weapons from the bones of their dead, or bind powerful Banes. The rituals were dangerous to those who practiced them as well. Most rituals called on sympathetic magics that required the ritemaster to harm herself in order to inflict harm on the target. Ironically, the open practice of the blood rituals damned the Camazotz in the eyes of the invading Garou, but only when the rituals were practiced in seclusion were they dangerous, as the werebats could give in to the Wyrm's temptation without witnesses to hold them accountable. The Garou of Europe were already familiar with blood magic, and the differences between the Camazotz' blood rituals and the magic of vampires like the Tremere and Tzimisce were minor, especially to enraged werewolves.

Due to the risk of taint involved in using the rituals, no Camazotz could perform a blood ritual without a majority of the colony to assist or observe. If a colony caught an individual werebat using the rituals privately, the elders of the colony declared her an enemy of Gaia and hunted her to the ends of the Earth.

System[]

Blood Rituals are a class of ritual specific to the Camazotz. The ritemaster must spill her own blood as part of the ritual, suffering one level of lethal damage. This damage does not heal until the ritual's effects end. She then rolls Wits + Rituals (difficulty 7 unless otherwise noted). Working a blood ritual without witnesses always leaves those present open to Wyrm-taint - the difficulty required to detect them with Sense Wyrm and similar abilities starts at 9 and goes down by 1 for each additional ritual that goes unwitnessed.

List of Blood Rituals[]

  • Level One
    • Mark of the Wyrm - The Camazotz did not just spy on the other Fera, but also spied on the agents of the Wyrm. Only the bravest or most insane of the werebats would risk traveling into the warrens of Banes and fomori in order to learn their secrets, but these missions were essential in the fight against the Wyrm. Bat taught its children how to camouflage themselves from the sight of the Wyrm's minions when they took on these dangerous missions.
  • Level Two
    • Blade of the Ancestors - The indigenous humans of Central and South America never learned how to smelt iron or create steel. Instead, their weapons were made of wood and edged with shards of obsidian, but wood rots and obsidian is a brittle material. The Camazotz, always associated with death and the dead, often used the bones of their own dead as the raw material for weapons. By ritually preparing the bones of their ancestors, a Camazotz ritemaster could infuse the bone with the power and destructive nature of the great destroyer. The ritual reshapes the bones into the form of a dagger, sword, or mace, depending on how much bone is available and the Camazotz's preference. More permanent than a talen created by Rite of Binding but less versatile than either the Rite of Binding or Rite of the Fetish, the werebats enacted Blade of the Ancestors to provide their warriors with weapons imbued with the strength of their forbearers.
  • Level Three
    • Tongue of the Accused - Due to their nature, the Camazotz often found themselves the targets of conspiracies, but those who attempted to build a coalition against a colony of werebats would often find themselves unable to muster support for their cause. Anyone affected by this ritual would find herself struggling to simply be coherent: Her thoughts would be jumbled, her arguments feel to pieces, or she was simply tongue tied. The more the speaker struggled the worse the effect would get until the speaker attempting to discredit the werebats was herself discredited.
  • Level Four
    • The Scalding Blood - Gaia did not create the Camazotz to be warriors; instead they were her ears, listening in the darkness and quietly passing along message to those who could strike. After the War of Rage the Camazotz needed the ability to strike the enemies of Gaia themselves, and Bat taught his children this ritual to weaken their enemies, making them easier to kill. The ritual requires that a ritemaster and the observing werebats maintain the rite while the colony's warriors attack the target.
  • Level Five
    • Poison for the Undying - Gaia's greatest gift to the Changing Breeds was their ability to recover from any wound. Broken bones and gushing lacerations could not kill one of Gaia's chosen. During the First War of Rage, the Garou seemed unstoppable thanks to their inexhaustible rage and healing abilities. Bat, as a spirit of destruction and decay, taught its children how to deny the Garou and other supernatural creatures their healing abilities. Afraid that this rite might fall into the claws of the Xibalan, teachers were reluctant to share it except with their most trusted disciples. The Camazotz who mastered this rite could make their enemies as weak as humans.

References[]


^  Level 1

Mark of the Wyrm Shattered Dreams Pg. 130-131

^  Level 2

Blade of the Ancestors Shattered Dreams Pg. 131

^  Level 3

Tongue of the Accused Shattered Dreams Pg. 131

^  Level 4

The Scalding Blood Shattered Dreams Pg. 131

^  Level 5

Poison for the Undying Shattered Dreams Pg. 131
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Garou and Fera Rites Accord · Age Role · Ahadi · Astrological · Caern · Dark Umbra · Death · Frontier · Hengeyokai · Minor · Mystic · Punishment · Pure Ones · Renown · Seasonal · Wyld
Fifth Edition Garou Rites Common · Legendary · Social
Kinfolk Rites Accord · Caern · Homestead · Milestones · Minor · Punishment · Renown · Ritual of Sacred Rebirth
Unique Fera Rites Ajaba - Ananasi: First · Triumvirate · Viskr - Bastet: Kuasha · Moon · Need · Taghairm - Corax - Gurahl - Kitsune - Mokolé - Nagah - Nuwisha - Ratkin - Rokea
Rites of the Lost Breeds Apis - Camazotz - Grondr
Wyrm-Corrupted Fera Rites Blood Rituals · Defiler Kings · Buzzards · Histpah
Miscellaneous Rites 7th Generation - Fomori - Miscellaneous Rites
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