Oblivion (Discipline)

Oblivion
Pronounce	Uh-BLI-vee-uhn
Nicknames	Obtenebration, Necromancy, Shadowboxing, Abyssal Mastery, Tenebrae Imperiosae, Mortis, the Dark Arts, Black Magic, Entropy
Clans	Hecata, Lasombra

Oblivion is a Discipline that allows its users to draw on something wholly unnatural; calling forth supernatural darkness from the Abyss and enslaving specters from the Underworld. It is used by the Lasombra and Hecata clans and associated bloodlines. It combines Obtenebration, Necromancy, and to some extent Thanatosis, Mortis, Deimos, Nihilistics and Abyss Mysticism from previous editions.

Overview

Those who practice Oblivion flirt with something unnatural; the very realm where wraiths are destroyed forever. This danger does not come without power, however, as the masters of this Discipline call upon it to wreathe themselves in night, enslave specters, and throttle victims with their own shadow. On a result of 1 or 10 when making a Rouse Check for the Discipline, the vampire suffers a Stain as Oblivion seeps into their soul. These can be avoided by those with potent blood, who may reroll certain Discipline-associated Rouse Checks.

Oblivion's supernatural projections of darkness and void are vulnerable to bright directed lights, fire, sunlight, and True Faith. A lack of shadows to pull from can make this Discipline difficult to use, though ultraviolet and infrared lights have no effect.

Oblivion is resonant to a total lack of Resonance, such as that found in the blood of psychopaths and those without emotional attachment.

Official Abilities

Standard Powers

• ^[1]
  • Shadow Cloak: The vampire shapes ambient shadows to conceal their presence and make themselves more frightening. They add two dice to Stealth tests, and the same amount to Intimidation tests against mortals.
  • Oblivion's Sight: The vampire's irises become black against the white of their sclera. They ignore all darkness penalties, even those brought on by supernatural darkness, and can see ghosts.
  • Ashes to Ashes: The vampire may disintegrate non-Kindred corpses with their vitae, including animated cadavers like those brought to false life with Oblivion.
  • The Binding Fetter: The vampire can identify objects and locations important to ghosts by a faint aura.

• ^[2]
  • Shadow Cast: The vampire summons a supernatural shadow from Oblivion, one which they control and can only be destroyed by sunlight. It allows them to use other Oblivion powers through it despite the presence of light, and casting it on somebody during social conflict intensifies the Willpower damage that victim suffers.
  • Arms of Ahriman: The vampire summons two-dimensional shadow tendrils which glide across surfaces and victims, alternatively engaging in mystical grapples with the victim's shadow. They attack using the vampire's Wits and Oblivion, benefiting from their Potence when inflicting damage. Multiple tendrils can be created by splitting the vampire's dice pool. Amalgam with Potence 2.
  • Fatal Precognition: The vampire's eyes become black and they remain still while they scry a vision which shows the death of a non-Kindred they can perceive. Attempts to subvert the fate seen in the vision become more difficult. Amalgam with Auspex 2.
  • Where the Shroud/Veil Thins: The vampire determines the density of the local Shroud, learning whether ghosts (and Kindred with the right Ceremony) may cross between worlds here, how difficult uses of Oblivion are, and whether mortals are at risk. They do not learn the cause of the Shroud's condition, simply what it is.
  • Fatal Prediction: Increase the chances of a Mortal being harmed by exterior forces. Amalgam with Auspex 2.

• ^[3]
  • Shadow Perspective: The vampire casts their senses to a shadow they can see, maintaining both their mundane senses and their shadow perspective. This eavesdropping cannot be detected without supernatural means, such as Sense the Unseen from Auspex.
  • Touch of Oblivion: The vampire touches their victim and channels the raw entropic power of Oblivion through them. The victim suffers aggravated damage, and a crippling injury (blindness, muteness, a ruined limb, or the like).
  • Aura of Decay: The vampire's connection to Oblivion manifests as an aura which spoils food, poisons water, wears down structures, and kills living things with their mere presence.
  • Passion Feast: The vampire has developed the startling ability to consume the raw emotions of wraiths to temporarily sate their hunger, eroding the ghost's reason for being with their foul gluttony. Amalgam with Fortitude 2.
  • Shadow Servant: Giving independent life to a part of their shadow, the vampire can use it to spy on or unnerve others. Amalgam with Auspex 1.

• ^[4]
  • Stygian Shroud: The vampire spreads a suffocating darkness across a large area, muting sound and suppressing all other senses. Those within the shroud (except the user) suffer a total blindness penalty on all actions requiring sight, and mortals suffocate.
  • Necrotic Plague: With a touch, the vampire may poison a mortal's blood using the pure pollutant of Oblivion. This horrific disease ravages their body and risks becoming contagious.
  • Umbrous Clutch: The user creates a temporary gate out of the victim’s own shadow, causing them to fall through Oblivion and into the waiting arms of the user.

• ^[5]
  • Shadow Step: The vampire disappears into shadow, skating across the Labyrinth to reemerge after traveling across something fouler than death and twice as hungry. They step into a shadow large enough to cover them, and reemerge from one they can see. This includes shadows viewed through mystical means, such as Shadow Perspective.
  • Tenebrous Avatar: The vampire becomes a sentient patch of two-dimensional darkness, immune to damage except fire and sunlight. While in this shadow state they can pass through anything not hermetically sealed, are immune to most harms as described above, and can envelop others to feed without breaking the skin. Those enveloped by a vampire using Tenebrous Avatar suffer the effects of Stygian Shroud.
  • Skuld Fulfilled: The vampire coats their palms and face with blood, recalling the faces of their victims and reintroducing old illnesses with new fury. Ghouls who fall victim to this power feel the vitae in their veins become inert, aging and possibly dying.
  • Withering Spirit: The vampire coats both of their hands in vitae, and touches a victim. Channeling raw entropy, they decay the spirit, causing severe damage and possibly preventing the victim's return as a wraith if they are obliterated.

Blood Powers^[6]

• Elder
  • Merge with Darkness: The elder sinks into their own shadow, vulnerable only to fire or bright light, but must creep along flat surfaces. They can still attack physically, but only by attacking a victim’s shadow.

• Methuselah
  • The Devouring Shadow: At the will of the ancient, a gaping maw of shadow opens, pulling everything in the vicinity into non-existence, causing buildings to collapse, ground to disappear, and other catastrophic effects.

Ceremonies

While the Lasombra tend to favor the raw power offered by this Discipline, the bloodlines of the Hecata take advantage of its ritual uses in their necromancy. Oblivion pulls hard on the mental fortitude of the caster, who must often make a sacrifice for the Ceremony to work. Ceremonies each have a prerequisite Oblivion power. This requirement acts as a gateway for necromancers that blood sorcerers need not pass through. 

• 
  • The Gift of False Life: Through use of this Ceremony, a vampire can raise a corpse or group of corpses to perform simple, single or repetitive tasks. Requires Ashes to Ashes.
  • Summon Spirit: This Ceremony enables a vampire to summon a spirit from the Underworld. Requires The Binding Fetter.
  • Traveller's Call: This Ceremony enables a priest of Shalim to send a ripple across Oblivion and alert another Shalimite that they wish to meet, and where. Requires Oblivion’s Sight.
  • The Knowing Stone: This Ceremony lets the necromancer to identify the locations and existences of specific ghosts.

• 
  • Awaken the Homuncular Servant: Necromancers use this Ceremony to create spies and stalkers out of body parts such as hands or skulls, or small dead animals like rats or foxes. Requires Where the Shroud Thins.
  • Compel Spirit: This Ceremony allows a vampire to bend a wraith to their will. Requires Where the Shroud Thins.
  • Ashen Relic: Allows the preservation of pieces of a kindred's body even after they've been destroyed. Requires Ashes to Ashes or Oblivion's Sight.
  • Binding the Alloy Eye: A otherworldly entity scrambles cameras around the vampire, giving them immunity to surveillance. Requires Shadow Cast.
  • Maw of Ahriman: The vampire opens a portal to the abyss, usually within their mouth.
• 
  • Host Spirit: This Ceremony allows a vampire to open their body to possession by a ghost. Requires Aura of Decay.
  • Shambling Hordes: This Ceremony enables a necromancer to raise a group of aggressive, walking dead minions. Requires Aura of Decay.
  • Name of the Father: This Ceremony enables a Shalimite vampire to shroud the mind of a victim in shadow, paralyzing them and rendering them numb to all sensory input except touch. Requires Shadow Perspective.
  • Fortezza Sindonica: The vampire creates a ward that entraps or prevents wraiths from entering an area, while also dealing damage to them and making them vulnerable to other Ceremonies. Requires Where the Shroud Thins.
  • Knit the Veil: The vampire repairs tears made in the Shroud with a ceremonial candle, turning it Impenetrable for as long as the candle burns. Requires Where the Shroud Thins.
  • Harrowhaunt: Mortals entering the vicinity that is "haunted" by the vampire are by an irrational terror. Requires Aura of Decay.
  • The Shallow Slumber: The ceremony shorten a vampire's time spent in torpor. Requires Passion Feast or Touch of Oblivion.
  • Wisdom of the Dead: Allows the vampire to glean skills and abilities from the head or skull of a corpse. Requires Oblivion's Sight or Where the Veil Thins.
  • Create Corpse Suit: Old Icelandic folklore tells of the nábuxur, literally “corpse britches,” a pair of pants made from human skin, capable of producing an endless supply of money. Endless money is a tempting idea even to the Kindred, but the real advantage of Oblivion-imbued corpseskin clothes is how they warn the wearer of incoming danger. Requires Shadow Perspective or Touch of Oblivion.
  • Craft Flesh Golem: This Ceremony allows a vampire to build a flesh golem from corpse parts. Requires Aura of Decay or Necrotic Plague.
• 
  • Bind the Spirit: Vampires with access to this Ceremony have the ability to bind wraiths to specified locations and people. Requires Necrotic Plague.
  • Split the Shroud/Veil: This Ceremony allows a vampire to create a tear in the Shroud through which wraiths can pass and vampires with the correct Ceremonies can physically enter the Shadowlands. Requires Necrotic Plague.
  • Death Rattle: The vampire can make somebody experience the final moments of a wraith's life, inflicting trauma or uncovering secrets. Requires Fatal Precognition.
  • Befoul Vessel: The wielder infect a mortal's blood, turning it to pure poison for Kindred. Requires Necrotic Plague.
  • Bind to Mortal Form: Necromancers who have mastered this Ceremony can extend a human life past its natural expiration date without making a ghoul out of the mortal. This Ceremony doesn’t keep a mortal young, just alive, and they continue to age both physically and mentally. Requires: Necrotic Plague or Skuld Fulfilled

• 
  • Ex Nihilo: This Ceremony enables a vampire and their coterie to migrate into the Shadowlands, though doing so comes at great risk. Requires Withering Spirit.
  • Lazarene Blessing: This Ceremony enables a necromancer to bring a freshly-dead body back to life, though not how its relatives and friends might remember it. Requires Skuld Fulfilled.
  • Pit of Contemplation: This Ceremony enables a Shalimite vampire to cast a victim into Oblivion itself. Mortals expire immediately, but Kindred are trapped in the endless void forever, unless somebody sees fit to reverse the Ceremony and retrieve them. Requires Tenebrous Avatar.
  • Gift of True Life: Also known as the “siphoning gift” by those less in denial, this Ceremony allows a vampire to transfer vitality from one mortal to another, extending one life by shortening the other. Requires Necrotic Plague or Passion Feast.

Trivia

• While, arguably, the Abyss of Obtenebration and the Abyss of the Demon: the Fallen may have been the same realm, the source of the Oblivion Discipline is the Oblivion of the Shadowlands.

References

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Powers by Level

^ Level 1

Shadow Cloak	VTM: Chicago by Night 5th Edition VTM: Vampire: The Masquerade Player's Guide 5th Edition	Pg. 293 Pg. 85-86
Oblivion's Sight	VTM: Chicago by Night 5th Edition VTM: Vampire: The Masquerade Player's Guide 5th Edition	Pg. 293 pg. 85
Ashes to Ashes	VTM: Cults of the Blood Gods VTM: Vampire: The Masquerade Player's Guide 5th Edition	Pg. 204 Pg. 85
The Binding Fetter	VTM: Cults of the Blood Gods VTM: Vampire: The Masquerade Player's Guide 5th Edition	Pg. 204 Pg. 85

^ Level 2

Shadow Cast	VTM: Chicago by Night 5th Edition VTM: Vampire: The Masquerade Player's Guide 5th Edition	Pg. 293-294 Pg. 87
Arms of Ahriman	VTM: Chicago by Night 5th Edition VTM: Vampire: The Masquerade Player's Guide 5th Edition	Pg. 294 Pg. 86-87
Fatal Precognition	VTM: Cults of the Blood Gods	Pg. 204-205
Where the Shroud/Veil Thins	VTM: Cults of the Blood Gods VTM: Vampire: The Masquerade Player's Guide 5th Edition	Pg. 205 Pg. 87-88
Fatal Prediction	VTM: Vampire: The Masquerade Player's Guide 5th Edition	Pg. 87

^ Level 3

Shadow Perspective	VTM: Chicago by Night 5th Edition VTM: Vampire: The Masquerade Player's Guide 5th Edition	Pg. 294 Pg. 89
Touch of Oblivion	VTM: Chicago by Night 5th Edition VTM: Vampire: The Masquerade Player's Guide 5th Edition	Pg. 294-295 Pg. 89
Aura of Decay	VTM: Cults of the Blood Gods VTM: Vampire: The Masquerade Player's Guide 5th Edition	Pg. 205-206 Pg. 88
Passion Feast	VTM: Cults of the Blood Gods VTM: Vampire: The Masquerade Player's Guide 5th Edition	Pg. 206 Pg. 88-89
Shadow Servant	VTM: Vampire: The Masquerade Player's Guide 5th Edition	Pg. 89

^ Level 4

Stygian Shroud	VTM: Chicago by Night 5th Edition VTM: Vampire: The Masquerade Player's Guide 5th Edition	Pg. 295 Pg. 90
Necrotic Plague	VTM: Cults of the Blood Gods VTM: Vampire: The Masquerade Player's Guide 5th Edition	Pg. 295 Pg. 89-90
Umbrous Clutch	VTM: Sabbat: The Black Hand	Pg. 49

^ Level 5

Shadow Step	VTM: Chicago by Night 5th Edition VTM: Vampire: The Masquerade Player's Guide 5th Edition	Pg. 295 Pg. 90-91
Tenebrous Avatar	VTM: Chicago by Night 5th Edition VTM: Vampire: The Masquerade Player's Guide 5th Edition	Pg. 295 Pg. 91
Skuld Fulfilled	VTM: Cults of the Blood Gods VTM: Vampire: The Masquerade Player's Guide 5th Edition	Pg. 207-208
Withering Spirit	VTM: Cults of the Blood Gods	Pg. 208

^ Blood Powers

Merge with Darkness	VTM: Gehenna War (book)	Pg. 100
The Devouring Shadow	VTM: Gehenna War (book)	Pg. 101

Ceremonies by Level

Level 1

The Gift of False Life	VTM: Cults of the Blood Gods VTM: Vampire: The Masquerade Player's Guide 5th Edition	Pg. 208-209 Pg. 92
Summon Spirit	VTM: Cults of the Blood Gods VTM: Vampire: The Masquerade Player's Guide 5th Edition	Pg.209 Pg. 92-93
Traveller's Call	VTM: Cults of the Blood Gods	Pg. 93-94
The Knowing Stone	VTM: Fall of London	Pg. 261

Level 2

Awaken the Homuncular Servant	VTM: Cults of the Blood Gods VTM: Vampire: The Masquerade Player's Guide 5th Edition	Pg. 209-210 Pg. 93
Compel Spirit	VTM: Cults of the Blood Gods VTM: Vampire: The Masquerade Player's Guide 5th Edition	Pg. 210 Pg. 94
Ashen Relic	VTM: The Book of Nod Apocrypha	Pg. 35
Binding the Alloy Eye	VTM: Sabbat: The Black Hand	Pg. 52
Maw of Ahriman	VTM: Blood-Stained Love	Pg. 152

Level 3

Host Spirit	VTM: Cults of the Blood Gods VTM: Vampire: The Masquerade Player's Guide 5th Edition	Pg. 211-212 Pg. 94-95
Shambling Hordes	VTM: Cults of the Blood Gods VTM: Vampire: The Masquerade Player's Guide 5th Edition	Pg. 212 Pg. 95-96
Name of the Father	VTM: Cults of the Blood Gods	Pg. 94
Fortezza Sindonica	VTM: Trails of Ash and Bone	Pg. 173
Knit the Veil	VTM: Trails of Ash and Bone	Pg. 174
Harrowhaunt	VTM: Sabbat: The Black Hand	Pg. 52
The Shallow Slumber	VTM: Gehenna War (book)	Pg. 50
Wisdom of the Dead	VTM: The Book of Nod Apocrypha	Pg. 35
Create Corpse Suit	VTM: Tattered Façade	Pg. 101-102
Craft Flesh Golem	VTM: Tattered Façade	Pg. 101

Level 4

Bind the Spirit	VTM: Cults of the Blood Gods VTM: Vampire: The Masquerade Player's Guide 5th Edition	Pg. 212 Pg. 96
Split the Shroud/Veil	VTM: Cults of the Blood Gods VTM: Vampire: The Masquerade Player's Guide 5th Edition	Pg. 213 Pg. 96-97
Death Rattle	VTM: Trails of Ash and Bone	Pg. 174
Befoul Vessel	VTM: Sabbat: The Black Hand	Pg. 52
Bind to Mortal Form	VTM: Tattered Façade	Pg. 102

Level 5

Ex Nihilo	VTM: Cults of the Blood Gods	Pg 213-214
Lazarene Blessing	VTM: Cults of the Blood Gods VTM: Vampire: The Masquerade Player's Guide 5th Edition	Pg. 214 Pg. 97-98
Pit of Contemplation	VTM: Cults of the Blood Gods	Pg. 94-95
Gift of True Life	VTM: Tattered Façade	Pg. !02-103