During the nights of ancient Phrygia, Rome and Greece, adherents were initiated into the Cult of Cybele through a grim and gory baptismal rite called the Taurobolium. During this rite, the novitiate stood at the bottom of a small pit, beneath a wooden grate. The cultists then brought in a bull wreathed in garlands of flowers, his horns sheathed, and decorated him with trinkets of gold and jewels and led him to stand above the grate. Each cultist had a spear and one cultist, the archigallus, held a knife. With the spears, the adherents stabbed at the bull again and again, so that his hot blood rained down upon the novitiate. The archigallus then severed the bull’s genitals and threw them into the pit. The initiate bathed in the shower of hot, gushing bull’s blood. According to custom, he covered himself completely in the warm fluid, even tasting it with his tongue outstretched. Foul with gore and fluids, the man emerged from the pit no longer an initiate, but a true child of Cybele. The vampires of the Cult of Cybele’ performed a similar rite, but neonates were not washed in the blood of a bull standing above them. They showered in the Vitae of a mortal, himself often castrated or similarly mutilated. At times, several mortals were sacrificed in a single ritual, and the vampire exalted in a frenzy of gluttonous hunger while confined in the earthen pit. The Taurobolium signified a kind of rebirth in the initiate (whether vampire or mortal). The muddy pit represented a womb, while the showering of blood symbolized the gush of fluids that accompany a child wriggling free from his mother’s body. The novitiate was metaphorically reborn into new wisdom — he had become a child of Cybele.
The Galloi of modern nights have their own form of the Taurobolium. With it, they cover another in their Vitae and grant him the temporary blessings of Cybele. This blessing comes in the form of physical rejuvenation. The blood makes the subject appear younger and more vibrant. Scars and blemishes disappear, and the subject’s skin seems to give off a faint radiance.
Unlike many Disciplines, Taurobolium is a single power that gains in intensity as the Galloi becomes more adept with its use. As the vampire becomes more capable, she can grant the subject greater refinements to his appearance. This also requires more effort on the part of the vampire, however. At lower levels, the Galloi can sprinkle a little blood on the subject to achieve a small effect. At higher levels (and stronger effects), the vampire might be required to pour her blood upon the individual or actually have the subject bathe in a tub full of the Vitae.
Cost: Variable per level of use.
Dice Pool: Presence + Occult + Taurobolium versus the subject’s Composure + Blood Potency (assuming the subject resists)
Action: Contested; resistance is reflexive. The subject may choose at the time of invocation to resist this power.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The Vitae burns the subject like acid, causing a number of lethal damage points equal to the Galloi’s Blood Potency.
Failure: The vampire’s Vitae fails to impart the blessing. The Galloi expends the Vitae, but nothing happens.
Success: The subject gains a dice bonus to all rolls involving Presence and Manipulation. This bonus is equal to the level of Taurobolium invoked by the Galloi. This benefit lasts for a number of nights equal to the Pretty’s Blood Potency level.
Exceptional Success: The vampire gains the dice bonuses as granted by a normal success, and also regains a Willpower point as her self-confidence soars.
Note that the level of Taurobolium invoked requires a progressively greater expenditure of Vitae.
Using the first level costs 1 Vitae, and the Kindred can sprinkle the blood over the subject’s head.
The second and third levels of this Discipline require 2 Vitae. The Kindred pours the blood from a vessel (an urn or jug, for instance) over the subject’s head and shoulders.
The fourth and fifth levels of this Discipline cost the Galloi 3 Vitae, and demand that the subject bathe in the expended blood. Note that this expenditure of blood isn’t enough to fill an entire tub. The blood is mixed with oils, salts, water and other additives to compensate. The subject must completely immerse herself in this pagan concoction.
When the subject emerges from the Taurobolium, her skin bears no mark or blemish. She possesses an androgynous beauty or a mysterious nobility. Features that previously may have been unattractive or odd instead seem exotic. In some cases, subjects even acquire a fleeting semi-nimbus, appearing as if in ‘soft focus.”
The subject must be naked when the Galloi invokes this Discipline. The subject must also keep the blood upon her flesh for a full hour before the player makes the roll to invoke the blessing. If the subject washes the mystical Vitae off before that time, the Discipline automatically fails and the Vitae is wasted.
The Discipline’s benefits last for a number of nights equal to the Galloi’s Blood Potency, but the Galloi can end the Discipline prematurely by spending a Willpower point. Doing so requires the subject to make a Resolve + Composure roll. Failure causes the subject to suffer a physical pain as her skin re-aligns itself and painful headaches, which inflict a –1 penalty to all Physical and Mental dice pools for the following 12-hour period. Dramatic failure means the subject suffers the Depression derangement for this duration as well (if she already has that derangement, she develops the severe version, Melancholia).
The Pretty can choose to invoke this Discipline at a level beneath her capability. For instance, if she has Taurobolium •••• but doesn’t want to involve the subject in a full bath, she may choose instead to invoke the first level of the power. That level requires sprinkling and less Vitae, but also grants less benefit to the subject.
The subject does not gain the Presence or Manipulation bonus to any dice pools affecting the Galloi who granted her the blessing.