Although sin-eating is an ability all Kindred possess, the Order of Sin-Eaters have refined the ability to an art form. With a mere taste, the Sin-Eaters can know the most intimate details of their vessel’s darkest secrets, shield themselves from their own sin and even force their sins onto the souls of others with a touch. Hamartiaphage is principally a tool for aiding in the Sin-Eater’s studies into the nature of sin, but this Discipline can be adapted quite well as a tool for information gathering and even a weapon, if need be.
As with all unique covenant Disciplines, a character must have dots in the Covenant Status (Order of Sin-Eaters) Merit to learn Hamartiaphage.
As the Coils of the Dragon, Hamartiaphage is not a standard five-level Discipline with progressively increasing powers. This is still a relatively young Discipline, reaching back only to the mid-1800s, and thus only a few of its powers have been fully developed. These Sin-Eaters look on their work as science, and in science, progress sometimes comes from unexpected directions, outside the normal progression of research. At present, only three powers of Hamartiaphage are known.
When a vampire eats another’s sin, he feels the rush of emotions that accompanied the sin, but gains no insight into its specific nature. While oftentimes the feelings associated with the sin are enough to guess the nature of the sin (murder, theft, rape, etc.), the Kindred remains ignorant of the particulars. This power allows the Kindred to see the details of the sinful act as though he himself had committed the act. He sees through the sinner’s eyes, hears through the sinner’s ears and feels through the sinner’s hands.
Cost: —
Dice Pool: Wits + Empathy + Hamartiaphage versus Composure + Blood Potency
Action: Instant and contested; resistance is reflexive.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure:
The character experiences the sin, but in such a chaotic jumble of thoughts, images and impressions that he cannot make sense of it, and may very well misinterpret what images do stay with him. Worse, the sudden, unexpected intimacy with the crime makes it harder to resist degeneration: the character suffers a –1 penalty to the degeneration check that comes along with sin-eating.
Failure:
The character gains no additional information when eating the victim’s sin.
Success:
The character perceives the events of the sin from the vessel’s perspective. The character does not gain any additional insight into his vessel’s motive or who any of the other players in the drama might be; the character only gains direct, sensory information.
Exceptional Success:
As a success, but the character also understands the vessel’s mindset at the time of the crime, experiencing his emotions and thoughts. Assuming the vessel knows the other people involved in the sin (if any), the character knows them as well. The character also gains the equivalent of a Specialty in the vessel for one Social Skill of his choosing. Subsequent uses of this power can grant additional Specialties to other Skills, but never more than one Specialty per Skill per vessel.
This power confers no ability to read the target’s mind beyond the specific instance of the sin. The character cannot pick and choose which sin to “read”; he may only read the sin he is drinking at the moment. The character perceives the scene as it actually happened, unmarred by the vessel’s memory or personal bias of how the event occurred. In the event of eating the sins of other vampires, this power cannot read sins older than 50 years per success on the activation roll.
Suggested Modifiers
Modifier — Situation
+2 — Power is turned on a vampire with whom the user has a blood tie (see Vampire: The Requiem, p. 162).
+1 — Sin was committed within the last week.
–1 — Sin was committed more than one year ago.
Through their studies, Sin-Eaters gain an intimate familiarity with their own sins by devouring those of others. By understanding his own wickedness, the Sin Eater may bolster his own soul’s defenses against the slow, inevitable domination of the Beast. This power allows the Sin-Eater to consume the sins of a mortal, internalize them, and weigh his own sins against those of his victim. By comparing the “weight” of the two sins, the Kindred finds it easier to cope with his own and gains a bonus on his next degeneration check.
Cost: 1 Vitae and 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: Resolve + Empathy + Hamartiaphage
Action: Instant
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure:
The character must face the fact that moral comparisons are little more than desperate rationalizations. When his own sin cannot be held up against another’s, there is now cast shadow to hide the wickedness of the character’s actions. The character suffers a -–1 penalty on his next degeneration check.
Failure:
The character gains no moral fortitude from the sin. Perhaps some mitigating circumstance rendered the “weight” of the sin less. Whatever the reason, the character gains no bonus on his next degeneration check.
Success:
By weighing his own sin against the consumed one, the character gains some measure of solace from the process. He gains a +1 bonus on his next degeneration check.
Exceptional Success:
His study of the two sins gives the character some profound philosophical insight into the nature of evil and sin. He gains a +3 bonus on his next degeneration check.
This power allows the Kindred to stave off his own moral degeneration to a limited degree. It is, however, hardly a panacea for Kindred damnation; if it were, the Sin-Eaters would have abandoned their quest for the perfect mortal sin-eater some time ago. For one thing, the bonus only applies to the next degeneration check, never to the degeneration check made for eating a sin in the first place. Furthermore, the character only receives the bonus on degeneration checks made for sins on the same level or higher as the consumed sin. No matter how the Kindred weighs it, petty theft cannot be used as a balancing factor against murder. “I may have hurt him,” the character might say, “but at least I don’t feel like I would if I’d killed him.”
This power may only be used on mortal human beings. Its effects last until the character next makes a degeneration check, whether the next degeneration check is eligible for the bonus or not.
Example: Edgar uses Cloak of Wickedness when he eats a sin from a mortal thief with Morality 4. If Edgar commits assault, petty theft, or any other sin of Morality 4 or higher, he gains a bonus on the degeneration check (assuming, of course, that Edgar’s Humanity is high enough that such crimes require a degeneration check at all). If he commits premeditated murder next, however, he gains no bonus.
The ultimate expression of a Sin-Eater’s mastery of Hamartiaphage, this power allows the Sin-Eater to channel his own sin into others, essentially forcing them to consume his own sin. This process is excruciatingly painful, and often causes severe mental trauma. Needless to say, it must be used with caution, but the Sin Lash is a vital part of Sin-Eater research and occult study. The fact that it is a useful interrogation tool, or even a weapon in a pinch, is merely a dreadful bonus.
Cost: 1 Vitae and 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Empathy + Hamartiaphage vs. Composure + Blood Potency
Action: Instant and contested, resistance is reflexive.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure:
The attempt to inflict a sin on the target fails, and the target is immune to further uses of this power for the rest of the night.
Failure:
The vampire fails to accumulate more successes than the target, the target is not affected. The vampire may try again.
Success:
The target rolls fewer successes than the vampire and the sin is forced upon her. She must make a derangement check as though she had just committed a sin equal to her own Morality. If she fails, she gains a mild derangement or exacerbates an existing derangement at the Storyteller’s discretion. This derangement persists until the victim succeeds on an extended Resolve + Composure roll with a number of necessary successes equal to 10 – her Morality. One roll can be made at the end of each night.
Exceptional Success:
As above, but the target number of successes to escape the derangement increases by three.
To use this power, the vampire must meet his target’s gaze. If the target is moving, distant, or deliberately trying to avoid eye contact, the vampire suffers a –1 penalty on the activation roll.
In many ways, this power is like the reverse of sin-eating, but with one notable exception: the character does not regain a point of Humanity by forcing his own sins onto his victim. This power draws upon the constant wellspring of sin that stems from the vampire’s soul, inflicting that same damnation on the target. This power may never be used on the same character more than once per week.
A character can only be subject to one instance of this power at a time.
Suggested Modifiers
Modifier — Situation
+2 Power is turned on a vampire with whom the user has a blood tie (Vampire, p. 162)