10 XP
Cost: 1 Vitae (supplied by the Kindred swearing the Oath)
Dice Pool: Presence + Intimidation + Dominate – subject’s Resolve
Action: Instant
The Oath of Blood Knives must be sworn willingly by a Kindred who donates the point of Vitae needed to activate the Oath. Such an oath cannot be sworn while under mystical compulsion; the Kindred’s will must be truly free. A Kindred can seal his own Oath with the Discipline, but it is normal for the beneficiary of the Oath to do so instead, as otherwise there is no evidence that the Devotion has been used.
As with the Blood-Tell Oath, the Oath of Blood Knives requires a text written in the blood of the Kindred swearing. This blood remains fresh until the Oath is broken or the swearing Kindred suffers Final Death. In addition, if the swearer violates the Oath, he immediately takes a number of points of lethal damage equal to the number of successes on the activation roll, and loses the same amount of Vitae. The damage is caused as the Kindred’s own blood forms into jagged shards and cuts its way out of the foresworn body. (A Kindred with insufficient, or no, Vitae remaining still takes the full damage, but cannot lose more Vitae than he has.) There is no resistance roll allowed, as the Kindred voluntarily took on the Oath. The subject of the Oath has no idea how many successes were rolled, and thus does not know how much damage he risks. If the activation roll fails, the Oath functions as a Blood-Tell Oath.
The effect of the Devotion ends when the subject breaks the Oath, thereby taking damage from it, or when the Notary or the lord releases the subject from its effects by blotting out the written oath with one Vitae of his own.