Valeren

WORK IN PROGRESS

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Nicknames: Obeah, Path of the healer, Path of the warrior, Path of the watcher, soul-devouring, tertius oculus.

Valeren is the mystical Discipline of the Salubri. At its most basic, Valeren provides control over pain and increased martial ability, seemingly allowing warriors to draw on the power of heaven to vanquish their foes and healer to judge and even improve a subject’s health. As the vampire grows more powerful, Valeren lets her heal a target’s soul directly. It is this power that forms the basis of the “soulsucker” charge that dogs the bloodline these nights.

The discipline originated with Saulot in his travels in the East learning from the Kuei-jin the use of the Dragon Pearl.

Learning Valeren causes a third eye to develop in the middle of one's forehead. The third eye is said to bestow "sight beyond sight" and enable the Salubri to see the threads of life and death around them. Once their abilities to restore lost vitality and cleanse individuals of taints of both the body and the soul earned the Salubri awe and respect, but after years of Tremere propaganda the use of Valeren became more associated with soul-stealing and infernalism.

It has long remained a closely guarded secret of the once-proud clan, and is all but forgotten in the Modern Nights by vampiric society. Recently the discipline reemerged with the Salubri Antitribu, but these warriors put it to decidedly more vicious ends. The Sabbat accepts into its ranks the childer of Adonai. They are consumed by the need for vengeance, and are creatures of rage, dubbed Furies by their Sabbat compatriots. They are not honorable creatures, but rather bitter knights driven to destroy the Tremere and seeking vengeance for their founder's destruction.

Note: This is a attempt to merge the disciplines of Obeah with Valeren into one V5 format discipline, including the paths of healer, warrior and watcher. Most of the following powers are a combination of former powers that alone are not so beneficial compare to same level powers of other disciplines, considering the inherent flaws like an eye on the forehead or the obligation to touch for activating some powers. The discipline gain more versatility for lack of potency. The use only of amalgams with Auspex, Fortitude or Obfuscate to convert Valeren does not seem to me to be a sufficient method. I prefer to imagine Samiel developing a new way to use the Saulot's discipline rathen creating a new one. Upon the fact it becomes a unique discipline for the Salubri clan in V5, it is not so disturbing, after all Saulot came back from Asia with it.

Characteristics

Learning Valeren causes a physical change in Cainites: a bump or nodule developing in the center of the forehead, eventually cracking open into a fully-developed third eye when the character learns the third dot of Valeren. Cainites with high Humanity rating manifest a human-looking or angelic-seeming eye; those with a low Humanity develop freakish or demonic third eyes. The eye is sensitive; attempting to cover it results in a penalty of one die to all rolls, though obscuring it under a hood is fine. In all cases, the eye may be retracted into the skull and perfectly hidden for the scene with a Stamina + Stealth roll (difficulty 1), but using any level of Valeren brings it forth once more.

• Type: Mental
  
• Masquerade threat: Low-High
  
• Blood resonance: Phlegmatic (healer), Choleric (warrior), Melancholy (watcher).
  

Level 1

Sense vitality

With a touch, the vampire can instantaneously read a target’s injuries. A healer learns a subject’s illnesses to cure them. A warrior, however, learn how close to death a target is so that they may hasten the process.

• Cost: free
  
• Dice pools: Wits + Valeren
  
• System: The user must choose between two paths before rolling the dices: sense life or sense death. Then the user must touch the target and make a Wits + Valeren roll (difficulty 2). A win allows the user to sense the nature of the target’s flesh (a corpse is a valid target): living, dead, undead, immortal, ghoulish. It also reveals how many health levels of damage the subject has suffered and the origin of the injuries and impairments. On a win, a critical tells the subject’s hunger level (if a vampire) or how many blood points she has left in her system (if a mortal or other blood-bearing form of life) and moreover. If the user had chosen to sense life, he gains one die to heal the subject (this action may incur one stain when his convictions are more warrior inclined). If the user had chosen to sense death, he gains one die to harm the subject (this action may incur one stain when his convictions are more healer inclined).
  

Auguring the sickness

This power allows the vampire to go beyond Valeren’s ability to determine wounds and reveal the fine damage caused by illness and disease. While best used by a medically-trained kindred, even novices find the power useful.

• Cost: free
  
• Dice pools: Wits + Valeren
  
• System: The user holds his hands above the patient, and the third eye gently teases out a vision of the afflicted tissues made of pure light (neonate Salubri delightfully describe them as holograms). The user rolls Wits + Valeren. Each success reveals one fact about the illness, including likely developments and symptoms and potential avenues of treatment. On kindred, it reveals any diseases in his bloodstream. Additionally, once augured, the user may use “channelling touch” to cure the disease outright, at a difficulty determined by the commonality and virulence of the disease (difficulty 1 for the common cold, difficulty 3 for most forms of herpes or chicken pox, or difficulty 6 for Ebola or HIV).
  

Note: Move from level 2 to level 1.

Level 2

Gift of sleep

The vampire can ease a mortal’s pain with nothing but a touch. This power is intended to heal the pain or to bolster a ghoul’s effectiveness in combat. This power can also place a mortal into a deep, soothing sleep, which has obvious applications for escaping human scrutiny. The warriors tend to name the power “morphean blow”.

• Cost: free or one rouse check
  
• Dice pools: Resolve + Valeren vs Stamina + Resolve
  
• System: No rouse check is required against a willing target. The user must touch the target and make a Resolve + Valeren roll. A win allows the target to ignore all health damage penalties and physical impairments for one turn plus a number of turns equal to the test margin. To put a mortal to sleep, the user makes a contested roll against the target’s Stamina + Resolve. The mortal sleeps for five to ten hours (whatever his normal sleep cycle is) and removes one superficial Willpower damage upon awakening. He sleeps peacefully and does not suffer nightmares or the effects of any derangements while asleep. Kindreds, including the user herself, are less affected by this power; their corpselike bodies are too tied to death. Instead of falling into sleep, they become numb: Subtract two dice from all Physical dice pools. Difficulties to resist or control frenzy decrease by 1.
  

Note: Combination of "gift of sleep" with "peaceful touch".

Level 3

Channelling touch

The Vampire can heal wounds with a laying-on of hands. The subject feels a warm, tingling sensation over the affected areas as pain leaves the body and flesh knits. Alternatively, the vampire’s hands can bring searing pain, as though the target is being burnt with red-hot metal. Although the power does not inflict actual damage, prolonged or repeated exposure can be enough to traumatize a victim. This power works extremely well as a torture method.

• Cost: one or more rouse checks
  
• System: First of all, the user must choose between two paths: healer’s touch or burning touch. If the user had chosen healer he must touch the actual injury (or the closest part of the victim’s body, in the case of internal injuries). Each point of superficial damage to be healed requires one rouse check and one turn of contact. Each point of aggravated damage to be healed requires two rouse checks and five minutes of contact. This action incurs one stain when his convictions are more warrior inclined. If the user had chosen burning he must touch his subject for this power to take effect, and the effects diminish rapidly after he removes his hand. The user must make one rouse check to activate this power, and each rouse check reduces the victim’s dice pools by one. This action incurs one stain when his convictions are more healer inclined. This power is often used for interrogation or torture, wearing down the subject’s resistance and rendering him much more tractable. Channelling touch works on any living or undead creature.
  

Note: Combination of "healer's touch" with "burning touch".

Pariah's caress

Watchers must contend with the Wan Kuei, other vampires who do not subscribe to the idea of the lineage of Caine, and stranger beings such as mages. They learned long ago that the best defence lies in misdirection — if enemies are looking at someone else, they aren’t looking at the Salubri. With this power, a Watcher may charge her blood with the combined hatred and attention of all her foes, and then transfer that animosity to another with a bloody touch.

• Cost: one rouse check
  
• Dice pools: Manipulation + Valeren
  
• System: The user has his blood well up under her fingertips, touches her target (smearing the blood on them, possibly requiring a Stealth roll), then the user must roll Manipulation + Valeren (difficulty 2). Each success extends the power’s duration for one evening. The target gain for the duration the flaw “suspect”. He suffers a two-dice penalty to all Social tests as he finds himself within a miasma of annoyance and suspicion. Even mundane or positive acts draw significant negative attention, inspiring jealousy and causing every flaw to be scrutinized.
  

WORK IN PROGRESS