Diablerie

Diablerie is the most heinous crime it is possible for a vampire to commit, and is widely hated, feared, and punished in almost all sects and clans. Where normally vampires can simply drink a victim dry, causing them to die of blood loss, doing so with another vampire offers an additional alternative: once a vampire's husk has been cleared of blood and they have entered torpor, their attacker may continue to drink and literally draw up their essence - referred to by more spiritual vampires as literally sucking out their soul.

Once this happens, the vampire is completely and irrevocably dead; furthermore, their soul does not escape to become a Wraith or continue on to wherever it might have been destined, but is consumed by their attacker instead. Whether they are religious or not, most vampires are extremely unforgiving of the crime of literally destroying an immortal soul, and most vampiric societies root out and destroy diablerists wherever they discover them.

Benefits of Diablerie

In spite of the stiff penalties for diablerie, there are always some vampires willing to risk them anyway, thanks to the process's unique benefits. Committing diablerie gives the diablerist an intensely pleasurable high, but more importantly also grants them a chance to gain additional power and potency from the soul they have consumed, and of course there are always a few monsters among the undead who prefer to destroy their victims utterly on sheer principle.

Generation

There is no way for a vampire to alter their generation, which represents how far removed they are from the original source blood of all vampires - except for diablerie. A vampire who diablerizes a significantly older vampire (at least two generations lower than themself) may themself drop permanently in generation, finding that the older vampire's more potent blood has increased the power of their own. A lowered generation offers various benefits to the diablerist, including granting them potential access to higher-level Discipline powers, making them immune to powers from the Dominate Discipline from those who are not themselves of sufficiently low generation, and increasing their ability to hold and store blood and use it to fuel their powers.

Disciplines

In addition to lowering their generation, diablerists also have a chance of learning some of their victim's supernatural powers, courtesy of absorbing their essence and all the power that came with it. They have a chance of gaining one level of a power their victim possessed that they didn't, allowing them to bypass the need for a teacher or the many months of hard work they might need to put in to learn it on their own.

In addition to being a handy shortcut for learning powers, diablerie is also the only option for some vampires to learn the more exotic powers possessed by other bloodlines. Some Disciplines (for example, Chimerstry or Thaumaturgy) are possessed and practiced by only a single clan, and as a result cannot be learned by outsiders, sometimes even if they manage to find a native of those clans to teach them. Diablerie allows the acquisition of these powers, however, which makes it very attractive to those vampires who want to collect powers that they would normally never have access to.

Consequences of Diablerie

The benefits of diablerie are great, but the wrath of the rest of vampire society is usually even greater. Very few members of any clan or sect tolerate diablerie, since to do so is to put all vampires in the area at risk of having it performed on them, and the process itself is so dangerous and spiritually violent that it may cause problems for a vampire even if they escape notice from the rest of their kind.

Sect & Clan Punishments

In the Camarilla, diablerie is punishable by immediate and brutal execution; in the event that a diablerist is not in custody, a bloodhunt may be called to encourage any and all Camarilla members in the area to find and destroy them with all due haste. Diablerie has never been officially pardoned in the Camarilla, although rumors exist of a few deals done behind closed doors at the higher levels of the ruling council. Any Camarilla vampire who sees any evidence of diablerie having been committed by anyone is bound to report it immediately to the Prince or any other higher authority in the area, the better to ensure that punishment is swift.

The Sabbat is less concerned about diablerie - officially, anyway. Those in power really don't much care if pack members happen to attack one another, but diablerie committed on anyone in the higher hierarchy tends to be punished by immediate death with no trial, recourse, or mitigation possible. Pack Priests may also ban diablerie for the overall good of the pack, and the individual pack choose to destroy any offenders that break this internal rule.

Independent clans, for the most part, are equally as horrified about diablerie as any member of the Camarilla might be, although they tend to handle the matter internally and usually do not want to get any outside sects involved if they can help it. Members of Clans Ravnos and Giovanni take just as unamused view of diablerie as the other sects, while the Followers of Set tend to decide whether or not to punish a diablerist on a case-by-case basis, and the Assamite clan has a long-standing rule that its assassins are allowed to diablerize their victims (but no one else, and face the death penalty if they do).

Diablerie is, if possible, even more despised in most other sects. The Quiet Nations and Drowned Legacies have a universal no-tolerance policy toward diablerists, who are summarily executed or exiled in the harshest possible conditions to immediately remove them from sect society. The Jati widely considers diablerie to result in a literal monster that is no longer considered a vampire or even close to one and must be destroyed immediately, while the Shining Kingdoms consider the crime irredeemable and commonly exile diablerists on pain of death if they ever return to their old haunts.

Psychic Aftereffects

Destroying and absorbing another vampire's soul is not an easy process, and it frequently backfires on the diablerist, bringing serious penalties along with its many benefits. Diablerie almost always shreds any remaining connection to humanity a vampire is still hanging onto, making them more likely to succumb to Wassail, and even for those who don't degenerate closer to the endless frenzy, the psychological stress often leaves nasty, lingering side effects. Vampires who have diablerized sometimes find that they failed to fully absorb the new soul, and that it causes them to occasionally behave like their victim, or cause them to hear their victim's thoughts and voice in their head, attempting to interfere with their free will. The majority of diablerists also gain a Derangement when they commit the crime, further destabilizing them after their choice to fracture their own psyche.

The psychic stain of the act of diablerie is also visible to other creatures who know how to look; those with some Auspex powers will see thick, hideous black streaks in the aura of a diablerist, which remain a very visible brand to those with the second sight for a full year after the crime was committed.

Sanctioned Diablerie

Once in a very great while, diablerie may be officially sanctioned and allowed to occur under specific circumstances, although this is extremely rare. It is referred to by the more pleasant moniker of the Amaranth when this occurs, and is typically used only to allow the punishment to fit the crime; in Camarilla cities, the Amaranth might be offered as a reward for someone who successfully captures and brings a diablerist to justice, allowing them to in turn diablerize the criminal as a fitting end. Sanctioned diablerie is more common in the Sabbat, where morals are generally loose and inhuman, and the more powerful echelons of Sabbat society may offer the diablerie of hapless new vampires as a bonus for those whom they wish to reward for serving them well.

The powerful influence of the Assamite clan in the Ashirra has led to a more relaxed attitude toward diablerie (albeit still one in which it is considered an unforgivable crime if not performed strictly in the line of duty or at the direction of elders). The Teteoh consider diablerie a sacred ritual only available to those who are truly worthy enough to stand alongside the gods, and while several living elders are likely to have partaken, it is extremely unlikely that any younger vampire makes the cut, and a policy of severe punishment (usually execution or torture, or both) prevents them from trying to take the honor without permission. Finally, the Cradle of Civilization operates on a theory of diablerie as a right accorded only to those strong enough to take it and survive the ensuing unpopularity; it is therefore less rare among their ranks, but also likely to result in death anyway unless performed by a vampire powerful enough to take on all comers.