Getsumei

Getsumei
Clans	None
Bloodlines	Burakumin
Sects	Shining Kingdoms
Rituals	None
Combination Disciplines	None
Rarity	Legendary
Play Status	Closed

Sometimes referred to by its practitioners as the moonlit path, Getsumei is a rare and somber discipline, one that makes its only known practitioners, the Burakumin, figures of awe and not a little fear. The powers it grants allow a vampire to interfere with the normal deathly processes of decay and stasis, making it possible to preserve things for long periods of time and do whatever increasingly horrific necromantic things with such cast-off shells they can imagine. Of course, the Burakumin adamantly insist that they use their powers only for the proper reasons and with much ritual and ceremony... but their enemies whisper otherwise with fear in their eyes.

Basic Powers

Preservation

With a single touch, a vampire may preserve a mortal corpse of any once-living thing in its current state. The body will remain as it is, with whatever damage and in whatever physical state, indefinitely unless it is moved, at which point this power must be used again or else normal decay will set in.

Crow's Harvest

By removing a corpse's eyes and placing them over their own, a vampire may see a vision of the last moments of the creature just prior to its death. This power only grants a vision of that specific moment in time, and can only be glimpsed once; some visions are clear and full of useful background information, but others may be chaotic, confused, or unilluminating, especially if the dead creature didn't know what was happening to them or did not see their doom coming.

Intermediate Powers

Corpse Skin

By touching a corpse, the vampire may draw some of its truly dead qualities into themself, giving them pallid, rubbery dead flesh and sunken, pale features and hair. While this is not very attractive, it works well to frighten and horrify mortals (and even some immortals), and while appearing as a corpse the vampire feels no pain from physical injuries and cannot be harmed by blunt objects.

Channel of Hasu-Ko

By slicing off pieces of dead flesh from a corpse and working them like clay, a vampire may create a tiny flesh homunculus to do their bidding. The homunculus is short-lived, lasting only up to a week, and not particularly intelligent, but it can perform simple tasks and follow simple instructions, and is often used as a spy or message-carrier to brave places that vampires would prefer not to go themselves.

Advanced Powers

Convocation of Hotoke

By standing among corpses, a vampire may call upon the dead to do their bidding, naming a single simple tasks that they wish performed. All corpses within one mile will attempt to raise themselves and fulfill this instruction; those who are too physically damaged or decayed to be physically effective will still attempt to crawl to the task or otherwise contribute in some way. The corpses do not understand any complex or confusing instructions, and once their task is done (or is rendered impossible), they immediately return to their resting places and respond to no further orders.

Elder Powers

What Is Dead May Never Die

By slicing a piece of flesh from a corpse and carrying it in their mouth, a vampire can obscure themself to even magical means of spying, appearing to be truly dead. Attempts to use powers such as Auspex or Thaumaturgy to spy on or affect them fail as if they had been attempted on an actual corpse, and those who encounter them are likely to believe that they are speaking to a Risen rather than any other creature. The effect lasts until sunrise, or until the vampire loses the piece of flesh they are carrying.

Dead Air

By consecrating a corpse in the center of a small area no larger than a bedroom, the vampire may invest all the air around it with the stillness and silence of death. Anything within it makes absolutely no noise, nor does any air move to accommodate it; even creatures with sonar or other methods of advanced hearing are oppressed by the terrible silence. The zone remains still until the sun next rises.

Hushed Sanctum

Just as they can invest themselves with the physical properties of the dead, so can a user of this power invest their mind and spirit with the quietude of death. By removing an entire finger or toe from a corpse and carrying it in their mouth, the vampire may become completely mentally impenetrable; their mind cannot be read by Auspex or even more powerful supernatural skills, they cannot be commanded by powers such as Dominate or Presence, and they cannot be compelled or affected by anything that would not affect a true corpse. While thus protected, they also may not speak; if they do, or if they lose the joint they are carrying, this power's effects end.

Strange Aeons

With a touch, the vampire with this power can arrest the aging and decay of even the living. Mortal humans and animals simply stop aging; they can still be killed by illness or injury, but their systems remain at their current functioning state indefinitely. A mortal affected this way cannot make permanent changes to their body, such as piercings or tattoos, as these will simply "heal" immediately back to their original state. Non-living things, such as wood or stone, stop being affected by decay and weather damage immediately and remain pristine permanently, although they can still be broken or dirtied with normal use. When used on a supernatural or undead being, this power instead attempts to restore any current damage they are carrying that does not match their normal state, although results of this may vary (and, in some cases, may be horrifying depending on a given being's history).

Many vampires guard this power closely, as it offers an alternative to ghouls when it comes to mortal servants; many human beings will go to great lengths to be given the gift of immortality without the accompanying blood or risk of undeath, and some vampires have also used it to preserve their own mortal family lines, keeping each member of them suspended when they reach adulthood to create small immortal communities dedicated to them. The power also tends to engender intense loyalty, as the vampire can end its effects at any time, thus causing a wayward servant to begin aging normally again when they do.

Perfect Stillness

By surrounding an area up to a mile in diameter in a border made from corpses, the vampire may cause everything within it to freeze in perfect stasis, becoming completely untouched by the ravages of time. Decay and evaporation halt instantly; animals and humans freeze and remain unseeing and unfeeling; even light stays at exactly the same angle and refraction. Nothing within the zone can perceive or experience anything including the passage of time, nor can anything leave or be brought out unless the vampire decides to relax their hold on this power. Supernatural beings may remain active with tremendous force of will, but even they are likely to become trapped if they do not leave the area with haste. The still zone remains until the sun next rises.

Important Things to Keep in Mind

While it is tempting to imagine that Getsumei, which can preserve the dead body, might be used to help the living, most of its powers work exclusively on corpses. Some elders whisper that you can certainly attempt to use it on the living, but that the results are fabled to be terrible, with mortals dying screaming in decaying agony or injuries turning necrotic and virulent in an instant.

The powers of Getsumei cannot be used on any supernatural creature's body, either alive or dead, unless noted; the powers that animate and invest them are too great to be easily overriden.