Ogham

Ogham
Clans	None
Bloodlines	Lhiannan
Sects	Independents
Rituals	Ogham Rituals
Combination Disciplines	Ogham Combination DIsciplines
Rarity	Legendary

Possessed only by the very small, very old Lhiannan bloodline, Ogham is a discipline built on ancient druidic ideas of runes of power and control over the natural world. Its practitioners are never seen outside their native British Isles and very difficult to find even within them, and thus the spiritual powers of this discipline are generally relegated to folklore and legend.

Basic Powers

Consecrate the Grove

You may spill some of your blood to awaken the plant life in your immediate area, calling on it to defend you. The plants thus activated act as if they had been ghouled on a large scale, attempting to impede, block, or even mildly injure anyone who might attack you. The plants only remain active for a short period of time, and only up to about forty feet from your location.

Crimson Woad

You may paint runes on your body with your own vampiric blood, allowing you to focus that vitae to grant you advantages in combat. You feel less pain from any injuries you suffer and are unlikely to enter Frenzy, and may strike with more force than your normal attacks would require for a few moments, although the benefits fade quickly.

Woad of Teutates

By sacrificing an animal the size of a goat or larger, you may inscribe runes in blood on its body, taking on its furious spirit in the moment of death to become a peerless warrior. You gain strength, speed, and endurance from your sacrifice's spirit, as well as entering a controlled berserker fury that allows you to rage ferociously against your enemies. The borrowed spirit remains with you for the rest of the scene.

Intermediate Powers

Inscribe the Curse

By inscribing the name of an enemy in blood, you may curse them to suffer from weakness and illness. Depending on where you choose to write your victim's name, you may cause them to either become weak and suffer additional pain as well as being unable to use their supernatural blood to power their own disciplines; to become confused and incapable of focusing on any difficult task or use of powers without monumental effort; to prevent your enemy from being able to speak or communicate verbally no matter how they try; or cause them to become nervous and distracted, and prone to entering fear frenzy.

Moon and Sun

You may use runes to call upon power from either the moon and its beneficial nightly powers, or the sun and its dangerous fires. When calling on the protection of the moon, you gain a calmed mental state that makes you less likely to suffer any form of frenzy; when calling on the powers of the sun, you may suffer less grievous damage from flame and sunlight, although they cannot escape the pain involved and may still only be able to survive a small amount of such injuries. These protections last for only a single night and day.

Woad of Taranis

By inscribing a rune upon your own chest in blood, you may make yourself immune to the terrors of daylight; although sunlight can and will still kill you, it does so more slowly now, allowing you to survive exposure to it in short bursts. The same is true of fire, and in addition the rune protects you from entering Rötschreck. The rune protects you for a full 24 hours, after which it wears away.

Advanced Powers

Drink Dry the Earth

You may recognize and draw power from supernaturally or spiritually relevant sites, including Garou cairns and areas where the veil between this world and the world of the Wraiths is thin. Doing so increases your skills, the efficacy of your other powers, and your mental acuity, but if done too much or too strongly in the same area may cause irreparable damage to the source.

Thirst of Donn

You may perform a human sacrifice to the ancient powers of death, in return receiving supernatural energy and strength from them. You are immediately filled full of energy as if you had drunk the maximum amount of blood you can hold, and you are watched over for the rest of the night by a spirit that acts as a mentor when you are unsure and a protector who warns you from danger and wards off spiritual and mental effects that might otherwise influence or harm you.

Elder Powers

Inscribe the Forgotten Names

The ancient Bygones are just that - bygone, forgotten, mythical to most of the world, but with this power you may call them up and even communicate with them. By performing a powerful blood sacrifice in a place of power (natural groves are often good for this, and even more power can be drawn from places like caerns), you call up a mythical being that once dwelled in that area, at least in legend. You have very little control over the creature, although it is unlikely to harm you unless you give it a good reason to, but you may communicate with it. Tales of Lhiannan elders who made pacts with forest gods and ancient beasts for strange powers and occult knowledge abound, but only a few living souls know for certain what this power can achieve.

Important Things to Keep in Mind

Ogham powers are literally never used outside of Celtic areas, primarily the British Isles, since the Lhiannan who wield them cannot leave their home territories, and look like nothing so much as actual ritual magic to the casual observer. It is unlikely that any vampire in the United States has so much as heard of the discipline, much less seen it in action. The "runes" referred to in these powers are letters of the oghamic alphabet, an ancient ritual writing system that is at least as lost in the modern day as the powers of this discipline.

While most Ogham powers can be achieved by inscribing runes with your own blood or the blood of a sacrificed animal, it is rumored that they are at their most effective when performed with live human sacrifices. Whether this is true or some sort of slander directed on the Lhiannan and their ancient powers is unknown; they certainly aren't interested in saying.