This Ceremony enables a vampire and their coterie to migrate into the Shadowlands, though doing so comes at great risk.
Prerequisite Power: Withering Spirit
Ingredients: Masks for each participant, a bowl containing sufficient quantity of the caster’s vitae so each participant might coat the soles of their feet in it, two coins of any value per participant.
Process: Few Ceremonies of Oblivion come with as much doubt and fear as Ex Nihilo, the ability to migrate into the Shadowlands. This Ceremony enables a physical crossing into the lands of entropy. Vampires who physically enter the Shadowlands may interact with wraiths as if they were solid, but cannot carry objects beyond those on their person with them. Vampires destroyed in the Shadowlands disappear in a vortex of blood and ash, sucked into the false earth beneath their feet. Ex Nihilo appeals to a great many necromancers and mystics who want to study the Shadowlands without the impediment of a time limit. It’s an unmatched method for interviewing ghosts and exploring the necropoli — the cities spirits inhabit. It’s also incredibly dangerous, as many wraiths — especially spectres — seek to destroy vampires, draining them of their Willpower, and there’s always the risk of meeting the ghost of someone the vampire slew years earlier. Such wraiths tend to hold a grudge. The vampire must have used the Split the Shroud Ceremony within this chapter, in the location they’re currently occupying, in order for Ex Nihilo to function. If the Shroud density is reduced to absent, the caster and any companions may enter the Shadowlands from that point, if they don masks to cover their faces, dip or paint their feet in the vampire’s vitae, and carry a coin in each hand.
System: The user makes three Rouse Checks (sufficient to expend the required vitae) and spends a turn concentrating, expending a Willpower point to prepare for the crossing. They then make their Ceremony roll. If successful, the vampire, a number of companions equal to the number of successes rolled, and any objects on their person may then enter the Shadowlands. The Shadowlands follows several rules that do not exist in the world of the living: • Wraiths are capable of physical attacks on vampires (see Vampire: The Masquerade, p. 377 for an average spectre’s stat block) but some are also capable of attacking a vampire’s Willpower specifically, as they drain a vampire’s passion. Defense pools against Willpower drain, which a wraith can attempt up to 3 yards/meters from the vampire, are made up from the vampire’s Resolve + Composure, vs. the attacking wraith’s Strength + Brawl. This attack inflicts Aggravated Willpower damage. • Though there is no sun (and therefore no daytime) in the Shadowlands, the vampire must still Rouse the Blood every 24 hours. With no sunlight, they are able to operate without rest. • Vampires in the Shadowlands cannot interact with the world of the living in a meaningful way. They can only touch or speak with living creatures by ending this Ceremony, which takes the expenditure of a Willpower point and another Rouse Check in a place where the Shroud isn’t impenetrable. They can see snatches of motion through the Shroud, and a Discipline such as Auspex may enable them to spy from beyond the veil, but for the most part, anything viewed has a Difficulty 4 or more to perceive. • Vampires can use their Disciplines in the Shadowlands just as they can in the land of the living. • If a vampire is compelled to feed in the Shadowlands, they cannot obtain sustenance from wraiths without the Passion Feast power (see p. XX), but can feed from mortals or other vampires with them. • Oblivion absorbs individuals who lose all Health or Willpower in the Shadowlands. They leave no wraiths if destroyed. • Vampires cannot bring wraiths out of the Shadowlands without a Ceremony such as Summon Spirit (see p. XX), which must be used in the land of the living to have this effect. Duration: Until the power is deactivated or the vampire is destroyed