PSYCHIC VAMPIRES

Psychic vampires take the vital essence and force of will how efficiently she can take and use this Ephemera. She can-
from their victims, taking it for their own benefit. Most
psychic vampires are born with their gifts. Some develop
the ability through ancient rituals, curses, strange relics, or
other oddness. Some others become vampires by infection;
some psychic vampires can pass their condition when they
feed from another’s life force.
Unlike some of the other groups in this chapter, psychic
vampirism is not a group: It’s a phenomenon. Some psychic
vampires band together into small groups; at least two inter-
national networks exist amongst these psychics. While small,
these networks do well to educate members. The networks
mostly struggle with recruitment; new psychic vampires
have no reliable way to discover the networks, so only those
vampires caused by Psychic Infection (see below) are likely
to connect with these groups thanks to contact with their
progenitors. But most avoid their own kind, finding them-
selves in groups with mundane humans, other non-vampiric
psychics, or around other supernatural creatures. Typically,
they must keep their hunger a secret.
A psychic vampire learns of her condition usually when
it’s still quite benign; she causes fatigue and minor illness in
her victims. But as she increases in power, as time goes on, she
becomes more and more dangerous. The temptation to take
becomes too great, as she learns more and more uses for the
psychic energy she steals. Then eventually, psychic vampires
learn to use their condition for protection, as a weapon.
Template Features and Merits
Psychic vampires receive their signature Merit, Psychic
Vampirism, with a single dot for free. If her vampirism is
tied to a relic or something that can be taken away from her,
gain an additional dot in any of the below Merits for free.
Ephemera
Psychic Vampirism abilities steal and utilize “Ephemera,” a
sort of psychic fuel. Her dots in Psychic Vampirism determine
not store more Ephemera than her Resolve dots; additional
Ephemera must be used the turn it’s acquired, for one of the
things she is able to power. The Ephemeral Battery Merit can
increase this amount.
Unaging
All psychic vampires can spend a number of Ephemera
equal to their current age to not age for one year. For example,
a 33-year-old psychic vampire can spend 33 Ephemera to
not show the signs of age for a year. This counts her full age,
not her apparent age. If she does not continue the unaging
effect, she continues aging as normal once the year is up.
Theoretically, this could result in eternal youth.
These points do not have to be spent all at once; they can
be spent at any time during that year.
Ephemera Bleed
Psychic vampire characters lose one Ephemera per day.
If your character has no Ephemera, she loses Willpower
instead, and cannot regain Willpower until she has at least
one Ephemera. If she loses all Willpower this way, she begins
taking lethal damage instead, and cannot heal until she recov-
ers at least a point of Ephemera.
If your character has no Ephemera, she becomes extremely
irritable and volatile. She suffers a cumulative –1 per day to
all Resolve + Composure actions. This continues to get worse
until she replenishes at least a point of Ephemera, or the
penalty is equal to her Psychic Vampirism dots.
Psychic Vampirism
(• to •••••, Style, Supernatural Merit)
Effect: To use Psychic Vampirism, your character must
touch a victim, skin-to-skin. The Breath Stealer Merit alters
this. Any use of Psychic Vampirism is an instant action, so
it cannot be combined with other instant actions, such as

Story Hooks for Psychic Vampires

•  Your character finds a person, a normal person, she cannot feed from. He’s alive. But…there’s nothing
there. He’s got nothing to feed from. That’s bad enough. But then she runs into a second one.
•  In one part of town, your character rapidly loses all her Ephemera. Is it environmental? Is someone
targeting her? Is there another, greater vampire?
•  A curio shop owner approaches you with an ancient goblet, and offers it cheap. He says it’ll feed you
like you’ve never been filled before. Simply fill it with blood, drink from it, and you’ll never want again.

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Psychic Vampires
 Note on Supernatural Victims
By and large, Psychic Vampirism works on most things in the Chronicles of Darkness. However, a psychic
vampire cannot steal the life energy of an actual vampire. She can steal Willpower if her Psychic Vampirism
Merit is strong enough. Psychic vampires cannot steal the life of ghosts or spirits, unless they have the Soul
Eater Merit. Using psychic vampirism on supernatural creatures is slightly tougher; subtract their Supernatural
Potency trait (Blood Potency, Gnosis, Primal Urge, etc.) from the roll to activate the power.

physical attacks. However, she can use it as a grappling ma-
neuver (use the grappling maneuver dice pools instead of the
normal Psychic Vampirism dice pool in that case).
Use of Psychic Vampirism abilities requires a roll of
Intelligence + Occult + Psychic Vampirism – the victim’s
Resolve dots. Successes determine the level of effect. She can
combine effects and divide her successes between points of
damage and Willpower.
Each level of Psychic Vampirism has two effects: One
enhances your character’s ability to feed from Ephemera, the
other allows your character to use Ephemera. The Ephemera
expenditure ability may be used reflexively once per turn;
only one such ability can be used per turn.
Amateur (•): With this basic level, your character can
cause bashing damage. She causes one bashing damage
per success on her roll. Every two points of bashing dam-
age gives her one Ephemera (this can be accumulated
over multiple turns). She can use one Ephemera to heal
a point of bashing damage, or two Ephemera to heal one
lethal damage.
Dilettante (••): With this level, she can choose to steal
psychic energy from her victim instead of causing damage.
For every two successes, she steals one Willpower from her
victim and converts it into one Ephemera. For two Ephemera,
she can regain one spent Willpower point.
Practiced (•••): Now, her ability to harm is intensified.
Every success causes two bashing damage or one lethal dam-
age, and gives her one Ephemera. She can heal two bashing
or one lethal with a point of Ephemera.
Accomplished (••••): Her psychic draining improves.
Now, every success drains a point of Willpower from her
victims and gives her one Ephemera. A point of Ephemera
regains a point of Willpower.
Virtuoso (•••••): With this pinnacle of psychic vampir-
ism, the character’s ability to steal life becomes utterly fear-
some. Every success causes both one lethal damage and one

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Chapter three-The Other Side
Willpower loss if she wishes, and gives her two Ephemera.
A single Ephemera point recovers a point of Willpower, and
one lethal or two bashing damage.
Breath Stealer
(• to •••, Supernatural Merit)
Prerequisites: Psychic Vampirism
Effect: Your psychic vampire may steal breath instead of
touching a victim. Each level in this Merit modifies the dis-
tance from which she can activate Psychic Vampirism abilities.
Kiss (•): Your character must be very close to steal breath.
Her mouth must be close to her victim’s; she must be able
to feel her victim’s breath.
Touch (••): The range extends. If she could touch her
victim with an outstretched arm, she can steal breath.
Reach (•••): At the pinnacle of ability, she can steal breath
from a number of meters (or yards) equal to her Willpower
dots. But to do so, she must spend a point of Willpower in
addition to any other costs for Psychic Vampirism abilities.
This Willpower enables this ability for the scene.
Note: This may limit usage in certain situations. For
example, if trying to leech Ephemera from a monster which
doesn’t breathe, Breath Stealer is useless.
Burst of Speed (•, Supernatural Merit)
Prerequisites: Psychic Vampirism
Effect: Your character may use Ephemera to push her
body to briefly inhuman speeds. Spend a point of Ephemera
to add +5 to Initiative and Speed for a turn, and +1 to
Defense. Only one point may be spent in this way per turn.
Ephemeral Battery
(• to •••••, Supernatural Merit)
Prerequisites: Psychic Vampirism
Effect: Your psychic vampire may store more Ephemera
than most. For every dot in this Merit, she may store an ad-
ditional point of Ephemera above her Resolve.
Euphoric Touch
(• to •••, Supernatural Merit)
Prerequisites: Psychic Vampirism
Effect: Your psychic vampire’s touch numbs or creates
euphoria when she uses her gifts. Any time she touches a
victim and activates Psychic Vampirism, you may choose
to activate Euphoric Touch. Her dots in Euphoric Touch
determine her choices; she may administer any or all of her
Euphoric Touch abilities at once.
Numbing Touch (•): At this level, your character’s touch
numbs. Victims of her Psychic Vampirism suffer no wound
penalties for the scene. Additionally, any rolls to detect by
touch — including detecting your character’s vampirism —
suffer a –5 penalty.
Sensual Touch (••): At this level, your character’s touch
becomes euphoric. Victims of her psychic vampirism gain
the Swooned Condition toward her.
Addicting Touch (•••): With this level, her touch is
addicting. Victims gain the Addicted Condition in regards
to her touch.
Nocturnal Supremacy
(••, Supernatural Merit)
Prerequisites: Psychic Vampirism
Effect: Your character has an affinity for the darkness, like
the vampires with which she shares a name. When the sun is
down and she has at least a point of Ephemera, she gains one
of the following advantages, chosen when you take this Merit:
• Her body becomes more robust, more perfect. She
gains a dot of Strength and a dot of Stamina.
• She becomes charismatic and sly. She gains a dot of
Presence and a dot of Manipulation.
• Her flesh becomes tight as marble, as strong as leather.
She gains 1/1 armor, which stacks with any worn armor.
• Her senses sharpen and perfect themselves for the
dark. Take +3 to all Perception-based rolls, and take
no penalties from darkness. Double the range of all
your character’s senses. Additionally, your character
benefits from the Danger Sense Merit.
During the day, your character suffers a –2 to all actions.
If she does not sleep at least eight hours of the day, she suffers
the Lethargic Condition (see p. 150).
Dots gained by this Merit affect all derived traits, and can
increase Attributes beyond their normal maximums. You may
purchase this Merit multiple times, however, each additional
expenditure costs an additional dot. So the first purchase
costs two dots, the second costs three, the third costs four.
However, you may only take a single advantage one time;
additional purchases must be allocated to other advantages.
As well, the penalties for daylight activity do not stack; your
character only suffers –2 and a single instance of Lethargic.
Psychic Infection (•, Supernatural Merit)
Prerequisites: Psychic Vampirism
Effect: Your character spreads her vampirism to others.
After any scene where a human character without the Psychic
Vampirism Merit marks his last Health box because of your
character’s psychic vampirism, suffers a wound penalty from
it, or loses his last Willpower from it, roll your character’s
dots in Psychic Vampirism. Success means that character
gains the first dot of Psychic Vampirism and a single point of
Ephemera. If he loses that Ephemera and all his Willpower
from Ephemera Bleed before he feeds on Ephemera, the
Psychic Vampirism Merit fades. But if he chooses to feed
from Ephemera, the Merit becomes permanent.
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Psychic Vampires
 Psychic Seduction (•, Supernatural Merit)
Prerequisites: Psychic Vampirism
Effect: Your character’s psychic connection subtly but
intimately changes his victims. When successfully stealing
Ephemera from a victim, you may choose to change her Vice
(or equivalent trait). Unlike a normal Vice, this can be highly
specific (for example, “submit to me” would be a valid choice).
To shed this Vice, the victim must spend Willpower points
equal to the combined lethal damage and Willpower lost to
your character’s vampirism. These Willpower must be spent
for this purpose alone.
The victim may choose to adopt the new Vice perma-
nently and take a Beat. The Vice cannot be changed by any
means for at least one chapter.
Psychic Transference
(••, Supernatural Merit)
Prerequisites: Psychic Vampirism
Effect: Your psychic vampire may not only heal herself
with her abilities, but may transfer life energy from one
person to another. Any use of Psychic Transference costs
one Ephemera and one Willpower in addition to any other
costs; her soul acts as a conduit for vital essence. She must
be touching both the victim, and the person she wishes
to gift. When activating Psychic Vampirism with Psychic
Transference, she may offer Willpower and healing (through
spent Ephemera) to the subject, instead of taking them for
herself. She spends Ephemera, and the subject heals instead
of being drained.
Shapechanging
(•• or •••, Supernatural Merit)
Prerequisites: Psychic Vampirism
Effect: Your psychic vampire can spend Ephemera to
change into animal forms. Each purchase of Shapechanging
allows for a different animal form. Typically, these animals
are regionally or culturally appropriate to your character or
your character’s home: A teenager in Minnesota isn’t likely
to turn into a howler monkey. Also, while not exclusive, this
Merit favors predatory and nocturnal animals. Predatory or
nocturnal animal forms are •• Merits; other animals are
••• Merits.
Your character takes the shape of the animal, and all its
Physical Attributes. Other Attributes and Skills remain the
character’s own, while some may be effectively useless (a bat
can’t likely use Firearms, for example).
As a general guideline, animal attacks cause 0L damage, or
1L damage for large natural weapons (like bear bites). Some
especially massive natural weapons, like alligator bites, can
cause 2L. Work with your Storyteller to determine other basic
traits and advantages animal forms might have.
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Chapter three-The Other Side
Soul Eater (••, Supernatural Merit)
Prerequisites: Psychic Vampirism
Effect: Your psychic vampire’s abilities extend beyond
the physical, and the living. If she touches a ghost or spirit,
she can use her Psychic Vampirism abilities on the creature.
This requires the creature be Manifest, or the vampire to have
another awareness with which to find and touch the victim.
Unearthly Beauty
(• or ••, Supernatural Merit)
Prerequisites: Psychic Vampirism
Effect: Your psychic vampire can use her Ephemera to
assume an inhumanly beautiful appearance. By spending
one Ephemera, she may emulate the Striking Looks Merit
at two dots (see the Chronicles of Darkness Rulebook, p.
54). If she already has Striking Looks at one dot, she gains
a second dot, and applies the 9-again quality to all rolls on
which Striking Looks applies. If she has Striking Looks at
two dots, apply 8-again instead.
With the two-dot version of this Merit, the effect lasts for
the full lunar month with each activation, if your character
spends one additional Ephemera.
Vampiric Potency
(• to •••••, Supernatural Merit)
Prerequisites: Psychic Vampirism
Effect: Your psychic vampire can channel her Ephemera
into inborn ability. When taking this Merit, choose a single
Attribute. At any time, she can spend an Ephemera to
increase that Attribute by one dot for the scene, including
all derived traits. She can do this to a limit of her Vampiric
Potency Merit dots. This can take her above her normal dot
limit (usually 5) for Attributes.
Notes: You may take this Merit multiple times, each rep-
resenting a different Attribute. Using this Merit for Resolve
allows for a greater temporary amount of stored Ephemera.
LUCIA
MERCHANT-ESPOSITO
“You don’t know what I’ve lived. I advise you watch your tone.”
Background: Lucia was an orphan in Naples; she thinks
her family comes from Romania thanks to a pendant that was
with her. She has no strong memories of that time; the church
that raised her for the first few years sold her off quickly to a
farm, where she and many other children worked. Lucia was
always defiant, always trying to escape. So in her early teens,
she was sold off and smuggled away to New York to serve as a
maid, a nanny, or whatever else to a wealthy family. Desperate
at 16, she searched for a way out, and found it in Mr. Merchant,