Techno Sorcery

“Feed Vitae to an animal and you get a ghoul. Feed vitae to a plant and you get Mandragora.
Feed Vitae to the dead and you can animate them like proto-Kindred. But if you feed Vitae to an
object?”
When you feed Vitae to an object, it seems as if nothing happens. No amount of will can “ghoul”
your favorite vehicle, Animalism won’t allow it to be raised as a form of primitive “undead,” and it
doesn’t even seem to absorb it like the early stages of Mandragora manage. But something
does happen. Mostly, it changes what it touches. Like oxygen rusting iron, it alters the makeup
of it, allowing it to react to things a little differently than science would otherwise dictate. It allows
someone who knows of these complex arcanochemical properties to cause it to do strange
things using further Vitae or other aspects of technology, merging them, controlling them,
changing them, enhancing them, or even creating something new using it as a template of sorts.
In layman’s terms, it enables a new form of Sorcery.

Technomancy
This form of magic, Technomancy, relies less on typical arcane practices, and more on a “lost”
form of science that dictates how Vitae reacts with the physical, particularly inanimate objects
and substances. Every once in a while, though, someone rediscovers these subtle properties,
and Technomancy springs forth again.

The Discovery
It’s not as simple as just buying a dot of Sorcery and finding yourself able to animate and
manipulate technology. Technomancy is not taught by most Covenants (at least none of the
commonly known ones; if using them, however, you might allow the Holy Engineers to purchase
it without The Discovery, using Status as a requirement instead), so most Kindred need to make
a “breakthrough” of sorts to make use of the strange properties of Vitae that allows it to interact
with the inorganic.
This is done through one of two ways; a mentor or experimentation. With a mentor who’s
already capable of at least the second level of Technomancy rituals (or “routines”), a single
Intelligence + Science roll can be made, with no bonus or penalty, after about a chapter’s
tutelage, to see if the student grasps it. If successful, they do; if not, they can try again after
another chapter’s work.
Lacking a mentor, experimentation is the only option. It involves an in depth process wherein
the Technomancer-to-be uses the scientific process to discover certain subtle physical and
chemical properties unique to fresh Vitae. This involves an ​extended​ Intelligence + Science or
Crafts roll, requiring 15 total successes. What exactly spurs this can vary; sometimes, just
looking at Vitae under a microscope with Acute Senses will be the spark needed to get the
process going.
Unsurprisingly, while not commonly taught in the Ordo Dracul, Ordo members have been known
to be one of the more “common” Covenants out of the major five to discover Technomancy in a
given area.
Once The Discovery has been made, one way or another, Technomancy and its rituals may be
purchased by the Kindred. However, continued use of Technomancy relies on a Humanity equal
to the level of Sorcery being used, like with Theban Sorcery; the principles of science don’t
come easily to one too far lost to their Beast’s instincts.
The Sacrifice:​ 1 point of Vitae, which must always be physically spilled as part of the routine,
and materials appropriate to the ritual worth an Availability of the ritual level or higher. Usually,
these are lost in the casting or “dedicated” to the ritual, but if it can be used again, raise the
Availability needed by one.
The Request:​ Improvised and Mastered routines use Intelligence + (primary) Theme. Learned
routines use Intelligence + Crafts or Science + Technomancy (Choose a skill when you first
learn Technomancy). On a dramatic failure, they gain the Confused condition, in addition to the
usual effect.
Linked Themes:​ Guidance and Transmutation.
Limitations of Blood Sorcery:​ The Limitations of Blood Sorcery are fairly standard for
Technomancy, but it does allow for a “Loophole” or two; for instance, while Blood Sorcery
cannot permanently alter the living or undead, implanting the living or undead with cybernetic
blood-fueled equipment ​can b ​ e permanent, so long as the changes made to the actual body
itself are a part of the ritual’s casting, rather than an effect of the magic.
Motifs:​ Technomancy is a fairly direct, repeatable sort of sorcery. Its routines do what they’re
supposed to do the same way every time so long as they’re cast the same way every time, and
there’s little natural variation; where Cruac might involve the magic pulsing and corrupting itself,
twisting a creature or visible effect in strange ways, Technomancy produces exactly what the
ritualist had in mind, for better or worse. It’s not the sort of magic that works off intentions, it
works off specific details, and it gets them right every time, so long as the caster themself
doesn’t mess up.
The routines themselves lend, unsurprisingly, towards the physical. You rarely affect a living
creature directly so much as you create an object or piece of technology in another form that
can do what you want for you. This might be a computer program that performs the mental skills
you wanted enhanced, to a strange attachment that will knit the flesh of the undead back
together so long as it’s fueled with blood.
Its motifs are as follows:
Technomancy is ​unbiased ​- It doesn’t know “friend” from enemy, and even with Guidance, any
“Criteria” build into the ritual must work off scientific definitions or physical properties. “Anyone
carrying a modern firearm” might be a reasonable criteria for a ritual, but “Anyone who wants to
harm me” is less so. The magic cast cares little about the caster wielding it and will annihilate a
friend as easily as an enemy, and has no emotional weight attached as it does so.
● Routines that rely on aiming, physical properties, or that otherwise rely on a risk to the
caster or their allies inherently or that could benefit the undesired (perhaps working off of
Areas instead of Targets) might be easier to Learn, requiring lower levels of Themes.
Technomancy is ​physical​ - Much like Cruac being pagan, if expressed in a very different
manner, Technomancy relies on the empirical; it doesn’t provide you with invisible curses, but
might provide a dampening field with a solid device altering very specific, physically defined
actions.
● Routines are Learned more easily when they rely on a physical object or other
“targetable” crux for the routine. These rituals require lower level Themes, but they
immediately end if the device or other crux is damaged or removed.
Technomancy is ​deliberate​ - Much like Theban Sorcery, Technomancy involves specific effort;
where this means strange rituals to most sorceries, with Technomancy it means a procedure or
routine that must be done in a very specific way, perhaps even following a “blueprint” of sorts.
● Some Learned routines can have their Theme requirements lowered if they involve an
extended construction or planning period beforehand; this is typically a Wits + Crafts,
Computer, or Science action, but it can vary.
Some sample routines follow:

Analysis (Divination •)
Example Materials:​ An Oscilloscope worth Availability ••
The required Vitae is fed into a piece of equipment or technology that the character wishes to
study, and the results are measured with specialized tools that have been attuned to the odd
frequency that Technomancy relies on, studying the results. This effectively will provide the
following information about the equipment, one piece per Potency, in the order presented
(although one may start where they “left off” with subsequent castings): The technology’s age
(time since crafted into its current form), what it does (if unclear), who built it, who last used it,
what it was last used to do, who used it before them, what ​they​ used it to do (and so on with
further Potency). The information is fairly vague, as appropriate to the tools being used; it won’t
reveal a detailed scene, just a basic descriptor (“the gun was used to shoot someone”).
Risk +2:​ The details are revealed in whatever order the caster desires.

Upkeep (Guidance •)
Example Materials:​ Appropriate tools worth Availability ••
Generally, over time, equipment and technology tends to become fickle, malfunctioning or
freezing or otherwise doing its job less reliably the older it gets. This basic routine, which
involves “over fixing” the target equipment as part of the process (and feeding it Vitae in the
process), helps to prevent that from happening. For the duration of the ritual, any penalties (up
to the routine’s Potency) from the equipment being damaged or otherwise not in top condition
are ignored by its user.
Add Transmutation • or Protection •:​ The equipment will actually not physically degrade over
time due to age; this won’t stop direct damage or “purposely made” attempts to create
problems, but it will prevent the typical effects of technology degrading over time.
Venomous Cocktail (Destruction •)
Example Materials: ​A drop of a substance that’s toxicity 3+ to humans.
Vitae and the required materials are mixed into a small flask (or multiple, with higher Scale).
This creates a light red colored “explosive” with +0 damage, -2 Initiative, a blast area of 3, and a
force of 0. This causes damage only to someone directly hit, but anyone (including them) in the
blast area takes the Poisoned Tilt (moderate at Potency 5 or less, grave at 6+). The substance
lasts until either used or the routine’s duration ends.
Motif (Unbiased):​ The weapon is particularly dangerous and volatile; ​any​ failure using it will
involve an ally being hit (if possible) and subsequently poisoned. However, this version of the
ritual, when Learned, can apply a Toxicity equal to Potency if utilized outside of combat, even
without a higher level of Destruction.