Nefarium

“Be afraid of your own demons if you choose, but know that in doing so, you give them the power. I choose to embrace my demons. They give me power, not the other way around.”

Nefarium is an Arcanos that surfaced in the dark ages, prior to the Dictum Mortuum. With no rules to govern wraithly conduct in the Skinlands, it was common practice for many wraiths to torment the faithful and superstitious, projecting themselves as either an evil, unknowable presence, or as agents of Hell. Using this power allowed them to gain Skinlands territory (which, under the feudal system could mean a great deal, when one considers that haunting one individual put his entire barony or fifedom up for grabs), and dramatically increased the flow of Pathos in those areas that were wraith-controlled.

Additionally, the Arcanos of Nefarium made it possible for wraiths to keep a tighter grip on their fetters and legacies, because they could amass cults on both sides of the Shroud.

Note that Nefarium is specifically a Dark Ages Arcanos. It (and all written documentation of it) was destroyed and banned during the breaking of the guilds, mostly by the Pardoners. They claim responsibility for the Arcanos’ existence, believing it to have been created by ancient priests and shamans as a means of embracing one’s Shadow, and using its power. Indeed, the Renegade Path of Castigate is very similar to Nefarium in most respects, although it is far tamer. There is no recorded sighting of Nefarium’s use after the Breaking, although it may still be in existence; anyone who is in possession of such knowledge would have to be extremely old, because there is no source of knowledge on the Arcanos itself, and even the mention of its name can have a wraith in Thrall Chains before he utters another word. Among any other prerequisites that the Storyteller imposes, a wraith who wishes to take Nefarium must be at least 750 years old.

Nefarium is an Arcanos which allows a user to tap into the deepest and darkest parts of himself, and alow his evil potential to manifest. Largely used by heretics, the arts of Nefarium are designed to embrace the Shadow’s power and use it as an advantage, rather than surrendering to it. Unlike Maleficence, it only applies to the user’s Shadow, rather than anyone else’s...although if the wraith’s Shadow has any levels of Hive-Mind, they can be of use to the wraith as well.

The markings of Nefarium vary, depending on the user. When Nefarium is activated, all of the Thorns a wraith may possess will turn themselves on (if any have a visible effect), but in all cases, when a wraith reaches the third level, his eyes will turn a deep, glowing red.

Shadow Tuning: All users of Nefarium cultivate a very strong bond with their Shadows, and are normally on good terms with them. As soon as the wraith loses a Catharsis challenge, he may perform an additional Simple test. If he wins, he remains “awake” while the Shadow is in control, and while he may not initiate any actions during this time, he will remember everything that happened.

Level One: Dark Infusion
With this art, a wraith may boost his attributes and potential lethality by harnessing the Shadow’s traits. With an extended Attribute challenge, the wraith may harness one Shadow trait in that Attribute per success, and add it to his own. This may exceed the wraith’s trait maximum, but only lasts for as many actions as the Pathos invested in the art. A separate challenge is required for each attribute affected.

Level Two: Miasm
This art is mostly used to affect the Skinlands, but has some Underworld uses as well. By engaging in an extended Physical test, a wraith may cause his Corpus to become toxic, poisoning everything in the immediate area. Everything that is alive within as many steps of the wraith as the Pathos invested takes one damage per turn, for as many turns as successes. If used in the Underworld, it acts as a contagious disease, affecting Corpus instead of living tissue.

Level Three: Dark Command
This art is a distilled version of the vampiric Discipline of Dominate, and can be used one of two ways, both of which require an extended Social test. Each success can be used to either A) summon one Shade from the Tempest, who will manifest as a mindless servant, carrying out any commands it is given for the remainder of the scene, or B) add 1 to the number of Willpower a mortal must spend in order to resist obeying your command. The mortal will not put himself in direct lethal danger, but will do most anything else. The number of Pathos invested in the art determines the number of separate commands that the user may give, or the number of scenes (or intervals of 10 minutes) that the Shades will remain in the area.

Level Four: Forbidden Paths
A wraith with this art may mask his true nature, by “wearing” the Shadow’s Angst as a mask. This allows him to maintain control of the Corpus, but have access to all of the Shadow’s Dark Arcanoi (though he gains an Angst for using them instead of spending it to activate the arts). While this may serve little purpose in a room full of wraiths, it allows the wraith to masquerade as a Spectre, and tap into the Hive-Mind (if the Shadow has any levels of it). The wraith may also use any Thorns the Shadow has, but cannot spend Angst, regain Pathos, or have access to any of the Shadow’s traits while in this state. This costs 1 Pathos for each hour the mask is worn, and each success on an extended Mental challenge determines how many Dark Arcanos uses the wraith may take advantage of.

Level Five: Beacon
This is the most dangerous power that a wraith with Nefarious can wield. It allows the user to plunge a target into Catharsis, even if their Willpower is higher than their Angst. Doing this involves an extended Social challenge (after 10 minutes of conversation); each success is one Willpower that is considered “frozen”. The user doesn’t need to know how many Angst or Willpower the target has; the target declares when the Catharsis goes into effect, at which point the user stops testing. Each time the wraith successfully causes a target’s Shadow to gain control, he gains 2 Angst; one for trying to do it, and one for succeeding. If the test is an utter failure, he only gains 1.