| Knowledge of this Spell is only found in The Codex of Lies''
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One of the foremost responsibilities of the Guardians of the Veil is to take on the burden of sin so that others need not. But, when Guardians fail to execute this heavy burden, others must sometimes sully their own hands with ugly necessities. Accepting the price of his failure, however, a Guardian can assimilate the wickedness of others and purify it in the crucible of his ongoing sacrifice, redeeming the virtuous and embracing his own damnation thereby. This spell enables the Guardian to do just that, drawing out the sins of others and taking their weight upon his own soul, so sparing them the pain of wickedness and nudging them back toward virtue.
Upon successfully casting this spell, the Guardian takes on the spiritual burden of the most recent sin against Wisdom for which another mage suffered degeneration.Use the Duration factors for prolonged spell[1] to determine how far back the caster can reach in his attempt to consume the subject’s sin. There exist certain interesting complications to this process, however.
- First, the subject must be willing and desirous of sincere repentance. Of course, part and parcel with a failed degeneration check is a feeling of vindication in one’s improper actions, so this true longing for redemption is often easier said than done, and usually works better with either those who are, by nature, intensely virtuous or, conversely, those who have perceived an overarching pattern of wrongful behavior in themselves and wish to turn back from the path of hubris. Whatever the case, it is only a genuine commitment to self-betterment that empowers this spell’s soul-mending effects.
- Second, the spell isn’t a guarantee; merely a chance. The subject receives the opportunity to re-roll the degeneration check, automatically subject to a +1 die bonus for sincere remorse. If this check succeeds, though, the subject regains the lost Wisdom without cost and loses any derangement gained through that particular instance of degeneration. (derangements from other sources — including other instances of Wisdom degeneration — remain.)
- Third, the Guardian can cast this spell only once on a given subject between instances of degeneration. (In other words, no “going back” to the next instance of degeneration and trying to undo that one as well, thus enabling another willworker to potentially skyrocket in Wisdom.)
- Fourth, the Guardian must pay the piper, as it were, by accepting the burden of sin upon his own soul (and regardless of whether or not the subject actually succeeds in his “second chance” to feel regret for his prior actions). In the case of any act at least 2 dots above the Guardian’s present Wisdom score on the hierarchy of sins[2], this entails no degeneration check: his soul is simply too scarred already to suffer appreciably on account of this new burden. In the case of sins within one step of the Guardian’s present Wisdom score, in either direction, this involves a degeneration check for the Guardian, as normal, subject to all the customary consequences for either success or failure. In the event of a sin at least 2 dots below the Guardian’s present Wisdom score, this entails an automatic loss of Wisdom and the customary subsequent check to resist gaining a derangement.
Guardians of the Veil Rote: Devil's Feast
- Dice Pool: Manipulate + Empathy + Mind
By consuming the iniquity of others, a Guardian of the Veil demonstrates the courage of her conviction, accepting the burden of not only her own sins, but also the sins of those around her.
