By Keith S Kaczmarek (pheonix@cats.ucsc.edu)
In every man there is a darkness. Some seek to purge it. Others deny it. Some surrender to it. Few know it well enough to use it's power. In the lands beyond death, it is called the Shadow. This is the World of Darkness, baby, and your evil has a name.
This is the story of the Blackened. They are the few strange souls that, through chance or design, have unleashed the bane of every living, dead and undead soul -- the Shadow -- and survived to tell the tale. The darkness within most men is a burning ember that briefly flares when exposed to the breath of their lives. To the Blackened, it is a conflagration that burns but never consumes, hungry but never satisfied, destroying but never warming. It is a will tempered by evil; an inner strength honed by darkness. They are sociopaths with empathy, maniacs with focus, psychopaths with restraint. They ride with evil incarnate, for they knew the path to redemption and turned their faces away. Each Blackened is unique, but all evoke a power born from madness, forged in the fires of chained passions, and cooled in the blood of their very souls.
Stories have filtered through our world as long as remembered history of men and women who have courted their inner darkness and learned the dark secrets hidden within, and not all were admired as heroes. Today these anti-heroes remain with us in other incarnations: The Crow, Batman: The Dark Knight, Wolverine of the X-Men, Darth Vader, Raistlin of the Black Robes, The Princess Bride's Wesley, Xena: Warrior Princess, and many others. Each has a nearly unlimited capacity for evil, and an equally powerful capacity to harness that evil. When the need arose, and they were forced to make a choice between their desire and their depravity, they looked within and forced themselves to become one with the darkness, to own it, to make it a part of them, and to love it. They did not reject it, hide it, or try to deny it. They became the darkness, rather than falling to its hunger.
To turn from darkness takes strength. To accept it without becoming corrupted is infinitely more difficult. That is the path of the Blackened. They rode the razor edge of the soul between madness and death by devouring black sin until it was refined into the ultimate epiphany. That is the Darkening of the Soul, the last dance with your demons that either brings a true death of the soul or a resolution of the fission between Psyche and Shadow. Fission is a source of great power, but fusion is far more powerful. That is what it is to be Blackened.
Ashe: Pain . . . is . . . my . . . power."
Mastery of the inner demons grants terrible powers. The furnace of evil within the Blackened's soul allows them to accomplish deeds only the mad dare, as well as being able to survive the price of such power. The Darkening of the Soul unleashes parts of the Blackened's unconscious mind that he may not have realized even existed, and so it only unlocks dormant potential rather than granting new powers. The Dark Furnace is the name for the eternal well of power within the Blackened, and the source of their unique talents. The Dark is the stuff of the Furnace, and the power to fuel the Blackened's unique talents. These talents of the Blackened are described as such:
The Dark Furnace: This is the core of the Blackened's soul and personality, and the source of the Dark. The Furnace begins with a rating of one, and rises to a maximum of ten. Every point of Furnace grants one point of Dark to use each turn. This well of power is endless, and never needs replenishing. Dark can be used as a substitute for Willpower, and even used for added successes in dice rolls like Willpower, but the Dark allows multiple points to be spent in the same effect, allowing for Herculean feats of skill. Dark can also be used to fuel supernatural powers and effects in the same fashion that vampiric Disciplines are fueled with Willpower when used by former vampires. Raising the Furnace rating with Experience should cost ten times the current. The Blackened will always have at least one point of Furnace.
For each point of Furnace, a permanent Derangement must be taken that cannot be eliminated, but can be temporarily mitigated with Willpower (not Dark). Dark and other Blackened powers may only be used when directly in the the pursuit of one of these Derangements (Batman is only cool when pursuing Vengeance(criminals), Obsession (grief), and Perfection (learning)). Only the powers of the Black Librarian, Predator's Gift and Race of One may be used at any time.
The Burning Soul: The mind and soul of the Blackened is a turbulent storm of madness and violent energy. The Blackened will automatically succeed in any Willpower, Courage or Self Control roll, even if it is contested, as long as it is involved in the pursuit of a derangement. Also, any telepath attempting to read the mind or aura of a Blackened needs three successes on a Difficulty of 10 to decipher any coherent thoughts or emotions. As an added danger, the Blackened has a choice of channeling a point of Dark to cause his thoughts to flare and boil, sending a wave of madness and evil along the telepathic connection. The telepath must make a Willpower roll against a Difficulty of 8 or suffer a Derangement.
The Primal Rage: The Dark, as the essence of madness, grants the Blackened the frantic energy of a maniac, yet harnessed to the Blackened's will. For every point of Furnace, limited by the Blackened's Stamina rating, the Blackened may channel per turn enough Dark to gain one of the following in any combination for every point of Dark channeled: one extra action, three extra initiative dice, one automatic success on a Strength roll, or one extra success on Brawl or Melee damage rolls.
The Mad Savant: The fearlessness and focus of the Blackened is represented in everything he does. He never hesitates or doubts his ability, and so he applies himself to all of his actions with preternatural devotion. All rolls for any action is at a -2 Difficulty, in the same fashion as an Aptitude Merit. Furnace is also a measure of a kind of dark enlightenment, and so every two points in Furnace allows the Blackened to raise Traits a point above 5.
Race of One: The Blackened is a man without a country, a lone mad wanderer that cannot follow any rule but that of his Passion. The Furnace rating equates to Humanity or Path rating. The Blackened has no real morality as such, and the Furnace is the substitute for all intents and purposes. Humanity rules are ignored.
Ride the Demon: The Blackened is in a continual state of controlled Frenzy, and so he never checks to fall into Frenzy. He also can ignore all wound penalties. Should he be damaged to negative Health levels, he can stay alive in a near-death comatose state for a number of days equal to his Furnace rating. Only supernatural healing can revive him from this state.
Predator's Gift: The Blackened has Heightened Senses on par with a Wraith.
The Black Librarian: Due to the trials of the Darkening of the Soul, the Blackened will be able to learn and use powers that normally would risk the corruption of the soul, such as Dark Sorcery. Experience is all that is needed to purchase these kinds of powers.
This is the system for the Darkening of the Soul if it should it ever be played out. Only Mortals may become Blackened. To initiate the Darkening of the Soul, the character must have a Willpower of 10, as well as Self-Control and Courage ratings of 5, and the Berserker Merit. Even with all of this, the path is treacherous. The Blackened-to-be must let his Humanity drain away until it is reduced to a rating of one. Then, every time the his Humanity rating drops below 1, he gains a Derangement. He also gain a point of Permanent Angst. This Derangement must be overcome with Willpower. When he has a permanent Angst of rating 10, and no Derangements, he may initiate the Darkening of the Soul. He must be able to spend Willpower as a Supernatural, and so a temporary catalyst may be necessary (Vitae, Hedge Magic, Glamour, etc.). Then, he must touch the Astral Plane of Dreams. The methods matters not. Supernatural spells, Psychics, etc. all work as well. Exceptional mortals (those able to spend Willpower as a Supernatural) may enter the Astral Dreamplane in their dreams with an Intelligence + Meditation roll at Difficulty 10 with three successes. Once in the Astral Dreamplane, the mortal must work to summon his dark side to the surface and confront it, intent on assimilating it into his personality like a Derangement. The Shadow and the Psyche will be inside a Dreamworld in a reality created by the Psyche that resembles the real world in many ways. Both will exist in this world as two separate entities of the same Traits, but the Shadow will use Angst as the Psyche uses Willpower. Damage to the Astral forms of either will deplete temporary Angst and Willpower respectively. The Psyche must drop the Shadow's temporary Angst to a rating of 0 to defeat the Shadow. Every time the Shadow botches a roll, it will lose a temporary Angst as well. The Shadow must also check for falling in a Frenzy as a vampire, which may give the Psyche an edge in the battle. The inner battle takes only a moment in real time, but lasts for an eternity in the mind of the mortal. The Psyche may spend Willpower to directly reduce the Shadow's temporary Angst. Verbal castigation is often an effective method of reducing an opponent's energy reserves. After the Shadow is reduced to zero temporary Angst, the Psyche must spend a total of 15 Willpower points to complete the Darkening of the Soul. Willpower points above those of the temporary Willpower pool must come from acting out the mortal's Nature. This is the final battle between the Shadow and the Psyche, and should he fail in sufficiently acting out his Nature to gain the necessary Willpower, or he should lose the battle by losing all of his temporary Willpower, he will fall to the Shadow forever. Should he succeed, he is Blackened.
Vampires: Should a Blackened be Embraced, his body will heal from the brink of death due to the potent Vitae. At that point, he has an option of either keeping his humanity, or becoming a vampire. Once he makes a choice, there is no going back. Dark can be substituted for Vitae in effects that require it, such as healing, Attribute boosting, Disciplines, etc., but it will not Feed the Hunger. As Blackened are already in a state of permanent Frenzy, there is no point in having a Humanity Trait. Should the Blackened be Diablerized, he will be reborn in the Diablist's body, as his Burning Soul destroys the soul of the original.
Wraiths: Should a Blackened die, he has the option of becoming a wraith. Once he makes a choice, there is no going back. He will not have a Shadow, and so will not be Harrowed. Blackened wraiths cannot reach Oblivion unless they can be separated from the power of the Dark Furnace, for as soon as they are discorporated they immediately begin channeling Dark toward healing. Even losing all Passions will not let the Blackened reach Oblivion, but all of his Dark will be channeled to keeping him in existence, and so he cannot use Dark and will have a maximum Corpus equal to his Furnace rating until he regains Passion. Spectre powers that target Passions will not have an effect on the Blackened. Should the Blackened choose to return to the Skinlands in the form of a Risen, he must use a Conduit to hold his Dark Furnace and act as a connection to the Shadowlands. If the Conduit is damaged, all Dark will be channeled toward healing the Conduit. Pathos may be used as Dark. Blackened may also learn Dark Arcanos and Shadow Thorns. Any Thorn that allows the Shadow to gain Angst in exchange for power will instead cost Dark or Furnace. Furnace is the Trait that replaces permanent Angst.
Garou: Should a Blackened become a werewolf due to some odd twist of fate, then he will not check for Frenzy. Dark may be used as Gnosis or Rage, and Furnace can replace both ratings. The Corruption Trait cannot be gained, even if the Blackened should learn or use Wyrm gifts or fetishes.
Sorcerers: Blackened may use Dark to power Hedge Magic Paths, and should the Blackened wish, each point of Dark channeled toward the effect will add a success to the effect.
Mages: Blackened are Awakened in regard to Paradox. Should a Blackened Awaken to True Magick, he may use Dark as Quintessence, and every point of Furnace may also be used instead of Arete. Dark will automatically counter Paradox like a Node, and so the Blackened mage is immune to the Furnace rating in Paradox. They will not fall to Quiet. Mages attempting to use Spirit or Mind magick on a Blackened will not only fail, but will risk gaining a Derangement due to the Burning Soul.
The East: The Blackened Traits have their equals in the middle Kingdom. the Pre-Blackened traits of Permanent Angst is equal to a rating in permanent P'o, and Temporary Angst is Demon Chi. Dark is equivalent to Demon chi, and so any Kuei-jin who Feeds from a Blackened gains Demon Chi and risks a Derangement.
If a player wants to play a Blackened, I would advise against it. Turning the Blackened's powers and abilities into known facts and numbers takes away the mystery and mystique they possess. If a player is willing to preserve these elements, and is willing to play a mortal among supernaturals, then I see no real problem with playing a Blackened If a player is allowed to have Mortal as Blackened, then it should cost 15 Freebie points, and the character should have a Willpower rating of 10 and a Self Control and Courage rating of 5.