Sharde

By Jay Knioum (madafro@trip.net) for the Codex of Whispers

Description

This strange Discipline endows the Cainite with various powers to enchant mirrors and reflective surfaces. At higher levels, the vampire may actually enter a bizarre Umbral realm beyond the mirror's surface, into which all Mirrors in the world peer.

The Codex of Whispers does not provide much information about the vampires who created this Discipline. They were called the Fetch, and apparently stemmed from a bizarre ritual involving a Toreador Autarkis and several Unseelie Changelings, one of whom was Embraced.

The Codex also tells of the Bloodline's destruction at the hands of the Lasombra, who were all but immune to this Discipline. However, it does hint that some few Fetch may still exist, trapped within the shards of shattered mirrors throughout the world.

* Mirror's Stage

This power enables a vampire to "play back" all images that a mirror or similar surface have reflected in a certain period of time. The images replace the Cainites' own reflection, and the vampire instead sees the reflection the mirror held at the time in question. The reflections play out as they did in life, but without any sound. This power has ample uses when applied to large mirrors in strategic locations (such as meeting chambers, nightclubs, or bedrooms) or other well-placed reflective surfaces (wine glasses or silverware, puddles of water, even the paint on a new car). Moreover, the Cainite may allow others to see the visions by merely touching them.

System: The Cainite spends a Blood Point and touches the mirror or reflective surface. Then, she must roll Perception + Occult, difficulty 6. Each success counts toward the amount of time that can be viewed, and how far back in time the Cainite may watch:

Successes	Reach
One	Only up to five minutes within the last hour may be viewed.
Two	Up to ten minutes within the past day can be watched.
Three	Up to one hour within the last week.
Four	Up to four hours within the past month.
Five	An entire day or night (or 12-hour period) within the past year.

The vampire may only watch a single "shard" of time with each use of this power, she may not jump from time to time, except by subsequent uses (with dice rolls and Blood expenditure).

** Stealing the Image

This power allows the vampire to "erase" an image from a reflection, or even change the reflection entirely. More impressively, the change can effect an illusory change in the area reflected by the mirror, to match the new reflection.

For example, a vampire may choose to remove the image of himself in the mirror. So doing, the vampire himself disappears from sight as long as he remains within the area reflected by that mirror.

There is only one catch: To be fooled by the illusion, viewers must see the altered image in the mirror first. Afterward, they will see the illusion in the real world.

Again, an example. Say a vampire causes an image of the Mona Lisa to appear on the wall of the room reflected in the mirror. Then, someone enters the room without looking at the mirror. They will not see the illusory painting. However, if they turn to the mirror, they will see the painting reflected there. Surprised, they turn around to see that, indeed, the Mona Lisa is hanging right there on the wall, as reflected in the mirror.

System: The vampire spends a Blood Point and rolls Manipulation + Subterfuge. Otherwise, the illusion functions as Level Four Chimerstry (it is real for all practical purposes, barring physics, and will continue in the vampire's absence). However, the illusion will fade if it moves beyond the area reflected by the mirror.

*** Mirrors Never Lie

This ability is very similar to Level Two Auspex (Aura Sight) in that the vampire may observe the Aura of any person whose reflection she can see in a reflective surface. This power has more extensive uses than Aura Sight, but is more limited in that it may only be used on a reflection. Again, by touching another individual, they may also see the secrets revealed by this power.

System: The vampire spends a Blood Point and rolls Perception + Empathy, difficulty 7. The number of successes indicate how much information is revealed, as with Aura Sight (q.v.) However, the results per successes are shifted one level downward, so that only one success is required to distinguish colors (as opposed to Aura Sight, for which one success reveals only shade).

Five successes, then, reveal information that Aura Sight cannot. The power reveals a single fact or detail about the reflected subject, which is up to the Storyteller. Such information may reveal supernatural origin and the nature thereof (revealing that the subject is, in fact a Werewolf, a Mummy, etc.), the subject's Nature, a certain Mental or Supernatural Flaw they may possesses, a Derangement, or any other single but integral detail.

The vampire may touch another individual so as to let her see the auras, as well. However, this is not guaranteed, and the individual must make the same Perception + Empathy roll, with the same effects. It is possible for the person so endowed to see more in the image (gain more successes) than the vampire who used the power in the first place.

**** Truth in the Glass

With this power, a mirror shows its reflected area exactly as it really is, but only reveals hidden truths according to the viewer's wishes. For example, the Cainite could use this power to look for Obfuscated vampires in the room, or the presence of Wraiths. However, a search for one thing will not reveal the other.

System: The vampire spends a Blood Point and rolls Perception + Occult, difficulty 7. Each success allows the vampire to search for one thing. Examples include usage of Obfuscate, Chimerstry, Obtenebration, the presence of Wraiths, Umbral-travelers, or those travelling Astrally by means of Auspex. As with Mirrors Never Lie, another individual may be touched and rendered able to use this power as well. However, the requires expenditure of another Blood Point by the initiating vampire. The recipient may perform her own searches and must make her own rolls.

***** Land Beyond the Looking Glass

This powerful ability allows the vampire to step into the world behind the mirror. In effect, to those looking at the mirror, the vampire is in the reflection, but not in the real world. At this time, no one in the real world may affect the vampire. The vampire, however, may affect them by acting upon their reflection.

In short, whatever the vampire inside the mirror does to the reflection, happens to those objects thus reflected. If the vampire picks up an object in the reflection, that object in the real world will float around as if someone were carrying it. If the vampire damages something (or someone) in the reflection that same damage is inflicted in the real world. However, this power has great risks. If the reflection is somehow prevented (i.e., darkness falls, or the mirror is shattered, then the vampire may come to great harm.

System: The vampire spends one Willpower Point and enters the mirror or reflective surface. Any damage inflicted on items or persons in the reflection is matched in the real world. If the vampire douses someone's reflection with gasoline and lights him up, then the poor fool in the real world will burst into flames.

However, if the mirror is broken, or otherwise rendered unable to reflect anything (obvious reasons being sudden and total darkness, or a bucket of paint being splashed over the mirror), the vampire must spend another Willpower point immediately or be trapped within the mirror effectively in torpor. If the mirror is somehow rendered able to reflect again (reassembly, light turned on, paint is chipped off), the vampire is unceremoniously ejected from it, and awakened.

Finally, if the mirror is caused to reflect sunlight, the vampire inside the mirror will be affected by it normally.

****** Shard Realm

One step above the level 5 power, Shard Realm actually has the vampire entering a bizarre dimension containing only a mist-shrouded landscape, barren except for hundreds of mirrors of all sizes and shapes which hover in the air above the ground. In this bizarre not-world, the vampire may look through any of the mirrors to see the real world that the mirror reflects. All mirrors in the world may be located in this Realm but only the most perceptive can pick out a specific one.

Once the vampire finds the right mirror, she may make use of Land Beyond the Looking Glass, thereby forming a reflected replica of the mirror's view around her, and Looking Glass may be used as normal, with the added benefit that she cannot be trapped here. She may exit the Realm through any mirror she desires, stepping from the glass to the area the mirror reflects.

Obviously, this power has hundreds of uses. The vampire may even bring others with her, at a great cost.

System: The vampire spends one Willpower point to take herself into the Shard Realm, and another Willpower for each extra person she takes with her (anything the vampire may easily carry requires no further expenditure). Thereafter, she may gaze out from any of the mirrors in the area, even using other powers from this Discipline through them if she wishes. However, the most important thing to remember about the Shard Realm is that it isn't real. Any blood the vampire consumes in this Realm will not nourish her, nor can it be spent as Blood Points.