TEMPORIS

The True Brujah bloodline claims a peculiar Discipline
that allows them some control over the flow of
time. Masters of Temporis often grow ever more detached
from the passage of ages. This, combined with
the natural tendency for Sages to grow emotionally
and spiritually distant, makes True Brujah elders exceptionally
dangerous. They know that all life is finite,
and so they feel no compunction about ending it.

• Hourglass of the Mind
Masters of Temporis value patience and clarity. Time
is too complex and dangerous to manipulate incautiously
or on a whim. Thus, the first power of Temporis
focuses entirely on perception and serves as a permanent
alteration of a vampire’s senses.
System: Once purchased, this Discipline gives a
vampire a perfect sense of time. The vampire knows
events to the nearest second or better. Moreover, the
Cainite knows whenever the flow of time is mystically
disturbed by use of Celerity, greater levels of Temporis,
mortal wizardry, or stranger things. Sensing disturbances
is instinctive and reflexive, though it requires
a successful Perception + Awareness roll (difficulty 6
for most phenomena, as modified by the Storyteller for
distance and intensity).

•• Recurring Contemplation
A vampire with this power may trap a target’s mind
into reviewing a set of events over and over until interrupted.
This power is extremely subtle and ill-suited
to combat or other situations rich in sensory stimuli.
However, a cunning vampire can trick a sentry into
reliving the tedium of his uneventful watch even as
the Cainite draws close enough to strike or slip past.
Other uses include the maddening infliction of déjà
vu to induce paranoia or make a victim question her
senses and her sanity.
System: The vampire concentrates on a single victim
in his line of sight. The player rolls Manipulation
+ Occult (difficulty equal to the victim’s current
Willpower). With any successes, the victim falls into
a light trance and relives the most recent experiences
that preceded her fugue. Alternately, the vampire may
evoke another set of specific memories and circumstances
from the victim’s past, provided that he has
some means of telepathically drawing them forth. The
recurring events must be relatively benign, insofar as
nothing noteworthy happens or nothing happens that
would demand the victim’s immediate action. Thus, in
the example of the sentry, the vampire could entrance
him and walk past unobserved, but not if the sentry
spotted him before invoking the power. Ordinarily,
the fugue lasts one minute per success. If the vampire’s
player spends a blood point to fuel this power, determine
the trance’s duration according to the following
chart:
Successes - Duration
1 success - one minute
2 successes - 10 minutes
3 successes - one hour
4 successes - six hours
5+ successes - one day
Entranced victims are oblivious to their surroundings
and the actual flow of time around them. However, the
fugue ends immediately if the victim suffers any damage
or experiences a sudden jolt to her senses, such as a
thunderclap or even a gentle nudge. Normal conversation
does not break the trance, although shouting does.

••• Leaden Moment
With this power, a vampire may begin to alter the flow
of time itself rather than mere perception of events. The
vampire gestures and slows the desired object almost to
a dead stop. This power can slow incoming bullets to
the pace of drifting clouds, or cause an enemy warrior to
see the battlefield quicken to a blur of dizzying carnage
even as his every motion slows to a crawl.
System: The player spends one blood point and rolls
Intelligence + Occult. The difficulty depends on the
size and nature of the target: a single thrown brick is
only difficulty 4, while a crazed ghoul has a difficulty
of 9. Targets larger than an adult human cannot be
affected with Leaden Moment. It is possible to affect
small, closely grouped inanimate objects of the same
nature as a single object, though this increases the difficulty
by two or more at the Storyteller’s discretion (a
hail of bullets might be difficulty 9). This power may
be activated reflexively as a defensive action against
projectiles, but otherwise requires a full action on the
vampire’s initiative. Though failure carries no special
penalty apart from wasting blood, a botch means the
vampire mistakenly slows himself rather than the target,
counting every 1 as a success for that purpose.
If the vampire succeeds, the object slows to one-half its
true speed. Every two successes beyond the first reduce
this speed by one additional factor, so three successes
slows the target to one third its speed, five successes
yields quarter speed, etc. The actual mechanics of such
slowing depend on the situation. For projectiles, multiply
any successes to hit and final damage by the speed
factor, rounded down. Similarly apply the speed modifier
to the successes of other actions involving Dexterity,
Wits, or Strength for slowed characters. Characters
with Celerity may spend one blood point to negate one
factor of speed reduction at the expense of the usual
extra action provided – for example, one blood point
cancels a reduction to one half speed, two blood points
cancel one third, etc. Leaden Moment lasts one turn for
every two successes rolled, rounded up.

•••• Patience of the Norns
The vampire can now suspend an inanimate object in
time, keeping it frozen in perfect stasis as time passes at
normal speed around it. As with lesser Temporis powers,
this stasis has both combat and non-combat applications.
True Brujah warriors may halt bullets outright
rather than merely slowing their approach or casually
sidestep a collapsing building. Higher-level variations
on this power preserve precious scrolls and artifacts
without risk of mold or decay. If any solid object or
nontrivial volume of liquid touches a frozen object that
did not touch it at the moment of suspension, the item
re-enters time with the same properties and velocity
as when it stopped. Thus, touching a suspended object
with anything more substantial than a raindrop releases
it exactly as it was before it stopped.
System: The player spends two blood points and rolls
Intelligence + Occult (difficulty 6). The vampire must
be able to perceive the object that he’s suspending, so
the player may need to make a Perception + Alertness
roll at a difficulty determined by the Storyteller in order
to freeze fast-moving objects. If an object exceeds
the speed of mortal perception, superhuman perception
such as Auspex is required in order to see and stop
it (as such, bullets can be stopped with this power, but
only if the vampire has at least a dot of Auspex). Objects
frozen by this power remain halted according to
the number of successes rolled:
Successes - Duration
1 success - one turn
2 successes - one minute
3 successes - 10 minutes
4 successes - one hour
5 successes - one day
6+ successes - one week per success over 5
Suspended objects retain all energy in their suspension,
releasing none to the outside universe. A suspended
knife has no kinetic energy as far as the rest of
the world is concerned and hangs suspended in mid-air
until the power is interrupted or the duration expires.
Suspended alchemical or chemical processes also halt,
including fire. However, any physical contact more substantial
than a falling raindrop breaks the suspension.

••••• Clotho’s Gift
With this power, a vampire momentarily accelerates
time through himself. In this brief instant, he moves
with the preternatural speed of Celerity. Unlike that
Discipline, however, the time dilation of Clotho’s Gift
permits any type of action. A vampire may still move
or strike faster than the eye can see, but also think,
plan, and even invoke other Disciplines that require
full concentration. Only the last presents a danger, as
it overtaxes the vampire’s unliving stasis.
System: The player spends three blood points and
rolls Intelligence + Occult (difficulty 7). For a number
of turns equal to half the vampire’s Temporis rating,
rounded up, the character may take a number of extra
actions at her full dice pool equal to the number
of successes rolled. These actions follow the timing
rules associated with Celerity, but may be used to take
any action. A vampire may use the actions granted by
Clotho’s Gift to activate Disciplines multiple times,
even Disciplines that cannot be used more than once
in a turn (such as Dominate or Thaumaturgy). However,
for every action spent activating a Discipline, the
vampire suffers one level of unsoakable lethal damage.
Only one important exception exists: Any attempt to
stack extra actions through Celerity, subsequent applications
of Clotho’s Gift or other powers results in immediate
Final Death, as the vampire collapses into ash
as though burned by the sun.

••••• • Kiss of Lachesis
True Brujah with this power gain limited mastery
over the physical age of objects and individuals. It
is a trivial matter to accelerate time in a compressed
rush, aging a target decades or even centuries in the
blink of an eye. It is far more difficult to absorb and
unweave entropy, lessening time’s hold. This power
does not reverse history in any way; it merely reverses
or accelerates the effects of time in terms of wear and
tear. Moreover, a target cannot regress to an earlier or
incomplete state of being. For inanimate objects, this
is the point at which they were assembled. For living
beings, it is either adult maturity or the time of birth
(or its equivalent). For the undead and other corpses,
it is the moment of death.
System: In order for the vampire to age a target, the
player spends two blood points and rolls Manipulation
+ Occult. The difficulty equals the target’s true physical
age in decades or effective physical age in the case
of target’s that have aged unnaturally, such as by means
of this power. This difficulty cannot rise higher than 10
or drop below 4. The vampire touches the target and
concentrates for a turn. The Cainite may age the target
a maximum number of years as determined by the following
table, although his player may choose to apply
a lesser effect. The Storyteller remains the final arbiter
of time’s effect on an object, but living beings aged past
their natural lifespan quickly perish.
Successes - Elapsed Time
1 success - up to one year
2 successes - up to five years
3 successes - up to 10 years
4 successes - up to 50 years
5 successes - up to 100 years
6+ successes - up to one century per success over 5
Removing the effects of time requires greater effort,
increasing the difficulty of the activation roll by one.
In addition, the vampire suffers one level of unsoakable
lethal damage for every success her player chooses
to apply. As noted, objects cannot return to an earlier
or incomplete state. A silver coin may lose its tarnish
and seem newly minted, but it will not revert to an
unformed block of metal. Likewise, while an adult may
revert to the cusp of his adulthood or a child to a newborn,
neither could regress to a prenatal state. Also,
this power only accounts for damage and wear due to
time. A child amputee reverted to a baby will not regenerate
her missing arm, nor will a broken sword become
anything but finely crafted shards.
In either application, this power does not change a
subject’s mental or mystical properties. Sentient beings
retain all memories and any derangements. A vampire
regressed to the point of death remains a vampire, not
an inanimate corpse — and the regressed Cainite still
remembers all Disciplines and keeps any changes in
Generation due to diablerie. However, a vampire aged
far enough pales considerably or loses any signs of diablerie
from his aura.

••••• •• Cheat the Fates
Where a vampire with Clotho’s Gift may accelerate
with respect to the world, a vampire with this power
may step outside of time entirely. During this brief sojourn,
the Cainite perceives the world frozen at a standstill.
He can walk about at a leisurely pace to sidestep
blows or retreat without being observed. He may even
exert force, such as by striking a blow, though no damage
is resolved until he re-enters time. However, this
power wreaks terrible destruction on a vampire’s unliving body.
Used incautiously, a vampire may saunter out
of time, only to fall to ash when he returns.
System: The player spends one Willpower point and
three blood points, and then rolls Wits + Occult (difficulty
7). This power may be activated reflexively as
a defensive action; however, such hasty use reduces
the maximum duration to a single turn. Failure does
nothing apart from wasting effort and blood, while a
botch inflicts one level of aggravated damage for every
1 rolled.
If successful, the vampire steps out of time for a number
of turns equal to the successes rolled (outside of
combat, a turn still only lasts three to five seconds for
the purposes of this power). These turns occur for the
vampire only while the rest of the world stands still.
He may take any action or actions during this time,
as many as desired, but he has no access to Disciplines
— even innate or perpetual Disciplines such as Potence.
The vampire must direct every aspect of Caine’s
Curse toward holding back time. If the vampire attacks
someone in this state, the target cannot dodge or parry.
Resolve the attack normally but do not apply damage.
However, if the vampire suffers injury, such as by exposure
to sunlight or walking through a frozen flame,
apply this damage immediately.
The vampire may end his sojourn at any point or wait
until the full duration of the power passes, at which
point time resumes. Before anything else happens, including
resolution of damage inflicted by the vampire,
roll one die for every turn the vampire moved out of
time. The difficulty is equal to the vampire’s Temporis
rating. For every success, the Cainite suffers one level
of unsoakable aggravated damage. Apply this damage
concurrently with damage suffered by halted victims
and continue play on the same turn and initiative the
vampire stepped out of time.

••••• ••• Clio’s Kiss
One of the most subtle manifestations of Temporis’
higher levels, this power allows a vampire to reach into
the past and summon events, objects, or even individuals.
Clio’s Kiss, named for the muse of history, is the
power to bypass the flow of time and bring something
— or someone — forward to the present. Some True
Brujah scholars use this to observe history as it truly
occurred, while others look to the past for aid or to
retrieve lost possessions. At least two coordinated attempts
by the True Brujah to summon their Antediluvian
progenitor have met with catastrophic failure.
No one knows if a Sage capable of this power remains.
The hope is that Clio’s Kiss faded from knowledge —
the bloodline cannot afford a third attempt.
System: The player spends half of the character’s
current blood pool, rounded up, and rolls Stamina +
Occult (difficulty 8). This power automatically fails
if the player spends fewer than five blood points. The
number of successes determines the maximum amount
of time through which the character may reach:
Successes Time
1 success - 24 hours
2 successes - one month
3 successes - one year
4 successes - 10 years
5+ successes - one century per success over 4
When a vampire uses this power successfully, the
scene she seeks to retrieve materializes around her,
briefly supplanting the current environment. This
change extends to a maximum volume of a ballroom or
similarly proportioned outdoor space (at Storyteller’s
discretion). The power affects everyone inside this area
by granting them awareness of the summoned events,
but the vampire is the only person who may choose to
interact with the scene (though he may remain invisible
and disembodied). All others must remain incorporeal
observers until time reasserts itself and the scene
fades. They may move about to change their vantage
point, but can take no other action.
If the vampire wants to remove an object or individual
from the scene, bringing them forward to the present,
the player must spend a dot of Willpower. Once this is
done, the conjured scene fades away and present reality
returns. Only the summoned object or person remains.
This power can never alter the course of history in
any significant manner. Should an object or person
have a meaningful role yet to play at the time it is removed,
the weight of time crashes upon the vampire
and he vanishes in its current. Whether such folly results
in destruction or propels the vampire far into the
future remains unknown and likely unknowable. Likewise,
any changes the vampire makes to a summoned
scene unravel as soon as he departs. Like a play, time
may be altered by the removal of extras, but the script
stays the same — however cruel a fate, Carthage must
be destroyed.
As always, the Storyteller remains the final judge
of what this power can achieve and need not reveal
all limitations until a vampire attempts a change. It
is possible to summon a person from a point close to
his death, assuming he perished without observers.
Likewise, a manuscript destroyed when the Library of
Alexandria burned can be called after it is last read.
Calling the very library from Alexandria would be impossible,
not only for its size but also the necessity and
significance of its ruins. Finally, the previous form of a
currently existing object cannot be summoned, if only
because its continued existence validates a role in history.
Storytellers need not consider every ramification
of paradox, but this power has tremendous potential
for abuse and should be adjudicated accordingly.

••••• •••• Tangle Atropos’ Hand
This manifestation of Temporis is at once the most
flagrant and subtle twist of time — the power of second
chances. The existence of such power is only a theory
and a fearfully whispered rumor, for who can ever know
when or how time itself unraveled and changed?
System: The player spends a dot of Willpower and
three blood points and rolls Wits + Occult (difficulty
8). Every additional point of permanent Willpower
spent beyond the first adds one automatic success to
the roll. Use of this power is reflexive and may be done
at any moment, even on a turn in which the vampire
has used other Disciplines. If successful, the Cainite’s
mind flashes back to his earlier self with full memory of
the events that transpired and now only might transpire.
This rewind encompasses one turn for every success
rolled, and inflicts an equal number of levels of unsoakable
aggravated damage. Assuming the vampire does
nothing, every event plays out exactly as before. Once
the vampire takes a new action of any sort, time shifts
to encompass a new future and fate is no longer fixed.