Belialian’s Discipline: Omniscience

Scientia et impera. Knowledge is power. There are a few souls who've put this dictum to heart. Most are Kindred. Most of them are in the Sabbat...and of the Sabbat, most are Belialians. While others might deride Omniscience as a "powder-puff Discipline", those who have a healthy respect for the Machiavellians know better. It is only one of the tools, which have secured for them a place at the head of the sub-sect in which they belong. But what a powerful tool it is.

* Fact: A parlor trick, if you will. A very limited form of telepathy which allows the Belialian to secure a single fact not readily known about the target in question. Like, for example, their faith in the mortal world or, their tastes in women (or men...or others). Machiavellians use this power with surprising frequency as it allows to prod and poke, attempting to shake the armor of those they are dealing with. What better way to do that than reveal to all in the room what the Templar does when no one is looking...

System: Perception + Interrogation against the target's Willpower minus one. Success indicates a single, non-apparent fact that pops into the mind of the Belialian conducting the scan.

** Query: When a Fact is simply not enough-which might be often, considering it is a random fact, conjured up at the Storyteller's discretion-a Query might do better. Query allows the Belialian to ask a single question that can be readily answered by the target if he or she would've had the willingness to do so. Nothing obtuse or something that would cause undo confusion ("What is the status of your belief in the Unholy Writ of St. Damagugalag of Vladivostok?"). Simple. Like "Do you lust after her?" or "Do you want to kill me?"

System: Perception + Interrogation against the target's Willpower. The number of successes equals the explicitness with which the answer comes. One success is a simple yes/no while six successes will give you the complete philosophical underpinnings of the target's theoretical answer.

*** Mental Reconstruction: MR allows a Machiavellian access to a reasonable facsimile of the target's personality. It functions as an independent entity, lodged temporarily inside the Belialian's mind. This power is mostly used to get a grasp of the enemy's mind in order to improvise effective counter-measures. Azis, it is said, absolutely love this power and are seen many times asking a Machiavellian for advice on an enemy.

System: Perception + Interrogation against the target's Willpower plus one. The larger the success, the greater the accuracy of the facsimile with one meaning almost useless to a perfect replication. A botch holds especial danger to the Belialian, as it not only succeeds, unlike most botches, but it imprints the facsimile permanently into the Machiavellian's mind, creating a sort of schizoid personality.

**** Research: A much stronger form of Query, Research expands the range from a single target to a subject. The parameters are pretty much the same. No non-specific questions and the like, but the topic may be anything under the sun...unless that topic is a protected one.

System: Perception + Scan against a difficulty level assigned by the Storyteller. Storytellers are encouraged to assign higher difficulties for esoteria and illuminati and lower difficulties for questions the Kindred is too lazy to look up in an encyclopaedia.

***** Source: One of the prime powers of the Machiavellians is Source. Its very risky nature seems to be well worth the price one might pay if it is used incorrectly. The first time a Belialian uses Source, the power makes contact with a being residing within another realm. Where this realm is and who the being represents is unknown to the Kindred. One thing is certain, however: the being is compelled to answer truthfully the Kindred in question whenever the power is subsequently activated.

Of course, this power opens up a whole bag of worms (or Wyrms?) that leaves the Storyteller with a lot of leeway to use or not use. The Source won't lie, at least outright, but it needn't be benign at all.

System: Manipulation + Seduction against a randomly derived difficulty. The number of successes indicates the level of forthcomingness of the Source. A single success means that the Source is a slacker and only tells the truth if it is spelled out completely to him and there are no loopholes it can jump through. Six successes, on the other hand, means the Source has become something of a familiar and is inclined to be rather friendly, if not sycophantic. That's for the initial use only. Any further use means that the number of successes indicates the Source's access to the knowledge you requested.

****** Mindsuk: Sometimes, when simply going through the trouble to Query or Research or dealing with an obnoxious Source is too much, there is a more extreme form of knowledge acquisition. Mindsuk.

Mindsuk is the literal vampirism of memory. It allows the Machiavellian to absorb raw experience from one that is knowledgeable about a subject the Kindred wishes to know about. Crude, but effective, Mindsuk also tends to drive mortals into early senility if used too often.

System: Intelligence + Scan against the target's Willpower. The number of successes indicates the quality of the copy and what else you might have accidentally acquired. A single success means what you sought out for is in bad shape and what you got was mush and the target's thoughts on potty training. Six successes mean a pristine copy of the target's experience in whatever area you see fit to acquire (so long as they know of it).

If this power is used more than five times on a single mortal, it causes irrepairable damage to the person's mind, inducing senility.

******* Disinformation: Belialians are deadly when they use their powers to their utmost. They can find out what they need to know about you and concoct ways to bring you down quicker than you can think. They are also their own worst enemy, for all these various powers work on other Belialians, too.

That is where Disinformation comes in. In short, it's a smoke screen, a false personality template, a set of artificial memories all rolled into one. Its goal is to prevent any would-be scryers from gaining anything of merit from this Machiavellian.

System: Intelligence + Intrigue against a randomly determined difficulty number. The number of successes-known only to the Storyteller-determines how strong the Disinformation campaign really is. A single success is comparable to a well-told white lie, while six successes equals an impenetrable wall of maskirovka. Disinformation lasts for a week's time, after which it must be attempted again. It is then that a Belialian is most paranoid and vulnerable.

******** Mark of the Weak: It is one thing to be able to know what a target knows, but it is quite another to determine what makes said target falter and fall. Strategists and war planners have tried for millennia to determine the weak points of their enemy, with a modicum of success. Mark of the Weak makes that process easy.

System: Perception + Interrogation against the Willpower of the target. The level of success indicates the type of weaknesses the Belialian can ascertain. 1-3=physical, 4-5=physical & emotional, 6=physical, emotional & mental.

********* Senility: Strike at a Belialian's mind and you strike at the very heart of his operations. His will to power is probably the only thing, which has kept him going when other, more physically beefy Clans surpassed him in numbers and strength. Senility is, for the Belialian, the cruelest of powers in his arsenal.

System: Manipulation + Intimidation against the target's Willpower. The number of successes equates to the amount of time the target spends in a stupourous, vegetative state:

1 Success - One week

2 Successes - One month

3 Successes - Two months

4 Successes - One year

5 Successes - Until the Belialian wishes to release the target

6 Successes - Permanent

********** Omnipaedia: What does one do when one is really and truly omniscient, at least in the limited sense in that facts and knowledge are at their fingertips for the asking? Ask a Belialian with Omnipaedia. No, on the other hand, don't. The games they would play are simply too twisted to want to get involved with...