Blood Magic
Blood Magic
Classification: Specialization
Parent School: Alteration Class
Blood Magic deals with the manipulation of a person's life force, usually using the target's (or caster's) own blood as a proxy. Ritual sacrifice, powering spells through one's own health, improved enhancement rituals, and bloodline theft all fall under this discipline.
Blood magic is extremely illegal — easily on par with Soul Magic, if not worse. Most nations deliberately suppress all information about it, other than warning people that it's evil. Despite this, the field refuses to die out.
Specialization Rules
This is an advanced Specialization. To learn Spells (Powers) in this field, a mage must use their dot-purchase selections from the Alteration Class skill track. Furthermore, specific spells within Blood Magic will explicitly require a secondary prerequisite (such as 1 or 2 dots in collateral Schools) to simulate the mixed-matrix required to cast them.
Progression
Acquiring dots and Powers here requires deep dedication. The spells are extremely potent but narrowly focused.
Example Powers
| Tier | Example Effect | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 | Life Tap (Minor) | Burn a small amount of your own life force to replenish 2 points of mana instantly. Causes 30 min weakness. |
| Tier 2 | Blood Bond | Establish a lingering magical link between two beings via blood, allowing mana transfer and rough emotional sensing. |
| Tier 3 | Life Drain | Steal life force from an unwilling target — partially replenishes the caster's mana while inflicting sickness on the victim. |
| Tier 4 | Enhancement Ritual (Blood-Fueled) | Use stolen life force to integrate a permanent magical enhancement into a target, reducing the mana reserve cost substantially. |
| Tier 5 | Bloodline Theft | Extract and assimilate an innate magical ability from a target's bloodline into the caster's own. Largely irreversible for the victim. |
Mechanical Focus
Blood magic bypasses the Personal Mana Well system, using Vitality as a secondary resource. Each use depletes Vitality (a tracked pool separate from HP) which heals 1 point per long rest. At 0 Vitality, the character is critically weakened and subsequent use is lethal.
Lore Deep Dive
Life force is a very potent form of mana, useful for a lot of things. Unlike spending standard mana, however, spending one's life force is a pretty big deal. Life force recovers extremely slowly, and the human body will not easily relinquish it to the caster—it must be coaxed or forced into allowing it.
The Price of Power: No matter the method used, drawing on life force will result in lasting weakening and sickness that will persist for days or even weeks. Vertigo, exhaustion, lethargy, and phantom pains are all typical consequences of life force depletion. Additionally, while losing a little life force from time to time will not permanently affect a person, dipping into one's life force too deeply or too often will inflict permanent physical consequences.
The Dark Path: Because of these steep personal costs, true blood mages intensely dislike using their own life force. Instead, they focus on stealing it from others. This stolen life force is frequently used to power massive, highly illegal workings—most notably, demon summoning. This is the primary reason the discipline is hunted so ruthlessly by governments and the Church alike.