Some supernatural beings possess an extraordinary sensitivity to the world beyond ordinary mortal perception--an awareness that extends into the emotional, spiritual, and psychic dimensions of existence that most creatures never glimpse.
For vampires, this gift manifests as the Discipline of Auspex: a refinement of supernatural senses that allows the Kindred to read the hidden truths written in aura, thought, and spirit. Other supernatural creatures may develop similar perceptive abilities through entirely different means - whether through spiritual attunement, fae intuition, or the peculiar senses granted by their own natures - but the experience is often described in strikingly similar terms: a veil lifted, a world made suddenly, uncomfortably legible.
These abilities are not without their costs or their limits. What can be perceived can also overwhelm. The same sensitivity that allows a practitioner to read the grief in a stranger's aura or reach into another's thoughts leaves them vulnerable to the noise of the world and to those who know how to use that openness against them.
The guides below cover the specific mechanics for perception-based powers as they function on this server.
Soulsight and similar abilities allow the user to read the auras of their target. Once it is used, the target will become immune to all other Soulsight attempts for a period of time. What information the Soulsight user receives depends on the number of successes.
Soulsight can not be used to determine what supernatural faction their target belongs to unless the target agrees to share it.
1 Success: User can read the shade of an aura. You can tell the aura is light-colored or dark-colored, but you can't see the colors themselves.
2 Successes: User can distinguish one basic color in the target's aura, as well as the shade.
3 Successes: User can distinguish two basic colors, as well as the shades.
4 Successes: User can notice subtle shifts and patterns or special conditions, as well as two colors and their shades.
5+ Successes: User can identify the totality of the target's aura. There is no limit to the number of colors, shades, and patterns the user can see to determine how the target feels.
Dark Shades
Light Shades
Special Conditions
A creature leaves a subtle scent on everything it touches. Ask any king's keeper of hounds: dogs, among others, can easily track this scent. In the same fashion, people leave a trail of their own essence upon anything they touch. Someone who can use Spirit Touch or similar abilities can see this immaterial residue, although Spirit Touch users generally cannot track people with the ability. A person must keep an item long enough to leave an impression, or care about it strongly. The user can easily determine who the last owner of an object was, who created a work of art and the like. Beyond this simple identification, it can be used to gain glimpses of the object's creation, use, and meaning to its owner.
When using Spirit Touch, the caster can ask one of the following questions:
The total successes rolled determines how much information can be gleaned:
1 Success: One piece of very basic information. The last owner's gender or hair color, for instance.
2 Successes: A second piece of basic information.
3 Successes: More useful information, such as age or state of mind the last time the item was used.
4 Successes: The person's name.
5+ Successes: A wealth of information - nearly anything the caster wants to know about the person's relationship.
Can Be Spirit Touched
Cannot Be Spirit Touched
Steal Secrets is a back-and-forth mental RP which starts with surface thoughts and delves deeper from there - a collaborative RP process working from the surface inward toward what you are searching for. Each level costs 1 point:
Step 1: Entering the mind
- Caster: Delving into the mind of Lord Jakub, The Hammer watches to see what thoughts are at the fore.
Step 2: Surface thought (1st point)
- Target: Though the nobleman's expression is largely indifferent watching the ongoing discussion between the rest of the house, his attention lingers some on one in particular that happens to be a visiting fellow member of the Council - and his surface thoughts make it fairly apparent why. "I didn't exactly expect Matyas to actually show up to this meeting to begin with..."
Step 3: Expanding on the surface thought (2nd point)
- Caster: Noting the focus upon Matyas, The Hammer dwells upon the question, "Why did you not expect Matyas to show up?"
- Target: "Granted...I suppose saving face can be done in a few different ways, but a scandal like that isn't exactly one very easily brushed under the rug. Or...maybe he doesn't care. Hmm."
Step 4: Delving deeper (3rd point)
- Caster: Noting the thoughts turning toward a scandal, The Hammer focuses next upon that his musings continuing, "What sort of scandal are we talking about?"
- Target: "Being entrusted with funds garnished for the purposes of fulfilling Council projects, and he's been out here spending it on parties and brothels..."
Step 5: Delving deeper (4th point)
- Caster: A pique of interest, information to be used for later but then the next thoughts comes to the Hammer, "and how exactly are you involved in this Lord Jakub?"
- Target: "At least hiring that informant in the Garden at least paid off...it serves both my purposes and ensures our money is actually going where it ought since this is an easy way to have him kicked off Council, or at the very least put in his place."
Step 2: Returning to the surface (5th point)
- Caster: Disappointed that the information was not what he sought and the thread exhausted, The Hammer returns to the surface, "Lets see what else there is to work with"
- Target: "And then there's Lady Procházková...well. She's been keeping company with the wrong crowd, so I'll be surprised if she lasts long after their recent ascension."
Step 3: Expanding on the surface thought (6th point)
- Caster: The Hammer ponders a bit, "and what company might that be?"
- Target: "Sneaking around with vagrants speaking of reading the stars and 'giving the gift of hearing their loved one's last words' - which are frankly probably just nonsense they made up - isn't exactly a way to stay in good standing with other nobility or the church for that matter."
Step 2: Returning to the surface (7th point)
- Caster: Mentally shaking his head, The Hammer snips the thread he was following and returns to the surface, "Not useful. What else is there?"
- Target: "Ugh...well." As his focus turns to the wine glass he holds, another thought occurs to him. "This wine is...paltry. What that foreign Lord gave me tasted...wonderful, and I've never had anything else like it."
Exiting the RP and ability
- Caster: With that information gained and a frustrated sigh, the Hammer exhausted all available venues and recedes from Lord Jakub's mind leaving none the wiser.