Valeren

Valeren is a warrior’s Discipline, a holdover from the nights when warrior Salubri acted as noble fighters and Kindred knights. The Discipline is still applicable to the modern nights, but the Salubri put it to decidedly more vicious ends. At its most basic, Valeren provides control over pain and increased marital ability, seemingly allowing warriors to draw on the power of heaven to vanquish their foes. The third eye is said to bestow "sight beyond sight" and enable the Salubri to see the threads of life and death around them.

Learning Valeren causes a physical change in Cainites: a bump or nodule developing in the center of the forehead, eventually cracking open into a fully-developed third eye when the character learns the third dot of Valeren. The eye is sensitive; attempting to cover it results in a penalty of one die to all rolls, though obscuring it under a hood is fne. In all cases, the eye may be retracted into the skull and perfectly hidden for the scene with a Stamina + Stealth roll, but using any level of Valeren brings it forth once more.

Use of any power causes the third eye to open and glow brightly (If the cainite has the 3rd dot), making surreptitious use very difficult.

• Sense Vitality

The Salubri can feel the flow of a subject's life force after touching him. Sense Vitality may be used to determine how much damage a person can withstand before death, which can be useful in sizing up a potential opponent. It can also aid in medical diagnosis or feeding, as it can reveal infections and diseases.

Cost: —

Dice Pool: —

Action: Instant

Duration: —

The Salubri must touch the target to see how close to death she is. A Salubri learns more or less information depending upon her level of Valeren. One dot on this roll identifies a subject as a mortal, vampire, ghoul or other creature, or none of the above. Two reveal how many health levels of damage the subject has suffered. Three tell how full the subject's blood pool is (if vampire) or how many blood points she has left in her system (if a mortal or other blood-bearing form of life). Four reveal any diseases in the subject's bloodstream, such as hemophilia or HIV. A player may opt to learn the information by a lesser degree of success - for example, a player who accumulates three successes may learn whether or not a subject is a vampire as well as the contents of his blood pool.

Alternately, this power may be used as a sort of limited "aftersight," revealing to the Salubri how the subject came to be in her current state. Each dot of Valeren allows the player to ask the Storyteller one question about the subject's health or health levels. "Was he drugged?" or "Are his wounds aggravated?" are valid questions, but "Did the Sabbat do this?" or "What did the Lupine who killed him look like?" are not. The Salubri may use this power on herself if she has injuries but has somehow lost the memory of how the wounds were received.

•• Anesthetic Touch

This power may be used to block a voluntary subject's pain from wounds or disease, or to put a mortal to sleep. As with Sense Vitality, physical contact is required to anesthetize someone. This power may not be used to block the Salubri's own pain.

Cost: —

Dice Pool: None, or Resolve + Empathy + Valeren (Sometimes - Targets Resolve)

Action: Instant

Duration: —

If the subject is willing to undergo this process, the player needs to spend a blood point to block the subject's pain. This allows the subject to ignore all wound penalties for the scene. A second application of this power may be made once the first one has expired, at the cost of another blood point. If the subject is unwilling for some reason, the player must make a roll.

To put a mortal to sleep, the same system applies. The mortal sleeps for five to 10 hours - whatever his normal sleep cycle is - and regains one temporary Willpower point upon awakening. He sleeps peacefully and does not suffer nightmares or the effects of any Derangements while asleep. He may be awakened normally (or violently).

Kindred are unaffected by this power - their corpselike bodies are too tied to death.

••• Burning Touch

The vampire touches his subject, shocking her with a searing pain. This power causes no actual damage to the subject, though prolonged exposure to this unnatural pain sometimes leaves victims traumatized. The Salubri antitribu use this power to extract information from their enemies, and also sometimes to cause additional pain to those who have hunted and persecuted them before delivering true Final Death.

Cost: 1 (or more) Vitae

Dice Pool: —

Action: Instant

Duration: —

The vampire must touch his subject for this power to take effect (if the target does not wish to be touched, the player must Touch or Grapple them), and the effects diminish rapidly after he removes his hand. Also, the player spends at least one blood point to activate this power. Each blood point so spent reduces the victim's dice pools by two. This power is often used in conjunction with Interrogation and Torture, wearing down the subject's resistance and rendering him much more tractable.

The target must make a Composure roll, modified by the penalties already applied by this power, to avoid crying out, dropping held items, and so on.

•••• Armor of Caine's Fury

Warrior Salubri, in their crusades against the Baali, frequently invoked this power; it surrounds them with a shining halo reminiscent of crimson mail. The phantom armor created by this ability protects the crusader against most sources of physical injury; it also keeps him or her from entering Rötschreck due to an ongoing battle, when such frenzy of fear would lead them into greater danger. The Ventrue clan in particular is said to envy the Salubri for this ability, and a few Ventrue princes have welcomed Warrior Salubri into their domains on the Strength of the Salubri's ability to teach this power.

Cost: 1 Vitae

Dice Pool: —

Action: Instant

Duration: —

The player spends one blood point and rolls Stamina + Melee (difficulty 7). For each success, the character gains armor protection against bashing and lethal damage equal to the lower of her Resolve or Composure. Additionally, she is immune to Rötschreck from the effects of battle (but not fire or sunlight). This power works for one scene.

••••• Vengeance of Samiel

Samiel, an ancient childe of Saulot, is said to have been one of the Salubri clan's finest warriors; he created Valeren, and he taught the clan's greatest warriors how to fight. This power calls out to the spirit of that long-destroyed Methuselah in the blood of all Warrior Salubri, and guides their weapons to strike true.

Cost: 3 Vitae + 1 Willpower

Dice Pool: —

Action: Instant

Duration: —

The player spends three blood points (which may necessitate building this power up over several turns, depending on the Salubri's generation); The target of the Salubri's next Melee attack gains no benefit from defense as the Salubri strikes unerringly with the power of the blood.The attack can be soaked normally, however against this blow natural physical armor is halved before soak is calculated.