Teletē Zoethurgy

Originating from the Orphics in 15th century Greece, the Teletē Zoethurgy is a complex rite which claims to restore the soul of an undead being to the natural mortality of humanity by means of metempsychosis. This practice is believed to have been developed in response to the Thanatosic mysteries cult which allied itself with the Order of the Dragon around the same time. There is no known documentation of the rite, but there are accounts which claim to have witnessed it performed on Vampires who wished to rid themselves of their bond to death. One 19th century memoir claims,

"Though the act itself was performed obscured from my sight, I witnessed from my position a light of a most queer hue casting the dance of shadows upon the temple walls. The predator's agonized screams bore evidence that the act was one of great suffering and though he entered into the rite willingly I fear he had come to regret his path before his pains were ended. In time those mystics returned to me and said that the thing was done. When I inquired what had become of the predator one of their number produced a babe which though wrapped in cloths was as an unwashed newborn. They said the predator's soul had returned to the mortal path and would live and grow as any other. I was bid to take the child when I departed."
-From the memoir of the physician Silas Williams

This and other accounts have described a kind of palingenesis where the soul of the vampire is transmigrated into a new mortal being where it lives with no connection to its former nature. Some accounts claim that the infant inhabited by the vampire's soul is spontaneously conjured into existence by the magic of the rite itself while others imply that a mortal infant is presented as a component of the ritual. Accounts which describe the latter are in conflict as to whether a living infant is sacrificed or if the child used is already dead.

It is perhaps no surprise that the Teletē Zoethurgy is a thing known only to a vanishing few in the wider supernatural community who study such matters, but within the vampiric cultures of the Eurasian continent it is spoken of more akin to folklore than a historical reality. Despite this, Vampires rarely speak of the rite at all and virtually never with outsiders. The Houses of Blood as a whole take a dim view of any who lend credence to the existence of the Teletē Zoethurgy.

The Orphics themselves were all but extinct at the time when the rite would have been developed, owing to centuries of persecution or slow migration to offshoot cults, and none can verifiably claim direct lineage to the tradition in present days. There is a neopagan movement claiming to follow Orphic traditions, but they have no known direct ties to the old mysteries. Given these facts, it is likely the Teletē Zoethurgy has been lost to time, if it ever truly existed, and yet there are those who continue to seek it out, whether from an academic curiosity or a desire to undergo the rite themselves to escape vampirism. One fact is clear though, were the Teletē Zoethurgy to be uncovered and truly offer a path of rebirth to mortality from vampirism it would have an immeasurable impact on vampiric societies across the globe and ramifications which would rock the power structures of the entire supernatural world which guarantees uncovering the rite to be an incredibly dangerous achievement for any to realize.