Chimestry

Description

While its origins are lost in myths and half-truths, it is assumed to have been developed by the Ravnos Antediluvian, and over the centuries has greatly contributed to the perception of Ravnos as tricksters and con artists. Because Chimerstry works best when targets do not realize they are being deceived by illusions, most practitioners keep their knowledge of it a secret. Even then, it is not always easy to dismiss the phantoms created by this Discipline even when one knows them to be false. Vampires with high levels of Auspex may see through the effects of Chimerstry.

As an added note, Chimerstry works against the Fae as if it were real. Because of this, the Ravnos are often feared by the Fae who are aware of this effect, since it essentially means the Ravnos can more or less do anything it wants to the Fae. It is, however, unspecified how this effect works with the power Horrid Reality, whether the world it traps the Fae in is an illusion or just as real as any other Chimerstry creation is to a Fae. The Fae believe that this is the result of a pact between the Wanderer and the early Unseelie Court from before the Sundering, which allowed him and his brood to call extensions of the Dreaming into the Autumn World.

In order to properly utilize Chimerstry, the vampire has to experience the illusion he creates himself, deceiving even himself for an instant about the substance of his creation (which can lead to Rötschreck if the vampire summons the illusion of fire). Also, the vampire can only create illusions he can perceive by himself; a deaf vampire could not create auditory illusions, while a blindfolded vampire could not summon visual illusions

Chimerstry is a part of the curse on a vampire because it fools him into believing that he is able to truly creative acts, when all he does is perverting and deceiving the senses of his audience. Some advanced users become so enthralled and convinced in the reality in their illusions that they lose themselves in dreamworlds of their own making or other derangements.

Use Subterfuge for retests of Chimerstry.

(Source: https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/Chimerstry, CC-BY-SA )

Abilities

Basic

• Ignis Fatuus: Create a motionless illusion that affects one of the five senses. (See Faith & Fire p.161)
• Dweomer: Create a motionless illusion that can affect any of the five senses. (See Faith & Fire p.161)

Intermediate

• Apparition: Add motion to an illusion created by Ignis Fatuus or Dweomer. (See Faith & Fire p.162)
• Permanency: Make an illusion created by Chimerstry last until dismissed. (See Faith & Fire p.162)

Advanced

• Horrid Reality: Places the mind of the victim in an illusionary world of the vampire's creation. (See Faith & Fire p.162)

Elder

• False Resonance: Disguise one's thoughts and aura from other attempts to read them. (See Clanbook: Ravnos (Revised) p.62)
• Fatuus Mastery: No longer spend Willpower or blood points for the first three levels of Chimerstry, require less concentration to maintain illusions. Illusions manifest in the Penumbra as well as the Shadowlands. (See Clanbook: Ravnos (Revised) p.62)
• Mass Horror: As Horrid Reality, except it affects multiple people. (See Faith & Fire p.163)

Master

• Far Fatuus: Create illusions anywhere you can visualize. (See Clanbook: Ravnos (Revised) p.63)
• Suspension of Disbelief: Make an illusion seem completely real or what is real seem unbelievable. (See Clanbook: Ravnos (Revised) p.64)

Ascendant

• Occlusion: Control how a single target's or group's senses work. (See Clanbook: Ravnos (Revised) p.64)
• Pseudo Blindness: See through almost all falsehoods including Fae Seemings. (See Laws of Elysium p.62)

Methuselah

• Mayaparisatya: Temporarily make an illusion completely real or alter a person or object that already exists, possibly even erasing them from existence. (See Clanbook: Ravnos (Revised) p.65)

Progenitor Flaw

Cainites with this Lineage Discipline have become so accustomed of illusion, that they have become bored of reality. Now they have become pathological illusionists, in that they must now resort to cons, deceit, trickery, and outright lies.

Curse

Ravnos clan disadvantage

(See: Laws of the Night, Revised, p.55)

Benefit

Free Trait in Subterfuge