When a vampire drains another vampire of all their blood and continues drinking, they consume the very essence of the slain vampire. Vampires of a religious nature sometimes refer to this essence as the vampire’s soul, though whether the damned even have a soul is debatable. This act, called diablerie, is universally reviled by civil vampires and is a crime punishable by death in most cities. In all cases, the evidence of diablerie remains as black streaks that stain the diablerist’s aura. 

Committing Diablerie 

In order to commit diablerie the victim must first be in torpor and all her health levels must be full of damage. The diablerist must then drain the victim completely of blood. This takes five standard actions and reduces the diablerist’s Hunger to her base value. The diablerist then needs to win or tie a number of Strength + Resolve challenges (difficulty of 3) equal to the victim’s Blood Potency (or one test in the case of diablerie of a thin-blood). Each test requires a standard action. These challenges must be made consecutively each turn and cannot be interrupted. Failing any single test or being interrupted once these tests have begun causes the victim’s essence to dissipate unconsumed and the diablerie fails. In either case, the body of the victim meets Final Death and decays to ash. 

Effects of Diablerie 

If the diablerist is uninterrupted and succeeds in all the required tests, they next struggle to gain control over the alien blood and vampiric essence they have just ingested. This process involves the following: 

● The diablerist immediately loses one point of Humanity.

● If the victim’s Blood Potency was greater than the diablerist’s, the diablerist gains one Blood Potency for free, up to her generational maximum. 

● The diablerist must then make a contested challenge using her new Humanity + new Blood Potency vs. the victim’s former Resolve + Blood Potency. On a win, the diablerist has a period of three months where she may spend any currently accumulated XP, plus any XP she earns during the three months, on Disciplines the consumed vampire possessed. These dots are learned at out-of-clan costs but do not require the consumption of the required Resonance. This is an exception to the rule that requires you to feed from a vampire each time you wish to purchase an out of clan Discipline. 

If the test is a tie, the diablerist has only until the next game to make the above purchases. 

Should the test fail, the diablerist loses an additional point of Humanity. If this would normally cause their Humanity to reach zero, instead the diablerist’s mind is replaced by the consumed vampire’s mind, and the host body is taken over by the personality of the drained vampire. The character is turned over to the Storyteller as an NPC. 

● If the victim of diablerie was of a lower generation than the diablerist, the diablerist lowers their generation by one. 

● Black veins become visible in the diablerist’s aura for one year.