Setite Secrets
There are as many secrets as the Setites have thoughts, perhaps, but some of these sinister mysteries are worth exploring if only to increase the chance of survival against the serpents. One of the dark regions not often considered is that the removal of the heart obtained by the Heart of Darkness power is sometimes just the beginning.
In Miami, the Setite ancient Petanki has tapped into warped rituals that came about during the years of attempts to recreate the mummy childer of the reborn Horus. The Calusa are natives of the new world to which Petanki was condemned when he attended Set on the venture to assault the sun god in the east as he arose from the death sleep. Petanki missed the final fall of the Cult of Isis and the realization of true mummies. He practiced his own experimentation in the absence of his god-sire. The hunger and death magics of the elder vampire swiftly led to the decline of the Calusa people.
The Calusa are similar to a sort of golem, unaging, and only able to
heal themselves with blood. However they do not require any blood in their
bodies to exist and never actually spend the blood for any purpose other
than healing or use of disciplines. What they do require to be active is
the heart of a vampire... without a vampire's heart, they are inactive
and slumber for eternity... with a vampire's heart, obviously taken using
Heart
of Darkness and placed in their chest, the Calusa are animate. Petanki
has approximately a dozen of the Calusa within his underground realm, but
only a number equal to the kindred hearts he has gained are active at any
one time.
The Calusa are treated as kindred, created with a 15 points of Attributes in addition to the base 1 in each, and 27 points of Abilities. Favor physical and mental attributes as the social nature of the dead and obviously dead is rather suspect. The occult and ancient knowledge form the greatest part of Calusa skills. Calusa, however, do not frenzy or suffer from rotschreck on their own, for they have no beast to override their soul. If the kindred whose heart is animating the Calusa ever goes frenzy or enters rotschreck, the Calusa is affected as well. This makes their sudden outbursts, derived from a deep connection to the spirit of their hosted heart, difficult to predict and eerily characterized by the nature of the heart's probably unwilling donor.
Calusa disciplines are predominantly the physical 3, including Fortitude, Celerity and Potence, however they also often possess levels of Serpentis and Thaumaturgy. Thaumaturgical rituals and paths are a blend of Egyptian hermetic magic and native American shamanic art with a touch of voodoun practices.
The Calusa are a strange liability and a powerful layer against rebellion for Petanki. Should one destroy a Calusa in a manner that demolishes the heart that animates it, the kindred whose heart has been placed there through the Serpentis discipline and the Calusa creation rituals will also perish. This means that Petanki's followers cannot reliably hope to overcome his Calusa bodyguard, but it also means that a foe who overcomes all of his kindred followers would paralyze his Calusa and a foe who kills his Calusa would destroy his kindred followers.
Cheating the Maat
This level 9 Serpentis discipline is one of the secrets of the Methuselah Ahmet's survival. After removing another kindred's heart via the Heart of Darkness power, the user may exchange it with his own. This has a number of effects revolving around the mystical confusion of swapping the heart-soul of the Egyptian mystical tradition. The Presence power summoning for example will summon the bearer of the heart that was meant to be called. Thus, Ahmet, who is called by someone who has not seen him since since the last time he exchanged hearts, is not summoned by the Summoning of Presence level 4. Instead the hapless victim who currently bears Ahmet's heart is forced to follow the call and come to the summoner. Over the ages, a number of unfortunates put themselves before Set's wrath in Ahmet's place.
Of course someone summoning the kindred whose heart Ahmet has most recently stolen would force Ahmet to attend, but given their carefully chosen unimportance this has never been a problem. Ahmet has slain petty enemies of young kindred and stolen their hearts a number of times. Cheating the Maat confuses many other magics as well. Various mystic methods of locating someone will find Ahmet's heart-holding victim instead of the ancient one, or when seeking the young one from whom he has stolen the heart will find Ahmet instead. This mystical transference is complete. If one were given Ahmet's heart and then it was withdrawn and buried in the earth, but someone found it and burned it, the kindred who had received it via Cheating the Maat would die, not Ahmet. The scales of justice are thrown into chaos, the universe has been cheated.
Copyright © Conrad Hubbard
