Chimerstry

Chimerstry is a vampiric Discipline that enables them to fabricate sensations and perceptions in the minds of others.

The vampire may conjure a minor, static mirage that confounds one sense. For instance, he may evoke a sulfurous stench, the appearance of stigmata, or the shatter of broken glass. Note that though tactile illusions can be felt, they have no real substance; an invisible but tactile wall cannot confine anyone, and invisible razor-wire causes no real damage. Similarly, the vampire must know the characteristics of what he’s creating. While it’s easy enough to estimate what a knife wound might look like, falsifying a person’s voice or a photograph of a childhood home requires knowledge of the details.

Fata Morgana
The Kindred can now create illusions that appeal to all the senses, though they remain static. For example, the vampire could make a filthy cellar appear as an opulent ballroom, though she could not create a glittering chandelier or a score of graceful dancers. Again, the illusion has no solid presence, though it’s easy enough to fool an enraptured visitor with suggestions of what she might expect. A bucket of brackish water is as cool as chilled champagne, after all.

Apparition
Not really a power unto itself, Apparition allows a vampire to give motion to an illusion created with Ignis Fatuus or Fata Morgana. Thus, the Cainite could create the illusion of a living being, running water, fluttering drapes, or a roaring fire.

Permanency
This power, also used in conjunction with Ignis Fatuus or Fata Morgana, allows a mirage to persist even when the vampire cannot see it. In this way, Devatu often cloak their temporary havens in false trappings of luxury, or ward off trespassers with illusory guard dogs

Horrid Reality
Rather than create simple illusions, the vampire can now project hallucinations directly into a victim’s mind. The target of these illusions believes completely that the images are real; a hallucinatory fire can burn him, an imaginary noose can strangle him, and an illusory wall can block him. This power affects only one person at a time; though others can see the illusion, it doesn’t impact them in the same way. Other people can try to convince the victim that his terrors are not real, but he won’t believe them. Note that targets with enough dots in Auspex can still attempt to roll for Seeing the Unseen.

False Resonance
Illusions of living or unliving beings are all well and good until someone decides to read the illusion’s mind or its aura. The automatic failure to perceive any sense of the target’s thoughts or emotions will usually be passed off as bad luck, lack of concentration, or whatever reason any Kindred might construct to explain why he didn’t succeed in gleaning information through supernatural means. A vampire can use False Resonance to overlay auras and thoughts on illusions, as well as leave a trace that other emotionally resonant powers can detect later.

Fatuus Mastery
A Devatu with Fatuus Mastery has no restriction on how often she may use the first three levels (Ignis Fatuus, Fata Morgana, and Apparition) and can maintain or control illusions with minimal concentration or fatigue. Kindred who rely on the high cost of Chimerstry to limit a vampire’s ability to use illusions are in for a very rude surprise when they encounter a Kindred with this power.

Shared Nightmare
Even though Horrid Reality is visible to all onlookers, it can only inflict “damage” on one victim. With Shared Nightmare, a vampire can inflict her tormented visions on a crowd.

Far Fatuus
This power allows a Kindred to project illusions to any area he can see or visualize. Under most circumstances, accomplishing this requires him to have visited the location in question before he can project illusions there. Although more difficult, a vampire may project illusions on the basis of a description, a photo, or a video clip.

Suspension of Disbelief
A Devatu with this power can imbue her Chimerstry with a sense of reality that makes it easier for viewers to believe in the illusion. No matter how strange or surreal the illusion is, an onlooker will accept it as real. If the illusion is wildly unrealistic (fire-breathing dragons, a pack of aliens), once it is no longer in his sight, the observer will question what he saw and eventually deny the event ever happened. A vampire can also use this power to make something appear unbelievable, whether it’s real or not. In this case, observers will write off what they’re seeing as some kind of trick or hallucination.

Synesthesia
A Kindred who masters this power can shuffle others’ senses around to suit his preferences. He can select one target and inflict a serious, disorienting, and all-encompassing case of synesthesia upon her, making it impossible for her to interact meaningfully with the real world for the power’s duration. The vampire has complete control over how the target’s senses work and can manipulate them to suit. For example, he may decide that she smells all sounds as varieties of nauseating stenches, or more subtly, he may exchange pain for pleasure. Used against a crowd, sensations are randomly shuffled, so one man will see what the woman next to him sees, but hears what the man 15 feet behind him hears and feels what the child a block away feels. The end result is extremely disorienting for all victims.

Mayaparisatya
This expression of Chimerstry allows the Kindred to directly alter or create real objects or creatures, although such changes are of finite duration. A vampire with this power can transform the air around a rival Kindred into fire or render a locked door insubstantial. A more harrowing use of this power enables the vampire to force an object out of existence by transforming it into nothing more than a wisp of its former reality.