This Discipline has been handed down since Osiris himself first discovered this path. It involves attainment of a constant state of mystical consciousness, only achieved by the rigid, ascetic unlife of the Children. This Discipline is not the same state as Golconda. Golconda is a realization and acceptance of the way things are, while the Children’s Disciplines are based on denial. They deny the Beast within them by intensely concentrating on their Humanity and their state of death. If a Child was to give up his meditations and discipline, he would be assailed by his Beast.

The Child must maintain Humanity equal to their highest level of ability, or else lose that ability. For example, a Child must have a Humanity of 9 to gain the ninth level of attainment. If the Child’s Humanity ever drops below the required level, then the ability of that level is lost and must be bought all over again with experience points. The Child can counteract this with Restore Humanitas (below).

A Child of Osiris cannot follow any type of moral code other than Humanity.

Rank 1 - Restore Humanitas

The first thing that the Children of Osiris are taught is that Humanity does not have to be an inexorable slide into depravity. Instead, it is more akin to a climb up an extremely steep hill. The vampire is going to lose some ground, but with perseverance and strength, he can regain it.

System: When the vampire loses a dot of Humanity, he can attempt to regain it without spending experi- ence points by using this power. The Child must use this power within a week of losing the Humanity, and must not have lost any more Humanity since the initial loss (that is, if the character falls from Humanity 8 to Humanity 7, and then falls to Humanity 6 before using this power, Restore Humanitas can only be used to re- cover Humanity 7). The character meditates for sever- al hours, and spends all of the blood points currently in his body. The player then rolls Conscience (difficulty equal to the level of Humanity being regained). If the roll succeeds, the character regains the dot of Human- ity and (if applicable) the dot of Conscience lost to a botched degeneration roll. If the character gained a derangement, it fades within a week of using Restore Humanitas.

Rank 2 - Banishing Sign of Thoth

The character gestures, turning aside any supernatu- ral effect aimed at her. The source of the effect does not matter. She can thwart, or at least blunt, the strength of any mystical attack. This sign was supposedly taught to Osiris by Thoth, the Egyptian god of wisdom and magic. What Thoth actually was — vampire, mortal, or spellcaster — is lost to time.

System: The player spends a blood point and rolls Dexterity + Occult (difficulty 7). This power can be used to “dodge” any incoming attack of a mystical na- ture, including any Disciplines that target the charac- ter (whether or not they actually inflict damage). Any successes the player rolls are subtracted from the suc- cesses on the attacker’s roll. The sign does not serve to turn aside magically enhanced physical attacks; a punch from a vampire with the Potence Discipline still has the full effect.

Rank - 3 Gift of Apis

All vampires must consume blood, no matter how good their intentions. While this basic fact of undeath cannot be circumvented, the Children of Osiris can at least avoid drinking human blood.

System: Animal blood is just as nourishing to the character as human blood. An animal is considered to have a blood pool equal to the number of health lev- els it has, rather than the lesser value usually assigned to represent the creature’s less-than-filling fluids (see p. 270 for more on drinking from animals). This ability is always active.

Rank - 4 Pillar of Osiris

In the center of every temple is a Pillar of Osiris, a place of meditation and power in which the Children’s magic is greatly increased. At this level of Bardo, the character learns to create such a Pillar, meaning that he can create his own temple.

System: Creating the Pillar of Osiris requires a night-long ritual, with the difficulty determined by the location. The more remote and free from violence the location is, the lower the difficulty. A cave far from human populations that has never seen violence might be difficulty 5, which the site of a grisly murder-suicide in a downtown area would be difficulty 9. The player spends a Willpower point and rolls Willpower. Success creates the Pillar, which does not require a physical pil- lar — the Pillar of Osiris is conceptual, not literal.

Once the Pillar is created, any vampire with at least one dot of Bardo receives a -3 to the difficulties of any Discipline or other mystical activity (including blood magic) performed at the Pillar. However, this requires regular trips to the Pillar. Once the vampire has cre- ated a Pillar, he must visit it at least once a month, or it ceases to function. In addition, for every week he is away from a Pillar (not necessarily the one he cre- ated), the difficulties of all rolls to avoid frenzy increase by one. The Beast, long denied by the Child’s ascetic practices, grows in strength while away from the Pil- lar, and eventually pushes the vampire to frenzy and (likely) Humanity loss. The Children of Osiris, for this and other reasons, do not leave their temples for long.

Rank 5 - Paradox

AThe Child utters a phrase or a riddle that lays bare the truth of the universe to a listener. That truth — the perspective of that one listener’s importance weighed against the whole of creation — is enough to immo- bilize the target for short while. Although this expe- rience would seem to be disheartening, after the fact the targets are loath to harm the Child. Whether that’s because of a newfound appreciation for one’s place in the world, or out of fear that the vampire will reveal the paradox again, no one really knows.

System: The vampire speaks the phrase, and the player spends a point of Willpower and rolls Manipula- tion + Occult (difficulty equal to the listener’s current Willpower). If multiple listeners are present, the player rolls against the highest difficulty. If the roll is success- ful, the listener(s) is immobilized for the scene as he contemplates what he has heard. Striking the victim snaps him out of it. At the end of the scene, the para- dox is gone, and the target can’t ever quite explain it. He does, however, suffer a permanent +1 difficulty to harm or act against the Child of Osiris.