Chapter 3: The Dark Widow
Updated: 13 November 1999
Chapter 3: The Dark Widow
The Dark Widow is a subject that have bothered my imagination since the idea of the Black Widow (which came to me before I started to play Vampire: The Masquerade!). The fact that I never found a suitabe rule to simulate it is the reason behind numerous official and non-official rules for it. Now, I stettled my mind around a ''Discipline'' concept, called Furie. This chapter is only written to make everything clear in everyone's mind.
Because of some obscure legacy coming with the Vitae of the Founder of the Bloodline (most people think her to be either Lillith, Hathor or Selkis), a Black Widow has an easy access to a strange, mysterious Discipline called tonight ''Furie''. This Discipline, instead of tapping into the power of the Vitae of the Vampire, seems to feed from (and excite) her darkest urges.
Despite her most sincere tries, the Black Widow slowly loses her Humanity (or any other Path of Illumination) to replace it with more cruel principles. The transition is never pleasurable, and more often that not, the Black Widow prefers suicide to what she sees as a corruption of her soul. But sometimes, the Black Widow survives the change of Principles.
This Chapter is about description of the transition phase, as well as some particular cases (coming back from the Dark Widow, etc.)
Prelude :
Everything starts with a Discipline, called Sekhmet in the past, and Furie these nights. As this Discipline feed on the dark desires and instincts of the Black Widow's soul, this enhance them and slowly frees them from the Black Widow moral constraints.
Any Black Widow is considered into the ''Prelude Stage'' (and some believe no one but the Black Widow can learn Furie because of this!), even if they haven't the Furie Discipline: At first, the Black Widow will only feel urges to do things her conscience feels horror for, like torture, cruel vengeance, even unnecessary violence.
Systems: This is a simple role-playing. At the Storyteller's whim, this can remain such, or it can, one night, lead to the possibility, for the Black Widow character to learn Furie, without a teacher, and as a non-Clan Discipline.
The Awakening: Outrage & Furie
Now the Black Widow has at least one dot in Furie. This means her dark instincts evolved into a more intelligent, conscious state. The Black Widow has now two personnality: The original one (following by default Humanity) and the Dark Widow (whose principles could be similar to those of the Path of Lillith). The ''spritual power'' of the Dark Widow is measured in the rating of the Furie Discipline. As the Black Widow must willingly learns each power, she willingly open herself to her Dark Side influence.
Each time the Black Widow uses a Furie power, the Dark Widow try to make profit of this to take over, if only for a little time. During this time of stress, the Black Widow's behaviour changes, usually doing nothing or little, apparently victim of a dangerous dilemma. Should she keep the control of herself, she usually exhibes signs of mental exhaustion (after all, she probably used Willpower to keep the control.
On the contrary, the behaviour of a Dark Widow taking over her ''good side'' can't be predicted, from extasy to calmness, from flamboyant evil to deceitful masquerade as her good counterpart... But in the end, the Dark Widow takes over, and while she has almost the same desires, or goals than those of the Black Widow, her morality swaps from Humanity-based principles to a losely set of Path of Lillith-like principles. And Lillins are not known for their goodness. The Player (and Storyteller) should give the Dark Widow a Nature that will guide its actions, as well as define the type of events that would help provoke its awakening. Samples of Natures can be found in Wraith: The Oblivion, as well as in Kindred of the East, but can anyway be created by the Player and Storyteller.
When the Dark Widow takes the control, the Black Widow conscience usually falls in a comatose state, and won't probably remember anything (perhaps not even the fact that led her to lose control). Only a deep spiritual work (like hypnosis, Dominate or even Meditation) can enable a Black Widow to recover the memories of her Dark Side. Sometimes, a shock (like evidence of the crime) can provoke such remembrance, but are at the discretion of the Storyteller. But if the Black Widow decided to ''ride the wave'', she remain conscious, and thus can direct the actions of the Dark Widow.
This is a resume of the Steps to an Outrage:
Outrage Roll
As a rule of thumb, each time a Black Widow uses a Power of Furie, there is a possibility for the Dark Widow to take over the Black Widows. Other actions can also lead to an Outrage Roll, like when the Black Widow will act against the Path of Lillith (see Guide to the Sabbat, p 141-144), but these happen least often.
System: Furie, Diff: Usually 10-Level of the Power.
If the Black Widow uses a power of Furie, roll Furie,
Diff: 10-level of the power used.
If the Black Widow commit an action that is forbidden
by the Path of Lillith, the Outrage Roll can
be rolled (it means that it
only happen at dramatic moments!). The Difficulty
is usually of 9, but can be decreased by the permanent
rating of Furie, and increased by the Black Widow's
Humanity (If Cath had a Furie level of 3, and an Humanity
of 7, the difficulty would be 9-3+7 = 13 -- it can
seem surprising, but chances are good that a Black Widow
will have soon a greater rating in Furie than in Humanity.
By the way, other Paths --but the most Good-aligned-- don't
count If Cath had 7 in the Path of Caine, the difficulty would
be 9-3=6!).
If successful, the Black Widow will enter a frenzy-like
state of evil and intelligent behaviour called Furie
where the dark side of her soul, the Dark Widow, will take
control. To resist, she will have to accumulate in a Frenzy-like
Roll as much as successes obtained by the Dark Widow to
resist its urges (see Furie).
Furie
The Furie is a kind of Frenzy, but intelligence and cunning replace instincts. The Dark Widow is now in control, and she want to works things her own way (that is, in ways similar in philosophy to the Path of Lillith!). That means she will have no pity, and will stop at nothing to reach her goals. Cruelty, torture, murder, blackmail. She have a quasi-artistic sense of evil, and her chosen victim probably won't know until too late he have been targeted, until everything that was his life destroyed, friends, artworks, possessions, lovers, etc. Usually, the Frenzy last one Scene, but sometimes, it can last nights or even weeks a row, enabling the Dark Widow to intrigue easily...
System: Conscience, Diff:7 (Conscience 9 to remain conscious).
Should the Dark Widow awaken (i.e. Furie Roll, with a non-Null
number of successes), the Black Widow can choose to resist by
rolling Conscience against a base Difficulty of 7. As any
Frenzy roll, this roll is extended, and she must do as much
success as the Dark Widow's ones (or by Storyteller's choice).
If she succeed, she doesn't enter Furie. A failure means that
the Black Widow has been overwhelmed by her own evil tendancies
and enter Furie. A Botch means the Dark Widow has gained a solid
foothold on the Black Widow's soul, and she ''wins'' a Derangement
(usually a compulsion, or a phobia in accord to the Path of
Lillith philosophy), and that the Black Widow is automatically
considered non-conscious.
While the Black Widow is usually considered ''in Torpor'' when in Furie, she can try to remain conscient by succeeding another Conscience Roll, Diff: 9. Remaining conscient means the Black Widow will be able affect the Dark Widow's action by succeeding a Willpower Roll or spending a Willpower point, and thus avoid too much evil, at the risk of being confronted to her own evil actions and lose Humanity. Botching this roll will mean that the the Black Widow is conscious and unable to affect the Dark Widow's action! Of course, choosing the easy way (i.e. falling out of conscience) can protect her from Degeneration as she doesn't know the evil things done by her dark side. The problem is that the Dark Widow, who knows how long the Furie will last, will probably let some gory present behind her, just to remind her: Dark Widows usually hide such ''skelettons'' for the Black Widows to discover later (Multiple and simultaneous Degeneration rolls can be quite efficient to weaken a Black Widow ''light side''!).
Beside the fact the Dark Widow can use the Discipline Furie without problem, there is no other advantage to Furie. Riding the wave simply means (in rule terms) the Conscience Roll to resist is to be considered failed, but not Botched, and that the Black Widow is conscious (and able to resist some evil actions). At the Storyteller's discretion Furie roll could replace some Frenzy or Rötschreck rolls.
Taking Over : The Spiritual Rape
As soon as the Level of Furie is equal or greater than the Black Widow's Humanity (or equal and greater than the Black Widow's any other path minus 2!) the Dark Widow is powerful enough to take the total control of the divided soul. This is usually spiritually a very painful end to a mental torture that had plagued the Black Widow for some time. After this moment of spiritual agony (which can last as long as seconds to weeks) in which every tiny principle the Black Widow held dear is examined, evaluated under a ''Lillin viewpoint'' and most of the time painfully ridiculized, the Black Widow has now reached ''spiritual maturity''. She is considered to follow now the Path of Lillith.
System:
This is a Role-playing effect, but can be resolved as this:
Unless very special circonstances, the Black Widow will
change. Her Dark Side will take over more easily, and
the Black Widow will remain conscious and try
(without success) to stop the evil actions of the Dark
Widow. As she is consious, she will have to roll
a Degeneration roll for each ''sin'' commited. As soon
as Conscience reaches zero, the roll is automatically
failed. As soon as Humanity reaches zero, the Dark Side
takes over, and nothing but a miracle will reverse this
(though some theorize that a Dark Widow learning Bardo
would face a similar challenge from her until then
defeated good counterpart).
In the end, the Black Widow (should we call her Dark Widow, now?) replaces her virtues by those of the Path of Lillith, and her Humanity (or Path of Illumination) with the Path of Lillith. Her new rating in the Path of Lillith is equal the rating of Furie. Her new rating in her Virtues are half (rounded up) the rating of Furie.
Conclusion: Notes about the Dark Side
After years of gaming, I was starting to consider Frenzy and Rötschrek as boring as death: I had taken dispositions to remove the possibilities of my character's damaging or killing those she wanted to protect, so I have few risk of losing Humanity in Frenzy.
I wanted a new form of Frenzy, more cunning, more intelligent, and more Evil. The Dark Side was created as an opposition Good vs Evil: Two twin souls, opposite sides of the same coin. So the importance of the Balance (in game/philosophy terms) between Humanity and Evil has yet to be discovered. I don't know if it still compatible with other Paths, so if you want to try it at your own risk...
