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====== True Faith (proposal) ======

True Faith is a ‘Discipline’ that represents the power gained through belief in the Divine. While modelled with the rules for Disciplines, True Faith represents more than a ‘skill’  – it is a fundamental part of the character which expresses the power. As such, it is much more a personal journey than a power that is acquired.

True Faith is not dependent on a specific religion or set of belief, and kindred of any religion can acquire True Faith, as long as their belief is true. Different faiths may express different powers and even different requirements for powers to better fit their respective religion. In fact, True Faith is not limited to Kindred – other creatures can also have True Faith.

===== 'Learning' True Faith =====

True Faith is not a skill that can be learned in the way that other disciplines can be learned through a teacher. You cannot train or study to advance in the power, nor can you in fact acquire the power from a teacher at all. Instead, a different system is used.

=== Taste of Blood ===

All disciplines require a “Taste of Blood”, that is, you must have partaken at least once in the vitae of someone who has learned to use the discipline, in order to learn it. For True Faith, this requirement works differently, as the power does not come from the blood, but from your faith.

Rather than partaking in the vitae of someone who has learned to use the discipline, you must find a similar connection between the Divine and yourself, within the context of your faith.

=== Divine Mission ===

Even with the Taste of Blood requirement met, it is not possible to simply “train” to learn True Faith powers. Instead of training as is required with other Disciplines, True Faith requires that a Divine Mission is successfully completed for each power – that is, instead of finding a trainer, you must complete a Divine Mission. 

A Divine Mission is a quest of a spiritual nature which to some degree is related to your faith, and which expresses its interests for the greater good. Such a quest should pose a challenge to your faith, which you must reconcile with your beliefs so they can grow stronger through them. Moreover, to complete a Divine Mission, you must go beyond the normal definition of basic success in the completion of the quest, doing so while staying in line with your faith. Finally, you cannot set out on a quest with the goal of it being a Divine Mission, but rather a quest will turn out to be a Divine Mission upon completion.

Some examples of Divine Missions might include an American Muslim convincing his Muslim extremist captors to denounce violence and terrorism, a devout Christian closing a portal to a hell dimension or a Buddhist helping a fellow mystic to achieve Nirvana.

In general, Divine Missions should be granted if the character acted as if they were an agent sent by their God to help humanity, and they became closer to their God through their actions. Whether they accomplished this through brilliant problem solving, extreme skill or raw perseverance doesn't matter.

===== Gifts =====

The powers of True Faith, as well as the exact order in which they can be acquired, depend on the religion of the true believer. The powers presented on this page, by contrast, are aimed at the Christian religion. 

Because Christianity is the world's largest religion and has over 2.4 billion followers there is some room for variation between different believers, and the powers below are not intended to offer a unified model for all Christians.

The set of seven powers presented below form the shape of the cross. The first letters of the powers in the crossbar moreover spell out the letters INRI, the Latin inscription put on the cross during the crucifixion.

<WRAP round>
| ||  **True Faith** \\ ()  | ||
| ::: ||  ↓  | ::: ||
|  **Intercession** \\ ()  |  ←  |  **Numinous Revelation** \\ ()  |  →  |  **Illumination** \\ ()  |
| ||  ↓  | ||
| ::: ||  **Faith Healing** \\ ()  | ::: ||
| ::: ||  ↓  | ::: ||
| ::: ||  **Prayer** \\ ()  | ::: ||
| ::: ||  ↓  | ::: ||
| ::: ||  **Exorcism** \\ ()  | ::: ||
</WRAP>

==== True Faith ====

^ Precursor  | -  ^ Prerequisites  | Special, Humanity 8  |
^ Keywords  |  | ||

The true believers religion has become so engrained in their being that it becomes part of their nature, and going against the core tenets of their belief system becomes a fate worse than death – literally in some religions.

**System:** Any mental influences that defy the core tenets of the possessor's faith become [[book>disciplines.html#unacceptable-orders|Unacceptable Orders]]. Note that this only applies to core tenets – those that are held most sacred. This power does not make the user immune to everything which the faith may disagree with. 

For example, a Christian might still be ordered to wear clothing of two different fabrics (despite this theoretically going against instructions in the bible), but they could not be commanded to murder someone (as this would go against the ten commandments).

Note that this gift is the same for every religion, with the exception of the prerequisites.

**Special:** To qualify for this gift, the character must have true belief. That is, the character must belief and adhere to the world-view of the religion. This should most likely be discussed out of character beforehand.
==== Numinous Revelation ====

^ Precursor  | True Faith  ^ Prerequisites  | Occult 2  |
^ Keywords  |  | ||

The true believer gains the ability to feel holy or unholy energy through a numinous sense of awe or dread. This feeling is mostly subconscious, but allows you to know when you are interacting with such energies.

**System:** When you interact with sources of holy (or unholy) energy, such as when holding the Spear of Destiny, when entering the lair of a Demon or when encountering the ghost of a Saint of your religion, you are able to identify that you are dealing with such a source, and whether or not it is holy or unholy. At the discretion of the Storyteller, this information may be gained either consciously or subconsciously.

==== Intercession ====

^ Precursor  | Numinous Revelation  ^ Prerequisites  | Empathy 2  |
^ Keywords  | -  | ||

Intercession is the act of praying on behalf of others. In some religions this prayer may take the form of chanting incantations or even doing rituals (not to be confused with Rituals as described in Chapter 9). Regardless, the true believer takes time out of their day to pray on behalf of others.

**System:** This power can be used while someone other than the true believer is taking a check as part of an extended action. The intercession reduces the difficulty of the extended action by one. Using this power takes the same amount of time as a single roll for the extended action.

This power cannot be used on extended actions that go against the tenets of the true believers faith.

> I think this power is a little on the mechanical kind. As written, it is basically "prayer for difficulty reduction". —Brend
>> Since the intention of this power seems to be to assist someone, it should probably tie in to the current rules for assistance. —Freekjan
==== Illumination ====

^ Precursor  | Numinous Revelation  ^ Prerequisites  | Occult 2  |
^ Keywords  | -  ^ Cost | 1 WP |

When a creature has succumb to the Beast (for example, when they are in a Frenzy) or if they are otherwise overpowered by rage, the true believer is able to draw them out of their state.

**System:** When a creature frenzies or rages, you can approach them, speak soothingly to them and look them in the eyes. When you capture their attention, you use a Willpower. 

The creature that has succumb to the Beast then rolls a Willpower check against difficulty 8. If they succeed, they go out of Frenzy and regain control of themselves. On a botch, the Frenzy continues and now focusses entirely on the true believer, at the exclusion of all else.

This power cannot be used by the true believer on themselves, and does not work if going into a Frenzy was used to regain Willpower (but no Willpower is spent in that case).

==== Faith Healing ====

^ Precursor  | Numinous Revelation  ^ Prerequisites  | Medicine 2, Empathy 3  |
^ Keywords  |   ^ Cost | [1ahl] |

By praying with the sick or injured, the true believer can reduce the time they need to heal their injuries or illness. Those using this power often experience pains and discomforts similar to the one they are praying for.

**System:** This power can be used to speed up the healing process for an injury, illness or other affliction that will heal naturally over time, or which can otherwise be healed by regular medicine. It cannot affect injuries or illness that the target would not be able to overcome otherwise, such as severed limbs on incurable diseases.

Any time spent by the user in prayer will count towards the time of recovering, potentially cutting the time necessary to heal in half.

When using this power, the true believer may choose to suffer 1 level of unsoakable aggravated damage in the form of stigmata bleeding. If they do, the recovery time is reduced by ten times the time spent in prayer instead, but they suffer the symptoms of the affliction of the victim until these levels of damage have been healed. Note that since only symptoms are expressed, they will not be contagious. No physical alterations (beyond the Stigmata) take place, but the true believer will be disabled or have pain and limited mobility as the victim does at the time the power is activated, until the aggravated damage is healed.

A user with the Martyr nature and/or Demeanour cannot regain willpower from using this power by itself.
==== Prayer ====

^ Precursor  | Faith Healing  ^ Prerequisites  | Expression 4  |
^ Keywords  | -  | ||

The true believer prays in silence, asking God for aid. Sometimes, God answers.

**System:** The true believer asks God for aid. Prayer may take anywhere from a few minutes to several days, during which the true believer devotes their time to prayer.

At the discretion of the Storyteller, either during or after the use of the power, some form of help arrives. It may take the form of a new insight, an outside force arriving to help, something in the situation changing due to random circumstance, etc - God works in mysterious ways.

Note that this power is not guaranteed to work. Either nothing may happen, or what the true believer interprets as help from God was actually going to happen regardless of the use of this power, or the true believer may fail to see the help that came. There is no way to know.

==== Exorcism ====

^ Precursor  | Prayer  ^ Prerequisites  | Occult 5  |
^ Keywords  | -  ^ Cost | [1wp]  |

The true believer gains the ability to break the hold that a supernatural evil has over a host. For example, this power can be used to force a Wraith or a Demon to release its hold on a mortal it is possessing or end the effect of powers like Subsume the Beast.

The true believer must openly and clearly pray for a host (who must be present) to be released. By doing so, a battle of wills is started between the possessing entity and the faithful. 

While it is ongoing, the true believer is limited to praying and speaking to the subject, and then only in line with the exoricism, for example praying for the evil to leave or encouraging the host to retake control. The possessed entity is not limited in this manner.

**System:** Each round, the true believer rolls Willpower against a difficulty of the (Willpower + 1) of the possessing entity in an extended roll. 6 successes minus the Self-Control of the host must be gathered. If the host is willingly being possessed, one willpower must be spent to start the process, and the full 6 successes must be gathered. On a botch, progress is reset to zero.

This power cannot be used by the true believer on themselves.
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