Dominate

Characters with this discipline can project their will outward and force it on others. It is possible to force others to carry out specific commands or modify their memories of things the vampire wishes to keep secret. All uses of dominate require eye contact and the verbalization of instructions. After an instruction has been carried out, the victim is usually aware that he did something strange, and a vampire who knows the discipline can put two and two together to understand what has happened. However, Dominate has limitations when it comes to what kind of commands can be set. Obvious self-destructing commands never work. This applies both to situations that are of immediate danger to the character's death (for example, jumping into a burning house) and situations that will obviously lead to the character's downfall (for example, drawing weapons against the prince on the Elysium). Beyond that, the discipline cannot be used to force someone to speak the "truth". The character using dominate must know what the victim is actually going to do or say. Commands like "tell the truth" will only result in the victim repeating the word "truth" over and over or a random word salad if commanded to "speak". Extracting information from someone's mind requires Auspex, not Dominate.

Level 1

Cloud memory

By uttering the phrase “forget!” then the vampire can make the victim forget the last few minutes. An effective tool to make someone forget being drunk from or seeing the vampire when they want to remain unseen. The victim usually does not notice that this has happened unless they have a reason to try to remember; they will only then realize that a couple of minutes are missing.

Compel

The character can give a short command that is followed by the victim. It is usually no more than a short sentence like "get out of the room" or "bow before the prince". If the command is unclear, the victim chooses for themselves how to interpret it, but usually the result of such commands is that they simply stand confused for a while.

Cost: None

System: Mental Duel required. The player activates the power by saying "dominate: forget" to the victim. If the character wins, the victim forgets the last few minutes. If they manage to resist, they realize that someone tried to manipulate their mind.

Cost: None

System: Mental Duel required. The player activates the power by saying "dominate: compel" to the victim followed by the command. If the player wins, the victim must carry out the command, otherwise they realize that someone has tried to manipulate their mind.

Level 2

Dementation (requires Obfuscate 2)

By subtly applying the Discipline ability during a conversation, the character can gradually break down his victim until they break down. All it takes to activate the ability is a short conversation.

Cost: Hunger +1

System: Metal Duel required. The player activates the power by saying "dementation". If the player wins, the victim slowly breaks down during the conversation and has a nervous breakdown. The effects are up to the victim, but should play on their existing traumas, anxieties or inner demons and prevent them from carrying out any meaningful actions unless their lives are in immediate danger.

Mesmerize

At this level, the character can issue more complex commands that cover more than a single action. The instructions must still be obeyed directly and cannot include conditions such as "punch the sheriff in the face when he comes in", but otherwise more complex multi-step instructions can be ordered.

Cost: Hunger +1

System: Mental Duel required. The player activates the power by saying "dominate: mesmerize" to the victim followed by the command. If the player wins, the victim must execute the command, otherwise nothing happens and the victim does not know that someone tried to manipulate them.

Level 3

The forgetful mind

The character can rewrite parts of the victim's memory rather than simply erase it. They must keep the victim's focus and verbally describe the new memories. This does not give the character any knowledge of the original memories. Entire days can be reframed in this way, but success varies depending on how detailed and believable the player manages to construct the invented memories. Incoherent or contradictory memories give the victim a reason to suspect in retrospect that something is amiss, while a skillful construction leaves them blissfully unaware.

Cost: Hunger +1

System: Mental Duel required. The player activates the power by saying "dominate: the forgetful mind". If the player wins, they must describe the new memories, but if the process is interrupted, the power also ends. Afterwards, the victim only remembers what was said and the old memories are gone. If the player loses the mental duel, the victim does not notice anything. The character cannot change or delete memories that are more than a day old, after that they are so stable that they cannot be manipulated.

Submerged directive

The player can set conditions for other powers of Dominate to activate. A command can be programmed not to activate until a certain amount of time has passed or certain other conditions have been met, such as "give this letter to the prince in twenty days". There is no upper limit to how far into the future this can be placed; a command can lie in the victim's subconscious for years waiting to be activated.

Cost: Passive

System: Works just like the power it is applied to, but under the new conditions above.