Long before the Tremere plundered Tzimisce and Salubri blood to become vampires, sorcerers have existed among the damned. The koldun are the oldest of these, or at least claim so. It is clear that Koldunic Sorcery is ancient, as old as the Eldest if legends may be believed. Its magic does not depend on formulae and lifeless, categorized rotes. Rather, it draws power from the most unlikely source: the living earth. Koldunic Sorcery excels in manipulating the natural elements in subtle and grandiose ways, yet its paths follow no other directions and so many rituals build on spirituality and vitality thought lost to vampires. Informed stories of Koldunic Sorcery inevitably turn to the demon Kupala that infests the very soil of the Tzimisce homeland. Perhaps the koldunonce drew power from healthy earth and their corruption brought about the blight that is Kupala. Perhaps the Fiends found tainted power in Kupala and formed magic around the beast. It is not clear where the sorcery ends and the beast begins, or if the two merely coexist. What is certain is that Koldunic Sorcery is not gentle or kind to the earth, any more than the Fiends are gentle to the beasts and men who walk upon the earth. Just as the Tzimisce fleshcraft servants to tend their masters better, so too do koldun warp the land and its nature to serve their own ends. Such gross violations of the natural order offend the Lupines, but the Tzimisce have endured too long to flinch from the ire of cringing dogs.
Ways of Power
As a Discipline rooted in tainted elemental magic, the actual mechanics of Koldunic Sorcery differ from the Hermetic arts of the Usurpers. Simple knowledge of one form of blood sorcery does not permit the learning or casting of another form’s paths and rituals, though it is theoretically possible for a Cainite to learn both arts if he separately learns both Disciplines. Given the unremitting state of hostilities between the Tzimisce and the Tremere, however, such a feat will likely remain theoretical for the indefinite future. Like Thaumaturgy, Koldunic Sorcery divides into paths and rituals. Koldun speak of their paths as ways, five of which form the core of all their magic. Though not unknown, lesser ways are rare in the extreme and usually build on a specific aspect of a core way. Most koldun who have fought the Tremere dismiss the debased sorceries of the Usurpers as nothing more than fragmented lesser ways distilled through lies and misconceptions.
The actual casting of Koldunic ways requires more than a clumsy exertion of will. Such magic demands perfection of form and mastery of the appropriate lore. In effect, the ways of the Discipline more closely resemble a cascade of dependent rituals than paths as understood by Thaumaturgy. As such, the ways do not require a Willpower roll. Instead, the caster’s player spends one blood point and rolls (the specific Attribute listed for the given way) + Occult against a difficulty of the power’s level + 3. Vampires always use the base Attribute, ignoring any bonuses gained from blood expenditure or other magic. Owing to the Discipline’s dependence on ritualized knowledge, characters with the Occult specialty “Koldunism†may add an extra die as normal. Characters without this specialized lore add +1 to the base difficulty of all castings. The rules for koldunic rituals duplicate those for ways, save that the requisite Attribute is always Intelligence and rituals take a minimum of 5 minutes per level to perform unless otherwise noted. Each koldun must select one of the ways listed below as his primary one.
