Description: Bloodcasting is the draining and using of blood to cast spells. One may use one's own blood or the blood of another. Freshness of the blood can affect the effectiveness of the spell. There is a brief ceremony done with the blood to invoke the spell, which usually involves making a pattern with the blood.

Generally, using this requires intricate knowledge of bloodletting and of the proper ceremony and mental state for the spheres used.

Bloods: The Divine patron of a race determines what sphere the blood is best for. The blood of the caster ignores this, though--no penalties or bonuses come from the caster's blood. It follows the same general pattern as spheres determined for Mediums. Menstrual blood is good for lunar magic.

Freshness: Any spell can be effected with fresh blood, but some work better with old (undeath, despair), diseased (pestilence), dried (famine), or otherwise tainted blood (darkness).

Damage: The more blood a caster loses, the more power their spell will have. Location of where the blood comes from can help (lung blood is good for air magic, brain blood for knowledge, etc.). Location usually gives a +3 or -3 for a bad choice.

Power	Blood Loss
25	100%
24	96%
23	92%
22	88%
21	84%
20	80%
19	76%
18	72%
17	68%
16	64%
15	60%
14	56%
13	52%
12	48%
11	44%
10	40%
9	36%
8	32%
7	28%
6	24%
5	20%
4	16%
3	12%
2	8%
1	4%

Learning: Each sphere of magic requires a different state of mind and ceremony to allow the caster to understand the necessary amount of mana to cast their intended spell & the corresponding amount of damage, as well as intent. To channel blood loss into the requisite energy for manipulating mana, one must be able to endure a great deal of fatigue & keep a sharp mind for at least a moment. This requires extensive mental training. The chart below shows how long each sphere takes to learn for an average human:

Sphere	Years
Chaos	4
Darkness	1
Cosmos	4
Dream	5
Moons	3
Fire	2
Light	6
Pestilence	2
Destruction	3
Earth	4
Hatred	2
War	2
Water	4
Knowledge	6
Famine	3
Peace	4
Sun	3
Hope	5
Flora	4
Harvest	4
Music	4
Order	4
Creation	4
Death	7
Despair	1
Life	5
Silence	2
Meta	1
Fauna	2
Healing	6
Truth	6
Weather	4
Air	4
Celebration	5
Luck	7
Time	6
Dragon	2
Fate	7
Undeath	4
Love	5
Wealth	3
Envy	3
Vision	5
Ice	4
Travel	4
Home	6
Change	3
Balance	10
Metal	2
Might	2
Wisdom	7
Mischief	4
Connection	5
Hunt	2
Insight	6
Skill	5
Family	6
Story	7
Force	3
Nightmare	3

Learning the appropriate ceremony is included in the above times.

Fatigue: Fatigue is determined by the amount of blood lost. If blood other than the user's is used, then fatigue is equal to the blood lost to the victim, but one step down (i.e., if all blood is lost to the victim, it goes as if only almost all was lost to the caster).

Fatigue	Blood Loss
Death	100%
Death	96%
Death	92%
Coma	88%
Coma	84%
Coma	80%
MW, KO	76%
MW, KO	72%
MW, KO	68%
MW, Stun	64%
MW, Stun	60%
MW, Stun	56%
MW, LNA	52%
MW, LNA	48%
MW, LNA	44%
DW, KO	40%
DW, KO	36%
DW, Stun	32%
DW, Stun	28%
DW, LNA	24%
DW, LNA	20%
NW, KO	16%
NW, Stun	12%
NW, LNA	8%
NW, no stun	4%

Casting: How it works!

Decide what effect you want. Do you have an appropriate sphere? Great! Determine the difficulty with the GM, then decide if you want to use that much blood.

Take some blood. Either from yourself or from someone else, fresh or not. Put yourself in the right mental state (first round). Perform the ceremony (second round) and roll against the difficulty. Success rates determine effectiveness.

Recover if need be and if possible.

Failure: See here.

Sensing: See here.

Auras: None.