Gazing into the eyes of a corpse, you can see the image burned into its death. A moment's concentration allows you to call up the memories of death itself. You immediately see the last minute of the individual's existence, generally as flashes of vision and startling sensations.
Summon Soul
By calling out the names of the dead, you can pull them to attendance. Combined with the power over their artifacts from their life, you can force them to answer your summons, appearing and obeying your will.
To call a ghost, you must know its name, or at least have a clear image of its persona from The Spirit's Touch. You must also have an object with which the ghost has some contact with while it was alive, achieving better results if the object has particular importance to the ghost (also known as a Fetter). Some wraiths cannot be summoned regardless of your efforts; many ghosts are lost in the eternal storm of the Underworld. Vampires who were diablerized or who achieved Golconda before Final Death likewise cannot be summoned in this fashion.
Compel Soul
By binding a ghost with its name and your strength of will, you can force it to obey your commands. Once you have summoned a wraith (Summon Soul), you may use Compel Soul to make it answer your questions and serve your bidding. The wraith must answer your questions truthfully and act as you direct. During this time, the ghost remains visible and audible to you as well. This effect lasts only for about one hour.
Haunting
Your powers of necromantic compulsion allow you to force a ghost to remain in a particular location, or near a specific object. With a cryptic phrase and a powerful command, you bind the wraith so it may not leave.
Torment
There is a reason that ghosts fear the most powerful necromancers of the Giovanni. Through the use of Torment, the necromancer can inflict actual damage on the dead, punishing them for their indiscretions.
Though you remain in the physical world, you can lash out with supernatural energies upon the ghost, although many Vampires choose to direct the blow by striking physically. If your attacks inflict lethal damage on the wraith, it is banished to the deeper levels of the Underworld for a full month, unable to return.
The Ash Path
(Communication with the Underworld)
Shroudsight
With minimal effort, you can see the Shroud that separates the world of the living from the lands of the dead. The Underworld appears as a decaying and ghastly reflection of the mortal world, sometimes with structures lost to the past or unusual spirits flying about. You can see (though not hear or feel) anything that transpires in the Underworld within your normal visual range, with a sort of "double sight" that does not hinder your normal vision.
Lifeless Tongues
The babble of restless spirits is clear to you. By concentrating for a moment, you attune your senses to the Underworld, making yourself capable of both seeing and hearing all that transpires there around you. Furthermore, you can understand the language of the dead, so unless a ghost goes out of the way to use a language that you do not know, you can comprehend the words of any wraith.
Dead Hand
The structures and entities of the Underworld are very real to you. In a bizarre sort of half-life, you can stretch your physical form across the Shroud, interacting with beings and scenery there even as your physical body remains partially in the living world. During this time, you do not actually pierce the Shroud, but your actions affect both worlds. Thus, you can climb a ghostly rope, then turn and step onto a real-world roof. You can also lash out physically and strike or grapple with ghosts, though they can return the attacks. However, you cannot push or pull objects from one world to the next. Effectively, you exist in both realms simultaneously, which can be very disturbing to those watching you climb invisible ropes or grapple unseen opponents.
Ex Nihilo
Tearing through the Shroud between worlds, you can cross into the land of the dead. This journey is a harrowing one, for many spirits wait to take vengeance on necromancers, and the Underworld is full of hazards unknown to most Vampires. Furthermore, there is no way to gather blood or sustenance in the Underworld and you can become lost in the storms and seas of the deadlands. Still, this discipline allows for direct contact with shades of the restless and it serves as an unusual means of travel. While you are in the Underworld, you still see everything that transpires in the mortal world, but your physical form exists in the realm of the dead.
Shroud Mastery
Your control over the barrier between the living and dead worlds is nearly absolute. Instead of stepping across or watching the events of the Underworld, you can actually manipulate the fabric of the Shroud. By changing the strength of the web between worlds, you can make it easier to cross, or bar wraiths from exerting their influence on the material world.
The Bone Path
(Control Over Zombies)
Tremens
You can instill a corpse with a brief jolt of life. Though this discipline is insufficient to actually animate or control bodies, you can make them start or twitch spasmodically. Naturally, this sight frightens those unaccustomed to the mobile dead.
The body then twitches or moves briefly in a fashion that you dictate, from sitting up to blinking to flailing an arm momentarily. With a little extra concentration, you can implant a command into the corpse instead, causing it to move (once only) as you direct when a certain event comes to pass. Corpses twitching in this fashion cannot actually attack or inflict damage, but they can certainly startle the unwary.
Apprentice's Brooms
Your skills in the Bone Path allow you to animate the dead, bringing ambulatory motion and a semblance of understanding to a cold corpse. Though they cannot fight, these zombies follow simple instruction, performing tasks that you set to them. Corpses animated with this discipline cannot fight...but perform the single task as you direct until they complete the job or until time or damage destroys them. Cadavers continue to rot, slowly, even after beings imbued with this energy.
Shambling Hordes
When you raise the dead to do your bidding, they come in skeletal hordes and withered masses that obey your every command, working and fighting until destroyed. Any body, no matter how decomposed, can be raised to serve your will.
As long as the skeleton is reasonably intact, the corpse rises to do your bidding. Such guardians can perform tasks or fight for you with no regard to their own welfare. They can be given orders to attack people or to guard an area, and they wait tirelessly until destroyed. Decomposition will continue for corpses in varying states of decay, although completely skeletal guardians will be unaffected.
Soul Stealing
Your mastery of animated flesh and spirit allows you to pull the soul from a living or undead body. With Soul Stealing, you draw out the victim's soul, turning it temporarily into a wraith while leaving the body as an empty husk.
Daemonic Possession
Though you are not dealing with actual infernal spirits, you can cast a willing soul into a fresh corpse or inanimate body. Thus embedded, the soul takes control of the body, turning it into a new physical home. Dead bodies continue to decay, and thus, they last no more than a week, but this trick provides a perfect temporary repose for a free-floating soul or summoned ghost.
