Faction Powers

25pts
You have undergone the ritual of bonding and have a shadow weapon. Shadow weaponry works in any World that shadows are cast.

50pts Includes the power of Time Sense.
Includes the powers of a Cousin.
May time travel using your shadow.
You may also attend Parliament.

75pts
Includes the powers of a Father/Mother.
May invest character points in personal timeloops.
Now outside of time, you no longer age.

15pts
Absolute time sense (always know what time it is, exactly). Can accurately predict the time of any mechanical process (including orbits of planets or the spinning of galaxies). Able to sense disturbances in time including creatures that have been unnaturally aged. Able to sense alternate timelines, including loops and other anomallies.
Also includes a high level of defense against time based weapons and effects.

5pts
Able to perform some rituals at lower rank. Able to drop a shadow weapon and bond with another. May get occasional glimpses of the future.
Prerequisites: Psyche must be higher than Human

15pts
Magic in the forms of rituals. Unlike Lords of Gossamer, with sorcery spells that are prepared beforehand and are hung to be activated later, Faction rituals are short, but must be prepared each time. Psyche is of primary importance for this power, but endurance may come into play if you start to have many spells hung, and warfare is required to actually hit your target with certain spells.
Prerequisites: Witch or a Faction rank higher than Cousin.

+5 pts
You have learned to incorporate the power of the Spirits (Umbra) into your sorcery, making it somewhat more reliable at the expense of longer casting time.
Prerequisites: You must have sorcery.

20 pts
Similar to Conjuration or Advanced Shapshift. The creation or manipulation of living things through their biodata. Any living material may be manipulated or tagged. Creatures and machines can be manufactured from the users blood, flesh or bones. Prerequisites: A Faction rank higher than Father/Mother

+5 pts
This is something you buy on top of Biothaumaturgy and it basically lets you have limited mind control. You can “conjure emotions” into people and put compulsions on them. Psyche is very important for this power.
Prerequisites: You must already have Biothaumaturgy to purchase High Compelling, though this in NOT considered an advanced power and is therefore NOT barred to starting characters.

20 pts
Similar to Icon Mastery. The ability to inscribe and use Time-active, memetically-engineered tattoos. The tattoos consist of symbolically inscribed time manipulative mathematics and formulas coded into the skin. A secret art of the Blood Coteries. It does not affect Biodata, but does give some measure of Time Sense defence to character. It also nullifies the physical effects of time-based weaponry (including shadow weapons).

+5 pts
This is something you buy on top of Tattoo Mastery and it basically lets you have limited physical control. You can see and communicate through the tattoo into people and put compulsions on them. Psyche is very important for this power. Note- unlike High compelling, this is a physical control. Physical pain and death can also be inflicted on the subject.
Prerequisites: You must already have Tattoo Mastery to purchase Memeodermic compelling, though this in NOT considered an advanced power and is therefore NOT barred to starting characters.

The Shadows that Cut

• Sombras Que Corta — Available to Cousins and above that have undergone the bonding ritual. A shadow weapon may be hidden in the owner's shadow or may be held separate, it can never be dropped by the shadow. Shadow weapons are always melee weapons held in one hand. A cultist is bonded to the weapon of their choice for life (or at least for the lifetime of their shadow)
  • Traits
    • Shadow - Shadow weaponry only exists in the gap between the universal time-frame, and the perceptive time-frame of the individual. The weapon is unaffected by things that do not cast shadows (including forcefields) and ignores armour.
    • Restriction (only in shadow) - The weapon can only be used in places where shadows can be cast against targets that have shadows.

• Shadow Walk - The ability to travel to different time periods of a World at the expense of your own shadow. Only available to ranks above Cousin
• Initiation / bonding - This ceremony is where a Godmother bonds a Cousin to a weapon (usually). Ranks above Cousin may have non-weapon relics bonded to them
• Shadow Stealing - Only known to be performed by Godfather Morlock. The acquiring of someone else's shadow
• Possession - As shown by Cousin Porsena, an Initiate can detach their shadow with this ritual, and if possessing part of the body of someone else, the shadow can overpower theirs (it stays on the ground “unconscious”). Once this happens, the initiate possesses their body and loses control of their own. When possession stops, the shadows move back to their owners.

The longer a shadow is away from the caster, and the more often it is made to move differently than the caster, the more chance it has of gaining full independence and leaving the caster permanently. These shadows occasionally become characters in their own right within Faction Paradox (such as Godfather Avatar).

• Invoking the Spirits - Used by Lolita of House Lolita. Must be performed in the Eleven Day Empire by a witch. Involves extensive cutting of the flesh. The person becomes one with the Spirits and has all power within the Empire that they do, until the power burns them out, killing them. Usually about 30 seconds or so.
• Control Rite - May be used for two purposes
  • Used to control a Shrine. A sacrifice of sufficient biomass, preferrably of the time period wanted to be reached, or a living being from near that time period. The more biomass the more accurate the biodata. The controller must also sacrifice some of their own biomass (usually blood) in order to communicate with the Spirits in the Shrine and move the Shrine.
  • This rite can also be used to control sentient beings if sufficient biomass is collected from said being. A voluntary possession is easier to accomplish. The Control Rite must be performed on the sacrificial dias in the Shrine. If incorrectly performed the Spirits may trap the ritualist in an infinite null-time zone. When controlling a sentient being, that being's soul travels to Conceptual Space - specifically to Mictlan, the home of the Celestis as some Faction technology uses Celestis techniques.
• Sacrificing to the Spirits - The act of sacrificing yourself to the Spirits. The Spirits will foreshadow their need for your sacrifice with reaccuring dreams in which as a younger version of yourself, you see an older version of yourself killing you. Then, when you have failed the Spirits in some way, or they require your life, they will cause you to travel back in time so you can kill the younger version of yourself. The resultant infinite regression in paradox of killing yourself over and over, feeds the Spirits of Paradox (Umbra).

• Invoking the Grandfather - Used by Cousin Justine to open doors or perform other telekinetic tricks. — Bloodline to bloodline, in constant transition. Our pattern, our flesh, and our one restoration. — Conception, completion, the will of the city. The Grandfather watch me. The Grandfather know me.. — Grandfather watch me. Spirits maintain me.
• The Hunt - As far as I can see, from the audio dramas - the Hunt is run for potential Godfathers or Godmothers. If they succeed in the Hunt then they become a godparent. — The hunt involves going back through time and killing your mother, grand mother and great grandmother. The result is to cut you out of time. It also means that enemies of the Faction will have great difficulty in ever using time against you.
• Dance of Pain - By concentrating on ritual words and moving the body in ritual covorts it is possible to control and ignore any amount of pain. As shown by Cousin Porsena in the City of the Saved, this ritual can be performed by an Initiate's shadow.