Hestia is the goddess of the hearth, home, community, and family. She is one of only three virgin goddesses, next to Athena and Artemis.
As the goddess of the hearth she personifies the fire burning in the hearth of every home in Greece. Hestia receives the first offering at every sacrifice in the household with families pouring sweet wine in her name and dedicating the richest portion of food to her.
Devotion Attributes: Stamina, Wits, Resolve
Devotion Abilities: Athletics, Empathy, Etiquette, Hearth Wisdom, Seneschal
Devotion Basic Blessings: Fire Tender, Peace of the Counselor, Vigil Brand
Fire Tender
The Chosen of Hestia are the guardians of the sacred flame. This Blessing allows them to continue their vigil without fear of harm or lack of fuel.
Cost: Special, See Below
Test Pool: None
System:
Once learned, this Blessing is always active.
First, The Chosen takes no damage from mundane fire, he need never worry about suffering from smoke inhalation, and even the most intense heat is nothing more than a comforting warmth to him. This immunity remains in effect regardless of what substance is burning.
Second, the Chosen may spend 1 Gnosis and a simple action to bless a mundane fire within line of sight. Normally, fire needs oxygen to breathe and fuel to consume. With this blessing, a Champion removes both necessities from a single flame for 24 hours. They could keep a single torch (or even a match) lit for hours as they explore a dark labyrinth. They could cause the tiny spark at the end of a candle to burn in place without moving. This Blessing is also good for keeping a source of flame from consuming the breathable air in an enclosed space. The Chosen must be able to see the flame they intends to bolster, but once they use this Blessing, they can leave its presence without canceling the effect. The fire they bolster with this Blessing can be no larger than that of an average campfire (roughly a yard in diameter).
Peace of the Counselor
This blessing enables a Chosen to bring even the most heated discussion to a peaceful conclusion.
Cost: 1 Gnosis
Test Pool: Charisma + Empathy vs. the Highest Composure + Willpower quarreling
System:
The Chosen spends a Standard Action and 1 Gnosis, making an opposed challenge against the highest Composure plus Willpower among those quarreling. On a success, this Blessing forces all those present to stop fighting for a number of minutes equal to the Chosen's Empathy rating. This stops all varieties of fighting, including social or mental gifts that require an opposed challenge. This Blessing may only be used once per scene and can only be used indoors or in a space that could be designated as a place of rest. Once the Blessing ends hostilities may resume, though often after the forced calm and the words of the chosen they are unlikely to.
Exceptional Success:
This forced peace lasts for thirty minutes, instead of the normal duration.
Vigil Brand
With a touch, the Chosen marks a ward, letting them know of impending danger towards the subject.
Cost: 1 Gnosis
Test Pool: None
System:
The Champion spends one Gnosis and a Simple action touching a person, an object, or the entrance to a location and lays a mystical brand there that marks that subject as being under their protection. Thereafter, whenever that subject is in physical danger (as determined by the Storyteller), the Chosen receives a reflexive intuition to that effect. Should their player then spend a simple action, they gain a clearer understanding of the subject’s health, condition, location, and current situation. The Chosen can also use this Blessing to check up on a subject at any time, but only one subject at a time. The Chosen can only have a number of individuals marked at one time equal to their Empathy rating. This mark, once bestowed, lasts for one Lunar Cycle.
Devotion Intermediate Blessings: Aegis of Smoke, Fire's Eye, Ward
Aegis of Smoke
The Chosen calls forth and exhales a smoky cloud. This smoky mantle provides cover and protection to someone under their care.
Cost: 1 Gnosis
Test Pool: None
System:
The Chosen spends a Simple Action and a point of Gnosis to summon forth a smoky cloud that fills the area. It extends ten steps in every direction from the Chosen It is dense and heavy, obscuring the vision of anyone within even muffling sound. The smoke does not cause any problems with breathing. Anyone save the Chosen and their allies suffer a -3 penalty on all offensive tests while the smoke endures. In addition, allies within this smoky cover reduce damage they receive off of every attack by one (to a minimum of zero) while they remain within this cover. This Blessing lasts for one scene or one combat.
Fire's Eye
Staring into the fires nearby, the Chosen can see the sights and sounds of far off places.
Cost: 1 Gnosis
Test Pool: None
System:
The Chosen can spend 1 Gnosis and a Simple action to extend their senses out of any fire that A.) is already within their line of sight or B.) they have ever blessed with Fire Tender. They may physically move their head or turn their body in place to change their remote perspective, though. While they look through the fire, the Chosen is still vaguely aware of things going on around them. Any damage taken will break them out of this extension of their will. They may maintain their remote perspective for as long as they wish. As this fire is now an extension of the Chosen of Hestia, they may use any gifts that they possess through that fire, as though they were actually standing where that fire was. This Blessing lasts for the scene, or one hour, or until the Champion expends a simple action to end it.
Ward
The Chosen is able to extend their protections over a location to guard those within it from harm.
Cost: 1 Gnosis
Test Pool: None
System:
By spending a Standard action and 1 Gnosis touching the entrance to a location, the Chosen lays a ward on the area that bars entrance to a certain type of threat. Such a ward could bar ghosts, walking dead, mythical creatures, human beings, lesser animals, or Garou, for example. The ward acts as a sphere with a radius of 10 steps for every point of Seneschal that the Chosen has. This protection lasts for one lunar cycle. The Champion can ward an area against as many different types of threats as she wants, but each threat requires its own expenditure. (In effect, they must stack multiple wards on the same area.) Characters with more Willpower than the Chosen who laid down the ward can attempt to batter their way through the perimeter, thus destroying the ward. The ward can take a number of health levels of damage equal to ten times the Champion’s Seneschal rating before crumbling.
Devotion Advanced Blessings: Cleansing Flame, Come Running, Flames of the Hearth
Cleansing Flame
The Champion can pinpoint an area (or an individual) and set the target ablaze with an intense and purifying flame that rages for a minute then dies out completely.
Cost: 1 Gnosis and 2 Aggravated damage
Test Pool: Wits + Empathy vs. Resolve + Willpower for an individual; Wits + Empathy vs. Static Difficulty 12 for areas (which can be no larger than a house).
System:
The Chosen spends their Simple and Standard action invoking a Blessing upon the area no larger than a house or an individual. They then spend 1 Gnosis and take two levels of aggravated damage (which may not be healed for 24 hours), making an opposed challenge as above. On a success, living or Undead creatures set on fire must make a static Stamina + Willpower test against a static difficulty of 6, or die from the shock (Rage Healing and other such effects are still applicable). The flame destroys Fomori utterly; Fallen creatures must make a Static Gnosis test against Difficulty 9, or lose their Wyrm-Taint and its accompanying derangements. Such purified Fallen are stripped of all Wyrm-Affinity gifts. They may fall again to corruption, but they are given a second chance.
Exceptional Success:
Living or Undead creatures do not need to test to die from shock. Fallen creatures do not get to make a test to resist being stripped of their Taint, derangements, and Taint-Affinity gifts. It happens automatically.
Come Running
The Chosen immediately rushes to the aid of anyone or anything on whom they have placed a Vigil Brand.
Cost: 2 Gnosis
Test Pool: None
System:
Use of this Blessing requires the Chosen possess the Blessing Vigil Brand. Whenever the Chosen gets a sensation that their branded charge is in danger (as determined by the Storyteller), they may reflexively spend two Gnosis points to disappear from their current location and instantly reappear within two steps of the brand they laid down. While the character can use the simple action of Vigil Brand to check up on a charge at any time, the Chosen can use Come Running only when the charge in question is in imminent danger.
Flames of the Hearth
The hearth in a home represents safety and hospitality. By employing Flames of the Hearth, the Chosen creates the comfort of home anywhere they can create shelter or fire. Useful for travelers and anyone being hunted, the Champion's Gnosis acts as a sentry and provides an instinctual warning for any intrusion. Additionally, anyone invited into the sanctified space feels restored and rejuvenated.
Cost: 2 Gnosis
Test Pool: None
System:
Spend a Standard action and 2 Gnosis to bless the Hearth Fire of the secured space. This Blessing requires the Chosen establish some sort of shelter, camp, or enclosure to define the space protected. Flames of the Hearth remains in effect until the next sunrise or until the Hearth Fire is extinguished. Everyone within ten steps of the Hearth Fire that is welcomed by the Champion comes under the protection of Flames of the Hearth, gaining a +3 bonus on all defensive tests as long as they remain within the range of the Hearth Fire. The Chosen becomes aware of anyone not invited approaching the Hearth Fire, and anyone welcomed by the Chosen can restore Willpower and Gnosis. For every five minutes spent resting there, all those who are welcomed restore a number of points of Gnosis and/or Willpower equal to the Chosen's Seneschal rating in any combination they choose. They also heal one level of damage, starting with the most severe, every five minutes.