Age Apparent

Age Apparent Mystic Basic 800 hours Requires: Expulsion of the Flesh, Meditation

Normally, a Vampire does not age one moment from the time of its death. With this mystic skill however, a Vampire can alter his apparent age to any point up to his actual chronological age. That is, an 80 year old Vampire who died when he was 23 can cause himself to appear either younger, or as old as an 80 year old man should. Every five years of apparent age difference requires one hour of meditative adjustment. Once a Vampire has aged or regressed to the point where a difference in size is reached (i.e. 'growing' youth or shrinking from advanced age), then the time required triples. Reversing this process is much quicker and easier—two months closer to the age of death is gained or lost, as appropriate, every second until the age at death is again reached (or one year per round until back to normal). Note that very old Vampires cannot actually disintegrate themselves, becoming centuries-old dust, no matter how long they have been Undead—they simply continue to wither away with artificial age. Use of this skill causes real physical change—with the appropriate loss of physical (and possibly social) attributes, however the Vampire is still Undead, and has the benefits of the Blood coursing through its system. Furthermore, it does not suffer from the health risks of aging, such as cancer, stroke, or heart attack, as such matters of mental and bodily health are related to having a living body.