This is more an idle curiosity than a question I'm wondering about to actively use in a game. Reading on the path of enlightenment that Abominations are put onto, one of the Sins was listed as:
teaching the Ways (Rites, Gifts) to Wyrm minions (including vampires)
I thought this was a bit strange, considering last I checked vampires couldn't learn rites/gifts.
I know it could be incorrect cause it's the wiki, but I'm still curious about this.
Can Vampires learn Gifts?
Gifts are abilities that stem from a pact with a spirit. Axis Mundi (a supplement intended for Werewolf and Mage) goes into quite a bit of depth about where gifts come from. Any one who can interact with a spirit can theoretically gain a gift. However, they have to convince the spirit to teach them.
Werewolves have it a bit easier here than many creatures. First, they perceive spirits more readily than many other creatures. Second, they are known as protectors of Gaia and many Gaia-related spirits are willing to help them by teaching them gifts.
Wyrm creatures can learn gifts. The Book of the Wyrm described a series of gifts than can be learned from the Wyrm. These are intended for Black Spiral Dancers (Wyrm-tainted werewolves), but it demonstrates that wyrm-tainted creatures can learn gifts.
Additionally, that book also describes several other spirits a wyrm-tainted creature may be interested in such as totems, wyrm elementals, and more. Spirits of Gaia treat vampires as enemies (from Axis Mundi)
So if your vampire has a way of perceiving spirits, can locate a relatively friendly one, and can convince it to teach it a gift - then it can learn a gift.
Technically, as indigochild explained well, nothing technically prevents a vampire from finding a spirit and making it teach him a gift.
However, most spirits won't teach Gaia's gifts to a vampire even under threat of death, so it boils often down to Banes that teach Wyrm gifts. But can they use them?
Now, most (almost all) gifts demand the presence of Rage or Gnosis to be used. Both an ordinary Vampire does not possess, so they can't use them at all... And as we will see in the last paragraph, they can't use any for they never ad Gnosis to begin with.
But even to that, there is a huge exception: Vampires that embrace Garou create so-called Abominations. Abominations are monsters that have all the rage and gnosis (replacing Humanity) to fuel their wyrm tainted gifts, they have the knowledge of how to work spirits into submission and teaching them more sinister gifts.
There is though one point that makes learning gifts a gamble:
When the Abomination’s Gnosis is all gone, it can no longer [...] use any Gifts
W20 Changing Breeds p224
No Gnosis means no gifts work. Having had no Gnosis to begin with, ordinary Vampires can't use gifts at all, even if they manage to learn them.
No, vampires cannot learn gifts. The source the wiki cites is "Under a Blood Red Moon," a sourcebook from 1993, and has been superseded in many ways by later products.
