What spheres would a mage need to provide an endless supply of blood to a vampire?

Question

What spheres would a mage need to be able to indefinitely provide an unlimited supply of blood to a vampire?

Answer 1

Matter 3 can transmute water into blood.

Alter Form: Allows a mage to change the essential nature of a Mattern Pattern, changing its form or even compressing or expanding certain elements of its material properties (i.e. lead to fog). (MtA)

If your storyteller interprets the Vampire sourcebook to mean that blood in and of itself is inert and lacking vitae to sustain a vampire, then the mage can use Prime 2 to instill the blood with a pattern of Life using quintessence.

All of these are the Prime 2 capabilities needed to do so:

Fuel Pattern: Allows the mage to store small amounts of Quintessence in an object. (MtA)

Enchant Patterns: Allows the mage to enchant the natural properties of a Pattern by tapping into its Quintessence, allowing it to interact with ephemeral objects. (MtA)

Create Pattern: In conjecture with other Spheres, the mage can create a simple Pattern out of thin air, by diverging the flow of Quintessence in the Tellurian into the new form he wants to create. (MtA 20 Anniversary ed)

Answer 2

The question can be broken down into

1. What Sphere(s) would deal with Blood?
2. How to make an indefinite effect?

The latter is easier to answer but I will tackle them in order:

Blood

There are several strong contenders for which Spheres are applicable. A prospective Storyteller may pick one or more of these at their leisure. It is, in fact, possible that more than one permutation is applicable.

Life

This Sphere has the strongest case for manipulating blood.

This is concretely spelled out in Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition in the description of the Life Sphere on page 516:

As a whole, this Sphere embraces everything that has living cells within itself, even if that object is technically dead. As a general rule, assume that anything that’s still alive enough to transplant, preserve, or cultivate is governed by Life Arts. If it’s inert enough to be irrevocably dead, then it’s governed by Matter. Thus, preserved blood and organs, still-living plants, live-culture cheese, and so forth contain Life, but corpses, cotton fibers, withered organs, or cut wood become Matter.

Blood is directly called out as something living. Or containing life enough to be affected.

This is reinforced again later in the description of the second level of the Matter Sphere on page 518:

With advanced knowledge, the mage can transmute one substance into another, so long as she doesn’t alter its essential shape, temperature, or basic state (gas, liquid, solid). Depending upon that mage’s practice, she might reshape lead into gold through alchemy, wood into stone through a hyperpetrification process, or water into wine (and, with Life 3, wine into blood) through a sacred miracle.

This clearly denotes that Matter alone cannot transform an inert Pattern (wine) into blood.

In Mage: the Ascension Revised there is no direct mention of what would affect blood but again the Life Sphere is described as governing anything potentially living, while dead stuff is left to Matter again. No difference to M20 just different language around it. From memory Mage 1st edition and Mage 2nd edition had the same stipulation but I do not have the books available right now.

Revised mentions blood as a focus:

Blood: The essential life fluid holds a lot of power. It’s often used in rituals evoking Prime and Life magic, although it’s certainly not limited to these uses. The blood of the undead — vampires — holds within it the spark of magically stolen life, and is even more potent. However, it carries a cursed Resonance

A focus is not the magic but it does show the strong relation between blood and Life. It also also colludes with the many descriptions of vampires in the World of Darkness. They do not just drink blood - they steal life itself. From a mage's understanding that is how vampires exist stealing the life force of others to sustain themselves.

Prime

The above mentions blood also as focus for Prime. Many descriptions of the Prime Sphere and its effects draw a metaphysical connection between blood and Prime or Quintessence. This is symbolic because Prime/Quintessence is said to be the lifeblood of the universe. And thus some of the Prime effects draw on this symbolism like the "Heart's Blood" rote which sacrifices some health for Quintessence.

At any rate, Prime can also be used to feed a vampire. After all, mages view vampiric Vitae as a form of Tass - Quintessence given physical form. Therefore, it follows that vampires can be fed by Quintessence. Although very likely it needs to have the appropriate Resonance - vampiric Vitae is known to be heavily steeped in Entropic and somewhat Static resonance that reflects their nature cursed unchanging creatures.

Matter

Here is a thought experiment to justify it: a vampire's diet is that of blood. Life governs "living things" and there are blood cells that can count for living there. However, these cells can easily be made non-living - for example, microwave a blood bag. It now counts as Matter.

Alternatively, blood cells might now count enough as living. Or perhaps Matter can focus on controlling everything else. Perhaps just the small amount of errant living matter is not a stopper. A quote above talked about transforming water into wine with just Matter and wine does contain bacteria that ferment it. Is it that much of a stretch to say that Matter can also control blood?

In short, there is an argument to be made for Matter. Most likely, this argument can be made by a more scientifically inclined mage but it is a valid one. Perhaps Matter can construct something that is technically considered blood even if it did not come from a living being. Whether or not that blood is nutritious to a vampire is another question. A Storyteller can rule either for or against it with equal ease. Some vampires do drink from dead bodies. Is that blood "non-life" one again? Or is it the one that Life can still affect?

---

These are the three spheres that can more or less directly deal with blood. As mentioned, maybe just one of them is really needed, maybe a conjunction of two or more. Life/Prime might not only signify "blood" as the substance but also the life vampires feed upon. Life/Matter might be used to treat "blood" as a discrete entity once not inside a living body. And Life/Matter/Prime might cover all angles to make sure blood is life. There are arguments to be made in each direction.

Indefinite and Unlimited supply

There is no free lunch. Mages cannot just make blood for free. But they can still conjure it up from nowhere by using Quintessence. Either that, or they need to transform something into blood.

Conjure up blood

Probably the best way to go about this is a powerful Prime effect to change a Node into producing blood. Or at least have an effect that feeds on the power of the Node and produce blood. In either case, this can provide an indefinite and unlimited supply of the vital liquid vampires crave.

The downside is that Nodes are not a commodity that can freely be granted to somebody. There are many mages who want to control a Node, therefore the blood producing Node might need a good amount of protection.

Nodes are also clusters of spiritual activity. Making a "blood Node" is sure to change the spiritual ecosystem and draw in potentially more vicious spirits. If this is not bad enough, werewolves are already quite touchy about mages using these cairns. A blood producing one by itself might as well be seen as a perversion of natural order. Making one to feed a servant of the Wyrm like vampires is going to cement their distaste.

Transform into blood

The Matter/Life effect to transform wine into blood has already been quoted above. There is certainly a precedent for "rivers of blood" in many stories - most notably: the Bible. Since an actual river of blood would be highly Vulgar, perhaps a very secluded (e.g., underground) wellspring or other source of water (e.g., dripping pipe) can be set up to continually supply blood instead with a Matter/Life effect with indefinite duration. Forever.

The downside is that this is going to be hard to justify and might become a Paradox magnet if not handled carefully. And if Prime is required, then this effect will most likely need a constant supply of Quintessence.

Few other ideas that break the mould

The above is a means to literally supply blood and only blood. But we can definitely widen this to mean "provide sustenance to a vampire". Here are a few different ways to achieve it that do not directly rely on manipulating blood itself.

Normally, these would likely require other supporting Spheres but I am throwing them as examples of what can be achieved, not exactly how. There can be various different spheres that will work with these, so no point trying to determine which ones exactly.

Life

Why?

Yes, this sphere is already mentioned above. However, here is a different application: creating artificial humans. Or...things. The Progenitors already have lab-grown people. You normally need other Spheres to have them be actual people but a lab-grown human body can just be a bigger blood bag. Non-technological mages can create a living body in other ways.

Why not?

Vampires are cursed to prey on humans. They are defined by harming humanity. Even animal blood is not as nutritious as that of people. A Storyteller might very well say that an artificially produced human body is only medically alive but does not provide sustenance to a vampire because it is not really preying on anything that can metaphysically have its life stolen.

Mind

Why?

"If the mountain won't come to Muhammad, then Muhammad must go to the mountain". But in this metaphor the vampire is the mountain. In other words, just use mental influence to make people go and be fed on by the vampire. It could even be subtler - compel them to go donate blood to a specific blood bank the vampire will be make withdrawals from. This can be set up on some public place to draw in random people. You do not need to catch them all - 1 in 100 on a busy going for a blood donation street might be enough to keep a steady supply.

Why not?

I cannot think of a specific reason why this will not work. Although, that does not mean there are no way for this to go wrong. There are many psychically sensitive creatures that might stumble upon such public magic.

Moreover, I love the idea of magic going horrible wrong or horribly right. This can be a really good potential story hook to throw at players: it can probably draw in too much attention. This blood bank has a lot of donors but somehow the rest of the city's hospitals are still low on blood for transfusions...

Spirit

Why

This takes a step beyond. Maybe literally as well as figuratively. A mage can certainly bargain with spirits to get them to supply victims for a vampire. They can do that with the various powers they possess - it could be as simple as mind controlling a human to bring to the vampire again, like Mind.

Why not?

It is a bargain. With spirits. They would want something in return. And the kind of spirits who would be happy to supply vampires with victims are probably not the nice sort. A mage might broker the deal on behalf of the vampire - in exchange for victims, the Kindred has to do something for the spirits. That means that the vampire is ultimately on the receiving end and paying the cost, whatever it is. Downside might be that if the vampire stops paying their share (e.g., the cost is too high, or the vampire met Final Death) the spirits might still feel somebody owes them something. And the mage was the only other participant in the deal.

Entropy

Why

Mostly because the level 5 powers get underused. A mater of Entropy can control ideas. Effectively, this can work the same as the Mind route by spreading the pervasive belief that people should donate blood more often.

Why not?

Mostly the same as the Mind route.

However, this is also going to be a master level feat for a mage. Do masters really want to use their awesome cosmic powers for a lowly bloodsucker? Moreover, a Paradox backlash for this can be quite bad for the mage. Something masters should be well wary about. Also, Entropy masters in particular might be concerned with the resonance they pick up from the magic they cast.

An Entropy 5 effect is indeed be very possible. However, question shifts from "can I do it?" to "should I do it?" and a mage might decide they should not.

Time

Why

I will be honest, because it would be fun. If we play a bit loose with the wording here, a mage can very well fulfil the "indefinite and unlimited" supply by freezing the vampire in time. Or completely evicting them from the timeline off to a shard reality. Thus being indefinite. And "unlimited" might be because the vampire frozen in time has a blood bag next to them...that they cannot drink. Or if just ejected from the timestream, I would prefer to picture the vampire stranded in a shard realm which is never changing. Even if there is blood the vampire can drink it never finishes but also nothing at all changes. For ever.

Why not?

Paradox could be why. But other than that, there is not much of a problem - go for it!

Answer 3

Life 3. Prime or Matter 2+ optional.

By default, every blood point a vampire drains from someone inflicts a Health Level of damage. A Mage with Life 2 can heal themselves, and with Life 3 is capable of healing others. In this fashion, they are capable of producing a blood supply for a vampire -though obviously, allowing a vampire to feed on you is less-than-optimal.

If they wish to produce the blood itself, then they'll want to use Life 3 Create Simple Life combined with Matter 2 (if transforming a liquid unto blood) or 3 (if transforming a solid or gas into blood), or Prime 2 (if transforming Quintessence into blood).

Additionally, a Mage could combine any of these options with Prime 2-4 to create Wonders capable of casting these spells; with Prime 2, they can make single use items, with Prime 3 they can make reusable items only Mages can use, and with Prime 4 they can make reusable items anyone with a compatible Paradigm can use.