Wraiths
The Wraiths. This is a catchall term for all the haunting undead. Apparitions, ghosts, poltergeists , spirits and spectres.
• The apparitions keep themselves to themselves, often seen moving from house to house through the streets, occasionally within the buildings themselves. Mostly non-interactive with the populace, the Wraiths, like all races, have those few that are different.
• Ghosts will appear, silent (mostly) but, like mimes, go about tasks repeatedly, acting them out with no success (as they can’t touch anything) trying to pass over to wherever they are eventually bound by completing the task.
• Poltergeists, invisible wraiths with the power to move things around, attempting to get across to the living (or undead) whatever it is that will help them pass over.
• Spirits tend to be vocal, but are all cursed with the inability to create sounds of their own and, as such, possess the bodies of the living to speak through them for a limited time, speaking in riddles and vague rhymes or entering their dreams to get their point across.
• Spectres are different to all of these... they are malicious, hateful spirits possessing limited powers of all of the wraiths, taking on all of their bad sides, using a ghost’s talents to repeat a task that will cause harm to the living, moving things around with the power of their spirit to cause mischief. If they are powerful enough to possess a living being for a short amount of time, they will make them say things that would cause upset or distress, make them do an act that will harm someone, or enter the dreams of a sleeping person to visit them with horrific nightmares.
• The apparitions keep themselves to themselves, often seen moving from house to house through the streets, occasionally within the buildings themselves. Mostly non-interactive with the populace, the Wraiths, like all races, have those few that are different.
• Ghosts will appear, silent (mostly) but, like mimes, go about tasks repeatedly, acting them out with no success (as they can’t touch anything) trying to pass over to wherever they are eventually bound by completing the task.
• Poltergeists, invisible wraiths with the power to move things around, attempting to get across to the living (or undead) whatever it is that will help them pass over.
• Spirits tend to be vocal, but are all cursed with the inability to create sounds of their own and, as such, possess the bodies of the living to speak through them for a limited time, speaking in riddles and vague rhymes or entering their dreams to get their point across.
• Spectres are different to all of these... they are malicious, hateful spirits possessing limited powers of all of the wraiths, taking on all of their bad sides, using a ghost’s talents to repeat a task that will cause harm to the living, moving things around with the power of their spirit to cause mischief. If they are powerful enough to possess a living being for a short amount of time, they will make them say things that would cause upset or distress, make them do an act that will harm someone, or enter the dreams of a sleeping person to visit them with horrific nightmares.
Creating a Wraith
Wraith characters must choose a type (with the exception of spectres who are always NPCs unless special permission is granted) and act accordingly. There is room for expansion in that (for example) a poltergeist could gain a spirit’s ability to make small sounds over time or a spirit could gain a ghost’s ability to take a visible form, etc.
Wraiths must also choose a fetter... something that ties them to the mortal plane in their wraith form. This could be an item lost, a person to converse with (or kill) or a task to be completed. This should not be an easy thing to complete and may, in the completion of the task, reveal a further fetter to be overcome.
Wraiths do not have a body stat (for obvious reasons) and, instead, have a “Ectomis” stat. This is used to determine how effective their particular powers of interacting with the living (and undead) are. The weight or speed of an object moved by a poltergeist, the visibility of a ghost’s form, or the effectiveness of a possession etc.
Wraiths may use magic, but in very limited ways... an illusion is far more likely than a fireball, for example.
All kinds of Wraith can converse and react to all other types of Wraith. they all exist in the same half-world between their final death and what keeps them around.
Wraith characters must choose a type (with the exception of spectres who are always NPCs unless special permission is granted) and act accordingly. There is room for expansion in that (for example) a poltergeist could gain a spirit’s ability to make small sounds over time or a spirit could gain a ghost’s ability to take a visible form, etc.
Wraiths must also choose a fetter... something that ties them to the mortal plane in their wraith form. This could be an item lost, a person to converse with (or kill) or a task to be completed. This should not be an easy thing to complete and may, in the completion of the task, reveal a further fetter to be overcome.
Wraiths do not have a body stat (for obvious reasons) and, instead, have a “Ectomis” stat. This is used to determine how effective their particular powers of interacting with the living (and undead) are. The weight or speed of an object moved by a poltergeist, the visibility of a ghost’s form, or the effectiveness of a possession etc.
Wraiths may use magic, but in very limited ways... an illusion is far more likely than a fireball, for example.
All kinds of Wraith can converse and react to all other types of Wraith. they all exist in the same half-world between their final death and what keeps them around.
