From: Jason Corley To: The New Zoo Revue -- Greg Kacwhatever , Kimberly Applegate , Ryan Franklin Subject: Wraith Info For Reading At Your Leisure "Recall the fire in '91 That razed the Bella Vista Slum That was the biggest shit-fight this country's ever seen. Insurance companies ruined Landlords getting sued All becaue of a wee little girl And a can of gasoline Well those flames really roared When the wind started blowin' La la la la La la la lie The rich man and the poor man they all got to die ---"The Curse of Millhaven", Nick Cave Okay, Wraith is a very inter-related game, so a lot of this stuff may not make a whole _lot_ of sense immediately: rest assured it will eventually. I. Wraiths themselves. What are they like? Well, first of all, they're dead people. That's how you identify them. Wraiths are dead people. Now, there are other spirits that aren't dead people. These are therefore not Wraiths. It's pretty simple. Here are some things to know about them: A. Insubstantiality. Wraiths are naturally insubstantial. You can generally walk right through one without knowing. If someone shoots a gun at someone else and a Wraith is standing in the way, the bullet goes right through. Now, this is not to say that Wraiths can't get hurt: they are made of something called Corpus. (Ectoplasm in it's "lowest state", so to speak.) It takes a little Corpus to become insubstantial, and it happens instinctively sometimes (like with the bullet.) Wraiths can choose to become insubstantial consciously, as well. However, Wraiths are generally solid to other dead stuff: in this case, Corpus acts a lot like flesh. When you lose all your Corpus, the Wraith dissipates and is dragged off by their Shadow to undergo Harrowing. (Don't worry about Shads and Harrows yet, we'll get to them.) Wraiths regain Corpus through their Fetters, which we'll get to in a bit. B. Deathsight/Lifesight/Heightened Senses. Wraiths have permanently heightened senses: this means that bright lights and loud noises are painful to them. It also means they can look at an object and "sense the death" of the object: they can see it's flaws or it's final fate. To Wraiths, the new Ferrari doesn't look shiny and red and fast: it looks like it's just been wrapped around a telephone pole, because that's what's going to happen to it. Everyone looks sick and decaying. It's very depressing. There is also something called "Lifesight", which allows them to sense how living beings are doing. (F'rinstance, if there isn't _much_ rotting flesh on a person, they're fairly healthy.) This can also be used to tell how they're feeling, by looking carefully at their "aura". C. Arcanos. In addition to those two "powers", there are also Wraithly abilities called "Arcanos", which involve all the various and sundry things ghosts are supposed to be able to do. (Write in blood on walls, appear to the living as a bizarre apparition, appear in people's dreams, fly, emit keening wails to terrify the living, etc.) Most of these Arcanos are fueled by Pathos. D. Pathos. Yes, there is a stat on the character sheet called "Pathos". No kidding. It's a good sign: White Wolf needed a sense of humor. Essentially, Pathos is the "energy" of Wraithdom, if Corpus is the "matter". Without Pathos, the Wraith is an easy mark for their Shadow. Pathos is regained through Passions, which are things that the Wraith cares about doing. Passions can be specific tasks, or general imperatives ("stop people from desecrating my grave" is a very specific one, whereas "help young lovers survive this cruel world" is a very general one.) When the Wraith takes action that is a part of their Passion, they regain Pathos from it. Also, if they are around strong emotion that is linked to their Passion (f'rinstance, the grave guy could be strongly linked to the emotion of "Pride" and the young lovers guy could be "Love" or "Generosity" or "Jealousy") they can sometimes regain Pathos from that. Strong emotions just in general can also be used, but that is very difficult. E. Fetters. These are material things which bind your Wraith to the material world. For instance, a sailor might be very attached to his ship, or a gunslinger to his gun. People can be fetters: a mother might be attached to her children, or a child to her best friend. Passions and Fetters are the reasons why "very old Wraiths" are fairly rare. It's difficult to keep up interest in Passions over a very long period of time, and Fetters are lost, destroyed, they die or just lose their meaning. Now, if a Wraith manages to keep their Passions intact when their Fetters are lost, they lose the ability to interact with the living world: which is why Wraiths who have Fetters are valuable allies for them. F. Shadows. These are complicated beasts. The goal of the Wraith's Shadow is to drag them into Oblivion. I'll tell you about that in a minute. They are, in short, a Wraith's worst nightmare. They can give the Wraith power, they can talk to the Wraith whenever they want, they can (sometimes) act on their own, they can try to possess the Wraith's Corpus and force them to do things they don't want to...they're nasty. Under certain circumstances, the Shadow can gain enough power (or the Wraith can lose enough) that it can initiate what's called a Harrowing: in this, the Shadow essentially sets up a situation in which the Wraith can choose for or against a Passion, Fetter, or existence at all. (The choice is always muddled and in a very grey area: Harrowings are very very dangerous.) The game method by which the Shadow operates is that everyone plays both a Wraith and someone else's Shadow. I get to make the Shadow character sheets and stuff (heh heh heh) but we'll discuss more about this as time goes on. Next up: Oblivion and Transcendence. Jason depressed yet? you will be. and the company that will bring it to you?