From: Jason Corley <corleyj@tau.lpl.arizona.edu>
To: The New Zoo Revue -- Greg Kacwhatever <gregoryk@gas.uug.arizona.edu>, 
    Kimberly Applegate <berlin@azstarnet.com>, 
    Ryan Franklin <franklir@gas.uug.arizona.edu>
Subject: More Wraithly Fun





There are two concepts which also guide the Wraith game: Oblivion and 
Transcendence.



OBLIVION:

This one is easier to understand.  This is a vast sea of "nothingness" 
created from the dissipated souls of the dead.  It has several 
manifestations that are relevant to the average Wraith:

First of all, there is the Shadow.  Your Shadow doesn't want you to 
fulfill your Passions, it wants you to stop caring about them.  It 
doesn't want you to resolve your Fetters, it wants you to stop caring 
about them.  Get the picture?  The Shadow wants to get you to sever all 
your ties with the mortal world and give yourself entirely over to 
wraithly matters.  Then, you're a much easier target to be sucked in to 
Oblivion: the real world is much more "real" than the Shadowlands, and 
the more attachments you have to the real world, the harder it is for 
Oblivion to do anything with you.

There are also beings called Spectres: these are Wraiths who are pure 
Shadow.  They are therefore generally more powerful than regular Wraiths 
(who expend energy in the conflict between the two).  They can do all 
kinds of nasty things, and generally do.

The Tempest is not exactly tied to Oblivion, but Oblivion is quite strong 
there: I'll tell you about the Tempest when we talk about the Shadowlands 
next time.

Maelstroms, which are immense Shadowlands storms definitely _are_ tied to 
Oblivion, and are extremely dangerous.  I'll also talk about those a 
little more (but not too much, they're almost legendary.)


TRANSCENDENCE:

This is also a little legendary, but there is a lot of evidence that it 
exists.  This is a state that Wraiths somewhat aspire to, in which they 
overcome their Shadows while at the same time accepting that the Shadow 
is part of themselves.  The Shadow is subsumed, and the Wraith 
disappears: they have Transcended.  This is an extremely long process, 
involving coming to grips with not only the Fetters and the Passions but 
_why the Wraith has them_, fully exploring every bit of the relationship 
between them and the Wraith, the Shadow and each other.  This search is 
almost entirely the basis of the game.  Everything else takes place in 
regards to it: even those who scoff at Transcendence are searching, 
albeit unconsciously for it.  If they weren't, they would be easy prey 
for the Shadows.  This is the only real point of hope in the whole Wraith 
scenario, so don't forget it.



Next time: The Shadowlands and the three main factions of Wraith.



Jason
onwards