The Risen (Wraith: The Oblivion Sourcebook) (2nd Edition)
Wraith: The Oblivion (20th Edition)
The Shadow Players Guide (2nd Edition)
Mediums: Speakers with the Dead (Wraith: The Oblivion Supplement)
Risen
The Risen dead are not simply reanimated corpses. They are the mortals whose deaths left them bound to unfinished business, dark curses, or vengeful bargains. Unlike ghosts, the Risen claw their way back into the mortal world, their souls tethered once more to flesh that should have rotted in the grave. They walk the nights caught between life and death, spirit and corpse, driven by grief, obsession, or vengeance that refuses to fade.
Each Risen bears a tale of tragedy. Cursed knights, their armor rusting, roam forgotten battlefields in search of a redemption that never comes. Noblewomen betrayed in life rise with spectral beauty, their sorrow hardening into wrath. Some hunger endlessly for the warmth of the living, while others serve the will of darker forces who anchor them to the mortal world. Whatever their origin, every Risen carries fragments of who they once were, reshaped into something haunted.
To play a Risen is to embrace the heart of gothic horror - and the truly human experience of passionate emotion at its height. They are cursed to straddle two worlds, caught between the call of the grave and the lure of mortal existence, trapped in an obsession to resolve the things that keep them tethered to the living world. Some seek redemption, others vengeance, but all are haunted by the lives they lost and the chains that bind them still.
Occult Knowledge & Beliefs
Below is a summary of what the Risen believe about other supernatural factions:
Changelings
Fae spirits wrapped in mortal flesh for protection against the cold winds of mundane existence, Changelings are occasionally capable of seeing Wraiths. Unnerving dwellers in the darkness, known as the Sluagh, are the gatherers of secrets and the speakers to the dead of the Changeling world.
Changelings’ unnatural existence is fueled by a refined essence of expression or creativity. Because this can often be garnered from the same source as Pathos, this can lead to either cooperation or conflict between Changelings and Wraiths.
Changelings exist in two worlds, the mundane and enchanted. The former is workaday existence, and Changelings wear their mortal guises when moving in it. But with the application of refined essence, Changelings reveal their true selves at least to those who are also Enchanted and can see them.
Divided into a pair of conflicting courts, a plethora of noble houses and social distinctions, and a riot of types of Fae, Changeling society can prove to be almost terminally confusing to an outsider.
While Changeling magic is not necessarily as powerful as that of mages, it can pack a wallop in its own right.
Cold iron and something they call "Banality" are the things that Changelings fear most. The latter strips the refined essence from them and drags them inexorably into the mundane world. The former presents a more immediate threat as cold iron inflicts aggravated damage on Changelings.
Kinain & Enchanted
Little is known about the Kinain except that, for some reason, they possess peculiar features and tend to be prone to the fantastical and the whimsical.
Virtually nothing is known about the Enchanted, only that they seem capable of seeing Changelings in their true form, just as the Fae are able to see one another.
Fera
This section is still being written. Check back soon!
Fera Kinfolk
This section is still being written. Check back soon!
Fomori
Virtually nothing is known about the Fomori except that they are different from any other supernatural creature. Wraiths can only speculate as to their nature.
Hunters
Direct observation of the living world requires special Wraithly powers called Arcanoi. Even when they manage to perceive the Skinlands (the living world), Wraiths see it as "wrong" and distorted, with decay and weaknesses highlighted due to their inherent powers of Deathsight.
While Wraiths might be aware of mortal attempts to interact with the supernatural or investigate them, specific details about individual hunters or any groups they may belong to would likely be fragmented and based on chance observations, or fragmented memories from mortals they encounter or observe.
Powerful Wraiths employing Arcanoi like Puppetry (possession) or Embody (materialization) might gather more direct information. They could potentially witness mortals involved with Hunters through their limited Skinlands perception.
Wraiths who become Risen (returning to their bodies) would have significantly greater access to information about mortal affairs. That information focuses on specific encounters or individuals, however, rather than the larger structure or goals of the Hunters.
Vampires
Vampires share with Wraiths the fact that they are dead souls who refuse to rest. However, unlike Wraiths, vampires take a very active hand in the affairs of the living world, manipulating the course of history.
A fair number of vampires can, in some form or other, detect the presence of Wraiths by looking at their unliving auras. They must be specifically looking for Wraiths at the time, but once a Restless has been spotted, he generally can be tracked as well.
Vampires do and must fear the sun, open flame, and a stake through the heart. A well-placed stake immobilizes instead of killing. On the other hand only a rare few are affected by things like garlic or running water. Holy symbols have no power over the so-called vampires.
Depending upon how recently a vampire has feasted and what or whom they've dined upon, her ability to perform supernatural feats varies.
Vampires refill their blood stores by feeding on animals, humans, and even other vampires, and can use the blood thus obtained for a myriad of feats.
Vampires have certain powers which are similar but not identical to Arcanoi.
Ghouls
Halfway between life and vampirism, Ghouls are mortal creatures who have been fed vampiric blood without first being drained, themselves.
Regular feeding of vampiric blood allows the Ghoul a healthier, stronger state of being. However, when a Ghoul does not have vampiric blood in their system, they curiously will do anything to obtain more of such sustenance.
Werewolves
Forever bound up in a war against those who would despoil the wilderness, the werewolves give no quarter to their enemies.
Werewolves stand between two worlds, trying desperately to serve as guardians of both the spirit realms and against mankind's inexorable advance.
Casting themselves as the defenders of the Earth Mother, the werewolves punish those who transgress against her.
Infiltrating the cities as well as guarding the forests, werewolves see the hand of a great spirit of destruction behind every move to desecrate the Earth Mother and claim to be able to sense the "taint" of this great enemy on others.
Werewolves will use "taint"-corruption as justification for committing acts of incredible violence against those who oppose them.
All werewolves have a variety of shapes they can assume, ranging from full human to wolfman and so on through intermediate forms to full wolf, but are at their most dangerous in their wolfman form.
Kinfolk
Little is known about these peculiar mortals other than that they live as part of close-knit societies associated with werewolves. Their specific role among them is unknown.
Mediums
Mediums walk the boundary between the living and the dead, those rare mortals who can hear the whispers of the dead - and answer them. Through pacts with Wraiths or even darker Specters, Mediums gain fragments of forbidden power. These bonds may grant visions, protection, or the use of strange Arcanoi...usually at a cost. Every bargain draws them deeper into the world of shadows, every gift another aspect of themselves they must hide for fear of persecution.
Some Mediums act as guides, allies, or intermediaries for the dead, clinging to faith or using their gift for solace or justice. Others find themselves manipulated by the very spirits they seek to command, losing themselves to despair, obsession, or corruption. Whether mystic, charlatan, or pawn of the dead, the Medium embodies a simple truth: the grave is not silent, and those who answer its call risk being claimed by it.
Occult Knowledge & Beliefs
Below is a summary of what Mediums believe about other supernatural factions:
Wraiths & Risen
- While most mortal humans do not truly understand the difference between devils, demons, Wraiths, and Spectres per se, what they do understand is the context in which their contracted benefactor presents themselves. These entities present themselves to mediums as a variety of things; deities, guardian angels, deceased family, ancient beings of knowledge from times past, and much more. Generally, most unfortunate mediums do not come to understand the true nature of the Spectre or Wraith they are tied to until far too late to weasel their way out of contractual obligations, damning their souls to the Labyrinth or worse, Oblivion.
- Many mediums engage in a ritual known as a 'Seance,' which calls upon spirits to meet with them for a time in whatever fashion they might appear. They also possess the ability to perform another ritual referred to as 'Astral Projection,' which allows them to temporarily venture into the 'other side' or 'Shadowlands'. While they understand the beings encountered in this place between life and death are spirits of the restless dead, they do not necessarily know more intricate details of what it means to be a Wraith or Spectre unless learning this knowledge from one or another educated in the topic.
Other Supernatural Creatures
A Medium's knowledge consists of anything their Wraith, Spectre, or perhaps a Risen decides to share with them. Whether any knowledge or information obtained from a Medium’s benefactor is accurate or not remains a whole other matter.