Creature Feature: Wraith

Supernatural predators are often waiting for a chance to catch the bold, foolish, or unwary off guard. But none can hold a spectral candle to the deadly fiends called wraiths.

Author’s note: Hoist the Colors may eventually inspire fiction. Most likely will and I’ll gladly write it. But right now, it’s a role-playing game setting with what I hope is an interesting take and look at an “Alternate History” of Earth. It isn’t really “steampunk”, though I can see how someone would get that impression. For me, it’s more a “flintlock fantasy” set on Earth of 1722 in all it’s historical mess… that I’ve stirred up even more!

So, with that said, lets get into a Creature Feature! The Wraith!

Wraiths

Wraiths are anything but shadows of the dead. They’re anger and death all wrapped up in a nasty little smile. Like an undead shark just waiting for someone to jump in the water…

- Eleanor Vane, Captain of the Wind Eagle

Ghouls to gremlins and grinning ghosts are often found in dark corners of lost ruins or cargo holds of abandoned ships. Each one is a threat in their own right. Supernatural predators waiting for a chance to catch the bold, foolish, or unwary off guard. But none of those can hold a spectral candle to the deadly fiends called wraiths.

These terrifying creatures hold a powerful place in both human and Otherworld cultures. Otherworld refugees know all too well about the deadly reality of a wraith. But for humans, they’ve been a rumor or myth, at least until Crossing’s Fall. Now they’re all too real, if not uncommon, threat. Spectral stalkers fueled by rage and vengeance that kill with a poisonous touch.

A Deadly Elegance

Legends paint wraiths in a terrifying light. Lone spirits of people wronged in life, caught in the gray mists of undeath. Filled with rage and starving for vengeance, they wander the lands after their brutal deaths, eager to feed on the fear of the living. But, the truth is far stranger, and more disturbing, than a simple angry ghost.

Wraiths come in many forms, but each one is a ghastly reflection of the person they were in life, merged with the tragedy that turned them into a twisted creature. Unlike in legends, wraiths are a nightmarish blend of elemental and ghastly ghost. The result is a bloody, scheming specter innately tied to the material most involved with their death. A terror often described as an ‘undead elemental’ as much as they called their true name of ‘wraith’.

Nature of a Wraith

All wraiths share common traits and some physical features, despite the different materials they’re bonded with. These necromantic nightmares are a gaunt version of their former living selves. They have a ghastly pallor mixed with the element or material from their death, and their eyes burn with a pale blue or green flame.

Despite this haunting form, they’re blanketed by an enchanted aura. It’s used to conceal their terrifying appearance, giving them a deep, almost terrible beauty. A lure they use to attract victims or fool anyone that intrudes into their lairs.

These auras are potent manifestations of the Etherwave Arcana. Folded in and around the creature to give it the pallor and semblance of life. But magic, even for a wraith, comes with a price. These layers of spells allow a wraith to look, feel, and even smell like a living being, but they also radiate a chilling cold. This is a sure clue that a person may actually be a wraith in disguise.

Legends claim wraiths are like a ghost, insubstantial until they strike. This isn’t at all true. All wraiths have a physical body, but some can change their shape or make themselves insubstantial for a short time. In most all cases, wraiths are a dangerous but solid creature that stands in both the world of the living and the dead.

Part of that spiritual nature is their clothing. In their natural form, when not using any supernatural abilities, wraiths have spectral clothing. This is a spirit-like, ghostly outfit of what they last wore when alive. For a wraith, it’s a tangible memory of their former life that they can’t discard, but they can conceal it.

Wraiths prefer actual clothing that’s similar in cut and style to what they wore in life. Usually, they take these from their last victims. When a wraith travels, which is often for revenge, they use charcoal colored travel cloaks or long coats with a hood. Rumors say these are wool bound to solid shadows using rituals.

These cloaks or long coats do more than just keep the weather off. Each is carefully crafted and styled to protect the wraith from sunlight, a vulnerability common to most wraiths. In addition, shadows cling to these cloaks and long coats. Allowing a wraith to step into a shadow and entirely vanish from sight for a short time. An effect that adds to the myth that a wraith can become intangible like a ghost.

A Delicate But Deadly Touch

Any legend of a wraith mentions their deadly touch. That, when they wish, their touch can kill or maim anyone within reach. This is true, but only from a certain point of view. A wraith’s touch can maim or kill, but it can also poison a victim with a deadly toxin, or mummify if the wraith holds a victim too long. It all comes down to which type of wraith it is.

For some, such as a salt wraith, their touch is a sticky acid. Others, like a soot wraith, have a touch that causes a burning rot in their victims. Each wraith has their own method, bound to their corrupted element, making the attack and how to cure it unique for each type of wraith. But this isn’t the only weapon in a wraith’s dire arsenal.

Weapons of Choice, Curses of Fate

Wraiths can summon an enchanted weapon when needed. To do this, the wraith channels the darker aspects of the Etherwave Arcana, allowing a portion of their undead nature to be taken as the price to fashion the weapon. Which results in a weapon that is bound to the land of undeath. These weapons are always an exceptional quality, forged in the fires of a wraith’s rage and dark necrotic power from the Etherwave Arcana.

Each weapon shares qualities possessed by the wraith that summoned it, including aspects of a wraith’s poisonous touch. No matter the shape or size, all wraith-bound weapons burn with a blue-white fire along their length. It’s the same fire that burns hot in a wraith’s eyes and can sear living victims with a single touch. Meanwhile, the weapons are unnaturally sturdy, able to tear armor and deliver lethal wounds on their own.

These weapons are also the last legacy of any wraith. Once the creature is destroyed, its weapon is left behind for the taking. But these items are corrupt, permanently cursed. Anyone who takes it, and doesn’t destroy it, will be transformed into that type of wraith after seven days of agony from the pain. A wraith-bound item can only be destroyed under a full moon, using a ritual unique to each type of wraith. If the weapon is destroyed before the end of the seven days, the victim will return to normal after four days of rest.

Formidable with a Flaw

Even they have a chink in their armor…

- Eleanor Vane, Captain of the Wind Eagle

A wraith is a deadly opponent, as lethal as a shark in the water. But even a wraith has its weaknesses. According to folklore from Otherworld traditions, most of these depend on the type of wraith and its particular corrupted element. Some burn when splashed with clean, boiled water. For others, it requires a special mixture such as water mixed with cloves and boiled honey. But no matter what kind of wraith they are, they all share a weakness to sunlight.

Sunlight is the bane of any wraith. Even a single ray of sunlight weakens them and robs them of most or all of their abilities. For certain wraiths, the effect is more severe, from burning them to sludge or turning the creature to stone. Because of this, most wraiths avoid the sunlight or travel by daylight if they can help it. If not, they take great care to cover themselves with their cloaks or other methods to block out the sun. This even includes one like sand or soot wraiths who only lose their powers in sunlight instead of being harmed.

Culturally Inclined

There is a popular belief that wraiths are solitary creatures. Lone predators that stalk the living to satisfy their corrupt needs. This is all true, from a certain point of view. But there are whispers, rumors, that wraiths may not be as solitary as many believe. Both scholars and hunters who study wraiths believe they are actually social, with secret cultures of their own.

Instead, hunters and wraith scholars believe wraiths form ‘Houses’, similar to noble houses. Culture and groups where newly risen wraiths learn how to navigate their rage and abilities in a complicated world. These Wraith Houses are said to exist near many towns or abandoned ruins. Locations that have the ample space to support the need for a wraith to fashion a protective lair and the needs of the House. It’s suspected there are Wraith Houses for many wraiths, from sand or soot wraiths to salt, wood, and more.

How many Wraith Houses are there? No one knows, and the few wraiths that have been asked deny they even exist. But scholars and hunters point out the emphatic denials are a clue that these ‘Wraith Houses’ actually exist.

Devil and the Details

The details are what can get you killed, or keep you alive…

- Eleanor Vane, Captain of the Wind Eagle

Rumors say that all manner of nightmarish wraiths stalk the living. Undead spirits fueled by rage and revenge that are bound by an element twisted out of nature’s grasp. But many are just stories, at least four are all too real. These would be the salt wraith, soot wraith, sand wraith, and wood wraith. Undead predators that lie in wait for the living to use for their own nefarious needs.

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- Kummer Wolfe