Aaron here! SO I GUESS YOU GUYS DONT LIKE ALETERATION! Fools gold won in the poll and my partners being smug so now i gotta deal with that, but they are cute so its fine. Im excited to start writing it now that its got a name and a theme and all the skeleton setup. Lets get to the undead.
Alright, today is a real treat. The mages of the Undead world and the spinners of life force within the undead ranks. The Wight! Think lich like vibes and you'll be close
A wight animating a Hollow
A conduit of the dark necrosis you now inhabit, paler than eggshells and eyes dark and black. You feel the energy, your new corrupted life, swirling in you, begging to reach out and touch others, if only temporarily.
Where hellhounds are the flames of rebellion, wights are the chill of oppression. Mortals experiencing the presence of a wight have stated that the sensation is what they imagined the 9th ring of hell to be. Those who travelled in winter months and nearly froze to death scream in the remembrance of its chilled embrace. While this is true of Wights, the beings themselves do not make the area around them colder; it just feels this way. Wights do naturally have more innate manipulation of life force over other undead. This has at times throughout the black veil Church's history made a power struggle between vampires and wights. Vampires won that struggle out through diplomacy over the long run, but wights have always been “above” the other high undead, at least in their minds.
Wights view themselves as the bridge of understanding that most undead will have to cross at some point. Their entire existence revolves around the one thing every undead has in common. That being corrupted life force. With their powers, they can help calm emotions and keep the newly unbirthed from immediately going feral. Most wights believe it is the duty of their people to offer guidance to those who are new.
Necromancers of the church and wights in general have come together over the singular concept that no sentient undead may be created; they are only birthed through the process of death, missing the window. They study this conundrum and carefully consider it philosophically and morally against the teachings of the church. As they are the most powerful manipulators and their energy can make such simple undead there is talk among some of the more daring wights that the first was actually a wight and not a vampire. Though that is not recognized as canon among religious leaders in any way. Those who are even more brazen can and do take part in the cultish sects of the black veil church.
🔮Key Attribute: Wits (+1)
💀 Undead Boon — Corrupted: You start the game with Rank 1 Corruption magic. Magic ranks cost 7 experience to learn as opposed to the normal 10.
🌙 Starting Banes: Silver, Magic (purification)
🫥 Purity is Pain: You are incapable of learning Purification magic. (reworking)
🩸 Healing — life drain: Once per new dawn, you may drain the life force of a Human to deal 1d6 life force of damage at short range and heal that much. If you roll a 6 or they die from the damage, you may cast a spell out of turn order. If the human is broken, you may heal 2d6 life force or recover a critical injury; this kills the human.
⚰️Post-Mortem Questions:
When you awoke as a Wight, what did the life force feel like to you? Was the information overload too much, and what have you done to gain mastery over this?
What do you want to use your Magik for? Do you want to maintain the status quo of the church, or will you fight for something new?
What is your favorite story, myth, or philosophical concept related to life force or undeath? Do other Wights share your interest, or is it a pursuit you keep to yourself?
How do you view mortals now? Are they only sacks of life force? What made you think that way? If not, why have you held on to their humanity?
Have you guided anyone along yet? If not, what has been holding you back from helping other undead? If you have what advice did you pass to the undead you guided? What happened to them?
Does the subjugation of other undead bother you? Do you regret when you create thralls or witnessing the unfair treatment of “low undead”? What are your justifications for those feelings?
My hope with wights is to illicit a sense that you can play the necromancer so many people wanna play at a lot of tables. A lot of their abilities let them make cooler and more impressive undead as they gain more and more power. Any way the Backerkit is almost done! You should go bug your friends about it and get them on here!!!
