A Brief Encyclopedia of the Chronicles of Sacrifice

Wraiths and Their Common Subcategories

Category: Monster

Commonality: Rare

Hazard Level: EXTREME

Descriptors: Shrouded, black spirit with glowing green eyes, dry-looking skin, no nose, and a permanently open mouth

Magical Nature: Essence

Typical Geography: Sights of Forgotten Tragedies

The Wraith is a vengeful spirit, believed to come from the suffering of the souls of the fallen in a place of tragedy. When a village somewhere is massacred, an avalanche crushes a town, a war rips apart a city, or plagues ravage the land, wraiths have been known to appear.

Wraiths are difficult to fight, as no unenchanted physical weapon can harm them. Magic can be used to keep them at bay, but they are known to be relentless in their pursuit of spreading their misery and creating more wraiths. In some instances, a warith will form and then travel to the home of those responsible for its creation to slaughter them, creating another wraith. Those wraiths will then battle as opposing forces, just as they did when their creators were alive.

Specialized magic must be used to defeat a Wraith, typically conceptual magic. The enchantments and spells used can be very borderline in terms of legality, however, as they rely on the nature of Essence magic to function. While these spells do not utilize the souls of the fallen to function, they work on the same basic principle of molding souls to their will. If taken too far, many legal systems still do not look kindly on the magic.

THe spells must be used to freeze the wraith in place somehow, then extract its soul energy and disperse it, thereby not actually using it. There are other ways to get a Wraith to be still, though such distractions place enormous risk on the distractor. In these cases, the distractor can be armed with an Essence weapon, a weapon which interacts with a being's essence instead of its body. These weapons can also be used to kill a Wraith, but being close to a Wraith when it detonates can be costly.

Should you encounter one, unless properly equipped with specialized gear, you must flee, for the Wraith will stop at nothing but distance to drain your body of its soul essence.

Different variations of Wraith include, but are not necessarily limited to;

-A Wartorn: Born at the sight of battles, massacres, and mass graves, highly aggressive and prone to killing everything in sight. The most dangerous of all Wraiths.

-A Hunger: Born in lands of famine and disease, greedy and cunning. These Wraiths will lure victims in with their primal desires, then take their souls when they are distracted.

-An Anguish: Born at the sight of natural disasters and unforeseen tragedies. These wraiths rely on the use of traps and natural barriers to keep victims from escaping.

Generally, Wraiths are unique each time they are born, with variations in appearance and capabilities. These are simply three major subcategories on what generates them.