Wraith: The Oblivion

Wraith: the Oblivion is a role-playing game set in the afterlife of White Wolf Game Studio's World of Darkness. In the game, players take on characters who are recently dead and are now ghosts. The difference between Wraith: the Oblivion and other games of its sort are that the society of wraiths is deeply described and explains the interaction that occurs when ancient dead souls mingle socially with the more recent dead; the society is both a dystopia and a heterotopia. Also, the significant presence of morbid and horrific content that creates a tone of despair and horror with immense creativity, bringing to mind the works of Samuel Beckett, Jorge Luis Borges, and Clive Barker.

Wraith: the Oblivion has been described as the most artistically consistent of the World of Darkness series line (due to its rich depiction of the afterlife and steadfast dedication to thematic integrity), but also is the least commercially popular (due to its graphically dark tone and sometimes confrontational style of play). White Wolf discontinued their production of the game line long before having published all material that was originally planned.

White Wolf revisitted some of Wraith's themes in their role-playing miniseries Orpheus, and in a recently-published collection of adventures called Ghost Stories, but have no official plans to revisit Wraith as a setting.

Contents

1 Overview

2 Setting

3 The Risen and Kindred of the East

4 External links

Overview

The world of Wraith: The Oblivion takes place entirely in the Umbra. Near the realm of mortals (sometimes called "The Quick") is a realm known as the Shadowlands that mirrors our world. Beyond this surface layer is the Tempest, a massive storm in which distance in the traditional sense has no meaning. Within the Tempest are realms and empires of wraiths, as well as the elusive Far Shores, the final resting place for the dead. Most who die go directly to the Far Shores, but wraiths remain tethered to reality by Fetters, which are items, places, or people of great importance to their former life with which the wraith in question has unresolved business.

The world of wraith is overrun by a force called Oblivion, a pervasive force of distintegrating nothingness and nihilism that acts on everything in the Shadowlands and the Tempest. Every wraith has a sliver of such nihilism, known as a Shadow, embedded in their minds. This Shadow is essentially an alternate personality that, if the wraith's primary personality (or Psyche) becomes vulnerable, asserts control of the wraith's body and senses for a time. These episodes, called Harrowings, only end when the primary personality manages to reassert itself. Wraiths who succumb entirely to their Shadows are known as Spectres, and represent an omnipresent threat through the lands of the dead, especially in the Tempest where Oblivion is stronger.

Wraiths have a variety of motives. Some seek to resolve their Fetters, ending their connection to the mortal world and travelling to the Far Shores. Others hover close to the mortal world to watch over their Fetters. Still others embrace their wraithly nature and seek knowledge, power, and prestige in wraith society. These motivations, called Passions, are a wraith's weapon against Oblivion, and give wraiths the strength necessary to resist their Shadows. Spectres, no longer having mortal (or even wraithly) Passions, seek nothing less than the unravelling of reality, driving Oblivion forward.

Setting

Wraith: The Oblivion primarily takes place in the Deadlands of the western world, which is by the Empire of Stygia. Stygia's authoritarian governing body, The Hierarchy stands opposed to the disparate Renegades, who seek to the freedom of an anarchic state and to the Heretics, cults formed in search of transcendence from the underworld to a higher state beyond the Far Shores. Ferrymen also exist, lone pathfinders who exist above political concern and act as guides through the Tempest.

Though officially disbanded, Stygia (especially the Hierarchy) retains a tradition of Guilds, each specializing in one of the Arcanoi, or spiritual arts. Mastery of an Arcanos (the singular) often has visible effects on a wraith's physique and personality, making such categories a matter of generalization. The Guilds, as defined in the Hierarchy, are:

Artificer: Wraiths skilled in Inhabit, the art of possessing inanimate objects.
Chanteur: Wraiths skilled in Keening, the art of inducing emotion through song.
Harbinger: Wraiths skilled in Argos, the art of travelling the Tempest.
Haunter: Wraiths skilled in Pandemonium, the art of causing chaos in the mortal world.
Masquer: Wraiths skilled in Moliate, the art of self-transfiguration.
Monitor: Wraiths skilled in Lifeweb, the art of manipulating Fetters.
Oracle: Wraiths skilled in Fatalism, the art of reading the mark of fate on the soul.
Pardoner: Wraiths skilled in Castigate, the art of taming the Shadow.
Proctor: Wraiths skilled in Embody, the art of manifesting in the mortal world.
Puppeteer: Wraiths skilled in Puppetry, the art of possessing mortals.
Sandman: Wraiths skilled in Phantasm, the art of interacting with the dreams of mortals.
Spook: Wraiths skilled in Outrage, the art of using telekinetic force in the mortal world.
Urser: Wraiths skilled in Ursury, the art of manipulating and drawing on life force.

A handful of other pseudo-guilds exist, but their ranks are few due to the rarity (or illegality) of the Arcanoi they specialize in.

Alchemists: Wraiths skilled in Flux, the art of controlling the matter of the mortal world.
Mnemoi: Wraiths skilled in Mnemosynis, the art of controlling memory.
Solicitors: Wraiths skilled in Intimidation, the art of inducing behavior in others.

Other regions of the world are dominated by other forces. The Dark Kingdom of Ivory reigns in the African underworld, and the Dark Kingdom of Jade dominates the Asian underworld. The Dark Kingdom of Jade is noteworthy for the proximity of Yomi, a series of hells with highly specific themes ruled over by the Yama Kings, demon monarchs at constant odds with one another.

The Tempest is also home to a seemingly omnipresent region known as the Labyrinth. Always lurking beneath the Tempest's stormclouds, this region is home to the Spectres, and is ruled in sections by ultra-powerful wraiths known as Malfeans (beings who, through consuming other wraiths, have grown huge and learned the secrets of those they have consumed). Spectres can broadly be divided into Castes, based on their function in serving Oblivion. Spectre Castes are:

Apparition: The evangelists of Oblivion, these Spectres seek to convert wraiths by preaching to their Shadows.
Doppelganger: The most common Spectre, they are indistinguishable form normal wraiths, acting as Oblivions spies and inside operators.
Haint: Wraiths who died of famine, genocide, or some other atrocity, and enter the underworld as Spectres driven by insatiable hunger.
Mortwight: Wraiths who suffered disfiguring deaths, succumbing to Oblivion at the moment of their death.
Nephwrack: The templars of the Malfeans and the bureaucrats and generals of the Labyrinth.
Shade: Spectres whose Psyche was destroyed by the Tempest, and who exist as near-mindless predators in its depths.
Stripling: Not so much a Caste as an additional title, these are Spectres who died before the age of ten and have the bodies of young children.

The Risen and Kindred of the East

Some wraiths are able to force their souls to reinhabit their deceased bodies. No longer part of the setting of Wraith: The Oblivion, they nevertheless remain wraiths (including their Arcanoi and their Shadows). The Risen that result from this phenomenon are essentially intelligent zombies. Though few in number, the ranks of the Risen have grown considerably faster in recent years than they have in the past.

The process of reanimation is considerably more common in the Dark Kingdom of Jade, where the concept of karma makes the responsibility associated with life pervasive in its strength and Yomi makes the consequences of karmic failure especially nasty. This confluence of factors leads to a very different variety of Risen, whose physiological need to consume chi (in the form of flesh or blood) has led to their being confused with vampires. Called the Kindred of the East or Kuei-jin, the blood-drinking behaviors of these beings should not obscure their origins as former wraiths.