No, I wasn't just afraid, I was...I don't know, it was like nothing I'd ever felt before. As though all the light in the world had rotted away and left me there alone. For a time, I was empty.— Giaco da Qadeuv, former Carnifex of Pratan.
Wraiths are a rare form of essence-bound undead characterized in form by billowing shadows and opaque, smoke-like bodies of blacks, blues, and greens as opposed to the more translucent appearance of traditional specters. As with other forms of specters, a wraith may be formed either by the deliberate tethering of a deceased kith's soul to the physical realm without a specific object of binding (as with a
lich's phylactery) or else by the experiencing of an overpowering emotive state by a being at the moment of its death to the extent that its soul becomes becomes tethered to the physical by power of will. In the case of the latter, wraiths in specific are most often associated with feelings of hatred or despair; each emotions often associated with
revenants and
banshees, respectively, though less directed towards a specific target than is usually the case with such creatures.
As is the case with many powerful forms of undead, wraiths hold a powerful and intrinsic connection with certain forms of magic purely by nature of their existence. A wraith's intrinsic affinity for
umbramancy comes as small surprise to any even tangentially familiar with the appearance of the undead and the visible effects of umbramantic spells both, as the "living shadow" which comprises the swirling and ever-changing mass of a wraith's cloak-like form is immediately evocative of shadow-casting. Wraiths make natural umbramancers to a far greater extent than other forms of undead, able to freely manipulate the shadows around them and their own bodies alike into semi-corporeal forms by their whims. Perhaps more surprising to those unacquainted with records of wraith encounters, however, is their apparently near-unintentional influence in the realm of
pathomancy. Every recorded confrontation with a wraith has documented a significant impact on the emotional states of those nearby, ranging from slight unease and disquiet at a distance to raising feelings of hopeless despair, undirected rage, and abject terror when nearer. It is unknown whether a wraith possesses the ability to increase or lessen the effect this pathomantic aura seems to have on the minds of those nearby, though it is theorized that the manner of emotion inflicted on its victims may correlate with the emotive state that caused its undeath. Various forms of fear and despair – or simply 'emptiness' – are the most oft-recorded emotions reported by those who have faced or slain wraiths.
While wraiths are not subjected to the same mental withering that afflicts other forms of specters – a wraith will always, barring extreme circumstances, remember who it was in life and maintain a relatively clear perception of its surroundings rather than become overwhelmed by emotion in time – what few documented personalities of wraiths have been recorded across centuries all theorize that the mind may have been twisted or malformed in the moment of its transformation into undeath. Whether due to mental scarring from said undeath or the prolonged effects of possibly uncontrollable mental drain no those nearby, wraiths often demonstrate intense sense of loathing for living beings of all sorts, and many who have been slain espoused desires to quell surrounding life in one way or another.
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