Shellriders are known for their ability to take control over objects, and move them about as they will. Their Arts are often seen as a gentle means to keep things from harm - mostly by putting them out of harm's way, or ensuring that they fall in the "right" way. But it's not impossible to use them to put a real scare onto someone - and they will, if they have to.

Where this Path really comes into its own is if a Wraith Claims a large object, like a room, an entire house, a mansion or a factory. She can use the following Arts to extend control both over every object that is connected to the building, itself {doors, windows, lights, etc.}, and eventually move objects within it as well. Controlling and moving said things about is cause for more rolls and Essence expenditures, of course, but the results achieved are amazing.

As a general rule, the Path of Animation doesn't tend to accrue Tainted Essence, which makes it a "safe" choice for scaring the living. However, if a Wraith uses any of these Arts to seriously maim or kill a mortal, or drive her insane, they may wind up feeding their Shadow.

** Sudden Motion:

This allows the Wraith to move one thing {open or close a door or window, move the head on a doll, etc.}. She can also affect the rate of speed of an object's molecules, making it noticeably warm or oddly cool, or else create enough friction to zap someone with a very mild electric shock, like static electricity.

***All Activity:

The next step up allows full control of an object with moving parts, so that all the moving parts connected to that object can be moved as often as the Wraith would care to. The Wraith could open and close all the doors in the house several times, or keep someone from opening or closing any of them. She could also fully animate the child's doll, and make it walk across the room towards someone, or get an object with wheels on its undercarriage {like an industrial stove} to silently trundle across the floor when the cook's back is turned.

**** Complete Control:

This lets the Wraith move something that wasn't meant to move, and though it can bend the rules of physics, it can't leave the ground. For example, a factory machine with no wheels could be made to slide along the floor, but it couldn't fly at someone. And while a handbell could be made to shake itself back and forth, and ring, it couldn't get up high enough to go into full motion.

However, the true wonders of this Art are:

1) A Wraith can also extend control to a separate object within what she's possessing, without having to slip from object to object and Claim it.

2) The object can be slid up walls and along ceilings, no matter how heavy it is

3) The Wraith can make the object "talk," in an odd, vibrationary approximation of the Wraith's own voice.

***** Sympathetic Action:

This is the next step up from **** Complete Control, whereby a Wraith can extend control over several different objects at once. She could, if she had the mind to do it and the Essence to spare, animate every car in a factory showroom and make them "dance" around the floor, walls and ceiling. She could also make everything in a refrigerator "leap" from its berthings, fall to the floor, and then encircle a would-be late night snacker in a threatening horde of leftovers and luncheon meats.