Wraith: the Arising - Numina

Fear

{Common}

The Fear Numen - which is far too common for the liking of some - is a terrible thing, indeed. It not only empowers Wraiths to witness the horrid nightmares, hidden memories and secret fears of both the Living and Dead, but to then turn those terrible things against them. It also allows the Dead to store the bad memories, phobias and dreams that they see, so that they may use them on others, or weave them together into a great tapestry of horror.

It is this Numen which makes the Haunters so feared by the other Concords. And The Order is particularly loath to sanction its use, given how terrible the cost to one's soul can be. But the Numen's power is such that many Wraiths seek to learn of it, if only to fall back on when all other means of frightening off the Living have failed.

Funny, then, how it often becomes the first tool they use.

We're All Mad, Here

Unless stated otherwise, all the Arts of Fear can be used on Wraiths, Ghosts and the living.

Some of the Arts specify that the target may go insane if they're used. Wraiths and Ghosts aren't in any danger of this happening, but depending on the Art being used they may gain Tainted Essence, or suffer Catharsis. Ghosts are also in danger of Awakening if the terror generated is enough to shake them out of their Fugue.

Paths

Fear has three recognized Paths:

The Path of Fright is the best-known of Fear's Paths, for it gives Wraith power over fear, itself. Its users - often known as Horrorists - cause their targets to experience their own phobias, or those of others, at varying degrees. At the very least, it's enough to take away someone's nerve, but Wraiths can increase the terror up to the point where the fear seems to come true, with deadly and maddening results.

The Path of Nightmare allows Wraiths to enter the dreams of the Living and Dead. The Incubi and Succubi who specialize in this Path use its Arts to record, change and replay the dreams and nightmares they witness. They are also known for granting the gift of sleep to the Dead, but let the dreamer beware - their nightmares are truly terrible, and their stolen dreams can kill.

The Path of Sorrows is practiced by the Remembrancers, who seek memories - preferably very bad ones - for their personal collections. Their Arts allow them to copy, alter and replay memories from the Living and the Dead, as well as Anchors. They can help others deal with their awful memories, should they choose, but they can also use those same traumas to injure both mind and body.

Those Who Know

Those who died due to violence or insanity can have an Affinity for Fear, given their intimate understanding of anxiety, terror and horror. However, almost any Wraith could learn it, given how widespread it tends to be: the Basic Art is readily available in most quarters, and there are any number of amateur Horrorists lurking about.

That said, the Haunters see this as "their" Numen, and are not very pleased to hear of others trying to steal their thunder - unless, of course, they'd like to join their Calling. Meanwhile, The Order has an extreme distaste for what the Numen can do, and tries to ban its use amongst its members. The Pardoners are also convinced it's a one-way street to being Damned - skipping Lost almost altogether - and are extremely harsh on their charges who make a habit of using it.

The Freewraiths, on the other hand, don't see what the big problem is. In their eyes, Fear is just a tool that Wraiths have at their disposal; So long as its risks are understood and respected, there is no need to proscribe or ban its use.

Whispers

Those who are fully conversant with Fear and its Paths will admit that there's an odd "sameness" about it all. However, it is rumored that once one goes beyond what is known, the true differences between the Paths are made manifest. That one no longer needs to touch the target for the Arts to work seems a common thread in these tales, along with the notion of being able to remove nightmares and memories, rather than just copy them.

But there's more - much, much more.

They speak of Remembrancers who have created entire Necropoli out of stolen memories within their minds. They say these masters can infect large numbers of the Living and Dead with ideas and recollections they never had. They also say they can excise them from equally large numbers, and do it with such skill that no one will ever notice their absence.

They speak of Incubi who can walk from dream to dream, as though they were stepping stones across a stream of slumber. They say they can enter the minds of the Living through their dreams, and possess their bodies while they doze. And some are purported to walk fully formed from the heads of dreamers, without needing to Manifest.

And as for the Horrorists, it is said that they can command fear and fright to a terrifying extent. They can sit at the middle of a citywide web of terror, and harvest Essence from all who feel fear. The Lands of the Living and the Dead can be turned into an immense tableau of horror, as everyone's worst fears become dreadfully real.

What is not a rumor is that the Damned practice this Numen extensively - it is a known fact. And it is also a know fact that they don't have to touch their targets in order to use these Arts {or their Damned equivalents} upon them. One saving grace may be that they seem to have severe problems using it on the Living, but they more than make up for it by using it on Wraiths and Ghosts, instead.

Basic Art

* Hand of Fear

The first technique any would-be master of Fear must learn is how to harvest it. By touching a Wraith or Ghost, or passing a hand though one of the Living, the user can see into the target's mind, and read their memories, nightmares and fears at will. And once these are uncovered, the Wraith can absorb reflections of them into herself to glean for Essence, hold for later use, or use right away - either against the person she took it from, or someone else.

System: A Wraith does not need to spend Essence to enter the mind of another Wraith, or Ghost, but she must be in physical contact with the target for a turn. For targets in the Land of the Living, she must "touch" them for a turn, overlapping them with her Corpus, and spend a point of Essence to bridge the gap between them.

The Wraith then rolls her Intelligence + Manipulation + Fear to find a memory, a nightmare or a fear. The Wraith can only look for one sort of thing at a time, and successes can be spent on individual finds, or to seek a larger, more potent one. For example: if Bloody Mary gets 3 Successes on the roll, she can either find 3 trivial fears, 1 trivial fear and 1 moderate fear, or 1 serious fear.

Successes	Type	Essence Gained	Fear Modifier
1	Trivial	1	0
2	Moderate	2	0
3	Serious	3	+1
4	Terrifying	4	+2
5	Crippling	5	+3

Once these fears, bad memories or nightmares are found, the Wraith has a number of options available to her:

1) She can absorb Essence from watching these things, as per the chart above. It takes one Turn to absorb one Essence, and the Wraith must remain in contact with the Target - who remains unaware of what's happening - the entire time. A Wraith can gain Essence in this way regardless of the emotion behind what's seen, but it garners one Tainted Essence for feeding on such negative things.

2) She can spend one Essence to "hold" it in her Corpus, and then use that reflection the next turn in another Fear Art. This not only saves the Wraith from having to spend time finding something in her own stores {see below} but can grant extra dice to the roll, as per the chart above. If the Wraith doesn't use it in the next turn, however, she must either spend another Essence to keep it fresh, or else it evaporates, and she has to make the original roll to find it - or something else - again.

3) The Wraith can spend Essence to store it within her mind, and hold for later. This requires one Essence per thing to store, one Turn's concentration, and a Wits + Manipulation + Fear roll to pull off successfully. Success means that it's been stored, while Failure means that it's been lost, and the Wraith has to go back to the original target and find it all over again. If a Dramatic Failure occurs, the thing is melded into her own mind, so that she thinks it's one of her own memories, fears or nightmares, and she takes a dot of Tainted Essence for each Success the thing was worth {A lost Crippling Nightmare means 5 Tainted Essence}.

A Wraith can typically hold onto {Influence + Presence x 10} Success worth of things of any combination. So if a Wraith had Influence 3 and Presence 2, she'd have room for 50 Successes' worth of things. That could translate into 5 Crippling Nightmares, 1 Crippling Fear, 4 Terrible Memories and 4 Trivial Fear. Should the Wraith run out of room, she can choose to jettison old things at any time, and these can either be "gifted" to another Wraith with Fear for one Essence, or simply erased.

Once such a thing is stored, the Wraith need not roll to bring it back up: only spend a turn in concentration to find it . She can then either use it in a Fear Art the next turn, keep it "fresh" upon her Corpus by spending one Essence per extra Turn outside her mind, or spend a Turn in concentration to put it back where it belongs. But the expenditure of Essence can only be done on a turn-by-turn basis, and if it's disrupted it evaporates, and is lost.

Path of Fright

Path of Nightmare

Path of Sorrow

Crossover Arts

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