DARK RISEN

By Douglas Yee (eaterofsouls@hotmail.com)

Description

The Risen. These words inspire any number of emotions within a wraith. Depending upon their affiliation and philosophies, the Risen are looked upon by other wraiths with awe, envy, hatred or distaste. At the very least, to another wraith, a Risen is worth respect; to rise from the grave takes passion of a power that can be called obsession.

There is one kind of Risen, though, that inspires only hate and fear: the Dark Risen. Driven by their Shadows, the Dark Risen are a force for destruction and Oblivion in the Skinlands. Most Dark Risen are those Risen who are unfortunate enough to have been pushed into their Conduits by powerful Shadows. Trapped in an inanimate object or dumb animal, they can only watch helplessly as their bodies, driven by their dark halves, destroys all that they hold dear. Sometimes, they can wrest control of their bodies back from their Shadows, but many are not that fortunate.

Very rarely though, a real spectre manages to Rise. This is an uncommon event, as the Psyche will not be willing to help the spectre. Sometimes it happens, though. Occasionally, a spectre can convince her Psyche to help her become a Risen. When this happens, all hell breaks loose, literally.

Game Mechanics

A Risen can become a Dark Risen when the Shadow takes control of the body. This may happen in one of two ways. The first is described in the Risen book, when the wraith is making her first roll to rise. If she fails or botches the roll, her Shadow takes over the body, while the Psyche is pushed into the conduit. This creates a Dark Risen.

The second way for a Risen to become a Dark Risen is if its Shadow becomes too strong. For normal wraiths, when their Shadows' Permanent Angst reach 10, they are plunged into the Labyrinth and become spectres. When this happens to Risen, they come Dark Risen. The Shadow becomes dominant and the Psyche is pushed into the conduit. In game terms, they become Doppelgangers.

Unfortunately for the new Dark Risen, the Shadow unconsciously wants to form a cocoon, just as when a spectre-to-be does when it is pulled into the Tempest for the first time. There is, however, no Tempest to actually form the cocoon. This tends to create all kinds of severe psychological trauma in the Dark Risen (besides any that are already there), and may even destroy new spectres before they can become real Dark Risen. Dark Risen newly created in this fashion must roll their highest Dark Passion (their new driving passion) at difficulty 9. If this roll is failed, both the Psyche and Shadow are torn from the body and drop straight into Oblivion, do not pass Go, do not collect $200.

In the rare case that spectre convinces her Psyche to Rise, then the system for becoming a Dark Risen is much like the system for a wraith attempting to become a Risen. A spectre requires all the Arcanoi that a normal wraith requires (Puppetry 1 and at least 2 points in Embody, Lifeweb or Inhabit), as well as Shroud-Rending of 4, in order to properly be able to perceive the Skinlands. This obviously rules out Mortwights and Shades from becoming Dark Risen, and most Nephwracks have trouble as well, having lost all their fetters. Most Dark Risen are Dopplegangers. Spectres then needs to Skinride their old bodies and then make their Willpower rolls at difficulty 9 (the higher difficulty is due to the spectre's distance from the Shadowlands).

It should be noted that a Risen that is temporarily controlled by the Shadow (due to Catharsis) is not really a Dark Risen, as the Psyche will get back in control of the body as soon as the Catharsis is complete.

A Dark Risen is like a Risen in the way that a spectre is like a wraith. All the rules that govern spectres apply to Dark Risen. Dark Risen may learn and use Dark Arcanoi, but only Hive-Mind, Contaminate and Larceny are applicable as a Risen. Dark Risen still lose permanent Corpus from botched rolls. This manifests as a rotting of the mortal body, even if the body was embalmed. Oblivion is eating away at the corpse. Furthermore, whenever a Dark Risen loses permanent Corpus, her conduit loses a like amount of Health Levels. For instance, Xavier the Dark Risen is attempting to shoot a fleeing mortal in the back. He botches his roll, getting two more "1"s than successes. Therefore, he loses two permanent Corpus, and his conduit, an ugly black dog, loses two permanent Health Levels as well.