Wraithbound

General things about wraithbounds

If you ask yourself "What in the world is a wraith?", then you might want to look here first. So, a wraithbound. You possibly have heard some tales about people with astonishing magical abbilities going crazy and wiping out towns, enslaving small shires or suddently showing up somewhere with an army of undead. Where do these people, who never in their entire life showed any magic skills, suddently get these powers from? The answer is - wraiths. There are multiple rituals on how to bind a wraith to you - each pretty gruesome and it allways involves a lot of blood - strangers blood as well as blood from the person who wishes to bind the wraith. But the binding-process will be discussed elsewhere... But why would you do such a thing? Short answer - Power. Binding a wraith to you gives you - if you bind it succesfully - extreme control over the domain the wraith originates from. So if you bind a fire wraith you can easily cast all kinds of firespells, are immune to fire and have a lot of other benefits. But nothing is for free, so if you try to bind a wraith, the wraith wont just let you bind and control it, it will try to take over control of your mind and enslave you in return. And even if youre succesful at first and bind it - its nagging voice will allways be in the back of your head, trying to drive you insane so it can finally take back control and reverse your roles - you as the prisoner in your own body and the wraith as your master. This is the reason so few people try it. Those who do most of the time do it as some kind of desperate measure. But still, there are allways some wraithbound out there.

Wraithbounds throughout history

One of the most recent and notorious ones is Maud from the north, she bound not only one, but two wraiths to her soul and is in contrast to many others still more or less sane and stable, even after centuries of living with two evil spirits within her mind. Others are for example Geir, most of the times mentioned as "the undead rider", or Horzgez, a dwarf who was taken over by the fire wraith he tried to bind. Also worth metioning is Cassius the pale, a general in the army of the north during the wars of the cataclysm who bound a bloodwraith without anyone noticing and continiued his service, earning great honours. But as soon as he retired the wraith went wild due to the lack of slaughter and murder and took matters into his own hand, exposing the general and leading to a few smaller but bloody skirmishes that ended with the execution of the now completly insane general.  

How to spot a wraithbound

Normally, its pretty easy to spot them. Especially those who chose to bind an elemental wraith. Frostbounds show signs of frostbite all over their bodies - it doesnt harm them, but still marks them pretty obviously. Firebounds are a bit different, many are easily spotted due to eyes consisting of fire, burning hair or they allways leave a trail of sparks - waterbounds are tricky, some look more or less normal, others look like a water corpse.   Harder to spot are the wraiths who derive from necromancy, murder, battles or torture. These tend to disguise their host and try to mess with their minds a way not even the hosts notice in order to spread chaos and terror. Noticeble traits are blacl veins or bloodshot eyes, but these can be symptoms of other diseases so thats not a very safe way of spotting them.   The hardest to spot are bloodwraiths, they are rare and only exist in places where blood has been shed numerous times. When bound the host nearly resembles a vampire, still they dont feed on the blood themselves, they are still pretty normal people, and the bloodwraiths normally dont mess with their hosts as long as they are fed - but if they get hungry the host suddently loses all control and goes on a violent rampage.  

The Sideeffects

Merging your soul with a wraith has many benefits apart from the obvious downsides. It grants you ethernal youth and lets you survive many injuries that would otherwise kill an ordinary person. Also you become more resistant to poisons - you can still be poisened, but what would knock out the average person only gives you severe stomach ache for example. Some wraiths like the bloodwraiths also increase your senses, especially sight, hearing and smelling while boosting your reflexes.  

Is there a cure?

Yes and no. There is no proven case where somebody succesfully seperated themselv from a wraith that has been bound to their soul before - still some argue it should be possible to achieve that with divine assistance, but these are just rumors.  

The Powers you get

As I explained, the main objective when binding a wraith is power. When it comes to the abbillities that are granted by the wraiths they can again be seperated into two groups, the elemental wraiths on the one hand and the "dark" wraiths on the other.  

The elemental wraiths

 

• Fire wraiths

they grant you complete over fire and heat, enabling you to walk through fire unharmed or summon giant fire blasts within seconds with ease. You also receive the power to absorb heat and heal yourself with it - though you really need enormous amounts of fire for that.  

• Ice wraiths

With binding an ice wraith, simmilar to the fire wraiths, you become immune to the cold, are able to freeze things and people by touching them or unleash blizzards on your enemies. Also you can walk through ice - not extremly useful, but it can come in handy at some point.  

• Storm wraiths

These are very volatile wraiths, them living in the clouds makes it especially hard to encounter them, but the benefits are worth it. While you cant fly like a bird you will be able to levitate for short amounts of time, controle air and wind and cast lightning. Wraithbounds who bound a storm wraith are exeptionallly rare.  

• Water wraiths

As you might have allready guessed they let their masters breathe water and enables them to swim like a fish and controle some seacreatures. There is actually a fair amount of pirates and other nautic outlaws who bound a water wraith.  

the "dark" wraiths

 

• war/blood wraiths

They arent rare by nature, just the places where they are found are seldom and most of the time very dangerous if you manage to find them in the first place. But for a soldier/mercenary/outlaw it is very useful to bind one. These wraith are the essence of battles - they form on old battlefields when blood has been spilled there multiple times. They increase their masters reflexes and senses and on top give them the knowledge and abbillity to operate every weapon. And as long as the wraithbound continue a lifestyle of constant fighting and slaughter the wraith is easy to control - just as with Cassius, the problems start when the wraithbound tries to retire.  

• all kinds of necromantic wraiths

These let you control the undead and interact with the realms of the dead. Very treacherous beasts - they allways try to cause an army of undead terrorising the living. Unless you plan to create an undead kingdom or suffer from some rare disease with no cure in sight you shuld really stay away from these.