Wraiths

So, wraiths huh?  

What exactly is a wraith?

A good question - and the answer highly depends on the type of wraith you are talking about. But first, wraiths in general. A wraith isnt a living thing. Wraiths are condensed spirits or essences of elements or feelings that are forced into our realm. A firewraith for example represents fire - in a way it is nothing more but fire. They form during wildfires or within vulcanos and are forced into our realm by the power of the fire. You cant create a firewraith with a torch - you need to burn down a whole forest for that. Stormwraiths are basicly lightning, they form in strong storms - only to disappear back into their realm after the storm ends. "Dark" wraiths form in places where necromancy or other dark arts are practised for an extended period of time. This leads to the materialisation of dark energy that in the end turns into a wraith.   So to answer your question, a wraith is a (mostly neutral) spirit. The elemental forms are neutral and ignore most living things, only fire and stormwraiths flee dragons and seem to be scared by them. Dark wraiths might try to lure unknowing bypassers into their doom but generally like their elemental cousins they dont care about our realm.   

What types of wraiths are to be found around Aar?

As I mentioned you can seperate wraiths into two major groups. The elemental ones that are created by the forces of nature and the emotional ones, that are created when many people experience the same feeling in the same spot over and over. The most well known ones from this category are the bloodwraiths and the necromantical wraiths, but there are also wraiths of love that someties are found in chapels or temples or other places where weddings are held or where love has a special meaning. Oh, and there are lustwraiths as well - they are supposed to form in brothels and other more adult places - but until now I dont know about someone binding a lustwraith...    Ok, back to the elemental ones. Here is a list of the types that are known to our most wisest scholars:

• Firewaraiths - form in great Fires/Vulcanoes/other very hot places
• Stormwraiths - form during strong (like really strong) Thunderstorms and most of the dissapear at the end of said storm
• Waterwraiths - nobody knows exactly what triggers their creation but they can sometimes be found in ponds, rivers and oceans
• Icewraiths - form during blizzards and in extremly cold places
• Earthwraiths - very rare - even I havent encountered one, but the dwarfs claim to have found them in some deep caves.

  Now onto the emotional ones. These are a bit more misterious - just as the elemental wraiths are created by the forces of nature, these are created by the emotions of the intelligent races. Known are:  

• necromantical/dark wraiths - they form out of fear, despair and pure evil in places where evil gods are worshipped or in the lairs of necromancers for example
• Bloodwraiths - some of the most wicked wraiths, they are created by hate, bloodthurst, the hunger for power and the feeling of dominance
• Lovewraiths - peaceful wraiths that form from the love of the folks getting arried in the temple/chapell/whatever and from the prayers of the people who visit the place
• Lustwraiths - well, I guess you can figure out how these are created...
• Pestilencewraiths - sometimes these appear in places where many people died due to diseases 
• Faminewraiths - in times of famine these wraith sometimes form on the massgraves of the famished

 

How does a wraith look?

This is a very important question. Because you cant see them. Since they are a materialisation of an emotion or a natural power and technically are forced into our realm from another plain of reality you cant see them because they dont have a physical form. A wraith is nothing but energy - but you can feel them - they enhance their basic element in our realm - for example a bloodwraith would make people around him more aggressive and prone to violence, while a lovewraith would cause the amount of weddings held at its place to increase. Elemental wraiths are a bit different, they are like leftovers from a natural disaster or other event - but im disgressing.    So, you want to detect a wraith. There are multiple ways. Normally you cant see, smell, hear of feel them with your hands. If you walk across an old battleground and suddently feel the urge to kill someone you can be pretty sure that there are bloodwraiths nearby - but to make them visible you will either need magic, rituals or some special potions.   

Magical detection

There are a lot of spells to identify energyflows or to absorb energy from natural (or living - but thats dark magic for later) sources, but these are extremly hard to master and most dont even know they exist. The most convinient and easy way by using magic is a to learn to detect energy. That is something everybody learns at the Arcaneum to counter and block hostile magical attacks. When you look at a wraith with a magical vision the wraith will appear as a colourful cloud of sparks - or flames for example in case of a firewraith.   

Rituals

That is a very old way of detecting a wraith, but for people who cant master simple magic or dont have the possibillity to get some rare potions this might be the way to go. This is an old ritual that dates back to the origins of the demons. At some point one highpriest was faced with an annoying but powerful rival who constantly tried to overthrow him - so he started looking for ways to increase his powers and finally kill his enemy. At this point the existence of wraiths was more or less well known, but til this day nobody thaught about actualy capturing and enslaving one. The highpriest had the disadvantage that due to an earlier accident he wasnt able to use magic anymore - so he did some digging and figured out a way to nurture a wraith to the point where it becomes visible to the eye. You need to take a bowl of your own blood, write certain spells on a piece of paper with it, write some other spells with your blood on your arms, chest and forehead, then burn the paper - the blood from the bowl should dissapear now - the wraith will absorb it and should become visible. Now this highpriest, drunken from his success caught the wraith and bound it with the help of his god - and continued to collect more wraiths - he was the only one to ever bind five wraiths - which gave him most of his magical powers back, but at the same time drove him mad, which after butchering his enemy led to his own folks killing him because he went completly out of controle. But this day his ritual offers a convinient way to detect wraiths. Many priests from different temples or some merchants can provide you with a transcript of that ritual.   

Potions

If youre not the type for spells or rituals, alchemy has another alternative for you. There is a potion that, when you drink it gives you the possibillity to identify hidden creatures, shapeshifters and things like wraiths that are invisible to the ordinary eye. Sadly the "Potion of the allseeing eye" is extremly hard to craft and even more expensive when you want to buy it.   

Binding a wraith

Now, my lad, I see you understood the upsides of having a wraith under your comand - but can you live with the constant nagging of a raging spirit in the back of your head? I mentioned wraithbounds earlier, you might want to check that first before you jump into that rabbithole...