Wraith: The Oblivion

Wraith: The Oblivion
Role-playing game published by White Wolf
Rule System	Storyteller System
Authors	Mark Rein·Hagen, Jennifer Hartshorn, Sam Chupp, Richard E. Dansky
First Publication	1994
Essential Books	Wraith: The Oblivion

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Wraith: The Oblivion is a roleplaying game of "Passion and Horror" published by White Wolf that often provides more PCs than there are players, thanks to a system allowing for "The Shadow" of a character to act like a separate entity. Progenitor to the Promethian school of "game that people like to read but no one actually plays." One of the grimmest, most depressing games ever made that wasn't unintentionally so. It also is one of the only WWI role-playing games via the historical setting Wraith: The Great War. And if the trenches of WWI weren't horrifying enough, there's even a splatbook for the dead of WWII, including The Holocaust.

Each player, in addition to their character, plays the "Shadow" of another character, undermining whatever they tried to do and tempting them to give in to their worst impulses and damn themselves. This seemed like such a good idea on paper that everyone somehow missed that it means that the game was actively encouraging players to screw each other over. To quote our hatefuckbuddies over at TVTropes: "The intent was to create deep, psychological roleplaying where the players got to flex their drama muscles as much as the GM; the effect was that most people saw it as a game that could only end in hurt feelings and recriminations."

Dark Kingdoms

The underworld of the old WoD was never fully defined, instead existing as a bunch of island kingdoms surrounded by what used to be the Sea of Shadows, but is now The Tempest after the 3rd Great Maelstrom set in motion a perpetual storm. The North African "Amenti" of the Dark Kingdom of Sand have their own game-line in the form of Mummy: The Resurrection.

Stygia

The main setting for WtO, also known as the Dark Kingdom of Iron, it sits on the Isle of Sorrows. It's impossibly big and supposedly a reflection of Western civilization

Stygian Factions

• The Hierarchy
• Heretics
• Renegades

Former Stygian Guilds

• Artificers:
• Chanteurs:
• Harbingers:
• Haunters/Spooks:
• Masquers:
• Monitors:
• Oracles:
• Pardoners:
• Proctors:
• Puppeteers:
• Sandmen:
• Usurers

Yellow Springs

East-Asia, AKA the Dark Kingdom of Jade or Jade Kingdom. Has ties to the VtM spinoff, Kindred of the East and the Wu T'ian of MtR.

• Imperial Army
• Jade Censors
• Judges of the Dead
• Protectors of the Prosperous Realm
• Rebels

The Bush of Ghosts

Africa, the Dark Kingdom of Ivory.

Karta

Australia, the Dark Kingdom of Clay.

Port Royal & The Mirrorlands

The Caribbean, full of pirates of course.

Swar, the City of Delights

India, no kingdom title.

The Dark Kingdom of Obsidian

The Americas. "The Lands of Gold" in South America were devastated by living & dead conquistadors, while the Mesoamerican "Flayed Lands" and North American "Islands of Flint" are still around.

The Dark Kingdom of Wire

Detailed in Charnel Houses of Europe: The Shoah.

Spectres & The Labyrinth

What happens when a wraith's Shadow gains control and it's Psyche becomes secondary, their biggest asset is that they share a hive-mind. Some dead start this way and there was even a book under the Black Dog label, Dark Reflections, that provided rules for an inverted experience where someone else plays your character's Psyche instead of their Shadow.

The Labyrinth is essentially the center of the Underworld, and at it's center is the Maw of Oblivion, a big hole of nothing that destroys all that falls into it.

Spectre Castes

• Apparitions: middle-caste lackeys, in transition to becoming Nephracks
• Doppelgangers: low-caste, the usual Wraith whose Shadow took over, can pass for a Wraith
• Haints: non-caste as they hate everyone, became Spectres after a horrific death that defined their unlife
• Hekatonkhires: varies with the spectre, they're failed Onceborn and like Shades at Malfean power levels
• Malfeans: leader-caste; two types, Onceborn (former humans) and Neverborn (nonhumans)
• Mortwights: under-caste, became Spectres on death yet are still defined by their life
• Nephracks: upper-caste (admin, military, priests, etc.), they're former Doppelgangers warped by their contact with Oblivion
• The Nothings: lowest caste, those stuck in shell-shock or who just give up, some even try "suicide"
• Pasiphae: non-caste ciphers
• Shades: middle-caste shock troops, twisted into monsters by Oblivion kept in check by the hive-mind
• Striplings: non-caste, mobs of feral dead children

Arcanoi

The supernatural powers of the dead, powered by Pathos (from the Psyche) or Angst (from the Shadow). Comes in the usual three flavors depending on the group in question.

• Wraith Arcanoi: Argos (travel), Castigate (shadow control), Embody (physical manifestation), Fatalism (future sight), Inhabit (control machines), Keening (bardic ability), Lifeweb (fetter control), Moliate (plastic surgery), Outrage (classic poltergeist), Pandemonium (control buildings), Phantasm ( control dreams), Puppetry (possession), and Usury (pathos control).
  • The Forbidden Arts: Flux, Intimation, and Mnemosynis.
• The Arts of Jade: The Way of the Scholar (psyche control), The Way of the Artisan (jade crafting), The Way of the Farmer (shadow control), The Way of the Merchant (pathos control), The Way of the Soul (modified version of Castigate), and Chains of the Emperor (for capturing wraiths).
• Dark Arcanoi: Contaminate, Corruption, Hive-Mind, Larceny, Maleficence, Shroud-Rending, Tempest-Weaving, and Tempestos.

See Also

• Orpheus (sequel game-line)
• World of Darkness

Links

• World of Darkness website
• World of Darkness wiki
• Unmoderated WoD Chat
• Mister Gone's Character Sheets