Geist: The Sin-Eaters

Geist: The Sin-Eaters
RPG published by White Wolf / CCP
Rule System	Storytelling System
Authors	Justin Achilli et al
First Publication	2009 (1st Edition) 2020 (2nd Edition)

"Whoever has experienced near-death, knows how gracious it is to be alive."

– Lailah Akita

A New World of Darkness RPG, much removed from but sharing themes with the Old World of Darkness's Wraith: The Oblivion and Mummy: The Resurrection. Once, you were human. And then you died. But in the underworld, you were approached by a Geist, the ghost of someone who's been dead so long they remember nothing about their mortal existence save for how they died. It offered you a bargain: go back to the land of the living, and get to live your life again but in return, you gotta share your body with the Geist, who wants to experience life again. Naturally, you accepted and through that became a titular Sin-Eater. Now you have a crazy-weird ghost sharing your body and you can talk to ghosts, but you have all sorts of awesome necromantic powers and you're not dead anymore.

Like Changeling: The Lost, GtSE is a case of White Wolf reversing the mood set of an OWoD gameline and thus managing to make a formerly unpopular idea popular. GtSE is a pretty welcome breath of fresh air in the NWoD since its themes are a huge difference to the general Wangsting that is so prevalent in the other game-lines. The tone is akin to a celebration of being alive, you cheated death so you may as well make the most of your new life before you kick the bucket for real. Think of the Mexican Day of the Dead or a New Orleans funeral and you won't be too far off.

It's one of the only two NWoD games pre-upgrade to the God Machine Chronicles where supernaturals had morality meters that actually managed to make them feel inhuman, instead of just being ridiculous hamhanded "tack on some extra race-appropriates 'sins' and call it done". The other was Werewolf: The Forsaken. Instead, the Bound (as the mortal part of the pair is called) has Synergy, which represents how well he/she works with the Geist. High Synergy means that the two halves work together effectively as a single individual, while low Synergy means that the mortal and the Geist no longer share the same goals. Additionally, if you die the Geist can bring you back but you'll take a major hit to your maximum Synergy in the process and you'll be forced to see the death of the person who was chosen to die in your place. At its lowest point, a Sin Eater may end up as one of the Wretched: a Geist and a mortal unable to share the same body, resulting first in a form of split personality (as the Geist and mortal struggle for control), ending with the Geist taking total control of its new meat-puppet.

While the premise works, nearly everything else doesn't. Only one book was ever made and it was rushed due to it starting development right when White Wolf was bought out by CCP Games. The corner-cutting needed to get out before the management change was so severe that it's earned the moniker "Geist: the Underdeveloped and Unedited". It took three years for an errata'd "version 1.1" to be released and to no one's surprise, the game still has problems. A 2nd Edition was released in 2020, and is a massive improvement; in that it pretty clearly had an editor, a competent writing team, and a number of the overcomplicated and broken aspects of the first edition are removed and revised. It also has a couple of starter adventures and a splat that helps detail the denizens of the afterlife.

You and the Dead

So you died, but you were lucky enough to come back with the aide of a Geist. And now you're back, you're one of the bound, and you have your whole unlife ahead of you. Sounds like fun, right?

Well...maybe.

The first thing that you will notice once you wake up is that the Geist is hovering over you, giving you just a small taste of what you two can do together...while you're also still sitting on the edge of death from whatever it was that killed you the first time. A Geist is a ghost that is either old/powerful enough to reach through the veil as you were tumbling towards the Underworld to give you a boost (1e) or had the strength of will and quickness of spirit to steal a drink from the waters of the Underworld's rivers...to then reach through the veil and give you a boost (2e). Nobody strikes The Bargain from a position of fairness, but the general terms of such an agreement are pretty vague, and so long as your Geist isn't a raging asshole, you'll probably be okay. You'd just better have a good cover story when you wake up from your terminal lung cancer with an insatiable craving for Jam tarts because it was your Geist's favorite food back when it was alive.

The big thing that you'll have to deal with is the unfortunate reality of the Dead; they're kind of everywhere. They'll wander through your kitchen, pop in while you're taking a shower, and you know that they're just kind of...stuck. They aren't living anymore, and therefor they can't grow or accept the things that happened to them or move on without some kind of external help. And the living? Well, they sure as shit don't know what's on the other side for them, and it isn't good. The Bound will always know that there is not just an inherent unfairness and life but also in death. Some will try to ignore it, try to move on, but their new best friend is always there with a whisper and a bony finger to point out something fucked up. And for a lot of them... You will be the first person in years or possibly even centuries they can actually interact with, turning shades of a human being back into a soul that can be reasoned with. The Bound cause ghosts to be able to manifest themselves better just by being around them, and many will try to tell you their story. You can ignore as many of them as you like, but eventually you'll be curious enough to try and see if you can do something about it.

The Underworld

There is a good rule of thumb regarding the Underworld in CoD, and that is that it fucking sucks, but you need to go down there anyway. It sucks getting in, it sucks getting down to it, and it really sucks once you're there, but the rewards are nearly always worth it. The Bound, and Sin Eaters especially, will at some point or another end up in the Underworld, whether or not they want to. There are mysteries down there that can't be solved in the above world, long-dead spirits that can be interviewed to gain vital intel, and there are special artefacts and weapons you can get down here that you can't get anywhere else. If nothing else, your first trip to the Underworld will give you a real good idea as to how fucked it really is, and why the average Sin-Eater might be inclined to try and make this place somewhat better.

The Upper Reaches

The Underworld is typically only accessible through the use of Avernian Gates, which are usually in Cenotes or other places that death energies congregate, and the Upper Reaches are mostly just a grim reminder of the world the ghosts or Bound are leaving behind: Gates opened in cities will be in dark and dank subway tunnels, cemetary Gates will open out into massive catacombs, and it will be coated in all manner of shit that was broken and lost, up to and including whole buildings; just like the Ghosts themselves. If you keep following the path (and avoid the roving gangs of ghosts), you'll eventually make your way down to the River Cities, which are where most of these gates lead and for a vast majority of ghosts, where they're probably spending the rest of eternity. These Cities are a series of dilapidated super-favelas all stacked on top of each other, full of grieving spirits of all kinds fishing any sort of thin sustenance out of the waters that they can, and are ruled by ghost-gangs, krewes, cults and of course...the Reapers. There are ferrymen who can put you on your way even lower into the Underworld, but those places are even scarier than the ghetto full of ghosts.

The Dead Dominions

If you pay the ferrymen that sit at the banks of most of the Underworld's Rivers, you can go down to the really weird places in the Underworld; the Dead Dominions. Each Dominion is the personal little kingdom of ghosts who've gathered enough Plasm and individual power to actively influence the Underworld itself, all watched over by the enigmatic and terrifying Kerberoi, who watch over these bizarre regions of the Underworld and violently enforce it's laws; specifically it's Old Laws.

Outside of every Dead Domain is a big sign that denotes it's Old Law, and you must follow said Old Law to the letter. Seriously. The Kerberoi do not fuck around and will chase your ass straight to the mouth of the Underworld and you do not want to get caught by them. You'd think "okay, that seems easy enough, just do what the sign says", and sometimes that's true: the Old Laws often start simple, but then quickly become nonsensical or extremely restrictive, to the point you wonder who exactly wrote them. The Kerberoi don't care, so you'll have to make do with whatever domain you have on-hand. As to what they look like, it's a constantly changing swirl of places that look somewhat modern, to kingdoms of the oldest ghosts who still have Smilodon PTSD. But even here, the kind of information or gear you can discover or reclaim is so valuable that it's worth it to brave these insane depths.

Just don't get caught breaking an Old Law. Seriously.

The Ocean of Fragments

The last stop in the Underworld.

All of the myriad Rivers of the lead to the Ocean of Fragments, which is...complicated to explain. It acts like a Dead Domain in theory, and does have a Kerberos, but it seemingly has no Old Law, and unlike the Dead Domains and the River Cities, nobody seems to really live here save a few disparate souls, those too forlorn to have a place anywhere, and an enigmatic figure known only as The Hermit, who has a campfire that he sits at most of the time made from the last fragments of identity that wash ashore from Dead Dominions that couldn't last. On the shores of this endless ocean of ink-black water, those other souls are mostly just working up the courage to end it all, because walking into The Ocean of Fragments is the final death; those who wade into the Ocean slowly begin to have pieces of their identity slowly stripped away from them; their little accomplishments, then their big accomplishments, then base facts about their lives, base facts about them as human beings, and finally just...the fact they exist.

Once that's gone...that's it. They're gone. Some do use it to get rid of some pesky part of their identity, but who knows where that fact is in comparison to the rest of you.

Those who do brave it's waters stick to the shallows, because the alternative is the deep water, where only The Freighter, a ghost ship of unnamed ghostly crewmembers, and the most powerful Kerberos of all; the Leviathan, happen to exist, and are the only ones allowed to live on or in it's waters. As for what else is out there? What could be on the other side or what could be at the bottom? Who knows.

Thresholds

Water is wet, fire burns and NWoD games have a "racial" and a "class" splat. Your Threshold is your "race", determining how you died. This, in turn, determines which Keys you have access to from the start, as well as which of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse they consider to be their patron.

The Forgotten

Those Who Died By Chance. The unlucky sods who got struck by lightning, had their skulls cracked by meteors, stuck a shovel in the ground and hit a bomb, stepped on a marble and broke their neck, or just about any other death that's through stupid misfortune. This is more or less the DIY faction of Geist: they're the Extempores, the Orphans, the Caitiff and so on. If your death is down to sheer bad luck, a bizarre coincidence or something utterly out of your hands, then you're a Forgotten. Their Keys are Industrial and Pyre-Flame, and their patron is the Grey Horseman (Chance).

The Pious

Those Who Died By Faith. Introduced in Dark Eras Companion, these are the people who died during extreme acts of faith, like by being crucified and then bleeding out. Their first Key is always related to how they died, whilst the second one is chosen by the storyteller, and they have no patron Horseman.

The Prey

Those Who Died By Nature. Victims of the elements, nature, and animals. Bitten by poisonous spiders, crushed by a hippopotamus, caught in an avalanche, mudslide, hurricane, or volcanic eruption, swept away in a river and drowned, got caught by hypothermia or overheated: all of these will create a Prey. Their Geists tend to look inhuman: animals, plants and elementals are all favorites. Their Keys are Primal and Grave-Dirt, and their patron is the Pale Horseman (Death).

The Silent

Those Who Died By Deprivation. Those who died of hunger and thirst, were neglected or suffocated, or otherwise died because nobody cared enough to prevent them from dying are all Silent. They tend to resent their Geists, who look like hollow versions of their Sin-Eater or resemble their death in some way. Their Keys are Stillness and Cold Wind, and their patron is the Black Horseman (Famine).

The Stricken

Those Who Died By Pestilence. The sick and poisoned, those who died by viruses, bacteria, infections, and all that stuff. Their Keys are Phantasm and Tear-Stained, and their patron is the White Horseman (Pestilence).

The Torn

Those Who Died By Violence. War, violence and all other deaths due to conflict generate the Torn. This does not always make them the combat splat: while most of them do favor the physical Attributes, many of them favor social Attributes to act as instigators or even peacemakers. Their Keys are Stigmata and Passion, and their patron is the Red Horseman (War).

• 

  The Forgotten

• 

  The Pious

• 

  The Prey

• 

  The Silent

• 

  The Stricken

• 

  The Torn

Burden

The 2e replacement for Thresholds. Unlike the Thresholds, the Burden isn't about how you died, so much as why you struck the Bargain in the first place.

Abiding

These Bound died forgotten and insignificant, and return to life in order to leave a legacy that's more substantial than an unmarked grave. Maybe they died without more money than god, maybe they couldn't get their family set for after their deaths, or yes, maybe they were just Joe Blow who managed to convince a Geist to strike The Bargain with a schmuck like him because he didn't want to die as a nobody. The point is that the Abiding always die before their time, and their Geists agree, typically being just as ambitious as the Bound they've come into contact with, and together they will try and leave a more lasting legacy for the both of them, and other people, to enjoy.

Understandably, they have ties to pretty much all the Krewes with the very specific exception of Undertakers, who's more static beliefs on the veil of life and death doesn't suit the more go-getter attitude of most Abiding. One would probably unsurprised to hear that Reapers are also on most Abiding's shitlists for being the avatars of the unfair and quick deaths for so many innocents; living or dead, who might become more Abiding.

Bereaved

They seek someone they lost. That someone, may be living, or they may be dead- either way, the Bereaved will tear the Underworld apart if it means they can be reunited with their loved ones.

A lot of the Bereaved might unknowingly be ready to strike the Bargain after their lost object of affection left this world, and others strike the Bargain after getting even the vaguest glimpse of how the Underworld actually works, or will have died just mere days after the target of their affections did, and can't accept it. Of course, the Bereaved aren't just pining for lovers; best friends, blood brothers, and even just the vague idea of a beloved hometown that's lost a bit of it's spark from overdevelopment. They are some of the better researchers, interviewers, and investigators of the Bound, if only because they have nothing but time and a lot of drive and personal trauma they gotta work through.

Their Geists, humorously enough, are generally actually quite chipper and resourceful types who will happily strike The Bargain in order to see the world and the wider Underworld in order to facilitate their Bound's desires. Though some are just as good at gaslighting their Bound into taking the deal so they can take advantage of an emotionally distraught half-dead person.

A vast majority of Bereaved join Pilgrim Krewes to hopefully thin the amount of ghosts in their way, though they'll also join the Undertaker Krewes as a way to just cut out any of the bullshit of having to seem alive.

Hungry

You know the saying "you can't take it with you"? These guys heard that and decided that they'd just have to come back for their stuff instead.

The Hungry are unusual among the Bound in that they mostly just willed themselves back into the real world through sheer obsession and drive for some material or metaphysical good in their previous lives that they would be missing out on. It should be noted that the Hungry are metaphorically hungry; they were much like the Abiding in that they were cut down in their prime, but were so distraught at the idea of giving up their life's work/hobby/ambitions that they'll take a deal. ANY kind of deal, from any kind of Geist, to get back into it. Understandably, this leaves The Hungry with a bit of a mixed bag of understanding the dead: They're much more socially adjusted than other Bound, and many are more than grateful to get a second chance, but are extremely obsessive over whatever it was that brought them back, and so will only really gravitate or interact towards ghosts that will give them what they want or share their interests. Geists of the Hungry are actually pretty docile and tend to be pretty synergistic with their Bound; as they're just happy to just have a way out of oblivion, and if that means watching anime women for 200 years? At least you're not fading away in the Underworld. Maybe the idiot will pick a good show this time.

The Hungry make excellent Necropolitans and surprisingly good Mourners, but are explicitly said to be terrible Furies, and arguably yandere-tier Undertakers. It's probably best for them to stick to starting anime conventions in the Underworld and blowing some 17th century Japanese peasant ghost's mind.

Kindly

Bound who died before they could put right some wrong they committed and came back to make amends for it.

The Kindly are as remorseful as any criminal with a conscience; they fucked up and now they've either died as a result of it or died too late to make amends, and so similarly guilty-feeling Geists will strike The Bargain so that they can team up and try and make things right together. The Kindly are predisposed to try and help, and the Ghosts of those who wanted to help around them will almost certainly manifest, but like any Sin-Eater who hangs around in one place too long, the Kindly will find that they're being stretched thin by trying to fix all of the problems of the dead in their immediate area and simply can't do it all in one day, even with their Geist's help.

Of course, this can be easily exploited by more vicious Geists, but is just as likely to, in perhaps the darkest of the kind of Geist that ends up taking up the deal, the victim of the Kindly's crime themselves. Though they may not know it at first, eventually the Kindly will find out. One can only imagine the awkward silence in those times.

Unsurprisingly, The Kindly mostly make up Pilgrim Krewes, as their general deal aligns perfectly with the self-inflicted guilt of the Kindly. Though many will also take up the mantle of Undertaker to help Ghosts find their way, or Necropolitans in order to just get like twenty minutes to just chill out for once.

Vengeful

The Vengeful blame someone for their wrongful death and want to get even.

About as simple as it gets. Somebody murked the Vengeful, and now the Vengeful are back from beyond the grave to deal with whoever they believe is responsible. Of course, it should be noted that it's not always a purely justified level of vengeance. Getting murdered or hit by a car just hours after you got laid off by a corrupt boss sucks obviously, but getting killed over a drug deal or blaming the wife who shot you because she caught you with a hooker isn't going to gain a lot of friendly pats on the back when you decide it was the wife who was to blame. Regardless, the Vengeful's burning hatred is like a lamp for most Geists, who will happily take the Bargain with them; some who are sympathetic to the kind of screwed they got in life and in un-life and can help the Vengeful find their prey and make it hurt, whereas others might just be masochist trolls who want to needle the Sin-Eater for the rest of their days into giving them the beating of an unlifetime. They're also one of the more common forms of Bound in the modern era, make of that what you will.

To the shock of nobody, these pent-up rage monsters make excellent Furies, though they have a surprising amount of Mourners in their midst, with said Mourners especially good at helping uncover and avenge cold case murders or coverups.

• 

  Abiding

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  Bereaved

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  Hungry

• 

  Kindly

• 

  Vengeful

Archetypes

For Geist, the "class" splat is your Archetype, aka how your death changed you. Each Archetype has a way it uses its Manifestations in the eyes of the Sin-Eater's Virtue and Vice. When a Manifestation is used in such a way it requires no Plasm, making it free to use (but secondary effects still use Plasm). Aren’t used in 2E, although some are renamed, lumped into, and recycled as Krewe archetypes.

Advocate

Advocates are there to help spirits move on in life. The Virtuous do so to help a ghost to a better place while the Vicious do so to gain something out of it themselves.

Bonepicker

Bonepickers seek to make their mortal lives as comfortable as possible by amassing large amounts of wealth and resources. Virtuous Sin-Eaters do this so that they can help other people while the Vicious do so for selfish reasons.

Celebrant

Celebrants are the mandatory "they're totally not there just for sex, guys" splat. They embrace life and all the fun stuff it offers, seeking thrills and desires so that they can make the most of their return from the grave. The Virtuous take a careful and moderate approach to their revels, while the Vicious are full-on Slaanesh tier.

Gatekeeper

Gatekeepers are the border watch between the worlds of the spirits and the living. Virtuous ones take a gentle but stern approach to keep newcomers out and drive out those who are already here while the Vicious take the violent and easy approach.

Mourner

Mourners take care of spirits and their unsated passions. The Virtuous help ghosts come to terms with their deaths while the Vicious sate these passions for themselves without caring for anyone else.

Necromancer

Necromancers revel in their powers and seek to learn more. Virtuous ones do so to help the living and other ghosts while Vicious ones do so to get ahead of their rivals and takes knowledge from others rather than find it out themselves.

Pilgrim

Pilgrims guide ghosts through the land of the dead. A ghost must shed its emotions and its humanity before it can move on to its final reward. This can be done with both ghosts and people: by making them forget connections, severing bonds, or helping them move on a Pilgrim fulfills its purpose. The Virtuous help people with the chaos and tragedy in life and guide them to move on while the Vicious tend to force them to do so against their will.

Reaper

Reapers are the required edgelord splat, the judges of the living and the dead. They seek out those who sin and judge them, killing the unworthy and sending them to the Underworld. Virtuous Reapers do this out of compassion and love while the Vicious Reapers seek to gain from their killings, use people first or do so for the lulz.

Krewes

2nd Edition changed the way archetypes are created and used by organizing them into Krewes; similar to how werewolf packs were expanded on in 2nd edition. Like the basic version, they help to define how the Krewe goes about its business of helping the dead find peace and making the Underworld less of a horrible shithole. Krewes are part social club and part religion; the reality of having your life snatched and then un-snatched sort of destabilizes your ability to be normal, and so in order to keep a community, you find yourself among traditions and like-minded individuals (living, dead, and in-between) who share your ideas on how best to use your second chance. Some might actively practice their ideas out in the open, but are careful to safeguard the realities of what they're doing.

Of course, not all Krewes or bound follow these archetypes, and there are four archetypes meant for Bound villains. These are:

Furies

Krewes seeking to right wrongs and punish the wicked. Mainly they try to do this by teaching a lesson to the culprit, but are also willing to beat the ever-loving shit out of them if needed.

Mourners

Krewes dedicated to preserving disappearing traditions and recording stories of the dead. They run museums and libraries, and explore the Underworld for lost knowledge.

Necropolitans

Krewes seeking to unite the living and the dead. They seek to make a world where people accept the existence of ghosts and interact with them on a regular basis.

Pilgrims

Krewes dedicated to helping the dead resolve their unfinished business. They seek to get rid of Reapers and make the Underworld help wayward ghosts resolve their baggage on the mortal plane.

Undertakers

Krewes seeking to get rid of the fear of death. They help people confront the fear of death so that they wouldn't leave as many ghosts behind.

• 

  Furies

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  Mourners

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  Necropolitans

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  Pilgrims

• 

  Undertakers

The Enemies of the Dead

From the minute a Bound or a Sin-Eater strikes the Bargain, they are thrown into the realities of life and the afterlife. That means of course...that you're never truly safe. It's important to note however not everything a Sin-Eater runs into is going to hurt you, but the few things that want to...REALLY want to.

Malicious Ghosts

It might shock you to learn that being a spirit moored to a piece of your past for too long might drive you crazy. Ghosts in GtSE have distinct ranks that go from 0 to 10. The vast majority are in the 0 to 2 range: with 0 and 1 being barely sapient or stuck in a constant loop, and 2 being just normal people without bodies that you might be able to break out of their in-between state if you know what to do. Where it starts to get hairy are Ranks 3-5; they're where the Geists the game is named after live: They're ancient, marginally human, and very sentient. If they're fucking around in a place, the expectation you should have is for a fight, and it's not going to be an easy one. All those things you've seen ghosts do in horror movies? They can do that. You can too, but they can really mess up your day if you're not careful. Reapers are also in this category.

After Rank 6, you're getting into the realm of rulers of Dead Dominions, and Kerberoi. The long story there is try not to piss them off, if you can. They don't have traits or stats. You just don't fuck with those. We'll talk about it later on the page.

Reapers

There are Malicious Ghosts who are doing things largely for their own benefit, and then there are these guys. In nine campaigns out of ten, a Reaper will prominently feature as an antagonist in some fashion.

Reapers are largely ordinary Rank 2 Ghosts that have entered a contract with the powers of the Underworld by the way of their Deathmask; an item formed from the remains of a Geist that they often find on the banks of the Rivers of the Dead or buried somewhere, or will have come into them by some other fashion. Putting on that mask will change the Ghost forever, giving them the first sensation they've felt in a good long time, and massively powers them up. All the Underworld asks in return to find ghosts in the above world...and bring them kicking and screaming down below to waste away forever. They can resist or put it off all they want, but putting on that Deathmask means you will be compelled to reap at some point.

They do this by stalking their prey by whatever means they choose; hunting them, trapping them or tricking them, but the end is always the same once they've caught the ghost. Namely, that they become terrifying monstrosities for just moments in order to swallow the ghost whole...and then the Ghost wakes up, stuck in the Underworld forever, vomited out by the Reaper, their anchor to the world of the living demolished. If a ghost is too powerful, they'll just drop wherever the ghost is into the underworld themselves without any thought to the ghost or the living who might need that building...And they see all of that as a good thing, because more than supernatural bounty hunters, Reapers are the enforcers of entropy and the status quo in the Underworld, who install themselves as community leaders and heroes among the River Cities in order to make sure that everyone understands that this is the way things have to be, and that it's good this way.

To no one's surprise, Sin Eaters and Reapers are consistently at each other's throats because they are natural opposites: The Sin-Eater wants the Underworld to change, and the Reaper will see the Sin Eater's goals as inherently wrong, and will fight tooth and bloody nail to keep it from happening.

Barghests

Animals, for the most part, do not leave ghosts. It is very rare for an animal to leave any kind of ghost.

When they do, Barghests happen. A Barghest is a catch-all term for any non-human ghost, initially used for the trend of spectral dogs seen in the 16th and 17th centuries, but has since expanded wildly into being any creature that happens to have left a Ghost behind. Most of them live short afterlives, being pulled inevitably into the Underworld and then into the Rivers. Those who can get called away by animal-controlling ghosts get a pet to hang out with. Some of them are your pet dog or cat...but then there are some who are still living the old life, such as Tigers prowling the streets, or feral animals locked in eternal bouts of rabies.

Eaters of the Dead

Most Sin-Eaters and Geists will interact with and consume plasm through their Bargain, and might even have to forcefully absorb a Ghost or two in order to keep peace or set some other wrong right. That's grim, but it's pretty normal for Sin-Eaters. Eaters of the Dead on the other hand...they're just creeps. Eaters of the Dead practice Ectophagia, or the consumption of ghosts and their plasm, in order to extend their lives or to access some dark powers. Most are, understandably, pretty fucking weird people who hunt alone, but the ways they capture and consume ghosts is three parts disgusting, cruel, and ingenious. The commonality between them all is very simple: They do not care for ghosts as people. They only ever see them as sustenance, or fuel. And your Geist would be pretty tasty.

Necromancers

Krewes and Sin Eaters can perform ceremonies to both interact with and help the dead, but so can a great many of normal people as it's mostly just words, gestures, scripture and the occasional salt circle. In spite of much of that shit being secret, Many of the normies that accidentally do these rituals are encouraged for their work by Sin Eaters, who correctly recognize their work as exceptionally helpful.

Necromancers on the other hand, know these rituals to openly fuck things up and they don't care how they go about doing things to the dead. They steal power from the Underworld; Plasm, whole ghosts, even Reapers in some circumstances, and they will use them however they see fit. They use the Rituals of the Sin-Eater for evil means, they steal Mementos and begin to collect them obsessively in order to harness the power of the dead, and of course...summon even more terrifying undead. Some might genuinely have no clue what they're doing is actually anything bad, but those who do are bad news and need to be stopped quickly, because the powers of the dead are not to be fucked around with.

Oh and they form cults of like-minded maniacs wielding the dead like clubs against life. Have fun with that!

Villainous Bound and Krewes

Yes, even the Bound, when confronted with the majesty of a second chance at life, can be complete dicks. Unlike Sin-Eaters, these Bound typically find their way into one of four Krewes that are inherently selfish, vicious, or just plain mean.

Bonepickers

Krewes seeking to profit off of the dead. They mainly deal with necromancers and eaters of the dead, selling and buying mementos and ghosts.

Elysians

Krewes seeking to create an afterlife just for them. They are often the rich and the powerful and have no interest in other people, just their own pursuit of immortality.

Gatekeepers

Krewes dedicated to keeping the dead and the living separate. They see the way things are as how they should be, and anyone trying to alter them as tampering with a perfectly functioning machine.

Thanatologists

Krewes dedicated to the scientific study of the dead. They don't care about the ghosts and their unresolved business, and how awful the Underworld is, they just record, study, and experiment to increase their understanding of the world.

Cthonians

There are the recent ghosts, there are ancient ghosts, there are the Rulers of the Dead Dominions...and then there are these guys. They're the closest thing the Underworld has to a native species.

Cthonians are entirely alien to our understanding; they don't look human, they sure as shit don't act human, and even among the unliving they are freakish. They speak through any number of methods other than speech, and the big thing they do other than exist is rip through plasm and ghosts like paper, and as such they're usually left alone for the most part, were it not for the massive trails of Plasm that follow in their wake up into their migration routes; the rivers themselves. Generally not looking to pick a fight (that we know of, anyway.); Cthonians are something you do not want to get snuck up on, or you're toast.

Kerberoi

The final bosses of the Underworld, for the most part.

A Kerberus, or Kerberoi, are inhuman looking entities who control the Dead Dominions; impossibly ancient, are almost a fundamental force of the Underworld itself, and are keepers and enforcers of the Old Laws; effectively making them demigods inside the deepest parts of the Underworld. They are the reason you do not break the Old Laws inside Dead Dominions; they know instantly whether or not you've done this, and will hunt your ass down to the ends of the Underworld in order to make you pay for it. They have only two saving graces in this regard: They can't really leave the Underworld and don't want to leave their Dominion all that often or for too long, but they have many, many servants and you will be hunted for as long as you can stand or defend yourself by the Kerberoi. Their second grace is that if they catch you; they will not kill you (most of the time). After all, you can't spread the word about not breaking the law if you died. But you will instead suffer for your crime, suffer in ways you can't imagine or even consider, and your will shatters at any attempt to evade said punishment. And they change in severity and method often: Some Kerberoi have a shitzillion laws that require you to hop on one leg for two minutes and say "I'm sorry" to each passer-by, others might insist on a material payment or recompense...the other ones will crucify you for ten days for breaking the four laws that they've been governing for eons that you couldn't possibly have known about. Being thrown out of the Dominion is probably the least unpleasant punishment that can happen, and most Kerberoi are not nearly that lenient.

Oh, and don't bother rules lawyering your way out of it. They've been around the block, they can nail you.

Unless you're absolutely sure you can win, it should be made clear that they have nearly infinite power in their domains, and many of them allow you to exist there on their terms, and the rewards you could gain in their realms are so valuable it's not close to worth it to try and break an Old Law on purpose to gain their attention: Do Not Fuck with the Kerberoi.

Keys and Manifestations/Haunts

The powers of Geist. What Manifestations do is determined by what Manifestation is used and what type of Key is used. The former come in seven types and determine the rough type of the effect, while the latter determines what its effect actually is. There are ten Keys and seven Manifestations, creating a total of seventy possible powers. Each of these Manifestations has five levels of power, represented by the traditional dots. The more dots you have in a Manifestation the more it can do, though some Manifestations require the spending of additional Plasma to use it.

Some Manifestations allow for the use of Anachrotech, pieces of technology that have fallen into disuse. They act as a kind of focus for the Manifestation, adding a dice modifier based on how old the object is. If the object was made before 1960 there is no modifier involved. For every decade onwards (60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and 2000s) there is a cumulative -1 modifier to a max of -5 in place while older objects made in the 40s, 20s or even the 19th century add a cumulative +1 modifier to a max of +3. A good rule of thumb is that you'll have a MUCH easier time messing with a Ford Model T than a Tesla Model 3.

In 2e, Manifestations have been renamed Haunts, and are less directly tied to Keys, and the number of Keys has been drastically reduced. Haunts’ effects no longer change depending on the Key. In fact, you no longer need to use a Key at all to activate a Haunt...though you can. And if you do, you get a boost to your activation dice pool, a burst of free Plasm that’s not subject to per-turn limits (which is great, because Haunts have all sorts of cool tricks you need to spend extra Plasm for), and a thematic negative Condition.

1e Keys

• Cold Wind: Control over air and wind; chill the room or create gale-force winds. Based on the Tibetian 'Sky Funeral' (leaving the body for the animals and elements).
• Grave-Dirt: Control over rock and soil; shift the earth and bury your enemies alive. Based on burying the dead, obviously.
• Pyre-flame: FIRE! To destroy what you've done! FIRE! To end all you've become! It can be a harmless illusion, a psychosomatic hallucination or the real deal. Based on cremation.
• Tear-stained: Water; Make them drown or feel like they're drowning. Based on burial at sea.
• Industrial: Technology, especially the previously mentioned Anachrotech; mess with the lights or make that car drive itself. Based on industrial accidents and the propensity specters have for messing with TVs and phones.
• Passion: Emotions; rage, sorrow, terror. Create maddening illusions or shift the mood of the room. Based on the strong emotions that can accompany a death.
• Phantasmal: The Etherial; bring apparitions into the world both illusionary and very real. You can even manifest your Geist to terrify and destroy.
• Primeval: Nature; control animals and plants alike. Based on old pagan rites, such as animal sacrifice.
• Stigmata: Blood; manipulate it, harness it, turn it into sick-ass razor whips. Based on old religious correlations between blood and life force, hence the term "lifeblood".
• Stillness: The calm and quiet after death AKA necromancy.
• Stygian: Death itself; not to be trifled with. Seriously, using it requires serious mojo and makes you take a hit to your Synergy EVERY time it's used.

Manifestations/Haunts

• Boneyard: Effectively haunt, and therefore control, the surrounding area like a classic ghost or poltergeist.
• Caul: Change and warp your physical form.
• Curse: Affect others through curses, typically passively.
• Dirge: Generate feelings and emotional reactions through a wordless song.
• Marionette: Affect and manipulate objects as well as human minds.
• Memoria: Witness a place or an Anchor's memories of a specific death, which can be shared with others.
• Oracle: Release your own ghost out of your body to provide insight beyond the mortal realm.
• Rage: Rip everything and everyone around you TO FUCKING SHREDS!
• Shroud: Protects yourself against several kinds of damage, with some added bonus.
• Tomb: Reassemble corpses or destroyed objects into replicas that ghosts can interact with.
• Pit: 1e only. Channel the Underworld itself through your Geist. As with the Stygian Key, using this will hurt your Synergy and likely overwhelm you. Only those unscrupulous, desperate, or truly batshit bonkers should consider using it.
• Void: 1e only. Counsume and rend with darkness. Warning: may also consume the user.
• Well: 1e only. Alter and dissolve things and their properties, especially memories. Can also call upon the power within the Rivers of the Underworld.