After Sundown 1e

"What we have here is what we call a non-repeating phantasm."

The most numerous of supernatural creatures is the Ghost. One of them could be created every time someone dies, there are over seven billion people, and the number of deaths is one per person.

Every Ghost has tremendous difficulty interacting with the material world. They "live" in the Deep Gloom and return there whenever the sun rises even if they find a way to escape. When they do manage to leave the Gloom, their Empty Body turns on and they are unable to touch any physical object that is not made of wood.

Because of their extreme difficulty in interacting with things, Ghosts often make rather limited actors in a story, and are thus ill suited to be main characters.

"Oooh..."

Wisps are little shadows or colored glows that flit about and scarcely remember that they used to be humans. Individual Wisps are everywhere, and usually fairly inconsequential. Some Wisps make their way to the material world and scare people or try to interact with the world as they remember it being - it's a pretty frustrating experience because they can't actually touch anything.

Wisps primarily interact with an After Sundown chronicle by being utilized by necromancers as spies. Even without being compelled into service, Wisps are often quite willing to be helpful to physical beings that can interact with them. Wisps have a Strength score of 1, regardless of what they had in life.

A Wisp has an Orphic power source and a Lunar power schedule.

Basic Powers

• Aura Perception (Basic Discernment)
• Patience of the Mountains (Basic Fortitude)

Advanced Powers

• Empty Body (Discernment / Fortitude Devotion)

Story Inspiration: All the spooky background ghostly stuff in movies like Sleepy Hollow.

"You know, the best way to get rid of ghosts is to clean house."

Wraiths appear as they did in life save with photographic filters applied to make them look washed out and see-through. Each Wraith is a specific person that died, and they tend to have goals that tie into their time while alive or the circumstances of their death. A Wraith that accomplishes its driving goal often dissolves into a Nirvanaish happy ending. But sometimes a Luminary Wraith will simply go on and make an unlife for themselves in supernatural society.

Like all Ghosts, a Wraith is only corporeal while within the Gloom, and can only be in the mortal world until the sun rises before being banished back to Mictlan. Each Wraith has a number of things that tie them to the real world called "fetters". These can be favored objects, their own corpse, or loved ones. In order to regain Power Points they have to be within a few meters of one of their fetters and interact with it in some obsessive way. If a Wraith loses track of their fetters, they cannot regain Power Points and are doomed to slowly fade away. If a Wraith attains its primary goal and persists afterwards, they can stop obsessing over the past and make a new life with new fetters.

Some Luminary Wraiths come into being with a lot of extra disciplines, putting them on close to the same footing as a normal player character. Some people might even be tempted to run Wraith chronicles, but that's really very difficult role playing.

A Wraith has an Orphic power source and a Ritual power schedule.

Basic Powers

• Aura Perception (Basic Discernment)
• Patience of the Mountains (Basic Fortitude)
• Vigor (Basic Clout)

Advanced Powers

• Empty Body (Discernment / Fortitude Devotion)

Story Inspiration: Ghost, Stir of Echoes, Sixth Sense, most ghost stories honestly.

"They're here..."

Poltergeists are accumulations of untold numbers of wisps that have lost their individuality and become spiritual storms. Ruled by rage and quite destructive, Poltergeists can't even speak save to wail and scream. Sometimes they are tied to a location, sometimes they travel around Mictlan like thunderheads. In either case, they usually have some relation to a specific atrocity or another, and will calm down and disperse if someone can figure out how to appease them despite their inarticulate destruction.

Like all Ghosts, a Poltergeist has an Empty Body unless they are in Mictlan. They also have a Charisma and Logic of zero. They have no specific limits for other attributes, larger storms have more Strength and more Willpower...

A Poltergeist has an Orphic power source and a Lunar power schedule.

Basic Powers

• Aura Perception (Basic Discernment)
• Patience of the Mountains (Basic Fortitude)
• Vigor (Basic Clout)

Advanced Powers

• Empty Body (Discernment / Fortitude Devotion)
• Telekinesis (Discernment / Clout Devotion)
• Devastation (Advanced Clout)

Story Inspiration: Poltergeist, It