Writing Worlds with Words

Creatures of Ithia: Incorporeal Undead.

Zakra: Tormented spirits trapped by nightmarish entities such as the Shadowed. They are forced to reenact their final day, their never-ending misery serving as food for monsters. Zakra do not notice mortals unless provoked, and if they have spectral weapons, they can be quite deadly to the living.

Haunts: Haunts are spirits made by necromancy. The only spirit that wears its skull makes a Haunt easy to identify. Haunts can turn invisible, phase through walls, and be used as spies. They can demoralize enemies and cause terror but are not overly capable of harming the living. Salt can bar their passage, and they cannot enter holy places.

Lelora: Horrible nightmarish spirits that, like Poes and Phantoms, are only classified as undead, though they truly aren’t. Lelora takes the form of small children visible only at night. They attempt to lure the living into dangerous places, feeding off the deaths of samaritans and trying to rescue lost children.

Bogey: Small, horrific spirits looking like floating heads surrounded by shadowy fumes. Composed of a mixture of the tattered remains of many souls. They cannot enter holy places, cross salt, and are destroyed by silver. They are not intelligent enough to be malicious.

Bogeyman: When many bogeys gather in an area, they sometimes combine into a single entity. Bogeymen are humanoid beings with long spikey hair and long arms that drag off the ground even when standing straight with large claws. These creatures haunt and terrify places where many deaths occur for bogeys to mass. They are not overly dangerous as they feed off fear, and thus, injury and death is bad for business. They can’t cross salt or enter holy places. They can shapeshift, turn invisible, migrate to new haunting places, levitate, and telekinetically manipulate light objects. Bogeyman can become aggressive if attacked or when coming across people who cause too much misery or death in their hunting grounds. Areas with Bogeymen tend to be more peaceful than others.

Banshee: The spirits of women who died young and were chosen by Marlis to herald the death of heroes, holy servants, and people important to the Gods. They guard the sacred places of Marlis and other Gods of the Dead. Their wails can be heard from miles away, but those near will find their death. Banshees cannot cross over salt but are empowered in holy places.

Eidolon: Mortal’s tormented spirits are ritually killed and bound to a location to guard the lairs of malicious creatures. Their claws can damage the soul, leaving places cold and numb where they phase through the living. They are one of the few spirits disrupted by iron and can not cross salt. They can not leave the place they were bound to.

Wraiths: Tattered remains of a soul, all the things that couldn’t let go of the mortal coil when the soul moved on. Painful memories, scars, lost friends, all the chains that bind a soul shed off and left to linger, draining memories from the living to try and fill an empty void. Salt can disrupt them, and they cannot cross over salt or running water. Are destroyed by holy places.

Phantoms and Poes: These are not technically undead, as they are not the souls of the dead. These spirits are often mistakenly classified as such. Both of these undead carry lanterns. While the Poes attempt to lead lost souls to the afterlife, phantoms attempt to lead souls astray.

Spectre: One of the more terrifying spirits, these undead are the souls of people who died violent and tragic deaths. Their ends were so much pain and misery they existed to inflict it on those around them, lashing out against those who got to live. They can not enter holy places or cross over salt. They feed off wounds in the world where horrible things have happened.

Revenant: One of the more terrifying spirits, these undead are souls so consumed with avenging themselves they possess their deceased bodies and pursue a target until their rage burns out their soul or their target dies. Possessing their bodies allows them to enter holy places and cross over salt. They are durable and can’t survive outside of their bodies.

Poltergeist: One of the most potent incorporeal undead formed when a dead mortal soul refuses to move on to such a degree they’re bound to the structure they died in. While not on par with the undead, like the Liches, they have almost full control over objects native to where they became spirits. Able to control furniture, send small objects flying, animate larger objects, cause hallucinations, bind and control dead spirits, trap the souls of the dying, and alter where doors lead within the structure. They cannot leave their structure; if it’s destroyed, they meet the same fate. Besides destroying their residence, they form a ‘heart,’ which is the only way to harm them; it must remain inside their dwelling.

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