Wraith

Wraiths are one of the six major types of ghost of Interlife Earth. Usually formed from someone who died of supernatural causes, wraiths appear fuzzy-edged and indistinct. Most wraiths do have at least a generally humanoid shape, though very few have features distinct enough to make them recognizable to those who knew them as mortals.

In general, only those killed directly by some supernatural force become wraiths. If a phantom possesses a person and causes his heart to stop, that person may become a wraith. A person stabbed by a slasher, however, generally will not; while slashers may be supernatural beings, death by stabbing is not a supernatural cause.

Because their ephemeral forms (ephemeral even by ghostly standards) give them a lower density than other ghosts, they tend to be unusually susceptible to winds and other forces. What wraiths lack in physical strength and stability, however, wraiths may make up for in mobility and in supernatural abilities.

Appearance

Wraiths appear like vague glows with no well defined shapes. Some wraiths have visible appendages but others appear like limbless glowing balls or blobs. The former are more common, but exactly how humanoid they appear varies. Some have a recognizably humanoid shape, with an identifiable arms, legs, and head. Even so, in most cases there's little or no further definition, with the head little more than a featureless sphere and the limbs vague cones or cylinders with rounded ends. Some few wraiths do show further detail, with separate fingers and/or even hints of facial features such as eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. Even these better defined wraiths still do not necessarily bear a recognizable resemblance to their mortal selves, though in some cases those who knew the living person well may see the resemblance. As for the limbless wraiths, they may be spherical, or they may be just amorphous blobs of soft light.

Wraiths vary somewhat in color; almost all of them are very close to white, but subtly tinted. The color may be too faint for the cast to be consciously perceptible, but some wraiths are noticeably reddish, bluish, or otherwise hued. Some wraiths, while not or not significantly colored, are nevertheless very pale gray or silver. A few rare wraiths, however, go to the opposite extreme, being very dark gray or pure black. These dark wraiths have a reputation among some for evil and among others for possessing weird powers. The former, to the extent that there's any truth to it at all, seems to be something of a self-fulfilling prophecy; there's no evidence that those who become dark wraiths are any more malevolent than others. The latter is iffier; there may be no definitive proof of special powers possessed by dark wraiths, but there's been little or no formal study of the matter, and there may be something to the accounts of their existence.

Not all wraiths are human; in fact, it may be that wraiths number (slightly) proportionately more nonhumans among their ranks than do other ghost types, perhaps since any animal slain by supernatural causes is as likely to become a wraith as is a human, while animals are less prone to the strong emotions and other situations that lead to arising as other types of ghost. Because of their indeterminate shapes, nonhuman wraiths are not always easy to distinguish from human, especially the more amorphous specimens; a shapeless suffusion of light may be a wraith of a human, of a large dog, or of a small horse.

Auras

Wraiths are surrounded by an aura that has varying effects on other beings, living and undead, and in some cases on inanimate objects. This aura is usually invisible, but some wraiths have auras that can be seen as faint hazes of various colors, which may or may not match the colors of the wraith proper (though are usually rather more saturated) and may extend some distance from the wraith's body. While most wraith's auras extend outward only one to three meters, some have larger auras, in extreme cases reaching dozens of meters; conversely, some have smaller auras that may extend only half a meter or so. Some wraiths can consciously suppress their auras, but not all; to some degree this ability seems to be learned, but there are wraiths that seem incapable of mastering it no matter how much they try, so there may also be some innate component.

The effect of many wraiths' auras is no more than psychological, affecting the feelings and emotions of those within them. The particular emotions vary, and seem to bear no simple correlation to the aura's color. Some wraiths' auras bring about feelings of fear, others despair, others excitement, others contentment. A few wraiths have auras that change through various emotions, either through a predictable cycle or apparently at random.

Other wraiths have auras with more tangible effects. Some wraiths' auras alter the temperatures within them: usually, though not always, lowering it. While with most wraiths the temperature change is consistent, again, some wraiths' auras produce a temperature change that varies over time. Other wraiths' auras may cause the condensation of moisture, or, conversely, cause things to dry out as their moisture evaporates; or they may retard or accelerate the growth and healing of living things; or they may agitate fluids and cause air and water currents; or they may generate an electric charge in the air. More esoteric effects have also been recorded.

Abilities

Many wraiths have other abilities aside from their characteristic auras. Wraiths with appendages can commonly stretch them to extreme lengths, allowing them to easily reach distant objects. Another common wraith ability is the power to become insubstantial, making them able to pass through not only things of the Mortal World but of the Spirit World as well. Many wraiths can change their size, though typically maintaining the same mass (or the ghostly equivalent).

Some wraiths can also produce by touch heightened versions of their aura's effects. Other wraiths have different abilities they can deliver by the same method, including paralysis, thelxis, or metamnesis. One very rare but notorious wraith ability is that given the etymologically questionable name of ectifaction, the conversion of objects into a solid form of ether invisible and intangible to mortal but readily perceptible to ghosts.

One unusual ability possessed by many wraiths is that of henosis; some wraiths can henotically combine with other wraiths into a larger entity that combines the individual wraith's knowledge and powers. Some few wraiths are even able to henose with ghosts of other types—in some cases even against their wills.

Weaknesses

More so than other varieties of ghost, wraiths have something of a reputation for all looking alike. The newly dead and mortals with spirit sight may have trouble distinguishing individual wraiths, but those with more experience with them learn that even the largely amorphous or spherical wraiths have subtle distinctions in their shapes, colors, and patterns of glow.

Many wraiths are adversely affected by certain emotions of nearby mortals. The effects may be limited to discomfort, but in some cases may weaken the wraith, cause it pain, or even deal it real damage. This is especially true of wraiths with auras that affect emotions; frequently (though not universally) an opposite emotion will somehow harm or inconvenience the wraith. Thus a wraith whose aura causes despair may be impaired by nearby mortals who are especially happy, or vice versa; a wraith whose aura causes doubt may be hurt by mortals who feel especially confident; and so on.