[✗] [Amendment] Wights & Phylacteries

[Papa Rock 2400]

 

Old Lore:

 

Spoiler

Rite of Consumption

Though the will of the mortal spirit often far exceeds corporeal limitation, the road may be tread for only so long upon the shackled feet of man. In a perilous effort to undo this wretched fate, a devout mystic may seek to achieve a greater state of undeath alike to the very phantoms they commune with; assuming a higher role at the cost of their oneness.

 

Mechanics:

 

To enact this rite, an occultist must subdue an apparition, whether found naturally or wrought by the Synod’s own enclave. Once it has been weakened sufficiently through draining, the to-be wight must wreathe their blade in ectoplasm through saturation, before striking the creature with the finishing blow. Then, with the apparition brought low and near to second death, three other mystics must begin to weave the apparition’s ectoplasm from the phantom and bind it to the aspirant. This would reawaken the spectral agglomeration within the mystic, sending them spiraling into a state of lethargy and madness as their body struggles with the apparition.

 

Over the course of 1 IRL week, the cultists body would begin to grow progressively weaker, unable to walk after the first day. Upon the second day, the occultist will be rendered unable to talk, and on the third day, they would be paralyzed, left totally vulnerable, and requiring the care of others lest they be slain. At this point, the character is left unplayable for the remainder of the week, completely unresponsive to the outside world.

 

This husk is then rendered the wight’s phylactery, their mortal body forever frozen in horror and malice as they reflect a twisted image of what once was. These fell constructions stand as a testament to the life once lived, never again to sleep, blink, or draw any breath — its rigid surface cold as ice forevermore. Housing the wight’s spirit, the phylactery acts as their tether to the mortal realm, and without it, the wight is unable to manifest, motivating wights to take great caution when hiding their phylactery. Should the core of the phylactery be pierced by any weapon imbued with voidal, holy, other otherwise spiritual magic, it would shatter and spill forth the apparition in a deluge ectoplasm. At this, the wight, wherever they may be in the mortal world or otherwise, would find themselves to furiously rupture and disperse — their soul forever banished to the Soulstream where it toils, ceaselessly hunted by the apparition to which it is bound, and inevitably consumed by Mthyul Tlan. But so long as their phylactery remains, should the wight demanifest under any circumstance, their ectoplasm would agglomerate at the site of their phylactery, gradually reforming itself over the course of one IRL week - thus bound never to truly die. 

 

Phylacteries must be physically present in the world via a mechanical build or some other structure found in-game. It is not an item, and thus may not be stored away in a chest. The phylactery will be rather difficult to destroy, similar to a Menhir, though successfully shattering it will force the wight to be permanently banished and consumed by Mthyul Tlan; unable to be revived by any means.

 

The location chosen must be accessible by the wight both in-roleplay and mechanically, and may only have a reasonable amount of security. 

• Upon successfully consuming an apparition, a player character will undergo a transitory period wherein they are made incredibly sickly and frail. 
  • Should the occultist die during this period, they are subject to an irreversible PK as their soul is consumed by the apparition. 
• Apparitions require an ST sponsored event and are incredibly difficult to subdue.
• Respawning at a phylactery does not circumvent general rules regarding character respawn, including that the wight may not recall events leading to their death, cannot return to the place they died for 30 IRL minutes, etc.
• A wight’s phylactery must be physically present in the world via a build or some other tangible structure found in-game. It may not be an item stored away in a mechanical chest some eighty meters underground.
  • ST Management may apply their own reasonable judgement should they suspect improper placement of phylacteries. 
• Should a phylactery be destroyed, the wight would be permanently PK’d.
• Phylacteries must be signed by the ST to ensure validity and proper tracking.
• For the purposes of the Rite of Consumption, Mystics may forcefully create an apparition that is weaker than normal - at roughly 15-19 souls, as opposed to a full-fledged 20 soul apparition. While Wightdom acquisition should be a challenge, it should not be rendered impractically difficult or outright implausible.
• Knowledge of this rite and how to perform it must be marked on one’s MA/TA. Wights created will attain the knowledge of this rite as part of the process automatically.
• The knowledge of the rite must be marked on the MA/TA prior to undertaking the ritual and must be presented to the ST upon request. The Rite of Consumption also cannot be taught during combat.
• When marking the Ritual of Consumption on the MA/TA, the teacher of the Rite needs to be marked down as well.

 

 

New Lore:

 

Spoiler

 

Rite of Consumption

 

Though the will of the mortal spirit often far exceeds corporeal limitation, the road may be tread for only so long upon the shackled feet of man. In a perilous effort to undo this wretched fate, a devout mystic may seek to achieve a greater state of undeath alike to the very phantoms they commune with; assuming a higher role at the cost of their oneness.

 

Mechanics:

 

To enact this rite, an occultist must subdue an apparition, whether found naturally or wrought by the Synod’s own enclave. Once it has been weakened sufficiently through draining, the to-be wight must wreathe their blade in ectoplasm through saturation, before striking the creature with the finishing blow. Then, with the apparition brought low and near to second death, three other mystics must begin to weave the apparition’s ectoplasm from the phantom and bind it to the aspirant. This would reawaken the spectral agglomeration within the mystic, sending them spiraling into a state of lethargy and madness as their body struggles with the apparition.

 

Over the course of 1 IRL week, the cultists body would begin to grow progressively weaker, unable to walk after the first day. Upon the second day, the occultist will be rendered unable to talk, and on the third day, they would be paralyzed, left totally vulnerable, and requiring the care of others lest they be slain. At this point, the character is left unplayable for the remainder of the week, completely unresponsive to the outside world.

 

This husk is then rendered the wight’s phylactery, their mortal body forever frozen in horror and malice as they reflect a twisted image of what once was. These fell constructions stand as a testament to the life once lived, never again to sleep, blink, or draw any breath — its rigid surface cold as ice forevermore. Housing the wight’s spirit, the phylactery acts as their tether to the mortal realm, and without it, the wight is unable to manifest, motivating wights to take great caution when hiding their phylactery. Should the core of the phylactery be pierced by any weapon imbued with voidal, holy, other otherwise spiritual magic, it would shatter and spill forth the apparition in a deluge ectoplasm. At this, the wight, wherever they may be in the mortal world or otherwise, would find themselves to furiously rupture and disperse — their soul banished to the Soulstream where it toils, ceaselessly hunted by the apparition to which it is bound for at most a year before it is inevitably destroyed or consumed by the vengeful apparition. However, the occultists in servitude of the Wight may come together within the year of the phylactery’s destruction to summon both the Wight’s fleeing spirit and the Apparition to rebind them together and form a new phylactery.

 

So long as their phylactery remains, should the wight demanifest under any circumstance, their ectoplasm would agglomerate at the site of their phylactery, gradually reforming itself over the course of one IRL week - thus bound never to truly die. 

 

Phylacteries must be physically present in the world via a mechanical build or some other structure found in-game. It is not an item, and thus may not be stored away in a chest. The phylactery will be rather difficult to destroy, similar to a Menhir, though successfully shattering it will force the wight to be banished and hunted by its vengeful apparition for a year, which is then followed by its demise; unable to be revived by any means.

 

The location chosen must be accessible by the wight both in-roleplay and mechanically, and may only have a reasonable amount of security. 

• Upon successfully consuming an apparition, a player character will undergo a transitory period wherein they are made incredibly sickly and frail. 
  • Should the occultist die during this period, they are subject to an irreversible PK as their soul is consumed by the apparition. 
• Apparitions require an ST sponsored event and are incredibly difficult to subdue.
• Respawning at a phylactery does not circumvent general rules regarding character respawn, including that the wight may not recall events leading to their death, cannot return to the place they died for 30 IRL minutes, etc.
• A wight’s phylactery must be physically present in the world via a build or some other tangible structure found in-game. It may not be an item stored away in a mechanical chest some eighty meters underground.
  • ST Management may apply their own reasonable judgement should they suspect improper placement of phylacteries. 
• Should a phylactery be destroyed, the wight would be soft PK’d for the duration of 1 IRP year or 1 IRL week, and Hard Pk’d onwards.
• An overall [20 tier] combination of Mystic Occultists may gather to summon the wight and apparition through a free form narrative ritual to rebind them and form a new phylactery. This ritual will cost a total combination of [6] Soul Fragments and retires all participants from taking part in any further rituals of any kind for two years or 2 ooc weeks.
  • The 20 tier combination is the overall addition of all the tiered mystics present. so this would mean something like four tier 5s, or five tier 4s, and so on.
• The reformation of the phylactery will force the wight into a 2 year slumber where it will restore itself. Every time this is done, the wight slumbers for an additional year which can result in a slumber lasting for an entire lifetime.
• Should the phylactery be destroyed again while the wight is slumbering and restoring itself, they are destroyed on the spot and Hard Pk’d.
• Phylacteries must be signed by the ST to ensure validity and proper tracking.
• For the purposes of the Rite of Consumption, Mystics may forcefully create an apparition that is weaker than normal - at roughly 15-19 souls, as opposed to a full-fledged 20 soul apparition. While Wightdom acquisition should be a challenge, it should not be rendered impractically difficult or outright implausible.
• Knowledge of this rite and how to perform it must be marked on one’s MA/TA. Wights created will attain the knowledge of this rite as part of the process automatically.
• The knowledge of the rite must be marked on the MA/TA prior to undertaking the ritual and must be presented to the ST upon request. The Rite of Consumption also cannot be taught during combat.
• When marking the Ritual of Consumption on the MA/TA, the teacher of the Rite needs to be marked down as well.

 

 

 

Purpose:

 

Spoiler

I was reading through the lore for Wights and the roles they play within the narrative. From my understanding, Wights are meant to be cunning and intelligent leaders of a cultist organization, like a cult of whisperers or manipulators that work in the shadows rather than an out-right aggressive collective. However, the destruction of a wight feels very flimsy and empty, since all you need to do is destroy their phylactery, which I suppose feels like an accomplishment to the ones who destroy it.

If a wight is supposed to be this big figure head at the top of their cult, I figured it would be pretty cool to add some narrative to their actual death. A wight is nothing without their cult, and so perhaps it serves them better if their cult has the ability to rebind their Wight after the phylactery is destroyed. Of course there is a timeframe since the wight is being chased by the apparition.  

 

This would give more narrative influence to the cultists, creating a better ecosystem between wights and their cultists. It goes to show that when they stand alone, they will eventually find failure. This creates reason for loyalty as well as disloyalty.  

 

Now to maintain the impact of destroying a wight’s phylactery, if they are reformed, they will have an ever increasing restore time, which has no limit. This means a group hunting down a specific wight could theoretically destroy their phylactery to the point where if the wight’s cult reforms them, they could end up slumbering for 100 years, which is practically 2 irl years. During this down time, hunters could try to hunt them down again, and the wight themselves has nothing to do against it without the aid of their cult.

 

I am open to other suggestions, but I will not be focusing on reading the comments. This is sort of a "post and forget" kinda thing until it gets a result.

 

Edited November 22, 2025 by Papa Rock

[PrimnyaQuorum 3999]

Frankly this feels like a decent mechanic for coven-based wights. The primary issue I see is that this takes the Moroi approach of being a absolute PITA given that once you rally all your dudes in a week (maybe I missed it but this rite should have some kind of cost) your wight is now in a state where they can’t be played for an increasing amount of time AND if their get the phlyac broken again (a reasonable guess since it got broken in the first place) then they’re just gone and you’ve wasted time and effort for the same end result

 

I think you can just make it so for a week after, the wight cannot aid in any mystic rituals of any sort or something similar - still a consequence but not a forced shelving for what could be months 

[Hawkeye_Gough 624]

Something I like about this change as opposed to some I've seen, that may not be considered:

 

For mystics to know your phylac was destroyed, they'll need to know where it is (or watch you get banished in front of them, requiring you to be online). This means that, if I want the security of a revival ritual, I need to trade off the security of nobody knowing where my phylac is and thus include it in roleplay.

 

Forcing wights to include their phylac in roleplay, even if it takes the trade off of more resilience, seems like a good change for barrowlord hunters while also giving all the wights I know a little peace of mind.

 

Maybe include that each mystic has to donate a soul fragment in the process? That would incentivize stronger mystics contributing to consolidate the number, and would introduce some cost to the revival

[StingyParrot 1595]

yay! you go ghosties

[lemonke 6014]

I like it. Very based

[Xergarok 811]

Had been thinking of what to say. Much more interesting system than the current one of course, unsure how this  sleep-scaling will function when it's actually active, but I can even appreciate the narrative value of having to slumber for a long long time. A bit "Return of the King" style long-term, if it comes to that.

 

After all, right now you have one shot and it's over. Even with the scaling, you have more than one shot and you involve covens.

 

[Morigung-oog 5697]

Bring back Astark.

[Pallodium 3775]

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