Undead
- Thread starter Wizards of the Coast
- Start date
Visually, there are two kinds of incorporeal undead: Transparent people and smoky black shapes. I don't think any of the other distinguishing traits are salient enough to stick in the average person's mind. These transparent people are rotted-looking while those transparent people look like they did when alive, and that means they're totally different beasts? Good luck conveying that.
This is going outside the scope of the art department, but I would go with the flow on this one and organize all incorporeal undead into "phantoms" and "shades." Phantoms are the transparent-people undead, and include things like ghosts, spectres, apparitions, and banshees. Shades are the smoky-black-shapes undead, including allips, wraiths, and shadows. A spectre and a ghost are not identical, but they're the same basic type of being, like frost giants and fire giants.
At that point, it becomes okay to have spectres and ghosts look similar, or wraiths and shadows. They look similar because they are similar. Minor traits like rotted/whole or glowing/not glowing don't have to carry the weight of distinguishing two unrelated monsters.
This is going outside the scope of the art department, but I would go with the flow on this one and organize all incorporeal undead into "phantoms" and "shades." Phantoms are the transparent-people undead, and include things like ghosts, spectres, apparitions, and banshees. Shades are the smoky-black-shapes undead, including allips, wraiths, and shadows. A spectre and a ghost are not identical, but they're the same basic type of being, like frost giants and fire giants.
At that point, it becomes okay to have spectres and ghosts look similar, or wraiths and shadows. They look similar because they are similar. Minor traits like rotted/whole or glowing/not glowing don't have to carry the weight of distinguishing two unrelated monsters.
Last edited:
howandwhy99
Adventurer
Visual differences (like other sensed differences) have everything to do with revealing mechanics and powers. A creature's body is part of the environment and while we might not explore those bodies (usually) until after they are dead, the two are one.
I actually strongly agree with the goal of allowing players to recognize creatures by their description rather than their listed name, which could change across cultures. However, sometimes creatures look alike and that is part of the game. Take high level PC races versus low level ones. How do we tell them apart? Couldn't a 0-level king have all the wealth of 10th level Fighter? Sure physical stats could reveal themselves, but these also can be disguised by those proficient in the disguise ability.
For the purposes of describing the three noncorporeal undead listed, here's my take:
Ghosts typically only appear as ethereal apparitions and only in locations and at times viable for such viewings. They only manifest when noticeably engaged with the PM plane, like with a creature. Wraiths and Spectres are always manifest. From my understanding they don't have the option not to be.
All have a bad attitude, all can have clothing or appearances as they did in life, but ghosts appear almost as imitations of their PM original selves when unperterbed. On the other hand, Wraiths & Spectres appear as the disembodied spirits of ghouls & ghasts.
Coloring is going to depend upon the campaign like so much skin, hair, and eyes to distinguish humanoids from each other. I would say all undead live in the ethereal realm as well as in the Prime Material. Wraiths and Spectres are always in the PM and are empowered via the negative energy plane, therefore they give off a shadowy aura and could appear as part of a negative image nightmare realm, if looked at directly. Ghosts are trapped, but may give off luminescence depending upon the current state of their souls. Again, color is dependent upon whatever color means in the local campaign, but perhaps examples could be given like green for druidic or elfin magic. Red for fire, brown for earth, blue for water-based creatures, and so on.
Shadows, which we are skipping I guess because their appearance seems obvious, are manifestations, they simply have lost all other than their form and shape seen under bright light. For my take, they are the counterparts to wights for the magical undead disease they spread. Only these are the incorporeal unlike the ghouls, ghasts, and wights which are corporeal.
I actually strongly agree with the goal of allowing players to recognize creatures by their description rather than their listed name, which could change across cultures. However, sometimes creatures look alike and that is part of the game. Take high level PC races versus low level ones. How do we tell them apart? Couldn't a 0-level king have all the wealth of 10th level Fighter? Sure physical stats could reveal themselves, but these also can be disguised by those proficient in the disguise ability.
For the purposes of describing the three noncorporeal undead listed, here's my take:
Ghosts typically only appear as ethereal apparitions and only in locations and at times viable for such viewings. They only manifest when noticeably engaged with the PM plane, like with a creature. Wraiths and Spectres are always manifest. From my understanding they don't have the option not to be.
All have a bad attitude, all can have clothing or appearances as they did in life, but ghosts appear almost as imitations of their PM original selves when unperterbed. On the other hand, Wraiths & Spectres appear as the disembodied spirits of ghouls & ghasts.
Coloring is going to depend upon the campaign like so much skin, hair, and eyes to distinguish humanoids from each other. I would say all undead live in the ethereal realm as well as in the Prime Material. Wraiths and Spectres are always in the PM and are empowered via the negative energy plane, therefore they give off a shadowy aura and could appear as part of a negative image nightmare realm, if looked at directly. Ghosts are trapped, but may give off luminescence depending upon the current state of their souls. Again, color is dependent upon whatever color means in the local campaign, but perhaps examples could be given like green for druidic or elfin magic. Red for fire, brown for earth, blue for water-based creatures, and so on.
Shadows, which we are skipping I guess because their appearance seems obvious, are manifestations, they simply have lost all other than their form and shape seen under bright light. For my take, they are the counterparts to wights for the magical undead disease they spread. Only these are the incorporeal unlike the ghouls, ghasts, and wights which are corporeal.
I like to differentiate the different spiritual undead by imagining that there's a whole unseen "ecosystem" ("thanatosystem?") going on in the spiritual world, and the spirits are products of that.
Ghosts are a default, "natural," product of a sentient being dying. The process of dying while still emotionally tethered too strongly to the physical world either traps the living being's spirit in the ethereal plane, deprived of a physical body, or it actually creates a new incorporeal creature that is a copy of the original being's memories, personality and motivations at the time of death. Which is the truth is up to the game master, but may also be a complete mystery, even to the gods. If you follow a mystical paradigm like that of the ancient Egyptians, people may have multiple souls, and a ghost is just one of those souls, left behind when the rest have departed. The end effect is that a ghost is, by and large, the same being as the creature who died, mentally speaking. It acts the same, and probably thinks that it is the creature, whether it is or not. Of course, being turned into an incorporeal entity of pure emotion and ether is pretty traumatic, and most likely leaves very few of them sane.
What is a specter, then? Since there are evil, vengeful ghosts, a specter must be something distinct somehow. I like to think of it as a kind of parasite. When a ghost is created, and at it is full of rage and hatred, probably due to a very horrific and traumatic death, perhaps that vitriolic emotion draws beings that roam beyond the ethereal plane and can normally never interact with the world at all. They latch onto such a ghost and feed on it, destroying all remnants of positive emotions and personality traits, transforming it into a dark parody of what it could have been as a ghost. And, this unnamed parasite that infests it is native to, or connected to, the negative energy plane (or whatever your necrotic cosmological equivalent is), it carries with it a desperate need to feed on the energy of the living to fill its forever empty, hollow core. This type of spirit is a rabid wolf of the ethereal world, a danger to all that lives. Using this model, over time, normal ghosts may be in danger of becoming specters if they indulge their darker emotions too often. Specters can reproduce in a fashion, ripping the ghosts from the living beings they kill and infecting them with their dark parasites. This may be the only way for these parasites to reproduce, making the living world their spawning ground.
Wraiths are even less human than specters. Probably the only link they have to the living being that produced them is a vague, twisted visual resemblance; nothing of the individual's personality remains. There is only a horrible, alien, unquenchable thirst for life energy and enough intelligence and cunning to hunt living beings in a (futile) effort to sate that inner hunger. This makes them similar to specters, and therefore are likely victims of a similar negative-energy (necrotic) parasite. But unlike the parasite that produces the specter, the seed of a wraith is far more focused and predatory. It doesn't just infest ghosts, it transforms them into its image. Fortunately, this makes them more limited in many ways, lacking the personality and adaptability of the more self-aware specter. They reproduce in a similar fashion to specters, but are much less likely to spontaneously infect ghosts, instead most often coming into being when a wraith kills a mortal, or they are created by necromantic magic. Where a specter is a rabid wolf, a wraith is a shark, something that doesn't seem to have any nature other than hunting and killing.
I use "origin stories" like these to form the basis for descriptions of these creatures. Ghosts are, as always, human-like. Specters seem like ghosts seen through a dark, cracked mirror, filled with and surrounded by hungry shadows. Wraiths are like incorporeal predator animals, human-shaped voids of shadow highlighted by glittering teeth and coldly glowing eyes.
Ghosts are a default, "natural," product of a sentient being dying. The process of dying while still emotionally tethered too strongly to the physical world either traps the living being's spirit in the ethereal plane, deprived of a physical body, or it actually creates a new incorporeal creature that is a copy of the original being's memories, personality and motivations at the time of death. Which is the truth is up to the game master, but may also be a complete mystery, even to the gods. If you follow a mystical paradigm like that of the ancient Egyptians, people may have multiple souls, and a ghost is just one of those souls, left behind when the rest have departed. The end effect is that a ghost is, by and large, the same being as the creature who died, mentally speaking. It acts the same, and probably thinks that it is the creature, whether it is or not. Of course, being turned into an incorporeal entity of pure emotion and ether is pretty traumatic, and most likely leaves very few of them sane.
What is a specter, then? Since there are evil, vengeful ghosts, a specter must be something distinct somehow. I like to think of it as a kind of parasite. When a ghost is created, and at it is full of rage and hatred, probably due to a very horrific and traumatic death, perhaps that vitriolic emotion draws beings that roam beyond the ethereal plane and can normally never interact with the world at all. They latch onto such a ghost and feed on it, destroying all remnants of positive emotions and personality traits, transforming it into a dark parody of what it could have been as a ghost. And, this unnamed parasite that infests it is native to, or connected to, the negative energy plane (or whatever your necrotic cosmological equivalent is), it carries with it a desperate need to feed on the energy of the living to fill its forever empty, hollow core. This type of spirit is a rabid wolf of the ethereal world, a danger to all that lives. Using this model, over time, normal ghosts may be in danger of becoming specters if they indulge their darker emotions too often. Specters can reproduce in a fashion, ripping the ghosts from the living beings they kill and infecting them with their dark parasites. This may be the only way for these parasites to reproduce, making the living world their spawning ground.
Wraiths are even less human than specters. Probably the only link they have to the living being that produced them is a vague, twisted visual resemblance; nothing of the individual's personality remains. There is only a horrible, alien, unquenchable thirst for life energy and enough intelligence and cunning to hunt living beings in a (futile) effort to sate that inner hunger. This makes them similar to specters, and therefore are likely victims of a similar negative-energy (necrotic) parasite. But unlike the parasite that produces the specter, the seed of a wraith is far more focused and predatory. It doesn't just infest ghosts, it transforms them into its image. Fortunately, this makes them more limited in many ways, lacking the personality and adaptability of the more self-aware specter. They reproduce in a similar fashion to specters, but are much less likely to spontaneously infect ghosts, instead most often coming into being when a wraith kills a mortal, or they are created by necromantic magic. Where a specter is a rabid wolf, a wraith is a shark, something that doesn't seem to have any nature other than hunting and killing.
I use "origin stories" like these to form the basis for descriptions of these creatures. Ghosts are, as always, human-like. Specters seem like ghosts seen through a dark, cracked mirror, filled with and surrounded by hungry shadows. Wraiths are like incorporeal predator animals, human-shaped voids of shadow highlighted by glittering teeth and coldly glowing eyes.
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