Lores

On thing to keep in mind is the World of Darkness is a complex place -- the various supernatural creatures out there exist, and yet there is a lot of mis-information about such beings.&nbsp; Lores are knowledges, and are secondary abilities.&nbsp; They are required for a character to have necessary in-character knowledge about what exists and help to&nbsp; separate fact from fiction.&nbsp; It is possible to gain Lores during play...either by researching by oneself, being taught, or just rationalizing lived experiences into knowledge.&nbsp; You might even gain a 'free' occasional 'dot' in a Lore from a well role played scene! The lores used in this game can be found at this website :&nbsp; [&nbsp; <a href="http://masqueradeembraced.wikidot.com/wiki:lores" rel="nofollow">http://masqueradeembraced.wikidot.com/wiki:lores</a> &nbsp;] ...anyways, good luck discovering secrets of the night!

VAMPIRE LORE&nbsp; VAMPIRE LORE X I&nbsp; You know that vampires are real. Sunlight, silver, fire, wooden stakes through&nbsp; the heart and holy symbols are said to injure them, and the unliving may not&nbsp; approach a bearer of the cross. Garlic wards against vampires, vampires may not cross&nbsp; running water (which disintegrates them if they are immersed in it), and they may&nbsp; not enter a domicile uninvited. Vampires cannot cross holy ground. They may not&nbsp; cast reflections. Vampires must sleep during the day in a coffin lined with fresh grave&nbsp; earth. You know that all vampires are unusually pale and thin, and they often have&nbsp; claws or glowing eyes in addition to fangs.&nbsp; You believe that most vampires are stronger and faster than humans, and they&nbsp; can control minds, change into bestial forms and see or hear things that humans&nbsp; cannot sense. People who are bitten by vampires become vampires themselves, as&nbsp; may some people who are buried without proper rites and who were sinners in life.&nbsp; A vampire must have its head cut off and its mouth filled with holy wafers or garlic&nbsp; if it is to be killed permanently, or else it must die from exposure to sunlight or&nbsp; running water.&nbsp; VAMPIRE LORE X 2&nbsp; Sunlight and fire can kill vampires, and crosses, silver and wooden stakes can&nbsp; injure them, though these last may not kill them. Vampires dislike garlic but it does&nbsp; not hurt them. Running water has no adverse effect upon them, but they cannot&nbsp; cross it. A strongly presented cross can force a vampire to stay back, but only for a&nbsp; short time. Vampires cannot tread on holy ground or enter churches uninvited. A&nbsp; vampire must sleep during the day, usually in a coffin or crypt. You know that&nbsp; vampires are pale and often thin, and they have fangs, while a few may have glowing&nbsp; eyes or claws (although these are usually only evident if the vampire is enraged).&nbsp; You know that vampires are stronger and hardier than humans, and are&nbsp; sometimes faster, though not always. All vampires can heal wounds rapidly, so most&nbsp; mortal injuries do not slow them overmuch. Most vampires have some ability to&nbsp; influence minds or emotions in some form. People bitten by vampires may not&nbsp; become vampires themselves, but such victims do die. A vampire, once beaten, can&nbsp; be slain only if it’s decapitated.&nbsp; VAMPIRE LORE x 3&nbsp; You know that fire and sunlight can injure vampires, and prolonged exposure&nbsp; can kill them. Silver has no special effect on most vampires, nor do crucifixes,&nbsp; although priests can harm vampires with crosses, and blessed crosses or holy water&nbsp; are effective. A vampire’s body decomposes rapidly upon death. Priests can keep&nbsp; vampires at bay by holding out a cross, but this tactic does not necessarily work for&nbsp; others. Vampires can enter places uninvited, but they can only enter a church if&nbsp; invited by the priest. Running water neither harms nor blocks vampires, and garlic&nbsp; may repulse them briefly but does not injure or stop them. Mirrors have no effect&nbsp; upon vampires, and most vampires cast reflections. All vampires must sleep during&nbsp; the day, though they need not do so in a coffin or crypt, and they don’t always need&nbsp; fresh soil. Many vampires have particular quirks, such as feeding only on a few select&nbsp; victims, collecting ancient art of all sorts or evidencing horrific or animalistic&nbsp; features. Vampires are often pallid and sometimes unnaturally lean, and they do not&nbsp; naturally breathe; they also do not eat&nbsp; or drink. A vampire’s fangs are only visible when the vampire feeds.&nbsp; You know that vampires drink people’s blood, but doing so does not&nbsp; always kill the victims, and even those killed by the vampire’s thirst do not&nbsp; always come back as vampires. A vampire is usually stronger than a human,&nbsp; and it can always absorb more injury, but it may or may not be faster. Vampires are not always smarter than humans, but old ones are usually quite crafty.&nbsp; All vampires have at least some special powers, though these vary; mind&nbsp; control, speed, sensitivity, concealment and emotional control are common, while more arcane abilities like shapeshifting are more rare. You know they have similar powers and weaknesses.&nbsp; Vampires sometimes claim certain allegiances, and groups of vampires from different&nbsp; cities may be hostile to one another.&nbsp;&nbsp; VAMPIRE LORE X 4&nbsp; Fire and sunlight injure or kill vampires, and the unliving flee from these forces.&nbsp; You know that a wooden stake through the heart immobilizes avampire but does not&nbsp; kill it. Decapitation will kill a vampire, though. A vampire’s body decomposes&nbsp; rapidly upon death, unless the individual became a vampire recently. Crosses and&nbsp; holy objects sometimes hurt or ward against vampires, though not always; most&nbsp; often, they work for priests, but not all priests can use them, and some people who&nbsp; aren’t priests can. A vampire can enter a place uninvited, even a church, and it can&nbsp; cross holy ground unless barred by someone using a holy symbol. Running water,&nbsp; mirrors and garlic do not injure or hinder vampires. Most vampires cast reflections.&nbsp; Vampires often sleep deeply during the day, but they can do so in any location away&nbsp; from sunlight. You know that vampires are usually pale and sometimes rather thin,&nbsp; and that they don’t generally breathe; they are also cold to the touch, and sometimes&nbsp; have monstrous features (especially when angry).&nbsp; You’ve learned that vampires often gather in groups or families, and these&nbsp; families usually share similar powers. You’ve also heard that many vampires claim&nbsp; descent from Caine, the first murderer from the Bible, though there are some&nbsp; (especially outside of Europe and the Americas) who have different legends of&nbsp; ancestry. Furthermore, most vampires claim allegiance to some sort of political group&nbsp; (though you’ve probably only heard the name of one of the sects, and you know only&nbsp; that other sects exist). Young vampires have a few powers, while older ones have&nbsp; multiple powers and stronger, stranger abilities. Vampires usually have some sort of&nbsp; weakness, and families often share the same weaknesses, such as a preference for&nbsp; feeding on a certain type of person or a fondness for art. Vampires are not always more&nbsp; physically powerful than humans, but they can often temporarily boost their&nbsp; strength or speed, and some are always stronger. Old vampires tend to be far, far more&nbsp; powerful than humans or even younger vampires. Vampiric powers include the&nbsp; ability to control animals or people, to sway emotions, to resist injury, to become&nbsp; highly sensitive, to conceal oneself, to shapeshift (a rare power), to cast spells (also&nbsp; rare) or to exhibit incredible strength and speed. A vampire can heal most wounds&nbsp; very rapidly, though only to some degree. You know that vampires sometimes go&nbsp; berserk when very hungry or badly wounded. People bitten by vampires do not&nbsp; always become vampires; the vampire must feed the person some blood first, and&nbsp; then the victim must die. People who drink vampire blood without dying may gain&nbsp; great strength or vampiric powers, and such people often serve the vampire in&nbsp; question. Vampires can retract their fangs to hide them, and they can close the&nbsp; wounds from their bites.&nbsp; VAMPIRE LOREX 5&nbsp; You know that vampires are injured or even killed by fire and sunlight, that holy&nbsp; symbols and objects only have an effect if the bearer has faith, and that decapitation&nbsp; kills vampires. A wooden stake through the heart paralyzes a vampire, but does not&nbsp; kill it. You know that running water and garlic bar only a very few vampires at all,&nbsp; and that only some lackreflections. Vampires must sleep during the day, though they&nbsp; can rise (with great difficulty) in times of danger.&nbsp; You know that vampires organize themselves according to lines of lineage&nbsp; (sometimes called “bloodlines,” “families” or “clans,”), and that vampires of&nbsp; common lineages often share similar powers and interests. Each of these lineages&nbsp; apparently traces back to a powerful progenitor, and then to Caine, the Biblical&nbsp; murderer cursed with vampirism by God for his deeds. Vampires also divide&nbsp; themselves among certain political allegiances; the “Camarilla” consists of vampires&nbsp; who try to hide their nature from humanity, while the “Sabbat” is populated with&nbsp; vampires who revel in their monstrous natures. Vampires may enter domains freely&nbsp; and without invitation. Many vampires manifest a few different powers, and you&nbsp; know of many of the common abilities (incredible speed, strength, resilience,&nbsp; sensitivity; the ability to control minds [sometimes ofpeople, sometimes of animals],&nbsp; sway emotions, conceal or change shape), but only very old vampires have a great&nbsp; variety of powers. Also, some rare vampires can cast spells, control shadows,&nbsp; shapechange into animals or control the dead. A vampire passes on the curse by&nbsp; draining the blood of an individual and then feeding that person some blood.&nbsp; Individuals who drink of a vampire’s blood may feel a mystical bond of servitude to&nbsp; that vampire; if human, such individuals may gain some vampiric powers. Vampires&nbsp; have a mortal terror of fire and sunlight, both of which may cause them to flee.&nbsp; Vampires can also be goaded into a rage through insult, injury or hunger. A vampire&nbsp; can heal injuries inflicted by normal sources -swords, falls and the like - rapidly.&nbsp; Vampires are usually (but not always) somewhat pallid, and they lose a bit of weight&nbsp; in the process of “dying.” The fangs of a vampire only extend when the vampire&nbsp; wishes to feed or is enraged. Furthermore, a vampire can lick a bite wound, causing&nbsp; it to close. Vampires do not breathe naturally, and they are cold, although some&nbsp; vampires can overcome this shortcoming with effort.

LUPINE LORE&nbsp; WEREWOLF LORE x I&nbsp; Much of your knowledge of werewolves comes from fantasy and myth. You&nbsp; believe that werewolves may exist, and that they can be killed by silver bullets and&nbsp; repelled by wolfsbane. Werewolves can be hurt by normal weapons, but do not die&nbsp; from such attacks. You believe that werewolves change shape into hideous manwolves on the night of the full moon, and then rampage about killing and eating&nbsp; people. Werewolves can supposedly pass on their condition by biting others - be&nbsp; careful while hunting them! You suspect that werewolves gain some size, strength and speed while&nbsp; rampaging, but that they are unintelligent, slavering monsters while the&nbsp; moon is full. A werewolf can often be discerned by certain markings: a pentagram on the hand, index and middle fingers of the same length, eyebrows that meet in the center of the forehead.&nbsp; Most werewolves are solitary, bestial creatures, just as quick to fight their own kind as to war with vampires or humans.&nbsp; WEREWOLF LORE X 2&nbsp; You've learned that silver is quite effective against werewolves and that&nbsp; other attacks can injure them, but not kill them. You suspect that they can&nbsp; change shape any time at night, but they are forced to change by the sight&nbsp; of the full moon. Wolfsbane is repellent to some, but not all, werewolves.&nbsp; When shifted into their animalistic forms, werewolves are powerful predators,&nbsp; but they retain a cunning instinct. You also believe that the bite of a werewolf may be sufficient to pass on its condition, but that this does not always occur. Certain remedies, such as belladonna infusions, may help to delay or prevent the onset of lycanthropy contracted by a werewolf's bite. Of&nbsp; course, such potions are also poisonous.&nbsp; A werewolf in its animal form is always larger and stronger than normal, and its&nbsp; claws and teeth are capable of rending flesh and bone with nearly equal ease.&nbsp; Werewolves can sometimes be told by specific marks and traits, but not all&nbsp; werewolves exhibit all of those physical aberrations. Werewolves in the city are&nbsp; usually solitary individuals, though some werewolves run in groups or packs - a&nbsp; terrifying notion considering their strengths!&nbsp; WEREWOLF LORE X 3&nbsp; You now know that silver and fire can both injure and kill werewolves, and that&nbsp; persistent attacks of other sorts can incapacitate or sometimes kill them. Silver is&nbsp; baneful to werewolves in almost all of their forms, so they avoid it whenever possible.&nbsp; Wolfsbane and other herbs are largely useless against the shape-changers, unfortunately. Werewolves heal from most attacks quite rapidly, but a single overwhelming&nbsp; attack can slow one down long enough for a hunter to escape or to make a final blow.&nbsp; Werewolves apparently have several different forms, a range between man and&nbsp; wolf. Each werewolf can assume any of these forms, but some are more comfortable&nbsp; with particular forms. In any case, they can shapechange whenever they want.&nbsp; However, the sight of the moon at night often causes the werewolf to change&nbsp; involuntarily.&nbsp; It can be difficult to tell werewolves from other people - many are comfortable&nbsp; in their human forms, and they show few telltale signs of their heritage. Some,&nbsp; though, ,act more like wolves, and can be spotted because of their primitive&nbsp; unfamiliarity with their human forms. In any case, werewolves retain at least some&nbsp; intelligence in all of their forms, so they can be dangerously clever wolves or&nbsp; predatorial humans. They disdain technology, living primitively even among&nbsp; human society. A werewolf is difficult to capture, though, because people often&nbsp; forget when they have seen a werewolf enraged.&nbsp; You know that werewolves have some means of traveling unseen, and that they&nbsp; sometimes gather in packs or groups. Different packs seem to have territories, and they&nbsp; may fight or work with other packs. Individual werewolves sometimes show specific&nbsp; cultural characteristics. Most werewolves follow some sort of shamanistic tradition.&nbsp; WEREWOLF LORE x 4&nbsp; You always carry silver - it burns werewolves except in their most favored&nbsp; forms, and wounds caused to them with silver do not heal easily. Fire is an acceptable&nbsp; weapon, but not as effective as silver. Other attacks must rely on main force to slow&nbsp; a werewolf down, and werewolves are killing machines that can hardly be matched&nbsp; by the toughest of hunters. Thus, you must rely on ambushes and careful planning&nbsp; to fight werewolves.&nbsp; You know that werewolves refer to themselvcs as “garou,” possibly from the&nbsp; French term “loup-gurou.” Often, they run in packs, but each werewolf may claim&nbsp; allegiance to a specific camp or tribe as well. A few werewolves belong to packs that&nbsp; fight with the others, but most packs work together. The full moon brings out a great&nbsp; fury in werewolves, but it does not force them to change; oddly, different phases of&nbsp; the moon carry significance to different werewolves. Each werewolf also has a&nbsp; favored form - human, wolf or man-wolf. The werewolf is most comfortable in that&nbsp; form, but it does not heal anymore rapidly than normal. When in the man-wolfform,&nbsp; werewolves are terrifying berserkers, and most humans are frightened beyond&nbsp; rational thought by their rage. People tend to forget about such encounters, their&nbsp; minds defensively pushing away the experience.&nbsp; You’ve learned that werewolves have a sort of spiritual, shamanistic culture,&nbsp; and that they can do some sort of magic based around spirits. Different werewolves&nbsp; have different powers, often related to some sort of status system. Werewolves also&nbsp; seem to have relatives among otherwise normal humans and wolves, though these&nbsp; individuals cannot be told from their counterparts in society. When among human&nbsp; society, the werewolves often disdain technology, and have a particular dislike of big&nbsp; corporations, factories and industry. Stranger still, there seem to be shapechangers&nbsp; capable of taking other forms, but they are even more scarce legends than werewolves.&nbsp; WEREWOLF LORE X 5&nbsp; At this level of expertise, you know as much about werewolves as they usually&nbsp; know about themselves. Silver hurts and kills any werewolf, except when it is in its&nbsp; favored form - the form in which it was born. Fire works as well. Anything else&nbsp; simply slows the werewolf down, although toxic waste and radiation may hurt them&nbsp; badly. You know that werewolves are not immune to damage, but that they heal most&nbsp; injuries with incredible rapidity. However, a werewolf in its “breed form,” its birth&nbsp; form, does not heal any faster than usual.&nbsp; All individual Garou, as they call themselves, are part of a particular tribe. Also,&nbsp; they are affiliated with acertain phase of the moon, and they draw anger from it. Certain&nbsp; phases of the moon have specific roles in society - trickster, shaman, mediator, bard,&nbsp; warrior. Most Garou run in packs with others from different tribes, breeds and auspices.&nbsp; A few packs are composed of the “Black Spiral Dancer” tribe, agroup of werewolves that&nbsp; are all evil and corrupt, and these werewolves fight others of their kind.&nbsp; Garou also have potent spirituality. You know that the garou can enter a&nbsp; magical spirit world, which they call the “Umbra,” by stepping into a reflective&nbsp; surface, and that they can step back out through any similar surface. They also make&nbsp; deals with spirits, calling upon them for magical powers. Some packs have a&nbsp; particular patron spirit - a “totem” [sic] - that grants them additional boons.&nbsp; All werewolves are killing machines when enraged. In their man-wolf forms, they&nbsp; ate half again as tall as a human, incredibly fast and strong and deadly with their claws&nbsp; and teeth. However, they remain intelligent, able to call upon both human intelligence and animal instinct. At times, werewolves become terribly furious, and they are&nbsp; then uncontrollably dangerous. They have a particular crusade against the spoils of&nbsp; progress, such as pollution and toxic waste, though not all are total Luddites. You know&nbsp; that werewolves spend most oftheir time in the wilderness, guarding holy places where&nbsp; they commune with their spirit allies. You also know that they have relatives among&nbsp; both humans and wolves, and that they choose mates from such relatives.&nbsp; In their man-wolf forms, werewolves cause a reaction that they call “Delirium,”&nbsp; causing people to forget the sight of the werewolf or to rationalize it away. This&nbsp; survival instinct causes normal humans to flee in terror or curl into a helpless ball;&nbsp; only the strongest wills remain unbroken. However, the relatives of werewolves are&nbsp; immune to this “Delirium.” Aside from human and wolf relatives, there are some&nbsp; shapeshifters that take other forms - great cats, rats, lizards, crows and the like -&nbsp; but you know little of their ways.&nbsp;

WRAITH LORE WRAITH LORE X I You know (or at least believe) that ghosts exist, that some people go on to an&nbsp; afterlife. It may be that all the dead congregate in one eternal place, or that they go&nbsp; on to separate unlives, or that some do not go at all - you haven’t met enough ghosts&nbsp; to know for sure. Some ghosts are just plain nasty, apparently only being reflections&nbsp; of all of their pain, hate or fear in life; others mindlessly repeat their actions from&nbsp; their living days. A few are still sensible and able to talk, though they can freakily&nbsp; change moods with extreme rapidity.&nbsp; Many wraiths seem to hold on to places or people that were familiar&nbsp;&nbsp; important to them in life. Not all do so, though. Some even keep ties to special&nbsp; things, strong enough to reach into the living land and affect these subjects.&nbsp; Occasionally, objects manifest in the ghost world, but you don’t really know how&nbsp; they get there or why.&nbsp; Ghosts seem to manifest a variety of powers, though you’re not really sure of the&nbsp; range and versatility of them all. Some wraiths haunt areas through cold spots or&nbsp; lights; others speak in eerie whispers; still others even possess people or objects.&nbsp; There’s no telling what powers a particular ghost manifests, though. You do know&nbsp; that ghosts are normally immaterial, but can still see and hear things in the living&nbsp; world. Even if driven off, most wraiths eventually return.&nbsp; A ghost is supposedly barred by sea salt, according to old tales, and it may also be&nbsp; vulnerable to exorcisms, to strewing an area with rose petals or to threatening the people&nbsp; or objects it holds dear. Swings or blows can affect wraiths, though this really just seems&nbsp; to annoy them, not injure them. However, ghosts can interact with one another.&nbsp; WRAITH LORE X 2&nbsp; Apparently, not everybody becomes a ghost on dying, or perhaps some of them&nbsp; go on to a place unable to reach the mortal realm. Whatever the case, ghosts seem&nbsp; to be nothing more or less than the souls of the dead, still clinging to some semblance&nbsp; of life. A few - spectres - are malicious and violent, but most are just a little&nbsp; unstable (doubtless from dying).&nbsp; You know the term “Fetter.” A Fetter is an object, person or place with some&nbsp; significance to a particular wraith. Apparently, wraiths can use them for protection,&nbsp; and they hang around such objects or places due to some spiritual tie. Destroyed Fetters&nbsp; sometimes become “ghost objects,” as do other objects with important memories&nbsp; attached, though not under any conditions that you can conclusively repeat.&nbsp; Wraiths term their special powers Arcanoi and study a wide range of abilities.&nbsp; Some can haunt areas, and some can appear material briefly. You only know of about&nbsp; a half-dozen such powers, but there are supposedly a great many. Aside from that,&nbsp; wraiths have very sharp senses, and they sometimes see images of death or life&nbsp; swirling about things or people. They also are immune to most physical strikes.&nbsp; A wraith can be exorcised by a skilled priest, or kept out with magical wardings&nbsp; and strong belief (pure sea salt works best). Most wraiths have a very hard time&nbsp; affecting the living world, if at all. Also, they can be discorporated briefly, and if they&nbsp; suffer too much ghostly injury (especially from other wraiths), they disappear for a&nbsp; time - sometimes forever.&nbsp; There are supposedly “layers” to the deadlands. The Shadowlands refer to the&nbsp; reflection of the mortal world. The Tempest is some sort of eternal storm, but it only&nbsp; rarely rages through parts of the Shadowlands. Also, there are apparently Heaven( s)&nbsp; and Hell(s) in the Underworld, though they are far away and barred to most (you&nbsp; have to be worthy of entry, or something).&nbsp; WRAITH LORE X 3 Many people can and do become wraiths after death. However, not all retain&nbsp; their sentience, some become quite malevolent and a few just never seem to show&nbsp; up. Regardless, all wraiths share in common strong passions, the desire to do&nbsp; something they left unresolved in life. Some items also pass across the Shroud (the&nbsp; barrier between life and death), particularly those with important memories attached to them, but they tend to fade away after time. You’ve even heard rumors of&nbsp; ghosts who cross back into the living world physically, but aside from some of the&nbsp; more difficult powers of the Arcanoi, this is probably nonsense. In any case, the&nbsp; Hierarchy - an organization of old, powerful and cynical wraiths - declares it&nbsp; illegal to interfere with the living, though this doesn’t stop rebels and cultists from&nbsp; doing so. Sometimes, other creatures come to the deadlands, or so it is said, but they&nbsp; rarely enjoy doing so, and they often leave as quickly as they can. If they can.&nbsp; You know a little bit about Fetters - almost any young wraith has some, and&nbsp; they keep the wraith tied to the living lands. They’re all objects important to the&nbsp; wraith in some way, though the wraith may not understand why. A Fetter is more&nbsp; easily influenced by some powers, but conversely, injuring a Fetter is damaging to the&nbsp; wraith, and destroying one can cause serious problems.&nbsp; Wraiths use Arcanoi to manifest various strange powers, the various “ghost&nbsp; powers” out of stories. You’ve heard of most of the common Arcanoi, and you know&nbsp; that they were once taught by powerful Guilds, but those Guilds were disbanded. You&nbsp; also know that using an Arcanos to deal with the living lands is apparently illegal.&nbsp; Those who are caught may be turned into slaves or punished by using parts of their&nbsp; bodies to make ghostly objects!&nbsp; Wraiths do have some weaknesses. Without special powers, they have trouble&nbsp; interacting with the material world. This is most true in areas ofdisbelief, science and&nbsp; vibrant life - a mundane supermarket is harder to haunt than a run-down&nbsp; abandoned house. Even when a wraith affects the material world, its passage and&nbsp; powers are often remembered incorrectly or forgotten by mortal witnesses entirely.&nbsp; Exorcisms can sometimes bar or send away wraiths, but apparently only a few priests&nbsp; know how to do them properly. Sea salt and those other old wives’ tales have no&nbsp; effect at all. Thankfully, a dedicated assault on the area that a ghost occupies can&nbsp; discorporate it, eventually forcing it away or even into a sort of nightmare play where&nbsp; it confronts its worst fears and terrors. This event is called a Harrowing.&nbsp; You’re most familiar with the Shadowlands, the edge of the Undenvorldnearest&nbsp; the living world. However, you know that the Tempest is a storm-tossed layer&nbsp; somehow “underneath” the Skindlands. Some wraiths go there out of need or&nbsp; desperation, and powerful cities stand in islands within the Tempest itself. Rumor&nbsp; speaks of Far Shores and distant Dark Kingdoms, but you know nothing specific&nbsp; about such matters.&nbsp; WRAITH LORE x 4&nbsp; Very few people actually become wraiths - only those with powerful memories, drives and passions, or horribly violent deaths. Some become mindless drones&nbsp; while others keep their consciousness; rumor has it that a few people actually become&nbsp; Spectres (which you understand as “evil” ghosts) immediately upon death. It is those&nbsp; incomplete passions of life that drive a ghost and give it power. However, those very&nbsp; same passions can be turned to dark ends, fueling the darkhalf of the wraith‘s persona&nbsp; (or its “Shadow”). It is possible for a ghost to rise from the dead, though such a thing&nbsp; is apparently chancy and random. It is also possible for some creatures, especially&nbsp; vampires, to walk in the Shadowlands, though doing so is exceedingly rare.&nbsp; Fetters tie a wraith to the material world but also offer succor. When a Fetter&nbsp; is destroyed, it plunges a wraith into a Harrowing. However, wraiths can often home&nbsp; in on their Fetters and use them for shelter. Certain Arcanoi work more easily on&nbsp; Fetters than on other things. Most Fetters are objects that were important to the&nbsp; wraith for some reason, even if the wraith does not know why or denies the&nbsp; connection. Aside from Fetters, objects of importance in the living world can&nbsp; become Relics when destroyed, passing into the Shadowlands. Most such items&nbsp; disappear as memory of them fades, but some possess an inner power that sustains&nbsp; them; these last are exceedingly valuable. Other objects in the Shadowlands come&nbsp; from soulforging, the process of turning a whole wraith into a simple item.&nbsp; All of the common Guild Arcanoi are familiar to you. You know that the Guilds&nbsp; once held power in Stygia, the city of the west, but that they were broken apart&nbsp; (although some wraiths still claim secret ties to Guilds). You can recognize most&nbsp; guildmarks in practitioners of particular Arcanoi. However, you do know that there&nbsp; are some Arcanoi that were barred even more severely than others, and some that&nbsp; are native to non-western wraiths or to those who rise from the grave. What these&nbsp; powers are called and what they can do, you do not know. Spectres also use some&nbsp; Dark Arcanoi; you’ve heard a few names like Contaminate, though the specifics are&nbsp; sketchy. Aside from that, you are familiar with the usual ghostly powers of&nbsp; insubstantiality, sharp senses, lifesight and deathsight and healing through Pathos.&nbsp; You’ve become quite familiar with the Hierarchy, its Legions and bureaucracy and&nbsp; the politics thereof, and you can name several different Heretic cults and a few&nbsp; Renegade groups.&nbsp; You know that ghosts are mostly immune to harm from the living world. Only&nbsp; special magic weapons and spells can really capture, bar or injure them. With the&nbsp; proper Arcanoi, a wraith can also affect the material world, though this usually takes&nbsp; a great deal of effort. Mortals generally don’t remember a ghost’s interactions with&nbsp; the living realm,&nbsp; You know the Underworld fairly well. You can locate Stygia’s place in the&nbsp; Tempest and navigate about the Shadowlands easily. You know of the Venous Stair,&nbsp; and you could probably get to it if you felt suicidal. You’ve heard of the Well of&nbsp; Oblivion, but who’d ever want to go far enough into the Tempest to see it? You know&nbsp; many safe Byways in the Tempest, though they are probably a last resort if you don’t&nbsp; know Argos. You also know about some of the other major Dark Kingdoms - in&nbsp; Africa and Asia, for instance.&nbsp; WRAITH LORE x5&nbsp; You’ve learned that only very few people, and the rare deceased supernatural&nbsp; creatures with strong passions, become wraiths; most others apparently go on to&nbsp; Transcendence, Oblivion or whatever. A wraith seems to be nothing more than a&nbsp; memory of emotions. Thus, ghosts are motivated only by their strongest passions.&nbsp; Those who have very dark desires can fall prey to the whisperings of their Shadows,&nbsp; the brutal and insidious parts of their personalities, thus becoming Spectres - wraiths who have succumbed to the lure of self-destruction and the desire to wreak&nbsp; it upon others. Lastly, a rare few wraiths actually inhabit their old bodies, striving up&nbsp; from the grave to take matters in hand in the material world once more. These Risen&nbsp; are startlingly tough and can even develop incredible physical powers, but they&nbsp; rapidly fall prey to the Shadow. Rising also requires a modicum of proficiency in&nbsp; several Arcanoi - Inhabit and Puppetry being chief among them. A rare few&nbsp; vampires, werewolves and magicians can visit the Shadowlands, too, but it is&nbsp; dangerous for them.&nbsp; A wraith‘s most important connection to the Skinlands is its Fetters. Through&nbsp; the Fetters, the wraith maintains a fragile link to the living world and to its reflection&nbsp; You know all the territory of the Underworld. You know about the Skinlands,&nbsp; the Tempest, the Labyrinth, the Far Shores and the Venous Stair; you’ve even heard&nbsp; of the Well of Oblivion and many of the secret hide-outs in various parts of the&nbsp; deadlands. The Dark Kingdoms are known to you, from the deadlands of Jade (Asia)&nbsp; to such obscure places as the Enclave of Wire (Auschwitz) and the Dark Kingdom&nbsp; of Sand (ancient Egypt). Moving about in the Tempest may be dangerous, but at&nbsp; least you can recognize most hazards, including plamics and other non-wraithly -&nbsp; things - that dwell there.

FEY LORE FAERIE LORE X I Faeries are real! They are ephemeral creatures of beauty and temperament. Your&nbsp; particulars are a little fuzzy, but you’re sure that they are out there, gossamer wings and all.&nbsp; Faerie powers are a mystery to you. According to stories, they can do the work&nbsp; of many men in a night, turn invisible, flow through walls, fly, cast powerful illusions&nbsp; and make people fall in love. On the other hand, they are said to be vulnerable to&nbsp; the touch of iron, the shadow of the Cross, the sound of church bells or rooster crows&nbsp; and to the touch of holy men. Their attention (and ire) is often drawn when they&nbsp; are called “faeries,” so you rely on allusions like “Fair Folk” and “Wee Ones.”&nbsp; Supposedly, wearing your coat inside-out and walking backwards renders you&nbsp; invisible to them; they seem to have trouble with inversions of human custom. To&nbsp; understand humans, or perhaps just as a trick, they occasionally take humans away&nbsp; for a time, stealing wives or even replacing children.&nbsp; Faeries have their own society, from mischievous pucks to fair elf maidens, ruled&nbsp; (of course) by OberonandTitania (according to Shakespeare, anyway). Faeries have&nbsp; strange rules and realms, even entire kingdoms like Avalon hidden away from&nbsp; human eyes. Should you step into a faerie door - a door under a hill, or through a&nbsp; ring of mushrooms or even into a tree - you may find yourself trapped there for a&nbsp; long time, even if it seems only a short while. Also, you should never accept a gift&nbsp; from a faerie, or you may be held enthralled; similarly, offering a gift is seen as an&nbsp; insult, an attempt to indebt the faerie in question.&nbsp; FAERIE LORE X 2&nbsp; The faeries of the modem world sure aren’t anything like the old faerie tales. For&nbsp; that matter, faeries in the old days probably weren’t like that, either. Though they&nbsp; come in many shapes, sizes and forms, they seem to be able to cloak their true&nbsp; appearances, looking like normal people. Even when they decide to show their&nbsp; powers and forms, most people forget it later.&nbsp; Changelings seem to have a variety of magic spells to trick, confuse and call&nbsp; upon nature. Many also have knacks like performing great amounts of work or&nbsp; turning into mist; there’s no real way to tell how much a given faerie can do with his&nbsp; magic. They rarely call upon these powers in the real world, though, content to cast&nbsp; subtle and invisible spells instead.&nbsp; Magic spells of the right sort can certainly call or banish changelings or faeries,&nbsp; as can such tricks as hanging an iron horseshoe over your door. Church bells and holy&nbsp; ground apparently keep faeries away, but most of the other little tricks from legend&nbsp; don’t seem to have any effect (probably the results of faeries playing pranks on people).&nbsp; They do get rather disturbed by the old refrain of ‘‘I don’t believe in faeries!”, though.&nbsp; If you can get a changeling to swear an oath, it’s binding, so it is possible to trick them.&nbsp; Since they can get drunk or enraged like anyone else, and often with an even more&nbsp; terrible temper, this tactic may be a decent one to use when a changeling’s off-guard.&nbsp; Experience shows that changelings most often show up at places of natural&nbsp; beauty or art, and they have an irresistible attraction for humans who are beautiful,&nbsp; charismatic and influential, or conversely ignorant, arrogant and pushy. The former&nbsp; they tend to seduce and carry away; the latter, they tease with vicious (and&nbsp; sometimes fatal) pranks.&nbsp; &nbsp; FAERIE LORE X 3 Despite the numbing effect of the Mists, you are somewhat educated about the&nbsp; ways of the fae - or, at least, their changeling descendants. You’ve uncovered&nbsp; information about the various kiths, such as the sidhe and the trolls, though you&nbsp; probably don’t know all of the European fae (and you’ve probably never heard of any&nbsp; of the stranger types). You’ve heard that the faeries are really dream-spirits from&nbsp; another world, given captured human forms. Then again, you’ve also heard of tiny&nbsp; brownies and sprites, which are obviously ridiculous. Still, faerie tales are sure to be&nbsp; full of errors due to the Mists: most humans fail to see faerie magic, or forget about&nbsp; it later, possibly accounting for those stories of lost time.&nbsp; Changelings wield powers based on dream and the shaping of imagination.&nbsp; They require the use of some sort of vibrant dream energy, and many changelings&nbsp; cloak their magic in comical guises or games. Changelings draw some sort of magical&nbsp; sustenance from creativity itself, though they can also apparently steal dreams when&nbsp; feeling particularly vicious. Most changeling powers only affect others able to see&nbsp; dreams, though in dire straits a changeling can bring some of her magic across to the&nbsp; material world.&nbsp; As for weaknesses of the fae, you’ve discovered (possibly the hard way) that&nbsp; most folk tales are totally wrong. Iron seems to have a deleterious effect upon them,&nbsp; as does the power of disbelief itself. Presumably, they can also be injured by magic.&nbsp; A faerie is also vulnerable to dream-creatures, and can be knocked unconscious by&nbsp; such attacks. Puzzlingly, the Mists can sometimes affect a faerie so injured, causing&nbsp; the changeling to forget all about her heritage. Changelings canalso be held to sworn&nbsp; oaths, though only sometimes - the peculiars are unknown to you.&nbsp; Changelings obviously congregate wherever artists and dreamers gather. However, most still lead some semblance of a normal life, as well. They occasionally refer&nbsp; to ranks of nobility, though these titles may simply be formalities for their courtly&nbsp; dances in their own, strange society. A few rare sites seem to serve as changeling&nbsp; dream-fortresses, called Freeholds, but you know nothing more than that (and,&nbsp; indeed, have probably never seen such a conceptually silly place, in any case).&nbsp; FAERIE LORE X 4&nbsp; You’ve seen or heard of most of the European kiths and understand that&nbsp; changelings are basically fragments of dream instilled into human forms. Each kith&nbsp; wields a few rather spectacular powers and an unusual appearance, although both&nbsp; traits usually only work in the dream-realm that overlaps changeling reality.&nbsp; The powers of changelings are called Arts, and they affect things through&nbsp; trickery, misdirection, illusion, natural forces and majestic charisma. Most changelings have a modicum of skill with a few Arts, though they have limits on what they&nbsp; can affect, dictated by various Realms of existence. Furthermore, fueling magical&nbsp; powers requires the use of special tricks called Bunks, seemingly random little&nbsp; gestures or games. Changelings harvest the power of creativity from artistic mortals,&nbsp; either by inspiration or by stealing the essence of dreams. This distilled power,&nbsp; Glamour, takes many random forms, but it ultimately ties a changeling to the dream&nbsp; worlds that exist parallel to mundane existence.&nbsp; Only a few weapons prove truly deadly to changelings. Obviously, their mortal&nbsp; bodies are just as vulnerable to damage as anyone else, but their faerie souls can only&nbsp; be permanently quenched with magic or cold iron. “Cold iron” doesn’t necessarily seem&nbsp; to mean iron that’s physically cold,&nbsp; though; it has more to do with impure,&nbsp; natural iron. Dream-beasts and weapons also hurt changelings, though not as&nbsp; badly. A changeling who dies mortally&nbsp; is apparently completely dead; one who&nbsp; dies in dreams falls into a coma, reviving with no memory of changelings.&nbsp; Changelings tend to gather at&nbsp; places patronized by artists, of course,&nbsp; but they also hold special realms called&nbsp; Freeholds. A Freehold is a faerie fortress, often with its own dream&nbsp; appearance. Mortals tend to avoid such&nbsp; placesdue to the effects of the Mists. In&nbsp; Freeholds, changelings can replenish&nbsp; their power, and sometimes even call&nbsp; upon new dream allies or treasures.&nbsp; FAERIE LORE X 5&nbsp; You know most secrets of faerie&nbsp; and changeling society. Changelings,&nbsp; for instance, are faerie souls in human&nbsp; bodies, there in an attempt to survive in the mortal realm. True faeries are gone from&nbsp; the world-only their mortal remnants live on now, some even unaware of their true&nbsp; natures. These changelings protect themselves from Banality by hiding in mortal&nbsp; forms, reincarnating into new bodies when their mortal host shells die (except the&nbsp; sidhe - nobody knows what happens to them). The changelings that survive come&nbsp; from various groups, or kiths. Each kith traces its heritage back to a fragment of myth&nbsp; and dream. You can name the various kiths, as well as their common capabilities, and&nbsp; you know about the existence of some unusual types of faeries in Asia and Native&nbsp; American cultures, though particulars are sketchy at best. A rare few humans inherit&nbsp; a little faerie blood but not a true soul; these kinain are valuable relatives, some even&nbsp; possessing a few changeling tricks.&nbsp; You’ve learned about the names and effects of various changeling Arts and the&nbsp; corresponding Realms. Furthermore, you’re familiar with the different common&nbsp; modes ofgaining Glamour- Reverie, Rapture and Ravaging-and you know about&nbsp; Bunks and how to perform them. You’re aware of the distinction between the&nbsp; chimerical world and the “real” one, and of chimerical damage, faerie miens and how&nbsp; to influence both. The more esoteric aspects of faerie existence are still sketchy in&nbsp; your experience, though you’ve heard tales about mighty quests, magical treasures&nbsp; capable of instilling wonder and magic, realms of fantastic legend where youth and&nbsp; hope are restored and paths to immortality and true reconciliation for the fragmentary human and fae souls.&nbsp; On the flip side, you can also be a danger to the fae: Cold iron, unrefined and&nbsp; in its natural unalloyed iron state, is anathema, capable of inflicting mortal wounds&nbsp; and even destroying a faerie soul completely. As creatures of dream and wonder,&nbsp; faeries are also vulnerable to disbelief and - more terribly - boredom. A changeling can also be injured by dream-weapons or creatures (that is, chimera); this sort&nbsp; of injury is more likely to render a changeling comatose and without memories due&nbsp; to the Mists, though. Furthermore, you know that changelings can be held to their&nbsp; oaths, if they swear under the old forms, though such oaths can paradoxically grant&nbsp; them the strength of will to fulfill their sworn promises.&nbsp; Even if you’ve never been to a Freehold, you know about the existence of these&nbsp; wellsprings of Glamour, their tendency to shift time and space and the balefire&nbsp; hearths that represent their power. The rulers of Freeholds are usually changeling&nbsp; nobles, which generally means one of the sidhe; however, some commoners hold&nbsp; sites, and the titles of nobles (duke, count and so on) vary widely enough to indicate&nbsp; arange ofpossible possessions and treasures. You also know about the Dreaming, and&nbsp; have heard of the Deep Dreaming. The tales of Arcadia are no stranger to your ears,&nbsp; though you know that it is sadly closed and lost. You’ve heard the salutory rumors&nbsp; of various gates and doorways to realms of faerie or even to Arcadia itself, though&nbsp; these are nothing but faraway legends, of course.