Arts of Passion

This article originally appeared on Ex Libris Nocturnis at the URL:

http://www.nocturnis.net/articles/wraith/default/2000/July/157/page1.html
What are those philosophies behind the Arcanoi spoken of the Wraith Second Edition? They are
mentioned there, then seem to drop off into the void except for a few hints and ideas presented in the
Guildbooks.
The idea here is to take a look at why these philosophies are useful to playing or running Wraith and to
give a few suggestions as to possible core philosophies.
Looking Through the Caul
The argument for using the philosophies of the Arcanoi is a very simple one. It can easily make for an
interesting bit of Role-playing. There is a very solid and real core that lets wraiths use their abilities the
way they do use them. There is a sort of theme to each and every one of the arts for a particular
Arcanoi.
The main problem here is trying to find a theme that makes sense. Some of the arts just don't seem to
have any real relation to what seems to be the most obvious theme of the Arcanoi. Confession (from
‘The Hierarchy") is a good example of this: it has nothing to do with the Shadow. That seems to be the
core of all of Castigation, yet there could be merit to setting with those arts dedicated to fighting the
Shadow. It seems like the idea of the Arcanoi is to weaken the Shadow by forcing it to admit to its
wrongs, one way or the other.
Of course, it could be said that having all practitioners of an Arcanoi think in a certain fashion (or even
if you just restrict it to the official Guild) will cause characters to just be carbon copies with slightly
different features.
The thing is no one is going to see the philosophy in the exact same light as the next person. Each is
going to put their own unique spin on an old idea. This is how new arts are born. Without it, there
would be no growth within the Arcanoi. There is no way that an old soulforger is going to see Inhabit
in the same way as a newly dead hacker. They share an idea, but then it gets filtered through their own
special view of the world.
The Ideals Under the Skin
Here are some ideas for the philosophies of the 16 Arcanoi of Stygia:
Argos
When you were living, how did you find your way while traveling? You remembered where to go. But
what happens if you remembered wrong? You have to forget about that all now. There is no up, down,
left, or right. I get places by wanting to be there and by wanting it to be where I want to go. Don't
understand yet? Nothing real exists in the Tempest that we don't wish for. Oblivion destroys almost
everything..., except emotion. In a way, we call upon Oblivion. We use it to break down the barriers
that separate us. Time and space have no place as you get closer to Oblivion. We just use that for
ourselves. And what is true of the Tempest is also true of the Shadowlands and Skinlands, just each to
a lesser degree. You have felt the Tempest roaring beneath the earth in the Shadowlands, closer than
some want. Now, don't start thinking that this makes Oblivion less dangerous, and it sure doesn't make
Spectres your friends. It just means that maybe Oblivion isn't what most people think, but that's for the
philosophers.
Castigate
The Shadow is a separate part of ourselves. But understanding it, we can manipulate it through
ourselves. We force it to admit to the wrongs that it has somehow been behind. In such a fashion, can
we weaken it. By controlling ourselves, we can take power from the Shadow, but often there is a price.
Perhaps it is in the sacrifice of the Corpus, or maybe one must take the power of a Shadow upon
themselves since they are more capable of controlling a greater amount. Above all, the Shadow must
be denied. We fight a most devious and dangerous enemy in the Shadow and we must never rest our
defenses. To fight such an enemy, you must understand it with your whole being. The one must be
given up for the good of the many. It is this that guides us to our eventual defeat of the Shadow.
Embody
Most of the guilds that cross the Shroud regularly are brutes. They use force where it is not needed.
The worst are the Haunters. They use force and look where it gets them. They at best can maybe get
the equivalent of a limb through, and even then look at what damage is done to them because of it! Our
way is the slender knife to part the veil of the Shroud. The best way to describe what we do is
remembering. We remember life. We remember so much that everything else is left behind as we
regain life. The memories of the living provide us with existence, but the memories of the dead can
provide us with Life! The focus for this is usually some stimulus across the Shroud. Just as when you
were alive, the smell of bread baking could bring back memories with frightening intensity, so we use
your senses to help. When we are able to so completely forget that we are dead, the world too shall
forget. Then we can cross back over to where we belong.
Fatalism
Humans, wraiths--the vast majority of beings are merely flies caught in the Web of Fate. Any control
they exert over their own destinies is blind, unknowing, unplanned. We can sense the web around us.
As we learn more, we can tell by the vibrations of the web what is most likely to happen. As we learn
more still, we gain the ability to reweave parts of the web--to determine or change destiny. Still even
when we have learned to be weavers, all to often we see and feel those parts of the web which we can
see no way to change. While we must try and we succeed more often than not, these spots in the web
are too common for our liking.
Flux
Everything made by human hands has a spirit. Something of the spirit of its maker is drawn into the
object. We have seen the truth that the human spirit resides in all things of its own creation. By
learning to speak to the spirit within these things, much can be accomplished. The spirit can be
strengthened and fortified by the fresh addition of the power of the spirit. But what can be made
stronger can also be weakened. You have heard of how some died from losing the will to live. The
same is true of things. Without the spirit, they fall apart and return to their basest form. Also, you can
try waking it up. Depending on how much it wakes up, it could even try to become what it once was, a
mobile thinking being. Usually can't be sustained for too long though. Also, I've heard some things
about ways of waking it up for longer. Now don't quote me on this, but I once heard about this
swordsmith, Muramasa or something like that. Anyway, supposedly all of his swords are considered
cursed because he was insane. The way I've heard it told is that someone woke up a few of his swords.
Apparently they are big into the idea of a craftsman investing part of himself in his work. Scary stuff
there. Don't do that, or I'll send you to the forges myself.
Inhabit
Ever forge a sword, boy? Well, when you do, the metal takes on a special sort of look depending on
how it was made. The metal forms into a number of patterns that then can be seen on the surface. Until
I got down here, I never really knew how many patterns there were in the world. The thing is that now
there are more than ever before. And now you'll be able to see most of them with the things you are
learning. But just looking isn't any good. You need to be able to pull and push the pattern around until
it is doing the things you want. You can't do that from out here, but there is something of hope. You
are just a pattern too. So am I and everyone else. Just as you can change a wraith's pattern into a Oboli,
you can alter your own pattern. You just change it so that it can fit into the pattern of whatever you
want to work with. One of the newer boys called it interfacial, but you just need to learn how to do
this. In other words, you become a part of the machine and indistinguishable except to others like me.
From there, it isn't even a problem to do what you want, as long as you know what you are doing.
Intimation
Passions are strange and fleeting things. Strong enough to resist the pull of Death itself, and yet, to the
right forces, as ephemeral as a puff of smoke in the wind. We are that wind. We have seen the truth of
the matter. All the finest torture techniques of the Skinlands were pale imitations that sought what
could be found here in our land of the dead. We all share one passion, that of controlling others, and it
is by that passion that we crush others. The strength of our passions magnified by our will to enforce it
wipes out all others like a tsunami does to houses on the beach. What? Then how do we make others
desire to do as we wish? Simple enough question to answer. All beings have a need for passion. They
want it like a drug. They crave it. They write stories speaking of its wonders. With such fertile ground,
we need do no less than plant the seed in their weak minds.
Keening
Remember your first kiss? I do. But, even more than that, I remember the song that was playing on the
radio. Long after the memory faded for me in life, I still felt something... special whenever I listened to
it. Music has existed for longer than man. All things have a special sort of respect for the power it has
had over the heart. Even today you can see its mystical power flowing in a stadium or concert hall.
Music can make or break a movie. People will buy CDs just for one song. A number of us agree that
we're just tapping into a primal melody that is everywhere throughout existence. Some of us just hear it
better. I have to agree with them. If you listen, you can hear it even in the screams of specters and the
howl of the Tempest. And if I'm right, you can hear it too, because you've got a bit of it in you too.
Lifeweb
Can you feel the way your fetters constantly tug at you? You just have to step back a bit. Let go of
your passions for a bit and just objectively feel them. You have to look at it logically if you want to
have power over your fetters rather than them having power over you. Then, it is a simple jump to
control the fetters of others. Now look out at the wraiths there. Can you see and feel the way their
fetters pull at them. You can see them through the links your own fetters may have with theirs. Do you
see that blocky man over there? Hone your cold logic till it has knife-like sharpness. Then reach out
and touch one of his strands. Follow it. Can you find it? Good. Now we will see if your knife of logic
can cut through his base longing and attachment to the Skinlands.
Moliate
We are no longer shackled to the Fetter of the body. We are no longer subject to its restrictions. As we
have now been freed of the corporeal chains, so must we drop the shackles from our minds. Our new
bodies can be anything we desire, but unless we free our minds we might as well still be flesh and
bone. As one grows in understanding, we learn that our freedom can be forced upon the Plasm of
others. If they are willing, it is easy, but for the unwilling we are more limited. Their limitations force
us to be more vulgar in the changes we accomplish usually, though eventually even this can be
surpassed.
Mnemosynis
We are creatures of shadow and air, but there is something that is far more important in the forces of
our creation. We are living (in a sense) memories. There are those among the Skinlanders who think of
themselves as memory, but they are wrong. They are the keepers of memory, but they are not memory.
We are it because we have nothing else. And as memory, we can taste of memory. We can manipulate
or even shape them from nothing. Memories have the power to affect other memories. And as we may
be sent to Oblivion, so to may we send memories to Oblivion, but the thing to remember is that you
should not strengthen the enemy. If you must make others forget, make sure that the memory survives
on somewhere. Then, you can rest assured that you have not brought us closer to annihilation.
Outrage
Sure, it may seem easy to get angry and toss someone across a room, but there is far more to it than
that. First, emotion is the strongest force in the universe. Nothing can stand before its full strength.
Second, The Underworld has no need to follow the laws that served above. The ones that exist can
change easily as you move. Oblivion breaks down the rules, but with the Wyld one can sense the
changes. We use it to guide our emotions through those places where its force can only intensify to a
critical point where for a moment the Shroud is shattered and we can reach through. Eventually, you
won't even need to actually reach. By then, your emotions will be all you need.
Pandemonium
CHAOS! The Wyld is our true source. Through it all of this is possible. You don't channel it from
some other place. You are part of it now. The only way to succeed is to give in totally. Let it flow from
the deepest parts of your mind and let the Wyld give it form. Then, watch as this decaying and static
world spits it across the Shroud like a watermelon seed. Great, isn't it? Now watch this!
Phantasm
Smoke without fire. Shadow and light. These are the tools we use. They say that the Quick need to
dream when they sleep. I honestly am not sure, but let's just say I've never found one who didn't dream
in some fashion yet. Of course, they also say that ghosts are nothing more than the fantasies and
dreams of earlier times and the occasional unbalanced person. If the soul is a flight of fancy, then
where better for them, both those of the Quick and the Dead, to exist than in a dream. That's what you
always have to remember. You are a fantasy and belong only in dreams. So go out there and make sure
the ones you are in are interesting!
Puppetry
There has always been room for more than one person to exist in a body. Just look at Multiple
Personalities. They couldn't exist if there wasn't plenty of room in there. The point is that humans are
made for us to ride with them. Personally, I think it is so they can always have a friend nearby. And as
a good friend, I could do no less than make the occasional suggestion to how they should act. And if
they keep doing things to mess up their life, I just have an intervention. You see, we're doing them a
favor. Some think it's just voices in their heads and that they've gone insane. Just make sure you
convince them otherwise. If you do it to enough, then it will only be easier for you to spend more time
with your friends.
Usury
During most of my life, I tended to view both my life and body as inviolate. Now, I've learned better.
Just as in life, everything is give and take. One must lose so that another can win. Even in the
Skinlands you see life transferred over and over. Some animals eat plants. They get eaten by other
animals, who in turn get eaten. We've just refined our way of eating down here. One doesn't have to
kill to get the energy they need to keep going. This isn't to say you can't, but it's bad business to do so.
Remember, every hoard of energy you drain then destroy is one that you won't be able to run to later
on. Practicality above all else. The game is just one of being careful.