Questions about Wraith.

[Crowley]

ok, silly question (as i read the manual)
So..all the rivers and seas are in the middle of a storm, this one being the tempest, and if a character falls into its waters he is dragged onto the laberyth?

[Crowley]

ok i have more questions

A ) Any wraith can become a Reaper?
B ) Can other supernaturals go to the Underworld? and how difficult it is for them to get to this world?

[atamajakki]

Any Wraith can become a Reaper, yes.

I'm not sure on the specifics, but I know Giovanni (a Vampire clan) specialize in mucking about with Wraiths and the Underworld. Mages can probably do it, but I don't know Mage well enough to be sure. No clue on the other supernaturals.

[Froggy711]

ok, silly question (as i read the manual)
So..all the rivers and seas are in the middle of a storm, this one being the tempest, and if a character falls into its waters he is dragged onto the laberyth?

The rivers and seas of the shadowlands are normal.

"Beneath" the shadowlands is another realm called the Tempest, which is a perpetual storm. The tempest can be reached with the Argos arcanos, or by going into a Nihil. Being lost in the tempest is Bad News. A wraith lost in the tempest may have to contend with countless spectres, hazardous environments, and may even find their minds assaulted with memories, images, premonitions and illusions. A wraith who fails to escape may be pulled by spectres down into the Labyrinth.

Within the tempest there are areas of stability. First are the byways, which are safe paths through the tempest. Byways usually take the shape of some kind of path: It could be a paved road, a river, wooden bridges in a swamp or a set of train tracks. But most byways conform to some kind of aquatic paradigm, because that's just how the wraiths tend to view the tempest.

Also within the tempest is Stygia and the other Dark Kingdoms, and the Far Shores.

A ) Any wraith can become a Reaper?
B ) Can other supernaturals go to the Underworld? and how difficult it is for them to get to this world?

It does not appear to take much to be a reaper. Removing the caul from an Enfant does not appear to be a difficult proposition at all. The problems are mostly a question of claiming rights. If you are a member of the Iron Legion, you probably shouldn't be reaping someone who was a murder victim. There are conflicts of course between the legions, but deathmarks can be read with Fatalism, and if two legions get in a tug of war over a wraith it is usually settled by giving him to the Legion of Paupers (If the Legion of Fate hasn't shown up, as they get priority rights for people who are marked by fate.)

I can't speak for all supernaturals, but I know Mages can travel to the shadowlands with Spirit and Entropy, Euthanatos being the most frequent visitors. Vampires who practice the Ash Path of Necromancy can travel to the shadowlands as well. Werewolves, I got no idea. I think the Silent Striders can go to the shadowlands, but whether this is with a special Gift or whether Werewolves can do this naturally I don't know.

[AkatsukiLeader13]

Most supernaturals have the means of entering the Underworld, vampires with the right Path in Necromancy, Garou and some of the other Changing Breeds, Mages, Kuei-Jin, Projectors of Orpheus*. I don't know if Changelings and Mummies can as I've never really gotten into those books and I can't remember about the Fallen right now, though I think they probably are able to.

*Though it should be noted that in Orpheus the Shroud, as a result of the 6GM, has become the Stormwall a much thicker and harder barrier that they don't actually managed to cross until the final book.

[Crowley]

some of the fallen (The Slayers) Can actually, but for what i gathered, they dont go there since every single wraith hates them

[Crowley]

ok so, the underworld is a copy of our world but more rottern.
Continuing with the silly questions
A ) Stygia is a mix of cultures from the world or its more an european or ancient roman city? or is it a modern one with copies of "Dead" buildings from our world?
B ) how advanced is the tecnology? i mean, is there television on the underworld?

[AkatsukiLeader13]

Stygia, the Dark Kingdom of Iron, is largely European and North American. There are other Dark Kingdoms connected to other regions of the world.

The Dark Kingdom of Jade: the Far East
The Dark Kingdom of Ivory: Africa
The Dark Kingdom of Clay: Australia
The Dark Kingdom of Sand: Ancient Egypt
The Dark Kingdom of Obsidian: the Americas before the Europeans came, mostly gone now
Swar: the Underworld of India
The Mirrorlands: the Caribbean
The Sea That Knows No Sun: Polynesian
The Dark Kingdom of Wire: the network of Necropoli belonging to the ghosts of the Holocaust

As for technology that's tricky. Barring relics, items that crossed over with the wraiths upon death, the majority of the items are made of souls, crafted through soulforging and/or moliate. Now today's technology is fairly complex, not the kind of things that could created by your average wraith. And that's the problem. If someone with knowledge of today's technology dies they'd first have to learn soulforging and then experiment with it before they'll be able replicate one in the Underworld. That will take decades to do, hence technology advances slowly because the masters of soulforging died decades, if not centuries ago so they're slow to adapt to new ideas and technology.

[atamajakki]

ok so, the underworld is a copy of our world but more rottern.
Continuing with the silly questions
A ) Stygia is a mix of cultures from the world or its more an european or ancient roman city? or is it a modern one with copies of "Dead" buildings from our world?
B ) how advanced is the tecnology? i mean, is there television on the underworld?

A). Stygia has no parallel in the Skinlands, and is an ancient city, slowly built from 1400 BCE onward. You get Roman in the oldest portions, you get modern European styles, and everything in between... it's entirely constructed by the wraiths of the Hierarchy, who come from every European society to have existed since the time of Rome. I imagine imitations of the Republic coexisting alongside Victorian tenements and modern structures. It's a hodge-podge, built up over time to accommodate the endless ranks of the dead.

B). Technology is funny. Unless it comes across the shroud as a relic, any device will need to be forged from soulstuff, and the combined difficulty of getting raw material, the technical know-how to build something, and the grasp of the proper Arcanoi make most complex things difficult. That said, you can at least be sure that WW1-era technology is understood; there are rifles aplenty, and both motorcycles and zeppelins constructed from soulstuff and powered by Pathos. It stands to reason that more modern things of similar make could be done.

[Crowley]

so, when we talk about technology, the wraith society is (technologically speaking) around the 1930's ? no cellphones, no tv? radio maybe ?

[Telgar]

It's kinda like vampires. Wraiths don't tend to move with the times easily, and the scarcity of resources in their environment makes it even harder. Not a lot of Relic cellphones or Relic TVs.

[atamajakki]

A question of my own; do Wraiths have any special gift for languages?

[AkatsukiLeader13]

Gift for language? No more than any normal person. Though of course the truly ancient ones would know 'dead' languages because they probably spoke it in life. Similarly they have all the time in the world to learn new languages but then the same could be said for vampires, mages and other especially long lived supernaturals.

[atamajakki]

Gift for language? No more than any normal person. Though of course the truly ancient ones would know 'dead' languages because they probably spoke it in life. Similarly they have all the time in the world to learn new languages but then the same could be said for vampires, mages and other especially long lived supernaturals.

Ah, thank you. I thought so, but imagined up some supernatural ability to speak other languages. My mistake!

[AkatsukiLeader13]

Actually there is one Arcanoi that can do it, a Level One Phantasm ability (found in the Sandman Guild Book), Lingua but only in someone's dreams. Not all that practical in a normal conversation.