[Geist: The Sin-Eaters] Primer: Sin-Eaters

Out of Character (OOC):

Chronicle: Mage 2: The Dethroned Queen
Venue: Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition
Chronicle Storyteller: Jerad Sayler

Assistant Storytellers: Hannah Nyland & Alex Van Belkum

Primer: The Bound

For hunters and supernatural creatures not associated with the Underworld of ghosts, Sin-Eaters are hard to classify.  They aren't possessed, they share a soul with a powerful death entity.  They also aren't dead, they are living people who are still infused with ectoplasm and necromantic energy that makes them the best Necromancers and makes them almost impossible to kill... permanently.  They also don't have enormous social organization or large populations anywhere on earth.  Those who encounter them are left with many unanswered questions.  They call these people Mistwalkers, Ghostwalkers or Greymen.  They also call them Fogmen, for the clouds of ectoplasm that pour from open wounds when you try to harm them and fail.  Even in occult circles the Geist and the Sin-Eater have an air of mystery about the very nature of their being.

Compared to other supernatural communities, the Bound (as they call themselves), aren't really unified in a certain direction or purpose.  Mages of the Pentacle seek mysteries and to overthrow the Lie.  Werewolves patrol the spirit world and maintain balance across both.  Changelings want to remain free from their Fae oppressors.  The Bound may focus on any number of goals from being an unapologetic hedonist to murdering people who they feel deserve to die.  But they do all deal with one thing: Death, the dying, ghosts and the Underworld.

The following is information Eos, an honorary member of the Triforce Cabal in our current chronicle would openly share with her mage friends.  She knows that these people who have both saved and damned her can be trusted completely and the Harvest, the Krewe at UCSD she is a part of, have little issue with sharing the same secrets.  If asked, she would provide all characters with the following primer on Geist.

You knew when it happened that it was the end. Everything you’d hoped to be, all those things you wanted to do before you died, all of it was gone. All the promise of your life winked out in an instant, and why? It just didn’t make sense. In that split second before you became an obituary, you looked back on your life and–no matter how long you lived, no matter how much you had done–it wasn’t enough. So when that other part of you first came, you listened. When it whispered in a voice like water over tiny, polished rocks, you nodded desperately and agreed to anything, whatever it wanted, just for one more chance. And the moment passed, and you were alive.

But you were not alone.

After your near-death experience, everything changed. Your friends say that it was confronting your own mortality that made you change. They do their best to accommodate the new you, but sometimes, when they look in your eyes, they see a stranger staring back. Ever since the event, you’ve been a home to the other, bound to it like a spiritual conjoined twin. And sometimes, you need to step away from your old life and do what the other needs, even if it’s only to shut it up for a little bit, to silence the voice so you can sleep.

You are now part of the World of Darkness, a world very much like our own, save that the shadows hide very real monsters from the ignorant masses, preying upon them, playing with them or haunting them.

Sin-Eaters are people who have cheated death and found a new lease on life by allowing themselves to be bound with shades known as geists. This is not a deal to be struck lightly. Geists clamor and claw on the other side, so determined to reach their goals that they seek out people on the brink of death in that golden moment of transition from one state of existence to the next. But simply dying (or almost dying) is not enough. A geist needs someone already touched by death: a sensitive or medium sometimes. A deal is struck, and the sensitive returns to the land of the living with a passenger in tow. 

The Bound cannot simply go on with their lives, for the scales have fallen from their eyes. Their brush with mortality forever alters lives; once you have crossed the threshold, you cannot return unscathed. Those who return find the world a darker place, full of shadows and ghosts. Always ghosts. And the geist is not simply a spectator, hoping their hosts will fill their part of the bargain. They whisper and cajole and sometimes force the issue, acting of their own volition.

Each Sin-Eater deals with their situation differently. Some take on the role of judge, reaping those souls they deem worthy of punishment and saving those they deem to be innocents, according to their own personal code. Others listen to the pleading of ghosts only to use their secrets for their own benefit. Still others, having touched death, are determined to enjoy every moment of life.

And geists are not simply ghosts. They are ghosts distilled into an almost pure expression of violence, need or sickness. Each geist has come unmoored from their living identity and embraced the essence of their death. The ghost who used to be Tommaso “Tommy” Sorvino might remember his life and still nurse a grudge against the Manetti family for double crossing him, but that person has been so shaped by the violence of his life and death that he has been transformed in a crucible of bullets and blood into the Trigger Man.

Life as a Sin-Eater

The following is a comprehensive list of supernatural and social traits that all Bound share:

Archetypes

Sin-Eaters spend a lot of time thinking about death. Even those who celebrate life do so as a reaction to death. A Sin-Eater’s archetype defines her relationship with and philosophy regarding death. The Sin-Eater’s archetype may not utterly express her beliefs, but it should express the gist of her outlook. It is also worth noting that two Sin-Eaters with the same archetype may have very different approaches. A Sin-Eater’s archetype also helps to determine how she regains plasm.

Advocate: 
Dedicated to finishing the unfinished business of the dead, Advocates may be driven to serve the dead or just relate to shades better than those who are still alive. Of all the members of a krewe, they have the best relations with the dead simply because they focus on the needs and wants of each ghost they meet.

Bonepicker: 
Scavengers using their otherworldly powers to make this world more comfortable. The whole point of dying and coming back is to get another chance at life, another set of years to live. Unlike people who believe in reincarnation, Bonepickers carry on where they left off, out to make their new lives as comfortable as possible.

Celebrant: 
Knowing with absolute certainty that you’re going to die is a powerful motivation to go out and live. Celebrants don’t just know that, they embrace it. Whether a Sin-Eater enjoys life through sex, drugs or base-jumping, one thing’s for certain: his life’s never boring. Time alive is a finite resource, so it’s up to a Celebrant to spend it as best he can. And if he can make other people’s lives more interesting, that’s just great.

Gatekeeper: 
Sin-Eaters have a deeper insight into life and death, and the distinct difference between the two. Having been in both states, some take on the role of Gatekeeper, policing the boundary between the living and the dead. Young ghosts may try to live vicariously through the living, while others torment the living world just because they’re no longer part of it. Older ghosts have stranger motivations, having lost so much of their sense of self that few can understand why they try to kill anyone who spends a night in the Barker House. When the dead interfere with the living, a Gatekeeper has to make a stand.

Mourner: 
Life after death is just a different kind of life, a new way of encountering the world, where the fetters of emotion and importance become explicit rather than implicit. Consciousness remains, albeit altered by the lack of a physical form. But all death is really is a change, not an ending. Sin-Eaters who recognize this first and foremost are known as Mourners. To one of these brave souls, her time among the living was forfeit when she died that first time.

Necromancer: 
A ghost is more than the echo of a person who was once alive. Not only do the dead carry on existing, some of them learn. Some Necromancers discovered just a taste of that occult lore when they died, and returning with a geist just makes them hungry for more. Others realize that they barely know anything about what happens after death, and hunger for details and secrets that can help them prepare their loved ones for their eventual death. A Necromancer’s family may think him morbid, but he’s not really thinking about death, he’s concentrating on what comes after. 

Pilgrim: For some people, dying is a fundamental chance, a moment when everything they’ve done 

in life is taken apart and shown to be pointless. A Sin-Eater is unique because he knows all this when his geist gives him another chance, a means to get things right one last chance. If a soul dies without fetters to the living world and no need to complete one last task, then it likely will not come back as a ghost, instead moving on to their final reward. Those who follow the Pilgrim’s path try to live a life that will lead them to a reward, and they encourage those they help to do the same.

Reaper:  (Emily "Eos" Zimmerman is one of these.)
Whatever standards of moral relativism a person holds to, it’s only the most saintly—or the most misguided—who think that everyone has a right to life. Some people poison the world just by existing. Beyond redemption in this life, it’s up to someone who’s seen the other side to offer them another chance in the afterlife. Reapers do what they can to make the world a better place, bringing death to those who don’t deserve to live any more.

Thresholds

Every Sin-Eater has encountered death and returned indelibly marked by the experience. A character’s Threshold and his geist are inseparable. When an appropriate candidate brushes mortality, it attracts a geist attuned to that sort of death. The manner in which a Sin-Eater died (or nearly died) forever colors the use of his powers, by creating an affinity for a certain Key.

The Torn, Death by Violence: 

Chosen of the Red Horseman, the Bleeding Ones are victims of murder or suicide, those who have had great trauma inflicted on them, or inflicted great trauma on others. Some Torn choose to perpetuate the violence that nearly ended their lives, while others transcend that violence, choosing to fight only for a better way. Their abilities tend to be stained by Stigmatic and Passionate effects.

The Silent, Death by Deprivation: 

Chosen of the Black Horseman, the Starved Ones are those who die for lack of something vital: starvation, suffocation, dehydration or heartbreak. The Silent endure, but they also hunger. Their existence is now marked by a need to see, to experience the dead. Their abilities are most likely to have a subtle Stillness and a Cold Wind.

The Prey, Death by Nature: 
Chosen of the Pale Horseman, the Eaten and the Drowned are the victims of exposure or animals; those taken by the wild. Nature encompasses all things. To the Prey, the term “supernatural” is wrong. All of this–the ghosts, the underworld, second chances–is part of the cycle of nature. Where there is life so too will there be death. The Prey tend to manifest their Primeval nature as well as an affinity for Grave-Dirt.

The Stricken, Death by Sickness: 
Chosen of the White Horseman, the Ravaged Ones are plague victims, those taken by disease. Each looks upon the existence of the unquiet dead as a challenge, a puzzle to solve, an adversary to pit herself against. The geist drives her to see the dead as a challenge, and in return, the Sin-Eater engages in a battle of will and wits for ultimate control of her soul. Their abilities manifest as Phantasms, illusory horrors, as well as a connection with Tears.

The Forgotten, Death by Chance: 
Chosen of the Gray Horseman, the Lightning Struck are victims of freak accidents, those who were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. The Forgotten feel no need to interact with the unquiet dead. One of the Lightning Struck tries to move on, to pretend that he did not look up just in time to see debris from a falling satellite plummeting toward him. But everywhere he goes, the dead follow. They have an affinity for Industrial effects as well as those of the Pyre.

Keys

Emotions and actions resonate, affecting everything they touch. When a Sin-Eater dies, he crosses a threshold that stains him indelibly with a certain resonance. Every manifestation a Sin-Eater channels is flavored by that stain. When the Sin-Eater unlocks (activates) a manifestation, the intent is filtered through the key used to unlock the power. Two Sin-Eaters may call upon the same power and achieve vastly different results, simply because they have different keys at their disposal. There are ten common Keys.

The Elemental Key: 
Powers unlocked with the four elemental keys manifest through the classical elements – earth, air, fire and water – as seen through a lens of death and decay.   The four elemental Keys are the Grave-Dirt Key, the Cold Wind Key, the Pyre-Flame Key, and the Tear-Stained Key.

The Industrial Key: 
This Key grants influence over the trappings of modern society, allowing the Sin-Eater to control machinery or become the ghost in the machine.

The Passion Key: 
Manifestations unlocked with the Passion Key shape the emotional responses of people or instill emotional resonances within places or things.

The Phantasmal Key: 
This Key creates illusions of such realism that they can drive men mad or cause physical injury.

The Primeval Key: 
The Primeval Key unlocks manifestations that grant influence over nature and forests. It also grants authority over the animal kingdom, and allows the Sin-Eater to acquire animalistic traits.

The Stillness Key: 
Powers filtered through this Key aid in stealth, invisibility and in dulling the senses of others.

The Stigmata Key: 
This Key uses blood and sacrifice to assert dominance over the spirit world. The Sin-Eater may influence or harm ghosts and spirits, bind them in place or take on certain of their traits.

Mementos

Certain items are infused by deathly energies. The blood-stained veil of a murdered bride or a forgotten toy, thrown from the wreckage of a five-car pileup. Sin-Eaters treasure these artifacts quite highly, wearing them as badges of honor, shamanic totems of power or deathly “bling.” At their most common, they are simply charms that augment a Sin-Eater’s abilities slightly. Other items, however, hold great power all their own. These items, called Memorabilia by the Bound, are legendary objects even among mortals, like the silken cape buried with Bela Lugosi or a saint’s reliquary.

Every Sin-Eater has at least one memento, known as a keystone. Each keystone is different, and the form it takes bears direct significance to the history of the geist, even if the geist can’t remember exactly why that might be. The waterlogged specter of a geist, dripping with seaweed, might not remember why its keystone is a polished, ivory tusk, but that in no way diminishes the power of the memento. Only the keystone mementos of geists that have been defeated and destroyed can be stolen, traded or lost.

Synergy

A human who has been to the edge of death and returned bound to a twisted and warped geist understandably sees the world in an unusual way. Sin-Eaters must follow a different code of conduct than that of the “normal” humans around them. There are rules governing the compact between the living and the dead.

Synergy tracks the delicate balance that exists in the symbiotic relationship between a Sin-Eater and his geist. The bond between the two parties is important, and it behooves the pair to maintain at least a modicum of cooperation and civility. A Sin-Eater with a high Synergy score finds it easier to act as a conduit for his geist’s strange abilities, allowing him to manifest certain powers with less difficulty. By contrast, a Sin-Eater with a low Synergy score has more trouble convincing his geist to work with him, causing myriad problems among the dead.

One significant event can also have a strongly deleterious impact on Synergy: death. Sin-Eaters who “die” a second (or third, or fourth) time may be pushed back from the brink once more by the geist, but in doing so the geist must expend significant energy and shunt the Sin-Eater’s death onto another person. The result is an automatic loss of Synergy, as well as a permanent reduction in the Sin-Eater’s maximum Synergy score by two points. A Sin-Eater who drops to a Synergy score of zero becomes a soulless shell that can only react with instinctive horror and aggression in response to the ghostly apparitions that it can neither shut out nor control.

Plasm

The deathly power that fuels a Sin-Eater’s powers is called plasm. It can be used to activate manifestations, resist toxins and temporarily staunch wounds that would otherwise be incapacitating.

Resisting Toxins: 
As long as a Sin-Eater has at least 1 plasm in his system, he gains a bonus equal to his Psyche score to resist poisons and other toxins.

Regaining Plasm: 
There are a number of ways to regain spent plasm. Each character has specific ways of harvesting plasm, by acting in accordance to their Virtue and Vice in a way that also expresses their archetype. A Sin-Eater may also harvest plasm from a Haunt or by devouring the corpus of a ghost (see below).

Eaters of the Dead: 
Sin-Eaters can devour the corpus of a ghost to gain plasm. Sin-Eaters that are known to routinely practice the eating of dead earn the disdainful moniker of “ghoul.” The geists, however, don’t really seem to care.

A Sin-Eater that looks at a ghost as his next meal must first defeat the ghost in combat before dinner can begin. This requires either that the ghost has manifested itself to fight or that the Sin-Eater has taken the fight to the ghost by possessing his geist. Once the ghost has been defeated, the Sin-Eater has a short window of opportunity to feast from the corpus before it fades away into nothing. A Sin-Eater may only eat the corpus of a manifested ghost or while possessing his geist.  Devouring the corpus of a ghost has the potential to shift the balance of Synergy away from the Sin-Eater. A roll for degeneration should be made by characters with Synergy 7 or higher (roll four dice).

Domains of the Bound

Though Sin-Eaters are still undoubtedly creatures of the mundane world, they may find themselves drawn into the lands of the dead for any number of reasons. Like Inanna’s trip to the underworld, or Orpheus’ quest to save Eurydice, there is always a price to be paid for passing into the Low Places. The Underworld is a terrible and beautiful place, full of pain and wonder in equal measure. While some Sin-Eaters brave the stygian depths to make deals with ancient, enigmatic shades and darker things, others see it as their calling to act as guardians of the gates that lead into the Underworld, blocking passage from both sides.

On the other hand, the realm of Twilight is a state of being more than a physical place, coexisting slightly out of phase with the material. Twilight creatures and objects are the shadows of physical reality, but the physical still remains (or did at one time). One doesn’t travel to Twilight; it’s always there, but you just might not be able to see it. Twilight is simply another layer of reality, just beneath what we know.

Abilities of the Bound

Ghost Sight

Sin-Eaters see ghosts just as readily as they see the living and can easily discern between the two. The ghost of a man that leapt in front of a subway train to commit suicide is easy to pick out even among the throngs that rush the station after work. Every Sin-Eater shares this ability, whether they like it or not. The trick is not seeing the ghosts, and every Sin-Eater develops a filter that allows them to block out sights they’d rather not see. The closer a Sin-Eater becomes to death (metaphysically speaking), the harder he finds the trick to pull off.

One particularly useful aspect of ghost sight is that a Sin-Eater can tell, at a glance, if someone is possessed by a ghost. The bodies of the possessed have a strange sort of double exposure look to them, with the spectral image of the ghost overlying the human body it has stolen.  They also can study a corpse and determine a cause of death.

Reverse Possession

Although a Sin-Eater can see ghosts as a matter of course, he isn’t actually looking into Twilight to do so. What he is really seeing is the reflection of the ghosts in his geist’s eyes. Looking into Twilight requires a bit more effort. In a sort of reverse possession, the Sin-Eater seizes the full senses of his geist, pouring his consciousness into the alien creature bound to him. This allows a Sin-Eater to see into and physically interact with Twilight at the cost of losing some sense of his physical surroundings. Of course, by opening himself up to Twilight, a Sin-Eater places himself in a position where ghosts can interact with him as well.

In this state, a Sin-Eater can combat a ghost that hasn’t manifested and can manipulate Twilight objects. Only the essence of a Sin-Eater makes the translation. Any physical weapons held by the Sin-Eater at the time are left behind, along with his flesh and bone. Occasionally a Sin-Eater that has taken the fight to a ghost will find a useful Twilight object he can use as a weapon, but he can’t rely on that possibility. The only weapon a Sin-Eater can rely on when he becomes one with his geist, other than his wits and his fists, is his keystone memento. As both Twilight and material objects, keystones alone make the transition from physical to ephemeral. 

Combating an unmanifested ghost is apt to draw some strange looks from bystanders. Instead of a life-or-death contest, normal humans only see some weirdo slashing and flailing around him at imaginary foes. Fortunately, attacks made in Twilight remain in Twilight, unless someone walks directly into the Sin-Eater and takes an elbow or fist to the face. A Sin-Eater that owns a keystone memento in the form of a gun needn’t worry about hitting innocent bystanders. Bullets, gun and even the noise of gunfire all remain in Twilight. The same is true for other types of keystone weapons.

Sixth Sense

Sin-Eaters possess something of a sixth sense when it comes to dealing with ghosts. Even when a Sin-Eater is actively filtering his ghost sight to enjoy a movie uninterrupted, he can sense the presence of a ghost using Numina to affect to living world. The exact nature of the sensation varies from one Sin-Eater to another and also by Threshold. A Sin-Eater with the Silent Threshold might register the use of Numina as acute hunger pangs. A Sin-Eater with the Torn Threshold might find that his scars tingle and throb. This paranormal sensation goes both ways. A Sin-Eater can never hide his presence, nor use of Manifestations from a ghost. Whether it’s because ghosts notice the shadowy mien of his geist, merged with the Sin-Eater’s flesh or just an instinctual reaction isn’t clear and if the ghosts know the truth of the matter, they aren’t talking.

Unnatural Mediums

Ghosts are drawn to Sin-Eaters like a moth to a flame. Sin-Eaters represent all kinds of possibilities for ghosts as one of the few living they can easily interact with. The inherent ephemeral qualities of a Sin-Eater magnify the energies of death in an area, which allow ghosts to more easily manifest in the immediate vicinity of a Sin-Eater. The presence of mementos increases this effect, since each memento is, in essence, a repository of death. To ghosts, Sin-Eaters (especially those with plenty of mementos) are walking, talking graveyards, and there’s no better place for a ghost to manifest than among the quiet dead. Because of this unfortunate side effect, Sin-Eaters must be cautious about where and when they confront violent shades. It’s no use visiting a family home to rid them of a poltergeist just to have the ghost manifest and wreck serious havoc on the people that live there.

Plasmic Infusion

Ghosts are inherently unstable entities. Even the most lucid of specters is nothing better than a hollow replica of the person it was in life. In theory, a ghost could provide Sin-Eaters with a wealth of knowledge about what it’s seen, but most ghosts just aren’t capable of that kind of interaction. The solution to this problem lies within the veins of a Sin-Eater. The plasm generated by a geist can reinforce the personality of a ghost, allowing it near-human cognizance for short periods of time. The reaction to this abrupt return to consciousness varies. Some ghosts are ecstatic at the ability to think properly again, even if that awareness is fleeting. Other ghosts are less sanguine. The brief interlude of sanity makes them bitter, knowing full well it can’t last.

The Sin-Eater must anoint the ghost with some of his own blood to begin the plasmic infusion. This either requires that the ghost be manifested or the Sin-Eater to possess his geist. The spilling of blood causes one point of lethal damage to the character performing the infusion. As the Sin-Eater touches his blood to the ghost, he also spends a point of plasm. Plasm and blood are absorbed by the ghost, infusing its corpus with the energy of both life and death. 

Ghosts

Sin-Eaters walk a line between life and death and, as such, they interact with both the living and the unquiet dead that exist in a state of Twilight. These ghosts may manifest their own powers called Numina, powered by Essence. These abilities allow them to possess mortals, throw objects and other stranger, more dangerous things. Often, the Bound are called upon to mediate between the breathing and the unquiet dead. A ghost is defined by his passion for a thing, be it his still-living wife or son, the courthouse in which he spent his career trying cases or the gavel he used when he finally became a judge. They never just give something up for free. They will always extract a price from a Sin-Eater who finds himself in need of their knowledge or powers.