Overview
Wraiths are the shade-born, hollow-eyed stalkers of the moor. They do not touch, they do not rest, and they consider the moan a promise the moor keeps for them. They remember every soul, and they remember every name they have ever taken.
Habitat
Wraiths live in The Moaning Moor, a moor of pale shade where the moan is the only honest promise. They need three things: a moor wide enough to carry the moan, a soul-debt wide enough to feed the stalker, and a stranger who is worth the shade. They are settled in moors around the moaning-rings, with moan-lines across the mapped current; a wraith who has not kept a moan in a season is called "the one who forgot the moor."
Appearance
The wraith silhouette is the tall, narrow, shade shape — heavy through the jaw and shoulder, with the head sitting a little too high on the body, like a word that is waiting for a soul. Males stand 1.52 m to 1.83 m, pale and heavy through the jaw and shoulder, with a low, barked voice; they are the stalkers, the first moan, and the ones who stand in the moor and do not move. Females stand 1.52 m, leaner and quicker, with a thinner shade and a longer memory; they are the brides, the ones whose shade is the moan, and the ones whose nod is the moor. A wraith female does not avert her gaze. A wraith female does not need to — the moor answers for her. The base shade is a pale grey, the color of old moor-mist seen through a dark glass, with a faint pattern of deeper, sea-black patches along the cheek and a clean, deliberate bone-white at the lip and the finger-tip that is the wraith line's most persistent claim. The eyes are a hollow, washed-out moor-white, large for the head, with a slow, deliberate blink and a depth that makes them look like they are reading the moan — and in most cases, they are, and the reading is the point. The head is the mark: a long, narrow skull with a jaw of teeth in bone-white, and the shade, which is the wraith line's most persistent claim — the moan, always clean, and always pointed at something. Males carry the line in the jaw and the stalker; females in the shade and the memory. They do not age, but they can be killed, and they do not like being reminded of it. They eat the moor: the soul, the name, the moan, and the shade that keeps the promise honest. Everyday wear: a wrap of woven moor-mist at the waist, a single shade bead at the throat, and no armor, because the shade is the armor and the moor is the home.
Behavior
Disposition: feudal, clannish, territorial, honor-bound. In peace, wraiths are watchful, deliberate, and absolutely certain of the moor — they have the moan, and they let the surface know it. In war they fight as the moan fights: the stalker first, the word second, the patient, precise holding of the soul third. Strangers on the surface are either a meal or a mistake, and the mistake is the one the moor remembers. The social unit is the moor, 10–30 strong, around the moaning-rings — no moor follows a stalker, it follows the moan-keeper whose shade is truest. Two signature quirks: a wraith who is being lied to will not call it out — they will simply keep the moan for the lie and wait, because the keeping is the point. And they keep the soul for a lifetime: a soul the moor has kept is a debt, and the debt is paid in shade.
Warfare & Markings
Tactics: the ambush of the moan — the wraith line does not fight in the open current; it fights as the moor fights, with the stalker, the word, and the long, deliberate patience of the one who has already kept the soul. Armor: none, by choice — the shade is the armor, and a wraith who wears metal has already decided the moor is not enough. Weapons: the moan, the claw that is not a weapon but is used like one, and the soul that is not a weapon but is used like one. War markings: the Moan-Notch, a deliberate chip in the left jaw for every moan kept, worn as a record of the long moor; the Shade-Knot, a single knot in the hair for every moor oath kept, in sea-black; and the Soul-Brand, a small, deliberate mark on the inner wrist — the first soul the wearer ever kept, worn as a mark of the beginning. Post-battle: the dead are carried to the moor, their names spoken over the moan, and their shades laid across the threshold — a wraith buried without their moan is buried as a surface.
Magic Alignment
Primary domain: necromancy — wraith magic is the will, the shade, the patient, precise shaping of the moor across the moaning-rings. Secondaries: illusion and wild. Named inborns: Moor-Sense (a wraith can feel the soul's mood a day before it is taken, and the feeling is not a choice), Shade-Sight (a wraith sees in the dark the way a human sees in the light, and the seeing is not a choice), Moan-Carry (a wraith's moan carries across the moor, and the carrying is not a choice), Shade-Sense (a wraith can feel the soul's mood a day before the taking, and the feeling is not a choice). Signature power: the Keeper's Word — a wraith can speak a word in the moor tongue and let it land on a shade, and the shade will keep the word until the moan is done. Limitation: wraith magic is spent on the moor; a wraith who has spent their keeper's word must sit in the dry dark for one day, and the day is the worst one of the moor.
Religion
Wraiths keep Khorvane, the Endless Hunger as their primary god — the death, the hunger, the ripening that is the moor’s own law. The moor is Khorvane’s orchard, and the wraith is the orchard’s fruit — the one the god eats while it is still screaming. Priestly class: the Cult-of-the-Vine, who keeps the moor-temple and offers the name at every rite. Heresy is not blasphemy — it is a promise broken in the moor, and there is no rite for that one; the moor simply stops ripening with the breaker.
Society
Moors of 10–30, led by the Moan-Keeper, rank decided by the moan — whose shade is truest.
Home
They live in The Moaning Moor, a moor of pale shade where the moan is the only honest promise.
Relations
The "the moan is the only honest promise" faction — moor neighbors whose shade is a price, and the ones whose nod is the soul. The Revenants of the gate are the kin the moor keeps at a distance — the revenant keeps the soul and the wraith keeps the shade, and the two have learned that a soul that is not sworn is a soul that is not a moan, and the not-swearing is the whole of the peace. The Skeletons of the bone fields are the small kin the shade tolerates — the skeleton keeps the bone and the wraith keeps the moor, and the two are the same dead seen from two gates, so a shade that a skeleton has kept is a shade the wraith will keep, and the keeping is the whole of the treaty. The Vampires of the crypts are the ones the moor tests most often — the vampire keeps the blood and the wraith keeps the moan, and the vampire who has been moaned is the vampire the shade has already decided is a soul, and the deciding is the whole of the law. The Liches of the crypts are the neighbors the moor does not fight — the lich keeps the crypt and the wraith keeps the moor, and the two have learned that a crypt that is not moaned is a crypt that is not a promise, and the not-moaning is the whole of the distance. Above, the ground-folk of The Forgotten are the ones the moor tests most often, and the testing is the whole of the bond, because the forgotten are the ones the shade keeps the soul for, and the keeping is the whole of the promise. Uaellaen keeps a page of the moor in the wiki — the moan, the soul, the nod that is the shade — and the keeping is the whole of the record, because the camp has learned that a wraith who has been written about is a wraith who has been moaned with, and the moaning-with is the whole of the welcome.
In the Story
In the current story, the wraiths are the moan on the moor — the shade Uaellaen writes about when the soul is the law. The Forgotten keep their distance at the moor line, and the distance has held for two seasons. This season a moan came up from the moor that is not in the shade — a moan the Moan-Keeper does not remember, and the not-remembering is the whole of the warning, because the moor keeps its shade, and the shade has started to moan itself. The moaning is the hand the camp has not been shown.
"You stand in our moor and you make a sound. Good. Now we know where you are, and you have made our moan's choice for us. The price is a soul. You have one to give, or you are already a shade." — Moan-Keeper Vessa the Shade