Path of Sorrows

What? You actually think you can lie to me...?

Let's put it this way, honey - "I know what you did last Summer." In fact, I'm right there - watching it happen. And I'm seeing it through your eyes.

Scared yet? Well you oughta be, bitch. I know what you did last Winter, too. And the Summer before last... my, my, haven't we been a naughty little girl?

Now, how badly do you not want everyone to know how naughty you've been?

The Remembrancers are considered horrid and insane - and very much so. In spite of their obvious gifts with uncovering and retaining memories, very few Wraiths choose to partake of their services. This is most likely because the Remembrancers can also change those memories - both slightly and grossly - and Wraiths are quite right to fear for their minds' integrity.

In spite of the name of the Path, its Arts can be used to capture and refine both bad and good memories, which has led to the Remembrancers' running a "Memory Market" of stolen thoughts for other, desperate Wraiths to enjoy. They are also known to work on commission - engineering events and copying others' memories of them, so that buyers can enjoy their own, pre-arranged spectacle.

But then, many Remembrancers use the following Arts for their own gain: blackmailing and torturing Wraiths, and taunting and maddening mortals. There are those few amongst their numbers who use their powers to help, rather than harm, but these "Shrinks" are often as derided as their less wholesome cousins.

Captured Forever

One of the odd quirks about * Hand of Fear is that a copied and stored memory cannot be changed by the Storms. Even if the original memory is changed or lost, and the Remembrancer's own memories are scrambled, whatever she's got stored in her head is somehow safeguarded from the ravages of the winds.

This would make them ideal record keepers, but The Order holds them in the same ill repute as Dreamkillers. And given most Remembrancers' habits, that's probably for the best.

These Arts all work on Mortals, Wraiths and Ghosts, and they can be awake or asleep while it's used on them. However, there's often a negative modifier while working on Ghosts, given the shifting nature of their memories within the Fugue.

Showing traumatic memories is always cause for Tainted Essence, and if the Wraith makes it seem to be happening to the target it's cause for more than normal.

 

** Replay:

This Art lets a Wraith replay a Memory inside someone's head - either for her own, private audience, or to be "enjoyed" by the target alone. This can be done with a stored Memory or one the Wraith finds while using * Hand of Fear, and it can seem as though it's happening around the target, or to her. Onlookers will think that the target is reacting to things only she can see, and will most likely think she's gone insane.

The target is powerless to interfere with the memory, and if it's happening to her, she is caught up in it. Once the memory starts, the target must see it through to its conclusion, unless the Wraith decides to end it prematurely. If the target is "damaged" in the memory - or even killed - she is not actually harmed.

 

*** Refine:

The Wraith can take any stored memory and alter it. She can string it together with other memories, or alter those memories into something entirely different. This can be used to increase the potency of a traumatic memory, but once a change is made it cannot be undone.

If the Wraith chooses to * Replay it for the person she copied it from, there's a small chance that the target will begin to believe that the altered memory is what really happened. This depends on how long ago it actually happened, and how potent it was, or is now that the Wraith has altered it.

 

**** Recall:

Non-living Anchors have a strange connection with all aspects of the Dead - so much so that Wraiths with this Art can actually use * Hand of Fear on such places or things. And such is the power of this Art that can be used even if the Wraith that owns the Anchor was not there when it happened. These memories can be stored, replayed and refined as any other, though obviously not on the Anchor, itself.

 

***** Repercussion:

Memories shown with ** Replay cannot harm the target, even if they end in death. This Art changes that, and places the life and sanity of the target on the line: giving the memory such force that the victim may suffer either insanity or psychosomatic shock, depending on what takes place inside her head.

Those who suffer insanity gain derangements from the experience, just as those the memories were stolen from did. Meanwhile, those who suffer damage lose health or Corpus levels, but do not actually manifest the wounds from the memory. The damage is entirely psychosomatic, but still powerful enough to kill.

Mortals who die from ***** Repercussion lose all brain functions - most notably autonomic - and fall down stone dead, as though someone switched them off. And the Wraiths who used it on them suffer a massive backlash of Tainted Essence for having taken a life in this fashion. Meanwhile, Wraiths and Ghosts are dropped to zero Corpus, and go back to their Anchors as normal, which causes only a little Tainted Essence to be gained.

There is a much kinder side to this Art, but few other Wraiths know of it. Remembrancers can use this Art to help a mortal, Wraith or Ghost "walk through" the memory and resolve it, so that it troubles them no more. Unlike previous levels of the Path, the target can change her course of action within the memory, which is what gives the Art its power to heal.

Repeated sessions of this therapy will help cure Derangements {except for the ones "suffered" by those who died from Insanity}, while Ghosts can be allowed to resolve whatever makes them walk the earth. Ghosts who succeed in this most often shrug off their Fugue and disappear forever, going off to wherever such unAnchored spirits go, but a few have been known to Awaken and become full-fledged Wraiths.

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