History TabletopGame / WraithTheOblivion

* CreateYourOwnVillain: Charon's instigation of the Tithe of the Dead[[note]]A system under which ''every'' Wraith had to pay a toll (such as [[CoinsForTheDead two coins]]) upon arriving in the Underworld in the early days of Stygian history was a key cause of the First Great Maelstrom. The Wraiths left mutilated under this system sought Oblivion's aid, resulting in them becoming Spectres that attacked Stygia during the Maelstrom.

** Soulforging is often considered a form of this. The process of Soulforging is irreversible and it (supposedly) destroys the consciousness of the victim in the process, so there's no way for them to be resurrected.

* HauntedHouse / [[HauntedCastle Castle]]:

* SnapBack: Wraith 20th walks back the Sixth Great Maelstrom and the fiction building up to it, with there being no major developments during the years the game was cancelled... although the Orpheus Group have been venturing into the Shadowlands for a while now.

* TheUnblinking: The Monitors, and users of Lifeweb in general. Since the Monitors got rich manipulating and destroying the Fetters of others during the Guild Revolts, they are considered extremely untrustworthy and low among the Criminal Guilds. Any wraith noticed not blinking is going to get grilled on why and better be able to provide a good answer for it.

A tabletop role-playing game in the TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness, considered by many to be one of the most depressing of the lot. First of all, [[DeadToBeginWith you start off dead]]. And we don't mean [[TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade undead]], we mean ''dead''. You've failed to pass on to the true afterlife, and your soul has ended up in the [[TheUnderworld Shadowlands]], a decaying spiritual reflection of the real world. You're bound to this side of reality by your Fetters and Passions, [[UnfinishedBusiness emotional and physical ties to your old life]]. You have to negotiate the viper's nest of politics that's been set up in the Shadowlands -- a three-way clusterfuck between the oppressive Hierarchy, the revolutionary Renegades, and the devout Heretics -- while trying to protect and, eventually, resolve that which ties you to this life and move on to the true afterlife.

''Wraith'' was considered a tough concept to handle, even for the World of Darkness. The characters were constantly at war with themselves (and sometimes each other) while trying to find their place in both life and death. The concept required advanced troupe-style roleplay, with each player playing their own character, someone else's Shadow, and occasionally other characters; for a group that wasn't experienced with this (i.e., players of nearly ''any other'' tabletop RPG), this placed a heavy burden on [=GMs=]/Storytellers. The first edition focused more on the personal struggles than the actual setting; it took the second edition to truly flesh out the Shadowlands. ''Wraith'' was the first and only gameline in the Old World of Darkness to be cancelled before TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.[[note]]There were a couple pages dedicated to it in the MET's ''Laws of Judgement'', but nothing like the other books.[[/note]] However, its passing was not ''quite'' the ending it seemed, as the circumstances that shut down the setting tied directly into the backstory for both TabletopGame/DemonTheFallen and TabletopGame/MummyTheResurrection, and to a lesser extent, TabletopGame/HunterTheReckoning.

The game later received an AfterTheEnd sequel in the form of ''TabletopGame/{{Orpheus}}'' (which dealt with humans and ghosts who dealt with troublesome spirits and investigated the wreckage of the Shadowlands). The [[TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness New WoD]] gameline ''[[TabletopGame/GeistTheSinEaters Geist: The Sin-Eaters]]'' is a SpiritualSuccessor, delving into the [=NWoD=]'s Underworld, with the [=PCs=] basically being half-human spirit mediums who have merged with mostly beneficial -- if unbalanced -- ghost partners.

* AndIMustScream: Soulforging. That soulsteel sword you're holding, the kind of thing that makes mincemeat out of Spectres? Guess how fondly you'll look on it when you realize it's ''weeping''. The building blocks of Wraith technology are forged from Wraiths themselves. Technically speaking, the consciousness ''should'' be extinguished, but Nhudri (the first Artificer) had to make examples of some of his underlings for "haphazard work," and there ''are'' high-level Arcanoi that allow you to draw knowledge from forged souls.
** And notably, Soulsteel may lack a mouth, but that rarely prevents it from screaming.
** [[FromBadToWorse Even]] [[SenselessSacrifice worse]] when you learn that [[UsefulNotes/ChineseFuneraryCustoms hell money]] can send just about anything you want to the other side.
** 20th Edition, at least, points out that most soulforging involves Drones, ghosts who do not have the sentience of wraiths, or Plasmics, creatures of the Shadowlands that often don't have sapience. Sadly, they can't be used for the really effective artifacts, and the Hierarchy is more than corrupt enough to look for excuses to soulforge enemies.

** [[AvertedTrope Averted]] with extreme prejudice when it comes to ''Charnel Houses of Europe'' which makes it explicitly clear that UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust was '''''NOT''''' the result of supernatural shenanigans, that it really was solely down to Hitler and the Nazis' genocidal megalomania. Even as DarkerAndEdgier as Onyx Dog was, EverybodyHasStandards was fully in play given that using one of the greatest mass-murders in history as the backdrop to game lore could be a BerserkButton of epic proportions.

* CrapsackWorld: Not only is this the World of Darkness, but you're "living" in the darkest, grimmest, most hopeless place in it!

* CreateYourOwnVillain: [[spoiler:Charon's instigation of the Tithe of the Dead in the early days of Stygian history was a key cause of the First Great Maelstrom. The Wraiths left mutilated under this system sought Oblivion's aid, resulting in them becoming Spectres that attacked Stygia during the Maelstrom.]]

** Soulforging is often considered a form of this.

* [[GhostStory Ghost Stories]]

* WorldWreckingWave: ''Six'' of them. Five of the Great Maelstroms were caused by historical events that thrust large numbers of the dead into the Underworld: the fall of Rome, the Black Plague, the Conquest of the Americas, World War I and UsefulNotes/TheSpanishFlu, and World War II, the atom bombs, and the Holocaust. The relic of one of said atom bombs caused the Sixth and final Great Maelstrom when it was accidentally set off near the mouth of Oblivion.