Follow TV Tropes

Following

Characters / Geist: The Sin-Eaters

Go To

    open/close all folders 

Thresholds/Burdens

In first edition, when Sin-Eaters are brought back to life, they becomes linked to a Threshold, defined by the manner in which they died. Thresholds each grant access to specific "Keys", which are the way the Bound can manifest their various abilities.

In 2E, it's completely rejiggered; while method of death does define what a Bound's inherent Key is to sync with their Geist's own, what defines their inherent Haunts is their Burden; each Sin-Eater would have become a ghost were their future partner not around to make the Bargain, and the Burden is the reason they would have lingered, and still do.

    Bound in general 
Note these tropes applies to both the Sin-Eaters (the humans brought back to life) and the Geists (the ghost-like creatures who brought them back).

Tropes applying to all Sin-Eaters and their Geists:

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/skullgts.png
  • Achilles' Heel: Starting with 2E, Sin-Eaters can actually be killed permanently if the final blow is inflicted with their Geist's Bane, or if they are killed in a manner matching their original death.
  • Back from the Dead:
    • All Sin-Eaters have this as their backstory; a Sin-Eater is, by definition, someone who came close from death and was brought back to life by striking a deal with a Geist.
    • Even more so in 2E; Sin-Eaters well and truly died, and actually formed ghosts. With the help of the geister, they marched straight back to their old bodies and restarted them, good as new. This really upsets the Reapers who carry out the will of the Underworld, as this also means each and every one of them has cheated the dead realm of their soul.
  • Bargain with Heaven: For all the creepiness of the Geists, the deal they offer to the would-be Sin-Eaters doesn't have any hidden drawback and is pretty beneficial to the ones who take it.
  • Blessed with Suck: Averted, which is quite unsual for supernatural beings in this setting. True, they must spend the rest of their life with a weird overpowered ghost sharing their body and whispering into their ear, but considering this both saved them from death and granted them multiple cool powers, most of them consider it a pretty fair trade. The only real downside comes with the Resurrective Immortality part, which can be avoided as long as they don't die too many times again.
  • Clingy McGuffin: In 1E, A Sin-Eater's Keystone can never be lost, as it's part of his Geist. Should it be taken away, he can just summon it back, and destroying it will merely send it back to Twilight, from where it can be summoned again.
  • Conditioned to Accept Horror: Starting with 2E, Sin-Eaters get the "Tolerance for Biology" merit for free to reflect their inability to be shocked by the gore and the biologically strange; after all, when you see ghosts of gruesomely murdered people everyday and travel on regular basis in the Underworld, most of the horrifying things the living world has to offer feel tame by comparison.
  • Creepy Good:
  • Deader than Dead: A Geist can be completely destroyed by a number of forces. When they "die", they leave behind a "corpse" in the form of a Deathmask: a mask of their old faces that retains a small fragment of the death magic they once had. Other spiritual beings, including Sin-Eaters and especially Reapers, search for these Deathmasks to claim the power within for their own purposes.
  • Ghost Amnesia: When a Geist gives up their attachment to humanity, they lose their memories of their old lives.
  • Horrifying the Horror: The Hunter: The Vigil book Mortal Remains points out that slashers often end up horrified at what the ghostwalkers are capable of, especially since Sin-Eaters make it possible for the slasher's victims to get revenge from beyond the grave. Even Masks, the nigh-unstoppable killers who pay homage to killers like Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees, find angry Sin-Eaters terrifying.
  • Implacable Man: Even ignoring their Manifestations/Haunts, Sin-Eaters can convert most damage they suffer into bashing damages that they will only have to deal with after the fight, are immune to poison and diseases, will be kept awake by their Geists even when their injuries should cause them to fall unconcious, and can heal themselves by either destroying their Memento or killing someone in cold blood. Not only that, but even if you do kill them, their Geist will bring them back to life. After mummies and Prometheans, they are the toughest supernaturals to permanently put down.
    • Played around slightly in in 2E; one the one hand, it is now possible to kill a Sin-Eater for good by either dealing the final blow with his Geist's Bane or killing him in a manner that matches his original death, meaning they are slightly more vulnerable than they used to be; on the other hand, their Mana Shield now soaks more damages and double as a Healing Factor, and thanks to the change of mechanics, they no longer are limited to five resurrections and can keep coming back as long as they have enough Experience to buy back Synergy.
  • In-Series Nickname: Mortal Remains reveals Hunters refer to them as "Ghostwalkers" or "Fog Men", the latter refering to the fog-like ectoplasm they bleed when using their Mana Shield.
  • I See Dead People: All Sin-Eaters have the ability to see and hear ghosts. It's actually harder for them to block this ability than it is to use it.
  • Mana Shield: The Bound lack a Healing Factor like most supernaturals have, but can instead use their Plasm to protect themselves. This allows them to temporarly ignore damages for the duration of the scene, with the only drawback being that they will receive bashing damages at the end.
    • In 2E, this is changed to merely downgrading any damage to bashing right away, but can now be used without the usual Plasm per turn limit and and is appliable after the wound was suffered, making it double as a Healing Factor.
  • Necromancer: While only one of their archetypes is named after this trope, the Bound in general all qualify, since their abilities mostly derive from manifesting elements from death and the Underworld. Both their Ceremonies and their Manifestations give them access to abilities traditionally associated with Necromancers, such as raising zombies or controlling ghosts. (Ironically, they hate living necromancers, who they regard as slavers.)
  • Our Ghosts Are Different: Geists are an unique variety of ghost, who gave up their anchors to gradually become less like regular ghosts and more like spirits of various aspects of death. They operate by finding humans who are about to die and offering to bring them back to life in exchange for sharing their body. Humans who accept become Sin-Eaters.
  • Perky Goth: More than often the typical attitude among the Bound. Sin-Eaters are quite happy to be Back from the Dead, and they will enjoy it, regardless of all the macabre things dealing with ghosts forces them to do.
  • Psychic Link: Sin-Eaters can communicate wordlessly with their Geists, though this causes Synergy to drop.
  • Resurrective Immortality: While they can still die from old age, Sin-Eaters who get killed again will still be resurrected by their Geist as long as it is willing to bring them back (and it usually is, given finding a new host is troublesome). However, each resurrection permanently reduce the maximum level of your Synergy, meaning you will eventually become insane if you die too many times. Moreover, someone else will die in your place, and you will get a nasty vision of their death through their eyes as you come back.
  • Unfinished Business: Bounds choose to return to life usually to fulfill some purpose that they couldn't before death. Second Edition codifies this unfinished business as a Burden. To qualify as a Burden, the purpose must be so important to the Bound that they would have lingered in the living world as an intangible ghost had they not bonded with their Geist partner.
  • Willing Channeler: A Geist's connection to its hosts is less a possession and more a merging; the two are working together, with the Sin-Eater still in control, though the Geist can try to influence their actions.

Thresholds (1E)

    Torn 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/symbolthresholdtorn.png
Also known as The Bleeding Ones, usually dead from a violent or malicious cause. Tend to be angry, violent and vengeful.

  • Badass Pacifist: Weirdly enough, some Torn go completely in the opposite direction to their stereotype and use their good understanding of violence to specialize in ending it, usually much to the frustration of their Geists.
  • The Berserker: Not always, but pretty common. When you were forced into this existence through violence, it's easy to lash out. Moreover, their Geists tend to be vengeful, bloodied, vicious beings who encourage them to behave like this.
  • The Big Guy: They tend to be the most physical and combat-oriented of the Bound.
  • Body Horror: The Stigmata Caul comes with a lot of really disturbing abilities, including detaching your own arm and manipulating your own blood.
  • Cruel and Unusual Death: Emphasis on the Cruel part. Torn are killed in violence and blood.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Dying in a violent manner frequently comes from being involved in violent situations to begin with, so many of them had dark backgrounds to begin with. Many started out as soldiers, thugs, gangsters, and so on - or on the flipside, victims of war, of crime, of abuse, and so on.
  • Emotional Powers: Since they tend to be very emotional and angry, they have an affinity for Passion, the emotion-based Key.
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: Because they are associated with violence, they have a strong tendency to be angry and vengeful.
  • The Power of Blood: They have an affinity for the Stigmata Key, which grants them control over blood.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Not all of them, but it's not uncommon for the Torn to come back with a very strong desire to avenge themselves on those who killed them in the first place.
  • Vigilante Man: Some Torn choose to play vigilante as a way to bring justice to those who die in a manner similar to theirs.

    Silent 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/symbolthresholdsilent.png

Also known as The Starving Ones, those who died from death by neglect. Tend to be quiet and unassuming.


  • Addictive Magic: In their case, death itself has become addictive to them; they constantly feel the need to find, see and experience ghosts or the Underworld.
  • Blow You Away: They have an affinity for the Cold-Wind Key, which grant them control over air.
  • Casting a Shadow: Another of their affinity Keys, Stiltness, grants them control over shadows.
  • Dying Alone: A frequent occurrence, since they died of starvation and neglect. Many died homeless on the street, or abandoned somewhere.
  • Functional Addict: As noted above, they have become addicted to death, but they still can fully function as individuals.
  • Nerves of Steel: They tend to be disturbingly calm no matter what happens; as far as they are concerned, they have already died and come back, so they can take anything life throw at them. Many Silent will stay cool and collected even as everyone around them is panicking.
  • The Quiet One: The reason for their name; since they died exhausted, starving or similarly robbed of any way to resist, this frequently was a moment of weird peace for them, and this had an effect on their personality when they were brought back.
  • Recovered Addict: Many of them are former drug addicts or alcoholics who died from this. Then again, considering they have become addicted to death, you could say they're less recovered, more traded one addiction for another.
  • Stealth Expert: Their affinity for the Stillness Key, along with their tendency to be naturally quiet and collected, make them very good at stealth and sneaking.

    Prey 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/symbolthresholdprey.png

The Eaten and Drowned Ones, dead by nature, be it killed by animals, weather, drowning, or something in the same lines. This usually leaves them with an understanding of the life cycle, no matter how amoral it is. Because of this, they tend to have the most inhuman Geists.


  • Beast Man: Not themselves, but their Geists usually have given up most of their humanoid features a long time ago, and many look more animal than human as a result. Though Prey Sin-Eaters with the Primeval Key and the Caul Manifestation can indeed turn into animal-human hybrids.
  • The Beastmaster / Green Thumb: They have an affinity for the Primeval Key, granting them control over animals and nature.
  • Blue-and-Orange Morality: Because of their understanding of nature, they tend to think in a very alien way even compared to other Sin-Eaters. They always try to find a natural pattern in the way things happen, a cycle of life and death.
  • Dishing Out Dirt: Their other affinity Key, Grave-Dirt, allows them to control Earth.
  • Druid: They incorporate some of the abilities stereotypically associated with druids through the Primeval Key, which grants them control over nature, and, if combined with the Caul Manifestation, allows them to shapeshift into animals.
  • Eaten Alive: A frequent origin for them, and the reason for their name. Many were devoured by wild animals before being brought back by their Geists.
  • Elemental Embodiment: Prey's Geists who don't look animalistic frequently have an elemental-like appearance.
  • In Mysterious Ways: Not necessarily regarding religion, but they do tend to believe everything that happens is part of a big plan.
  • Nature Hero: They are the most strongly associated with nature; to them, everything must fit in the natural order, including - especially - death.

    Stricken 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/symbolthresholdstricken.png

The Ravaged Ones, dead by disease, poison or other forms of sickness. Understanding that they overcame death by side-stepping it, they tend to develop an eye for winning through finesse and cunning.


  • Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Not the fighting variant, but the fact they managed to escape death and quite frequently survive terminal sickness gives them an ego boost, and they become convinced that they can conquer anything.
  • Challenge Seeker: Their motive for seeking ghosts. They see the dead as a challenge, and frequently get involved because they want to prove they can overcome the Underworld as well.
  • Chess with Death: They literally see their dealing with ghosts as a battle of will and wits against death for the control of their souls.
  • Guile Hero: They frequently have good Finesse Attributes and Social Skills, as well as the mastery of the Phantasmal Key, making them fit for using wits and manipulation to win. To their understanding, victory comes through "side-stepping death".
  • Making a Splash: They have an affinity for the Tear-Stained Key, which grants them control over water.
  • Master of Illusion: Their mastery of the Phantasmal Key makes them quite good at casting illusions.
  • The Social Expert: Many of them favour Social Attributes and Skills.

    Forgotten 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/symbolthresholdforgotten.png

The Lightning-Struck, dead by random and unpredictable things. Tend to be fun-lovers and gamblers.


  • The Call Knows Where You Live: Unlike most Sin-Eaters, Forgotten usually don't feel any compulsion to explore the Underworld or go find ghosts. It doesn't really matter however, because for some reason, all these things always end up coming to them.
  • Cruel and Unusual Death: With an emphasis on the unusual part. Forgotten usually have suffered strange, atypical deaths, like getting hit by a stray shot from a firefight happening a couple blocks away.
  • Fun Personified: They are by far the most fun-loving of the Sin-Eaters.
  • The Gambler: They are heavily gambling-themed, since the way they died tends to be completely random and bad luck. Their patron, the Gray Horseman, frequently is nicknamed the "Thrower of the Dice", and many of them carry dice or cards.
  • Playing with Fire: They have an affinity for the Pyre-Flame Key, which grants fire abilities.
  • Technopath: Their affinity for the Industrial Key makes them capable of manipulating technology.
  • Weirdness Magnet: Wherever they go, ghosts, monsters and other craziness always turn up.

Burdens (2E)

    Abiding 
Those who died feeling that they didn't make their mark, that they were unfulfilled in life. They come back with a plan, and a newfound focus born of knowing how close they came to never being able to determine their dreams. Their Haunt Affinities are the Caul, the Memoria, and the Tomb.

    Bereaved 
Those who died with a broken heart and a profound loss on their minds, only to discover their loved ones are really freaking hard to find in the Underworld. They come back rather more subdued personality than most Bound but special determination to find the people they lost and make restitution. Their Haunts Affinities are the Curse, the Oracle, and the Shroud.

  • Curse: One of their Haunt affinities, fittingly named the Curse, is about cursing opponents with negative effects.
  • Ghostly Goals: Find what happened to their lost loved ones, or at least come to terms with their loss.
  • Intangible Man: They have an affinity for the Shroud, which lets them mimic a ghost ability to enter Twilight.
  • I Will Find You: Their core motivation; they lost someone dear to them, and came back because they want to find these loved ones, no matter what.
  • Supernatural Angst: The few Sin-Eaters who play this mostly straight, since the fact they came back still doesn't bring back the people they lost.
  • Seers: Their signature Haunt affinity, the Oracle, involves precognitive abilities.

    Kindly 
Those who died regretting actions they did or didn't do, and came back in order to make up for it. Their Haunt Affinities are the Dirge, the Marionette, and the Shroud.

  • The Atoner: They all have in common in that they did or didn't do something they regretted while alive, and want to make up for that with their second change.
  • Chronic Hero Syndrome: Since their entire motivation is based around atoning for their past deeds, they tend to be the most helpful and eager to assist other people among Sin-Eaters.
  • The Empath: Their distinct Dirge Haunt gives them this capacity, to stir powerful emotions by singing.
  • Intangible Man: They have an affinity for the Shroud.
  • People Puppets: They have an affinity for the Marionette, which allows to manipulate objects, people and animals using filaments of Plasm.

    Hungry 
Those who when dying refused to leave behind something they couldn't take with them, and decided to come back for it. This can be anything, ranging from material possessions to a pleasure or passion they had in life. Their Haunt Affinities are the Boneyard, the Marionette, and the Caul.

  • Domain Holder: Their signature Haunt affinity, the Boneyard, allows them to take over an area and manipulate it the same way a ghost would haunt a place.
  • The Hedonist: Hungry Sin-Eaters who came back for a pleasure of life tend to become obsessed with fulfilling as much as possible; for example, one who came back because of food will start eating until he becomes morbidly obese.
  • Lovecraftian Superpower: They have an affinity for the Caul.
  • People Puppets: They have an affinity for the Marionette.

    Vengeful 
Those who suffered an offense from someone in life, and came back in order to get retribution. Their Haunt Affinities are the Curse, the Memoria, and the Rage.

  • Black Mage: Fittingly given their nature as revenge-oriented nature, their powers are primarily offensive-oriented; two of their Affinity Haunt, the Rage and the Curse, are about inflicting damages and bringing bad luck respectively, and they get additional benefits from buying the Retribution merit, which increases their fighting prowess when they seek revenge.
  • Curse: One of their Haunt affinities, fittingly named the Curse, is about cursing opponents with negative effects.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Their entire motivation is to come back for revenge against someone who offended them.
  • Vengeful Ghost: They aren't ghost per say, but they are based around this archetype, being people who come back form the dead to get retribution.
  • When All You Have Is a Hammer…: Unlike other Haunts, which can usually be employed for a variety of non-violent or subtle purposes (such as the Marionette being used to make your life easier or the Curse being used to teach people lessons), the Vengeful's unique Haunt Affinity, the Rage, is inherently destructive, and has no purpose aside from hurting people. But it's really good at doing this.

Archetypes

Archetypes are the vocations Sin-Eaters find themselves after coming back to life, how they see their second chance. They serve to define how Sin-Eaters choose to use their powers, as well as how they can fulfill their virtue to regain Plasm.

In 2E, much like with Burdens, the system has been retooled. Archetype is now serves as the classification for a Krewe's philosophy and beliefs, such as their views on the Underworld and the purpose of their Bargain.

Archetypes of 1E

    Advocate 
Mediums who help ghosts by taking care of whatever situation or event is keeping them tethered to this world.

  • Berserk Button: Do not steal a ghost's anchor or otherwise try to prevent a ghost from moving in the afterlife. They do not approve.
  • Crippling Overspecialization: They are better at socially interacting with ghosts than other Sin-Eaters, but that frequently comes at the cost of losing even the most basic social skills with regular humans. Advocates who aren't careful might end up seeing everything in terms of relationships and anchors, becoming barely able to realize they exist otherwise, or worse, start believing that the dead matter more than the living.
  • Forgets to Eat: Advocates who let themselves get too absorbed by their business with the dead are at risk of forgetting to have a normal life and do simple things like eating or getting out. This is in great part why it's important for them to remember they are alive.
  • I Owe You My Life: The reason many of them do what they do; because they were brought back by something from the Underworld, they feel like they owe the dead.
  • Unfinished Business: They specialize in helping ghosts deal with this so they can move to the afterlife.

    Bonepicker 
Scavengers that use their otherworldly powers to make this world more comfortable.

  • Monster Protection Racket: They are infamously known to occasionally create hauntings on purpose for financial gain. After all, as far as they are concerned, they deserve to be rewarded for helping get rid of the haunting, even if they caused it in the first place.
  • Mundane Utility: They primarly focus the use of their newfound powers on making their life more comfortable.
  • Only in It for the Money: Stereotypically, Bonepickers will try to make profit from any help they provide with ghosts. They aren't all completely selfish however; some want so many resources so they can help as many people as possible, for example.
  • Opportunistic Bastard: As far as they are concerned, it's only fair for them to get a reward for their services; as such, they will gladly accept any reward from people they help get rid of the dead, or take the hidden treasure left behind by ghosts they defeated or helped move to the afterlife.
  • With Great Power Comes Great Perks: For the most part, they choose to use their powers in ways that will help make their life as comfortable as possible.

    Celebrant 
Those who have seen death and embrace life to its fullest.

  • Berserk Button: Only one slur isn't faced by them with an amiable shrug-they are not shallow, they have more goals than simple pleasure, though pleasure is a goal.
  • Getting Smilies Painted on Your Soul: Some misguided Celebrants have the disturbing habit of approaching moody or grumpy people and trying to make them happy, sometimes by making them go through a near-death experience - after all, if it worked for them, why wouldn't it work for others?
  • The Hedonist: They are more than happy to get a second chance at life, and decide to embrace it at its fullest.
  • Really Gets Around: Many Celebrants indulge themselves in the pleasure of flesh a lot; after all, they won't have another chance when they finally die for real.
  • Thrill Seeker: They are looking for anything reminding them that they are alive, and for many, the purest way to do that is looking for adrenaline thrills.
  • Took a Level in Cheerfulness: The effect coming back from the dead usually has on them - it made them realize how great life is, and as a result they really are happy about having a second chance.

    Gatekeeper 
Protectors of the path between life and death.

  • Comes Great Responsibility: Their motivation; they see that ghosts can abuse the living and vice-versa, and they feel that, as people who have seen both Life and Death, they are best-fitted to police interactions between the two.
  • Knight Templar: At their worst, Gatekeepers can be fanatics who will brutally assault mediums just for interacting with ghosts and forcefully move ghosts from their places even if they didn't do anything dangerous.
  • Protectorate: They consider themselves responsible for protecting the barrier between the living and the dead, and by extention both from each other.
  • Vigilante Man: They essentially are this for ghosts, taking down people who victimize the dead or malevolent spirits.

    Mourner 
Devotees and addicts to the passions of the bereaved or of the dead. 2E makes them chroniclers of the dead, seeking as much lost knowledge as possible to ensure it is remembered by the living.

  • Dead to Begin With: Invoked; unlike other Sin-Eaters, most Mourners genuinely believe they are dead, and their current state is just an Empty Shell animated by their ghost and their Geist. Though they really don't mind, since this method of death allows them to preserve as much as they can about themselves and their fellow ghosts.
  • Information Broker: As a side business, many of them sell the results of their research; they're often quite competitive.
  • Nightmare Fetishist: Unlike other Sin-Eaters, they believe they really are dead rather than brought back to life. And they embrace it, to the point they feel more comfortable with ghosts and people who lost loved ones.
  • That Man Is Dead: They approach their second life by considering their old selves as dead.

    Necromancer 
Seekers of the knowledge of the dead and the occult lore of death.

  • Knowledge Broker: They are a Underworld variant of this; Necromancers constantly collect occult information from ghosts, so they are likely to know almost everything about ghosts, including Kerberoi.
  • Mundane Solution: They have a tendency to neglect this at times; for example, some Necromancers will try forcefully taking information from ghosts when they could just as easily learn what they need from doing some research at the local library.
  • Occult Detective: A frequent occupation for them, since they can easily solve crimes and find murderers just by collecting information from the victims' ghosts.
  • Seeker Archetype: They focus mostly on finding out more about the Underworld and its mysteries.
  • The Smart Guy: Usually fill this role in a Krewe, since they tend to be the most knowledgable about ghost and Underworld lore.

    Pilgrim 
Those who try to purify themselves and the others, so they can move on.

  • Psychopomp: A variant. While they don't literally move souls to the afterlife, they consider it their function to help people let their material possessions go so they will not become ghosts after their death and be able to move peacefully to the afterlife.

    Reaper 
Judges and executioners, choosing who lives and who dies.

  • Judge, Jury, and Executioner: They appoint themselves as this, using their powers to punish those they consider are guilty.
  • Murder Is the Best Solution: Unfortunately, they frequently tend to honestly believe this is the best way to deliver justice. One of the hardest parts of a Reaper's new life is understanding not everyone deserves to die.
  • Scare 'Em Straight: Less murderous Reapers will sometimes resort to this tactic, using their Manifestations to terrorize criminals into changing their ways.
  • Vigilante Man: They focus on using their abilities to make the world a better place, typically by assaulting those they feel are bad people. They tended to focus on mortals or crimes unrelated to ghosts.

Archetypes of 2E

Playable Archetypes

    Furies 
Sin-Eaters Krewe who seek True Justice, trying to right injustices that plague the living and the dead. They are based on the Reaper Archetype

  • Murder Is the Best Solution: Averted, as the Furies understand not all injustices can be fixed by simply murdering the perpetrator.
  • Occult Detective: Downplayed, but in order to ensure true justice is served, Furies often find themselves having to dig deep into background and motivation of criminals.

    Mourners 
Sin-Eater Krewes who seek to find and preserve the knowledge of the dead. They are considered the best when it comes to exploring the Underworld, as they often have to plunge its depths in order to find lost information.

    Necropolitans 
Sin-Eater Krewes who try to bring others together in one big party, whether that be other Krewes, the dead, or the living.

  • Berserk Button: Do not, I repeat, do not call Necropolitans selfish. They are the Krewe of compassion.

    Pilgrims 
Sin-Eater Krewes wish to help the dead resolve their fetters and prepare the living to pass on without leaving a ghost behind, keeping everyone out of the Underworld. They also seek to transform the Underworld, which they see as a prison, into place that could help ghosts move on; as a result, they are the second best explorers of the Underworld, after Mourners. A combination of the Advocate and Pilgrim Archetypes from 1E.

  • Enlightened Antagonist: A Pilgrim who goes wrong is just as serious about helping you let go of worldly attachments-they just don't mind destroying those attachments directly.
  • Psychopomp: They see it as their duty to not only help the dead move on, but also prepare the living to ensure they die without leaving a ghost behind.
  • Real Men Love Jesus: Pilgrims are the most religious Sin-Eaters, viewing themselves as caretakers of the dead who help them move on to the next life, a distinct plurality being Buddhists.

    Undertakers 
An Archetype introduced in 2E, the Undertakers take great issue with just how much of a Crapsack World the hungry Underworld can be, as well as how destructive the fear of death can become. Their solution? Teach mortals to be unafraid of death, and ways to communicate peacefully with the dead.

  • Creepy Mortician: Defied. Many of them work as actual funeral directors, and the whole point is to help people deal with death maturely and joyfully.
  • Don't Fear the Reaper: Their explicit goal is to change global culture into one that embraces this trope.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: When they go wrong, they can get... insistent on learning how to accept death.

Enemy Archetypes

    In General 
  • Adaptational Villainy: Two of the archetypes, Gatekeepers and Bonepickers, were playable in 1E. Here, they are not because their outlook opposes what it means to be a Sin-Eater.
  • And I Must Scream: Some enemy Krewes force their Giests into servitude using a ritual that breaks the Giest's Remembrence and destroys their will. This replaces their Synergy with Tyranny.
  • It's All About Me: Ultimately, this is why they are antagonists, since they feel no obligation to use their powers to help the living or the dead.

    Elysians 
Bound who believe that the Bargain has made them special and more deserving than others.

    Bonepickers 
Scavengers that use their otherworldly powers to make this world more comfortable for themselves.

    Thanatologists 
Bound who believe the view the afterlife as a gold mine of information for them to investigate... no matter what.

  • Evil Counterpart: Like Mourner Krewes, Thanatologists are interested in learning the secrets and knowledge of the dead. Unlike Mourners, who want to use it to help others, the Thanatologists are only interested in knowledge for knowledge's sake.
  • For Science!: Thanatologists seek out information and knowledge for its own sake.
  • These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know: Thanatologists find this concept ridiculous.

    Gatekeepers 
Bound who believe the Underworld is fine the way it is, and that no one should try to disrupt the status quo.

  • Knight Templar: Gatekeepers are fanatics who will brutally assault mediums just for interacting with ghosts and forcefully move ghosts from their places even if they didn't do anything dangerous.
  • Status Quo Is God: As far as Gatekeepers are concerned, the Underworld works fine as is, and anyone who says otherwise is sticking their nose where it doesn't belong.

Antagonists

    Chthonic Reapers 
Introduced in 2E, these kind of Reapers are technically a subcategory of ghosts, those who have come to view the natural order of the Underworld as a good thing and worship its deathlords (or Chthonic Gods, as they like to say). This would just make them interesting sights in the Underworld, except the Gods are known to reward their faithful with the deathmasks of fallen geister. By putting on these masks, Reapers have the ability to assume powerful forms in a religious trance where all their personality boils away to a single mission; to take the unquiet dead to the Underworld, whether they like it or not. And if the living get in the way... well, they were gonna die anyway.

  • Antagonist Abilities: While Reapers are regular Rank 2 Ghosts (AKA slightly more powerful than a human being) in their natural states, putting on their Death Mask causes them to become what are functionally geists, upgrading them to Rank 3 to 5 (AKA demi-god level of power), giving them way higher stats than Sin-Eaters usually will have, without the difficulty true geists have with communication since they can always take the mask off. On top of that, they possess the ability to kidnap ghosts inside their own bodies in order to drag them back to the Underworld, and, if in numbers, may sink entire buildings, or even cities in it.
  • Anti-Villain: Many Reapers are actually outright likable and heroic people, the problem is that they fear any change to the status quo of the Underworld will cause more harm than good- in contrast with the Sin-Eaters, who do believe a serious change is needed.
  • Ascended Fanboy: Villainous version; they once loved and served the deathlords, now they're the right-hand wraiths of the gods.
  • Badass Creed: The dead belong below.
  • Big Bad: 2E introduced them as the biggest threat the Bound usually have to face; while they do not rule the Underworld per say (they believe they answer to Chtonic Gods who might or might not exist), they are the primary force defending its status quo, which the Sin-Eaters are trying to oppose.
  • Don't Fear the Reaper: Subverted. They seem harmless to the living, right up until it turns out they don't actually care. If the living must die or be sealed in the Underworld to sort the unquiet from the living, so be it.
  • Hero Antagonist: Nicer Reapers are often the only sources of law and order in the Underworld outside of Dead Dominions. They just have a view of it completely incompatible with Sin-Eater campaigns to reform it.
  • Knight Templar: They don't care if the dead would be better served by remaining among the living, or even if they have to take entire sections of the living world to the Underworld with their charges, they will. Entire cities have gone missing because the Reapers decided it was more efficient to suck the entire human populace below.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Particularly smart and dangerous Reapers will approach ghosts in non-masked form and convince them to come to the Underworld willingly.
  • Mask of Power: They uses Death Masks as such; usually they are just normal ghosts, but putting on their Masks allows them to assume monstrous, much more powerful forms.
  • One-Winged Angel: Their deathmasks allow them to assume the form of the geist who was destroyed to create it. Along with their power and the mandate handed down by the Cthonic Gods to capture ghosts.
  • Was Once a Man: Downplayed. They're ghosts, but becoming a Reaper doesn't really change them further than that, just gives them a mission and a superpowered alternate form. They're still just as much people as Sin-Eaters are, and may be more human than many geister.

    Abmortals/Ghost Eaters 
Individuals who through various methods found ways to escape death. Unfortunately, the one thing they tend to have in common is that they usually need to harm or kill someone else in order to maintain their immortality, which frequently bring them in conflict with Sin-Eaters.

In 2E, they have been retooled as the Ghost-Eaters, humans who prolongate their life by devouring ghosts, with Abmortality merely being an ability the eldest among them develop.


  • Achilles' Heel: All Abmortals have at least one weakness, a flaw in the source of their immortality that allows you to inflict them resistant damages and kill them for real.
  • The Ageless: Almost all Abmortals have the ability to stop their aging.
  • Balancing Death's Books: Frequently how they immortality works— some of them need to have other die for them in order to stay immortal.
  • Deal with the Devil: A common source of their immortality. For example, the corebook suggests as an example of Abmortal a man who made a deal with a Kerberoi and brings him Geists in exchange for preventing his death.
  • Healing Factor: To an absurd degree; not only do they typically heal 1 bashing damage per turn, 1 lethal damage per hour and 1 aggravated per day, they keep regenerating even after suffering things that would kill even other supernaturals, like decapitation or being burnt. Even an Abmortal whose body has been reduced to powder will keep healing until he's fully recovered.
  • Immortality Immorality: Type 1; most of them can only maintain their immortality either by killing someone else in their place or otherwise harming someone else. This is the main reason they usually become a problem Sin-Eaters feel like they need to take care of.
  • Life Drinker: A common variant of Abmortal is that they either drain life force from other people or have someone else die in their place on a regular basis.
  • Nigh-Invulnerability: Unless you inflict them resistant damages using their specific weakness, Abnormals simply cannot die, no matter what you inflict on them.

Others

    Ghosts 
The beings most commonly met by Sin-Eaters, ghosts can end up having a wide variety of interaction with them, being either allies, enemies, victims requesting their help or just valuable sources of informations. Regardless, they always are an essential part in a Sin-Eater's life.
  • Ascended Extra: Unlike most Ephemeral beings introduced in the other gamelines (Spirits, Goetia, Angels, Amkhata...), ghosts have actually been there since the very first New World of Darkness corebook, but they were little more than a sample type of antagonists for everyone in the setting, with little detail given about them aside from their basic mechanics. Geist makes them its main theme and flesh them out, giving them more background in the process.
  • Ghostly Chill: One of the most common abilities they have. In fact, the majority of them cannot do much more impressive than this.
  • Ghostly Goals: The wide majority of them are Type A, either constantly repeating the events that led to their demise or wishing to solve Unfinished Business so they can move on. Unfortunately, they can be Type B as well if they were made from particularly evil people or if they have grown insane enough
  • Haunted Fetter: Ghosts typically are connected to the world of the living via an "Anchor", which is an object or a place related to either the person they were when alive or the events leading to their death. It provides them memories to feed on and allows them to subsist, meaning they will usually start losing Essence when venturing too far away from it, and their powers won't be as powerful outside of its area of influence.
  • Living Memory: Truth be told, ghosts are echoes of the dead, some part of the person they once were left behind when they died, rather than actual souls. Many of them are little more than memories of dead people playing over and over again. To reflect this, one of the unique ways ghosts can regain Essence is by having people remembering them or thinking about them, thus feeding their memory.
  • Our Ghosts Are Different: They are always part of someone dead left behind, usually as the result of a sudden or traumatic death, but beyond that they can be a lot of different things; some are barely sentient images and memories constantly repeating the events of their demise, while others are still very intelligent and capable of thinking. They also are perhaps the most common supernatural beings in the New World of Darkness, but the large majority of them barely have the ability to influence the outside world, and the truly powerful, dangerous ones are fairly rare. Usually, they stick to the physical world by feeding on Essence and memory from Anchors, and need help in order to move in the afterlife. Finally, they cannot hope to evolve and increase in power as long as they are in the physical world, but become capable of doing so once they are in the Underworld, though getting out after that is less than easy.
  • Unfinished Business: Many ghosts find themselves unable to move to the afterlife because they still have something left to do in the physical world.
  • The Usual Adversaries: While not all ghosts are malevolent or hostile toward Sin-Eaters, they are still drawn to them for various reasons, present everywhere in the Underworld, and canonically the most common type of supernatural in the setting; as a result, the large majority of antagonists or problems Sin-Eaters have to deal with tend to be ghosts.

    Kerberoi 
Creatures from the Underworld of unknown origin, the Kerberoi serve as the closest thing it has to rulers. Each of them is assigned to a particular Dominion here, and has as its function to enforce the Old Laws of the Dominion and punish those who break them. Unfortunately, said laws are so old and alien they tend to be beyond the understanding of humans and Sin-Eaters.

  • Awakening the Sleeping Giant: Typically, Kerberoi won't bother you as long as you respect their laws. If you do break them, however, you better run and not turn back until you're out of their territory.
  • Berserk Button: It is technically possible to resist a Kerberos trying to enforce a punishment on you and refuse to accomplish the task he asks from you. However, doing this will make them pissed.
  • Blue-and-Orange Morality: As far as Kerberoi are concerned, there are no such things as good and evil - just the Old Laws, how you break it, and what kind of punishment is applied when you break it. And said laws don't necessarily follow human standards, so they can easily appear completely nonsensical to mortals, even though to the Kerberoi they are completely logical.
  • The Determinator: Once you have broken one of the Old Laws in a Kerberoi's Dominion, nothing short of leaving said Dominion and never coming back again will stop the Kerberoi from going after you. They will apply the sentence, by any mean necessary.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: It will be hard, but it's not impossible to kill a Kerberos. The book says that where they fall, they would leave a permanent mark on the landscape, as a forever reminder that someone felled a Kerberoi on this spot.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: Mostly averted; a Kerberos who catches someone breaking a law will apply exactly the appropriate punishment, and nothing more. Moreover, death or physical harm actually are pretty rare sanctions; most of the time, they instead force the lawbreaker to accomplish a task for them as retribution.
  • The Dreaded: By definition, Kerberoi are the one type of being you don't want to piss off when you go to the Underworld.
  • Eldritch Abomination: No one knows for sure what the Kerberoi are, and they tend to have nightmarish, inhuman shapes bearing no resemblance to any living thing.
  • Greater-Scope Villain: Potentially; while most Kerberoi will be neutral toward Sin-Eaters as long as they respect the Old Laws, they become a force to reckon with if you do break said laws. However, leaving their Dominion will weaken them as they go further away from it, and leaving the Underworld is impossible for them period, so those with a grudge toward Sin-Eaters back at the surface will often recruit Reapers to bring them back.
  • Homefield Advantage: Kerberoi are at their most powerful inside their Dominion; while they can leave it, their power will weaken the further away they get from it.
  • Judge, Jury, and Executioner: They are in charge of enforcing the Old Laws in the Underworld, deciding which sentence fits and applying said sentence on lawbreakers.
  • Loophole Abuse: Averted. Kerberoi are the living embodiments of the Old Laws, so they are incapable of not acting in spirit of the Laws.
  • Lord British Postulate: Kerberoi have stats, so you can actually face them in combat and it's even possible to kill them permanently. Not so with the Leviathan aka The Beast Below of The Ocean of Fragments. Stats are provided only for its tentacles for the purpose of escaping it. The rulebook states that you can't defeat The Beast Below any more than you can defeat a hurricane; The Beast Below just is.
  • Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: One particular Kerberos has the old Law that states "The Words of <Kerberos> is Law". Combined with his ability to know what you are up to in his realm at all times, and the ability to defy Deader than Dead, he's heavily hinted to be one of the mythical Deathlords.
  • Sinister Surveillance: A Kerberos instantly knows when someone has broken a law on its Dominion and where the lawbreaker is. You literally cannot escape its vigilance without a power to shroud yourself, and even that isn't a sure protection.

    Absent 
Introduced in 2E, Absent are those ghosts who have the Numina and desperation to discover something important; while ghosts are ultimately living memories, those memories don't have to belong solely to the ghost in question. Anything emotionally charged enough can stabilize their Corpus, and help stave off the horror of dissolution into the Underworld. This allows the Absent to change in large ways normally denied to other ghosts, making them playable.


  • Abstract Eater: Of important, emotionally charged memories.
  • Brain Food: Some Absent can eat the corpses of the dead, allowing them to absorb the traumatic-and thus, viable for their abilities-final moments of the former tenant.
  • Con Man: Explicitly called such by the book, running a hustle on the Underworld by abusing its hungers. Because the Underworld is a fundamentally corrupt wasteland and the Absent way of undeath neatly avoids abusing other ghosts (since the Absent buy memories in fair, knowing trades), they're very much the Lovable Rogue type.
  • Loss of Identity: A constant fear of theirs; a memory being held by an Absent is their memory, ie they recall it happening to them. Too many memories, an Absent starts forgetting which memories were originally theirs.
  • Our Zombies Are Different: Absent with the Dead Meat Merit are Revenant types, having possessed their own corpse and retained their intelligence, but they need to devour raw flesh to stave off decay, with human flesh being far more nutritious in that regard.
  • Power Copying: With memories comes experience in the Skills demonstrated in those memories.

Top