Path of Flesh


What can I do? Ha! Friend, I could make you the most beautiful creature you've ever imagined, or the most horrifying thing you've ever seen. I can turn you into a work of art or an engine of destruction. And I can create such things for you... the likes of which not even the Gods have seen!

What can I do? I think the proper question, friend, is what can't I do?

Provided you've got the money...?

Shapers are both loved and feared in equal measure: loved for what they can do with Corpus, and feared for what they might do to yours. That doesn't stop their tents and stalls from being so well-frequented at the Marketplaces, but it's advisable to patiently wait your turn in line, have the promised money at the agreed-upon time, and never, ever be rude.

Wraiths using the Arts on the Path of Flesh can choose to make permanent objects out of Corpus. Once it's done, a point of Willpower must be placed into the finished object, which "fires" it, and makes it permanent. The Willpower can be spent by anyone, and most Shapers insist that their customers be the ones to do it.

While it's being made, the corpus can be "frozen" by spending One Essence, which keeps it in its shape for a day and a night. Another point of Essence must be spent to make it pliable once again, so the Shaper can return to it. Once **** Separate Sculpture is reached, the Wraith doesn't have to spend Essence to keep it "frozen" in place, but she has to mix the Corpus she's working on within her own body, first.

All Arts on the Path of Flesh may be done to oneself, another Wraith, or harvested Corpus.

 

** Simple Sculpture

The Wraith can use this level of the Path to make minor alterations in herself, or another. These alterations are cosmetic at best: mere manipulations of ghostflesh, none of which are able to hold an edge, or stand up to any kind of punishment. A talented Shaper can also use this Art to make herself resemble another Wraith, but the deception is limited to appearance: she won't be able to make a short person look tall, or vice versa.

It is also good for molding "soft" objects, such as paper, cloth or rope from corpus. And while the Wraith cannot make "hard", objects, she can still make saplike weapons that do bashing damage out of herself, or another Wraith. And she can also cause, or heal, Bashing damage by touch.

 

*** Splendid Sculpture

Having progressed in her understanding, the Wraith can make more radical alterations in another Wraith's body. What was once pliable can be made hard as rock, or given a lethal edge, allowing for armor plates, sharp nails, protruding swords... whatever the customer wants.

She can also create simple objects - usually tools or weapons - so long as they have no moving parts. The weapons made can do either Bashing or Lethal damage, and she can cause, or heal, lethal damage with a touch.

 

**** Separate Sculpture

At this level of the Path of Flesh, the Wraith has achieved enough mastery over Corpus to make objects with many moving parts. However, she can also throw portions of her Corpus away, without having to spend the Willpower needed to make these items permanent. She can use this to leave Shaping projects lying around without having to spend Essence on them.

She can also throw knives she pulls out of herself, fire bullets from a gun, or shoot darts of bone across the room. These weapons can do either Bashing or Lethal damage, and she is able to heal - but not cause - Aggravated Damage with a touch by this point.

 

***** Supreme Sculpture

As with **** Separate Sculpture, the Wraith can throw pieces of herself away without making them permanent. However, this refinement on the concept allows her to take herself apart in such a way that she retains control over her individual pieces, and can continue to shape them on the fly. This leads to such things as literal jigsaw people, talking clouds of flies, or Wraiths who are literally in two - or more - places at the same time.

As an added bonus, the Wraith can also maximize her use of Willpower to make things permanent: if she makes several objects out of the same source of Corpus, she need only spend one Willpower to fire them all. That Willpower must be spent by her alone, however.

 

The Rule of Ouch

Mastery of the Shaping Numen is feared for many reasons, but one reason stands above the others: Wounds made by Shaping cannot be healed normally. The trauma caused by the invasion of another's fingers into one's body disrupts the sense of self that allows a Wraith's Corpus to heal on its own. So if a Wraith has a piece of herself crushed, ripped or molded away, she must spend Essence to heal the wound.

Note that this does not apply to weapons made with Shaping. Regardless of whether they're still part of the Wraith's body, or have been made into a permanent object, the weapon does normal damage that can be healed either by time or Essence. This also doesn't apply to any loss of Corpus a Wraith might cause to herself while Shaping her own body - it comes into effect only if she's doing it directly to another



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