Page 128 - Chronicles of Darkness

• Ghosts regain a point of Essence whenever someone and regain up to 1 Willpower point per scene by fulfilling
remembers the living person they once were. Visiting their Virtue. All ghosts have the same Fate, “Forgotten,”
their grave, simply sitting and remembering them, or which comes into play when a ghost risks losing an anchor
recognizing their Manifested form as the person they and sliding closer to imprisonment in the Underworld. Even
used to be all qualify. powerful ghosts that are summoned back to the material
world retain this Fate, as the conditions of their summoning
• Spirits may attempt to gorge themselves on a source of are all that’s keeping them from the Great Below.
appropriate Essence. Once per day, when in proxim- Alone among ephemeral beings, ghosts also possess
ity (even if it’s on the other side of the Gauntlet) to a Integrity, set at the level they had before death. Their Integrity
suitable Condition, a spirit can roll Power + Finesse, scores don’t change, however, as ghosts do not suffer breaking
regaining successes in Essence. If the spirit is still in points. Their self-image is fixed, unless something happens to
the Shadow, the dice pool is penalized according to push them back to the level of cognizance and self-awareness
Gauntlet strength. they had in life. If this should happen somehow, they can
suffer breaking points the same way living people can.
• Angels are mechanisms in the God-Machine, and like Spirits don’t have an Integrity trait, a Virtue, or a Vice.
any machine they are sustained by fuel. God-Machine Instead, they regain 1 point of spent Willpower per 3 points
cultists sacrificing precious resources (metaphorical or of Essence they consume by gorging or stealing as described
literal), animals, or even humans to the angel in its above. They do, however, have Fates, which reflect the vio-
presence allow it to regain the Resources value of the lent struggle of spiritual existence. Keywords like “Bound,”
item or animal, or the current Integrity of a human “Consumed,” or “Starved” are all appropriate for spirit Fates.
sacrifice, as Essence.
Angels lack Integrity — they simply obey the God-
Machine in all things — and likewise don’t have Fates.
Attributes and Skills They do have Virtues and Vices, though, built into them as

Ephemeral beings don’t have the nine Attributes familiar operating guidelines and preset responses. Angelic Virtues
in material characters, but use a simplified set of the Power, and Vices don’t have to be anything a human would de-
Finesse, and Resistance categories mortal Attributes fall into. scribe as virtuous or wicked. Examples include “Silent,”
When creating an ephemeral being, look at the Rank chart “Hidden,” “Obedient,” “Curious,” “Punctual,” “Wrathful,”
earlier in this section to determine how many dots are avail- and “Precise,” all as either Virtue or Vice depending on the
able and what the trait maximum is. Ghosts usually use the angel in question.
average rating in each category from when they were alive Other Traits
— for example, a man with Strength 3, Intelligence 2, and
Presence 2 would become a ghost with Power 2. Because they have simplified traits, ephemeral entities cal-
Power describes the raw ability of the entity to impose culate derived traits a little differently from mortal characters.
itself on other ephemeral beings and the world at large. It Corpus: Ephemeral beings don’t have Health, but
is used in all rolls that call for Strength, Intelligence, or measure how intact their Twilight form is using Corpus.
Presence. Permanent Corpus is equal to Resistance + Size, and grants
Finesse describes how deft the entity is at imposing its Corpus boxes that act like Health boxes, filling when the
desires with fine control. It is used for all rolls that call for entity suffers injury. Corpus boxes don’t have wound penal-
Dexterity, Wits, or Manipulation. ties associated with them.
Resistance describes how well the entity can avoid imposi- Willpower: Entities have Willpower dots equal to
tion from its peers, and how easily it is damaged. It is used Resistance + Finesse, with a maximum of 10 dots for entities
for all rolls that call for Stamina, Resolve, or Composure. with the Ranks presented in this book. In addition to the
Ephemeral beings don’t possess skills, but don’t suffer Willpower-gaining methods described above, all ephemeral
unskilled penalties as long as the action they’re attempting beings regain 1 spent Willpower per day.
is appropriate to their former self, nature, or mission. They Initiative: Initiative is equal to Finesse + Resistance.
roll the appropriate Attribute + Rank for actions relating Defense: Defense is equal to Power or Finesse, whichever
directly to their concept, or Attribute + Attribute for actions is lower, except for Rank 1 spirits which use the higher of the
like surprise and perception. two Attributes. The more an entity is driven by raw instinct,
Advantages the more animal defense it displays in combat.
Speed: Speed is equal to Power + Finesse + a species factor.
Ephemeral beings differ in how they treat Integrity, Spirits of inanimate objects usually have a species factor of 0.
Virtues, and Vices. If using the Fate optional rule (see p. Size: Ephemeral beings can be of any size. Ghosts are
177), they also handle that differently. usually Size 5, while spirits often use Rank as Size, growing
Ghosts retain their Virtue and Vice from life, but they larger as they become more powerful. Angels designed to
are reversed in effect — ghosts regain all spent Willpower by blend in are sized as humans or animals, but some angelic
fulfilling their Vice, but can only do so once per chapter, entities are very large, up to Size 10 or higher.

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