Wights

Liches

Revenants

### Description

Powerful undead, created when a necromancer not only animates a body, but pulls its soul back from its afterlife to force it to rise again.

Wights are a powerful and dangerous form of sentient, corporeal undead, created as a result of a corpse being animated by a necromancer, and having their soul ripped out of their afterlife and forcibly returned back into their body.

## Physiology

### Appearance

Wights typically appear, quite simply, as recently dead versions of whatever they were in life. Given that wights must be created within a day of their death, they will appear rather fresh, as corpses go, and the unholy magics that animate them will prevent them from undergoing decomposition.

### Bodily Function

Wights, as naught but risen corpses, do not possess any natural biological functions. Their hearts do not beat, and they do not need to breathe, eat, or sleep. They are incapable of digesting food, and must vomit any they ingest, or else simply leave it to rot within their stomachs. Their senses of sight, smell, and hearing are all magically enhanced, but both their sense of touch and taste are dulled.

### Creation

Wights are created when a necromancer rips a soul away from its destined afterlife, and forces it back into its body. The corpse cannot have been dead for longer than a day or so, as after that, reacquiring its soul is usually too difficult for most necromancers to accomplish. Unsurprisingly, the experience of being forcibly torn away from ones afterlife is quite a traumatic experience, and almost all wights are mentally scarred by it, with most being twisted to evil, vicious beings more willing to serve whatever master created them.

### Immortality

Once created, a wight's body, unlike that of a zombie, will not decompose or age in any way, similar to a vampire. Sustained by unholy magic, their bodies will always seek to return to the exact state they were in when the wight was first raised, including the exact length of hair or nails.

## Abilities

Undead Resilience: As living corpses, wights are immensely resilient to damage. They are completely immune to physical pain, excepting that inflicted by fire, else wise only being able to experience pain as a result of magic. Short of being set ablaze or having their brain destroyed, a wight can survive any wound, and will not be hampered by it unless it removes a part of their body necessary for movement. Additionally, they are able to exert strength far greater than they did in life due to the fact that they given strength by necrotic magic, and are not hampered by potential damage to their joints and muscles.

Enhanced Senses: Wights possess senses of sight, hearing, and smell superior to their mortal counterparts. They are able to see clearly in darkness, and with greater clarity, whilst their hearing can be compared to that of a predatory animal, and their sense of smell allows them to track prey by their scent.

* Sense Life: Wights have the ability to sense the life force of beings within their immediate vicinity.

Immortality: So long as they are not destroyed, a wight can endure for an unlimited amount of time, as their undead flesh is frozen in the exact state it was in when they were reanimated.

Life Drain: Wights, due to the necrotic energy that powers them, are able to magically drain the life out of any individual who is within their line of sight. This power can be spread out among multiple victims, but doing so causes it to loose potency, meaning people are drained slower than if it were concentrated against a single victim.

* Regeneration: By draining the life from their victim, a wight may rapidly recover from wounds dealt against them. This is the only method by which a wight's body may heal, as due to the fact that they are undead corpses, their bodies do not undergo any natural processes.

Necrotic Magic: Wights, due to the unholy power which animates them, have a natural proficiency with necrotic magic.

## Weaknesses

Despite their considerable power and resilience, wights are not unkillable, and possess numerous mystical weaknesses that can be exploited against them.

Extreme Bodily Damage: Severe enough damage to a wight's body, such as the utter obliteration of their head, being crushed under a boulder, or being blasted apart can be lethal to a wight, as the necrotic energy sustaining them will be too dispersed to keep them alive.

Fire: Wights, like all undead, are vulnerable to fire. Fire is one of the few nonmagical means that can inflict pain upon them, and if immolated, a wight will be killed. Additionally, all wounds dealt by fire are extremely difficult to heal.

Sunlight: Wights find daylight to be extremely uncomfortable. Newer wights are often extremely disoriented by sunlight, and will often retreat whenever it appears. Older ones, however, are able to move about in sunlight, though it weakens their powers and causes immense discomfort.