Shroud-Rending

Shroud-Rending is one of the Dark Arcanoi, and allows Spectres to see the Skinlands and the Quick through the Shroud.

As Spectres are not gifted with Lifesight as wraiths are, Shroud-Rending provides them with the only way to see and spy on the living. However, Spectres cannot appear before the living with this art; to do so requires knowledge of Embody. Nihils tend to form in the places this art is used frequently.

Basic Abilities

• Hold Back the Curtain: A Spectre can extend the duration of an Arcanos' effects in the Skinlands.

Standard Powers

• Threshold: A Spectre can see obscured images through the Shroud.
• Echoes: This allows a Spectre to see through the Shroud.
• Fleeting Glimpses: A Spectre can clearly see an area of the Skinlands.
• Virtuality: Events happening in the Skinlands can now be seen and heard clearly.
• Transparent Memories: The Spectre can use all of their senses through the Shroud.

Alternate Powers

• Nightmare (WTO: Doomslayers: Into the Labyrinth ): A Spectre tears open the Shroud over a sleeping mortal, allowing Oblivion to influence their dreams.
• Lurking Presence (Doomslayers: Into the Labyrinth): Similar to Nightmare, but can be used on mortals who are awake.

Wraith: The Great War

During the Fourth Great Maelstrom, Shroud-Rending is an imperfect art still in the process of being developed. At this point, Shroud-Rending only has one power: allowing a Mortwight to tear a hole in the Shroud and enter the Skinlands for a brief period. A user of Shroud-Rending finds the Skinlands tangible to them (although not vice versa), and can use Arcanoi that cross the Shroud.

Levels in Shroud-Rending in this period represent how long a user can safely stay in the Skinlands:

• One hour
• Two hours
• Four hours
• Eight hours
• Sixteen hours

Only Mortwights may learn Shroud-Rending during this era; other Spectres do not as yet suspect its existence, in large part because they ignore the Mortwights.

References

• WTO: Dark Reflections: Spectres, p. 37-38
• WTO/cMET: Oblivion, p. 239-240
• WTO: Doomslayers: Into the Labyrinth, p. 128
• WTO: Wraith: The Great War, p. 180