I sort of love how the rules of C20 read like they looked at the basic template of all the other splats and were like “let’s change that, just because!” Nature and demeanour? Nah One health bar? Why not two! Want more temp WP? Spend the perm! Do you feel safe having a full mana bar? Can’t have that! Make it so it might drive you insane now.
@@Wastelandman7000 Technically Wyrd People would translate to "People of Fate" / "Fate People" / "Fated People (?)" since Wyrd translates to "Destiny, Fate, or Doom" so you could also call them Doomed People!
If I'm being completely real here, I'm kinda new to the World of darkness player community, and I've heard bad things about werewolf player's. So being a fan of werewolf and knowing what else to go by, I wouldn't blame him. That being the case, he did say he's doing these in reference to vampire chronicle encounters, so it's very likely Hunter the reckoning is next up if I had to guess.
@@gnolly8222 Yeah, unless you're a Methuselah or above, running into a Werewolf (even just one) is going to be a very bad day. They are tough bastards, that's for sure; emphasis on bastards, though. Werewolves aren't half as "good" as they like to murder people for denying they are.
Well, that's what happens when you start "strongly encouraging" (via lowkey torture and psychological pressuring) euthanasia on people because its cheaper than treating their long term illnesses.
@@atticusshadowmore3263 The Canadian government legalized euthanasia of humans, meant to allow those suffering incurable illness and injury to die peacefully. Instead, hospitals have been using psychological pressure, uncomfortable conditions (no heat, no blankets, etcetera), and withholding food to pressure people with long term but not fatal illnesses and the homeless into suicide to reduce prices. It is exactly as monstrous as it sounds, and they are especially targeting veterans and injured workers. Over ten thousand were murdered in such ways last year alone.
Apart from werewolf, the only World of Darkness setting I've actually ever played was Orpheus. My wife's love of the Dresden Files and my love of SCP. Lead to a Warehouse 13 style detective agency that hunted down spooks and things. Once they hunted Slenderman. To my own credit, I as the DM, scared my wife so bad she literally screamed out loud. By merely uttering, "he's there." I feel so proud of that moment.
How did the Slenderman hunt turn out? I'm sincerely curious. I'm always fond of monster hunter scenarios. And since Slenderman seems to be affiliated with The Rake, it sounds like a tough case. (and yes, I have watched way too many Marble Hornets vids, though its been a while LOL)
@@Wastelandman7000 they got pulled into the Slenderman's part of the Shadowland which looked like a deep woods wreathed in shadows. The tree branches became many arms and his face split in half to bite the players. Despite the dangers the players were able to complete a ritual to lock it in the Shadowlands ”forever”. Or at least that's what they believe
Lmao that sounds super fun to DM. If I was to ever try and pull something off like that I'd have to go for classic /X/ skinwalker hunt with all the tropes. Mimicry of voices coming from the woods, use of Blair witch style wards, having the skinwalker slip into the larger group with the party, glimpses at the spook from behind tickets and trees. Lots of ideas
You NEED to make sure your group is cool. A playgroup that has been friends for nearly a decade can even fall apart when your friend is DESIGNATED ANTAGONIST for your character. I will always recommend the Storyteller take the role of each player's Shadow, even among experienced players, just to make sure every player's hands are clean.
Fun fact: the P'o of Kuei-Jin (basically their Beast) is very similar to the Shadow of Wraiths. To put it very simply, it is a demon soul that wants them to fail on their way to salvation. The KotE book even has a little blurb that says you could very much do that particular Wraith thing in a game with Kuei-jin.
@@4x_AE It's kind of a bummer. KotE had a bunch of interesting ideas, but so much is buried under weird orientalist stuff and a serious misconception about a monolithic 'asian' cultural backdrop... As well as some weird system clunk (though that part isn't a deal-breaker, I've built vehicles in Champions). There was something really refreshing about the nuanced approaches to the condition the characters lived(?) with.
I remember whan my group was deep into the WoD back when it first started (longer ago than I almost care to remember 😅) Our joke about Wraith was that, while all of the other settings had you dealing with really sucky situations, in Wraith you started out Dead, and it Just Got Worse from there 🤣
Wonderful video, Wraith is 100% my favorite WoD with absolutely no contest whatsoever. To those interested in it because of this video, I CANNOT stress enough that you need an EXTREMELY mature group to make Wraith work. Having each player be the antagonist to the other can make for an extremely compelling story... or a messy ball of arguments.
Vampire is about being cool together against all sort of scary stuff. Wraith is all about being cool while doing stuff against one another and even themselves. Werewolf is about furries fighting H.P lovecraft mythos. Hunter is about being the underdog and being anti-government doomsday prepper but -they- are actually out to get you.
@@Prodigi50 Mage is about getting really fucking high or studying so hard you become delirious from overworking but your hallucinations become reality, and if you let anyone see it, the police come to beat you to mochi. Changeling is a reverse any% run on avoiding depression and boredom because if you aren't 100% hyper excited you turn to a corpse. Demon is about being spoopy and poking humans with sticks while avoiding heaven equivalent of second inquisition, and is basically shittier version of Vampire. Gypsy is about being really fucking racist while others are being really fucking racist towards you, and vacuuming money and happiness from gullible people's pockets with card tricks.
@@Prodigi50 this post is old but why not changeling is about a group of starry eyed young people losing all creativity and inspiration in the mundane grinder of the world. And mage is about how perception is reality and about your duty to reality. I've never played demon.
I've never even _bothered_ to look at Wraith: the Oblivion, but I'm always glad to see WoD lore at any point. As usual, your coverage has given me plenty of ideas. So onya, Bud. Love your work.
Now that we have a Wraith video, I’d like to see a video over Orpheus sometime. It’s so disconnected from everything else going on in the WoD (not even having the usual naming scheme) but playing as the Ghostbusters where your options for seeing ghosts are killing yourself, heroin, or just actually being a fucking ghost, just sounds so cool.
The Ghostbusters are actually one of the Methodologies of the Void Engineers [Technocratic Union]. The Neutralization Specialist Corps. They have the fucking ghostbusters backpack as a in-game Device
Orpheus is a special case because it's specifically designed to not be used in a crossover system with the other World of Darkness systems. The system doesn't have a distinction between normal mortals and supernatural beings when you use powers.
My only exposure to this is Lazar of Stygia's video on the history of Stygia. He also has really good videos on WoD lore. I'm excited to see what you have to say about the series, since it seems really fascinating.
I really do love Lazars videos, although I do sometimes find myself a little frustrated with the way that his videos don't quite line up with my wants. What I mean is that I watch his stuff to learn about world of darkness, but it seems like his videos are made for those who already know a good bit and want to delve deeper, which is totally cool and he should make what he wants, but it is not a good starting point imo
@@roguepsykerhaaker4813 True. His recent Fera video is like that. Many times he used lore terms and I didn’t know what he was talking about, even though I have the basics of Werewolf down.
Wow the existential dread really is a big part of wraith. Oblivion slowly consuming ever present. Melting down of one’s very self for common everyday objects.
Wraith is such an oddball, without being as absurdist as Changeling. I still really hope you do a Technocracy video, personally. Or maybe an entirely different system/game, to give more exposure to other ones that aren't D&D.
A Vampire's Beast is a self-serving evil A Wraith's Shadow is a self-destructive evil A Demon's Torment is both a self-destructive AND other-destructive evil
I have read the Rulebooks of Mummy and it's Players Guide (still have them around) and some of the things you said were mentioned there. I came to unterstand that Oblivion, the Forgetting, seems to be the thing that the Mummy;s (specifically the Amenti) are calling Apophis. And it seems to be the same thing as the Fera's concept of the Wyrm. The thriving concept of Nothingness, because things must leave for things to come. Well, that is what i've come to understand back in the day. But there is one thing that disturbs me. The Amenti and the Wu T'ian (asian mummys) seem to be able to enter realms beyond the Shadowlands, specifically the Fields of Reed from the egyptian concept of underworld and the Palace of the august personage from asian myths of the lands beyond. And specifically the Amenti could find this realm by "travelling to the sunset" or "travelling westward" in nether-khertet (what is essentially the Amenti calling the Shadowlands). How could it be that wraiths never found that place, especially with an arcanum that allows them save travel through the Storm? Or did they found it but never came back, because the Judges of Ma'at just deleted them? Still a funny thing these Mummy's. One of the few supernatural races that have even more contact with wraiths than other people i think. I hope you could make a vid about them. Though i have the feeling, most people think of the oWoD Mummys as "the most broken shit, directly after Demon's".
Mummies, Giovanni, and Silent Striders would be the groups most likely to interact with wraiths. Hollow Ones would generally have a desire in trying to contact a wraith.
The world of darkness is ruled by the Triad. The Wyld (Creation and Dynamism), the Weaver (Stagnation and Order) and the Wyrm (Entropy). Yeah , Oblivion IS the Wyrm from Werewolf. Its ALL the same world
I always thought that the more isolated afterlives such as the Mummies/Ancient Egyptian one were one of the Far Shores. I think its referenced somewhere where the Jade and Ivory kingdoms are explained, theyre like very big Far Shores that cater for continents instead of just a specific group
@@luska5522 Yeah, well, actually not. I understand the confusion between Oblivion and the Wyrm (there's a head of the Wyrm fucking named "Eater-of-Souls") but they are not the same. The Wyrm was, before going mad, the force of entropy that made room for the new by destroying the old. Even now, it is a force that corrupts and destroy, but it is not the _nothingness_ that is Oblivion. Oblivion reprents the end of all existence, the return to primordial darkness before creation, an Anti-Gaia (or anti-God if you use DtF lore) if you will. That, at least, is how I understand it.
Moment of Truth: Wraith may be the most non-generic, most terrifying but awesome piece of worldbuilding since Homer...and we all were way too plebeian to appreciate it. Also true: It does not work as intended. And the Shadow, while being a freaky-cool idea, probably mostly sucked at the table. Should have called the thing Bleak - The Depression, would have also been more close to the truth 😆
@@dezdannaselaphiel8634 I thought that "Moment of Truth: Wraith" was a title of a short story... It took present me a while to figure out what past me was asking, too! But I somehow remembered that's what I was asking, LOL!
Well done. I don't have any table top groups in my area (rural), but as a writer developing my own indie comics I am always looking for inspiration. You do an excellent job dispensing lore good sir. And its nice to see games or any fiction with this kind of depth. I tend to be OCD on world building. So a whole bunch of mechanics underlying what most people see always brings a smile to my face.
Players - we spent the last 2 sessions building perfect characters, today we finally play. GameMaster - you are all dead. Other RPG players - not funny man! Quit messing around. Wraith Players - obviously. We did sign up for this.
expressing my verbal gratitude to burgerkrieg for explaining stuff in a fun but still accurate and detailed enough way. it also helps me personally run a wod campaign for reasons i can't understand. Somehow ur content provokes my dm creative thought process...
Glad to have you delve back into Old World of Darkness. Personally I have a really hard time with running and playing Wraith just because I find it genuinely and robustly depressing in a way that is often too profound as I amble through this life accruing grief. Though I have thought about trying a version set in a Good Place or Beetlejuice type Far Shores afterlife in the aftermath of the Maelstrom.
Wraith for me is the greatest Roleplaying game of all time. Never in another system have I had such deep and impactful RP experiences. It’s another level. Thanks for doing a video on it 👍
@@Amazatastic Our first campaign had everyone as newly dead, so after roleplaying their deaths (which was super intense) we moved into discovering the Shadowlands and what the nature of wraithly existence is, which in an of itself led to some amazing moments. It ultimately led to Spectre Cults and Harrowing's a plenty. If you have people that can find something positive/cathartic in a game that sometimes deals with really heavy topics then you should absolutely give it a go! It's pure gold.
"There's usually a haunting in every Vampire the Masquerade Chronicle" Me: (Eyes go to a certain, well known haunted hotel in Bloodlines). So....nice to know that horror is canon.....and normal as I research the table top.
The VR Game, *Wraith: The Oblivion - Afterlife* actually manage to bring a lot of the WTO game mechanics into perspective. I only watch YT playthrough and it's very intriguing.
I recently watched literal hours of the Old World of Darkness lore from another channel. I had no idea there was so many games, much less so much lore and I love it.
Ah yes, this was such an interesting and different system in the World of Darkness. And one that is so disconnected from every other system further than the other systems because it focuses more on the afterlife than unlife.
Yet just about every other system connects implicitly. Oblivion and the Labyrinth seems to be Wyrm and Apophis, wherever Oblivion and co are and their pre existence beings seem to be demons and other oddities, the realms the Mummies visit seem to be Far Shores of the Shadowlands. Every necromantic or seance related spell or power in all the other systems mesh with Oblivion. Old WoD is fascinating like that
1:13:33 It's confirmed The Lady of Fate is in fact Eve, wife of Adam and mother of Caine. That came out in one of the sourcebooks around the time W:TO was cancelled/canned.
your speech cadence and articulation is so much more entertaining than whatever you are yapping about. That being said! The stuff you yap about does a good job of being concentric, while admitting and acknowledging the outliers! Love the content man!
Mr. Burger, your World of Darkness videos are truly my favorite thing from you. I'm actually about to run a VtM 5th Edition game next month. Wish me luck!
dude your lore videos are fantastic, but I'm wondering if you would do any videos on chronicles of darkness, like changeling the lost or demon the decent since those settings are just fascinating to learn about.
1:03:40 yeah pretty much bang on there, speaking as someone who's had close friends try to commit suicide from overdosing. They quickly changed their minds when they started violently vomiting all the stuff, they forced themselves to swallow.
The one take-away I have from all of this is that the Skeletal Lord is the best character ever written. I love the idea of someone who is completely insane, but doing their best to be hyper-loyal to do what their buddy asked them to do by having a normal one and not releasing biological weapons onto the world and recording *every thought* they ever had
as for connections to the labyrinth it is said the Black Spiral dancers spiral, malfeas, Nephandic caults all connect to oblivion and the Labyrinth. Also the Baali's daemonion discipline is actually a branch of the Oblivion discipline(in my game the Baali's discipline spread is Obfuscate , Presence, Oblivion(Daemonion branch). Baali Oblivion merges, daemonion and dark thaumaturgy. Also the entities that the Nephandi black spiral dancers and Baali interact with are not demons, wyrm spirits all the time but may be abyssal entiteis and the nightmares of the "sleepers", the never born, the incredibly old and power creatures of the "outer dark" unknowable first spectres or even powerful spectres who masquerade as such. and there are also the real demons and Wyrm spirits who may or may not be aligned with the abyssal entities. so being an infernalist, is very very confusing. Heck infernalists of all stripes , worshipping or trafficking with demons, wyrm spirits, spectres hate and are opposed to each other not only ideologically but also rivals in the quest for power. which is at the core of every infernalist. (heck your average infernalist hates the whacko infernalists like the BSD, Nephandi , branches of the Baali who want to end existence).
The Wyrm is kind of the other side of the coin of Oblivion, they both are different expressions of the same force, so to speak. Except when they're not!
The Baali traffic with all kinds of things, evil spirits, specters, banes, eldritch horrors, and more. There are many things called "demons" in the World of Darkness, and the Baali are willing to deal with or enslave most of them.
@@notsae66 Yes lots of them, any spirit entity or whatever can masquerade as a demon. The real "demons" the Luciferian ones laugh and manipulate some of the more guillable and ignorant Baali. The knowable veteran longer lived Baali know the differences between these so called "demons: and manipulate them back
Daimonion only has a Oblivion Connection in V5. Before that, Necromancy, Obtenebration and Daimonion where three very distinct disciplines. Also: Connections between the Wyrm, Demons and other seemingly similar entities exist only in Crossover campaigns, a thing for which the cosmologies of the different Splats never was designed - too much contradiction in the origin myths alone. And we haven't started talking about the mechanical problems of the different Systems... how do you roll against Humanity / Rage / Arete if the other Systems don't have a equivalent? Just to give you one quick example..
in my game, the ashen lady actually was instrumental in the creation of the Kiasyd. so they can be used as a weapon vs. vampires. the Kiasyd are the eyes and ears of the ashen lady in vampire society. While the ashen lady hates vampires in general she really hates the Ventrue , the lasombra, and the Hecata. in particular. anything to do with the Roman empire hierarchy is particularly hated by her. (in this case Ventrue, Lasombra, Cappodacians). Of the vampires , that can have civilized more or less interactions with her are the Gangrel, Lhianan, Brujah. assamites who are viewed as enemies of Roman empire.
Ah a fellow follower of The Black Pant's legion is here as well! Welcome and well met! And I see quite a few resemblences between Tex and TheBurgerKrieg. In depth lore. Ample irony and sarcasm, and very long videos that never seem quite long enough.
The Parenting sucks. Alfabusa ceased being entertaining when he got scared of legal action from Games Workshop that was never going to happen. He just got tired of doing the TTS/Corvus and Vulkan stuff and instead of just being honest about it he made up a story about avoiding problems with GW.
I fucking love how weird the Underworld is. Like there's just shit in there that makes no sense and was probably never human in the Tempest or in the Far Shores.
Wow! I really enjoyed that. It was just what I was looking for. Wraith is a hard game to get your head around. So much going on, it’s hard to see how it all would come together in practice. I sure would be willing to hear about more!
I totally love the idea that the Ladies of Fate are just one Chakravanti Magi who has unlocked the spheres required to perfectly copy themselves, and they're just in the shadowlands because Mundus is too risky and they're too paradoxical in nature to exist there anymore
I've always found the idea of the Neverborn frightening. These Lovecraftian monsters squatting in the afterlife, ready to end the universe forever. Even death isn't safe from them.
"Any word ya know that ends up in "-cide", good to fair chance it's gonna come up. East side, west side, it's all there!" I know this is a trigger warning but it sounds like you are trying to sell something by saying it has every feature known to man lol Great video btw love your long lore videos
Very cool to see a video like this on Wraith, been really enjoying the videos going splat by splat. However, I need to know which VTM campaign book you’re referencing that just casually has a 2nd generation vampire turn-up. Not naming it ahhh! XD
A concept I think would be interesting that I dont think *anyone* has ever done, in WTO or otherwise: What about the ghost/wraith of somone who died young enough that they have no actual memory of being alive? That they were, effectively, born and raised already dead, in the world of the dead? Raised by the kind souls (or perhaps unkind souls) of deceased strangers who stumbled upon the screaming ghost of a stilborn? What would that do to your psychology? To your perception and outlook on the world? This is probably a concept so spectacularly fucked up that even the perennial edgelords at White Wolf would not have touched it with a ten foot pole, but I think it could be an interesting character.
15:31 oh shit, the shadow being controlled by another player is actually a really cool idea! It’s literally cool enough that it would be the sole reason I play the game... not that there aren’t more reason, but that one would be what sold me on it.
I really loved crossing over the 90s versions of these (what was that? 3e? 4e?). I had two groups of three players, one playing Hunters, the others playing Wraith, all set in a haunted house over the course of one night. Most fun one-shot I ever GMed! The players were set up in two separate rooms, each with their own GM and they would play a round, the other GM and me would resolve it among ourselves in the hallway and then give feedback to the players. Also, nice thing about the original Hunters: you didn't have to involve the Second Inquisition. You could just let them be lone wolves, people who awakened and realized there was something horribly wrong with the world. Obviously that was a hardcore setting where you could easily die, but (I think I made that a house rule): Hunters looked, even to Vampires with Auspex, like normal people unless they used their powers or senses. So being stealthy, inconspicuous and never ever leaving evidence or witnesses were all key to life as a hunter. That and having a backup character sheet ready and filled out, of course. But if you like super hard settings and have very capable players, this can be lots of fun.
Up until the last few years before Time of Judgement I was completely uninterested in Wraith. But then a friend explained exactly how deeply connected it, and especially the events of the Sixth Great Maelstrom, were to the entirety of the rest of the World of Darkness. The end of the Wraith product line was the catalyst for the end of the entire rest of the cosmology, coinciding with the destruction of Enoch and the (True) Black Hand, the awakening and subsequent destruction of the Ravnos Antediluvian, the Resurrection of the Mummies, the ascension of the Children of Osiris, and probably other events that I'm forgetting. It was the reason that after 1999 there were more Risen than any other supernatural creature (possibly more than all of them combined), and thus the reason for the imbuing of the Hunters by some unknown force that may have been the last two Angels, the personifications of Yin and Yang, or the Weaver herself (assuming these aren't all just the same entities to begin with). It's the reason the Fallen (who are either literal Demons who sided with Lucifer during the Fall, or unspeakably ancient and powerful Specters who have been "confused" by millennia of mythology and the memories of the humans they inhabit, depending on what part of the lore you prefer ) escaped the Abyss. Everything that happened post-'99 was, in some measurable way, not just connected to but BECAUSE of the fall of Stygia. Oblivion (the book/event) set the stage for the Final Nights and every conceivable end of days in the WoD in such a masterful way that it stitched the grand metaplot together if you wanted it to, or could be mostly ignored if it didn't fit into your game world. It made me regret that I had never paid attention to the Wraith product line until after it was already discontinued. Loved this video and the WoD lore vidoes in general! I've avoided most of their 5th Edition products. It's a bit petty, but I'm still kind of disappointed in White Wolf for walking back the Time of Judgement and continuing the universe. Every single product line in the WoD was explicitly driving toward the literal, inevitable end of the world. Every single supernatural society *knew* that it was coming, and soon. The tension of it built over the course of a decade and change, and that palpable feeling that the game world was truly building toward its own end is one of my biggest sources of nostalgia in tabletop/LARP gaming. I was in the room at GenCon when they announced they were actually pulling the trigger... still have the T-Shirt somewhere... and I was impressed that they actually had the balls to do it. Seems like such a waste of all that time and effort, building such a complex and interconnected cosmology constructed entirely for the purpose of a grand finale, only to Ctrl+Z all of the assorted apocalypses and just... keep going. But it's certainly nice to walk back down memory lane with the older content like this!
There were some mummies before 1999. Another aspect you might have forgotten was the Avatar Storm in Mage. It disconnected demiplanes from Earth and began separating an Avatar from the meat body of a Mage. It also made it deadly for mages to pass to the Umbra, especially more powerful mages.
I wanna see the campaign derailed by an ancient, horrendously powerful Homunculus. Like Vamps teaming up with wolves and hunters style shit hitting the fan.
Wraith was always my favorite. I had a full set of all the Wraith books in college. No one ever wanted to play it because it was intimidating. I ran it a few times. Never got to play it 😭
Wasn't Wraith the one with Charnel Houses of the Shoah? It'd be super interesting hear that made more approachable EDIT: Yep, here it is, proof, it was my idea, clearly I'm a genius
I'm just here waitnig for you to enter the frame from the right for a change XD Also I'd argue about a crossover potential. Changelings have solid links to at least four other lines: Bean Sidhe for WtO, Maeghars for VtM, Fiona/Fiana for WtA and a lot of quarrels with Mages
I just wondered why were you looking so much toowards your arm haha, the one holding the sock-mic. I'm intrigued. Pls do werewolf or fae next. Want to know more from them. Just know deeply Vampire and a bit about werewolf and mage, but this helps me to get to know more of WoD universe.
"This is because all wraiths carry within them their shadow"
Ah, straight to Jung, I see. Noice.
Meanwhile Vampires are Freuds struggle between the Id and Superego
"And CHANGELINGS are just plain weird."
Me, the Changeling enjoyer: "No no, he's right."
It's not weirdness, it's glamour:)
Well, they are called the Wyrd (weird) people for a reason LOL
Not that I have any room to throw stones, being kind of weird myself.
I sort of love how the rules of C20 read like they looked at the basic template of all the other splats and were like “let’s change that, just because!”
Nature and demeanour? Nah
One health bar? Why not two!
Want more temp WP? Spend the perm!
Do you feel safe having a full mana bar? Can’t have that! Make it so it might drive you insane now.
We exist in a world where fairy princesses fight the manifestations of disease
@@Wastelandman7000 Technically Wyrd People would translate to "People of Fate" / "Fate People" / "Fated People (?)" since Wyrd translates to "Destiny, Fate, or Doom" so you could also call them Doomed People!
He should do Hunters next just to spite Werewolf fans.
If I'm being completely real here, I'm kinda new to the World of darkness player community, and I've heard bad things about werewolf player's. So being a fan of werewolf and knowing what else to go by, I wouldn't blame him. That being the case, he did say he's doing these in reference to vampire chronicle encounters, so it's very likely Hunter the reckoning is next up if I had to guess.
@@gnolly8222 Yeah, unless you're a Methuselah or above, running into a Werewolf (even just one) is going to be a very bad day. They are tough bastards, that's for sure; emphasis on bastards, though. Werewolves aren't half as "good" as they like to murder people for denying they are.
@@gnolly8222 am out on the loop regarding werewolf players, other than being borderline furries
What happened with werewolves players, I'm just aware of the lore
@@arthurcorbier3870 nothing it's just the one people kept asking for after the very first vampire video.
I love how the Canadian Healthcare meme has went from "it's free!" To "It's death!"
Well, that's what happens when you start "strongly encouraging" (via lowkey torture and psychological pressuring) euthanasia on people because its cheaper than treating their long term illnesses.
I need some more context about what he was talking about
@@atticusshadowmore3263 The Canadian government legalized euthanasia of humans, meant to allow those suffering incurable illness and injury to die peacefully. Instead, hospitals have been using psychological pressure, uncomfortable conditions (no heat, no blankets, etcetera), and withholding food to pressure people with long term but not fatal illnesses and the homeless into suicide to reduce prices. It is exactly as monstrous as it sounds, and they are especially targeting veterans and injured workers. Over ten thousand were murdered in such ways last year alone.
@Atticus Shadowmore recently Canada has at times suggested M.A.I.D instead of other types of healthcare.
@@chrisboyce4224
"sometimes"
Apart from werewolf, the only World of Darkness setting I've actually ever played was Orpheus. My wife's love of the Dresden Files and my love of SCP. Lead to a Warehouse 13 style detective agency that hunted down spooks and things. Once they hunted Slenderman. To my own credit, I as the DM, scared my wife so bad she literally screamed out loud. By merely uttering, "he's there." I feel so proud of that moment.
How did the Slenderman hunt turn out? I'm sincerely curious.
I'm always fond of monster hunter scenarios. And since Slenderman seems to be affiliated with The Rake, it sounds like a tough case. (and yes, I have watched way too many Marble Hornets vids, though its been a while LOL)
@@Wastelandman7000 they got pulled into the Slenderman's part of the Shadowland which looked like a deep woods wreathed in shadows. The tree branches became many arms and his face split in half to bite the players.
Despite the dangers the players were able to complete a ritual to lock it in the Shadowlands ”forever”. Or at least that's what they believe
Lmao that sounds super fun to DM. If I was to ever try and pull something off like that I'd have to go for classic /X/ skinwalker hunt with all the tropes. Mimicry of voices coming from the woods, use of Blair witch style wards, having the skinwalker slip into the larger group with the party, glimpses at the spook from behind tickets and trees. Lots of ideas
Neat
As a huge fan of both SCP and Dresden files, I approve lol. World of Darkness is practically a perfect system to build a world like Dresden or SCP
I live in a veterans hospital (finally getting an apartment next month!) and have no family. I needed this video on Christmas Eve
Congratulations on getting that apartment!!
Yoo congrats on the apartment dude!
Hang in there brother, for no other reason but to make them pay you all your benefits.
God preserve and keep you sir in good health.
The concept of two players controlling different aspects of the same character is super fucking cool
Wraith is my favorite WoD, but it takes an IMMENSELY mature group to make it work.
It works surprisingly well in practice, too, if your group is cool.
You NEED to make sure your group is cool. A playgroup that has been friends for nearly a decade can even fall apart when your friend is DESIGNATED ANTAGONIST for your character.
I will always recommend the Storyteller take the role of each player's Shadow, even among experienced players, just to make sure every player's hands are clean.
Fun fact: the P'o of Kuei-Jin (basically their Beast) is very similar to the Shadow of Wraiths. To put it very simply, it is a demon soul that wants them to fail on their way to salvation. The KotE book even has a little blurb that says you could very much do that particular Wraith thing in a game with Kuei-jin.
@@4x_AE It's kind of a bummer. KotE had a bunch of interesting ideas, but so much is buried under weird orientalist stuff and a serious misconception about a monolithic 'asian' cultural backdrop... As well as some weird system clunk (though that part isn't a deal-breaker, I've built vehicles in Champions).
There was something really refreshing about the nuanced approaches to the condition the characters lived(?) with.
two hours of listening to a man talk about a depressing game while he holds a sock icecream cone
Wouldn't have it any other way
I remember whan my group was deep into the WoD back when it first started (longer ago than I almost care to remember 😅)
Our joke about Wraith was that, while all of the other settings had you dealing with really sucky situations, in Wraith you started out Dead, and it Just Got Worse from there 🤣
11:50 that is why furbies are to be treated with kindness and why morphing them into monstrosities that bring joy is great!
Wonderful video, Wraith is 100% my favorite WoD with absolutely no contest whatsoever. To those interested in it because of this video, I CANNOT stress enough that you need an EXTREMELY mature group to make Wraith work. Having each player be the antagonist to the other can make for an extremely compelling story... or a messy ball of arguments.
Vampire is about being cool together against all sort of scary stuff. Wraith is all about being cool while doing stuff against one another and even themselves. Werewolf is about furries fighting H.P lovecraft mythos. Hunter is about being the underdog and being anti-government doomsday prepper but -they- are actually out to get you.
@@Warhamer116 Now do Mage, Changeling, and Demon.
@@Prodigi50 Mage is about getting really fucking high or studying so hard you become delirious from overworking but your hallucinations become reality, and if you let anyone see it, the police come to beat you to mochi. Changeling is a reverse any% run on avoiding depression and boredom because if you aren't 100% hyper excited you turn to a corpse. Demon is about being spoopy and poking humans with sticks while avoiding heaven equivalent of second inquisition, and is basically shittier version of Vampire. Gypsy is about being really fucking racist while others are being really fucking racist towards you, and vacuuming money and happiness from gullible people's pockets with card tricks.
@@Prodigi50 this post is old but why not changeling is about a group of starry eyed young people losing all creativity and inspiration in the mundane grinder of the world. And mage is about how perception is reality and about your duty to reality. I've never played demon.
@@800aspects2demon and mummy don’t exist they’re in your imagination
I would have thought werewolf would show up before wraith
Imagine he goes through everything down to Mummy and Demon before Werewolf.
@@BullofCrete Even Orpheus and weird splinter factions
@@tzimiscelord8483 and angels
Everything is more interesting than Werewolf. I hope he saves it for last.
@@Seoul_Soldier just as long as we don't get a beast the primordial video the order doesn't matter much
I've never even _bothered_ to look at Wraith: the Oblivion, but I'm always glad to see WoD lore at any point.
As usual, your coverage has given me plenty of ideas. So onya, Bud. Love your work.
Now that we have a Wraith video, I’d like to see a video over Orpheus sometime. It’s so disconnected from everything else going on in the WoD (not even having the usual naming scheme) but playing as the Ghostbusters where your options for seeing ghosts are killing yourself, heroin, or just actually being a fucking ghost, just sounds so cool.
The Ghostbusters are actually one of the Methodologies of the Void Engineers [Technocratic Union]. The Neutralization Specialist Corps. They have the fucking ghostbusters backpack as a in-game Device
Orpheus is a special case because it's specifically designed to not be used in a crossover system with the other World of Darkness systems. The system doesn't have a distinction between normal mortals and supernatural beings when you use powers.
My only exposure to this is Lazar of Stygia's video on the history of Stygia. He also has really good videos on WoD lore. I'm excited to see what you have to say about the series, since it seems really fascinating.
I really do love Lazars videos, although I do sometimes find myself a little frustrated with the way that his videos don't quite line up with my wants. What I mean is that I watch his stuff to learn about world of darkness, but it seems like his videos are made for those who already know a good bit and want to delve deeper, which is totally cool and he should make what he wants, but it is not a good starting point imo
@@roguepsykerhaaker4813 True. His recent Fera video is like that. Many times he used lore terms and I didn’t know what he was talking about, even though I have the basics of Werewolf down.
Wow the existential dread really is a big part of wraith. Oblivion slowly consuming ever present. Melting down of one’s very self for common everyday objects.
You are the Tex Talks Battletech of World of Darkness lore. (meant as high praise for how much depth you put into your videos)
That is indeed high praise.
As always, your content delivers. Best wishes to you and yours in this new year. I genuinely hope your channel grows.
The more we comment the more power he gains.
Like Candy Man.
🙌
Wraith is such an oddball, without being as absurdist as Changeling. I still really hope you do a Technocracy video, personally. Or maybe an entirely different system/game, to give more exposure to other ones that aren't D&D.
Runquest Glorantha please.
Or Vaesen
A Vampire's Beast is a self-serving evil
A Wraith's Shadow is a self-destructive evil
A Demon's Torment is both a self-destructive AND other-destructive evil
A werewolf’s beast is a furry power fantasy
I;ve been playing in a Wraith game foe about two years now, while dealing with cancer. It's been quite therapeutic for me.
I have read the Rulebooks of Mummy and it's Players Guide (still have them around) and some of the things you said were mentioned there. I came to unterstand that Oblivion, the Forgetting, seems to be the thing that the Mummy;s (specifically the Amenti) are calling Apophis. And it seems to be the same thing as the Fera's concept of the Wyrm. The thriving concept of Nothingness, because things must leave for things to come. Well, that is what i've come to understand back in the day.
But there is one thing that disturbs me. The Amenti and the Wu T'ian (asian mummys) seem to be able to enter realms beyond the Shadowlands, specifically the Fields of Reed from the egyptian concept of underworld and the Palace of the august personage from asian myths of the lands beyond. And specifically the Amenti could find this realm by "travelling to the sunset" or "travelling westward" in nether-khertet (what is essentially the Amenti calling the Shadowlands). How could it be that wraiths never found that place, especially with an arcanum that allows them save travel through the Storm? Or did they found it but never came back, because the Judges of Ma'at just deleted them?
Still a funny thing these Mummy's. One of the few supernatural races that have even more contact with wraiths than other people i think. I hope you could make a vid about them. Though i have the feeling, most people think of the oWoD Mummys as "the most broken shit, directly after Demon's".
Mayhaps the Fields of Reed/ Palace of the august personage are both Dark kingdoms/Far shores or something.
Mummies, Giovanni, and Silent Striders would be the groups most likely to interact with wraiths. Hollow Ones would generally have a desire in trying to contact a wraith.
The world of darkness is ruled by the Triad. The Wyld (Creation and Dynamism), the Weaver (Stagnation and Order) and the Wyrm (Entropy). Yeah , Oblivion IS the Wyrm from Werewolf. Its ALL the same world
I always thought that the more isolated afterlives such as the Mummies/Ancient Egyptian one were one of the Far Shores. I think its referenced somewhere where the Jade and Ivory kingdoms are explained, theyre like very big Far Shores that cater for continents instead of just a specific group
@@luska5522 Yeah, well, actually not. I understand the confusion between Oblivion and the Wyrm (there's a head of the Wyrm fucking named "Eater-of-Souls") but they are not the same. The Wyrm was, before going mad, the force of entropy that made room for the new by destroying the old. Even now, it is a force that corrupts and destroy, but it is not the _nothingness_ that is Oblivion. Oblivion reprents the end of all existence, the return to primordial darkness before creation, an Anti-Gaia (or anti-God if you use DtF lore) if you will.
That, at least, is how I understand it.
I played a wraith In a vtm game, he was a "servant" to a heckata vampire.
"I want to walk the flesh lands, he wants secrets of death... win win!"
Moment of Truth: Wraith may be the most non-generic, most terrifying but awesome piece of worldbuilding since Homer...and we all were way too plebeian to appreciate it.
Also true: It does not work as intended. And the Shadow, while being a freaky-cool idea, probably mostly sucked at the table. Should have called the thing Bleak - The Depression, would have also been more close to the truth 😆
What is that? Is it a short story? I can't find it online
@@Nenadior You... are you asking about Homer? Because he's referring to the blind Greek storyteller that wrote the Odyssey.
@@dezdannaselaphiel8634 I thought that "Moment of Truth: Wraith" was a title of a short story... It took present me a while to figure out what past me was asking, too! But I somehow remembered that's what I was asking, LOL!
@@Nenadior 😂 Moment of Truth: Wraith does indeed sound like an awesome title...I feel you deserve to own the copyright now!
Well done. I don't have any table top groups in my area (rural), but as a writer developing my own indie comics I am always looking for inspiration. You do an excellent job dispensing lore good sir.
And its nice to see games or any fiction with this kind of depth. I tend to be OCD on world building. So a whole bunch of mechanics underlying what most people see always brings a smile to my face.
tell us your pen name! i wanna read your stuff :)
Players - we spent the last 2 sessions building perfect characters, today we finally play.
GameMaster - you are all dead.
Other RPG players - not funny man! Quit messing around.
Wraith Players - obviously. We did sign up for this.
My Comment: Well....that was a short campaign....
expressing my verbal gratitude to burgerkrieg for explaining stuff in a fun but still accurate and detailed enough way.
it also helps me personally run a wod campaign for reasons i can't understand.
Somehow ur content provokes my dm creative thought process...
The Silent Legion is my favorite. I like the Quiet Lord a lot.
Glad to have you delve back into Old World of Darkness. Personally I have a really hard time with running and playing Wraith just because I find it genuinely and robustly depressing in a way that is often too profound as I amble through this life accruing grief. Though I have thought about trying a version set in a Good Place or Beetlejuice type Far Shores afterlife in the aftermath of the Maelstrom.
Wraith for me is the greatest Roleplaying game of all time. Never in another system have I had such deep and impactful RP experiences. It’s another level. Thanks for doing a video on it 👍
This setting is absolutely fascinating to me I love the concept of someone else playing your "inner demons". What was your campaign like ?
@@Amazatastic Our first campaign had everyone as newly dead, so after roleplaying their deaths (which was super intense) we moved into discovering the Shadowlands and what the nature of wraithly existence is, which in an of itself led to some amazing moments. It ultimately led to Spectre Cults and Harrowing's a plenty. If you have people that can find something positive/cathartic in a game that sometimes deals with really heavy topics then you should absolutely give it a go! It's pure gold.
"There's usually a haunting in every Vampire the Masquerade Chronicle"
Me: (Eyes go to a certain, well known haunted hotel in Bloodlines). So....nice to know that horror is canon.....and normal as I research the table top.
I just binged your videos for two days. I just now noticed that your mic is wrapped in a tshirt lol. Glad to know I'm not the only one.
The VR Game, *Wraith: The Oblivion - Afterlife* actually manage to bring a lot of the WTO game mechanics into perspective. I only watch YT playthrough and it's very intriguing.
I recently watched literal hours of the Old World of Darkness lore from another channel. I had no idea there was so many games, much less so much lore and I love it.
Ah yes, this was such an interesting and different system in the World of Darkness. And one that is so disconnected from every other system further than the other systems because it focuses more on the afterlife than unlife.
The system itself IS like ALL others. The setting IS refreshing yes
Yet just about every other system connects implicitly. Oblivion and the Labyrinth seems to be Wyrm and Apophis, wherever Oblivion and co are and their pre existence beings seem to be demons and other oddities, the realms the Mummies visit seem to be Far Shores of the Shadowlands. Every necromantic or seance related spell or power in all the other systems mesh with Oblivion. Old WoD is fascinating like that
Aww! You did this so thoroughly! Im proud of you! :D
I love your videos. The way you speak about things you are interested keeps me hooked. Always nice to see your videos pop up in my feed
I love these lore videos so much I could listen to you explain stuff for ages...and I do I guess
Yes, I can as well. Between the Burgerkrieg and Tex Talks Battletech I could go for days without listening to anything else. Or wanting to.
1:13:33 It's confirmed The Lady of Fate is in fact Eve, wife of Adam and mother of Caine. That came out in one of the sourcebooks around the time W:TO was cancelled/canned.
This video is really making me want to try my hand at playing Wraith. Super informative and really interesting!
I appreciate these lore videos and the amount of time, effort, and work you put into them.
Always a wonderful treat to watch. :)
I would have expected a werewolf video before this one but I'm happy to watch almost anything Burger throws at us by this point.
your speech cadence and articulation is so much more entertaining than whatever you are yapping about. That being said! The stuff you yap about does a good job of being concentric, while admitting and acknowledging the outliers! Love the content man!
Mr. Burger, your World of Darkness videos are truly my favorite thing from you. I'm actually about to run a VtM 5th Edition game next month. Wish me luck!
Mr burger?
@@lakkakka Formality is important.
Good luck!
@@BullofCrete for whom exactly?
@@lakkakka Just some friends of mine.
Please keep going on this series. I have wanted to know more about Wraith for so long and this has been an amazing video to watch for a WoD nerd.
I was *this* close to legitimately believing he did this video to rhyme with Raid and would be impressed with his commitment.
I’ve been waiting for another video of this for so long thank god
"Its about fucking ghosts!
"Well not ***FUCKING*** ghosts! You are a ghost"
Most underrated line in the whole video
The threat of soul melting seems very effective
another doobly-doo enjoyer I see. your videos are always entertaining and listening to your 2 hour long rants about wod games is awesome, keep it up!
dude your lore videos are fantastic, but I'm wondering if you would do any videos on chronicles of darkness, like changeling the lost or demon the decent since those settings are just fascinating to learn about.
1:03:40 yeah pretty much bang on there, speaking as someone who's had close friends try to commit suicide from overdosing. They quickly changed their minds when they started violently vomiting all the stuff, they forced themselves to swallow.
The one take-away I have from all of this is that the Skeletal Lord is the best character ever written.
I love the idea of someone who is completely insane, but doing their best to be hyper-loyal to do what their buddy asked them to do by having a normal one and not releasing biological weapons onto the world and recording *every thought* they ever had
Came in wanting to learn how to be danny phantom.
Came out with a masters in ghost politics
as for connections to the labyrinth it is said the Black Spiral dancers spiral, malfeas, Nephandic caults all connect to oblivion and the Labyrinth. Also the Baali's daemonion discipline is actually a branch of the Oblivion discipline(in my game the Baali's discipline spread is Obfuscate , Presence, Oblivion(Daemonion branch). Baali Oblivion merges, daemonion and dark thaumaturgy. Also the entities that the Nephandi black spiral dancers and Baali interact with are not demons, wyrm spirits all the time but may be abyssal entiteis and the nightmares of the "sleepers", the never born, the incredibly old and power creatures of the "outer dark" unknowable first spectres or even powerful spectres who masquerade as such. and there are also the real demons and Wyrm spirits who may or may not be aligned with the abyssal entities. so being an infernalist, is very very confusing. Heck infernalists of all stripes , worshipping or trafficking with demons, wyrm spirits, spectres hate and are opposed to each other not only ideologically but also rivals in the quest for power. which is at the core of every infernalist. (heck your average infernalist hates the whacko infernalists like the BSD, Nephandi , branches of the Baali who want to end existence).
The Wyrm is kind of the other side of the coin of Oblivion, they both are different expressions of the same force, so to speak. Except when they're not!
The Baali traffic with all kinds of things, evil spirits, specters, banes, eldritch horrors, and more. There are many things called "demons" in the World of Darkness, and the Baali are willing to deal with or enslave most of them.
@@notsae66 Yes lots of them, any spirit entity or whatever can masquerade as a demon. The real "demons" the Luciferian ones laugh and manipulate some of the more guillable and ignorant Baali. The knowable veteran longer lived Baali know the differences between these so called "demons: and manipulate them back
@@jordanetherington1922 side note: as far as I know the eater of souls part of the Triatic Wyrm is one that’s most connected to Oblivion
Daimonion only has a Oblivion Connection in V5. Before that, Necromancy, Obtenebration and Daimonion where three very distinct disciplines.
Also: Connections between the Wyrm, Demons and other seemingly similar entities exist only in Crossover campaigns, a thing for which the cosmologies of the different Splats never was designed - too much contradiction in the origin myths alone.
And we haven't started talking about the mechanical problems of the different Systems... how do you roll against Humanity / Rage / Arete if the other Systems don't have a equivalent? Just to give you one quick example..
The comparison of Vicissitude and Moliate was very much a laugh out load moment for me. Bravo.
I substitute your absurd vampire claim and will it around my paradigm orbit
in my game, the ashen lady actually was instrumental in the creation of the Kiasyd. so they can be used as a weapon vs. vampires. the Kiasyd are the eyes and ears of the ashen lady in vampire society. While the ashen lady hates vampires in general she really hates the Ventrue , the lasombra, and the Hecata. in particular. anything to do with the Roman empire hierarchy is particularly hated by her. (in this case Ventrue, Lasombra, Cappodacians). Of the vampires , that can have civilized more or less interactions with her are the Gangrel, Lhianan, Brujah. assamites who are viewed as enemies of Roman empire.
A Tex talks battletech video, a Hunter the parenting by Alfabusa vid and a Burgerkrieg lore Movie!, This end of year is being awesome!!!!!
Ah a fellow follower of The Black Pant's legion is here as well! Welcome and well met!
And I see quite a few resemblences between Tex and TheBurgerKrieg. In depth lore. Ample irony and sarcasm, and very long videos that never seem quite long enough.
The Parenting sucks. Alfabusa ceased being entertaining when he got scared of legal action from Games Workshop that was never going to happen. He just got tired of doing the TTS/Corvus and Vulkan stuff and instead of just being honest about it he made up a story about avoiding problems with GW.
I fucking love how weird the Underworld is. Like there's just shit in there that makes no sense and was probably never human in the Tempest or in the Far Shores.
Based. The underappreciated middle child of OWoD
I would love you to do a series like your World of Darkness ones for Call of Cthulhu.
Wow! I really enjoyed that. It was just what I was looking for. Wraith is a hard game to get your head around. So much going on, it’s hard to see how it all would come together in practice. I sure would be willing to hear about more!
Thank you for this absolute gift a video that I was able to send my players as a system crash course.
I totally love the idea that the Ladies of Fate are just one Chakravanti Magi who has unlocked the spheres required to perfectly copy themselves, and they're just in the shadowlands because Mundus is too risky and they're too paradoxical in nature to exist there anymore
I just discovered your channel and I absolutely would love to hear more WoD lore/info from you. Helps me get through my shifts at work too!
I've always found the idea of the Neverborn frightening. These Lovecraftian monsters squatting in the afterlife, ready to end the universe forever. Even death isn't safe from them.
"Any word ya know that ends up in "-cide", good to fair chance it's gonna come up. East side, west side, it's all there!"
I know this is a trigger warning but it sounds like you are trying to sell something by saying it has every feature known to man lol
Great video btw love your long lore videos
Your mom entry joke had me ambushed. Couldn't stop laughing for some reason 😂
Very cool to see a video like this on Wraith, been really enjoying the videos going splat by splat.
However, I need to know which VTM campaign book you’re referencing that just casually has a 2nd generation vampire turn-up. Not naming it ahhh! XD
it's Becketts Jyhad Diary iirc
Thanks for covering this setting. I always thought it was incredible
A concept I think would be interesting that I dont think *anyone* has ever done, in WTO or otherwise: What about the ghost/wraith of somone who died young enough that they have no actual memory of being alive? That they were, effectively, born and raised already dead, in the world of the dead? Raised by the kind souls (or perhaps unkind souls) of deceased strangers who stumbled upon the screaming ghost of a stilborn? What would that do to your psychology? To your perception and outlook on the world?
This is probably a concept so spectacularly fucked up that even the perennial edgelords at White Wolf would not have touched it with a ten foot pole, but I think it could be an interesting character.
Great Video, loving the WOD stuff. would love to see your take on changeling at some point!
15:31 oh shit, the shadow being controlled by another player is actually a really cool idea!
It’s literally cool enough that it would be the sole reason I play the game... not that there aren’t more reason, but that one would be what sold me on it.
Holy shit this is so cool! I both want to play this and worry my mental health will suffer if I do...
Do not play It. This game IS mature and It takes a toll on you. Speaking from experiênce
This was perfect to listen to while baking a difficult recipe for the first time; thanks for making it so long!
I love these my guy, very pleasant listening experience :)
I really loved crossing over the 90s versions of these (what was that? 3e? 4e?). I had two groups of three players, one playing Hunters, the others playing Wraith, all set in a haunted house over the course of one night. Most fun one-shot I ever GMed! The players were set up in two separate rooms, each with their own GM and they would play a round, the other GM and me would resolve it among ourselves in the hallway and then give feedback to the players.
Also, nice thing about the original Hunters: you didn't have to involve the Second Inquisition. You could just let them be lone wolves, people who awakened and realized there was something horribly wrong with the world. Obviously that was a hardcore setting where you could easily die, but (I think I made that a house rule): Hunters looked, even to Vampires with Auspex, like normal people unless they used their powers or senses. So being stealthy, inconspicuous and never ever leaving evidence or witnesses were all key to life as a hunter. That and having a backup character sheet ready and filled out, of course. But if you like super hard settings and have very capable players, this can be lots of fun.
YES! I've been super looking forward to this ever since the last VtM lore video.
Bruh wheres my Technocracy videos damn
Dont mind me, just here in representation of the Garou Nation.
Seriously, that game changed my worldview in many things.
Great video! I always enjoy the WoD lore - you learn something new every time you look at even the basic bits.
I can't wait for you to do changeling thanks so much for doing these I love this series
This was such an interesting watch, never thought Wraith could be so interesting!
I really wanna see an episode on Hunters in WoD, what with Alfabusa's series on them.
I agree. The Imbued are mankind's greatest hope....and can be even scarier than the vamps LOL
@@Wastelandman7000 this person thought the imbued still mattered... im not bitter
I had no idea the Orzhov Syndicate had so much lore!
Hey, you don't have a playlist for your world of darkness videos, you should make one!
Up until the last few years before Time of Judgement I was completely uninterested in Wraith. But then a friend explained exactly how deeply connected it, and especially the events of the Sixth Great Maelstrom, were to the entirety of the rest of the World of Darkness.
The end of the Wraith product line was the catalyst for the end of the entire rest of the cosmology, coinciding with the destruction of Enoch and the (True) Black Hand, the awakening and subsequent destruction of the Ravnos Antediluvian, the Resurrection of the Mummies, the ascension of the Children of Osiris, and probably other events that I'm forgetting.
It was the reason that after 1999 there were more Risen than any other supernatural creature (possibly more than all of them combined), and thus the reason for the imbuing of the Hunters by some unknown force that may have been the last two Angels, the personifications of Yin and Yang, or the Weaver herself (assuming these aren't all just the same entities to begin with). It's the reason the Fallen (who are either literal Demons who sided with Lucifer during the Fall, or unspeakably ancient and powerful Specters who have been "confused" by millennia of mythology and the memories of the humans they inhabit, depending on what part of the lore you prefer ) escaped the Abyss. Everything that happened post-'99 was, in some measurable way, not just connected to but BECAUSE of the fall of Stygia.
Oblivion (the book/event) set the stage for the Final Nights and every conceivable end of days in the WoD in such a masterful way that it stitched the grand metaplot together if you wanted it to, or could be mostly ignored if it didn't fit into your game world. It made me regret that I had never paid attention to the Wraith product line until after it was already discontinued.
Loved this video and the WoD lore vidoes in general! I've avoided most of their 5th Edition products. It's a bit petty, but I'm still kind of disappointed in White Wolf for walking back the Time of Judgement and continuing the universe. Every single product line in the WoD was explicitly driving toward the literal, inevitable end of the world. Every single supernatural society *knew* that it was coming, and soon. The tension of it built over the course of a decade and change, and that palpable feeling that the game world was truly building toward its own end is one of my biggest sources of nostalgia in tabletop/LARP gaming. I was in the room at GenCon when they announced they were actually pulling the trigger... still have the T-Shirt somewhere... and I was impressed that they actually had the balls to do it.
Seems like such a waste of all that time and effort, building such a complex and interconnected cosmology constructed entirely for the purpose of a grand finale, only to Ctrl+Z all of the assorted apocalypses and just... keep going. But it's certainly nice to walk back down memory lane with the older content like this!
There were some mummies before 1999.
Another aspect you might have forgotten was the Avatar Storm in Mage. It disconnected demiplanes from Earth and began separating an Avatar from the meat body of a Mage. It also made it deadly for mages to pass to the Umbra, especially more powerful mages.
I wanna see the campaign derailed by an ancient, horrendously powerful Homunculus.
Like Vamps teaming up with wolves and hunters style shit hitting the fan.
if wraith is depression the rpg then werewolf must be anger management
1:04:35 that is me alright. Now I know my Legion. Thx.
Loving the video keep up the dope work
I guess One could call this Vampire: The Masquewraith.
Wraith was always my favorite. I had a full set of all the Wraith books in college. No one ever wanted to play it because it was intimidating. I ran it a few times. Never got to play it 😭
Great videos! Feels like being taught lore by Matt Berry!
1:58:00 So I am incredibly curious, what is this vampire scenario? I kinda wanna go find it to read it at least to know about whatever the hell it is.
Wasn't Wraith the one with Charnel Houses of the Shoah? It'd be super interesting hear that made more approachable
EDIT: Yep, here it is, proof, it was my idea, clearly I'm a genius
I'm just here waitnig for you to enter the frame from the right for a change XD
Also I'd argue about a crossover potential. Changelings have solid links to at least four other lines: Bean Sidhe for WtO, Maeghars for VtM, Fiona/Fiana for WtA and a lot of quarrels with Mages
I just wondered why were you looking so much toowards your arm haha, the one holding the sock-mic. I'm intrigued. Pls do werewolf or fae next. Want to know more from them. Just know deeply Vampire and a bit about werewolf and mage, but this helps me to get to know more of WoD universe.
"...and Moliate is Michelangelo with a laser printer" - Liking just for that quip, lol