Sorcerer: Undead

Youre dead, you idiot. How did it happen? It doesnt really matter, the thing is you cant lie down like decent folk. No, not you. Youve come back. And youve fucking changed, man. You arent the person you used to be. The monkey is on you too, in you really, clawing at you, eating your guts out and shitting darkness into your soul and now you can do things you couldnt do before. So whats your big plan? Do you just walk back into everyones life? Youre dead to these people, man. They grieved. They moved on, or tried to. You shouldve moved on too. But no, not you. You have something to do. So now youre fucking things up for them again. Wasnt the first time enough? As if that wasnt enough, you brought it with you when you came back. You may not remember, but you did it, man, you made the deal because youre so fucking special. Im sorry, I cant be dead, Ive got things to do. Fucker. Heres me bursting your bubble. You arent the only one. Look out there. Theres a few. You can see the monkey in their eyes. They think theyre special too. Some of them loose it. The monkey eats them up inside and they go batshit. Sometimes theyre themselves, and sometimes the monkey has them, really has them, has their will, controls them like a puppet. Those arent the worst though, the hollows are. Theres no man left, just that black monkey in a meatsuit. Theyre almost as dangerous as you are. But it wont happen to you right? It wont eat your soul and turn you. You got control. You can stop when you want. You can even control the others, especially the hollows. Because youre that fucking special. So what you wanted was this fucking important, Huh? Go for it buddy, my money is on the monkey.

2. Setting
Sometime in the near future in contemporary urban and suburban America. Probably east coast such as New York or Boston. I imagine a visual palette like the Matrix or Unbreakable i.e. heavy on the

neutral gray colors with a blue or green cast over everything. Everything should be either very intense in color and action or very quiet and distant.

3. Sorcery
Sorcery here is centered around death. You had a near death experience. This might have been accidential or intentional. It might have been suicide or murder. You might be completely on your own, being coached by someone else, or in a group of people all attempting this together. You might be using ancient rituals or modern medicine.

3.1 Look and Feel of Sorcery

Contacting, Summoning and Binding are all done while the sorcerer is dead. I envision it as a phantasmagorical dream scape kind of experience. Locations are mash-ups of places the sorcerer has experienced in life. The demons, when the sorcerer meets them take the forms of people he knows, particularly close relationships, living or not. Contacting could be writing an email, making a phone call, setting a signal fire or whatever embodies communication in the Between. Summoning would be traveling the Between until you find the demon contacted or meeting it in some specified location. To Bind a demon should involve some form of consumption, taking the demon into yourself. For example, eating the eyes or heart out of it. Opening your own chest and pulling the demon in. Stuffing the demon into whichever orifice seems appropriate or inappropriate. The demon might require that you overcome it before consuming it, by fighting or copulation, for example. Sorcerous powers in the real world are more creepy coincidental than flashy and overtly supernatural. Things jump and happen while youre not looking directly at them. Things move in the hazy edges of vision. Communicating with demons is purely a special effect. Demons tend to communicate in the real world in a couple of ways. If the demon is a parasite then the sorcerer can hear it as a voice over his/her shoulder, sometimes moving. Some demons also cause

audiovisual hallucinations such as causing dead bodies or any person in the sorcerers perception to turn and speak to him in the voice of the demon. When the sorcerer blinks, of course, things are back to normal. However they cannot cause damaging hallucinations without attacking the sorcerer with a combat roll and the appropriate ability. (Think of the movie Fallen, when the demon hops from person to person.) They also might communicate electronically, radios, TVs, cell phones, computers, or videogames.

4. Lore/Humanity
The experience dying is one of experiencing a nothingness so vast as to make moral codes (and damn near everything else) meaningless. Your humanity degrades because in the face of annihilation, things just dont matter. The opposite side of that coin is to make meaningful empathic connection to human beings and the world. Complete loss of humanity (twice, see below) results in the annihilation of the self. Humanity loss rolls would be called for:
neglecting empathic connections to other human beings Deliberate cruelty. Destroying objects that have emotional meaning for you or someone else (reminders and symbols of connections to other people). Emotional abuse. Violating trust. ignoring or anesthetizing your feelings (with drink, drugs, gambling, sex, whatever.)

Humanity gain rolls would be called for:

nurturing empathic connections to other people. helping other people in emotional distress. establishing trust.

Hitting zero Humanity means that living things are, for you, only a means to an end, having no value except as they pertain to death and sorcery.

5. Demons
Demons are brought back as hitchhikers. Some say demons are abstractions, pieces of the abyss that seek definition before they

dissolve again. They seek to drive your humanity down so that they can fuse with you permanently and they can maintain an existence in reality. Others contend that they are manifestations of your own psychology, loosened or uncovered by the experience of dying. The first demon that all sorcerers must have is a parasite. This demon rides back with you during the resurrection then acts as a conduit for you to summon other demons. This demon is special: after youve summoned and bound it, and it has brought you back, your life is tied to its existence. If you or someone else banishes it, you will die. The demon changes with humanity loss. The first time you hit 0 Humanity, you get to renegotiate with it. If you choose not to bind it again, you will die. If you do choose to bind it again, it digs deeper, becoming a posessor. Normally part of this stage is negotiating when it will be in control of your body. Sorcerers who dont do this risk a constant fight with the demon for control of the body. The second time you hit 0 humanity, you and the demon fuse completely, you are annihilated and it becomes a Passer. Passing demons (Hollows) in this game are immanents per Sorcerer and Sword. They can be contacted, bound, pacted, punished, contained but not summoned or banished. The call for them is something sent out by the demon inside you. You can, of course, summon other demons besides your prime demon. You can have other parasite demons inside yourself, but they dont share well. It is possible to put newly summoned demons into others. Whether the demon is willing to transfer out of you is part of your negotiations. Demons starting in someone other than you start as posessors. If you have a possessor in another host then if you hit 0 humanity you have to renegotiate with it, either letting its host die or upgrading them to passers. If a demon is banished, everything that the host knew and experienced becomes part of them. Most demons are chaotic amalgams of all the previous sorcerers that died while attached to them. Talking to them in the Between is like trying to talk at a packed party where everyone is speaking at once, only none of the

conversations ever complete.

The visual I have of this is like this. Imagine being in the crazy dreamscape of the near death experience. The environment is constantly flickering and changing between your childhood home and your parents gravesite. Something that alternately looks like your lover or your mom hands you the knife and bears their chest. You have to cut the heart out and eat it. Then, waking up wherever you decided to summon you go to the body of your spouse who has been in a persistent vegetative state for a year, and spit/kiss/vomit this black ichor into their mouths. (or maybe like the flies that fly from John Coffees mouth in the Green Mile)
There are no Inconspicuous or Object demons. All demons have Vitality as a power which is both healing and effective immortality for the Demons host.

6. Descriptors
6.1 Stamina
Rotting - Bad teeth, bad skin, bad breath ugh, just plain falling apart. However this is not zombie rot, its still within range of what a normal human might be like Violent Death - One or more highly specific features that are evidence of a violent death. It could be obviously fatal or written off as an old injury. It might be able to be concealed by clothing, but if someone sees it you have some explaining to do. Would probably be reflected in price and/or telltale. Good looking corpse - You look totally normal. Too normal. Youre never sick, no pimples ever, etc. Still in the zone: - you are physically okay, but mentally still a bit whacked and in the death-mindset. That translates to hyperalertness and a certain reactivity. With high Stamina, the result leads to competence in action, but with low Stamina and/or failed rolls, you might be a bit jumpy and clumsy

6.2 Will
Wont Let Go - There is something or someone you just cant leave. Existential Dread - Youre so afraid of becoming nothing, you just wont go. Payback is a bitch. - Someone killed you, youre gonna do something about it. Unfinished Business - Your legacy, your lifes work, is not yet

complete, and youre not going until it is. Or you have some promise to fulfill. Lust for Immortality - Youre going to live forever, damn it.

6.3 Lore
Adept - suggested lore 4 - Ancient texts and bizarre death rituals. Fringe science. Apprentice - suggested lore 2 or 3 - As above but with a mentor. Im not alone - suggested lore 2 or 3 - You arent the only one, youve learned by experiment and comparing notes. NDE (Naive) - suggested lore 1 or 2 - You died. Now youre back. You know why. How is less certain. Cabal - suggested lore 2 or 3 - A solid group dedicated to exploring death or power or both.