Lifeweb is one of the thirteen primary Arcanoi from Wraith: The Oblivion. Wraiths who know Lifeweb can use it to strengthen, weaken, or watch over Fetters.
Even though the Monitors' powers revolve around only one aspect of a wraith’s existence, they are surprisingly flexible. Not only can Monitors monitor their own Fetters, but they can examine those of other wraiths at will. Ties to Fetters can be severed, created, strengthened, or weakened. Monitors do not have an ability to directly fight or damage another wraith, but can be potent foes nonetheless.
A Fetter is one of the most important things a wraith can possess, and Monitors know this. Some Monitors choose to focus on the positive aspects of their abilities by helping weak wraiths strengthen what few Fetters they might have, or by keeping an eye on another’s Fetters. Others choose to use Lifeweb as a force of destruction, working to destroy the Fetters of rivals, or to bribe weaker wraiths into forcing them to keep them from taking out one of their few remaining Fetters. Because of the potential for abuse, the Hierarchy keeps an eye on Monitors, although a few have managed to slip through the cracks of the bureaucracy.
A failure to use Lifeweb properly can range from the minor, such as following a bad link to a Fetter, to severe, where a Monitor manages to sever one of their own Fetters from them.
Basic Abilities
- Locate Fetter: A Monitor may check on any of their Fetters at any time.
Standard Powers
First / Second Edition
Sense Strand: A Monitor can trace a link between a wraith and their Fetters.- Web Presence: A Monitor can affect the area around a targeted Fetter with Arcanoi, or communicate with a wraith in the vicinity.
- Splice Strand: A Monitor can create a temporary Fetter.
- Sever Strand: A Monitor can strip a Fetter from another Wraith.
- Soul Pact: A Monitor can claim a mortal’s soul and turn them into a Fetter.
20th Anniversary Edition
Basic abilities were dropped in the 20th anniversary edition.
The standard powers of Lifeweb are the same as previous editions, with the following exceptions, which replace the skills of the same level or where noted.
- Sense Strand: A Monitor is always aware of the location of their Fetters, and can extend their senses to a Fetter's immediate vicinity.
- Strand Channel: A Monitor can speak through a Fetter, or use their Arcanoi through a Fetter.
- Souls Interwoven: A Monitor can take a willing mortal (or living/undead supernatural) as a Fetter, and in return they can communicate with the Monitor at will, regardless of where either of them is.
Alternate Powers
Wraith: The Great War
Lifeweb abilities during the Great War are the same as the basic abilities and standard powers with the following exceptions, which replace the skills of the same level or where noted.
- Lifeline: A Monitor can create a "pseudo-Fetter" between two wraiths that allows them to work together.
- Fetter Sentry: This allows a Monitor to put their own Corpus between themselves and a Fetter.
- Torsion: A Monitor can send Pathos through the Fetter of a Spectre, reminding them of their humanity, and temporarily paralyzing them.
In addition, there are the following alternate powers:
- Comrades in Arms: A Monitor can bind together a vehicle and its crew and cargo, allowing any Arcanos to be used on them as if they were a single object.
- Moving Haunt: A Monitor can transform a relic vehicle into a soulfire-powered Artifact and Haunt.
20th Anniversary Edition
The 20th anniversary edition introduces the initiate arts, a set of Lifeweb abilities available to members of the Monitors' Guild with sufficient standing.
- Vibrations in the Web: A Monitor can trace a link between other wraiths and their Fetters.
- Movement in the Web: A Monitor can see other wraiths' connections to the living.
- Web Parasite: A Monitor can usurp another wraith's place in the memories of the living.
- Walk the Web: A Monitor can quickly travel to a Fetter.
- Master in the Web: A Monitor can use Sense Strand, Vibrations in the Web and Movement in the Web at will, without Pathos, at the cost of a permanent mentally debilitating condition.
Other Books
- Early Warning (The Hierarchy): A Monitor can place a tag on a mortal that will alert them if the Quick is about to die.
- Following the Web (WTO: The Book of Legions ): A Reaper with the Legion of Fate can find new members of the Legion picked by the Ladies of Fate.
- Shadow Fetter (Ends of Empire): An adaptation of Splice Strand to serve the needs of the Ferrymen, creating a pseudo-Fetter that allows a Fetter-less wraith to survive in the Shadowlands and cannot be torn from them.
References
- WTO: Wraith: The Oblivion Second Edition, p. 148-149
- WTO: Wraith: The Great War Rulebook, p. 74 , 90, 122-123
- WTO: Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition, p. 186-188
- WTO: The Hierarchy, p. 106
- WTO: The Book of Legions, p. 93
- WTO: Ends of Empire, p. 103
| Wraith: The Oblivion Arcanoi | |
| The Great 13 | Argos · Castigate · Embody · Fatalism · Inhabit · Keening · Lifeweb · Moliate · Outrage · Pandemonium · Phantasm · Puppetry · Usury |
|---|---|
| Forbidden | Flux · Intimation · Mnemosynis |
| Dark Arcanoi | Blighted Insight · Contaminate · Corruption · False Life · Hive-Mind · Larceny · Maleficence · Shroud-Rending · Tempest-Weaving · Tempestos |
| Risen | Fascinate · Serendipity |
| Jade | Chains of the Emperor · Way of the Artisan · Way of the Farmer · Way of the Merchant · Way of the Scholar · Way of the Soul |
| Miscellaneous | Alloyed · Behest · Connaissance · Displace · Kinesis · Leechcraft · Tempered |