Editing Geist: The Sin-Eaters (section)

== The Enemies of the Dead ==
From the minute a Bound or a Sin-Eater strikes the Bargain, they are thrown into the realities of life and the afterlife. That means of course...that you're never truly safe. It's important to note however not everything a Sin-Eater runs into is going to hurt you, but the few things that want to...REALLY want to.

=== Malicious Ghosts ===
It might shock you to learn that being a spirit moored to a piece of your past for too long might drive you crazy. Ghosts in GtSE have distinct ranks that go from 0 to 10. The vast majority are in the 0 to 2 range: with 0 and 1 being barely sapient or stuck in a constant loop, and 2 being just normal people without bodies that you might be able to break out of their in-between state if you know what to do. Where it starts to get hairy are Ranks 3-5; they're where the Geists the game is named after live: They're ancient, marginally human, and very sentient. If they're fucking around in a place, the expectation you should have is for a fight, and it's not going to be an easy one. All those things you've seen ghosts do in horror movies? They can do that. You can too, but they can really mess up your day if you're not careful. Reapers are also in this category.

After Rank 6, you're getting into the realm of rulers of Dead Dominions, and Kerberoi. The long story there is try not to piss them off, if you can. They don't have traits or stats. You just don't fuck with those. We'll talk about it later on the page.

=== Reapers ===
There are Malicious Ghosts who are doing things largely for their own benefit, and then there are ''these'' guys. In nine campaigns out of ten, a Reaper will prominently feature as an antagonist in some fashion.

Reapers are largely ordinary Rank 2 Ghosts that have entered a contract with the powers of the Underworld by the way of their Deathmask; an item formed from the remains of a Geist that they often find on the banks of the Rivers of the Dead or buried somewhere, or will have come into them by some other fashion. Putting on that mask will change the Ghost forever, giving them the first sensation they've felt in a good long time, and massively powers them up. All the Underworld asks in return to find ghosts in the above world...and bring them kicking and screaming down below to waste away forever. They can resist or put it off all they want, but putting on that Deathmask means you will be compelled to reap at some point. 

They do this by stalking their prey by whatever means they choose; hunting them, trapping them or tricking them, but the end is always the same once they've caught the ghost. Namely, that they become terrifying monstrosities for just moments in order to swallow the ghost whole...and then the Ghost wakes up, stuck in the Underworld forever, vomited out by the Reaper, their anchor to the world of the living demolished. If a ghost is too powerful, they'll just drop wherever the ghost is into the underworld themselves without any thought to the ghost or the living who might still be in that building at the time...And they see all of that as a good thing, because more than supernatural bounty hunters, Reapers are the enforcers of entropy and the status quo in the Underworld, who install themselves as community leaders and heroes among the River Cities in order to make sure that everyone understands that this is the way things have to be, and that it's good this way. 

To no one's surprise, Sin Eaters and Reapers are consistently at each other's throats because they are natural opposites: The Sin-Eater wants the Underworld to change, and the Reaper will see the Sin Eater's goals as inherently wrong, and will fight tooth and bloody nail to keep it from happening.

=== Barghests ===
Animals, for the most part, do not leave ghosts. It is very rare for an animal to leave any kind of ghost.

When they do, Barghests happen. A Barghest is a catch-all term for any non-human ghost, initially used for the trend of spectral dogs seen in the 16th and 17th centuries, but has since expanded wildly into being any creature that happens to have left a Ghost behind. Most of them live short afterlives, being pulled inevitably into the Underworld and then into the Rivers. Those who can get called away by animal-controlling ghosts get a pet to hang out with. Some of them are your pet dog or cat...but then there are some who are still living the old life, such as Tigers prowling the streets, or feral animals locked in eternal bouts of rabies.

=== Eaters of the Dead ===
Most Sin-Eaters and Geists will interact with and consume plasm through their Bargain, and might even have to forcefully absorb a Ghost or two in order to keep peace or set some other wrong right. That's grim, but it's pretty normal for Sin-Eaters. Eaters of the Dead on the other hand...they're just creeps. Eaters of the Dead practice Ectophagia, or the consumption of ghosts and their plasm, in order to extend their lives or to access some dark powers. Most are, understandably, pretty fucking weird people who hunt alone, but the ways they capture and consume ghosts is three parts disgusting, cruel, and ingenious. The commonality between them all is very simple: They do not care for ghosts as people. They only ever see them as sustenance, or fuel. And your Geist would be pretty tasty.

=== Necromancers ===
Krewes and Sin Eaters can perform ceremonies to both interact with and help the dead, but so can a great many of normal people as it's mostly just words, gestures, scripture and the occasional salt circle. In spite of much of that shit being secret, Many of the normies that accidentally do these rituals are encouraged for their work by Sin Eaters, who correctly recognize their work as exceptionally helpful.

Necromancers on the other hand, know these rituals to openly fuck things up and they don't care how they go about doing things to the dead. They steal power from the Underworld; Plasm, whole ghosts, even Reapers in some circumstances, and they will use them however they see fit. They use the Rituals of the Sin-Eater for evil means, they steal Mementos and begin to collect them obsessively in order to harness the power of the dead, and of course...summon even more terrifying undead. Some might genuinely have no clue what they're doing is actually anything bad, but those who do are bad news and need to be stopped quickly, because the powers of the dead are not to be fucked around with.

Oh and they form cults of like-minded maniacs wielding the dead like clubs against life. Have fun with that!

=== Villainous Bound and Krewes ===
Yes, even the Bound, when confronted with the majesty of a second chance at life, can be complete dicks. Unlike Sin-Eaters, these Bound typically find their way into one of four Krewes that are inherently selfish, vicious, or just plain mean.

====Bonepickers====
Krewes seeking to profit off of the dead. They mainly deal with necromancers and eaters of the dead, selling and buying mementos and ghosts.

====Elysians====
Krewes seeking to create an afterlife just for them. They are often the rich and the powerful and have no interest in other people, just their own pursuit of immortality.

====Gatekeepers====
Krewes dedicated to keeping the dead and the living separate. They see the way things are as how they should be, and anyone trying to alter them as tampering with a perfectly functioning machine.

====Thanatologists====
Krewes dedicated to the scientific study of the dead. They don't care about the ghosts and their unresolved business, and how awful the Underworld is, they just record, study, and experiment to increase their understanding of the world.

=== Cthonians ===
There are the recent ghosts, there are ancient ghosts, there are the Rulers of the Dead Dominions...and then there are these guys. They're the closest thing the Underworld has to a native species.

Cthonians are entirely alien to our understanding; they don't look human, they sure as shit don't act human, and even among the unliving they are freakish. They speak through any number of methods ''other'' than speech, and the big thing they do other than exist is rip through plasm and ghosts like paper, and as such they're usually left alone for the most part, were it not for the massive trails of Plasm that follow in their wake up into their migration routes; the rivers themselves. Generally not looking to pick a fight (that we know of, anyway.); Cthonians are something you '''do not''' want to get snuck up on, or you're toast.

=== Kerberoi ===
The final bosses of the Underworld, for the most part.

A Kerberus, or Kerberoi, are inhuman looking entities who control the Dead Dominions; impossibly ancient, are almost a fundamental force of the Underworld itself, and are keepers and enforcers of the Old Laws; effectively making them demigods inside the deepest parts of the Underworld. They are the reason you do not break the Old Laws inside Dead Dominions; they know instantly whether or not you've done this, and will hunt your ass down to the ends of the Underworld in order to make you pay for it. They have only two saving graces in this regard: They can't really leave the Underworld and don't want to leave their Dominion all that often or for too long, but they have many, many servants and you will be hunted for as long as you can stand or defend yourself by the Kerberoi. Their second grace is that if they catch you; they will ''not'' kill you (most of the time). After all, you can't spread the word about not breaking the law if you died. But you will instead suffer for your crime, suffer in ways you can't imagine or even consider, and your will shatters at any attempt to evade said punishment. And they change in severity and method often: Some Kerberoi have a shitzillion laws that require you to hop on one leg for two minutes and say "I'm sorry" to each passer-by, others might insist on a material payment or recompense...the other ones will crucify you for ten days for breaking the four laws that they've been governing for eons that you couldn't possibly have known about. Being thrown out of the Dominion is probably the ''least'' unpleasant punishment that can happen, and most Kerberoi are not nearly that lenient. 

Oh, and don't bother rules lawyering your way out of it. They've been around the block, they can nail you.

Unless you're absolutely sure you can win, it should be made clear that they have nearly infinite power in their domains, and many of them allow you to exist there on their terms, and the rewards you could gain in their realms are so valuable it's not close to worth it to try and break an Old Law on purpose to gain their attention: Do Not Fuck with the Kerberoi.