Mythic Ghost

The Mythic Ghost
Death. The ultimate inevitability. All things come to end, have ended, or will end. It is the nature of entropy, of the universe at large. Lives exist to end, cities to be crumbled, dreams to be crushed. Mortal creatures do not carry the strength or the importance to truly matter on their own, so this is their fate. The arcane, the divine, the world beyond, strength of arms, a grandiose legacy or destiny, none are enough to tip the scales in favor of mortality. Even the Titans, unending in their grandiosity even now, have long perished to living-dead memories and energies and influence free floating through existence.

But this was not always the truth. In the beginning, there was naught to worry on in that regard. The punishments for failure or war were nothing upon the immortal, unyielding, unending life of the Titans. The very concept of the end was one that largely a non-factor, little more than a pipe dream in the back of the most paranoid Titans minds. Until She arose, and with her, came the night, and with the night came death. But between the two events was another of grave importance in the narrative that was life. This was, of course,The Death, and subsequent Life, of that which became The Abomination.

The post-death Abomination was a nightmare, not merely in terms of appearance and action, but in how his death affected the sprawling world-to-be in its infancy. If a Titan could die, what hope had any of their creations? Now that he was dead, or should be dead, what would need to be done with he? What about any that died after? Should some before have died? It would take much deliberation and delegation, creation and destruction, to organize living things with a purpose in death beyond simply more life. And thus were the tasks of three new alive-in-death remnants, echoes of his death.

The first to crawl from the black swirl of the Abominations beating, useless heart was Structure. Born of rigidity and practicality, Structure would be he who made the first mortal thing. But the experiment was not strong enough to stand on its own in the chaos of the world. He was followed closely by another, The Husk. The Husk could not create at the level of Structure, but when he saw the first mortal thing crumble and fall, he covered the next in decorum and flesh and muscles and tissues, and it could stand! It could operate on its own, but had no reason to do so. And thus the sister force was born, the Titan of Purpose. She could not build or create at any level, but with a touch did she imbue her wills into the thing, and it, honestly and truly, became alive.

The Titans largely ignored the mortal beings, seeing them as little more than specks upon their immortal visages, but the Gods, the golden children who had slain the first Titan. Saw in them possibility. Worshippers, workers, play things. agents of their will. And so they spoke unto the three a request. And thus were the mortal life was worked and shaped into forms more effective or beautiful or abstract, whatever came to mind was drawn out in great numbers, while Titans and Gods and all manner of creation fell around them and their work space. And when the time finally came, they accepted death with grace, knowing that their creations would echo their lives until entropy consumed all things.

The primary mortal is made up from this trinity, though some have more of an inclination towards one of the facets over others. The children of The Husk are shells, hollow and empty, shambling bodies without structure of direction, doing as they wish how they wish. In a word: Zombies. The children of Structure lack The Husks decorations or Purposes drive to ascended, and instead meander on in their most basic form, a terrifying reminder of what all of us are on the inside. And then there are the children of Purpose. There’s is a tale truly heartbreaking, for they continue to hope and to want and to strive, but they cannot. The world around them refuses to allow it. They are without form, but not without being. Free floating life essence damned to walk, damned to dream on with neither form nor being. These are the Ghosts.

NEW FEAT: Transcending the Impermanent Legacy
Prerequisites: A Soul

Benefits: Somewhen, Some way, something within you didn’t go quite right, and you’re body and soul became unsynced. You are a paradox, a divided union, two wholes in one being. Your body is little more than a shell for the source of your existence: The Soul. With times, you may come to this conclusion yourself. You do not gain the effects of this feat immediately. Rather, the next you die, you experience the chilling and life changing shell shock that comes from revival without your soul, even just for a moment. While your soul does return to you within moments of your rebirth, for one instance, you were both alive and dead. Within 24d4 hours of your death, you return to life, taking all the normal penalties for being affected with “Raise Dead”, with the following alterations. (If you body is ravaged by wolves to the point of non-recognition, or your friends actually DO cast Raise Dead upon you, this effect is negated (If the former, you are well and truly dead, and If the latter, the effect will come into play when next you die.) Of some note is that a character's’ body is in a temporary state of "Reboot" upon being woken up. Certain biological functions (Breathing, Blinking, Fear of being in a little wooden box 6 feet underground), can take a bit of time to come back to the body, usually until the body becomes fully exposed to sunlight again. The next time you gain a character level, making up the difference between what you are and what you were before death, you must take a level of a Mythos class. When you do, you gain the effects of this Feat. Choose one Mythos-granting class that you have levels in. You may treat the following Mythos as if they belonged to that class. You now heal from Negative Energy, rather than Positive Energy, if you did not previously, and count as a Ghost for purposes of meeting prerequisites. This counts as Tomb-Tainted Soul for purposes of prerequisites. The Restless Dead

Of course, sometimes the call of life is too strong to worry about whether you have taken the necessary precautions or not. If you already possessed levels in a mythos class, and a Mythic Archetype Feat, when you die, if you meet the above prerequisites, you may cash in that archetype feat for this one, replacing any mythos granted by that feat with mythos granted by this one.

If you are an Incorporeal Undead, you may take this feat at any point, and gain the associated benefits. If you possessed the Rejuvenation special quality, you lose it when you take this feat. If a specific feat is forced upon you from your incorporeal undead template (Such as Toughness), you may trade it for another feat you meet the prerequisites. If you are forced to have specific ability scores, you may remake them, as per the rules of ability score construction for your group, and you gain an intelligence score, if you did not have one already.

Eidolons Wailing Antipathy-Generator
Prerequisites: -

You gain Dreadful Wrath and Fearsome and Fearless as Bonus Feats.

As a standard action, you may let loose a howl of fear and hatred that you heard so much in those fleeting moments where your soul was in the between world. This manifests as a cone of vile noise out to 60 feet, as well as a 10 foot area around you. All creatures, and inanimate objects, in the affected area take 1d6 points of Sonic damage per 3 class levels, the damage doubling against Crystalline and Glass structures and creatures. Any creature adjacent to an unattended object that is broken by this effect takes 1d6 additional points of damage as the objects bursts besides them. Creatures within 20 feet must make a Fortitude save or be deafened for one minute. Creatures at 0 or Negative hit-points must make a fortitude save or perish immediately, their very souls fleeing in terror from their broken bodies.

Any creature in the area of this howl is also affected by an intimidate check from you, with a bonus on the check equal to twice the number of Mythos you possess from the “Transcending the Impermanent Legacy” feat. This is a Sonic Fear Effect. Creatures within 10 feet of you when you make this howl take a -5 penalty on their save against the effect.

Lastly, for one hour after you utilize this mythos, you are surrounded by a 10 foot aura of wailing moans and groans from excess spirits begging for the release you received. This imposes a Penalty on Listen checks made by any creature in the aura equal to your class level, as well as a -5 penalty against Fear Effects from yourself and from incorporeal creatures.

Lifeline-Dissecting Specter Blade
Prerequisites: -

The excess energy of your spirit, unaccustomed to the restraints of your mortal body, begins to seep outwards, coating your hands and feet in a thin, nearly unnoticeable layer of Ectoplasm. This grants you the Improved Unarmed Strike feat, and your unarmed attacks are treated as having the Ghost Touch weapon enchantment.

As a standard action, you can lay a hand upon a creature as a melee touch attack, expunging excess ectoplasm into their body. This attack deals 1d6 points of damage per every two class levels to the creature, as you overload their soul with your own, attempting to eradicate them at the basest level. This attack does not affect creatures without Souls (Such as most Constructs or Undead), but deals d8’s worth of damage to Incorporeal Undead, as their soul is much easier to reach out to.

If a creature is killed by this effect, their lifeforce has more difficulty returning to their body. Any caster attempting to raise a creature killed in this way must make a caster level check against your class level to successfully ferry the creature’s soul back to its body. Ghosts killed by this effect remain dead, removing their ability to access the “Rejuvenation” ability granted by their template. Every time you kill an Incorporeal Undead through the use of this ability, you may heal a number of hit-points equal to its hit-dice, as you absorb the excess soul energy into yourself, bolstering your own lifeforce.

Phantasmal Boundary-Pushing Continuance
Prerequisites: -

Your body and soul have made a dark deal of sorts. Your soul has agreed to return to your body, but only if it be allowed a more prominent role in its overall being. While the exact nature of this pact is still something of an enigma, its effects are not so mysterious.

As a full-round action, you may manifest your soul to be on the outside of your body, rather than the inside. This manifests as your corporeal form appearing to carry with it a light glow, akin to a candle, and making your body somewhat translucent. You may also take on an unusual hue to your glow, such as a light blue or sickly green. While in this form, any natural armor you may have had becomes a deflection bonus instead.

More importantly is how this use of your soul affects how you interact with the world. You ignore objects and constructs with a hardness of less than (Your class level - 3). At level 7, this decreases to -2, at 13 it decreases again to -1, and at level 19, you ignore all objects with hardness of your class level. You may enter or pass through solid objects, but must remain adjacent to the object’s exterior, and so cannot pass entirely through an object whose space is larger than your own. Enemies have total concealment (50% miss chance) from you while you are inside an object. In order to see farther from the object or attack normally, you must remove yourself from the object. If an object is destroyed while you are within it, you take xd6 points of damage, with x being equal to the object’s hardness.

This proves to be both a blessing and a curse, as, although walls and locked doors may no longer be a problem for you, you may also have a hard time taking up arms or wearing armor that was easier to wield in your true form. Any items with a hardness less than the amount that still affects you falls to the ground, assuming the item is not designed to be used by incorporeal creatures. Likewise, although some weapons will pass directly through, others, those designed for use against Incorporeal Creatures, will double their normal damage when against you.

The softening of your mortal form with a thin layer of soul stuff also makes you more difficult to perceive, to the uninitiated and the mundane. You gain a bonus to Move Silent checks equal to your class level while surrounded by your soul stuff, and have a 5% chance per class level to not activate any weight or pressure based traps. You also take half as much fall damage as a usual creature. This also makes it difficult for you to leverage your weight against creatures, granting you a penalty to trip and grapple attempts made in this form equal to your class level.

You may exit this form, bringing your soul back to your insides, as another full-round action.

Malevolent Mortality Reshaping
Prerequisites: -

You gain a bonus to saves against effects made to discern truth from your person, such as Discern Alignment or Zone of Truth, equal to your level.

As a full-round action, you can alter how you are perceived by the world of the living. This allows you to change your physical appearance, your clothing, your weapons, or your armor, each as a different full-round action, suffusing residual life energy with the materials of the world. Armor remade in this way applies half its armor bonus to attacks against incorporeal creatures, and weapons remade in this way always affect incorporeal creatures at half damage (This is superceded by the Ghost Touch enchantment, should you have it). Unfortunately, such materials are unnatural and alien to the world, reverting back to its original form should it be removed from your person. Obviously, this does not apply to your body.

Doing so grants you a +20 bonus to Disguise attempts made to not be yourself, or a +10 if you take the form of a specific individual. As a separate full-round action, you may reveal unto the world the face of a true phantom. This grants you the Frightening Presence ability, save that the saving throw is treated as a mythos. The DC of the save increases by 1 for every (20 - Your Class Level) Hour Periods you spent with the creature in friendly conversation or similar non-threatening company.

Lifeforce Repurposing Spirit-Embrace
Prerequisites: One Mythos granted by the “Transcending the Impermanent Legacy” feat

As a full-round action, you may make a melee touch attack against a creature with your hit-dice or less. Success allows you to pump into the creature a massive quantity of your spirit energy, functionally allowing you to poison the creatures own soul with your own.

The creature may now choose to make a fortitude save. On a success, they take 1d6 points of vile energy per two class levels you possess, as your soul stuff is ejected out of their body, there own spirit energy still amalgamated into it. On a failure, your spirit energy makes contact, and finds itself a place to call home within the new vessel. Your soul, your mind, and your body have suffused into this creature. And they are yours to play with.

The creature need not know that you are within their body. You may decide when you wish to overtake the mind and body of your new spirit host as a standard action, a second standard action required to give them back their free will. While you are enforcing your will on the creature, you may command it to do as you wish, using both your and their memories, thoughts, and processes to send to the singular body the best way to accomplish the task. When speaking under your influence, your subject's’ voice becomes a twisted combination and desynchronization of its own and your voice. While your host is in control of his actions, you may utilize whatever mental abilities or skill you have access too, even whispering information or ideals into the head of your host.

When in combat, your control becomes more exact, but also looser. Both your host and yourself roll initiative, and take separate full-round actions on your own initiatives through your singular body. You may use the higher of your own or your host's’ physical stats, but your host may only use its own. Likewise, you may use your hosts or your own supernatural/extraordinary/spell-like abilities, but they may only use their own. Hosts may make an additional Will Save to resist committing acts that they would never commit in life, though if even a shadow of the possibility existed within their minds, you may force them to realize these truths. Suicidal Actions cannot be carried out unless the subjects challenge ratings is equal to (Your hit-dice - 5) or lower.

You can live comfortably within the shell of another for a number of days equal to half your level. Each day, your host may attempt another Will Save to break themselves free of your control. Should your host perish while you are within them, you take damage equal to (Their Hit-Dice x 5) and are expelled from their body into an adjacent square. As a full-round action, you may Voluntarily expel yourself from a creature, relinquishing free will back to the original creature.

Wraithen Graven-Horror Shroud
Prerequisites: One Mythos granted by the “Transcending the Impermanent Legacy” feat

Your body constantly expels a mist most associated with the land of the dead, a formless, unmoving, heavy grey that blankets the land around you. While it is contained within you, it may appear as but whiffs and streaks of smoke, expelling from your wounds and your mouth. But should you choose to release it, it becomes altogether more horrible.

You gain a bonus to saves against any source or Cold Damage or Death Effects equal to your class level as your body constantly attunes and adjusts to an unearthly cold drawn only from the grimmest afterlife.

As a standard action, you may release an inordinate amount of this otherworldly mist into the area around you. This manifests as a 30 foot radius cloud that surrounds your body. It will not move on it’s own, but it will remain fixed around you so long as you dedicate a swift action each round to maintaining its motion. Unlike normal mist, this mist is spectral in nature, and will not be disrupted by effects such as being under water or strong winds.

Any Incorporeal creature within your otherworldly mist (Not including yourself, should you be incorporeal) are treated as Corporeal in all ways so long as they remain in the mist. The mist also grants concealment to all creatures inside against any creature, other than yourself, more than five feet away. Any creature who enters the mist must make a Will Save. On a failed save, creatures MUST attempt saving throws against “harmless” spells and effects (Cure Light Wounds and Guidance, as examples), and will not willingly leave the mist on their own turn. A new save can be attempted after the initial failure as a standard action.

In addition, as a standard action, you can cast your gaze upon any creature currently occupying your otherworldly mist, forcing them to make a Will Save. On a failed save, the creature is filled with dread and paranoia. Paranoid creatures take a -2 penalty to attack rolls, damage rolls, skill checks, and ability checks, and become incapable of distinguishing friendly creatures from enemy creatures. This effect lasts as long as you continue to focus your gaze upon them, and for one round afterwards.

Dominion Grasping Revenant Might
Prerequisites: Two Mythos granted by the “Transcending the Impermanent Legacy” Mythos

You have evolved beyond the need for a physical body. Your spirit, your soul, your very life force, has already had a tenuous grasp of corporeality at best, now it can truly manifest. As a liquid changes shape to fit a container, your soul changes volume to better encapsulate the area it finds itself. It melds, molds, and bonds with it, becoming something entirely unique in the process.

As a full-round action, you may release your soul into the area you find yourself. You become two beings, your Soul, which has the incorporeal subtype and all associated bonuses, and your Body, which becomes inert and useless while the two are separate. Your Soul maintains all the usual abilities and bonuses it had in its living form, assuming they can still be used in their new capacity, while your body is considered completely helpless, and has a number of hit points equal to twice your hit-dice.

However, despite being a separate entity, your soul is not entirely free to go about as it wishes. When your soul is released, the entirety of the building it finds itself in becomes its Domicile. If you are not within a building, your Domicile encompases an area with a radius of 100 feet per class level, usually focused around a central point (A forest, graveyard, or crossroads not being unusual.). Both your Body and your Soul must be within your domicile to gain the following effects of the mythos. Your soul cannot leave the domicile by any means, and if the body is brought out of the Domicile, you may snap your soul back within your body as an immediate action at any time.

While your soul and body are separate, and you are within your Domicile, you may utilize the following effects as a free action: As a Swift Action, you may Replicate the effects of any of the following spells: As a Move Action, you may: As a Standard Action, you may: Any creature that perishes within your Domicile cannot be raised as an undead by any creature, unless you will it, Each time a creature dies while in your Domicile you may, as a free action, invest its spirit energy into yourself, healing yourself of any hit-point damage and ability score damage you are currently suffering from. All of the above abilities assume that you are familiar with the area you intend to manipulate. You must have at least visited the area in passing to be able to affect it. (That is to say, you cannot walk into a new dungeon, claim it as your Domicile, and activate each and every trap before you know where they are, or spy upon the sleeping dragon in the bowels of the pit you did not know was there.)
 * Speak or make other forms of sound from any point you are familiar with within your domicile. This allows you to utilize the Bluff, Diplomacy, or Intimidate skill as normal, and may use other similar social skills, though you may run into some complications.
 * Make Spot and/or Listen checks as though you were anywhere and everywhere you are familiar with within your Domicile. You may only do this once per round as a free action.
 * Activate, Deactivate, or Reset any mechanical traps you are aware of within your Domicile, such as a guillotine doorway or slowly lowering spiked ceiling Produce Wind of up to ten miles per hour from any point in your Domicile directed in any direction you wish.
 * Inflict Nightmares upon any creature currently sleeping in your domicile. Creatures so afflicted wake up fatigued, and do not count as having spent any amount of time at rest for any purposes.
 * Light or Extinguish any or all mundane light sources (Fireplace, Lantern, Candles, etc) within your Domicile.
 * Shatter any glass, crystal, or similarly fragile unattended object within your Domicile. Creatures adjacent to the object take 1d6 points of piercing damage, with an additional 1d6 damage for every size category above Tiny it is.
 * Animate Rope, Chill Metal, Dancing Lights, Ghost Sound, Heat Metal, Silent Image, Open/Close, Whispering Wind
 * Select one unattended object within your Domicile. This object becomes Animated (as per the spell), with the full intentions of frightening and terrorizing those who wander in, and protecting itself through combat if need be. Animated Objects created in this way may use your Intimidate ranks in place of its own.
 * Produce an otherworldly fog across the grounds of your Domicile. Creatures within fog who do not have at least one aspect of their alignment matching yours take a penalty to Will Saves equal to the number of minutes they spend in the fog.
 * Deal damage to any stone or metal unattended object (Such as a chain holding a chandelier or the wheels on a passing carriage) equal to twice your class level. This damage ignores hardness.
 * Move any number of unattended objects, up to a heavy load, up to thirty feet in any direction, or launch a single unattended object as though it were an improvised weapon of its size. You may use your highest mental ability score to determine this attack roll.
 * Force your inert body to take a Move Action, though only for the purposes of Moving.
 * Teleport yourself to any location within your Domicile, so long as you are not in view of a Living Creature.
 * Deal Damage to any and all Incorporeal Creatures within your Domicile (Other than yourself) equal to xd6, with X being twice your class level. Inflict your will against any creature within your Domicile (Requires “Lifeforce Repurposing Spirit Embrace”. Acts as this mythos, but you need not make an attack roll)
 * Cloud the Area with your Spiritual Mist (Requires “Wraithen Grave-Horror Shroud”. Acts as this mythos, but affects the entirety of your Domicile.)
 * Force your inert body to take a Standard Action

Should your mortal body be destroyed, your soul similarly loses its tethers to the world, beginning to slowly drift away into the afterlife after 1d3 days, during which time it cannot travel away from its Domicile. If it perishes from age or similar natural causes, you will not move on to the afterlife until such a time that you allow yourself to.

You may return yourself to your physical body as a Full-Round Action, assuming you are within the same room (or 100 foot radius, if your Domicile lacks rooms), reinvigorating your body with life, and allowing you to act as normal.

For Those of you Without a Body:

You're soul does not require a shell to remain tied to this world. You can claim an area as your Domicile as a Standard Action, rather than a full-round action, as it is easier for your more malleable soul form to reach out to the world of the living. Furthermore, when claiming an area as your Domicile, you do not require a physical anchor to the location. However, because of this free-flowing nature of your spirit, you are not immune to effects that would force you out of your domicile, nor are the boundaries of your Domicile physical to you, as they would be if had that physical anchor of a mortal body.