Onryo

Introduction

Onryo are memories of the fallen reborn into the spirits of Avernus. You begin with a Free Racial Merit for the Apparation of an Onryo when playing as one.

Fast Facts

• Population: 1,000+
• Lifespan: As Current Subrace / Indefinite
• Height: As Current Subrace
• Weight: As Current Subrace
• Racial Merit: Onryo have a Free Racial Merit in Apparation.

Racial Abilities:

Spirit of Memory

Onryo are Cambion, living spirits of flesh and blood. Following their death in just a month of Antarok time, they arise in a body construed from the soul of a ghost, usually one with an exceptional attachment to the world, and gain its appearance, any racial abilities, and memories of how that being died and what it cared about. However, they lose most of the memories of their old lives, gaining them back fractionally as they resolve the attachments of their current body. These memories will still feel so distant that every life of an Onryo feels as if they are a new identity with insights into the lives of someone else.

Functionally, an Onryo may reassign its experience as they wish to take the place of someone who has died, other than themselves, or to form a hybrid between these identities. They must spend any additional Merits for the Glamour that body possessed, and may not be reborn with other Arcana aside from ones wielding Miasmata as a Metaphor; however, Onryo have an easier time learning Arcana from a past life due to their memories, as if its presence within their soul had merely fallen dormant. An Onryo with Seeming will have their known past lives as available Imprints.

Denizens of Avernus

As Onryo are Cambion, they are consummate Apparators of Miasmata, and each of them has an instinctual sense for this no matter their current life. Furthermore, they are one of the few living things to enjoy access to learning Remnant, and they may learn to Syphon as well. Only Possession remains difficult for them to learn as any other, but not impossible. They also have a strong attachment to the dead, able to become Nekron by simply longing for the dead of their attachments to rise with intensity.

As A People

Biology

Onryo do not feel pain unless they possess Seeming. This is due to Anima replacing their nerve endings with deadened ones that allow their bodies to move. They can feel other sensations, but these are muted compared to the living. When they finally die, their corpse dissipates into ash. Otherwise, they possess the same biology and lifespan as the life they have been reborn into.

Aging & Reproduction

Onryo are created from a particularly vengeful ghost that obsesses over some aspect of life to the point of psychosis or mental illness. Their attachment is so strong that their soul is twisted by Avernus into becoming a being of memory itself. They cease to be considered a dead mortal any longer, and are twisted by Avernus itself into a Cambion that assumes the living form of a ghost with intense attachments. The memory that broke them is usually the last to be learned in their new life, and this often leads the Onryo to intense catharsis or despair depending on whether it was an obsession for something enjoyed or reviled.

There can be multiple Onryo inhabiting one identity, akin to twins, feeling the same progress as their companions even if the power of their past lives differs.

The Onryo age the same rate as the body they are reborn into, but might be born as a terminally ill old man with days left to live - they are born in that body, without illness, at the same age it died. An Onryo will only die for good when it becomes Apprised and feels no attachments to anything at all, or if its spirit is reduced to a Trace. Nekron could therefor put down an Onryo for good upon felling them.

Sex & Gender

Onryo are born between a smattering of identities, and often struggle piecing themselves together due to the memories of their past lives. Avernus will give them the body of a man or a woman, simply because those are their most potent memories.

Psychology

Past Lives

An Onryo is a being of duality. They are driven to work towards resolving the attachments of the body they inhabit, and are rewarded with more memories of their past lives. Often they will feel the need to resolve some specific regret attached to the body they inhabit, and in doing so they will earn yet more regrets from each of their lives to pursue until they learn the most harmful or enthralling attachment they have ever known in any life. This leads to Onryo being incredibly driven towards often esoteric goals, at times murderous, and uncompromising.

The mind of an Onryo is given the minimum of knowledge and a basic cultural understanding of the society attached to their regrets, from the perspective of the person they are reborn as. This leads to their personalities often being dull at first, yet changing rapidly as they learn more about themselves, in time becoming an amalgam of every life they had led.

Those who have solved each of their attachments and learned about all they are become Apprised, and often go to live in the city of Numina in order to give meaning to their past lives. More commonly, those who cannot handle their memories become Broken under the pressure, and go insane, eventually being culled and forced to start over.

History

Overview

Legends speak of the Onryo, spirit of vengeance, a monster from Avernus driven by singular goals. Those who do not understand them only know the stories, that they will hunt their quarry, and ruthlessly kill any who stand in the way of their goal. But such stories are not the entire truth, for the Onryo have also among their rank esteemed inventors who were reborn to finish their work, artists, and fathers who cared so deeply for their children that they lashed upon the afterlife until it yielded and as the pendulum swung back from Aarda, it granted them the mercy of being reborn out of regret, rather than lacking these attachments.

Given their scarcity, little is known of the Onryo beyond folklore, and tales from those who traipse too far into Avernus and run afoul of the Apprised; some accounts stem from the Broken who war with mortals and pluck their souls for some twisted machination. Often, the Onryo are mistaken for Changelings or Draugr and are put down for the threat they represent.

Origin

Onryo like any spirit are made possible by the nature of the Plane they represent, Avernus. They have always existed in small numbers, dying and being reborn across countless degenerations alongside mortal-kind, for better or for worse.

Society

Rare Wanderers

Onryo have little in the way of a society. Among Cambion, they are only ahead of Rakshasa in their number. With so many of them driven to resolve their attachments, they seep into society, often unaware of what they truly are beyond a few helpful words from the Apprised who might have found them wandering in confusion upon being reborn. Rarely do the Apprised organize beyond helping to administer Numina, and Wayfarers even less so.

Language

Onryo speak the language of their current life and those past lives they understand well enough. If they have Remnant, they are likely to share their memories directly in small snippets to convey truths.

Naming Convention & Titles

The Onryo will know and usually adopt the name of the identity they are reborn as; they functionally feel as if they are that person. Onryo also have a True Name - what they were in their first life - which they will learn after resolving enough attachments.

Castes

Apprised

The Apprised are Onryo who hold themselves together, in spite of accessing the memories of each of their past lives. They are considered natives of Numina and contribute the Mind Palaces of their Remnant to the great city of Avernus. They help to keep the Broken from rampaging on Antarok, caring for the ghosts, the living who need to be guided back to Antarok, and other spirits of Avernus. Not every Apprised is kind, and many will have their own philosophies on life and death leading them to take the lives of those mortals who trespass into the Plane of the dead.

Broken

The Broken are Onryo who are unhinged, with access to the memories of each of their past lives. This has overwhelmed them to the point they have gone insane with rage or despair, dedicated to dwelling upon it or acting out their hurt. Broken are seen as weak Onryo by the Apprised of Mnomonia.

Wayfarer

Most Onryo are Wayfarers, still caught in the loop of finding themselves. The Apprised will discover Wayfarers and help them to understand what they should do with their lives, to resolve their attachments and one day return to Numina.

Notable Settlements

Numina

Numina is a great city of the dead within Avernus. Led by the Arche of Avernus, the Apprised work to contribute their memories to the largest city in all the Planes.

Related Articles

• Miasmata
• Avernus
• Spirit
• Ghost
• Apparation
• Syphon
• Remnant

Antarok Handbook

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