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| Species | Hanged Tom |
| Order | Corporeal Undead |
| Classification | Undead |
| Dominion | Durosian |
| Sphere | Despair |
| Origin | Early mortals who hanged themselves |
| Lifespan | Inmortal |
| Habitat | Near where they were hanged |
| Food | Lifeforce |
| Description | A mortal with slightly paler skin and a hanging scar around their neck. |
| Corruption | A mortal who seeks to escape justice for some horrible action by hanging themself might become a hanged tom if they had corrupted themselves enough. One who was hanged by others might also become a hanged tom if their crimes were acts of desperation. |
| Esoterica | Hanged toms are beings of msawhat, despair resonance, and desperation. They retain some of their powers from life, warped and distorted, but none of qi, the gates, positive resonances, or heavenly essences. They can learn a few new arts in death, usually hunger, self-denial, other negative resonances, tear energy, Raesian energy, blood energy, viscera, other humors, mijjit, mansam, brown aether, feirua, cacophony, infernum, imperium, sin, parasitic energy, spirits, and Damaskian powers. |
| Special Powers | Hanged toms cause unease in those who are near them. Their gaze causes terror. A hanged tom can sense the people they deem responsible for their death. Their touch causes intense pain and drains lifeforce from their victims. If they kill someone, the person becomes a shambler under their control. If a hanged tom hides their hanging scar, it will shock people to death when revealed if they have convinced the person they are alive. If the body of a hanged tom is destroyed without the appropriate sending, energies, or supernatural means involved, the tom's soul will find another body (living or dead) to possess, altering it to look more like their former body, starting by hanging themself. |
| Necromancy | To intentionally create a hanged tom, one must find someone guilty of crimes of desperation and hang them, or manipulate someone into committing such acts or hanging themself to avoid justice. If the desperation and msawhat corrupting them is strong enough, or if the user applies these energies (18) to them, it will make the body rise as a tom after seven days. To control a hanged tom, one needs a piece of the rope that hanged them or great amounts of msawhat or desperation (18). Summoning is done by whistling a special, ancient tune known only as "the dirge." If one has a piece of the rope that hanged the tom, one can soak it in the tears of an innocent in order to capture the tom and draw power from them. If a tom's body is destroyed, a medium might be able to channel a hanged tom, but there is a great risk of being controlled. |
| Sending | A victim of the tom's crimes from life can send the tom by forgiving them sincerely and placing a flower (usually a yellow rose) on their grave. If the tom had no grave, a place emotionally signfiicant to them will work. If a tom is convinced that they are responsible for their own death, they will be immediately sent. |
| Weaknesses | The destruction of the rope that hanged them will often render them pitifully weak for a long time, until they can find a new hanging rope. Hope resonance is especially effective against them, but any heavenly essence, positive emotion, qi, or the gates can send them as well. |
| Behavior | A hanged tom wants to kill those who they blame for their own death. They spend their time hunting them down, killing them, and enslaving them. Once they have killed all of their alleged killers, they simply take to terrorizing the area and committing new crimes. |
| Dominion Culture | In the Durosian Dominion, hanged toms are part of a dangerous warrior class, elite, violent raiders used to terrorize and control populations. |
| Other Dominions | Hanged toms are not uncommon in other Dominions. Raesians and Srisians grant them greater control over their shamblers. Fellwood gives them a more powerful gaze, and Agikaani makes their touch more painful. Godless makes them hunters of the faithful, and Qhanuum makes them hunt esotericists. Kaanian has them hunt childbearers. Dun gives them a gaze that causes nausea instead of terror, and Pandemonian often finds them to be hanged pirates. They are very common in Campionese and have greater stealth, and in Wapek, their touch is freezing cold. In Sangarian, they have greater will powers. |
| Mortal Interactions | Hanged toms are spoken of by mortals as a warning against crimes and desperation. When one is in an area, rumors and legends usually spread quickly about the outlaw or notorious person who has returned. |
| Afterlife | A hanged tom rarely finds redemption; if they do, it requires many millennia in the in-between. Often, they end up in the Hells, Broken Obelisk, or the Grey Lands. |
| Notables | Maultasch, the Hanged Man; Ma Devers, Hanged Tom Manifest, Desperado Queen; Con Gowers, Ropemaker; Jhaulcress, Lost Tom |
| Special Classes | Bandit, Robber, Killer, Ropemaker |
| Sample Stats | PRO 15 ATH 11 STR 12 AWA 9 Perception 14 Hunting Sense 18 WIL 13 ROG 14 Unease Presence 10 Gaze 14 Hanging Scar 18 Touch 18 Shambler Control (WIL) Body Possessing (WIL) |
GrandGuignol
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