Geist
Spirits of peoples returned, the geist are ghostly undead that keep some semblance of their past existence. Halted from their passing into the afterlife, geist are often deeply tied to objects, people, or places. Geist in their undeath must possess some vessel or animate some form to carry out their will. Many believe the geist are emergent, as even death was forced to relent, as the endless slaughter of the War of Extinction proved too great.
Geist emerge from the peoples of Kyme, as this state of undeath takes them. Hollow spirits of what they had once been, yet unlike other ghastly undead that crave only to destroy life, they hold on to aspects of their will to exist.
Geist Names. Retaining the names they held in life, often seeing their undeath as a continuance of that life. Yet, many geist will see their undeath as a new existence, taking on an identity fitting their state of undeath.
Geist Attitudes. Holding to a semblance of who they once were, geist exist in a state of high emotion, from mania to melancholic. This only heightens the outlooks they might hold of other peoples. Though geist often feel disconnected, as their thoughts are dominated by the boundless mists they gaze into on the Ethereal Plane.
Geist Traits
Undead Emergence - You choose one of the following prime races: dark elf, draconic, dwarf, human, or lycan. You retain the traits of your race, adding the traits of the geist in addition.
Ability Score Increase - Your Wisdom or Charisma score increases by 1.
Age - You appear the same age you were when you met your end. Yet, now that undeath marks you, the passage of time might manifest in different ways. As the years wear on, you might become more ethereal and even more deathly in appearance.
Alignment - You are of the same alignment you were when you died, though death may have changed you in unknowable ways.
Death - Undeath having taken you, your soul is yet another to be entombed in the realm of Dramah, the God of Undeath. Unable to willingly return to the Prime apart from profound intervention and bonds to unlife.
Size - Your incorporeal form changes in relative size with your emotional state, your size is Medium. Though vaguely incorporeal, you still have form and weight, your appearance seems hollow and ghastly.
Speed - You have a walking speed equal to that of your original race if animating or possessing and a 20 foot fly (hover) speed while moving incorporeally.
Undead Nature - You do not require air, food, drink, or sleep, though your spirit must still rest to gain the benefits of a long rest. Also you are considered Humanoid (Undead) in respect to spells, abilities, and effects and magic cannot put you to sleep.
Ethereal Form - You are immune to poison damage and the poisoned condition. You cannot be diseased.
Ethereal Sight - You can see 30 feet into the Ethereal Plane when on the Material Plane and vice versa.
Incorporeal Movement - While you are neither animating objects or possessing a humanoid you can use a bonus action to move through other creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain using your fly speed. Taking 1d10 force damage if you end your turn inside an object or creature.
Animation - You are able to animate objects that you would have been able to manipulate while living. You can interact with objects, granting your form armor, wielding weapons, and other equipment or materials. You can use an action to don your equipment while you can doff the equipment using half your movement. If you move incorporeally any equipment you are carrying or wearing falls to the ground.
Possession - Using your action, one humanoid that you can see within 5 feet must succeed on a Charisma saving throw or be possessed by you; you disappear into the target, and the target is incapacitated and loses control of its body. You now control the body, but it doesn't deprive the target of awareness. You can't be targeted by any attack, spell, or other effect, except ones that turn undead, and retain your abilities, but do not gain access to the target's knowledge, class features, or proficiencies. Your DC is 8 + proficiency bonus + your Wisdom or Charisma modifier.
While possessing the body you gain temporary hit points equal to double the number of hit dice of the creature. The possession lasts until you lose these temporary hit points, you are forced out by an effect like the dispel evil and good spell, end it as a bonus action, or complete a long rest. When the possession ends, you reappear in an unoccupied space within 5 feet of the body and if any effect other than your willing ending of the possession caused you to emerge, you emerge with 1 hit point. The target is immune to your possession for 24 hours after succeeding on the saving throw or after the possession ends. You can use possession once with this trait and regain this ability after a long rest.
Languages - You know the languages you knew in life.
Geist Undeath Feat
Ghastly Being. Prerequisite: Geist
Your state of ethereal undeath has now drawn you nearer to the untethering of your spirit. You gain the following abilities:
When using your Possession trait you now regain its use if the creature you target succeeds on the saving throw against it. The creature is still immune to your possession for 24 hours.
While using your Incorporeal Movement you now have a fly (hover) speed equal to your walking speed.
Geists of the Races
Dark Elf. Geist among the dark elves are held at arms length from the rest of their kin. Often serving still the Malanhi Empire or as undying sentinels of sacred places or wealdways. As elves venerate their ancestors, a dark elf geist is seen as a solemn boon for an elven house.
Draconic. Seeing geist amongst them as contentious, the draconic attempt to keep draconic geist from fomenting revanchist attitudes. The draconic diaspora has caused many draconic geist to break with their peoples ways, and wander as lone sellswords.
Dwarf. Geist within dwarven culture are viewed as undead beings and are outside the will of the gods. Yet, dwarf geists might bond themselves to serve the clan as protectors of ancient vaults or even to recover lost treasures of the clan.
Human. As varied as any, human geist are the most prevalent, though still as undeath has taken them and most humans are unsettled or even abhor their presence.
Lycan. Geist within the lycan packs are held as apart from nature's cycle, as undead they are counter to the druidic beliefs lycan hold. Lycan geist will almost always be outcast from the pack, pitied and shunned.
Spirits Returned
Geist are spirits of the dead, lingering at the ethereal borders between life and the afterlife. Emerging from myriad circumstances: a person slain where necromancy has tainted the land. The disturbance of remains drawing the spirit back from death, or their remains being lost. Even a painful or tortuous death can cause a geist to arise. Yet, unlike the wraith, the specter, or the banshee who are consumed by undeath and seek only to destroy life. Geist are spirits unbound and still cling to the essence of what their life had been. For each geist the nature of their undeath is singular. As geist began to arise during the Grave Tide of the War of Extinction the whole of the world was gripped by fear. Many claimed that the planes had grown weary of the dead and ushered them back unto the prime. Though none truly know how or why geist come to persist in their state of unlife, still retaining so much of what they had once been.
Enduring Death
Marked by death same as any undead creature. Geist often manifest in forms that echo how they died. Meeting their death at the bottom of the seas, such a geist will appear ever as if they are beneath the waves and the smell of salt follows them. Dying in the fires of battle a geist may appear to emanate smoke, still bound in their ashen armor that has grafted to their body. Many geist as years wear on, lose more and more of their features, and often lose more and more of themselves, as if fragments of their soul passes into the Ethereal Plane never to be recovered. Many scholars of necromantic arts and clerics of the grave warn geist they might encounter that they are not immune to undeath's corruption. That they may one day be consumed by their undeath and become yet another foul spirit that plagues the living.
