wraith

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Wraith is a Scottish dialectal word for "ghost, spectre, apparition". It came to be used in Scottish Romanticist literature, and acquired the more general or figurative sense of "portent, omen". In modern fantasy literature, it usually designates dangerous and evil beings following use of the word in J.R.R. Tolkien's Ringwraiths.

Etymology

The word "wraith" was, according to the OED, first attested in 1513, in Gavin Douglas' translation of the Aeneid with a meaning of both "ghost, apparition of a deceased person" and "an immaterial or spectral appearance of a living being".

Also believed to be the image of death in many ways. With a black cloak and a skeletal body a wraith is confused with a messenger of death, or holy figure.

In 18th- to 19th-century Scottish literature, it was also applied to aquatic spirits. In 19th-century usage, it came to be used in a metaphoric sense to refer to wraith-like things and to portents in general.

The word has no commonly accepted etymology; OED notes "of obscure origin" only. An association with the verb writhe was the etymology favoured by J. R. R. Tolkien.^[1]

Modern literature

Tolkien's use of the word in the naming of the creatures known as the Ringwraiths has influenced later usage in fantasy literature.

The word "wraith" is also used in modern fiction to signify the shifting wraiths of T.A. Barron's book series The Lost Years of Merlin and the mortiwraiths of Wayne Thomas Batson's The Door Within Trilogy. Whereas the shifting wraith is a bestial, snake-like predator able to change itself into the form of any animal, albeit always having a feature uncharacteristic thereof, the mortiwraith is an anthropomorphically intelligent, gigantic, cave-dwelling, extremely photosensitive, but also snake-like predator having creased, furry ears, poisonous blood, and many clawed legs, whose quantity increases with the passage of every five years. The use of the word "wraith" for either of these is not explained in either story, though it may relate to the word "writhe".

The Wraith plays a part in the novel Stargazer by Claudia Gray, the second installment in the Evernight series.

In the War of Light and Shadows series by Janny Wurts the Mistwraith is a major plot device. The Mistwraith was in fact a mist made up of countless individual wraiths that in a collective swarm appeared to be mist. The mistwraith blocked out the bulk of sunlight of Athera the main world of the sequence and made the world constantly gloomy.

Within Stephen R. Donaldson's The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever series of fantasy novels, the wraiths are beings that resemble candle flames without the candle.

The Wraith are also a species in the TV series Stargate Atlantis. Much like the evolved version of the word, the Wraith represent an unrelenting evil, bent solely on consuming the entire human populace of the Pegasus galaxy. The Stargate Atlantis Wraith are excellent warriors, feeding on human life force and capable of rapid self-healing, long-range telepathy and mind control. The Wraith live on space ships called Hives and every Hive has a female leader called "Queen". The Wraith are feared for their cruelty but also worshipped by various men and women.

The term is also used in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine TV Series for Pah-wraiths, the evil counterparts of the Prophets.

Video games

"Wraiths" and "death wraiths" are two kinds of enemies in Prey, where they look like flying manta rays with sharp teeth. The former are encountered during the normal game, are translucent white in color, can pass through any part of the level and attack the main character by lunging at him and reducing his spiritual energy, which can be completely replenished by destroying one of them. The latter are encountered during the "deathwalk" levels (special levels that are loaded when the main character dies), are opaque red or blue in color and recharge a small amount of the main character's physical or spiritual energy whenever they are destroyed.

In Final Fantasy XII, a Wraith appeared as a mark after you complete 2 marks. It was known to cast Doom.

In the Halo video games series a Wraith is a large Covenant vehicle.

In the Starcraft video game, the Wraith is a Terran ship, capable of cloaking itself.

In the game The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, wraiths are large ghosts wearing a black cloak who constantly moan.

In the game Rohan : Blood Feud an MMORPG, wraiths are level 28 mages wearing a black cloak and carrying a staff.

In the game Heroes of Might and Magic III, a wraith is a ghostlike creature that steals enemy heroes' mana.

In the game Heroes of Might and Magic V, a wraith is a large ghost with a scythe that is described as, and looks like, Death itself.

In Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, the prince gets transformed into a creature known as the Sand Wraith, wearing a facemask known as The Mask of the Wraith.

The "HVAP Wraith" is also a form of minigun in "Resistance 2", a video game by Insomniac Games.

In Star Wars Wraith Squadron, a pilot/commando squadron was named after something which attacks someone from hiding.

In Primal, the heroine, Jen, can transform into one of four demon forms - one of which is the Wraith.

Role playing games

Wraiths appear in the popular role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons. They are undead monsters that were notorious in earlier editions for their ability to drain energy from a character. They are also noteworthy for semi intangiable features.

Wraiths feature as the main character in the cult role-playing game Wraith: The Oblivion by White Wolf Publishing.

The "Wraith", "Remnant Wraith" or "Death Wraith" are also in the popular MMORPG Lineage 2. The "Remnant Wraith" are high level immortal monsters located near a ruined temple on the Hellbound Island ,usually looking like male ghosts. The "Death Wraith" appears in catacombs / necropolis as a high level Nephilim knight. The Lineage "Wraith" monsters are usually hard to reach and available only at high levels.

See also

• Wight

Footnotes

External links

• The Wiktionary definition of wraith
•  "wraith". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.