Psychology: Method, Logic and Reasoning.If there was a single overriding emotion that the wight might be best defined by, it would almost certainly be that of envy.
From such envy, do all their emotions derive. Their hatred, their malice, their vile temperament and loathing of the living. Envy, first and foremost, for the life that is denied to them. Their abilities steal that life, their hatred towards all life is absolute. They are enraged by their envy, for life is not just the thing that they crave to have and to destroy but it is what they are denied.
Envy in of itself is indefinitely precluded towards a negative outlook in terms of behaviour it may inspire an individual to aspire harder, to seek that which others have. In the case of the wight however, this is an impossibility. The wight may envy the life that is denied to it, but that does not change the fact that it cannot obtain it. Thus, and due to the overall darkness of thought inherent to undeath itself, the mind of the wight, wrought by that unavoidable and inherent envy towards that which it cannot have, turns to the most extreme, unyielding and absolute hatred borne of malice imaginable.
This intensity could be perhaps called madness, and there is evidence to show that as time progresses in the wight, if it retained intellect at all in the state of its transition to an undead state, this intellect degrades as the intensity of that hatred grows or, perhaps, as the intellect of the individual wight weakens, its coherency and sanity fading, that overwhelming urge becomes ever more dominant. It is impossible to tell which leads to the other, or which creates such a change, without an extensive examination of the wight and with their behaviour, malice, and sheer intractability, there is no means to do so with any degree of safety.
Not least because the wight, feeling no pain and no need to halt itself, even in the face of mortal injury, is highly unlikely to stop. It may show the foresight to retreat in the fact of excessive danger, but only to regroup and recommit itself to the fray. Whatever instinct towards self preservation that might manifest it will not overrule the hatred the creature feels, and the desire a lust, even for revenge or simply to harm.
The tactics of the wight in combat reflect this. What they can torture, they shall. What they can harm, and draw out such harm, they will. Their victims shall be tormented and cruelly made to suffer, as though the wight wishes to reflect their own tormented existence upon their victim. If the act of death can be drawn out sufficiently, the hatred of the wight passes like an infection to the poor soul they have destroyed, and from such spiteful destruction a new hideous wight is made, to continue on that dreadful, hate filled legacy. And so the cycle of suffering enduring it, and inflicting it is continued on relentlessly.
It is life itself that the wight despises, and yet envies. Loathes and yet yearns for, but seeks to destroy absolutely. The compulsion to destroy life grows ever greater perhaps abated by the wight managing to consume the life of others by a touch, maybe exacerbated, it is difficult to tell which it might be.
However, as time, state and desire shift towards that single drive, the wight becomes an almost breathtakingly simple creature. Thought becomes less and less prevalent, instinct rising ever more to the fore, and all driven towards that urge to destroy. To rip life from others, to tear the living down. But be it brutal simplicity or complex cruelty the direction, goal and motivation of the wight is inviolate. Every thought is bent to the destruction of life, in every facet. Even a wight commanded and controlled by a wielder of dark necromancy, or a more powerful form of undead will retain this absolute hatred towards all things living. It is pure, undiluted, and untroubled by the more natural emotions and needs of living creatures no need for food, for love, for companionship. No desire for sleep, for warmth, for cold. For water or food. Nothing but death, and an absolute, completely attuned mindset to such. The death of all living things, everywhere.
Truly, it would almost be admirable for its purity, were it not so utterly, utterly awful.
It is wondered, considering the complexity of state of the wight, as to the degree of this change. Was it always a part of them, held at bay? Do these individuals linger perpetually upon that very brink, in life as in death, in death made manifest and absolute? Do some of them perhaps not exist in such an awful, damned state as they live and instead the state of being is an infection that progresses the intensity as time passes onwards? If that is true, could there be such an awful imagining as to think of a life fair lived and with a good, kind heart turned at the end, by the touch of a wight to a hate filled shadow of who they had been in life. Do these poor damned few instead hover, struggling with what they want, the unfairness of what has been done to them, while horrified at what they have become and what they do with but a mere destructive touch, until at last they succumb and revel instead in that awful fate? If that is true, is there a fate more dreadful than to find oneself turned into one of these creatures?
It is wondered. Perhaps it is better it is just speculation, rather than knowing.
Habitat.A wights wickedness is easily and often reflected in where it lingers. A creature so filled with a hatred for life surrounds itself with its opposite, the cold, lifeless embrace of death being its home, the empty void of the grave and life lost where it finds solace. In darkness and in despair, in death and ruin.
Crypts, of ancient make, with the stones defiled by the very presence of these corrupting horrors. Ancient battlefields, or ruins, places where death is known and can still be felt. A wight decays living matter around it by its very presence wood rots, water turns brackish and sour. In crypts and tombs, they gather sometimes in number to dwell in the dark amidst the places where the touch of death is strongest. From these places they either lurk perpetually, waiting for the presence of living things draw near, or in the case of the stronger and more wicked individuals, set out to hunt for life that draws too close to it.
A wight shall often make use of underground locations. Be this the unthinking realisation of their own death and thus the fact they should be beneath the surface of the earth, or the more likely fact that a wight has no desire nor love of sunlight, it conceals them and their movements. However, they are not strictly assigned to these locations in the singular sense and in certain lands, it is quite easy for a wight to roam between such areas and find fresh hunting grounds that nevertheless suit its underground and nocturnal predilections.
Due to their undead status and lack of a need to feed upon physical flesh, a wights lair is often quite free of refuse or evidence of its presence. It does not create a home for itself, as it has no need of sleep. It does not leave marks of sentimentality in its location, to indicate that the place it has chosen to lurk is a home. Such mortal, living sentiment is either impossible to find or purely unnecessary. The signs then of a wight are somewhat more subtle, being environmental rather than individually specified to show the presence of one or more of these creatures.
The air itself will hold the tainted touch of undeath to it a peculiar, stale taste of old blood and metal, of still air and lifelessness overlaid with the smell of decay. Death, be it old or new, pervasive and extensive. The earth beneath the feet feels dull, heavy and lifeless, lacking the spring of living loam. Plant life will decay and die, trees succumbing to rot and crumbling away. Metal rusts at an accelerated rate, and stone cracks. Glass shatters and is covered in grime, and objects of purer metals silver, even gold develop an obscuring patina. In short, the presence of a wight in an area, sustained and continual, leeches the life from the very air and earth that they stand upon, gradually infusing it more and more with the unhallowed energy of unlife instead. The lair of a wight is a silent place, where birds do not fly and living things do not approach nor linger. A hole in the living world itself, and an external reflection of the creature that dwells at the core of it.
There is a subtlety to this, because such places will often enough have this manner of sensation to them regardless of the presence of a wight. It is no secret that to stand in a place where death has become all too common that the land itself tends to change that a graveyard is a place where the world changes towards darkness, but in some instances it is far more so than in others. The trick to this matter however is learning to recognise when it moves beyond such a state and into the indication that a wight is in fact present, be it singular or several. This knowledge is important, for the wight itself will almost certainly know that you are present, before one has even recognised the signs of the territory that they have wandered into. By their extended stay, and the destruction of living things in the area, the presence of a living creature is something that alights upon their senses like a lit candle on a dark night in an open field. Unwary, the intrepid explore becomes instead the hunted. Destined to become mouldering bones or worse, a wight themselves, as they fail to realise just what it is they have encountered. In all places that exhibit the characteristics mentioned here, keep your hand on your side and lights burning bright. Even if a wight is not present, it is better by far to be cautious than not.
Misappropriation Flaws and Mistakes to Avoid.The foremost flaw of a wight, as it is in particular with near all monsters of this volume, remains the same that I have observed time and time again; almost exclusively, a foolish underestimation of the capabilities, skills, threats and above all sheer lethality of these hateful creatures.
The first part of news that is often surprising to individuals, is that a wight can walk upon holy ground. It may well be because of its life draining aspect drawing from the very ground it stands upon, but while it may take no enjoyment from the action of treading on holy soil or even temples, it can in fact do so, and function effectively. Daylight irritates them, but does not stop them. They may be impaired in either instance limits of vision, or movement may result. But they can wreak all manner of havoc in them. That said, they are of course more at home in the habitats given previously but one should not think that holy ground will in fact make them immune to the predations of these abominable creatures.
A wight does not exhibit the same durability as some of the more notorious forms of undead, it is true. They do not have the mean to reform themselves after destruction of their physical form, and their undead flesh is carved as readily as though it were still living, however this the extent of blessings given to a prospective hunter.
A wight, while driven by its primal emotion of hatred, nevertheless exhibits a level of intellect that is beyond a weaker minded undead creature. A simple, common mistake is to treat each wight as a simple undead, animalistic in its behaviour and actions, and while this may indeed be true for a number of such beings, it is far from wise to consider it the normal behaviour.
A wight exhibits higher mind function in its undead state; an ability to set traps, to hunt as stealthily as the most accomplished hunter, an ability to play on the strengths of its opponent and take advantage of them. They can speak, wield magic, and use all of the skills that they had in life what has changed with those actions is the intent. Destructive and cruel, with a level of viciousness in the actions that most people simply do not have the capacity to consider, which can in fact play as a lethal disadvantage. If one does not consider just how cruel and brutal a wight can be in its preparations, traps, and how it fights, they will not be able to prepare for it, inevitably coming up short. A wights flesh might yield readily to the strike of a sword, but that does not mean it will stop them a wight will in fact gladly take a sword through its stomach for the chance to bring its touch to bear, or to use the opportunity to slash the eyes of its opponent out with its claws. It can survive such a strike, and even ignore it knowing no pain from such blows, but its cunning is such that it knows a living opponent cannot. It can take risks, withstand strikes and, in its boundless, unceasing malice, use that as an opportunity to harm its opponent in such a way that they cannot easily recover or continue the fight at all.
The touch of a wight, as already mentioned, has a seriously debilitative effect, destroying flesh, rupturing blood vessels and necrotising the tissue. A touch is all they need, for in the right place it can easily prove fatal. An individual struck by a cleverly concealed trap, crippled by an expert strike, once hands are wrapped around their throat, the fight is over. The ability to fight back will be eliminated in mere moments alone, the airway ruined by that life destroying touch. A perfectly executed hunt that while it ends in savage violence, is methodical in its execution. In truth, it does not even need to be such a wight bearing heavy arms and armour will also prove a dreadful opponent, unyielding in the face of harm, and driven by an unnatural savagery and strength that can overcome the hardiest defense, without even a true need to defend themselves in return. Whatever damage might be inflicted can be undone by the very life of the one they fight against, as they rip it from them in their death.
Underestimation of these creatures, be they a cunning trapper or a brutal warrior, is the easiest and simplest mistake to make, and it is made by a failure to realise when one is predator, or prey. As with all contests between dangerous opponents, the task falls to be one or the other, and a proper predator works to ensure that such a balance is tipped firmly in their favour rather than the opposite. A wight has the advantage in such a confrontation, by means of their weapons, skills, and undead nature. Stepping into their territory makes one vulnerable, and they do not hesitate to play upon that vulnerability whatsoever. Any foolish, reckless misstep, any overly cautious action, either one is punished in kind. Because though one wight is a mindless, life hating wretch, the next one will be one with the light and knowing of murder in its intelligent, gleaming gaze, and it will find a way to hunt down and destroy those that it beholds, never knowing peace until it is erased. Even if the particular encountered wight is a mindless creature, that by no means makes it a simple target indeed, its frenzied, berserker like attack may well be the exact and only thing it needs to overcome its target.
Make no mistake. The bones that litter tombs and graveyards aplenty are those of would be heroes and hunters who sought to overcome a wight in its habitat, thinking that they had fought such opponents before and triumphed. They had not, and though there are souls left behind to mourn their folly, theirs is now food to a monster, the life they lived now a distant memory to satisfy a hateful malice that can never know what it is to be satisfied.
Weaknesses and Vulnerabilities.The most fortunate thing to understand with a wight is that unlike other, more potent undead, it does not have innate qualities that make its flesh or form resistant to damage. While it may ignore a sword thrust into its heart as being immediately fatal, it nevertheless will cause an extreme disruption to the physical form of the wight which may very well be enough to destroy it entirely. Removing the head by severance or destruction will kill it, as will a sustained and brutal assault on its form. But there are dangers to be aware of.
To be in close proximity to the wight means it can also touch its attacker, and bring that dreadful life corrosive touch to bear. Not just that, but it can also repair damage done to it by its touch in drawing the life out of its victim, the wounds of a wight repair themselves and heal. It does in fact incite the wight to throw itself at its attacker knowing that if it survives the counterattack of its victim, it will surely win the day by draining them of their life. Thus, while it may prove vulnerable to damage, the damage itself must be swift, it must be of overwhelming force, and preferably at a distance. If this fails, then in close quarters, one must seek to either destroy, or disable. Removing the arms, or legs, slows the creature down but does not destroy it but it does buy time, valuable time.
The sheer aggression and malice of the wight also proves in the favour of the prepared and cautious hunter, for an ambush or trap is only so effective as long as it has the element of surprise to support it. By being prepared without being afflicted by an overabundance of hubris a hunter can be ready for the attack of a wight by studying its previous history how it has attacked people, what it has done, its preferred methods. By doing so, the hunter can ascertain predatory habits of the individual wight and prepare a reprisal accordingly. Be they a shadowy creature attacking from darkness or making use of more direct tactics, one must plan against the method of attack used, and employ an appropriate counter as they would against any who would use such methods. On top of that, they must make use of the appropriate amount of force. A wight is almost always an ambush hunter, at least alone. Its senses and abilities make it extremely difficult to sneak up on it, unless it is otherwise distracted. Knowing when and how it is distracted is however a risk though it is fair to say, be it that option or surviving an ambush oneself, there is little chance of engaging without risk to the self. Thus, one must instead plan to minimise risk as much as possible.
Wights also do not enjoy bright or searing light they can work in it, but they have no love for it. It makes them flinch or even back off, if presented suddenly and unexpectedly, which can buy a hunter a valuable instant otherwise denied. This goes doubly so for fire; fire damages them, and hinders them, and the light of it gives them pause.
Their limbs can still function, even if damaged or broken severing them however does end the connection to the main form, and they cannot operate independently. But as with nearly all undead beings, the wight operates at full strength until it is fully disabled, or destroyed entirely conventional pain of living flesh does not slow them. This violence may grow into berserk desperation as it is either weakened or in the presence of more living entities, but if the form has been properly disrupted, even at their full strength they wont be as effective. A wight that is cornered, pinned, and driven back by bright light and fire will be destroyed, and the more completely, ever then the better.
Tactical Methodology: Locating and tracking the target.As has been already noted, a wight is generally an ambush predator with a hatred for living things that borders on if not outright strays into an obsessive insanity. They often employ methods of stealth and deception, and can be surprisingly difficult to hunt down. However, there are both devices and methods to be used to locate, track down, and finally destroy a wight.
As mentioned above, a wight drains the life of creatures obsessively, in the more mentally deranged cases. This makes it possible to track the trail of destruction the wight leaves, simply by following all the corpses that it has left in its wake small animals that could not flee from it, or larger, their bodies left uneaten on the ground, the colour and vitality leeched out of them. These may very well lead to a location that a wight might haunt a tomb or other such necrotic domain. There may be other undead animated corpses, of flesh or of skeletal varieties. Lesser, more mindless wights who attack without tactics. But behind them all might be the more potent, and more cunning creature that is waiting for the right opportunity.
Ground glass, worked to dust, can be cast to ground or air. It reflects well in firelight, even in darker shadows. Hurled into the air it is best to hold ones breath or cover ones eyes least one be blinded or forced to cough. But it can highlight the form of a wight using the shadows, or even show their steps on the ground should they be close. Water blessed by the ministrations of a righteous person of faith also works it sears the flesh of the wight, to the point that its efforts to hide will prove impossible. The trick of it of course, is knowing when and where to cast the objects. For this, you must remove possibilities.
One of the more surprising effective methods is by creating a shadow. By this, one means illuminating an area where a wight might reside. Fires, lights, and glows, to create a heavy amount of light except in a certain area. The wight, its effective hiding places narrowed, will move by means of its hunting instinct and by its dislike of light to an area darkened. At this point, one brings forth their weaponry. The trick is not finding where the wight is to make use of such things as holy water, or glass dust, or fire or divine magic no. It is about removing the places it could be until there are less or no options remaining.
This can prove difficult if the wight has chosen its hunting ground well. In which case the more risky and difficult option proves the only remaining one to lure it to oneself. Usually this requires hunting alone, rather than in a group or rather more accurately, wilfully separating oneself from a group to become a vulnerable target.
Such as it is with wolves seeking calves from amongst the flock waiting till one is separated and vulnerable to attack. So it is with a wight. If a group of hunters presents itself, it will lurk in the shadows or out of sight, waiting for an opportunity to present itself and one of the hunters to isolate itself and thus become prey.
Again, this is dangerous. The wight will only make its attack when it is sure that it will not be stopped in the midst of it. It will choose a target that seems vulnerable. This creates a strong element of outright risk of death in the person choosing to expose themselves. There are, however, ways to mitigate this.
Firstly, prepare the time that this will happen. Have hunters out of sight but armed to attack with bows, rifle or crossbow when the wight strikes. Second, disguise the target so that it appears more vulnerable than it actually is. Third, have a means of knowing where the separatist is at all times; if they survive the initial attack, and are prepared, armed, and able to hold the target off for long enough, the other hunters can regroup and strike in tandem. The best possible way to manage this is to ensure that the bait of the wight is in fact in a location that the wight cannot escape from once it has engaged.
Bring the wight to you, if you cannot bring yourself to it. It is inevitable that it will, for its desire to rip the life from those that have it will become an urge that will overrule whatever sense of self preservation that it might have if it has any at all. Play upon this and use it, while also keeping at the forefront of the mind that the creature will have intelligence, savagery and cunning in abundance, coagulated with malice. Never be so foolish to underestimate it, for all of its animalistic nature. But once you have tracked it down, or allowed it to hunt you down, now must come the time to strike, once all avenues for its retreat have at last been cut off.
Tactical Methodology: The Technique of the Kill.When the wight is isolated, and cornered, it will respond with savagery, rage and hatred now driving it to attack. But this is where it can be destroyed.
Fire, used as both defense and assault, will damage its form. Blades of good strong steel, perhaps blessed by the hand of those of a divine leaning, will destroy it. A good, sturdy covering of all exposed flesh is also strongly recommended, to protect oneself against its touch if all else fails, keep the creature at bay with spears, or crossbows. Vials of holy water placed in crossbow bolts will burn the wretched monster from the inside out, at which point, in its agony, it might be butchered by a sustained assault. Another method is to pin the creature in place with a heavy spear, with a heavy crosspiece behind the point enough to pin the wight in place, but not to allow it to drag itself down the spear to its attacker. While the wight could in fact pull itself off the spear, it is honestly extremely unlikely to do so remembering its malice and hatred, the thought of retreating even for a moment when it is tactically advantageous will not occur to it. Fruitlessly it will attempt to reach its attacker, straining with all its might, which admittedly is significant. But if there are others close and also attacking, this then will be their chance to see the battle finished.
While damaging the limbs will not slow it, a hard strike with an axe or heavier bladed sword will remove said limb entirely. Continue to do so to remove both a means to escape and a means to fight. Once the wight is either disabled or unable to fight back, remove the head. Once the head is removed, the body should by this point become inert and at it is at this point that the wight must be burned.
Pouring oil onto the corpse, dusting it with salt and ground silver, and setting it alight will do in a tight situation, but a full burning of the body, and scattering the ashes at several crossroads afterwards, is a sure fire way to ensure that nothing is ever able to return.
Is it brutal, to think in such terms? Possibly. But a wight is a being of limitless, endless malice. It is an embodiment of the absolute worst aspects of a person that it held in life a twisted mockery of who they might have once been, an insult to their legacy, and a defilement of their living memory. They are, in truth, a tragedy, for all their hate. So destroy them without hesitation, without pause, and without pity. What they are is not who they were, not any longer. And thus, the wisest and kindest thing one can do for them, is to destroy what theyve become. Even if they were a miserable creature in life, no sin is so great as to condemn a being to such a woeful form. Destroy them, and then pity them. But do not hesitate, for they shall not.
The next half of this chapter shall deal with the second counterpart of the hatred filled undead but in this case, it shall be of vengeance. It shall be an examination of the revenant.