Wurgen
RARITY: ★★★☆☆ | THREAT: ★★☆☆☆ SIZE: Up to eight feet tall outside mirrors.
HABITAT:
Reside in mirrors, but often come out into people’s houses to feed.
OVERVIEW:
Wurgen are fae that feed on guilt. They have reflective skin, though they are capable of using glamours to appear human. Capable of traveling through mirrors to get from one meal to the next, wurgen first target their victims through their reflections. When a person looks at their reflection in a mirror housing a wurgen, the wurgen within can catch a glimpse into that person’s mind – specifically, their conscience. For as long as the person stands facing the mirror, the wurgen is capable of looking back, uncovering more and more of their prey’s guilty feelings in the process. The longer a person looks in the mirror, the deeper the wurgen is able to look within them, going beneath surface level guilty feelings to things that may exist within the subconscious.
After an wurgen has uncovered a victim’s guilty feelings, they will slip from the mirror and into the shadows of a person’s house, hiding in any reflective surface they can find as they follow their victim around. Through telepathy, a wurgen is able to whisper to their victim, preying on those guilty feelings they uncovered through the mirror. The victim is the only one who can hear the wurgen, which may lead to some hostility with others living within the house; if the victim is run down enough, they may even physically attack those living with them who do not hear the wurgen’s whispers. Over time, if an wurgen targets someone frequently enough, victims can descend into madness entirely, losing themselves to their guilt. Typically, an wurgen will move on before this happens, as driving a person to madness makes them more easily detectable to wardens. Interestingly, wurgen are typically fond of children, and may use their abilities to whisper helpful instructions and reminders to younger members of a household.
ABILITIES:
Wurgen are capable of traveling through mirrors, allowing them to move great distances in short periods of time between one mirror and the next.
While they can’t travel through them the same way they can mirrors, wurgen can utilize reflective surfaces as hiding spots, allowing them to remain unseen in the households they haunt.
When someone looks into a mirror housing a wurgen, the wurgen will be able to look into a person’s conscience and find the things they feel guilty about.
Wurgen boast telepathic abilities that allow them to “reflect” a person’s guilty feelings back to them in the form of whispers, slowly driving their victims mad with guilt.
WEAKNESSES:
While all fae struggle to lie, wurgen face more extreme consequences for dishonesty. Attempting to tell a lie may see an wurgen facing a very intense and harmful physical reaction.
Wurgen are fond of children, and will not feed on or hurt them. Wardens have been known to use this to their advantage.
If someone does not feel guilty for the things they have done, a wurgen will be unable to feed from them. Because some wurgen consider themselves to be karmic retribution towards the guilty, this may frustrate them incredibly.
A wurgen can be confined to a single mirror if the mirror is covered with a green sheet while they are inside it.
Like all fae, wurgen are vulnerable to iron.