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A wight was an undead creature given a semblance of life through sheer violence and hatred. They could drain the life energy out of victims by touch, turning them into new wights upon death.[3]

Just one look in its eyes, and you know a wight is not a man. It hates the living. It hates us and everything we have. All the beast wants is our souls and our blood.
— Garibanz of Harkenwold[8]

Description[]

Wights appeared as weird and twisted reflections of the forms they had in life.[3] They existed in a state between being alive and being dead,[1] which was likened to being a corpse possessed by an animating spirit.[6] Their mummified flesh covered the twisted skeleton, the hands ended up in deadly claws,[4] and teeth were sharp and jagged like needles.[3] Wights spoke in wheezes, gasps, and moans.[6]

A wight's eyes were calcified and useless for vision—in fact, what little light could penetrate a wight's eyes was painful to it—however they were still able to perceive life energy.[6] When attacking their prey, wights' eyes glowed like white-hot embers.[1]

Most wights were humanoid.[9]

Personality[]

Wights were evil undead creatures brought back to unlife by their vanity, evil deeds, and desires. Upon the ends of their mortal lives, the dying spirits reached out to Orcus or another evil deity, receiving undeath in exchange for spending eternity, hating and trying to destroy all living beings.[1]

Wights retained their personalities and memories in their undeath. While they possessed free will, they were also bound to perform the bidding of the evil powers that brought them back[1] and were subject to dark cravings for the life energy of living victims that was akin to an addiction.[10]

Wights were territorial creatures. They rarely traveled away from their burial places, or locations they knew in life unless commanded by their masters, although some exceptions to these rules indeed existed. Scholars theorized that wights' attachment to their tombs was due to its reminder of their condition, which was more of a source of pride rather than sorrow. Another theory was they dwelled in catacombs simply due to the tactical benefits of winding corridors and shadows.[10] Regardless, a wight would quickly come to learn the layout of their catacombs in exacting detail.[6]

As a byproduct of their ability to "see" life energy, wights could also "see" an aura of the psychic value that living beings placed onto their valuables. This led to a behavior in which wights would collect such valuables seemingly for the aesthetic value of these auras. Because they did not take care to preserve the physical objects, anything that was not both durable and non-rusting tended to deteriorate in a wight's possession, which could leave them carrying small troves of gold, silver, and gems.[6]

Combat[]

Wight AFR

A wight draining the life from its victim

Upon touching someone living, wights drained the life out of the victim, even through their flesh, clothing, and armor.[1] They preferred to move stealthily or hide in the shadows before springing surprise attacks on unsuspecting victims.[6]

Wights were sometimes known to serve other stronger undead creatures like wraiths and other evil beings. When they followed a leader, they often avoided strategy and planning, relying on their drive for death and destruction instead.[1]

A slaughter wight was able to release a death wail when slain. That ability whipped surrounding undead creatures into a frenzied attack.[2]

Like other undead, wights were resistant to harmful necromantic energies and to wounds dealt by non-magical or non-silvered weapons. They were likewise immune to poisons[1] and were unaffected by sleep, charm, hold (or similar) spells.[1][4] Holy water was deadly to them, and the raise dead spell was said to instantly annihilate a wight.[4]

Variants[]

Aquatic wight
Also known as sea wights,[11] were wights that dwelled in bodies of water and were capable swimmers.[11][12]

Ecology[]

Wights were active at night, retreating away from the hated sunlight into crypts, tombs, burial mounds, where they dwelt during the day. Unlike vampires though, wights simply disliked the sun, not harmed by it.[4] Their lairs were easily detected by eerie silence surrounding the area, abandoned by birds and wild animals, and abundant dead plant life.[1] Contrary to wide belief, wights could be "born" anywhere, not necessarily in crypts and burial mounds. There were rumors of aquatic wights, returning to unlife among shipwrecks, possibly relating wights to lacedons.[13]

Wights were deathly silent in their movements and very good at camouflaging with the dreary walls of the tombs in which they dwelt, which allowed them to attack from hiding. Less experienced adventurers were known to panic when this happened, believing that the stealthy monsters were instead "emerging from the walls".[6]

Like other undead, wights did not need air, food, drink, or sleep.[1] Due to their particular undead nature, wights existed simultaneously on the Prime Material as well as on the Negative Material planes, which granted them their powerful life-draining abilities. A lot of animals could feel the presence of these evil dead creatures: dogs growled and howled, horses stopped and refused to move forward feeling the creatures, birds, and insects fell silent.[4]

Life Draining[]

Even though wights hungered for living beings' energy, they did not require it as a source of sustenance,[10] although some scholars speculated that it was used to help them animate their undead bodies.[6] Regardless, wights could retain their undeath while trapped in tombs for centuries, staying completely motionless until a living being entered their lair.[6][10] Some sages theorized that when a wight drained a victim's life energy, it received a rush of mortality, euphoric reminder of their mortal existence, and that chasing that feeling led to extremely depraved actions by wights.[10] Other sages believed that the life energy allowed the wight to mature in strength and willpower, allowing it to gain some control over its urges. Wights that absorbed enough life energy could take command over lesser wights, and were called great wights.[6]

Wight 2e

A wight lurking in the darkness.

Humanoid victims of a wight's life draining powers were reanimated as zombies—sometimes called "half-wights"—controlled by their killer.[1][6] In some cases, creatures that were killed with the life-draining attacks came back as enslaved wights themselves. If the master was slain, the wights that were created regained their malicious free will. Bringing a wight back to life was nearly impossible.[4]

History[]

The word "wight" meant "person" in the Realms' past.[1] Centuries later, the word came to be exclusively used to describe these catacomb-dwelling undead creatures.[4] There was no known spell that could create a wight, and the legends that described their origins were contradictory.[14]

As of the mid-to-late 14th century DR, one of the foremost experts on wights in Faerûn was Jilda the Sage, however her writings on the subject were often flawed due to both her lack of any adventuring experience and her social biases as a daughter of royalty. Some of the faulty claims which she promulgated included the idea that wights were exclusively noble-born men and women whose bodies were possessed by evil spirits, that they were prolific burrowers, and that they could only communicate with each other by communing their spirits at close range.[6][15] She and other scholars at the time also claimed that it was unheard of for wights to use weapons instead of their own claws.[6][16]

The ancient barrow burial locations where wights could be often found could be found all over North-Western Faerun, namely the Moonshae Islands, Dalelands, and Rashemen. The Battle of Bones spawned a plethora of wights and undead over the years as well.[17] In 1357 DR wights could be found infesting the Burial Glen in Myth Drannor along with other undead creatures.[18]

As of 1371 DR a group of ten undead Purple Dragons wights roamed the High Road in Cormyr looking for the “enemies of Cormyr". In their twisted undead state, of course, the enemies were all living beings.[19]

Notable Wights[]

Appendix[]

Background[]

The name "wight" is of Germanic origin. It began as a general word meaning "being" or "creature", but over the years it was increasingly applied to spirits of either good or evil until it was connotated with the supernatural.[22]

Appearances[]

Adventures
Desert of DesolationThe Shattered StatueTales of the Outer PlanesLords of Darkness: The Tombs of Deckon TharCurse of the Azure BondsHalls of the High KingUndermountain: Maddgoth's CastleHow the Mighty Are FallenVale of the Dragon OraclePool of Radiance: Attack on Myth DrannorInto the Dragon's LairThe Twilight TombShadowdale: The Scouring of the LandScepter Tower of SpellgardGhosts of Dragonspear CastleThe Rise of TiamatCurse of StrahdStorm King's ThunderTomb of AnnihilationThe Tortle PackageWaterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage
Novels
ExtinctionRealms of the Dead
Comic Books
Telling Lies
Video Games
Pool of RadiancePools of DarknessTreasures of the Savage FrontierSpelljammer: Pirates of RealmspaceDungeon HackIcewind DaleIcewind Dale: Trials of the LuremasterPool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth DrannorNeverwinterIcewind Dale: Enhanced EditionBaldur's Gate: Siege of DragonspearIdle Champions of the Forgotten RealmsDungeons & Dragons: Heroes of Neverwinter
Board Games
Tyrants of the Underdark: Aberrations and Undead
Card Games
AD&D Trading CardsDragonfireMagic: The Gathering (AFR)
Organized Play & Licensed Adventures
At the Foot of the LighthouseCorruption in KryptgardenThe Courting of FireBlood Above, Blood BelowChelimber's DescentThe Ark of the MountainsOver the EdgeFester and Burn

Gallery[]

Further reading[]

References[]

  1. 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 Mike Mearls, Jeremy Crawford, Christopher Perkins (2014-09-30). Monster Manual 5th edition. Edited by Scott Fitzgerald Gray. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 300. ISBN 978-0786965614.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 Mike Mearls, Stephen Schubert, James Wyatt (June 2008). Monster Manual 4th edition. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 262. ISBN 978-0-7869-4852-9.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Skip Williams, Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook (July 2003). Monster Manual v.3.5. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 255. ISBN 0-7869-2893-X.
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 Doug Stewart (June 1993). Monstrous Manual. (TSR, Inc), p. 360.. ISBN 1-5607-6619-0.
  5. Gary Gygax (December 1977). Monster Manual, 1st edition. (TSR, Inc), p. 100. ISBN 0-935696-00-8.
  6. 6.00 6.01 6.02 6.03 6.04 6.05 6.06 6.07 6.08 6.09 6.10 6.11 6.12 6.13 Steve Perrin (December 1988). “The Tombs of Deckon Thar”. In Scott Martin Bowles ed. Lords of Darkness (TSR, Inc.), pp. 27–28. ISBN 0-88038-622-3.
  7. Graeme Davis (October 2006). “The Ecology of the Wight”. In Erik Mona ed. Dragon #348 (Paizo Publishing, LLC), p. 65.
  8. Logan Bonner (June 2011). “Bestiary: Wights”. In Steve Winter ed. Dungeon #191 (Wizards of the Coast) (191)., p. 2.
  9. Graeme Davis (October 2006). “The Ecology of the Wight”. In Erik Mona ed. Dragon #348 (Paizo Publishing, LLC), p. 61.
  10. 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 Graeme Davis (October 2006). “The Ecology of the Wight”. In Erik Mona ed. Dragon #348 (Paizo Publishing, LLC), p. 62.
  11. 11.0 11.1 Roger N. Bert & Tom Nolan (June 1997). Descent into the Deep. Living City (RPGA), p. 8.
  12. Tom Nolan (May 2001). A Night at Sharkey's Bar and Grill. Living City (RPGA), p. 8.
  13. Graeme Davis (October 2006). “The Ecology of the Wight”. In Erik Mona ed. Dragon #348 (Paizo Publishing, LLC), p. 63.
  14. Graeme Davis (October 2006). “The Ecology of the Wight”. In Erik Mona ed. Dragon #348 (Paizo Publishing, LLC), p. 60.
  15. Ed Greenwood et al. (December 1988). Lords of Darkness. Edited by Scott Martin Bowles. (TSR, Inc.), p. 79. ISBN 0-88038-622-3.
  16. Chet Williamson (July 1998). Murder in Cormyr. (TSR, Inc.), chap. 21, p. 130. ISBN 0-7869-0486-0.
  17. Graeme Davis (October 2006). “The Ecology of the Wight”. In Erik Mona ed. Dragon #348 (Paizo Publishing, LLC), p. 64.
  18. Jeff Grubb and George MacDonald (April 1989). Curse of the Azure Bonds. (TSR, Inc.), p. 71. ISBN 978-0880386067.
  19. Sean K. Reynolds, Steve Miller (2000). Into the Dragon's Lair. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 18. ISBN 0-7869-1634-6.
  20. Erin M. Evans (January, 2010). Realms of the Dead ("The Resurrection Agent"). (Wizards of the Coast). ISBN 0786953632.
  21. 21.0 21.1 R.A. Salvatore, James Wyatt, and Jeffrey Ludwig (November 19, 2013). Legacy of the Crystal Shard. (Wizards of the Coast). ISBN 0-7869-6464-2.
  22. Tom Moldvay (October 1993). “Beyond the Grave”. In Roger E. Moore ed. Dragon #198 (TSR, Inc.), p. 20.
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