Nava-Verse Archives #21: GENOME!

TOP, MAIN FEATURE:
INDIVIDUAL: Genome, being a giant and incredibly dense helix of dark energy, is the Dark Lord of Corruption and the single greatest threat to life, peace and order in the Nava–Verse. Hanging upside–down from the bottom side of the same platform which Satan is attached to, he overlooks the Abyss of Infinite Death, the lowest level of the Underworld reserved exclusively for those truly deserving of suffering the worst eternal torments imaginable, so unspeakably horrible that the Custodian of the Nava–Verse is forbidden from relating any more about them to you. Genome oversees the unrelenting suffering of these souls so vile that they are condemned to his presence, while plotting silently within the mechanisms of his vast mind the destruction of all that is good and the ultimate triumph of evil over God. And unlike the other Dark Lords and demons, Genome does not simply dream of doing this; he has a plan that he will attempt to actually carry out one day, though no one knows exactly what it is. When he strikes, he will do so without warning, and someone will have to be ready. Lesser demons very seldom knowingly serve the will of Genome, though it has happened. Satan himself, notably, is afraid of him. He pretends to be the master of evil and makes a convincing show of it, but in reality the true monster of the cosmos is the one that lurks directly below his feet... well, if Satan had feet.

Genome’s powers of corrupting influence are far greater than those of any other entity. He can observe and speak directly to mortals in any part of the Prime Galaxy from his position at the bottom of the universe, but only if the souls of said mortals are sufficiently corrupt. For everyone else that he wishes to spy on or manipulate, Genome uses his elusive minions, the Gamonoites. His durability value is at least 200,000, though he is truly immortal, rendering that point largely moot.

BOTTOM:
A Wraith (not to be confused with the Deadly Sin Wrath, which it is by far even worse than any form of) is a special, unique and ghastly variety of demon that is spawned from the soul of a deceased mortal who was, and even in death continues to be, truly, wholly and unrepentantly evil. Most such purely wicked souls are sentenced to an eternity in the darkness Genome's Abyss of Infinite Death when their original, physical selves cease to be; to become a Wraith, a person must be both particularly evil even by the standards of others who enter the Abyss (which is itself reserved for souls that are particularly more wicked than those sentenced to the other, lesser level of Hell, the Plane of Torture) and especially strong–willed. To become this demon, a person must singularly, by nature and to their core be an exceptionally potent, especially active force of evil and of evil alone. It can be surprising how many famous villains of Prime Galaxy history who were and are known for being responsible for great acts of evil do not become Wraiths, due either to being too weak–willed or to having at least some minute form of redeeming quality, such as secretly hating themselves for what they have done or genuinely caring for their own kind or even just personal loved ones. For example, there has never been a Skellord Wraith, though there have been Wraiths of "normal" Skellen.
Wraithhood (Wraithdom?) is widely and rightfully considered to be an even worse fate than the Abyss of Infinite Death. Though a soul that becomes a Wraith avoids the unspeakable horrors of the Abyss in the immediate term, it faces, when its demon form is slain, an even worse form of damnation, and indeed, the very worst of all: complete, permanent, irreversible annihilation of the entire being. In other words, a soul–turned–Wraith that is killed utterly ceases to be, with the person that it once was no longer existing in any way, shape or form, and second death as a Wraith is the only way that this can happen to a person born with an immortal soul. Again, however, it must be stressed that anyone who would be deemed "worthy" of being a Wraith in the first place totally deserves this ultimately, infinitely terrible final fate.
Wraiths are sub–corporeal, and their physical forms are ashen, clammy, corpselike echoes of the people they were in life. Thus, this type of demon technically has the most variable form of any being, since it can, in theory, be spawned from and consequently take the shape of an individual from any humanoid race, though most predictably come from races that are known for their evil tendencies. Many races known for being virtuous, meanwhile, have never been known to produce, and likely never have produced, a single such demon. Note that while the general form of a Wraith is similar to that of a "normal" damned soul, in that both are wretched, faded "shades" of what were once living people, the former can most readily be distinguished by having consistently blood–red eyes and similarly blood–red "runes" of what is presumably some unknown demonic language (and which has not been verifiably witnessed anywhere else) inscribed on their bodies, as well as small, ancillary tentacle–like protrusions. In addition, Wraiths are significantly more deformed and strikingly blighted–looking (with the exceptions of the aforementioned red features) even compared to other damned souls, as well as more "solid" (sub–corporeal as opposed to sub–sub–corporeal as most souls in Hell are).

The behaviors and abilities of these demons are even more varied between specimens, and depend on both the physical attributes and abilities of their previous, mortal forms and, more importantly, the particular types of evil they represented while alive. For instance, a person–turned–Wraith who was guilty not only of mass fraud but of committing murder to cover it up and ergo embodies an extreme form of the Deadly Sin of Greed will, in their demon form, have Torrigark–like powers and behaviors, including the ability to taint precious materials and the desire to keep others in, or even drive them to, miserable poverty. Particularly malevolent Satanists who become Wraiths will have fiery powers of Infernal Energy, while Genomists will be more likely to wield corruptive Dark Magic. Though all Wraiths can levitate at least a few feet above the ground, few can freely fly, and their durability values, while variable, can be defined at least roughly as being an average of 6.6 times whatever those of their original bodies were.
All Wraiths are intelligent and can speak, but should not be expected to be capable of being reasoned with, being pure evil by definition and with their "personalities", insomuch as their monstrous natures can be called personalities, always consisting of deliberate, premeditated malevolence. They are monsters in the truest, worst sense, as opposed to simply being "monsters" in the "brutish, violent creature" sense meant by most applications of the word.
These demons are thankfully very rare, as well under 10% of people go to the Abyss of Infinite Death when they die, and of these, fewer than 10% are actively, competently malicious enough to escape in the form of a Wraith. Therefore, only a fraction of 1% of all souls become Wraiths, and furthermore, a majority of these relative few that do never leave the Underworld and hence are not an actual threat to any living people. It is unclear whether the existence of Wraiths is the deliberate doing of Genome or the more passive product of some nebulous, non–sentient body of dark energy residing in the deepest, darkest parts of the Underworld.
The three Wraiths pictured here are manifestations of, from left to right, a Xamenruf, a Demioid and an Ebonorate.