Homebrew Cursed Spirit Species Details

The origin of curses is largely unknown. However, it can be surmised that because cursed energy comes from negative emotion, curses have always existed alongside humanity.

In the modern-day, the number of unexplained deaths and disappearances in Japan exceeds ten thousand annually. These statistics are a direct result of the influence that curses have on normal society. Their existence has been kept secret from non-sorcerers, as they are invisible to them. Jujutsu sorcerers act in secret to repel the threat of curses.

Creation Process

Curses are created when cursed energy leaks from humans as a result of their harboring of negative emotions. Cursed energy thus gathers in one spot, building up like sediment until a cursed spirit takes form.

Populated locations such as schools and hospitals are hotspots for bearing curses because many negative emotions are associated with memories of those places. This same concept applies humanity's collective fear and hatred. An image of fear shared by the masses can create a powerful curse even if the subject is not real, such as famous monsters or ghosts. It is the negative emotions that humanity directed at this image that causes it to manifest as a curse.

Longstanding negative feelings, such as humanity's collective relationship with plagues and natural disasters, results in a collection of cursed energy so massive the cursed spirits manifested from them have a consciousness related to those feelings. For example, humanity's fear and mistreatment of forests have directly resulted in Hanami, a very intelligent special grade cursed spirit who wants to free the earth of humans in order to protect the forests and trees from them. Mahito is an exceptionally strong and intelligent curse that challenges the concept of the human soul itself because he was born from the hatred humans feel toward one another.

Sorcerers must also be killed with jujutsu or they can become a vengeful cursed spirit after death.

Characteristics

Cursed spirits bodies are entirely made up of cursed energy. Their metaphysical existence makes it impossible for non-sorcerers to perceive or touch them. Living non-sorcerers who have been cursed can only tell they have strange symptoms without realizing a cursed spirit is behind it; however, it is possible to gain the ability to see a curse in a life-or-death situation due to the overwhelming negative emotion the person experiences and consequently high cursed energy they emit.

Curses come in all kinds of grotesque shapes and sizes. They tend to linger around their point of origin and instinctively curse humans. Other than that, a curse's habits vary a great deal from spirit to spirit. Curses are most stable while possessing an item, and some curses can possess inanimate objects to become cursed corpses.

Special grade cursed spirits with high intelligence tend to be bipedal creatures with structure comparable to humans. They are capable of holding a normal conversation and working together as an organized group. It must be noted, however, that intelligence is not exclusive to special grade cursed spirits; even a curse as low as Grade 3 or 4 can possess intelligence.

Certain curses, such as shikigami, obey humans after they're forced into submission by their master. Others have the ability to mark a human and haunt them, making them capable of attacking a human even if they're located away from their point of origin.

Although there are some exceptions, when cursed spirits are killed, or lose a part of their limbs, they turn to dust as a result of a disappearing reaction. Cursed spirits have cores in their bodies, which can be in their heads or elsewhere.

Exorcism

With bodies composed of cursed energy, cursed spirits cannot be harmed by conventional means. They can be hit by a physical attack but it will deal no damage regardless of how powerful it is. The general rule of jujutsu is that a curse must be exorcised using another curse, which means curses can only be exorcised using cursed energy. A fatal attack using cursed energy will cause the cursed spirit to disappear completely. This does not apply to curses who have been incarnated using a flesh and blood human vessel, such as the Death Paintings.

If a vengeful cursed spirit that is cursing someone is too powerful to exorcise, millions of figurative knots of cursed energy must be slowly analyzed and undone one by one. The victim of said curse can do so by learning to master channeling the cursed energy being used to curse them.

Classifications

Vengeful Cursed Spirit: A cursed spirit created when humans become a curse after death. Those whose deaths are cursed have the possibility of having their spirit corrupted and transformed into a vengeful spirit. Sorcerers have an increased chance of turning into a curse after death, but this can be prevented by killing them with jujutsu.

Imaginary Vengeful Cursed Spirit: A cursed spirit manifested from the cumulative fear of the masses. When many people share an image of fear, such as famous yokai or ghost stories like the Nine Tailed Fox, an Imaginary Vengeful Spirit can form. They are widely feared by sorcerers and classified as such to distinguish them from other curses.

Disease Cursed Spirit: Plague and general sickness are concepts constantly cursed by humanity, resulting in powerful disease curses. These type of cursed spirits can use cursed techniques to infect humans with their respective diseases to curse and kill them.

Cursed Spirit Traits

Due to their nature as cursed spirits, they have a number of abilities that vary across each spirit.

Ability Score Increase

One chosen ability score is increased by 2.

Darkvision

Due to a Cursed Spirit primarily acting at night, they can see in the dark with full color up to 120 feet.

Blindsight

Due to the nature of a Cursed Spirit, they can sense the energies of a creature's body and soul, allowing limited blindsight up to 30 feet.

Languages

As a cursed spirit is the manifestation of negative emotion, they can speak any chosen language.

Cursed Nature

As a cursed spirit, you do not need oxygen to survive, and can only be detected by those with enough power. Other ways you can be detected are by others having Blindsight, having an item that reveals your presence, or by a creature succeeding a successful DC20 perception check.