Voughasts are a supernatural race which inhabit Anvaris. Unlike other races, voughasts exist mainly as ethereal spirits until their invocation. Their spirits roam the world searching for willing hosts, dying mortals, who have some sufficiently urgent and just purpose to move the voughast into action. Once the host has died and left behind a body vessel, the voughast settles into it. It is not a ghost of the living; it is a unique being with a personal identity and which may have past experiences from other "lives" it has spent in corporeal form. A voughast will have no memory of the host's life aside from the plight which summoned it.
It is unknown how they came to be, but historical records have shown that voughast sightings increase dramatically following periods of major conflict. Pacifistic by nature, voughasts are incapable of intentionally harming others, and so some believe they were created by the god Alay to mitigate the catastrophe of war. Soldiers fallen in battle have been known to rise, hours later, both to the fear and the heartening of their brothers in arms. The appearance of a voughast symbolizes some intense grief or unfulfilled will of the deceased, which will now be brought to fruition by some benevolent force.
Voughasts resemble the deceased, but also hold certain ghostly traits. They may have ashen skin, glow brightly in the dark, appear to float, or be transparent, and can also travel through solid barriers. They are known to exist with single-minded determination, to accomplish their intended goal and then to pass on, leaving the body to naturally decompose. Voughasts cannot feel pain, but also cannot heal from any wounds they sustain. If a voughast is physically destroyed, it will pass on having failed to deliver on its promise. While many believe that killing a voughast inflicts a terrible curse, there is little evidence to support the notion.