Unseelie fae that haunt burial sites, the barrowight differs from the typical wight in that they typically resemble the physical form of those who have died peacefully and been interred, while wights resemble those that died violent, brutal deaths. Considerable debate exists over whether barrowights—indeed, all wights—are truly the dead come back, or whether they represent a wholly new form of (un)life that merely arises from the dead, much as a plant may inherit characteristics of its soil.

In either case, wights seem to be driven to reproduce by creating more of themselves through the interment of more bodies, and to that end they seek to ensicken the living with a variety of fatal diseases and agues. The Collegium believes that they rely solely on natural sources of infection, but nevertheless hoard and cultivate what they are able to produce. In one case, a group of barrowights was able to spread anthrax through a small town, swelling their own ranks while leaving no survivors.

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