Twiceborn is an Enchantment 4 2 ritual that gives the caster a second life as undead. If the mage dies, it will return in the province where the ritual was cast as one of several possible Wight Mage chassis depending on its original size. So long as the mage returns as a wight, any global enchantments they are holding are preserved. This spell also has the side effect of forcefully relocating the caster's home province (where they receive their +1 morale bonus) to where the spell was cast.

Twiceborn costs 5 per point of size. It would cost only 5 for a size 1 Svartalf to be twiceborn, whereas a size 4 Angakok would pay a hefty 20 for the privilege. Undead, demons and inanimates cannot be twiceborn. Note that it is possible to twiceborn a small chassis for 5 or 10, transform it into a larger chassis, and kill it for a correspondingly larger wight mage form. In particular, late age Vaettiheim's Vaetti Gygjas can undergo this process for a potential supercombatant chassis at (with luck) minimal cost, although there are too many transformation results for this to be reliable.

Modder's Note: Twiceborn looks at resource size, not actual size. This keeps people riding horses from twiceborning into giants. It also means that the larger bless effect will not increase the twiceborn cost. Twiceborn can be copied for the unique cost as a function of size effect but it also resets the caster's home province and that effect can not be separated out.

The effect will fail if the unit's owner does not control the province where the ritual was cast, and there is no indication given of the twicebornee's original province (except for the morale bonus gained from being in their home province). If the ritual was cast in a fort, the inside of the fort must be controlled in order for the mage to return. Thus a mage will return if the fort is being sieged by enemies, but not if the ritual caster lost the fort and is besieging it in an attempt to take it back. This also remains true if a twiceborn mage is Charmed, except that its new owner will likely have no way to determine where the ritual was originally cast.

Additionally, the ritual will fail if the mage's living form was killed by any Soul Slay effect.

If cast by a pretender, they will return as a Wight like any normal commander when their normal form dies. When the Wight dies, they die normally and must be recalled. Once they have been recalled as normal they will be their original form again. The exception to this are trinity pretenders: two parts of the trinity will not revert to the original form if recalled, but the third will.

Any mercenary commander who casts the Twiceborn spell will become permanently owned by the player. This is due to the spell's effect of changing the caster's home province to wherever the spell was cast.¹⁾ This also means that the player is free to take any items or gems they might have. As it does not update the home provinces of troops under their command, the troops will still refuse to be moved to another commander, but they will not leave when their contract would have ended.

When a twiceborn commander returns as a Wight Mage, it has a chance to gain an additional level in the Death magic path. Practical testing of approximately 20200 casts of twiceborn indicate this happens 20% of the time,²⁾ but that it cannot boost the mage beyond 4.³⁾

Notable features of wight mages include:

• They all have no upkeep.
• They are undead units, giving them spirit sight and very high resistance to poison and cold damage as well as the poor amphibian ability. This also makes them vulnerable to anti-undead items and magic, such as the Holy Scourge and Cleansing Water.
• Chill aura 3.
• 5-7 natural protection, 18 morale, high strength, moderately high attack and defense skill and 22 map move. Except size, their stats and abilities are unrelated to their previous living form (these stats may vary slightly based on different chassis sizes or certain special chassis types).
• Significantly more hitpoints than most living chassis of equivalent size.

Note that, even though they are undead, wight mages do have a maximum age and are not immune to old age penalties. In extreme circumstances, a very old mage may twiceborn into a wight mage with worse stats than the base chassis would indicate.

A table of twiceborn forms is included below, organized by size. For units with more than one shape, the wight mage form considers only the size of the #firstshape instead of whatever shape the mage is currently in. 'Male' in the twicebornee column simply refers to the absence of the female tag; this includes animals which are not obviously male or female, as almost all animals lack the female tag. Exact requirements for each twiceborn result courtesy of Loggy's notes.⁴⁾

Image	Name	Twicebornee	Description
	Wight Mage	Male size 1 nonflying chassis	Size 1, stealthy
	Wight Hag	Female size 1 nonflying chassis	Retains female, stealthy and forest survival
	Wight Mage	Default form for size 2 or 3 chassis	Size 2
	Wight Mage	Size 2 flying chassis or Caelian birdfolk	Wight form cannot fly
	Wight Mage	Size 1 flying chassis or Xibalban Zotz	Wight form cannot fly, but keeps/gains stealthy and forest survival
	Carrion Lady	Any size 2 unit associated with Asphodel, such as Black Dryads and Dryad Hags	Gains pierce resistant, magic being and inanimate. Retains recuperation and forest survival
	Wight Mage	Any size 2 unit that has both cold blooded and swamp survival	Loses cold blooded and swamp survival
	Wight Mage	Shinuyama Bakemono Sorcerers only	Retains mountain survival. Because all Bakemono Sorcerers have 1, the Bakemono Sorcerer will still be sacred when it becomes a wight.
	Wight Shaman	Enkidu chassis only
	Carrion Lord	Asphodel Panic Apostates only	Gains sacred, pierce resistant, magic being and inanimate. Retains recuperation and forest survival
	Wight Mage	Male size 4 chassis	Size 4, forest survival and snow move
	Wight Mage	Any amphibious or aquatic size 4+ chassis except Agarthan Ancient Ones and R'lyehan Aboleths. Includes Telkhines and Ryujin in addition to Angakoks as the sprite indicates	Fully amphibious
	Wight Hag	Female size 4 chassis	Female, fortune teller, forest survival and snow move
	Wight Murmurer	All Ashdod size 4+ units and commanders	Retains wasteland survival
	Necrodai	Size 4 Aboleth chassis (Aboleth or Abodai)	Fully amphibious, unlike their living forms
	Wight Oracle	All size 4 units associated with EA or MA Agartha	Fully amphibious and a reanimator priest. Loses siege bonus
	Wight Mage	Size 5 and 6 female titans only	Size 5, has fear. Does not retain female
	Wight Mage	Size 5 or 6 male chassis	Size 6, has fear
	Necrodai	Size 6 Aboleth chassis (Mind Lord)	Fully amphibious, unlike their living forms