Baylock's Musebox

A guide I use for ghosts in AUs. A mixture of different fandom references, though mostly utilising the Eric Carter, Lockwood & Co. and Rivers of London canons with regular commonly accepted mythology mixed in.

All Ghosts are Spirits, but not All Spirits Are Ghosts

It isn't incorrect to call a ghost a spirit, but it would be incorrect to call many types of spirits ghosts. Some non-ghost spirits were, at one point, ghosts, but have transcended that designation. As such, some spirits and some higher-end ghosts are difficult to draw a distinction between.

Spirits, in short, can be various things. They can be ghosts, yes, but they can also be the personification of a concept, such as Luck or Rebellion, a place, like a Genius Loci or even a tree, like a Dryad. They can be non-human, non-demon or non-fae Entities, such as Yokai. Spirits are often more powerful and varied than ghosts and may have been human at one point, but that is far from always the case.

Things about Ghosts:

Ghosts are always the incorporeal forms of formerly living people or other creatures. All of them were once alive and the ghost is what is left of them. There are various different types of ghosts of varying levels of strength, sapience and sentience.

Ghosts come in different strengths and their form and behaviour vary accordingly. It is not possible to speak to or communicate with certain types of ghost because they have lost what made them who they were, being little more than a spooky fingerprint on the living world. That isn't to say that ghosts start out strong and weaken over time like a tape, however. It is not uncommon for ghosts to start out as wisps.

Types

They are often informally graded according to a combination of their ability to communicate and genera risk to the general public. Different locations have different gradings and there is no strict hierarchy of ghosts to refer to, but the general loosely accepted differences are outlined below. These differences mostly benefit those who work directly with ghosts, such as exorcists and modern-day necromancers.

Grade 1 ghosts are entirely uncommunicative, lacking the residual intelligence. This either results in silence, as is the case of wisps, or a looped selection of dialogue pertaining to their life and/or the circumstances of their deaths. These are considered to be the lightest possible residual memory, a collection of emotions or one memory, little more.

Grade 2 ghosts can have limited conversations, although they are usually limited in scope. They can sometimes be used by sufficiently skilled necromancers to get information out of, but they struggle to learn, giving a curiously 'speaking to an NPC AI' feeling to talking to them. It is believed that strength of spirit is a factor, since some will be more communicative when given an offering or magic or blood, though this is not reliable. The dangerous Grade 2 ghosts tend to be threatening and one-track. These types are considered to be a residual memory of a chunk of a person, or limited thoughts, but not their entire being.

Grade 2 ghosts are labelled as sentient for their ability to problem solve in limited scenarios and hold limited conversations.

Grade 3 ghosts are the most uncommon. They can communicate as if they were alive and, in some cases, learn new things. They can be mistaken for spirits. They are considered to be the entire being of a person, thoughts, feelings, emotions, mind.

Grade 3 ghosts are fully sapient.

Attachment

Ghosts tend to be tied to an object or a place, though they can also be tied to a person, particularly in the case of animal ghosts, though they don't necessarily have to be. Those tied to places have a radius of haunting individual to them. Some may only haunt certain rooms in a house, some may haunt the entire house, some may haunt a road, some a whole town.

Those that have an attachment to objects are considered to have a Source. This means that they can be taken from one place to another. Source-based ghosts are almost entirely Grade 2 and 3. The Source acts as a small tear between the Other Side and the Living World allowing them to pass through, while ghosts with a place-based attachment pass through the veil like a filter-net. Source-based ghosts can be prevented from crossing through by covering their Source with something ghosts cannot pass through, such as silver or iron.

Destroying a Source may or may not prevent the ghost from crossing back over. If the object in particular in whole form was important, it may. If it isn't, it could attach itself to a chip of the original.

Sources can masquerade as place-based attachments if the Source of the ghost is the skeleton of a dead individual or something they were interred with. Common other objects include jewellery, heirlooms, sentimental objects or, in the case of child ghosts, toys.

The majority of ghosts are formed thanks to either trauma in the cases of traumatic deaths, a strong attachment to a place or person or the desire to tell the story of their death.

NOTE: Both place-based attachments and Sources have the rare potential to cause dangerous, large-scale incursions of ghosts. While most ghosts cannot pass out of the Other Side, a collection of ghosts in one place or a collection of sources put together can weaken the veil enough to sufficiently allow others to pass through. This is Bad.

Living World Interaction

Not all ghosts can interact with the living world.

As a general rule, only Grade 2 and 3 ghosts can. Wisps, Echoes, Looping and general Grade 1 ghosts lack the cognition to do it. Grade 2 ghosts, including the ever-famous poltergeist type can move objects and affect people, though poltergeists don't tend to have a physical form according to most conventionally available mythology. Grade 3 ghosts, as the highest tier, can also do this and often get named poltergeists as a result. How precise they can be, how consistent they can be and the nature of their interaction varies with the ghost.

Those Who Can Interact With Ghosts

While many people can feel the effects of ghosts (creeping dread, cold spots, etc) not everybody can see them. That's just a fact of life.

In general, those who can see them are split into five distinct groups.

Children: It is well known that children and adolescents can often see ghosts, with the ability fading as they get older. It is unknown why this occurs, but it is believed to be due to a less rigid view of the world, or the fact that they are still developing a sense of safe reality. The ability to see them in normal individuals tends to fade between the ages of around 13-18, with few over the age of 18 being able to still perceive ghosts.

Magical Practitioners: Those with the ability to do magic of many types often have the ability to see ghosts. While not all can, especially regular people who have chosen to learn a small selection of low-level spells, sufficiently advanced practitioners of many types will generally be able to see them. The ability is stronger in those born with it, either those from magically inclined families, those who have magic by blood (traditional druids, nagual, etc) or those changed by magic to develop animal-like behaviours (werewolf, etc).

Additionally, it includes those with a Knack for psychic medium-based communication, though the ability to see them is more highly individual than other types.

Necromancers: Necromancers have the inherent ability to see ghosts. They can see them more clearly than most and can naturally interact with those that can be interacted with. This ability goes hand in hand with the ability to interact with and control other types of dead.

Those Who Have Experienced Death/A Near Death Experience: Those who have died and been brought back, those who have come very close to death and the undead can also see ghosts because they got very close to the veil, or crossed it. It isn't a certain thing -- some people who died on operating tables don't necessarily gain the ability, but it is a potential option. Extremely elderly people close to death, or those who are terminally ill, may also develop the ability, as can people who have survived a possession event.

Anomalous Ability: Sometimes just random people can see ghosts. They may not be able to do magic, they may not have come close to death. They have certainly aged out of the ability. In most cases it is completely random and a total anomaly. In others, it may be the result of brain damage or something similar. Why this happens is unknown.

The Other Side

The Other Side is where ghosts generally reside.

Separate from the real world, The Other Side is a shadow of the living one. It can be reached (although doing so is difficult, dangerous and ill-advised) by stepping sideways into that realm of existence, though it can also be reached by portal or a thinning in the barrier that exists between the two planes.

It is generally not advised for the living to cross to the realm of the dead. The atmosphere there is dangerous to the living, having a deleterious and draining effect on life, in addition to it being absolutely freezing cold and the living being a beacon there to hungry spirits. A normal human there would last mere minutes, if that, though they can enter if protected by silver or iron, though this is not recommended. Those with more magic can generally last longer unprotectd, but it is still exceptionally dangerous.

The Undead can generally exist there safely, though few have the ability to actually get there.

In appearance, the world on the other side of the veil looks to be very similar to the real one ... at least initially. It is always shrouded in a strange ... hollowness, the quality of light and curiously uniform grey sky not giving a clue as to the time of the day. It could be night, it could be day. The light there is non-specific and doesn't appear to have a direct source. The best way to describe it is 'around dawn on an aggressively overcast day'. It is considered dreary.

On first glance, it seems to mirror the living world, however the longer one looks at it, the more it appears off.

Firstly, no matter where you are, there will be a number of doors, portals, gates, ingresses, windows, passages (it varies according to viewer) leading to whatever afterlife the dead go to. In that sense, the other side of the veil is a sort of purgatory reached prior to moving on an individual's final reward.

Beyond that, the Other Side is, in effect, a psychic memory, similar to how ghosts themselves are.

As such, buildings take a while to manifest there, showing them only if they are there for a decent length of time. Therefore, it is not unrealistic for a 300 year old building that has been renovated in the living world to have a pre-renovation floor plan in the memory of itself. This doesn't only apply to buildings -- it applies to trees, cars and similar. This can make passing from one side to the other a risk to those daft enough to do it, especially if they are stupid enough to run upstairs in a building that has recently been demolished in the real world and then cross back over. c:

Th length of time it takes to 'update' the Other Side depends on the depth of memory. A burned out car will appear in the world of the dead within weeks, if left there, though a demolished building may appear to be intact in that world for decades after it is torn down, if nothing else happens on the site in the living world to form a new memory in the dead one.

Those who have the ability to ... effectively 'see' back through time can see what the Other Side might look like, though few enough people have this ability to test the theory.

Some Necromancers can see the ghosts on the other side of the veil, if not the appearance of the place itself, not requiring the ghosts to cross through to be perceived.

Additionally, things can be seen from the other side.

The living appear as glowing masses, making it easy to pinpoint their position on the other side while in the realm of the dead. Should a person die, however, they disappear entirely from view on that side, on account of their human body having not been in position long enough to form a memory. Their ghost will appear on the appropriate side of the veil.

Crossing over to the dead side is dangerous for the living and crossing over to the living side is often not easy for the dead. Requiring an object or place-based tether makes their movement difficult. Different things can affect their ability to travel of manifest, including salt, silver, iron and sufficiently bright light, such as magnesium flares.

It is also for this reason that ghosts of certain types can be much more difficult to see in the living world. While ghosts can manifest in daylight, the light can make them more difficult to see due to the nature of some types of ectoplasm, though some types of ghost (especially those closer to the Spirit designation) can be seen perfectly well. The individual's ability to see them can also affect how clear they are -- Necromancers or anomalies may see them much more clearly than others with the ability.

Ghosts can be bolstered for appearance in the living world either by blood, which gives them the residual 'life' needed to do it, or magic, which has much the same ability.

Some of the more dangerous ghosts will start to crave this and hunt people for these things and most living people on the Other Side are at risk of being preyed upon by particularly greedy ghosts hoping to get back a taste of the life they lost. This is when ghosts develop a jealousy of the living and often enter the process of becoming a Malevolence.

Passing through depends on the ghost and not all ghosts have the ability to pass through.

Those with location-based ties to the living world have a localised area of thinner veil due to their connection to the world in that place. While they likely spend much of their time on the other side, they can freely move between that and the living one in their specific area of haunting. These types of ghosts are often more insubstantial, because they don't actually wholesale damage the veil between the two worlds, leaving their forms on the living side wispier.

In the cases of Source-based ghosts, the Source provides an anchored attachment between the ghost and the living world, a little like a guide-rope. They can pass through their Source and manifest in the living world. Source-based ghosts are often more dangerous since they have the ability to be somewhat more corporeal on account of their using a portal rather than a weakening.

However these are general observations and are by no means hard and fast rules.

As noted prior, a big enough collective of place-based ghosts or enough collected Sources can make a larger incursion site. With the hole between the two places open, it has the potential to allow dangerous ghosts formerly without the ability to cross over pass through, something that can be dangerous to the living they may feed on.

It has also been used in reverse in the past at least once, with a portal being made and held open to allow the living to go through to the dead side. This, and experiments over there, was the cause of The Problem, a localised disaster that befell the Greater London Area some decades ago.

Properties of Ghosts

Ghosts, when manifesting in the real world, are made of a substance that has colloquially been referred to as ectoplasm.

This substance is varied and is different depending on the ghost and the type of ghost.

In weaker ghosts, the ectoplasm is merely a wispy fog-like substance. In some it appears more opaque and solid, but still largely faintly glowing white. Colour is not something that weaker ghosts can control. In powerful ghosts, it can appear to mirror corporeal form, colour included, though sometimes as a washed-out pale version of the thing.

Some people can see beyond the effect most see and see ghosts of this type as virtually human or indistinguishable from human, though the ability is rare and often linked to the 'seeing through time' ability some people have that allows them to see memories places in the form of their previous incarnations.

In some cases, ghosts can control and change their ectoplasm from their regular human form to something else. One case is a human dead person appearing as a hellhound, complete with blood. Some manifest things like bloody footprints, or handprints.

Some ghosts meld together when there are enough mindless ghosts in one place, becoming one mass of various types of ectoplasm, often controlled by the dominant personality. This is generally termed a 'Malevolence' (though the term is used for other types of haunting), though other regional terms are used, especially in East Asia, where the phenomenon is particularly well-documented. Their forms and abilities can vary wildly.

In many cases, ectoplasm is low-risk. In some, ectoplasm can be touch-dangerous, resulting in catastrophic multiple organ failure. It is unknown why some ghosts have this effect, but it is believed to be the ghost in question passively feeding on the living person. Adrenaline can usually reverse this effect if administered fast enough.

Powerful fully thinking Grade 3 ghosts not quite on their way to becoming Spirits and are often touch-dangerous, but not always.

Other effects ghosts have are more benign.

When somebody or something is killed, often in a violent way, they can leave a temporary 'death glow' in their place of death. It is usually seen by the sufficiently sensitive as either an indistinct patch of other-light (reminiscent of the grey haze that covers the Other Side) or a person- or animal-shaped 'body' of light. This fades over time, as a rule, though some have remained in place for decades.

They can make an area feel cold, one of the more common indirect manifestations of a ghost, and exude a creeping negative feeling, the common 'something isn't right' sensation people are reported to feel. A feeling of malaise is not uncommon either.

Weaknesses

Ghosts have a number of things that might keep them at bay.

Most are substances that have been used since time immemorial to keep negative energies out of a place. It is worth noting that the substances that damage ghosts are always a temporary measure. Only an exorcism or the destruction or sealing of their Source can get rid of them permanently.

The most common is Iron. Just as it works for all (with one exception) Fae and some Spirits, Iron can be used to keep ghosts out of a place. It can, however, also be used to keep ghosts in a place, so warding only works if you know the risk isn't already coming from inside the house. An iron chain, or circle of iron filings, will keep one safe from a ghost.

The second is Silver. More expensive and stronger than Iron, Silver is the often prohibitively difficult to get hold of and, as such, is rarer to see in use.

Salt is the other major substance used for keeping ghosts away. It can damage ectoplasm, along with heat, so bombs or flares made from salt are valuable against the more dangerous types of ghost.

Heat is a strong deterrent for ghosts. It damages ectoplasm and, as such, fire and magnesium flares are very effective against all types of ghost. Sunlight can have a similar effect on them, generally weakening their innate abilities and making them difficult to see for most people, but numerous factors play into it, including cloud cover, ambient heat and the individual ghost.

It isn't like ghosts have never manifested in the heat of the day in the desert, is it?

Likewise, religious imagery being used will depend very heavily on the individual. A ghost who was an atheist in life is unlikely to care about a cross being brandished at them, or scripture being read out loud ... unless they believe that, as a ghost, they should be weakened by those things. Ghosts are weird.

Running water will also keep ghosts at bay. Those with a large area to haunt will be unable to follow somebody across it, so rivers provide effective barriers.

Other potentially effective things include the scent of lavender, localised wards such as paper tags, pictures of eyes, witch balls, silver-backed mirrors (for the obvious reason) and location-specific statues and carvings.

Current anti-ghost weaponry includes special bullets and silver-edged blades in addition to flares.

Ghost Varieties

Below is a non-exhaustive list of commonly seen ghost types. These are general observations and not hard rules, since ghosts are difficult to define and sometimes evade rigid classification. Even so, many modern necromancers and exorcists have a vague list, if only to see whether they are worth dealing with. Time is money, and all that.

Wisps

Wisps are almost universally the weakest type of ghost.

They appear as hanging 'clouds' of pale fog and have little effect on the world around them. They have lost their human form and their ability to communicate, if they ever had it. They make the space they 'haunt' feel cold and contribute to 'cold spots' in the house or location they haunt.

It is usually unclear what it is that ties a Wisp to the world and they can't be asked due to losing their ability to communicate.

It is not considered necessary to exorcise wisps.

Replays/Loopers and Echoes

This type of ghost relives a moment or selection of moments in their life, often those leading up to their death.

With Echoes, while they are generally not intelligently communicative, it is not unusual for those of this type, especially those with a story to tell before they can move on, to recount information. Some may tell of the the trauma holding them to life. They may tell their story all at once, or over successive days.

Replays/Loopers will always just work on a set loop of acts and motions.

Others simply go through the motions. Either re'living' their death or murder or re-enacting some aspect of it. This is the lowest tier of ghost that can 'manifest' outside of their main form. For example, a replay may be able to manifest the image of a car they were killed by or, if they were graffitiing a wall inside a train tunnel when they were killed by the train, what they were writing/drawing up to the point of their death, and back again.

All ghosts of this type can appear indistinct or hazy, likely due to their gradual degradation.

As a general rule, these ghosts are not considered necessary to exorcise though may be if they are causing a problem. Nobody wants a murder happening over and over in their living room, do they?

Other Grade 1 Ghosts

Other Grade 1 ghosts include uncommunicative but ultimately human-form ghosts that don't follow a set pattern of behaviour.

They include Grey Ladies, Shades, laughing children, Stone Knockers and ghosts that do little more than manifest an unusual scent, such as pipe tobacco. They tend to be simply visual/auditory or olfactory representations of a person with no real mind, or a sound or scent. Knockers, in spite of their name, do not actually interact with the world around them, the sound they make is entirely spirit-based.

These are occasionally exorcised due to being annoying.

NOTE: More dangerous ghosts can manifest as these types of spirits as a ruse. Proceed with caution.

Haunts and Lurkers

Haunts and Lurkers are the weakest Grade 2 Ghosts.

Simply ghosts being dudes, they tend to lurk around specific places, be it houses or certain areas outdoors. They may be conversed with, but the subject matter will be extremely limited. These types of ghost tend to degrade fairly quickly and, when seen outside, are often the result of RTAs, accidental deaths or murders.

They can look either reasonably substantial, or to Necromancers or those with a decent ability, they can be fairly human looking.

They occasionally turn dangerous, being a candidate for resentment and potential hunting behaviour.

This is the lowest variety of ghost that can be bribed with blood or magic.

Spectres

Spectres are always vividly detailed human-form ghosts.

To those who can see ghosts they can seem like they are the same as a living person, but their abilities, including those of communication, are very limited. They may want to right a wrong, or take a living person to something they hid or secreted away in life. In some cases, they are content to be around the accoutrements of their living days.

They can become dangerous if the place they haunt is altered.

They are generally place-based ghosts, though those with Sources are often mistaken for those if their Source is in a hidden part of a location.

Those with Sources often obsess over their item of value, becoming dangerous if it is tampered with or moved.

Phantasm

Phantasms are less substantial looking than a Spectre, but often more dangerous for being difficult to see. Often aggressive, they are the lowest type of ghost that can take a non-human form, often appearing monstrous, with exaggerated features.

Not all have negative intentions, but they are usually exorcised if close to high populations, for discerning what it is they are haunting a place for can be difficult.

Fetch

A Fetch is a type of ghost that is extremely dangerous due to its ability to act on the fears and thoughts of those witnessing them.

They tend to have no ability to converse in a normal way, but they may invent conversations based on what they see in the viewer by skimming their memories. Their most common way of affecting an individual is to pretend to be somebody close to the victim, speaking with their voice and leading them into dangerous places. Similar to a wil 'o the wisp type spirit, they can get somebody into trouble by leading the astray.

They can also cause severe psychological distress, because they don't adopt forms using glamour, they physically alter their ectoplasm.

Often mistaken for a Grade 3 based on its falsified ability to converse, they are a 'destroy on sight' type of ghost.

Changer

Changers are extremely dangerous ghosts.

So called because they can deliberately alter their appearance (much like a Fetch but without the mimicry), they have the disturbing ability to pretend to be much lower, much less dangerous types of ghost.

This had led to death and injury on multiple occasions.

They are almost entirely negative in nature, with only a few altering their shapes to disguise a disfiguring injury or something similar. It is much more common for them to pretend to be blood dripping from walls or something much scarier.

They are kill on sight type ghosts for their dangerousness and intelligence alone, but they are only to be dealt with by sufficiently powerful exorcists or necromancers.

Poltergeist

Poltergeists are a unique type of ghost.

They entirely lack a physical form, while being entirely capable of interacting with the physical world. They cannot be conversed with, lacking a voice, but have the ability to move solid objects around.

They can be spoken to using a spirit board, but this is inadvisable, for they are often extremely dangerous to be in a room with.

Other Grade 2 Ghosts

Other Grade 2 ghosts include wraiths, lurkers and more innocent spirits that simply ... haunt places without any real ill-intent.

Some may be very protective over a place, some may just live there.

Conversations with these types of ghosts are often limited, though some have the ability to manifest truly human looking forms have have what seem to be intelligent conversations, often getting a human to do a job for them, to have them move on.

Others can be extremely dangerous, though defy direct classification and name. These types are often toxic to the touch and have the potential to be mistaken for demons. Some of the more dangerous Grade 2 ghosts can possess the living, though this is, thankfully, extremely uncommon.

Grade 3 Ghosts

Grade 3 ghosts are not classified separately, like people attempt to do with the more common types of 1 and 2 ghosts.

The main thing about them is that they can have full conversations speak and learn new things. They can engage with the modern world intellectually and are, essentially, incorporeal living people, as far as their intelligence is concerned.

Being as rare as they are, they have a variety of different abilities.

Some may be toxic, some may not.

Some may remember their lives, some may not.

They tend to embody different aspects of the lesser ghosts, with some people able to manifest objects extraneous to themselves and some being able to interact to varying degrees with the living world.

It is believed that some of the ghosts of this type remain in the world not because they were taken out of it with trauma, or with things left unfinished, but because they wanted to, because they simply didn't want to die.

Grade 3 ghosts are often difficult to distinguish from non-specific Spirit entities, with many of their abilities and manifestation-forms crossing over between the two. Sean is a good example of a potential blurring of the lines.

Malevolence

Known by this and many other names, a Malevolence is less a conventional haunting and more an... event.

Malevolences can form in a number of ways.

One potential way they can manifest is due to a localised if widespread haunting. A group of ghosts can end up amalgamating into one spirit with a dominant personality. Due to the nature of that, they can have component parts and abilities related to multiple types of spirit, including poltergeists and Changers.

Sometimes they have nothing to do with the deaths or ghosts of those affected, instead being a non-ghost spirit formed from the negative energy in a place, not dissimilar to a personified concept or genius loci, except they are the spirit of a tragedy.

Whatever they are, they are always to be treated with extreme caution.