Spectral Creature Origins — Souls And The Nature Of Spectral Power

[Supremacy 3357]

TL;DR

 

• 3 Aspects dictate the power of a paranormal creature:

  • Age

  • Distance from mortals (soul shadows which interact with mortals less are stronger)

  • Amount the soul shadow is related to our world (A soul which “passed’ further from our world is less tangible).

  • Many soul shadows are stronger than one soul shadow.

 

• Paranormal creatures are shadows of the souls of those who have passed. The quicker they become a shadow the more tangible they are, as they clung to life more swiftly.

  • Bind quickly? Graven

  • Bind slowly? Ghost

  • Be mind bogglingly evil and bind with a whole lot of other people? Apparition

• Monks can not revive ghosts as paranormal creatures are shadows of a mortal and not the true person.

• The more a ghost interacts normally with mortals the more “mortal” they become and the less power they have. This is because the more they act like a ghost, the closer their shadow become to the next plane of existence and thus the more power they can drain from it.

  • Act like a human as a ghost and you can be “killed” (Dematerialize for 30 minutes) with even a regular every day item.

  • Act like a ghost and you get ghostly powers such as shrieking, chilling rooms, throwing objects and mild terror inducing aura. You’re also invulnerable to anything but ghost-killing weapons (See Standardizing Spectral Creatures for a full list, but the obvious ones are gold and holy magic).

  • Gravens behave in a similar way to ghosts but instead of gaining the ghost-powers they gain the Graven powers (glowy, floaty and so on). If they don’t act like a Graven, they become plain and weak and can be killed regardless where they are hit.

  • Apparitions technically would lose power and become solid like a ghost if they did this— But by lore they couldn’t do this anyway.

 

The Dynamics of Spectral Form:

 

Ghosts are soul shadows those which have passed from our world. Thus they draw their powers from the next plane of existence but can simultaneously and rather enigmatically exist in both realms at once. They are a carbon copy of the soul which has passed on, which will only reunite with the true soul once the spectral creature disperses.

 

As an individual dies their soul passes from this world to the next. Depending on how quickly their soul shadow binds themselves to this world changes what they will become. In general the quicker they bind, the more they exist in our plane of existence and thus the more tangible they are.

 

As previously stated souls closer to the mortal realm or souls which interact more with mortals are weaker, in the same way a ghost may be weakened. These spectral creatures however have “wiggle room” in terms of how tangible they are. A ghost which interacts with mortals drifts slightly back towards our plane of existence and thus become more tangible and less magical. This is why ghosts which interact with mortals most lack supernatural powers and why ghosts which act in more 'ghost like' ways have all manner of curious and paranormal abilities.

 

A spectral creature can not change “type” of spectral creature through this method (i.e. Between ghost, graven and apparition). However, they can change the amount of paranormal power they have through acting more like a ghost and less like a person.

 

TL;DR: If you have a paranormal creature and act like one, your ghost can do ghost-like things like shriek, throw things and instill a very mild sense of fear— You will also be invulnerable to anything that would normally hurt a mortal (unless it normally hurts a spectral creature— Like gold or holy magic) . If your paranormal creature acts like a person and talks like one they will become more tangible and will therefore be able to be “dispersed” temporarily by even an iron sword.

 

The moral of the story? Act like a ghost if you are one.

 

Ghosts, Gravens and Apparitions are souls shadows which are for one reason or another (usually due to ill will upon another or an incomplete life task). As stated before the 3 values which give a soul power are: Age, relation to mortals and number of soul shadows. Hence why an apparition is usually far more powerful than a ghost or graven as they are a collection of souls which have little to no contact with mortals and are usually ancient.

 

How Spectral Creatures Form:

 

Spectral creatures are souls which linger on our plane of existence long past their natural death. Some may wonder why this is the case, how a soul of an individual could possibly linger when it has no mortal body to bind it to the world.

 

Spectral creatures of various types all have their own unique way in which they remain on our plane of existence, however they all share one key feature: All spectral creatures bind their soul shadow to the world in order to prevent it from passing to the monks or into the next world.

 

You see, all soul shadows are either bound to something or will pass into the next world.

 

Upon death a soul begins this process of “passing” and in most cases the soul is either swiftly plucked from the metaphorical air and revived by the monks or missed by the monks. If a soul is missed it passes fully to death (Perma killing) but may, leave a fragment— A soul shadow, which will form a spectral creature.

 

This binding however is imperfect, for the soul shadow had already partially begun the process of “passing”. The degree to which a soul shadow began the “passing” process defines how tangible the effects of the spectral creature will be upon the real world. A ghost, a creature which has nearly full passed will barely be tied to this world and therefore will have a very weak interaction with it. Gravens however bind themselves to the mortal world sooner and thus many interact with it more tangibly than their spectral brethren.

 

Apparitions relate to this rule differently— As each soul has partially passed more than the individual soul shadow of the Graven, an apparition is not “solid” as a Graven is— However as collectively the soul shadows have much more of a connection to the real world the apparition’s powers are far greater.

 

It is critically noteworthy that once a soul has begun passing, the portion of passing which has completed itself can rarely if ever be undone. The monks can not revive monks as the ghost is but a shadow of the true person. This is why a Monk can not revive a ghost, as despite how powerful their magic is, not even the Wilven monks can reverse the process of passing into whatever comes after this world.

[spqrSancus 173]

Surprisingly not lore made to nerf or weaken any particular aspect of roleplay, but to flesh out what was made earlier. Plus one, but I'm still ticked from your previous changes, Kalenz. Except for lalve's, Graven effectively do not exist. :/ Except as a peaceful creature living in Malinor, the whole thing flopped as soon as you made that lore.

[Draeris 3118]

I would have to say, good work chap.

 

+1