[Shelved][✓] [CA Amendment] Ghost Invisibility

[The King Of The Moon 5136]

Explanation

The spectral condition is an arduous one; to linger in the Elysian Wastes, rejecting the call of the soulstream and Fate, the common phantom's interactions with the world depend largely on their force of will. Formed of ectoplasm - the unnatural fusion of lifeforce and mana conjured by either the tampering of mystics or acts of wild magic - the unhallowed presence is not one meant for the living realm.

It is for such reasons that a ghost spends the majority of its time unseen by the non-clairvoyant living, treading across the Elysian Wastes as a spectator, until such a time they feel compelled to exert their will upon the mortal plane itself, becoming visible and more capable of influencing temporal affairs. This act of anchoring - a triumph, that makes the common ghost distinct from the weaker geists and stagnant souls of the Wastes - requires a decidedly well calculated adjustment of one's limited ectoplasm, when contrasted with the greater behemoths of phantomkind (such as Wights, Apparitions and the like).

 

To redefine their forms as belonging to the physical makeup of the living world - beyond the comfort of the spiritual Elysian shroud - a ghost is forced to assume the risks involved with the bondage of sight, rendering oneself perceivable to mortalkind is to tether one's ectoplasm to the whims of living perception. The more direct consequence of this is an inability for ghosts to return to the Wastes' safety whilst remaining apparent to a living observer.

That is to say: once made visible, a ghost must escape the view of any mortal spectator before beggining the process of redefining their ectoplasm to reassume an invisible state. This adjustment accounts only for the living, in a similar manner to a geist's exertion of will upon mortals, and a spectre would have no difficulty beginning the process of reversion when perceived only by the undead, or otherwise unliving constructs. 

 

Further: an exception to this clause is found amongst those with true sight, who are themselves able to peer into the Elysian Wastes - as clairvoyants that perceive such in their entirety, and mystics that can locate such potent sources of ectoplasm where stagnant souls would otherwise allude their sight - as well as the Witnesses of Vaasek. In the case of the latter, the all-seeing and ever curious will fixate upon a ghost once it has been made visible to mortalkind, and even if permitted to reassume its invisibility by escaping the direct gaze of the living, a Witness - and the subsequent Seer it is aligned to - will keep track of the once-seen spectre until its departure.   

Redlines
-A ghost that has been made visible to living descendants will find itself incapable of assuming invisibility again so long as it remains within line of sight of the aforementioned; in this regard a ghost can not begin the emote count of their 'Invisibility' spell whilst being watched, and said emote count will reset if they are looked at by any living descendant. A span of three consecutive emotes of being unseen by if not hidden from any living spectators is required to transition into invisibility.
            -This notably has no bearing on animals, undead or construct CA races, nor beings with true sight that would be able to perceive the ghost regardless, IE vivification and mysticism. With the exception of animals, this is notably something a ghost can not fully comprehend nor understand, and attempts to purpose these exceptions as a means of identifying individuals from the aforementioned examples would be considered metagaming.
(IE a Ghost acknowledging their ability to turn invisible in front of a disguised figure that happens to be a Lich, and from that identifying them as a Lich would be considered exceptionally poor roleplay and punished accordingly).

 

-Whilst Seers of Vaasek lack True Sight and the subsequent ability to see invisible ghosts, once a ghost has been made visible they will remain so to the Seer, even if able to hide away for the aforementioned three emotes to become invisible again to most people. This remains until the ghost has exited the range of #shout, at which point and thereafter if coming back into range the ghost will be once more invisible to the Seer. Further, only slotted MA Seers are able to benefit from this; users of the feat alone will interact with ghost invisible in the same manner as all other living descendants. 

Purpose
Though I would hope the overall point of this amendment speaks for itself, I believe this adjustment to the way in which users of the ghost CA must approach 'disappearing' in roleplay is an essential change for the continued existence of the open CA. Due to innumerable misuses and overall shoddy caused by abuse of phantom invisibility, and the unquestionably problematic nature of the invisibility spell both in the current iteration of ghost lore and in previous - where time and again ghosts have used the ability to vanish from an encounter the moment it goes sour with them, effectively unhindered by experiments with emote counts given their ability to negate most forms of physical harm that might disrupt such alongside the sad reality of dodge and kite emotes - this amendment is intended to level the playing field by giving ghosts a bare minimum requirement of escaping/ hiding away (or simply remaining unseen) before being a free pass to exit an encounter that may not benefit the ghost player's goals, which I believe in turn will encourage a far more sensible, cautious and overall better thought out experience for those ghosts interact with; negating past examples of recklessness that ghosts have been infamous for, by adding the potential for a modicum of consequence to their actions. 

This amendment is only intended to effect ghosts, and will have no impact on similar abilities used by other magics and creatures.

[monkeypoacher 6993]

Extremely necessary. +1

[1_Language_1 1671]

can't you just chase after them

[The King Of The Moon 5136]

1 hour ago, 1_Language_1 said:

can't you just chase after them

Yes.

[Gallic 1051]

I'm not active on my ghost lately so I don't really have a right to comment on ghost lore, but I think it'd be neat if the red lines were relaxed when a ghost was in their haunt

[Jentos 6886]

25 minutes ago, Gallic said:

I'm not active on my ghost lately so I don't really have a right to comment on ghost lore, but I think it'd be neat if the red lines were relaxed when a ghost was in their haunt

I agree, would make sense for the ghost to be far more "powerful" in its own lair.

[squakhawk 7955]

This Lore has been accepted. Moved to Implemented Lore, it will be sorted to it's appropriate category soon. Please note that if this is playable lore, such as a magic or CA, you will need to write a guide for this piece. You will be contacted regarding the guide (or implementation if it isn’t needed) shortly.

[squakhawk 7955]

Lore has been shelved and moved to the appropriate subforum. If you have questions about why this specific lore has been shelved, please contact an ST Manager or the ST Administrator.