Note: I’m aware that ghosts are already a playable CA race, but I’m offering a rewrite to their currently outdated lore and tried to give as much detail as possible to every part of it to avoid confusion and give people a better idea on how to RP as one.
And no, it’s not a complete rewrite, and more of a cleanup/fix to their lore, where a lot of parts have been heavily edited, some parts added and other parts nerfed to make ghosts more balanced, and so on.
Through the lands of Arcas, there are incorporeal beings that haunt locations or people. While most of the time they are translucent, some take colored glows of blue and red, while others simply appear like remains of their former living selves, except in shades of gray. They are called Ghosts, mostly unable to directly interact with the world around them, keeping the same personality as they’ve had in their past life, each one seeking to continue living their lives in this new world of theirs. It all depends on whether or not they’re willing to accept themselves as one of those new creatures, or falling into a pit of darkness for being what they currently are now, those miserable creatures will eventually have to choose a side.
What Ghosts Are
There are several different stages of ghost, all of which “evolve” from a base ghost. All ghosts are copied images of souls of dead characters left behind to wander the mortal plain. Ghosts are most often created when a person dies unnaturally or dies without being baptized into a religion. Either way, for whatever reason, a mirror image of their soul is left behind. Some ghosts may find comfort and move on eventually while others never will. Some ghosts choose not to move on, preferring to stay on the mortal plane. Even though they are mirror images of a soul, they are still individuals with individual consciousnesses.
Can they be PKed?
Nope, ghosts definitely cannot get PKed unless consent is given, just like the other creatures. They demanifest when ‘killed’, and eventually drift back to their haunt
Also, another way to get rid of a ghost would be to wrap the item they have possessed in gold, and as long as the gold hasn’t been removed, the ghost will be stuck inside. Note that when this is done, it’s essentially captive RP, so it will be following the rules of when someone is taken captive, and with enough time the ghost can get out of the object unless they decide to stay.
As usual, they lose the memories of how they demanifested and the events leading to that due to having to follow the rules.
Evolution of Ghosts
Level 1 - Haunt
A haunt is depicted as a black and white ghost with blank, white eyes, no pupils or irises to be seen. And during that time, they don’t realize they are dead, so the ghost continues to ‘live’ as if nothing happened in the first place, going back to their daily tasks, trying to talk to people they usually talk to and essentially trying to implement themselves back into the normal mortal world. Though, due to their nature, the are unable to be seen or sensed during that time, and in turn end up being ignored by mortals. They exist in a sort of delusional haze that is half reality and half constructed of their memories. For example, even though a haunt can’t physically interact with the world, such as lifting objects and so on, an ex-soldier ghost might believe they are still one, and that they actually are holding weapons and interacting with the world at that.
Though, in time, haunts may begin to break through those delusions that they’re believing and see more the real one, if things they encounter don’t fit in with the delusion. For example, if we go back to the ex-soldier, he’d be totally ignored during training hours and be left alone with no partner, and end up making him feel confused and upset, and begin manifesting in a way mortals can sense, such as noises, sounds and visible entities. They may manifest as strange sounds, voices, or visible entities. Often, they will try to interact with the people they sense around them. However, since the Haunts still believe they are alive, it is difficult to speak to them. They will often speak in delusional and deeply confused ways. Their voices are often distorted and vague. They will often refuse to accept the idea that they are dead. They will interpret most new information within the framework of their delusion. For instance, the soldier will believe that no one likes him anymore and feel more of an outcast, instead that he’s just dead and no one can sense him anymore.
During that time, Haunts begin to manifest their powers, but in a really slow and weak way. They may create sounds, or appear visible from time to time, though that’s about all they can do so far, due to them not being aware of their death, and the sounds or visible entities they manifest as are mainly accidental, not something the ghost actually thinks about doing, due to them being unaware of themselves being actually a ghost and instead just a mortal.
Because of their weak to nonexistent powers, a Haunt’s ghostly aura has no effects, as it hasn’t manifested yet.
If a haunt manages to realize that they are dead through stable proof that can’t be countered in any way, the haunt will then move on to the next phase.
Level 2 - Revenant
Now, this is when the ghost is actually aware of themselves and their current state, and the time where their powers actually begin to manifest, existing as a spirit within the mortal realm. By now, their irises and pupils are visible, though keeping the white/black colours, and all shades in between.
Due to their nature as a ghost, and now that their delusions are finally broken, they’ll finally realize that they actually can’t feel touch, or smell anything at that. What made the haunts believe was the smell of pie their mother just cooked in the morning for a wonderful breakfast can’t be smelled anymore now that they don’t have any delusions to help them re-create the smell in their mind every morning. Besides that, they also aren’t able to taste anything, obviously. That pie is definitely a no-no for them, only thing they can do from now on is watch other people eat it instead.
A newly awakened Revenant will have trouble remembering people’s faces, which sometimes leads to them mistaking people that they meet for someone they had a connection with before they died.
And because of all of that, many Revenants may fall into depression or feel miserable due to the lack of those sensations, along with not being able to directly interact with the world on a physical level, such as being able to grab a piece of pie and lift it up.
As their powers begin to manifest, a ghost will begin to do the usual ghostly thing, such as shifting between invisible and invisible, shapeshifting, shrieking, making noises such as of a creature or basic instruments and so on, and even floating. However, these powers are extremely difficult to master and may take some years as a Revenant to fully master.
Though, as a revenant, their powers are naturally weaker than the next stage of ghosts, as they are still manifesting them, and in turn will be harder for them to use those powers. For example, a spectre who could easily fade in and out of visibility, for a mere revenant it would take longer to do.
As for the ghostly aura, as soon as the Revenant’s powers begin to manifest, so will it too, the aura itself being completely dependant on the ghost’s power. Its effects include sadness, itchiness and a chilly sensation at first, but the longer a mortal sticks around the ghost, the stronger the effects become up to a point completely dependant to the ghost’s powers, as sadness could eventually turn into depression and back luck, chill into a freezing sensation and so on. Naturally, a ghost can feed that aura’s powers to strengthen it, or even decrease the aura’s powers, but both of those actions result in the ghost having to sacrifice their own ectoplasm over time for this.
A revenant, obviously, still can’t interact with the physical world the same way a mortal can, but they have different way to do things. For example, they can now begin to use telekinesis, up to Tier 3, where a revenant will begin to be able to lift a small object with some effort after enough training. Make sure to check the Telekinesis guide for help about how to use Telekinesis, since there is no difference between a mortal using that and a ghost, besides the fact that a ghost’s eyes don’t change colour and instead when they want to use telekinesis, they instead focus on the object, and it begins shaking in the first emote, then can begin floating in the second emote.
As expected, every mortal has the laws of physics deeply ingrained in their minds, and so a newly awakened Revenant will have no access to ghostly powers and will still react to things as if it were a physical entity, even if they cannot touch or be touched by anything, which is why a revenant can’t shapeshift or begin floating unless they stop following those laws, which is hard to do, and takes a lot of time.
Now, once a revenant has manifested their powers, gave everything enough time to be a typical ghost, now comes up for the next part; Level 3. Ghosts in Level 3 are divided between Spectres and Poltergeists, where the former is blue-coloured, latter being red, each with their own differences that will be mentioned later.
If a revenant accepts themselves for who they have become now, they will be moving on to become a Spectre, and if not, and instead react to it in a horrible way such as with a lot of anger and/or hate, they end up turning into Poltergeists.
Level 3 - Spectres and Poltergeists
If the Revenant reacts negatively to their death and cannot be calmed down, they may turn into a Poltergeist. Poltergeists are ghosts consumed by anger and hate. They can be identified by their strong red color, ashy appearance, or completely black eyes. Poltergeists have mastered the ability to force their will onto physical people and objects. They will often throw things, destroy objects, scratch or harm people, or wail or make frightening noises, and are also able to physically touch flesh, living things, such as being able to grab someone, pull them around, choke the living essence out of people and so on.
Due to their nature, Poltergeists are more drawn to the chaotic sides, and usually begin to haunt people, terrorize them with their powers and cause chaos all around. Though, that isn’t the case for all Poltergeists since ghosts retain the same personality they had from their past life, and instead be just more leaning towards the chaotic side from their nature. A Poltergeist doesn’t always have to be terrorizing people.
If the Revenant can be calmed or gracefully accepts their new deceased state, they may become a spectre. Spectres are identified by their luminous blue color. Spectres are benevolent or at least neutral ghosts and are mostly harmless. They’ve mastered the ability to float, turn visible or invisible, and change appearance, but they typically do not use these abilities to frighten or disturb anyone. Spectres are less of the harmful side of ghosts, and more of the trickster type, or so to say, and can still be malevolent or playful. They definitely still can haunt and terrorize people like a Poltergeist would be more inclined to in order to feed from people’s emotions, which is no unfamiliar thing to them, but can also draw out different emotions, such as happiness, or even sadness and depression without having to drag out the fear. Where a Poltergeist will for example terrorize someone, traumatize them for life and feed out of the strong emotions they get out of, a Spectre can do the same, bar being able to physically touch the mortal, but can also use their powers for comedic value. Ever heard of a ghostly penguin with halfling feet that can breakdance?
Ghosts don't have to fit neatly in either box, though. Whether they are poltergeists or spectres, are still individuals and will retain their living personalities even into their third evolution.
Because the core of a poltergeist is anger and the core of a spectre is peace, the two level 3 ghost types often find each other repellent and try to avoid contact with each other if possible. They do not usually fight one another - simply avoid each other. However, this is not a hard and fast rule. Because ghosts are still all individuals, sometimes individual poltergeists and spectres may not hate each other, and can even interact with each other. For example, a deceased mother and daughter, the mother ending up being a spectre and the daughter a poltergeist, and while still retaining their same personalities and memories from their past life, nothing’s stopping them from still loving each other like they did back then as a family, even due to their differences as ghosts.
Ghost's Characteristics
Ghosts of all colors have a strong aversion to both bright light and magegold. If a house is afflicted by an unwanted ghost, the spirit can be driven out with either of those objects.
Most ghosts, however, are fairly harmless. Since they can be chased out by magegold or light, it is often not worth it to call upon a holy being or shaman. The ascended, for example, have been known to deal with the undead, and can be very capable of dealing with them if a ghost is powerful enough to need one. Though, they could always be dealt with by just any person, as long as they have the gold to protect themselves and to drive them away. Ghosts aren’t killers, so driving them away is definitely possible without having to worry too much. Haunts and Spectres are often not actively malicious. Revenants can be malicious, but not always. Poltergeists are usually the ones that require exorcism, as they are the most actively malicious and actively perform harmful deeds.
Most ghosts stick to a single place or person when they haunt. Most ghosts will haunt the places and people they remember from their lives before they died. Sometimes, a ghost will haunt an object and move where the object moves. A lot of ghosts do not usually congregate in groups and don't typically have government systems, even though that is completely possible due to ghosts being able to retain their past life’s personality. While ghosts can interact with one another, they are mostly inclined to be solitary.
When they do congregate in groups, it is usually because something awful has happened. Ghosts are usually created when people die violently or unnaturally. If a large number of people die at once, under certain circumstances, they may form up into an Apparition. In which case, they become extremely dangerous. However, this occurs under specific and unusual circumstances and does not always happen.
The garden variety ghost can be an annoyance, especially if malevolent, but they are usually solitary and usually easy enough to vanquish. Since they are often attached to specific people, places, or objects, a simple solution to a ghost problem may be just to move away from the place/thing/person the ghost is haunting.
Ghost Powers
How Gold and Aurum work on Ghosts
Ghost Red Lines:
-They cannot learn any type of magic besides their own ghostly magic and Telekinesis, which comes naturally and grows up to T3 at most.
-Ghosts cannot RP what they mechanically can’t do. Emoting your ghost phasing through a door then getting the owner to unlock it for you is not a possibility.
-Ghosts cannot physically interact with the world the same way a mortal does. Only a Poltergeist is able to move objects around and grab living things without the need to use telekinesis.
-It takes ingame years for a ghost to move on from Revenant to Level 3, they will have to manifest their powers and either accept themselves as a ghost or react with anger.
-Haunts do not have access to ghost powers besides visibility/invisibility and noises, and even those are accidental and not thought about consciously. Anything beyond that is a no-no since they aren’t aware of their death.
-They cannot pass through gold barriers, unless they have possessed something that protects them from it on the way through.
-A spectre cannot move objects and grab living beings physically like a poltergeist can, and instead have access to 1 emote invisibility, which every other type of ghost can not.
-A spectre cannot turn into a poltergeist, or vice-versa. Once a decision has been made, the ghost cannot change anymore and will require you to make a whole new ghost if you’d like to have one of the other type.
Purpose: Same purpose as current ghosts, but this rewrite is mainly because their lore is pretty outdated and was back when holy beings and shamans were plentiful, and people were more equipped to dealing with ghosts. Hopefully this will change that and make it fit more with what is currently going on.
Citation:
I never thought someone would make use of noteblocks like that. This is amazing.