| rdfs:comment | - Ghosts are usually people who have died, but their spirits are still lingering around. Some are friendly, some are neutral, and some are wrathful. It all depends on what kind of story is being told. 1.
* Avenge me! The ghost was killed through foul play, knows it, and wants the murder avenged. Sometimes, this also comes with a Clear My Name sidebar. This one can also lead to ghosts becoming violent and angry if not avenged. They may explicitly say that they can not rest easy in the graves until they are avenged. 2.
* Unfinished Business: something that was significant or important to the person they used to be when alive remains undone. The ghost hangs around until this is done, and may or may not move on afterward. 3.
* The ghost hasn't yet figured out they're dead, or are so
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| abstract | - Ghosts are usually people who have died, but their spirits are still lingering around. Some are friendly, some are neutral, and some are wrathful. It all depends on what kind of story is being told. 1.
* Avenge me! The ghost was killed through foul play, knows it, and wants the murder avenged. Sometimes, this also comes with a Clear My Name sidebar. This one can also lead to ghosts becoming violent and angry if not avenged. They may explicitly say that they can not rest easy in the graves until they are avenged. 2.
* Unfinished Business: something that was significant or important to the person they used to be when alive remains undone. The ghost hangs around until this is done, and may or may not move on afterward. 3.
* The ghost hasn't yet figured out they're dead, or are so attached to what they did in life they are still doing it out of habit and/or affection. This can lead to a Tomato in the Mirror shock, an Obi Wan or a Ghostly Advisor. 4.
* They're aware they're dead and angry at the living for still living. 5.
* The ghost suffered so in life that the spirit was drawn to the place where the worst torment took place. 6.
* Resounding psychic echo. The ghost isn't even the person's soul, but just a spectral imprint left behind by the person's death that's gained a form of sentience. In paranormal fields, these are usually called residual hauntings. 7.
* The Power of Love. They feel someone they love can't make it without them, or needs protection. 8.
* No funeral, no grave -- they can not rest without proper memoralization. 9.
* Their graves have been improperly moved or desecrated, and they're angry about it. 10.
* Someone saw to it that they received proper funeral rites, and they must reward this person before they go on. 11.
* Someone is mourning them too much, and as a consequence, they are bound to this world. 12.
* They were very, very naughty in life and fear crossing over and facing possible cosmic retribution. 13.
* They were naughty (or very, very naughty) and ghosthood is a purgatorial stage before they will be allowed on. Sometimes living beings can assist. 14.
* They're a spirit form of lich, and actively made preparations to ensure themselves eternal life after their bodies gave up. 15.
* They were magically prevented from going to, or were magically drawn back from, the Afterlife. 16.
* They can move on any time they want; they just don't want to because they're having too much fun. 17.
* There's also the odd rare case of a ghost that was never a living human being. It may be an animal. It may just be some odd spooky apparition.
* Intangibility or Phasing: Default state of ghosts tends to be intangible. They can, with an effort of will, become tangible, but they usually cannot pass on that intangibility to anything they were holding. Typically, if they pass through solid matter while holding something, the solid matter remains behind after the ghost has passed through.
* Invisibility: Ghosts can usually, but not always, decide whether or not to be visible.
* For example; ghosts in Ghost Whisperer are always invisible to humans who don't have the gift required to see them.
* Wind powers are usually a common ghostly ability.
* Sometimes they have fire/Will-o'-the-wisp powers too.
* Or equipment the ghost used in life becomes an ectoplasmic version of same that can hurt other ghosts.
* Psychic Powers: Usually telekinesis for throwing things around in a ghost tantrum/poltergeist fit.
* Other times, they can project Scary Visions into the mind of a victim.
* Master of Illusion is also common, as are creating Cold Flames or actual flames in the case of the ghosts of arsonists and their victims.
* Voluntary Shapeshifting: Ghosts can sometimes take on horrific (or amusing) shapes to terrify their haunts.
* Materializing: Ghosts can usually create a body/illusion of themselves as they were when alive. However posing as a human will usually result in slight flaws in their facade, like lacking a pulse or cold skin.
* Demonic Possession: Some ghosts can take over the body of a living person and operate it like a puppet. For some ghosts, this is the next best thing to being alive again. For others, it's simply an expedient because they can't experience what their host is experiencing.
* Dreamwalking: some ghosts can inject themselves into a living person's dreams. Usually this person is someone psi-gifted, though.
* Flight/Levitation: not necessarily limited to the ghost itself.
* Weather Control Machine: Some ghosts can create rain, thunder, lightning, high winds, even sleet or snow. In The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Mrs. Muir reveals that the Ghost can never fool her about his emotional state because the weather barometer always reveals his genuine mood.
* Some ghosts are only able to show up between sundown and sunrise.
* Jacob Marley Apparel - the ghost is confined to appearing what s/he wore at the time of death [sometimes the condition in which it was at the time of death]
* Wounds - Ghosts who died in particularly violent fashion end up carrying their wounds with them into eternity.
* Some ghosts are unable to enter churches.
* Most ghosts are restricted to haunting a specific house or object. If you can leave the premises you're usually safe. Destroying said house or object will usually remove the ghosts' anchor to the material world and force it to move on. Except when that just frees it to haunt wherever it wants.
* Avenge Me! Ghosts can often appear to their closest friends or family. Like, you know, Hamlet.
* Attention-seeking. A lot of paranormal investigators who subscribe to the view that ghosts are spirits believe that this is the major reason for most hauntings.
* Mediums can see and/or hear ghosts.
* Magitek - Ghosts can become a literal ghost in the machine, and operate phones, computers, etc. without actual tangible hands. (See psychic powers above)
* Artifacts - there are magical gewgaws and doodads, Holy Relic items and that sort of thing lying around The Verse that will allow one to contact ghosts. Or are possessed by ghosts.
* Ectoplasm - "He slimed me. I feel so funky."
* Containment - Some heroes have enough Mad Scientist mojo to have come up with a way to contain ghosts, or protect themselves and others.
* Haunting - They will torment the living, annoy or bedevil the living, or seek to drive the living into confessing if they've done wrong.
* Angst and Wangst are often involved with ghostly hauntings, particularly when love is involved.
* Often (particularly in media intended for children) only a select few can see/hear them.
* Popping in and disappearing just as fast, leaving those who saw them claiming It Was Here, I Swear.
* As they looked when they were alive possibly being a Cute Ghost Girl/Guy.
* Jacob Marley Apparel: As they looked at the moment they died.
* Bedsheet Ghost: Covered in a shroud. This white sheet may be the only part of them that's visible.
* Stringy Haired Ghost Girl: A Japanese variant. Wears a Kimono with long stringy black hair covering her face.
* As they looked right after they died.
* As they look now - rotted, filthy, partially skeletal and covered in worms or maggots, wearing the clothes they were buried in.
* Any of the above can also be combined with transparency or the ability to become invisible.
* Good ghosts may be even more beautiful than they were in life, either as a reflection of their true self or as a reward. Some good ghosts get to Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence (either literally heaven, or something else) once they've sorted out their issues or unfinished business. Bad ones can get the express elevator down. Some of them have problems with Ghost Amnesia. Every ghost has different Ghostly Goals, again depending on what they want. Shows and movies will usually address these baseline rules, whether or not they're enforced. See also Our Souls Are Different. Compare Living Memory.
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