‘Posthumous’ Infodump #1 - What are Ghosts?
Ghosts, simply put, are the spirits of people who have passed away, yet remain in the Living world. There are two main reasons why this would happen: obliviousness to the fact that they died (which usually doesn’t last very long) or unfinished business that’s more important to them than crossing over to the afterlife. When/if these conditions are sorted, the ghost will feel comfortable in crossing over. Ghosts are not evil, but not necessarily good either; most of the time how they acted in life will be how they act in the afterlife as well. Someone who was kind in life probably won’t go out of their way to be malicious in death. Because most people don’t have anything more important to do than make their way to the afterlife upon their demise, ghosts are considered rare.
Through normal means, ghosts cannot be seen, heard, or felt by the Living. People with close connections to spirituality (such as priests) can sense the presence of angelic or demonic beings (more on that later) but that’s about it. Ghosts are “semi-intangible” - they can pass through the ground, walls, objects, etc. without leaving a trace but they can do things like sit on couches, lay in beds or lean up against walls. However, they do not leave traces that they have done so (a memory foam chair will not form to the body of a ghost sitting in it). They can walk normally or they can fly due to being unaffected by gravity. Ghosts cannot pick up objects. Think of it as being in spectator mode in a video game - you’re able to observe the world around you, but not interact. Through the use of technology it is possible to record a ghost’s voice in the form of EVP (Electronic voice phenomenon) and more further down the line as the story progresses, suggesting at least something tangible makes up a ghost. At the beginning of the story there are not many EVPs considered “real” in the world of paranormal studies - finding a ghost is hard enough, let alone getting one to talk most of the time.
Ghosts do not need to eat (there is no “ghost food”) nor breathe, and cannot sleep. The closest a ghost can get to sleeping is laying down and attempting to zone out. It’s very easy to wake a ghost up from this trance-like state.
All ghosts can see, hear, and interact with each other through normal means. To those who can see them, ghosts appear mostly the way they did the moment of their death, but will be translucent and give off a blue glow. If they died due to a visible injury, their spirit will also have that injury - someone who died from being shot will still have their bullet wound(s) as a ghost - However, these injuries are no longer painful to them. All ghosts will appear to be wearing the clothes they were wearing at the moment they died, and cannot remove nor put on any article of clothing. This is referenced on TVtropes as Jacob Marley Apparel. Similarly, a ghost will still be afflicted by any sort of mental illness they had in life, if any. When a ghost speaks, their voice will have a noticeable echo to it. A demo of this will be uploaded after this goes live.
As far as powers go, beyond the already mentioned flight and intangibility, ghosts can possess the living, albeit with limitations. This will be explained at length in a future infodump. They can also ‘Dreamwalk’ - that is, enter and interact with the dreams of the Living, but only if the Living person has seen them before (as the brain cannot generate a face that it has never seen.) A ghost will be able to interact with objects and characters in dreams as though they were alive.
Ghosts are not bound to any location and can move freely, however may find comfort in staying close to where their bodies are, where they died, or places they frequented in life. Good spirits may also find solace in visiting churches, mosques, or other holy locations.
That’s all for now, another infodump coming at some point.