Ghosts

The term 'ghost' is often used as a word that covers all spirit entities (i.e. Ghost Hunters), but they're actually a sub-group of spirit entity. Specifically, these spirits were once living people, are now deceased, and they haven't yet passed on to where ever it is spirits are supposed to pass on to. Contrary to what most people believe, ghosts cannot fly as if unhindered by gravity; they are only able to hover a few feet off the ground (any surface, actually, as they are able to walk on walls and even the ceiling just as easily as the floor; they just can't soar off into the sky).

Notable 'classes' of Ghosts

• 'Defiant' or 'remnant' ghosts

Very few in number. So-called because they somehow manage to remain on the spirit plane of earth without any particular reason to. Some are afraid of what unknown fate might become their soul in the pure spirit planes beyond, while others claim that they stay because they enjoy it here. Without a purpose driving them, it seems that remnant ghosts are immune to the process of decay that affects most human spirits. Most remnant ghosts are happy to help students of the five career paths where they can. These ghosts will never turn poltergeist and don't have any place/person that they haunt but instead choose to wander the globe.

• Grudgebound ghosts

These are spirits of people that, for some reason or another, have a pressing reason not to pass on to the further spirit planes. It may be revenge, love, greed, a task left incomplete, or simply the desire to impart the knowledge of where their body lies. It is dangerous for these ghosts to remain in the ghostly realm for too long, or else whatever keeps them there will fester within them and they will slowly become decayed ghosts.

• Decayed or monstrous ghosts

These ghosts have completely forgone any consciousness of their previous life. They have become animalistic and territorial of their haunting ground or the person they are haunting, though they no longer remember the reason. Their appearance has changed and they no longer share any resemblance to who they were in life. These ghosts are destructive by nature and the place/person they are haunting becomes more desolate over time. People become more skittish and paranoid; buildings have a faster rate of decay and people don't stay there for great lengths of time. Decayed ghosts have a higher probability rate of turning poltergeist, thus causing major physical harm to anyone/thing in the vicinity.

Ghostly Abilities

• Huanting

Refers to the way in which a ghost interacts with the human realm. Also, the place/person around which they stay is referred to as the place/person they are haunting.

Minor Haunting

All ghosts are capable of minor hauntings (even defiant ghosts, which don't technically haunt any particular place or person), and therefore can interact with small objects enough to move them, usually by shifting the object's place in the room. Understandably, this frightens most people who haven't been trained in such matters, even if that wasn't the ghost's intent. Flickering lights, cold spots, and stains that keep returning also fall under this category.

Major Haunting

Once the hauntings turn malicious or violent they are called major hauntings. This type of haunting happens more and more frequently as a ghost slowly becomes decayed. A ghost's actions while it's a poltergeist is an extreme form of a major haunting. Wailing, throwing and breaking items, and rattling windows fall under this category.

• Poltergeist

A poltergeist is a ghost (whether it's decayed or not) that has become enraged to the point where it is capable of extreme forms of major hauntings. In this form they can move many objects, often large pieces of furniture or the like, at one time. Ghosts usually only shift to poltergeist mode when they are becoming a decayed ghost. The more decayed they become, the more likely it is that they will be a poltergeist. Their consciousness begins to fade and gives way to destructiveness. How this power manifests itself differs on who the person was in life and the place/person they are currently haunting. This form is not permanent; like a child having a tantrum, the ghost will eventually quiet down.