Looking Deeper
Ghosts are not new to Mizahar. In fact, since the beginning of sentient races, ghosts have existed. Ghosts are being who, once having been alive, have since died yet were unwilling to allow the transfer to the afterlife and beyond. These restless souls wander the land in hopes of finding closure to whatever turmoil has kept them from moving on. There are even a few however that, through sheer force of will, have refused to accept death as the end of their current existence. These individuals, much like the eternal nuit, have chosen to exist as a ghost rather than give up on their now ended life. Most of these individuals were Spiritists in life. Still, like their tortured counterparts, these strong-willed ghosts are driven by some powerful emotion or need to complete some task.
Indeed ghosts are perceived differently by the living (and unliving) peoples of Mizahar. Among human cultures, ghosts are often viewed as sad, pitiful beings or even dangerous, frightening monsters. Ghosts are not all that uncommon and depending on not only the nature of the people and region the ghosts find themselves in but also on the ghosts themselves, reaction from the living are mixed. Spiritists are quite helpful not only in communicating with ghosts but also with dispatching them when need be.
Among some of the humanoid races, perceptions of ghosts can be quite different. For example, the Isur view ghosts almost as a divine quest from Izurdin himself. When an isur becomes a ghost, their living brothers and sisters often take it upon themselves to discover why the deceased has chosen not to go to the Divine Father. From there they seek to help the ghost solve their dilemma and move on. Those who are able to help a ghost in such a manner gain no small amount of respect among their peers and especially among the Anvils, Izurdin's Priesthood.
The Jamoura see ghosts as animated chapters of an encyclopedia. They believe the ghost to be a naturally occurring piece of nature's cycle that, for whatever the reason, has something else left to give to the living. For that reason, the Jamoura will often attempt to learn as much about the ghosts' life as well as their afterlife existence. By learning from and understanding the ghost and why it remains, they more often than not help the ghost understand as well and thus aid it in moving on.
I see ghosts playing all manner of interesting roles. In particular, I imagine an especially gruesome villain. A powerful, highly skilled ghost can be a brutal villain for anyone to overcome. Unless there is an equally powerful spiritist opposing it, a ghost could present all manner of challenges. Not only would it be extremely difficult to harm it, the ghost could use a group of "heroes" against each other through possession. A creative storyteller could even design it so that a ghost, even if defeated, would still find a way to return and cause havoc later...a haunting anyone?
I think ghosts are not used to their true potential. They are limited to their own personal skills of Materialization, Possession and Projection but they can possess others and employ the skills of those they possess. That alone is pretty cool in my opinion because the character is capable of expanding their abilities in limitless ways as they can be anyone at anytime and do basically anything. A ghost wandering a city who has the drive to do so could do so much and create so many wonderful stories.
I also used to think that playing a hero ghost could be too limited to be enjoyable. However, I quickly realized it's all about the story to develop for why they are a ghost. Easily one could play a ghost with a backstory as simple as having been murdered in an alley by a thief who wanted the character's necklace. The necklace belonged to the character's sister who died years ago and held a lot of sentimental meaning to them. The character remains as a ghost in hopes of hunting down the thief, killing them and retrieving the necklace. Now, we go from simple to a little more complex and develop it so that the thief died 20 years ago which was also 5 years AFTER he killed the character and ran off with the necklace. The ghost has lost all sense of time and has just now gathered itself mentally only to realize that the necklace is long gone. This could set the entire character's future in motion as they attempt to retrace the thief's steps in hopes of somehow finding the necklace. It is a story that could last a very long time and be filled with all manner of adventure, tragedy and emotion. |
by Shadyn on September 1st, 2015, 4:46 pm 
