Ghost
Various (global folklore)
Worldwide
Spirit
Trickster
AffinitiesNight, Cold, Silence
Lore
Ghost is a Spirit recorded across cultures as the lingering impression of a once-living presence: a diaphanous outline, a folding of air, or a pressure where memory concentrates. Smell: the faint tang of cold iron and old paper, sometimes the sweet must of lilies or the damp of earth. Sound: an absence that feels like a held breath, followed by soft, impossible noises — distant sobbing, footsteps with no source, a whisper against the ear. Temperature: a sudden, localized chill; breath condenses, skin prickles, and the surrounding air feels emptied of warmth. Field tone: note the threshold habit — doorways, bedsides, battlefields and abandoned rooms — and the way a ghost's presence alters light and silence rather than casting ordinary shadows.
Origin: Various (global folklore) • Worldwide
Classification: Spirit
Field Notes
Observations
- A sudden, localized drop in temperature accompanied by the sensation of breath or a soft whisper with no visible source.
Encounter Advice
- behavior: Tends to linger where strong memories or unresolved events concentrate. Active at liminal hours and spaces (dusk, dawn, thresholds). Interacts indirectly by shifting small objects, causing drafts, or manifesting sounds and scents tied to its past life.
- interaction: Approach calmly and respectfully: speak names or memories aloud, offer a small token of remembrance, and avoid sudden movements or mockery. If distressed, withdraw and seek a knowledgeable mediator (elder, ritual practitioner, or archivist) rather than trying to force an encounter.
- offering: A lit candle, a written name or memory, or a small personal token left in a quiet place; acts of remembrance often soothe and help a presence move on.
Abilities
- Ectoplasmic PossessionWeaves ectoplasm into a living host's nervous system to seize their senses and motor control, acting through the body while the victim grows catatonic.
- Cold-of-the-Grave TouchA living chill that saps warmth and vitality on contact, inducing rapid hypothermia and slowed limbs in victims.
- Haunting Memory EchoProjects a victim's worst memory as a vivid, intrusive illusion that corrodes sanity and bends will over repeated exposure.
- Poltergeist RiffChannels local kinetic energy into abrupt telekinetic bursts that fling mundane objects as unpredictable, cutting projectiles.
Weaknesses
- Salt BarrierA continuous line or ring of common salt severs a ghost's ability to cross and markedly weakens its tether to the living world.
- Proper Burial / Funeral RitesCompleting the deceased's specific funerary rites or returning a lost funerary token severs the grievance anchoring the spirit and allows it to pass on.
- Dawn LightDirect sunlight or the first bright dawn disperses ectoplasmic cohesion and forces the ghost to withdraw or become dormant.
- True-Name InvocationSpeaking the ghost's true name aloud within a binding formula or bell-toll ritual anchors and can bind, banish, or compel the spirit.
✦Tales & Stories featuring Ghost
monsters and myths
Cheonyeo Gwisin: The Virgin Ghost
She died before her wedding day, and now she wanders in the dress she never got to wear. She is a virgin ghost consumed by the hunger for a life she was denied.
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monsters and myths
Gwisin: The Restless Dead
They glide without feet, dressed in white shrouds. They are the Gwisin—Korean ghosts driven by resentment to haunt the living until their business is finished.
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monsters and myths
Krasue: The Floating Head
By day, she is a normal woman. By night, her head detaches from her body, flying through the air with glowing entrails trailing beneath her. She hunts for blood, and she is always hungry.
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Lore Check: GhostQuestion 1/16