Ghost

Ghosts are a manifestation of a dead sorcerer whose soul has not completely moved on from the mortal plain and is unable to completely pass on into the afterlife. As a result, the portions of the soul that linger behind can come together and become a ghost. The ghost then appears as a Spector of the deceased that looks like their most natural form they had or felt in life. Only sorcerers can become ghosts due to their own innate magical abilities. non-Bloods lack the ability to become a ghost but it is implied that similar things can happen to their souls, but they are unable to manifest in any known way.

Once manifested, based on how much of their living soul remains in tack, a Ghost will usually at first act and behave as if they were still in the time and place, they lived in as a mortals due to their memories not being fully intact and their mind fragmented just like their soul. While a ghost can regain memories and become clearer headed overtime this is not true of every ghost and seems to require stronger minds and souls to become fully self-aware but still most Ghosts will never be able to fully regain all their memories from their mortal life. Ghosts also possess a degree of magic even in their spectral form. However, unlike their mortal form as sorcerers which could wield and use any type of magic, ghosts are only able to perform certain practices of magic from their own bloodline. Thus, each individual ghost seems to possess only a specific ability based on what type of sorcerer they were and what bloodline they belonged to in life.

Ghosts are only able to manifest when it is sufficiently dark out. While they can appear in low light around early dawn or dusk, they seem not to be able to manifest if the sun is fully over the horizon. It also seems like they prefer isolated dark areas such as the forest instead of areas with lights like buildings and houses. Though some of the more clear-headed ghosts seem much more open to manifesting in a lighted building. They mainly manifest due to the deceased having some form of unfinished business or unresolved issue at the time of their death which in turn causes their soul to linger behind to some extent. For example, the ghosts encountered on Cinder Isle were all sorcerers cured of Gender Curse by Alistair Huntington, however they had each been cured after death and unknown to Alistair at the time, the lingering soul fragments had been sealed in his vault along with their curses. While the ghosts don't seem to fully recall their individual pasts its implied, they all lived as the wrong gender due to carrying the gender curse and having died before it was removed likely caused them all to have a heavy load of emotional issues from living as the wrong gender. These internal issues caused their souls to linger enough to eventually manifest as ghosts until Alistair found and helped them pass on to the afterlife.

## Dynamics

The main element to a sorcerer becoming a Ghost is their soul. A soul is represented as a pale white orb that is hosed within the physical body of a mortal being. It has been described that when a person or creature dies their soul manifests as this orb. Upon the point of death, the orb exits the body and shatters with the pieces then fading into the afterlife. At certain times and under certain conditions a few soul fragments can linger behind due to some unresolved internal issue faced by that individual in life or certain circumstances involving their death. Sorcerers are able to detect and sense these soul fragments and possibly even utilize them to some degree, but it is impossible to fully resurrect or revive a living person from anything less than 100% of their soul. Attempting to do so without the complete soul will result in what has only ever been described as an abomination.

By themselves, Soul fragments that linger will either remain within the body the full soul once inhabited, clutching on to something within it (such as the Gender Curse) or they may even latch onto something or someone who was close by when they died. An example would be Caroline Rose, who died in a car accident at a young age. She died while wearing a locket that was precious to her in life and shed her last breath in the presence of Oliver Thomson, a young boy about her age. As a result of her not being able to tell her mother she loved her one last time, a few small fragments of Caroline's soul latched onto both the locket and Oliver but only a miniscule amount. Caroline's soul fragments were too miniscule to manifest in any way individually, but when Oliver was given the locket by her mother Lorraine who had enchanted it to help combine the fragments, small parts of Caroline's soul resurfaced within Oliver. While she never manifested as a true Ghost, she was effectively manifesting through Oliver due to the combination of her soul fragments and Lorain's magic.

Now larger groups of soul fragments left behind by a sorcerer's soul can in fact manifest as a Ghost. In the case of the ghosts of Cinder Isle each one of them had died young and before Alistair had found them and removed their Gender Curse. Likely due to them having to have lived short lives with the dysphoria and internal conflict of the gender curse larger clusters of soul fragments remained behind when they died and eventually allowed them to manifest as Ghosts. It seems that after the breach in Alistair's Curse Vault that flowed through the cave leading to Cinder Island, the soul fragments he had unknowingly sealed inside along with their curses were effectively woken up and were soon able to manifest on the island. These 8 ghosts were explained to have each been sorcerers that Alistair cured of their curse postmortem and while it was never specified, they each likely lived as men due to their gender curse, showing that while they may have died cursed, their spectral forms manifested as women or their true selves. At the beginning of the outbreak when the Ghosts first began to manifest, they acted as if they were in the same time and place as when they died. Such as the Nurse acting like she was in the mists of a plague she needed to cure, or the Ex acting like was still hunting down the woman who stole her husband away. Over time however at least half of the ghosts were able to come to their senses and realize what they were and what was really going on around them. While ghosts like the Harlequin and the Mistress had gained enough awareness after at least a few months of "haunting" the island they still only had fragments of memory with none of them remembering their real names or their causes of death. Despite the differences each of the ghosts managed to manifest a certain magical ability based on the bloodline of magic they had in life. For example, the Starlet had the power to transform clothing which suggests she was Gold Blooded and the Bride possess the power to conjure illusions suggesting she had been Silver Blooded.

After Alistair Huntington was mostly reassembled and regained enough of his power, he was able to use his magic to help the ghosts remember more about their past. While he was able to at least help the clearer headed Ghosts remember their cause of death and more details about their lives he was also unable to get through to the more troublesome ghosts like the Queen or The Ex who still acted hostile and failed to realize they were dead. This suggests that ghosts who manifest from a greater level of soul fragments are more likely to become clear headed and recall more about their life, but those who manifest from a lesser level of soul fragments will remain oblivious to what and where they are. Thus far all ghosts seen in the SapphireFoxx Universe have need some degree of help in moving on to the afterlife and being laid to rest. Each of the Ghosts from Cinder Isle needed Alistair to open a portal to the afterlife for them to move on (some he even had to send there by force). And in the case of Caroline's soul fragments, they needed removed from their vessel by Lorraine's magic. It is unclear if a ghost could find peace and move on to the afterlife on their own over time if they are able to resolve whatever issue has kept them from fully moving on, but it seems implied as its possible some of the more lucid ghosts could use their abilities to obtain the closure, they needed to resolve their unfinished business.

One unique form of ghost seen is known as the Abomination. A creature that appeared as a kind of cluster of slime, and ooze that emerged from the Red Lake on Cinder Island. It was effectively a massive monster that was little more than a primal and savage monster fueled by magic but could still be killed at least until its respawned within the lake after several days. Alistair explains that this Abomination is effectively a conglomeration of very minuscule and minor soul fragments combined with the decaying dark magic of the Gender Curses. Basically, some of the curses he had collected over the years contained soul fragments similar to the ones from the other 8 island ghosts, but the fragments they contained were much less potent or not nearly as large a portion of the full soul. By themselves these fragments were powerless but after several curses carrying small amounts of soul fragments decayed and conglomerated together, they fed together with the curses dark magic and formed the abomination. The Abomination seemed to be focused on the Ruby Bloodline of magic due to its destructive nature and it was immune to Ruby based spells, but it is unclear if this means all soul fragments that created were from Ruby Blooded sorcerers. Alistair was able to destroy the Abomination with a powerful Diamond spell. While it was not specified what the spell did exactly it seems to have either purged the mass of its soul fragments making it little more than disembodied mana or even out right obliterated the fragments altogether causing the mass to revert to only decayed curse fluid. The Abomination seems to be indicative of the result of trying to form a living thing out of an incomplete soul as mentioned before.

## Appearance

In soul or soul fragment form the ghosts (or rather what will or could become a ghost) appears as a pale white orb or small flecks of an orb that is usually invisible to the naked eye unless seen by Arcane sight or under the direct influence of soul magic and brough out of the body by magic.

As a fully manifested specter a ghost appears mostly human. The more distinctive quality of a ghost is that they will appear as semitransparent and even have a minor glow to their bodies. Ghosts will often use their ability to levitate or fly at low heights above the ground thus they will often be seen defying gravity to some degree.

## Powers

All fully manifested ghosts possess a certain degree of specific abilities. They all have the power to appear and disappear making it possible for the living to see them or not. This ability doesn't seem to work between ghosts as they remain fully visible to their own kind. They are also able to make no noise while invisible or they may still be able to speak or make other noises and remain unseen. Each of them also has an ability to float or fly in the air to some level. While they are never seen at too high an altitude off the ground (20-30 feet max) they are seen to be able to fly freely and move about hovering in the air with ease. They are only able to appear in sufficiently dark areas between dusk and dawn. When the sun has risen to a certain point they seem to disappear and go dormant for the day unable to manifest in the light of the sun. It is unknown what the ghosts themselves experience during this time though it seems implied they enter a kind of sleep state but will reawaken when it gets dark again.

All Ghosts also have the ability to phase through solid objects but with a degree of choice or conscious thought they can also handle and manipulate objects at will. For example, the Harlequin Ghost was first seen in the wood by Shane and was able to ride his bike and do circus tricks on it, even cutting it in half before he ran off. At the same time, she was later seen to be able to phase through glass windows and doors without any apparent resistance suggesting a ghost needs to concentrate to some degree to be able to handle physical objects. Ghosts seem not to be able to phase through or escape from magical objects targeted to them like enchanted rope as the Queen ghost was able to be restrained by it despite it technically be a solid object.

In terms of more individualized powers, each ghost has a unique ability that is focused on the bloodline they possessed in their mortal life as a sorcerer. Due to their spectral form, they are only able to properly case magic to a limited degree and only if said magic pertains to their own bloodline. For example, the Nurse ghost was an Emerald Blood, so she was able to use healing abilities in her ghost form. Or the Mistress was able to possess the bodies of living women and take control of them because she was a Diamond Blood in life. Based on how clear headed a ghost is and how much of their full soul has lingered seems to depend on how powerful their magic can be and how many different abilities they can manifest.