Ghosts

**Ghosts**

## Introduction

There are different types of Ghosts:

* **Usual Ghost**: ghost who haunt till they work-through their issues or fade-away.
* **Guardian Spirits**:
* **Psychic Imprint**: not technically ghosts—like a supernatural theater that shows the same movie over and over; usually something traumatic.
* Ghosts who relive the tragic parts of their lives over and over like Portia.

## About

The way a person was in life, that's how they stay as a ghost—if missing a limb, they are still missing that same limb as a ghost. If a human died as a child, they stayed a child.

### Powers / Abilities / Talents

* Ghosts can move through walls, closed doors and other solid objects.
* Ghosts make perfect spies—especially with other vampire families since vampires cannot detect ghosts; its how Roger Palmer was of use to Tony.
* Glowing eyes—it means they're calling up their power, normally just prior to letting you have it.
* Being on ground that held generations of the bodies of their ancestors was like an extra battery pack for a ghost.

### Weaknesses

* ghosts don't have a lot of power over the living— attacking a living body usually drains them of more power than they gain.
* Ghosts go into hybernation mode when they don't get human energy to feed off.
* Demons feed off ghost energy
* Most ghosts don't have energy donors to feed off like Billy Joe feeds off Cassie—they fade away over time when their energy runs out.

### Becoming a Ghost

* It's not automatic the someone becomes a sgost when they die—Billy Joe almost did not come back from dying.
* Becoming a ghost is pretty rare.

### Feeding: Energy Draw

* Some ghosts can do the same thing as Vampires—take life energy—when they feed, they receive part of the donor's life, which substitutes for the one they lost when they crossed over, at least for a while. And like vamps, they don't always ask first.
* There are rare examples who, like Billy, can feed off the energy of humans to a limited degree—but most find that it requires more energy to attack a human than they get from the process, so they usually don't bother unless you irritate them.
* Ghosts can cannibalize one another for energy—it's easier than using human donors.
* Difference between a vampire and a ghost drawing energy from a human is that a ghost could absorb life energy directly and vampires had to get it through blood—Ghost scan skip that step.
* Ghosts draw energy from anybody intruding into their territory, because humans shed living energy all the time, like skin cells.
* Ghost sightings were usually reported in cemeteries or old houses. It wasn’t just because their bodies often ended up there. It was because ghosts who originated elsewhere had a much harder time feeding enough to stay active.

### Character or Nature

* Most ghosts are tied to a single location—usually a house or a crypt. Accept Billy Joe who haunts Cassie's old locket.
* Vampires cannot detect ghosts.
* Ghost can be territorial—those that were there first, will fight with those than come after.
* Ghosts talk to you only when they want to—they usually want to, since most ghosts are confined to a single place and don’t get many visitors.
* Like people, ghosts can have many issues bugging them at the same time

### Ghosts that Haunt

* Haunters are usually dealing with one of three main issues:
	1. they died before their time
	2. they died unjustly—usually, but not always, murdered
	3. they died with something vital unfinished

### Ghosts and Revenge

* A ghost created by vengeance issues either gets some satisfaction, gets some payback, or hangs around lusting for it until its energy runs out.

### Ghosts of Ghosts

* The thin energy trails stretching back in time like glowing lines on a map, telling that once, maybe hundreds of years ago, a spirit had passed by. Cassie could see them as a child and became distracted by them—Eugenie taught her to use her own energy field (aura) to build a hedge, a ward, for protection.

### Ghost Vision

* The way Seers look at the world—Seers are double-sighted, with that second set of eyes, the kind that focuses on the spirit world.

### Ectoplasm

* Ghosts left thick glowing trails on the floor, walls and ceiling. It can only be see with Ghost Vision. Or by another ghost.

### Appearance

* To Seers, ghosts appear as semi-transparent beings who look like and are dressed as they were in life when they died.
* When faded, ghosts were little more than silver smudges
* sometimes they can appear quite solid.

### Known Ghosts

* Billy Joe
* Laura
* Daisy
* Sam, aka Big Red
* Portia:
* Captain Beauregard Lewis - Ghost
* Pierre
* Etienne
* Old Woman in alley
* Lyceum Theatre Ghosts: Lady ghost that carries the bearded head of another ghost
* Spirit Creature

### Known Ghost Seers

* Cassandra Palmer
* Roger Palmer
* Miranda
* Gargoyles

### Other Details

* Animals can sense ghosts a lot better than people can.
* "Tourist"—the ghostly term for cemetery visitors
* Humor tends to take on a macabre bent after death
* A lot of people in the supernatural community don't believe in ghosts.
* Vamps can't read ghosts.
* Vampires can't summon Cassie through a bite—likely because of a ghost always so close, interrupted the signal.
* Homunculus were created by Roger Palmer and powered by Ghosts.
* There are no ghosts in Faerie.

## Cassie and Ghosts

Cassie tends to see ghosts as solid most of the time, especially if they are new and powerful.

## Tony's Farmhouse

When Cassie used her Ghost Vision, she saw the whole room around her glow with the same eerie green color the Billy Joe did through her other sight.

The farmhouse’s previous owners had met a messy end. Not only that... it started out as an Indian burial, and after that had been a battlefield in the Revolutionary War. And then there were Tony's enemies that were dragged here and never left the premises. There were also the vengeful spirits that had followed a some of Tony's vamps home seeking payback. The farmhouse ended up being like ghost central, with thick glowing trails they left on the floor, walls and ceiling that "the whole room pulsed neon".

### Atlanta Ghosts

There are a lot of ghosts in Atlanta, and most are your run-of-the-mill, let's-haunt-something-until-we-work-through-our-issues-or-fade-away types like Billy Joe. There are also a few guardian spirits and an occasional psychic imprint, not that the latter are technically ghosts.

## Events in the Series

*This section may have **spoilers**. Think of the book title as a "Spoiler Warning" if you haven’t read it yet*.

### 1. Touch the Dark

Cassie encounter the ghost Portia who wants to be her lookout. Portia and Captain Beauregard Lewis and his calvary came to rescue Cassie from Tony's vampires along with Tomas. Portia ordered the Ghost-troops to get the vamp. Several thousand troops converged on the same point, falling into the vamp like water disappearing down a drain. The vampire started ricocheting off shelves, his skin turned a mottled purple. He frozen like a statue. Each ghost was freezing a tiny bit of the vamp. I had just begun to wonder what would happen when all those spirits tried to escape from his now unyielding flesh when the explosion came—and Cassie that I ended up covered in icy bits of vampire flesh.

Cassie encounters a hourd of ghosts in the 17th Century torure chamber inside Carcassonne in her second visions. One of them, the older balding ghost, Pierre, spoke English, wanted Cassie to avenge them—she just wanted help rescuing Francoise, The younger ghost, Etienne (not English speaking), knows of a passage down to the river Aude. Cassie and Tomas drag Francoise out of the castle to a cabin that has Louis-Cesare in it. The vision ended there.

Mircea informs Cassie that her father's spirit has been trapped in a Magical Snare by Tony.

Cassie encounters the same swarm of ghost in her third trip back to Carcassonne in 1661. The hide her and lead he rot Radu's dungeon cell. Louis-Cesare (Mircea in residence) stands there badly bitten, keels over. A group of dark mages led by Myra and Rasputin enter. Cassie's commands her ghost army to attack the mages and leave the girl alone. Cassie consoles the girl, who then attempts to stab her with a vicious sneer. Agnes froze time before the stab could land. When time restarted,, She told the ghost to take myra, but Rasputin grabbed her and they vanished. She released them with the order of "No townspeople and no innocents."

### 2. Claimed by Shadow

There are a pair of ghosts—a lady carrying a bearded head—in the Lyceum Theatre of 1888 that are irate that Cassie is there after another like her was there. She warns her that the other one put poison in Mircea's cup. At the 1888 Convocation in London, Cassie saw an unusual spirit form that she's never seen before—she called it a Spirit Creature.

Billy Joe gained a body when he went to Faerie. And, he lost it again when he returned through the Portal. Cassie discovers that the Spirit Creature is an Incubus who sometimes inhabits Bram Stoker who is Dracula's vampire servant. The Theatre Ghosts help by attacking Myra who vanishes before they mugged he completely.

### 6. Tempt the Stars

Cassie tries to talk to Laura
Cassie calls out Billy Joe to try to get info from Laura, who is playing Hide-n-Seek. Billy returns chased by *all* of the ghosts on the estate.

## Quotes

"I almost didn't come back this time, Cass," he said weakly. "It's not automatic, you know.” ... "What isn't?” ... "Becoming a ghost. Nobody keeps stats, or if they do, they're not telling me, but it's pretty damn rare! And I almost… I got lost… I wasn't here, I wasn't there and I couldn't see anything. All I could feel was a pull, trying to wash me away, and the only thing holding me was the sound of your voice. And then you started talking about leaving, and then I found out-" He broke off with a strangled gasp. — Billy Joe and Cassie in 1889 London, Lyceum Theatre,
## Associated Characters, Places, etc.

* Cassandra Palmer
* Roger Palmer
* Big Red
* Tony's Court
* Homunculus

## See Also

* Homunculus
* Ghost Vision

## Book References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 *Touch the Dark*, ch. 1 Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; name "CP1ch1" defined multiple times with different content Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; name "CP1ch1" defined multiple times with different content
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 *Touch the Dark*, ch. 12 Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; name "CP1ch12" defined multiple times with different content Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; name "CP1ch12" defined multiple times with different content
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 *Claimed by Shadow*, ch. 2
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 *Claimed by Shadow*, ch. 14
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 *Tempt the Stars*, ch. 1, p 10 Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; name "CP6ch1" defined multiple times with different content Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; name "CP6ch1" defined multiple times with different content Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; name "CP6ch1" defined multiple times with different content Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; name "CP6ch1" defined multiple times with different content Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; name "CP6ch1" defined multiple times with different content Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; name "CP6ch1" defined multiple times with different content
6. ↑ *Tempt the Stars*, ch. 4, p 50
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 *Claimed by Shadow*, ch. 13
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 *Touch the Dark*, ch. 5
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 *Touch the Dark*, ch. 7
10. ↑ *Touch the Dark*, ch. 9
11. ↑ *Touch the Dark*, ch. 7
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 *Tempt the Stars*, ch. 2 Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; name "CP6ch2" defined multiple times with different content Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; name "CP6ch2" defined multiple times with different content
13. ↑ *Touch the Dark*, ch. 7
14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 *Touch the Dark*, ch. 2
15. ↑ *Claimed by Shadow*, ch. 2
16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 *Touch the Dark*, ch. 10
17. ↑ *Claimed by Shadow*, ch. 12
18. ↑ *Tempt the Stars*, ch. , p.
19. ↑ *Touch the Dark*, ch. 7
20. ↑ *Touch the Dark*, ch. 14
21. ↑ *Claimed by Shadow*, ch. 7
22. ↑ *Claimed by Shadow*, ch. 10