Pale Spirit

### **Appearance**

A **White Lady** (or **Lady in White**) is a type of female ghost, typically dressed in a white dress or similar garment, reportedly seen in rural areas and associated with local legends of tragedy. White Lady legends are found in many countries around the world. Common to many of these legends is an accidental death, murder, or suicide, and the theme of loss, betrayal by a husband or fiance, and unrequited love. Of course, they sometimes have slightly different shades and colors, but this type of ghost tends to be a very pale, white color.

### **Locations**

Women in White have been sighted in numerous different locations; near bodies of water where they have drowned, on the sides of roads where they were murdered, or in the very houses they once lived. They have been spotted all over the world from South America to Japan and everywhere in between and the story behind them is often very similar - of a woman betrayed by her lover or abandoned by her love, sometimes killing herself and her children in the process. Each story is slightly different but the tune remains the same.

### **Origins**

A Lady in White is often made when a a young Woman, often filled with despair or heart break, kills herself or is betrayed and murdered by her lover. Many of them are filled with Pathos, loss, and sadness, though a few transmute that into rage and become angry, active spirits. They have unfinished business, usually to do with their lost lover or their children. Some cannot rest or Transcend because their body has not been buried properly. Some need towarn others of their fate.

The stories often share a similar thread. A young, beautiful woman catches the eye of a man, or she finds herself wanting to enjoy sexual intimacy, and she strays from her womanly—motherly, daughterly—duties because of it. Thanks to her vanity or indiscretion, the young woman is castigated or cursed, made to face death or eternal life as an undead being. Her punishment is often also disproportionate to the fates of the men who aided, abetted, or induced her forbidden actions—men who generally then disappear from the story completely.

### **Weaknesses**

The Lady in White figure is rather weak and has all the usual weaknesses that affect Spirits.

They are weak against:

- Salt, and can be held at bay with lines of salt.

- Pure Iron, and can have their form (corpus) damaged by iron.

- White Sage (smudging can drive them away)

### **Dangers**

White Spirits tend to be benign, however, merely walking their paths sadly, perhaps vaguely waiting for their lover to return to them. They can, however, sometimes affect those around them negatively, keeping them up at night, causing car accidents, or sowing the seeds of depression. Their touch can be icy cold, their whisper can bring despair, and the sight of them can give those with weak hearts heart attacks. Some can also spread the dreaded "Ghost Sickness", draining the life from those they come in contact with, even if they do not mean to. Specific Ladies in White have been known to abduct children to replace the ones they have lost. The children they take are never seen again. Others, if presented with men who are unfaithful or abusive, can channel their dormant Passion of Rage to become Vengeful spirits, in which case they become much more dangerous, even deadly.

### **Needs**

The Lady in White, or "Wailing Woman" often has a reason for her being here - sometimes it is her own grief that keeps her from Transcending. Sometimes it is th eneed to have her story told. More often that not, however, she is around because her remains were never discovered or her story was never, truly, told. Once her story is told or her bones are dealt with, she can usually find peace and Transcend. As stated before, some were betrayed by their lover, or lost their husband on their wedding night, so some of them are seeking out love and intimacy, running their icy hands up your spine. Others are filled with the guilt of having murdered their own children and must atone for that, while others seek to replace the children that they lost by stealing away small children and taking them to their graves.

### **Destruction**

To destroy a White Woman, or at least to help her Transcend, there are a number of things that you can do:

- Find her body and bury it with proper burial rites.

- Find her body and salt and burn the remains.

- Find out who murdered her and bring them to justice, or bring them to her to face her judgement.

- Find her children, or the bodies of her children, to bury them with her.

- Find perhaps another fetter she is bound to - a wedding dress, a ring, a pendant, or a mirror (usually something white, something made of silver, or something made of gold.)

### **Variants**

The Tale of the Woman in White is told again and again throughout the world, though the sources are different, the results are the same.

Dama Branca: the Brazilian Lady in White is said to be the ghost of a young woman who died of childbirth or violent causes. According to legend, she appears as a pale woman in a long white dress or a sleeping gown, and although usually speechless, will occasionally recount her misfortunes. The origins of the myth are not clear, Luís da Câmara Cascudo's *Dicionário do Folclore Brasileiro* (Brazilian Folklore Dictionary) proposes that the ghost is related to the violent deaths of young white women who were murdered by their fathers or husbands in an "honor" killing. The most frequent reasons for these honor killings were adultery (actual or suspected), denial of sex, or abuse. Monteiro Lobato in his book *Urupês* describes a young woman starved to death by her husband because he suspected she was in love with a black slave and only gave her the stewed meat of his corpse for food.

**Dame Blanche**: It is said to be the spirit of a young *Canadienne* woman whose soon-to-be husband was killed while fighting against the British in the battle of Beauport. The young couple allegedly used to meet near the top of the falls and, accordingly, the grieving woman is said to have chosen the site to end her life by throwing herself in the raging waters while wearing the wedding dress that she had recently ordered to be made. A smaller waterfall in the vicinity now bears the name Chute de la Dame Blanche *(White Lady Waterfall)* in reference to this legend.

**Perchta of Rožmberk:** (c. 1429–1476) was a daughter of an important Czech nobleman, Oldřich II of Rožmberk. She married another nobleman, Jan of Lichtenštejn (John of Liechtenstein) in 1449. The marriage was quite unhappy. One of the reasons might have been the fact that Perchta's father had been reluctant to pay the agreed dowry. Legend has it that as her husband was dying, he asked for her forgiveness for his treatment of her. Perchta refused, and her husband cursed her. This is why she haunts his holdings, which include Český Krumlov Castle, where she has been seen most often.

**Estonian Haapsalu Ghost:** She is said to be the woman who a canon fell in love with. She hid in the castle as a choir boy, and remained a secret for a long time. But when the Bishop of Ösel-Wiek visited Haapsalu, she was discovered, and she was immured in the wall of the chapel for her crime. To this day she is said to look out of the Baptistery's window and grieve for her beloved man. She can be seen on clear August full-moon nights

**Germany:** There is a legend of a White Lady who was a prince's wife in the town of Rheda-Wiedenbrück, Westphalia. The prince was away, fighting in the Thirty Years' War, and his wife took a wandering minstrel as a lover. The prince returned unexpectedly, caught the two lovers, and drowned the minstrel in the moat. He then took his wife and encased her behind a wall in his manor with some food and water, so that she wouldn't cheat on him again as he returned to the fighting. The prince died in battle, the food and water ran out, and his wife died. Her spirit now haunts the manor. When the manor was renovated, the new owner had his builders tear down the wall behind which she was immured. The next day, the worker who tore down the wall was working on the roof of the manor when he fell, broke his back, and died. The manor is called *Haus Aussel.*

**Hungary:** In Hungarian mythology, a white lady was the ghost of a girl or young woman that died violently, usually young women who committed suicide, were murdered or died while imprisoned. The ghost is usually bound to a specific location and is often identified as a specific person.

**Charles Fort (Ireland):** there is the story of a white lady, the ghost of a young woman that died on her wedding night. Her death was a suicide which followed the death of her husband at the hand of her father.

**White Lady of Mdina:** According to another Maltese legend, the White Lady of Mdina was killed by her lover after she was forced to marry another man. Many have claimed to see this spirit, always after eight o'clock in the evening. She usually appears to children under eight years old, heart-broken teenage boys, and elderly men. While she tells the children goodnight and bids them to return home, she advises the teenagers to "find another" or to join her and become a part of her "shadow" (her ghostly followers). She also attempts to lure elderly men into her "shadow".

**Witte Wieven**: (Netherlands) Sometimes referred to as *witte joffers* ('white maidens'), they can have both a benevolent as well as a malevolent nature. Often related with witches and/or ghosts, they show many similarities with the banshee, the fairy, and the elf. Understood as malevolent beings, they abduct or switch newborns, abduct women, and punish people who have treated them badly. As benevolent beings, they may aid in childbirth or offer good advice.

**Vrow en Wit:** The Schinveldse Bossen forest is also home to another White Lady story. Archival evidence suggests that the forest was once home to a castle farm that was built in 1396. In the 17th century (estimated 1667), this site was burned down killing the daughter of Lord Lambert Reynart. This historical event has spawned a few variations on a White Lady ghost story based around the death of the woman who burned with the castle farm. The most common versions of the tale involve the woman having two fighting lovers or of the site being burned on her wedding day by a jealous nobleman. However, all versions claim that she now wanders the forest as a ghost in a long white dress, some saying she only appears at midnight, and others saying she only appears on nights of the full moon.

**Kaperosa:** (Phillipines) White Ladies are often used to convey horror and mystery to young children for storytelling. Sightings of White Ladies are common around the country. The most prominent one is the White Lady of Balete Drive in Quezon City. It is said that it is the ghost of a long-haired woman in a white dress who, according to legend, died in a car accident while driving along Balete Drive. Most stories about her were told by taxi drivers doing the graveyard shift, such as the one where a taxi crosses Balete Drive and a very beautiful woman is asking for a ride. The cabbie then looks behind and sees the woman's face was full of blood and bruises, causing him to abandon his taxi in terror. In other instances, it is said that when solitary people drive on that street in the early morning, they briefly see the face of a white-clad woman in the rear-view mirror before she quickly disappears. Some accidents on this road are blamed on apparitions of the White Lady.

**Deuan:** (Thailand) In Thailand, there is a story of teenagers going into a deserted house in Thawi Watthana, suburban Bangkok to look for ghosts and afterwards died from accidents. In each case, witnesses claim to have seen the presence of a mysterious long hair woman in a white dress. A medium claimed that this was a vengeful spirit named "Dao" or "Deuan"

**England:** Thirteen tales within England also suggest that the White Lady may be a victim of murder or suicide who died before she could tell anyone the location of some hidden treasure. Around 2019, the castle of Blenkinsopp in Northumberland was occupied by a family. One night the parents woke to their boy screaming "The White Lady!" By the time they arrived at his bedside, she had vanished, but the boy reported that the lady had been angry and tried to take him away after he refused to accompany her to a box of gold buried in the vaults below. She could not rest while it was there. The same events took place the following three nights. When the child began sleeping with his parents, the White Lady no longer disturbed him, but he never again traveled through the castle alone for exitement of her.

The White Lady (also known as the "Running Lady") of Beeford, East Yorkshire resides on the "Beeford Straight", a stretch of road between Beeford and Brandesburton. Motorists have reported her apparition running across the Beeford Straight toward the junction of North Frodingham. Anecdotal tales also report a motorcyclist picking up a female hitchhiker on the same stretch of road. A few miles later the motorcyclist, upon turning around, noticed the passenger had vanished. In one instance, a car crashed into a tree killing 6 people. It is rumored to be the white lady's curse.

In another story a White Lady is seen retracing her steps as she was said to have jumped off the Portchester Castle while trying to retrieve her fallen child. Her spirit is said to haunt the castle to this day.

**Y Ladi Wen:** Dressed in white, and most common at Calan Gaeaf (the Welsh Halloween), she was often evoked to warn children about bad behaviour. Y Ladi Wen is characterized in various ways including being a terrifying ghost who may ask for help if you speak to her.

**New York:** A White Lady who could also be called a woman in white who is said to haunt Crotona Park, New York. Also known as the Lady in the Lake, the 19th-century White Lady wanders the park area, obsessively looking for the body of her daughter, who was slain by a boyfriend or group of hoodlums, depending on the story you hear. Legend has it that the human White Lady either killed herself in grief, or died alone and heartbroken.

**Maidens of Uley**: is an East Siberian legend of the west buryad people from the village Ulei (or Ungin), Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. The legend tells about young lady Bulzhuuhai Duuhai, which didn't want to be married. She was necessary been escaping the home, cause husband was treated her disrespectfully and locked her in a black yurt, not in the traditional white. Bulzhuuhai has been hanged herself in the barn after being singing and dancing on another's wedding for eight days and eight nights feeling the loneliness of being. After her death, she became a zayan-spirit and joined the other same spirit maidens (they were about 350 or even more), which haunts the fiances on their wedding day, mesmerizing them by the beauty and were taken to the underground world.

### **Variant Weaknesses**

The Weaknesses of the Ghosts are all largely the same. They were injured by a man, or lost their children. Each White Woman is different and each has their own reasons for still Haunting the Skinlands. They are all weak to the usual Iron, Salt, and Smudging. They can, with a priest present, be exorcised to help them Transcend. Burying their body, the bodies of their children, or bringing their lover to face their judgement will also work. Sometimes just letting them tell their story to the very end is enough. Each one will be different, as eash tale is slightly different. Be sure to learn their name, how they died, and possibly why they died.

### **Controlling them**

White Women can be quite powerful, having a deep source of Guilt and Sadness within them. That Pathos can be used in various Necromantic rituals, though again these are not advisable. To Control them you will need to know their name and to get a piece of their remains. To bind them to you, use the blood of the one that betrayed them or, failing that, persuade them that you are (or are the descendant/reincarnation of) the man that betrayed them. You may well be able to control them then. Again, the use of Gold or of Silver Mirrors can trap them. Remember, however, they can be very dangerous and are but one step away from becoming a Vengeful Spirit.