Ghosts are supernatural undead spirit entities formed of relict soul-threads left behind when the deceased's soul-tapestry unraveled. Sometimes the soul, and thus the personality and motivations, are fairly intact; more often, a Ghost is not a full person but rather is a fragment.
How much of the original person is retained in the Ghosts depends upon the strength of the person's personality, the circumstances of death, and the motivation for remaining.
Over time, a Ghost may lose peripheral bits of its personality, becoming increasingly myopic; what was originally a full-fledged person may degenerate in to a spare sketch or caricature. Motivations may likewise degenerate; what began as a full-fledged plot or scheme may become almost a parody of itself; ends can become obscured by means. Most tragic is when the reason for the action is lost, and all that is left is an abstracted obsession. As an example, a well-meaning father's determination to see his daughters well-wed may, over time, deteriorate in to an unreasoning hatred of bachelors.
Deterioration is not inevitable. Some Ghosts can retain their full selves indefinitely, continuing to exist as rich in character as ever they were in life. This often depends on how powerful a personality they had in life and their motivations.
Motivations vary; some are trying to get a message across, or are yet bound to the mortal realm because they remain frustrated in some important goal; once that goal is achieved, they will be free to depart. Unfortunately, sometimes they do not retain much reasoning ability, so their actions may not be well suited to achieve their ends.
Ghosts may be able to communicate and reason, but logic fails when it comes up against their typically obsessive core motivations. Pointing out its irrationality is a sure way to infuriate a Ghost.
Some Ghosts will cooperate in their own permanent dissolution. Such Ghosts may give clues as to how to lay them to rest. Others vehemently resist exorcism. Typical of Ghostly contradiction, a Ghost may very well both desire and fight against release from its ties to the mortal realm.
Typical limitations include:
Aspected
Powers limited (more or less), connected to external phenomena. Examples include anniversary-aspected (strong only on anniversaries of important dates from its mortal life), night-aspected, and moon-aspected.
Aversions
Examples: light, religious paraphernalia (symbols, holy water, etc.), virtues (what it would have protected when alive; hence, ghosts often cannot harm innocents, such as children or hapless maidens)
Vulnerabilities
Day may dispel it, silver, enchanted, or blessed weapons may harm it, cannot resist being enthralled by that which it loved in life (or anything similar to it)
Insubstantial, Inherently
Cannot interact directly with material objects (doesn't fall through floor only because it is hovering; could easily sink down through floor or up in to air)
Silence, Inherent
Must rely on gestures to communicate. Some may be able to write or draw while others cannot.
Invisibility, Inherent
Permanent invisibility, especially when combined with Silence, may be rather frustrating to a Ghost that wishes to communicate.
Unable to Converse
Can wail or groan, and may be able to utter a few set key phrases - such as only be able to quote passages from a death-dirge composed in its honor by a key loved one, but cannot answer questions or give other information directly; communication becomes a puzzle.
Triggered Fits
Ghosts are often very sensitive to certain things which were crucial to them in life - or at their death. The presence of certain materials, select items, or the uttering of key phrases may send such a Ghost in to an irrational fit. This may be a bout of inconsolable anguish or it may be a flight of rage.
Typical ghostly powers include:
Poltergeisting (telekinesis)
Fly / Float / Hover/
Invisibility, Controlled
Invisible Ghosts may be pure spirit, proof against any direct detection. Invisible Ghosts can only be discovered indirectly, by deciphering their effects upon the mortal world. In other cases, the Ghost may be invisible but still radiate a deathly - and possibly deadly - chill. These latter are quite visible to those with infra-red vision, at least when they choose to manifest themselves.
Immaterial
Insubstantiality, Pass-Through-Matter, Ethereal Form, and Dematerialization all give the effect of Immateriality. Many Ghosts can control their interactions with the material world, deciding moment to moment whether they wish to be substantial or insubstantial. Most - but not all - such Ghosts can be struck by material objects when substantial. Many can choose to materialize just a hand while the rest of their form remains insubstantial. Others are inherently insubstantial, and may be quite frustrated at their inability to affect material objects. An inherently insubstantial Ghost may be able to move objects as a poltergeist, but this does not provide fine manipulation but only the crudest level of control.
Draining of Vital Energies
This is often done by touch or voice (wailing or singing), in the form of horror, chill/cold, sapping life-force, etc.; it may take the form of subliminal whispering, perhaps associated with appropriate visions or dreams. Less subtly, some such supernatural attacks are accompanied by a simulated physical attack, such as clawing or envelopment; an observer could easily mistake the damage done for direct physical damage, especially when the supernaturally inflicted damage creates a physical manifestation, such as claw-like gauging or, in the case of envelopment, symptoms of suffocation or drowning.
Create illusions
These are often re-creating images from when it was alive; these might be like "holographic film snippets" of its death or other significant events
Died in utter horror.
The mind refuses to accept the horrific circumstances of its death, ergo, it refuses to believe it is dead. This seems to be tied to the rational mind being unable to accept its circumstances; non-rational beasts practically never form ghosts from mere horrific death, or most every meal of most every carnivore would result in a ghost of their prey.
Died with great goal unmet.
Anyone who devotes themselves single-mindedly to a particular goal, cherishing it and mentally polishing the vision of its fulfillment, may become a ghost if they die with their dream unrealized. Such a Ghost may inspire others to fulfill their goal for them, creating an obsessive, compulsive drive, or the ghost may be offended by others who try to achieve what it could not. Typical of such conflicted creatures, the Ghost could well motivate and sabotage the same individual.
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