On Ghosts and Spirits · Magic

Spirits are the overall rubric used to describe immaterial supernatural entities. They are "a mind, memory, image, or idea somehow brought to life" (Realms of Power: Magic, page 45). Genius spirits are those that are created as such, and animus spirits are those that were once material but ceased to be. Ghosts fall under this second type of spirit. Hermetic theory catalogues three types of ghosts: apparitions, shades, and specters. Apparitions have the most memories of their life and specters the least, with shades falling somewhere in the middle. An additional subclass of ghosts is the animating spirit that controls a revenant, one of the walking dead. Much weaker than even a specter, this animated spirit is intricately entwined with the corpse that it controls. Ideally, the necromancer wanting to become a living corpse hopes his ghost becomes an apparition, to retain the highest degree of memory. Coming back from death as a shade will severely limit his capabilities, and returning as a specter is little better than the animating spirit that controls a shambling corpse.

Theologians are unanimous in stating that a living person has both a soul and a spirit, and that both reside in the whole body. There is less agreement on what differentiates the spirit from the soul, but all agree that both exist within man. While alive, a man's spirit and soul reside within him, and after death his soul travels to whatever destination has been ordained for it. Academics debate what happens to the soul, some claiming it goes straight to Heaven, Purgatory, Hell, or another destination. Ideas are more mixed regarding the spirit's fate. Does it follow the soul or take a separate route to another supernatural location? Hermetic scholars agree that a spirit separated from its material form often exists in one of the supernatural realms, or an aura aligned with that realm, and while attached to its material form it resides in the material form. It makes sense that at death, when the material form ceases to function, the spirit quickly changes locations. It is during this change, this transition from material-attachment to solo supernatural existence, that a spirit can be trapped.

The Type of Ghost a Spirit Becomes

When creating a non-personal living corpse, a necromancer has a good chance of summoning the type of spirit he wants to inhabit the corpse. Researching ghosts, he'll find one from the realm he desires and with a Might score he can handle. If he is summoning the ghost of a lost friend or companion, he might not know the Might of the ghost or which realm it is aligned to, and will have to make a calculated guess. If he is performing a personal living corpse transformation, he hopes his spirit becomes a ghost affiliated with the Magic realm, which is far from automatic.

Hermetic magic has no control over what type of ghost a spirit becomes, or even if a spirit forms into a ghost. The spell The Shadow of Life Renewed shows the difficulties Hermetic magic has in delving into the area of spirits and reattaching them to a material form. To determine how successful that spell is, the player must roll a simple die, and a higher roll produces a more cognizant revived person. The random result of this spell is problematic because few other Hermetic spells have a random effect; the vast majority of spells do what they are designed to do. Is the random result due to the nature of the spell, or because the spell is affecting a difficult and perhaps undecided medium? Perhaps the player must roll to see what type of spirit comes back because spirits are undecided things and, during its transition from material attachment to immaterial separation, a spirit undergoes many changes. Instead of stating de facto the metaphysical rules of spirits and ghosts in Mythic Europe, this chapter instead offers two options for troupes to choose from. These options are only relevant in this specific application: the magus is trying to capture his fleeting spirit in a ward spell and the troupe needs to determine what type of ghost the spirit becomes.

Option One: Random Chance

Being affiliated to the Magic realm — possessing the Gift — has absolutely no bearing on what type of ghost a magus' spirit becomes. The instant a magus dies, roll on the following chart to see if an immaterial ghost manifests from the spirit.

Roll Result

1 No spirit remains there is simply no spirit to summon, now or in the future.
2 The spirit becomes an Infernal, Divine, or Faerie ghost, whichever best suits the magus.
3 The spirit is mindless and passion-