The Spirit Well

The Spirit Well is a supernatural law that dictates both the creation of ghosts upon someone's death and the resource said ghosts tap into to utilize their abilities. Notably, the Spirit Well is not an actual place or thing, but a term for the laws that govern spectral undead.

Categories

Patterns recorded by Artem City's supernatural experts indicate that upon someone's death, whether or not they return as a ghost is dependent upon three things: whether or not they had a significant and unfulfilled goal at the time of their death, their willpower and strength as a person, and how badly they wanted to reach that goal. Depending upon the latter two factors, as the first is a prerequisite of becoming a ghost at all, a person can return at one of several levels of ghosthood:

Category I - Category I ghosts are spawned from both a relatively weak will and desire to achieve the unfinished goal, though both must still be strong. They are both invisible and incorporeal, meaning they are impossible to detect (except by classical means such as spirit boxes, ouija boards, and EMF readers) and cannot physically interact with the world. These ghosts typically fade away after between one week and one month, however long it takes for them to come to terms with their condition. They also have few weak abilities, if any, such as the ability to generate scratching, breathing, or similar sounds around them.

Category II - This type of ghost is created upon the death of someone with either a strong will and weak desire or vice versa. They both can be seen and have actual physical influence, though they are translucent and cannot interact in the same manner as a still-living person or category III ghost. They must put effort into interacting with objects and people, utilizing spirit energy in the process. They can take anywhere from several months or years to accept their fate and move on and they have stronger abilties than category I ghosts. Common examples include telepathy and telekinesis.

Category III - Only a person who had both an incredibly strong will and desire to achieve their goal in life can become a category III ghost. This affords them a fully corporeal form (all the way down to aging and having the capacity to be harmed) as well as significantly stronger abilities than a category II, including all of the latter with higher potency as well as limited flight in some cases. Most category III ghosts do not move on as the latter types do unless they achieve the goal they had in life. It should be noted that it is possible for a category III ghost to "die" a second time as a method of moving on.

Spirit Energy

As ghosts are fundamentally emotional beings, the level to which they can utilize their abilities is also rooted in their level of emotion. In a calm or neutral state, considered to be the baseline, ghosts have a certain amount of spirit energy stored within their beings that they can call upon. Stronger categories tend to have more to draw upon. However, in an extreme emotional state, such as anger, sadness, or joy, ghosts seem to become more efficient with their energy, using less from their store and to greater effect. Spirit energy also seems to regenerate over time, most ghosts being able to fully restore their supply in the matter of a day.

Type

Metaphysical, Supernatural