Greenhorns Guide to Ghosts
Death is just the beginning. Each one of us in our time can choose not to re-enter the sterile cycle of reincarnation but instead transcend to the Underworld where the toils of this life and the rites of those we leave behind buy us an existence of wealth and ease.
Some ghosts do not remain always in the Underworld and return to Creation, perhaps to complete a task, see a grandchild take its first steps or seek revenge for their murder to pick a few examples. It is these ghosts this guide is principally concerned with, as they are the ones the living must deal with.
Hungry Ghosts
Not a true ghost, these creatures of revenge and rage are spawned when the Po or lower soul is sufficiently angry not to disperse upon death. They are the reason that the most hated enemy and the most despised pauper alike must be given a respectful and well conducted funeral. The Funereal Order of Righteous Morticians and Embalmers know or can construct suitable funerary rites for any situation.
For three days after death the higher soul makes up part of the hungry ghost, so that it retains identity and reason. During this period resolving the cause of the ghost’s anger will let it move on peacefully. After this time the Hun will move on regardless but the hungry ghost remains, berefit of thought and driven only by its urges. All hungry ghosts are physical manifestations that can affect and be affected by the living. Uniquely among the dead their body allows them to pass through it to the Underworld at dawn and to Creation at sunset. Destroying the body limits them to the same methods of travelling as any ghost, which they lack the wit to use. They are instantly destroyed by sunlight.
True Ghosts
Ghosts are creatures of the Hun or higher soul, with an immaterial body formed from the Essence of the Underworld (their corpus). They have no connection to their Po and little connection to their mortal remains. Each ghost remains an individual but those in Creation can be categorised by the method they use to interact with the living world.
Common Ghost
Visible but translucent during the day, at night they can become invisible or appear solid (but still immaterial). Some can create images or simple substances or control vermin or throw items about but most can do little real physical harm. While restricted to the ground as much as the living they can pass through solid objects.
War Ghosts
A ghost who has learnt to physically interact with Creation well enough to fight and kill the living is known as a war ghost. Some can use their weapons while remaining immaterial, some can manifest fully, some can reform themselves into a hideous Ghost-Devil form more dangerous than any mortal. Many can do all three.
Ancestor Spirits
Ghosts who have learnt to bless and curse the living, between this and the advice derived from their long existences they act as substitute gods for their living families. Some might not return to the Underworld for centuries after they first find their way back to Creation. Most common in the North where they are worshipped by tribes, clans or villages and the South where dealingings with a family or personal relationship with a descendant named for them are common.
Nemissaries
Ghosts who can interact with the physical by possessing corpses. The most powerful can also inhabit the living, though seldom for long. Most are old and powerful, and seem to command other ghosts. If an ambassador between the living and the dead is required it will typically be a Nemissary.
Offerings and Grave Goods
Goods buried as part of a funeral enter the afterlife with their owner, in an idealised form. A model of a boat will manifest as a sturdy vessel capable of travelling any of the great rivers of the Underworld, a correctly constructed statuette of a porter will tirelessly labour for its mistress for ten-thousand years. Providing such trappings for those you respect is a worthy goal by itself, but for those who hate you it is wise to provide such goods as will make lingering in the Underworld more enticing than returning for revenge. The original items remain in the grave or tomb, but disturbing them is an excellent way to anger the ghostly owner. If the same item is buried again in someone else's funeral they too will have the item in the Underworld. The Daiklaive known as Banner of Three Generals was named after the famous Underworld battle that had to be settled by a duel between the generals as the leadership boosting Evocations of their one (three) ancestral sword(s) exactly cancelled out.
Once a ghost has already returned it is too late to offer grave goods but offerings are still possible. Items destroyed with the correct ritual will provide a temporary boost of Essence to the recipient, in line with the symbolic worth of the offering - a wooden disk marked as a dinar is as useful as burning a true dinar (and requires much less of a fire). In order to receive this power the ghost must be present at the correct altar in the Underworld, making the promise of offerings a useful neogiating tool. Some Ancestor Ghosts may have found a way around this limitation.
So you think you can create infinite artifacts?
Sorry, you're not the first person to think of duplicating artifacts or creating the never ending trade of model grave goods for a cut of the real items returned to Creation. Grave goods can only enter the world during the night and crumble to ash as the sun rises. Not as useful as it appeared at first sight.
Exorcising Ghosts
If a ghost is causing havoc can it be destroyed? What a horrible idea! Since a ghost is a Hun housed in a corpus destroying one destroys the soul for all time, surely the greatest crime possible. Luckily it is almost impossible. However, while materialised a ghost's corpus can be destroyed by physical damage, and the Hun will either slowly form a new corpus in the Underworld or move on through Lethe to reincarnation.
Otherwise negotiation or threats to things and people the ghost values are the best approaches. Professional ghost hunters exist for this purpose, but most you have ever seen have undoubtably been frauds. Those trained in Sijan, or by the Immaculate Order are the best choices.