DFRPG Ghosts:Apparitions
Apparitions[edit]
Apart from Echoes, Phantoms and Revenants, there is a fourth category of ghost, the Apparition. It is not usually counted among the others because of the unique nature of its manifestation: an apparition appears to be the ghost of something "inanimate" -- an object, an event, or even a place.
Examples abound in lore: Spectral trains and ghostly ships. Recurring illusory (or real) fires. Sightings of demolished or destroyed buildings. Rooms that move around or shouldn't exist.
Origins and Nature[edit]
According to those who have researched the topic extensively, this inanimate appearance is misleading. Apparitions are a form of "collective haunting", most frequently generated when multiple people die in one incident, and an abnormal number of them become ghosts in the process (more than one ghost from any given incident probably counts as sufficiently abnormal). Rather than resulting in several individual ghosts, such an event can result in the weaker Echoes blurring together to take on the appearance of a shared element of their demise, or something not present that is of immediate importance to the people that died. Apparitions, then, are literally the fused-together Echoes of a number of distinct people. This is why they "inanimate" ghosts often seem to possess a dim awareness, willfulness, or emotions like anger, without actually being truly intelligent.
The formation of an Apparition depends on a vast number of factors, including the number and manner of deaths, their simultaneity, the local nature of the NeverNever, how "spiritually charged" the area is, the mental state of the deceased and how hard they cling to life, the time of year, and so forth and so-on. It is by no means certain.
Note: Despite their frequency in legend, due to the presence of water, ghost ships and other watercraft are actually very rare Apparitions. But they do happen, and possibly as a requirement of their formation, they tend to be some of the most durable and far-ranging of ghostly phenomena, persisting for centuries in areas hundreds of miles across, if not globally.
Secondary Hauntings[edit]
Apparitions can themselves be haunted, or at least have several more ordinary ghosts loosely associated with them, such as the passengers of a ghost train. This apparently happens when some, but not all of the ghosts being formed are strong enough to avoid becoming an integral part of the Apparition. Echoes who avoid merging with their fellows are invariably bound to the Apparition itself as secondary hauntings, and may sometimes be altered to fit in that context (for example, the ghost of a passenger in a train crash might take the "role" of the ghost train's conductor, if the real train's actual conductor survived, didn't create a ghost, or merged into the ghostly train itself).
Phantoms are much less commonly created with Apparitions. When they do, they will always possess some attachment to the Apparition, feeling drawn to meet it when it manifests or to go with it when it departs (generally they return or remanifest afterward). Haunts anchored to an Apparition are doubly rare, and very sad. Not only can't they leave, but the thing that they haunt isn't even there all the time, giving them little opportunity to interact with the living. Most such ghosts spend the majority of their time stuck in pocket realms in the NeverNever.
