Disclaimer: The following document fragment is presented from an in-character perspective, it should not be taken as the truth of the setting.
Context: This week we return to Necromancy. This expert is a short primer on what one can expect a ghost to know. While in a traditional understanding a ghost is the remnant of a dead person, more or less, bound to the mortal plane, with actual magic things don’t turn out that clean. Ghosts resonate in other people and they only know what other people can know, thus diminishing their usefulness as sources of knowledge.
When considering what a ghost may know it’s important to remember – an apparition is not the person whose image it takes.
Always remember they are composite entities. Their memories ebb and flow with the collective unconsciousness that spawned them.
What can we be sure of as far as communication with ghost goes? When can we trust ghost’s words?
- A ghost will always have the basic information about the person they represent. This involves knowledge such as name, who they were (in broad terms at least) and how they died (again – general data);
- Also, they will always understand the reason why they are haunting;
- In most cases, they have at least a tenuous idea who their anchor is, but it might be hard to extract this information;
- A ghost realizes its nature but in most cases will not admit to this, even to itself;
This is all important information and you should never disregard it. As long as one can extract it from the ghost it tends to be accurate. At least as far as the assumptions floating around in the collective unconsciousness are. This allows a successful identification of the haunting target (if it is not clear) and the anchor (if the ghost divulges this information). In case of a successful extraction, you need not make assumptions about the two.
There is however much that a ghost cannot know.
- They will know nothing that is not known by someone else, though in rare cases, ghosts may possess a more specific information (through their target or an anchor);
- Ghosts have no idea about the passage of time when they are not interacting with human beings;
Both are important to consider as to what sort of information you can gain from a ghost. One should always investigate weird inconsistencies with these rules as they suggest something might not be what you assume it to be.
Esoteric Musings... 