The Mirrorscape version of Ghosts, anchors and unfinished business.
Since I happened, in a weak moment, to hint that I might write up my views on how I view anchors and the laying to rest of ghosts in the World of Darkness and namelessIIIEsq was kind enough to express interest in reading it, here it is.
Disclaimer: This is how I see things working as extrapolated from the books. I do not pretend to hold the one and only truth, but it is my interpretation of what I have read in the books, tweaked here and there to fit my purposes.
What the books have to say:
The World of Darkness core rule book talks about anchors as objects, places or people that the ghost had an emotional tie to while it was alive.
When the book talks about dealing with ghosts it gives you five ways of doing this: Severing Anchors, Fulfilling unfinished business, Abjurations, Exorcism and Blessed items.
Severing an anchor is here only discussed in the sense of destroying the anchor.
Regarding unfinished business it says “if the ghost exists to fulfill some obligation or desire that it couldn’t complete in life, it is possible to lay the spirit to rest by identifying what the ghost wants and resolving the situation.” Succeeding in resolving a ghosts unfinished business is described as automatically severing all anchors (as written in the book it actually says the anchors “disappear”) and causing the ghost to leave the physical world forever.
Abjurations are described as ceremonies or rituals meant to drive a ghost away from an area.
Exorcisms are described as ceremonies or rituals meant to banish a ghost (or other spirit) from this plane of existence.
Blessed Items are described as being able to be used to attack and damage manifested ghosts or spirits.
Ghost Stories does not shed much further light on the situation, apart from giving some nice examples of ghosts. I have not read all the scenarios in it in detail so I might have missed something there. When it talks about dealing with ghosts it is mostly a repetition of what has been said in the core book, but unfinished business is not mentioned.
Mage does not say much about ghosts apart from describing what magic can do to them and to say that the position of most mages dealing with the dead is that ghosts do not have souls and therefore are not really people anymore. The underworld is mentioned.
Geist, unsurprisingly, mentions ghosts quite a lot, mostly when detailing what the Sin-eaters can and cannot perceive or do relating to ghosts. For the first time in the books that I can see there is mentioned resolving anchors (as opposed to severing anchors and resolving unfinished business), but I have not been able to find a clear description as to what that actually means. In the text both destroying the anchors and resolving business is mentioned as “resolving anchors”, which either could mean that the writer is confused as to the difference between these things, that the developers have decided that unfinished business is just another kind of anchor or that they have decided that all anchors are anchors because of unfinished business or passions.
In the section about ghosts in the underworld however it is stated that ghosts found in the underworld have no anchors, but they do have unfinished business and passions.
So what is my take?
Before reading Geist, how I treated ghosts in my campaigns is as follows:
A ghost is a person that for some reason lingers in the physical world. The reason for this could be because of unfinished business, because of a driving passion (fear of death, hate of his or her killer, etc) or simply because the ghost does not realize that it is dead or that it is supposed to go anywhere. The unfinished business or passions is what prevents the ghost from wanting to pass on.
Anchors are things that the person had a bond to in life or have gained a connection to or obsession about after death (in the case of a ghost that has acquired more anchors since it’s demise). The bond to an anchor or anchors is what gives the ghost a means to cling to the physical world. It’s a string that ties it to our existence and prevents it from being dragged down to the underworld against its will.
Unfinished business can, but does not have to, relate to the ghosts anchors. A ghosts unfinished business could be his bad relationship with his daughter, the foremost symbol in his mind of which is that he wasn’t invited to her wedding. This does not mean that one of his anchors has to be his daughter or her wedding photos (though they both are good examples of anchors for the ghost). His anchor could be the ring that he always wore or the apartment where he lived with his wife. Some of those possibilities may be more interesting for a story, but they are possibilities.
When you destroy an anchor you cut one of the strings that lets the ghost cling to this world. If it was the last string it can no longer hold on to this life and goes “away”.
When you help a ghost resolve its unfinished business you remove the reason that prevents the ghost from wanting to move on, its anchors cease to fulfill a purpose and it passes on to whatever final reward or punishment awaits it.
After reading Geist my view is much the same but has been refined in two ways:
The underworld has been established more clearly in my mind as the place where ghosts go when their anchors are destroyed but they still have remaining unfinished business and/or passions.
I now incorporate a second way of severing/destroying an anchor. This involves removing the emotional attachment to the anchor from the ghost. This is not always the same as resolving unfinished business but it could conceivably be in the cases where anchors and unfinished business are closely related.
If you nullify the emotional connection to the anchor you can sever or resolve it, without necessarily resolving unfinished business. The ghost whose anchor is the lovely brooch that her husband bought for her when he was away on a business trip may lose her connection to that anchor if it was proved to her that her husband was not as loving as she thought and the brooch was really meant to be a gift to his mistress, a plan that she interrupted by finding it when unpacking his suitcase. Her unfinished business of wanting to protect her children however is not affected by this (which is bad news for her if the brooch was her only anchor).
That’s my take. Use or abuse as you wish.
Cleverest of Things:If a Sin-Eater or human helps a Ghost resolve their Anchors, but NOT their Unfinished business, does this mean they "go away" because they are drawn into the Underworld, or because they move on? Does the peaceful resolution make the difference, and help them to the Beyond? Or, do the ghosts that Sin-Eaters think they are helping end up someplace terrible after all?
How Kerberoi pass the time when no Laws are being broken.
I've been reading quite a bit in the Death and Darkness areas of mythology lately, and something that is prevalent throughout the world, really, is that man comes from the darkness (the underworld), as well as returns to the darkness at death. This is why you have goddesses like Demeter and Persephone (or Kore) of the Eleusinian Mysteries, Kali and the Morrigan, who are goddesses of fertility and death -- the mother of your birth, the mother you return to in death -- and for the ancients this place, this darkness of the Underworld, was the same place.
The only way to move on past the darkness, or not to return to the darkness, was to rid yourself of all attachments to this life, ... basically you have to get over yourself ... and then you have a chance of being reborn into a higher plane or moving past the realm of the gods altogether.
Joseph Campbell, in his Transformations of Myth Through Time eps 10 - The Tibetan Book of the Dead and 11 - The Mystery Religions of Ancient Greece are great introductions into this area of thinking which has been prevalent through out most of the history of man, and is still a strong belief system for most of the world.
What is clearly noted by Campbell, is that the soul not able to make the transformations into death, is held back for the most part out of Fear. Fear of the other-side, fear of being before god, terrified of being seen by the gods as they really are (their core being).
Campbell brings up in this series, as well, the levels of spiritual awareness outlined by the beliefs of the Kundalini Yoga followers, a system which has been a heavy influence to just about every religion of the Near East, Middle East and Far East, for over 3000 years. One of the areas he points out is that if a person has not been able to raise his awareness above the 3rd stage, into Heart level, then he is living in the area of the animal. These are also the people, most likely, unable to move on, as Fear is their guiding light. This same idea is found in the Greek, and Egyptian mythologies.
The World of Darkness area, or the Geist writings do not seem to have any allowance for a ghost to be on the Living World simply because they are terrified of going anywhere else, and are "clinging to the earth", but I find the idea of this very attractive, as well as, opening up a broader vision of the Ghost-Anchor idea.
Mirrorscape:There could be a good story there somewhere though. A group of sin-eaters find an easy way to help a ghost (preferably that of someone they care about) let go of its anchors only to realise, just a second too late, that they are really banishing her to the underworld. What follows could be a series of sessions where they first try to take care of the ghosts unfinished business and then find her in the underworld to deliver the good news so that she can move on.
Cleverest of Things: Mirrorscape:There could be a good story there somewhere though. A group of sin-eaters find an easy way to help a ghost (preferably that of someone they care about) let go of its anchors only to realise, just a second too late, that they are really banishing her to the underworld. What follows could be a series of sessions where they first try to take care of the ghosts unfinished business and then find her in the underworld to deliver the good news so that she can move on. Another good option is to let them finish the anchors of the ghost like that, but later find a shade in the Underworld that (After being appeased and infused) it is there because someone helped him get over his anchors. He found himself drawn down into the darkness, kept from the Beyond by his passions but unable to anchor himself to the mortal world any longer. Once the Krewe realizes the fate of this poor ghost, they might look back on any ghost they once did this to. If they are particularly guilty, they might hunt some of those ghosts down in the underworld, to help them resolve their business. This would be a great excuse to get a Krewe to explore the Underworld, if they'd previously focused on the ghosts trapped in Twilight.
Mirrorscape:Absolutely. The main thing, I think, is not to have the players feel "tricked" by the Storyteller. Of course if they have actually been tricked by an NPC into believing that they are laying the ghosts to rest, feeling tricked is just more fuel for the fire.
namelessIIIEsq:Mirror, our views aren't that far apart, but I do have a few things I need clarified. First, how do you 'resolve' an anchor without resolving any business attached to it? When my jeep broke down, I didn't resolve the problem by rolling the rest down into a ravine, I resolved it by fixing what needed fixing (and spending waaaay too much money . . .). 'Destroying ' and 'resolving' are two very different words with very different meanings. Now that I think about it, I think 'resolve' pretty much implies that something unfinished has been finished. It's like a major 7th chord, it needs resolution by the next chord, not just ended in its own right.
namelessIIIEsq:And I think we covered this during the dam discussion, but as ST, I like making the anchors relevant to the tether (Note: my group house ruled the definition of 'Anchor' to be the specific object, whereas 'tether' is the ghost's own personal connection to it, more represented by the business that is unfinished. Further more, it shores up the relationship between the two, because the tether is what holds the anchor to the ship . . . er ghost), because if I make things too arbitrary the player will just get fed up and destroy (or try to illusion their way out of it). If a man's anchor is his wedding band, but his tether is his daughter, not only is he no longer anchored to this world by what concerns him (his tether is hooked to something else, and his anchor's just chilling at the bottom of the ocean), then from a narrative point the story's going to run in circles for a good long time while the characters examine all the angles of this wedding band. I figure the term 'anchor' should imply that it really is the focal point of what keeps a ghost here, not just because it keeps the ghost on this plane, but it literally anchors them to a specific area in this plane.
Cleverest of Things: Mirrorscape:Absolutely. The main thing, I think, is not to have the players feel "tricked" by the Storyteller. Of course if they have actually been tricked by an NPC into believing that they are laying the ghosts to rest, feeling tricked is just more fuel for the fire. It wouldn't just be them. Rather than feeling specifically tricked, they might feel like they've had a revelation--Only their Krewe has had the chance to realize that resolving anchors w/o their unfinished business is a terrible thing for ghosts. What would they do with this knowledge.. accept it, and take a fatalistic approach to the gaining of Plasm and helping Ghosts move on? Would they try to teach the whole of the Twilight Network of the extreme error it had been perpetrating for millenia? Would they change their own ways, but not bother with anyone else? Would they become Helldivers, and hope they can make ammends by helping the Shades move on by finishing their business?
Of if you go with the players gaining plasm for this kind of "resolving" as you suggest, then maybe this method actually damages the ghost and that is why the plasm is torn free and available for absorption.
This Mortal Coil:I see that you believe resolving the anchors might help a ghost pass on, but then what is the "Pass On" (Page 152) ceremony for? It's to be performed after all of the anchors have been eliminated and is supposed to be performed in the Underworld.
It made me feel like there was going to be tons of steps involved in helping a ghost pass on and that it wouldn't be as simple as just resolving anchors. In essence, helping ghosts move on is a huge project that was going to be a distraction for me and my group since I am in a Krewe with 6 mages and me being the only Geist.
This Mortal Coil:Secondly, if a ghost is anchored to a person ... how do you resolve that anchor? I see you say changing its mind about the person. That seems like a tremendous task and indeed, I have a ghost anchored to me in the game we are playing. I killed her when she attempted to insert artifacts into her body via ripping out the similar organs. She and I had a connection while she was alive, albeit short-lived and I am currently torn about how to deal with her. It's a great plot device for the ST because he constantly has her interrupt even my most mundane conversations with spiteful vitriol ... but I would like to resolve her anchors. Oh yes, and she is a Mage ghost which makes her even more difficult. However, I have even considered binding her into a Fetter ... any thoughts? Or do you think it possible for me to sever her connection to me?
Threading the Tether ••••
Finding and locating anchors to help in their resolution can be a full time task for most Sin Eaters. This ceremony was designed with that in mind. As with magic, fate and all sorts of other mystical aspects, there are threads tying people places and objects to all things living and dead that under the right circumstances can become visible. Through this ceremony the Sin Eater can attempt to locate one or more of a ghosts anchors which will, in some cases expedite the process. More times than not this ceremony will not replace good detective work but sometimes the trail is just too cold, old or convoluted and the Sin Eater must rely on the forces beyond their own investigative skill.
Performing the Ceremony: The Sin Eater begins the ceremony by tying a Thread around an object associated with the ghost. A picture tends to work the best but anything once owned by the ghost will do. The Sin Eater then suspends the item from above (a nail or hook in the ceiling will work). At this point the Sin Eater must take a handful of ash (Cremated remains work best) and fling it into the air while saying the ghosts name aloud. Id the Sin Eater does not know the ghost he/she must describe the ghost. He then takes a knife and by cutting into his skin drips blood/plasm onto the hanging item. This causes 2 points of lethal damage and uses 3 plasm. A SE may bulwark the Lethal damage if desired.
When the ritual is complete and depending on the number of successes, a Sin Eater will divine the threads tethered to the ghosts as they will channel through the suspended object and become readily visible to the SE. By touching the threads the Sin Eater can divine their location and learns something about them.
Dice Pool: Psyche + Occult Action: Extended (Target Number of 5) Time Increment: The Sin Eater may only perform this ceremony once per day.
Roll Results: Dramatic Failure: The thread snaps and the object drops from its suspension point. The Sin Eater cannot perform this ceremony for a full week and is unable to sense the anchors of the ghost in question. Failure: No successes gained and no anchors are revealed. Success: The Sin Eater is able to feel the threads and gets a basic idea of the item and its location. For instance: The Sin Eater holds the thread and his mind follows it to a graveyard and to a specific grave. The name is not readily available but the surrounding environs will help him remember the exact grave once he is there. He can also sense that it is something worn by the deceased likely jewelry but not the specific item. There will be a thread for each success gained up to the number of anchors. Dramatic Success: Not only are the anchors visible but the Sin Eater can clearly see their location by following the thread in his mind as well as a vivid description of each item. Knowing this information will help the SE in dealing with the ghost as this knowledge may help a ghost in relating why the anchors are important. Suggested Modifiers: +2 The Sin Eater is using Cremeated remains instead of ordinary ashes. +1 The Sin Eater Knows the name of the Ghost -1 The Sin Eater does not know the ghosts name and is describing it -2 The ghost has been dead for longer than 50 years (-1 more die for every 50 after that)