The Guide To Unpleasant Horrors Of The Night

Spirit Classification - A guide to ghosts

Introduction
In this section you will find the broader classifications of spirits ( ghosts, ghouls, ect.) rather than more specific entry's. It will be updated as greater information is acquired ( aka when I feel like it)
Rankings
1. Harmless/Mostly Harmless
2. Active/notable
3. Dangerous/threatening
4. Deadly/Malicious
Echoes - souls stuck on repeat
Rank 1
Echoes are ghosts, but unlike more active spirits they are very passive.  Think of an event, where something extremely sole crushingly embarrassing happened, now imagine it happening over and over and over again. That is what an echo is. A endless loop, one that can't be broken until certain resolutions occur. Do not be mistaken, echoes are not actually trapped sentient spirits, rather they are memory's, triggered most often by the awakening of a... More active spirit. Echoes are key events that had so much energy that they left some of that energy behind. The clarity of the echo ( how well you can see/feel it) determines the amount of energy that was left behind. Of course traumatic events leave behind much more energy than most others, but extremely joyful moments do occasionally leave behind a echo.

Specters - TCB!!!! Forever and ever and ever.
Rank 1
Specters are spirits that are created when some one who is deceased has unfinished business. Like a powerful oath they need to keep, or a sworn job they must carry out. Consider that you promise your lover that you will protect them to the day they die, and then you get hit by a car the next day. You may come back as a specter depending on one of many different conditions, such as the amount of energy you have, your amount of love for said person, or the strength of your will. Unfortunately most time specters come back out of negative emotions rather than positive ones, or even just out of pure habit. Specters can barely effect their environment and are more times than not very very weak ghosts, specters generally pass after the unfinished business is resolved, this is a very loose restriction because it generally takes very little time to resolve the issue. At this point what happens to the spirit depends on one thing, was it created out of habit?
If the spirit was not created out of habit, it moves on. If it is created out of habit, the main spirit will move on and a very weak echo will be left over carrying out the task for eternity.

Ghouls - Feasting on the living + a side of fries.
Rank 1
Ghouls are the hungry spirits left behind by this consumed by gluttony, and greed. These ghosts are created when greedy souls can't let go. These spirits are mainly business men and politicians in life due to the great amounts of greed and power lust that come with the territory. Often times these spirits only form when the person was both greedy and malicious in life, more often than not the creation of a ghoul requires a certain level of malice achieved by actively stepping on others when archiving ones greedy goals. These spirits often feed off the energy of the living as well as the energy from electrical devices. Unlike most spirits these ghosts are not bound to a certain place when they are created, rather they travel feeding off those who are also extremely greedy or gluttonous. While being fed off of, the ghouls host  will feel slightly sick, will have frequent headaches, and will get tired quicker. Often times hosts don't notice this due to the general nature of their work. These ghosts can not be summoned and are generally harmless. There are ways to banish these spirits, starving them is the most common method. If the ghoul gets trapped it will eventually starve. This process can take any where from a few weeks to a few minutes, it varies based on how much energy the ghoul already has.

Banshee - screaming harder than Norwegian death metal bands
Rank 2
Banshees are screaming spirits, they are made up of only women and are created under two different circumstances. Banshees are only the spirits of women due to women having shorter vocal cords than males do. The shorter vocal cord is what sets banshees apart from bellowers the banshees male counter part. Banshees are created in two ways they are created when a woman screams loud and hard before a gruesome death, or they are also made when a spirit stays behind as a warning. If a woman is killed while screaming and the cause of death is Grisly or Gruesome then she will return as a banshee. Examples include murder, falling off a cliff, or an unfortunate wood chipper accident. This class of banshee is annoying, and is more like an annoying echo more than anything else. Then we have warning banshee. These are the spirits of women who die as a result of some unforeseen event. Have you ever been tired while driving? So tired that you feel as if you might fall asleep at any moment? Well some people do, and the result is not pretty. When this happens a banshee can be made. That banshee will then alert drivers very subtlety through different acts, such as suddenly switching the radio to some loud and obnoxious song, or by honking the horn of the car, making it seem as if the driver had hit their head on it. It is very rare to see a warning banshee actually scream and often only happens when the death is hard to subtly prevent. These spirits are rarely malicious and often times are more like guardians of the living, preventing others from suffering the same fate. Banshees can not be summoned, and are difficult to banish, not that you would want to banish one, but if your banshee won't STFU you may wish to banish it. In order to do this you must, I kid you not, record the banshees scream, and then play it back. This will likely shock the spirit out of its trance and in the process help it move on.

Poltergeist - Who you gona maul?
Rank 3.5
These spirits are very dangerous, though not always deadly, you had better be ready to see a psychologist after going head to head with one of these. Often created when a great wrong was done to the person in life or death. These spirits can be summoned and are often used to wreak havoc. Desecrating a burial site is a very common way of summoning a poltergeist, and they are also created after violent and emotional murders. This kind of a murder is most often achieved when the poltergeist in question was murdered by some one close to them in a violent way. Poltergeists are angry spirits and will not stopped until they get what they want ( retrieval of possessions, revenge on the killer, ect) or until they are banished. Banishing can be done in a number of ways. One give it what it wants (duh). Two convince it of your innocence ( a poltergeist will not haunt random people unless they think they deserve it). Three apologize for what you did ( if you took stuff from its grave say sorry that BS.). If you can't do any of these, just leave, literally. A poltergeist is bound to one threshold, they can't haunt you if your not there to be haunted. If the spirit does follow you, contact a exorcist asap, you are not dealing with a poltergeist you are dealing with a demon, and you need to act fast ( more on demons later). Poltergeist have very strong control over the threshold they haunt and have been known to wound and even kill those within. Luckily for those who are dealing with poltergeist they can not prevent you through any means of exiting the threshold, though they can make it difficult to. Do not try to destroy the thresh hold a poltergeist is bound to because this allows it to become bound to a new one.