A more in depth look at the types of ghosts encountered in the Mercyverse and their characteristics. Because of the scope Mercy & Ghosts has an section of expanded details.

All three types of ghosts can be pattern ghosts; a particular way in which something is done, is organized, or happens. Mercy Thompson Series #2: Blood Bound

• pattern ghosts have a routine and changing it is not something they normally do

Mercy Thompson Series #2: Blood Bound

• can interact with other ghosts
• Some ghosts have urgent business to conduct—stopping over for a few minutes to leave a final message of love, or anger, with someone important

Mercy Thompson Series #3: Iron Kissed

• the first most useful kind of ghost can interact with the living, as much a person as they had been in life⁷⁴

Mercy Thompson Series #6: River Marked

• self-aware ghosts who can act independently are rarer—and they tend to interact right off

Mercy Thompson Series #9: Fire Touched

• rare self-aware ghosts²³⁰

Mercy Thompson Series #10: Silence Fallen

• the ones who bear grudges or are extremely attached to someone who is still living seem to be the most independent of thought¹⁵⁴

Mercy Thompson Series #3: Iron Kissed

• other ghosts repeat the habits of a lifetime; sometimes they react⁷⁵
• they'll go about their business as if no one else was there
• a habitual ghost

Mercy Thompson Series #4: Bone Crossed

• a ghost that just repeats certain actions over and over

Mercy Thompson Series #6: River Marked

• There are ghosts that just repeat important moments of their lives

Mercy Thompson Series #7: Frost Burned

• a ghost that could be seen but who did not react to the real world at all, just did a certain action over and over again, usually in the same place and sometimes at the same time every day; more of an impression than a remnant of a real person

Mercy Thompson Series #2: Blood Bound

• Some of them, especially the ones who died in traumatic ways, are caught in the moment of their death. Those are the most common kind

Mercy Thompson Series #3: Iron Kissed

• the third kind are ones born in moments of trauma. They relive their deaths until they fade away. Some dissipate in a few days and others are still dying each day even centuries later⁷⁵
• victims of traumatic deaths tend to linger as ghosts

Mercy Thompson Series #11: Storm Cursed

• trauma might make for strong ghosts, but it doesn't always make them good communicators⁹⁸

Banishing, Exorcising, Laying a Ghost

Mercy Thompson Series #4: Bone Crossed

• seeing them is a long way from sending them away
• doing it wrong was worse than not doing it at all

Mercyverse Short Fiction: Hollow

• You just tell them to move on
• Tell them,” he said with exaggerated patience, “the way your Alpha werewolf husband would tell one of his wolves when they get pushyHo-
• Where do they go?; Somewhere else. Usually not too far awayHo-
• to permanently get rid of a ghost; You have to find out why it is lingering—confront it and take away its reason for being there. That only
• works with the ones who are intelligent, though. Convincing them that they really are dead is also supposed to be useful. Most ghosts usually fade away, given timeHo-

Mercy Thompson Series #2: Blood Bound

• most ghosts fade after a while⁴⁸
• normal humans can speak to ghosts
• ghosts avoid evil
• ghosts are not people; still just a memory of the person they had been
• but ghosts quite often manifest only to some senses: disembodied voices, cold spots, or just a whiff of perfume
• startled ghosts tend to disappear
• Most ghosts aren’t capable of communication
• aren't many ghosts in the Tri-Cities; didn't have a history of violence in it's pas
• violent, senseless deaths was the main cause of ghosts
• Ghosts are around in daytime as often as at night, though there are a lot of things that cannot bear the light of day
• people who had become ghosts rather than going on to the other side as most dead people do
• ghosts aren’t all that common. A thousand people could die in a battle and there might be no ghosts at all. And even if there were ghosts, there was no guarantee I’d see them—or figure out they were ghosts if I did. Some of the dead appeared as they had in life

Mercy Thompson Series #3: Iron Kissed

• violent death, perfect for creating ghosts
• mundanely human people can see ghosts; maybe not often or in broad daylight but they do see them
• very few ghosts who can interact with the living
• some ghosts become clearer when they're focused on
• murder is one of those things that tend to produce ghosts

Mercy Thompson Series #4: Bone Crossed

• aren't as dangerous as crazy vampire ladies
• sometimes ghosts only appear to one sense or another
• ghosts tend to smell like themselves
• know of only a few stories where someone was hurt by a ghost, mostly only bruises
• ghosts aren’t always harmless; thought the only way a ghost could kill was if it scared someone to death
• stories about ghosts who set houses on fire
• ghosts avoid vampires
• Ghosts are odd things. The trick would be getting all the information without driving it away by asking something that conflicted with its understanding of the world
• Ghosts are remnants of people who have died, what’s left after the soul goes on. They are mostly collections of memories given form. If they can interact, respond to outside stimuli, they tend to be fragments of the people they had been: obsessive fragments
• Immediately after they die, though, sometimes they are different; at funerals, or in the house of someone who’s just passed away.
• Sometimes the newly dead keep watch over the living, as if to make sure that all is well with them. Those are more than remnants of the people they’d been

Mercy Thompson Series #4: Silver Borne

• can move through solid matter; sink through the wooden stairs like a ghost

Mercy Thompson Series #6: River Marked

• most ghosts don't need to run away; they just dissipate⁵⁸
• a ghost wasn't a person; it was just the leftovers⁶⁰
• ghosts tend to hang out in the same places they did while they were living¹³⁵
• sometimes could be incredibly stubborn¹⁷⁰
• sometimes a loud noise or a sudden move, and they disappear like rabbits¹⁷⁰
• don't usually appear in a graveyard. Graveyards are for the living; ghosts tend to hang out in the same places they did while they were alive
• most don't seem to be aware that they are dead

Mercy Thompson Series #7: Frost Burned

• most ghosts were only sad memories
• can hitch a ride; cling to a body²⁰²
• fae magic; wards/protections; can block ghosts²⁰⁴
• had so little self-determination - bound as they were by the rules of their existence - taking any control away from them seemed like a crime²²⁷
• are the remnants of the people they had once been; most don't have much, if any, intelligence
• sometimes appear in their dying state²⁷⁷
• even when people don't know that there is a ghost present, they don't tend to stay intermingled with them for very long²⁷⁷
• ghosts who could manipulate the physical world were few and far between³¹⁶
• ghosts who can throw rocks and debris are a problem³¹⁶

Mercy Thompson Series #8: Night Broken

• ghosts were only the remnant of the person left behind, bits and pieces of people that sometimes thought they were still alive⁸⁶

Mercy Thompson Series #9: Fire Touched

• it wasn't safe for the living to cling too hard to the dead; it pulled the living in the wrong direction¹⁰⁰
• ghosts tend to haunt places where people might be found; churches, homes, stores - places like that³¹³

Mercy Thompson Series #10: Silence Fallen

• ghosts notice when others talk to the dead and they gravitate to them¹⁰⁵
• are mostly bits and pieces of people, of emotions, left behind; they want things done but there isn't enough of them left to communicated exactly what that is¹⁰⁵
• drowned ghosts smell like the body of water they drown in¹⁰⁵
• some drowned ghosts were just like the stories and they could drip real water¹⁰⁶
• some of the stronger ghosts were able to communicated forcefully as if death granted them a universal language¹⁴²
• a skin of personality shed when a person died and their soul had gone to wherever souls go¹⁴²
• some ghosts stayed fresh and strong while most others faded - perhaps because the living paid too much attention to the dead¹⁴²
• that didn't make the ghosts into the person whose face it wore; it just made them stronger ghosts
• don't make the mistake thinking of a normal ghost as a real person; their souls are gone¹⁴²
• ghosts were something that could think and plan and do; not living precisely, but not inert, either¹⁴²
• ghosts are like discarded clothing left behind when a person dies¹⁴³
• too much attention tended to strengthen ghosts and anchor them in the world of the living¹⁴⁴
• it isn't safe to pay too much attention to ghosts; they start to linger and they'll pull you in the wrong direction¹⁴⁴
• people tied too closely to ghosts tended to do things like drive their cars into trees, shoot themselves, or drink themselves to death; the dead want to be closer to the living¹⁴⁵
• ghosts, like the fae, don't lie; they are so literal, you have to be careful about believing anything they say¹⁵²
• some ghosts retain a lot of their predecessor's personality¹⁵³
• the nature of ghosts; all well and good to dismiss them as nothings; but more than that¹⁵⁴
• ghosts weren't the humans whose death had birthed them; uncomfortable with the assumption that that meant they weren't alive anymore²³³
• wisps of whatever substance ghosts are made of²³⁴
• some have substance and look so lifelike where others were reduced to an emotion or a single moment of time²³⁷
• ghosts are unaffected by the light; most people encounter ghosts at night more often then during the day³⁴⁶
• if they see a ghost in the day, they don't recognize what they are seeing³⁴⁶

Mercyverse Short Fiction: Hollow

• A ghost that has been following a person around for fourteen years . . . that’s not normal
• Most ghosts are harmless, or nearly so
• As my brother Gary said, most of the Indian tribes don’t speak the name of the dead for fear that they’ll attract their attention—or make them linger

Mercy & Ghosts

Mercy Thompson Series #2: Blood Bound

• walkers also speak to ghosts; this makes them a danger to vampires

Mercy Thompson Series #3: Iron Kissed

• there aren't many walkers; vampires killed them because they can see ghosts and find vampire lairs

Mercy Thompson Series #6: River Marked

• not all walkers are alike
• If you can see ghosts in the daylight, you can find where vampires are sleeping no matter what magic they use to hide. I’d always attributed it to being a walker
• Just because you can see something doesn’t mean you have to
• walkers see ghosts but can be taught to not see the dead

Mercy Thompson Series #8: Night Broken

• Gary Laughingdog was able to see ghosts as well⁸⁷

Mercy Thompson Series #10: Silence Fallen

• too much attention strengthens ghosts and attention from a walker is even more energizing¹⁴⁴
• less safe for walkers to pay attention to the dead than it was for regular people¹⁴⁴

Mercyverse Short Fiction: Hollow

• A ghost, my dear sister, gains power when it is seen. When it is recognized by one of our kind, it gains a firmer hold on the world. There is a reason you shouldn’t speak the name of the dead

Mercy Thompson Series #2: Blood Bound

• cats and ghosts don't like vampires
• walkers ability to see ghosts make them a danger to vampires
• ghosts want vampires dead
• leave when vampires are nearby

Mercy Thompson Series #3: Iron Kissed

• vampires can hide their daytime resting places, even from the nose of a werewolf; not even good magic users can break their protection spells; ghosts linger at the site of traumatic death so walkers kind find them

Mercy Thompson Series #4: Bone Crossed

• vampire lairs tend to attract ghosts
• Ghosts don’t like vampires, and they won’t come out when there are vampires around
• violent, senseless deaths happen at a vampire's menagerie; main cause of ghosts
• Stefan; never heard of a ghost with this much power. They tend to be pathetic things trying to pretend they are alive

James Blackwood

• vampire with the ability to steal the power of those he consumed; taken the power of a walker and he's been able to do things to ghosts
• used ghosts to watch Mercy
• able to control ghosts because he could absorb the powers of the creatures he fed from; drank the blood of a walker

Mercy Thompson Series #7: Frost Burned

• congregrate around the daytime resting places of vampires, betraying the presence of the monster who killed them²⁶⁵

William Frost

• ability to bind ghosts²⁸⁰
• could control the dead; ghosts, zombies, vampires²⁹³
• swallowed ghosts and used their essence to repair damage to his body³²¹

Mercy Thompson Series #8: Night Broken

• vampires' lairs always have ghosts; but they only show up when the vampires are alseep²⁶⁵

Mercy Thompson Series #10: Silence Fallen

• ghosts didn't like vampires²²⁷
• thought it was because the vampires killed them; but there are some vampire gifts that allow vampires to command ghosts and other gifts that allow a vampire to consume them and use their substance for power²²⁷
• or it might be something as simple as the instinctive revulsion that cats feel for vampires²²⁷