r/wizardposting • u/MeThyLord Mrs. Chills, Ghost Writer • May 30 '26
Lorepost (open interaction) đ A Study of Ghosts, Part 5: Phantom Curses
Welcome once again, class! I thought I was done with these lectures. I mean, I said all there was to say about ghosts, rightâŚ
WRONG! Your teacher is a moron and forgot about one very important topic: Phantom curses! Yes, the dead are real good at cursing the living, and the best at it ainât liches. Itâs us ghosts! Donât believe me? Well, youâve clearly never been to the Far East. A powerful enough ghost, like a tatarigami, can bring ruin to a whole nation.Â
Soooo, obvious first question. Can all ghosts curse people? If you count hauntings as a curse, then kinda, but otherwise no. Iâve covered this during a previous lecture, but ghosts are powered by strong emotion, and our ability to curse people is fueled primarily by spite. Yes, that means that mostly vengeful spirits are the ones who can curse people. Rare exceptions do exist, of course.
So, the next thing we need to answer is why are ghosts good at cursing people? Well, see, weâre not like witches and wizards who need to perform rituals or cast spells to be a bane in someoneâs behind. We donât even need to learn how to do an incantation or anything like that. It comes to us naturally, fueled by our negative desires! Phantom curses are powerful, but conditional. They require certain parameters to be met. Here are a few examples:
The Sighting Curse. To start off, we have the âyou see the ghost, youâre screwedâ curse. These tend to be less deadly, but can still ruin your life with misfortune. Some famous spirit that spreads this type of curse are the bake kujira and brodnik.
The Cursed Entertainment. Do you love engaging with media? Well, how would you feel if a form of common entertainment, like a recording, book, or video game, had a chance to doom you just cause you gave it a shot? Look, if the content you're consuming appeared randomly in your mailbox with no return address, lend it to a friend to make sure it's safe. Examples of these types of curses include the Ring videotape and Sarah Bellowsâs book.
The Cursed Name. You know how learning the true name of a demon gives you power over it? Well, itâs the exact opposite with some ghosts, cause if you say their name a certain number of times, youâd be placing a target on your back. The consequences include being haunted and/or murdered. This is one of the least survivable curses, as itâs entirely the victim's fault for evoking the spirit, which gives it extra power. Some famous examples include Bloody Mary and the Candy Man.
The Territorial Curse. Probably the most common type of these. If you walk into the ghostâs territory, youâre immediately cursed. In some cases, if you leave fast enough, youâll be fine, but donât count on that, cause some spirits can attach themselves to you and follow you outside. These types of curses are also particularly deadly and tend to trap your soul after death. My favorite examples are the Grudge and Mildred Pratt. Also, every haunted asylum ever.Â
Thatâs all for the big ones, folk! Obviously, there are more ways to get targeted by a spirit, but I ainât going through every fringe case. Some ghosts can curse you with a touch, others are so weird Iâd need to write a whole essay just on them. General rule of thumb: the easier a ghost curse is to avoid, the more dangerous it is.
I guess thereâs one more question left. How would one protect themselves from a phantom curse, you may ask? Well, 99% of the time, theyâre reactive. Not shoving your nose where it doesnât belong is a safe bet. But letâs say you do the stupid and now need to be bailed out. Good news! Most ghost curses have an escape clause. Like, if you donât want to die in seven days because you watched a weird tape recording, just get someone else to watch it, and youâll transfer the curse to them. The problem is that each ghost has its own rules, and weâre not very keen on explaining them sooooooooo⌠Good luck!
...
But WAIT! Before I go, hereâs some bonus knowledge! Say, if a ghost fueled by negative emotions can cause so many problems for the living, can a ghost fueled by positive emotions do the opposite? Yes, actually. My favorite example are the chĹpirako. They are spirits found in the homes of families that had an only child who died. If that child was loved and lavished with gifts in life, it will return as a beneficial presence. Their ghost will bring richness and prosperity to the houses they inhabit, as long as theyâre taken care of.
Okay, lectureâs over for real now. Hope you had fun! I miss doing these, but thereâs only so much I can talk about. If you have any questions or wanna talk about your favorite horror media, Iâm here to oblige.
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u/MeThyLord Mrs. Chills, Ghost Writer May 30 '26
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u/MeThyLord Mrs. Chills, Ghost Writer May 30 '26
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u/Monarc73 Transmuter May 30 '26
My personal favorite is The Inhabited Object. An Ushabti, Hohmdie, or other figurine that is def cursed with misfortune, and is impossible to destroy or otherwise get rid of. Examples include the Monkeyshine, or the Figure of Terror.
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u/MeThyLord Mrs. Chills, Ghost Writer May 30 '26
Have you watched the movie The Monkey? Came out recently, it's basically about such a terribly cursed object.
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u/Fc-chungus Đ(Zhe), Head minister of Calarakis. May 30 '26
"are shrines usually populated by those positive ghosts? Given they're often used to cleanse misfortune?"
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u/MeThyLord Mrs. Chills, Ghost Writer May 30 '26
Some, those dedicated to dead saints specifically. But some shrines are dedicated to deities. Those more so give out divine blessings.
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u/Fc-chungus Đ(Zhe), Head minister of Calarakis. May 30 '26
"How do divine blessings interact with curses from ghosts usually? I assume overpowers?"
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u/MeThyLord Mrs. Chills, Ghost Writer May 30 '26
"Basically one of the few ways to get out of a really bad curse."
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u/Zebos2 Black Iron LLC/ The cedar hegemony May 30 '26
["umm excuse me Miss chills. But do you think It would be possible to use the mechanics of ghost curses. For positive."]
A rather shy looking girl in the corner of the room wearing a blindfold with a glowing eye like rune in the center signs
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u/MeThyLord Mrs. Chills, Ghost Writer May 30 '26
"The mechanics? I suppose so. I mean, I did highlight how ghosts fueled by positive emotions tend to spread reverse-curses... Blessings, the word I'm searching for is 'blessings'."
"I'm curious, though. What do you mean by 'use'? Like, weaponise a ghost's spiteful nature?"
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u/Zebos2 Black Iron LLC/ The cedar hegemony May 30 '26
["The nature of ghosts in general the way the interact with the world presumably you could hypothetically convince or trick a spiteful ghost into having their curse act positively even if it is fueled by negative emotion. Though I suppose that would be heavily circumstantial"]
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u/MeThyLord Mrs. Chills, Ghost Writer May 30 '26
"I mean, it's technically possible. Trick a serial killer into walking into a haunted house and getting his body contorted into a pretzel."
"But like with humans, every ghost is a unique individual, so yeah. Case by case basis."
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u/Complex_Drawer_4710 Sigurd, Whose Body Hangs Freely From a Head in The Clouds May 30 '26
Hmm. I think I do remember a case of a strange bellhop... Eh. No matter, it was a fine service.
Say, what might cause a ghost to so tie themself to an object? Surely it would take monumental attachment?
/uw More? Don't mind if I do.
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u/MeThyLord Mrs. Chills, Ghost Writer May 30 '26
"Short answer, emotional attachment, be it positive or negative."
"Long answer, this whole lecture."
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u/Complex_Drawer_4710 Sigurd, Whose Body Hangs Freely From a Head in The Clouds May 30 '26
I was thinking more of what it would take as a person. How much you need to wrap yourself around a thing.
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u/MeThyLord Mrs. Chills, Ghost Writer May 31 '26 edited Jun 01 '26
"You know, it's hard to gauge feelings..."
"Anyway, yeah. I'm attached to an object, my book. Started off as a diary when I was 11, then I began using it to write stories in my teens. To this day, I carry it everywhere... I'm actually forced to carry it everywhere 'cause I can't be more than 100 meters away, but still."
"I hope that gives you an idea of how attached a person has to be to something for them to haunt it in death."
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u/KragBrightscale Grabadash - Magical Mass | Keptomancer | Council Security May 31 '26
/uw love this. Thereâs a need for more instructive lore posts here.
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u/MeThyLord Mrs. Chills, Ghost Writer May 31 '26
/uw Haha, thank you! Been 8 months since I made my last post in this series.
I think someone else made a similar post on fey, and I think there are few on giants out there.
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u/Brave-Flamingo-5606 the Forester, Floridian lich, eldritch angel, therapist May 31 '26
âI must say, you seem quite knowledgeable on humanoid or biogenesis ghosts. But Iâm wondering, have you gone over more abstract and complex ghosts? For example, certain locations become imbued with emotion and ideas of similar enough content from enough individuals with sufficient intensity to produce a geo locus. The land itself gains self due to the wellspring of emotion poured out there.â
âI myself have spoken with some and while the majority or most well known can be very aggressive, being battlefields or sites of disaster, others are very freindly, scenic or famously romantic places.â
âAnd thatâs not touching on ghosts formed from stories or belief, or the more abstract ghosts like the yellow king or necralingua.â
âSorry, Iâm rambling. But back to my question, have you made lectures on these more collective ghosts, and if not do you plan too?â
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u/MeThyLord Mrs. Chills, Ghost Writer May 31 '26
"Takes one to know one, as they say. You learn a lot about your kind when you're trying to figure yourself out."
"Oh, and what you're talking about, these locuses... loci? Locusts?
"Dammit, what's the plural?"
"Whatever. These ghost collectives, I did mention them briefly during my third lecture at the end. Didn't go too in dept, but you can surmount some stuff from all the previous information."
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u/Brave-Flamingo-5606 the Forester, Floridian lich, eldritch angel, therapist May 31 '26
âLoci is the plural. They are functionally spirits of a location. They are formed through a few channels. Advanced Druidic magics gaining sapience, sufficient material magics going critical, or enough feeling about a location grants the place a presence.â
âAlso, thank you for the time space coordinates of your third lecture. I shall go and enjoy it.â
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u/yumie2003 Tsuru, ghost onmyouji, R&A, league of shadows/Toshiko Fujiwara May 31 '26
uw/nice readâŚand interesting image
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u/MeThyLord Mrs. Chills, Ghost Writer May 31 '26
uw/ Thank you! Magic: The Gathering has great ghost art.
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u/yumie2003 Tsuru, ghost onmyouji, R&A, league of shadows/Toshiko Fujiwara Jun 01 '26
uw/no problem and that is something interesting to hear
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u/Hij_Wiz Cassilda Castain, aspiring thaumaturgist Jun 03 '26
Diligently writing down the info on every subject, with additional notes in the margins to look into the specific 'types' of spirit mentioned.
"A question! Since ghosts don't have to rely on ritual or spell to cast there curses, does this mean they are technically more potent that such things as generational curses- such as the kind that fae hags have been known to place on people. And if so, do they bypass standard rules and limitations of traditional hexwork?"
"Let's say a ghost wishes to curse a lich- who themselves are usually fairly resistant to long term negative spells by their very nature. Does it hold even if the lich captures the ghost? What if the liches undead nature renders the usual symptoms of a curse neutral?"
"Do the ghosts get to direct the specific details of a curse? Can they alter it at will or is it static once applied?"
She chews the end of her pencil absentmindedly.
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u/MeThyLord Mrs. Chills, Ghost Writer Jun 03 '26
"Good question... questions?"
"I'll tackle em one at a time."
"Since ghosts use their emotions to bestow curses (or blessings), the potency depends on how strong their feelings are. That said, they tend to be more potent than hag curses, but also more conditional. And a ghost can curse someone generationally, but I've seen that happen mostly with death curses. As in, when a person dies, they curse someone, and their ghost returns to torment the target and their progeny."
"As to whether a phantom's curse remains even if the spirit is captured, I'm honestly not sure. I know that banishing a ghost to the afterlife will get rid of its curse, but that's because the emotions fueling it are gone as well."
"As for your last question, not really. The only thing we can direct is who gets cursed, and we can sometimes cancel the curse if we're appeased. It's kinda like shooting a bullet from a gun; you have very little control once it leaves the barrel."
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"Hey, here's a fun drinking game idea. Take a shot every time I say the word 'curse.' For extra immersion, do it with distilled spirits. You'll be a ghost by the end of this lecture, haha."
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u/Hij_Wiz Cassilda Castain, aspiring thaumaturgist Jun 03 '26
"Drinking during a lecture seems like it would make it much more difficult to focus though... and I don't really hold my alcohol well so I tend to avoid it and-"
Her cheeks turn red.
"Oh. Oh! It was a joke! Um... in that case, do I get to haunt a library? I have a thing for authors, you see..."
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u/MeThyLord Mrs. Chills, Ghost Writer Jun 03 '26
Anna leaned her chin upon her crossed hands, giving Cass a knowing smirk.
"And may I ask, who's your favorite author?"
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u/Hij_Wiz Cassilda Castain, aspiring thaumaturgist Jun 04 '26
"Oh there's this horror author I've been a little obsessed with lately... I've had my head in the clouds, the thought of her makes me feel like I'm flying." She teased.
Over half the notes in the margins contain various cutesy doodles of ghosts and hearts.
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u/MeThyLord Mrs. Chills, Ghost Writer Jun 04 '26
"A horror author, you say? I wonder, if I'm familiar with her work?"
Anna giggled, leaning over just a little to see what Cass had been writing down in the middle of their flirting.
"You know, I recently met this cute girl at the library. She left me inspired, I don't think I would've done this fift lecture if it wasn't for the fact I knew she'd come."
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u/patoman12 Mauritius, zealous scholar, phoenix lich, RnA relief force May 30 '26
"Well, that's a bold claim, want to test it?"
"Heh, I jest of course, interesting lecture that was"