I was reading Ghost Lines today for the first time, and there’s a section in there pretty much the same as Blades about spirits and bodies, and it made me wonder:
What is a living body with just one spirit in it that’s not its own?
If the spirit is its own it’s a Soul.
If the body is dead it’s a Vampire (Undead in Ghost Lines).
A live body with no spirit is a Hollow.
A dead body with no spirit is meat.
So what’s a hollow that gets possessed by a spirit? Reading p211 now makes me think that possibly this might only be temporarily possible and that the body will start dying as a result of this? (And if properly prepared will become a vampire).
I think that the manual implies that a possessing spirit that destroys the original spirit kills the body in the process (and becomes a vampire).
Special preparation seems to be necessary only if you want to become a vampire possessing a hollow body (the implication is that hollows are normally created immune to possession, to avoid this very situation).
Wait, is it “canon” that Hollows are immune to possession ? I’ve been playing them as ESPECIALLY sensitive to possession, like you would smuggle a Hollow in your foe’s manor and wait for them to get possessed and wreck shit
I mean, re-reading the book’s entry on them, neither way is canon, but it’s cool how BitD lets players interpret it is such different ways
Being possessed by a spirit inflicts a level of trauma at the end of every week. Once the possessed body suffers its fourth level of trauma, it can no longer sustain its life. The possessing spirit must either bond with the corpse (becoming a vampire) or abandon it and seek out a new host.
So because possessed living body isn’t sustainable, I’m thinking: a possessed hollow isn’t anything worth naming as something different to a possessed body that still has the owner’s spirit, because it isn’t an alternative to vampirism that will grant immortality. It’s only temporary.
I’m trying to wrap my head around this question: is a hollow created from a corpse or from a living person?
In other words, when we die, the spirit leaves the body into the Ghost Field if not stopped. It reads to me as if Spirit Wardens prevent this by dissolving the body . . . so . . . no spirit to become a ghost because body is destroyed. So, preserving the body as a hollow while allowing the sprit to leave safely (maybe) or be bottled . . . but bottled spirit is illegal right? And why does the body need to be dissolved to stop the spirit? I’m just spitballing and looking for ideas.
UPDATE
Went back to read and ok . . . volunteers to be purified as stated in the Church of Ecstasy write-up. That makes sense. So, they are probably pro-euthanasia for those who are sick or near the end so they can make them into labor units (i.e. hollows, zombies). And their admiration for demons. Oh boy.