Ghost

The ghost of Annabel Ward

A ghost, also commonly referred as a phantom or a Visitor, is the spirit of someone whose violent death or unresolved conflict has caused them to return to the realm of the living.

History and background

Hauntings started occurring during the middle of the 20th century. As they became more and more common, the epidemic was eventually named The Problem. Due to the violent and dangerous nature of ghosts, a curfew was put in effect for all except those who were dedicated to fighting them, such as agents of the various psychical investigation agencies, members of the night watch or night cab drivers.

Many different types of ghosts exist, split into three Types, but all are connected to the world by a respective Source. This is their link to living realm: their corpse, an item of importance, or even a location.

Ghostly manifestations, or hauntings, are generally associated with certain perilous phenomena, including chill, malaise, miasma and creeping fear. The most common danger is Ghost-Touch, which, if not treated immediately, can kill the victim.

Statistics bore that murder victims had a 65% chance of returning as a ghost within the first year after they were killed and a 35% chance after that.

Types

Type Two ghosts posed a considerably greater threat than Type Ones

Type One

Main article: Type One

The most common and weakest forms of ghosts. Commonly encountered sub-types are Shades, Lurkers, Stalkers, Cold Maidens, Floating Brides, Glimmers, Pale Stenches, and Stone Knockers.

Type Two

Main article: Type Two

The more dangerous common ghosts. They are stronger than Type Ones and possess some kind of limited intelligence. They are aware of the living and may attempt to harm them. Commonly encountered sub-types in order are Spectres, Phantasms, Wraiths, Dark Spectres, Fetches, Limbless, Poltergeists, Raw-Bones, Changers, Revenants and Shining Boys.

Type Three

Main article: Type Three

The most uncommon type of ghost that is said to be able to talk with those with the proper Talent, but also to be perverse and dangerous. Marissa Fittes of the Fittes Agency and Lucy Carlyle are the only people proven to have actually spoken with Type Threes before. The only Type Threes known to exist are Ezekiel and the Skull.

Combating ghosts

Main article: Defences against ghosts

Main article: Agency

The combating of ghosts is generally handled in two manners: common people using household defences to ward off ghosts and agents fighting them for cases in which the use of such defences is insufficient. As all ghosts manifest at night, the curfew is generally considered enough to protect many people from ghosts wandering outdoors, as it prevents people from being put in a dangerous position in the first place.

However, household defences like iron wards, lavender bushels, and runnels for water don't always work against stronger ghosts, so agents are employed to eradicate them altogether. All agents are required to have some degree of Talent: Sight, Listening, Touch, or a combination of the above. Using these abilities, agents are able to detect the ghosts. Their goal is then to find and neutralize the Source, cutting off the ghost from the mortal realm.

While agents employ a number of tools to fight and drive back ghosts, all such methods are temporary and at most only prevent a ghost from rematerializing either for a few hours or until morning came. Only sealing the ghost's Source or eliminating its reason for remaining in the mortal realm to begin with would succeed in banishing it permanently.

Behind the scenes

The Lockwood & Co. Cast Draw Each Other (As Ghosts 👻) - Netflix-2

One of the aspects of Lockwood & Co. which drew in Joe Cornish, the showrunner of the Netflix TV series was the nature of the ghosts. Cornish felt that ghosts seen in television or film generally were not very frightening because they couldn't actually harm anyone. Ghosts would normally scare people, throw furniture at them, suck you into a television or possess your daughter, but never actually harm directly, but in Lockwood & Co. they kill you if they touch you, which he considered simple and brilliant.

In explaining his initial conception of the series in his foreword for the 2023 edition of the The Screaming Staircase, author Jonathan Stroud stated that the trouble with ghosts, traditionally, is that they hold all the cards. While he loved those traditions and wanted his ghosts to be scary, he wanted to give his characters a chance and tweak the rules. He therefore gave his protagonists talents, which was vital, but not enough to keep them alive, and thus proper equipment to even the score a little. He then gave them each other and finally, 35 Portland Row.