dannyphantomscience

[dannyphantomscience]

A group of fans is assigned a groundbreaking project: to write a Nickelodeon animated series, completely new, with a more adult tone, that will act as a "spin-off" of the fan favorite show Danny Phantom.

"The Fairly OddParents: A New Wish, has shown us that there is a great interest in the reboot of similar stories, but with completely new protagonists" said Brian Robbins, President and Chief Executive Officer of Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon "A new animated renaissance is about to begin. Other companies, like Disney, seem to be giving up on the idea, with countless live-action remakes. We, on the other hand, want to give fans what they want: cartoons. We are already focusing on two new series, made by fans for fans, and they will be absolutely fantastic".

[dannyphantomscience]

Phantom has a power he refuses to use in front of any other hero.

Not because it's too powerful or anything like that.

No.

No, because while he can't hear it, apparently Ghostly Wail sounds like the screams of loved ones dying. It's his death scream, but it distorts when others hear it.

Instead of him, they hear their loved ones.

So no, he's not hiding it because of an 'Oh the darkness inside of me you wouldn't understand, this pain I bear' middle schooler syndrome thing, he's hiding it because that's really, really fucked up.

Until one day, he and another hero are in a trap.

The villain has accounted for everything, all of their powers or gadgets, except the Wail.

So.

Danny turns, looks at the other hero, and gives him an apologetic look.

Then, he turns to the villain, and lets out the Wail.

[dannyphantomscience]

[Image ID: A very confused, and slightly horrified looking Danny Phantom holds the Little Baby Man version of himself that is hugging his hand and purring. /. End ID]

So here's a fun thought: Consider a situation in which LBM is NOT, in fact, a tiny Danny, but a mimic blob ghost that has adopted his image as a form of Batesian self defense. Then imagine Danny's reaction to seeing some fucked up little uncanny valley cat version of himself with zero warning or context.

Per Wikipedia: "Batesian mimicry is a form of mimicry where a harmless species has evolved to imitate the warning signals of a harmful species directed at a predator of them both."

[dannyphantomscience]

What do blob ghosts do?

Blob ghosts as filter feeders or cleaners of the Zone is a common trope.

But what does that mean? Like, ecologically speaking.

What are the impurities they’re filtering out, and what do they do with them?

The idea of ectoplasm “going rancid” over time sometimes appears in DP x DC fics as an explanation for Lazarus Water, but what does that actually imply?

Would it mean ectoplasm just generally breaks down with time and the blob ghosts repair it somehow?

But if we assume that the cleaned ecto can now be used by ghosts again, then doesn’t that imply that the blob ghosts are spending energy to do that (since they’re returning it to a state with stored potential energy other ghosts can then consume)? If that is the case, what’s the source of their energy?

Or maybe the impurities are something actually mixed into the ectoplasm. I can think of two possibilities - “pollution” from the emotions people give off or material from the living world. If that’s the case, the blob ghosts would just be improving the ectoplasm by separating the substances. There’s no “supplying energy” problem since they could spend some of that ectoplasm’s energy in the process and still excrete the rest in a more usable state.

This also then raises the peripheral question of “what happens when they’re exposed to that substance in other situations?”

Like if they drain emotions, that would be helpful with cases of festering emotions, but it would be harmful in other situations from the exact same process - taking away the healthy emotions and leaving someone depressed/numb.

Or with the material from the living realm option, what happens if they enter the living realm where the material is everywhere but ectoplasm is scare? Could they physically even take it in without enough ectoplasm present? If they can take it in, would the process damage whatever it is they’re munching on or would it be left unharmed? If it does damage it, how much destruction would they leave behind? Also, would the high concentration of living realm material become lethally toxic over time as they take in too much?

Also, what happens to the stuff they’ve filtered out? If it’s emotions I could easily see it just kinda dissipating or being digested, but what about material from the physical world? If it’s bad for ghosts, they probably can’t just let it build up inside them forever, right?

So do they excrete it as a waste product? What happens to it then? If they’re just releasing particles of the material out into the Zone, could it build up later and cause further effects? What would those effects be? Or maybe they bind the material into a more stable state that won’t harm other ghosts - but again, what happens to it after? Does it have any unique effects that influence the Zone’s environments? Can the material eventually make its way back to the living world?

Or maybe they genuinely can digest the material, having a special metabolic system that allows them to turn it into ectoplasm. If so, that might have implications for the relationship between worlds; it’d mean material from the living realm(s) actually supplies at least some of the ectoplasm in the Ghost Zone. Which actually could make thematic sense cosmologically - the state of heat death when all the usable energy in a universe is expended would potentially involve all material having moved to the Ghost Zone, the universe itself joining the realm of the dead.

…Heck, what even is ectoplasm????

[dannyphantomscience]

Here’s a codex for the ancient ghost language used in A GLITCH IN TIME!

Not necessary for understanding the story, but could make for a fun re-read. 👁️🔎

[dannyphantomscience]

Do ghosts have any holidays?

The festivities of the Ghost Zone are countless and of various nature. Some of them are exclusively local, each area having its own culture (which sometimes is a mirror of a corresponding human ethno-geographical area, with which a continuous exchange of information occurs, thanks to magical nodes and possible artificial portals), but there are some events that tend to be celebrated more extensively.

Due to the nature of the ghosts, it can happen that the festivities of the Ghost Zone make no sense to those who live on the material plane, appearing violent or in general of questionable taste.

+ Most important dates +

November 1-2: placed immediately after Halloween (which is the first day in which the "veil" that separates the spirits from the Material World becomes momentarily more permeable) the "feast of the dead" is one of the most important moments of the Ghost Zone culture. Halloween is a holiday for the nobles (the overlords or feudal lords, together with the major spirits), but the people mainly celebrate the night between the first and the second day of November: the reason why Halloween is not chosen as an official holiday is because the "first day belongs to the first", that is, the strongest spirits, those who usually have specific reasons to visit the material plane, have the right of passage. Some spirits bring small gifts to children, others join in the celebrations of humans, consuming food together with them (even if not all lemures are able to digest them, they are however able to taste them), others still indulge in wild dances. The celebrations take place simultaneously in the Ghost Zone and in the Material World, where festivals are organized in which the sky is "opened" like a screen, to observe the Moon and the stars as humans see them, an observation accompanied by music and banquets (often organized by a feudal lord).

Fifteenth day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar: The Chinese celebrate the so-called “Hungry Ghosts Festival” (which in Chinese is known by different names: zhōngyuánjié中元节, guǐjié鬼节 or yúlánpénjié盂兰盆节 for the Buddhist translation) , while the ghosts celebrate the “Generous Chinese People” festival. Popular Chinese belief says that on this night the spirits of ancestors return to Earth to visit them, and that being hungry after a long journey, it is necessary to feed them; furthermore, the ritual burning of papier-mâché objects that reproduce material goods of common use takes place, in the hope that they can be used in the afterlife by loved ones. The spirits of the Ghost Zone do not consume the food that is offered to the deceased, but, unexpectedly, the heat from the combustion of papier-mâché objects, as well as sometimes sakè. Also, this is a time considered "supernatural" for the spirits: many of them swear that they have actually seen the ancestors of humans, which is why there is a stigma around tasting the food left as an offering, because it might belong to someone else. Have you ever seen a ghost who is afraid of ghosts? During the Festival of the Generous Chinese People, it might happen!

Birthday of the Ghost Monarch: date determined, of course, by the birthday of the person wearing the Ghost Crown at that time. The spirits are forced, often against their will, to celebrate another year of their ruler's life, participating in parades in which the banners of the monarch's "house" are waved, chants, ritual battles and heart-rending screams (which, although strange for people of flesh, are almost always very welcome to ghosts in positions of power).

August 31st: the Baby Ghost Festival is celebrated, a time when all the inhabitants of a phantomhive hunt down paralarvae, newborn or slightly larger spirits, with the aim of predicting the future from the first larva that is captured. The first adult spirit that captures a paralarva is rewarded and crowned "seer" for a day, then the characteristics of the paralarva will be analyzed (through criteria such as color, size, mobility and type of core) to determine what will happen. Sometimes the parents of the paralarva in question are annoyed by the fact that their baby has been scared, and this can lead to uncontrolled fights between the "seer" and the parents of the baby, often accompanied by the howls of the fans, who think they can get further details about the future from the outcome of the fight.

Independence Day: of extremely variable date, it represents the first day of a period of sleep of the Phantom Monarch, since sometimes these entities can sleep (not always naturally, but often induced) for very long periods of time. Independence Day is one of the most important among the various international celebrations and is celebrated with public speeches, songs and fireworks.

Of course there are many other small festival and holidays, but they're limited to phantomhives and there are too many to talk about in a single post!

All the ghost worldbuilding posts!

The “Ask us about ghost worldbuilding” post

Our ask is open

[dannyphantomscience]

Question: What if Vlad was the Ghost King?

This is a really interesting question!

It's interesting to note how most fans focus on alternate universes where Danny Fenton/Phantom becomes the king of the ghosts, when in the canon version of the series it is Vlad, at some point, who possesses the objects of power... and having the Crown of fire and the Ring of rage, in theory he has infinite power. Considering that at the time Fright Night is in his service, Vlad has access to the entire triptych of the objects of power, the ring, the sword and the crown, three things that historically carry enormous symbolic value.

On top of that, Vlad owns also the Skeleton Key, that can unlock any door, realm, case, or prison, even allow access to any realm in the Ghost Zone.

Isn't that enough, to be near-omnipotent?

And despite all this, Vlad never uses the Crown and the Ring at the same time, refusing in a certain sense to become the Ghost King. He does not allow himself to be corrupted by infinite power, because that is not his goal. (As usual, in our analysis we leave out the third season, because there the characters' motives appear too fundamentally altered and unrecognizable. We have an explanation for this too, but it will come in its time!).

Within the series, this is left as an open question, never answered: Vlad could indeed become the King of the Ghosts, but we are never shown the objects of power again after Reign Storm (only once, briefly, in the graphic novel "A Glitch in Time", but in an inconsequential way. Vlad continues to possess those objects, but it is clear that he does not use them directly to acquire power, but rather to seek something else).

So, asking "What if Vlad was the Ghost King?" is... pretty normal. A rather natural consequence of what we have been shown.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that we don’t find it interesting how other fans give this role, that of the king, to Danny Fenton/Phantom: every interpretation is completely subjective and we like to explore every possibility. All this is just a preamble to the real answer, of course: what if Vlad wore the symbols of power? What if Vlad, as you asked, decided to become the King of the Ghosts?

Because that's what it comes down to: his choice to accept that power.

At this point, many things could happen... but we will decide to analyze one path in particular: that of power which, combined with the sadness of an abandoned man, corrupts him.

But let's start from the beginning, shall we?

What does it mean to become a Ghost King?

+ Origins +

The Ghost Zone originates from the remains of the Fallen Ancients, enormous living creatures that were once part of the material plane, but during a fracture of reality descended into a completely empty dimension. The decomposition of their magical bodies created an entire ecto-ecosystem, with a unique spiritual imprint, which quickly gave rise to sentient entities.

One of the first entities born in this way, around the time the first phantomhives were formed, decided to create magical objects that would allow it to control the power of these Ancients, much like mages on the material plane sometimes do with the bones of great magical creatures, which contain a portion of the power of when that creature was alive.

The entity in question, whose identity is debated, is often referred to in texts simply as "Blacksmith".

The Blacksmith did not know that everything within the Ghost Zone originated from the remains of the Fallen Ancients, so they could not have foreseen that these magical objects they had created would not only be of unheard-of power, but also capable of controlling every single being within their plane of reality, be they living or non-living. Possessing the Crown, Ring, and Sword at the same time grants any spirit immediate and total dominion over the entire Ghost Zone.

+ Role +

Among the spirits, a Ghost King is neither essential nor particularly welcome: it is a role created by mistake, directly from the ancient relics, and is not necessary in any way to the functioning of the Ghost Zone.

Long periods of time can pass between one "coronation" and another, mainly because the spirits tend to hide the relics, or to guard them, to prevent other individuals from using the power. There are some "legends" that speak of how the role of a Ghost King makes sense and is necessary to maintain order, but this is mere monarchist and totalitarian propaganda, usually commissioned by other Kings in order to give a semblance of reason to their power and to keep them under control.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to destroy the relics, both because of their robustness and because of their deep energetic connection with the Ghost Zone, which would risk causing enormous cataclysms, and the possible destruction of the entire phantom ecosystem if they were shattered to pieces, so there will always be Ghost Kings.

Vlad as a Ghost King: how it happened?

(Aka, what if Vlad was a REAL villain? What if he chose the bad path?)

Having the relics is not enough to be the King, you also need to wear them. The Crown of Fire and the Ring of Rage, in particular, need to be used in synergy, amplifying each other's strength, and this is a problem, because wearing the Ring means entering a state of continuous fury, where the individual has no other choice than to pursue a goal in any way, even with extreme violence; Vlad is therefore reluctant to use the relics as they were designed and tries to channel their power in other ways, without much success.

Vlad gives in after a cruel prank: the Fentons' daughter, Jasmine, spends the afternoon with him, giving him the hope of some friendship and human contact, only to reveal that she actually wants to capture him, having discovered thanks to Danny that he is a half human and half ghost (very similar to what happens in 211. "Secret Weapons").

Jasmine wears the ectoskelenton suit, controlled through a neural interface, that allows her to fight on equal terms with him, and to easily overcome this obstacle, Vlad decides to wear the Ring and the Crown.

Once he becomes the Ghost King, unable to control his new and boundless power, Vlad kills Jasmine with a single shot, causing her and the suit to explode.

At first he despairs, for having taken the life of someone so young, but soon he realizes that he is relieved to have gotten rid of her and also a little proud of himself for having managed to overcome the fear (which he defines as "mortal") of killing someone.

The power begins to fill his head with unhealthy ideas and killing (or dominating) those who dared to harm him in the past becomes an obsession with an easily achievable resolution. In a single night, he kills Jack in his bed and kidnaps Maddie, but luckily for Danny, the boy is not at home: he is at a party with two of his friends, Sam and Tucker.

Vlad reaches him, swollen with pride, with his hands still stained with blood and the crown that is burning on his head, and reveals to him that he killed his parents, voluntarily omitting that he only kidnapped Maddie. Danny begs him to spare him, promising him that he would become a diligent student if he survived.

Vlad has no desire to become Danny's mentor, but now only to take his life. In front of him, he kills Tucker without any remorse, strangling him. Danny, to distract the killer and prevent him from doing the same to Sam, insults him, challenges him and starts to run away. Vlad orders a bloodhunt on him: now every spirit in the world, among those who answer to his orders, will try at every moment to capture the fleeing boy. Danny will run away relentlessly for five years, while all the spirits in the world chase him.

+ The Man and the Demon +

Being an halfa, Vlad is an extremely anomalous Ghost King, possessing a human side in addition to his ghost self: the Crown and Ring only feed the latter, making him extremely unbalanced.

His ghost, huge and aggressive, is considerably more capable of taking control of his flesh body, as well as detaching itself from it for long periods of time. Vlad's human side still has some restraint and does not want the harm they are inflicting on others to be so extreme, but the more time passes, the more the ghost side of him, obsessed with power, is able to subjugate him.

Human Vlad had an infatuation for Maddie, a completely normal thing towards the only woman who has ever shown to understand him and who shares interests and passions with him.

After becoming the Ghost King, and realizing that he can achieve anything through force, Vlad captured Maddie and locked her in a cage, where he thinks he can break her will and force her to love him. The woman does not seem to submit to his will in the least, and insults him with sagacity and malice whenever she can, especially when he is in front of an audience.

Vlad continues now to keep her prisoner, not for love, but as punishment: over time, living close to her, he has learned to detest her, but he does not want to let her win and will never release her voluntarily.

+ Powers +

A Ghost King has near-absolute control over everything around them when they are in the Ghost Zone.

Some of the most notable powers of a Ghost King include:

Extended Teleportation: In addition to transporting their body to other places, breaking down their ectoplasm and reassembling it at will in almost any part of their realm, a Ghost King can also transport any other creature/object native to the Ghost Zone;

Supernatural Stamina: A King can sustain prolonged efforts, well beyond human limits, such as running for several days without ever having to stop or without eating. The true limit of this resistance is unknown, as the King's organism is entirely sustained by absorbing the Ghost Zone's energy, therefore it is thought that exhausting his energy is equivalent to mortally draining every single spirit in his realm of all strength;

Summoning: already personally knowing the creature he wants to summon, a Ghost King can summon it almost instantly to any part of its realm, without necessarily using magical sigils or standard summons, but only by pronouncing the name of the entity. This power does not extend to beings that were born outside the realm;

Mind Control: A King can control, as if it were a puppet, the actions of any spirit to which he has affixed the Fire Mark, regardless of the origin of the spirit itself. Unlike other forms of mind control, that imposed by a Ghost King is total and can even force an individual to perform actions that harm their physical and mental safety, to the point of suicide;

Blood Hunt: One of the most iconic powers of a Ghost King is the ability to designate a victim that each "subject" must try to kill on sight. Whoever the designated victim is in a Blood Hunt, they will be chased everywhere by hordes of spirits who crave their blood and who, sooner or later, will surely capture and kill them by any means at their disposal.

We hope that you liked our interpretation! And if you want to know more, feel free to ask ;)

(On an interesting note... it seems like your question is absolutely timely, because right now we're thinking about writing something where the main antagonist is a Ghost King Vlad. Two of the drawings related to this answer are from the early stages of the project, they're concept art! And it's cool that we got to use them for something else, too. The last drawing was done just for this specific ask :D )

All the ghost worldbuilding posts!

The “Ask us about ghost worldbuilding” post

Our ask is open

[dannyphantomscience]

Headcanon regarding halfa rings:

The rings that appear when a halfa transforms aren’t a natural part of the transformation. It’s a sort of learned defence mechanism that makes the change between human and ghost faster and easier.

Every half ghost has the ability to create the transformation rings, but none of them start out with the ability to summon them. It’s one of the only abilities that a half ghost is guaranteed to learn, because if they don’t learn it by themselves, their core will figure it out for the halfa’s own safety.

It’s possible to transform without the rings, and this is usually how half ghosts transform for the first few weeks after their half-death until the rings become an option.

Transforming without the rings is possible, but a very different process. The entire process takes about a minute and that minute is almost as painful as the halfa’s original death and horrifying to watch.

Using Danny as an example, if he tried to transform without the rings (and he was forced to multiple times for a little while after the accident), first, he would suddenly feel all of his organs stop. He would suddenly be unable to breathe properly as his human body stops working and his core slowly activates. His organs are still working and he’s not in any danger, he can still breathe (barely), but he does have to experience it. Then, parts of his body would start turning into ectoplasm, originating from a few different points across his body and spreading from there, which isn’t a pleasant sensation. As that happens, his entire body shifts and twists in unnatural ways until his body resembles his ghost form, which is a few inches taller and has a different body shape, causing even more pain, and as all of that happens, his now active ice core is rapidly cooling his entire body, meaning that any area that’s turning into ectoplasm hurts from the transformation and any area that is still human begins suffering from frostbite.

When going from ghost to human without the rings, Danny feels the same things, but opposite. A sudden feeling of extreme weakness as his core deactivates, burning pain as ectoplasm becomes flesh and his ghost body going through heatstroke as the ice core that keeps his body cool shuts down. The only thing that’s better is his body contorting itself back into the shape of Danny Fenton, since his ghost form is much more flexible than his human form. Still hurts though.

The rings help keep the transformation stable, quick and remove the pain of transforming. There’s still a weird, unnatural feeling when you transform, but it doesn’t hurt like a ringless transformation.

[dannyphantomscience]

I have an idea and idk if its been done before: what if “halfa” didn’t mean half-ghost? What it if meant two obsessions? Stuck between both?

Danny with space and protection.

Vlad with family and power.

I don’t know if Danielle would count in full as the other ghosts never actually call her a “halfa” to my memory and I feel like hers would boil down to “freedom” or “independence.” (Maybe freedom and survival?)

The transformation we see is not a transformation of alive-dead state.

Fenton is space. Phantom is protection.

Vlad is family. Plasmius is power.

They are dead. Fully dead. Both had extreme wants and dreams.

Danny’s dream was to be an astronaut, but he died focusing on wanting no one to ever go through what he did.

Vlad wanted so badly to start a family with Maddie, but as he died he only thought about power and what he’d do with it to get back at them.

Two strong things at once in each of them opposing each other as they formed giving them both the ability to go between the two.

If you look at the differences between their “ghost” and “human” forms, you’ll notice huge discrepancies. The ghost forms of both are of a healthy body type, strong. They’re the obsessions they constantly “feed”. If you look at their “human” form, they’re much weaker looking. Smaller. They’re both sadder in these forms. The ones they no longer feed into.

Because of the “lack of feeding,” these forms will not gain powers until they are fed into. It’s why they seem human and use the least amount of powers in this form. But they still have access to the baseline ghost powers.

[dannyphantomscience]

My biggest disappointment with Danny Phantom is that they didn’t lean into the ghostliness more

Like, it just feels like ghosts should be a little spooky. They should be doing some haunted house stuff, rattling windows and slamming doors. Give me flickering lights, give me some poltergeist shit. Give me ouija boards and seances and psychics and witchcraft. Give me spooky legends about the ghosts.

You know how many ghosts have legends attached to them? 2, fright knight and Poindexter. You could maybe count pariah dark but that’s told by ghosts

I love Danny Phantom but the missed out a bit but not leaning more into the ghost aspect

[dannyphantomscience]

Nesuferitul

So, we’ve gotten to the part in Dracula Daily where Bram Stoker starts throwing around the word nosferatu. Stoker got the word from Emily Gerard, who mentions it in her works on Transylvanian superstitions which Stoker used for research, where she makes it out to be the Romanian word for vampire. In this she is backed up by German writer Wilhelm Schmidt, who also treated it as the Romanian word for vampire. The word “vampire”, by the way, came to English from French, to French from German, and to German via Hungarian from the Slavic languages. Romanian is not a Slavic language, but a Romance language, as you might guess from the name. Thing is, there is no such word as “nosferatu” in Romanian. However, other German writers like Heinrich von Wlislocki treat “nosferatu” or “der Nosferat” as a Romanian word, so researchers who have gone down rabbit holes trying to derive it from the Greek for “diseased” or the Latin for “not breathing” or some Slavic basis are, quite frankly, barking up the wrong tree. Instead, it’s way more likely that “nosferatu” is a Germanicization of a Romanian word before Romanian spelling was standardized, which it wasn’t even in the late nineteenth century. The Romanian word “nesuferit” literally means “insufferable”. The prefix “ne” indicates the negative, the root “suferi” means “suffer.” However in practice nesuferit doesn’t mean “insufferable” as in “oh, that annoying man is insufferable”. Instead the meaning is much more in the sense of unbearable, offensive, horrible, diseased. It’s a word used to mean “unclean” in a taboo way. To talk about an “unclean spirit” means to talk about an incubus or succubus, something that draws your strength or poisons your soul through sex. Now, the nominative masculine definite form of a Romanian noun adds the suffix -ul. We see this with Vlad II Dracul. Dracul means “The Dragon” with the “the” also communicating male. The addition of “-ea” to “Dracul” as in Vlad III Draculea gets us “Son of the Dragon.” So, something is “nesuferit” if it is horrid or unclean or unbearable, thus “nesuferitul” is “The Horrid One”, etc. It’s male and it’s a thing and it’s awful. Nesuferitul is an incubus, a male demon that impregnates its victim. The child of a nesuferitul and its victim is born a moroi, a kind of living vampire born (un)dead. Meanwhile, a person who committed some great sin or buried in unhallowed ground or without rites would come back from the dead a strigoi, to feed on the living. Nesuferitul was transliterated into German as Nosferatu, where it was assumed to be the Romanian word for vampire, but is in fact an incubus. From there it found its way to Bram Stoker, who took it to mean undead. “The Undead” in Romanian would literally be “nemortul”, by the way. Moroi means something like “the nightmarish one”, while strigoi means something like “the screaming one”, and is cognate with terms derived from Latin “strix” or “striga”, which became the root for “witch” in many Romance languages. Interestingly, the Slavic root origin of vampire is also thought to come from a word originally indicating a witch. Anyways, there you are. “Nosferatu” is not a “real” word, at least, not a real Romanian word, and certainly not the Romanian word for a vampire. But don’t go too hard on Bram Stoker, he was only as good as his sources. This was a hundred years before online search engines, after all.

[dannyphantomscience]

Headcanon that I haven’t really seen anywhere: If a halfa were to have their core destroyed and survived, they’d start regrowing a new one, because their DNA is still ghostly, their half-ghost metabolism still allocates for energy to go into a core.

Ghosts that learn of this ability tend to get creeped out, because it’s like regrowing your brain essentially.

[dannyphantomscience]

[Other.]

[dannyphantomscience]

What do ghost cities look like

Ghost cities you say? Today we talk about...

Phantomhives

Ghost hives (also called phantomhives) are large, stable settlements of gregarious ghosts, generally forming around a feudal lord (or "overlord"). Often they don't look at all like human cities, because ghost dwellings require much less external space than human dwellings, developing within dimensional pockets that leave only part of the structure protruding (often just the door), and therefore can be "compressed" into less space.

Formation

Ghosts are normally territorial creatures and interaction with others is typically centered on the relationship with the territory. However, ghosts are not solely solitary: depending on the space and resources available, they can form social structures ranging from a small group of ghosts (rarely related to each other, more often in collaborative relationships) to large and dense groups in an urban environment.

This second category of aggregation gives rise to phantomhives. However, for the formation of a large and dense group of ghosts, it is necessary for there to be someone with the role of a powerful aggregator: this figure is known as a feudal lord or overlord.

The overlords are very powerful ghosts, with an extended aura, capable with their presence of changing the physical characteristics of the area of residence, for example by raising the temperature and attracting small ghosts which will feed on the residues of their aura and which will form the basis of the feeding of the ghost colony; they also have other important roles, such as protecting the territory from attacks by large predators, other possible overlords, and often nourish the paralarvae that would otherwise be left to themselves.

The very presence of an overlord favors the reproduction of "subject" ghosts in his territory and thus gives rise to more densely populated areas.

Geography and structure

Each phantomhive seems to be regulated according to a specific set of rules, mostly independent of the influence of communities external to it: although in the past some form of ghost government seems to have existed, modern settlements are self-regulating and have specific laws, as well as unique structures often dictated by the overlord who reigns over them.

An example of an overlord is Walker, with his prison: he is the feudal lord and his "policemen" are the subject spirits. The massive penitentiary in which they live is the phantomhive, created according to Walker's personal tastes.

Ghost chambers are small dimensional pockets, much larger on the inside than on the outside, sometimes visible only as a door/entrance, and are called ghost lairs or simply "lairs".

The exterior of the accommodation, depending on taste, can be bare or richly decorated.

The housing agglomeration appears different depending on the growth arrangement:

Chaotic: occurs when the hive develops as a conglomerate of irregularly sized ghost lairs, growing and connecting through channels and roads that seemingly make no logical sense. The chaotic cluster is the most common type of phantomhive.

Axial (or linear): occurs when the hive develops along a "road", a sort of corridor that connects all the accommodations, and takes on a long, narrow shape. They are, although rarely, also called "Western hives", due to the resemblance to the old US towns.

Grid (or checkerboard): occurs when the hive develops with regular conglomerates of ghost lairs with equally regular shapes, interspersed with escape routes. This pattern can have many variations including rectangular meshes, triangular meshes, parallel streets, hexagonal meshes.

Radial: occurs when many roads converge at a central point, often the result of successive growths over a long period of time. The hive develops around a central square surrounded by concentric canals or streets, where each expansion of the city implies a new circle.

All the ghost worldbuilding posts!

The “Ask us about ghost worldbuilding” post

Our ask is open!

[dannyphantomscience]

probably shitty worldbuilding idea: fantasy world that keeps going

[dannyphantomscience]

Hey hi :3 ghost worldbuilding enthusiast here, I would love to hear what you have on the ways ghost interact with different types of light and sound waves, if you have any ideas about that of course, feel free to ignore my weird curiosity ;D

Hey, hi! You asked a complicated question. We love complicated questions! In order to answer to this, we had to figure out how ectoplasm works. And to figure that out, we had to understand what is actually ectoplasm.

It was a nice trip in physics (and sci-fi), that helped us defining better the nature of ectocreatures.

So, today, we'll dive into the world of sound and light (with the help of our blobby ghostie, Ex Novo!).

Interactions with sound

Uncoded ectoplasm

Uncoded ectoplasm tends not to react to sound waves in any way.

The sound wave does not transport matter, because the molecules remain where they are; instead it transports energy, that is the ability to set molecules in motion, making them vibrate up and down.

However, ectoplasm has an internal strength generally greater than that of sound waves: with highly mobile electrons, detached from their nuclei, whizzing at high speed and with very high motility within the material, ectoplasm is unpenetrable from "low" vibrations! The sound waves will therefore pass through the ectoplasm, if it has a low ionization, or will slide around it, if the ionization is high.

Uncoded ectoplasm, while not interacting with the sound waves around it, can actually make sounds! When hit with enough force (for example with a laser), the ectoplasm moves rapidly from regions of high density to more stagnant areas, those of lower density. The ectoplasm, which thickens in the transition zone between the regions of low and high density, generates a series of pressure pulses, i.e. sound waves.

With a frequency close to one trillion Hertz, the sound that is generated reaches the highest possible frequency for this type of material, approximately 6 million times higher than what can be heard by mammals. It is therefore impossible for a human being to hear the sound produced naturally by non-codified ectoplasm, since it only produces sounds with a frequency higher than 20,000 hertz, i.e. ultrasound, a category of sounds not perceptible to the human ear.

Coded ectoplasm

Spirits can communicate despite being composed of ectoplasm, simply by using electrical micro-discharges coming directly from their core: this is because plasma is mainly composed of ions that have their own mass and density. Since the density of the plasma is different from that of the cold air surrounding the discharge, by managing to modulate the power of the discharge, it is possible to move the boundary front between cold air and plasma.

By virtue of the difference in density, the movement of the air-plasma boundary causes a movement of the air itself and, consequently, the pressure waves responsible for the diffusion of sound originate.

In addition to being able to produce sounds, spirits can also interact with them, for example with the simple act of perceiving sound (hearing). This is because the core is able, by modifying the density of a specific area (such as the eardrums), to create structures capable of vibrating when hit by a sound wave.

Interactions with light

Uncoded ectoplasm

The brightness of the non-coded ectoplasm is a good indicator of the time that has passed since its detachment from a living entity: the thin layer of phosphorus that covers it naturally tends to wear out if not renewed by the biological processes of the coded ectoplasm.

Uncoded ectoplasm also tends to have, over time, lower densities, which allow light to pass through transparently. Due to the internal excitation of the particles, the non-codified ectoplasm will still tend to emit some light, although it does not have the typical phosphorescent light: the "younger" one will have a more intense brightness, similar to that of a light bulb, while the "older" one, which has lost its viscosity, will appear noticeably duller and more transparent.

Coded ectoplasm

The coded ectoplasm is always covered with a thin layer of phosphorus, an element involved in the vital functions of all known life forms. Just like in humans, phosphorus accounts for approximately 1% of the body's weight.

Due to its very high reactivity, phosphorus is the ideal substance for covering a body with ectoplasm, supporting it to interact with the outside world, and it is precisely because of this thin layer, which is continuously hit by the plasma ions (as happens in a plasma television), that ectoplasm bodies are always surrounded by a luminous halo.

This phenomenon is called phosphorescence.

Invisibility

Spirits incarnated in an ectoplasmic body are capable of making their presence invisible to both humans and ghosts, and even to photoscanning devices (such as cameras); this occurs thanks to the controlled production of plasmons.

The plasmon is a quantum of plasma oscillations, that is, a quasiparticle resulting from the quantization of plasma oscillations, halfway between magnetic waves and particles. In particular, ectoplasmic entities exploit surface plasmons, i.e. plasmons localized near the surface of a solid, normally used (by humans) for the production of metamaterials.

Surface plasmons allow light to flow around an object, making it perfectly invisible.

Incarnated spirits also have the ability to make other people and objects invisible as long as they are in physical contact with them, extending their plasmon field.

Trivia

A luminous ectoplasm, in otpoelectronics, is also called a "phosphor", because they work like regular phosphors, by emitting light through their phosphorus coating properties!

Being covered in white phosphorus, the outer layer of the ectoplasmic bodies is poisonous to humans. Don't eat ghosts, kids!

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And that's roughly what we think about how ghosts interact with light and sound! We hope it was enough, but... if you have any other question, maybe more specific... we would gladly, with joy, answer it!

And of course this applies to all of you! Help us build our lore with your questions!

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