A.N. This was originally intended as just a short note at the end of one of my story What Unusual halflives we lead, however once I got started I just had to continue. This is the accumulation of was originally a few brief sentences, these things just happen, and you don't need to read it.

I'm not sure if the idea of having different types of ghosts and spirits has been done before I have read so many fics it get hard to remember everything, and there's so many it has probably been done before. If it has I apologise no copyright intended. Message me and shout at me if this applies to you!

~~~I thought a lot about Vlad's ghost staff for my story. I mean in the episodes when Danny goes into the Ghost Zone there are just weird ordinary looking ghosts that don't really have a personality and just float there all…greeny and ghosty, so I wanted to add to this idea. I wrote it down and everything.

"Professor history101's class of my personal explanation of spiritual and ghostly energies in all its forms is now in session…so sit down and shut it!"

# Lesson 1; What Makes a Ghost?

Ghosts are beings that began as humans and remain as echoes from a particular wish or desire. They have no formal collective society and maintain a general 'die and let die' attitude. They can form alliances and…perhaps friendships but overall most prefer their solitude. This is why each ghost has his or her own territory within the Ghost Zone, which acts as a home.

They have been around for roughly as long as humans, so around 50,000 years ago when humans reached full behavioural modernity (when homospaiens developed primitive language and recognisable thought processes that we'd identify with today,) Ghosts began to emerge. Their powers originate from ectoplasm and they manipulate this for both their stability and attacks.

# Lesson 2; Full Ghosts.

Now we have the major characters like Ember and Skulker and Walker, (etc) I can only assume they were human at one point, although how Skulker ended up as a frog in a suit is beyond me…maybe I'll attempt to explain it later…anyway. I decided that there was no better explanation than this…at some point in history they were human and, shocker, they died. They take on a ghostly form because of a fear of 'passing on' for good, and assume the image of a particularly strong interest or obsession. So for Ember it was music, for Skulker; hunting…you get the idea.

They visit the 'human world' because of its familiarity and a general desire to wreak havoc on its inhabitants. (LOL) They don't need either food or sleep, but often choose to eat during the Christmas celebration, because it's fun!

# Lesson 3; Lesser Ghosts / Spectrals.

This is the category in which Vlad's staff and the greeny guys floating round in the Zone come under. They have the emotions and individuality which Spirits tend to lack, but take on a weak spectral form which reflects their lesser power. They can chose to reflect human form and visit the human world not to wreak havoc, like Full Ghosts, but to try to remember wht it was like to be human. They remember nothing about their human lives and have to choose new name when they become Spectrals.

So the ones in Vlad's employment, for instance, work in the human world by choice. They are very common and it is often difficult to tell aSpectral from a Human if they choose to hide. They have few powers, besides weak shape shifting, they possess the usual flight, invisibility, intangibility and weak ecto-blasts and shields.

# Lesson 4; Governing / Collective Ghosts.

So, we have the most dominant Ghost; The Ghost King Pariah Dark. Who at this present time is locked away in his sarcophagus, kicking and screaming and cursing at the world ;) The best way to describe how I see him would have to be a gathering of numerous individual 'Full' Ghostsand Spectrals to create one really strong kick ass king.

So long before you, before me, before many of us, all these ghosts got clustered together, kind of like the earth did during the Big Bang, and the one with the strongest will gives it a voice and personality. With enough power to control the Crown of Fire and the Ring of Rage and rule the Ghost Zone, mwah ha ha!

# Lesson 5; Half Ghost / Half Human hybrids.

Now, as we all know Vladimir Masters and Danny Fenton are the only hybrids in existence. When threatened with death, the Ectoplasm that created the electrical attacks altered their DNA in order to keep the body alive - post electrocution. They are capable of manipulating this power when in either form and it gives them fast healing abilities. Because they retain their human half they require food and sleep, but less than other humans due to the durability of their ghostly DNA

(Danielle is a clone, so technically she is classed as a hybrid, just not a 'natural' one)

# Lesson 6; What Makes a Spirit?

When the earth was new and largely uninhabitable, Spirits existed as a residual type of energy left from the formation of the planet. They developed as separate from the single cell life that would come to evolve and dominate the planet, and formed in clusters of intellectual beings with little sentient and emotion. They have a collective conscious and distance themselves from the world.

Rather than ghostly Ectoplasm their powers are derived from Equaplasym (Lol, my ingenuity is astounding; a combination of several elements and a 'y' in '-plasm') which, though it takes on a similar green colour to Ectoplasm is stronger and easier to manipulate than its ghostly counterpart.

# Lesson 7; Spirits / Entities.

The first instances of such Spirits are the Ancients; an innumerable number of them existed thousands of years ago, now their whereabouts are unknown. They possess a collective conscious and take the appearance of cloaked skeletal beings, highly intelligent and insentient they favour isolation. They possess powers similar to ghosts though in a more raw and potent form due to their age and origins. Their only known instance of their activity was the defeat of Pariah Dark in the Ghost Zone. They possess vast power and wisdom and are suspected to live within an unmapped area called the 'Dark Zone' deep within the Ghost Zone. Their existence is to the Ghosts what the 'Dark Ages' is to humans, a time of uncertainty and little understanding

However there are also the Observants, they choose a more involved state of being than Ancients and act as the 'police of the Ghost Zone.' They intervene in such instances that have a major impact on either the Ghost Zone or the Human World, as in the instance of Vortex or more seriously; Dark Phantom. Because of this I can only assume that they emanated after the Ancients, they arguably have more emotion than them and have no qualms about their own self-importance. Their powers are lesser than the Ancients as their interest lie in their cultural hierarchy, and they epitomise order and method in every respect.

# Lesson 7; Governing / Collective Spirits.

Clockwork is the only known instance of a collection of spirits, of both Ancients and Observants, forming one powerful being with a strong sense of obligation and a vast array of powers; such as time manipulation through to simple energy blasts and levitation.

He monitors the whole of the fabric of time thus he is different from a Governing / Collective Ghost because he shares their knowledge as he has shown that he is capable of sentiment and possesses far more power than many of them combined. He inhabits a realm separate called the 'Intemporel* Face' (*French for; timeless,) which is surrounded by floating clock faces and an ageless castle.

So now you know all there is to know about all the things that go bump in the night. :D

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Class Dismissed...