For there be divers sorts of death—some wherein the body remaineth; and in some it vanisheth quite away with the spirit. This commonly occurreth only in solitude (such is God’s will) and, none seeing the end, we say that man is lost, or gone on a long journey—which indeed he hath; but sometimes it hath happened in the sight of many, as abundant testimony showeth. In one kind of death the spirit also dieth, and this it hath been known to do while yet the body was in vigor for many years. Sometimes, as is veritably attested, it dieth with the body, but after a season is raised up again in that place where the body did decay.
- Hali, the Philosopher, from “Can Such Things Be?” By Ambrose Bierce
Yes. Depending on the fiction, if the ghost isn’t a soul but instead a psychic/spiritual remnant, both can happen and the soul can have gone to the afterlife too. You can do a lot with fiction.
Story pitch: Soul gets to leave hell for one night to convince someone to put down their zombie corpse so their ghost will demanifest and they can finally go to a better afterlife.
One of the characters in the “what we do in the shadows” show is a vampire whose ghost inhabits a doll.
This is essentially one* of the Kingdom Hearts plot threads. Sora sacrifices himself and becomes a Heartless (ghost) in KH1, but since he has such a strong heart, the husk he leaves behind becomes the Nobody Roxas (zombie).
Does it count if the ghost is bound to a suit of armour and the zombie is animated by some random lab animal’s soul…?
This honestly fits the prompt almost perfectly
Kingdom Hearts
Edit: looking at the other comments I’m glad I’m not the only one with that brainrot.
Running out of movie ideas? Just crowdsource from the public!
Yeah, that’s what they do now. Adaptations and remakes, Hollywood’s last resort.
Don’t forget straight up sequels to 30-year old movies. Nostalgia grabs.
“ooooveerrruuuulllleeeed”
/eats brains
Love this idea.
If the zombie’s body still has some link to the soul such that it could see and react to the ghost, they could make an extremely awkward yet dangerous team.
“Come over this way, buddy! Brains over here!”
“Brainsh?” Shuffle, shuffle.
“Yup, see?” The ghost points triumphantly at a hamster cage. “Lots of juicy little brains to eat!”
“Awww… Tired of mowsh brainsh! WANT HOOMAN BRAINSH!”
Zombie takes another vicious swipe at the ghost but finds only air.
“Why can no eat you brainsh again?”
“As I’ve explained all evening, I’m ethereal, not really here, sorry, friend. It’s mouse or nothing.”
The zombie’s shoulders slump in disappointment, but he turns to the hamster cage. The hamsters peer back, vaguely uneasy.
“C’mere cute liddle mowshes…”
Clang, squeak, munch, munch, munch.
There’s a Wattpad Novel, “Running with Scissor”, where the mc’s body and soul are separated by some sort of spell and he has to recover his body before midnight or the spell becomes permanent. It’s pretty good absurdist humour reminescent of The Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy.
Could a ghost possess a zombie created from its own body? Could this ghost-zombie hybrid, hypothetically, continue their career in law?
It’s called a Lich, isn’t it?
I knew lawyers had to be into some dark magic
In at least two campaigns I’ve been in, the wizards college’s law department was always on fire and smelled of burning sulfur. Apparently they just like it that way?
Both times we ended up down there to summon an Arch devil so they could properly word a Wish for us.
Szeth-son-son-Vallano, truthless of Shinovar, wore white on the day he was to become a magical flying ghost cop possessing his own corpse
I’d watch it.
Depends entirely on the limitations of the ghost’s possession ability, but if the ghost can possess a living person and control them, then an animated corpse should work as well. The problem with continuing the career is that the body would continue to decay until the ghost wouldn’t be able to move it any more.
The problem with continuing the career is that the body would continue to decay until the ghost wouldn’t be able to move it any more.
Just like a living body 🙁
Indeed, but much faster.
But lawyers have no soul
Devils are LE, and work with lawyers frequently enough that they manage to buy their souls rather frequently. They had souls, they just have probably sold their soul. The lawyer one should be terrified of isn’t the LE lawyer, it’s the CG lawyer
Dying is no excuse to stop working, after all.
If we’re going by What We Do in the Shadows the show rules, I guess so.
Literally just watched that episode yesterday.
Only if the person had multiple-personality disorder. You need at least one consciousness per entity.
Depends on the zombie type - if it’s raw instinct only, there is no higher level of consciousness required, right?
So your generic shambling, biting, non-speaking but still groaning zombie would work in this scenario I’d think.
Is a zombie considered conscious?
I’m putting this in my next D&D campaign
Aw man this would be a great quest! My table would love it lol
OG Nier took a slightly different twist on that. Mild spoilers ahead!
Somewhen in our lifetime the plague-like white virus destroyed human bodies turning them into ash, so there was a project of dividing the soul, the Gestalt, from the body, and then joining it with an autonomous Replicant android.
This project failed, and we, as a player, discover a curious consequence: Replicants conserved\built themselves a human-like society, the one we find ourself many replicant generations ago, not even knowing or caring if they are humans.
But at the same time these replicants are utterly afraid of catching a black scrawl - that’s when Gestalts-souls, traversing the ground as black spectral beings, sometimes even agressive, consume the replicant as it was designed to, covering them in dark patterns, and slowly turning them under control of these stray souls, some of them even vile and powerful like demons.
You as Nier and the Shadowlord, your arch nemesis, are a Replicant and a Gestalt of one person, fighting to keep your transforming sister on your own side, while two of your worlds inescapably collide and destroy each other.
That’s not the most dramatic reveal there, so you’d be fine playing it even after that.
Don’t understand.
They’re taking souls and putting them into androids.
You’re one of those androids
Your body got left behind and is still alive.
One of the villains (I’m assuming, I haven’t played Nier) is your soulless body
Not exactly.
A body is dying of a plague, so we pick the soul out and plan to put it into an android. We failed to put it, and now souls and androids are two different kins fighting each other. Androids are scared of souls overtaking them.
MC and MV are an android and a soul of one person.
Well I hope they can come to an understanding of some sort.
It was pretty confusing even when I explained it in my own language to my peers, so I won’t blame them or anyone if they can’t get the idea from my B1-tier English.
Replicants aren’t androids, they are just clones made using the DNA of the Gestalts. It’s also not ash they turn into, but rather salt. Some of these salt creatures stay alive to form the Legion who fight against what’s left of humanity.
You’re also completely off with what black scrawl is. Black scrawl is what happens when a gestalt relapses losing consciousness and becoming aggressive. This causes the genetic material the cloned replicant is made from to break down. Once a gestalt relapses it can no longer inhabit a replicant and will eventually die. The scientists and androids were trying to prevent relapse, that’s the entire fucking point of the original gestalt (Nier/Shadowlord).
Someone hasn’t actually read any of the law, because almost all of this is wrong.
Okay. You corrected me and then left two other replies like you are angry at me. For what?
Maybe because you left multiple incorrect comments?
Is it a reason to lose one’s shit in a general community?
That’s not what I did though? I am just responding to each comment. Sorry if that gets your panties in a twist
Three replies to my initial comments seemed rather hysterical. Keep it cool.
Yeah I get somewhat annoyed when people spread misinformation. It’s necessary to reply everwhere to make sure people see what is incorrect. You caused this mess bro, own up to it instead of being a pussy.
