Theory about Ghosts and how they might work

[thorondraco]

Some spoilers here and there about


Had a thought about ghosts and how they might work in paradox space, and maybe a bit of their purpose?

From what we can gather Ghosts are pretty much what they are in other media. They are dead peeps who have lost their physical body and are now dead. One of the biggest mysteries of the Ghosts is where they go when they actually die. We can presume that the furthest ring by design is not the actual afterlife in any capacity and is in fact the Horror terrors interfering. We never at any point see any ghosts of players from outside sessions and stories, nor do we see any ghost who isn't a player, even incarnations of players who simply didn't play the game like Jakey Harley, and nanna.

Another factor is that ghosts appear incapable of interacting with the physical world. They might in fact be visible to the naked eye, though perhaps not through technology as shown in sburb, or they might be invisible by default. A recent update of HS^2 brings up the fact that non of the ghosts that fell from the sky are able to interact with physical objects, even though they are quite present. Its possible the Dream bubbles are the only place they retain a physical body.
ARadia was not inconvenienced by this because she had telekinesis.

Another rule is that ghosts cannot die unless they face soemthing capable of killing the unkillable. Lord english's lasers, but another example could be weapons like Dave's sword. However we do not not know if the laser is truly destroying their soul or if it simply destroyed their bubble given bodies.

Another aspect to take into account may be that the players have a natural ability to astral project. When a player slept they woke up in a dream bubble as was able to physically interact with the world. They can even take object there with them back and forth as well. We of course have exapmles of the Rings, and Gamzee's ridiculous psuedo god tier outfit. Buuuuut perhaps we have another example with Ultimate dirk. Pesterquest spoilers.

In pesterquest Somehow, some way, Dirk was able to manifest in the story himself. He was there and not only that he was able to get his hands on a younger dirk for himself in one timeline. This might imply that the powre to astral project is a natural ability and Dirk has learned to apply this ability himself.... We don't know if his presence is physical at all but the ability to take objects back and forth still applies, including living beings. If we presume the abilities are linked. It did not seem to be retcon powers.
This might also explain how he got his hands on certain artifacts too.

But the biggest question is What is the purpose of a ghost? A thing to note is that 99% of ghosts we see are in fact failed versions of players, in some cases those who simply died fulfilling their part. It means every singular ghosts has it own life and presence even when they are a non alpha version of the homestuck crew. Its like they are all a unit of something.

I think the most likely possibility is, sadly and or interestingly enough, the ultimate self. If every ghost is a unit of something, it may be they are a manifestation of the memories of that unit. So in a sense when the ultimate self is unlocked, the Ghosts converge on the version who unlocks them. I think we had a similar situation in pesterquest where the Reader converges with the ghosts of multiple versions of himself. Either cause of his abstract body or because, compared to a player, he had only a small handful of alternate selves in question, we don't know how he endured it.
This might also mean that an ultimate self is only aware of the information of the Ghosts and not of still living incarnations. This might explain why Dirk killed himself in Candy, and brainghost dirk's statement that ult dirk was absorbing all the 'narrative importance'.
Maybe that means that for Dirk to sustain his true ultimate selfness he needs to make sure he has as few living stragglers as possible. Maybe that is part of why rose seems incomplete cause she has like, two stragglers out there.

Think the point of the Sprites is to bring a dead individual into the game again. In fact i think the norm is to bring back someones' 'guardian' but the irregular sessions only showed that once. lets the ghost itneract with the physical world. But god knows what the sprites really ARE.