Specters

Basic Information

Anatomy

When they invade the body of a living, rational person, they will still be able to keep their own memories and identity, and will manifest as a second personality capable of communicating telepathically with their host. After this union has been made, the Specters can either take control of their host´s body, which will make their eye color change into bright red, or manifest physically as a gray scale color version of their hosts with red eyes. In their physical manifestation, they can´t separate from their host for more than 50 Meters/ 1970 Inches, or they both will die, the Specters can interact with the environment as any other person would, being able to speak by themselves and communicate with other people, sounding exactly like their owner. They are able to become intangible and even fly by transforming from their physical form to dark smoke at will.

Growth Rate & Stages

They begin their journey after reaching the pocket afterlife dimension, here, they will either merge with the Universal consciousness or be stuck in there for an indefinite amount of time. They can get out of there via an anomaly that lets them return to earth before they merge, if they manage to do so, they will need to find a host to live in before they fade away. When they find and invade a host, their energies or "Souls" will merge with each other, meaning that any attempts of separating, would kill them both, sending them back to the pocket dimension, this will also happen if the physical projection of the Specter distances itself more than 50 Meters / 1970 Inches from its host.
After their energies merge with each other an assimilation process takes place, here, both minds will get to know each other and be obligated to figure out a way of coexisting, this normally leads to conflicts over who takes control of the body or who takes certain decisions, the host and the invader can take control by trapping each other in their own respective subconsciousness for an undefined amount of time or until the trapped one manages to break out by using sheer willpower and concentration, being stuck in this state means that they will essentially black out and let the other take full control of the body. Still, both of them can stay conscious at the same time, even if it means one of them will only be a spectator while the other uses the body. The Specters can manifest physically at will unless their host actively tries to hold them back in their mind.
Identifying who is in control of the body is really simple, if the eye color of the body changes to red, the Specter is in control, otherwise, it is the original owner of the body who is in charge. This is hard to notice on people with natural red eyes or that use red contact lenses for some reason.
In order to be able to unleash the full potential of the Specters, the host must willingly allow its invader to take full control over them and get trapped in their subconscious, after doing so, if the host accepts to never fight back to get out and effectively submits to the fact of never going out again, both consciousness will merge with each other in less than a day, transforming them into one single mind.
When they reach this state, they will have to deal with dissociation for some time, not being able to recognize who is who or which memories belong to them and which are from the other, the resulting personality will be a mix between the two, and although they might tend to incline towards one of the previous personalities at first, they will undoubtedly showcase behaviors and traits of the other, and after some time, both will merge to become a single one.
After they are able to become one entity, one of their eyes will turn to red while the other will stay in the original color, here, they will be able to perform any of the previous feats listed before: They can give and absorb energy from, and to any living being, turn into dense smoke at will while becoming effectively intangible and being able to fly while doing so, and finally, they are still able to split into two separated bodies, one of them being the original one and the other one being the gray scale or Specter version of themselves, both versions will have a red and a original colored eye and will be the same mind in two bodies.
It is important to know that the original body can´t turn into smoke if they split, if they do this, then only the Specter version will be able to do so.
After this, they will have succeed in achieving their maximum potential and while in some cases they will still keep talking to themselves as if they still were two minds, they are a completely different person with only one mind and personality.
When their body dies, they will return to the pocket dimension as a single entity, here, they are still able to go back again and invade another body, meaning that someone could in theory have memories and experiences from thousands of years ago simply by merging with a Specter that is the result of various previous minds reaching and escaping the pocket dimension over and over again.

Ecology and Habitats

The pocket dimension they came from is a place with no actual shape or form, it is composed of energies that coexist with each other.
If someone from earth finds and enters the anomaly that opens a portal between their dimension and ours, they will enter a place that will take physical according to what their own mind is able to understand, which leads to horrible and indescribable hallucinations, if they go out, chances are that they will slowly begin to lose their sanity and suffer for it, although if they stay or get trapped in that dimension, they will die in less than a day and their energy will remain there.
The five nations, groups from all over the world, individuals like Corvul Tadeo , Spirit Malloye / Jessica Hurler and Jerry Phirre have all tried to study this dimension and figure a way of locating and pulling energies out of there without the need of getting them a host. As of today, no one has succeeded and everyone is in a race to come up with a solution, if they manage to do so, they will effectively be able to achieve immortality by being able to resurrect the dead over and over again.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Specters obtain energy by passively absorbing it from any living being nearby, they can also decide to do it actively to do it at a faster rate.
A host is able to replenish their own energy by having its Specter absorb energy for them, they will also be able to do so once they become one entity, eliminating any need to sleep or feed.

Additional Information

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

By themselves or in the pocket dimension, they are just harmless wandering energies, if they get a host after going out of that dimension, they will be able to not only manifest physically and interact with everything around them as any other person would, they can steal energy from living beings around them and use it to enhance their own, being able to keep themselves and their hosts fully revitalized at all times.

Origin/Ancestry

Tampering of the vital energy of a person, the Specters are born when their original bodies die.

Conservation Status

When someone dies, no one is quite sure what happens with them afterwards, the "Founders" Used to believe in an afterlife, although after many centuries of trying to investigate what happened to them after their death, they decided to create their own afterlife, creating a pocket dimension that would work in a specific radius and will absorb the energy or "Soul" of any person after they die, this dimension will not allow them to have a physical presence but it will allow them to keep their memory and identity, the main purpose of this place was to progressively transform said energies or souls into a specific kind of energy that could merge with a force they called the "Universal consciousness" And transcend into eternity.
While their plan worked, the amount of time it would take for a soul to merge with the universal consciousness depends on the type of energy they have, for example, cleaner and smother energies that belonged to individuals who generally lacked regrets would take less than a month to merge, while chaotic and strong energies would take whole decades to do so, making this dimension kind of a purgatory.
Specters themselves are born when they go back to earth before merging, this is happens when some anomalies caused by the absence of the Founders open a portal out of the pocket dimension, letting this energies go back to our world. Problem is, that they will need a host, they need to invade the body of a living and rational person to survive, otherwise, they will just fade into nothingness after some minutes. It is worth mentioning that they are unable to merge with non rational living beings like wild animals or plants.