Candle Ghosts
Serrus can be harsh and brutal. Plague, warfare, and murder can sometimes be common place, especially in the more remote and wild places where law and medicine do not reach. The Elan within a human can be strong, and when that human dies tragically or violently, sometimes the Elan within that human remains and manifests itself as a Candle Ghost.
A Candle Ghost appears as an ethereal and gaunt apparition of their former selves. The distinct difference between these and typical ghosts and haunts is the flickering and burning candle in the chest of the apparition. Also unlike other apparitions, the Candle Ghosts have some control over the corporeal world. Encounters with Candle Ghost vary wildly, but more often than not, the Elan that created them is manifest as hatred or anger. Candle Ghosts seem to loathe the living and can and will attack those that get too close. Their main mode of attack is by touch. When part of them comes in contact with the living, it drains the Elan from their bodies swiftly killing them. The only known way to rid the area of a Candle Ghost is through powerful magic or banishment. Some individuals say that the Candle Ghost disappears when the candle in their chest is extinguished, but this solution is only temporary, as shortly after, they will reappear.
Basic Information
Anatomy
As ethereal beings, Candle Ghosts do not have any corporeal form. Their ghostly bodies take on the image of what the individual looked like in life.
Ecology and Habitats
Candle Ghosts haunt abandoned areas or areas with a heavy flow of Elan. They never stray far from wherever they first manifested. They tend to gather in small groups.
Dietary Needs and Habits
As spirits, they need not food, nor water and do not sleep or age.
I thought it might have been a simple apparition, so I paid it no attention. When it came close however, I noticed the candle. By that time it was too late. It lunged at me and wailed. It's touch was like frostbite. I managed to get away, but this gray streak in my hair is a lingering memory of the essence it drained from me. I have not been the same since.
