Ghostbuster

Who you gonna call?

Ghostbuster is a colloquial, and sometimes derogatory, term for a mage who spends most of their time hunting monsters in the Prime. Our modern world is poorly equipped to handle rampaging ghouls and hungry goblins, and some mages feel an obligation to take matters into their own hands. It is dangerous, thankless work, but those who do it find solace and worth in every life saved.

Ghostbusting

Ain't afraid of no ghost.

Mages from all walks of life become "ghostbusters" - often driven by a sense of duty to protect people who can't protect themselves from threats only they can even see. In older mages, this can sometimes have the stink of arrogance about it, using terms like "our lessers" or "those mortals". As long as they rescue some poor lost soul from being devoured by unspeakable horrors, well, the complaints can wait.

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Ghostbusting, a term generally hated by those who hunt monsters and therefor used by everyone else, can be as simple as pulling the trigger and as difficult as an week long exorcism, depending on the monster in question. Even the lowest of things that lurk under the bed at night tend to resist injury by mundane means, however, despite looking like flesh and blood.
Most play by different rules by mankind, able to flit in and out of places that should be inaccessible, appearing at impossible time, and overall being a real (potentially fatal) nuisance. Ghouls, whose diet make them a regular foe of ghostbusters, can lay down in any one grave and claw themselves out any other, anywhere in the world, for example.

Slaying seem like it'd be a natural fit for a ghostbuster, but it is in reality rare. Slayers are driven by a thirst for power, while ghostbusters generally seek to protect and defend humanity, and their two ideologies are often diametrically opposed.

Smart ghostbuster work in teams. Those who don't tend not live too long, barring some phenomenal luck or ability, when a single mistake can spell doom. Despite the advantage, different teams rarely find common ground unless the threat is truly dire. Too often, differences in approach and how much collateral damage is too much split such unions - sometimes during the worst possible time of a hunt.
Some hunters, like the D11, specialize in one particular foe. In reality, the world is complicated and no matter what a mage might plan for, something else can always show up.

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Spooks

Employed, at least on paper, by corporate or government entities, Spooks are often called on to do some ghostbusting now and then. As the regular weird one at the office who's no one is quite sure what they do but they always seem to be getting something done, Spooks have to deal with things that no one else can.
From magical disasters and apocalyptic-mitigation like Operation: Calamari to rooting out the local nest of ghouls, some Spooks really have to work for their paycheck.

Ghosts & Goblins

Bustin' makes me feeeeeeel good!

The Prime

Our world, with all its modern trappings. The Prime is, for most people, the "real" world with cellphones and cars, with bills to pay and screaming children in the seat behind you, obligations and science. It's a wondrous place, to be sure, with art that lifts the spirit, technology that strains the limits of possible, and a sky filled with stars... But it is not the only world - some argue it isn't even the real world, but perhaps a prison or even dumping ground.
But no matter what it is, it's our home. It's where we live and die, we're born and raised, and where monsters sometimes roam...
Which is where ghostbusters come in.

The Shadow

Like a film across reality, the Shadow is a world within our world, a layer over everything where ghost and goblins hide from prying eyes and snapchat filters. In places where the Shadow is weak and worlds bleed into each other, monsters cross over and enter our world.
Some have spent generations within Prime, lurking just out of sight for reasons simple or alien. They are drawn to places of power and magic, often competing with mages for them.

The Beyond

All magic comes from the Beyond - an impossible realm of magic, wonder and horror beyond mortal ken. Monsters lurk there too, sometimes making their way over into the Shadow and from there into our world. Creatures from the Beyond are powerful, terrifying entities that operate on a logic and reality unlike our own. To them, things we take for granted, like gravity or that light illuminates and fire burn, are suggestions rather than rules.
When they come knocking on Prime, there's always trouble.

Slaying

An act of mystical butchery, to Slay is to do more than to kill - it's to erase someone from the universe and devour their essence. To most ghostbusters, that's a bit much - even a monster deserves a measure of mercy. Killing it is plenty enough, obliteration like that from a Slaying would bring a man closer to becoming monster than many are comfortable with.
Sometimes, however, it's the only choice. Slaying allows a mage to absorb the power of the Slain, at the risk of becoming something greater and lesser than they used to be. Such power could be useful to fight a greater threat, or ending one that might not be stopped by regular old death... But such hunters always have to take care that they don't become 'the greater threat'.

Other nicknames for these sort of mages include but are not limited to: Winchesters, Scully and/or Mulder, and Monster Squaddies, and many others.