Been replaying Dragonspyre with my friend and one thing that Iāve always found fascinating about it is the way that it handles the ghosts.
All throughout the world, you see that every human has been killed. Dragonspyre is a ruined world, and the only people still around are the servants of the dragon titan. In place of everyone whoās been killed, a ghost stands where they once stood.
What I love about the ghosts is their various levels of comprehension of the state that theyāre in. Some of the ghosts acknowledge what happened, that the dragon titan completely razed their world. However, many donāt. In fact, thereās a decent number of Dragonspyre ghosts who flat-out donāt even realize theyāre dead. One that struck a cord with me in particular said something to the effect of āIām no longer tangibleā, seemingly understanding his state as āstill alive but not able to touch things for some mysterious reasonā. Many of the ghosts make excuses for the fact that they canāt do what they once did when they were alive. This is either because they donāt realize they are dead, or my interpretation, that they donāt want to acknowledge that their lives were cut short.
I also love that so many of the ghosts are very much stuck in their ways from when they were alive. Itās basically left up to interpretation whether thatās a symptom of them being a ghost, or if that militant adherence to order and rules is a symptom of growing up in Dragonspyreās culture thatās impossible to shake. Thereās an NPC, Belia Windgazer, who is still running paperwork for the vaults, even though that paperwork is coming from and going to no one, and is not useful for a single person. Itās running through the motions of the busywork that you did when you were alive, and thatās kind of nightmarish. Even in death, they donāt get any rest.
Another NPC, Zanna Fireflower, has made it her main priority to secure a tower that has visibly been toppled a long time ago, leaving only a single floor. She sees this as a necessary military accomplishment. However, in the present day, this is basically entirely meaningless from both an objective and political viewpoint. Gaining control of this tower does nothing for nobody, the tower doesnāt even stand there anymore. Is this fixation simply something that is static beyond the grave, or is it such a point of pride for her that she canāt let go of such a pointless task all these years later?
Playing through Pirate101 and getting to the point where you meet the four ghosts of Ratbeardās crew adds a new layer to this situation as well. In that game, those ghosts cannot move on from the mortal realm and go to the next life because they still have unsettled business in this world. Does that imply that with such a massive tragedy on Dragonspyre, the dragon titan not only killed countless people, but doomed them to never rest in peace and move to the next world due to the fact that all of their lives had been cut tragically short, leaving every one of them with unfinished business? Absolutely horrifying stuff
