#ghost eater

(art by Sawitry on DeviantArt)

In lands haunted by the legacies of ancient wars and tragedies, one must be prepared to find the evidence of death even centuries, perhaps millennia later.

In a fantasy setting where the ghosts of the past are very literal, that means that inevitably the exorcist becomes a quite viable, if dangerous career path. However, clearing out ghosts and other undead with emotional ties to the world rather than dark hungers means taking time to learn about them. Additionally, it also helps to keep the more hungry dead off the spellcaster snack bar too.

Enter the Ghost Eater, a specialist tradition hailing from the land of Minata that specializes in fighting the undead, putting them to rest directly or giving true exorcists the breathing room they need to put more tenacious spirits to rest permanently.

Traditionally, these warriors are not full and true casters, since they are meant to support them, having minor magical abilities at best before learning those associated with this tradition. However, there is nothing stopping caster from taking on this tradition as well, particularly if they can blend a bit of melee in as well, such as certain clerics or bards.

Additionally, even outside of Minata or Pathfinder core setting, this archetype is a natural fit for any character whose story and motivations place them in a partnership role with a fellow exorcist, especially if they are more martial while their ally is more of a caster.

Starting the dedication to this archetype means you must learn how to channel your own spirit into your strikes, and these warriors do just that, becoming able to strike spirits as if they were tangible.

Solid objects are no barrier to most of these warriors, and they’ve learned to project their spirit out of their limbs and weapons to strike at spirits that try and hide inside of them.

Later on, they can charge their strikes with more of their spirit, using their very life force as a weapon against the undead.

Some undead like to hide deeper in the ethereal plane, and in order to chase them, the most powerful of these warriors learn to step into the ether themselves, taking the fight right to their foes.

Interested in being a ghost hunter while focusing on  combat? This archetype might be for you. You might be a fighter, champion, ranger, rogue, swashbuckler, or any other sort of melee build, or perhaps a ghost-shooting gunslinger, or a thaumaturge that specializes in undead in particular and so on! The short list of feats means you still get most of what makes your class fun in the first place too!

There are a lot of different angles you can play up this archetype when you think of it. Some may be dutiful servants and guardians to spellcasters, while others may be more like partners, or some may choose to forgo partners entirely in favor of sending the unquiet dead to their final reward with nothing but strength of arms.

In a distant era, the Singing Hurricane brought utter ruin to the island nation of Zaphosta, leaving many angry and frightened spirits, not to mention several song on the wind elementals. Many an exorcist has gone to the island in hopes of quelling the angst radiating from the island. But few return, and those that do are never the same.

True to their kind, Glowgrin the gourd leshy has a fasciation with all sorts of folk magic and superstitions, an interest they have turned into a career as a thaumaturge and undead-hunter. Many consider the eccentric little pumpkin a true expert in the field, and their knowledge could be a great boon if they are sought out.

some quick character concepts for a game idea ive been thinking about for almost a year now.

With a name like "Ghost Eater," it is really hard to talk about anything else besides this strange creature's hunting behavior and diet. If you bring up the species name to anyone, they aren't really going to be interested in hearing about its preferred habitats or method of reproduction. Regardless, I am at least going to talk about some of the other facts about Ghost Eaters, because they are important too! Ghost Eaters can be found in a wide variety of habitats, mainly because they spend most of their lives underground. Things like vegetation and weather conditions don't affect them too much, as they live deep in the soil. Though I said they could be found in a lot of places, that doesn't exactly mean you can find them everywhere you look. Ghost Eaters are a rather rare species, their numbers sparsely scattered across the continents. What keeps their population so low and spread out isn't fully known, but some guess it is a combination of food availability and pressure caused by superstitious cultures. Ghost Eaters have two phases: hibernation or hunting. They spend a large chunk of their life simply sleeping within the earth, slowly feeding off the gut load they procured from their last hunt. They slumber quite far below, making it difficult for surface predators or attackers to find and harm them. This sleep can go on for long periods of time, from months to years, and even decades! They will hibernate until their stomach gets light and hunger gnaws at them once more. This awakens them and drives them to the surface, using their claws and harden skulls to burrow through the earth at startling speeds. At this point, they are in their more active phase. They are on the hunt for food. Of course you can already guess what these creatures eat, as their names make it quite blatant. They do eat other things, though, not just spirits of the dead. It seems that Ghost Eaters do not feed on physical food like we do, but instead on energy sources. Their strange anatomy and organs somehow are capable of gaining nutrients or energy from things like mana and spiritual residue. While a hunger for mana means that they could go after magical artifacts or mages for food, such sources are often quite hostile and dangerous. Most magic tomes or ancient staves are guarded by wizards and the such, and they aren't about to let some worm-creature swallow their precious equipment. So with that, Ghost Hunters rarely try to feed on such things. Instead, there is another source of food that is much easier to catch and less likely to fry them with a fireball, and that is ghosts. Ghosts, spirits, poltergeists and the such are things beyond my field of study, so I cannot tell you much about them. As far as I know, they are some energized remnants of dead people that somehow still exist within our world. Some say they are true wandering souls, while some claim they are merely copies or echos of the real person brought to life by some outside force, but I am not any of them. I got no clue what they are, so I am going to stick with what I know, and that is that ghosts produce and exude some kind of energy that can satiate a Ghost Eater's hunger. With that, Ghost Eaters hunt for these spirits, looking to swallow them whole and trap them within their stomachs. This brings up another strange thing about Ghost Eaters, as they are somehow capable of interacting with this phantasms. While the rest of us could walk through a ghost like it was made of fog, this species' biology always them to treat spirits like they are physical beings. To them, ghosts have the consistency and structure of cobwebs, their forms made up of strands of energy, soul, whatever. This allows them hunt these spirits, and it also keeps them from phasing through their digestive system. Food is no good if it can escape from your stomach!

House of Leaves

Ghost eaters

WORM!!!!

Ghost-eater is an ahamkara that was killed during the hunt. Nobody's really sure what they looked like before, because when Lupin rezzed them they took an entirely new form. They have a nasty temper and resent their fellow Guardians more than anything else, although they're very kind to Ghosts.