Editing Echo (section)

==Specifics==
Regular Echoes are mere impressions, as such they aren't generally sentient. They can only understand things in the context of the moment they died and resolving the issue that made up the impression will erase them entirely. They are known for haunting an abandoned house because they function well in enclosed spaces and especially well in places they have a [[connection]] to, outside they are exposed to the [[elements]] and the [[Innocence]] of passing humans that can destroy them.<ref>“They function best in enclosed spaces, especially any enclosed spaces they have connections to. Houses, houses with bodies still in them, lurking near their murder weapons, and so on. But that’s not the key bit. They also function in places with very few humans to mess with them. The wilderness.” - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/01/25 Excerpt] from [[Damages 2.3]]</ref>

An Echo that has become damaged or one that has a lot of power but can't follow it's pattern are called [[Spectre]]s. They often spiral out of control and appear in reality as flickers of a face or images in a mirror. They are too unreliable to use or bind in the same manner one would a normal ghost, possibly exploding if handled carelessly. They can also hypnotize or posses people.<ref>Damaged echoes or echoes with a lot of oomph but no ability to follow their routine tended to spiral out.  In those spirals they could appear in reality, often as visions, flickers of faces, images in mirrors or reflections, or tricks of the light, and often with short, brief lived bursts of activity.  They tended to implode or explode when handled and were pretty dangerous for non-experienced practitioners to handle.  They were termed spectres.  Some hypnotized or possessed people, even. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2021/05/18 Excerpt] from [[Dash to Pieces 11.6]]</ref>

Likewise, a ghost that has taken in too many negative aspects of different individuals changes from being a ghost to a [[Wraith]]. These ghosts are different from their roots as mere impressions and can be hostile and capable of causing physical harm.

"Wild echoes" are Echoes of people who were destroyed by powerful abstract forces such as [[Incarnation]]s, rather than killed per se,<ref name=":0"/> while "False echoes" can form of people who never actually existed, drawing emotional resonance from rumor.<ref name=":0"/> Neither of these echoes have strong ties to Death and don't follow the usual rules, and are sometimes encountered by [[Finder]]s.<ref name=":0">'''Echoes & remnants'''. Ghosts, vestiges. Because they intersect with the Paths, they might deal with other kinds of echo.<br><br>

*'''Wild Echoes''' - Overlaps with Incarnations, above. Echoes (ghosts) of humans who were done away with by very dramatic Incarnation-type events. Tend to be flavorful, hard-to-deal-with echoes who don't follow the usual tropes or tools of necromancers, so most necromancers won't bother. Tools and approaches with Death in mind don't apply if we're talking about an Other who was done away with by Ignonimity or Lust.<br><br>
*'''False Echoes''' - Echoes of people who didn't exist, except by rumor. A real pain in the ass for necromancers, but not so much a problem for Finders.<br><br>'''Spirits''' - Spirits are bread & butter, and not exclusive to the Paths, but frequently found are...
*'''Petitioner Spirits''' - Spirits consolidated around a question or set of questions. They often ask people they see and then may get power to act if the answer is right or wrong. Can be hooked into echoes or have echoes as central points, depending. - [https://old.reddit.com/r/Parahumans/comments/f03xyr/_/fgs0o17/ Comment by Wildbow] on Finders</ref>

Ghosts can be absorbed by, and form a part of, complex [[spirit]]s.<ref name=":0" /><ref>I found the Girl by Candlelight. A ''complex'' spirit. Remember how Edith just said you can have all those individual things in a twig? Those things can fall away or separate, and attach to something else. An echo, or a ghost if you prefer to call it that, or whatever event shook them loose shook enough free that the stray spirits were able to clump together. They form into something coherent, and the complex spirit that results can be a fleeting existence or a concrete one that gets its rougher edges sanded off by time. - [[Lost for Words 1.3]]</ref>

Poltergeists are those echoes made from powerful emotions but are not linked to death.<ref>A poltergeist is like a ghost, with ghosts coming from very strong emotions and events. When an individual might have very strong emotions, for no reason at all, they might make ghosts who can't quite let them go and always stay close to them. This often makes things more messy and awful and gets these individuals blamed for trouble, which make the emotions worse. This causes the Poltergeists to get more and more solid, which lets them pick things up or wear things like cloth or bits of trash.<br><br>Poltergeists can be banished following the diagnosis and treatment of certain mental illnesses, but when left untreated can have disastrous effect. - Wildbow on Discord</ref><ref>''Poltergeists'' were echoes who synced up with an intense emotional battery, and acted a lot like [[spectre]]s except they didn’t spiral so much as they orbited or looped through their target of choice. Those who were naturally vulnerable to seeing Others like the sick, the very young, the old, and the mentally ill were often ''also'' very emotional and the most emotional of those types made good anchors for the poltergeist in reality. Lots of knocking over of objects and increased echo activity when the troubled child or the abused old woman had a freak-out. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2021/05/18 Excerpt] from [[Dash to Pieces 11.6]]</ref>

Echos can link up with any number of phenomena,<ref>new PACT DICE doc</ref> for example: '''Portents''' are stable [[Omen]] and echo fusions with other influences inside, theirs is a cyclical existence drawing power from events related to their Echo and Omen constituent parts.<ref>Portentum "a sign, token, omen; monster, monstrosity".  An Echo looks to the past, but omens mark future events.  Between, if echo and omen find equilibrium, there is room for something to be held.  Big, horrific events.  Spirits, other echoes or splinters of the original echo may fill the space, or an elemental may settle in - usually less sapient or sentient forces, who value the hallow formed more than they mind the monotony of that particular existence.  Most are tortured or put through the wringer as the echo and omen twist them and put them through the same events over and over again.<br><br>In practice, the *Portentum* marks a future event, and wanders or clarifies as it draws power and finds loose connections.  Key figures who line up nicely for the event to happen may see themselves in the Portentum, or see the Portentum itself.  A man sees himself burning as he's slated to do, his mirror self whispering a date.  A nurse sees a school's worth of dead children in reflections behind her, her own expression in the reflection something emotionally tortured, with a seven-league stare.  It's not easy, but the Portentum can be unraveled, challenged, or averted, by figuring it out or targeting the connections that tie it to reality, and this gets easier but higher-stakes as the event draws nearer.  Most don't succeed in stopping it. - Wildbow on Discord</ref>