Shipwreck ghosts are spirits of humans who drowned after their vessels sail and sink for whatever reason. They are among the most dangerous and considerably highly malevolent ghosts.
Personality and Characteristics[]
If a human dies above the surface, their souls will be free to seek out any afterlife, but if they drown then the water traps and binds their souls. As all souls do not wish to be bound, ghosts rage against their fates. Restless waters with continuous currents, like the ebbing and flowing of tides or the rush and tumble of rivers will dissipate a ghost's rage and thus, render them relatively weak; they are unable to kill, and are more a nuissance than an actual threat.
Shipwreck ghosts, however, were strong. A well-made veseel can keep an entire ocean or sea out, but it could also keep a soul in. The strong life force of a human which flows out at death, is not dissipated on board a ship, but is instead concentrated, trapped within a cabin or a galley or anywhere they died. The life force entwines itself with the ship, wrapping around wooden beams or burrowing into metal hulls, which was the reason why ghost ships do not rust or rot. Instead they endure, drawing on the power of the trapped souls on board. The souls themselves are forced to endure trapped and bound forever within their vessels, unless a living creature sets them free. But this is perilous as a ghost's touch pulls the life out of the living until there was none left.
Notable Shipwreck Ghosts[]
Infanta Maria Theresa, the owner of Merrow's blue diamond was killed by Amarrefe Mei Foo (Orfeo in disguise) when he attempted to steal the diamond. In revenge he sunk the Demeter with the Infanta on board, turning her into a ghost and trapping her for four hundred years, until Serafina agreed to set her free, bringing her back to Spain, in return for the diamond.
The crew of the Achilles also suffered a similar fate when Maffeio Aermore, their captain (again Orfeo in disguise), drove their ship into the Williwaw's lair. In Dark Tide, Becca was forced to camouflage herself and bribe a codfish in order to deceive the ghosts on board so she could search for the talisman, Pyrrha's coin. In the discovery of her living being, the ghosts fall over themselves to treacherously grab her in order to drain her life force for their own.