Houseblight

Normal houseblight

In the Phantasmagoria world, when a house is very old, or has had many traumatizing things happen in it or around it, a houseblight can sometimes occur due to the house collecting fragments of energy. Theorized to be the same fragments of energy that make up souls, these houses most of the time simply pick up shreds of personality and only mildly strange things will happen inside them. Objects moving around suddenly, shadows warping, electronics and electric appliances ceasing to function or becoming "eccentric" -- that kind of thing. The house will also be resistent to burning or other disasters, and may defend its owners if they should come to harm.

Houseghasts

When a houseblight is pushed over the edge, generally through repeated or horrific acts of violence that occur inside of it, a homidical state of mind takes over. When triggered into this abnormal state, the houseblight traps the soul of anyone who dies inside of it. More commonly called "haunted houses" by the general populace, scholar and necromancer Sylvie Verlaine is a particular expert on those kinds of houseblight. (Her own manor is a nonthreatening, normal houseblight that has been ordered -- through the generations -- to defend the Verlaine family if they come under attack inside of it.) She calls the insane houseblight houseghasts. Mild cases of houseghasts simply trap souls, but more extreme, malicious cases include the houses trying to kill anyone who comes inside them, trying to drive the people to insanity, or siccing the angry and restless spirits that it has trapped on those who have come inside. Houseghasts, very luckily, are rare.

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