[Cynewulf]

For my next 5th ed character I would like to create a CFD victim (Stolen Souls) who has had their personality overwriten by an e-ghost. I am aware that some people might think that is Special Snowflake but I will be using standard character creation mechanics with no additional made up rules so it shouldn't be a game balance problem.

However before I do it I want to make sure I understand the lore correctly. As I understand it there is no definite word on whether an e-ghost is the actual personality, or soul, or the dead metahuman. I understand that ressurection is impossible but if the e-ghost is *actually* still somehow the soul then technically they never died, correct?

So where does the weight of lore-evidence lay? Are they just emulations of a personality, a deluded program, or the actual soul maintained within the Matrix (similar to the Eldar Infinity Web of WH40K).

Personally I like the idea that they are not actually souls but rather 'Essence', the conduit that connects a persons soul to their body, and if they manage to control a new biological host they can either overwrite or merge with the bodies own Essence, linking it to the former soul. Hence the CFD victim. Not that I have read anything that supports this theory but I havn't read anything that contradicts it either.

Of course I'm not a lore master.

Thoughts?

[Mirikon]

E-ghosts are not the 'soul', but more like a digital imprint of someone who died while hooked up to the matrix. The earliest known one was Alice of Wonderland, the e-ghost of one of the original Echo Mirage hackers. She retained her memories (and one HELL of a grudge against the guy who started the Crash) to some extent. Exactly how much is unknown. Other e-ghosts are not so lucky. Especially in situations like Crash 2.0, where Jormungand was busy burning everything to the ground while JackBNimble came along to 'save' people after the fact, there seem to have been cases of degradation in the copies. Think of it like portions of the file being corrupted or unreadable. Many e-ghosts are a few sandwiches short of a picnic. A lot of them are certifiably insane.

So, not the soul of an individual. Also, it is unknown how much 'individuality' CFD personas have, as they sometimes mix with other strains, and make copies, and so on. It could be a situation like in the second and third Matrix movies, where Agent Smith copied himself into EVERYONE, and they were all Agent Smith. We just don't know.

[Reaver]

Can a digital imprint have a Soul?

Who knows....

All we know for sure is that CFDs seem to have an agenda.... what that is however,  no one knows..

[Parker]

RESISTANCE IS FUTILE!  THERE IS ONLY THE BORG!

[Sengir]

E-ghosts are not the 'soul', but more like a digital imprint of someone who died while hooked up to the matrix.

...or maybe just delusional (or manipulatively) AIs. The nature of ghosts, be they magical or technical, is deliberately left vague, and also their capabilities of carrying over anything from a possible past life.

[Astral security]

The e-ghosts could be partly dead people in the matrix twisted with parts of madness, magic, and the virus that started the crash and attacked echo team. Or it could be critters like corpselights in the matrix. If corpselights could get in the matrix.

[grid_hopper]

E-ghosts are not the 'soul', but more like a digital imprint of someone who died while hooked up to the matrix.

...or maybe just delusional (or manipulatively) AIs. The nature of ghosts, be they magical or technical, is deliberately left vague, and also their capabilities of carrying over anything from a possible past life.

If it's the manulipations of AI then the unexplained phemonena like paragon begin to take on less mystical explanation.
True the abilities of tehcnomancers and the entities they influence are not directly linked to the matrix like a subscriber or an AI or the like.But they mirrior the matrix and the limitations of the technology.....


Instead of being the manulipative gremlin in the matrix, they are actually created by and it turn help to further create the matrix.
 It, the matrix, would not, could not exist in it's current grandeur without them.

E-ghosts look like just a lower order of AI that have the potential to be at least as poweful as the AI's....

[Mirikon]

Paragons are a completely different phenomenon, Fenris. They are a product of the Resonance, and AIs cannot access the Resonance. Maybe, possibly, if it was one of the 'Big 3' who either survived the Crash or 'transcended' to the Resonance Realms, then they could be transformed into a Paragon, but other than the three uber-AIs, none of the AIs in existence could even pretend to be the Resonance, much less manipulate its children's abilities.

[grid_hopper]

They are different true, But the resonance and its inhabitants would not exist if the matrix did not take the development path it did.
I believe they are very much a natural phenomena but they are also reaction to the matrix.

CFD and e-ghosts, and even AI's also are all very likely a natural, unexpected result/reaction......