# Half Ghost? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 1, 2009, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-ghost/487904 "2009-03-01T20:11:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2009, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-ghost/487904/1 "2009-03-01T20:11:41Z")
Bizarre Clive Barker novels aside (Coldheart Canyon and one other, Damnation Game or Weaveworld, maybe?) where the things aren’t really even characters but monsters, are there any books, comics or anime with the unlikely scenario where: A. A character is the product of a union between a living person and a ghost (the ghost needs to be one **before** the character’s conception) And B. This character spends part of their day alive, and part as a ghost? I know that there’s a cartoon called **Danny Phantom** that sort of fulfills B, but definitely not A. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2009, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-ghost/487904/2 "2009-03-03T00:37:06Z")
So no, then? ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2009, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-ghost/487904/3 "2009-03-03T01:06:56Z")
I couldn’t think of a one. However, this thread now seems so sad, maybe some almosts? White Wolf Game Studio’s _Exalted_ RPG has living offspring between a living person and a ghost. Ghostblooded are like living folks while alive, and like ghosts once dead, though. Although they can pick up some ghost powers to use while alive. Since this is WW, there’s probably Exalted fiction; haven’t read any, though, so don’t know if Ghostblooded figure in any of it. There’s also Tanith Lee’s [Kill the Dead](http://www.amazon.com/Kill-Dead-Tanith-Lee/dp/0879975628), which is about a ghosthunter and a ghosts’s son, and is quite good although not quite on your requirements. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2009, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-ghost/487904/4 "2009-03-03T04:03:16Z")
The lead character of the Barker-created comic book EctoKid is the son of a ghostly father. This gives him various powers. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2009, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-ghost/487904/5 "2009-03-03T12:30:08Z")
There is a book called Un Lon Don where one character fulfills A, but not B. He is considered a half-ghost or Hemi-Ghost or some such. It was a terrible book though, so I hesitate to mention it to you, for fear you might read it and blame me. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2009, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-ghost/487904/6 "2009-03-03T12:51:23Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > The lead character of the Barker-created comic book EctoKid is the son of a ghostly father. This gives him various powers. Beat me to it, although I was getting annoyed trying to remember the title. It was fun. Probably the best of the Shadowline books - certainly my favourite. Interestingly… > [@elfkin477](#): > > Bizarre Clive Barker novels aside Apparently Clive REALLY likes that gimmick… ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2009, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-ghost/487904/7 "2009-03-03T16:49:06Z")
The lead character in Neil Gaiman’s _The Graveyard Book_ is a boy who is adopted and raised by ghosts. He does have some of their powers, mainly the ability to become “invisible” when he wants to. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2009, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-ghost/487904/8 "2009-03-03T20:40:24Z")
> [@Tengu](#): > > Beat me to it, although I was getting annoyed trying to remember the title. It was fun. Probably the best of the Shadowline books - certainly my favourite. The titles were called Razorline. The Shadowline saga is unrelated. My favorite was Hokum and Hex- two gods are fighting over the fate of Earth. One god has legions of technomagical armies. The other god chooses as his lone champion, a failed stand up comedian. “Earth’s last hope, is a joke.” ---
**Author:** ![gonzoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@gonzoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzoron)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2009, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-ghost/487904/9 "2009-03-03T21:04:36Z")
There’s a rather bizarre character in the Ravenloft D&D setting named Tristen ApBlanc. The story as I recall it goes that his father became a vampire after his conception, and then drank his pregnant wife’s blood. The child was born normal, but upon reaching puberty he was starting to turn into a vampire. He then murdered his guardian, and drank her blood, but because she had drank lots of holy water that day, he instead became a vampyre (this is a different monster than vampire in D&D. They are inhuman, but living, creatures who are compelled to feed on blood). Then the guardian cursed him with her dying breath, and he died. Now he’s cursed to be a vampyre during the day and a ghost at night. Weird. ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2009, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-ghost/487904/10 "2009-03-03T21:20:15Z")
Talking of D&D, Dragon magazine #313 included an assortment of “half-undead” creature templates, one of which was for a half-ghost. Called a “fetch,” these are generally created when a woman and her deceased lover get nasty. Physically, they’re unnaturally pale and wan. While they don’t exactly spend part of the time alive and part as a ghost, they do have the power to project an incorporeal spirit form, plus a few other powers. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2009, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-ghost/487904/11 "2009-03-03T22:46:53Z")
Danny Phantom. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2009, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-ghost/487904/12 "2009-03-03T22:53:27Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > Danny Phantom. Mentioned in the OP. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-ghost/487904/13 "2009-03-05T18:08:21Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > The titles were called Razorline. The Shadowline saga is unrelated. You’re right - I invariably get the two of them mixed up. Shadowline was pretty good, too, though. > [@](#): > > My favorite was Hokum and Hex- two gods are fighting over the fate of Earth. One god has legions of technomagical armies. The other god chooses as his lone champion, a failed stand up comedian. “Earth’s last hope, is a joke.” I couldn’t get into H&H…EctoKid, Saint Sinner and the superhero team I can’t remember the name of, I liked. I was really disappointed that the TV movie from some time back called Clive Barker’s Saint Sinner wasn’t based on the comic. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-ghost/487904/14 "2009-03-06T01:47:56Z")
> [@Tengu](#): > > and the superhero team I can’t remember the name of Hyperkind ---
**Author:** ![Flutterby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-ghost/487904/15 "2009-03-06T02:17:24Z")
Not really A, more of B (and not for a specified time either, it’s her choice). Putting it in a spoiler, because it is one, but unless you read romance you probably won’t care if you are spoiled. At the end of the book, Neomi (who was a ghost in the beginning) discovers that she isn’t alive like she thought she now was. Instead she has become a Phantom. Basically after about 500 years, if a ghost lasts that long, they can grow a body and become powerful in the Lore (vampires, werewolves, witches, Valkyries etc) being able to be either incarnate or ghostly with all sorts of cool powers. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-ghost/487904/16 "2009-03-06T02:32:06Z")
Which book is that, Noemi? ---
**Author:** ![Flutterby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-ghost/487904/17 "2009-03-06T02:35:35Z")
Sorry, that would be Kresley Cole’s _Dark Needs at Night’s Edge_. The character’s name is Neomi. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-ghost/487904/18 "2009-03-06T02:42:57Z")
> [@Flutterby](#): > > Sorry, that would be Kresley Cole’s _Dark Needs at Night’s Edge_. The character’s name is Neomi. I need more sleep…I can’t believe I called you by (a misspelling of) the character’s name. Sorry. \>\_\> ---
**Author:** ![Flutterby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/half-ghost/487904/19 "2009-03-06T02:54:37Z")
lol, no worries.