Spirits are invisible, bodiless entities. A witch with the ability to summon a spirit can determine if that spirit is good or bad by the manner of its desire to aid that witch, such as spying on others, finding lost items, predicting the weather, possessing a mortal, or using any other spiritual ability. Before becoming vampires, while still mortals practicing their ancient Middle Eastern witchcraft, Maharet and Mekare observe that spirits appear to be trying to develop a sense of personal control over physical skills, a sense of independence from their current spiritual state, and a great desire for asserting mastery and power over the mortal world. When they fail to gain autonomy, Maharet and Mekare perceive that spirits can seem mercurial and childish. Spirits also exhibit a behavior like jealousy towards mortals, especially those mortals who experience a viscerally sensual reality. More objectively, however, they also observe that spirits are enormous entities, far larger than anything the human mind can truly imagine, which is how the spirit of Amel is able to stretch and dilute to enter so many flesh-and-blood creatures who are transformed from mortal humans into immortal vampires.
Spirits can be divided into two specific categories:
Spirits that have always been spirits and never mortal
Spirits that were once mortal but died to become an etheric presence, often called ghosts
Gremt and Amel, who are both present when Maharet and Mekare are mortal witches, are two examples of this particular distinction. Gremt is a pure spirit. Amel is a ghost.
Gremt has always been a spirit and was never mortal, yet he has within himself the ability to evolve into an incarnate form of his choosing. During this rare evolutionary process, he learns how to gather to himself motes of particles, such as dust motes, to create bones, blood, organs, skin, hair, teeth, eyes—an entire body that can wear clothes and appear lifelike to mortals and immortals alike, although powerful immortals can just barely see through the guise. Furthermore, Gremt can decide what he looks like, what kind of clothes he wears, with complete control over his mien, physiognomy, and the expressiveness of his visage. In his body, he also has the opportunity of developing his own unique personal identity, which is the dominant difference between his kind of spiritual essence and that of a formerly mortal spirit.
It is rare for the spirit of a dead mortal to remain behind, but when it does, its spiritual nature is generally referred to as a ghost. Amel is one example. He already shaped his own personal identity throughout his many years of mortal life. He still has the potential within him to evolve, but that potential will always be grounded in the personal identity that he already gained as a mortal human, before he was altered by Bravennan aliens into an immortal superhuman. Amel could incarnate similarly to Gremt, but he would have a greater likelihood of incarnating a body like the human form he had in Atlantis.
The vampire Hesketh and Magnus demonstrate the ability to incarnate as ghosts.
When Gremt encounters Hesketh’s spirit on the ethereal plane and teaches her how to incarnate, Hesketh incarnates a vision of herself that is not the deformed body she had in life but a body that she already shaped for herself in her mind and heart, a beautiful body, willowy and beguiling.
Magnus, on the other hand, incarnates two different kinds of bodies, as if the first is a trial. When he visits Everard, he incarnates as a man in his midforties with long ashen hair. But when he meets Lestat, Magnus incarnates himself as a man who bears a striking resemblance to his fledgling, with blue eyes, long blond hair, and a powerful, well-proportioned body.
Thus, ghosts are still ghosts. But they have the option to avoid reincarnating the bodies they had in life and perfecting a body that nature never provided. Occasionally ghosts will shiver or quiver whenever mortal or immortal eyes gaze upon them. But the more a ghost perfects its incarnate form, the less it shivers or quivers, and the more it can maintain a solid, tangible form.
Whether a pure spirit or a formerly mortal ghost, these etheric beings consider themselves a fraternity of uniquely evolving entities, possessing a small core of matter at the center of their being, which can be identified as the primer or matrix upon which they build the incarnation of their noncorporeal selves. Younger ghosts who have been dead for only a short while and are still learning how to evolve into an incarnate form cannot eat, drink, or taste, but they can feel hot or cold, as well as a sense of existence. Older spirits can evolve into an incarnate form that can fully experience all the sensual delights of life.
Spirits appear in The Vampire Lestat (1985), The Queen of the Damned (1988), Prince Lestat (2014), and Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis (2016). For more perspectives on spirits in the Vampire Chronicles, read the Alphabettery entries Amel, Gremt Stryker Knollys, Hesketh, Lestat de Lioncourt, and Magnus.