The Psychology of Ghosts

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

Reading Van Richten's Guides, I noticed he often includes a section about the psychology and society of the monster type - but the Guide to Ghosts has no such section!
I get why - a ghost's psychology is highly tied to their origin, which the options for are already elaborated in the book. But I think there's still more that can be done with it? Maybe?
Would you like to read an article covering this? Maybe also presenting some new incorporeal NPCs?

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

Just to give some context:
I actually got the idea from overthinking about Mordent.
I mean, Mordent has much higher than average undeath rates. There's some implication that everyone who dies in the domain comes back as some sort of an incorporeal undead. Even those who don't have a special reason to stay around. (I love this interpretation, because it explains how the domain reflects its darklord.)
This means a lot of ghosts, many of which aren't interested in haunting the living. Who mentally moved on from their death, but are still stuck in the near ethereal. What do these folks do? Maybe some just wander aimlessly until they fade away or get enslaved by Godefroy. But I figured at least some will try to go on with life, or unlife.

The Mistworld version of Mordent takes this idea to its logical extreme: Ghosts are citizens with equal rights, they're completely intergrated in society, you can see them working alongside the living...
I really like how normalised Mistmaster makes it feel. Yeah, our country is full of ghosts. Always been like that, we're used to it by now. D'you have a problem with our ghosts?
But the thing about Mistworld is...
A lot of people I talked to think of Ravenloft as of 'the world of horror where everything is horrible and nothing ever ends well'.
This perception is legitimate. It's actually wonderfully optimistic IMHO, because what it actually says is 'A world where everything is horrible isn't a naturally occurring thing. The real world isn't like that. While not perfect, our world is balanced between the good and the bad.'
But its not very comforting when you're playing in the world of horror where everything is horrible, right? If every adventure ends tragically, if nothing the characters do can ever make things better, what are we even fighting for? Your campaign is no longer scary, just despairing.
So I think (it's my speculation, I didn't talk to Mistmaster about it) the idea of Mistworld is to restore to Ravenloft the balance 'full' worlds have. We have darklords, but we also have lightlords. Stuff like that.
However, my idea of Ravenloft is 'The world of horror where way too many things are horrible and it often feels like the darkness will reign forever, but we can still find our little dots of light, and our duty as heroes is to kindle and shelter that light.'
So I'm less into turning the setting upside down, and more into fitting my little dots of light into it.

So my idea was the spirits of Mordent have their own social world, completely unknown to the living (except for the occasional medium). They talk to eachother, they have centuries old friend groups and rivalries and gossip...
So I thought about an article giving a peek into that 'secret life of the dead'. Then I thought, while we're at it, why not expand the lore on ghost psychology?

[Mistmaster]

You have nailed it. It is exactly my goal.