In Oblivion, there are ghosts. There is nothing wrong with that, except...

In the same game, there are two varieties of ghost.

One is only a spectral torso with distorted features that leaves trails of mist, melts into ectoplasm, and throws icy blasts. The other looks as they did in life, only transparent, and behaves normally. Why?

Is there any explanation to why ghosts manifest differently?

Designer choice. In morrowind, ghosts, both talky and non-talky, appeared the same (Unless one was an ancestor ghost and the other dwemer). In oblivion, the non-talkies and talkies looked different, with talky ghosts essentially being npc's with special effects. Its all developer choice really, no real lore reason.

Though one could surmise that the talking ones still retain much of their sense of self and so can better maintain an approximation of their old body, and the ones found in tombs have lost alot of that sense of self and so appear as a floating torso

I believe that once you get to that point of hypothetical answers, its better to say game mechanics.

I actually think that Dark_Apostle's answer makes a lot of sense. They retain their sense of self enough to talk, and this is reflected in their physical forms. Seems pretty cut and dry.

Sure, but what DarthRavanger is saying is that there is no proof and there will never be a general consesus on the matter so we might as well not even talk about it.

What about Mansilamat Vabdas then? I am pretty sure he looks just like a ghost

It is just so they can speak I assure you. The rogue Knight from the first chapter of the KotN was a wraith, and so were a couple others like Rufio. Why? Because cratures cannot talk. That is the primary reason why Dremora were made NPCs in Oblivion as well.

I never did understand why they made creatures incapable of holding conversations in oblivion.

I always thought that the more human like ghosts were harmless memories of their previous living body, while the hostile ghosts are more of the poltergiest who wish to cause mayhem and chaos as a form of revenge for their possible murder, like the ghosts in Benirus manor which were murdered by Lorgren Benirus.

The benrius ghosts are actually the products of his necromantic art. Protectors he "created" for the purpose of guarding his home. Agian, in terms of appearences, its a game mechanic thats new to oblivion. or a dev choice, one of the two.

I so these more as spirits or "bad spirits" like tomb raiders that died doing their dirty deads.



As Souls/Ghosts/Sprits that "chose" to stay due to a feeling that they had not finished their time or destiny on this dimention (something like their scroll needing the last finishing sentence or sommat )


As for the Ghosts called "Bone Lords" maybe they could be the rests of powerful malific magicians?

http://www.imperial-library.info/tsosk/chapter06.shtml

There is this from Shadowkey I think where the character encounters a ghost without it's old form that still holds personality. Not sure if those are canon though, and it could more be argued in TES travels games that technical limitations are the only reason for it.

However, I also think that the "self awareness = mortal form" is supported in the KotN expansion. Think about the only knight without his old form... :shrug: That could be shown as some supporting evidence for it. I know that it is pretty much all speculation, but that makes enough sense to me that I am looking in the Imperial Library right now to see if there is anything to back it up.

It puzzles me how in our world, people can hear ghostly voices in random white noise, but in Tamriel, ghosts suddenly are expected to follow strict rules of conduct.

The price of being real.

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The difference between NPC-ghosts and creature ghosts is because of game play. Thus not relevant because it differs from game to game. Can we move on now?

Come to think of this, is actually applies to Morrowind.

Ancestral Ghosts look like wraiths, but Dwemer Ghosts are spectral Dwemer.

Evidence from previous games, notably morrowind and the tribunal expansion with its multiple talking creature ghosts (who looked just like the crazy kill on site ones) indicate that this hypothesis of yours has been contradicted.

In oblivion, creatures can't talk, so its necessary to make them an NPC in order for them to communicate. This is pure game mechanics, and is best considered a quirk in oblivion's presentation of tamriel that is not reprsentative of what actually is. You are reading way too far into this.

Not really, as there is no difference between crazy kill on site dwemer ghosts and talking ones, adn theres no difference between talking ancestor ghosts and blood thirsty maniac ones. They are also both creatures. The only difference is that ones a dark elf ghost and ones a dwemer ghost.

He means don't look into it too much or you'll get lore wiz fever...

Same reason dark elves look different in morrowind than in oblivion.

Ghosts don't make sense, people. That's why they're called ghosts.

when thier former form isn't of any relevence, the devs have the ghosts in generic form. if their former form is signifigant and relevent, it's usually an NPC type.

Significant to the player. Yes we have a winner!

http://www.sandplay-toys.com/store/media/Ghost.jpg

sometimes, but in morrowind the "failed incarnates" were ghosts and they were also npcs so they were like the "Talky" oblivion ghosts..

i always thought their was a difference between ghosts and souls still on nirn. ghosts were a form they took when they were bound to nirn against their will which i believe according to morrowind lore is supposed to be painful and can cause insanity, or the soul losing its identiy. also ghosts could be an animation of a necromancer and only contain a small bit of the original human soul while the NPC "ghosts" were actually the soul materializing on nirn in a humanoid form similar to the body of its past life... i just drew this conclusion from bits and pieces of ingame morrowind lore but im probably over thinking

...what the..?