The Family Ghost
Names: The Family Ghostthe Ghostmon fantômethe voicethe thingFantôme Familierle Fantôme FamilierMarcspectral hasslerthe LylmikItLylmik mind
First appears in Book 1: Intervention, chapter 1 (Prologue)
Appearances
What you know
Book 1: Intervention
- Ch 1The Ghost claims to be a Lylmik charged with guiding the Remillard family through Rogi, and never shows itself.
- Ch 1After thirty years of leaving Rogi alone, the Ghost returns and demands he write his memoirs as a full, honest history of the Remillards.
- Ch 1The Ghost says it works through Rogi because the Remillards would never accept direct counsel from nonhumans before the Intervention.
- Ch 1The Ghost says it loves Rogi and promises the visitations will end after this last assignment if he wishes.
- Ch 1Ghost is a Lylmik who communicates telepathically with Rogi and professes love for him, and is revealing information known to no other human.
- Ch 1Ghost uses simulacrum bodies, and agrees to a sublethal compromise: letting Rogi see it the way it once was.
- Ch 1Ghost will not explain how it worked its mysterious foreknowledge until Rogi completes his own story, and plans to begin the family history after lunch tomorrow.
- Ch 4Invisible, French-speaking mind-voice that saved Rogi from a ravine and later helped, advised and bedevilled him at critical points in his life.
- Ch 4It told Rogi not to mention their meeting, and hinted at a paradox: it saved him from an event it knew had not happened.
- Ch 10The Ghost is a mental voice that intervenes to stop Rogi from killing Don, blinding him and cutting off his powers.
- Ch 10The Ghost says Don must wed Marie-Madeleine and beget a child of great destiny, following a great pattern.
- Ch 10The Ghost says all of Rogi's family and race are its responsibility and expiation; it declines to heal Rogi.
- Ch 12Rogi suspects the Ghost foresaw all along that he would be drawn into Denis's upbringing, and he curses it.
- Ch 12The Family Ghost is felt as a formless mental plea from the bedroom; Rogi feels it has won, which pushes Rogi to agree.
- Ch 18The Ghost answers Rogatien's call, heals his knee, dries him, and says it is an extraterrestrial being and special guardian of the Remillard family.
- Ch 18The Ghost says it earlier placed a first charge on Rogatien, who has fulfilled it well, and that Denis will always need his friendship.
- Ch 26The Ghost, an unseen guide to Rogi, directed him to keep Denis out of Georgetown and send him to Dartmouth.
- Ch 35The Ghost, an incorporeal being from another star, manipulated Rogi into renting the Gates House shop to put him near the future Remillard home.
- Ch 35The Ghost says it cannot coerce Rogi or influence the Remillards directly, since that would violate the integrity of the probability lattices.
- Ch 35It belongs to the first race to reach coadunation and guides juvenile races; humans are the only candidates approaching induction into the Milieu.
- Ch 35It forbids Rogi from telling anyone, especially Denis, what it revealed about the Milieu.
- Ch 35A voice that speaks mentally to Rogi, the Ghost wants Denis left to follow his own path while Rogi helps him in secret.
- Ch 35The Ghost believes Denis's coming trials will be his incentive, and treats Rogi's objections with cold calm.
- Ch 35The Ghost directs Rogi to a dusty key ring lying in the gutter as a small token.
- Ch 74The Ghost speaks telepathically to Rogatien on the mountain, telling him to hold the Congress's last supper there.
- Ch 74The Ghost wants Rogatien to tell Denis about it after arrangements are made, and to urge nonviolence, service, and unity of the Mind of Earth.
- Ch 74It tells Rogatien that at a self-evident moment during the Congress he must urge Denis to unite colleagues in metaconcert and examine the Carbuncle.
- Ch 78The Family Ghost earlier told Rogi he would know the moment to urge Denis to unite minds in metaconcert.
- Ch 79The Ghost is an incorporeal Lylmik who helped Rogi write the account and communicates with him telepathically.
- Ch 79The Ghost sometimes assumed the personas of living humans, setting them aside afterward, and once took the guise of Pete Laplace.
- Ch 79The Ghost admits that disguised human manipulation of probability lattices became habit-forming, and that it enjoyed it.
- Ch 79The Ghost helped Rogi defeat Victor and trapped him inside his own skull rather than killing him.
Book 2: Jack the Bodiless
- Ch 4The Family Ghost is a mysterious being Rogi suspects may be only his imagination; if so, he is responsible for the Intervention and the Rebellion.
- Ch 10A mysterious exotic presence that Rogi believes uses him as a human cat's-paw; it previously sent him to a London convention in 2029 to introduce Mary Gawrys to Kyle Macdonald.
- Ch 22A Lylmik entity called the Family Ghost ordered Rogatien to accompany Teresa to Ape Lake, saying his participation was necessary.
- Ch 22Rogi believes a spectral presence is manipulating events and demands it provide big game for him to hunt.
- Ch 24The Family Ghost, a Lylmik, pulled Rogi's strings before the Intervention and apparently delivered the moose; Denis doubts Lylmik would intervene so personally.
Book 3: Diamond Mask
- Ch 1It speaks telepathically to Rogi, is a Lylmik mind, and urges him to finish his memoirs so it can go in peace.
- Ch 1It suggests Rogi write at Elaine Donovan's isolated, cool lodge near Pohakumano and offers to bring his transcriber and cat from New Hampshire.
- Ch 1It calls kahunas an anomalous type of human metapsychic operant.
- Ch 2The Family Ghost has reappeared and, Rogatien now believes, plotted to let him evade Unity so the Remillard family's scandalous deeds stayed unexposed until the right time.
- Ch 7The Family Ghost saved Rogatien from Fury by telling it to do what it must, but not with him.
- Ch 24An unseen presence Rogi believes watches over him; the breeze seems to sigh in reply to his plea.
Book 4: Magnificat
- Ch 1The Family Ghost is a Lylmik entity that has prompted and manipulated Rogi's memoirs and arranged his stay at Elaine's house; it is silent and unwell now.
- Ch 22The Family Ghost, a Lylmik entity, warns Rogi that Hagen may be in danger from Marc, then forces Rogi to look at it.
- Ch 35The Ghost instructs Rogi to give the manuscript to the Ghost's sister Marie to publish, with nothing cut or altered.
- Ch 35The Ghost is addressed as Marc and Rogi's nephew ('mon oncle'); it says goodbye and asks Rogi to pray for it.
Connections
- member ofLylmik
- related toRogi Remillardmentor and manipulator who works through him
- ally ofRogi Remillard
- related toRemillard Dynastyguardian of the family
- family ofRogi RemillardMarc calls him Uncle Rogi
- enemy ofVictor
- friend ofRogi Remillard
- createdred glass marble key ringgave it to Rogi
- family ofMarie-Madeleine FabreThe Ghost calls Marie his sister
Key moments
- Book 1 · Ch 1The Ghost confronts Rogi at the Winter Carnival
The Ghost follows Rogi through the Dartmouth Winter Carnival fireworks, and Rogi angrily rails at it for using him and for the deaths of his family.
- Book 1 · Ch 1The Ghost demands Rogi's memoirs
In his apartment above The Eloquent Page, Rogi learns the Ghost's last assignment is to write the full history of the Remillards. He demands the Ghost show itself and doubts it exists.
- Book 1 · Ch 1Rogi bargains to see Ghost
Rogi insists Ghost show itself before he will write the memoirs. Ghost compromises, uses calming impulses on his mind, and lets him see it as it was. Rogi sees it and is shaken.
- Book 1 · Ch 4Rogi meets the Family Ghost
Lost in the forest at age five, Rogi fled a bear, heard Don's mind-voice, and was snatched back from a ravine edge by the invisible Family Ghost, who led him out and told him to keep silent.
- Book 1 · Ch 10Attempted murder on the bridge
After the bachelor party, Rogi goads drunken Don into walking the bridge rail and uses PK and coercion to dislodge him. The Ghost blinds Rogi and halts the attempt.
- Book 1 · Ch 10The Ghost's revelation
The Ghost heals Don, erases his memory, tells Rogi of Don's destined child and Rogi's role as mentor, and reveals Rogi is sterile.
- Book 1 · Ch 12Rogi agrees to help teach the kid
Don suggests Rogi join him and Sunny in teaching the kid. After a mental plea from the bedroom, Rogi gives in and agrees, and Don turns to asking about supper.
- Book 1 · Ch 18Ghost rescues Rogatien on Mount Success
Injured by a fall and caught in a storm, Rogatien calls the Ghost, who heals him, directs Denis to Brebeuf Academy, reveals it is an extraterrestrial, and transports him to Gentian Pond Shelter.
- Book 1 · Ch 26Rogi redirects Denis from Georgetown to Dartmouth
Following the Ghost's advice, Rogi tells Fathers Ellsworth and Dubois that Denis will attend Dartmouth, not Georgetown, citing infiltration risks in Washington.
- Book 1 · Ch 35Rogi is steered to the Gates House shop
Rogi detects the Ghost's aura in a vacant shop shown by Mrs. Mallory; the Ghost admits arranging that he take it because of its proximity to the future Remillard home.
- Book 1 · Ch 35The Ghost reveals the Remillards' destiny
At 15 East South Street, the Ghost foretells the Denis–Lucille marriage, their descendants leading the Human Polity, and tasks Rogi with steering Lucille away from Sampson. It explains the Milieu and the coming Great Intervention.
- Book 1 · Ch 35Rogi signs the bookshop lease
After arguing with the Ghost about helping Denis in secret, Rogi finds a red marble key ring in the gutter and enters the real-estate office to sign the lease on the Gates House bookshop.
- Book 1 · Ch 74The Ghost speaks on the summit
On the chalet balcony the Family Ghost instructs Rogatien to hold the banquet there, later tell Denis about it, and bring the Great Carbuncle to the Congress. Rogatien agrees to the banquet.
- Book 1 · Ch 79Rogi recognizes the Ghost as Marc
After finishing his section of the narrative, Rogi questions the Ghost about Victor's fate and its human guises, then confirms he knows the Ghost is Marc, and they exchange goodnights.
- Book 2 · Ch 22Rogi kills a moose
After demanding that the ghost provide game, Rogi finds moose tracks, spots a young bull moose and shoots it dead, planning to butcher it.
- Book 2 · Ch 24Rogi confides about the Family Ghost, then collapses and is rescued
Rogi tells Denis about the Lylmik Family Ghost and the Great Carbuncle, falls ill from overeating, collapses on Ape Lake's ice hallucinating Elaine, and wakes in the cabin tended by Teresa.
- Book 3 · Ch 1Rogi agrees to write at Elaine's lodge
The Family Ghost persuades Rogi to write his memoirs at Elaine Donovan's lodge near Pohakumano. Rogi hesitates over Elaine's memory but agrees, then the Ghost leaves.
- Book 3 · Ch 2Rogatien begins his memoirs
With Atoning Unifex's tenure ended and the Family Ghost's reappearance, Rogatien sets down the Remillard family's secrets, now safe to reveal, for countless future readers.
- Book 3 · Ch 7Victor's death and Fury's birth
On Good Friday 2040 Victor died during the family prayer vigil. Fury appeared and tried to take Rogatien, who escaped with the Family Ghost's help.
- Book 3 · Ch 24Rogi appeals to Ghost
- Book 4 · Ch 1Rogi finishes the volume and is rebuffed by the Ghost
At dawn Rogi completes the memoir volume, is troubled by a final line about Fury, and angrily demands answers from the silent Family Ghost. Malama telepathically tells him to visit her that afternoon.
- Book 4 · Ch 22Fury appears before Rogi
While babysitting Hagen, Rogi hears the Family Ghost's warning about danger from Marc, then turns to see a bloodied fair-haired man in the nursery.
- Book 4 · Ch 35Rogi finishes the manuscript and bids the Ghost farewell
Rogi completes the account for the Family Ghost, is told to give it to Marie for publication, learns of the Lylmik helpers, and shares a farewell handshake with the departing Ghost.