“Searchlight Geist” by Steven Belledin for Magic: The Gathering gives us an interesting take on the ghost light phenomenon.
Ghost lights, or corpse candles, are a type of ignis fatuus observed where the dead are buried. They have been witnessed in many different regions throughout history and are the fodder for endless ghost stories and folk beliefs.
Fettered ghosts are another old tradition. An Athenian folktale recorded by Pliny the Younger around 100 A.D. tells of a chain-rattling spirit that was put to rest when the remains of luckless prisoner were found in a bricked-in dungeon and finally given proper burial. The story inspired Charles Dickens, whose creation Jacob Marley in turn inspired innumerable ghosts in art, literature, and ephemera.
