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Many universes had Spirit Realms connected to them, which were a natural destination for various spirits if they were not directed to more substantial afterlives. The walls between a given Spirit Realm and its matching physical universe were weakened every Halloween.
Contemporary to the Rifts Crisis, something appeared to go wrong with many realities' Spirit Realms, which merged into one whole and became increasingly taken over by mysterious beings known as the Ghost Lords.
History
Spirit Realms affected by the Ghost Lords
In the Prime Universe
The Prime Universe's Spirit Realm was an intangible void. (PROSE: The Ghosts and the Machine) By the 21st century, it came to be under the thumb of invaders alien to the realm who set them up as its judges and rulers. (PROSE: A Copper-Colored Christmas Carol)
By the 2010s, the Great Ghost believed it to be “doomed” and was looking for a way for him his legion of spirits to permanently escape. He intended to do so via ordinary spirit paths, but, when Frankenstein-818's malfunctioning Spirit Realm Gateway opened a Rift between the Spirit Realm and the Cupid Homeworld, took his chance and led his legion out of the Realm through that portal in an attempted invasion. While the spirits rampaged, looking for bodies to possess across the Multiverse thanks to a flotilla of Fog Ships stolen from the Cupids, Frankenstein built a One-Way Forced Spirit Realm Gateway which, when activated, would send everything around it to the Spirit Realm.
However, before he could use it, Frankenstein was abducted by the spirits and forced to build a Reverse Spirit Realm Gateway to replace the Rift, which the Department of Rifts had sealed. After a short mishap with the One-Way Gateway where Foreman-964, Pythagoras-858, Technophile-963, Igor-1612 and Philatel-426 were briefly transported to the Spirit Realm before being summoned back by Juliet-178 using the reverse switch of the One-Way Gateway, the Cupids managed to send most of the ghosts back to the Spirit Realm. When they tried to return through the Reverse Gateway, they were transformed into clockwork toys of which Madame Tarsa took possession. The Great Ghost, meanwhile, was separated from his host body and sent to parts unknown. (PROSE: The Ghosts and the Machine)
On Christmas Eve 2019, after the Three Spirits attempted to give Philatel-426 a Christmas Carol experience, the Ghost of Christmas Past and Ghost of Christmas Present were each snatched in turn and dragged back into the Spirit Realm after finishing their parts of the scenario. There, they were clapped in magical chains which burned spirits upon contact, such that only the living could manipulate them; they were then left unguarded. Realising that something was wrong when Present didn't return to take Philatel back to his house at the end of the traditional “bad future” scenario, the Ghost of Christmas Yet-to-Come transported Philatel to the Spirit Realm and pointed him towards the chained Ghosts' location. After walking for a subjective eternity to cross the abstract distance, Philatel managed to free the two prisoners, and was then returned to the Cupid Homeworld — with his memories of the Spirit Realm detour erased, so as not to impinge upon the joyous Christmassy mood required by the traditional scenario. (PROSE: A Copper-Colored Christmas Carol)
= In the Frost King's Realm
The Frost King of one universe primarily resided in a Spirit Realm. In 2021, it had apparently become lonelier than it normally was. (PROSE: The Winter Quests)