Josephine Vance

Josephine, a character from the It Lives Beneath book, is the ghost of Lake Triumph and your maternal grandmother. She is first seen in Chapter 1.

Appearance
When Josephine was alive, she had long brown hair reaching a little past her waist. She had brown eyes and tan skin. She wore a burgundy top with a tan skirt. When she is in her ghost form, she is a blue hue and her eyes are glowing blue. In her skeletal ghost form, she has green hair and blue eyes.

Personality
From her journal entries, it appears that Josephine was a loner who enjoyed being away from other people. When she fell in love and married Arthur, she trusted her husband to her detriment. After she was killed, her soul was not released and instead was bound as a conduit between The Society and The Power, which caused her personality to change into a vengeful spirit. Decades of being tortured and killed repeatedly caused her to lose her sanity and she began to drown people indiscriminately. When confronted about killing Kyle Garza, she remarks that she does feel bad about it, but the constant blinding pain takes a toll on her.

Her last bits of humanity were tied to the belief her daughter was alive and well, believing in the bond between mother and child. However, when she learned that was not the case, she became inconsolable, more angry, and unable to reason.

Background
Approximately fifty years ago, Josephine lived in the woods around what would later be transformed into Pine Springs. When a land development group arrived, she actively worked against them and their pressure into selling her land. During this time, she met Arthur Vance, a member of the development group. The two of them fell in love, married, and had a daughter named Marie.

In a futile attempt to convince the developers to reconsider their plans for Pine Springs and for them to work together instead of against each other, Arthur told them about The Power, which Josephine had confided in him. This caused Josephine to feel betrayed as the group became greedy for the power, and threatened the lives of her family to force them into revealing ways to harness said power. Knowing about Josephine's relationship with The Power, the group killed her in a ritual, using her body to serve as a conduit between them and The Power.

As a vengeful spirit, Josephine seeks retribution from all those that played a hand in her death. However, as the decades continued and her sanity slips, the line between guilty and innocent blurs. In Chapter 15, she states that she wants to make all of Pine Springs suffer for The Society's crimes, believing that all of them are guilty. Finding out her daughter had died pushes Josephine past the point of no return. She warns you to leave while you still can and said even Elliot could be killed if he interferes with her plans for revenge.

It Lives Beneath

 * Chapter 1: Dead in the Water
 * Chapter 2: Out of Your Depth
 * Chapter 8: The Floodgates
 * Chapter 9: Any Port in a Storm
 * Chapter 12: Riptide
 * Chapter 14: Under Pressure
 * Chapter 15: Sink or Swim
 * Chapter 16: Thicker than Water

Nightbound

 * Chapter 8: The Veil of Time

Your Character
After learning the truth about the Lake Ghost, you vowed to find a way to help Josephine and put her spirit at peace. The two of you finally meet face to face in Chapter 14, where Josephine accepts you as her grandchild, wrapping you in an embrace and wishing she could have seen you grow up. You attempt to reason with her in Chapter 15, but realize that there's nothing left to save that she's a monster who needs to be stopped. In Chapter 16, the two of you make it clear that you don't want to fight each other, but are left with no other choice due to her determination to kill Arthur and destroy Pine Springs.

Marie Vance
Josephine really cares about her daughter, Marie. When she found out that her child is dead, she got enraged and willingly reverted back to her lake monster form despite remembering who she is. She tells her grandchild that she will make Astrid and Arthur pay for what happened to her and Marie before taking off to pursue them.

Arthur Vance
Josephine is furious with her ex-husband, believing he had betrayed her which led to her death. She tries to get revenge on him by killing him, which she determinately can succeed if your nerve is too low.

Known Victims

 * Abraham Kelley (Killed by controlled bear monster; Determinant)
 * Arthur Vance (Attacked and potentially murdered with marlinspike)
 * Astrid Wescott (Murdered by marlinspike)
 * Danni Asturias (Attacked and potentially killed by controlled bear monster)
 * Elliot Vance (Kidnapped)
 * Imogen Wescott (Attacked and potentially killed by controlled bear monster)
 * Kyle Garza (Dragged to the bottom of the lake and drowned)
 * Parker Shaw (Attacked and potentially killed by controlled bear monster)
 * Richard Sutcliffe (Stabbed by marlinspike)
 * Tom Sato (Attacked and potentially killed by controlled elk monster)
 * Vincent Wescott (Murdered with marlinspike)
 * Your Character (Attacked by controlled monsters)

Trivia

 * Unlike Redfield, she merged with the Power differently. While Redfield attempted to absorb the Power for himself and got absorbed instead, Josephine was murdered and forced to become a conduit to the Power. In other words, whenever a cultist from the Society receives abilities from the Power, Josephine is spiked, killed and merged with the Power over and over again on the cultist's behalf. This caused her tremendous pain. As a result, her mental stability and humanity progressively deteriorates, turning her into a vengeful, bloodthirsty ghost.
 * Like Redfield, she is weak against sunlight, which is why she strikes late afternoon or night time to drown potential victims. This is also shown in Chapter 15, when she created thick foggy weather in order to emerge from the water and begin her plans for revenge against the Society and all of Pine Springs.
 * You have a chance to play as Josephine in a premium scene in Chapter 16.
 * In this scene, she asks Abe Kelley if he special ordered his robe from Burlington Cult Factory, which is a reference to the Burlington Coat Factory.
 * The name Josephine is French and English in origin, which means "‎God shall grow". It's the female variant of the Hebrew name Joseph.
 * The surname Vance is Old English in origin and means "one who lives near the Marshland" or "dweller of bog".
 * She makes an appearance in Nightbound, Chapter 8, as a passenger aboard the Charon. Her dialogue implies that Nightbound takes place before the events of It Lives Beneath.