It would be difficult to describe what a spirit is exactly, in one sense the sea is one spirit, but every droplet of water in it is a spirit as well. Spirits are life in the world, and anything with life has a spirit. Nature spirits exist as long as what they inhabit exists. So for example, we could be dealing with an immortal Mountain Spirit or an Ice Spirit which lives for only five minutes.

 

In a way, a person’s soul is another kind of spirit, but it does not take the universally accepted form of a spirit until its host is dead.

 

Spirits live in the spirit world, which is a mirror of the physical world. Spirits can not normally travel between worlds, and the same applies for creatures in the physical world. Travel into the spirit world is dangerous at best, as it holds unfamiliar dangers. Many adventurer’s in the past have been lost to the spirit world because they think they’ve seen all the types of spirits in the physical world. The amount of spirits that can travel to the physical world is actually a very small number, a host of different kinds exist in the spirit world.

 

Most of the time spirits are content to rest and play with each other, from waves playing tag with the sands of the beach or the tectonic plate’s game of upside down chess.

 

However, it is alarmingly easy to disturb a spirit, for example kicking stones tends to be frowned upon, but spirits have lived along side these disturbances before time was invented, and usually just brush such acts off. This is why the ground doesn’t just open up and shallow everyone but sometimes spirits can be in certain moods, or their just feeling malicious, and take serious offense at being disturbed. These usually end with something horrible happing like a cave in, but more likely, many spirits are just not powerful enough to take out their aggression on people.

 

Souls are slightly different but somewhat the same in this sense. The difference is most souls will instantly go to their destined place of rest, in the Plane of Death. However some are stubborn, lost, or just full of rage enough to stay in the spirit world, trapped between existences. These spirits tend to be the ones that cause the most trouble. They are also more likely to be evil and commonly curse people for disturbing their burials. These are called Ziklak spirits, meaning “Stuck to ground”.

 

While most spirits are weak and aren’t able to really effect anything outside of the spirit world itself, there are ways to empower spirits so they can have a larger effect on the physical world. Spirits are able to enter this world if people believe they exist. For example, if a town gave an entrance of a cave its own name the spirits around it would come together to create a new spirit; however, it would not be able to do anything quite yet. Once people begin to pray or give physical offerings to the cave entrance it would grow stronger, also if people just believed a made up myth about the cave (Like it’s good luck to jump through it) that will also empower the spirit. In some ways this can be a good thing, as spirits birthed from people tend to try and help them; however, if the focus of the belief was about it being evil, then that is what it would become. A spirit that loses belief can retain its power for many years, or even centuries depending upon if it uses its power at any point. These kinds of spirits tend to be called Wakcana spirits, meaning “born from mind”.

 

Some spirits begin life so powerful and vast that they don’t need belief to effect it’s surroundings, but these sorts of spirits tend not to so that they don’t effect the balance of the world.

 

When a person disturbs a spirit there is normally no immediate effect, however there are a few things to note. Spirits can’t see very well, most spirits aren’t actually powerful enough to see very far into the physical world, so if you disturbed it there’s a high chance it will only catch one distinctive feature of you. All spirits everywhere can contact each other at any time, there is a bit of delay but if a spirit wants to it can send a message to everyone. Spirits remember everything, there are some limitations for this, for example some spirits are easily distracted thus don’t tend to bother trying to remember everything, some just don’t care.

 

Finally, spirits have a sort of tab system they use to judge offenders. Depending upon the power and influence of the spirits they disturb retribution could come sooner or later. If a person disturbs only small or minor spirits, the most that will happen to him is waking up with really knotted hair or he may trip into a cart of rotten eggs. Disturbing Wakcana spirits usually gets a person cursed, but the effect of the curse can be widely different for each spirit. Disturbing Ziklak spirits almost always gets a person a death curse.

Disturbing bigger and more powerful spirits is difficult at best, but usually have crippling or fatal effects on the offender.

 

On occasion, a person could have tremendous bad luck when they kicked a small stone, it later turning out to be the spirit brother of the whole mountain.

 

The biggest and strongest of the spirits are the Council of Elders, formed of the King of Winds, The Queen of the Seas, The Duke of the Earth and finally the Emperor of Fire. There vastness makes it almost impossible to disturb them.

Shamans walk a constant razors edge of trying to keep all the spirits happy, and stop them from cursing people. A Shaman is usually an individual who was born with the ability to sense, hear, or see spirits. If the Shaman agrees to do favors for the spirits they will grant them the ability to use their powers. For example, a shaman could summon a gust of wind with the aid of a wind spirit, but would have to later do a favor for that spirit. These favors are usually small things, like with wind spirits they could ask the Shaman to bottle them up and take them to a new place to explore. A Shaman must always be aware that a much greater use of power could incur serious favors, and the Shaman is oath bound to do it. Some spirits will also accumulate favors until the shaman owes them a lot before they ask for their favor.

 

Getting out of favors can only be done with the help of a more powerful spirit, but this usually ends with them wanting a favor as well.

 

It should be noted that a Shaman never has to do a Ziklak or Wakcanna spirit a favor, since the Shamans gifts come from nature spirits. In fact when helping spirits, nature spirits should be helped first, else they get ill-tempered with the shaman.

 

A Shamans main task when it comes to the physical world is dispelling evil spirits or calming them down. A Shaman usually has a number of powers at his disposal with which to do this, but there are a few rituals a Shaman can use as well.

 

“Return Oh Spirits”
After something dies there is a small chance that it will become a Ziklak spirit, in order to prevent this a Shaman can conduct a burial to appease the dead souls. How this is done is usually up to the Shaman, or depending upon the race of the dead creature. This ritual usually involves dancing, music, and singing in order to honor the dead. Burning the dead creature’s possessions also helps, as it cuts their ties with the physical world. For providing the ritual the Shaman can take an item from the dead creature, however it is seen as poor form to take something very valuable or something that was very important to the dead creature.

 

“Recite thy True Names”
While giving a spirit a name will sometimes cause it to become a Wakcanna spirit, all spirits have a number of true names for themselves. Learning a spirits name can only be done with the aid of other spirits, but there is usually a price to pay for such information. If a Shaman is able to recite a spirits true name, or better yet all of them, then this not only calms the spirit but shows them that you honor them greatly. The more powerful spirits can have hundreds of names. While Wakcanna spirits have true names they prefer to be called by their given name.

 

“I Bind Thee”
A rarely used option, if a spirit is too full of rage to calm down or too powerful to slay, a Shaman can choose to seal it within himself. This is usually a very bad idea. Not only does the Shaman greatly risk his life, but their connection to the spirits will be forever tainted. While many spirits may not openly disprove of the Shamans actions they will be careful giving the Shaman any power, lest they turn on them. When the Shaman dies the spirits are released, however the process would have calmed them down so they are no longer a danger.  It’s said the most powerful of Spirit Shamans has a number of sealed spirits to draw power from, and that they do not “take crap from anyone, spirit or man”

 

On occasion Spirit Shamans will prevent massive tragedies and save entire communities, however nobody knows they did it. This apparently happens all the time, much to the annoyance of spirit shamans.

Air Spirits

Playful and talkative air spirits are always on the move. Exploration is an air spirits greatest pass time, and it loves nothing better then soaring to new heights or finding new places to gander at. Air spirits tend to ask for a return on their favors quite quickly, as they are normally worried that the opportunity will pass them by too fast (People live such short and uninteresting lives after all). Air spirits are usually more then happy to spy or scout out an area for a Shaman, however once they come back they tend to describe everything, no matter how small the details are. Air spirits love the sound of their own voice and will happily go into un-necessary depth with everything they talk about. It is considered incredibly rude to tell an air spirit to be quiet, so most Shamans tend to pretend that they are listening and just endure it.

 

Water Spirits

Prone to mood swings water spirits can be your best friend one moment and your most hated rival the next. Water spirits are mostly content to just lie down and relax, thinking complicated thoughts about fish or other water things. However when water spirits take an interest in something else it usually becomes an obsession, only ending if they get bored or find something more interesting. For a Shaman it is usually pointless to ask a water spirit about something, as it’s likely they will not care for the subject. On occasion however a Shaman may be lucky enough to find a water spirit that has focused its attention on something he wants to know about, in which case there usually a great pool of knowledge. Water spirits are usually quite patient about calling back their favors, however if something about their interest changes, or they see a chance to learn more, they may use their favor with a shaman quite quickly. What is interesting is when a water spirit freezes it doesn’t change all that much, but rather becomes more calm and focused.

 

Earth Spirits

Stubborn and mindful earth spirits are usually difficult to work with. An earth spirit most of the time is in a state of permanent sleep, only to be roused for short instances. In these short periods of time they are awake they tend to play complicated mind games with other earth spirits, however the games rarely make sense and Shamans swear their just making it up as they go along. Since earth spirits are asleep most of the time their pool of knowledge tends to be rather small, however for the times they are awake they are completely aware of everything in a wide area around them. However earth spirits are notoriously slow talkers and stubborn as mules, only giving tidbits of information for big favors. Luckily for Shamans earth spirits live so long they tend to forget that Shamans do not live as long, so sometimes when they ask for a favor the shaman is already dead. But when they do want a favor it’s usually quite a big deal.

 

Fire spirits

Dramatic and possibly insane fire spirits are a laugh until they burn your house down. Strangest of all the spirits, fire spirits have a great love for theater and acting. Nobody is quite sure when their love for it started but ever since nothing makes a fire spirit happier then watching or acting in a play. Many fire spirits only live for short periods of time, so there quick to begin epic tales of hero’s and villains with each other. Fire spirits that live in actual theaters are seen as very lucky, however on occasion they can get too excited and burn the theater down by accident. Sometimes fire spirits are good scouts or messengers, as they can very quickly communicate with any nearby fires, but they always tend to over exaggerate any information they bring back. When it comes to favors fire spirits are usually content with getting Shamans to fuel their fire so they can finish their epic play or something. However major favors can end up with a shaman having to recite certain lines or in a worst case scenario, actually setting up a full blown play.

 

Miscellanies Spirits

While rare there are certain nature spirits out there that don’t fit any of the previously described, and it is important that a Shaman is familiar with there forms. Mostly so they know when to run away.

 

Spirit of Rage

While disturbing spirits usually only cause them a mild discomfort sometimes a great number of spirits feel someone has done them a great wrong. In this case they may form together to create a Spirit of Rage. This spirit is formed from lots of the same kind of spirit, and is usually easy to notice what kind they are. One warning, a large number of Ziklak spirits or even Wakcanna spirits can form a spirit of rage as well. Spirits of rage are special in that they were formed with the intention of affecting the physical world, and are usually the cause of disasters. For example a massive earthquake could have an Earth spirit of rage at its center, or a forest fire could have a Fire one instead. Calming a spirit of rage is incredibly difficult and dangerous, and should be done with the help of an entire community.

 

Oakolco Spirit

Trees are usually seen as living creatures with a soul rather then a spirit. However on occasion a tree could have lived so long that it actually fully enters the spirit world. To everyone else the tree would appear to be dead, but in the spirit world it would take on the appearance of a massive tree. Able to communicate like a spirit Oakolco spirits are guardians of their resting places, and tend to offer a wide range of protection for an area. They are also great holders of knowledge, completely aware of everything that happened in their life and in their new spirit form.

 

Yagkak Spirits

An incredibly strange spirit, Yagkak spirits look like little imps with long flowing robes that are too big for them. Invisible to normal people, Yagkak spirits are special in that they can affect anything in the physical world as if they were there. Trouble makers at heart Yagkak’s enjoy nothing more then causing confusion and chaos in people’s daily lives. Normally you’d find younger ones doing small pranks while older ones do more cunning and malicious plots. Annoyingly Yagkak spirits can’t be dealt with normal means and seem semi-immortal for some unknown reason. The only way to get rid of a Yagkak spirit is to trap it into a circle of salt, throw moldy cheese at it and then give it a sharp kick up the ass. However Yagkak’s are tricky spirits and usually need to be tricked into stepping into the circle.