Spirits

Spirits are creatures of the Shadow Realms. While all mortals have a soul, which is often confused with a spirit, they are not spirits. Spirits exist as the fractured will of the Shadow Realms. A spirit has no free will - it cannot act on any conscious or whim, they simply exist and act according to their very existence.

A spirit of the river will always be a river spirit until it is no more. It may flow downstream and become a spirit of the lake or be swallowed by a bird and become a spirit of hawks - it may even disappear and become one with the Shadow Realms. Minor spirits often flow between different things becoming the new with no knowledge or understanding of the old or other. Stronger spirits can maintain their “self”, so a river spirit can resist flowing into the lake. Over time the spirit can grow as the river grows becoming the only spirit of a unique river.

There are untold numbers of spirits. Some, such as Mab or Ellowyn are unique individuals, while others like the ifrit and djinn number in the thousands. It is not their power that determine the “who” of a spirit, it is the will of the mortals that shape them. A strong spirit can have a sense of self, but it is never free to determine its boundaries or what is not itself.

Mortals are fashioned from a spark of the Divine Realms, Infernal Realms, and Shadow Realms. This creates a uniqueness that encompasses and shapes all things. As with the gods and devils, spirits are attracted to strong mortals who can shape the world around them.