Spirits

The general belief in Kaestra is that nature is full of powerful spirits. The people, being close to nature in their daily lives, feel a connection to these spirits and try to be on good terms with them.

Summary

For so long as the Kaestran folk can remember, there have been super natural forces around them, helping them or disrupting them in small ways. Often in the night where nothing is seen, the milk may sour or an unexpected wind might tear down the crops. Ofttimes this comes after something terrible has happened. This could be the case if a person beating their spouse too often and too harshly, or is lazy in the care of their beasts in a way so that they suffer. The spirits may be mischevious if it's just soured milk that one time, or a protective spirit may be taking vengeance for the disruption of the peace of the land and for the suffering the person have caused. A good household which makes sure every need is met and every belly is full on their land, may find that they always find the thing they misplaced, placed in an slightly obvious spot. Or they always have good luck with no pests in their gardens, and no deadly sickness coming to their household. The helpful, protective spirits likes a happy homestead and will keep it safe from such minor bad luck.

Historical Basis

The main deduction by the folk who know of such spirits, is that they are ancestors or powerful beasts who are enjoying the afterlife but on a different plane of existance. They may be simply visiting the land they once lived on, or they simply haunt it because something dreadful happened to them at the very place it is active. These spirits are noted to be naturally drawn to souces of great power, such as volcanoes and waterfalls

Spread

It's not just believed that spirits exist, it's just common knowledge that they are real and that you don't want to make them angry.

Variations & Mutation

With a big world comes great variety in belief, and so where natural forces have less affect on the daily life the belief in spirits have become a substition (a substition is a creature or thing that is real but no one really believes in).

Cultural Reception

The crocuans find the spirits to ofttimes be well meaning and thus they are seen as an important part of the household. Meanwhile, the askians has a bigger focus on the bad things these might have and see the belief of such more as faulty and deficient system of belief made up by peasants and uneducated folks. The smaller, rural askian populations that know and feel the spirits around them, may give them names and worship them as minor deitys of natural cycles, crops or fertility. The uspuan and ukan traditionally see them as mischieveous spirits who must be appeased by little rituals in important holy days, otherwise they are angered. They tell cautionary sagas of bad things that was caused by angered spirits, and how they might lead children astray in the deep forests. The atrian put great store in their elders and ofttimes think of the spirits as their loved departed ones, still being among them and trying to help them or protect them from evils like sickness and crop failure.