Wishing Spirit

Wishing Spirits are a category of fictional beings which can, just as the name suggests, grant wishes. In some tales, they may also answer questions about the future, though in such stories the answers they give are always truthful but misleading.
Wishing Spirits appear in children's tales in Chrenada, where they serve first (in stories meant for younger listeners) as a sort of deus ex machina solution to many story troubles, such as the hero of a tale finding a coffer containing an entrapped Wishing Spirit in the dungeon where he and his companions have been imprisoned by the story's villain. (One presumes the villain had forgotten about the imprisoned Wishing Spirit when consigning his intended victims to the same dungeon.)
In stories for older listeners, the protagonist may encounter a Wishing Spirit and engage in a battle of wits, trying to outsmart the Spirit with a wish that cannot be granted in an inconvenient or harmful fashion. Frequently another character will fail in such a match before the protagonist makes his attempt, emphasizing the risk and stakes in the story.
(The Tale of Maya is a notable exception, remarkable for its protagonist refusing to engage with the Wishing Spirit she meets on her adventure, eschewing the contest altogether. Maya frees the entrapped spirit but does not take advantage of its offered wish.)
Likewise, questions about the future will be accurate ("king, your royal son will kill you") but given in such a way that a character will misunderstand or even, in seeking to avoid the predicted event, bring it about (the king sends his son far away, where he grows up without knowing his father and so, while traveling, kills a stranger, who is in fact the king).
These stories are just that, stories, and scholars trace the Wishing Spirits back to morality tales of the Ileni, the first settlers of the continent.

On the table was an enormous earthenware dish, painted with a wishing spirit which appeared to be gesturing to the edge of the lid with a self-congratulatory smirk. Ariana lifted the lid to reveal pork, cheese, vegetables, and a little bundle of spices at one end.

References to Wishing Spirits may be found from the aforementioned stories to fanciful art to tavern song to linguistic idiom.

Historical Basis

Stories of Wishing Spirits have been recorded for centuries, but without any evidence of a connection to any historical basis. One indicator of pure myth is their name "wishing spirit;" certainly no race of beings would refer to itself by its mere function to another, and yet no other name is recorded for them.