Birthless Spirits
Birthless spirits are entities that appear throughout the world of Shavirouk, acting as a part of the ecosystem and surrounding world. They come in a wide variety, each associated with and named for their own phenomenon. Most birthless spirits are conscious and non-sentient, however some rare few have gained the ability to find sentience over time. How this is done is still widely debated.
Ash spirits
Cold spirits
Cultivation spirits
Flame spirits - Appear as small people dancing around the source of a flame (the flame draws them) and are made solely of congealed light. They continually change size, though their size becomes fixed if they are measured and the measurement recorded, yet they begin to change size again if the record is erased.
Gravitation spirits - appear around heavy objects
Ground spirits - pull everything downard
Light spirits - Look like small balls of white fire that give off little rings of light, and trail streaks behind them like a comet.
Mist spirits - They can each choose their own forms, and usually choose a shape like a person, but don't need to.
Rain spirits - Found in puddles, they glow with a faint blue light and are shaped like ankle-high melting candles with no flame. They rarely appear except during the longest of rain storms. They are said to be the souls of raindrops, glowing blue rods, seeming to melt but never growing smaller, a single blue eye at their tops.
River spirits - Are eel-like and one of the largest of birthless spirits. They are somewhat rare, but supposedly able to speak at times in simple ways, like windspren.
Star spirits - Appear like glowing insects, zipping around; tiny pinpricks of light, chasing after one another. They are a rare type of spirit (likely only seen between moons when the sky is poorly lit).
Stone spirits - Are a variety that inhabit stone. They are revered by the people of Icharaye.
Storm spirits - Appear as smoky creatures moving about inside gemstones.
Wind spirits - are amorphous, vaguely translucent, devious spirits who have a penchant for staying where they aren't wanted. They most often appear as a ribbon of light without form. The larger among them can change shape and size. They can mimic voices and expressions, but don't actually think. They often play pranks, and are impossible to tell apart. They can appear to whomever they choose.
Ale spirits - Appear as small brown bubbles that cling to objects near someone who is severely intoxicated, though they appear infrequently.
Captivity Spirits - appear as thin, taught wires stretching between invisible pillars or walls.
Chasmfiend Spirits
Creation Spirits - Accompany a skillful act of creation, such as drawing or painting. They appear as finger-length, glowing faintly with silvery light, transforming perpetually, taking new shapes. Usually the shapes were things they had seen recently. They imitate shapes exactly, but move them in strange ways. They aren't entirely substantial.
Death spirits - They hate water. They appear as as fist-sized and black, with many legs and deep red eyes that glow, leaving trails of burning light. They cluster, skittering this way and that. Their voices are whispers, scratchy sounds like paper being torn. Only the dying are able to see death spirits." Deaths spirits are considered a superstition by many and dying hallucinations may account for the seeing of them.
Decay spirits - appear as barnacles on the refuse in corridors or old structures worn down by time and weather
Hunger spirits - Appear as little brown specks with wings, floating around their host.
Logic spirits - Are said to be attracted to great arguments and are described as appearing like tiny stormclouds.
Music spirits - Appear in the form of spinning translucent ribbons in the air where music is being played.
Rot spirits - Appear as tiny and red, like insects crawling over wounds. According to many surgeons and doctors, they hate water. Lister's oil frightens them better than soap does. They are translucent and tend to cluster around the dead.
Object spirits - These are visible only on alternate planes of existence, such as in the spiritual realm. They appear the same as the object, and cannot move on their own, but have a limited form of sentience to them.
Types of Birthless Spirits
The God Spirits
Many atheists around Shavirouk consider the Gods of Shavirouk to be birthless spirits, rather than divine beings themselves. Each is a unique spirit that encapsulates one of the 8 primary schools of magic in the world.- Agni Skan - Spirit of Conjuration
- Aris Teo - Spirit of Abjuration
- Daulesa - Spirit of Transmutation
- Shone Volar - Spirit of Necromancy
- Gribanati - Spirit of Divination
- Smajreki - Spirit of Enchantment
- Tishka - Spirit of Illusion
- Zagnaraz - Spirit of Evocation
