Spirits

A spirit is a sort of symbiotic being that inhabits a particular item, place, or lifeform. Spirits come in a wide range of shapes and sizes, with varying abilities suited to helping their habitation flourish and expand. For example, a tree spirit inhabits a tree, and has the ability to grow that tree to larger than average sizes, at an increased speed than spiritless trees. A group of Tree spirits are collectively called forest/Jungle spirits, together, they grow the forest outwards using their abilities. Forest spirits are some of the oldest beings on the planet, and have seen much. Especially old ones are extremely powerful, able to do things beyond just growing their tree to gargantuan sizes.
Some spirits inhabit lifeless objects, such as rocks, swords, or houses, in this case the spirit can't really "grow" their habitation in the usual way, so they must increase their powers via other means. A sword spirit consumes blood, lifeforce, and flesh, they will the owner of the sword to seek battle or to just kill people. It depends on the spirit.
A house spirit inhabits structures, some eat people, but this is counterproductive, as it will likely cause the destruction of the building. Only abandoned buildings are inhabited by bloodthirsting spirits. Normal house spirits live in harmony with the other inhabitants, and offer help around the house in exchange for offerings of food or tribute. House spirits can control most things in a house, opening and closing doors, warping floorboards, moving furniture, keeping the fireplace burning without the need for firewood, some can even cook food for the occupants.
River spirits inhabit rivers, which are so long they can hold multiple spirits.
Rarely spirits will live inside animals. This is a rarity because back in the past there were many animal spirits, but they caused the animals they inhabited to form into giant, mutated forms of themselves, which acted with a sentience equal to that of a human. Needless to say, they were very dangerous creatures, and were hunted to near extinction many centuries ago. Animal spirits could become so large and bloodthirsty they would destroy entire ecosystems, some of the most powerful are still talked about in legends today. They would even eat other spirits to gain more power. A point was reached were humanity allied with the less bloodthirsty spirits to destroy the animal spirits. Jesus christ I've said spirits quite a lot now haven't I? Maybe I should have different names for the different spirit types.

Spirit type names:

• Spirit - Ykozod
• River - Zozyko
• Forest - Gazyko
• House - Noilyko
• Blade - Otimyko
• Animal/Beast - Milyko

With that outta the way... Milyko were getting out of control, destroying towns, eating spirits and people alike, creating their own small societies based around worshipping and feeding them. To combat them, Humanity allied with the other spirits. Powerful warriors made pacts with specific spirits that could improve their abilities and make them even more powerful. How would this be done? I've no damned clue. Maybe through the use of sword or armour spirits? Forge spirits could create powerful weapons. I mean, it's better than nothing. A normal human warrior, even a highly skilled one, is likely no match for a powerful animal spirit. Normal spirits are can't really do much against the animal spirits alone either, so with them both working together they might just be able to kill the Milyko.
The spirits needed the armies of man, and man needed the powers that the spirits provide.

QUESTION TIME

How do spirits manifest themselves? What do they look like? Can normal people see them, or are they more like an invisible force? A translucent creature? Do the spirits need to eat to survive? Or is that just how they grow? How are new spirits born or created? Do they procreate like any normal creature? Do they just appear? How long do they live? What happens if a spirit is without it's habitat? Can it switch to a new one? What if it can't find one in time?
*Inhale*
They're sorta like a ghost sorta creature thing, whatever, they're however you imagine them to be, they can't interact with the real world. They look different depending on what kind of spirit they are. Normal people can see them of course. They don't need to eat per say, but they do need sustenance in the form of mana/lifeforce/blood, it's also how they grow, they don't have stomachs, so they can eat a massive amount of mana which will cause them to grow in size, and get more powerful abilities. Spirits don't really reproduce in a normal sense, one spirit will birth another spirit, but it will cause them to shrink, sort of like pouring yourself a drink from a jug of water. Spirits can live forever, but aren't immortal. If a spirits habitat is destroyed, or it is forced to leave, it must seek another habitat of the same type. The spirit will retain it's size and power, but will quickly diminish until it finds a new home. If no home can be found it will diminish until dead.
And what about the abilities? Well that depends on the type of spirit. They are symbiotic lifeforms, so their abilities will mostly be for growing their habitat, controlling it, and protecting it.

Spirit powers and energy

So you want to know what kinda thing different spirits can do, and what it takes to do them? Spirits can grow in size over time, allowing them to do much greater things. Think of a spirit like a container of water. Depending on the size of the container, you could fill up a bucket, or a swimming pool. A bucket would be some small ability, while a swimming pool would be a more extravagant ability. The Spirit might not be able to fill a swimming pool at first, but as it grows it will eventually reach that point.
As for what powers a spirit has, it depends on the spirit.

Plant spirit

1. Passive growth. Passively helping the plant to grow faster, taller, and stronger. A tree for example will have stronger wood, and grow to gargantuan sizes. The downsides of this is it needs more nutrients to stay alive, so a decimation of the forest or depletion of the soil will hurt the tree.
2. Influence the shape the plant grows in. Since spirits are able to plan ahead, they can their plant grow in shapes or directions that would be best. They might also be setting the plant up so that it works well with high level powers.
3. Movement. A spirit can move the plant like a creature. This is great for defence, or to move the whole plant to a better location. There were sometimes great migrations of trees when the soils of their forests had become depleted or polluted by human activity.

Water spirit

1. Flow change. This is a minor ability, so it's not a very noticeable thing to outside observers, but to the old water spirits it makes a massive difference.
2. State change. A spirit can change the state of the water it inhabits, turning a stretch of water into ice, steam or back into water. Combined with flow change, the spirit can jury rig a way to move its inhabited water, and therefore itself, wherever it wants. It can keep itself from being evaporated into the clouds, or allow itself to be, essentially giving it the ability to choose to stay in a river, or to move to a puddle, and use the change into ice to move from there.
3. Movement. Straight up moving it inhabited water like a body. Combined with the ability to turn to ice, it can essentially become a ice golem. It takes a lot of energy to move in this way, so only the most powerful water spirits can do it for extended periods of time. When they first get this ability, they can only do very brief movements.

Fire spirits

Fire spirits start out as sparks that are born from older flame spirit fires. They travel as far as possible, searching for their own flame, or looking to start one. Most will die never having found a flame, but the ones that do take control of the flame, becoming very dangerous fires.

1. Spark. The fire spirit flies through the world as a spark, which can ignite a flammable fuel, or get into a flame.
2. Control. The spirit can control the shape and size of the flame, how strongly it burns, and can move about to other fuel sources and grow. Unlike other spirits, which grow to fill their habitation, the size of the fire spirits flame is a direct correlation to it's size.
3. Respark. The fire spirit will give off more sparks that seek more fires, either created by it's parent, or found out in the world.

Fire spirits don't live for very long, but are never in danger of extinction. The sun is the original fire spirit, and gives off sparks that will sometimes travel to earth looking for their own fires to inhabit, if only for a short while.

Creature spirits

1. Passive growth. They can make the creature grow faster, larger and stronger.
2. Genetic change. The Spirit can influence the genes of their creature, warping them into something else entirely. Usually this is benevolent and used sparingly, but can be abused to create apex predators and terrifying monsters.
3. Control. The Spirit can take full control of the creature.

Rock/inanimate spirits

Rock spirits are the oldest spirit. The oldest inhabit entire tectonic plates in the earths crust, but are mostly dormant. Where these plates intersect, baby rock spirits are created. They make their way up into the soil, which is soft and easier to work with.

1. Consistency change. The spirit can change the consistence of the soil or rock it inhabits, allowing it to devour creatures like quicksand.
2. Transmutation. The spirit can change into different minerals, metals, or crystals. This is often used to lure creatures to it so they can be devoured. For example, a chunk of diamond or salt on a pedestal in the middle of a muddy patch. If a creature goes too close to the salt or diamond the mud becomes more fluid, catching the creature and slowly sinking it.
3. Movement. The spirit can physically move its habitation. Allowing it to walk to other places, shift through the ground, or attack creatures. larger rock spirits can use this to create mini-earthquakes, killing many, and devouring their lifeforce.

Blade spirits

Created as weapons to defeat powerful spirits. Blade spirits come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and with a range of amazing abilities for use in combat. The blades that contain these spirits needed to be made extremely strong, to contain one of the most vicious spirit types in existence, as well as to hold an edge against powerful monsters. The oldest Otimyko can cut through most anything, only stopped by equally old blade spirits.

1. Sharpen. Yes, this is the most basic thing a young Otimyko can do, keep the sword sharp. Even this ability takes a lot of energy to do, as the blade is so strong. Sharpening is a skill that every Blade spirit will master before moving on to other abilities, taking an average 5 years before it is strong enough to do anything else, although this depends on the quality of the blade. Stronger blades hold an edge much better, and can cut deeper than less strong blades, but take much longer to mature.
2. Telepathy. Alongside their ability to sharpen, Otimykos practice the skill of reaching into the minds of living beings, to communicate with them. This is useful for speaking to their user, or to call out for a new one. Just like the Sharpen ability, this one get's stronger the more it is used. At first, the spirit can only speak with someone in contact with the sword, but eventually it will be able to speak at a distance. Telepathy can be used to corrupt the minds of men, making them commit murder to feed the Otimyko. For this reason, they are reserved for strong willed warriors that will not be easily swayed.
3. Shape change. 20-30 year old Otimyko find they have the strength to change their shape, giving them the ability to change blade length, shift weight, or entirely change type. It is a slow process at first, but even stronger Otimyko can change shape during combat.
4. Manifestation. Around the time it is 10 years old, most Otimyko have outgrown their weapon. They now manifest as an aura around the blade, the aura can attack and hurt other spirits, even ones hiding within habitats, like an animal, or a tree. This is a crucial ability during the Milyko wars. Of course, the more powerful and old the Otimyko gets, the larger it can manifest, some manifest as massive entities that prowl around the blade.
5. Movement. Even though this ability was made to be almost impossible to perform, very very old and powerful sword spirits can do it, if only in short bursts. This ability can also be used to vibrate the blade at high frequency, allowing it to cut much more easy.

Armour spirits

Though extremely rare, Armour spirits do exist. These specialised spirits inhabit a range of items used to protect humans, and even boost their strength.

1. Consistency change. This allows the armour to strengthen or weaken, to best suit the situation. Using this, the interior of a suit of armour could be soft and forgiving, while the exterior can be extremely tough and unyielding. This allows the wearer to take a hell of a beating.
2. Shape change. This is perfect for moving more material in between the enemy and the wearer, forming a shield, or folding open to let the wearer out.
3. Movement. Yes. The Armour can move, which boosts the strength and speed of the wearer beyond what they would be capable of if the armour couldn't move. By this point you're probably asking why a wearer is even needed? Well, now we get to the caveat of armour spirits. All these amazing powers come at a price; the wearers lifeforce, or the lifeforce of the enemy. To even move in Spirit armour requires you to give up years of your life, but threat not, as the next power acts as a balance to this one.
4. Healing. To make up for the lifeforce price, Spirit armour can devour the lifeforce of the enemy, and even imbue the wearer with spare lifeforce, thus negating the deadly price.

Spirit armour used during the Milyko wars was soaked in the blood of sacrificial creatures, to power it for some time without eating into the wearers own lifeforce. Even with a surplus of energy, it is impossible for an Armour spirit to move of it's own free will, it requires a wearer to be able to do anything.

Rogue Blade and Armour spirits

Since the Milyko Wars, Blade, Armour, and fortress spirits have fallen out of use. They are war machines which are now in a world devoid of war, and although they have spawned evolved versions of themselves (Tool, house, clothing spirits) many of the originals are still alive. Most have resorted to blood eating to survive.

• Blade spirits will call out to people, corrupt their minds, and convince the person into using the blade, either on other people, or on themselves.
• Armour spirits will similarly call to people, tricking them into putting on the armour, and trapping the wearer, using them like a fuel source to allow them to move of their own volition. The Armour then goes on a rampage, killing people, until it's unwilling fuel source is nearly used up. It will then devour the wearer completely, and await a new one.
• Fortress spirits are much less vicious, as their main job during the war was the protection of their occupants. Many simply died off, too slow or damaged to continue. Some moved into other buildings. The few that remained are either lairs for nefarious organisations, or museums to the Milyko Wars.

To combat these rogue spirits, old heroes, soldiers, and adventurers equipped with either high quality gear, numbers, or tame sword spirits hunt them down, and capture or kill them. These same warriors will also deal with remaining, or new Milyko that cause trouble.