Spirit of the Green
A traveler might find a Spirit of the Green in any corner of the world, but this would be a distant wanderer indeed. Munuth—specifically the lands of the Ngavarrā, raised about the Verdant Throne—is their true home. Though being purely spiritual entities, and thus lacking physical bodies, many of the Spirits of the Green behave in the manner of a beast—hence their inclusion in this tome—but it would be untrue to say that all of them were thus. Greater intelligence generally comes with greater power, but there are exceptions, some very notable. All inhabit some variety of plant, and will slowly die if they are deprived of their home and they cannot find another. It follows they will defend their home bitterly and savagely when threatened. Exactly what makes a given plant a good home for a Spirit of the Green, beyond basics such as the Law of Unity, is poorly understood outside the Priesthood of the Sundered Green, and they have refused to reveal their secrets publicly. The most powerful of these spirits are capable of physical manifestation, and the resultant forms are called ghorratān, plant-structures which resemble a union of trees, vines, shrubs, and moss, and which bear a luminous, spiritually potent fruit.
Following the Sundering, the Ngavarā were forced to make a dramatic shift in religious doctrine and practice. The Spirits of the Green were all but wiped out, all but two of the ghorratān are known to have been destroyed, and the fate of the Great Spirit who guarded the Verdant Throne was and is unknown, both having vanished and been replaced by the mysterious Salted Earth. Many of those spirits which survived found shelter under the aegis of Nagvarо̄nga, that original spirit with whom the Ngavarā had made their original Pact, alongside the great city that had been built around the spirit's grove. Those few spirit's which had survived the onslaught of the Sundering filtered in. The loss of access to the Verdant Throne meant the population of spirits could not be replenished, and would remain static unto the present day.
Basic Information
Anatomy
The Spirits of the Green are intimately linked to the Verdant Throne, and are composed of the Breaths of the Author of the Tide and the Glorious Artisan, with the former being the more prominent. Minima aside, the exactly why these Spirits choose to any one individual plant over another is unclear.Because they lack any of the Breath of Kogrun, they require some manner of affiliation with something derived from Kogrun to avoid dissolution, as per the Law of Unity. As such, these spirits tend to bond with plants, which—in addition to significant Flesh of Kogrun—posses a considerable quantity of the Flesh of Mallat for them to bond with, lack an existing spirit to obstruct their presence, and actively grow and create new life, something which strengthens the bond through metaphorical resonance with the spirit's progenitor, the Verdant Throne.
Genetics and Reproduction
Spirits of the Green were born when the Breaths of Mallat and Pennak, the former being greater, coalesced in the vicinity of the Verdant Throne. The presence of the Throne is an important one; Spirits of the Green are defined in large part by their association with growth and new life, a specific variation of their composite elements.
There has been research into substituting a mythic echo of the Throne—a powerful symbol of growth, perhaps which acquired an arcane association with it before the Sundering—but these have thus far proven fruitless.
Ecology and Habitats
Spirits of the Green are capable of living anywhere there is a plant for them to inhabit. They thrive best, however, near to the Verdant Throne, and especially under the auspices of another of their kind capable of manifesting a ghorratān. These latter Spirits tend to alter the surrounding ecosystem to better suit the needs of one of their kind, including protecting foliage from fire, imbuing the soil with arcane qualities aligned to the Verdant Throne, and introducing trace quantities of various substances and coalescences into the air. The resultant ecosystems are best classified as separate from their conventional counterparts.
Additional Information
Average Intelligence
Broadly speaking, the Spirits of the Green tend towards a level of intelligence comparable to the more intelligent animals. Different Spirits are possessed of different cognitive abilities; some are limited to instinctual response to external stimuli, however most are capable a degree of consideration and decision-making.
The most powerful are also most intelligent, being capable of comlex reasoning and deduction, self-reflection, and even artistic expression. These, however, have always been quite rare, even before the Sundering of Ngavar. Only one of these mighty spirits has been known to survive that cataclysm, and no new ones have coalesced.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
As with all varieties of spirit, the Spirits of the Green are capable of detecting spirit-forms, including Thrones, other bodied and unbodied spirits, and any manner of aetherial construct. They perceive the Breath of Pennak streaming down from the sun, the myriad coalescences wisping on the wind, and the souls of the animals and people who draw near. They also perceive arcane power when in use, or heavily concentrated.
The capacity of Spirits of the Green to perceive physical materials is much less consistent. They know their stems, roots, trunks, and branches. They know soil and rain, light and shade. But they do not know stone, or fur, or carapace. They might infer much—the contours of the ground for example—from what they do know, but their direct perception is highly limited.
Genetic Ancestor(s)
Conservation Status
The vast majority of the Spirits of the Green were killed in the Sundering of Ngavar. Their population within Ngavar is limited to the Temple of the Sundered Green, where they number sixty-seven, with a few dozen more spread throughout the remainder of the world. Only one of the Grand Spirits, Nagvarо̄nga, ancient patron of the Ngavarā people, is known to have survived.
The priests of the Temple have taken great pains to maintain extensive gardens on the temple grounds to serve as a home for the surviving spirits, and efforts are being made to encourage the birth of new spirits. However, with the uncertain fate of the Virulent Throne, these efforts have yet to bear fruit.
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