Spirit World

The Spirit World is the birthplace of all spirits. It is also the destination of human and animal spirits after leaving the mortal realm (colloquially referred to as the "afterlife") . The vast majority of the inhabitants, however, are the personification of forces of nature that (while they may be revered) aren't fully recognized as gods (e.g. river spirits, lake spirits, mountain spirits, forest spirits, etc.). These spirits were created with the formation with the mortal world, and as the mortal world changed, new spirits are born and obsolete spirits die. Just as the physical world can influence the spirits, the spirts can influence the physical world. If an earth spirit were to fall ill, it could cause infertility in a region's soil, leading to famine. Such event rarely happens though as the spirits are impervious to most things, natural or supernatural. But such events do occur.

Locations in the Spirit World

The Far Shore（彼岸）

The Far Shore refers to the collection of towns and villages settled by human spirits who were previously of Japanese origin in the mortal realm.

The Gates of Six Paths

The Gates of Six Paths is where select human and animal spirits go to reenter the cycle of reincarnation (Samsara). It connects the Spirit World to the divine realm, the mortal world, the Petra (hungry ghost) world, and Naraka. Each of the six gates strips the spirit of their spiritual body, leaving only the soul intact, and remodels said spiritual body into one that befits their next reincarnation (deva, asura, human, animal, or petra). When a soul is to be reincarnated into Naraka, the human or animal spirit is stopped upon arrival into the Spirit World by agents of Naraka and forcibly taken through the gates in their original spiritual body.

Type

World