Spirits

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Maverick Spirits

What Are Spirits?

Any kind of being who originates from or was created due to an elemental plane's energy.

Where mortals are mundane, flexible, and truly of the material plane, spirits are visitors, alien creatures who reside either directly or through relation, to the elemental realms. Any being that is not mortal can most often be cast in the catch-all term of a spirit, pseudo spirit, or an equivalent.

Simply put, Spirits are entities of pure elemental energy. All spirits come from the elemental planes and can only arrive to our world through the gates themselves or through intense runic summoning.

Lesser Spirits

Simple minded spirits who cannot leave the material realm once they enter or possibly were even created there. Have small amounts of mana at their disposal.

The most common of the four categories are Lesser Spirits. Lesser spirits tend to be only capable of taking "simpler" forms such as esoteric shapes, balls of light or energy, wisp-like entities, or even animal like forms. They are also the weakest in terms of mana signature. Their mana output is typically weak, and they rarely if ever have the ability to willingly travel through a gate once they enter the material plane. Commonly they reside in areas of high concentration of mana relating to the kind they are made out of, or under the influence of larger, more powerful spirits.

Greater Spirits

Ambitious and powerful spirits who've developed their own personas and sometimes even agendas. They travel both realms freely using contracts and rituals.

Greater spirits vary much more in both size and power compared to their Lesser counterparts. These spirits also have a tendency to prefer more complex forms, and have a lot more freedom in distinguishing that for themselves. They are most fond of humanoid or partially humanoid shapes, though this is far from a hard rule. They also are the spirits most notably known for their tendency to create spirit contracts and bonds, mechanisms of both magic and other strange forces that tether spirit and mortal to a certain kind of deal or pact, the breaking of which holds grave consequences for the inciting party. Unlike lesser spirits who cannot leave the material realm once there, greater spirits can travel between both as they wish by using magic rituals, spirit contracts, or their own magical abilities.

Superior Spirits

Spirits beyond the whims of the mortal world. Their forms and powers are so unfathomable the world itself is influenced without even knowing.

Superior Spirits rarely make themselves known to the material plane. Most reside within their home elemental plane, yet their influence and reach breaches the barrier between this realm and theirs, allowing aspects of them and their domain to seep in. Some superior spirits have grown enough awe, fear, or veneration to be characterized as deities in the eyes of mortals, whilst others remain unknown yet unavoidable to the mortal world. Superior spirits rarely acknowledge this mortal attention however, their presence so massive and in the grand scale they do not notice the proverbial "grains of sand in the beach" that is the cosmos. There are however superior spirits that enact their will on the mortal world, playing into the folly of mortals to further their own desires, or simply take it by force. They tend to be the most esoteric and alien in appearance and goals.

Spirit Swarms

A symbiotic amalgam of lesser spirits who've joined into one entity to maximize on their collective traits. Consider themself one persona now, never to be separated.

A peculiar phenomenon can happen when a large collection of lesser spirits congregate and commune with each other. Though the mechanisms aren't well understood, and the exact drive and reasoning behind how spirits initially begin to consider swarming are unknown, documentation of such a thing occurring has been observed throughout history. spirit swarms are coalitions of weak lesser spirits whose minuscule amount of energy and power is collectively combined to form a new singular symbiotic entity. Each of the individual spirit's memories, traits, and other facets contribute to the total mindscape of the new entity. Once this process completes, the spirits are no longer a group, and their form will never again be separated into it's composite contributors.

Golems

An elemental entity embodying a shell or body made of material matter. They alter their forms by adding material to themselves.

Golems take many shapes and sizes within the world. Golems come from a culmination of magic influenced by the Gates that has cultivated a lesser spirit into a nonliving object. Unlike other lesser spirits, golems are specifically a byproduct of the gate's influence. Their existence happens on a whim and they have no knowledge of the elemental realm that provided them life, unlike their contemporaries whom filter through from the mana gate. They are born of and within the material realm like any mortal, yet their body and energies are that of a spirit.

-> Simple forms like animals or rough silhouette's of people are common forms for lesser spirits. Many barely resemble creatures, resembling wisps, orbs, or other strange shapes. They lack the energy to make more complex forms for themself.

-> Greater spirits have conscious control over their forms and the powers they wield. Many who plan to interact with mortals tend to have humanoid visages that help relate to these material beings.

-> Superior Spirits typically do not have physical forms, as they appear so infrequently within direct range of mortals. Those fleeting times where their visage is comprehendable by mortals, they have forms that tend to ebb and change frequently, or are of such massive scale or complexity it confuses the senses.

-> Spirit swarms tend to have semi-physical forms, appearing like a walking silhouette with features that change to accommodate the cumulative new identity they have for themself.

-> Golems physically consist of a core of energy that interlaces itself into a "shell" of material. Though typically a rough amalgam of components like rocks or a scattered suit of repurposed metal armor, golems have the unique ability to alter their form by replacing, removing, or adding new pieces to themselves, meticulously creating a unique visage overtime.