"A spirit is an incorporeal being with a connection to nature." (Relics & Rituals: Excalibur p197)
"Many spirits can take a solid form in the mundane world, but a few–including the most powerful–must be summoned by an occultist, artifact or a set of rare circumstances. Spirits can look like anything, but their appearances tend to reflect their true nature." (Opening the Dark SRD)
"Most are spirits of nature, representing the magical side of rivers, animals, plants and so forth. A few personify machines, computers or particular human dreams. Animae are concerned with the health of the things they personify. All of their urges and thoughts revolve around the things they represent. This makes their perspectives quite alien to humans. Tree spirits have inscrutable tree-ish thoughts and war spirits ignore even the most reasonable arguments for peace." (Opening the Dark SRD)
There are a few basic categories of spirits, with properties that set them apart, based on what they represent. (Renegade Wizard's Spellbook p241) The distinction between some categories may blur, such as elemental spirits versus nature spirits.
- Ancestor: "Ancestor spirits are memories of persons who have passed on but linger to watch over their mortal kin." Example: ghost, phantom.
- Animal: "Animal spirits, such as fox, boar or any other creature that walks the earth."
- Construct: "The spirits of objects and tools...they respond to magic which affects built things." Example: junk elemental, spontaneous construct, tsukumogami.
- Elemental: "Elemental spirits correspond to the Elemental Planes as normal elementals do." Example: eolian, flamoïd, undine, sylph, salamander.
- Ideal: "The more esoteric of the spirits have this subtype, and represent the spiritual embodiment of abstract ideas and concepts." Example: power spirit, passion spirit, intellect spirit, magic spirit, spell spirit, disease spirit, healing spirit, dream elemental, death elemental.
- Nature: "Nature spirits include animae such as moonlight spirits, river spirits or dew spirits." Example: manitou, wakandagi, shadow elemental, metal elemental.
- Plant: "Plant spirits are mostly static and dormant." Example: treant, wood elemental.
There is another category loosely related to ideal spirits, but sometimes they aren't considered spirits because of their unfettered physical existence. They may or may not be related to fey or fiends.
- Manifestation: "A manifestation is a creature whose physical existence is caused by a traumatic event; a severe, prolonged emotion; or a strong desire for something." (Relics & Rituals: Excalibur p197) Example: frothing fury, hounds of Sir Du'Glouse, invisible knights, questing beast.
Some spirits seem to fall into multiple categories or are otherwise difficult to classify. Construct spirits straddle the boundary between construct and elemental. The last breath is an air elemental animated by a spectral undead (Legends & Lairs: Elemental Lore). The unborn are souls that have not yet incarnated into mortal form (Book of Hallowed Might). There are also numerous spirits associated with dreams, such as the animate dream, the dreamkind (Penumbra Fantasy Bestiary), dream snakes, dream folk, dreamwracks (Creature Collection series), dream elementals (Nightmares & Dreams), and so forth.
The elemental planes constantly interpenetrate the material plane, and the elementals themselves are responsible for the various weather and natural phenomena on the material plane. They paint the frost on the window panes, the morning dew on grass, etc. They are not alien beings that exist solely to be summoned, but integral parts of the material world. (Dark Roads & Golden Hells)
Misc Sources: 5e Fiendopedia: Guardian Kami, Book of Templates Deluxe Edition 3.5 (p198), Dark Roads & Golden Hells, Encyclopaedia Divine: Shamans, Forgotten Foes, Monsters of Porphyra series, Mythos: The Animae, Opening the Dark SRD, Pathfinder bestiaries, Relics & Rituals: Excalibur (p197), Renegade Wizard's Spellbook (p241), RuneQuest SRD
No comments:
Post a Comment