The divine beings of the Anishinaabek people, the Manitou have been here since the World was created. They represent a wide range of mythic stature, from divine humans with great magic to the primeval forces of creation and destruction that dwell within the World. Yet one of the great distinctions of the Manitou is that they dwell, for the most part, in the same World as mankind, without separating themselves into the Overworld and Underworld of other pantheons. They are unseen, but ever here.
Born of a Titan’s destructive act against a noble God, the principal Manitou are linked as a nuclear family in a way few other pantheons are. Innumerable spirits great and small are accorded stature by these Gods, who express their equality down to the lowliest nature spirit. As much as a term for the spirits as it is a term for all things energetic, mysterious, deific, dangerous, and powerful, Manitou is applied equally to Primordial forces, Gods, faerie creatures, wizards, witches, and great Chosen leaders. Their divinity is a difference in degree, not in kind. Most other pantheons are dismissive when speaking of them, suggesting they have no structure beyond this — titanspawn and Gods rub shoulders with no real respect for authority or hierarchy. The Manitou look at most other pantheons and just see Manitou.
There are Manitou of all shapes and sizes, always affecting the World, but only a small few have had an active role in the development of the mythology and the people. Many humans think of Manitou as only being connected to things of nature, but such thought is an arbitrary restriction imposed on them by human culture. Just as there are Manitou who watch over mountains and rivers and deer and corn, there are Manitou who watch over people, cities, neighborhoods, even strip-mining. As new Gods begin to intermix with the Manitou, the ancient ones see them as equally old Manitou they’re only just now meeting. It doesn’t mean they all like each other — some are downright hostile, as their people have been moved from land they gave them.