“Mind without body, a light without shade,
into your dreams I come.
Show you your wishes, then take them away,
for naught but a shade I am.
Trick you to follow, then lead you astray,
come with me, I say, come.
Come into my claws, my unholy jaws,
and soon you will succumb.”
children’s song from the Radiant Empire
first recorded c. 550 D.H.
A spirit is, in general, a concentration of essence that has achieved some degree of consciousness. Spirits are varied in their form and powers, but the one fact they all share in common is that they must maintain a constant supply of essence, lest they cease to exist.
Most spirits lack a physical body, with the exception of elementals, which are often categorised separately from other spirits.
Spirits are categorised by their method of gathering essence, which typically relates to their form, habitat, and powers.
- Memory Spirits - The weakest of spirits, they are barely conscious and do very little than draw on the essence given off by decaying memories. They tend to avoid dreamers and more powerful spirits.
- Dreams and Nightmares - More powerful than memory spirits, dream spirits and nightmare spirits, often called simply dreams or nightmares, can enter the dream of a sleeping individual and feed off their emotions. The distinction between these two spirits arises from the feelings they prey on - dreams on positive ones and nightmares on negative.
- Nature Spirits - Spirits that are powerful enough to manifest in the physical realm, nature spirits feed on the essence of the land itself. Weaker spirits may claim a group of trees or a particular river bend, while the strongest of nature spirits can claim an entire forest or mountain range.
Nature spirits can manipulate the animals, plants, and the elements themselves within their domain. Particularly powerful nature spirits can alter the weather around their domain and command lesser spirits, and are sometimes revered as gods.