The World of the Spirits (SB)

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: Many years ago, a cleric named Paulus wandered the country, calling together the hopeless and oppressed in a search for the Perfect Country, which they believed the gods would lead them to.
: Whatever hardships the people labored under, Paulus assured them, they would be free of these things in the Perfect Country; for this was the land that the peasants dreamed of, such as has never and will never exist on this world. There would be no disease in this country, no crops would be blighted, no animals plagued, and no one would die before their time. Conscription and slavery, hunger and taxes, drought and corruption, warfare and poverty—all these things would be absent.
: No one knows what happened to Paulus and the thousands who followed him. The hopeful claim that they found their Perfect Country, and more than a few poor vagabonds still walk the highroads hoping to find the place that they have gone. The disheartened say that Paulus led his people into a wilderness where they starved.
: Still, whenever the tale of the Perfect Country is told to eager ears, it is said that somewhere a disheartened traveler stumbles across a perfect village where he is invited to a feast: Apples without blemish and fine white bread are served, tender meat cooked to perfection and wine of an uneaualed vintage fill the table. Everyone is happy here, though no one can agree what the place is called, and the traveler is welcomed into any house or hostel he or she might choose.
: Yet when morning comes, the traveler awakes on a barren hill or cold heath, with a grumbling in his empty stomach and nothing gained from the evening but his story of a marvelous village—a tale which he might one day tell to another eager set of listeners on another night....
: —The Tale of the Village-That-Might-Have-Been
Readers of the initial chapters may have come away feeling a bit perplexed. What are the spirits? Are they undead? Are they natural forces? And what is the spirit world? Is it Limbo? Is it the Astral Plane? Is it some realm that has yet to be detailed in the PLANESCAPE® line? Hopefully, this chapter will provide DMs with the answers they need to use the spirits and the shamans in AD&D campaigns.
The rest of this volume is for DMs only. Players should read no further.