Core Spirit

Core Spirits are Magical entities present in the Windrose world. While there have been rare recorded instances of Core Spirit sightings across the world, the vast majority of the Core Spirit population is located within the country of Mitsudai.

## Characteristics

### Creation

Little is known about the origin of Core Spirits, but an ultimate genesis of the entities is alluded to exist.

### Appearance

Core Spirits can vary to an extreme degree in size, color, and shape, but some overall features stay constant across all Core Spirits. All Core Spirits consist of a translucent magical substance with unknown physical qualities, and they all feature a white, spiral-like symbol present somewhere on their bodies.

### Functioning

Among most Mitsudains, the general understanding of Core Spirits is that they are "creatures without will". This is a layman's understanding of some fundamental properties of Core Spirits and their life cycle. Core Spirits are heavily responsive to the wills and desires of others, and when they enter an area with a large amount of concentrated will, they will begin releasing magical energy that seeks to enact that will. As an example, if a young Core Spirit drifts by a village suffering a drought, it might attune to the villagers' pleas for rain and become a Core Spirit of Rain. Its appearance might shift to something vaguely resembling a storm cloud, and it will use magic to call down rain.

This impressment of will can also happen to already developed Core Spirits, leading to issues where an already attuned Core Spirit will attempt to enact a new will, but their existing abilities can't exactly fulfill the attuned desire. For example, the aforementioned Core Spirit of Rain might end up drifting by a person seeking to escape a toxic family situation and, seeking to fulfill that desire, will release a downpour that causes a flood.

## Relationships With Other Entities

### Humans

Core Spirits are generally treated with suspicion and superstition by humans, especially in Mitsudai. Due to the Core Spirits' single-minded desires to fulfill their attuned wills, they tend to cause problems for nearby human settlements, leading to the establishment of Core Spirit Stabilizers, wandering mystics who help quell Core Spirit activity. Some simply destroy the Core Spirits, but others attempt to quell the spirits and help them find a safer location to fulfill their wills.

### Gods

The Gods of Mitsudai generally do not concern themselves with the domain of Core Spirits, barring the exception of the goddess Kokuten. Core Spirits have been known to occasionally attune to the wills of gods, sometimes without the knowledge of that god. The Peacock Goddess of Ocean Veins also once used a Core Spirit's ability to further her political goals.

## Known Types

### Core Spirit of Life

Core Spirits of Life form in response of a will for life to grow, often from farmers or naturally minded ascetics. One instance of a Core Spirit of life possessed powerful plant-growing abilities, although this Core Spirit was actually a Core Spirit of Decay under a new will.

### Core Spirit of Decay

Core Spirits of Decay possess unknown abilities, but they are likely related to the decomposition of matter. One Core Spirit of Decay is currently the mask of Kokuten.

### Core Spirit of Sleep

The home of Iruru Mujo features a large pink Core Spirit that exudes an aura of lethargy that puts those who walk too close to sleep.

### Core Spirit of Destruction

Iruru Mujo once confronted a giant Core Spirit deep within a mountain, with extreme destructive abilities allowing it to carve holes through the mountain. After quelling it, it assumed a smaller size and minor heat production abilities.

### Garbage-Eating Core Spirit

An unknown Core Spirit lives within Iruru Mujo's home with the ability to annihilate matter than Iruru wishes to dispose of, mainly scraps and other forms of garbage.

### Core Spirit of Void

A rare Core Spirit attached to the Stabilizer Suisen. It manifests a squid-like shape and can annihilate both magic and matter with a touch.

## Unique Core Spirits

### Kokuten

The Mitsudain Goddess of Curses, Kokuten, actually consists of a collective of twenty to thirty Core Spirits using shared magic to assume a more humaneqsue form. These Core Spirits seem to have been granted higher levels of self awareness, able to make their own decisions beyond exuding their attuned will. This uplifting of sapience lasts outside of the main body of Kokuten, with examples such as Tenjо̄, a former Kokuten who left the main body and assumed a new, also humanesque form.

The "mask", or the Core Spirit in charge of directing the body of Kokuten, changes every century or so. The current head is a Core Spirit of Decay.

### The Audience

The Audience is a Core Spirit that attuned to a stray ant after a previous Kokuten removed it from the collective. This Core Spirit seems to have its own will, although unlike Kokuten, this will manifests in a hive mind state that connects a multitude of separate organisms to a single will.

### The Tsuchinoko

The exorcist Oro the Immortal is followed around by a Core Spirit that resembles a tsuchinoko, a mythical fat, snake-like reptile. It seems to possess slightly higher self-awareness, and can grant extremely long lifespans and higher sapience to other beings.

### Dill

The form of the Core Spirit of Void following Suisen's journey into his own memories. It lives within a doll body of a young girl and possesses the mental development of a young human child.

## Trivia

* While not Legents themselves, Core Spirits possess enough mythical potency to be a base for a Legent summoning
* Core Spirit will attunement is similar to the properties of Magic in the Windrose world to shift in potency depending on culture and