Spirit

### The Greatest Spirits

The greatest of the spirits are the gods. Each one has dominion over one or more aspects of reality and is composed of the forces they rule.

### The Anima

Anima (default feminine form, both plural and singular masculine singular/plural is Animus/Animum if the entity prefers it) are spirits of the most aware and active forms. These are elementals, incorporeal undead, fey beings, and the nature spirits called on by those who use druidic and the most basic form of shamanic magic. They are active on the various planes and planets, and always have been. These are the beings most often commanded by magic. Elementals and the most active spirits, like the gods themselves, communicate in the High Primordial tongue. This tongue is too complex for mortals to emulate, so mortals have created several dialects allowing them to speak with different types of Elemental. They can also understand and communicate in Low Primordial (see below).

#### The Somnambula

Somnambula, singular Somnambulum, are the other spirits of the worlds. Technically, everything has a spirit. Inanimate rocks, unawakened trees, cities, emotions, concepts, manufactured goods, and even the concept of void/nothingness all have spirits, and sometimes these beings are very powerful. However, most of the time, these beings are asleep or half-asleep, stirring only occasionally. It requires specific magical techniques to awaken them which were not mastered on any large scale in continuity until Dorhaun was formed, much as no one unlocked the secrets of gunpowder or abused umbramancy to the point of nearly destroying the cosmos. These beings (and some of the Anima) dwell in the spirit world of the Material Plane, as mortals dwell in the physical world of the material plane: two sides of the same universe. Somnambula generally speak whatever languages are spoken most often around them, though some are capable of communicating in any and all tongues. Their own language has no name among themselves, but scholars call it "Low Primordial." Being fluent in Low Primordial is a common skill among Shaman.

##### The Planar Exception

The inhabitants of the outer planes, most angels and demons, blood creatures, crystal trolls, mirror people, etc, are generally not spirits. There are spirits on these planes, but these people are much like normal humanoids. The have spirits rather than being spirits. However, most of the time, rather than becoming spirit beings upon death they are reabsorbed into their home plane rather than leaving a disembodied soul or ghost. In some cases, such as the inhabitants of the Abyss, this is because they were once spirits that have been fundamentally altered.

The Spirit's Mind

Most spirits, when they are not slumbering, think entirely in the moment and are concerned only with the phenomena they embody. Thinking or speaking of anything else is difficult for them and they will speak in metaphors appropriate to their dominion most of the time. This makes it difficult for mortal beings to relate to them. Spirits of memory, particularly old spirits, ghosts, and the sapient inhabitants of the outer planes (as well as, in general, the gods) can and do think in more accessible terms, but the as the bulk of spirits are Somnambula this description of the spirit's mind applies to the bulk of all spirits. Even those most accessible of spirits have a slight impulse to think and act in these terms.