Spirit

**Spirits** are a type of being living in the Shadow Realm. The nature of spirits is something of a mystery.

## Biology

Spirits have glowing red eyes, ghostly white skin, and pale hair. They usually cover themselves so only the glow of their eyes is ever visible.

All spirits spontaneously spawn in concentrated regions, which are referred to as rifts or spirit pools. Newly spawned spirits have no memories, but possess limited knowledge of things which should only be possible if they lived a previous life. Because of this, the common belief is that they are the literal souls of the dead. A discrepancy with this though, is that the number of spirits appearing in rifts does not fluctuate during times of significant human death, such as war or plagues, and human births are ten times more numerous than spirit appearances.

Although both male and female spirits exist, they are all sterile and not capable of reproducing with each other or any other being. Spawning from a rift is the only way they come into existence.

New spirits are called "rogue" and are usually filled with confusion and anger, making them violent to approach. They are capable of generating a flame from their hands that they can use to attack. All spirits have an innate resistance to magic.

Spirits do not age or get ill, but they do eat and sleep and can be killed. While they don't die of old age, spirits can suddenly and permanently vanish. The odds of a spirit suddenly disappearing seems to decrease the older the spirit gets.

When a spirit dies, their body loses all color, becomes increasingly permeable and translucent, then flickers and fades out of existence.

### Types

Spirits come in two forms, weaker "faint spirits" and stronger "revenants".

Faint spirits are so-called because it seems as though their physical being is "faint". Indeed, their bodies are not even completely solid, with a density more akin to a heavy liquid. If enough pressure is applied, one can pass their hand through a faint spirit, although the experience would almost certainly be unpleasant for both participants.

Because faint spirits are not solid, they only ever wear lightweight robes, as they are incapable of wearing armor or holding heavy objects that would sink through their bodies.

Revenants are cold to the touch, but are solid and can wear or hold anything a normal human could.

## Culture

Militaries use spirits to form their ranks and first have to capture the rogue spirits and civilize them, this process is called taming. Most tamed spirits are given training and recruited into the military of the land that captured them where they will serve until they are killed in battle or suddenly vanish.

Romantic relationships with spirits is rare, they feel more drawn to humans than toward each other - possibly due to formerly being human in a previous life, but most humans consider the touch of a spirit to be very unpleasant.

Because female spirits are not a requirement for reproduction, spirits are not attracted to each other, and militaries prefer the stronger males, female spirits are not well accepted and are pejoratively called banshees.

### Military

The military ranks and doctrine for spirits is well-established and consistent across territories.

All faint spirits are placed into the main infantry. Faint spirits are incapable of using heavy armor or weapons, so they will never become anything else.

Revenants are made lieutenants and command ten infantry troops. Exceptional lieutenants can be promoted to captains, and command ten lieutenants. The most elite of revenants can become specters, the black ops of the military, tasked with espionage and assassinations.