Spiritspeaking

No one knows for certain from whence the spirits came, or how they relate to the dragons that created Mennara. When asked how old they are, or how they came to be, most spirits cannot comprehend such concepts as time, or existence and nonexistence. Some scholars theorize that spirits are the collection of magical energies from the Turning in specific locations, which eventually coalesce into intelligent beings. Others postulate that spirits were beings who spilled over from the Aenlong and made their residence in the Firma Dracem. Others believe the spirits are accidental side effects from the moment when the Yrthwright Mennara created the world.

All that is known with certainty is that spirits dwell in beautiful and wondrous places all across Mennara, although they seem to congregate most strongly in wild areas far from cities and towns. Perhaps this is because spirits are most likely to inhabit ancient trees and misty caves, which are just the types of things that are cleared or avoided when creating settlements. Perhaps it is simply that spirits do not like the mortal races very much, and so they keep their distance.

Confusion also exists over the distinction between the spirits of the land and those wraiths which haunt places stained by anger, despair, or violence. The spirits found in the wilds are seen more as avatars or emissaries of the natural world, whether they are the spirit of a particular place or a particular object or organism, as is the case with tree spirits. Spiritspeakers are believed to be able to commune with restless ghosts as well, but no one has tried to speak with the specters that plague the Mistlands.

Spiritspeakers are those with the gift—or perhaps simply the patience—to communicate with these spirits. Spiritspeakers are taught to awaken or seek the attention of the spirits by use of chanting, drums, dance, and offerings of gifts or service. Once they have gained the ear of the spirits, they may ask for boons such as healing or luck in a particular endeavor. It is not uncommon for spiritspeakers to ask a spirit to visit harm upon an enemy, particularly when that enemy has aggrieved the spirit as well. Spirits can also empower those who speak with them with a portion of their magic, enabling the spiritspeaker to fight with the power of flame, wind, stone, or water.

In some ways, spiritspeaking is similar to dreamwalking, in that the spirits can share their knowledge with those who communicate with them. Spirits tend to be a little more reliable than dreams in this regard, but also more limited. A spirit who is impressed by a spiritspeaker will tend to be more inclined to reveal the truth, but it is limited to the information it has itself learned or has heard about from other spirits. In this regard, the answers given to spiritspeakers are much more likely to be more straightforward and true than those gleaned from dreams, but they are also much more likely to consist of little more information than “I do not know.”
Spiritspeaking remains one of the oldest forms of magic, having arisen from the need for the earliest peoples to coexist alongside the tumultuous landscape and the spirits that dwelled there. As the ages passed by, other arcane arts eventually supplanted spiritspeaking in many cultures due to their more pronounced and convenient effects—wizards didn't have to cajole or appease another entity to create the desired effects. However, in cultures that still live in close connection with the land and nature, such as the Orc tribes of the Broken Plains, the Singhara prides of Zanaga, the Onoit Gnomes of Isheim, as well as many far-flung human settlements in Terrinoth and beyond, spiritspeaking is still a tremendously important part of daily life and survival.

Most spiritspeakers seem to be rather eccentric and strange characters, with a touch of the wild about them. This may have something to do with the fact that many of them live in seclusion in wilderness areas to be closer to the spirits. Another possibility is that the eccentricities and strange concerns of the spirits themselves may influence the spiritspeaker's manner of thinking and speaking. Or perhaps it is simply that, through learning more about the nature of the world around them, the spiritspeakers have gained some measure of wisdom that escapes those who look down on them.