The Kalarain Guide to Spirits

Spirits are wild.

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## **Beings of Power, Beings without Direction**

Some of the most powerful beings in the world of Kalarain are spirits; deceased, sentient creatures who have become something else.

Spirits are crazy and weird. Speakers draw on their power to heal.

## After Life

Every person has a soul. When they die, one of four things happens to that soul.

* The soul becomes a spirit, a disembodied bit of essence

* The soul reincarnates, creating a spiritborn

* The soul possesses someone else’s body, creating an ectochoir

* The soul fades from the world.

The last option is the greatest unknown. Some theorise that the soul gradually fades into the magic of the world, or perhaps moves on to some other destination, or is just gone, extinguished in a final true death. No one knows for sure.

A lot of souls, however, become spirits. Even in the case of spiritborn and ectochoirs, the soul must first spend some time as a disembodied spirit, though that time can shorter than the blink of an eye.

## The Three Tiers of Spirits

When a soul is in its own body, it is a soul. When a soul is floating around outside a body, or possessing someone else’s body, it is a spirit. Initially, this is the only meaningful difference.

When a soul spends enough time as a spirit, however, a very unusual transformation can occur. Spirits can be separated into three tiers, and each tier represents a different stage of this spiritual evolution.

**Spirits of the First Tier – Grey spirits**

First tier spirits, or Grey spirits, are also known as ghosts. Most of the time, they exist in a trancelike state, unthinking and unaware of their surroundings. They are rarely able to manifest, or interact with the world. They also fully retain the personality of the person they were before. A Grey spirit who reincarnates as a spiritborn will usually be unaffected by their time as a ghost, though will retain only the tiniest fragments of memory of that period.

A Tier 1 spirit might appear briefly as a ghostly figure out on the moors at midnight, or rustle the cobwebs of a deep, dark cavern. Though they retain who they were, they exist as if in a dream.

In rare cases, where a spirit has significant unfinished business, it might manifest more strongly; rattling the window frames of a house or possessing an unfortunate passerby. In even rarer cases, in places of intense magical power, a Gray spirit might appear and act as a guide, though never for long.

**Spirits of the Second Tier – Awakened spirits**

Second-tier spirits, or Awakened spirits, are in a transition stage. Tier 2 spirits are significantly more powerful than Tier 1 spirits, and can interact with the world more strongly than Tier I and Tier 3 spirits, especially in places of strong magic.

Awakened spirits, however, are no longer the people they once were. While core aspects remain, the personality degrades. Awakened spirits are obsessive, erratic, irrational, and no longer driven by logical goals or motivations. They usually hyperfocus on one thing, and ignore everything else but that thing.

To give some examples, in life, a person may have placed great value on friends and repairing friendships. The tier 2 spirit they become might possess a pair of estranged friends, force them to attend a social tea party together, and repossess them whenever they try and leave. That they are trying to leave the tea party because bandits are raiding the village is of no concern to it.

Another tier 2 spirit might haunt a cave and force those who enter to complete a set of puzzles before it lets them pass.

You cannot befriend an Awakened spirit, they no longer have the capacity to like or dislike someone. You cannot bribe them, recruit them, intimidate them, appeal to their empathy or kindness, they no longer have the capacities. Tier 2 spirits are entirely driven by whatever goal the stripping down of their personality has left them with. Luckily, they usually haunt a specific location or region, so you can get away from them by moving.

The most common ability Awakened spirits employ is possession. Many can also move things and people around. In places of strong magic, they may do things like light weapons on fire, or empower an individual. Tier 2 spirits can reincarnate as spiritborn, but they come out weird, and can require a lot of work to regain a regular psyche.

The Valley of Hope is haunted by several Awakened spirits, notably the Guide, the Tinkerer and the Questing Spook.

**Spirits of the Third Tier – Ascended sprits**

Spirits of the third tier, or Ascended spirits, have completed the transformation. They have become beings completely defined by the essence of who they are, a spirit of pure compassion, or forgiveness, or napping. They are the embodiment of a concept or ideal.
Third tier spirits are alien beings, and completely divorced from the events of the physical world.

You can communicate with a Tier 1 or Tier 2 spirit. You cannot communicate with a Tier 3 spirit. They do not give orders, or make requests, or seek courses of actions or events, they just are.

Ascended spirits cannot influence the world directly, and do not desire to. However, those who exemplify the ideal of an ascended spirit may find themselves able to channel its power somewhat, usually to heal.

Spirits of the third tier cannot be completely reincarnated as a spiritborn, they are too large and alien for that. A small piece of the Ascended spirit may reincarnate, however. The resulting spiritborn will usually be a person defined by the ideal or concept of the spirit they came from, fearlessly brave, or endlessly forgiving, or obsessed with death. They will have no memory of what has come before. After death, the soul does not rejoin the greater whole, for it has become its own entity.

There is an extra sub-category of Ascended spirits known as the Worldspirits. These are discussed below.

## Religion in Kalarain

Many Speakers do not worship Spirits.

The people of Kalarain have an unusual relationship with the concept of worship. Those who draw on the power of Ascended spirits are known as Speakers. To draw on that power, they must exemplify the ideal or concept of the Ascended spirit.

Some Speakers, and many people, worship Ascended spirits. They have a relationship of devotion and reverence to the spirit, honouring a higher being. The strongest national example of this is the island civilisation of Vernon-Lament.

But the Ascended spirits themselves do not ask for, or desire, worship. And many other people, including powerful speakers, approach the matter differently. They do not worship the ascended spirit. They do not view them as a superior being to be venerated. They view them as an ally, an equal, a partner committed to a mutual cause. These people are devoted to the spirit’s ideal, not the spirit. For the spirit was once just a person.

## Worldspirits

Most Ascended spirits are localised to a particular area. Their power can only be drawn on in this area. The exception to this is the Worldspirits.

Worldspirits are Ascended spirits of exceptional capacity and strength whose power can be drawn on anywhere in the world. There are currently 9 Worldspirits.

To draw on the power of the Worldspirit, a Speaker must, first, be practiced at doing so. Beyond this, however, there is an extra step. The speaker must meet a certain set of prerequisites unique to the Worldspirit which align them to the spirit’s essence. Only when they meet these prerequisites can they draw onthe healing powers of the Worldspirit.

The only exception to this is Saraa, Worldspirit of Life; the process of healing itself aligns the speaker with Sarra.

## The 10 Worldspirits

Listed below are the 10 Worldspirits, and the prerequisites for channelling their power. There is no real sense of balance or reason to the Worldspirits, their ascensions seem to have been random.

The origins of all but Saraa, Valentine and Melitta, whose ascensions happened after the Shattering of the Word, are unknown.

**Saraa**

Ideal/Concept: Life

Prerequisites: None - The act of healing is enough

Extra notes: Saraa is relatively young Worldspirit, having ascended with astonishing speed after meeting her end in Queen Melitta’s Grimm Hecatomb. She was a peasant who saved many lives.

**Valentine**

Ideal/concept: Battle

Prerequisites: In the last week, the Speaker must have battled a worthy opponent. This does not have to be a physical battle, a battle of strategy or even an intense chess game could suffice.

Extra Notes: Valentine is the youngest worldspirit. In life, he was an Ectochoir Hunter from Athaelore’s Reincarnation Agency. He has only been a Worldspirit for about a decade. Valentine is a spirit of battle, not a spirit of exclusively physical battle. Battles of intellect, battles of wits and battles of will can all fall within his ideal.

**Damarone**

Ideal/Concept: Nature

Prerequisites: Damarone’s power can only be drawn upon in the presence of fire.

Extra notes: Damarone’s worshippers tend to take particular offence to civilisation encroaching on nature. There are many, many historical instances of Damron worshippers committing a whole lot of arson to try and give land back to nature.

**Ko-Lin**

Ideal/Concept: Forgiveness

Prerequisites: Once a fortnight, Ko-Lin worshippers must make a small, humanoid figure with a hollow centre, usually out of clay or wood. They must spend a night hugging the figure to their chest while they sleep. Then, they must create a small shrine, place the figure on it, and perform rites of forgiveness directed at the figure.

Extra notes: No one knows what this prerequisite is about. Everyone thinks it’s weird as heck.

**Vhous**

Ideal/Concept: Pursuit of Knowledge

Prerequisites: The Speaker must know and understand the people they are amongst. The greater the depth of their knowledge, the more powerful their healing becomes. A Speaker of Vhous among total strangers would be unable to heal.

**Havardr**

Ideal/Concept: Growth Through Trials

Prerequisites: In the past month, the Speaker must have put themselves in a terrible, terrible situation and invoked Havardr’s name.

Extra notes: Havardr worshippers are infamous for trying to push their ideal onto other people, usually by giving them ‘trials’ that the other person does not want.

**Swanky Dugong**

Ideal/Concept: Minor Inconvenience

Prerequisites: In the past week, the Speaker must have made someone else wish that Swanky Dugong did not exist. The Speaker must also be wearing odd socks.

Extra notes: Swanky Dugong worshippers are often notable and prolific pranksters. In many universities and schools, odd socks are banned, and zealously watched out for.

Swanky Dugong has a lot of aliases: Youthful Dugong, Autumn Dugong, Small Dugong, Spritely Dugong, Spry Dugong, Perky Dugong, and Swanko.

**Melitta**

Ideal/Concept: Death

Prerequisites: In the past day, you must have sacrificed a living thing in Melitta’s name. Larger sacrifices, or sacrifices at the point of channelling, can result in stronger power.

Extra notes: Melitta worshippers are not necessarily evil, many approach worship with the philosophy that death is just a natural part of life. However, Melitta is by far the most likely Worldspirit to inspire murderous death cults.

Melitta is relatively young Worldspirit, having died and ascended around the same time as Saraa, at the conclusion of her Grimm Hecatomb.

**Cove**

Ideal/Concept: Naps

Prerequisites: Speakers of Cove should be sleeping a *lot*. Many sleep 18 hours a day. Missing a day or two does not cut off channelling.

Extra notes: Channelling Cove’s power has a soporific effect and makes Speakers want to sleep more. Speakers of Cove have very pleasant dreams, and often wear nightwear 24/7.

**The Spirit of Tongues**

Ideal/Concept: Communication

Prerequisites: The Speaker must complete complicated and finicky ceremonies involving incense. The Spirit of Tongues is a hard one to meet the prerequisites for.

Extra notes: The Spirit of Tongues is an oddity amongst oddities. Its Speakers are, uniformly, people with odd, alien perspectives on life. They are typically concerned with strange, estoric ideas and disconnected from the people around them.

The Spirit of Tongues, uniquely among Worldspirits, is actually able to communicate somewhat with a handful of its Speakers (the Prophets – more on this below). It is also able to communicate, somewhat, with other Ascended spirits.

Despite worshipping a Spirit of Communication, its Speakers are often not especially communicative, or interested in properly explaining anything. The ideal could perhaps be better understood as ‘Communication (with the Spirit of Tongues)’. They do, however, make for excellent translators.

**OOC Note** - The prerequisites are meant to be fun role-playing notes, not punishing requirements. In most cases, it can be assumed that the character has met the prerequisites offscreen, you don’t have to do them each game unless you want to. Prerequisites such as Damerone’s (requires the presence of fire) can be handwaved through roleplay – for example, a character could mime lighting a tiny ember and place it in a little jar, which they keep on a chain around their neck

## Drawing on the power of other Ascended spirits

Drawing on the power of Ascended spirits that are not Worldspirits is a little more complicated. These Tier 3 spirit are localised to an area, and like Worldspirits, have their own special prerequisites needed to align with their essence. While the prerequisites for the Worldspirits are all well-known, however there are many, many more smaller, weaker Ascended spirits out there.

Learning to channel the power and discovering their prerequisites of these Spirits is usually a process of trial and error. And if the speaker leaves the region, moreover, they can no longer channel that Ascended spirit’s power. A Speaker of the ideal of Love, for example, would have to hope that the region they moved to had another Ascended Spirit who exemplified Love, and then they would have to repeat trial-and-error process of attuning with that spirit.

For these reasons, most Speakers follow one of the 10 Worldspirits, though not all do.

## Prophets and Side-effects of Channeling Spiritual Power

When a Speaker channels the power of an Ascended spirit, they are channelling the power of the epitome of an ideal. This can have an impact on them. The effects are most obvious in Speakers of Cove, who start sleeping a lot. Channeling Ko-Lin’s power, another example, can make a Speaker more forgiving, As the individual was likely deeply dedicated to the ideal already, however, this is not always obvious, or unwelcome. Some Speakers are entirely unaffected.

Rarely, a Speaker who is completely, entirely devoted to an ideal may experience something unusual. After channelling a great deal of a spirit’s power over a long period of time, they may start to develop a sense of whether a certain course of action is in line with that spirit’s ideal. This goes deeper than mere understanding. It is the closest thing to communication with an Ascended spirit that is possible under normal circumstances – they are so in touch with the spirit’s essence, they know what the spirit would ‘think’ about a certain situation.

These Speakers are known as Prophets. However, verifying a Prophet’s credibility is nigh impossible, and their rulings are still coloured by their own worldview and subjective opinions, so they are not an especially large phenomena. Prophets have only started appearing in the last 150 years.

Prophets of the Spirit of Tongues take all this a step further. Tongue Prophets can communicate, a bit, with the Spirit of Tongues. The Spirit of Tongues can communicate, a bit, with other Ascended spirits. So, Prophets of the Spirit of Tongues, in theory, provide a line of communication with Worldspirits. However, the information comes from an alien being, goes through another alien being, and gets delivered to someone who is themselves usually extremely loopy and bizarre, so the information comes with some understandable flaws.

Speakers can channel the power of tier 3 spirits into objects to create spiritually-imbued items.

## Ceremonies and Runes

Ceremonies are low-grade rituals which call upon the power of specific Ascended spirit to achieve an effect. They work by laying out runes from a deck in a certain pattern, expending components and speaking words of power.

Runes are symbols of power, similar to sigils. Where a sigil forms a direct link to magic, however, runes are merely one piece of the apparatus used to align the speaker with the power of the spirit. A speaker must study the runes of their rune deck, truly understand them, before they can use them in this fashion.

Most ceremonies also require a ceremony manuscript to cast. Manuscripts are pieces of paper or parchment that are imbued with the essence of a tier 3 spirit. They also lay out the process for casting a specific ceremony. Manuscripts are difficult to create, and are not expended when used in a ceremony.

Only speakers can carry ceremony manuscripts around on their person, and only a limited number of them. Manuscripts are imbued with a tremendous amount of spiritual power, and non-speakers who attempt to handle them experience total sensory overload. Everything becomes blinding white, all sense of balance and coordination is lost, and the world is drowned out by all manner of incomprehensible sounds.

## The Zolin

One branch of Kalarain spiritual thought theorises that everything has a soul. Not just the animals, not just the trees, but every rock, stream, valley, cloud and thunderstorm.

There is no real way to verify this; if pebbles have souls, they are not detectable by current methods. However, one indicator that it might be true is the existence of the Zolin.

Certain large geographical landforms and features – a number of mountains. rivers, forests, have something. Some sort of life. While it’s not clear whether these can be properly equated to the souls of sentiment creature, this life is understood as the ‘soul of a forest’, or the ‘soul of a mountain’. These are the Zolin.

The effects that a Zolin has on the world are subtle. A business venture that attempt to mine a mountain may find themselves on the receiving end of an unusual number of avalanches. Loggers may get lost in the forest if they’re not extra careful. A river that has been polluted may be populated by high numbers of aggressive, dangerous species for the next season. The soul of the mountain, river, forest acts defensively, quietly, and always in ways that can be explained away.

You cannot talk with a Zolin, what communication could you have with a mountain? They are creatures of instinct. Offerings which local villages may leave for them mean nothing to them. Their potency and influence over the world can grow dramatically, however, when the intense magic of the Valley of Hope enters their proximity.

Sometimes, a Zolin may take bodied form as an elemental. During this period, the landform they stem from does not have a ‘soul’.

## Final notes

Finally, three notes on the history and practicalities of spirits

First, spirits did not use to be this powerful. Awakened spirits especially can do a lot more than they seem to have been able to do a thousand years ago. The same applies to the Zolin.

Second, other types of spiritualism and religion do exist in Kalarain, ancestor worship and worship of the Zolin being two big ones. The channeling of spirits, however, is the only strain that produces tangible effects, and is by far the most prominent.

And third, spirits are extremely difficult to interact with and deal with. If a Tier 2 spirit has started haunting your house and attacking visitors, your best recourse is to move. Attacking or trying to influence them with magic is like waving your hand through smoke, you can have an impact, but not a big or permanent one. And nothing seems to be able to affect Tier 3 spirits in any capacity at all.