Spirits

Spirits are the inhabitants of the Spirit Realm. They may have been human once, or another race or perhaps they haven’t lived at all. Nevertheless all spirits can communicate within the Realm, but while the brain usually hears words and language there is actually no such things. Spirits communicate through emotions and so the words simply become what the character would associate with the emotion perceived.

Spirits can be friendly, hostile or simply desired to be left alone. There is no uniform pattern to their behavior but most exhibits what could be interpreted as personalities. Spirits are usually divided into common spirits, dryads, ghosts, treants, will-o-the-wisps and wraiths.

Summoning
It is possible to summon the denizens of the Spirit Realm to the Mortal Realm using Spirit Magic.

To summon a spirit one need to use the appropriate Spirit Magic Spell. This will open up a passageway through which a spirit can travel to the Mortal Realm. If a spirit does not want to be summoned it may attempt to resist, which would require the summoner to battle the spirit with his or her will. Once a spirit has been summoned the summoner should try to convince the spirit to stay. If this fails the spirit will be hostile and try to attack or possess the summoner.

When a spirit is summoned to the Mortal Realm it requires a lot of magical energies to sustain it. The spirit will be drained on magical power until it has no power left, at which point it will be returned to the Spirit Realm. Mages summoning spirits can bind then, using part of their own power to sustain them. Bound spirits can act in the Mortal Realm for as long as the mage sustains the spell.

Manifestation
It is unusual for spirits to manifest by themselves in the Mortal Realm. Normally they need a portal or to be summoned to be able to cross over. The presence of very strong magic can sometimes make it easy enough for a powerful or enraged spirit to cross.

Possession
An alternative to manifesting in the Mortal Realm is for a spirit to take control over a mortal host. The host must be a creature which is self-conscious. If possessing a creature a spirit does not drain any of its power to remain in the Mortal Realm. Both the spirit and the person possessed will have control over the body so must wrestle against each others' will when they want to control it in a direction the other do not.

A spirit can be summoned to manifest itself and then aided in taking possession over a body. It can also attempt to do this by itself, although this is quite difficult for the spirit to succeed with. It is somewhat easier for a spirit to try and possess a summoner.