Spirits

Going by many other names, Spirit is a collective term for all manner of extra-planar beings that can be summoned or may visit from alternate realms. Across all time periods, understanding the fundamental properties of spirits is difficult, lending often to them being considered deific or some manner of superior, magical being. They are known to at least not inhabit Niyala, though their true origins are unknown, made more confusing by their appearances often being appropriate for the time period, flora, and fauna.

Spirit personalities can vary wildly, though the vast majority seem unwilling to break any deals or agreements, even through trickery or abuse of wordplay; this has led to a practice of individuals often called petitioners summoning spirits and making temporary pacts or agreements with them to engage their abilities in some manner of exchange.

It is known that a spirit's particular form is not reflective of their physiology, regardless of appearance, as strikes to a creature's head or hacking off its limbs clearly injures a spirit, but no more than assaulting its torso. This extends to equipment, suggesting that a spirit's appearance is some manner of projection or construction, though these appearances do tend to indicate a spirit's nature, abilities, or manner. As this implies a lack of organs, and spirits seem to suffer little from small, localised injuries — ballistic attacks are often disfavoured.

Due to their often exceptional magical ability, ability to take various appearances, desire to engage in exchanges which may involve ritual gifts and service, and impressive durability, many cultures have come to treat spirits as religious figures, whether paying worship and homage to individual spiritual identities and treating other agents as unrelated beings or servants, or by taking a culture of general worship and subservience to all spirits.

While in Niyala, it is known that spirits suffer some significant amount of energy loss, and often struggle to remain for a prolonged period as a result. As such, spirits are typically encountered as the result of intentional summoning, though sufficiently powerful spirits have occasionally been found to roam in pursuit of their own agenda.

Aspects

When attempting to describe spirits through a less religious or cultural lens, spirits are often described as having aspects. These are used to roughly describe a spirit's manifested powers, traits, and features; allowing easier comparison without being distracted by a spirit's less trustworthy visual appearance.

Many spirits have multiple aspects which blend together as part of their creation. For instance, a common spirit associated with the Dracaryn religion is that of one of Maiwani's servants, having the aspects of Fire, Life, Death, and Wrath — having powers associated with each.

Summoning Spirits

The act of summoning a spirit is extremely secretive information, outlawed by most governments — often, due to how destructive a spirit can be if mismanaged.

The particular ritual required varies by spirit; summoning a specific, individual spirit often requires a unique ritual that may be a closely guarded secret. However, it is consistent that the difficulty of summoning a spirit is directly proportional to how many aspects the spirit has, and how powerful the spirit is. Whether this is a result of the difficulty of locating a spirit of certain compositions, some notion of willingness required, or merely a measure of a power struggle is a question awaiting an answer for even the most skilled summoners.

Spirits that are in some way the subject of a larger, formal worship — such as those that have become the subject of religion, either as perceived deities or merely agents of such — are substantially easier to summon by those that share the religious practice. The exact reason is unknown; most commonly, it's believed that the worship they receive by religious culture as a whole either provides a tangible benefit to such spirits, or merely entices them to be more responsive.