And now we're back.  Obviously, when I said magic was next, I really meant Spirits were next.  You got that, right?  No, seriously, since I write these things off the cuff, I sometimes change my mind midway through.  Spirits are so fundamental to how everything in this setting works that I decided I needed to handle them, first. 

I’m breaking this down into sections, since otherwise it would be pretty long.  (Also, this way I get several days worth of content instead of just one)

Spirits

Man and beast share their world with Spirits, born in the echoes of creation long ago.  Spirits ruled the world before the rise of Men, and some say they will rule it again when the last Man dies.  Sometimes allies, sometimes enemies, Spirits are at least as variable as humans, and wield fantastic powers.

Powers of Spirits

The ways of Spirits are not the ways of Men.  Men are bound by flesh.  Spirits are part of the eternal Land or the boundless Air.  They are creatures of Will, rather than of Flesh.  But they are also constrained in ways that men are not, enmeshed in their roles or lacking in substance.

Each Spirit is bound, to some degree, by its nature.  A Hunting Beast must hunt.  A spirit of flame must burn.  A spirit of a lake cannot journey out to other lands.  But within its purview, a spirit can be very powerful.

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Gamespeak:  My thoughts are that this needs to be a freeform system.  A spirit will be defined by attributes that tell you how powerful it is, and what areas it can influence.  Then there's a system for calculating how powerful a spirit needs to be to generate a given effect.  On a scale of 1 to 5, a fire spirit with a 1 might just be able to light a candle, while a 5 STR fire spirit might be able to set a whole city afire.  A Spirit's stat block would have whatever basic statistics are needed, plus its power level (possibly different for each of its areas of influence).  Then some common/well-known specific effects would be a good idea, so you don't have to calculate them on the fly every time you need them.

The Buffy Magic system is a pretty good guideline, with its definitions of effect, duration, number of people, and so on.  I'll probably end up with something like that.

The goal is to produce a system where the GM always knows what a given spirit can do, and the players can make informed guesses, but there's still room for surprises.
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Spirits of the Land

The Spirits of the Land are manifestations of the Land's will and character.  A land with no spirits withers and dies, becoming a blasted wasteland where nothing grows and nothing can survive for long.  Far from the places of Man, the Spirits of the Land are vast and powerful.  Primitive men in this primordial wild often worship them as fearsome and terrible gods.  Wild Spirits of the Land generally have the form of great beasts.  In places where the rule of Man dominates, the Spirits are diminished, but no less vital.  They are shaped by men's wills into forms closer to human.

Wild Spirits

The Spirits that dwell in the wild are often savage and terrible, but also often hold ancient secrets and awesome powers.  Only the bravest, or most foolish of men can face them.  The risks are great, as are the rewards.

The Black Woods of Gothe are ruled by a black bear taller than a house, with burning embers for eyes, and with claws that can sunder tree trunks.  Anyone who brings iron into the forest raises the black bear's rage.  In his presence, fires will not burn, and shadows become visions of men's darkest fears.  By day, the bear is never seen.  Only the sharpest arrows will pierce the dark bear's hide, and any hurts he takes one night will be healed by the next.

Stories say that a warrior who kills the dark bear will gain his power - skin that turns blows, and strength beyond mortal ken; shadows that answer his call, and power over flame.  No one has done so yet.  Kenning Men say that one can, on the first new moon of spring, approach the bear carrying neither weapons nor flame, and the bear will judge the man's worthiness.  For a worthy man, the bear will answer any one question, and give the man one of his teeth, which may be made into a spear tip or a dagger sharper than steel.  But if the man is judged unworthy, the bear will kill him and devour him, such that no one remembers his name.  Still other stories say that if the man is found worthy, the bear will still kill him, and he will rise three nights hence as a bear himself.

Each land has one totemic spirit, a Genius Locus.  To defeat or treat with that spirit is to become a Lord.  Thereafter, the Land recognizes its Lord and rewards him when he is strong.  The Land makes demands of its Lords, though, and these demands must be met, else great doom befall the Lord.

Once, a mighty city stood on the mountain called Drakencrag.  The city's first king slew the dragon of the mount with a sword forged from starmetal.  As the dragon died, he granted the king and his descendants dominion over the mountain, the valley, and the fertile plains beneath, so long as the people never slew any  of the lesser dragons that lived in the mountains, and each shepherd left his first ewe of the year as an offering to the dragons when it was a year old.

For many years, the people prospered.  Their hunters brought back full sacks.  Their fields produced more than sufficient grain.  Their warriors brought back great plunder in raids against weaker neighbors.  Until there came a king who grew tired of the wyrms that sometimes stole from his herds or burned his crops.  With the sword of his fathers, he slew a wyrm.  Thereafter, the city knew no peace.  A plague of wyrms descended, burning the city and the surrounding villages, and killing those who lived there.  The king and his warriors fought back, but they were defeated, and the starmetal blade was lost.

Now the Drakencrag is once again ruled by a great and powerful dragon, and legends speak of the wondrous treasure that might be found in the ruins of the city.  The people who dwell in the valley and the fields beyond will slay such wyrms as descend from the hills to steal sheep, but they never pursue the wyrms into the mountains, for that is surely death.  To appease the Dragon, they must now sacrifice to him a virgin girl who has just begun to have her moontime each year on the longest night.

Not all Spirits of the Land are gigantic or dangerous.  Even in wild places, there are some spirits that can be helpful to men, although even these spirits are not to be crossed.

Many wild places are home to the Little People, who look like misshapen effigies of humans.  They are attracted to human activity, but seldom do more than watch from a distance.  Few travelers ever get more than a glimpse of them.  When unobserved, the little men will steal small objects, often hanging them in the tree branches nearby, or work other small mischief.  But other times, they will mark safe trails, or lead lost travelers from danger with their haunting voices, which warble like birds and click and croak like frogs and insects.

A man who touches a little man will have good luck all day, so some people think to capture one and keep it in a cage.  This is a poor idea, since the others will take great offence and work their small mischiefs on the captor and everyone around him, and even if he releases the captive, they will never stop hounding him.  Or so say the legends.

Spirits of Man

Spirits do not only dwell in the primordial wilds.  They are part of the Land, and as such are found everywhere upon it.  But in places dominated by Man, they are diminished in form and power.  This does not mean they are powerless, by any means.

In the ancient city of Illyum, after the sun has set, fortunate men (or unfortunate ones) will sometimes see a trio of women, shapely in form, but clothed head to toe in red wrappings, with red cloaks hiding their heads and silver, eyeless masks hiding their features.  These women sometimes walk, sometimes dance to inaudible music, but never speak.  Everyone knows that the Red Ladies are harbingers.  Anyone who actually hears their music will die in a fortnight.  If he can actually hear them sing, he will die that very day.

Very rarely, a Red Lady will stop and lay hands upon a person, always a woman or a child.  If she bestows her blessings upon a grown woman, that woman will conceive a child within the next year.  If she chooses a child, that child will not fall ill until his beard begins to grow (if a boy) or her moontime begins (if a girl).

Once in a great while, only two Red Ladies will appear.  They will dance through the city plaza in broad daylight, and everyone in the square will hear the haunting music.  The pair will pick out a woman in the plaza, be she young or old, pretty or ugly, and dance around her, finally taking her hand and leading her from the plaza in a frenetic, spiraling dance.  Anyone who tries to stop them will be compelled to dance as well, although not to follow.  Those stricken will dance until the next sunrise, if they do not die first.  The chosen woman will be led away and will never be seen again.  The next time the Red Ladies appear, there will be three again.

Many peoples know of household spirits, like the Brown Men as small as mice, always dressed in clothes made from scraps of cloth and decorated with bits of stone and metal.  The Brown Men live in the shadows beneath cupboards, in the gaps between stones, and in the void between roof and rafters.  They prefer rough, somewhat shabby dwellings over the fine houses of the rich.  Wise people will leave out a bit of food for them, and make sure the odd scrap of good fabric falls to the corner, because Brown Men will protect the house they live in.  They chase away vermin, and do not foul what bits of food they steal for their own use as rats would do.  Sometimes, they might also deign to do small chores like patching a leaking thatch roof or mending a small broken thing left laying out.

If they are well-treated, they will also protect the inhabitants from hostile magics.  Whenever a malevolent entity or evil spell targets a member of the household or a guest, a Brown Man can choose to sacrifice his life in the stead of the original target.  The next day, the lady of the house will find his corpse, blackened to a cinder, on the hearthstone.  When this happens, it is important that the inhabitants of the house honor the little cinder with a proper funeral, scaled down to its size.  Otherwise, the remaining Brown Men might give offence and leave the house.

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Gamespeak: Spirits of the Land will have fairly esoteric power purviews like "Healing" or "Hearth" or "Hunting" (although they won't all have to begin with the letter "H.")  I'll try to avoid the more elemental ones like "Fire" or "Storms" because those should be the realm of Spirits of the Lower Air.  But fire or storms might be part of a Spirit of the Land's repertoire.  A spirit of fear might only appear during storms.  The Genius Locus of a volcano could well have a body made of burning lava.  I'll have to think about how those work.

Next up, Spirits of the Lower Air.