RPGnet participant, occasional blog reader, and Domino Girls fan daHob has been making noises about wanting to write up this setting as a Savage Worlds PDF, so I suppose I'd better get on with it.  Now we're getting into the hard parts.  It's time to talk about magic.

By "Magic" I refer to all the means that humans have to manipulate the supernatural aspects of the world.  Of course people in the setting have a different view than we do.  To them, there's no division between the supernatural and mundane worlds.  And don't even get me started on religion vs. magic.

Magic of the Land

The Lord is the Land.  The Land is the Lord.  This relationship is sacrosanct and unalterable.  Once the Land recognizes a Lord, it takes its shape from his will and gives him power in proportion to his strength.  The mechanisms of rulership vary, but they generally involve dealing with a powerful Spirit of the Land who dominates an area.  If a Land doesn't have a powerful spirit, one will arise to challenge its new Lord soon enough.  Then he must either defeat it or reach some kind of accommodation with it.  The nature of this encounter will determine, to some degree, the Land's destiny under its Lord.

Qin-Zhang was a master of the sword and a poet and philosopher.  He wandered the world, battling for causes he believed to be worthy and elegant, defeating bandits and kings alike.  His legend was, if anything, a shadow of the truth of his deeds.  But time flows like a river from the mountains of birth to the seas of death.  Qin-Zhang knew that in time his blade would dull, as would his wits.  He wished for a lasting testament to his life, and for a place to lay his head when he slept, and his bones when he died.  The warrior and philosopher wanted a home and a wife.  But what land could be equal to his brilliance, and what woman could be worthy of his seed?

Qin-Zhang took his parchments and inks, and his sword and armor, and went in search of his destiny.  He followed the Jade River to its headwaters, and there he found a beautiful land nestled in the shelter of five mountains.  He climbed the first mountain, and there he found un-men with arms like tree trunks and skin of bronze.  He slew their leader and they bowed down before him.  He left that place and climbed the second mountain.  There, he found a serpent of fire, which he slew also, although it cost him the finest sword he'd ever forged.  But the serpent's entrails were of ever burning flame, and its scales were of bright steel.  He forged a new blade, better than the old, and journeyed to the third mountain.  On the third mountain, he found nothing to battle, but voices howled on the winds and spoke riddles.  In a shrine on the mountaintop, Qin-Zhang meditated for a year until he could answer every riddle, and when he'd answered the last one, it began to rain.  Each raindrop became a silver coin.  Qin-Zhang filled his pouch with silver, because even heroes benefit from good rice wine and a soft bed, and journeyed to the fourth mountain.  There, he found water spirits, immune to his blade because their flesh was as water.  He could not pass them nor defeat them, so he paused and wrote a poem of such sadness that it made the water spirits weep.  As they cried out their tears, they dissolved into nothing, and joined the river of Jade.  Qin-Zhang left that place and climbed the fifth mountain.

The fifth mountain was higher than any of the others, almost as high as the stars.  Qin-Zhang's steps became heavy.  He abandoned his pack, then his scribe's pouch, and finally his silvery sword, and ascended the peak in only his robe.  Unarmed and nearly starved, Qin-Zhang looked up into sky more black than blue and fancied that he could reach out and touch the stars.  As he reached up his hand, he saw a dragon descending from the sky.  The sight so inspired him with awe that he was overcome with euphoria and fainted. 

When he awoke, a woman stood over him wearing a robe of gold silk with a dragon's scales embroidered into it.  The robe was open, and he saw her charms.  She gave him rice and wine and told him that this land was hers, and that she had been waiting for one who could take it.

Qin-Zhang had no sword, but he had substantial charms.  He opened his own robe and claimed the woman.

After she was sated, the woman, who was a dragon, told Qin-Zhang that he would have a place to lay his head when he slept, and to lay his bones when he died.  He would have a land to rule, and his land would never forget his name.  But he would never have a wife, and if he ever took one, she would take away all that she had given, for what mortal woman could be worthy of his seed?  Qin-Zhang accepted this with equanimity, and descended the mountain.  He retrieved his sword and his scribe's pouch and his pack, and when he descended, he found a great palace.  There, he ruled for many years.

Each year, Qin-Zhang would ascend the mountain again.  In time, his blade and his wits dulled.  Age bent his back.  And one year he did not return.  But one claiming to be his son descended the mountain holding his sword and wearing his robe.  The man had skin of gold and eyes of darkness, and ruled over the Empire of Qin for many years, stretching out his hand to conquer all of the nine kingdoms.

<2>Powers of the Lord

Once a Lord has claimed a Demesne, he has power over it.  This power can take many forms, depending on the character of the Lord and the care he takes over his lands.  Strong Lords have strong Demesnes, and have greater power over them than weak Lords.

Broadly, these powers fall into three areas.  There are powers of the Heart, powers of the Eye, and powers of the Hand.

Powers of the Heart: The most elemental of a Lord's powers, and among the most subtle.  Powers of the Heart are those that describe a Lord's relationship to the land he rules.  His heart pumps blood and life into his Demesne.  If his heart is weak, his land is weak as well.  Powers of the Heart affect the Demesne more than the Lord.  They shape the character of its terrain, the fertility of its fields, and even the nature of its people.  A cold, cruel Lord will rule over a harsh Demesne.  It might be prosperous, but its prosperity will come only with struggle and pain.  Its people will be either fearful or cruel.  Its Spirits will be dangerous.  A kindly Lord will rule over a kindly Demesne, with happy people and lush fields.  But it is easier to be strong and cruel than strong and kind.

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Gamespeak: Powers of the Heart are the stuff that determines what the land is like.  I'm the kind of guy who would model this by hand waving.  If I were going to define a system for it, it'd be something like the Organization rules for Angel.  You'd have various attributes of your land that you could assign points to.  You'd earn points by doing lordly stuff.  I think they'd need to be a fluid resource, rather than something you pay character points for, because the whole point is that they can be gained and lost.  In a balanced point-gen system, being a strong Lord would be difficult because you'd need to spend points on Lord stuff OR personal stuff, and the system I'm trying to create says that the more personal strength you have, the stronger your Demesne is.

Powers of the Heart will probably work as kind of a shopping list of attributes and ratings.  You can customize your Demesne by choosing the ones that fit best.  They'll cover a lot of things like the general weather, the terrain, what kind of natural resources there are (although this can't be changed radically), and even the people.  People from a land where the Lord venerates physical strength might really just tend to be stronger than their neighbors, but they might also be quicker to anger or a little less intelligent.
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Powers of the Eye: The connection between a Lord and his Demesne gives him supernatural knowledge over it.  Not all Lords have the wisdom or insight to excel in this area.  All Lords have at least a vague sense of the health of their Demesnes, and they receive some kind of warnings when their lands are in immediate danger.  Depending on the character of the Lord and the Demesne, this could come in the form of prophetic dreams, whispers from Spirits of the Land, or supernatural intuition.

More perceptive Lords begin to develop means of scrying over their realms.  They might be able to locate game, know the status of distant cities, or call into vision different parts of their land.  Often, this knowledge comes from totem animals or Spirits of the Land who answer the Lord's call.  Lords schooled in magic might employ scrying rituals instead.

The knowledge gained this way is of concern to the Land, not always to the Lord.  He might be able to send ravens to track an invading warband, but not to follow his wife who he believes is unfaithful.  Or perhaps he might.  The Land can be fickle.

Still more perceptive Lords begin to know their Demesnes as well as they know their own bodies or minds.  They know when to plant, when to harvest, and when to seek shelter from a coming storm.  They can look upon a suspect in court and know his guilt or innocence, and what punishment is most appropriate.  The wisest and strongest begin to become infallible, at least insofar as ruling their Demesnes is concerned.  As with the other powers of the Eye, these powers often have an external focus, but just as often, they are purely intuitive.  The Lord simply is his Land, and knows it as well as he knows himself.  Of course, this also means that a Lord can deceive himself about his Land as easily as he does about anything else.

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Gamespeak: These are fairly straightforward.  A Lord will have some kind of perception level, and as it increases he gets access to deeper levels of information and insight.  Players will probably be able to define their own "special effects," but the powers will be pretty constant.  There's room for some customization, though.  A Chinese Emperor might want to know which bureaucrats will be best for certain jobs, while a Plains Indian chief wants to be able to find buffalo.  So some of the specific insights might vary.
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Powers of the Hand: A Lord in his place of power is fearsome to behold.  He rules his Demesne through magic as much as through will and action.  The stronger a Lord is, the greater his power over his Demesne, and the greater power he can draw from his Demesne.

By keeping his Land healthy, a Lord keeps himself healthy to some extent.  While he's defending his own Demesne, very little can harm him, and he will not fall ill or fall victim to misadventure.  But if hostile spirits blight his lands, or treachery weakens his will, he becomes vulnerable.

The Demesne also begins to answer the Lord's will.  Its' people's loyalty comes as much from the bond between Lord and Land as from his decisions.  Thus do strong, but cruel, Lords hold their people in bondage.  They might hate him, but fear him too much to rebel until some greater force inspires them.  Some Lords also learn to master the beasts of their realms, or even the weather.

All Lords have some sway over the Spirits of their Demesnes, but this is not a sure or certain power.  Often, there is a price for invoking it.  At the minimum, any Spirit of a Demesne will recognize its Lord and not commit treason upon him.  Lords who take time to court their Spirits' favor might be served by spectral knights, or ride upon steeds of fire.

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Gamespeak: This will be another thing to spend points on and to advance at different rates.  In fact, the whole thing will probably work that way, with a Lord player choosing what aspects he cares most about and getting more points to spend over time.

One way to balance this against other players would be to follow the example of King Arthur's legend.  While Arthur was the king, his Knights were often more powerful in specific ways.  Lancelot was the greatest of sinful knights, for instance.  So a PC party might have a Lord with all kinds of cool Demesne powers, but his companions might be a powerful, mysterious wizard, a Starborn bard who can literally sing birds down from the trees, and a Starborn warrior who can't be defeated in battle.  Having those people as friends is part of the Lord's strength.

There will have to be a way to gain and lose power in your Demesne, involving events like going to war, being betrayed, or losing your heart, and acts of atonement like questing for the Holy Grail or going out again to fight your Demesne's Spirit.
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<2>Banes of the Lord

A Lord has to stay strong to keep his Demesne strong, and he must periodically renew his ties to the Land.

While a Lord is supreme in his Demesne, he may fall victim to a greater Lord's invasion. 

He might weaken either through age or lack of will.  He might always know what is best for his Demesne, but he can deceive himself, and his judgment can be clouded in personal matters.  A Lord who rests on his laurels and falls to drink loses his strength, and his land weakens around him.

Treachery is the greatest bane.  Any treachery weakens the entire realm.  A strong Lord's subjects might not be able to betray him directly, but powerful allies are not so bound, and even the least peasant is still a Man with the ability to influence his own destiny.

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Gamespeak: This is the stuff that costs you "Lord Points."  And generally, the GM gets to decide which of your advantages are degraded.  The typical way will be for them to all be degraded more or less equally, but there could be exceptions depending on the kind of bane that hit you.  It is, of course, especially nasty to lose your physical invulnerability in the face of a treacherous attack...
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The Land wants to be strong.  A weakening Lord will find his Demesne slipping away.  A blind Lord might not notice.  If he is wise or fortunate, he might have the chance to win his strength back through some kind of act of atonement.  Such a feat is at least as difficult as winning the Demesne in the first place.  Often, the best a weak ruler can do is to die to atone for his sins and leave a strong kingdom for his son.

<2>Succession

The Lord of a Demesne is not immortal.  If a Lord becomes so, the Land begins to twist, because immortality is not the province of men.  When a Lord dies, a new Lord is chosen.  A Lord's children share in his command of the Demesne, and very often his chosen successor takes his place.  The heir will have to face the same renewal ritual his predecessor faced, but this is often easier than conquering the land the first time.  Thus, in fact, begins the fall of many Demesnes.  The first Lord had to be very strong to take the land.  His son doesn't need to be as strong, and thus might not be.  Wise Lords send their sons abroad to face hardships and win victories, but this has a risk because the son doesn't have the protection of his Demesne so far from home, and enemies might seek to slay him.  That would, in turn, weaken the Demesne as the Lord grieves for his lost child.

The heirs of a Lord, and sometimes his feudal vassals, share in his ties to the Land to a lesser degree.  They will never have as much sway as the Lord does, but are often still quite powerful.  A deposed Lord's subordinates lose all their powers when he is deposed.  Of course, sometimes one of these subordinates is the one who claims the land from his ailing Lord.  In this case, he will, of course, retain his powers and might choose to share them with his brothers and sisters.

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Gamespeak: This is pretty straightforward up until you get to the Feudal system, where the King rules a big land that's cut into small pieces ruled by Dukes and so on.  In those cases, a Duke probably has a Demesne with its own Spirit, but that Spirit is subordinate to the greater Spirit of the King's Demesne.  The King has power over all of the Spirits and all the Demesnes, but a Duke probably has equal control within his own Duchy.  Lesser Lords only inherit power from their Masters, if they get any at all.  Some people just have to get by with strength, cunning, and charm.

We'll get into this a little more down below.
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<2>Conquest

The Land is a living thing, and its Demesnes have life, breath, and will.  A Demesne wishes to be strong, and has a natural urge to prey on the weak.  Strong Lords are often moved by this will to conquer their neighbors.  Just as much, a land with a weak Lord will slowly start to attract would-be conquerors as the Land searches for a worthy ruler.

A conqueror does not have to claim the Demesne as the original Lord did.  By force of arms, he makes himself the new successor, and so only has to continue the rituals of connection.  Matters are often not quite that simple, though.  The Land will seek to test its new ruler, and might not immediately grant its powers.  The new Lord will have to make some kind of accommodation with the Land before he rules it completely.

If the conqueror already holds a Demesne, the two lands are merged into one, dominated by the Spirit of whichever was larger.  Spirits of the Land follow after the mortals in their realms, so the conquered people may find their land changing around them as once-familiar Spirits are displaced by new ones.  The new Lord's character will start shaping the land within a year, as well.

Matters are more complicated yet if the old Lord and his heirs are not slain outright.  If they escape or are exiled, there is always the chance they can return.  The Land will accept a past ruler or his blood more easily than an entirely new conqueror.  If the current Lord is weak, a Demesne might even start answering to the "lost heir."  But sometimes a Lord of a Demesne bows his head to a greater Lord.  In these cases, both lands retain their Spirits, but the conqueror’s Demesne becomes stronger, and the High Lord's power extends into the new realm.

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Gamespeak: This isn't too complicated.  It probably doesn't need a formal system.  A deposed Lord who somehow escapes has the chance to come back and try to get his realm back.  A callow orphan boy could turn out to be the True King.  A King can grant power to his Dukes and Earls.  The actual mechanics of the power work however I design the system to work.
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Next up is Magic of the Lower Air, and possibly Magic of the Underworld.  They may end up being really similar, since a lot of the powers actually belong to the spirits, not to the magicians.  Sorcery and Necromancy are more about knowing secrets and being able to get spirits to do favors for you than having "superpowers."

 

There's an RPG.net thread about Darth Vader's costume.  Someone posted a picture often seen in the more fanboyish parts of the internet of a girl in a sort of "bondage queen Vader" outift that, while cool, never quite worked for me.  So this evening I sat down and hashed out a rough sketch of what might work better.

Very rough sketch.

Really rough.

You have been warned.

(Because it's a really, really rough sketch)

My improvements over the original are mostly keeping elements from the real Darth Vader costume.  The armor on the legs (now equipped with spurs) and the paldrons (now attatched to the collar with chains) harken back to the real deal.  The cape-like thing extending from the helmet both feminizes the suit even further, and harkens back to Vader's cape.  If I were to really make this costume for some insane reason, I'd use sheer black or gray fabric with a metalic tint.

The main problem I had with the original bondage queen vader design is the abrupt cut-off of the helmet.  I think the collar solves that nicely, and transitions well to the halter top.  I made up for covering up the top of the breasts by throwing in a little undercleavage.  Cause that's just the way I roll.

(Well, really I roll nothing at all like that, since I'm a short, fat guy instead of a hot babe, and I don't do cosplay)

Here's one more that turned out pretty well, I think.

This one is a fairly lackluster effort, but still amusing.

Here's another piece of Domino Girls art - the first panel of issue 2, colorized by the magic of the lasso tool and the paintbucket tool.  I'd love Domino Girls to be more "solid" looking, and am experimenting with ways to make it look a little better.  The picture here was done to look a bit like sepia toned photographs.  I'm thinking that I'll go for a more straight black & white look in the actual comic, so the colored bits will look better.  (As it is, gold would just look like part of the usual color scheme)

I have yet to try anything fancy like filters.  We shall see how that goes, but only after I get a new computer or more RAM.

Hi y'all.  This has taken a while, because I kept forgetting to send it to my laptop, from which I do most of my blog posting, so it languished in obscurity in a sad, forgotten folder on a different computer until I remembered to email it to myself.

But now, at long last, a little more of my latest exercise in world-building is ready for your perusal.

Spirits of the Lower Air

The Lower Air encircles the Land, marking out safe boundries beyond which the Land cannot exist.  The purpose of the Air is to provide the Land with breath.  Sound, light, warmth, shadow, cold, and flame all travel through the medium of Air.  And these are not just nameless forces, they are living things, breathed out by the Land.  They are the Spirits of the Lower Air.

Unlike the Spirits of the Land, Spirits of the Lower Air are almost always incorporeal.  They live only in their earthly manifestations, and never step beyond them.  In every shadow is a sprit of shadow, but only in exceptionally rare circumstances will the shadow spirit take any action beyond slowly moving across the wall as the sun passes in the sky.

The Spirits of the Lower Air can be categorized, but some defy easy classification.  Almost every natural occurance or element has a spirit.  The works of Man can sometimes give birth to spirits as well, or perhaps to transform the spirits already inside.  A sword of legend that has slain dragons and kings and lovers might have its own spirit that embues the sword with great power and Will, but not all swords have spirits beyond the iron in their blades.

Some philosophers even doubt the individuality of the Spirits of the Lower Air.  Does a storm spirit retire to his bed when the storm abates, only to return for a new storm?  Or does each new storm have a spirit that lives and dies within the span of the storm?  The Spirits themselves are little help in answering the question.  Their perception of time is different than that of Men.  While a spirit can understand such concepts as "wait until later" or "before this, that," it will be utterly baffled by such questions as "when were you born?" or "How long have you lived?"  In fact, most Spirits of the Lower Air can only speak of concrete, immediate things, and seldom speak at all other than to acknowledge commands.

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Gamespeak: Spirits of the Lower Air have pretty simple balliwiks.  A Fire spirit can make things burn, keep things from burning, and control fire to a limited extent.  A really powerful Fire spirit might be able to make water burn, but most couldn't.

I'm thinking that Spirits of the Lower Air will have limits to their duration.  I'll probably get into this more in the magic section, but the basic idea is that if you summon a fire spirit and take it out of the fire, it can only last so long, and as it expends its energy, it gets weaker and will discorporate sooner.

Anchoring the spirit in some way could give it longer time duration.

Spirits can only be called up within their elements.  To summon a fire spirit, you need a fire, and the bigger the fire, the bigger the spirit you could summon.  Human manufacture changes what spirits are available.  For instance, a lump of raw iron ore could be used to summon a rock spirit, but if that iron were smelted and refined and beaten into a sword, the spirit would then be a sword spirit.  If the sword were broken, the sword spirit would die (only to live again if the sword were somehow re-forged) and those particular fragments of iron might not be useful to summon anything anymore.
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Spirits of the Greater Air

Beyond the Land and Lower Air is the perfect Celestial realm.  Men cannot go there, and nothing from the Celestial spheres can easily enter the land.  The Lunar Sphere marks the barrier between the Lower and Greater Air.  Naturally, this means that on nights when the moon is dark, the barrier is weaker.  New Moons are times of portent.  Lunar eclipses are major events.

The Spirits of the Greater Air are both most and least like men above all other spirits.  They understand the passage of time as Men do, although as immortal beings they see more of it pass.  Unlike spirits of the Lower Air, the Spirits of the Greater Air are visible to human eyes, hanging in the sky.  The barrier of the Lunar Sphere separates Man from the Spirits of the Greater Air.  Men can call upon them, but cannot summon them or bind them, and Spirits of the Greater Air never touch the Land.  When a star falls, the spirit is consumed and destroyed, leaving only a shard of stone.  This stone, when found by Men, is of great power, but is no longer a spirit.

Legends say this is not always true.  Sometimes, a Spirit of the Greater Air longs so deeply for the Land that he might fall from the sky and survive, diminished in power and cast into the form of a man or beast.

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Gamespeak: as an unabashed fan of Neil Gaiman's Stardust, I am very likely to include rules for fallen stars, but I'm not completely decided.  At the moment, this is a very "human" setting.  Adding any sort of demihuman should not be done lightly.
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The Greater Air is marked by spheres encircling the Land like nested dolls.  Each Sphere is the domain of one of the most powerful spirits of the Greater Air, the Spirits who shape the destiny of the Land.  Men all recognize these Spirits in some form, although the details, and even the names, might differ.

First is the Lunar Sphere.  The Moon is one of the two Spirits closest to the Land, and the one that gives it light in the darkness.  She (although the Spirits are not bound by human sex, the Moon is almost always seen as a female spirit by the peoples of the Land) represents Life in its physical, changing aspects: fertility, birth, aging, and eventual death, plants, animals, and the like.  The Spirit of the Moon seeks to elevate mankind by bringing Man into harmony with the Land.

Second is the Solar Sphere.  The Sun is the second Spirit closest to Man, and brings life-giving light to the Land.  Without Light, the Land would be cold, dead, and unseen.  The Spirit of the Sun holding purvue over life, healing, purity, and inspiration.  His are the spiritual domains of life, and he seeks to elevate Men's souls.

Next is the Mercurial Sphere.  The Dawnstar treasures knowledge above all else.  This includes philosophy,  secrets, and languages.  It is the Spirit of Mercury who orders the Stars to reveal the secrets of the universe.

(aside: Yes, I know that the morning star and the evening star were really both Venus.  Work with me here)

Fourth is the Venusian Sphere.  The Spirit of Venus is concerned with the "soft" or "gentle" emotions, and seeks to elevate Man through love, beauty, and art.  She inspires poets and romantics.

Fifth is the Martian Sphere.  The Red Star is the star of War.  The Spirit of Mars finds elevation in conflict: constant striving, challenging, biting, scratching for advantage.  The Red Star finds Men at their best in the midst of a struggle.

Sixth is the Jovian Sphere.  The Spirit of Jove admires all forms of strength, and believes the best way for Man to ascend is through the wisdom and strength of kings.  It is by Jove's will that a Lord may rule his Land.

The seventh, and final Sphere is the Saturnian Sphere.  Beyond this, is the Abyss.  The Spirit of Saturn sets limits.  He separated the Land from the Air, and the Lower Air from the Greater Air.  He separates life from death and day from night. 

Within the Celestial Spheres, there are countless stars.  Each is aligned with one of the Greater Lights, serving and supplimenting it.  Some of these are part of the celestial chorus, singing the eternal music of the Spheres.  Others take a direct interest in human affairs, watching life play out far below.

When Men send up prayers and sacrifices to the Celestial Spheres, the Spirits hear them.  For reasons of their own, they sometimes deign to answer.

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Gamespeak: Spirits of the Greater Air are essentially gods and angels.  They don't often communicate with individuals.  The greatest of them don't even really care about countries or dynasties.  They're only interested in the ideals they represent, and exert constant subtle influence to promote those ideals.  Mars' light shines down on men and makes them dream of war and blood and glory.  Lesser spirits associated with Mars might communicate with specific men, but only rarely.  Men can pray to the gods, and by doing so can forge a slightly stronger connection to them, which sometimes results in minor miracles.

The big exception to this will be discussed in the magic section.
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So, that's it for now.  Spirits of the Underworld and of the Deep remain, and are actually not written yet.  I'm trying (futily) to do NaNoWriMo again this year, so I probably won't have time to get to them for a couple weeks, at least.

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.