The Spirit Arcana allows mages to communicate and interact with the ephemeral. Mages may seek to control spirits or make deals with them for a variety of work; recon, consulting, combat, to learn new information, and to utilize a spirit’s abilities to influence the material world. Aside from interacting with local spirits, a mage may summon spirits from their home realms to assist with local issues, though doing so often risks provoking the ire of an unhappy, suddenly displaced spirit.
So what are Spirits?
Spirits are the manifestations of ideas and conceptual representations of objects, memories, and emotions. They appear in diverse appearances, with many high-ranking spirits entirely unique to themselves. However, generally they are invisible to the naked eye, existing on the ephemeral plane, a realm that overlaps our own.
Just like the spirits within it, the ephemeral plane mirrors the emotion and importance of things that exist in our world. The greater the meaning, memories, and significance something has in the material world, the more it resonates in the ephemeral one. As such, an old cottage that has housed generations of family might appear solid and radiant in the ephemeral plane. The crater from a tragic bombing might be inaccessible to spirits, while mass built apartments might put only as much resistance as water to move through.
Ultimately, spirits understand the world from the perspective of the concept they embody, their influence, and through what stands out in the ephemeral world. They feed off of the energy that flows off of places of resonance, valuing resonance similar to their own over all others.
Spirit Command Points (SPCs)
When a mage casts a spell to control a spirit, the spirit naturally resists with a Resolve or Strength Ability Check. The spirit’s ability to resist control determines how many commands a mage can force the spirit to take.
If the spirit fails the check the mage gets 6 SPCs over it, and if the spirit only partially succeeds the mage gets 3 SCPs.
Once a mage gains control of a spirit, they can order the spirit to take a number of actions equal to how many SPCs they have over it. Generally, a single action verb is considered 1 command. “Watch this person.” or “Attack that monster!” may each cost 1 SCP, whereby “Scout ahead for traps and report back” would cost 2 SCPs.
An intelligent spirit can barter with a mage to follow an order without costing any SCPs, in exchange for some other service. Gathering detailed information from a simple spirit is often a laborious and fruitless task, but stronger spirits may resent forceful coercion and add their own complications.
Unused SCPs expire at the end of the summoning spell that called them.
Controlling a Spirit’s Powers and Influences
Controlling a spirit does not grant access to a spirit’s power’s directly, but a mage can order the spirit to use their influences and powers in desired ways. In this way, the Spirit Arcana can mimic most of the abilities in other Arcana, given the right spirit.
Creating a Spirit or Phantasm
Spirit Mages can create spirits and phantasms, temporary objects made of ectoplasm.
To create a spirit, a mage must have something that embodies the concept of the spirit itself to use as a focal point and to bind the spirit to. Creating a spirit is twice as hard as summoning one, costing 1 Hit per spirit rank. However, the advantage of creating a spirit is that the mage chooses it’s attribute distribution, skills, influences, and most importantly, its personality. The Ephemeral section details how to create a spirit
Phantasms are created with a health/durability equal to or lower than the caster’s Spirit Arcana level.
Seeing Spirits and Mage Sight
Mage Sight does not allow mages to see spirits, however mages with a Knack for particular types of spirits can always see, hear, and communicate with those type of spirits. To see other types of spirits as well as the resonance material objects give off in the ephemeral plane, spirit mages must cast a spell with the “See Ephemeral” component.
Ranks of Spirits
The rank of a spirit represents its relative power, capabilities, and amount of essence compared to other spirits. A spirit’s attributes are assumed to be zero unless declared otherwise.
| Rank | Average Essence | Attributes and Influences | Description |
| 1 | 2 | All attributes -2 1 Influence is at level 1 |
Lesser spirits similar to insects, with only a single personality trait and unable to form complex thought. |
| 2 | 6 | 1 attribute at 1 1 attribute at -2 1 Influence at level 2 |
Instinctual spirits with primal intelligence. only able to understand the world from its relation to their influence. |
| 3 | 14 | 1 attribute at -2 2 points to any attributes. (cap level 2) 1 Influence at level 2 1 Influence at level 3 |
Spirits of near-human intellect. Including humans, dolphins, and other fantastical races. |
| 4 | 24 | 4 points to any attributes. (cap level 3) 2 Influences at level 3 2 points to any Influences (cap level 4) |
Advanced Spirits with greater than human intellect and expert knowledge of their influences. |
| 5 | 34 | 6 points to any attributes. (cap level 4) 1 Influences at level 6 6 points to any Influences (cap level 4) |
Ruling spirits which serve as the embodiment of their domain |
Spirit Knacks
Spirit Mages specialize in the high-level concepts that spirits represent. They can see, hear, and communicate with those spirits freely, and cast spells to do a few additional things such as summon, control, or bind to an object. Aside from interacting with spirits, they can also create phantasms, ectoplasmic objects, connected to the concepts behind their Knacks.
Example Knacks: Spirits of Hunger, the Hunt, Fire, Automobiles, Industry, Waste, Ghosts, Animals, etc.
Spell Components
Level 1:
| Spell | Effect | Potential | Cost | Scope |
| See ephemeral | See the ephemeral plane and all spirits within line of sight.
You can also see the amount of resonance material things give off, which determine how “solid” they are for spirits wondering in the ephemeral plane. |
– | Glance | – |
| Summon Spirit | Summon a spirit by name, summon a spirit which relates to the nearby environment, or summon a nearby spirit within sensory range. The range on the spell relates to the location the spirit will be summoned, not the location of the spirit itself. At the spell’s end, the spirit can decide to linger or to disappear to the area from whence they were summoned. |
– | 1 Glance per Spirit’s Rank | Knack |
Level 2:
| Spell | Effect | Potential | Cost | Scope |
| Materialize Ephemeral | Make the target ephemeral object or spirit manifest on the Physical Plane. | 2 | Glance | Knack |
| Touch Ephemeral | Allow the target to touch spirits and objects in the ephemeral plane. | – | Glance | Knack |
| Alter Auras | Change how a target’s aura is perceived. Powers that sense the Aura will receive an inaccurate description. | – | Hit | Knack |
| Create Phantasm | Create a solid, stationary object made out of ectoplasm. Phantasms touch things in the material plane and ephemeral plane. Phantasms are created with a health/durability equal to or lower than the caster’s Spirit Arcana level. |
– | Hit | Knack |
| Create Spirit | To create a spirit, a mage must have something that embodies the concept of the spirit itself. Upon creation, the spirit is bound to that item. The caster chooses the spirit’s attribute distribution, skills, influences, and most importantly, its personality. The Ephemeral section details how to create a spirit The spirit still resists the caster’s control with SPCs determined as per normal. The spirit lasts only as long as the spell. |
– | 1 Hit per Spirit’s Rank | Knack |
Level 3:
| Spell | Effect | Potential | Cost | Scope |
| Bind Spirit | Anchor a spirit to a new location, item, or creature. The spirit may now feed off of the essence created from what they are bound to. Note that some higher rank spirits can change their own bindings. | – | Hit | Knack |
| Force Possession | Force a spirit to possess the target (an object, living creature, or ectoplasmic phantasm). | – | Hit | Knack |
Level 4:
| Spell | Effect | Potential | Cost | Scope |
| Share Knowledge | Spend 1 Mana to increase the target’s Mana by 1 or Essence by 2. | – | Glance | Knack |
| Merge with Spirit | Merge a spirit with a material creature, creating a new form with multiple hosts. Each host in the body has control of the other’s special abilities, using Mana for spells and Essence for spiritual influences. The spirit takes control of 1 of the creature’s initiative tokens, and may take control of the body for that action. If a spirit materializes while merged with the host, the host’s form takes on physical similarities to the spirit’s. The spirit’s skills act a 1, 2, or 3 die Aspects on the shared body. Once all of the aspect dice are used the spirit is no longer materialized. |
– | 1 Glance & 1 Hit | Knack |
Level 5:
| Spell | Effect | Potential | Cost | Scope |
| Hide | Hide target from magical senses, keeping it hidden from passive detection and putting a -2 penalty on those trying to detect it with magic. | – | Hit | – |
| Become Ephemeral | Make the target ephemeral; moving them from the material plane and onto the ephemeral plane. Allowing them to physically interact with other spirits and pass through low-resonance material objects. | – | Hit | – |
| Banish Spirit | Send a spirit away to the ephemeral plane or back to the location/object it is bound. | – | 1 Glance & 1 Hit | Knack |
Spirit Splices
The Haunted; The Beacons;
Those who regularly use spirit magic often find themselves entwined with the ephemeral plane. Often considered haunted, these mages become essence factories, producing small amounts of general essence that almost any spirit can use. As a result, spirits can easily find these mages and many low ranking spirits start to pull around the mage. As a splice deepens, the mage not only produces more essence but also starts to take on ephemeral qualities.
Certain stages of a splice spirit mage change some of the mage’s health into essence (which can be denoted by circling the health boxes). This essence will not keep a mage alive, but the mage can choose to take damage to the essence before their other health boxes. Note that all damage types are the same to essence. Should the mage have an out of body experience, any remaining essence is added to the pool of essence they have as a spirit. To represent health boxes that have been converted into essence, just circle the box. 1 slash represents 1 essence used, and an X represents 2 essence used.
Tier 1 Splices: The mage becomes a beacon in the ephemeral plane, easy to locate by spirits of the targeted type unless precautions are made. Additionally, the mage produces 1 essence per day of an influence related to the target of the spliced spell or their own influence. Lastly, a light coating of ectoplasm starts to cover part of the mage’s body.
Tier 2 Splices: At this point spirits start to accumulate around the mage in the ephemeral plane and rank 1 spirits may freely bind to the mage without detriment, even if they do not have similar influences.
When the splice activates, the affected body parts turn into ectoplasm and may interact with both the ephemeral and physical plane.
Tier 3 Splices: At this stage, the affected body part is completely made out of ectoplasm. The mage loses 1 health boxes but gains 2 essence. Furthermore, the mage gains some abilities of a rank 1 spirit and may use essence to Enhance manifestations of their influence (knacks or specialties). Additionally, Rank 2 spirits may now freely bind themselves to the mage.
When the splice activates the affected body part becomes ephemeral and absorbs nearby essence automatically, including that of level 1 spirits. As a result most spirits will retreat from the mage. Any essence gained beyond the mage’s normal amount causes the ephemeral nature of the splice to spread to the rest of the body, and each point of new essence temporarily replaces one health box (damaged or undamaged). When the splice goes dormant all additional essence is reverted back to health. If the essence was used it inflicts 1 bashing damage to the mage when it reverts back.
Tier 4 Splices: At this stage the splice has spread beyond the initial affected part, turning the parts around it into ectoplasm and converting another health box into 2 essence. The mage’s spiritual influence also increases in strength, and they are now able to use essence to Manipulate their influences. They also now produce 3 essence per day that other spirits around them can utilize, and all spirits can detect this essence from 2 miles away.
When the splice is active, the mage produces 1 free floating essence near them per 10 seconds, which will be absorbed by the affected body part just before the next essence is generated unless it is otherwise taken or the mage moves away from it.