Intangible and normally invisible, spirits are nonetheless more numerous than any other classification of creature. Some are souls of the dead while many more are manifestations of ideas and representations of objects, memories, and emotions.
Spirits exist in a separate state of being outside our world. Many inhabitants of the spiritual world are completely alien to what humans can comprehend, yet human spirits themselves go to the spiritual world after life. As part of the mystery of death, few people understand the spiritual world, and none know it in its entirety. What we do understand is how spirits exist in our own world.
Ephemeral Plane and the Spiritual Plane.
The Spiritual Plane is a realm where ideas and concepts are just as real as one’s physical self, and it is generally beyond the grasp of the living. It is the plane all spirits are drawn towards; it is where spirits “move on” to. That said, it is an also an area of powerful beings that many spirits seek to escape from.
On the other hand, the Ephemeral Plane overlaps with the Physical Plane; the two together make our world. Some spirits are created in our world while others find themselves summoned here or bound to an event, location, person, or object. As spirits travel in our world, they spend most of their time in the Ephemeral Plane. While in the Physical Plane we interact with walls and people, the inhabitants of the Ephemeral Plane interact with the meanings, memories, and significance of those physical objects; their resonance. The more of an impact something had on the Physical Plane, the stronger its resonance, and thus its existence, in the Ephemeral Plane.
In the Ephemeral Plane, a home that passed down to family generations will likely have a more defined nature than a new house that has just risen. Furthermore, living creatures carry their own resonance, making them difficult to pass through in the ephemeral plane. Moving in the Ephemeral Plane can range from walking in air to pushing through a thick sludge or even pressing against a solid object, depending on the resonance of an area and the objects inside it. A lively forest is lively in the ephemeral plane as well, filled with colorful spirits surviving much like the animals do. A city, on the other hand, may seem dull to pedestrians yet also have a colorful assortment of spirits feeding off of the emotions of thousands of people. Only some new or desolated areas take on bland appearances, as resonance has had little time to build up around them.
Essence
Spirits survive and use powers in our world by burning their essence, their very existence. As the Ephemeral Plane interacts with the metaphysical aspects of the Physical Plane, essence is created in amounts proportional to the strength of the connection between the two planes. Higher resonance means more essence. Mages with the Spirit Arcana are able to see free floating essence in our world, though different mages have described its appearance in different ways.
- While in our world, spirits burn one essence per spirit rank per day.
- While outside of the influence of their Binding, spirits burn one essence per hour.
- A spirit gains essence equal to their rank per day that they spend near their Binding.
- A spirit may also search the Ephemeral Plane for additional essence. Spirits can automatically sense essence similar to their own if it is within 1 mile of them. Alternatively, they can try to search for essence if they have the skill.
- Lastly, spirits can attempt to take the essence of another spirit, taking its leftover essence after it has died. All spirits leave behind essence equal to their rank-1 after dying. When absorbing the remnant essence of a spirit of equal or greater rank, a spirit can become more powerful, gaining at least one power or influence and increasing its maximum essence by an amount equal to the gained essence. (Only rank 1 and 2 spirits can get any value from eating rank 1 spirits)
Essence resembles whatever created it, and similar spirits will slowly alter in behavior and appearance to take on traits from the essence that they eat. When a spirit eats essence created at the scene of a murder, they will likely take on traits of the emotions from that event. When a spirit eats another spirit, it will take on aspects of that spirit. As such, people can gain insight into a spirit’s behavior if they understand more about where the spirit has been getting essence.
Absorbing Essence
When one spirit absorbs the essence of another with a rank equal or higher than it’s own, it doesn’t just take on new abilities; it redefines itself, taking on permanent personality changes. When a spirit absorbs a spirit of a different resonance it gains a new nature, one that may not be perfectly compatible with its old ones. As such, absorbing too many different spirits can create a Malignant, a spirit gone insane by their conflicting aspects. Most spirits also avoid absorbing spirits from their own influence in an attempt to keep a sense of self, but spirits of certain concepts, such as power and predator, are more willing to do so. These spirits often live in an extreme struggle to survive among their own kind, and can be deranged and dangerous when they find new kinds of prey.
Malignants
A Malignant is a spirit which absorbed too many essences of different resonances. As such it lost its sense of self and is driven mad. It has multiple influences, often contradictory to each other, and it is no longer able to bind itself to anything. As such, it may only survive by gathering whatever essence it can find, including that from other spirits. Malignants themselves aren’t entirely uncommon, as lesser malignants form from unintelligent spirits and are hunted down by larger spirits who aren’t at risk of changing. Malignants of higher ranks, 3 and up, are much rarer, but pose a much larger threat to the spiritual and material words.
Bindings
To stay in our world spirits must find something to bind themselves to, such as a person, location, or object. By being bound to something a spirit stakes out a steady supply of essence to survive off of. Most spirits will attempt to stay with their original binding and dislike being bound to a new location, especially since their nature adapts to the resonance of their binding.
When a spirit is bound to a living creature that does not resonate essence that aligns with the spirit, the host will slowly become go mad. The host takes mental damage daily based on the Rank of the spirit bound to them. Spirits of different ranks deal different types of damage; see the Spiritual Hierarchy chart below to determine damage.
Less sane individuals tend to produce more essence. For every severe or aggravated damage to SAN an individual has, they produce 1 essence which spirits can feed on. While survival is often most important, a spirit that has multiple options will normally attempt to feed off of essence similar to their own.
Spiritual Hierarchy
Though nothing is set in stone, spirits can generally be ranked by how self-aware, intelligent, and powerful they are.
- Ranks 1: Lesser spirits similar to insects and rodents.
- Ranks 2: Animalistic spirits with primal intelligence. Dogs, cats, and similar animals.
- Ranks 3: Spirits of near-human intellect. Including humans, dolphins, and other fantastical races.
- Ranks 4: Advanced Spirits with greater than human intellect.
- Ranks 5: Ruling spirits which serve as the embodiment of their domain. These spirits are of exceptional intelligence and power.
- Ranks ???: It is possible, and likely, that their exist higher ranks of spirits. However, these spirits are mostly incomprehensible to humans and rarely directly deal in mortal affairs. They only appear at the discretion of the GM for plot purposes. Their motivations, actions, and even appearance often have to be dumbed down for mortals to grasp.
Spirit Rank Stats
| Rank | Average Essence | Attributes and Influences | Incompatible Binding Trauma |
| 1 | 2 | All attributes -2 1 Influence is at level 1 |
1|2 (B) |
| 2 | 6 | 1 attribute at 1 1 attribute at -2 1 Influence at level 2 |
1|3 (B) |
| 3 | 14 | 1 attribute at -2 2 points to any attributes. (cap level 2) 1 Influence at level 2 1 Influence at level 3 |
1|2 (S) |
| 4 | 24 | 4 points to any attributes. (cap level 3) 2 Influences at level 3 2 points to any Influences (cap level 4) |
1|3 (S) |
| 5 | 34 | 6 points to any attributes. (cap level 4) 1 Influences at level 6 6 points to any Influences (cap level 4) |
1|3 (A) |
Health and Dormancy
A spirit’s health is determined by its essence, and all damage is treated the same to take it away. When a spirit’s essence drops to zero the spirit turns dormant and slowly returns to the location it is bound to. It will remain dormant (unable to think or act) until it regains a resonant source of essence. Dormant spirits have Dormant Essence, unusable essence equal to their rank-1 that can be absorbed by other spirits, killing off the dormant spirit entirely.
Spirit Population
Spirits exist on the ephemeral plane in a slightly lower proportion to the creatures on the material land around them. This is because one creature or individual is rarely eccentric enough to create enough essence to draw many spirits. Generally, only one Rank 3 or greater spirit will be found in a neighborhood or monument, with higher ranked spirits owning larger territory. Rank 1 spirits are the most common, as they burn less essence daily. Greater spirits may allow lesser spirits to feed on their territory, and most ignore Rank 1 spirits.
In the active parts of the wilderness and in the center of cities, more spirits can be found, interacting with each other in their own confounding communities.
Few areas are entirely desolate of spirits, and such areas are only so because they lack free floating essence. Enterprising spirits often see these areas as an opportunity to manipulate material beings into moving to there with the specific intention to create a new resonance of the spirit’s own influence.
Ectoplasm
Some spirits may materialize and interact with the Physical Plane using a body made out of ectoplasm. When a materialized spirit dies the ectoplasm lingers. Ectoplasm exists simultaneously on the Ephemeral Plane and the Physical plane. It has a similar structure to clay, and as such can be shaped to various forms. Similar to spirits, ectoplasm needs a constant stream of essence to remain in the world. Every cubic foot of ectoplasm needs about 1 essence per day, otherwise it will disappear.
Influence (Spirit Specialties)
Influence represents the specific concept(s) that a spirit embodies. It ties directly to what resonance the spirit is attracted to. It also represents the range of understanding and knowledge a spirit has. For example, an automobile spirit cannot understand the concept of diplomacy or flight, but it understands speed and may even understand fear, especially if it gathers essence from the resonance at the site of a car accident. Influences can be physical (a car, fire, or light) or metaphysical (anger, solidarity, despair).
All spirits are able to affect the real manifestations of their influences to different degrees. To use an influence, a spirit must spend essence equal to the influence tier – the spirit’s rank. Regardless of whether or not they spend essence, the spirit must still make a successful skill check to use the influence.
| Influence Tier | Influence Action |
| 1 | Enhance |
| 2 | Manipulate |
| 3 | Bind |
| 4 | Reach |
| 5 | Create |
Spirits of ranks 1 and 2 are bound to a single object and may only exorcise their influence on that object. Rank 3 spirits can influence items by touch, while higher ranks can freely use Reach to influence distant objects.
The Enhance ability strengthens an existing manifestation of the spirit’s influence, creating a +1 bonus to any rolls regarding it.
The Manipulate ability allows the physical movement of an object, such as to open a door or roll a wheel.
The Bind ability allows a spirit to bind itself to a new target a number of times per day equal to its rank.
The Reach ability allows spirits to use their other influences from a Far Away range.
The Create influence creates an actual manifestation of the influence in the Physical Plane. The manifestation is of size 5 or less, plus 2 for every additional 1 Essence spent.
When a spirit uses its influence on an unwilling or unlikely target, they must make skill check, adding the appropriate skill and attribute modifiers.
Influence and Power Duration
Spirits spend essence to use powers and to affect their influences. By default their power stays in affect for only a few seconds, but they can spend additional essence to make the effect last longer.
| Essence | Duration |
| 0 | Instant or Concentration |
| 5 | 1 day |
| 9 | Permanent (Investment) |
Permanent effects require a permanent investment of essence which the spirit cannot recover unless they touch the target affected and choose to end the effect. Other spirits of equal or higher rank can also end the effect by touching it and absorbing half the essence put into it. If they do, the original spirit may still recover the essence through natural means.
Spiritual Powers
Aside from their influences, some spirits have learned to manipulate their essence in other ways, giving them additional powers.
Each of these powers have 2 costs: Cast and At-Will. The cost comes from the spirit’s total Essence. Purchasing a power at the Cast value allows the spirit to utilize the power at any time by spending essence equal to the cost value. Purchasing a power at the At-Will value allows a spirit to use the power freely without further essence expenditure.
Similar to using an Influence, a skill check is always rolled to use a power.
- Manifest (Cast Cost: 2 Essence) (At-Will Cost: 4 Essence)
The spirit can create a body made of ectoplasm for itself to inhabit and use in the Physical Plane. While in this body, any damage the body takes is taken by the spirit. The spirit can leave the body at anytime, turning it into a puddle of goo upon departure. - Illusion (Cast Cost: 2 Essence) (At-Will Cost: 4 Essence)
Similar to the Create Influence ability, except it creates only the visual or auditory appearance of an object underneath the spirit’s influence. - Psychic Assault (Cast Cost: 2 Essence)
The Spirit may attack a target’s mental health directly, making a ranged attack against the target’s Resolve Ability Check. The attack deals 2|4 bashing damage, +1 for every additional 3 Essence spent. - Possess (Cast Cost: 1 Essence)
The spirit may inhabit a material object to control its physical functions, even if the object does not share resonance with their influence. - Inception (Cast Cost: 8 Essence)
The target makes a Resolve Ability Check vs the spirit’s ranged attack. If the target is hit, it gains a simple idea or goal until the power’s time limit wears off. - Telekinesis (Cast Cost: 1 Essence) (At-Will Cost: 3 Essence)
The spirit can manipulate physical objects at Nearby range despite its influence. The telekinetic ability has the same strength as the spirit.