Magic: Sphere of Spirit
Magic: Sphere of Spirit

Spirit Magic is focused on the energies surrounding living beings and spells that affect that energy. Through birth, every creature -- even if it lacks the ability to perform magic -- has some magical affinity, however slight. Even some creatures that come to Sinai from elsewhere may become part of this process, as they breathe the air, drink the water, and consume foodstuffs on Sinai that are saturated with magic. People are saturated with the energy of magic, and it leaves an imprint on them while they live, and remains with their bodies after they die.

A Spirit Mage can manipulate these energies, known as (obviously enough) "spirits". A mage can communicate with the spirit that remains on a corpse after someone's death, dispel such energies, add to them, or manipulate them in various ways.

As spirits are composed of the energy of living creatures, quite often the spells will take on living forms from the caster's imagination. For example, a spell to disperse a ghost might take on the form of an armored warrior doing battle with the spirit.

Sub-Spheres

There are two primary sub-spheres of the Sphere of Spirit, in which a Spirit Mage might choose to specialize. If a Spirit Mage chooses to specialize, the mage can only select spells that are marked as falling within that particular sub-sphere, or which are designated as "(All)".

  • Necromancy (N): This is the darker side of Spirit Magic, involving the creation of not only spirits, but the raising of creatures known as the "undead". In actuality, most Necromancers tend to study the whole of Spirit Magic, rather than focusing wholly on "Necromantic" spells. After all, there is always the chance of an experiment gone awry, and a conjured spirit turning against its caster. At times like that, a good ward and/or dispel would be in order.
  • Warding (W): This is the side of Spirit Magic that deals wholly with combatting spirits and the "undead".
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    Cantrips

  • Refresh/Exhaust (N)
    Adds a small amount of energy to a spirit, usually drawn from the caster's own body. It can be reversed as well, and those who do not have weak wills may resist the effects. This spell is often used primarily to "feed" small experimental spirits or destroy them if they act strangely. The effects of this cantrip can barely be felt on living beings, and it will only affect the weakest of spirits.

  • See Aura (All)
    Allows the caster to "see" the spirit energy around someone. This is a quick way to tell if someone is particularly strong-spirited, weak-spirited, being affected by an outside source, or if they have any type of spirit affliction. If the target's aura is hidden (by means of a ward, by a hiding spell such as from the Sphere of Shadow, or some other odd effect), then no aura will show up at all ... which is highly unusual. Persons who have no "spirit aura" in the Sinai sense will show up the same way (such as a native of Abaddon who has recently arrived to Sinai, or a recently-arrived Exile from a world without magic).

  • Spirit Dart (W)
    This is a particularly weak cantrip that can be used as an offensive attack against disembodied or "undead" spirits -- that is, not spirits that are associated with a living body. Most of the time, this cantrip is no more than a nuisance -- the equivalent of shooting a spit-wad, really -- except against the weakest of spirits. In that case, it is no more effective for dispersing spirits than the reversed version of the "Refresh" cantrip.

  • Wisp (N)
    Creates a tiny apparition (usually formless) of spirit energy. It has limited manipulation abilities and can move tiny objects (such as bits of dust and paper) but cannot stray more than a few feet from the caster's hand lest it dissipate. The Wisp can be made to glow faintly, also serving as a magical light source.
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    Minor Spells

  • Alter (All)
    The caster may slightly tweak a spirit, perhaps by encouraging a spirit to act a certain way or perform a certain task. On a spirit of someone deceased, this may calm the spirit and encourage it to "rest" or to agitate it. This does not affect living beings.

  • Energize/Drain (N)
    A spirit is given energy directly from the caster's stores; or the caster drains the energy from a spirit to use for himself. Whispers of vampires using this spell are mentioned now and again. There is a danger when using this spell around creatures with knowledge of the Sphere of Spirit, as the intended victim may suddenly reverse the energy flow and drain the caster instead. On a living person (weak-willed enough) this spell can drain enough energy to render the person unconscious or simply too exhausted to move. The speed in which this spell works (either an instant drain or slowly drawn out) is determined by the spellcaster.

  • Exorcise (W)
    A spirit inhabiting a person or object can be drawn out and dissipated.

  • Inquiry (All)
    If a caster knows of the presence of a disembodied spirit or undead/animated creature, this spell can be used to try to identify the nature of the encountered spirit. Unless there is any resistance, it is generally capable of identifying any characteristics of the creature that the caster would have the knowledge to be able to identify. (i.e., if it is a Chiga spirit, the caster would be able to find this out ... but only if the caster knows what a Chiga is.)

    Among other things, it can usually determine if the spirit is naturally-occurring, whether it is a ghost (a spirit of a dead being), whether it is tied to a living being (a poltergeist), whether it was conjured by magic, whether it was created by an artifact, and also whether the spirit is in direct contact with a living being (i.e., whether it is a "spy" spirit, controlled remotely).

  • Minor Dispel (W)
    This spell can rip the energies of a single disembodied spirit apart and dispel them into the natural "stream" of magical energy. Against more powerful spirits, it may still inflict damage, if not destroying the spirit outright.

  • Ward (W)
    Protects a small area around the caster (usually the space within the mage's circle) from malicious spirit energy in the form of ghosts or other spirit apparitions. Should any such entities enter the mage's circle they will suddenly find themselves cut off from the energies feeding them and will instantly dissipate. (Spirits are capable of sensing this ward, and only the most mindless would blunder into a Ward circle willingly.) Only the strongest of spirits can enter a ward.
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    Rituals

  • Army of Darkness (N)
    This is a major ritual, taking several hours to several evenings, cast under the shadow of night, the result of which is to raise an army of undead warriors from corpses of the fallen. These shambling corpses are pretty much mindless zombies, not showing any evidence of the personalities of the persons they once were in life. Maintenance of this "army" draws upon the life forces of the caster, and felling him will cause the zombies and skeletons to fall immediately. More powerful casters (using more powerful rituals, in more magically-attuned places) may even be able to summon other sorts of undead creatures as well, though this is usually a "grab bag", not under direct control of the caster. The creatures so summoned tend to hunger for living flesh -- particularly that of sapient beings -- and there is a real chance that if the caster is careless and lets his concentration drop, these creatures may seek to feast upon the caster if they don't find their sustenance elsewhere.

    This spell is, of course, considered wholly unacceptable by the Collegia Esoterica of Babel and of Rephidim. However, it is merely considered "controversial" by the College Esoterica of Nagai.

  • Communicate (N)
    A spirit of the deceased can be raised temporarily and spoken with. The ritual encourages a "resting" spirit to come out, and tries to keep its disposition favorable toward the caster. It is typically necessary to seek out the grave of the person to be "raised", or some location or "focus" that the person might have left a psychic "imprint" on. If the ritual works as planned, it keeps the spirit's disposition more or less favorable toward the caster, so that the caster can question the spirit without it stubbornly refusing to answer anything, and without it violently attacking the caster for "waking" it.

    It should be noted that, while not even all Spirit Mages are aware of this, a spirit so summoned is a mere "echo" of the person in life. It will not have "memories" of things that have happened since the person's death ... or, in the case of using some sort of psychic imprint, any memories past the point at which that imprint was made. The spirit's personality may well be affected by the expectations of the caster, and it takes a truly skilled mage not to influence the answers gained in this manner. It is theoretically possible for two different Spirit Mages to conjure up two different spirits of the same departed person, and get different answers to questions ... all of this happening at exactly the same time. The spirit can't really "learn", and therefore will have exceedingly great difficulty in grasping concepts beyond its scope of life.

    Also, spirits with secrets may not give the correct answer when questioned -- not a conscious lie on the part of the spirit, necessarily, but that information may not be part of the "imprint", or else the person's "cover story" in life may be treated as if true by the spirit in death.

  • Conjure Spirit (N)
    Allows for the crafting of spirits given the aspects determined by the caster. The caster may even give the spirit the ability to do magic or to learn and grow. This is a very dangerous ritual and highly regulated, as it could potentially allow a mage to create a spirit that can drain the energy of people to strengthen itself and caste spells on par with the mage that created it.

    Furthermore, it is a matter of debate whether a spirit, given enough autonomy, may develop to a point where it is, in essence, a magical life-form, and therefore due certain rights given to sapient life-forms. (Most cultures wouldn't seriously give "rights" to a spirit, but they'd probably rather not be faced with the situation, either.)

  • Divine (All)
    This is a more powerful version of Inquiry, capable of overcoming the defenses of any spirit created by a Cantrip, and most spirits created by Minor Spells. With some effort, if the spirit is tied to a living being or an artifact, it may be able to identify the source and/or its point of origin. This divination process may take some time, so it is generally necessary to restrain the spirit so that it cannot flee or dissipate in order to avoid the probe.

  • Liche Lord (N)
    This is a strictly forbidden ritual, not taught in the Collegia Esoterica, but any student of the School of Spirit, given proper motivation and devotion, has the tools at his disposal to discover how to perform rituals of this sort on his own. (Most of the time, however, such experiments fail horribly. And success isn't very pretty, either.) The end result of this ritual, which typically requires the sacrifice of several sapient lives, is to give the caster new "life after death" in a magically animated body not dependent upon normal organic processes. More powerful spells may do a better job of simulating life in the animated body, but it is far more likely that either immediately or eventually, the body will deteriorate into a walking husk of what it once was ... prompting the mage to have to rejuvenate himself (if he even cares anymore) by draining life force of sapient beings, or else finding a new "vessel".

    It is a matter of question whether this is really the same person, living on after death in a new body ... or whether the person has merely destroyed himself in the creation of a magical "echo" of himself, and then planted it in an animated body. Whatever the case, there are numerous tales of aging wizards of the Sphere of Spirit who have fell to the lure of immortality, and felt it worth the risk in the face of inevitable death. For all intents and purposes, the resulting Liche (or other undead variation) is a Spirit, capable of being Warded and even Dispelled, given enough energies ... but they are typically very powerful, requiring several mages and complex rituals to destroy outright through the use of spells alone.

  • Link (N)
    This major ritual, which can take hours or days to cast, allows a magical link to be established between two living beings. (For best effects, it typically requires cooperation with a mage of the Sphere of Life.) Both of the beings must be present at the casting, and must either be cooperative, or else subdued by some means (drugs, etc.), and there is a physical transfer of organic matter (usually blood) involved in the process as well.

    Thereafter, there is a spiritual bond between the two beings. If one feels pain, the other will feel it as well. Illness suffered by one individual may show up in symptoms suffered by the other -- even if the latter is apparently perfectly healthy. In some cases, mood swings may be carried over, and sometimes snippets of dreams. Generally, if one or the other is killed, the other will die as well.

  • Major Dispel (W)
    Rips out the spirit energy from a large radius around the caster, which may clean out the resident spooks in a spirit-affected area. This only affects Spirit Magic and spirit-type spells (elementals, etc.), not general magical effects, or Forbidden Zones or cursed objects (unless the "curse" is carried out by a spirit). For particularly powerful spells, their destruction may cause a magical "backlash" in the vicinity, disrupting the caster's (and other nearby mages') ability to cast spells until magical energies of Sinai can "fill the vaccuum".

  • Major Ward (W)
    Creates a much larger ring of protection around the caster. It is nigh impossible for any disembodied or undead spirit to enter a Major Ward. Living beings (unless strong-willed or having Magical/Mental Resistance) may feel slightly weakened if they enter the circle.

  • Restrain (W)
    This spell binds a disembodied spirit, resisting its attempts to move, or to self-destruct or disperse. This spell is generally ineffective upon corporeal spirits and the physical undead, and is most effective against spirits of artificial origin (such as a Spirit Envoy). It tends to work best when there are at least two mages using this spell, since a single opposing mage controlling the spirit may be able to magically work free of the Spirit Mage's "grasp". When there are multiple mages holding the spirit, this spell is far more difficult to thwart.

  • Spirit Envoy/Spirit Transfer (N)
    Creates a spirit being fashioned from the spirit energy of the caster(s). Because of the physical link to the mages involved, the mages can see whatever the envoy sees as it travels along. As the envoy is made from the energy of the casters, attacking it or destroying it will weaken the mages involved in this ritual.

    Alternatively, this can be cast so that someone other than the mage can see through the "spirit", but the recipient must be willing, and it will seem as if all the recipient's sensory input is coming from the perspective of the spirit. This makes it seem as if the recipient's "spirit" has been "transferred" to, say, an inanimate object. The recipient will not feel any pain or other sensory input received by the "vacated" body during the duration of the ritual.

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