On the Powers, in particular the Spirits of the Forest

In recent discussions I (Luelenvati) have been partaking, a more clear picture of the various Powers of the Worlds, in particular the Spirits of the Forest, has been coming in to view. This entry contains my (Luelenvati) thoughts and findings on the subject.

The overall catagory of these types of beings, to us an Ounish term, would be ‘Powers’. This includes beings that are primarily of abstraction which share the quality of sentience with Wanderlings but lack, to one degree or another, our free will and self determination. The Phylum of Powers include the Spirits of the Forest (both Terrestrial and Celestial), the Spirits of the Undersea, the Djinn of the Desert of Brass, The gods of the Rock of Storm, the High Seasonal Courts (The Hybernal, the Lovers, etc), the recently released gods of the Empire, the Totems of the Feral Garden, etc. It is important to note that though they share a basic nature, each of these classifications operates under distinct metaphysical rules. It is my (Luelenvati) personal theory, however, that all of them are susceptible to many of the spells of the Currents of Deepspirit, the magic of my (Luelenvati) homeland. I (Luelenvati) have much to prove on this theory, but it has shown promising results.

In relation to the Spirits of the Forest, I(Luelenvati) have gathered the following information:

Celestial Spirits are Spirits of non-corporeal things: ideas, emotions, virtues, vices, etc. We know very little about the Celestines, as they are rare in the Forest. The exception to this is the Nightmare Host, who are abundant. The Nightmare Host are the Spirits of negative concepts, and are known to cause much havoc and damage to wanderlings. The other Celestines we have encountered are extremely rare and temperamental. Their presence in the terestial plane opens them up to corruption by the Nightmare Host and the sin and vice of Wanderlings. At least one Celestial Spirit was corrupted and lost to the Host since the opening of the Doors, and the other we are familiar with has been exhibiting disturbing behavior. It is believed the majority of the uncorrupted Celestines have locked themselves away in the Celestial Plane in a fortress known as the ‘White City’ in order to protect themselves from the corrupting influence of the Host and the sin of Wanderlings.

I (Luelenvati) believe there are three main classifications of Celestial Spirits: Negative(Or Destruction), Positive and Neutral, although we have very, VERY little information about the third type, so that name may be inaccurate. [Principles of Academia: Discovered to be inaccurate. There are 12 Virtues that oppose 6 Vices.] Each of the three seem to have six overarching entities that oversee and encompass the whole of their specific hierarchy.

Negative (or Destruction) :

There are Six Prime Negative Spirits, known as the Avatars of Woe. They are: Rot, Strife, Carnage, Privation, Despair and Madness. They are the fetich Souls of the entity known as Destruction. In it’s current corrupted and over-bloated state, Destruction would wipe out all forms of existence should it awake from it’s slumber.

Positive:

The [Principles of Academia: 12] Positive Spirits are known as the Virtues. They are: Love, Justice, Balance, Harmony, Equality[,] Truth[, Wisdom, Compassion, Defiance, Sacrifice, Devotion, and Humility.] It is unknown if they are connected to an Over-soul or not. They are currently locked away in the White City in a self imposed exile to safeguard themselves from corruption.

[Principles of Academia: Two Virtues oppose each Vice. The shards of Virtues we see in the Forest are known as the maimed Virtues.

Vices vs. Virtues
Deception: Wisdom & *Truth
Contempt: *Love & Compassion
Avarice: *Equality & *Justice
Rage: *Harmony & *Balance
Decadence: Defiance & Sacrifice
Pride: Devotion & Humility

(*maimed)

Terrestrial Spirits are Spirits of physical things: Objects, places, elemental forces. They are tied to a physical place or thing, and some are subject to the ebb and flow of the seasons. Plant spirits, for example, are only active during the spring, summer and early fall months. Their power is tied to the physical status of the item or location in question. Rain spirits are short lived and weak, while the Spirit of a Mountain is ancient and quite powerful, and a River Spirit will become sick and weak if it the river is poisoned. The Elemental Spirits in particular are organized into Courts, the Court of Stone being one of the more active and recognizable such organization. There is a single member of the Court of Stone which bears a degree of Celestial power: The Guardian in Agate is a Stone Spirit who oversees and adjudicates the Old Laws. This is a position that can pass from Stone Spirit to Stone Spirit.

Finally, a common trait between all the Spirits of the Forest is the notion of Magnitude, or overall power. There are two main determining factors for defining Magnitude: First is the inherent power or importance of the Spirit itself. Terrestrial Spirits of larger and more important objects and Celestial Spirits of broad and far reaching concepts are of higher inherent Magnitude than smaller objects and more narrowly defined concepts. For Celestial Spirits, a quick way of gauging Magnitude on this scale is their names: Greater Magnitude Spirits tend to have shorter names of two or three words, where as lesser Magnitude Spirits have increasingly longer names as their concept is more narrowly defined.

The second method of determining Magnitude is the overall health of the Spirit itself: a slumbering Spirit has an effective Magnitude of 0, and can be brought to this state by physical combat or an abstract lessening of their corpus or concept. Awake Spirits can ebb in flow in Magnitude in correspondence to their health, how much power they have expended and various other factors. It is my theory that uncorrupted Spirits are limited in Magnitude by their inherent nature, while the Corrupt Nightmare Host can over-bloat themselves. This is one manner in which a pure celestial can fall to the Host, taking on more Magnitude than is natural for them.