Spirits

Spirits are a wide class of supernatural phenomena, entities and beins appearing in Eramár, given a sufficient magical field and presence of Sources of sentience. Spirits, as the name implies, are not physical entities. However, they are often capable of interaction with the physical world, either indirectly through communication with sentient physical beings, or, for exceptionally strong spirits, directly.

Creation
Spirits can and do arise by themselves, but they can also be artificially created. "Natural" spirits arise through the accretion of ambient sentience - emotions, thoughts and metaphysical imprints left in the world by Sources of sentience, thinking and feeling beings. Ambient sentience has the tendency to flow towards similar pieces of sentience, and, over time, such pockets of specific feelings and ideas can coagulate and form a spirit, an embodiment of related pieces of sentience, powered by the field of magic.

Naturally occuring spirits typically have a greater range of interrelated sentience forming their core. This may give off the impression that the being is undergoing more complex thought processes and emotions than it actually is.

Magic users can also create new spirits to do their bidding. Technically, any collection of related sentience, powered by magic, constitutes a spirit, so the vast majority of enchanted items house a very basic, artificial spirit at their core. Artificial spirits are typically very uniform in their sentience and act more like pre-programmed robots than thinking beings.

Classification
The various forms of spirits are classified by the level of their sentience and their origin.

Class I
Tiny, single-purposed slivers of sentience are called Class I spirits, just barely above free sentience. These slivers are concentrated upon a single thought, emotion or intent, and are incredibly nonadaptitive and resistant to change. Usually without a physical appearance or manifestation, they may sometimes appear as sparks, glowing orbs or wispy, flowing threads.

Natural Class I spirits (Class Ia) occur frequently all over Sutarna, provided sufficient magical field to sustain them. They accrue at sites of particularly evocative emotions, such as impressive landscapes, graveyards, battlefields and cultural sites in cities, where they may subtly influence the feelings of those sources of sentience present. Non-human generated class I spirits, typically in areas of wilderness, will typically represent the experiences of predators and the prey. Common spirits of this kind are the Feylights.

Artificial Class II spirits (Class Ib) are typically used in enchantment and "read-to-use" spell creation as the vessel of the casters intent. These spirits are essentially just slivers of the casters willpower, capable of only carrying out the explicit command under specific circumstances. All magic conduits, except for the most advanced forms, use Class Ib spirits. For example, the rings and pendants casters use to avoid magic damaged house tiny slivers of their own sentience, determining what magic effects conducting magic through the item would arise.

Class II
Class II spirits have, over time or by design, acquired significantly more sentience than Class I spirits. Though still singularly-minded, these beings are often capable of taking choices and making small decisions. Class II spirits are more likely to take on a physical appearance, typically based on either animals or humans, though frequently distorted and changed. These manifestations appear to be made of light, mist and smoke, and lack the capability to directly interact with physical objects.

Natural Class IIa spirits are exceedingly rarer than Class I, but, by their very natural, are more likely to be noticed. A large subset of IIa beings are ghosts, impressions left by a source of sentience. These spirits exist with a single central intent, frequently haunting the sites of their death or places the source loved or spent a lot of time at, but possess enough other sentience to have a semblance of "personality". Another common type of IIa spirits are the Elementals.

Creatures that can be recognised as Class IIa spirits often appear in various myths and legends. They typically are depicted as whole groups and castes of beings of various levels of intelligence, typically in the form of "little people", "hidden people" or they "fey folk". These spirits can be neutral or malicious, but rarely explicitly benevolent towards people. A notable, malevolent example are the Soulticks of Arazi folklore.

Class IIb spirits are rarely used in conduit magic, but some complicated, multipurpose contraptions do use them. It is this class of spirits that drive the ancient Elven Constructs of the Dyrfell, even the simplest of them.

Overall, Class II provides significantly more variety in forms the Spirits can take than the previous class.

Class III
Class III spirits have accumulated a significant amount of sentience, to the point that they appear to have fully formed, independent personalities. Because of this, class III spirits dominate the cultural and religious discourse concerning spirits. Several mythological characters of various major religions and belief systems, are believed to represent accounts of ancient Class III spirits, such as Dübela from Scerna's journeys.

Class IIIa spirits are extremely rare, with only a couple dozen cases documented. Significant ambient magic is required to support these beings. Class IIIa spirits not only manifest themselves with physical appearance, but may even interact directly with the physical world. Granted, even these spirits do not possess a "flesh and bone" body, but they are capable of using magic to exercise their will on the world.

No records of recent Class IIIb spirits exist. However, some of the very most complicated Dyrfell may have had Class IIIb spirits guiding them.

Class IV
Class IV spirits have become source of sentience by themselves. As of now, only one Class IV spirit is known and conformed: the Owl Spirit.