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contact with the material world gradually erodes
(“taints”) this purity. As the Spirit acquires more taint,
it slowly changes its personality, until it becomes an
“Angry Spirit”. These Spirits detest the material world,
desiring to kill everyone and destroy everything that
they encounter – allow them unrestrained control of a
Golem or a Construct and they will cause untold devastation.
High-level casters can reduce taint levels using
the Purify Taint spell – less powerful creators must rely
on Glyphs of Control or Compel spells to enforce restraint,
Purge spells to expel a hostile Spirit, or find a
friendly Shaman fast.
Creators, who wish to persuade a Spirit to voluntarily
submit to being imbedded, should consider some measure
of personal spiritual preparation (such as prayer,
fasting or participation in religious ceremonies for a
number of hours or even days equal to the level of the
desired Spirit) before casting any spells. Summoning
should also take place in a location appropriate to the
Spirit (e.g. nature-related Spirits should be called in
their preferred locale rather than in a busy city street.)
The purpose is to show due respect to the Spirit and
prevent it receiving taint just by being summoned.
Having summoned the Spirit, the creator should use
Spirit Tongue to converse with the spirit, and make his
proposal. Certain types of Spirits appreciate incarnation
more than others – they will be attracted by entities with
magical abilities or unusual construction as well as
promises of gaining benefits from the use of the Sentience
spell list. Bargains that limit the creator’s dominance,
e.g. a guaranteed release after some period, only
to receive orders of a specific nature (i.e. to defend the
creator’s community), or the entity not being restrained
by a Glyph of Control, will sweeten the deal. GMs may
choose to abstract the bargaining by a Diplomacy maneuver
– see Table 7.1 for base Difficulty Levels and
bargaining modifiers.
The various Spirit types have different degrees of intelligence
– see Table 7.2 for details. Each type and their
attitude to imbedding are also briefly described below.
Angry Spirits: Warped and twisted by too much taint,
these Spirits seek only destruction. Almost always hostile
to imbedding, only offers involving opportunities
to kill and destroy on a grand scale will interest them,
assuming that they even listen to their summoner.
Conceptual Spirits: Embodying the goals and ideals of a
single concept (e.g. Christmas Past) or an event, these
Spirits have no interest in becoming incarnate within
artificial entities. Only a proposal that has the potential
of helping them to further understand their concept
will tempt them.
Elemental Spirits: These Spirits are the spirits of the
natural elements (Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Light, and
Cold), embodying their essence and nature rather
than the elemental force represented by Elementals
per se. They are attracted to physical forms that have
purity of body (such as Golems) or elemental-based
abilities. If Fire & Ice: The Elemental Companion is in
use in the campaign, then these Spirits should not be
available via the Spirit Empowerment spell list.
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Emotive Spirits: These Spirits encapsulate raw emotion.
Their limited intellects prevent meaningful negotiation
as well as reducing their utility as animating
spirits for artificial entities. Few creators use them.
Entity Spirits: These were formerly Standard Spirits,
which accumulated more than their own level in taint
through incarnation in a Golem or Construct. Released
deliberately or through the destruction of their
artificial body, they seek to return to a new body, and
are the easiest of all Spirits to persuade to undergo
voluntary imbedding.
Haunts: Created by traumatic events such as violent
death, betrayal, etc., haunts are difficult to bargain
with as their own rage and despair frequently overpowers
them. Rarely used as a result, only the opportunity
to achieve revenge on the cause of their agony
and consequently a release to the spirit world will
tempt them.
Rational Spirits: These spirits are defined by logic. Their
weakness is a desire to gain knowledge, so creators
with access to the Sentience spell list will have much to
offer them in return for these spirits’ great intellectual
potential.
Rural Spirits: In some settings, fey creatures such as
Dryads and Nixies may be considered “Spirits” which
have a physical form in the material world. Such spirits
will seldom be interested in possessing artificial entities
– they have their own physical bodies, after all.
(Where such beings are not considered Spirits, they
may be imbedded using the Imbed Being Essence #
spells from the Life Empowerment spell list.) Nonphysical
rural spirits may be persuaded to inhabit
organic Golems, particularly if the intention is to
defend the environment.
Shaman Spirits: These are the spirits of Shamen, who by
design or accident, have chosen to remain on the spirit
world. Capable of using all its abilities and skills possessed
in life even incarnate in an artificial body, a
Shaman Spirit will exact a deadly revenge on anyone
foolish enough to imbed it against its will. Persuading
a Shaman Spirit to be imbedded is exceptionally difficult
– usually only the need to defend the Shaman’s
people from a clear and present danger will convince
a Shaman Spirit to rejoin the mortal world (temporarily),
and even then it will insist that no Compel or
Glyph of Control spells are used to control it.
Standard (Unborn) Spirits: Without focus or theme,
these Spirits transform into other spirit types by association
with other spirits or by the accumulation of
their level in taint. Their malleability and curiosity
makes them a preferred animating spirit for creators.
Thematic Spirits: Similar to Conceptual Spirits in their
focus, these are moreover tied to specific physical
locations and as such are unsuitable for almost all
imbedding purposes.
Totem Spirits: These represent a given ideal, theme and/
or goal. Having the abilities to travel freely between the
spirit world and the physical world, and to take a