Spirits

… Death in the Shadowlands is not an ending, it is merely a change …

Throughout all the past ages Death was feared. He was the reaper of the living; harvesting spirits dispassionately, breaking apart families, and hovering like a carrion bird around battlefields.

Before the Wizard War, Necronius defeated Quapalg and broke the veil between the realms of the living and the dead. Now, the spirits of the dead are all around us, tied to their bones, and can be contacted. They play out their afterlives in the spirit realm, mimicking the lives they lived in the realm of the living. The vast majority of spirits are white, friendly, and happy to help when called upon. They are passing their time until the next phase of their lives, when their spirit dies and only their soul remains to be recycled into a new spirit.

Necronius tore the veil to make possible his undead army, and his greater scheme of eternal rule of both living and dead. Without his evil upon the land, the shift in how we know and experience death has been a silver lining of the all-consuming War. The unintended result of tearing the veil is the opportunity for the living to remain in touch with lost loved ones, lessening the grief of their passing, and bringing greater peace to all living things about their next lives.

When a person dies they become a pink spirit but over time their aura will evolve into a color that reflects their power. They survive on energy, much like we do, and can be harmed or empowered by it. When a spirit has run out of energy, they will pass on from the spirit realm, and their soul will go to Oblivion.

When a person dies their gravestone is placed by the muses and their name is inscribed in the dead’s native tongue. Bones, though, are the real link to spirits, not their gravestone. Even a single bone can be used to commune with a spirit or inflict harm upon them. For that reason protecting the bones of passed loved ones is very important, and why the town graveyards are some of the most heavily warded places around. Its also why the paupers graveyard is so dangerous; without wards the bones can be corrupted, replaced, trapped, and magically tampered with. Talking with spirits who you are not familiar with can have dire consequences, be it your own death, corruption, or potentially enslavement.