Spirit realm

The Spirit Realm is best known to common folk as the place where the spirits of the dead must pass to enter the realm of the gods. When a person dies, complex burial rituals must be performed to summon a spirit guide to assist the spirit of the deceased in getting to its new home. Failure to perform these rituals by error or design can trap their spirit in the Spirit World. Some spirits have unfinished business and refuse their spirit guide's assistance to remain close to the waking world to encourage the living to complete some piece of work. Finally there are the dispossessed. People who have lost their bodies to more powerful spirits. They are trapped to wonder the Spirit World attempting to reclaim their bodies.

Priests, but druids especially, understand that the Spirit World is much more complex. Every creature, except Sidhe and Cellwair, have a spirit that resides in the Spirit World. It is connected to the body, but resides in the Spirit World. This allows ancestors and other guides to advise and assist us with ideas or insights. It also puts us at risk of attack in a world we have no understanding of. Witches are arcane spell casters who specialize in summoning, communicating, and attacking spirits. When a witch sees you, she sees not only your physical self, but your spirit as well, an effect often called your 'aura'. Witches attack the spirit of her enemies in order to harm them, control them, or otherwise work her will.

The Spirit World contains both friendly and malevolent spirits. Normally our spirits are protected by divine agents of the gods, who are aware when a devoted spirit is attacked and come to the aid of the devoted spirit. Atheists put their soul in grave jeopardy. Powerful priests who study and come to know the way of the Spirit World can also intervene in the Spirit World. The most well known such example is exorcism. However, most divinations involved at least spirit intermediaries, if not direct communication with spirits. Some druids, known as seidhr, become highly skilled in the Spirit World, and can learn and practice feats with the spirit descriptor.

Cellwair (Halflings) and Sidhe (Elves) do not have spirits in the Spirit World. The Sidhe once had spirits, but in days long past, the waking world and the Shadow World were sundered and the Sidhe were torn in two as well. On this side the Sidhe remain, and disconnected from them are the Seelie. Much of the Spirit World and the Shadow World are hostile to Sidhe, who are entirely foreign to the Shadow. The Fey know the Sidhe from before the sundering of this world and the other, and frequently encounter them in the deepest parts of nature in this world. But it is the Fey alone who regard the Sidhe with cheer in the worlds beyond our own. The Sidhe have no spirit allies, no gods, and many enemies in the Shadow.

Cellwair used to dwell in the Spirit World, but some unknown horror has driven them from it. The Cellwair don't discuss it, and only a few humans know that it was the rise of Azrai which drove them into our world. At one time there was no Shadow World, and the only true parallel world was the Spirit World (the Faerie World is a connected place, but not parallel). But the rise of Azrai saw not only his conquest of many realms in this world, but in the Spirit World as well. This conquered territory is now known as the Shadow World.