Spirits / Jinn / Djinn


    "Our Lands?Forget what any egotistical Fire Knight may have told you, Verano; the Wild Lands don''t belong to us, it belongs tothem."- Johann Martel, Spymaster of the Kingdom of Aachen, to Verano de Sforza.


    Spirits (called ''The Jinn'' by the Eastern) are the most feared beings intheWild Lands. They are extremely powerful and cannot be harmed by any human means. They are volatile because they turn intoDark Spirits(called ''The Djinn'' by the Eastern)once they come into contact with negative emotions in human hearts.


    Once aSpiritgoes dark, all you can do is to run away as fast as you can.Thus, asSpiritsgo dark, humans are often forced to move away. It''s said that only 12% of the Wild Lands is actively exploited by humans, since 88% is territory of the Spirits. Some of the largest territories in the knownWild Lands,like the Spirit Steppes and the Sahara Desert, belong toSpiritsand inhabiting / crossing their lands is a death sentence.


    Spiritsnot always inhabited the human world (Chapter ''Ruins of Light''). Once upon a time, humans built complex civilizations with advanced technology and societal structures.Yet as Spirits moved in, blocked essential resources and forced people out of crowded cities;all remaining humans flew to surroundings ofHeaven''s Shrine,where theGrey Guardianwould protect them.


    When humans were expelled from the Grey Guardian''s protection after theOriginal Sin, they faced Spirits once more. Therefore, every culture had to develop a solution to theSpirit Problem.


    Spirits in the Empire of the Holy Flame


    Humans build Feuds (Fortresses ruled by Fire Knights)to escape the Spirits of theforest. Spirits are seen as the most malevolent and untrustworthy creatures of theWild Landsin the Empire of the Holy Flame. The Fire Peoples have fully embraced thePenitent Faith, which forbids all sorts of spirit worshipping / dealing with spirits.A common death sentence is banishing the miscreant to the wilds, where death is certain.


    Children are often told Spirit Tales (equivalent to Fairy Tales)in order to scare them away from adventuring in the woods. Some of the most common are:


    - Little Red Riding Hood, a tale about a banished grandmother inviting her granddaughter to visit her in the wilds. The girl''s parents tell her not to go, yet she disobeys the order. Once the girl arrives, she discovers that a Spirit has possessed her grandmother. The girl never returned home.


    -Aschenputtel, a poor girl desires to go to the ball in the castle of the King of Aarchen but she has no clothes thanks to her mean stepmother. She decides to worship aSpiritin exchange of elegant clothes and a carriage. Yet theSpiritbetrays the girl and by midnight, when the Prince has fallen in love with her, she is possessed by theSpiritand turns into a monster that kills the Prince and attacks the castle.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    -Rapunzel, a rebellious princess lives secluded in her feud without ever being allowed to leave thanksto the Spirits around. Once her hair grows long enough, she uses it as a rope and manages to climb out. She never returned home.


    The Inquisitors from theChurch of Heaven''s Shrine, however, have found a way to combatSpiritsthat does not involve hiding from them. They use Airbending to lock theSpiritsinto caskets and take them to theSanatarium, a secret monastery where the Airbenders experiment with pacifying spirits.


    The Jinn and Djinn in the Caliphate of Camarilla


    BeforeThe Guide(known today as ''The Caliph'') unified theEarthbending Tribesbased on his self-created faith and language, the worship oftheJinn(how the Eastern Earthbenders call Spirits) was common. TheGuide''s religion (The Cult of the Moon) outlawed the worship of allSpirits, yet their use in war was never forbidden.


    The Guide himself taught the Earthbenders how to create receptacles calledLampsinto where theweakerJinncould be imprisoned and then liberated as weapons.While mostEarthbenderscan createLamps, only very skilledAirbenders(incredibly rare in the Caliphate) andSandbenders(like those of the Caliph''s lineage)can imprison theJinnin them.


    The Guide went beyond just imprisoningSpirits. During his fight with Emperor of the Holy Flame Lettow, it is said that he could free the Jinn in his lamps, turn them into Djinn (Dark Spirits) and still control them.


    ManyJinnshave managed to leave theirLamps, however.They find ways to deceive fools with the promise of making their wishes come true in exchange for freedom.


    Spirits in the Tribes of the North Sea


    The Tribes of the North Sea were founded on Spirit Worship.It is said that when theOriginal Sinhappened and humans were expelled fromHeaven''s Shrine, the ancestors of theTribes of the North Seawere sent to live on a floating platform of ice without neither water, nor food. Then theSpirits of the Deepanswered their prayer and saved them, thus beginning a cult that remains to this day.


    While theNorthmenare fond ofSpirits, they also face conflicts withSpiritsof the wild. Their solution is simply backing off.Instead of looking for resources in their own lands, theNorthmenprefer to sack the foreign territories so that they sustain their society without any conflicts with theSpirits.


    Their connection to theSpiritsis so strong that when aNorthmandies, he/she believes that they will go toVal Hella, the mythicalSpirit Worldthat is believed to exist in the far north. InVal Hella, theNorthmenwill wait until theEnd Times / the Ragnarok: when the Spirits of the Deep rise from the sea to flood the Wild Landsand begin the Age of the Northmen.