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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hexmage-EN" data-source="post: 7484722" data-attributes="member: 79428">I think there should be at least some consistent identity for these spirits. Goblins may differ in specifics between settings but there's still a core concept of what a goblin is. The spirits that druids and some barbarians call upon are ill-defined because D&D for the majority of its existence hasn't decided what role nature spirits and fey fill (though there have been several attempts).I'm personally developing my own take on an animist tradition in my setting. Here's some of what I've got so far:- The world was made from pieces of the Elemental Planes whose elemental spirits were suppressed by the gods to make the world stable.- The gods, distracted by matters in the cosmos, departed. The suppressed elemental spirits began to explore the Border Ethereal plane, with some managing to take corporeal form as chwingas (tiny humanoid elementals introduced in Tomb of Annihilation).- The mortals, curious about the chwingas, began to use the mysterious plants and fungi the chwingas would grow with their magic to perceive the spirits still in the Border Ethereal.- The earliest druids communed with these primal spirits and aided them in manifesting through spells and rituals.- The spirits began to manifest in different ways. Some would allow themselves to be conjured in elemental forms resembling what they once were, while others would bond with animal spirits, or even the spirits of mortals.- In the Feywild the first fey appeared as a result of spirits manifesting in response to strong emotion and wild magic. Some, like dryads, bonded with other spirits of nature to aid them, while others, like boggles and redcaps, wanted to pursue their own existence in imitation of mortals. Because the primal spirits dwell in the Border Ethereal and are working in that transitive plane to preserve nature it often falls to their fey allies to represent nature's needs corporeally when druids are not present to channel the spirits through their magic.- In the Shadowfell a similar phenomena occurred, but the gloomy realm's pitiful sorrowsworn were rejected by their spirit and fey kin.- Primal spirits and those fey who remain allied with their spiritual kin are connected to the physical essence of the world. Though there are Great Elder Spirits who permeate much of the world's Border Ethereal and offer archetypes for the lesser spirits to emulate, druids and other users of primal magic mostly find themselves communicating with and evoking magic from local spirits.- The followers of the Old Faith reject the idea of leaving the world for an afterlife in another plane. Instead, they seek to either join the spirits of their homeland or be contually reincarnated there. An afterlife separated from the land and the spirits an Old Faith adherent spent their whole life surrounded by does not appeal to the faithful.- Like many cities dominated by the worshipers of the gods, Old Faith communities claim the patronage of guardian spirits. Where they diverge is that these spirits have a specific connection to the community and the surrounding land, and they are thought of more as family than as beings to be worshiped. Outsiders are discouraged from trying to worship these spirits, as it is believed to distract them from their role as guardians of the locale.- One of the secrets of the spirits is that several of the most powerful Great Elders were former lords of the elemental planes. Gray Roarer, spirit of tornadoes, is in truth an archomental once known as Ty-h'kadi who was bound to the Material Plane. Other subdued elemental lords bound to the Border Ethereal of the world are Black Land, spirit of fertile soil, Father of Rivers, who created the springs that provide water to the land, and Everflame, an entity of purifying and transformative fire.- The druids' wild shape ability is drawn from the Primal Beast, a spirit that can embody the form of any beast. Usually when a druid assumes animal form they channel the Primal Beast and borrow one of its aspects. However, there are many other, lesser animal spirits linked to different places in the world that druids may commune with; a druid assuming the form of a wolf in a region protected by a white wolf spirit may find they have taken on the spirit's likeness.- Among the Great Elders none is more feared than Whisper, the Dark Sister. She opposes those mortals who defy the Old Faith and ignore the spirits. Her enemies are set upon by swarms of vermin, hunted by man-eating beasts, preyed upon by perytons, and stalked by lycanthropes who organize themselves into sadistic beast cults. Whenever mortals exploit nature's spirits Whisper makes sure to get back what nature is owed.</blockquote>

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